Antonelli aims to bounce back after ‘worst’ weekend

Kimi Antonelli would have to deal with an unfamiliar track and potentially heavy rain as he aims to recover from his “worst weekend” of his Formula 1 (F1) title challenge this year.

The unusually named Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia takes Antonelli and his rivals to a track F1 last visited in 2017 — when he was 11 — in a race hurriedly added to the calendar because of the disruption caused by the Iran war. It is to take place at the Sepang international circuit, about 60km south of central Kuala Lumpur.

With rain possible on all three days of on-track action, it could be the first real wet race since F1 shook up its regulations for this year’s season, and the abrasive asphalt tends to chew up tires, too.

Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli is pictured during practice at Sepang International Circuit in Sepang, Malaysia, yesterday.

Photo: Reuters

Antonelli still has a dominant 66-point lead over teammate George Russell, but that was trimmed from 81 last week after his crash in qualifying made for damage limitation in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Antonelli scrambled from 16th on the grid to finish fifth, helped by plenty of incidents ahead of him, while Russell held off Max Verstappen for his first win in nearly three months.

“Last weekend was probably the worst weekend from me, from my side of the season,” Antonelli said.

“It was what I needed on Sunday, I needed a clean result after a very disruptive weekend. After the race, I wasn’t happy with the result and everything but I learn many things and the most important is that I need to always be 100 percent,” he said.

“I need to really do my best to achieve the best result because if I don’t do everything right, or I don’t try to do everything right in my power, then nothing is going to come my way,” he added.

Russell has made no secret of his struggles getting used to this year’s cars as he had to watch his younger teammate dominate.

After using the mid-season break to change his approach, a process he has likened to a golfer getting used to a new swing, Russell finally seemed comfortable in Azerbaijan. He went fastest by nearly a second in qualifying, and his narrow margin of victory over Max Verstappen in the race owed more to an unusual yellow-flag decision on track than anything else.

Mercedes has brought a package of upgrades to its car for this week, something Russell predicts could help him.

“I’m enjoying it more than I have done recently because I just feel more at one with the car and hopefully this new upgrade with a few characteristic changes that will also play into my favor a bit more,” he said on Thursday. “Bring it on.”

Lewis Hamilton said Ferrari remains united as he criticized attempts to “break our spirit” after the Italian brand confirmed it retains confidence in Fred Vasseur as team principal.

“Outside sources seem to be so negative towards us as a team and trying to break our spirit, but they’re not succeeding,” Hamilton said.

The latest speculation over Vasseur’s future came after former Red Bull boss Christian Horner told the Times of London last week that Ferrari was the only team in F1 he’d consider joining without an ownership stake, calling it “the dream” and a “sleeping giant.”

Ferrari is struggling on the track, with no podium finishes in the last five races for Hamilton or Charles Leclerc.

Meanwhile, Williams are caught in a “cost cap trap” that forces them to spend millions on basic factory systems rather than car development, team principal James Vowles said yesterday, calling for changes to F1’s financial rules.

Teams have a limit for spending on performance-related activities each season, with the cap at US$215 million for this year.

That, said Vowles, has created a “two-tier championship” where the top four teams — Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari — have actually tightened their grip, rather than levelling the playing field.

“Cost cap has made it worse, not better. I’m probably unique because — it’s not a compliment — but I went from the best team to the worst team,” said Vowles, who has the unique perspective of moving from championship-winning Mercedes to struggling Williams.

“What I hadn’t appreciated or realized when you do that jump is just how little exists. When you make a cost cap, I’m not spending money on the car, I’m spending tens of millions just on basic systems just so you know where a part is in the factory,” he said.

“That’s not going to the car, that’s not going to an upgrade. It’s going on systems that I need to just do the basics, so we’re caught in a cost cap trap,” he added at a news conference.

However, he said the solution was not to scrap the cost cap entirely as the sport was financially stable as a result.

“But we do need to think about what mechanisms we have in there to make sure we all play with the same tools and the same mechanisms to be able to make things better,” he said.

Williams are ninth in the standings this year with 12 points and Vowles admitted that they have “gone backwards.”

“The reality is we’re too far away, which is what I was fearful of, and it’s still exposing those weaknesses. Those will not be addressed this year,” he said.