Runaway points leader and Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli was able to achieve a strong podium finish with P3 at the 2026 F1 Singapore GP. The Italian talent secured his first top 3 at the track in only his second outing at Marina Bay, with a consistent performance in spite of the weather conditions.
A challenging but successful 2026 F1 Singapore GP for Kimi Antonelli
The championship leader steered through the 62 racing laps, despite track limit issues. There was also the intense heat, which forced him to throw his arm out of the cockpit of his W17 to get cool air.
Antonelli also maximised his day by taking advantage of Norris attempting a move on Hamilton to get by the reigning F1 champion. He seized a second opportunity mere moments afterwards, going by the seven-time World Champion as well on Lap 54.
Kimi Antonelli went into detail about his 2026 F1 Singapore GP, highlighting the hardships he encountered as well as his efforts to try and understand the Malaysia-spec W17 package.
”The heat was not very enjoyable. Running behind other cars was quite hot. But yeah, I think it was a good way to end the weekend, a very good way to end the weekend. I feel like it was a very progressive weekend where we started off the pace.
“I’ve definitely been struggling with the new package, but the team did incredibly well on putting the car in a better window. Now we understand a lot more the aero package, how it works, which is very different compared to the old one. It’s about trying to find the right window for the car.”
He still has to understand the updated Mercedes challenger
While the young Italian talent, in his second F1 season, is not yet fully comfortable with the upgraded package Mercedes had put on the car in Malaysia, his feeling has substantially improved, even with just one practice session available this weekend.
When he had clean air, his pace was strong, suggesting Mercedes are slowing starting to get on top of this new package. The operating window has been difficult to find so far.
“All in all, I feel like we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. And we’re going to keep pushing on this package because also my side, I want to help the team as much as possible and trying to understand it, also to understand which way to take for the future and for the future car as well.”
Braking issues are probably to blame for his off-track exclusion
On Lap 42, Antonelli had opened up on his team radio mentioning a lack of bite from the brakes as the cause for his latest off-track excursion at Turn 7. Mercedes mentioned it might have been a heat soak caused by the extreme temperatures.
Overall Antonelli was not too fazed by it when talking about it the end of the race, mentioning he felt he had to do more management compared to his usual and the fact that the issue severely hardened his 2026 F1 Singapore GP day
“Just trying to doing, lift and coast before every braking and to arrive a bit slower and, you know, put less pressure on the pedal, because especially on the restart of the VSC, when I went to brake, nothing happened. I had a really poor brake stopping, brake power, and I almost went into the wall.
“So it was just very tricky out there. And also the pedal was very long, but it was also kind of expected. I’ve run three quarters of the race behind a car in dirty air and obviously being so hot, plus also we had the sensor issue on the brakes, so we didn’t even have the data about brakes.
“We didn’t know exactly what temperature they were running, so it was all about feeling, but they were hot because I could even smell it. So it was not very pleasant,” concluded the Italian, glad that his discomfort was finally over after a long night behind the wheel.
