Wolff: P4 is the result Antonelli merits

Antonelli repaid the faith Wolff put in him after his showing down under last Sunday, recovering from a woeful qualifying as he was knocked out of Q1 and started the race from 16th on the grid but finished fourth.

Antonelli's result was in jeopardy as he was slapped with a five-second time penalty for unsafe release in the pits, but Mercedes appealed the decision successfully, and his fourth place was reinstated.

Antonelli has been under the spotlight since he was fast-tracked through the junior categories, skipping Formula 3 altogether and thrust into Formula 1 after only one season in Formula 2.

On a weekend when all F1 rookies were crashing and spinning left, right, and center, Antonelli kept his Mercedes pointed in the right direction despite a moment in the treacherous conditions and finished P4 while his experienced teammate George Russell was third.

"I think we always knew his potential since he was a kid. He performs under pressure," Wolff said of Antonelli's maiden race.

Explaining the Italian's disappointing qualifying, the Austrian added: "In Qualifying that wasn’t his doing, he just hit the bump at the wrong place. He would have qualified much further ahead.

"In the Grand Prix, we saw that he was able to reel in everybody slowly but surely without making any mistakes. He had a little spin, but otherwise P4 is the result that he merits," he maintained.

While Ferrari were expected to take the fight to McLaren, it was Max Verstappen that did while Mercedes capitalized on the conditions in Melbourne last weekend.

Assessing the pecking order that emerged after F1's opening round, Wolff said: "If you look at the real pace, the pace result would be P4, P5.

"I think it is a solid first weekend but looking at it from a glass half-empty side, you have to say that the pace of the McLaren is just very strong. It’s something we need to understand, the way they are able to manage the tyres, and to extract the performance.

"We need to get better if we want to fight on merit for race victories and world championships. There is definitely something we need to find," Wolff concluded.

(Quotes by Agnes Carlier from Melbourne)