Wolff turns critical after Antonelli's latest struggle

Toto Wolff has ended his usual defence of teenage Mercedes junior Kimi Antonelli, delivering rare public criticism of the Italian after another disappointing showing at Monza.

The 19-year-old lined up sixth but slipped to eighth at the finish, undone by a sluggish start, mistakes in practice, and a penalty for colliding with Alex Albon.

It came just a week after his clash with Charles Leclerc at Zandvoort. "I was not impressed by him this weekend," Wolff told Servus TV after the race.

"If a driver wants to do well, he should not go into the gravel," he was quoted as saying by SID news agency. "His whole race was a disappointment. It will not affect my support for Kimi, I still believe that he will be a great driver. He has incredible talent and as a racing driver, it's all there, but now he has disappointed me."

Wolff argued that Antonelli is letting his past mistakes weigh too heavily. "I think that in order to have a smooth weekend, you can't carry the weight of past mistakes.

"A driver can't attack a corner with full force if he remembers that he crashed there before and that was the end of his session. Now he just needed to have a solid weekend, then he would have been in the fight with Leclerc and George."

On the Albon incident, Wolff was blunt. "I think it was simply unnecessary, because Albon was much faster. "If you can defend against that, then you throw your elbows out, and if you can't, then you make sure you don't waste time, but the way he did it, you don't need to do that."

Even with the criticism, Wolff emphasised that Antonelli’s potential remains intact. "Antonelli has been blessed with incredible ability and talent, he is a real driver and he has all the necessary qualities, but you have to get rid of the ballast. We just have to free him up."

The Mercedes boss also raised the pressure on Antonelli ahead of the next round. "He needs to have a clean weekend in Baku," said Wolff. "There will be less pressure and a track he's familiar with."

Wolff also had high praise for Monza victor Max Verstappen, whom he again failed to lure for 2026. "You can clearly see today that there's just one guy who makes everyone else look a little bit bad, a little bit stupid. They really should ask themselves what he's doing differently."