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Kimi Antonelli has been in the form of his life in recent F1 race weekends, but Ralf Schumacher has shared his concerns about Mercedes’ first upgrade package proving to be detrimental to the young Italian’s title hopes.
After a hot start to F1’s new era of technical regulations, Mercedes opted against copying their rivals with a major upgrade package at the Miami Grand Prix, instead choosing to wait until this month’s Canadian Grand Prix to unleash them.
Even with the rest of the grid bolstering their 2026-spec challengers in South Beach, Kimi Antonelli reigned victorious for the third consecutive Grand Prix. He now sits 20 points clear at the top of the F1 standings.
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Mercedes’ Montreal upgrade package will focus on a multitude of areas within the W17. Engineers at Brackley have prepared some new race start software, an aerodynamic package that is reportedly worth 0.3s a lap, and a lighter gearbox to shed some extra weight.
During last year’s edition of the Canadian Grand Prix, Mercedes introduced what looked like a ‘win-win’ rear axle upgrade to the W16. It aided George Russell’s win and Antonelli’s maiden podium in Montreal, but its true performance came to light in the ensuing rounds.
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Ralf Schumacher shares concerns over Kimi Antonelli using Mercedes’ new upgrade package
The rear suspension upgrade ended up ‘hurting’ Antonelli, whose results suffered in the race weekends that followed. After claiming a first top-three in F1, the young Italian scored just three points over the next six rounds of racing.
Mercedes simply needed to make a change, and team boss Toto Wolff later admitted that the rear axle upgrade ended up ‘in the bin’. Antonelli’s results experienced an uptick again, as he took a further two Grand Prix podiums to round out 2025.
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Speaking via the Backstage Boxengasse podcast, F1 pundit Ralf Schumacher is afraid of lightning striking twice for Mercedes and Antonelli now that the German constructor has a big upgrade package lined up for this year’s Canadian GP.
“For now, he’s not going to commit to being number one just yet, there’s no need to rush into it, and his car is far too good at Mercedes, so that doesn’t make sense,” said Schumacher on Antonelli’s status at Brackley.
“As for the update, that could go either way. You never know, because it depends a bit on driving style. That was evident at McLaren last year too, when an upgrade was suddenly introduced. Lando Norris was really happy with it, but Oscar Piastri wasn’t.
“It depends on whether the driver wants more understeer or oversteer, whatever that happens to bring. And we remember that last year Mercedes also got it completely wrong with the rear axle, going in the wrong direction to Kimi Antonelli’s detriment.
“That’s where he really lost his way. He couldn’t cope with that at all, and of course that sort of thing can always happen again. The season is still young, it’s still early days. But even so, you just have to take your hat off to what he’s done so far. It’s really great.
“So young, yet able to deliver that level of performance, and above all after setbacks – we mustn’t forget that he’s made mistakes too – and yet he was always right there immediately, and for that he deserves a huge compliment, definitely.”
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