Toto Wolff shares insights on what Kimi Antonelli communicated to him in his office prior to the victory at the US Grand Prix.
In an interview with Sky Sports F1 following Kimi Antonelli's victory at the United States Grand Prix, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff shared insights about what his driver expressed prior to the race.
The Italian racer began from pole position at the Circuit of the Americas and executed a dominant performance, securing his ninth win of the season. Wolff noted that Antonelli exhibited no signs of anxiety.
“Yeah, what a talent, you know. I was just saying before I received a question about whether he felt nervous before the race and I said no, he just slipped into my office before getting ready and said ‘I’m just going to enjoy this right now. And it’s strange, I’m not thinking about the championship at all.’ Isn’t that amusing?
“So he’s on a journey of self-discovery there also in terms of what’s going on with him emotionally, and then you know he just delivered from start to finish, it was remarkable at all times.”
Antonelli maintained his lead over Max Verstappen at the beginning, despite being on the medium tire, aided by Verstappen experiencing wheelspin.
“Yeah, exactly and on the medium tire which is a bit slower off the line, you lose a meter compared to the soft, but it seemed like Max had quite a bit of wheelspin so that worked in our favor,” Wolff stated.
When Verstappen opted for a two-stop strategy, Mercedes chose not to react and kept Antonelli on a one-stop plan.
“The strategy performed really well today. We discussed it, you know, that Max could undercut us and we remained resolute in our decision stating the one-stop appeared to be the quickest strategy. Norris went for the hard tire and looked very strong, so we held our ground and in the end, it turned out pretty much as we anticipated. In theory, it was eight seconds faster and ultimately it was a bit more.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
The Austrian acknowledged that it was a tough decision.
“Yeah, we completely trusted the information. We didn’t want to react just because others did, which can be a bit, you know, at the moment it’s a risky call, but stick to the data and trust your analysis.”
Lewis Hamilton’s fourth place and George Russell’s eighth kept the championship race alive, but Antonelli now leads Russell by 123 points and Hamilton by 124. A top-nine finish in Mexico City next weekend will secure the title, regardless of what his nearest rivals do.
Mercedes has celebrated victories in Mexico before, with Hamilton securing his fourth and fifth world championships there in 2017 and 2018. However, Wolff was cautious about making assumptions.
“I think we had Lewis there one day also. It would definitely be a lot of tequila on ice. But you know, he still needs to finish the race in Mexico.”
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