It was an encouraging first day at the 2026 F1 United States GP for Mercedes, with both Kimi Antonelli and George Russell finishing within the top five in both FP1 and FP2.
In FP1, Antonelli had finished the session in P5 but was able to improve to P2 in FP2. He ended the day with a fastest lap time of 1:31.333, a mere 0.042s slower than Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who topped both Free practice sessions. Meanwhile, Russell who was finally running the same W17 setup as his teammate, finished FP1 and FP2 in P4 and P5, respectively.
Antonelli and Mercedes Deputy Team Principal Bradley Lord reflected on Mercedes’ first day at the 2026 F1 United States GP and shared their insights on the W17’s performance at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA). The pair also reflected on the track limits concerns after an alarming number of track limit violations were reported by the end of Friday.
Antonelli on Mercedes’ upgrades at 2026 F1 United States GP
Reflecting on both FP1 and FP2 sessions, Kimi Antonelli noted the improvement in pace of his Mercedes in FP2 but stressed that there was “still lots of work to do” ahead of the 2026 F1 United States GP.
“It felt a bit better. I think we did a good step compared to FP1, but still lots of work to do. But it was a good step forward and we just need to find a little bit more.”
The Italian also addressed the narrow operating window of his W17 as the team continued to make sense of their upgraded chassis. Mercedes had entered the 2026 F1 United States GP weekend with an innovative front wing option that complements the Brackley outfit’s aerodynamic upgrade package from Sepang. Antonelli shared that Mercedes will continue to experiment with various setups throughout the 2026 F1 United States GP weekend ahead of the main race.
“Yes, still narrow. Not easy, especially long run with the tyres staging. Still a bit difficult, but the team is doing a tremendous job trying to understand the package. I think now we start to see more and we start to understand more. We’re just trying lots of different things to see, just to try and put the car in a better window. I feel overall we’re doing a good job, but still time to find.”
Track limit struggles
Antonelli also reflected on the high number of track limit violations recorded on Friday at the 2026 F1 United States GP. The 20-year-old shared that FP3 will be crucial for him and Mercedes to establish the boundaries to avoid collecting track limit violations in both Qualifying and the 2026 F1 United States GP.
“I think everyone has a lot of track limits. It’s not easy out there, but that’s why tomorrow in FP3 it’s going to be important to find the limit and understand how much you can push a corner without doing the track limit. It’s going to be a big thing, but I’ll try to do my best.”
The Italian, who currently has a total of 105 track limit violations in his name across his two seasons in F1, has earned the notorious reputation as the grid’s “king of track limits”. Following the end of FP2, however, Antonelli was able to joke: “Today, incredibly, I wasn’t the king.”
Challenging track conditions
He then proceeded to share his insights on the alarmingly high number of track limit violations recorded, as a total of 207 laps were reportedly deleted by the FIA across both practice sessions on Friday. According to Antonelli, COTA’s elevation changes throughout the track, paired with the high wind speeds, exaggerated the smallest mistakes on track. The excessive paved run-off areas of COTA were also a major factor.
“It’s not easy. It’s a difficult track with a lot of elevation changes. Also, the wind in some corners is quite odd. The track limit mainly comes from mistakes. Just a little lock-up and you go long. The FIA is trying their best with widening the wide lines, but it’s difficult. It’s not easy. But also when you try to discover the limit, it’s normal that you get it. Also, the fact that you have so much tarmac is a thing. In some corners we have so much tarmac and the green bit in some of the exits is very grippy. That pushes you to use even more track.”
Bradley Lord on Mercedes’ pace at the 2026 F1 United States GP
Mercedes Deputy Team Principal Bradley Lord reflected on the team’s first outing at the 2026 F1 United States GP and addressed a slight pace deficit to Red Bull and Ferrari in Sector 3. The Briton explained that it came down to the tyre strategy to protect the rear tyres. Hence, the lack of perceived lack of pace in Sector 3 was merely due to the team’s strategy of deploying more pace on the straights.
“I think it’s just all about keeping the rear tyres in good shape through that twisty bit so that you’ve got the ones in the last corner. Some of it I think is energy balancing out as well. Others are deploying a bit more around the long right-hander whereas we’re maybe doing a little bit more on the straights so that you’ve got to rob Peter to pay Paul in that sense.
“Overall though it’s just getting the setup in the right place and getting the car able to rotate without needing to overuse the rear tyres, overuse the throttle and if we can do that then we should be in good shape.”
Russell’s incident in FP1
In FP2, George Russell had a close call with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc where the Briton forced Leclerc off the track over the kerbs. When asked if the incident was caused by upgrades on Russell’s W17, Lord replied: “I don’t think so.”
The Briton continued, sharing that it was ultimately not a failure of the upgraded chassis, as it was an issue that could be solved through a setup change.
“I think it was just a big moment in sector one on tyres that had already done a few laps by then as well so we’ll have been slightly past their best and I think just a diff setting or something like that is easily tweaked but not a fundamental characteristic.”
On Mercedes’ operating window
While Lord is unsure if Mercedes’ operating window got narrower, he is sure the team found a more optimal setup in FP2, which explained the increase in pace for Kimi Antonelli. Nonetheless, the Briton also revealed that there were no major complaints regarding the setup from either driver other than a lack of pace. Lord shared that Mercedes will be focused on finding the optimal setup to allow Antonelli and Russell to extract more performance from the W17 ahead of the 2026 F1 United States GP.
“I’m not sure actually because it took us a while to dial it in. We weren’t in a very good place in FP1 and then FP2 we found a much better direction to go so we know it is a narrow operating window and our job is to land it in that slightly narrower window and to sort of thread the eye of the needle I guess.
“It wasn’t bad for FP1 to be honest. The drivers weren’t complaining about that anyway so if anything they said it felt like we weren’t really botting it out at all in FP1 so we’ll try and nibble away at that to find a little bit more performance but both reasonably happy on the ride so.”
When asked if Mercedes planned to continue using the new front wing they brought to the 2026 F1 United States GP, Lord replied: “The plan is to stick with that for the rest of the weekend, yes.”
