Kimi Antonelli already knows he’ll start the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix from the pitlane after his worst qualifying performance yet as a Formula 1 driver.
Mercedes F1 rookie Antonelli has endured a miserable Spa weekend so far, placing 20th in sprint qualifying after a spin into the gravel at Stavelot in SQ1 on Friday, finishing that sprint race in 17th on Saturday and then qualifying 18th for the grand prix.
Antonelli was deeply frustrated after the worst Saturday qualifying of his grand prix career so far, citing a major confidence problem.
“Since the European season, I've been struggling to find confidence with the car,” Antonelli said.
“I feel like I've done a backwards step. It's just a difficult moment for me - I feel like I have no confidence on pushing.
“Yesterday, I tried to push a bit too much and then I spun, and it kind of hurts the confidence even more.
“We know the limitation we have since quite a lot, but with the way I'm driving, I'm just increasing the problem, and that gives me even less confidence with the car.”
Antonelli's first season in F1 began on some relatively unfamiliar circuits, but included an impressive breakthrough sprint pole in Miami (where he also qualified third for the grand prix) and a first podium in Canada, where Mercedes team-mate George Russell won.
But on the more familiar European circuits of Imola, Barcelona, Monaco, Red Bull Ring, Silverstone and now Spa, Antonelli's form has been erratic and he's made some key mistakes too - like wiping Max Verstappen out on the first lap in Austria and earning a grid penalty.
Antonelli has looked short of confidence at Spa and although set-up changes were made after the sprint that improved the car, Antonelli’s lack of confidence meant it was difficult for him to get up to speed with those changes quickly.
Antonelli is lacking both stability and confidence and he's also having to deviate from his naturally aggressive driving style to try to get more out of the Mercedes, which is regularly qualifying comfortably inside the top six and often higher in Russell's hands.
“Because with the way I drive, I'm a bit more aggressive with the inputs, also compared to George [Russell], I'm a bit more aggressive overall, I tend to try and carry a lot of speed into the corner,” Antonelli explained.
“And with the limitation we have, I'm just increasing the problem. So, on my side, I'm trying to change a little bit the way I'm driving, to also help the balance.
"Probably I'm trying to change the way I'm driving too much. And it feels like I'm not driving naturally. It's very forced, the way I'm driving. And it's just difficult”.
Antonelli was 0.355s slower than Russell in Q1, but given the tight field spread this weekend that kind of gap meant a Q1 elimination, when it would have simply been a lower top 10 placing in Q3 elsewhere.
Pitlane start and set-up gamble explained
Antonelli will start Sunday’s Belgian GP from the pitlane, allowing Mercedes to reset his downforce levels for whatever weather the race throws up.
“We will change the car so we'll start from the pitlane,” Antonelli confirmed. “Hopefully that will give us an advantage. Hopefully the confidence will be back.”
Both Antonelli and Russell opted for a low-downforce set-up for grand prix qualifying, setting impressive first and third sector times, but bleeding sizeable laptime in the middle sector.
It also leaves Russell vulnerable if there’s rain tomorrow, but that was a deliberate decision from Mercedes, which knew the route to more laptime was to go lower-downforce - plus the weather forecast for Sunday is ever-changing.
Mercedes doesn’t have the pace of McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari this weekend and is instead in the clutches of the leading midfield teams like Alex Albon’s Williams, which beat Russell to fifth on the grid.
But had Mercedes gone with higher downforce on both of its cars, it would have had even worse qualifying position for Sunday’s race.
“We wanted to set up for what was going to give us the fastest qualifying car,” Russell said when asked if Mercedes set the car up with a potential wet race in mind.
“The fact is, one tenth slower I'd have been out in Q1, I'd have been P10 in Q3... for us if we went higher downforce, that would've made the car at least one to one and a half tenths slower in qualifying today, which may have been five-six-seven-eight... 10 grid spots... so the answer is no, we had to set up for qualifying.”
Russell said he would “prefer to be P6 with a slightly compromised race car than to be down in P16. When you don't have the luxury of the pace, you've got to find a compromise somewhere”.
Antonelli’s pitlane start at least means Mercedes can increase the downforce on his car, though Russell will be stuck with what he’s got, needing the “stars to align’ as they did in 2024, which allowed him to jump from sixth to first - before he was stripped of that win for being underweight after completing the race on a single pitstop.
