Mercedes has revealed how a regularly changing “secret code” helped prepare Kimi Antonelli for the Virtual Safety Car pit stop that transformed the Spanish Grand Prix and ultimately delivered victory in Madrid. Luck undoubtedly played an important role, but Antonelli and Mercedes had already taken action before the VSC was officially deployed.
In Formula 1, a single second can completely change the outcome of a race, particularly when there are only moments to react to a Virtual Safety Car at a circuit where overtaking is extremely difficult. Madrid provided a perfect example, with clear thinking required throughout the entire chain of command, from the pit wall to Antonelli in the cockpit.
Kimi Antonelli slowed before the Madrid VSC was activated
The decisive sequence began when Lance Stroll stopped on track and yellow flags were shown. As previously highlighted in analysis of the Mercedes tactic that helped secure Antonelli’s Madrid victory, race engineer Peter Bonnington warned the Italian of the incident before the Virtual Safety Car had actually been deployed.
Antonelli immediately began slowing more than the drivers around him between Turns 18 and 20, effectively trying to buy time in case Race Control neutralised the race before he reached the pit-lane entry.
Mercedes has now explained through its NU Silver Arrows Radio Show podcast that a coded message was used to alert Antonelli to the potential pit-stop opportunity. The system allowed him to back off more than race leader Lando Norris and Max Verstappen behind him without openly revealing Mercedes’ intentions to rival teams monitoring the radio.
Telemetry shows how Antonelli created an extra margin
The effect becomes clear when comparing Antonelli’s lap 14 data with the previous lap. Once the yellow flags appeared, the Mercedes driver took Turn 19 29km/h slower than he had on lap 13.
He then reached the braking zone for Turn 20, where Stroll’s Aston Martin had stopped, 24km/h slower than on the previous lap after lifting off the accelerator much earlier.
Under the same yellow-flag conditions, before the VSC was officially called, Verstappen went through Turn 19 15km/h faster than Antonelli and arrived at the braking point for Turn 20 with an 18km/h speed advantage, having lifted later than the Mercedes driver.
Antonelli did not only slow in the yellow-flag sector. He also delayed returning to the throttle in the following section even though green flags were already being displayed. Bonnington had already warned him that a VSC was possible because Mercedes’ pit-wall analysis suggested a race neutralisation was highly likely.
Andrew Shovlin explains Mercedes’ ‘secret codes’
Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin explained how the team structures these situations and why coded communications form part of its race procedures.
“We use secret codes to give the drivers an idea that they might want to come into the pits in the event of a Safety Car during the race,” Shovlin explained. “But we try to avoid the other teams understanding what those codes are. That’s why we change them every week.”
The practice itself is not unusual in Formula 1, but the Madrid situation demonstrated how important such preparation can become when the available reaction time is measured in seconds.
“There was the yellow flag, Bono confirmed it. Kimi actually slowed down a little and bought himself an extra second, which probably… he might have managed to get in anyway. But that second made it possible.”
“And if you watch the onboard from his car, you’ll see that it wasn’t at all easy for Kimi to get into the pits. And you’ll see that, as he was stopping in his pit box, the tyres were arriving at exactly that moment. It was a difficult stop to execute in that timeframe.”
One extra second gave Mercedes more time to react
Antonelli was extremely close to the pit-lane entrance when Race Control activated the Virtual Safety Car. Without the additional second he had created, he might still have been able to dive into the pits at the final moment, but the extra margin gave both driver and team more time to react and coordinate the stop.
The sequence added another layer to a Spanish Grand Prix in which Mercedes’ execution proved just as important as the speed of the dominant W17 package.
Teams routinely meet on Sunday morning to define race strategy, examine possible scenarios and establish procedures for situations requiring an immediate reaction, including accidents, Safety Cars and Virtual Safety Cars. When the margins become this small, however, the quality of the plan and the chain of command becomes decisive.
Mercedes had just 15 seconds to prepare Antonelli’s stop
There were 35 seconds between the initial yellow flag and the activation of the VSC. From the moment the VSC began to Antonelli reaching his pit box in front of the Mercedes garage, only another 15 seconds elapsed.
The operation involved far more than simply telling the driver to pit. The mechanics also had to have the tyres ready, particularly because Mercedes elected to stop both Antonelli and George Russell.
The fact that both sets of tyres were prepared in time showed that the mechanics had already been alerted before Antonelli arrived, highlighting how quickly information had travelled through the Mercedes operation.
“On Sunday morning we focused on making sure we were ready to react to any incident, and what you do is make sure that at every stage of the race you know what you’re going to do if there’s a VSC or a Safety Car,” Shovlin added.
“That’s normal, all the teams operate like that.”
“But even when there’s a plan, there can be situations where a bit of discussion starts. Something like: do we really want to do it? And what was nice to see here was that there was a plan. Kimi knew he was in the window for the VSC. Bono confirmed it as soon as the incident happened.”
Mercedes made its own luck in Antonelli’s Spanish GP victory
The timing of the Virtual Safety Car unquestionably favoured Antonelli, while Norris was left unable to make the same stop after passing the pit entry moments earlier. That element of fortune has already fuelled debate over Formula 1’s VSC rules following the Madrid race.
But Mercedes’ explanation shows that the victory was not simply the product of being in the right place at the right time. Antonelli recognised the possibility of a neutralisation, followed his engineer’s coded warning, created an extra second of margin and reached the pits while the mechanics were still completing their preparation.
It was another example of the operational sharpness behind a season in which Antonelli has collected eight victories and established himself firmly at the front of the championship. His growing collection of achievements has already placed him alongside some of the sport’s biggest names, with his Madrid success adding further records to his 2026 campaign.
Luck opened the opportunity in Madrid, but Mercedes’ preparation, communication and rapid execution ensured that Antonelli was in position to take full advantage of it.
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