Toto Wolff told Kimi Antonelli to ‘stop nonsense’ in China win

Toto Wolff told Kimi Antonelli to stop his “nonsense” during Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix as the Italian raced to victory ahead of his teammate George Russell.

Antonelli made F1 history at the Shanghai Circuit as the Italian, at just 19 years, six months and 18 days old, became the sport’s youngest-ever pole-sitter. He beat Sebastian Vettel’s record of 21 years, two months and 11 days.

Toto Wolff tells Kimi Antonelli to ‘stop nonsense’ during Chinese Grand Prix win

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Lining up P1 on the grid for the first time, Antonelli wasn’t in a position to break the youngest race winner record as Max Verstappen had secured that at 18 years, seven months and 15 days old, but, more importantly, there was a first grand prix win on the cards.

The Mercedes driver lost the lead to Lewis Hamilton into Turn 1, but was back up to P1 on the second lap when he powered past the Ferrari driver into the hairpin. From there, Antonelli didn’t look back.

He put in a near-flawless display as he built up a lead over the squabbling trio of George Russell, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

It meant Antonelli went into the final three laps leading his Mercedes teammate by nine seconds. However, a lock-up and off at the hairpin, a driver error, saw his lead slashed by Russell.

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Wolff was immediately on the radio to Antonelli’s race engineer Peter Bonnington.

“That’s typical Kimi, and I said to Bono, ‘Tell him to stop with this nonsense. We just need to drive it home, we don’t need any fastest laps anymore’,” he told F1TV.

“But that’s him.”

Antonelli took the chequered flag five seconds ahead of Russell with his predecessor at Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton, in third place.

The Italian’s victory prompted a telling message from Wolff to his young driver over the radio.

“He’s too young. We shouldn’t put him in a Mercedes. Put him in a smaller team. He needs the experience. Look at the mistakes he makes,” Wolff said.

“Here we go Kimi. Victory.”

The Austrian was asked about that message when he spoke with the media after the Shanghai race.

“You know when things go bad, there are the people that come out and say ‘that was a bad decision, and Mercedes took too much risk’, and it was never like really harsh criticism, because people recognise the talent that he has,” he explained.

“But there were many voices within the sport and outside that said that was a mistake so it’s nice to have a little remark.”

“But,” he continued, “obviously it’s one race win. Today, it’s great. In two weeks we are in Japan, and he puts it in the wall.

“So I think we need to just keep feet on the ground.

“Remember last year, Kimi and whatever it was, and there was an avalanche of pressure. There shouldn’t be any pressure at the moment.”

The Austrian doubled down on his belief in the Italian racer.

“Absolutely,” he said. “It’s been such a long road with him, since he was 11 he was a Mercedes junior. Many people last year in those bad moments when he crashed the car and even in Monza at the first one, said ‘don’t you think he’s too young, shouldn’t you put him in a smaller team with less pressure?’

“But we continued in our belief that he can do that, and now we are reaping the rewards. And he’s won his first grand prix.”

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