Kimi Antonelli secured his first Formula 1 victory at the Chinese Grand Prix, marking Italy’s long-awaited return to the top step of the podium. Antonelli fully leveraged the supremacy of the Mercedes W17 to dominate the race. Behind him, George Russell struggled to close the gap in the second stint. Although Kimi had also claimed pole position, he faced pressure from Ferrari at the start of the race.
The intense battle between Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton indirectly benefited the young Italian driver, allowing him to extend his lead over his pursuers. George Russell found himself stuck behind the Ferrari duo, losing contact with car number 12. Once he reached clean air, the British driver still could not reduce the deficit and even fell further behind Kimi Antonelli. The only scare for Kimi came at the end, with a lock-up at the long straight costing him around two seconds.
Mercedes’ weak spot comes to light
Despite his solitary win in China, Antonelli highlighted the one area where Mercedes showed vulnerability at the start of the 2026 season. The W17 still has a significant advantage over Ferrari, the only team currently capable of challenging Brackley’s squad.
“The start is still our weak point, and to be honest, I wasn’t very confident because my previous two starts had been really poor, so I didn’t know what to expect,” Kimi said during the post-race press conference. “I covered too much on the inside and left too much space on the outside, so I probably need to review this aspect.”
Leaving that aside, Mercedes proved unbeatable in clean air: “The pace was still good, and I especially felt strong on the hard tyres, even though I relaxed a little too much at the end and made a small mistake that caused some pressure. But I still managed to take the victory.”
Almost ironically, Charles Leclerc commented that the only way to try and win is to spend an entire race overtaking each other. This is a scenario we partially saw both in China and Australia, but it becomes nearly impossible to replicate over a full race distance. The two Ferraris can lead at the start, but after a few laps of on-track fighting, the W17 pulls away.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s debut victory in Shanghai cements his status as a future superstar, though it also shows that even the most dominant technical packages in this new 2026 era have small imperfections to overcome.
Leave a Reply