Antonelli's rapid rise partially surprised Mercedes: 'But it's incredibly impressive'

Mercedes is surprised, but also not surprised, by Kimi Antonelli's impressive performance in the 2026 season, deputy team principal Bradley Lord revealed.

During the summer break, Antonelli comfortably leads the Formula 1 drivers' standings. The young Italian is 50 points clear of Lewis Hamilton and 59 points ahead of his teammate, George Russell.

Answering GPblog's question about whether Antonelli surprised the team, Lord said: "Are we surprised? Yes and no. We took the decision to bring Kimi into the team because we believed in his potential, but I think it's also undeniable that to see a driver in just his second season in Formula 1 performing with so much consistency and with real, calm maturity is incredibly impressive."

Antonelli turned out to be a quick learner, Lord explained: "Through that difficult first season, it sort of happened in thirds, strong start, a difficult middle, and then working out what he needed to do to work out of that slump and into the strong races at the end of the year. It's almost like he managed to do multiple seasons’ worth of learning in one, and then that's all consolidated over the winter."

Photo: Race Pictures

Lord also sees the new regulations as a factor in Antonelli's rapid rise. "I'm sure there's also, to some extent, the reset factor of new regulations that means every driver is on a steep learning curve with the cars and new power units and that seems over the field to have seen a re-balancing between newer drivers in the sport and older drivers as well in the teams where you can see those pairings.

"Kimi's obviously done and continues to do an incredible job and you see his confidence and his self-confidence building from weekend to weekend. Not in a way that he's getting carried away with anything. He's feeling very firmly on the ground and kept very firmly on the ground by his family and inside the team as well. You can just see his self-belief growing and that's really, really impressive," he concluded.