Racing
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Kimi Antonelli left Miami with another win and a 20-point Formula 1 championship lead, but his repeated start problems are becoming the clearest threat to his early 2026 title charge, with Jolyon Palmer warning that even pole position in Monaco could be useless if Mercedes does not fix the issue.
That weakness was exposed again in Miami, where Antonelli started from pole but lost the lead into Turn 1 to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc before fighting back to win. Speaking on F1 TV after the race, former Renault driver Jolyon Palmer said the problem becomes more dangerous at circuits where the run to the first corner is short. “It's a short run to Turn 1 in Canada. It's a shorter run to Turn 1 in Monaco,” Palmer said. “But in Canada there's still some overtaking chances. If he can't sort it out by Monaco, he could be on pole, there's no chance he'll win if he can't start there. So, that's his big thing to work on.”
Antonelli has already admitted the launches are not good enough. In his post-race comments to the media after Miami, the Mercedes driver said: “Today, to be fair, was not as bad. I lost two places, sprint I lost six, so it was a little bit better. But still, no, it’s not acceptable. Especially on a weekend like this, that the gaps are a lot closer, it can really change the race.”
The problem is not a simple one for Mercedes to solve. The team’s launch procedure can be heavily tailored through software settings that govern clutch engagement, torque delivery, the bite point and expected grip, while this year’s starts also require drivers to work with higher engine speeds to counter turbo lag now that the MGU-H no longer masks it. The software can shape how power is released, but the driver still has to match the clutch release precisely to that modeled delivery.
Antonelli said that is where both the team and the driver are still missing the target. Referring to the Miami Sprint, he said: “Yesterday, for example, in the sprint, procedure-wise it was good, but just the grip level that we thought there was, was just not there.” He added: “I’m still a little bit inconsistent, especially on clutch drop. I still don’t have that confidence, being consistent with that. I still have a bit of uncertainty, so it’s a big point that needs to be improved.”
Mercedes has already been working through the issue in depth. After the first three races, the team ran hundreds of simulator launch tests for Antonelli across varying grip conditions and developed a different clutch command for the steering wheel. After Miami, Mercedes said Antonelli’s latest start problem came from an incorrect electronic setup of the clutch release and the torque sent to the driven wheels.
That makes Canada the next real test of whether Mercedes can remove the only clear weakness in Antonelli’s season before it reaches Monaco, where a poor getaway could cost him a win with no route back through the field.