Toto Wolff reflected on a stunning F1 Monaco GP weekend for Mercedes after Kimi Antonelli claimed pole position and went on to win the race, extending his championship lead. Speaking to media after the F1 Monaco GP, the Mercedes Team Principal and CEO praised the 19-year-old’s dominant weekend. Antonelli has now won five consecutive races in the 2026 F1 season.
Antonelli’s victory came in a chaotic race that saw seven retirements, including Max Verstappen on the opening lap and World Champion Lando Norris mid-race. Yet, Antonelli remained composed at the front, finishing 6.271 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
Wolff left in awe of Antonelli’s F1 Monaco GP pole lap
Speaking after the F1 Monaco GP in a print media session, Wolff was asked to put Antonelli’s qualifying performance into context. The Mercedes Team Principal did not hold back in his admiration for what the Italian had produced.
“I think in Monaco, even more than on many other circuits, you need to be one with the car and really in the zone. That’s also why, on George‘s side, once you lose that confidence, it’s very difficult to be fast here,” Wolff stated.
Turning to Antonelli’s lap specifically, Wolff described the moment he watched it unfold in real time. “And as for Kimi, we saw Q2 was very good already, and then when we went into the last session, I thought, this is going to be impossible. Because seeing Charles flying into the Swimming Pool section, that is the fastest I’ve seen a car coming in there and on the limit sideways.”
With Charles Leclerc setting the benchmark, Wolff admitted he feared Antonelli would fall short of pole at the 2026 F1 Monaco GP as the Dutchman in his Red Bull then went 0.2s clear.
“And then Max topped it, and then we were tracing Kimi’s lap, we had the live GPS and it looked like this was just not going to make it. Then out of nowhere, the last two corners, he made the difference and he was on pole. Looking at the onboard afterwards, it was unbelievable. It was unbelievable, that lap.”
Wolff on Antonelli’s starts and the new generation of drivers
Wolff was also asked about Antonelli’s ability to handle the pressure of race starts at the F1 Monaco GP, having faced scrutiny over that area earlier in the season. He used the question to offer a broader reflection on what makes this generation of drivers so different.
“You know what’s so interesting for me? There’s this new generation of drivers that have come up with a lot of simulator work. It’s like they have more storage capacity cognitively. Once a process is learned, it’s stored and that’s it,” Wolff explained.
He also acknowledged that the team’s own technical issues had contributed to the start problems seen earlier in the season. The root cause, Wolff suggested, was not purely down to the driver.
“And I think we’ve had those many bad starts because of the electronics not working in the right way, our tyre-slip data didn’t work well, didn’t correlate well, we had issues with the clutch and with the hardware, and then obviously the drivers didn’t get it right at all times. But it seems that we have solved that.”
For Wolff, the improvement in Antonelli’s starts at the Monaco GP and beyond reflects something deeper than simply fixing a technical problem.
“And that’s why, it’s there in the storage, he starts the programme, the programme runs, then he goes. And it’s quite interesting to see that in these younger drivers.”
With Antonelli now leading the F1 Drivers’ Championship with 156 points, Mercedes head to Barcelona with considerable momentum. Meanwhile, Hamilton‘s move into second place in the standings is a strong result for Ferrari, who have shown consistent pace throughout the opening rounds.
