The Mercedes F1 crew believes it has found the foundation reason for its ongoing race begin issues, however warns that fixing the issue is not going to be straightforward.
Mercedes had a near-perfect begin to the 2026 season, successful every of the opening three races in Australia, China and Japan earlier than a pressured five-week break in April following the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian GPs as a result of Iran struggle.
Nonetheless, poor begins have change into a pattern for Mercedes in 2026 and have confirmed to be their largest weak spot to this point. Mercedes drivers haven’t been capable of enter Flip 1 this yr, regardless of locking out the entrance row of the grid at every spherical.
Championship chief Kimi Antonelli revealed Mercedes is making progress in figuring out what he described as a “basic” drawback, however admitted there was no fast repair.
“After all, we practiced begins throughout the break,” Antonelli defined forward of the Miami Grand Prix. “I have been working with my crew to attempt to make them conscious of the problem and it seems we have discovered it. We’re at the moment attempting to give you an answer as quickly as potential.
“We all know what we have to work on in the direction of an answer. It is not going to be that straightforward because it requires fairly just a few adjustments to the clutch paddles and a little bit of hand positioning as properly. We’re doing our greatest to discover a answer as quickly as potential to get off to an honest begin.”
“I positively acknowledge that my drawback is extra basic. We’ll see in Miami if we will take a step ahead. And after Miami we’ll have one other break, so it’s going to take extra time to work on it and discover a answer.”
With quite a few regulation adjustments in place and rival groups Ferrari, McLaren and Crimson Bull planning main upgrades, Antonelli is cautious of Mercedes’ possibilities in Miami.
“It will be a really attention-grabbing weekend for us,” stated the Italian teenager.
“To be truthful, we do not actually have something, simply very small issues, whereas different groups like Ferrari and McLaren are bringing massive upgrades. Crimson Bull can also be bringing upgrades.
“Clearly they will come shut and we’d need to combat fairly a bit extra this weekend. However we will do our greatest and maintain our heads down. And in my opinion, we will attempt to maximize the efficiency of the automobile and we will do our greatest and we’ll see what the outcomes are.”
