Antonelli reveals he is reverting to old Mercedes suspension to 'bring good feeling back'

Kimi Antonelli has revealed that his Mercedes will be running the old suspension at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix as the teenager looks to rediscover his confidence following a difficult run of races.

After a decent start to his rookie campaign, Antonelli has faced a more challenging sequence of late, having recorded just one points finish – his maiden podium in Canada – across the last seven rounds.

Now, as F1 arrives at the Hungaroring for the final race before its traditional summer break, the 18-year-old is feeling in a good mindset as he tries to end the first half of the season on a positive note.

Explaining how he has spent his time since last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix – a race that he finished down in 16th place – Antonelli said: “I definitely tried to rest and reflect on the previous races, and trying to understand where I could have done better and how.

“But also, I took time for myself. I did fun activities such as driving my remote control car, and all activities that help the mindset and help to get back even stronger on the track.

“I’ve definitely been also trying to prepare for the weekend in the best way possible, and now I feel happy. I’m really happy to be here and I’m ready to give my best before heading to the summer break.”

Following a tough Qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps, Antonelli is hoping for a better Saturday this weekend after Mercedes opted to revert to the suspension previously used on the car.

Pushed on his realistic expectations for the session, the Italian responded: “First of all, we’re going back on the old suspension, so hopefully it will bring the good feeling back, and the goal is really to deliver a good Qualifying and try to drive at my best.”

Antonelli went on to explain why the change to the W16 contributed to his loss of confidence across recent races.

“Since we went on the new suspension, the car was a bit trickier to drive, especially on tracks where there was high-speed context, so high-speed corners, high-speed combined,” the Silver Arrows driver reflected.

“Also, because of my driving style, I was making the car even more unpredictable, and that killed a bit my confidence.

“I struggled to adapt as well a little bit to the car, and that is why I couldn’t extract the best out of it. George [Russell], I think, with his experience, he adapted much quicker and better, and he was able to extract each weekend the maximum out of the car.

“It’s something I’ve been really trying to do, that I’ve been struggling with, but hopefully, going back to the old suspension, it will bring back that feeling that I had prior to the European season.”

On the other side of the garage, Russell also acknowledged ahead of the upcoming weekend in Hungary that the squad have been trying to understand what has contributed to their step back in performance during the last few weekends.

“Clearly, our performance as a team has gone backwards in the last six or seven races, and we’re trying to unpick why that may have been,” said Russell. “I think there’s a number of factors at play.

“Obviously, we struggle in the hotter conditions – Spa wasn’t hot, but generally we struggle in the hotter conditions. We brought some things with updates, and we think that may not have been performing as we had hoped, so we’ll revert back on some small items.

“I think we potentially just lost our way slightly, so we’re going to go back to basics, focus on the main parts of the car, and see where that takes us.”

Sharing more detail about the challenges of driving the car during recent race weekends – and on Antonelli’s loss of confidence – Russell added: “Without doubt, it has been harder to drive in these last races than it was at the start of the season.

“But when you look at our performance collectively, we’ve just both gone backwards. Kimi had an unfortunate weekend in Spa, but his pace, if anything, was closer to me than it was in races at the start of the year.

“The difference was that at the start of the season, I was qualifying second or third or pole in Canada, and Kimi was in fourth, fifth or sixth. Whereas now, I’m qualifying in sixth, seventh or sometimes out in Q2.

“We’re closer to the midfield, so I don’t think he has anything really to worry about, and it’s just a bad run of form for us.”