Kimi Antonelli completed a remarkable recovery from 16th on the grid to fifth in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, yet the Mercedes driver admitted afterwards that he had driven at only “85%” following a qualifying mistake that damaged his confidence. The result therefore tells only part of the story of what was arguably Kimi Antonelli’s most difficult weekend of the season in terms of performance.
Looking purely at the numbers, Mercedes had reasons to be satisfied. Kimi Antonelli’s Q1 mistake could have had far more serious consequences for his race, yet the Italian still climbed 11 positions and salvaged fifth place.
Kimi Antonelli himself admitted after the race that there was little more he believed he could have achieved in those circumstances.
“There are days when P5 is the maximum possible. After the mistake in qualifying I had no confidence. Today I just had to limit the damage.”
However, another comment from Kimi Antonelli raised a more intriguing question about his performance.
“Today I was driving at 85%. You could say I drove like my grandmother.”
The light-hearted remark inevitably leads to one question that emerged during the Grand Prix: was Kimi Antonelli too conservative?
How Kimi Antonelli’s qualifying mistake affected his confidence
The mistake on Kimi Antonelli’s second flying lap in Q1 inevitably influenced the way the Italian approached the remainder of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend. His starting position was the direct consequence of an error on a Baku circuit where mistakes are frequently punished heavily.
In his post-race interviews, Kimi Antonelli cryptically admitted that he had not had the right mindset during the Grand Prix weekend. The change from Saturday to Sunday was therefore significant: without the confidence he had shown at Monza, Kimi Antonelli chose not to take unnecessary risks and instead concentrated on securing a respectable result.
Kimi Antonelli had appeared to arrive in Baku ready to attack in his usual style. His record in both Formula 1 and the junior categories has shown a driver with an explosive approach, characterised by decisive and high-intensity moves. His strong performances earlier in the campaign had already helped build an impressive 2026 Formula 1 record.
This time, however, that aggression did not pay off. Kimi Antonelli never matched George Russell’s pace in practice, and the decisive qualifying mistake arrived very early in the weekend. On the unforgiving Baku street circuit, there was little margin for recovery before the race even began.
Baku’s risks complicate Kimi Antonelli’s recovery
The Azerbaijan circuit is particularly difficult to interpret, especially through the treacherous castle section. The two Safety Car periods during the race underlined just how quickly circumstances can change around Baku.
That characteristic provided some mitigation for Kimi Antonelli, who was also caught up in the sequence of events that caused the second Safety Car period.
“At the restart I saw Franco Colapinto’s Alpine lock its wheels and I immediately lifted to prepare the cutback. I hadn’t seen Ollie coming so quickly down the inside, so I had to cut across to avoid contact because I was still very close to the Alpine. In the end I was lucky: it was a shame about the damage, but overall I got away with it.”
Kimi Antonelli suffered floor damage in the contact with Oliver Bearman, making the Mercedes unpredictable after the second restart. That helps explain the caution shown during the laps Kimi Antonelli spent behind Lewis Hamilton, who certainly did not make overtaking easy.
The difficult weekend also contrasted sharply with the level Mercedes has demonstrated elsewhere during a season in which the W17 has established itself as a formidable package.
Telemetry shows Kimi Antonelli deliberately backing out of attacks
Even after accounting for those mitigating factors, there is still room to question one aspect of Kimi Antonelli’s performance: during the opening stages of the race, he did not exploit some opportunities as aggressively as he might have done. The telemetry supports that interpretation.
Kimi Antonelli’s caution was particularly evident on laps 21 and 22, when he had several opportunities to attempt an assisted overtake while running less than one second behind the car ahead. On each occasion, however, Kimi Antonelli lifted at crucial overtaking points.
The data from the first sector of the Baku circuit illustrates Kimi Antonelli’s throttle management between laps 20 and 22. On lap 20, when the Mercedes driver was not yet able to use overtake mode against Franco Colapinto, Kimi Antonelli remained at full throttle for considerably longer than on the following laps.
On the later attempts, Kimi Antonelli can be seen closing the throttle before braking earlier, effectively abandoning the overtaking move deliberately.
Could Kimi Antonelli have taken more points from George Russell?
The final result would probably not have changed dramatically without those periods of caution, but Kimi Antonelli could potentially have reduced the points lost to George Russell. For example, gaining time earlier in the race might have given Kimi Antonelli a better opportunity to pass Charles Leclerc during the closing stages of the Grand Prix.
Every point matters in a championship battle, particularly with the gap between the Mercedes drivers already a major talking point after George Russell acknowledged the scale of Kimi Antonelli’s championship advantage. The latest positions can also be followed in the Formula 1 driver standings.
Yet the new technical regulations and the characteristics of the latest Formula 1 cars have increasingly rewarded drivers who know when not to take a risk. From that perspective, Kimi Antonelli’s restraint could ultimately prove valuable rather than costly.
What became particularly clear by the end of the 2025 season is that even two points can change the outcome of a championship. In Baku, Kimi Antonelli chose damage limitation over maximum aggression – and in the Formula 1 of today, that calculation may sometimes be just as important as outright speed.
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