Mercedes<\/a> sophomore Andrea Kimi Antonelli<\/a> says this will be \u201clike chess\u201d, requiring an \u201copen-minded\u201d approach to races.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n \u201cWith all this energy management, the way you have to race, that is a very big step,\u201d he said during a Mercedes media event earlier this week.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I think this year you have to come into this season very open-minded and in some ways be very creative as well, because you can play so much with the energy, especially when fighting with others, it\u2019s kind of like chess.<\/p>\n \u201cBut chess at speed, you won\u2019t have much time to think about moves.<\/p>\n \u201cBut this year you will always have to be two steps ahead of the others, especially when fighting, when you are planning an overtake or defending: you always have to be two steps ahead of the other, try to predict them or force them to do something.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, there\u2019s a lot to play with. And this is why I think this season you have to be open-minded and even creative at times.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n 2026 Mercedes F1 car on track at Barcelona<\/p>\n 2026 offers quick adaptation opportunity for young drivers<\/p>\n Kimi Antonelli has gone from Formula 4, to Formula Regional to Formula 2 and F1 machinery since 2022, as he enters his second season in grand prix cars.<\/p>\n Because of this, he believes he – as well as other young drivers – stand a good chance of a quicker adaptation to the new rules because they\u2019ve had no time to adjust the previous cars.<\/p>\n \u201cI think definitely for all the rookies who joined F1 last year, coming into this year with a new car is good, because we\u2019ve been used to driving a different car every year,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, we\u2019ve been used to adapting as quickly as possible to a new car.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n \u201cSo, of course, on that side, it\u2019s good that we have a new car this year because it\u2019s a reset for everyone, especially for us, where we\u2019ve been used to a new car every year.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe, it will help us how to understand the car a bit quicker than the others.<\/p>\n \u201cBut, the other guys are not stupid, so I think they will figure it out very quickly as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Subscribe to our F1 Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mercedes young gun Andrea Kimi Antonelli says drivers will have to be \u201copen-minded\u201d and \u201ccreative\u201d when racing with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[12295,64,63,817,813,816,945,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-463479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-mercedes","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463479","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=463479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"2026](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/m560541_0.jpg\")
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