“Very Stressful”: Antonelli Opens Season With Stunning Comeback

Kimi Antonelli turned a nightmare start into a stunning recovery drive at the 2026 Australian Grand Prix, coming home second behind Mercedes teammate George Russell to hand the Silver Arrows a dominant one-two finish in the first race of Formula 1’s new era. The Italian teenager was left stranded without power on the opening lap, tumbling down the order before charging back through the field on raw pace alone. It was a composed, mature performance from one of the sport’s most-watched young stars, and one that left him firmly focused on what comes next…

“The start was really bad and I lost a lot of pace, I mean a lot of places, and I found myself, you know, that I had to recover.”

He expanded on what had gone wrong in the press conference, revealing just how alarming it was from inside the cockpit.

“It was very stressful because I didn’t have power out of the last corner, so the car was not responding to any inputs and it was very stressful, and then the start was poor, very poor, and I just lost a lot of places and found myself having to chase.”

What followed was one of the defining storylines of the race, with Antonelli cutting through the pack in a way that had television directors scrambling to keep up. He was modest about the spectacle, pointing instead to the nature of the new regulations.

“The racing was incredible. The first few laps, you know, with the overtake is so powerful that it can, you know, give a lot of action. So, it was really good fun at the beginning, and yeah, now a bit of rest and looking forward to China.”

The pace that powered his recovery was not without its complications, however. A switch to the Hard compound in his second stint brought fresh problems before the car came back to him late in the race.

“I felt very, very good in the first stint. Then on the Hards, I started to grain very early on and had a bit of a difficult time, but then, you know, at the end the pace came back. But of course, the start was a game changer.”

Despite the adversity, Antonelli was keen to credit the people working behind the scenes, nodding to the mechanics whose efforts over the race weekend gave him a car capable of the recovery.

“The team did an incredible job because I think the result of today was thanks as well, you know, mainly to the mechanics for the incredible job they did yesterday after FP3. So yeah, definitely it was a good end of the weekend and now we will focus on China.”

On the wider debate about whether the new Overtake Mode system enhances or undermines the quality of racing, Antonelli largely sided with the optimists, while acknowledging that different circuits will tell different stories.

“I think in a track like this the overtake was incredibly powerful and you could overtake. It created a lot of action in the first few laps of the race, so I think, you know, on this kind of track there will be a lot of action, in some other track maybe a bit less. But I think today was much better than what we all anticipated, so I think, yeah, as George said, we need to just wait a few more races before actually commenting on this new regulation.”

Looking ahead to Shanghai, Antonelli was clear-eyed about the challenge waiting for the whole grid. A Sprint weekend in just the second round of a brand-new era leaves almost no room for error.

“For everyone it was a massive learning. For the first time we went racing, we did the first proper weekend. Of course, you know, we did a lot of testing, but testing is one thing and a race weekend is completely different. Shanghai is going to be important to be straight on point with deployment, with everything, because obviously we get only one practice and then we go into qualifying. But it should be a much more straightforward race in terms of how you deploy the energy. This race was very probably the hardest race to start the season because it’s just so difficult on energy with so many straights one after the other. So yeah, but I think it was a massive learning for us drivers, for the team, also for the team to understand where to push development of the car because, you know, this year the rate of development is going to be massive and it’s going to be important to not put any wrong step because the situation can flip very quickly.”

A difficult start, a relentless recovery, and a podium finish. For Kimi Antonelli, the 2026 season is already shaping up to be one to watch.