On Sunday, Kimi Antonelli took a third straight victory at the 2026 F1 Miami GP to extend his championship lead over Mercedes teammate George Russell to 20 points; Toto Wolff gave his reaction to it post-race.
Having joined Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher as drivers who bagged their first three poles in consecutive rounds, the 19-year-old equalled Damon Hill and Mika Häkkinen by winning his first three races in succession.
Although he failed to lead out of turn 1 once again, it was better damage limitation yesterday for the driver of car #12 as he was P2 at the end of the opening lap.
After passing Charles Leclerc for the lead on lap 4, the Italian found himself in P3 just over a lap later as he was low on battery, allowing the Ferrari and Lando Norris to make moves.
Once the Brit and Mercedes driver cleared car #16, it became a head-to-head. As the medium stint came to a close, Antonelli was very slowly catching Norris.
His team pulled the undercut. With McLaren having a slow stop of 3.7s, Antonelli got ahead on the run to turn 3. From there, he needed to pass Max Verstappen without letting the World Champion getting a run on him before it. He pulled it off and took the victory.
Toto Wolff on Kimi Antonelli’s best race and win at the 2026 F1 Miami GP
Speaking in a print media session following another win for his extremely impressive young talent, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes it was his best race in F1 so far.
Coming up through the ranks, Antonelli was devastatingly dominant at Formula 4 level in 2022, before winning the Formula Regional Middle East Championship and Formula Regional European Championship in 2023.
“Yeah, I know track limits are the mistakes.
“It’s easier to slow someone, calm someone down that is wild, because you won’t be able to accelerate a donkey.
“So for me that was his best race so far. And it reminds me of his karting days or Formula 4. There were no mistakes today.”
The importance of Peter Bonnington
With Kimi Antonelli facing plenty of pressure from Lando Norris through a good portion of the second stint for P1, he was starting to push his luck on track limits. He had already got a penalty in the Sprint as frustration won out on Saturday.
Despite some car concerns from the youngster as well, Bono kept his driver calm in the closing stages of the Grand Prix to take the win.
The Austrian Team Principal outlined the leadership the legendary British engineer showed in the garage and on the radio during a tense and tricky hard tyre stint.
“Yeah, Bono has learned from the greats. From Schumacher to Hamilton many years and then now to Kimi, and he’s been a good mentor to him. But also a strong boss.
“There were a few times today when Kimi had two strikes with the track limits, I said to Bono, ‘one more and I’m going to go on the radio,’ and he said, ‘no, no, you leave that to me.’
“And that shows he just knows how to handle it. He just knows how to handle it, and that’s good.
“He’s been part of the success.”
Wolff on Antonell’s F1 development following three straight wins
The Mercedes team led by Toto Wolff has had a superb start to 2026: George Russell won the F1 Australian GP and Chinese Sprint, while Kimi Antonelli has won the Chinese, Japanese and Miami Grands Prix.
2025 had been a rough campaign for the young rookie talent. Although he displayed some serious speed at times and bagged three rostrums, plenty of mistakes got made also as his team boss predicted and understood many times. Overall, he was well beaten by the much more experienced and quick George Russell.
Asked about the big step Kimi Antonelli has made over the winter and how he achieved it following that third straight win at the 2026 F1 Miami GP, Toto Wolff explained mentorship and seeing how he deals with pressure has been key.
“When you look throughout his trajectory in karting and in the junior formulas, he was just outstanding.
“When you think about what we said last year, it’s exactly how his development happened. We had these great ups, the moments of brilliance and then moments where he was allowed to make mistakes.
“We needed to calibrate and continue to mentor him whilst having pressure on him. But he just takes it so well and he’s able to analyse it, but then don’t overthink it. He compartmentalises that. ‘Okay, I made a mistake. I put it away.’
“And then, boom, this year we start the season. He’s seen the Grands Prix, he’s worked with the team, he knows the pressure that the media puts upon him.”
Keeping level-headed
Throughout the last few weeks since Kimi Antonelli took his first F1 win, Toto Wolff has consistently called for calm in the Italian media and not to go too extreme in the hype around the Mercedes driver.
He made a comparison to Italian superstar Jannik Sinner and how far away Kimi Antonelli is away from that right now. The 24-year-old is a four-time Grand Slam winner and has been World Number 1 for 70 weeks.
“But nevertheless, we just really need to stay calm here because such a success for such a young man at that stage, all of Italy will be on him. Sinner, Antonelli. Antonelli, Sinner. But with one, we have three Grand Prix [wins]. The other one is world number one in ATP for a few years now and has won many Grand Slams.
“So the family and us, you’re [Marco Antonelli] the first one actually to calm down. Marco is pretty good at keeping his son grounded, even when he’s winning.
“And I think all of us collectively that are close to him, we need to keep re-emphasising and repeating the message. This is a long game.”
Toto Wolff focusing on the long-term with Kimi Antonelli in F1 after 2026 Miami GP
While George Russell has had a tough couple of rounds, he remains a formidable opponent on the other side of the garage in F1 2026. Alongside that, McLaren made a big step in Miami, with Ferrari and Red Bull also very fast at points.
The Mercedes Team Principal expects some ups and downs but is also very aware of how talented the Italian driver is.
“He has a killer of a teammate that is extremely fast. The others are catching up in performance and we want to play the long game.
“He can hopefully win many championships over 10 years and 15 years. And we don’t want to stumble now with these huge expectations that will sit on him.
“Because the moment he has a bad race, which will happen, or he makes a mistake, people will say, maybe ‘Kimi is not the one superstar that we thought.’ And that’s why let’s keep that trajectory.
“It’s a share price that’s going up. It’s never going to go up like this [constantly on the rise]; it’s going to go up like this [with bumps in the road].
“He’s 19 years old. I don’t think I was able to take my own flight when I was 19 and find my way to the terminal at the airport.
“So it’s incredible what he’s doing.”
