Toto Wolff described Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s pace as “just astonishing” prior to his crash in FP1 at the Italian Grand Prix, and says the incident won’t impact Mercedes’ decision on his future.
Antonelli went fastest overall with his first timed lap on his FP1 debut at Monza in the car normally run for George Russell, and was looking set to take top spot once again from teammate Lewis Hamilton before crashing heavily at the final corner on his second run. Despite Antonelli’s session ending after just 10 minutes, Mercedes team principal Wolff says he’s already shown eye-catching pace.
“Most importantly, he’s OK, because the crash was 45G, so that’s important,” Wolff said. “Second priority is to get the car ready for George so the program doesn’t suffer too much, which hopefully is going to be OK. We may run a little bit late, but it’s going to be OK.
“And the third one, yeah, it’s unfortunate, because I guess having had an hour to run, we would have seen some good performances. But that’s what we always said: He’s a rookie, he’s very young, we are prepared to invest into his future and these moments, they will happen and they will continue to happen next year. But there will also be a lot of highlights.
“I think what we’ve seen today was…. We’d rather have a problem in slowing him down than making him faster. Because what we’ve seen from one and a half laps is just astonishing.”
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Wolff says Antonelli was apologetic when he returned to the garage after the crash, and believes the young Italian was simply caught out by the grip on offer from his tires as he turned in for Parabolica.
“He apologized, first of all, and I think this is what you need to do when you bring a car back that looks a little bit like a Lego box falling on the floor. But also he said that he felt so much confidence, the car was good. And I guess he was just bitten.
“Everybody suffered from temperature and especially rear temperature out of Ascari with these kinds of speeds and that’s why the rear went away and stepped out.”
You’ll bounce back from this Kimi 👊
The crew are working hard to have George’s car ready for FP2 🛠️🧰💪 pic.twitter.com/C5FZ9pUEQh
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) August 30, 2024
Wolff suggested Antonelli will get another outing in FP1 in Mexico City, and says the crash is part of the 18-year-old’s learning curve and won’t have a negative impact on the likelihood of him getting the vacant race seat in 2025.
“I think a strong driver needs to recover from these things and cope with the pressure. And obviously this weekend wasn’t easy for him because he still needs to compete in F2,” Wolff noted. “You have all these shenanigans around you in Monza — Italian kid that’s being hyped for the first time in a Mercedes — and that must be a heavy burden. If he wants to be a champion one day, he needs to cope with that, and I have no doubt that he can and he will.
“No, zero effect [on the 2025 decision]. I think most important is to hire based on ability. And an FP1 that’s gone wrong is not the reason why you decide for or against the driver.”