Toto Wolff says Kimi Antonelli struggles to say no, needs to be shielded

At 19 years of age, Antonelli became the youngest ever Formula 1 driver to start a race from pole, a feat he achieved at the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix.

He followed that up with a win in the Grand Prix after admirably fending off the early charge from Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, with their fast starts. Antonelli then managed to keep teammate George Russell behind him, managing the gap despite a mistake when he locked up towards the end of the race but managed to keep going on to take his maiden win in the top flight.

However, the season start has not been straightforward for the young Mercedes driver, who crashed in FP3 for the Australian Grand Prix but managed to put that incident behind him.

Wolff hailed the Antonelli for the manner in which he managed to deal with the situation; he said: "When he went off on the Saturday morning, it was not like he carried the whole thing into the briefing.

"He came in and said, 'that wasn't good', but he kind of compartmentalized and said, 'OK, let's move on'. And then it wasn't there anymore.

"This is a feature that I've seen with great sports people. You make the mistake, you analyze, you look at the data, you find your answers, and then you put it back, put it in a box. And that's what he's doing.

"The interaction in the engineering room—there's just so much maturity that he has learned over the last 12 months," Wolff claimed.

However, the Mercedes boss pointed out that Antonelli is still vulnerable, as he needs to say no to demands from people around him in order to focus.

Wolff has a point, with the 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix a clear example. It was Antonelli's first home race, which turned out to be a disaster as the Italian was distracted by several off-track activities and qualified 13th while retiring with a car problem.

"It's something that actually comes natural with him," the Austrian said. "Similar to the talent in the car, he's always been someone that is able to capture a room and capture people for himself. He's quite affectionate.

"It's a little bit of an Italian thing, but he's able to take people on his journey with him, with being very warm. That's why he has so great relationships in the team. The mechanics love him, and the engineering, the comms people, marketing.

"But in a way, we also need to shield him from that, because people take advantage because he really struggles to say no," Wolff concluded. (Reporting by Agnes Carlier)