Kimi Antonelli’s victory at the Monaco Grand Prix of Formula 1 was so dominant that Mercedes had to ask the driver to slow down during the race. According to the team boss, Toto Wolff, not even the team’s warnings were enough to make the Italian lift off.
The triumph marked a special moment for Italian fans, as it was the first victory by a driver from the country on the streets of Monte Carlo since 2004. Moreover, it represented Mercedes’ first success on the circuit since 2019.
After the race, Wolff did not hide his admiration for the performance of the championship leader. The executive highlighted the control demonstrated by the young driver throughout the race: “What Kimi is able to do is special. He has total control of the car and of his emotions. He does not lose his calm when someone is only one and a half seconds behind, because he can change pace and increase the lead. It’s truly incredible,” he stated.
This superiority was so great that the team decided to warn him over the radio. According to the Mercedes boss, the young driver’s race engineer, Peter Bonnington, known as Bono, was the first to ask Antonelli to slow down, but the message had no effect.
“Bono spoke to him first and then I repeated the message. I told him to warn him that he had thirty seconds of lead. Peter transmitted that again, but Kimi continued posting the same lap times. So we thought that perhaps that was simply his pace,” Wolff said.
The executive also celebrated Mercedes’ return to the top in Monaco. According to him, the team had often been close to victory in recent years, but struggled to translate that potential into results: “It’s true that it has always been a challenge for us. We often came close, but the last victory had been in 2019. Returning to win was a very good feeling,” he added.
Despite the joy over Antonelli’s result, the weekend also brought frustration from the other side of the garage. George Russell finished with no points after receiving a drive-through penalty, compromising an opportunity that Wolff believes could have ended on the podium.
“I won’t be on the podium for ten years because it’s hard to balance the happiness on one side of the garage and the disappointment on the other. Today (Sunday) I couldn’t avoid it. While I was there, I had mixed feelings. In Montreal, the victory was his and we let him down. Today, we could probably have secured a podium without the penalty, which was a mistake,” concluded the Mercedes chief.
