Antonelli: I was surprised by the FIA's decision on ADUO.

      One of the topics for discussion in the Barcelona paddock was the FIA's decision to designate the Red Bull power unit as the benchmark within the ADUO program. At a press conference on Thursday, Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli expressed surprise at the FIA's conclusions, as he believed that the Mercedes engine would be named the best.

      Kimi Antonelli: "To be honest, I don't know all the details of this decision, as I'm not involved in such processes. So it's better to address this question to the team or the FIA and ask what data the conclusions were based on.

      Of course, I was surprised because I consider our power unit to be very strong. But obviously, the FIA had its reasons for coming to such conclusions.

      Now our team has to continue working and understand what else can be done to find additional speed. This is not a question for the coming weeks, but a long-term process, as achieving further progress in this area is always challenging and takes time.

      The team has already done an excellent job with the power unit, and I am confident that everyone will put in maximum effort to extract even more speed from it when we have the opportunity."

      Speaking about Mercedes' prospects in Barcelona, the championship leader stated: "The weekend should be very interesting. In Barcelona, we will finally be able to better understand the effectiveness of the updates we brought to Canada.

      In Canada, it was difficult to objectively assess the new features, as the race took place under quite unusual conditions with low temperatures. Monaco, in turn, is also a completely unique track.

      Barcelona is much better suited for such evaluations. It’s a classic track, so we will be able to more accurately understand how the new features work and what speed gain they provide per lap.

      The competition remains very high. Red Bull was very strong in Monaco, Ferrari brought updates for this race, so they will surely be among the leaders. Additionally, McLaren looks very serious.

      I think McLaren will be particularly strong in Barcelona, as this track puts high loads on the car and tires, and hot weather is expected. In some ways, it resembles the conditions in Miami, where they were very fast. So we are not expecting an easy weekend, but we are ready to do everything possible."