‘Kimi didn’t even drop the clutch’ – Mercedes explains Antonelli’s Las Vegas jump-start penalty

Mercedes Formula 1 trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has explained Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s marginal jump start in the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Antonelli was detected as moving before the five lights went out in the Nevadan race, though the jump start was not strikingly obvious on the broadcast.

The penalty nearly cost him a podium after his strong recovery from 17th on the grid, as he inherited third place when the McLarens were disqualified – just 0.190s ahead of Charles Leclerc.

After the race, the 19-year-old rookie himself was baffled, expressing the need to review what had happened. “My suggestion is that I rolled a little bit, but I didn't really feel it in the car,” he commented.

Mercedes has now had time to analyse the incident, and Shovlin explained that Antonelli’s jump start was merely down to releasing the brakes.

“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,” he said in Mercedes’ race debrief. “This was quite different and quite unusual.

“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.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images

“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.

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

Still, Antonelli has scored 71 points in the last six rounds, more than his tally of 66 in the first 16. The rookie has been catching Lewis Hamilton for sixth in the drivers’ championship, with his deficit down to 15 points.