{"id":347431,"date":"2025-12-14T12:18:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T12:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/347431\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T12:18:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T12:18:11","slug":"you-have-to-remind-yourself-that-hes-just-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/347431\/","title":{"rendered":"You have to remind yourself that he’s just 19"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mercedes<\/a> Formula 1 team principal Toto Wolff couldn\u2019t have coped with Andrea Kimi Antonelli<\/a>\u2019s pressure as a 19-year-old, explaining he was \u201ca bit of an idiot\u201d at that age.<\/p>\n

Antonelli became F1\u2019s third-youngest driver in history this season at 18 years old thanks to his single-seater prowess \u2013 four titles in Formula 4 and Formula Regional. He also was the first F1 debutant in a top team since Lewis Hamilton<\/a> at McLaren<\/a> and Heikki Kovalainen<\/a> at Renault in 2007.<\/p>\n

Antonelli had shown signs of being affected by pressure in a home outing at Monza last year, crashing out of FP1 on his first push lap, and struggled again under the weight of expectations in 2025 \u2013 with waves of social media abuse compounding his issues.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

Still, Mercedes chiefs have enthused about the Italian youngster\u2019s professional attitude relative to his age.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say it’s almost been a game of three thirds,\u201d Mercedes High Performance Powertrains managing director Hywel Thomas told the Beyond The Grid podcast about Antonelli\u2019s maiden season, after the rookie came seventh in the 2025 drivers\u2019 championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause he came into the team, and of course in those early races you’re like, \u2018Wow, this is incredible, that this guy with such little experience is really putting it out there\u2019. Then he had his blip and the results weren’t there. And now he’s come back super strong. Really impressive.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd to think, you know, he’s the age that he is and he’s dealing with it all. And he’s very, very intelligent. He deals with people really, really well, and [he\u2019s] very, very mature. Now, I’ve got kids his age and they’re not that mature, I can tell you that for nothing, they wouldn’t like to hear that, but they’re not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Andrea <\/p>\n

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Toto Wolff, Mercedes<\/p>\n

Photo by: Sam Bloxham \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Wolff concurred: \u201cThe thing is that when we speak with Kimi, we are brutally honest when it’s good and when it’s bad. And then you remind yourself that you’re not sitting opposite an adult. Kimi’s more kid than an adult.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you have to remind yourself that he’s just 19. Yes, he’s a pro in the car and he’s been karting all his life and racing all his life. But from the maturity, we’re expecting an acceleration of growth that is almost too difficult. He’s been thrown into this, and I think when you look at some of the worse races, it’s just overwhelming the experience that he’s making with all of the interest, the media pressure \u2013 they’re writing you up and down.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have an extremely quick and experienced team-mate [George Russell<\/a>] and he’s still coping. And I think that shows that he has great potential for the future, because like Hywel says, when I was 19, I was a bit of an idiot. I wouldn’t have been able to cope with the pressures that he is. And that’s why, when I talk to him, I’m a little bit harsh with him, I need to almost take myself back and say, \u2018Hold on a minute, you know, he’s a kid\u2019. And that’s quite an interesting learning for us also.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

We want to hear from you!<\/p>\n

Let us know what you would like to see from us in the future.<\/p>\n

Take our survey<\/a><\/p>\n

– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mercedes Formula 1 team principal Toto Wolff couldn\u2019t have coped with Andrea Kimi Antonelli\u2019s pressure as a 19-year-old,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[187638,12295,64,63,817,813,816,945,85,191886,169580],"class_list":["post-347431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-abu-dhabi-testing","tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-mercedes","tag-sports","tag-wolff-on-f1-rookie-antonelli-you-have-to-remind-yourself-that-hes-just-19","tag-yas-marina-circuit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}