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People have been chomping at the bit to compare Kimi Antonelli to Ayrton Senna, including Martin Brundle, but Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is not having it.
The comparisons are not surprising, as the Italian is on a generational run of form. He leads the championship by 66 points over Lewis Hamilton, having won the last five races in a row, becoming the first driver to win their first five Grands Prix consecutively.
His fifth win was perhaps his best yet, grabbing a grand slam at the Monaco Grand Prix. With his incredible form, Wolff says Antonelli has replaced Hamilton as Mercedes’ ‘rock star’, but likening him to Senna is where he draws the line.
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The Mercedes boss has been quick to protect the 19-year-old from the noise surrounding him right now. Wolff has limited Antonelli’s contact with the Italian press, with him looking on course to become the nation’s first champion in over 70 years.
He has also played down comparisons to various F1 legends. At the Monaco GP, Brundle said Antonelli reminded him of Senna, calling him a ‘generational talent’ after his historic win.
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But Wolff does not agree with Brundle, and shut down any links between the two drivers when speaking to Sky Germany.
He said: “I always urge caution. I just told my Italian Sky colleagues to keep their feet on the ground. I’ve already seen the titles again, that it was a lap like Senna’s on Saturday.
“We’re talking about five wins now, not three world championships. There will also be difficult periods where he needs support. We can’t expect him to win every race.”
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Toto Wolff has noticed Kimi Antonelli enters a ‘trance-like state’ like Ayrton Senna did
Wolff may not agree with the comparisons to Senna, but he does at least recognise that there are some similarities between the two, according to journalist Jon Noble. He has noticed that Antonelli enters a ‘trance-like state’ after races, just as Senna used to.
Noble said via The Race F1 Podcast: “I think the naturalness of the speed that it just seems to… just gets on and does it without a fuss. But I also think there is a kind of mystique around him as well that we’ve started to see.
“And we discussed in the members’ club yesterday when he came into the press conference after qualifying yesterday, just in this trance-like state of things have been so intense, he was kind of processing it.
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“And I spoke to Toto Wolff earlier on before the race, and just mentioned, showed him the pictures from yesterday. So he noticed this as well.
“He goes to speak to him after a race, and Kimi’s kind of staring into the distance, just completely mentally exhausted in a way that Senna was sometimes as well.
“Just this kind of, whatever was going on and the mental effort they’ve gone into is kind of overwhelming them at the time. So I think there are some elements there that potentially are very reminiscent of Senna.”
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