In a recent interview, team principal Toto Wolff admitted that Mercedes may have mishandled Kimi Antonelli’s schedule during the Imola GP, overloading him with too many commitments. The Italian driver, starting on Thursday, had to deal with a series of obligations—some personal and others team-related—that completely drained his energy and may have contributed to his poor performance on track.
Among the many commitments Kimi Antonelli had during his home Grand Prix was inviting his classmates to the circuit—a move not appreciated by everyone, including 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, who openly criticized the young driver’s choice, stating that “you don’t bring your friends to work.” The constant pressure of performing at a home race, along with the packed schedule, made it difficult for Antonelli to deliver on track. After a disappointing qualifying session that saw him finish 13th, he retired from the race due to reliability issues with his car. Although the retirement wasn’t caused by a driving error, Antonelli told the media that Imola had been his “worst weekend in terms of performance.”
The young driver also pointed out how physically and mentally demanding the weekend had been due to his tight schedule: “I felt mentally less present than usual, and I wasn’t as focused as I should have been. I realized too late during the weekend that I was wasting too much energy.”
Toto Wolff’s advice
Regarding the matter, Toto Wolff, who wasn’t present at Imola, placed the blame squarely on Mercedes’ poor management.
“Something similar happened last year. We realized too late that we had made a mistake by exposing him too much at Monza during his first free practice session, and of course, he wanted to do particularly well.”
“I think Imola was probably the perfect storm because that’s where he lives. It’s his home track, there’s school, family, the local football team, all the people who supported him in his career. Everyone wanted a piece of Kimi. And because of that, he was already completely exhausted by Friday. I spoke to him on Saturday and he told me: ‘I’m out of energy from all of this.’”
“He’s young, he wants to thank everyone who helped him,” added the 53-year-old. “He doesn’t want to be rude to friends, family, fans, and everyone around him. The advice I gave him was: at some point, you need to protect yourself, retreat to your room or the engineers’ room on Sunday, and everything else comes later.
“And I think all of us, together with the family, realized it was too much, and this is a mistake we won’t repeat.”
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