Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff believes a messy first two laps cost Kimi Antonelli a shot at winning the 2026 F1 Austrian GP on Sunday. The 19-year-old had to settle for 3rd.
Following a P4 start, Antonelli went off at turns 1 and 3 on the opening lap, before doing so once more at the first corner against Charles Leclerc on the second tour. While he gave the place back, Max Verstappen got an incredible run out of turn 3 to pass both. At that stage, the Italian was P5.
On lap 7, he eventually completed a move on the Monegasque driver. He had to do it again 23 tours later as he extended the opening stint. As Lewis Hamilton was on a three-stop, that put him into 3rd.
Having extended in stints one and two, he had a six and eight-lap tyre delta to teammate George Russell for both hard stints, as well as a seven and two-lap offset across those against Max Verstappen.
Wolff: Antonelli extremely fast and impressive outside the poor first two laps in 2026 F1 Austrian GP
For both of his stops, a VSC appeared immediately (Carlos Sainz stopping) or a lap (debris) after he had boxed.
Speaking in his print media session, Toto Wolff did not believe that was unlucky. Instead, he analysed the attacking mindset and oace his Italian driver had.
“I think the VSCs weren’t unfortunate for him. I think the VSCs could have been very fortunate if it was a lap earlier. So that didn’t make any difference.
“I think his driving was great. Other than the first few laps, he had the quickest race time. I think it was just too attack[-minded] in the first few laps, which we want to see from a young driver like that.
“But that possibly cost him the shot at the victory.”
Hunting Max Verstappen at the end of the 2026 Austria race
Over 13s behind George Russell at one stage following his first stop, and a gap of 9s to Max Verstappen, the championship leader was rapid, particularly on the second set of hard tyres.
When he crossed the line at the end of lap 71, the Italian was 2.0s away from his Mercedes teammate who won. He came up just short against the Dutchman, with a mere 0.3s covering them.
Toto Wolff explained why they extended with Kimi Antonelli in the 2026 F1 Austrian GP. With Verstappen very fast on his own merit, passing on similar tyre life would have been extremely tough.
The Austrian also explained that too much enthusiasm from the driver #12 to get up behind George Russell quickly led to the multiple mistakes early doors as the Brit bagged his second win of 2026.
“You know, when we saw that it was difficult to actually gain the position on Verstappen, [the plan] was to go long, to extend the stint.
“And that paid off. At the end, every lap more is like two and a half tenths on the tyre. And that’s why he was going so fast, because his tyres were just simply newer.
“So I think it was the right strategy. And it was the last moment to beat him because we were at risk of being undercut by Piastri. When he came out, Piastri was just 1.8 seconds behind him.
“So the strategy, I think, played out in the right way.
“The first few corners, this is where the race got lost. Full attack mode, missing braking turn one, missing braking turn three, missing braking turn four.
“But as I said, this is exactly what I expect from him. Like yesterday, the yellow, that’s never going to happen to him in his life again, to not see whether it’s a double yellow or a single yellow.
“In the same way today, he just wanted to be right there on George, he wanted to be right behind him. And that cost him a position or two [initially].”
