Mercedes have not been experiencing the easiest of F1 runs lately. The recent run of races in the 2025 season have been challenging for the team. Canada was the exception as it brought Kimi Antonelli his first podium in F1, and teammate George Russell his first win of the year.
Reverting back to the old suspension
Kimi Antonelli has been having a rough go lately. Despite having a successful start to his rookie campaign with pole for the Miami Sprint and that podium in Montreal, the last couple of races have been difficult for the young talent. Apart from the Canadian GP, the last seven rounds have ended in four DNF’s and zero points for the rookie.
The Mercedes driver is hoping to gain his confidence back at the Hungarian GP as, in a print media session, he revealed that both Mercedes drivers are reverting back to the old suspension.
“This weekend we’re going back on the old suspension and that hopefully will bring the feeling back because since we moved to that suspension, apart from Canada, I’ve been struggling to drive the car and getting the confidence. On my side, I didn’t adapt the best because I was always trying to keep my style and drive the car the way I wanted but it didn’t really work out.
Antonelli continued on to go into more detail and explain that Russell has been adapting better.
“George on the other hand, has been adapting better. He has a different driving style, but he’s been able to adapt a bit better. I think that’s what’s been hurting me in this European season. Hopefully, by going back to the old suspension, it will bring back the feeling I had prior to the start of the European season.”
The W16 being unpredictable
Antonelli has been honest and open about his struggles he has been experiencing with the W16 lately. The 18-year old revealed that he believes his driving style has been an additional factor to the recent struggles as it does not fit well with the car.
“The thing is, with my aggressive style I think the car became, with the way I was driving it, I was making the car even more unpredictable. When I was really trying to push it, it was hard to feel if it was going to stick or not. When you’re on that fine line, it can really make a difference. If you have the confidence and know it’s going to stick, it can really make a difference, but in my case, especially with the style I was driving the car, I was making it more unpredictable. I was having no confidence because every time I was trying to push more the car was struggling to take it or giving me signals that made me feel like it was not going to stick.
“That’s why I’ve been also trying to change a bit the way I was driving, to go towards the car, but I think I didn’t do a really good job on that. I just hope with the old suspension it’s going to bring the good feeling back.”
Antonelli on his confidence falling away
When asked if there is a correlation between the upgrades impacting the pace and his confidence descending, Antonelli candidly responded:
“Yeah for sure. We’ve been moving to tracks that have had more high speed context and even Imola was quite high speed. Then obviously, we went to Monaco, low speed and it was again different. Then we went to Barcelona, we were on the old suspension and the car felt okay, felt quite good especially in qualifying. When we went back after Canada we faced really high speed tracks and that hurt even more the confidence just because it was quite tricky. If you have an unpredictable car in a high speed circuit it’s really hard to push it to the limit because you never know if it’s going to stick or not.”
Antonelli needing to gain that confidence back
The 18-year-old Mercedes driver has been open about how emotional the rough moments this season have been for him. The Italian was candid when speaking about gaining his confidence back. Spa was very disappointing for the young talent as he qualified 18th, then ended the Grand Prix in P16. That came after a big spin in SQ1 saw him slowest in that session.
“I made a very clear point to myself especially after Spa qualifying that I wasn’t delivering like I wanted. If I look at the first six races, it was looking very positive, having a nice progression and I was feeling good in the car. To be honest, after Miami, I got my first pole and the race there was something to fix. I didn’t drive the best in the race but I was still coming off the weekend with really high confidence.
“Then since Imola, I’ve been doing backwards steps. In Spa, I really looked inside myself and I made a clear point that with this suspension, I was not able to deliver as I could previously. Probably also, I didn’t adapt the best way to extract the best performance out of the car. I made the point that at the moment, I was not performing the best and it was hard to accept. It’s hard to accept these kind of things but it’s good for yourself because it helps you set goals and also to try and improve yourself even harder. It was not easy, but I think on the other side it’s helpful because it helps you refocus and to work harder on yourself even more.”
With the Hungarian GP coming up, Antonelli intends to have a good weekend before the summer break.
Russell on suspension and lack of results
His teammate, George Russell, has been showing strong performance this year. Despite the struggles with the car, the Brit has been consistently finishing inside the top six and grabbing valuable points.
However, the last couple of races have been proving more difficult for Russell as well. Ahead of the Hungarian GP, the Brit confessed that he too sees an issue with the W16 as of late.
When asked if they believe the suspension is the source of the issues with the car and the lack of pace, Russell explained:
“Not as yet, because until we revert back to a baseline and see results improve, you can’t categorically say that is the reason. Obviously, these are complex cars, we are in the summer months where tyre overheating is worse in general, but of course Spa was cold and we struggled. Right now, we have got ideas, as most teams do, why they’re not winning the world championship, that is just the fact of the matter.
“We will revert back, I don’t expect we are going to set the world on fire this weekend, but I hope we can be back in that comfortable top five mix, and fighting for some good points without stressing out on Q1 and Q2 exits.”
The car bringing Mercedes backwards
Additionally, the British driver was asked about his teammate and going through a difficult patch as a young driver. Russell openly spoke about his support for Antonelli.
“I think as a young driver, you have got to look at it objectively which is, in terms of his own personal performance, you can argue he is probably actually performing better than he did at the start of the year when you look at the deficit in terms of lap time, it is just the differences. In Canada, when we were on pole, he was in fourth place, over half a second behind. In Spa, he was only three tenths behind me, but that was the difference between out in Q1 or getting through to Q3.
“The team have made it very clear, he should not worry about those results. He’ still doing a very good job considering his experience, and it is the car that has brought us both backwards. That is very difficult to accept when you are in that position, but it is never easy when the car is not performing as you expect.”
Worst races of the season
He continued on to be asked about why they are reverting back to the old suspension if he is still able to make it work with the recent suspension. Russell honestly expressed that the team’s result as a whole have been worse since changing the suspension.
“Because it’s slower, it is as simple as that. Kimi has struggled more than I have with the suspension, but my results have also been worse. Collectivly, these last six races have been the worst races of our season. At the start of the year, I had much more confidence, the laps were coming easy, whereas now, it is much more challenging so there are never guarantees, but I think that could be a small part.”
The Mercedes teammates will be looking forward to the Hungarian GP weekend. Hoping the change of suspension will help them gain back their strong momentum from earlier this season.
