Toto Wolff reflected on an unbelievable day for Mercedes as Kimi Antonelli and George Russell bagged a 1-2 at the 2026 F1 Italian GP.
Starting from 19th on the grid, the championship leader produced a stunning drive to take the victory, while George Russell also had a strong race to take 2nd as the two-stop strategy ultimately was better thanks to the VSC.
17 places between Russell and Antonelli on the grid
The home hero was at the back thanks to grid penalties for new engine components outside the allocated number for the season. Car #63 was on the front row with Pierre Gasly.
Russell quickly took the lead from the Alpine driver, while Antonelli worked his way up to 12th before the red flag.
The Brit then had battles with Max Verstappen once the race restarted as the Dutchman was on mediums versus his hards, while the Italian — also on mediums as he started on hards — was coming through like a driver in a video game who set his opponents to easy. He quickly worked his way up to the top 2 and started fighting his teammate, with yo-yo racing taking place.
Mercedes then asked Antonelli to hold station so they could build a gap to Verstappen as he was staying in overtake mode. Once the VSC appeared to clear Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin, the Italian boxed and had 25 laps to catch his teammate.
Although Russell put up a great fight on old hards and was pumping in personal bests, the fresher mediums and a fired up Italian in his home race was too much to resist. After going in the gravel due to the track breaking up at turn 2 as he tried to complete the overtake on attempt number 1 at the start of lap 49, Antonelli regained his composure and got it done on the run to Ascari on the next tour.
Kimi Antonelli then gapped George Russell in the final couple of laps, setting the fastest lap as he crossed the line to seal a crushing win, both on the day and in regards to the championship.
Toto Wolff on splitting the strategy with his drivers at the 2026 F1 Italian GP
Speaking in his print media session after the race, Toto Wolff explained why they did not box both George Russell and Kimi Antonelli under the VSC.
It was widely predicted the hards could do a complete race distance. The vast majority of the field switched to them under the early red flag
“We didn’t know. We didn’t know what was the better strategy.
“At that stage, the system said that the one-stop comes out ahead, that the two-stop was coming close to the end, but wouldn’t catch. That’s what the software said.
“You know, you’ve got to hedge [your bets] at a certain stage, and that was pretty clear, the obvious hedge.
Team tactics for Antonelli and Russell
On the close battles between the pair and getting in the 2026 F1 Italian GP, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff praised the teamwork regarding Antonelli staying behind Russell and trying to gap Verstappen, as well as the clean racing between them.
“We’re trying to anticipate possible scenarios.
“And the two of them have been great in understanding and embracing the team component, which is difficult for a race driver that wins, that tries to win a Grand Prix, especially for Kimi in Monza, especially for George, who needs to keep scoring points in order to stay in the race.
“But they’ve always been clean. At times, we were thinking it’s clean, but it’s a bit close. And I had a finger on the button to Marcus [Dudley], to Bono, to Kimi, to George, but I didn’t push it.
“The last incident was unfortunate. George trying to not cut the corner, and Kimi then obviously on the marbles going straight, and that could have ended up in a disaster when it comes to the race result, and we would have looked like idiots.
“So we will be talking about that situation as another building block of how do we want to race in the future. But I think it was worth to show the racing spirit in the team and have them go at each other.
Wolff on why Antonelli won the 2026 F1 Italian GP
Asked to explain what made the key difference for Kimi Antonelli to win his home race from P19 on the grid, the Austrian looked to how quickly he could pass cars and cycle his way to the front.
He made seven places on the initial start, before making another four on the second start to be 8th. That became 6th on lap 7 as he overtook Lindblad and Norris like they were standing still on the main straight. By lap 13 that was P3.
“I think, in a way, we had to go on a one-stop strategy. And we knew that he’s going to go through the field.
“Then the race was red flagged. And then suddenly you find yourself on the back foot with the medium. And that proved out to be the right strategy.
“But the differentiator today was the ability going through the traffic. And we’ve seen it with other great ones in the past. Lewis, who did it at some of the races, and that’s what he’s shown today.
“There’s just no stopping. When a driver and a car are at one, then there is nothing that can stop them.”
The second stop for Kimi Antonelli
Toto Wolff confirmed that Mercedes made the call to box the Italian driver. Although he was happy on his 25-lap medium tyres, the team had some concerns after looking at abrasion with Lewis Hamilton’s.
They took the chance to box under the VSC and it paid off handsomely.
“We didn’t talk to Kimi about the stop. We asked for the state of the tyre and he said, ‘well, it’s actually good.’
“But it was clear that we saw abrasion. I think it was on Lewis’s car. We saw some abrasion on a McLaren. So it was the right thing to do.
“It was also, like I said before, it was the right thing to split the strategies because it was unknown what the better one would be. In the morning meeting we said the hard tyre is gonna go forever. You can start on it and finish on it.
“And you can see with George, it was a forever tyre, but it didn’t have the performance [durability] on the medium.
“But then having said that, Kimi was able to extract from that tyre in a consistent way. And that’s certainly a skill.”
