Kimi’s Comeback
At Monza Andrea Kimi Antonelli started from the back of the grid due to the replacement of his power unit with a brand new one; however, this decision did not prevent him from completing an extraordinary comeback and winning the Italian GP right ahead of his teammate George Russell, who had started on the front row. The Englishman will also have to replace his power unit with an additional unit beyond those allocated before the season and therefore serve a heavy grid penalty during the season.
Read more Verstappen: “Madrid challenging track, it is a Jeddah with slower corners”
This situation naturally raised the question of whether it might not have been better for the Englishman as well to make this change at Monza, which, according to Mercedes themselves, is the best track to try to cancel out the disadvantages caused by the grid drop.
The ADUO is worth a penalty
Talking about this issue with journalists present in Madrid during the Spanish GP media day, Russell explained the reasons that led him and the team to adopt a different strategy; and once again, it involves, as usual, the now infamous ADUO system which also allowed Mercedes to use a development token on their power unit. “We are waiting to serve the penalty in conjunction with the ADUO upgrade – Russell revealed to the media – otherwise, if I had served it there [at Monza], I would have had to take another one; so it wouldn’t have made sense for me“.
Read more Discovering the Madring: why Mercedes becomes vulnerable again
This, on the other hand, is exactly the situation that Antonelli will face: before the Italian weekend, in fact, the World Championship leader had in turn revealed that he was ready to take a second grid penalty, this time of five positions, when Mercedes would be ready to debut the upgraded engine with the ADUO. The new power unit will be the final weapon for Mercedes, the one with which the Silver Arrows hope to definitively sweep away the competition this season.
