- Toto Wolff said he does not think Kimi Antonelli would have lasted at another team after a modest F2 season and what Wolff calls a spell of nine races without points in 2025, per Motorsport.com.
- Mercedes trusted its data and its read of the teenager’s character, and the team principal calls the plan one of developing, nurturing, mentoring, shielding and protecting him.
- The same interview explained the long thank you email Wolff sent to the whole Mercedes team after the title, which went public when Bradley Lord posted it on LinkedIn.
How a Team Principal Protected a Teenager Until He Became the Youngest Champion
“What I’m particularly proud of is that I don’t think he would have lasted in other teams after an F2 season, which wasn’t overwhelming,” Wolff said. “And this spell of nine races without any points last year.”
Wolff said it on the broadcast, in a chat with Naomi Schiff and Simon Lazenby after Free Practice 3 at the Brazilian Grand Prix. The driver he was talking about had finished third in the Mexico City Grand Prix on 1 November, and that result made Andrea Kimi Antonelli the youngest world champion in Formula 1 history. Born on 25 August 2006 in Bologna, he is 20.
It is a startling thing to hear from the man who signed him. Antonelli started the Mexico City race fourth and left it with the crown, yet Wolff chose to talk about the lean months rather than the finish. Antonelli arrived at Mercedes as a teenager to take the seat Lewis Hamilton left behind. He was 18 when his rookie season began and 19 by the time the results dried up. Wolff counts the dry spell as nine races without points, and he says most other teams on the grid would have shown him the door. He still finished that rookie year seventh in the drivers’ championship, so the slump sat inside a season that ended well.
The Plan That Looked Like a Gamble
The decision to keep faith was a human one as much as a numbers one. Wolff laid out the reasoning plainly.
“We just trusted our data, trusted our feeling about the personality and the potential,” Wolff explained. “Because there’s so many that came out and said, what a talent. And that wasn’t the journey.”
The plan, in his telling, was long and quiet. Mercedes put a teenager in one of the most famous seats in the paddock and stood behind him when the results were not coming. The story of that bet is told on this site in the Mercedes gamble that paid off.
“The journey was developing the talent, nurturing, mentoring, shielding him, protecting him,” Wolff noted. “And eventually, you know, he in the car is just delivered absolutely amazingly.”
The payoff is now on the record. The youngest champion in the history of the sport got there with a team principal and a leadership group standing behind him.
The Email Wolff Never Meant to Go Public
On the broadcast Lazenby raised something else from Mercedes: a long, emotional email to the staff that had found its way onto the internet.
Wolff answered with a joke.
“Did you read such a long email? It was quite long,” Wolff said. When Lazenby confirmed he had read all of it, Wolff answered with another line.
“I was surprised the last time I wrote it [something that long] was under severe pressure in school.”
The humor covered a real motive. After the race Wolff was flooded with praise for putting Antonelli in the car, and he did not want to keep it.
“So why was it spontaneous? Because I got so much praise on that Sunday night about giving him the opportunity and in Italy,” Wolff said. “And it’s something that makes you very proud. But I felt I needed to give credit to all the people that maybe weren’t so much in the spotlight.”
That is the part of the story that gets lost when a champion lifts a trophy. Behind one driver are engineers, strategists, mentors and the factory staff who build and rebuild the car. Wolff made that point to the broadcast crew as well.
“This email, he didn’t even give it justice because there is many more that were part of the decision-making process and getting him to where he was,” Wolff continued. “And that’s why I felt like I need to at least express my gratitude to the big team.”
Then came the leak. Bradley Lord, Mercedes communications boss and senior leadership figure, is the man who made it public, and Wolff explained why.
“And then Bradley felt that was a more clever email than normally,” Wolff laughed. “So he put it on LinkedIn, and that it was when it was spread.”
The Kid in the Garage
Strip away the record books and the person left is a 20 year old who changes the mood of a room. Wolff often tells the story of the garage, including at a Dutch media session at Zandvoort this year.
“We’re dealing with very stiff unemotional English people that are like this and then suddenly this Italian boy comes in that starts to hug everyone in the garage. And you can see how it’s changed also the environment. Now all the Brits are hugging each other, which is weird to see!”
After securing the title Wolff added a second thought.
“He’s still a kid. We see this world champion in him and the maturity that he has shown in the way he went about, but I still see the same kid…”
Then he gave an example from Antonelli’s birthday.
“He’s a kid. You see him driving and the maturity in his interaction with our partners, but then for his birthday he goes to the water park! And that is so great to see. I was like, ‘where is Kimi, I need to speak to him.’ But then they said, ‘Kimi is in a water park with his friends.’ We love that.”
There is a second detail Wolff offered with a smile. Antonelli has never had a drop of alcohol, and his team principal has an idea about that.
“Well, he doesn’t drink any alcohol, zero. Which on one hand is good, but on the other hand, there needs to be a moment where also matures in that respect,” Wolff said. “And that he’s being downed [with] his first tequila. I’m not sure whether it’s going to happen today, but eventually it will.”
The hugging is more than a funny detail. Building a team around yourself as a driver has marked many great champions, with Michael Schumacher, Hamilton and Verstappen among the recent examples.
Max Verstappen, Antonelli’s rival on the grid and the man who won the Mexico City race, has noticed the same quality. His compliment in recent weeks had nothing to do with lap times.
“He’s just a normal guy. He doesn’t act like he’s a rock star or a superstar. He’s just very genuine. He has a good heart, and I really appreciate that.”
What Comes After the Trophy
In Sao Paulo, Antonelli once again visited the grave of his idol Ayrton Senna, whose 1986 Lotus he sat in days after the championship. He has said he will celebrate properly once he returns to Europe, and Las Vegas could be the chance to find out whether that first drink happens.
For Mercedes, Wolff’s words are about patience. Antonelli’s run to the crown, which began with doubts and a poor stretch in his rookie year, leads back to the road to Mexico City. The team shielded him through that stretch, and the title followed.
The next test is a different one: keeping the same joyful kid at the center of a team that now expects him to win. Wolff has already said which part he wants to see next, and it involves a first tequila.
