{"id":574480,"date":"2026-03-30T16:11:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T16:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/574480\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T16:11:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T16:11:13","slug":"kimi-antonelli-identifies-area-for-improvement-amid-f1-title-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/574480\/","title":{"rendered":"Kimi Antonelli identifies area for improvement amid F1 title fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kimi Antonelli<\/a> believes his poor start to the Formula 1 Japanese Grand\u00a0Prix was \u2018completely his fault\u2019 as the polesitter caught too much wheelspin off the line.<\/p>\n

The Mercedes<\/a> driver consequently dropped to sixth on the opening lap at Suzuka, though he still ultimately claimed victory having lucked out with the lap 23 safety car intervention<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It gave Antonelli his second consecutive victory meaning he is now leading the F1 championship, despite race starts being a continuous problem for him in 2026.<\/p>\n

At the Melbourne opener he dropped from second to seventh, in the Shanghai sprint he went from second to eighth, while the following day he lost the lead to Lewis Hamilton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking after the Japan win, he said: \u201cIt was nice to be back on the top step. A very special win and a very special track. But, on one side I\u2019m very happy, on the other side I\u2019m a bit disappointed with how the start went.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an area where I need to work a lot, because it\u2019s definitely not good enough and I\u2019m just making my life a lot harder. So, definitely a lot of work to do still.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I was very lucky, of course, with the timing of the safety car, but yeah, then pace was very, very strong and really happy with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Andrea <\/p>\n

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes<\/p>\n

Photo by: Artur Widak \/ NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n

It does come amid changes to the race start procedure though, as reacting to lights out has become more complex under the new 2026 regulations following the removal of the MGU-H.<\/p>\n

This means drivers must rev their engines much higher for at least 10 seconds to spool up the turbo, while also maintaining battery power due to the more electrical engines.<\/p>\n

When asked what caused his wheelspin at Suzuka, Antonelli said: \u201cI think I dropped the clutch a bit too deep, deeper than what I should have.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tyres were also a bit colder, so obviously I went beyond the grip that was available and just lost a lot of places.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old therefore confirmed that it was \u201ccompletely my fault\u201d, but Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was keen to not place all the blame at Antonelli\u2019s door.<\/p>\n

\u201cA botched start. These kids learn in the driving school with automatics, so we need to teach them how you release a clutch slowly, steadily and not too quick,\u201d he jokingly told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n

\"Toto <\/p>\n

Toto Wolff, Mercedes<\/p>\n

Photo by: Kym Illman \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then he was fast. We\u2019re not giving them the easiest of tools, our starts have generally been a bit on the mediocre side and we need to improve that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that case, the drive had massive influence of that car not going away. Looked good with the wheelspin, but isn\u2019t fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Race start problems aren\u2019t just unique to Antonelli either, as team-mate George Russell<\/a> has lost five positions – 13 fewer than Antonelli – on lap one in 2026.<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kimi Antonelli believes his poor start to the Formula 1 Japanese Grand\u00a0Prix was \u2018completely his fault\u2019 as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[12295,64,63,817,277594,813,816,107978,281925,945,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-574480","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-f1-japanese-grand-prix","13":"tag-formula-1","14":"tag-formula1","15":"tag-japanese-gp","16":"tag-kimi-antonelli-identifies-area-for-improvement-amid-f1-title-fight","17":"tag-mercedes","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574480","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=574480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}