Lifting your foot at the finish line to maximize electric: Mercedes’ crazy (legal) trick

Antonelli loses right at the end. Until a few hundred meters from the finish line, Andrea Kimi Antonelli had an advantage of about a tenth of a second over Lewis Hamilton. But the Italian lost everything in the very last moments, missing the Sprint pole by just 11 thousandths.
Then analyzing the world leader’s lap, a strange behavior was noticed: Antonelli literally raised his foot right after the last corner. An error or a technical problem? None of this, it’s an extreme use of the regulation by Mercedes, a trick – legal – to squeeze the electric part as much as possible during the fastest lap. The Mercedes legal trick: the telemetry speaks clearly. What happened is not easy to explain and to do so we asked our Federico Albano for specific telemetry, which would show what happened right near the finish line.
What has been mentioned can be clearly seen from the graph: Andrea Kimi Antonelli completely lifts his foot off the accelerator, making the difference in behavior with Lewis Hamilton clear. What does the regulation say? Let’s go step by step, what does the regulation say? In these 2026 F1s, the regulations require teams not to suddenly turn off the electric power while the driver is at full throttle. The power – which reaches 350 kW – can scale at a maximum of 50 kW per second. The rule was designed to avoid dangerous sudden drops in speed on the track, which could trigger dangerous situations. Many will remember how already in April Mercedes and Red Bull used a sudden cut in electric horsepower on the final straight, taking advantage of the ’emergency block’ valid for 1 minute in the cool-down lap or return to the pits. Borderline solution to the regulations, promptly stopped by Miami by an intervention by the FIA ​​which went on to ban this trick. Why is it convenient for Mercedes? There is nothing more counterintuitive for an F1 driver than lifting his foot on the straight just before the end of his fastest lap. So, why is it done? Because it allows you to squeeze the battery out longer before the finish line.
We said that normally the team is forced to gradually reduce the electrical power, following the downward curve of 50 kW per second. Using this ‘trick’, Mercedes can afford to keep the electric power at maximum up to a few meters from the finishing line. Only at the end does the driver lift his foot and the battery suddenly shuts down to zero, causing the car to cross the finish line thanks to the inertia and speed accumulated up to that point from the surplus power.
As demonstrated by Antonelli’s partials – who not surprisingly thanks to this extra was ahead by 0.1 and a few km/h up to Club – overall it is better to have the surplus and the clean cut, rather than a gradual unloading curve. This is a legal trick As explained by The Race, the regulation explains that if the driver is pressing the accelerator at 100%, the power must gradually decrease. But there are exemptions, for example when “the pilot’s power demand is negative” and when “the internal combustion engine power is negative and the ERS-K power must be further reduced to meet the pilot’s demand”.
So as long as drivers release the accelerator before the battery is completely discharged – after running at 350 kW – then they comply with the rules.
The FIA ​​confirmed to The Race that this tactic is fully compliant with the regulations.

Automobile Magazine – Formula1 English, News

2026-07-04 10:43:00