{"id":372485,"date":"2025-12-26T06:59:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T06:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/372485\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T06:59:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T06:59:16","slug":"mercedes-driver-backs-wolff-on-crucial-2026-regulation-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/372485\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes driver backs Wolff on crucial 2026 regulation claim"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1-drivers\/kimi-antonelli\" title=\"Kimi Antonelli\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kimi Antonelli<\/a> has reacted to the claim the 2026 regulations will suit younger drivers.\u201cI think so. Ground-effect cars aren&#8217;t easy to drive\u2026\u201d- Kimi Antonelli<\/p>\n<p>The Mercedes driver highlighted how the ground-effect cars are a little tricky to drive. He explained that mastering these cars is physically demanding and technically complex, making it challenging to extract their full potential.<\/p>\n<p>Antonelli further added that the 2026 cars will be great as it requires drivers to be easily adaptable and flexible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think so. Ground-effect cars aren&#8217;t easy to drive, especially at the beginning: it&#8217;s hard to get the most out of them, they&#8217;re physically demanding, very complex&#8230; so changing to something very different, as will be the case with the upcoming regulations, will be great because it will require everyone to be adaptable, hard-working, and flexible,\u201d Antonelli said via Gazzetta dello Sport.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"280\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/20251204-0166-69319c48e01c3.jpg@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto h-auto\" alt=\"antonelli-mercedes-abu-dhabi-jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Kimi Antonelli in Abu Dhabi &#8211; Photo: Race Pictures<\/p>\n<p>The words of the young Italian driver come off the back of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/news\/wolff-issues-2026-warning-that-could-spell-worry-for-hamilton-alonso\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">comments from Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff<\/a>, who, in his assessment of the season, stated the upcoming regulation changes could favour drivers who excel in simulators, naming <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1-drivers\/max-verstappen\" title=\"Max Verstappen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Max Verstappen<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1-drivers\/george-russell\" title=\"George Russell\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">George Russell<\/a> as favourites.Antonelli reveals his wish for ChristmasEarlier, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/news\/mercedes-driver-antonelli-shares-the-one-gift-he-desires-this-christmas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Antonelli revealed his desire to have a competitive car as his sole wish for Christmas.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The 19-year-old stressed how he would fancy race victories in 2026, while also expressing his desire to challenge for a drivers\u2019 championship.<\/p>\n<p>Antonelli also expressed optimism about the 2026 Mercedes car, highlighting the key transformation of the car he has witnessed in the wind tunnel.<\/p>\n<p>Catch up with GPBlog\u2019s Latest Paddock Update<\/p>\n<p>With the post-2025 season finale action and reaction continuing, our paddock update is the place to be.<\/p>\n<p>Follow and subscribe to our channels on YouTube and Spotify to stay up to date with all the happenings as they unfold, following the final Grand Prix of the campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Check out the latest episode of our paddock update here \ud83d\udc47<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kimi Antonelli has reacted to the claim the 2026 regulations will suit younger drivers.\u201cI think so. Ground-effect cars&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,35119,813,816,3875,10115,825,189983,85,4703],"class_list":["post-372485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-f1-news","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-kimi-antonelli","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mercedes-amg-f1-team","tag-sports","tag-toto-wolff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}