Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has issued his sternest assessment yet of rookie Kimi Antonelli, branding the teenager’s Italian Grand Prix display “underwhelming” — while stressing that his long-term faith in the youngster remains intact.
Antonelli came to Monza eager to rebound after his crash-strewn outing in Zandvoort, but instead endured another error-heavy weekend in front of the home fans.
A trip into the gravel trap during second practice cut short his long-run preparations, before a poor getaway in Sunday’s race dropped him from sixth to tenth on the opening lap.
Though he recovered to finish eighth on the road, repeated track limits violations and a five-second penalty for forcing Alex Albon wide relegated him to ninth, well behind Mercedes teammate George Russell in fifth.
Wolff, usually quick to shield his rookie from scrutiny, didn’t hold back his criticism this time.
“Underwhelming this weekend. Underwhelming,” he said. “You can’t put the car in the gravel bed and expect to be there. All of the race was underwhelming.
“It doesn’t change anything in my support and confidence in his future because I believe he’s going to be very, very, very good — but today was… underwhelming.”
Antonelli admitted his own role in the struggles.
“I didn’t do long runs in FP2 because of my mistakes, so I wasn’t really prepared for the race,” he conceded. “That also didn’t help.”
For Wolff, the concern is not Antonelli’sraw pace but a pattern of early-weekend mistakes that snowball into lost preparation and diminished confidence.
“A clean weekend means almost not to carry too much trauma of previous mistakes into the next session or into the next weekend, because that is baggage,” he explained.
“You’re not going to attack the corner hard if you’ve been off there before and it finished your session.
“Or maybe you’re not attacking a driver that should not be in your way like Gasly, because he had this situation with Leclerc. Kimi shouldn’t lose even a second on Gasly.”
Still, Wolff underlined his conviction that Antonelli’s ceiling is sky-high.
“He’s a great driver,” he said. “He has this unbelievable ability and natural talent. He’s a racer. It’s all there. But we need to get rid of the ballast. It’s just freeing him up. Freeing him up.”
Antonelli’s ninth place at Monza leaves him eighth in the championship, with the Mercedes junior still seeking his first standout weekend in Formula 1.
While Mercedes has yet to finalise its driver line-up for 2026, Wolff reiterated that Antonelli remains central to the team’s long-term plans – though with a clear message that the Italian must shake off the errors if he is to deliver on his potential.
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