Toto Wolff is harsh on Kimi Antonelli: “If Niki Lauda had seen him…”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli is on the verge of his first Formula 1 World Championship at just 20 years old, and the pride of the man who launched his career, Toto Wolff, is palpable. In an interview with the BBC, the Mercedes boss went so far as to say, “I think Kimi has outperformed the car.”
“Before the race, he walked into my office, sat down in my chair with his feet up on the table, and kept chatting, saying, ‘It’s weird—I’m not thinking about the championship at all.’ And he did so with a sort of youthful enthusiasm that I’d call surreal,” Wolff continued.
“He’s completely at one with the car; we saw that yesterday in qualifying when, on the last lap, he could have gained another one-tenth and a half—if not two. George, on the other hand, struggled a lot—I think because the car’s operating window is extremely difficult to manage. Niki Lauda would have taken his hat off to him; he was able to stay completely focused and not let anything distract him. The one-stop strategy worked perfectly.”
A few days ago, Piero Ferrari, in an interview with Quotidiano Nazionale, stated that Kimi reminds him of the Austrian: “The comparison holds up because Kimi, like the early Niki at Ferrari, immediately displayed a maturity that was downright surprising.”
The victory in Austin—the Bologna-born driver’s ninth of the season—came after securing pole position and dominating the race, with overwhelming superiority over the rest of the grid in terms of speed and tire management. Charles Leclerc finished behind him in his Ferrari, while George Russell finished only eighth, nearly a minute behind his teammate. In Mexico, he will become world champion if he finishes at least ninth, but even a tenth-place finish could be enough if Russell doesn’t win. After the race, Antonelli commented: “We were flawless in our execution: a perfect one-stop strategy. We’re happy it worked out—it was a great team effort. The title? We’re very close now, but I’d like to finish on a high note by winning more Grand Prix races.”
