Oct.12 (GMM) Kimi Antonelli will have his first mathematical chance to clinch the 2026 world championship in Austin after another strong recovery drive in Singapore.
The Mercedes driver finished on the podium with the difficult upgraded car, while George Russell could not get past Nico Hulkenberg late in the race and is now 102 points behind his teammate.
Antonelli can seal the title in Austin if he wins, Russell finishes ninth or lower and Lewis Hamilton finishes fifth or lower.
“Can I really?” Antonelli said when told after the race.
“Well, let’s not worry about that. Let’s try to do the best weekend as possible and finish the job.”
Antonelli said Singapore was also an important breakthrough with Mercedes’ troublesome new aerodynamic package.
“I feel like it was a very progressive weekend, where we started off the pace and I’ve definitely been struggling with the new package,” said the Italian.
“But the team did incredibly well on putting the car in a better window. I feel like we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and we’re going to keep pushing on this package.”
He is not yet convinced it is outright faster everywhere.
“On this track, not yet,” he said.
“With this new package, we see the potential, the performance that it can bring, and I do feel it in certain corners.”
“But the window is just too small of where the car operates at this moment.”
Toto Wolff said Mercedes will continue with the experiment in Austin.
“The car was competitive today,” said the team boss.
“But I think there’s an incredibly narrow window in which it works ideally. Now we’ll run it again in Austin and see if it works there too.”
Russell also believes Mercedes must understand the new package rather than abandon it.
“The laptimes weren’t great with the upgrades, so we need to make them work,” said the British driver.
“We dominated for a long time, but since the break, we see that Red Bull now has an exceptionally fast car, on several types of circuits.”
Wolff, however, is refusing to start counting down the title for Antonelli just yet.
“As soon as the thought comes to my mind, ‘how many points does he have and when could he win?’, I have to remind myself that this is motor racing and crazy things have happened,” he said.
Russell was even less interested when Viaplay asked whether Antonelli’s possible Austin coronation meant it was time to shift focus to 2027.
“The winter break is clearly the perfect time for that,” he insisted.
“I have nothing else to say about this.”
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