Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes Andrea Kimi Antonelli should be able to “kill it” at circuits he has not been used to in his rookie Formula 1 campaign after taking a career-best second at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The Italian rookie performed admirably all weekend, taking second in qualifying for Saturday’s Sprint Race, and finishing in the same spot in the race itself.
Antonelli repeated the feat for the Grand Prix, qualifying second, and, despite a brush with Oscar Piastri early on in the race, came through to take second – his best result in F1 so far.
Not only was the result, standalone, an impressive one, but made even more so given he outperformed team-mate George Russell over the course of the weekend, and on a circuit on which he had previously not raced.
Despite copping a degree of criticism from Charles Leclerc and Andrea Stella for his role in his contact with Piastri [which earned the Aussie a 10-second time penalty], Wolff sideswiped any negative assertions on his weekend with some words of praise.
“I think all weekend it was strong, from the get-go. It’s good to see,” the Austrian told media including Motorsport Week.
“Maybe it was coming to a track that he didn’t know, it’s a bit easier. Expectations are maybe lower. Maybe pressure is not as high as some of the Europeans and then the execution was faultless at the end.
“Being able to fight off Max on a newer and softer tyre, that was really strong and testament to what’s to come.”
Wolff had previously acknowledged that Antonelli had been placed under pressure through being tasked with driving for such a top team in his rookie season.
Antonelli suffered a barren run without any points during the European leg of the season, amid the W16’s inability to perform consistently, with Russell’s experience hauling it to better results.
That, coupled with some quite literal ‘rookie errors’ caused some to question whether he was capable or whether the pressure was too high.
But Wolff said that 2025 was always going to be his “learning year,” with expectations rising for 2026 after having had a year’s worth of racing under his belt.
“I think it’s a development,” he said. “Next year he will come to these tracks that he knows without expecting to kill it. And that’s the learning year, the year that we always expected to come with all the ups and downs.
“Today is an up, definitely, a good moment. There will be more difficult ones. Let’s see the next three races. I think we’re seeing the young boy becoming a young man and performing.”
Antonelli has had to ‘manage his own expectations’ in debut F1 season
Antonelli faced additional spotlight and scrutiny by default, given that he was replacing Lewis Hamilton at the German marque, perhaps the highest of all bars set for any driver, let alone a teenage rookie.
Wolff indicated that Antonelli has also had to face some realism from his own perspective, as racing on a myriad of tracks he has previously competed on, will have perhaps given him cause to be more confident.
“I think it’s also managing his own expectations,” Wolff explained. “He’s so young, he’s just 19 years old.
“You come to a track where you know you’ve performed very well in the past, won some of the European ones, and you’re on the back foot. You have a sensational team-mate that is as good as it gets.
“And I think coming to a track that you don’t know is almost like less pressure. Your expectations are lower, everybody else’s expectations are lower.
“The fan pressure is less than some of the European tracks and I think that plays a role.”
READ MORE – McLaren: Kimi Antonelli should ‘share responsibility’ with Oscar Piastri for F1 Brazil GP clash
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