Mercedes Components 1 group principal and CEO Toto Wolff has assessed Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s rookie season within the championship, claiming that the Italian driver discovered deal with the “cannibals”.
Antonelli joined the Brackley outfit forward of the 2025 season, changing seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton because the Briton moved to Ferrari.
The 19-year-old driver began his rookie season off strongly with a fourth-place end on the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. He additionally secured his first dash race pole place and his first grand prix podium with a third-place on the Canadian Grand Prix.
However with the highs got here some lows for Antonelli as he handled the extreme strain of driving for a prime group like Mercedes.
“Final yr after we introduced that he would drive the automobile, I mentioned that we will have ups and downs, moments of brilliance after which different moments the place you wish to tear your hair out,” Wolff defined throughout a Mercedes debrief video.
“Due to the, you name them learnings, however due to the errors, that is what it’s. And I feel we’ve seen precisely that. We have seen very sturdy races in the beginning of the season, notably in direction of the tip. However I feel we by no means doubted within the pace, the expertise and his skill.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photograph by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Pictures
“It is simply you are being thrown to the cannibals in Components 1. The extraordinary strain of the media, the accountability it’s important to Mercedes – to the many individuals which might be giving their all to supply you an engine and a automobile.
“And I feel in all probability that was the educational, all through the center of the season, notably in Europe, with all people wanting one thing from you. And he is a superb individual. So he did not wish to say no both.
“And general, I might say a superb season, stuffed with studying, a robust base to maneuver from right here and begin in 2026 with a brand new automobile, new to everybody. And you already know what to anticipate.”
Antonelli ended the season seventh within the drivers’ standings with 150 factors and contributed to a P2 end for Mercedes within the constructors’ championship.
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