How Piastri one-liner and sickening smash exposed F1 flaw <\/a><\/p>\n\u201cObviously we were very lucky with safety car, but on the medium [tyre] we were really strong once I got some free air, and then on the hard the pace was just incredible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt very good with the car and very pleased with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the perfect follow-up to his maiden win in China. Though in Shanghai he and the team indulged in celebration \u2014 and team boss Toto Wolff completed something of a victory lap for taking a punt on promoting the teenager to Formula 1 \u2014 everyone, including Antonelli\u2019s father, was extremely cautious not to allow the hype to build.<\/p>\n
He remains, after all, a 19-year-old championship outsider with a massive experience gulf to Russell, the title favourite.<\/p>\n
In Japan, though, it was impossible not to see the bigger picture of Antonelli\u2019s potential \u2014 impossible not to see the possibilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we decided to give him the seat one and a half years ago, we hoped for this trajectory \u2014 that with the ups and downs you expect from a young driver aged 18 in the first year, eventually, second year, the success would materialise,\u2019 Wolff said. \u201cI think this is happening.<\/p>\n
\u201cCould we have predicted two wins out of three races at the beginning for Kimi? No, but today he was quick when it mattered, the luck was on his side, and I think all of that contributed for him to have this consecutive victory.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that has reframed expectations for the 2026 championship.<\/p>\n
Safety car costs Piastri in Japan | 02:18<\/p>\n
RUSSELL\u2019S TITLE FAVOURITE TAG LOOKS FLIMSY<\/p>\n
For months George Russell has been the almost unbackable title favourite, dating back to rumours last year that Mercedes was poised to steal a march on the field.<\/p>\n
His status was cemented by the team\u2019s impressive pre-season, and his comfortable victory in Melbourne all but locked him in for his maiden championship by consensus.<\/p>\n
Since then, however, he\u2019s been shaded by his junior teammate.<\/p>\n
Russell was competitive in Suzuka but without looking like he had a handle on Antonelli.<\/p>\n
Perhaps in pursuit of his young Italian teammate, he and his side of the garage made set-up changes ahead of qualifying that made his car much worse to drive, though he still qualified second.<\/p>\n
Another poor start preceded what he said was a litany of car problems that left him falling short of his potential.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything was just issues after one another,\u201d he lamented. \u201cI couldn\u2019t recharge my battery at the safety car restart, so Lewis just flew by me, and then I obviously had the issue later in the race with Charles and the battery where I just had no speed and he passed me \u2014 just one thing after another.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the safety car that ultimately put paid to his victory bid, though, dropping him to third behind Piastri and leaving him vulnerable to drivers behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat can you do? That is pure luck,\u201d he said. \u201cIf that was one lap later, we\u2019d have won the race, and if there was no crash, maybe we would have regretted not pitting at that point.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn racing, it sometimes it goes for you, it sometimes it goes against you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course that totally ignores the fact that he\u2019d been beaten by Piastri in the first stint and at the pit stops. Piastri had frustrated the Briton\u2019s attempts to retake the lead during the opening phase of the race, and McLaren secured him an undercut advantage to hold track position for the second stint.<\/p>\n
A new rivalry brews.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
If you were to take the safety car out of the equation, then Russell likely would have lost to Piastri \u2014 and given Antonelli looked quicker than him throughout the afternoon, he may well have finished behind his teammate too, just as he did in reality.<\/p>\n
What he\u2019s really lamenting is that Antonelli, not him, got the bout of good fortune.<\/p>\n
Russell feels he\u2019s had more than his fair share of misfortune this season, having qualified second in China after a front wing problem left him with enough time for only one Q3 lap and having later struggled to pass the Ferrari drivers after a poor start, allowing his teammate to cruise to victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just feels like at the moment, the last two weekends, every issue we\u2019re having is on my side and we\u2019re the ones that go through that pain,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just how it\u2019s turned out.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes people are having problems in practice. We\u2019ve not had a single issue in practice this whole season; I\u2019ve had the problems in qualifying.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just luck of the draw with these new cars.\u201d<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s true Russell has been somewhat compromised over the last two qualifying sessions, we shouldn\u2019t forget Antonelli\u2019s monster FP3 crash in Melbourne that had him almost miss qualifying completely. Making it out in the nick of time, he steered a car that didn\u2019t have his set-up choices dialled into it \u2014 and he still qualified and finished a competitive second.<\/p>\n
The balance of culpability between driver and team in each of these incidents might be different, but in terms of pure pace, neither has had a clean run \u2014 but Antonelli has emerged ahead.<\/p>\n
Antonelli becomes youngest F1 leader | 01:25<\/p>\n
WHO\u2019S UNDER PRESSURE?<\/p>\n
Russell has only ever seen Mercedes dominate titles from afar, while competing in the junior categories and during his Williams apprenticeship. He was promoted to the works team in 2022, which heralded the beginning of a four-year championship dry spell during which Mercedes failed to master the ground-effect regulations.<\/p>\n
He matured into a highly effective operator during that time \u2014 into the sort of driver ready to seize an opportunity like this.<\/p>\n
But now Antonelli stands in his way as a potential obstacle.<\/p>\n
The path is no longer as clear as it looked. The pressure is no longer able to be contained at its minimum possible value.<\/p>\n
Even if no other team can sustainably catch Mercedes, Russell will likely have Antonelli in the other car giving him more than just a headache.<\/p>\n
Antonelli\u2019s speed has long been beyond doubt, and his racecraft has improved considerably too.<\/p>\n
Interesting is the idea that these dramatically different regulations could be playing a role in reducing the significance of the experience gap between them, with every driver having had to rewire their brain to a certain extent. It\u2019s still early days, but the last two races have suggested that Russell hasn\u2019t mastered the new power unit regime as effectively as Antonelli. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor sure it helps that everyone started from zero,\u201d Antonelli said. \u201cBut definitely I\u2019ve been closing the gap [to Russell].<\/p>\n
\u201cI think still in qualifying he has the upper hand, especially when it comes to Q3 \u2014 he\u2019s always able to find that little bit of extra, which I\u2019m working on \u2014 but in terms of race pace, I think we have a really strong base.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel he\u2019s obviously a super, super strong, very complete driver. I think he showed many times last year, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s not going to be easy, and that\u2019s why I need to do everything as perfect as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suddenly it feels like the conditions exist not to give Russell his first title but to bring what would be a sensational second-season championship into view for Antonelli.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not worrying about that,\u201d said the Italian. \u201cI\u2019m just going to focus on myself, on what I need to do, trying to get everything right in terms of procedure, starts, driving.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know how strong George is, and for sure it\u2019s going to be very hard, plus I think Ferrari and McLaren will get closer, so it\u2019s going to be important to stay on top of the game, as I said before, keep raising the bar.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winner Mercedes’ Italian driver Kimi Antonelli celebrates on the podium after the Formula One Japanese Grand Prix.Source: AFP<\/p>\n
The bonus for Antonelli is that expectations remain low, even after taking the championship lead. Russell is the driver expected to deliver; he\u2019s the driver who will begin to feel the pressure if he finds himself on the receiving end of consecutive defeats.<\/p>\n
It looked like there were already signs of tension in Japan.<\/p>\n
Russell, in recent years having developed a cool temperament over radio, sounded tetchy and highly strung in his conversations with the pit wall. He was infuriated by the timing of the safety car \u2014 having already been frustratedly stuck behind Piastri \u2014 and as the caution came to and end, he sounded more concerned about how Antonelli would manage the restart than he was about his position in the pack, and he subsequently lost out.<\/p>\n
His irritation over team radio was enough for team boss Wolff to dial in to tell him to focus \u2014 not unheard of, but a tactic deployed only when the boss has felt a driver\u2019s mind has needed to be clarified.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s three races down in 22,\u201d Russell said, dismissing talk of pressure. \u201cOne lap different today and the victory would have been on my side, and I\u2019m confident of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn China, without the qualifying issue, maybe I was 0.3 seconds ahead in sprint qualifying, so maybe I could have been on pole there and won that race. It\u2019s just how it turns out. That\u2019s racing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not concerned at all. It\u2019s a long year. I know I\u2019ve got what it takes to bounce back and not dwell on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russell isn\u2019t to be underestimated. He dispatched Hamilton in the same car, and last year he was arguably the most consistent performer of the season. Extremely quick, he\u2019s exactly the driver Mercedes needs to spearhead a championship challenge.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s clear after Japan that his gaze can no longer be only forward. He\u2019s got to keep an eye on the silver car beside him too.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to continue to do our job and give them a tool that they can continue to win or fight for the positions,\u201d Wolff said when asked how he intended to manage the brewing title fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen towards the end of the season we\u2019re going to see how the points fall and whether anything needs to be done.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at this stage, absolutely off the leash, both of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
This will not be the coronation some had expected.<\/p>\n
History is still to be written.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrea Kimi Antonelli is a Formula 1 history maker. In the last two grands prix he\u2019s become the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[12295,1724,64,63,689,282117,84229,21777,21763,259208,13275,512,282120,9239,189089,817,243366,813,816,282113,282119,3875,14211,282111,282110,941,148573,791,167549,647,945,282114,677,88575,2114,282112,282118,282116,21749,32913,25598,106482,282109,4933,85,22301,73217,36772,155228,43367,4703,77351,282115,55620,660,259949,236212,16198,75918,282108],"class_list":["post-575122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-brewing-title-fight","tag-car-problems","tag-championship-challenge","tag-championship-lead","tag-championship-outsider","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-china","tag-driver-ready","tag-eastern-asia","tag-experience-gap","tag-f1","tag-favourite-tag","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-four-year-championship-dry","tag-front-wing-problem","tag-george-russell","tag-grands-prix","tag-history-maker","tag-italian-young-gun","tag-japan","tag-junior-teammate","tag-lewis","tag-maiden-championship","tag-melbourne","tag-mercedes","tag-momentum-shift","tag-oceania","tag-pit-stops","tag-pit-wall","tag-points-fall","tag-power-unit-regime","tag-presumed-championship-favourite","tag-race-pace","tag-receiving-end","tag-safety-car","tag-safety-car-restart","tag-sensational-second-season-championship","tag-shanghai","tag-sports","tag-sprint-qualifying","tag-suzuka","tag-team-radio","tag-title-favourite","tag-title-table","tag-toto-wolff","tag-track-position","tag-unbackable-title-favourite","tag-ups-and-downs","tag-victoria","tag-victory-bid","tag-victory-lap","tag-works-team","tag-young-driver","tag-young-italian-teammate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575122","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=575122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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