Formula 1 News: Wolff finally critical as Antonelli falters again
(GMM) Toto Wolff has broken his usual tone of protection for teenage Mercedes protege Kimi Antonelli (pictured together), openly criticizing the Italian after another troubled weekend at Monza.
Antonelli, 19, started sixth but slipped back to eighth at the flag after a poor getaway, practice mistakes, and another penalty – this time for a clash with Alex Albon.
It followed his collision with Charles Leclerc at Zandvoort a week earlier.
“I was not impressed by him this weekend,” Wolff told Servus TV after Monza.
“If a driver wants to do well, he should not go into the gravel,” he added in quotes reproduced by SID news agency.
“His whole race was a disappointment. It will not affect my support for Kimi, I still believe that he will be a great driver. He has incredible talent, and as a racing driver, it’s all there. But now he has disappointed me.”
Wolff suggested Antonelli is still carrying the weight of his past errors.
“I think that in order to have a smooth weekend, you can’t carry the weight of past mistakes. A driver can’t attack a corner with full force if he remembers that he crashed there before and that was the end of his session. Now he just needed to have a solid weekend, then he would have been in the fight with Leclerc and George.”
On the clash with Albon, Wolff was clear: “I think it was simply unnecessary, because Albon was much faster.
“If you can defend against that, then you throw your elbows out, and if you can’t, then you make sure you don’t waste time. But the way he did it, you don’t need to do that.”
Despite the criticism, Wolff insisted Antonelli still has the raw materials to succeed.
“Antonelli has been blessed with incredible ability and talent; he is a real driver, and he has all the necessary qualities. But you have to get rid of the ballast. We just have to free him up.”
The Austrian added that Antonelli needs an immediate response at the next race.
“He needs to have a clean weekend in Baku,” said Wolff. “There will be less pressure and a track he’s familiar with.”
Wolff also praised Monza winner Max Verstappen, whom he unsuccessfully tried to sign again for 2026.
“You can clearly see today that there’s just one guy who makes everyone else look a little bit bad, a little bit stupid. They really should ask themselves what he’s doing differently.”