Wolff<\/a> said on Sunday evening. \u201cGetting off the start with the inferior tyre, and then controlling it at all times. The race of a champion \u2013 who isn’t the champion yet \u2013 but exceptional.<\/p>\n\u201cAnd so I think he’s outperformed the car. Maybe it’s a bit harsh to say, but I think his driving style just glues with the car. We saw that in Qualifying yesterday, where on his last lap he could have been another tenth and a half or two up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if he really thought that Austin outranked Antonelli\u2019s charge from the back to victory at Monza, Wolff stuck to his guns.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve said that this is probably the best race I’ve seen, but my problem is that I don’t remember past races!\u201d he joked. \u201cSo now you saying Monza, it was actually also pretty good, obviously with the advantage of the home crowd and seeing all these Tifosi that were a little bit confused wearing red and hearing the Italian anthem, but with the Mercedes outfit up on the podium.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we’re going to see more Kimi caps, Mercedes caps next year. Yeah, so both of them were pretty good. But the headline \u2018this is the best\u2019 we can keep!\u201d<\/p>\n
Reflecting on Antonelli\u2019s form in 2026, Wolff also noted how relaxed the Italian remains despite the pressure surrounding the World Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think maybe it was his benefit that the regulations were all new,\u201d he said. \u201cLast year he came in, and those cars existed for four years. The other drivers were used to it, and all new for everyone this year. And he just made it stick, with his mindset, with his easiness about approaching things.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s come to my office before getting ready, before getting dressed, and just sat down on that sofa and said, \u2018I’m going to enjoy this one. And isn’t it funny? I’m not thinking at all about the championship.\u2019 And I said, \u2018Well, exactly. Stick to that attitude. You have the best job in the world. Don’t forget that.\u2019 So he has also the right mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wolff admitted that he still can\u2019t quite comprehend the scale of the step Antonelli has made since last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s been 30 or more years that I’ve tried to understand the racing driver’s brains, and I still don’t know what has happened over the winter. His ability to process and deliver something that’s outstanding, which we didn’t see coming.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut credit to him, credit to his engineers, to his environment, his family that he’s delivered in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Naturally, Wolff is being cautious given that the title is not yet won. However when asked if he was proud of his own involvement in Kimi\u2019s career \u2013 given that he is 99.9 percent of the way there \u2013 he provided an interesting insight.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all, thank you, but I wasn’t the one responsible for it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was teamwork. It was our junior team around Gwen [Lagrue] that discovered him when he was 11, and credit to that group that have developed him over the many years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI read an interview of Piero Ferrari last week where he said, \u2018What a talent!\u2019 He reminds him of Niki Lauda. And I’m thinking, people don’t get that this is the work of nine years, the development of nine years, the hardship over nine years, the integration of the team, the working with the engineers, the 10 or more millions spent in the development of his career, of his ability, of his character, together with his parents, and it’s just not that it landed like this.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe many people that said last year after nine races without points he shouldn’t be in a Mercedes. People that in other teams that said he shouldn’t even be in Formula 1. The tears in Spa in in Parc Ferme, and all of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow it’s extremely satisfying to see what he’s able to deliver, how he’s working with the team, with Bono, and yielding the results. But it wasn’t an easy road. So yeah, I’m happy that like you say, it\u2019s 99.9 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe still needs to finish the race in Mexico. So it’s either going to be a big tequila party, or if it’s not a tequila party, then it’s going to be caipirinha the weekend afterwards\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kimi Antonelli has claimed several memorable victories in 2026, but Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff believes his United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-946398","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-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946398","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=946398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}