Mercedes mechanics reveal the bond behind Antonelli’s title celebrations

The celebrations for Kimi Antonelli’s Formula 1 world title in Mexico City included hugs and tears. Five Mercedes mechanics’ accounts trace their bond with the 20-year-old back to everyday moments that came before the championship: garage pranks, apologies after crashes and the attention he paid to the people around his car.

Power-unit mechanic Nathan Tupper says Antonelli’s greetings can include a pinch to the nipples. Senior mechanic Ash Jones says the driver enjoys joking and laughing with the crew, while number-one mechanic Tom Mason says the banter continues as Antonelli prepares to climb into the car before qualifying. Callum Wooldridge recalls a birthday tradition in which Antonelli covered colleagues’ faces with whipped cream.

The mechanics also describe how seriously Antonelli took the work his mistakes created. During Mercedes’ 2024 test programme, he crashed at Abu Dhabi, damaging a chassis, and later crashed at Monza. Franck Bougeard recalls that Antonelli kept apologising after the Monza crash for the damage and extra work. When Antonelli joined the Mercedes race team at the start of 2025, Mason says, he worried about creating too much work for the mechanics. Mason told him the crew was happy to do its job if Antonelli gave everything he had. Jones says Antonelli remembered personal details about the crew; Mason recalls that he knew everyone’s name within a couple of days and wanted to meet the mechanics from the testing programme first.

Mason says the Spa weekend in 2025 was particularly difficult for Antonelli, but the mechanics felt sorry for him rather than angry because they could see the pressure he was under. In Melbourne at the start of 2026, Antonelli’s FP3 crash badly damaged his car; the crew got it ready for qualifying and he secured second on the grid. Jones says Antonelli was astonished by the repair and kept thanking them. Bougeard, who first met him as a 17-year-old during a Mercedes test in Austria in 2024, knew he was talented but says, “I never imagined he'd come this far, this quickly.”