Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff defends the handling of Kimi Antonelli and speaks of a calculated risk when dealing with the Italian in his debut season
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has responded to criticism that Kimi Antonelli was exposed to too much pressure in the premier class at a young age. However, the Austrian sees no problem with the way the team has dealt with the 19-year-old Italian so far – on the contrary.
“Well, I was a driver myself, so I understand the pressure these young people are under. And it’s multidimensional pressure,” says Wolff in an interview with The Athletic. Before the Austrian joined Mercedes in 2013, he drove in the Austrian Formula Ford Championship and the German Formula Ford Series.
In addition, he took part in the 1994 Nürburgring 24 Hours, the FIA GT Championship and the Italian GT Championship. Wolff can therefore understand the current situation surrounding Antonelli partly from his own experience.
“When we see an up-and-coming driver, we obviously judge him on talent, raw speed, development ability, but also on how he deals with pressure,” says the team boss. “Because Formula 1 is all about pressure and performing under pressure.”
Mercedes sticks with Kimi Antonelli despite mistakes
“If you look at the policy of other junior teams, they sack drivers if they don’t perform well after three races. We did exactly the opposite with Kimi.” Not everything went as planned for Antonelli in his Formula 1 debut season in 2025
“We basically brought an 18-year-old into the team who had the best record of any junior driver in karting and smaller formula series, but he made a lot of mistakes in his first year,” added Wolff. “People criticized us heavily for that.”
“They said he was too young, he made too many mistakes and we would burn him out. And that was an absolutely calculated risk. We knew that would happen in the first year.” Antonelli has stabilized in his second season, has already won two Formula 1 races and is now even leading the drivers’ championship.
A pleasant situation that Wolff also knows from his own experience: under the Austrian’s leadership, Mercedes has won eight constructors’ titles and seven drivers’ titles with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. This year, two more world championship titles are likely to be added by George Russell and Kimi Antonelli respectively …