Toto Wolff comment ‘not the best’ as Kimi Antonelli responds to ‘underwhelming’ verdict

Toto Wolff bluntly described Kimi Antonelli’s performance as “underwhelming” at Monza, the kind of frank assessment which the Mercedes boss had not made publicly about his rookie driver previously.

Antonelli says such a comment was “not the best”, but he does agree with Wolff’s verdict. He has been given clear marching orders going forward to execute a clean race weekend.

Kimi Antonelli agrees with Toto Wolff on ‘underwhelming’ Monza

After a strong start to his rookie F1 season with Mercedes, Italian teenager Antonelli has struggled to maintain that consistency, with errors creeping in. He has scored points only three times in his last 10 grands prix.

Throughout the more difficult times, Wolff has always defended their academy graduate valiantly. Yet, after the Italian Grand Prix – where Antonelli finished ninth – Wolff adopted a different tone.

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

“He can’t put the car in the gravel bed [in FP2] 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.”

Antonelli, ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, was asked for his response to what Wolff had to say.

“I think I pretty understand his comment,” said Antonelli.

“Me and Toto, we’re always very open to each other, and we talk to each other quite openly.

“I think it was mainly about the race. Qualifying was actually pretty good, despite the the off in FP2. But then in the race, especially on the hard tyre, I struggled a little bit, and also, I did the mistake on the start. So I think it was mainly related to the race, which I agree on the comment, which wasn’t the best.

“But as well, I took it with positive, as fuel to do even better for this race weekend.”

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Asked what Wolff wants to see done differently, Antonelli added: “I think, in Monza, the thing is, why he felt the race was underwhelming, which I agree on that, it’s because especially on the hard, okay at the start, I did a mistake, but on the hard stint, I just made a lot of driving mistakes.

“I was struggling to find my rhythm, and I was trying different things, but I just ended up doing a few mistakes. For sure, he doesn’t want that to happen again, just because, also in the race, I lost a lot of race time.

“So yeah, just the conversation was pretty clear, and he just wants me to have a clean weekend, in order to re-get that momentum that I had, for example, in the first seven races of the season.

“Because obviously, European season has been quite tough and now I’m really looking forward to start the last part of the season again out of Europe, just because it’s always a bit more calm and I have a bit more time for myself.

“So I’m really looking forward to that, and really looking forward to do clean weekends and to get back the momentum, and that’s what the team wants.”

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