Mercedes produced one of their strongest weekends of 2024 in Las Vegas, where George Russell and Lewis Hamilton (now Ferrari) delivered a commanding one-two.
Russell took pole after topping every stage of qualifying, while Hamilton recovered from tenth on the grid to secure second place as the W15 thrived in the cool night-time conditions that unsettled rivals such as McLaren.
Antonelli, who arrives in the United States after a breakthrough weekend in Brazil in which he finished second in both the sprint and the grand prix, admitted he is optimistic about what the W16 can achieve. However, he stressed that the new car behaves differently from the one that conquered the Strip 12 months ago.
“I am very hopeful,” Antonelli has said. “As a team, we said we are going to try to do everything that we did last year with the car. Even though it is a different car compared to last year, many things have changed, so it does not mean that if we were quick last year, we are going to be quick this year.”
Mercedes have retained several traits that made the W15 so effective in Las Vegas, particularly in low-temperature conditions, but Antonelli insisted that nothing is guaranteed in a field that has tightened throughout 2025.
Nonetheless, the 19-year-old believes the team are fully prepared to extract everything from the package and from him as a driver.
“I think as a team we will try to put the car in the best spot possible, and as a driver I will try to deliver the best performance possible,” he added.
The 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix is the next round of the Formula 1 season, staged over 50 laps of the 6.201-kilometre Las Vegas Street Circuit on Saturday, 22 November.
