Mercedes goes into the 2026 Canadian Grand Prix with its rookie leading the championship by 20 points and its senior driver, George Russell, watching three consecutive wins evaporate to the other side of the garage. Jenson Button used his preview slot on Sky Sports F1 to take the unexpected angle: rather than building up Andrea Kimi Antonelli further, he pointed at the bit of the race that is still costing the 19-year-old.
The weakness Button identifies is the start. Across three consecutive race weekends, Antonelli has lost ground at the lights and recovered through pace. That recovery has happened because he has been comfortably the fastest car. On a circuit like Montreal, where the run to the first chicane and then down to the hairpin punishes any car that gets shuffled wide, the recovery is not guaranteed.
Button was open about it: "He's struggling at the starts, he's losing places every race. When he gets that right, yeah, he seems like he'll be unstoppable."
It is a sharper observation than it sounds. Button is not saying Antonelli is a developing project who needs another year. He is saying Antonelli is one specific habit away from being the version Mercedes feared a generational talent would be at 19. The team has the strategy data, has the launch traces from Imola, Japan and Miami, and has had the better part of three weeks since the last race to work on it. Canada is the first chance to show whether they have actually moved the needle.
Button was also direct about the luck involved in Antonelli's opening two wins, refusing to pretend the rookie has been clean through the season. "The first win, the second win, there was a little bit of luck involved, which we all need as racing drivers. But he capitalised on that and showed his pace." Miami, in Button's reading, was the first win that did not need anyone else's bad afternoon.
The other half of Button's Mercedes story is George Russell. Russell won this race last year and has publicly framed his Miami struggles as a circuit-style mismatch, telling reporters he prefers smoother surfaces where his precision rewards itself. Button thought the framing was a strength. "I think he's showing confidence where he said Miami, it's not a track that suits my driving style. Whereas the other tracks, the smoother tracks where I can be precise, they work for me. One of those tracks is definitely Montreal."
For Russell, Montreal is a chance to restart a season that was supposed to be his outright. For Antonelli, it is a chance to finish the year-zero brief. Mercedes needs both at the same time. Button's prediction is that Antonelli looks unstoppable the moment he gets a launch right. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve will not be a gentle place to find out.
