The 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP weekend was one to forget for Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli. The Italian’s crash on a push lap in Q1 had him starting P16, and he was able to deliver a decent recovery drive to finish P5.
Nonetheless, reflecting on the weekend as a whole, Antonelli shared that the 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP was “one of those weekends as well where it doesn’t click”.
Antonelli reflects on 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP performance
Reflecting on his 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP performance, Antonelli revealed that he drove the race under the limit, which was why he suffered a poor start where he lost a position to Nico Hülkenberg in the opening lap.
While the Italian was able to avoid Colapinto’s lock-up at the restart, Antonelli still made contact with Haas’ Ollie Bearman, which resulted in damage to his left-side floor edge.
The 20-year-old admitted that the damage made his W17 difficult to drive. Even before that, however, he was a step behind George Russell in race pace once he had some clean air between the Alpines before the Safety Car appeared.
“Yeah, no, it was bad positioning and… But yeah, driving a bit like my grandmother today. Just damage save mode. You know, just didn’t take a risk. Before making a move, I was making sure that I could go for it. But at the same time, after the restart, I had a big floor damage. My whole left side was gone with the contact. After that, the car was very sketchy to drive. Still tried to get to P4 [off Leclerc], but all in all, it’s one of those days where you have to be happy with P5.”
The approach was not the same as Monza
After qualifying in P16 the day prior, Antonelli had hoped to replicate his comeback drive in Monza, where he drove through the pack from P19 to P1 at the 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP.
However, as Antonelli admitted, the Baku City Circuit provided a different set of challenges from the Autodromo Nazionale Monza. The Italian hence took a more cautious approach and instead capitalised on the mistakes of other drivers to climb the grid.
By Lap 31 of the 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP, when Alex Albon crashd his Williams into Turn 5, Antonelli had moved up to P8.
“Yes, definitely. If I had the pace, it would have been different. If I had the same pace as Monza or in previous races, it would have been different. It would have been just full attack. But today I realised very early that, first of all, it was a lot harder to overtake. With a train of cars, all in overtake mode. And then I didn’t have the same pace as I had previously. The mindset changed very quickly. And also, seeing so many people making mistakes, you kind of pull back a little bit. Because today I just took advantage of everyone else’s mistakes and just moved forward.”
Antonelli’s perspective on the restart incident
Following the Safety Car deployment for Albon’s crash at Turn 5, the 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP resumed on Lap 36. On the restart, Alpine’s Franco Colapinto had locked up into Turn 1 and made contact with teammate Pierre Gasly. Lando Norris was also eventually collected and ended in the barriers.
Antonelli gave his insights on the incident, sharing that he had seen Colapinto lock up and responded but in turn missed Bearman on the inside who he had contact with. Regardless, he is glad to have gotten away without any race-ending damage.
“I saw the Alpine locking up and I pulled back immediately. I was getting ready to do the switchback. But then I didn’t see Ollie coming so quickly on the inside. Obviously I had to cut because I was still very close to the Alpine when I switched back. I was lucky to come away with it. Not so lucky to come away with such a big damage, but all in all I was still okay.”
On the title fight with Russell
Prior to the 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP, Antonelli led the 2026 F1 Drivers’ Championship with an 81-point lead ahead of teammate George Russell. However, following the Briton’s lights-to-flag victory, the gap is now down to only 66 points.
While he acknowledged his poor performance in Baku, the Italian was quick to share his plans going into the next round of the 2026 F1 season in Malaysia in response to the closing point deficit between himself and Russell.
“He’s always been my rival, but I’ll make sure next week I re-establish the order. And just make sure that I will be back at my usual level. Because this weekend, as I said, I was driving more like my grandma. So it wasn’t the usual Kimi. But luckily we have another race coming up and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Antonelli explains lack of confidence at 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP
It was a difficult weekend from the start for the Italian, as his FP1 outing was cut short as he suffered a significant hydraulic issue. The issue spilled into FP2, resulting in Antonelli missing half of the session. The 20-year-old only got his proper footing in FP3 but the momentum was cut short with his crash in Q1.
Hence, Antonelli admitted that he was not as confident starting the 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP. This had a major impact on his performance as he was unable to maximise his potential on track. Nevertheless, he expects to be more confident entering the next weekend.
“Well, you know, FP1 did three laps and then missed the whole of it. Missing half of FP2. FP3, I was getting to the rhythm and in qualifying the Q1 lap was actually okay. But then I did a mistake and then again you re-enter in the bad loop. And then today’s race, as I said, I didn’t have the confidence. I just drove 80% the whole time. But also I think being realistically, I wasn’t there mentally to be able to push 100% as well. Because I just didn’t have the confidence that I had the previous weekends. But it will be much better in Sepang.”
Regardless, it was a very educational weekend for Antonelli, who learnt how to handle setbacks, and he even admitted to learning more about himself.
“Yeah, I mean, you always want to win. And I’m not happy at all with how I drove this weekend. I could have done and I should have done a much better job. But it’s one of those weekends as well where it doesn’t click, where you just struggle. But as I said, I think it taught me a lot. I learned a lot about myself as well. Especially how to respond to these kinds of situations where you just miss a lot of track time. So yeah, I think it will be much better next weekend.”
