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Welcome back to Prime Tire, where today I’m looking back on Kimi Antonelli’s latest victory this Formula 1 season. For a change, he didn’t really deserve to win (the driver who did deserve to win was the very fast Lando Norris).
I’m Alex, and Madeline Coleman will be along later.
Record Result: Mercedes ties a historic victory total
Two years before he died in 1988, Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari won a political battle he personally found very important — to get F1 to return to using naturally aspirated engines (including V12s, in this case).
Ferrari was very keen on this for two reasons.
One, because his team had failed under the turbocharged rules that McLaren-TAG-Porsche and McLaren-Honda had mastered as the 1980s wore on.
Two, because Enzo still viewed Ferrari as “essentially an engine manufacturer.”
At Ferrari’s Maranello factory in northern Italy, it was a source of immense pride that the team was able to wrestle back the mantle for most F1 wins for an engine builder, when it moved back ahead of Ford’s 176 total at the 2004 United States GP.
Ferrari has held that record, which now sits at 251 wins after Charles Leclerc’s victory at Silverstone, ever since.
Why does this matter now? Because Mercedes, which in 2004 had reached a grand total of 43 F1 engine wins, has EQUALED FERRARI on 251, with Antonelli’s victory in Madrid.
Had Norris converted his stunning speed into victory on Sunday, most likely just by being a smidge luckier with the timing of the race’s virtual safety car activation, Mercedes still would’ve gone to 251. Because the total includes all races won by both factory and customer engine programs.
A few things stand out here:
Only one of Ferrari’s vast total came from a team other than its works squad (Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari-powered victory for Toro Rosso in the 2008 Italian GP).
Mercedes’ total comprises the combined totals from four teams — its works operations of the 1950s and the present day, plus McLaren, Brawn GP (these days, convolutedly, Mercedes) and Racing Point (these days, more straightforwardly, Aston Martin).
But Mercedes’ rate of engine wins in the modern era is remarkable. Since the 2004 U.S. GP, Ferrari has added 76 more engine wins. Mercedes? 208.
Mercedes can take the record outright at F1’s next race in Baku. And 20-year-old Antonelli is well on course to smash the record for youngest F1 world champion (which is Vettel’s at 23 years and 134 days, from 2010).
And Ferrari? Well, with Lewis Hamilton basically conceding the 2026 title fight, saying after his first retirement of the year “there’s no stopping (Antonelli) or Mercedes this year,” its streak without a title of either kind in F1 will hit 19 years in 2027.
That’s already three years longer than the previous biggest gap Ferrari faced between sealing either F1 title — the 16 years between its 1983 and 1999 constructors’ championships. And it’s also closing in on Ferrari’s record 21-year stretch between Jody Scheckter’s 1979 drivers’ crown and Michael Schumacher’s in 2000.
That suggests a far deeper problem than just not producing F1’s best engines …
New U.S. F3 Champ: Ugochukwu seals the 2026 title in Madrid
One person who can so far count their stretch between titles in DAYS is American Formula 3 driver Ugo Ugochukwu, who sealed the 2026 F3 crown in Madrid on Sunday.
Congratulations to Ugochukwu, who is the first American champion since the category was created to sit on the F1 support bill in 2010, when it was called GP3.
Previous winners include Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon, Leclerc, George Russell, Oscar Piastri and Gabriel Bortoleto — fine company indeed!
Inside the Paddock with Madeline Coleman: One man’s misfortune is Verstappen’s …
Max Verstappen managed to secure Red Bull’s fifth podium in seven races, but showed Sunday that the team isn’t exactly back. It’s more that Verstappen benefited from others’ misfortunes and a track with limited overtaking opportunities, something he admitted.
“We profit sometimes a little bit from some misfortune of others, but we are also trying to really maximize and sometimes, maybe, yes, slightly overperform,” Verstappen said when asked about the RB22’s competitiveness at upcoming tracks. “And that’s good. That’s the only thing that we can do at the moment.”
Throughout the three practice sessions at Madring, Verstappen never finished higher than fifth. And while he did go the quickest in Q2, he ultimately qualified third behind Norris and Antonelli.
Verstappen walked away happy with that result on Saturday, though noting: “There were not really things that I left on the table, just more like a few limitations within the car that we know we have, plus the deployment in the final sector where we just didn’t seem to maybe fully get it right.”
Heading into Sunday, drivers already were raising the lack of overtaking opportunities at Madring (more on that below). Verstappen made one of the few passes as he overtook Antonelli, but he had to drop back, due to cutting the first turn in a battle with Hamilton and concerns about whether he gained a position by leaving the track. Even Antonelli was confused when Verstappen let him past, as he felt the overtake was normal.
“I would have had damage at the start if I would have stayed on track, so then the win was also not on. It’s as simple as that,” Verstappen said. “I just did my own thing in Turn 1, but Lewis went for a move on the first two and bottomed out on the curb, so he just jumped back onto the track, and that’s why I had to go off the road.
“If I would have stayed there, I would have definitely had contact. So, then my race could have potentially been over in Turn 2, and that’s why I think, where we are now, I’m happy to be.”
Verstappen ultimately finished second, after Norris fell on the unlucky side of pitting when the virtual safety car period ended. The Dutchman felt they “maximized the result” and noted he maybe was a bit lucky because of what happened to Norris.
“I didn’t have the pace of Kimi and I definitely did not have the pace of Lando,” he said. “So yeah, we’re here on the podium and I think that’s, of course, great, but yeah, we just still lack a little bit to really fight for the win.
“Because it might have looked a little bit like we were in a fight for the win, but that was more because Kimi was getting held up by Charles. Because as soon as he had clean air, he just drove away from me again and I was busy with Lando behind me.”
Back to you, Alex.
Passing Problems: Why the Madrid race was so dull
There were some things to like about F1’s new home in Madrid.
The whole La Monumental complex looked straight out of a (decent) video game. The paddock was arranged around the cavernous halls of the IFEMA Madrid exhibition center (something very different for F1). And a city venue means fans can attend without having to schlep miles to see the racing action.
The big problem, as Madeline explains here, was the utter dearth of said action in Sunday’s race.
The chicane at the start of the Madring lap did create a frantic start (so far, so good). But otherwise, the layout just didn’t lend itself to any overtaking (booo). And the exhibition center backdrop was bland on TV (it looked like a very big Formula E race).
Even the long blast from Turns 3-5 ended in a lengthy curve, which meant drivers swinging across the racing line at the braking zone, eliminating passing chances.
And a tight chicane followed, which meant there was little hope of cars staying alongside if they ever got there.
They then just spread out around the rest of the lap.
It seemed to work in the Formula 2 and Formula 3 support categories, where there was plenty of action. But these are spec series, where every car is identical.
In F1, the different performance levels between different cars, plus their sophisticated aerodynamics, makes passing harder as the drivers struggle to run close together.
Add in a lack of overtaking spots, plus the 2026 engines being less of a factor here, and you get Sunday’s snoozefest.
One thing that could spice up the action without drastic changes would be softer tires (last weekend tire supplier Pirelli brought its second-hardest combination of tires).
This is because the many corners here heat the tires and cause them to fall apart and slow cars down, which would happen quicker with softer compounds. This tends to increase passing, when other cars have fresher rubber.
But the track being draped around the IFEMA buildings and the access roads the event uses means there’s some space (but not unlimited space) for the layout to be redrawn for 2027.
I really hope it happens. But at least the race organizers are aware changes are needed.
Outside the Points
🔥 Norris’ pole lap was so fast on Saturday, he could survive a near-crash at the final corner and still beat Antonelli to pole, as Sam Joseph explained here.
❗ Beleaguered Honda has a new F1 engine project boss.
‼️ And the upcoming F2 round in Baku will have an extra race, which suggests championship officials aren’t super confident the season will end in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, as planned. Luke Smith will have a full update on the end of this year’s F1 schedule (which F2 is tied to) later this week on The Athletic website.
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