Kimi Antonelli responds to Wolff’s Monza criticism

Kimi Antonelli says he has taken Toto Wolff’s comments about his Italian GP showing in stride, and is using them as extra motivation heading into Baku.

After Mercedes’ team boss described his Monza outing as "underwhelming," the 19-year-old admitted he understood the assessment.

"Well, I think I pretty much understand his comment. "It was mainly about the race - I made a mistake at the start, so I think it was mainly related to the race, which I agree wasn't the best. "But I took it positively - as fuel to do even better for this race weekend."

Antonelli explained that a messy FP2 in Italy left him short of data for the race. "First of all, just trying to have clean sessions," he said of his goal for Baku. "The main goal is just to have clean sessions and get as many laps as possible in the bag and then deliver the job in quali and in the race."

With Mercedes now shifting resources toward 2026, Antonelli noted that rivals’ ongoing development pushes have increased the pressure in the midfield.

"Many teams are bringing quite a lot of upgrades," he said. "That makes us have to be even more precise and perfect in some ways. Every mistake you make punishes you in a big way."

As for Wolff’s latest instructions, Antonelli said the message was straightforward. "He just wants me to have a clean weekend to regain the momentum I had. I'm really looking forward to clean weekends and getting back the momentum and that's what the team wants."