Mercedes Workforce Principal Toto Wolff has hailed the podium-winning drive of Kimi Antonelli on the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, after the rookie fended off title-chasing Max Verstappen within the closing phases.
Antonelli registered his finest Grand Prix end on Sunday, crossing the road second to Lando Norris at Interlagos. The outcome continued a return to kind following a troublesome European leg of the season.
Requested if this was the Italian’s most full weekend to this point, Wolff mentioned: “I believe all weekend it was robust, from the get-go. It is good to see. Possibly it was coming to a observe that he did not know.
“It’s kind of simpler. Expectations. Expectations are possibly decrease.
“Possibly strain will not be as excessive as a number of the [European races], after which the execution was faultless on the finish. You already know, with the ability to fend off, battle off Max on the newer, more energizing tyre, that was actually robust and a testomony as to what’s to come back.”
As to why Antonelli has discovered kind away from Europe, Wolff added: “I believe it is a improvement. Subsequent 12 months he’ll come to those tracks that he is aware of with out anticipating to kill it. And that is the training 12 months, the 12 months that we at all times anticipated to come back with all of the ups and downs. At this time is an up, positively. An excellent second. There can be tougher ones.
“Let’s examine the following three races. I believe we’re seeing the younger boy changing into the younger man and performing.”
With Antonelli second and George Russell fourth in Brazil, Mercedes took a stride in the direction of securing second within the Teams’ Standings, with Red Bull falling 32 factors again, and Ferrari 36, though Wolff remained pragmatic when assessing the desk.
“You possibly can see how rapidly it goes,” he mentioned. “You will have a weekend the place you might have a double DNF like [Ferrari] had and the opposite groups scoring robust sufficient factors. The 30-point swing, you’ll be able to have it within the different path too in any of the three races.
“So, we simply have to maintain each toes on the bottom, hopefully consolidate the hole and simply take it daily, weekend by weekend.”
Whereas Antonelli was battling within the closing phases, Russell was defending from Oscar Piastri to protect his top-four outcome.
“That’s how Formulation 1 ought to be, preventing for positions whether or not you’re the again man or the defending man,” mentioned Wolff. “I’m actually pleased with the job each of them did. Kimi’s P2 is clearly a shining gentle right here, however George defending from Piastri in precisely the identical means is one thing I loved witnessing.
“Vitality administration was nice. Between the engine guys, the race engineers and the driving force we tried to optimise vitality harvesting and vitality deployment in the absolute best means, and use all we had on the primary straight and saving vitality within the different elements and that was a giant a part of us not dropping that race.”
