{"id":273,"date":"2026-07-23T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T17:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/?p=273"},"modified":"2026-07-23T14:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T17:53:13","slug":"toto-wolff-scoffs-at-ferrari-interest-kimi-antonelli-they-should-have-done-that-7-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/toto-wolff-scoffs-at-ferrari-interest-kimi-antonelli-they-should-have-done-that-7-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolff scoffs at Ferrari’s interest in Antonelli: ‘They should have done that 7 years ago’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff poked fun at Ferrari\u2019s expressed interest in signing Andrea Kimi Antonelli further down the line. The Italian teenager has been the standout performer of the 2026 Formula 1 season, racking up 6 victories in 10 races to hold a commanding lead in the Drivers’ Standings\u2014a run form that naturally piqued the Scuderia’s interest in securing a home-grown Italian talent in the coming years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to Belgian broadcaster RTBF<\/em>, Wolff emphasized that Mercedes\u2019 talent scouting with Antonelli began back in his karting days, suggesting Ferrari missed the boat years ago. Kimi has been under the Silver Arrows’ wing since 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are well aware of it. But Kimi has been a Mercedes driver since he was 11 years old. Ferrari should have done that job six or seven years ago, rather than tuning in now that there’s a strong Italian driver on the grid. Naturally, they will do whatever they can to get an Italian driver,” Wolff stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It takes time to analyze the junior driver market. It starts right down in mini-karts with 10-year-old kids. You don’t just spot them; you nurture their personality, technical development, and character. We take immense pride in having Kimi Antonelli and George Russell\u2014two true products of the Mercedes program,” he continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toto also admitted that Antonelli’s stellar rookie campaign in 2026 came as a pleasant surprise, noting that regardless of raw talent, predicting how a driver adapts to Formula 1 is never certain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"F1
Kimi Antonelli (Photo: Rodrigo Ruiz\/Grande Pr\u00eamio)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“We always believed in him, but you never know for sure how things will play out. He went nine straight races without scoring a point last year. People criticized us for picking an inexperienced driver and said we made a mistake. We didn’t expect him to be this strong so soon, but we had seen glimpses of this talent before,” Wolff concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Formula 1 returns July 24\u201326 in Budapest, host of the Hungarian GP, Round 11 of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

F1 Hungarian GP: when to watch in US ET, London (UK), New Delhi (India), Shanghai (China) and Sydney (Australia)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

US Eastern Time (ET)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • Free Practice 1:<\/strong>\u00a007:30 AM<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Free Practice 2:<\/strong>\u00a011:00 PM<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Free Practice 3:<\/strong>\u00a006:30 AM<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Qualifying:<\/strong>\u00a010:00 AM<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Race:<\/strong>\u00a009:00 AM<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    London Time (BST)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • Free Practice 1:<\/strong>\u00a012:30 PM<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Free Practice 2:<\/strong>\u00a004:00 PM<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Free Practice 3:<\/strong>\u00a011:30 AM<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Qualifying:<\/strong>\u00a003:00 PM<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Race:<\/strong>\u00a002:00 PM<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      New Delhi Time (IST)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
        \n
      • Free Practice 1:<\/strong>\u00a005:00 PM<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Free Practice 2:<\/strong>\u00a008:30 PM<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Free Practice 3:<\/strong>\u00a004:00 PM<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Qualifying:<\/strong>\u00a007:30 PM<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Race:<\/strong>\u00a006:30 PM<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        Shanghai Time (CST)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
          \n
        • Free Practice 1:<\/strong>\u00a007:30 PM<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        • Free Practice 2:<\/strong>\u00a011:00 PM<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        • Free Practice 3:<\/strong>\u00a006:30 PM<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        • Qualifying:<\/strong>\u00a010:00 PM<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        • Race:<\/strong>\u00a009:00 PM<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

          Sydney Time (AEST)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
            \n
          • Free Practice 1:<\/strong>\u00a009:30 PM<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          • Free Practice 2:<\/strong>\u00a001:00 AM (overnight)<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
          • Free Practice 3:<\/strong>\u00a008:30 PM<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          • Qualifying:<\/strong>\u00a012:00 AM\u00a0(midnight)<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
          • Race:<\/strong>\u00a011:00 PM<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

            <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            Toto Wolff highlighted Mercedes’ driver development program and mocked Ferrari’s desire to secure Italian prodigy Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1020310102,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"42wp_featured_image_caption":"Andrea Kimi Antonelli \u00e9 um futuro desejo da Ferrari","42wp_featured_image_credits":"Rodrigo Ruiz\/Grande Pr\u00eamio","42wp_featured_video":"","42wp_ai_content_disclaimer":"","42wp_is_ai_content":false,"42wp_featured_image_hidden":false,"42wp_authors_list":[],"footnotes":"","42wp_hide_from_automatic":false,"42wp_breaking_news":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[19,56,116],"42wp_author":[44],"class_list":["post-273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-f1","tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","tag-ferrari","tag-toto-wolff","42wp_author-gabriel-carvalho"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273\/revisions\/280"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1020310102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273"},{"taxonomy":"42wp_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/42wp_author?post=273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}