Mercedes reveals what triggered Kimi Antonelli’s jump start in Las Vegas
Mercedes has shed light on the unusual circumstances that led to Andrea Kimi Antonelli receiving a jump start penalty at the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix. According to the team, the small movement of roughly two centimeters on the grid — the motion that triggered the stewards’ decision — did not come from a mistake by the young Italian driver.
The team’s debrief, released around two and a half days after the end of the third-to-last round of the 2025 Formula 1 season, explains that Kimi Antonelli followed the standard starting procedure correctly. Despite being handed a five-second penalty for moving before the lights went out, Mercedes insists the driver did not commit an error.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff had already hinted at this immediately after the race. Toto Wolff said that Kimi Antonelli “did everything correctly,” stressing that the rookie did not release the clutch before the red lights switched off on the main straight.
That assessment was later reinforced by Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ trackside engineering director. He stated that Antonelli executed the start procedure properly and described the penalty as the result of an “unusual” situation.
Andrew Shovlin explained: “We’re talking about what is called a ‘jump start,’ a premature getaway. Normally when we use that term, we think of drivers releasing the clutch early to gain an advantage. But this case was quite different from what I’ve just described, and it was unusual.”
He added: “If you look at the video, you will see that before the lights go out, the car creeps forward by about two centimeters, and it’s a very, very slow movement. But Kimi did not release the clutch. In fact, he is holding it fully.”
With full access to telemetry data, Mercedes was able to identify the real cause: a routine motion that every driver performs during the starting sequence. The team explained that the forward movement was generated when Kimi Antonelli lifted his left foot off the brake pedal as part of the normal pre-start procedure. While this action is standard, in this case it may have contributed to the slight advance detected by the FIA sensors — devices that are extremely sensitive to even minimal car motion.
Andrew Shovlin continued: “Now, we believe that what happened is that at that moment, when the car started to move, he took his foot off the brake. So, as they prepare for the start, drivers lift their foot off the brake, and this happens a second or a little more before the lights go out. Whether it was vibrations in the car or torque in the transmission, it can happen — but it certainly wasn’t Kimi, nor the clutch, that made the W16 move forward.”
He also explained just how sensitive the monitoring systems are: “The FIA systems that detect a jump start are very sensitive. They can pick up even the smallest movement, and when we finally had time to check the video carefully, we could see this extremely tiny motion. So he was unlucky to receive that penalty.”
Andrew Shovlin concluded by emphasizing that Antonelli followed the team’s instructions perfectly: “He was doing everything correctly, according to what we ask of him. Now we have to understand how to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” The team plans to conduct detailed checks before the upcoming rounds in Lusail and Abu Dhabi to prevent a repeat of this rare scenario.
For Kimi Antonelli, the penalty was a harsh introduction to how unforgiving modern F1 can be – even when you do everything right. But the public backing from both Toto Wolff and the technical team will only strengthen the young Italian’s confidence as he heads into the final two races of his impressive debut season.
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