Toto Wolff privately told Karun Chandhok the one thing he needs to ‘teach’ Kimi Antonelli

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Kimi Antonelli is three race weekends away from becoming a Formula 1 driver with Mercedes. The F2 season is now entering its closing stages.

After this weekend’s races in Baku, there will be a near-three-month break before the penultimate round in Qatar. Just like F1, the campaign then concludes in Abu Dhabi a week later.

Antonelli will be looking to improve upon his current position of sixth in the standings. But in the meantime, he’ll also be stepping up his preparations with Mercedes.

Even before getting the nod to replace Lewis Hamilton, the teenager has been carrying out an extensive testing programme. Under the rules, he’s allowed to drive cars that are two or more years old.

Antonelli will likely take part in another FP1 session before the end of the season. Under the rules, teams are obliged to field a youngster on two Fridays, once in each car.

The Silver Arrows have yet to confirm when that second outing will be. But they’ll expect a clean showing from the 18-year-old this time after seeing him hit the wall on just the second lap of his Monza debut.

Toto Wolff says Kimi Antonelli needs to learn when to push his Mercedes

Antonelli carried too much speed into the final corner in the first 10 minutes of the session, finding the barriers and taking significant damage. Mercedes were relaxed in their response, and proceeded with their 2025 announcement the following day as planned.

When he bumped into Sky Sports F1’s Karun Chandhok after the incident, Toto Wolff joked that Antonelli needed to learn ‘the difference between Q3 and FP1’. While the comment was said in jest, it did point to an important lesson.

Come next March, when Antonelli takes to the track as a fully-fledged Mercedes driver in Australia, he’ll be expected to ramp up more slowly. Drivers rarely push flat-out in a practice session given the risk of damage and their lack of knowledge.

Chandhok said: “What was funny is, when I saw Toto on Friday and we were talking about Antonelli, he said, ‘obviously I need to teach him the difference between Q3 and FP1!’”

Why Jacques Villeneuve is unhappy with Toto Wolff’s treatment of Kimi Antonelli

Wolff’s reaction angered Carlos Sainz Sr, who felt that the accident wasn’t ‘funny’. Having seen his son denied the Mercedes seat, he couldn’t believe that Antonelli had a ‘cart blanche’.

The team would counter that an angry response would only have increased the pressure on their academy driver, who already seemed to be feeling the burden of expectation. In hindsight, a debut in front of his home fans may have been ill-advised.

Jacques Villeneuve is adamant that it’s too early for Antonelli but believes Wolff is too stubborn to accept that reality. He reckons Mercedes have placed too much emphasis on his test days, which can’t replicate the challenge of a Grand Prix.

Likewise, Eddie Jordan feels Wolff has made a mistake. The former team boss would have tried to place the F2 gem at a team further down the grid, allowing him to develop before stepping up to a frontrunner.