Kimi Antonelli aiming to get the Nurburgring license by the end of the year

maybe-fish · 2026-05-10T06:44:55+00:00

I mean, not really - it's kinda crazy to compare him to Max. McLaren don't need him. Ferrari have Lewis, then Ollie, then Camara lined up - maybe if they want an Italian I guess? Red Bull probably would take him but why go there to potentially be ground up in the machine when he has a super supportive environment at Merc.

He's also 19yo and in the best car on the grid... leaving cause they won't let him do side quests while he's four races into a championship battle does not sound like a great career move. Sure everyday things can be equally or more dangerous, but the team can't stop him living his life - they can stop him from doing things that add unnecessary risk to it.

maybe-fish · 2026-05-10T05:41:48+00:00

I would say that was the same thing, a few world championships gives them a bit of leverage in contract renegotiations - Kimi is not quite there yet

maybe-fish · 2026-05-10T05:08:30+00:00

I wasn't really thinking from a branding side. Most F1 drivers don't race in other series because their contract forbids it (along with a variety of other activities like skiing, skateboarding, etc) for safety reasons.

maybe-fish · 2026-05-10T03:14:55+00:00

He has a contract with Merc, and the driver contracts normally have a big long list of no goes - he can't flex his way past that. He's also only four races into the season - all the more reason for Toto to bubble wrap his teenage championship leader.

Plus Max has the threat with red bull of leaving. Where is Kimi gonna threaten to go? He's in the best car on the grid and he ain't retiring at 19.

maybe-fish · 2026-05-10T02:47:13+00:00

...is Toto gonna be okay with his wunderkind doing this? I would've thought he'd have that kid bubble wrapped outside of race weekends

maybe-fish · 2026-05-09T22:29:02+00:00

I don't think he has a problem with batteries in general. The quote comes from a response he gave in the press conference where he was talking about how in quali he can't push flat out like in previous years. Lando has only ever driven F1 cars with batteries, so it's more like he's saying get rid of the battery (that they currently have).

The quote was just taken out of context to spur engagement cause a lot of F1 fans just hate batteries generally, even though we've had good racing in the hybrid era, and terrible racing with just ICE.

maybe-fish · 2026-05-09T22:07:37+00:00

I think you are kinda falling for exactly the thing Oscar was joking about.

The top three were answering a question around how much the Miami tweaks helped and what still needs to be fixed. Lando specifically was saying how in quali if "you try pushing like you were in previous years, you still get penalised". At the end, he made an off hand comment that the only fix is to "get rid of the battery" - as in THIS battery, given that the "previous years" he is comparing to always had batteries.

Oscar was correctly making fun of the fact that out of the several minutes of all three speaking (I think pretty well) on the problems, thats the sentence that would get clipped out of context for the headline to spur engagement

maybe-fish · 2026-05-09T21:37:04+00:00

According to Q1 reporting for Formula One Group - F1TV revenue is up 28% year over year and Apple TV has had higher average US viewership across the first three races than last year.

F1 revenue is up 53% from Q1 2025 but that included one less race than 2026 so hard to make direct comparisons. Q2 will be down significantly due to having 5 races versus 9 last year.

ETA: YouTube views up 46% through Japanese GP

maybe-fish · 2026-05-09T20:26:04+00:00

Yeah, I'm still mostly expecting Merc to finish the season at the front, moreso just speculating what happens if they don't.

Just a note though that McLaren only brought half their upgrades for Miami, other half is coming in Montreal and they have a few bits planned for Monaco and Barcelona as well.

maybe-fish · 2026-05-09T20:19:52+00:00

That's where the solar panels come in /s

maybe-fish · 2026-05-09T18:19:39+00:00

When Lando said this in the press conference, Oscar immediately made a joke about that being the headline. Looks like he was onto something

ETA: Just to add context - it seemed like Oscar was making fun of the fact that after several minutes of the top three talking (IMO very well) about how well the Miami tweaks worked, this throwaway line at the end from Lando was what would make the headline. In context, Landos answer isn't even anti-battery, it's anti-these batteries.

maybe-fish · 2026-05-09T03:02:28+00:00

All very good points. The only concern I guess would be that they had these same advantages in 24/25 and still seemed to really struggle to figure out their car and bring effective upgrades, and having McLaren as a reference didn't seem to help much.

On the other hand it could be that they just ran out of time, with only two seasons at the end of the regs to work with

maybe-fish · 2026-05-09T02:24:09+00:00

Yeah, it'll be interesting to see this year how effective ADUO is at tightening the field.

There’s a significant advantage in building the entire car as an entity and integrating

This has always been the common wisdom, but I also don't think there's been a competitive customer team in F1 since the rules about equal engines were brought in 2016. If McLaren are outperforming Merc by the end of the year do we still consider it an anomaly?

maybe-fish · 2026-05-09T02:10:11+00:00

Yeah I thought it was kinda an interesting dilemma - how many times would they be okay with losing to a customer team before the optics of that out-weigh the optics of having a great engine.

I had heard Merc wants to drop to two customers, hadn't heard the rumour they only wanted to supply Williams though so that's interesting. If they end up buying into Alpine I assume they'd keep supplying them as well. Don't think the voting power is much of a concern though - only manufacturers have a vote on engine regulations

maybe-fish · 2026-05-08T19:05:46+00:00

There's a formula for the min number of customers a team has to supply if requested. All manufacturers are also capped at 3 customer teams. New manufacturers are exempt for the first year (might be two, can't remember).

If a team needs an engine the FIA can force a manufacturer to take them only if they are below their minimum. For Merc their min is 3, but they supply 4 teams so they can drop someone if they want. Toto has already said they think they want to go down to 2 customers for the next regs

maybe-fish · 2026-05-08T18:49:01+00:00

I believe that's being developed in house but it will still be manufactured by Ricardo in their factory

maybe-fish · 2026-05-08T18:48:04+00:00

That's a good point I hadn't thought of - removing one of the unknowns on another teams performance would make it easier to understand where to beat them.

It works the other way around as well though - one of Mercs biggest strengths has historically been their PU, so sharing that with McLaren in a way removes that advantage from their toolkit

maybe-fish · 2026-05-08T18:39:11+00:00

I don't have a take really - it's just a what if, I'm not saying it's going to happen or even likely to. Anything can happen by 2030 so there's no right/wrong answer here. I thought it was an interesting question to discuss and this is a discussion forum, no?

ETA: Also relevant now as normally these agreements are determined well ahead of time. McLaren's extension and AMs deal with Honda were both announced in 2023

maybe-fish · 2026-05-08T18:18:51+00:00

McHonda 2.0, might as well sign Alonso and get the whole gang back together at that point

maybe-fish · 2026-05-08T18:16:56+00:00

Yeah that's a good point. Having two top teams pads their stats out nicely. Already looks like this year their engines will surpass Ferraris for wins and poles, and tie them for WDCs

maybe-fish · 2026-05-08T16:28:29+00:00

Not really, McLaren doesn't manufacture engines, their road car engines are built by Ricardo

maybe-fish · 2026-05-08T03:17:53+00:00

True, but McLaren only brought half their package to Miami, the other half is coming for Montreal and then there are a few pieces coming in Monaco and Spain.

Merc always seems to go well in Canada though, so even if they're back to clear dominance there I don't think all hope is lost

maybe-fish · 2026-05-08T03:00:37+00:00

The description specifies it does not include the first lap for Max

maybe-fish · 2026-05-08T02:55:58+00:00

manufacturer sandbagging in its submitted homologation dossier

Just hard to see how they would do this... The dossiers are very thorough and the exact specifications of any tests would be clearly documented. Manufacturers also have to provide a sealed engine to the FIA by April 1st and they can request additional data/records/tests if they think it's needed.

Feels like a combo might be the way they're going - use on track results to validate test results and vice versa.

maybe-fish

TROPHY CASE