Toto Wolff praises Kimi Antonelli’s development after Japan win as he admits Mercedes need to work on ‘botched’ race starts

Toto Wolff has praised Kimi Antonelli’s continued trajectory following the youngster’s second consecutive victory in Japan, though the Mercedes boss also acknowledged that the team need to work on their starts following a “botched” launch for the Italian.

Having lined up in pole position ahead of team mate George Russell, Antonelli was slow off the line when the lights went out in Suzuka and dropped to sixth, with Russell also initially losing out.

Both drivers would go on to recover, leading Russell to battle McLaren’s Oscar Piastri at the front – but the picture changed when a Safety Car was deployed due to a crash for Haas’ Ollie Bearman only one lap after Russell had pitted.

With Antonelli having provisionally been leading at the time, the Italian benefitted from making his stop under the Safety Car to re-emerge in P1. He went on to execute a solid restart and crossed the line with a margin of more than 13 seconds over second-placed Piastri, while Russell ended the race in fourth, having combatted various issues along the way.

The result means that Antonelli – who claimed his maiden win just two weeks ago in China – is now at the head of the Drivers’ Championship standings, making him the youngest-ever person to achieve this.

Asked afterwards by Sky Sports F1 about how Antonelli had controlled the race, Wolff gave his assessment as he responded: “Yeah, absolutely. A botched start; these kids learn in the driving schools with automatics, so we need to teach them how you release a clutch – slowly, steadily and not too quick.”

Reflecting further on what he deemed as a “grim” launch from his driver, Wolff continued: “I thought, ‘Not again’, because obviously we’re not giving them the easiest of tools so our starts have generally been a bit on the mediocre side and we need to improve that, but in that case, the driver had massive influence of that car not going away.

“Looked good with the wheelspin, but it isn’t fast. But then in the race, he made his way up, and at the moment where it mattered he was really fast and we were able to extend his stint by that one lap, and that caused George’s race to go belly-up and made the difference.”

Wolff went on to admit that he had “mixed” feelings in terms of whether he had been surprised by Antonelli’s advantage over Russell throughout much of the weekend, with Russell having experienced problems with a set-up change made prior to Saturday’s Qualifying.

“The mistake that was made collectively in Qualifying really put him on the back foot with the car – it transformed the car,” said Wolff. “For pole position, between the two it was pretty narrow, and then obviously from Q1 it wasn’t good enough anymore and he had to fight with that too today.

“I think in equal cars it’s going to be close as ever. But in the moment where it was about going fast, we had to decide to protect the position against [Charles] Leclerc I believe, and Kimi was still putting in perfect times, so that made the difference, but I guess [Russell] had a car that wasn’t perfect.”

With Antonelli having been under the wing of Mercedes since joining the squad’s Junior Programme in 2018, Wolff conceded that the journey seems to have flown by.

“You see how quickly it goes and how quickly we age, because that seemed like years ago when he was a kid,” he smiled. “When he came into the office, he met [Technical Director] James Allison and James Allison thought it was a kid who had lost his parent and was looking for someone.

“It’s incredible – yesterday he was 14, today he’s 19, he’s winning two races in a row in Formula 1, and we’re really happy about the development he’s taken.”