Mercedes chief Toto Wolff has showered Andrea Kimi Antonelli with praise for the progress he has already made as his rookie Formula 1 season is underway.
The Italian driver is preparing for his first race of the 2025 season in Australia and has already seen a positive jump in performance throughout his practice sessions. It goes without saying that the teams are using various setups during practice, meaning they are not fully representative. However, after finishing in 14th and 16th in FP1 and FP2, respectively, Antonelli brought FP3 to a close by clocking the 5th fastest time.
While speaking to Sky Sports F1 following the third practice session, Wolff commented on his progress.
“Kimi is just making step by step by step, and it’s really encouraging to see.”
In comparison to Antonelli’s impressive practice sessions, his former Formula 2 team-mate Oliver Bearman has had a tricky start to the weekend. After crashing in FP1 and missing FP2 due to his Haas VF-25 needing repairs, the British driver span out and beached the car in FP3, causing him to miss that session as well. Wolff was asked how he would deal with that situation.
“He’s clearly a very, very good driver in the future in Formula One, and then you’re getting on the wrong foot, and you’re crashing. And then the next day you’re just eager to compensate and then it’s another thing that creeps in and here you go, you haven’t done any session properly.
“And you know, as a driver you want to disappear in that moment, but he’s going to get there. It’s the first weekend, that wasn’t a great start, but there’s 23 more race weekends to come.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
“[As a team principal you have] no choice then to put your arm around him and say that that’s OK, because the more pressure you put [on], the more difficult it’s gonna become for you.”
Returning to Antonelli, the Austrian confirmed that he is on the right trajectory.
“It is free practice sessions, not qualifying, and even when it comes to qualifying, what he’s doing is exactly the right trajectory, and it’s good to gain confidence.”
