During the 2025 F1 Las Vegas GP, there was an incredible effort from the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team. George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli finished the race in P3 and P5 respectively. This was until post-race disqualifications for the McLaren duo promoted them to P2 and P3.
Starting from P17, and sustaining a 5s penalty for a jump start, Antonelli put in a mega effort to take home a P3 result. In addition to this, Russell begin to struggle a bit towards the race’s conclusion as he was simply lacking pace to the cars directly in front and behind him. In Mercedes’s post-F1 Las Vegas GP debrief with Andrew Shovlin, he delivered insight into their race performances.
The conclusion of Russell’s race
While the British driver’s drop in pace towards the end of the race was noticeable, Shovlin confirmed it was down to tyre graining. He noted that it was perhaps due to excessive management of his tyres, in turn allowing them to cool too much.
In contrast, his teammate Kimi Antonelli was pushing harder, and his tyres were improving the further they went.
Russell held concerns about the front tyres opening up and losing significant performance if they grained or fell off a cliff. However, this allowed his Italian teammate close what was a 13s gap to 1.9s by the end, before his penalty was applied.
“George had a bit of an issue with tyre graining. Now, George won’t be the only person who suffered from that. There were a few up and down the grid. We think it was related to the fact he was perhaps doing too much management, going too easy on the tyres and they were getting colder because Kimi was pushing a bit harder in other places. And you saw with Kimi, it was almost like the tyres were getting better and better as he went on. But he was able to do green times late in the race.
“Now, of course, the fuel’s dropping down. George also had quite, you know, he was in a very comfortable P3 at that point. And there was a bit where he was worried that the tyres would really open up where you get that abrasion across the front tyre. So he was using some of that gap that he had to P4 in order to nurse the car home.“
Mercedes making sure George Russell did not hold up Kimi Antonelli in F1 Las Vegas GP
As the race entered the final few laps, it became important that Russell didn’t hold up his teammate. Antonelli was riding with his 5s penalty, and needed to retain a 5s gap to the car behind.
When the 5-time race winner pushed harder, it was clear to him that he should’ve been driving faster, as the grip had improved. He set his fastest lap on the final lap. However, it was only the 11th quickest in the Grand Prix.
“Now, we got to the last few laps. We asked George to make sure he didn’t back Kimi up because Kimi had the five second penalty. So then George pushed the last few laps. He said, actually, the grip got better when he pushed and he felt that he should have just been driving the tyres harder throughout that bit where we were encouraging him to do the management.”
A strong race to the end for Kimi Antonelli
Mercedes’ trackside engineering director immediately commended how well Antonelli drove his race, acknowledging his good feel for his tyres. The Italian was aware of the struggles his front tyres were facing, while his rears were strong. With this in mind, the Italian used a clever technique to turn the car, and take some pressure off his front tyres.
Admittedly, Mercedes were not sure how the hard tyre would perform at the F1 Las Vegas GP, and how long it would go. They had no clue it could make it to the end of the race. When deciding when to pit, the team looks into the lap times. While Antonelli continued to put in green laps, there was no need to pit him.
When the 19-year-old did eventually put himself into P4 on track, it became a matter of defending. Initially he put in stellar effort to hold up Piastri, as well as Leclerc who wasn’t far behind. By the end, he had gapped them both. Ultimately he finished 0.2s ahead of the Ferrari to take P3 once Norris and the Aussie got disqualified. A wonderful 48-lap stint was rewarded in style.
Andrew Shovlin praises his Italian driver
“Well, I mean, he drove it very well. He’s got a good feel for what the tyres can handle. He knew that the fronts were having a difficult time, but the rears were in good shape and he was actually able to use the throttle a bit to turn the car and give the fronts an easier time.
“But when we decided on that strategy, we didn’t know the hard was going to get all the way to the finish. No one would know that because you didn’t have enough data from Friday. So it was either going to be two hard tyres from the first stop or one. And we were just basing it on the lap times. But you know, when we kept seeing him doing green times, why come in?
“And then, you know, by the time he got himself into a position where he was fourth on the road, it was then a case of, well, let’s see if we can hold them up. So he did a brilliant job to defend to, you know, Piastri, who’s obviously in a very, very quick car, Leclerc not far behind, but just great job by Kimi to bring that home.”
