-
Lorence esmondson
Toto Wolf says it takes five minutes to decide Km antoneley As Lewis HamiltonWhen he first learned the seven -time champion, Mercedes was leaving for Ferrari last year.
It is unlikely to have such a decisiveness that an 18 -year -old has been allowed to analyze all possible results of a front walk at the age of 18 years. Sutra 1 The car, but Mercedes Boss made it clear from the beginning that deep climb would be compulsorily mixed between the joyful heights.
Wolf’s decision is making public public in last year’s Italian Grand Prix, and the argument of putting a teenager in such a high pressure is being questioned. Antoneley has created only one championship point for the last five rounds, and the raw speed that is clear at the beginning of the season seems difficult to tap regularly.
, Italian GP 2025 – Monza: F 1 bar, predictions, data, facts
, How Piastry changed the fate of McLaren and Alpine
, Marco awakened the ‘Little Prost’ header, but is the red bull step-up?
Antonely collided jointly with very visible mistakes Max Verustapane In Austria and again Charles Lakeler In the Netherlands, they are not without the foundation.
But for Wolf, messaging is the same: Mercedes completely believes in its future star and Antoneley’s crooks are happy for the season.
Wolf said on Sunday after Antonely’s nightmare weekend in the Dutch Grand Prix, “When we made it clear last year that we would give him a chance, we were also saying that we would give him a year to learn,” Wolf said on Sunday after Antonely’s grief weekend in Dutch Grand Prix.
“And then there will be moments where we will tear our hair and there will be other moments of talent. And I think at the end of this week [in Zandvoort] It is too much that above.
“So, up and down, but I was fully expecting that from this season and each one of those days is one of the next year.”
If Wolf is correct, now the question is whether Antonely can use the remaining race of 2025 to improve yourself before the tremendous challenge of 2026 and re -discover your real ability.
Monza mark which took time to fix
While Wolf admitted that Mercedes might have made a mistake, this year is the pressure on Antoneley with that pressure.
The 12 -month -old rewind and the team decided to bundle his confirmation in 24 hours for the beginning of the 18 -year Friday and 2025. The feeling of a childhood dream and the talent of Antoneley should feel a festive feeling, which quickly turned into a living nightmare – all in front of fans of their home and under the dazzle of media.
As the case has often been in his small career, the speed of Antonally was undisputed. On his second flight lap of his first practice session in F1, he was 0.7 seconds faster than Hamilton through the first two regions of Monza lap, his telemetry registered at a speed of 8 miles per hour than the sister car through tricky Ascari Chirken.
The eyebrows started getting up among Mercedes engineers as they tracked the progress of their young star to the end corner of the lap – Parbolika – knowing that he was pushing the car much more difficult than someone’s expectation.
If Antoneley had completed the lap, it would have become almost clear at the top of the timing screen and would have been between the top six times by the end of the session. But as Antoneley turned into a parabolica, the tires behind it were still running hot even after being mesmerized, left through the right, ascarry chirken – started sliding sideways and in the blink of an eye Set Mercedes to an irreversible 130-mile per hour slide to obstacles,
The effect recorded 52 times more force than gravity, which means that Antoneley was immediately taken to the medical center for precautionary check, while his debris car was lifted on a flatbed truck and taken back into the garage in pieces.
In a Netflix documentary about his rise in the F1 released earlier this year, Antoneley admitted that he cried after the accident and felt that he would let the team and his family go down. Mercedes made every effort to play the incident at that time, but now a belief that it left a mental mark that affected Antonely’s confidence in its debut season.
Technical Director James Elisen said in this year’s British Grand Prix, “We talk about it internally, and it can be more gossip than reality, but traveling in free practice in Monza, I think he may have reached near the weekend of the race.”
“And in fact, we are encouraging him to rely on his talent and he can bow into him as he thinks he can do.”
Although the mistake was undoubtedly antioneley, Wolf agrees that the way the team has handled the arrival of its protagues in F1, it has not always been favorable to achieve the best results.
“I think we have put the km under maximum pressure, to be honest,” Wolf recently said as the last weekend Dutch Grand Prix. “At that time, I felt that it was a great idea to keep it in FP1 in Monza and present it there, but it was probably a mistake.
“Not because he was not able to drive the car, because if he had finished that lap without an accident, it would have been sensational and it would have created confidence.
“He is in a Mercedes, he is very visible, his results are very visible, his team’s partner is great and maximizing the car. Therefore, he feels himself under the magnifying glass. Team – we just continue to believe it. He needs time.
“We have adopted this path, so you can say, ‘Was it right to put it in the team and keep it under such pressure?’ We have taken that trajectory;
“We are completely on the mission, and single race weekends or a session or a session as we were not going to change our opinion even before. Yes, short -term, we’re going to say,” It’s not good, “but km is a long -term investment.”
A struggle to adapt
Even with Monza crashed behind his brain, good bits beat the bad during the first six races of Antoneley’s 2025 season. Finnish, one fourth -ranked in a weight in weight, showed his remarkable car control in Australia, while a pole position for the Miami Sprint race on a circuit that he had never run before offering evidence of his undisputed speed.
The trajectory was tracing upwards for Antoneley as F1 moved towards its European Heartland, but then Mercedes introduced a new rear suspension package, which derailed her progress. Antoneley later in Canada with two races with new suspension despite scoring the first podium of his career – a race in Canada George Russell Jeet – On the vast majority of the circuit, it made the car twitch and unexpected.
While Russell’s experience in previous cars helped him drive around the issues, Antoneley struggled to adapt, and it was not until the team returned to the old specification in Hungary that he felt comfortable again.
“In the first six races of the season, I originally have the same car [without major upgrades]”Antoneley explained in the zandwort.” So the car was very consistent, and having a single car really helps you to create your confidence and understanding with your behavior.
“I reached the sixth race of the season in Miami with great confidence. I was able to build and qualify on the pole to express the capacity. And, yes, it was great.
“And then we went to the new suspension, and when the struggle came. After Miami, I really went to Emola with high hopes, but then, with the new suspension, I fought extensively.
“And I really started struggling with my driving and really to pursue a way of driving which was not natural for me. And I think, on my side, I could not really adapt that well. And that’s why I struggled a lot.
“This is very clear when I reflect. The first six races, I had the same car. And then, since we went on a new suspension, I have lost more confidence now. Now that we are back to the car at the beginning of the year, hopefully I will help to re -create that kind of confidence.”
Chance to see real anteneli
The remaining nine breeds of 2025 have introduced an opportunity for Antoneley, which came back before pressing him the following year. A regulation change for the next season will introduce Mercedes with the opportunity to return to the grid in 2026, and many Paddocks seem to be a favorite for Volf’s team changes.
In such a scenario, Antoneley will be under another luxurious spotlight and mistakes such as its collision with Lakeler in the zandwort will be more expensive. For this reason, Wolf is ready to accept the remaining part of 2025 as a learning year-some Antoneley had no luxury as it left Go-Cart racing for formula cars in 2022.
Wolf said, “I think it is not just a rogue season, what we forget is that the decision we took was to put an 18-year-old man in the car at the age of 18, who was two and a half years of single-seater racing,” said Wolf. “When you see him, he is still a boy whom we have thrown into this atmosphere.
“You just want to hug him and call him because he has the talent – the raw motion that is in it.
“You always want to learn that there are less hump and shocks than today, but it is there. It just needs to unplay it like an artichoke – and finally, there is gold. We have no doubt about it.
“In a way, why we are taking it with a certain ease, this is that we are not fighting for a world championship this year – we are fighting for P2 and P3, and we do it to give it the best shot for ourselves.
“But I can cope with up and down compared to up to the championship.”
As soon as he was five minutes after Hamilton was lost, Wolf remains unwavering in his faith in Antonely’s ability. It is a recent show of support in a world where drivers are all often cast on one side during the recession in performance, but an antonyly knows that he can only pay with really on-track results.
