Mercedes will get more mileage in a Formula 1 car under Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s belt before this season, but in the team’s 2020 car due to revised testing restrictions.
Antonelli is preparing to embark upon his rookie campaign in the top flight, having been given the Mercedes seat that long-term incumbent Lewis Hamilton vacated.
Even prior to the news that he would replace the Ferrari-bound seven-time champion, Antonelli’s sole season in Formula 2 had been dovetailed with extensive F1 testing.
Mercedes elected to begin his rigorous programme with a run in the team’s title-winning 2021 machine, the last car made under the sport’s previous regulation set.
Antonelli has since accumulated mass experience in the current ground effect creations, including the Mercedes W13 featuring the notorious ‘zeropod’ concept.
Mercedes was entitled to provide Antonelli with track time in the squad’s 2022 car last term as the rules permit machinery older than two years being tested in-season.
Although teams now also have access to the cars that ran in 2022, Antonelli will be driving the Mercedes W11 from 2020 when he ventures out on track at Jerez this week.
Hamilton selected the W11 as his most cherished Mercedes car, having smashed several lap records en route to his record-equalling seventh title with that package.
However, the Briton’s successor being put through his paces in an old-generation car that has minimal in common to the one he’ll drive in 2025 will do little to aid his adaption.
Mercedes bringing its last championship-winning possession back, though, has come about amid a tweak to the testing rules which has tightened up what is permissible.
The ‘Testing Previous Cars’ (TPC) scheme had more relaxed regulations prior to 2025 as the FIA placed no limit on how much running could be done in two-year old cars.
Red Bull’s contentious in-season test
But it was that ruling that enabled Red Bull to head to Imola between last season’s Canadian and Spanish Grands Prix to let Max Verstappen turn laps in the 2022 RB18.
That was the period where Red Bull’s competitiveness started to wane as it experienced balance issues with the RB20, prompting it to pursue a direct comparison.
“We really try to give Max a reference from a previous car,” Red Bull Chief Technical Officer Paul Monaghan told media including Motorsport Week over the Spanish GP weekend.
“When you’re trying to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a current car, his reference is the current car and you might say, ‘oh well in previous years we’ve had this, we’ve had that’. Have we really because we haven’t run them at the same time?
“So, in taking that car out, we try to give Max a reference to judge it from and he’s been able to give us feedback from that. It’s up to us what we do.”
Ferrari suspicion led to rule change
Monaghan’s closing line indicated the test would hold a bearing on what the team planned development-wise with the RB20, something Ferrari suspected at the time.
Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur was adamant when asked about the matter that the then reigning champions were intending to base upgrades around the data that it gathered.
“It’s more development than something else,” the Frenchman observed.
“It’s not to give mileage to Max between Barcelona and Austria, that Tuesday you do nothing, go to Imola. It’s clearly [for car] development.”
That inspired discussions to be held over clamping down on private testing to avoid teams capitalising on breaks in the season to gain a technical advantage over its rivals.
An agreement was reached that has seen each team be allotted 20 TPC days each year, while permanent drivers will be limited to 1000 kilometres during such TPC outings.
This aligned with the suggestion that Vasseur proposed as he added: “You can differentiate the TPC that you could do with your drivers, racing drivers I want to say.”
Mercedes could still have used the W14 at the Spanish venue, but the German marque has elected to preserve its entire allocation until the time where there is more to gain.
Instead, Antonelli’s maiden F1 track appearance in 2025 will come under the Testing Historic Cars (THC) regulation, with the W11 being the latest car that complies.
READ MORE – Mercedes admits Kimi Antonelli will ‘rip our hair out’ during debut F1 campaign
