The Austrian Grand Prix actually gave championship leader Kimi Antonelli more confidence that he can win the 2026 Formula 1 world title despite it being a “bad weekend”.
Antonelli made a blistering start to round eight by topping two practice sessions and being on provisional pole, but was pipped at the end following Max Verstappen’s crash.
The Mercedes driver aborted his final lap thinking double yellow flags were being waved, but it was only single flags, which team-mate George Russell recognised to take pole.
Antonelli therefore dropped to fourth and in an attempt to recover, he was overly aggressive across the opening two laps and went off three times - dropping down to fifth as a result.
But the 19-year-old eventually climbed to third, just 1.9s behind winner Russell and 0.3s off runner-up Verstappen, in what could be considered a strong result on an off weekend.
“That's why it's important to make the best out of every opportunity and try to maximise every result,” Antonelli said ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix.
George Russell, Mercedes, Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Eric Le Galliot
“Of course, it was not a great weekend because a lot of things didn't go well, but at the end of the day, this is also part of the learning - it's all experience.
“If the bad weekend has to go that way, I would put a great signature on it because we were still in P3, we were still a strong second half of the race.
“It just gave me that extra confidence that even when things don't look good towards my way, together with the team, we can still pull a great result and a great performance.
“It's a lot about now, as the performance is there, the pace is there, it's about just making sure that every weekend I put things together and I maximise every session.”
What will now serve as a litmus test for how much Antonelli has improved from his rookie campaign is whether he will learn from his mistakes at the Red Bull Ring or not.
His Mercedes boss Toto Wolff expressed confidence that it’ll never happen again, just like he’s not making the needless mistakes that he made at various points during the 2025 campaign.
“In Austria, we had the best pace overall,” added Antonelli. “Also because, second and third team were really strong. The way we came back after that was good, but it was just not enough.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
“Obviously, I arrived a bit too late to the party. The first two laps, losing track position to Max, that was not ideal.
“Also, I struggled quite a lot with the brakes throughout the first stint that was able to drive around it for the rest of the race, but I was really struggling to attack braking.
“With that, I lost quite a bit of time. For sure, the two laps and losing position to Max really changed the course of the race. If I would have kept position, probably it would have been another story, but it didn't happen.
“I need to make sure that if the same situation happens, I just try to stay a bit more calm and try to build from there and just try to use the pace, but wisely.”
Antonelli has therefore arrived at Silverstone with a 40-point lead over second-placed Russell, still marking a tremendous turnaround from his 169-point deficit to the Briton in 2025.
“For sure I did not expect such a strong start,” concluded Antonelli, “but obviously I'm not complaining at all. Just going to try to keep it rolling, keep raising the bar.
“Of course, there's a bit of higher pressure, but I think it's a great opportunity to shine when pressure comes. But of course, I'm just going to try to focus race-by-race.
“Don't try to drive worrying about championship or anything else. Just try to do my best, and then we'll see where we end up at the end of the year.”
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