Kimi Antonelli admitted he lost confidence in his Mercedes car throughout qualifying for the 2025 F1 Chinese GP, after he could only manage eighth on the grid as he struggled with tyre warm-up issues which meant he was four tenths back from his team-mate George Russell, who qualified on the front row, less than a tenth of a second behind pole-sitter Oscar Piastri.
Warm-up issues “killed” confidence on the W16
The young Italian lamented a “disappointing” qualifying session in Shanghai in the print media zone, as he battled against the ever-changing track temperatures and the effects it had on the necessary tyre warm-up procedures, which ultimately “killed” his confidence in the W16 as the session progressed into its latter phases:
“I think on my side it was a bit disappointing to be honest. The pace was there, [but] I struggled to find the right balance with the warm-up,” he reflected. “I struggled to be in the right window in order to strike the maximum grip.
“That was during the whole session and that created a bit of a mess. It also killed a little bit of confidence, because I started the session with good confidence and then I lost it a little bit because I struggled with the warm-up.”
The cascading effect that created a “mess”
When asked to expand further on how the wrong tyre preparation derailed his session, Antonelli explained how just having the tyres outside the optimal window at the start of the lap can have a cascading effect – starting the lap too cold and getting oversteer in the first corners, and then spiking tyre temperatures so much that it turns into overheating later on in the lap:
“I went into the qualifying with really good confidence and pushing,” he said. “[But] sometimes, because the track was cooling, the warm-up needed to be different and then I started to get some sudden snaps because probably the tyre was not ready; and then struggling in the lap because maybe the tyres were too hot.
“It created a bit of a mess, and my confidence slowly progressed down.”
How Antonelli’s still learning about the Pirelli tyres
Despite being arguably the best prepared of the rookie crop from 2025, with over 10,000km of running in old Mercedes cars in its Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) programme, Antonelli is adamant that the competition tyres Pirelli uses in F1 race weekends is “completely different” to the ‘Academy’ tyres supplied for TPC runnings, which explains the steep learning curve he is going through in just his second race weekend:
“Yes, the tyre is completely different. The working range is completely different.
“The way the tyre works and the way you can use it as well is a lot different. Definitely the warm-up of the tyre is a really big topic and it’s really hard to understand it and to find the right balance.
“But yes, that’s why there’s still work to do on that side.”
A costly mistake in the final run
Along with a general struggle with tyre preparation, the Italian believes a mistake on the final corner of his last attempt in Q3 made the difference between him being down in eighth and not fighting for a higher spot – and in a top 8 that was covered by less than half-a-second, it perhaps made all the difference:
“I left quite a bit of time on the table in that last corner in the last [Q3] lap, and probably without that I could have been in a higher position. It’s so tight out there and there’s still lots of work to do on understanding the tyre. But now we’re focussing on tomorrow.”
How the learnings from the Sprint will help Antonelli in the main event
Looking ahead to Sunday’s grand prix, Antonelli is confident that the knowledge he obtained of the tyres when running close behind other cars in the Sprint will be valuable when it comes to the main event, as he looks to improve his tyre management in the dirty air:
“I think it was a good learning [in the Sprint], because I could feel how much of a [tyre] drop there is when you stay so close to the car in front. So definitely ahead of tomorrow is where you learn, and hopefully we can make some places in the car and progress throughout the whole race.
“We saw already in FP1 the [tyre] drop was quite big. I was really trying to take care of the tyre in the Sprint race, especially in those early laps. But when I was driving so close and in dirty air, the tyre dropped off quite quickly.
“So definitely for tomorrow I’ll try to change a few things to delay the degradation in case I’m stuck in dirty air.”
After an impressive recovery drive from 16th on the grid in Australia, Antonelli will be hoping he can march forward from a higher position this time around.
