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Toto Wolff has shared an insight into how Kimi Antonelli is driving with the confidence that saw him claim pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix, with the Mercedes boss admitting that there were \u201cso many doubters\u201d during the youngster\u2019s rookie season.<\/span><\/p>\n After making the step up to Formula 1 with the Silver Arrows in 2025, Antonelli<\/a> experienced mixed fortunes during his first campaign, having made a good start before a tough spell across the European leg followed.<\/p>\n However, the Italian ended the season on a better note and has since gone from strength to strength in his sophomore outing, becoming the sport\u2019s youngest-ever championship leader with a current margin of 43 points over team mate George Russell<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Speaking to F1 TV<\/em> after Antonelli surged to pole in Monaco Qualifying, Wolff<\/a> was quizzed on how the teenager seems able to approach his racing with a high level of confidence.<\/p>\n \u201cI think from that perspective, the young age is maybe easier,\u201d Wolff answered. \u201cYou don\u2019t think a lot about it. He has not a lot to lose \u2013 he never expected himself to be in this position, that he\u2019s leading a championship.<\/p>\n \u201cLike he said, ‘I don\u2019t know how it is, I\u2019ve got nothing to lose\u2019. I think it\u2019s trusting his instinct, letting it fly, and the tough learnings from last year with the mistakes that happened, a spell of nine races without a point, and that all keeps building.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Team Principal went on to reflect on how Antonelli had learned from the difficult times in 2025, adding: \u201cI think when you need to learn to be resilient and go through the bad spells, alone with the support of your team and family, and you come out of it, it makes you much stronger.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had so many doubters last year after those bad races saying we shouldn\u2019t have put him in the Mercedes. I think that some of our competitor teams would have taken him out and either put him in a junior team or in a satellite team.<\/p>\n \u201cWe kind of stuck to the project and said year one is going to have highlights, moments of brilliance and then moments where it\u2019s going to be very difficult, but we stick to the plan. We gave him the necessary pressure but also a bit of an easiness about things, so maybe that\u2019s the reason why we have this moment now.\u201d<\/p>\n In another chat with Sky Sports F1<\/em>, Wolff detailed how Antonelli \u201cbuilt it up\u201d in Qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix, gaining momentum after a \u201csolid\u201d Q1.<\/p>\n The session was not so straightforward, however, for Russell, who wound up in sixth and admitted later on that he was confused by his current issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Addressing whether it is the case that one driver has momentum while the other is struggling, Wolff said: \u201cWe tend to look a lot on the psychological side, but George is very robust and resilient. There were a few races that went against him because luck wasn\u2019t on his side, or he wasn\u2019t there at the right moment.<\/p>\n \u201cHere, I don\u2019t think it is so much on the psychological side \u2013 he just never had the confidence in the car. Qualifying started on the back foot \u2013 FP3 was still very okay. Once you start to run behind the performance and you lose the confidence, it\u2019s super difficult to catch up again.<\/p>\n \u201cI think if it had been one session more, he would have been there or thereabouts. He didn\u2019t have any grip, and [in] Monaco no grip means you can\u2019t push it.\u201d<\/p>\n Finally, looking ahead to Sunday\u2019s race, Wolff acknowledged that Antonelli may have to get his elbows out when it comes to defending against Red Bull<\/a>\u2019s Max Verstappen<\/a> \u2013 who he shares the front row with \u2013 at the start.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope we get it right with the clutch tomorrow, and Kimi needs to make himself wide like a tourist bus around Monaco!\u201d the Austrian smiled. \u201cBecause if you lose the start or you\u2019re not there, it\u2019s going to be really difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Toto Wolff has shared an insight into how Kimi Antonelli is driving with the confidence that saw him claim pole<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_animmysite_disable_animation":false,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media.formula1.com\/image\/upload\/t_16by9North\/c_lfill,w_2048\/q_auto\/v1740000001\/trackside-images\/2026\/F1_Grand_Prix_of_Monaco___Qualifying\/2280188830.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-sports-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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