Antonelli says Mercedes no longer has F1’s fastest car

Championship leader Kimi Antonelli says Mercedes doesn’t have the fastest car in Formula 1 any longer after Lando Norris’ win at the Dutch Grand Prix secured back-to-back victories for McLaren.

Norris was largely dominant in Budapest before the summer shutdown and then followed that with pole position and victory in the Netherlands, overtaking Antonelli in the second half of the race on his way to victory. Antonelli says the performance McLaren has shown puts it clear of Mercedes, and that it will need an upgrade package to regain its position as the sport’s leading team.

“I mean, for sure, we’re clearly not the fastest car anymore on the grid,” Antonelli said. “We’re probably second or third, at least in [Sunday’s] race, and McLaren has taken a huge step, especially since Hungary, since the big upgrade package they brought.

“But I’m confident with the team. The team has been working super hard on this next package that is coming up, and they just want to make sure that it’s going to work out well once we put it on. So for sure, in this race, it’s going to be more difficult, it’s going to be challenging, but we’re ready to do our best and to maximize every opportunity. And then hopefully it’s going to be our turn to bring the package that’s going to give us a little bit of the upper hand again.”

Antonelli’s teammate George Russell won the Sprint in Zandvoort while Norris faded to third in the shorter event, but Russell believes that showed the importance of track position at the venue.

“When you’re out front, things are always much easier and always very challenging for the car behind to overtake unless you’re on an offset strategy,” Russell said. “But I don’t think it’s a major surprise for us, seeing how competitive Lando was [in Zandvoort], considering he won in Budapest.

“It’s a very similar circuit with the long corners, high tire degradation, with the two-stop strategy, so there’s a lot of similarities between the two circuits. I think this may continue for the coming two or three races until we start to bring more to the car, and fingers crossed our competitors don’t.

“I do believe that these high-degradation circuits really suit McLaren very well, and especially Lando. He’s always been a bit of a specialist in those conditions. We also saw it last year. Monza may be slightly different, but I think they are the team to beat right now.”