Oct.19 (GMM) Mercedes deputy boss Bradley Lord has played down Kimi Antonelli’s first chance to clinch the 2026 world championship in Austin.
Speaking on the Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show, Lord said the team is already expecting the inevitable “match point” questions on Thursday.
“We’re in that very uncomfortable phase of the season where you have to navigate the Thursday media with everyone saying, ‘Oh, you could do it, oh, you could do it, you’ve got a first match point,'” he said.
But he said the actual chance of Antonelli sealing the title this weekend is remote.
“I think there’s something like a one in 25 chance of that being remotely possible in Austin,” Lord insisted.
“So I think just eliminating that from, the questions will come, the answers need to be given, but the focus is how can we get the car in its sweet spot and then go and score as many points as possible.”
Toto Wolff is taking much the same approach.
“If you look at the numbers and ask AI, ‘What is the chance that he will win?’, then it is probably almost 100 percent, but it remains motorsport,” said the team boss.
“You can have bad luck, you can have accidents, and then the pressure can start to mount.”
“So I think we have to take it race by race.”
Auto Motor und Sport’s Michael Schmidt also warned against Antonelli changing the approach that has put him in control of the championship.
“It would be very bad advice if Antonelli would now suddenly decide that he wants to be champion in a grand way and win all the last five or six races,” said the German journalist.
“He’s too smart for that.”
“He notices that his approach is working and is not under pressure. He just looks at what’s possible.”
Mercedes will meanwhile return to its latest aerodynamic specification with both cars in Austin.
Lord confirmed Antonelli and George Russell are expected to run the updated package, including the new front wing.
“We can hopefully hit the ground running in a better way when we get to Austin with both cars in the updated config and running the new front wing.”
Technical boss Simone Resta said Mercedes has now established that the package does produce extra performance.
“We have measured more downforce on the car,” he confirmed.
“But perhaps we haven’t delivered the same level of downforce in every single running point of the car on the track.”
“But I think it has been clear enough to say to us that we measure more downforce.”