{"id":798299,"date":"2026-07-13T03:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T03:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/798299\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T03:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T03:36:10","slug":"mercedes-f1-boss-toto-wolff-fires-kimi-antonelli-warning-as-lewis-hamilton-threat-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/798299\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff fires Kimi Antonelli warning as Lewis Hamilton threat looms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mercedes<\/a> F1 boss Toto Wolff has warned his driver Kimi Antonelli against complacency, as he looks to steer the team towards two championship titles this year. <\/p>\n

\nMercedes have not won a championship double since the 2020 season, when Lewis Hamilton<\/a> claimed his seventh drivers’ championship, and the team secured a seventh consecutive constructors’ title. <\/p>\n

\nNow, Mercedes have a real chance of achieving that again, with Antonelli and George Russell both fighting for the drivers’ championship, and the team 76 points ahead of Ferrari in the constructors’ championship.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Article continues under video<\/p>\n

\nHowever, there is a threat from behind, with Hamilton and his Ferrari<\/a> team resurgent as they hunt a first title of any kind since 2008. <\/p>\n

\nFerrari have won two of the last three grands prix, with Hamilton winning in Barcelona<\/a>, before Charles Leclerc’s victory at the British Grand Prix last weekend.<\/a> <\/p>\n

\nWith Antonelli failing to score points at Silverstone, it means that Hamilton is now just 32 points behind Antonelli in the drivers’ championship. <\/p>\n

\nREAD MORE: Ferrari F1 boss opens up on Lewis Hamilton contract extension<\/a> <\/p>\n

Antonelli under fire<\/p>\n

\nHaving won five consecutive grands prix between the Chinese GP and the Monaco GP in June, Antonelli was flying high in the drivers’ championship, 68 points ahead of team-mate Russell. <\/p>\n

\nSince Monaco, however, he has scored just 23 points from three grand prix weekends, and is now only 25 points ahead of Russell. <\/p>\n

\nWolff has now warned him not to get complacent, reminding the young Italian that, as things stand, he is only a five-time grand prix winner, rather than a champion. <\/p>\n

\n“We knew he needed a year to settle in and grow because Formula 1 is a completely different world than the smaller series,” Wolff told Gazzetta<\/a> about Antonelli’s form. “He had to adapt to the car and learn to manage commitments with sponsors and the media. <\/p>\n

\n“The goal was always to improve in his second season. And he did just that, driving at a very high level and achieving extraordinary results. Right now, he’s exceeding our wildest expectations, but he shouldn’t get complacent. Everyone is praising him, but I always ask him to maintain balance. <\/p>\n

\n“We can’t compare him to Ayrton Senna, who won three titles and is one of the most iconic drivers of all time. Kimi won five races, so let’s let him grow.” <\/p>\n

\nF1 HEADLINES: Lewis Hamilton contract update and Ferrari cost cap controversy<\/a><\/p>\n

Related\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has warned his driver Kimi Antonelli against complacency, as he looks to steer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,1881,44,3630,82],"class_list":["post-798299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-mercedes","tag-news","tag-sam-cook","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}