Wolff defends Antonelli after FP1 crash: ‘Circumstances are guilty’

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff suggested that “circumstances are guilty” regarding Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s heavy crash in Friday’s opening practice at Monza, meaning that pressure and the weight of expectation got the better of the young Italian.

The 18-year-old highly rated young gun, who is expected to replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes next season, made a strong start in the session, setting the fastest time on his first flying lap.

Pumped and evidently confident, Antonelli was fastest in the second sector when he barreled down towards Parabolica but carried too much speed into the corner, spinning off and crashing heavily into the barrier.

Wolff was quick to console the teenager over the radio, but Antonelli’s limited run and subsequent crash were certainly not the ideal debut.

“It is the team that takes the decision whether to hire a driver or not and who to put in FP1 or not and we are running fully conscious into this driver decision, fully conscious of what can happen, what to expect and managing the expectations,” commented Wolff.

“Clearly here, with everything piling up on him in Monza, that is very difficult to cope with. Is that the reason why he put it in the wall? Maybe.”

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Wolff pointed out the challenging circumstances Antonelli faced, including the intense scrutiny of making his debut in Italy, a country eager to see its drivers succeed in top teams.

“I think the circumstances are guilty…you are under the magnifying glass because it all happens in Monza, it has been a while since an Italian driver was in a top team, this can be a lot for an 18-year-old,” he added.

“For him, it feels certainly terrible, but it is part of the development curve. What we see is there is performance, and we have even seen that in the few laps we have seen but what he did, the car couldn’t take.”

Despite the crash, Wolff remains optimistic about Antonelli's future and hinted at his resilience, stating that the young driver will have another opportunity to shine behind the wheel during FP1 in Mexico.

“I think a strong driver needs to recover from these things, cope with the pressure but obviously this weekend wasn’t easy for him; you still need to compete in F2, you have all these shenanigans around you in Monza, an Italian kid that is being hyped, first time in a Mercedes car…

“That must be a heavy burden but if he wants to be a champion one day he needs to cope with that and I’ve no doubt that he can and he will.”

Despite the blunder and limited track time, Wolff saw clear potential in Antonelli’s brief performance.

“It is unfortunate, having an hour to run we would have seen some good performances but that is what we have always said, he is a rookie, he is very young, and we are prepared to invest in his future,” the Austrian added.

“These moments will happen; they will continue to happen next year but there will also be a lot of highlights. We rather have a problem in slowing him down rather than making him faster, what we have seen in one and a half laps is just astonishing.”

It obviously wasn’t lost on Wolff that Antonelli had emerged unscathed from a massive 45G impact.

“Most importantly he is OK because the crash was 45g so that is important,” he said. “The second priority is to get the car ready for George so the programme doesn’t suffer too much, it may run a little bit late.

“He apologised, first of all, and that is what you need to do when you bring a car back that is a little bit like a Lego box falling on the floor, but he said he felt so much confidence in the car.

“I guess he was just bitten, everyone suffered from the temperature, especially rear temperatures around Ascari at these kinds of speeds – that is why the rear stepped out."

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