Mercedes ended its F1 2025 season on a sour note after troubled Abu Dhabi GP where George Russell could be no higher than fifth and Andrea Kimi Antonelli ended up outside points.
It was a bad start not just for Mercedes’ Russell, but also teammate Antonelli in F1 Abu Dhabi GP. The Brit managed to recover one place to Fernando Alonso, but that was it from his side as he never had the pace to challenge Charles Leclerc or the cars ahead as per pre-race expectations.
There was nothing Russell could have done but he was happy to see the end of this era’s regulations. “It was horrendous,” he said to media. That was a very tough race for us this evening. We struggled to find the pace that would threaten those ahead throughout the whole Grand Prix. I had a poor start and dropped down to P6; I got back ahead of Alonso to take P5, but it was a lonely night from there.
“We knew in normal circumstances that we likely didn’t have the pace to challenge for the podium, but it was still frustrating. I can’t wait [for 2026]. I’m glad this season is done and this era is done honestly. It’s been so tough for a lot of teams, very difficult to understand. But we’ve all got a clean slate next year and that’s good.
“I’m not getting carried away. But the truth is no one knows. We’re going with an open mind, but I’m feeling good. Whilst the season didn’t end in the way we wanted, we can be pleased that we secured P2 in the Constructors’,” summed up Russell. Teammate Antonelli had his own dramas as he struggled to find any pace outside the Top 10 positions.
He never looked in shape to get into the points and he noted that post-race chat with Russell highlighted similar issues. His down run and better show from Lewis Hamilton helped the Brit to retain sixth in the drivers’ standings, which looked threatening at one stage after the Ferrari’s driver’s bad run. “Yeah, I mean, we just didn’t have the pace,” said Antonelli to media.
“I really struggled in the car, probably one of the time where I struggled the most in a racetrack, in a race car, yeah, just difficult. It was…just didn’t have pace and obviously always in third gear and just really difficult to make any progress. So yeah, it was a shame, but overall first season done and looking forward to the next one.
“Well, obviously, probably what Lewis did was the best, but it’s easy to say now. I think, my start was not the best. I got some wheel spin on the second release, so it was…obviously also the fact that we didn’t have pace. I didn’t have for sure if we had a better pace, so probably could have made much more progress.
“Yeah, obviously on the hard I was especially I was pushing hard just to try and maintain position and I went off track a couple of times. But yeah, just obviously it was not easy at the end, but obviously also with having no pace, I didn’t take any risk at the end, so it was okay. Yeah, no, for sure. We both really struggled for pace and I think it was very difficult.
“I talked with him and he said that he struggled massively as well with the car. And obviously, the goal was just to bring it home and bring home P2. So, we didn’t also want to risk too much with the car, with the ride heights and being on the limit of getting a disqualification just to extract the maximum performance. So I think also that didn’t help.
“But the most important is that, we brought home the P2 in the championship,” summed up Antonelli, who was tried at the end of his first full F1 season. He doesn’t have much time at hand to recover and look ahead to a big change in regulations.
“Yeah, definitely, I’m pretty tired,” reflected Antonelli. “Also a bit…this weekend I didn’t feel the best physically and health-wise, so looking forward to some rest. And yeah, just obviously first season done and now we got a month to reflect on the whole season and come back much stronger.”
Here’s race start: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-polesitter-verstappen-leads-away-from-norris-on-the-race-start.1850855393780646885
Here’s Fernando Alonso on taking on Mercedes at start
