Antonelli backs FIA ban on risky F1 loophole

Mercedes driver and championship leader Kimi Antonelli has backed the FIA’s ban on the qualifying energy-deployment loophole used by Mercedes and Red Bull, saying the tiny lap-time gain was not worth the safety and penalty risks after it left him helpless at Suzuka.

Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com, Crash.net and The Race, Antonelli said the tactic brought only a marginal benefit while exposing drivers to serious trouble once the fast lap was done. “Obviously, it wasn’t the nicest of feelings,” he said. “Of course, we try to squeeze every bit of performance on one side. But it can come with facing some issues or some unexpected situations.”

Antonelli said he had known the problem was possible, but only experienced it properly in Melbourne and Suzuka. At Suzuka, the effect was severe enough to change his view of the trade-off. “First of all, it’s not so safe,” he said. “Especially at Suzuka, I was a sitting duck in the Esses,” with the narrow track leaving little space for others to avoid a slow car. He said the Mercedes stopped responding altogether: “It was quite stressful, for sure, not being able to do anything, because obviously the car was not responding to any input. And I just was rolling very slowly on track.”

The loophole centered on energy deployment at the end of a qualifying lap. Cars normally have to ramp down electrical power on the approach to the timing line, but Mercedes- and Red Bull-powered teams were reported to have found a way around that by triggering an emergency MGU-K shutdown intended to protect components. By avoiding the usual decay, the system could preserve an extra 50 to 100 kilowatts over the run to the line.

The trade-off was that the MGU-K could then remain shut down for up to 60 seconds, leaving the car without electrical power on the following lap. That created the risk of extreme speed differences between cars still pushing and cars suddenly reduced to low speed. Ferrari was reported to have raised the issue with the FIA, and Mercedes reportedly stopped using the trick for the rest of the Japanese Grand Prix weekend after discussions with the governing body and Antonelli’s shutdown episode.

The FIA has now issued a technical directive making clear that the mechanism must be used only in genuine emergency situations, closing the loophole before Miami. Antonelli said that was the right outcome even if it means giving away a small gain. “Also, in qualifying, you can easily impede someone on a lap, and then you can easily get a penalty,” he said. “That’s not what you want.”

For Antonelli, that made the calculation straightforward. “Of course, this comes with giving up maybe a couple of hundredths of a second, so very little time,” he said. “But at least it gives the confidence that this thing is not going to happen again.”