Kimi Antonelli has identified his race starts as the major weakness he needs to address despite a dream start to 2026 that has seen him win two of three races and lead the championship. The 19-year-old admitted he deserves criticism from team boss Toto Wolff over his start procedures.

In three of four races this season, Antonelli made procedural errors. In Australia, he arrived on the grid without battery power after a formation lap, preventing tyre warm-up. In China, a misunderstanding with race engineer Peter Bonnington led to wrong start mapping and contact with Hadjar. In Japan, despite winning, his clutch release was too frantic and ruined what should have been a dominant weekend from pole.

Mercedes has built the best car and power unit package, and teammate George Russell has proven the Brixworth-built engine can produce strong starts. Antonelli will use the month-long April break to work on his weaknesses, having already had his steering wheel delivered home to analyze settings. Great champions pay attention to every detail in decisions made in thousandths of a second.