Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says Ferrari doesn’t deserve criticism for overlooking Andrea Kimi Antonelli when he was a kart racer.

Antonelli joined Mercedes’ junior driver programme in 2018. According to his father, Ferrari’s then-team principal Maurizio Arrivabene previously turned down the opportunity to sign the 11-year-old due to his age.

However Wolff doesn’t believe Italy’s historic Formula 1 team deserves criticism for overlooking the country’s new star driver, who is leading the world championship for Mercedes.

“Now everyone talks about Kimi’s talent, about how early we found him,” Wolff told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “I hear people saying things like: ‘Ferrari should have discovered him when he was young.’

Mercedes backed Antonelli from a young age

“But that is not correct, because the true value of our Mercedes junior programme has been creating the right environment for him to grow, giving him the best tools and supporting him through difficult situations. Talent is only the starting point, but the real work has happened during these eight years together.”

Mercedes has brought other drivers into F1, including Antonelli’s team mate George Russell. However the team began working with Antonelli at a younger age.

“With Kimi this is a long-term project, one we began as a team many years ago,” said Wolff. “We have a fantastic group of people who, at every level, make sure he can perform at his best and feel protected while remaining himself both as a driver and as a young man. His parents have helped enormously because they have done, and continue to do, a fantastic job of raising Kimi with the right values.

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“The talent is only the starting point, but the real work has been done over these eight years together. He has a long future ahead of him.”

Russell has fallen 20 points behind his team mate in the drivers’ championship standings as Antonelli has won the last three rounds in a row. However Wolff expected him to rebound at the next round in Montreal, where he won last year.

“What we love about this sport is that the stopwatch at the end of the race never lies, and the stopwatch says Kimi deservedly won the last three grands prix,” said Wolff. “Russell has not performed quite as well, in some cases because of team problems, bad luck, and in Miami because of his own mistakes. That said, we know George’s value and we know he will return, starting in Canada, highly competitive and ready to make life difficult for his rivals.”

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Keith Collantine

Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 – when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring journalist, Keith began running the site full-time in 2010, achieving a long-held ambition to dedicate his full attention to his passion for motor racing. View all posts by Keith Collantine