Toto Wolff stunned in Kimi Antonelli ‘wild’ versus ‘donkey’ verdict

Toto Wolff expected brilliance from Kimi Antonelli — just not three wins and a place in the F1 record books after four races.

But then again, it’s easier calming down a “wild” driver with pace than it is getting a “donkey” to speed up.

Kimi Antonelli turns first three poles into wins to make F1 history

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Four grand prix weekends into the F1 2026 season and Antonelli has already written his name into F1’s record books on two separate occasions.

He became the sport’s youngest-ever championship leader at 19 years and 216 days when he won the Japanese Grand Prix and pulled nine points clear of his teammate George Russell.

A week later, he again wrote his name in the annals when he turned his pole position at the Miami Grand Prix into a race win.

It was the first time in the sport’s history that a driver had converted his first three pole positions into race wins.

He also extended his lead over his experienced teammate to 20 points.

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“Absolutely [I’m surprised],” Wolff explained to Gazzetta dello Sport.

“Last year, I often repeated, taking an 18-year-old into the team would have made us experience moments of celebration and others in which we would have liked to tear our hair out for his mistakes, but it was a necessary path to get him to know the team.

“I expected a good start, but I have to admit three wins in a row were not something we had expected.

“What we love about this sport is that the clock never lies at the end of the race,” he added. “The clock says Kimi has deservedly won the last three GPs.

“Russell hasn’t done as well, in some cases due to team problems, bad luck, and in Miami due to his own mistakes.

“That said, we know George’s value and we know he’ll return, starting from Canada, very competitive and ready to make life difficult for his opponents.”

Antonelli’s season, though, didn’t start well as while the Mercedes W17 showed incredible pace at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, the Italian was only spared from a costly mistake by the hard work from his mechanics.

The 19-year-old crashed late in FP3 on the Saturday, wrecking his W17 and leaving his team just two-and-a-half hours to make major repairs.

Mercedes was handed a few extra minutes by Max Verstappen’s Q1 crash, and Antonelli made it out of the pits with just enough time to complete one flying lap in Q1.

He went on to qualify second behind Russell and raced his way to P2 in the grand prix. He is the only driver to reach the podium in all four of this year’s grands prix.

“It is easier to calm someone down that is wild, because you won’t be able to accelerate a donkey,” Wolff told PlanetF1.com and other media.

“For me, that [Miami] was his best race so far.

“It reminds me of his karting days, Formula 4, there were no mistakes.”

Formula 1 next heads to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, the third Sprint event of the championship. Although Antonelli has shone in the grands prix, he has yet to finish inside the top three in the shorter races.

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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