Mercedes reveals Kimi Antonelli’s crucial role in George Russell’s Singapore win. Mercedes reveals how young driver Kimi Antonelli played a key behind-the-scenes role in George Russell’s Singapore GP.

A crucial contribution

Andrew Shovlin, head of trackside engineering at Mercedes, explained that Antonelli adjusted his own program after George Russell’s crash in Free Practice 2, sacrificing his personal performance to gather valuable data. Andrew Shovlin stated, “Fridays always involve a lot of work. When red flags appear, that’s lost time you can’t recover. They also disrupt the long runs.”

He added, “The problem with long runs is that you can’t do them in short blocks of three or four laps. You need continuity so the car, tyres, and everything else reach the proper temperature. We adapted. George had his incident, which took him out of FP2, but fortunately Kimi — and it was his decision — chose not to continue with low-fuel work. He was on a good lap, but he said: ‘It’s fine. I know where the car is. I’m happy.’ And he focused on the long run towards the end of FP2.”

This decision proved decisive: Antonelli was the only driver on track to complete a proper long run, meaning Mercedes was the only team with sufficient full-fuel simulation data.

Andrew Shovlin continued, “This allowed us to set a more aggressive cooling level, which gave better aerodynamic performance. It also let us adjust ride heights to a safe point for FIA checks without unnecessarily losing downforce. Additionally, we could better balance the car between front and rear to avoid overheating the rear tyres. Having Kimi in such good form on Friday was extremely helpful, because what we learned from him certainly contributed to the victory.”