Antonelli in 2026: an advantage at Mercedes for Andrew Showlin

The new era of F1 As with all Formula 1 teams, Mercedes is also preparing to compete in the 2026 season with the big question mark relating to the numerous technical innovations of the single-seaters. A real revolution that makes it difficult to have any kind of expectation on what will be the direct challenges between certain teams, starting with the big ones, but in Brackley there is a certain conviction: that of having a rare advantage thanks to a driver of the caliber of Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The advantages of the simulator After his debut season in F1 with a total of three podiums achieved, the Technical Director of the Anglo-German company, Andrew Shovlin, was the first to explain the characteristics of the young driver from Bologna that could favor Mercedes: “We are starting to understand him much better. He is finding himself very comfortable in the team with his performances, and we can’t wait to see how he will do – he explained – adapting to the rules will be a matter of practice. Kimi, being a young man, has a pretty impressive ability to sit in the simulator and drive it all day, I think all young drivers who grow up playing develop that mental ability to drive while they talk, making fun of everyone else playing with them. It helps to have the awareness to think while driving, with driving it becomes secondary. It frees up the brain to think about energy, strategy and how to overtake, and he works on it as many hours as it takes, and that’s by far the most important part.” A “reserve mental capacity” that Mercedes considers a real weapon, which could bear fruit with the modification of the regulations. Added to this is the relationship between Antonelli and his race engineer Pete Bonnington: “Since Kimi can describe to Bono exactly what the car is doing, Bono knows what to do with it,” continued Showlin, “over time, you can start to explain how everything works and all the various ways to balance the mechanical balance of the car on the lap with all the tools available. This is coming to him more and more often, and the young drivers are starting to build a sort of database like: ‘When I made this change the car felt in this way, so if I know I’ve achieved this balance it could be a useful trick to use.’ Of course, as the results improved towards the end of the year there were several sessions where he probably overdid it in Q1, Q2, and then he overdid it in Q3 and he paid the price there, and he finished all the races. You maximize that learning, and it will be easier for him when he returns to racing on all the circuits.”