Red Bull admits Antonelli 'disappeared' as record Monaco grand slam stuns rivals

Kimi Antonelli delivered the most dominant performance of his fledgling Formula 1 career at the Monaco Grand Prix, claiming a record as the youngest driver ever to complete a grand slam in the sport and leaving Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies openly admitting the teenager’s speed had caught the paddock off guard.

Antonelli, driving for Mercedes, took pole position around the streets of Monte Carlo by 0.043 seconds from Max Verstappen before controlling Sunday’s race from start to finish for his fifth consecutive victory. Verstappen, who had been his closest challenger in qualifying, was eliminated early after his Red Bull suffered an engine failure off the line, removing any chance of a genuine contest at the front.

“Kimi disappeared,” said Mekies. “Credit to Kimi, I think he surprised all of us by being that fast around here on his second year only. I think he showed today that what he had done yesterday was not one magical lap but that he had a very serious pace. Whether or not Max would have been able to challenge that pace, again we will never know.”

Verstappen had been in strong form throughout the Monaco weekend. Despite losing pole to Antonelli, the four-time world champion had been quicker in both Q1 and Q2, and Mekies said the team had found “the optimum” setup for him on Saturday. The engine failure, however, denied any opportunity to translate that qualifying form into a race result.

“Certainly, the level at which Max has been running in qualifying — not just one lap, Q2, the two attempts in Q3 — was very impressive,” Mekies said. “We know that every time you manage to get Max comfortable with the car you get that extra Max effect, so I would have liked to see what he would have done in the race.”

Mekies confirmed the team has identified the source of the mechanical problem and offered an apology to Verstappen. “It is an engine issue. Obviously, we can only apologise to Max because the job he had done with the team to get to that level of pace around Monaco was outstanding. Probably early days to discuss what the fix is, but we think we have identified what the issue is.”

Verstappen himself described it as “a really good weekend up until the race” and said he was “disappointed not to be on the podium”, adding that the team needed to understand what had gone wrong before looking ahead. With Antonelli now on a five-race winning streak, the pressure on Red Bull to resolve its reliability concerns is growing sharply.