Kimi Antonelli leads the Formula 1 championship with six wins and six pole positions, cementing himself as the standout performer of the 2026 season so far.
His victory at Spa-Francorchamps carries particular significance, given that one year ago the Belgian circuit was the scene of one of his most difficult weekends in Formula 1.
Last season at Spa, Antonelli struggled with a rear suspension set-up that never gave him the confidence he needed, making his 2026 dominance there all the more striking.
The contrast between those two visits to Belgium offers a clear window into how much the young Mercedes driver has developed, and why his driving style is proving so effective with the current generation of cars.
To understand this, it helps to look back at the final phase of the previous ground effect regulations, where cars were stable yet notoriously unpredictable, snapping away from drivers without warning once the limit was exceeded.
The switch from 13-inch to 18-inch tyres reduced sidewall height and resulted in a smaller contact patch, making corner entry under combined braking and steering more demanding for certain drivers.
“If you imagine the rolling of the tyre in the longitudinal direction, the length of the contact patch is shorter, and with a shorter contact patch, the transition in driving feel between having grip and losing it is more sudden,” said Dario Marrafuschi, head of motorsport at Pirelli.
“This is why we understand the drivers’ comments; it was expected that these difficulties would arise during corner entry in managing adhesion, exactly because the snap gives you less warning,” Marrafuschi added.
In 2026, the tyres are narrower to reduce aerodynamic drag under the new rules, making the combined braking and steering phase even more complex than before.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella highlighted this challenge during the Monaco round, explaining that the transition from longitudinal to lateral grip during corner entry is extremely delicate and difficult to manage.
“It’s very difficult to avoid the tyres to lock. When you don’t have front locking, you may have instability like the tyres don’t seem to have much capacity of transitioning from the pure longitudinal to the pure lateral in the corner,” Stella explained.
Marrafuschi noted that some drivers respond to this sensitivity by delivering a very sharp, quick steering input at turn-in, which saturates the front tyres and effectively stabilises the rear of the car progressively.
Antonelli’s natural style aligns almost perfectly with this technique, as he routinely uses aggressive, rapid steering inputs to shorten the corner radius and rotate the car quickly.
“I try to shorten the radius of the corner, as well as the time I spend between braking and the dead zone. I try to fold the corner up like a handkerchief. I turn at the last moment, very aggressively,” said the 19-year-old.
Antonelli acknowledged that this approach does not work universally, noting that at Silverstone, with its long and fast corners, he had to adjust, and that in Barcelona high temperatures caused his tyres to drop off rapidly in qualifying.
Team-mate George Russell, by contrast, has always favoured a smoother, more progressive style with his steering inputs, an approach that worked exceptionally well with the previous generation of ground effect machinery.
Stella confirmed the stylistic difference is visible and measurable, stating that the gap Antonelli has produced in races compared to Russell cannot be explained by aerodynamic performance alone.
“The driving style definitely has an effect. And we do see, looking at the lap times that Antonelli was able to do here and he was able to do in Canada, in the race, these differences compared to anybody else must come also from the way you deal with the tyres,” Stella said.
The McLaren principal went further at Spa, warning that a smooth, clean driving approach is no longer rewarded by the 2026 cars, with the regulations effectively penalising drivers who try to preserve tyres through tidier inputs.
“Another factor, this year’s car requires drivers to constantly attack. Basically, if you try to smoothen out your input, be clean, get the car to steer with the front tyres, it doesn’t pay off for lap time,” Stella explained.
In a championship environment that rewards aggression and precise tyre management simultaneously, Antonelli’s instinctive driving style is proving to be a genuinely significant competitive advantage.