Antonelli rues "reliability issues" for his lack of running in Bahrain
Reflecting on the week, Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli was candid about the challenges he faced during the opening two days of the first pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit.
The first Bahrain pre‑season test came to a close on Friday, bringing an important—if at times difficult—three days of running for the team. After reliability issues limited progress earlier in the week, the final day offered a more stable platform for both drivers, with George Russell completing 78 laps in the morning and Kimi Antonelli adding 64 laps in the afternoon.
The day began with both drivers focusing on single‑lap performance work before transitioning into race simulations, giving the team its most complete day of testing so far. Russell topped the timesheets in the morning, while Antonelli surpassed his benchmark later in the cooler afternoon conditions.
For Antonelli, the final day represented his first real opportunity to get to grips with the car after two heavily disrupted sessions. Reflecting on the week, he was candid about the challenges he faced:
“It’s been a difficult test for us as a team, particularly on my side. We have encountered several reliability issues that meant I only managed just over 30 laps across the first two days.
"It was therefore a good afternoon today where it was really my first time properly getting to grips with the car here in Bahrain. We were able to complete a good amount of single lap work and then came close to finishing a race simulation.”
Despite the frustrations, Antonelli stressed the importance of encountering these issues now rather than during the season: “Whilst this week has been frustrating, it is much better to have these issues now and be able to work through them, rather than them happening during race weekends.
"The team is already working through solutions to some of our problems and we can hopefully come back stronger next week," the Italian continued.
Antonelli also acknowledged the strong form shown by rival teams during the first test: “Several of our rivals have looked particularly good and have enjoyed much more trouble-free running here than us.
"We need to try and extract more from our package and hopefully can begin to make up some of our gap during the second and final pre-season test.”
