Kimi Antonelli put his Mercedes colleagues in a bit of a pickle by crashing out of FP3 at the 2026 F1 Australian GP, but team boss Toto Wolff lauded both his young driver and his mechanics for the result at the end of the weekend.
The Italian in his sophomore campaign binned his W17 coming out of turn 2 during the Saturday morning session. A heroic effort by the mechanics — and a little help from Max Verstappen’s Q1 crash — gave Antonelli the opportunity to eventually qualify in second behind his team mate.
On Sunday, he capped of a successful Mercedes Australian GP by completing the 1-2 finish.
Wolff has nothing but praise for Mercedes and Antonelli after 2026 F1 Australian GP
“Yeah, I mean, he’s literally doing learning the hard way,” Wolff reflects on Antonelli’s weekend. “Which makes it, it makes him stronger. And he was very, very strong on Friday and his pace also on Saturday was there, but then, you know, the accident happened and that can happen.”
The Mercedes boss was also very proud of his mechanics, who did nothing short of a miracle, according to Wolff.
“I think it’s a miracle that the mechanics were able to put the car back on track for qualifying. And you can see that it’s just a very solid base of a car, that there wasn’t any set up on it. We didn’t measure the car and he was able to, to qualify so well and, and then execute in the race.
“And, you know, like most cars have been harmed to a certain degree with the battery. We weren’t able to, because of the stress situation of warm up our tyres and spin them in the way to have a good start that contributed also that starting performance.
“And at the end, you know, it’s a, it’s a very good, the second place, it was very fast at the end.”
Wolff added that he expects the 19-year-old to rise up to the occassion and make it difficult for George Russell.
“He had the pace and there’s more to be expected, and he will expect more from him and we will expect more performance from the car and getting rid of those gremlins, and then having the two race each other fair and square. And hopefully with some of the other cars.”
Usage of multiple power unit components no direct cause for reliability concerns
Speaking of technical gremlins, both Mercedes drivers already had to replace some power unit components ahead of the race on Sunday. Antonelli had to replace ancillary components, whereas Russell had to replace multiple components, including the energy store (battery).
Asked whether this would cause Wolff any reliabilty worries as the 2026 F1 grid heads to Shanghai, the 54-year-old Austrian remained confident the team would find a way to minimise penalties.
“As it is with new regulations, always a completely new power units and equipment, I think it’s too early to say. We don’t know what the reliability issues are going to be going forward.
“In a GP we’re always trying to deliver a power unit that is first of all the best in class when it comes to performance, but the reliability comes very close.
“And therefore we will just, you know — I have no doubt we will be absolutely leaving no stone unturned to understand how we can do the season with the least possible or all penalties.”
