Kimi Antonelli Wolff's cross and delight: dominates F1, but "he's a bit of an idiot! He gives us white hair"

Kimi Antonelli is increasingly the master of Formula 1

The dramatic victory at the Spanish GP in Madrid may not have been celebrated with too much enthusiasm, but it certainly has the merit of projecting Andrea Kimi Antonelli higher and higher in the Drivers’ standings. With an 81-point lead over teammate George Russell, 101 over Lewis Hamilton, and 106 over perhaps the most dangerous of the three chasers, Lando Norris, in the paddock people talk more about “when” rather than “if” regarding the mathematical certainty of winning the 2026 title.

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Yet, despite a pace that would be impressive even without considering that the 20-year-old from Bologna is only in his second season in Formula 1, there is a small big flaw that gives “some white hairs” to Toto Wolff and race engineer Peter Bonnington, whom everyone in the box calls ‘Bono’: Antonelli’s aggressiveness in driving, who practically in every race reaches the threshold of penalty for the three track limits violations.

The problem of track limits

A problem that Kimi Antonelli himself had spoken about in the recent past, who in Budapest had recounted how his father Marco told him “if I see you exceed the track limits again without reason, I’ll wring your neck like a chicken”, after the Spa victory. It is an issue that the young Italian had said he wanted to work on, but which is evidently not completely resolved: even in Madrid, during the GP, Bono warned him via radio quite early that he had already reached two violations, and therefore had only one left before receiving a penalty. A topic then also addressed by Wolff, during the press conference after the fortunate success in Spain in which FormulaPassion.it also took part.

Toto Wolff jokes about Kimi with Marco Antonelli

“I just discussed it with his father and we joked that sometimes Kimi is really an idiot! Obviously, I never said it, don’t write it down,” Wolff joked showing a decidedly (and understandably) relaxed attitude.

“But that’s simply how Kimi is made – adds the Mercedes team principal – and we had to drill into his head that he shouldn’t go beyond the white lines. Even after the first FP1 in Monza he went beyond the white line and crashed the car, and it’s the same with track limits. At one point I told him ‘Don’t you see outside the car? Do we maybe need to check the steering height because of the track limits?’. We had a laugh! In the race in Madrid, then, six laps from the end, he tells us via radio ‘Check the car because I just touched a wall’. Yes, well, sometimes Kimi Antonelli gives us white hairs. But he is made that way and maybe that’s exactly what makes him so fast.”

Translated from

Lancia Gamma at the ministry