Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has outlined how the team will help Andrea Kimi Antonelli bounce back from an “underwhelming” Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix.
After his FP1 crash on home soil last year, Antonelli came into the weekend at Monza with expectations of putting in a solid performance for the German marque.
However, a practice crash and a poor launch off the line meant the 19-year-old was consigned to eighth at the chequered flag despite starting from the third row of the grid.
His team-mate George Russell, on the other hand, was able to bag a fifth-placed finish more than 30 seconds off the leaders.
Wolff was far from pleased with the collective result of the team but singled out Antonelli’s error-ridden performance.
“A fifth and an eighth place are absolutely not satisfactory,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“I don’t think, with our current set-up, we have a car that we can consistently drive onto the podium. But Kimi made too many mistakes.”
However, the Austrian is confident that Antonelli is capable of fighting toe-to-toe with the likes of Russell and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
“He simply needs to put together a solid weekend,” continued Wolff. “Then he’ll be racing on equal terms with Leclerc and George.”
Wolff on how Antonelli can tackle Mercedes setbacks
The hype surrounding Antonelli meant there were apprehensions that the Italian racing prodigy might find it difficult to settle into a rhythm early in his F1 career.
That seems to be the case, as while Antonelli has shown sparks of brilliance, he has failed to consistently uphold the standards expected from him at Mercedes.
“Underwhelming this weekend. Underwhelming,” categorised Wolff. “You can’t put the car in the gravel bed (in FP1) and expect to be there.
“All of the race was underwhelming. It doesn’t change anything in my support and confidence in his future because I believe he’s going to be very, very, very good. But today was… underwhelming.”
Wolff went on to explain how he hopes to work with Antonelli to ameliorate his struggles.
According to him, the 19-year-old needs to let go of past mistakes and get rid of the “ballast” holding his talent back.
“I think a clean weekend means almost not to carry too much trauma of previous mistakes into the next session or into the next weekend, because that is baggage,” he theorised.
“You’re not going to attack the corner hard if you’ve been off there before and it finished your session.
“Or maybe you’re not attacking a driver that should not be in your way like [Pierre] Gasly because he had this situation with Leclerc. Kimi shouldn’t lose even a second on Gasly.
“It’s just freeing him up. Freeing him up.
“He’s a great driver. He has this unbelievable ability and natural talent. He’s a racer. It’s all there. But we need to get rid of the ballast.”
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