There’s a lot to admire about Toto Wolff – and his openness about personal challenges tied to tough life experiences is certainly high on that list. Whether it’s his time as a driving instructor at the A1 Ring, battling financial problems, or his childhood memories of his father’s battle with cancer and early death, Wolff doesn’t shy away from sharing the difficulties that shaped him.
Speaking to Nico Rosberg in a podcast the 2016 world champion launched not long after finishing his F1 career, Wolff opened up about some of those childhood traumas. At the age of 12, he and his younger sister were dismissed from their private school in Vienna due to their mother’s inability to pay the tuition fees. Wolff recounted the humiliation of being called out of class and sent home, an experience that left a lasting impact on him.
“The tram back home,” he said, “was a 45-minute journey to explain to a nine or ten-year-old girl why she had to leave class and why we had to go home early.”
“And these things sit very deep in me,” he added.
“I think everybody that is successful above average – whatever success means – there is some kind of driver behind it,” Wolff told Business Insider a few years ago. “That driver can be you trying to overcompensate for something, which could be an inferiority complex. All of these things can have a very low grade or a very high grade on part of your personality. It’s about a humiliation or trauma that you have been confronted with in your life. I think these are very strong drivers for me.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Toto Wolff, Team Principal and CEO, Mercedes-AMG
Photo by: Mercedes-Benz
Running a Formula 1 team may not compare to those formative experiences, but it’s still full of challenges – including personal ones. And it looks like putting Andrea Kimi Antonelli back on the right track will require not only Wolff’s management but also his personal skills.
The Italian protege of Wolff is clearly going through a rough patch, and the project of mentoring him must hold special significance for Toto. Antonelli isn’t just any Mercedes junior, after all; Wolff has known him since he was 12, and it was largely his decision to fast-track him into Formula 1 just six years later.
Leaving Antonelli with trauma surely wasn’t part of the original plan when he decided to put Kimi in a seat vacated by a seven-time world champion. But there’s definitely some humiliation he’s taking now.
Antonelli isn’t just a teenager; he’s a professional athlete, already having achieved considerable success in his career. Yet, he’s just finished his last exams in school and is now dealing with pressures that most 18-year olds of this world couldn’t even imagine.
Handling the weight of being labeled the next superstar while going head-to-head with the guy who just outperformed that very seven-time world champion – all while the whole world is watching – is no easy task.
George Russell, Mercedes, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images
This season, on the contrary, was supposed to showcase Antonelli’s outstanding abilities – the very traits that convinced Wolff of his exceptional talent. It was supposed to prove that his struggles in Formula 2 were merely circumstantial.
It wouldn’t have been right to expect him to conquer F1 overnight, but the F1 world, while ruthless at times, can forgive a lot if there’s evidence of brilliance.
Yet, those flashes of brilliance have been few and far between. The Miami sprint pole was hugely impressive, as were his Melbourne drive and Canada podium. But for the most part, Antonelli’s maiden year in Formula 1 has been far more challenging than expected. And the most worrying part is the trajectory which, instead of showing progress, seems to be going in the opposite direction.
Antonelli’s European season has been dreadful: the Italian teenager has failed to score points on tracks where he was expected to perform better. He’s been on these circuits before, after all – some even in an F1 car, thanks to the extensive TPC program Mercedes set up for him.
The Imola weekend, perhaps, was just too overwhelming, with his classmates visiting him at the track, endless encounters with fans, selfies, and autographs. Then came the frustrating Monaco weekend with a crash in qualifying, and a DNF in Spain.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
While Canada delivered a first-ever F1 podium, it proved to be an outlier, both geographically and in terms of performance. It was followed by a first-lap mistake in Austria, where he lost control of the car on the brakes approaching Turn 3 and collected Max Verstappen in the process, and a bleak weekend in Silverstone – which ended not due to his mistake, but because Isack Hadjar couldn’t see him in torrential conditions.
In Belgium, he was somewhat invisible to all his fellow competitors.
A spin in sprint qualifying left him with P20 for the start, and on Saturday morning there was no progress. He ended up with P18 in the main qualifying, had to go for a pitlane start and a setup change. But Sunday’s race wasn’t much better.
Meanwhile, the gap to George Russell not only in points, but also in pure pace continues to grow.
On Saturday, Antonelli offered more insight into what’s happening.
“Since the European season, I’ve been struggling to find confidence with the car, and I feel like I’ve taken a backward step,” he said to the media after arriving in the mixed zone last of all drivers, even though he was one of the first eliminated from qualifying.
It would be unfair to make assumptions about what kept the Italian from turning up for over an hour, but it certainly couldn’t have been an easy time. Being under the spotlight while feeling down is one of the burdens that come with the dream job of being an F1 driver.
Perhaps it’s even harder when you’re labelled “the next big thing.” Especially when, in moments like this, you return to your motorhome room, which features a message from Lewis Hamilton on the wall.
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
“It’s a difficult moment for me because I feel like I have no confidence in pushing,” he explained. “Yesterday, I tried to push a bit too much, and then I spun, and that kind of hurt my confidence even more. With the way I’m driving, I’m just increasing the problem. And that gives me even less confidence with the car.”
This is a stark contrast to what should have happened after the Montreal podium. Sitting in the press conference room with Russell and Verstappen – his near-perfect teammate and the persona Kimi was supposed to emulate – Antonelli spoke about how he’s eager to carry the momentum. Arriving in Spielberg, he talked about how he “overcorrected” his approach after his FP1 crash in Monza last year and how he would now start building his weekends faster.
This was meant to be the turning point for Antonelli’s season. But it turned the wrong way.
All of this is coming at exactly the worst time, given the chatter about Wolff’s interest in luring Verstappen from Red Bull. While the paddock and media have almost always assumed it would be Russell vacating his seat for the Dutchman, should Max elect to change teams, Antonelli is well aware his contract only runs until the end of the year.
Even with Wolff’s belief in his talent, performance can’t be ignored – not from Antonelli, and certainly not from Russell, who’s simply been outstanding this season.
But even if Wolff’s conviction about Antonelli’s exceptional potential remains unwavering, it’s hard to imagine he hasn’t, at least for a second – perhaps even last night – questioned not Kimi, but himself.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Peter Fox / Getty Images
Has he made a mistake by rushing Antonelli’s career? Has he let his past near-miss with Verstappen cloud his judgment and overlook the potential damage caused by putting his protege under such pressure so soon?
Has he already made an irreversible mistake?
There’s still room for Plan B in case Verstappen does decide to sign with Mercedes. Wolff can still find Antonelli a cockpit with less pressure. Even sending the youngster to Flavio Briatore would seem like a more comfortable environment than the prospect of being continually grilled by Russell or potentially humiliated by Verstappen. But what would that do to Antonelli?
This period of going through a humiliating experience – which is undeniably what he’s facing now – could still turn out to be a character-building exercise that helps Antonelli reach even greater heights in his future career.
Yet, going through such phases can just as easily leave irreparable damage.
The pressure on Antonelli is enormous – and part of it must come from the desire to repay Wolff for the opportunity, to make Toto’s job easier by answering difficult questions from Mercedes board members about his 18-year-old protege.
George Russell, Mercedes, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images via Getty Images
Whatever the future may hold for Antonelli, this is undoubtedly a pivotal moment in his career. One that could very well define it.
But as Wolff knows all too well, the path to greatness is rarely a straight line. Antonelli’s current struggles may very well be the making of him, shaping a driver who emerges stronger, wiser, and more capable of handling the pressures that come with being a Formula 1 superstar.
Or they could mark a crossroads, where the weight of expectations simply proves too much.
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