Wolff’s first public criticism of Antonelli – Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s baptism into Formula 1 was always going to be brutal, but two chaotic weekends — first in Zandvoort, then at his home race in Monza — have intensified scrutiny on Mercedes’ bold gamble to fast-track him into Lewis Hamilton’s old seat.
Hamilton’s shock departure last winter, after refusing Toto Wolff’s infamous “one-plus-one” contract and being denied a ten-year ambassador role, opened the door for Antonelli’s promotion. The 18-year-old Italian had been part of Mercedes’ junior programme since 2018, collecting titles in Italian F4 and Formula Regional Middle East. But his sole season in Formula 2 exposed his inexperience: briefly leading the championship before fading to a distant sixth.
Still, Wolff placed the future of Mercedes in his hands. Early signs looked promising with five points finishes in his first six races, capped by a podium in Canada. But since Imola, baring his podium in Canada, Antonelli has managed just three additional points — a slump that deepened with a disastrous Dutch GP and what Wolff bluntly labelled an “underwhelming” Monza.
Antonelli accused of F4 driving standards
Antonelli arrived at Zandvoort vowing a “summer reset.” Instead, he delivered the most error-strewn weekend of his short F1 career. Knocked out in Q2, over a second slower than George Russell, he started 15th but fought forward thanks to a safety-car pit stop.
Then came the defining moment: a lunge on Charles Leclerc into the low line of Zandvoort’s banked Turn 3 — a move nobody attempts for good reason. Carrying too much speed, Antonelli understeered into the Ferrari, ending Leclerc’s race and picking up a 10-second penalty. Minutes later, he compounded the mess with a speeding violation in the pit lane.
1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve was merciless: “Very poor. A move you might see in Formula 4 or Formula 3 from a driver without experience. When you’re in F1, you make mistakes by pushing too hard or being on the limit. But this wasn’t that — it was just badly calculated. He shouldn’t have done it. And then he got all riled up and sped in the pit lane as well. Maybe F1 is just too much for him.”
Wolff initially looks on the bright side
When told Antonelli was still a teenager, Villeneuve snapped back: “No, he’s in Formula 1! What age was Max when he arrived? What age was Lewis? That’s not an excuse.”
The Canadian pointed out Antonelli was “two car lengths behind” before diving up the inside of there Ferrari. “On which planet did he think it would stick? Everyone knows the inside line there doesn’t work unless you’re already alongside. It was just poor calculation. And he should be better than that in F1.”
Wolff, by contrast, defended his rookie: “At the beginning of the year, we said there would be moments that would make us tear our hair out and others of brilliance. This weekend pretty much sums that up. We want him to go for the moves, obviously. Every one of those days is going to be a learning for next year.”
The Mercedes boss even tried to spin the manoeuvre as a crowd-pleasing show of aggression: “What if Kimi had overtaken a Ferrari? The people in Italy would have been happy. Italian fans want a driver that fights, that pushes the car to the limit and sometimes over it. That’s what happened today.”
McLaren boss predicts “loss of sportsmanship”
Toto’s first public criticism of Antonelli
While Wolff shielded Antonelli at Zandvoort, his tone after Monza was strikingly different. The Italian teenager arrived at his home Grand Prix desperate to rebound — but instead produced another error-strewn weekend. He put his Mercedes in the gravel in FP2, losing valuable long-run data. In the race, he botched the launch with heavy wheel spin, tumbling from sixth to tenth by Turn 1.
Though he clawed back to eighth on the road, his driving was ragged. He was shown the black-and-white flag for track limits, then handed a five-second penalty for forcing Alex Albon off track. Classified ninth at the flag, Antonelli trailed Russell by four places.
Wolff didn’t sugarcoat it: “Underwhelming this weekend. Underwhelming. You can’t put the car in the gravel bed and expect to be there. All of the race was underwhelming. It doesn’t change anything in my support and confidence in his future because I believe he’s going to be very, very, very good. But today was… underwhelming.”
Wow. Five times Toto describes Antonelli’s weekend using the same negative term and the rookie also admitted his mistakes cost him dearly: “I didn’t do long runs in FP2 because of my mistakes, so I wasn’t really prepared for the race. That also didn’t help.”
Villeneuve doubles down
Wolff believes Antonelli’s biggest issue now is psychological — carrying the “ballast” of past mistakes. “I think a clean weekend means almost not to carry too much trauma of previous mistakes into the next session or into the next weekend, because that is baggage. You’re not going to attack the corner hard if you’ve been off there before and it finished your session. Or maybe you’re not attacking a driver like Gasly because you had this situation with Leclerc. Kimi shouldn’t lose even a second on Gasly.”
Jacques Villeneuve doubled down on his comments made in Zandvoort claiming that Antonelli’s rookie errors are naïve, reckless, and proof he’s out of his depth. “You’re in a Mercedes, you’ve got millions of tests during winter, you’re prepared. You don’t get here as a young rookie, you get here well prepared.
“Your teammate is racing at the front, he’s got more than double your points. You can’t be satisfied with P9 and that kind of move in turn, if it’s a corner I don’t know, where he pushes another car off in the grass there. Yeah, Albon. You don’t do that in Formula 1, you do that in Formula 4 and even then, you don’t do that. He’s lucky he got only five seconds.”
Mercedes criticised over Kimi’s hype
The 1997 F1 champion believes Antonelli is facing the stern examination presently due to the way Mercedes prepared him to replace Lewis Hamilton. “He’s paying the price for the way he was brought into Formula 1. He’s brought in with a big hoopla; he’s the next Max Verstappen, he’s the next Lewis Hamilton, he’s actually replacing Lewis Hamilton.
“So when you come in with that kind of image, you need to be on it the same way Max was when he came in, the same Lewis was when he came in. And that’s what’s not been happening and he hasn’t been making progress. That’s the biggest issue.”
Antonelli’s antics in Monza now see him suffer another embarrassing moment in time as Alex Albon in a Williams car is now ahead of him in the driver’s title race by four points. The Italian’s team mate George Russell is just shy of having racked up more than three times the points of his rookie team mate ad it is Antonelli who is solely responsible for Mercedes being now 20 points behind Ferrari who are second in the constructors’ championship.
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Stanton is a London-based journalist specialising in sports business and sponsorship. With a degree in economics and years reporting for business-focused publications, Stanton translates F1’s complex financial world into clear, compelling narratives.
