What Antonelli told Marko about the Mercedes W16 in Spa hotel encounter

Bumping into Helmut Marko at the hotel in Spa-Francorchamps, Kimi Antonelli apparently revealed that he had “no confidence” in the Mercedes W16.

That is the claim made by Marko, Red Bull’s senior advisor, who after that chat with Mercedes’ teenage rookie, felt a parallel could be drawn between the Mercedes W16 and Red Bull RB21.

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Promoted to Formula 1, and the Mercedes team, at just 18 years of age, Antonelli was the F1 2025 replacement for seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton, the Italian coming into F1 off the back of a trophy-laden junior career with Mercedes’ backing.

The initial performances were strong, Antonelli a regular top 10 finisher while team-mate George Russell hoovered up the podiums, but Mercedes’ performances have since declined, Antonelli in particular struggling with that drop-off.

Antonelli has scored points just once in his last seven grands prix, having claimed a first F1 podium in Canada, and Marko told F1-Insider.com that he believes too much “hype” was created around Antonelli ahead of his F1 debut.

With Antonelli quickly earmarked as a potential Hamilton replacement, having skipped Formula 3 to contest the 2024 Formula 2 season, Antonelli was making his case for the Mercedes seat amid a great deal of media attention, while he also had to overcome the setback of crashing out early on debut in FP1 at Monza, in front of his home fans.

Marko said he had the chance to speak with Antonelli at the hotel when F1 was in town for the Belgian Grand Prix, and found out that Antonelli is struggling to gel with this version of the Mercedes W16.

Both Russell and Antonelli have reverted to an old rear-suspension specification for this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, as Mercedes bid to work out where they have gone wrong.

“I don’t want to make any outside comments on how things work for any other team. Antonelli is certainly very fast, but also a very young driver,” Marko continued.

“Strangely enough, we spoke briefly in the hotel at Spa, and he said that he has no confidence in the car. As soon as he pushes, he no longer has control.

“It’s more of a mental thing, and it seems that [with] his car, like ours, it’s very critical to be in the working window. When it does work, it’s much more potent, and of course a driver like Russell does it much more easily.

“Mercedes, thank goodness, don’t have the luxury of a second team.”

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Antonelli is not under threat of losing his Mercedes seat, both he and Russell expected to be signed to new deals, with Max Verstappen having affirmed his F1 2026 commitment to Red Bull.

And Mercedes is looking to take the pressure off Antonelli in this recent rut, the internal message being very much one of it’s us, not you.

“I think he’s, like the rest of us, massively fed up with a string of results that are well below what we were collectively achieving earlier in the year,” Mercedes technical director James Allison said of Antonelli in their Belgian Grand Prix debrief.

“I hope he takes some solace from the fact that we tell him, and it’s demonstrably a fact, that we have taken the wrong steps with the car, making our team less competitive, and that he is paying the price for that, as is George.

“If the car isn’t where it needs to be, then it will be a struggle getting through the qualifying stages in your rookie season in F1. And it’s utterly clear to all of us that the thing we need to do is make the car better, and then Kimi’s fortunes will reverse with that.

“And hopefully, he’s listening to us as we say those reassuring words, because we absolutely know that he is putting in the effort on his side of that bargain.”

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