Toto Wolff Throws Max Verstappen Under the Bus over Kimi Antonelli’s Dutch GP Fiasco

Max Verstappen has emerged as one of the best drivers on the current F1 grid as he continues to score impressive results despite racing in a mediocre chassis. Kimi Antonelli has also come up as one of the better rookies this season, but he has also made some major mistakes. Regardless, Antonelli has already achieved a podium finish in his rookie season and is looking for a promising career ahead. Hence, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff compared the Italian and Verstappen in terms of performance.

Before Kimi Antonelli made his long-awaited debut in Formula 1 with Mercedes in 2025, he was deemed to be the ‘next Max Verstappen’ because of his promising results in junior categories. Antonelli quickly learnt the ropes of the sport and started performing well. Currently, the Italian is P7 in the driver’s standings, right behind the seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton.

Kimi Antonelli, despite being fast, has crashed out with other drivers on a couple of occasions, often causing the other driver to retire from the race. Still, Toto Wolff backed the Silver Arrow and insisted that he wanted a driver who was fast, but made mistakes and kept on learning from them. Wolff added that all the big drivers, even Max Verstappen, were susceptible to making errors on track.

No, you know, we want to have a driver that has speed, that is fast, that learns, that scores the points, but all the big ones make mistakes.

Toto Wolff said, as reported by GPblog

Toto Wolff pointed out that it would be difficult to compare Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli now, but even during the former’s debut with Toro Rosso (now Racing Bulls), he also made some pretty big mistakes. As such, Antonelli being thrown into a mammoth team at Mercedes meant that he was bound to make some errors.

It’s difficult to compare now, because Max was given a different environment in Toro Rosso at the beginning, but there were also some moments where you said there was a big mistake. And Kimi, 18 years old, thrown in this mammoth of a team, representing Mercedes, he’s going to make mistakes.

Toto Wolff added

Toto Wolff puts ‘100% faith’ in Kimi Antonelli

Kimi Antonelli has not hesitated to accept his shortcomings and apologize whenever necessary when he made a mistake on the track. The 18-year-old has also remained calm and level-headed on the track without any unnecessary outbursts on the team radio. This ability of the rookie would help him become successful in the long run, as he has just begun his Formula 1 career.