Toto Wolff delivers stinging ‘underwhelming’ Kimi Antonelli Italian GP assessment

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff still has faith in Kimi Antonelli, but gave a damning assessment of his performance at Monza.

Crossing the line ninth behind Williams driver Alex Albon and Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, Wolff was far from impressed with what he saw from Antonelli, as he pointed to a Friday off, and losing time to Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, as glaring issues.

Toto Wolff on Kimi Antonelli: ‘Underwhelming this weekend’

Antonelli has endured a challenging rookie F1 season with Mercedes, though Wolff has consistently stressed that they accepted moments of tearing their hair out with the young Italian in F1 2025 as he gets up to speed.

Yet, it could be argued that Antonelli has suffered more setbacks than anticipated, and after the Italian Grand Prix, Wolff turned critical of Antonelli for the first time regarding his performance.

Antonelli put himself on the back foot by getting beached in the Monza gravel early in FP2. The 19-year-old recovered to qualify on the third row alongside Mercedes team-mate George Russell, but once the chequered flag fell on Sunday, there were four positions and 27 seconds between them.

Wolff was not impressed.

“Underwhelming this weekend, underwhelming,” he told PlanetF1.com’s Thomas Maher and other media outlets of Antonelli’s performance.

“He can’t put the car in the gravel bed and then to expect to be there. All of the race was underwhelming.

“Doesn’t change anything on my support and confidence in his future, because I believe he’s going to be very, very, very good. But, today was underwhelming.”

George Russell and Kimi Antonelli head-to-head in F1 2025

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

In Zandvoort, Antonelli’s race ended when he tried to pass Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s move down the inside of the banked Turn 3 eliminated them both.

As for Monza, Wolff disapprovingly pointed to Antonelli losing time versus Gasly.

Put to him that Antonelli seems to be struggling for a clean weekend, Wolff replied: “I think a clean weekend also means almost, not to carry too much trauma of previous mistakes into the next session or into the next weekend, because that is luggage.

“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 we had this situation with Leclerc. I mean, Kimi shouldn’t lose even a second with Gasly.”

As for how Mercedes get Antonelli back on the right path for F1 2026, when sweeping chassis and engine regulation changes arrive, Wolff added: “I think just freeing him up, freeing him up. Drive.

“He’s a great driver. He has this unbelievable ability and natural talent. He’s a racer. This is all there.

“But, we need to get rid of the ballast.”

Antonelli dropped to eighth in the Drivers’ Championship, behind Albon, after Monza.

Read next: McLaren warned of ‘very difficult precedent to undo’ by Toto Wolff