Toto Wolff reacted last weekend in Hungary to Mercedes protégé Andrea Kimi Antonelli unexpectedly casting a doubt over his own readiness for a Formula 1 seat in 2025.
The 17-year-old charger has been earmarked by Wolff as the most likely candidate to fill Lewis Hamilton’s vacant seat at Mercedes for next season.
Antonelli, who currently compete in the FIA Formula 2 Championship with Prema, has enjoyed a mercurial rise through the ranks, bypassing F3 and jumping straight from Formula Regional to F2.
The Italian teenager conquered his first win in the feeder series at Silverstone earlier this month when he reigned supreme in the Saturday sprint event held in the wet.
He then enjoyed another dominant win in last Sunday’s feature race at the Hungaroring, although a late Safety Car significantly helped his cause by allowing him to undertake his mandatory pitstop during the neutralization and therefore lose only a minimum of time.
Asked after the race if his performances with Prema, which have so far outshone those of his teammate and future Haas F1 driver Ollie Bearman, have convinced him that he is also worthy of a promotion to F1 despite his lack of experience, Antonelli offered a somewhat surprising reply.
"I don't know if I will be ready, to be honest. I'm still learning a lot in F2,” he said.
"I definitely still make a lot of mistakes and the details that really matter, I'm still not doing everything right. I just want to be honest."
Addressing the Mercedes junior’s comment, Wolff used a bit of humor to deride the latter while praising Antonelli’s performances. However, the Austrian suggested that the young gun’s results in F2 aren’t the sole indicator to evaluate his potential.
"I know that we sometimes forget - remind yourself how stupid we were at 17," the 52-year-old told the media in Hungary.
"I clearly can tell you, my lack of maturity would never [have] allowed me to take clear decisions in such a highly competitive field."
"And he's a few years from just being in karting, and then in Formula Regional, and now he's in F2, under the eyes of the world for this Mercedes seat.
"So, what I'd like to see from him is doing mistakes and learning from them. Continuing to guide the team how to improve performance for Prema, and tyre management, leading the race within the tyre [life] - and all that was done [in the F2 feature race in Hungary].
"And now we get to see if he can consolidate on that level, but in F2 it's always difficult to judge, so what we see ourselves in the data of the Formula 1 tests, that's encouraging."
Nevertheless, Wolff was impressed with the Italian’s display in Sunday’s feature racen calling it a veritable “statement”.
"Kimi did a good job [in the feature race]. That was a dominant win on two different tyre compounds," he said.
"He was really strong and it was deserved, but we have never doubted his pace. The speed is about learning in such a fast development, and it's about learning tyre management and all these things - and that's why [his victory] was a statement."
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