Mercedes boss Toto Wolff refused to name Kimi Antonelli the Components 1 world championship favorite regardless of rising his factors lead on the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Antonelli fought again from a grid penalty to take third place on the Hungaroring and paired with Lewis Hamilton’s poor race and penalty that left him fifth, plus George Russell’s nightmare begin and restoration drive to seventh, the Italian lengthen his lead within the championship to 50 factors over Hamilton and 59 factors over Russell.
Regardless of having two race wins’ price of factors over nearest rival Hamilton, Wolff feels with 11 races and two dash races left in 2026 there may be nonetheless a protracted method to go within the title chase.
“It is too early to say. I am superstitious, though the hole is 50 factors, there’s so many races to go, a DNF for 2 can simply swing massively,” Wolff stated when requested if he thought-about Antonelli as title favorite.
“We have not been nice on reliability, so we simply must proceed to maximise each single day from the Friday onwards to the Sunday after which hopefully on the finish that will likely be sufficient.”
With Mercedes hit by unreliability over the primary half of the season, Wolff is bracing for the crew to want to take engine penalties at some stage over the remainder of the marketing campaign.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Picture by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Photos through Getty Photos
F1 groups typically goal races the place overtaking is less complicated to take engine penalties – for instance, Lando Norris took his engine penalty at Spa-Francorchamps to keep away from the ache on the Hungaroring or Zandvoort – to offer their drivers a greater likelihood at decreasing the ache of the grid drop.
However when casting a watch on the upcoming races and the place Mercedes may go for an engine change to serve a grid drop with the least quantity of ache, Wolff did spotlight Antonelli’s dwelling race at Monza as an choice.
The Italian GP is the second race after the summer season break, which means Mercedes could have sufficient time to evaluate its present engine pool for each drivers and determine if it must go for contemporary energy unit components outdoors of its permitted allocation.
“By way of engine penalties, I nonetheless very a lot hope we need not take it and we have to determine when that’s, when we have to take one and which tracks,” Wolff stated.
“There could possibly be one that may be very particular for Kimi, however on paper it appears prefer it’s an excellent place to take an engine penalty, so we have to communicate to Marco [Antonelli, Kimi’s father] whether or not we need to take an engine penalty in Monza.
“Baku can be one, perhaps Baku. We take the strain off [of Antonelli] in Monza to begin from the again, it is simply our reliability has been not good and whether or not we take a penalty or not, we will see.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Picture by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Photos through Getty Photos
Antonelli places in champion’s drive
Wolff additionally agreed with the evaluation that Antonelli put in a “champion’s efficiency” to battle again from seventh place on the grid to the rostrum, however did concede that with out the penalty the 19-year-old may have completed a spot increased within the race.
“Completely,” Wolff stated in response when requested if Antonelli put in a champion’s drive. “Lewis was the one to win this race Saturday morning and all of Friday. We come out of this with a number of factors gained, that is nice. However I have been all the time a depressing man with the glass half-empty. We may have had P2 immediately, or we should always have had P2 and perhaps in steadiness he received the penalty.
“So total, perhaps on Kimi’s facet we have to go dwelling and say that is okay when it comes to the factors.”
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