After hailing Andrea Kimi Antonelli for several months, Toto Wolff has started to manage expectations about the risk factor of promoting the 18-year-old prodigy. Although there is no denying that Antonelli is entering F1 with an impeccable junior career record, Wolff has mellowed down everyone’s expectations of seeing miracles from the Italian right from the word go.
Firstly, the Mercedes team principal stated that the 2025 season will be a year of transition for the team. So, that naturally takes off a lot of pressure from Antonelli‘s shoulders. The Mercedes academy graduate may not have to necessarily deliver top-class results in his rookie year with some room to make mistakes.
Wolff highlighted this in a recent interview, wherein he also mentioned the discussions they have held about Antonelli at the top management level at Mercedes. “If you expect him to be on pole position in Melbourne, win the race, and immediately fight for the championship, then the risk is high because that won’t happen,” he said.
Will Antonelli’s FP1 crash have any impact on the decision Mercedes makes on its driver line-up?
Well, no. It will have “zero effect”, according to Toto Wolff – who intends to “hire based on ability”. pic.twitter.com/ANtRTnWSyr
— The Race (@wearetherace) August 30, 2024
The 53-year-old stated that they have to view him for who he is — an 18-year-old who is likely to make mistakes and grow into a reliable F1 driver over time. Wolff has reiterated that Mercedes are focusing on preparing him for the 2026 season when new engine and aero regulations come into effect, something they have communicated to the shareholders as well.
“[We have managed expectations] by warning all our shareholders not to believe that the good test results will simply be translated into the race,” Wolff added.
Mercedes always aimed at fast-tracking Antonelli to F1, with the way they provided Lewis Hamilton with a short-term contract in mid-2023. On top of that, when Hamilton finalized his deal with Ferrari, Wolff, and Co. made the Italian driver skip F3 altogether to directly compete in F2.
Why did Wolff and Mercedes fast-track Antonelli?
Wolff had explicitly stated numerous times that he regrets losing out on Max Verstappen back in 2014-15. The Mercedes boss did not have a vacant seat in F1 to offer the Dutchman a pathway to the pinnacle of motorsport back then. That is how a generational talent like Verstappen ended up with the Red Bull stable.
While Hamilton’s move to Ferrari was the main stimulus for Wolff to promote Antonelli’s prospects for a full-time F1 seat, he had kept the Italian in the pipeline. The Austrian did not wish to have a repeat of Verstappen’s situation from a decade ago.
As the seven-time world champion surprisingly vacated his seat for 2025, Wolff started to figure out a trajectory for Antonelli to step up to F1 with Mercedes as soon as possible. While he was all set to race in F2, the 53-year-old increased the intensity and frequency of his F1 testing program last year to groom him in F1 machinery.
As for Antonelli’s F2 campaign, it was a bit of a mixed-bag season relative to his high standards. A sixth-place finish in the championship standings with only two race wins did not reflect the credentials of a future F1 world champion.
Nevertheless, Wolff and Mercedes felt that he did an exceptional job to eke out that sort of a season while driving a troubled Prema car, considering his teammate Oliver Bearman finished only 12th. The Silver Arrows will hope that Antonelli keeps building as he has so far to develop into an elite champion driver for them in the long-term future.
