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When discussing Kimi Antonelli’s disappointing starts this season, Aston Martin reserve driver Jak Crawford provided some key insight.
Despite Antonelli winning the Japanese Grand Prix, there were some cracks in the dominance Mercedes have shown to start the season.
Antonelli admitted he got lucky against Oscar Piastri, attributing much of his win to the well-timed pitstop during the safety car at Suzuka.
No Mercedes one-two in Japan!
Oscar Piastri takes second, with Charles Leclerc third
Toto Wolff pointed to Mercedes’ struggles with starts this season as a concern. Antonelli, who started on pole, fell back to P6 in the beginning of the race.
Despite his immense success this year, Kimi Antonelli has consistently had issues with starts. And Aston Martin reserve driver Jak Crawford has spotted what exactly he’s failing to do.
READ MORE: David Coulthard raises Oscar Piastri ‘series of mistakes’ concern for Kimi Antonelli in title fight
Jak Crawford claims Kimi Antonelli struggling to handle mandated power deployment in race starts
Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, Jak Crawford was asked about Kimi Antonelli’s struggles with the start procedure this season and why he consistently falls behind the pack.
Crawford noted that Antonelli struggles with the huge surge of power that is deployed at the start of the race, which is mandated according to the regulations.
“I’ve done a start. I know how it works. It’s tricky because, first of all, you have this whole boost-pressure-turbo thing where you have to kind of just sit on the throttle for 5-10 seconds depending on the team. At first, there’s that part. There’s so many different parts. There’s the battery being charged.
“Is it charged on your formation lap? Then, I think the most difficult part is, and what I’ve seen actually, Kimi struggles with a lot, and why he’s had so much wheel spin on his start is – straight away, by regulation, you have to have electrical energy deploying when the car first goes.
“Immediately, that just puts a big kick of power that you probably don’t want when you’re going from zero. Some people leaving with massive wheel spins, some people can’t get off the line. It’s quite exciting, because you never know who is going to lead into turn one.”
READ MORE: Kimi Antonelli has just done something even Max Verstappen never managed in F1
How the championship looks after Japan
Which drivers are out of position heading into the break?
Kimi Antonelli must overcome start issue if he is serious about title contention
In just his second season, Antonelli finds himself leading the championship after three races. In fact, his win at Suzuka allowed him to become the youngest championship leader of all time.
But at some point, this start issue is going to start costing him points. We’ve seen Mercedes have cause for concern after Suzuka, where other teams were able to battle with them at a level we hadn’t seen so far.
Additionally, Mercedes’ struggles with competing in traffic were on full display at the Japanese Grand Prix, which could affect Antonelli down the line if he fails another start and finds himself in the middle of the pack.
With a five-week hiatus until the Miami Grand Prix, Antonelli has a lot of time to use the simulator and work on his starts to at least give himself more confidence for when the season resumes.
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