Toto Wolff will love the F1 rival Karun Chandhok has just compared Kimi Antonelli with, it’s precisely what Mercedes want

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Andrea Kimi Antonelli is enjoying a record-breaking start to his Formula 1 career, and Karun Chandhok believes the Mercedes rookie is just getting ‘stronger and stronger’.

The 18-year-old became the third-youngest driver to start an F1 Grand Prix with his debut in Melbourne this March. Just Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll have ever started an F1 race at a younger age than Antonelli was at the Australian Grand Prix when he also got fourth place.

Antonelli had huge shoes to fill at Mercedes as team principal Toto Wolff elected to promote the Italian to replace seven-time F1 world champion, Lewis Hamilton. But the Bologna boy is showing why Wolff backed their academy product to earn a contract for the 2025 F1 season.

Toto Wolff can ‘take comfort’ comparing Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s rookie results with Oscar Piastri

His debut Formula 1 win, podium finish and pole position are still to come, yet the rookie has shone in silver so far. Antonelli broke Verstappen’s record as F1’s youngest race leader at the Japanese Grand Prix, too, having edged his feat by three days at 18 years and 224 days old.

Antonelli’s debut was even a remarkable feat as he improved from P16 on the grid to finish in P4 in torrid mixed conditions after damaging his floor in qualifying. The Mercedes talent also got P6 in the Chinese GP, despite losing 0.2 to 0.3 seconds on every lap with floor damage.

READ MORE: Know all about 2025 Mercedes F1 driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli including stats

The only time that Antonelli has not managed to score points through his first five rounds as an F1 driver was in the Bahrain GP when he came 11th. And Chandhok thinks Wolff will look positively at Antonelli’s early progress in F1 compared to McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s start.

Chandhok said on Sky Sports’ The F1 Show: “With Kimi getting stronger and stronger, I think Toto probably takes some comfort in the way Oscar’s progressed in the last two years.

“It shows actually how difficult it is for a rookie still – not in terms of outright speed, but in terms of tyre management and all the other stuff that goes with being an F1 driver.

“The step Oscar made between ‘23 into ‘24 and then ‘24 into ‘25. If Antonelli does similar steps, then actually George and Antonelli is a strong enough line-up. And it’s probably going to cost him a lot less than if he had to pay Max a lot of zeroes, I’m sure.”

Toto Wolff will love Karun Chandhok comparing Andrea Kimi Antonelli with Oscar Piastri

Wolff will love Chandhok comparing Antonelli with Piastri, not even considering the fact the McLaren star has just taken the lead of the F1 drivers’ championship for the first time in his career. Piastri moved atop the standings after winning the Saudi Arabian GP in his 51st race.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s life outside F1 from height to girlfriend

The Mercedes boss said last July, before officially naming the Italian as Hamilton’s successor in August, that Wolff wants Antonelli to replicate Piastri’s evolution as an F1 driver. He saw a lot of positives from how Piastri became a Grand Prix winner within 17 months of his debut.

Wolff told Autosport Wereld: “If you look at Piastri’s evolution, in a year and a half he has been able to compete for victory with his teammate Lando Norris. And we want to try that with Kimi.”

Piastri debuted for McLaren at the 2023 Bahrain GP, won his first F1 Sprint at the 2023 Qatar GP and won his first Grand Prix at the 2024 Hungarian GP. But it took until the second round of the current term to see Piastri score his first pole at the 2025 Chinese GP, which he won.

McLaren did not have a car that could compete for podiums at the start of Piastri’s F1 career in 2023, as well. It was not until his 10th appearance that they gave the Melbourne native a front-running car in which he qualified third on the grid at the 2023 British GP at Silverstone.