Why Wolff’s criticism of Antonelli is a change of tack for Mercedes

Andrea Kimi Antonelli has recently found himself under fire. First Jacques Villeneuve questioned his suitability for Formula 1, then Nico Rosberg voiced a similar sentiment, albeit in less dramatic terms. Two world champions critical of Antonelli – and now Toto Wolff has joined the chorus.

The Mercedes team principal told ServusTV that the 19-year-old had made “too many mistakes” in his home grand prix at Monza. Antonelli’s performance, Wolff said, was “underwhelming” – a strikingly direct choice of words from someone who had until then always shielded his rookie from public reproach.

When Antonelli crashed into the barriers at Monza’s Alboreto (Parabolica) corner a year ago, he was rewarded with his first F1 contract the very same weekend. Since then, mistakes had seemingly carried no consequences. In interviews, Wolff had never allowed a word of criticism to pass his lips.

Now, after Antonelli’s ninth-place finish at Monza, that has changed: “You can’t put the car in the gravel bed [on Friday] and expect to be there. All of the race was underwhelming.”

“What he needs now is simply to deliver a solid weekend,” he added on ServusTV. “Then he’ll be right there, fighting with [Charles] Leclerc and George [Russell].”

There is still no doubt about the Mercedes junior’s raw speed. Since the team reverted to its previous suspension, Antonelli has found it easier to extract the car’s performance. In Monza qualifying he was just 0.043 seconds shy of his experienced team-mate Russell.

Yet the race also showed why Russell is Mercedes’ reliable hand while Antonelli remains a bet for the future. The Italian dropped from sixth to 10th at the start and later incurred a penalty for his erratic driving.

“I just went a bit deep with the clutch and got wheelspin straight away, and just lost so many places,” Antonelli told Sky Sports F1. “That compromised the race because I found myself needing to chase. It was not ideal. Even on the mediums I struggled a bit, did a few mistakes, just couldn’t really find my rhythm.”

Antonelli eventually finished ninth on hard tyres, but came under pressure from Alex Albon on much fresher softs. On lap 45 Albon tried to go around the outside into Curva Grande, but Antonelli drifted wide and forced him to back out. The stewards took a dim view: five seconds added, plus a penalty point.

“When Albon was in the process of pulling alongside Antonelli at high speed, Antonelli moved to the left and squeezed Albon who had two wheels on the grass,” read the ruling. “The Stewards determine that by doing this he drove in a manner deemed potentially dangerous to Albon.”

Wolff agreed with the sanction. “I think that was simply unnecessary,” he told Sky Germany. “Albon was so much quicker. If you can defend, you get your elbows out. If you can’t, then you make sure not to lose time. But the way he did it – that wasn’t needed.”

Antonelli came home ninth. Against Russell, the score now stands at 2–17 in qualifying and 0–19 in races (including sprints). Russell last enjoyed such a lopsided record back in 2019 at Williams, when his team-mate Robert Kubica was attempting a comeback after his severe rally accident.

“The weekend began badly for him when he went off into the gravel,” Wolff reflected on Servus TV. “Unfortunate, like in Zandvoort. In Baku he needs to deliver a clean weekend. There will be less pressure there. It’s a track he knows.”

Still, Wolff stressed in his post-race media session, his criticism of the Monza performance “doesn’t change anything on my support and confidence in his future. Because I believe he’s going to be very, very, very good. But today was underwhelming.”

Antonelli himself pointed to positives: “Definitely the qualifying was a step forward. It’s been a bit of a weak point in the past few races.”

The Friday crash, however, was costly. He admitted such errors had to stop, as they left him on the back foot at both Zandvoort and Monza during the long runs.

Wolff said he intended to recalibrate Antonelli’s mindset with “talks”.

“A clean weekend also means, almost, not to carry too much trauma of previous mistakes into the next session or the next weekend. Because that’s luggage. You’re not going to attack a corner hard if you’ve been off there before and finished your session,” he said in his post-race roundtable.

For Wolff, Antonelli still possesses all the tools to succeed in F1. But something is blocking him at the moment.

“Just freeing him up,” Wolff said. “He’s a great driver, he’s got this unbelievable ability and natural talent, he’s a racer. It’s all there. Everything is there. But we need to get rid of the ballast of previous races.”