(Motorsport-Total.com) – Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has reacted 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 how the team has handled the 19-year-old Italian so far – quite the opposite.
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“Well, I was a driver myself, so I understand the pressure these young people are under. And it’s multidimensional pressure,” Wolff says in an interview with The Athletic. Before the Austrian joined Mercedes in 2013, he competed in the Austrian Formula Ford Championship and the German Formula Ford Series.
In addition, he participated in the 24 Hours of Nürburgring in 1994, the FIA GT Championship, and the Italian GT Championship. Therefore, Wolff can partly understand the current situation surrounding Antonelli from his own experience.
“When we see an aspiring driver, we naturally judge them on talent, raw speed, ability to develop, but also on how they handle 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 policies of other junior teams, they release drivers if they don’t perform well after three races. We did the exact opposite with Kimi.” In his Formula 1 debut season in 2025, not everything went as desired for Antonelli.
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“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 the first year,” Wolff adds. “People criticized us heavily for that.”
“They said he was too young, he was making too many mistakes, and we were burning 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 now even leads the drivers’ championship.
A pleasant situation that Wolff also knows from his own experience: Under the Austrian’s leadership, Mercedes has so far 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 …
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