Mercedes boss Toto Wolff makes his feelings known about Kimi Antonelli's botched FP1 run in Monza 

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has finally made his feelings known about Kimi Antonelli's botched FP1 debut in Monza, saying that maybe the teenager was put under too much pressure. The young Italian made his F1 debut at the race in Monza, where he took part in FP1. He started the session by being on the pace right from the beginning as his first flying lap shot him to the top of the timesheets.

On his second flying lap, Kimi Antonelli was going quicker than his previous benchmark and pushing the Mercedes a lot. As it turns out, because of the young Italian pushing the car as much as he did, he ended up in the barriers as he lost control just before the parabolica.

While the speed was certainly undeniable from Kimi Antonelli, there was another thing that was quite obvious, and it was the fact that Mercedes did not calm things down for the young Italian as he pushed the car too hard too early.

While in the moment, Toto Wolff was impressed with Antonelli's speed, looking back, the Austrian has acknowledged that maybe a slightly different approach could have been better.

Antonelli will be replacing Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes next season and Toto Wolff's primary focus appears to be to get the young driver acclimatised with the sport. Looking back at the young driver's botched FP1 debut, Wolff told Motorsport:

“I wouldn’t say it was a mistake, but I think we weren’t completely right in assessing the pressures that he could find himself under. Why that is, is that we talked about it, and how to approach the session. He has been brilliant in testing. He has never put a single foot wrong in the many thousands of kilometres that he’s done. But it’s a different ball game if you’re an Italian driver, you’re 18 years old in Monza and it’s your first opportunity."

He added:

“Maybe if we had considered that as a risk factor against the set of data we had from him, probably it would have been wise to give him an FP1 that would have been in a totally different time zone than Italy. But he will learn a lot from that.”

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Mercedes boss was worried about Kimi Antonelli's confidence after Italian GP crash

Looking back, Toto Wolff stated that there was a moment when he was worried about Kimi Antonelli after his crash. The Austrian added that he felt the young teenager's confidence could take a massive blow with the way it all ended prematurely. He said:

“I thought it’s not good for him, because I thought it’s a shame for him. He was so quick, and that was his first session in Italy, about to be announced as a driver, which everybody pre-empted."

“I like his approach. He’s fast on the first lap out of the pits, and that is what he’s demonstrated. Obviously, I would have enjoyed him being on the leaderboard high up and that was taken away because the car flew – and some of those speeds were only achieved much later during the weekend."

Kimi Antonelli's next run in a Mercedes is not yet decided. There have been suggestions that he could possibly get an opportunity in Mexico, but it remains to be seen as nothing has been made official yet.