Kimi Antonelli reveals Mercedes upgrade to overcome starting issue

Kimi Antonelli said Mercedes has introduced a new paddle to help with his launches after he frequently lost places off the line.

The championship leader has lost places at every start so far this season, with it being a clear area needed for improvement.

Kimi Antonelli details Mercedes upgrades

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In Australia, Antonelli sunk from second to seventh in the first lap. In China and Miami, it was from first to second and in Japan, he dropped from first to sixth.

You do not need to study the data too closely to see a pattern.

Although his overall race ability and Mercedes’ superiority has enabled him to recover to a hat-trick of wins, as the field converges, he cannot afford to have such an obvious weakness.

Ahead of the weekend’s sole practice for the Canadian Grand Prix, Antonelli revealed there has been a change to the paddle in his car to hopefully get the best out of him.

“This weekend we’re bringing a lot of new things in the car,” he said on Thursday in Montreal. “And definitely there’s a few bits about the starts.

“We have a new paddle on my side, just different shape, just to help me to be a bit more consistent with the drops, and of course, the team has been working very hard on the software side as well and on the clutch side, just to try and find more performance, and also made the system a bit more robust.

“But for sure there’s been a lot of work going on, because for example, McLaren, they have the same PU as us, and they’re starting very well, so there’s some definitely something that we’re missing, but this weekend we are bringing a lot of changes, and we’ll see already from tomorrow if it’s going to be better or not.”

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As for the circuit, Antonelli previewed this generation of cars would be “more fun to drive” with it being more agile than its predecessor.

“This track usually offers decent racing,” he said. “Obviously this year, the racing has seen a lot more overtakes, a lot more action. So, I think it can be the same here.

“Of course, it might not be as easy as, for example, Miami, because Miami is a bit wider, you have a bit more opportunity to make moves, but I think still it’s going to offer a lot of good action, and I think you know it’s going to be even more fun.

“I think driving the car around here obviously is a type of track where you have a lot of change of direction, not a lot of high-speed corners.

“So, with the characteristic of this year’s car, I think it’s going to be more fun to drive, because the car is more lighter, it’s more agile, so it’s going to be much more reactive as well in the change of direction.

“So, I think it’s going to be very interesting to see, but I think it’s going to be fun weekend.”

Antonelli leads the Drivers’ standings by 20 points ahead of his teammate George Russell, with third placed Charles Leclerc a further 21 points down.

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