Steiner accuses Wolff of ‘self-promotional’ Antonelli radio message after China win

Guenther Steiner has called out Toto Wolff for what he saw as “self-promotional” after Kimi Antonelli clinched his maiden grand prix victory in China.

Just one week after he suffered a massive crash during the Australian Grand Prix weekend when he made a mistake during a qualifying simulation in FP3, Antonelli made Formula 1 history at the Shanghai International Circuit when he claimed pole position.

Guenther Steiner questions Toto Wolff radio message over Kimi Antonelli win

Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trust

The Italian, 19 years, 6 months and 18 days, became Formula 1’s youngest-ever pole-sitter when he beat his teammate George Russell in Saturday’s qualifying.

A day later, Antonelli converted his pole into a maiden grand prix win, having put in a near-flawless drive.

Wolff’s message over the radio was telling.

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

For Steiner, though, that message wasn’t about praising Antonelli; it was about applauding himself.

“It was total self-promotional,” the former Haas team boss told the Red Flags podcast. “It was like, ‘Make sure that everybody knows that I didn’t do anything wrong’.

“Toto wouldn’t need that, but I think he has got a little bit of a complex there.

“I mean, the guy won. You don’t need to explain it now, Toto. Everybody believes it. You can see it, you can feel it, you can hear it. You don’t have to tell everybody, ‘Yeah, because everybody doubted me’.

“In the end, Kimi did it and not Toto. We always have to respect that as well.

“Toto, as I said, doesn’t need to do that. I don’t know why he does it. To each his own.”

Kimi Antonelli’s Chinese GP success

How Kimi Antonelli broke long-standing record to make F1 history

Kimi Antonelli wins Chinese Grand Prix after McLaren double DNS chaos

But is a bit of ‘self-promotion’ justified?

A part-owner of the Mercedes F1 team, Wolff brought Antonelli into the fold in 2019, signing the driver who was barely a teenager.

Watching as his young charge stormed through the junior ranks, Wolff made the call for him to skip Formula 3 and jump straight from Formula Regional to Formula 2 where Antonelli was P6 in 2024.

He then took the gamble of putting the Italian in the Mercedes W16 after just one year in F2, ignoring warnings from pundits and fans to instead give Antonelli a year or two with Williams, as he had done with Russell.

The teenager crashing on his F1 debut in FP1 at the 2024 Italian Grand Prix added to the doubts from those outside of Mercedes.

Wolff, though, threw his support behind his driver, “These moments, they will happen, and they will continue to happen next year, but there would also be a lot of highlights. And I think what we’ve seen today was we’d rather have a problem in slowing him down than making him faster.”

The very next day, he confirmed Antonelli would replace Lewis Hamilton as a 2025 Mercedes driver.

Antonelli’s first season in Formula 1 was a mix of highs and lows as he grabbed a pole in the Miami Sprint and three podium results. But he also suffered a mid-season slump, had a disappointing weekend at Monza, and crashed into Max Verstappen in an ill-judged move in Austria.

Two races into his second season with Mercedes, Antonelli has already had lows and highs, starting with a huge crash in FP3 in Australia and ending with a maiden grand prix win in China.

For Wolff, it’s a gamble that is showing signs of paying off.

Surely, he has the right to a little bit of self-promotion?

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!

Read next: Max Verstappen receives cheeky BMW offer after Mercedes GT switch