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Antonelli admits upgraded Mercedes 'very unpredictable' after qualifying seventh in Singapore

Formula 1 championship leader Kimi Antonelli qualified only seventh for the Singapore Grand Prix sprint race, conceding his upgraded Mercedes W17 is proving difficult to manage. The 20-year-old sits 86 points clear at the top of the standings but trails polesitter Max Verstappen by 0.693 seconds.

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Antonelli admits upgraded Mercedes 'very unpredictable' after qualifying seventh in Singapore
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Kimi Antonelli described his upgraded Mercedes as “very unpredictable” after the Formula 1 championship leader could manage only seventh in sprint qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix at Marina Bay on Friday, 0.693 seconds behind polesitter Max Verstappen.

The 20-year-old Italian holds an 86-point advantage over team-mate George Russell in the drivers’ standings, but the past week has exposed a troubling gap between expectation and performance from Mercedes’ updated W17. At the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang last weekend, Red Bull’s Verstappen dominated from pole while Antonelli settled for second despite the team introducing a substantial upgrade package.

In Singapore, Mercedes have split their strategy: Antonelli continues with the updated specification while Russell has reverted to the older car for a direct comparison. That experiment has so far favoured Russell, who finished second in sprint qualifying — 0.573s ahead of his team-mate.

“Already in FP1 I was struggling,” Antonelli told F1 TV after also finishing seventh in the opening practice session, which Russell topped. “Still a lot to understand about this package. The car is very difficult, very unpredictable and very difficult to put a lap together. So yeah, it’s a shame because I was coming with high hopes, but so far it’s been very difficult.”

Team principal Toto Wolff echoed those concerns after practice, acknowledging that “the new car seems to be a little trickier to drive” — a candid admission from a team that arrived in Malaysia expecting the upgrade to consolidate Antonelli’s title lead.

With Verstappen looking the dominant force at Marina Bay and both McLaren and Ferrari also in contention, Antonelli was guarded about his prospects for the remainder of the weekend.

“It’s going to be a difficult weekend, unless we can pull something out tomorrow,” he said. “I don’t really see where we can find seven tenths, but you never know. Maybe tonight Bono [race engineer Peter Bonnington] and the engineers are going to find something in the car, and for sure I’m going to try to improve a little bit with the driving. We’ll see tomorrow where we end up.”

The Singapore sprint race takes place on Saturday, with the main Grand Prix to follow on Sunday.

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