The Mercedes driver sits atop the Formula 1 championship after three rounds of the 2026 season, but Kimi Antonelli is not hiding from the one part of his race craft that keeps undermining him. At Suzuka, a botched launch dropped the pole-sitter to sixth place, and the 19-year-old spent the rest of the weekend openly admitting that his starts are a problem the Mercedes team must solve.
The 19-year-old Mercedes driver started the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix from pole position and arrived at turn one in sixth place. Only a perfectly timed safety car and a devastating stint on the medium compound rescued what should have been a routine lights-to-flag victory. Antonelli was brutally honest in the press conference afterwards.
"I'm very happy, but on the other side, I'm a bit disappointed with how the start went," Antonelli said. "It is an area where I need to work a lot because it's definitely not good enough and I'm just making my life a lot harder. So definitely a lot of work to do still but I was very lucky of course with the timing of the safety car."
Asked what went through his mind as he tumbled down the order, Antonelli offered only a blunt summary. "I cannot say, but I was very mad."
The teenager then walked through the technical cause of the error. "Basically I didn't insert the finger that well in the clutch. So that led to the fact that I dropped the clutch more than what I should have and obviously then I went beyond the grip that was available," he explained. "Because the reaction was good but then obviously I would spin straight away. So then I was a sitting duck."
It was not an isolated weakness. Antonelli had already flagged launches as a concern after an earlier race in 2026, saying he went into the Suzuka grid with no confidence after two poor starts in the previous rounds. "The start is still our weak point and to be fair I didn't go with a great confidence because my two previous starts were really bad," he said then.
At Suzuka he also suggested the issue goes beyond him. Team-mate George Russell has struggled in the same area, and the problem appears to be Mercedes-wide. "Today was completely my fault, but together me and George we've been struggling a bit more than what we would have anticipated since the start of the season," Antonelli said. "And today the McLaren got an incredible, you know, really good start. So they're clearly doing something better."
Toto Wolff offered an unusual explanation for the generation-wide issue. Speaking after the race, the Mercedes team principal suggested modern junior-category drivers simply are not being taught the right skills before arriving in Formula 1. "These kids learn in the driving school with automatic so we need to teach them how you release a clutch slowly, steadily and not too quick," Wolff said. "Our starts have generally been a bit on the mediocre side and we need to improve that."
Antonelli suggested his boss's reaction to the win would be a mix of pride and frustration. "He was happy for sure. He's happy, but he's going to kick my butt because of the start," he said. "Well, I deserve that."
For now, the rookie's raw pace is papering over the cracks. The question is whether the Mercedes launch package can be fixed before a rival uses it against him in a championship fight he did not expect to lead this early.
