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Kimi Antonelli may have crossed the line in Monaco with a 66-point championship lead, but the young Mercedes driver was in no mood to celebrate prematurely. Speaking to Motorsport Week and other media after his victory, the Italian made it clear that the work is far from over.
"The job's not finished. It's still a long season, and we've got to keep pushing, keep raising the bar. And the goal is to keep performing like this," Antonelli said. "The team is doing an incredible job. They've given us an incredible car, and I've got so much support from the team as well, from my family. So yeah, it's a really good moment so far."
It was Antonelli's fifth consecutive win of 2026 and his first ever victory in Monaco — achieved after leading the entire field from lights to flag across a race disrupted by two Safety Cars and a Red Flag. For a full breakdown of how the race unfolded, see our 2026 Monaco Grand Prix race report.
For much of the race, Antonelli was in a class of his own. He built a lead of nearly 30 seconds before Lance Stroll's crash at the final corner brought out the Safety Car, erasing that advantage in an instant. Antonelli held his composure and maintained the lead through the restart — only to face another challenge when Charles Leclerc hit the barriers in similar fashion, triggering a Red Flag.
The standing restart that followed placed Antonelli directly alongside Lewis Hamilton on the front row — a far more intimidating scenario given Mercedes' known struggles with race starts under the new regulations.
"I was frustrated, because Lewis was starting next to me this time and knowing how good they start, I was like, well, I cannot say, I'm going to say a bad word, but I was like, 'Oh man,'" Antonelli admitted.
In the end, Hamilton suffered excessive wheelspin off the line, giving Antonelli the breathing room he needed to slot into the lead heading into Turn 1.
In a candid admission, Antonelli revealed he would have been perfectly happy without the Red Flag restart at all.
"To be fair, I wasn't super keen on restarting as well, because I didn't really want to restart," he said. "But then once the notification came out, I just gathered my emotions, my thoughts, and I started to focus again, looked at some data and so on, and just tried to refocus on restarting and then trying to get the tyres in the right temperature. Then once I got away, I knew I was going to make it into P1 into the first corner, and then from that point on, I just enjoyed the last few laps."
Antonelli acknowledged that race starts had been an area of concern throughout the 2026 season, with Mercedes previously struggling to hold position off the line under the new regulations. However, he pointed to Canada as a turning point in that development process.
"Canada was a big step forward on that side. There's still work to do. I think the first start today was better. The second start was still not amazing, but definitely a good step forward."
With the Summer Break still on the horizon and George Russell already 68 points adrift after a torrid Monaco weekend, a familiar theme is beginning to take shape. Antonelli's combination of raw pace, mental resilience, and an increasingly strong Mercedes package is making him look every bit like a genuine title contender.
He’s a software engineer with a deep passion for Formula 1 and motorsport. He co-founded Formula Live Pulse to make live telemetry and race insights accessible, visual, and easy to follow.
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