Mercedes solves mystery behind Antonelli’s subtle Vegas jump start

Kimi Antonelli’s Las Vegas Grand Prix should have been remembered solely for his stunning charge from 17th to the podium – a drive so polished it nearly overshadowed the chaos that unfolded around him.

Instead, it came with a subplot no one saw coming: a marginal, almost invisible jump start that left the rookie baffled, his team perplexed and the FIA’s ultra-sensitive sensors vindicated.

The 19-year-old Italian was punished with a five-second time penalty after being detected moving before the lights went out. For most viewers, even the slowest replays showed nothing unusual.

Yet after the race, Antonelli admitted he didn’t fully understand what had gone wrong.

“My suggestion is that I rolled a little bit, but I didn't really feel it in the car,” he said after last weekend’s race, when his P5 on the track was upgraded to P3 following the McLarens’ disqualification.

Meanwhile, Toto Wolff offered a blend of acceptance and intrigue – the kind that typically follows when Mercedes gets stumped by something small but consequential.

“We couldn’t spot anything on the clutch, nor anything that would have pointed us to an irregular start,” the Austrian said. “But the FIA have sensors, so let’s see what they said.

“For me, I’m the only one who seemed to have seen that there was a little bit of a movement. But it definitely wasn’t by releasing the clutch or getting off the brake pedal, so we shall see what the FIA says.”

A Mystery Solved Back at Brackley

Back in Brackley, Mercedes poured over the data and video, determined to understand what caused a car driven by a rookie known for composure to creep mere millimetres at precisely the wrong moment.

Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin was the one to finally connect the dots – and the conclusion he presented was not only unusual but surprisingly mundane.

“When people talk about a jump start, they're normally thinking the drivers drop the clutch before the lights have gone out to get a bit of a run on the competition,” Shovlin explained in the team’s race debrief on YouTube. “This was quite different and quite unusual.”

The culprit? A simple brake release.

“If you watch the video, what you see is before the lights go out the car rolls about two centimetres forward very, very slowly, but Kimi doesn't drop the clutch – he's actually got the clutch fully pulled.

“Now, we think what happened is, that point the car started to roll was the point he takes his foot off the brakes. So, as they get ready for the start, they remove their foot and that's only a second or so before the lights actually go out.

“And whether it's the vibration of the car or, you know, there might have been some torque in the driveline, but it certainly wasn't Kimi and the clutch that made it creep forward.”

A Subtle Movement – But Enough for the FIA

Shovlin emphasised just how tiny the movement was – but tiny is all it takes.

“Now, the FIA systems are very sensitive,” Shovlin continued.

“They can pick up on that small amount of motion, and when we eventually check the video with time to look at it properly, you could see this very, very subtle movement, so it was unfortunate for him to pick up that penalty.

“He was doing everything correctly in terms of what we tell him to do, but we just need to work out how to make sure that doesn't happen again.”

• Read also: Antonelli was ‘talking to the tyres’ during 48-lap Vegas stint

For Antonelli, the episode is yet another addition to the growing catalogue of learning moments in what has become one of the most impressive rookie seasons in recent memory.

With 71 points scored in the last six races – compared to 66 in his first 16 – the Italian phenom is closing rapidly on Lewis Hamilton for sixth in the standings, now just 15 points adrift.

A marginal roll of two centimetres may have cost him a perfectly clean podium. But the bigger picture? Antonelli’s trajectory is rolling in exactly the right direction.

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