Mercedes AMG Formula One team principal Toto Wolff stated that he plans to talk with his driver, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, after the Italian Grand Prix at Monza due to the “luggage” he carries forward from the previous races. Despite the rookie driver securing a P9 finish in the points, Wolff described his performance as “underwhelming.”
Kimi Antonelli’s recent rookie crashes have caught the eye of Wolff. The most recent major crash was from the Dutch Grand Prix, where he knocked out Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc from the race. At Monza, the 19-year-old driver beached his Mercedes W16 F1 car in FP2, bringing the session to an end.
During the Grand Prix, Antonelli dropped from P8 to P9 due to a five-second penalty for forcing Alex Albon off the race track. When Wolff was asked about the Italian driver’s performance at Monza, when compared to his run at Imola, he said:
“Underwhelming this weekend, underwhelming. You can’t put the car in the gravel bed and then expect to be there, and all of the race was underwhelming. It 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.”
Toto Wolff, Executive Director of Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team looks on during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Belgium at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on July 26, 2025 in Spa, Belgium.
Toto Wolff, Executive Director of Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team looks on during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Belgium at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on July 26, 2025 in Spa, Belgium.
Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images
Wolff reckoned that the impact of Antonelli’s previous mistakes is weighing him down. He added:
“I think a clean weekend also means almost not to carry too much trauma of previous mistakes into the next session or into the next weekend, because that is luggage.
“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 that should not be in your way, like [Pierre] Gasly, because he had this situation with [Charles] Leclerc. I mean, Kimi shouldn’t lose even a second with Gasly.”
The team principal said that freeing him up from the “ballast” would help him improve. He said:
“I think just freeing him up, freeing him up to drive. He’s a great driver. He has this unbelievable ability and natural talent. He’s a racer. This is all there, but we need to get rid of the ballast.”
When asked how he would help Antonelli free up, Wolff said: “By talking.”
Wolff revealed that his team has not been putting too much “emphasis” on the remaining races of the 2025 season, when asked if Mercedes could have chosen a low drag setup at Monza. He said:
“We have opted not to put so much emphasis anymore on the remaining races this year. But, nevertheless, the track characteristics should have been a little bit more good for us, and we didn’t perform on that level that we should have.”