Kimi Antonelli has pointed to the Sepang International Circuit's ageing tarmac as a hidden factor clouding Mercedes' understanding of its new aerodynamic package, after finishing second in a chaotic Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
Mercedes arrived with a seven-part upgrade for the W17, addressing the floor leading edge, outer floor perimeter, floor body, sidepods, engine cover and rear suspension fairings.
The package was designed to clean up underfloor airflow and add downforce without a drag penalty. But the team left Sepang no clearer on whether it had worked.
Red Bull's own floor revisions helped Max Verstappen claim pole and the win, while Ferrari's reworked diffuser winglets put Lewis Hamilton alongside him on the front row, and helped him carve back through the field to claim third.
Asked whether Sepang's track surface had masked the upgrade's true potential, Antonelli said the team genuinely did not know.
"That's the question we need to answer because we don't really know if it made us go faster or worse," he told media, including RacingNews365. "Fair to say, this season, whenever we went on really old tarmac, we've struggled.
"For example, at Zandvoort, McLaren was much quicker than us, especially on the older tarmac. So I think maybe it's just a question; maybe it's just a fact that the tarmac is very old and that, for the tyres, it's very, very hard, and maybe we just struggle on this kind of tarmac."
An old problem resurfaces
Antonelli's remarks tap into a seldom-considered weakness of the W17, one that goes a significant way toward explaining its mysterious lack of pace in Sepang — on a weekend it should have improved, no less.
The young Italian added that Mercedes would need more running on a fresher surface before drawing firm conclusions about the update.
"But, of course, the track and the tarmac made our life difficult in understanding whether it made us improve or not," he added.
"But I'm sure the team... they have a lot of data, especially after this weekend, and I'm sure for Singapore we will come with a much, much better view on the package, and hopefully we can extract the full potential out of it."
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