What a start
Four wins and a second place in 5 races, all four in a row. The only Grand Prix that Kimi Antonelli has not won in 2026 so far was the opening one, in Australia, then he took them all. Before the start of the season, imagining a difficult scenario was objectively almost impossible.
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In his debut season Antonelli had indeed shown good things, but he had also shown a series of limits, even on speed itself. With these new cars, however, the very young Italian seems (for now) a different driver. Definitely more at ease, much faster, always in control of all the fundamentals, from tire temperature to energy management.
We are probably seeing the Antonelli who convinced Toto Wolff, certainly not a newcomer, to put such an important path ahead of him and make so many opportunities available, such as driving the car that won all 5 of the first races of 2026. The boy certainly does not lack driving talent and sensitivity, and with these less extreme cars in terms of grip limit compared to ground effect ones and at the same time more traditional in reactions and in managing driving sensations, Kimi seems to have found his ideal habitat. He has a rival at home who is certainly a very tough nut, a strong and determined George Russell who, rightly, is ready to do anything to beat him, but who struggles quite a bit to stay ahead of him.
Kimi was faster, Russell has to resort to all tricks
In Montreal beyond the stopwatch there were many clues about the real balance between the two Mercedes flag bearers on track and about their relative perception. For example, in the Sprint Russell had to defend the position very hard, until Antonelli’s mistake, to win the race. In qualifying Kimi practically had the pole in his pocket and Russell to manage to stay ahead of him had to invent a strategy different from everyone else, with a last lap on hot tires that put him ahead by just half a tenth.
And then the obvious difference in defending position on track in close battles: Antonelli attacked even maybe exaggerating, but he never defended with borderline moves, while we saw Russell draw on his entire repertoire to avoid being overtaken by his teammate. A natural thing? Certainly, but also a sign that reveals the Englishman’s fear of not having the means to get back ahead in case of an overtaking suffered, unlike Antonelli.
The Canadian race also confirmed some of these aspects: for example Russell as soon as overtaken the first time by Antonelli immediately brought a counterattack using a particular engine mode, with a very high top speed, never seen again throughout the race by either of the two, so much so that it made us doubt that such aggressive use may have contributed to the subsequent failure, although naturally we have no confirmation in this regard. Then Antonelli stayed glued to Russell’s exhaust for about a third of the race, and when he finally managed to pass ahead, before the mistake at the hairpin, he had managed to gradually open a first gap that was about to reach the second, removing Russell’s possibility to use the overtake mode.
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In short, the impression is that Antonelli had about <stronga tenth and a half or two of pace advantage even in Canada. We do not have a crystal ball and we cannot know if the young Bolognese would have managed once again to overtake Russell if the Englishman had not retired, but he certainly had the credentials to do it a third time.
The retirement and Russell’s formal statements
The electric or electronic type failure suffered by Russell made the Englishman defend his fourth “defeat” of the season with circumstantial words that were very easy to find in the end: “I retired after taking pole and while I was leading the race”. Certainly a truth, but which somehow does not reflect the values we were seeing on track in terms of speed at the time of retirement.
In fact Russell had to accept the retirement but also found a good excuse ready not to have to face the possibility that Antonelli was faster even on a track congenial to him and not only in Miami. Already in Suzuka Antonelli had given the impression of being the faster of the two, but Russell could claim the reason (real also in that case) of the Safety Car coming out for him at the wrong moment. In Canada besides pointing out that he was ahead, he complained about bad luck, saying he wanted to be able to race on equal terms with Antonelli. Yet, our impression was that, from how he defended the position, Russell indeed knew he was just a bit slower.
The provocation
From all this arises our little provocative question: from the point of view of psychological balance within the team, would it perhaps have been even better for Kimi to beat Russell on track instead of seeing him retire? He would certainly have gained many fewer points in the standings, but a defeat on track on the Canadian circuit would have been very hard to digest for the Englishman.
In the perspective of such a long and wearing season, such a worm to implant in Russell’s mind would have been a considerable advantage for Antonelli. Perhaps even more than the 43 points in the standings. We do not have a crystal ball but this question seemed interesting to us and for this reason we also ask you the audience to tell us your opinion: let us know in the comments if you think it is better to have a haul of points but an opponent who somehow still feels in the race, or fewer points of advantage but a psychological blow inflicted directly on the rival?
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