Six victories, six pole positions, and the leadership of the Formula 1 championship. A year ago, Kimi Antonelli experienced one of his toughest weekends in Formula 1, but now he has achieved a victory that will allow him to start the summer break as the championship leader. However, the significance of Spa goes much beyond this.
The Belgian round, where last season he struggled with a rear suspension setup that did not give him the needed confidence, offers a perfect opportunity to understand how much the Mercedes driver has grown over the past 12 months and why Antonelli’s driving style, beyond his considerable natural talent, is proving so effective with the 2026 cars.
To understand this, we need to look back at last season and the final phase of the previous ground effect regulations. Those cars were very stable but notoriously unpredictable, which made the development of flexible wings, designed to improve stability and balance in corners, a critical element.
As soon as the balance was lost, ground effect cars betrayed the driver, suddenly losing control without any warning. It is no coincidence that over the years drivers have pointed out the difficulty of saving the car once they have exceeded the limit. However, the previous technical cycle had another defined characteristic: the challenges of combined load, when drivers simultaneously brake and steer at the corner entry.
With the change from 13-inch to 18-inch tires, the reduced height of the sidewall resulted in less contact with the track. Some drivers suffered more than others, as the combined phase had been one of their greatest strengths. Since they could no longer attack the corner entry as they wished, they were forced to adapt certain aspects of their driving style. Pirelli worked to mitigate the effect, but it is clear that part of this is an inevitable consequence of less contact.
“If we imagine the tire rolling in the longitudinal direction, the length of contact is shorter, and with a shorter contact patch, the transition in the driving feel between having grip and losing it is more sudden,” explained Dario Marrafuschi, Pirelli’s motorsport manager, in an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com.
“That’s why we understand the drivers’ comments; it was to be expected that these problems would arise during corner entry in managing grip, precisely because the change gives you less warning.”
To understand why these two elements are so important this year, we need to observe what has changed. This season, teams have discovered that the combined phase has become even more complex, as the tires are narrower to reduce aerodynamic drag due to the new regulations. Having more load at the front helps prevent lock-ups that can occur during corner entry, but it remains a difficult area to manage.
A quick entry while steering to stabilize the rear of the car
The 2026 cars have a more unstable rear.
“We observe that the corner entry phase when you brake and combine is very delicate. It’s very difficult to avoid the tires stalling. When there is no lock at the front, there can be instability as if the tires have little capacity to transition from pure longitudinal to pure lateral in the corner,” explained the McLaren team principal, Andrea Stella, in Monaco.
But there is another element: the behavior of the rear of the car. These new vehicles have a more unstable rear compared to ground effect cars, but some drivers find them “easier” and more predictable. This allows drivers to play more with the overall balance. It is no coincidence that from the first day of this new technical cycle, drivers have pointed out that, despite having less pure downforce, the 2026 cars are aerodynamically easier and more enjoyable to drive.
This dynamic makes the entry into the corner and the initial phase of the apex highly sensitive: “To react precisely to this difficulty of reading the car at the corner entry, some drivers tend to saturate the front tires entering the corner. Saturating the front means they can enter the corner with a very sharp and quick steering input, causing the front to experience a sudden change into a high steering angle, which causes the car to tend to go straight,” Marrafuschi said to Motorsport.com.
“What does it mean to go straight? It means the rear stabilizes, and the front progressively gains grip. This driving style of over-saturating the front inevitably reflects on tire wear and temperatures. I can confirm that when we analyze the tires of each team, we measure and see differences.”
Kimi has an aggressive style and tries to shorten the corner
One of the defining features of Antonelli’s driving style is his aggressive approach, grounded in shortening the corner radius. What does this mean? In some corners, the rotation phase at the end of the corner entry does not happen smoothly, but rather through a very sharp and quick steering input, which leads him to use a significant steering angle. It’s a style suited for drivers with exceptional control of the car at low and medium speeds, allowing them to rotate the vehicle and stabilize it quickly.
“It’s mostly my style. I try to shorten the corner radius, as well as the time I spend between braking and the dead zone. I try to fold the corner like a handkerchief. Turn at the last moment, very aggressively. Say that I make the car work a little harder. My style is a bit more aggressive,” Antonelli explained when asked about his driving style at Motorsport.com.
“Obviously, the way of driving changes between qualifying and the race, but I have to say that in Barcelona I had more difficulties in qualifying because I was demanding too much from the car, also due to the high temperatures. The tire wore out quickly, to the point that in qualifying the rear was already done after Turn 7. Said in a way, it’s a style that helps on certain circuits, while on others you might need to adapt it according to the conditions.
“But in the end, each circuit is different. For example, at Silverstone I had to readjust it a bit because all the corners are long and fast, and this style didn’t help me as much.”
And in fact, even at Spa, this approach was evident, especially at Turn 1 and the final chicane, where Antonelli deliberately shortened the entry before making that quick steering input.
With the 2026 cars, drivers need to attack to be fast
Kimi Antonelli and George Russell have very different driving styles.
This style difference between Antonelli and his teammate George Russell is clear in the onboard cameras and has not gone unnoticed by their rivals. While the Italian prefers a more aggressive style that seems well-suited to the demands of the 2026 cars, George has always been smoother and more progressive with his steering inputs, an approach that worked exceptionally well with ground effect cars.
“If we look at Russell and Antonelli, we see that there is a different driving style. I think it’s quite noticeable in the onboard cameras and in the way they use the steering wheel,” Stella explained in Monaco.
“The driving style has an effect. And we see, looking at the lap times that Antonelli was able to do here and that he did in Canada, these differences compared to anyone else also have to stem from how you manage the tires. Because if it were just downforce, it would be an exaggeration and you wouldn’t have these differences with your teammate.”
Clearly, this is just one aspect within a broader adjustment context, but for now, the way Antonelli drives seems to be particularly effective with these new cars, but also requires an exceptional feel to make it work naturally. According to the team analyses, to extract their full potential, these cars need to be driven with an aggressive approach, especially in low-grip conditions. It’s no coincidence that in those low-grip races where getting the tires into the operating window is essential, Kimi was already showing competitiveness last year as well.
This year, the car demands that drivers constantly attack
If you maintain a smooth entry it may not reward.
“Another factor, this year the car demands drivers to attack constantly. Basically, if you try to smooth out your entry, make the car turn with the front tires, what would be expected, I think what would be expected, to have a good balance between flattening a bit at the entry for a good exit, it is not worth it in lap time,” Stella explained at Spa.
In a context that demands an aggressive driving style and extremely fine tire management, qualities that he had already shown last year could make a difference in long races, Antonelli demonstrates not only that he can interpret the new 2026 rules effectively but also that he can capitalize on a natural talent that allows him to exploit the strengths of his driving style.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
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