Slow but steady progress throughout the Marina Bay weekend is giving Kimi Antonelli hope that Mercedes’ new parts are actually working out on the track. Formula 1 championship leader Antonelli believes the upgraded Mercedes W17 works better, despite uncertainty regarding the new parts’ actual performance data.
Mercedes made the decision—an unusual one for a top team—to split its cars in terms of upgrades in Singapore. Antonelli has been running the updated Silver Arrow with revised floor and sidepods, while George Russell, condemned to a back-of-the-grid start after exceeding his power unit quota, reverted to the old specification.
Russell was noticeably quicker on Friday, outpacing Antonelli throughout sprint qualifying with a six-tenth advantage on average, but the Briton crashed out of the sprint race and his car hasn’t felt the same since then around the Marina Bay circuit.
The pair ended up a lowly 12th and 13th in Q1 on Saturday, 1.2s off Lewis Hamilton’s pace, but Antonelli progressed more than anyone throughout qualifying—he improved by two seconds and qualified fourth, just 0.189s down on polesetter Max Verstappen.
That was encouraging for the Italian, who had described the updated W17 as very difficult, very unpredictable, and tough to put a lap together after sprint qualifying on Friday evening.
Asked by Motorsport.com if the last two days had provided some answers, Antonelli said, "Yes, yes, definitely. We start seeing what the package can give to us. However, it's still difficult to find the right window. We did a big, big step in set-up today and we seem to put the car in a better place, even by giving away a bit of performance."
He further explained that the car seemed to work in a better way, though the operating window remained extremely small and sensitive, especially when pushing harder as the track improved. The team managed to turn things around and started gathering vital answers for the remainder of the season.
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