TOTO WOLFF'S FIVE-WORD MESSAGE TO KIMI ANTONELLI AFTER 45G CRASH ON ITALIAN GP DEBUT

Toto Wolff moved quickly to reassure Andrea Kimi Antonelli after the teenager smashed up his Mercedes minutes into his maiden Formula 1 session.

All eyes were on the young Italian as he took to the Monza track in George Russell 's car on Friday. The 18-year-old is expected to become the Briton's team-mate next season when Lewis Hamilton completes his move to Ferrari.

But he didn't get the chance to show what he can do as, on just his second flying lap, Antonelli lost control and span into a barrier. Immediately, he jumped onto the radio to apologies for the team, prompting a response from team principal Wolff.

The Austrian's voice was very calm as he simply replied: "All good, Kimi, all good." TV cameras showed Wolff grimacing at images of the crash on the monitor in front of him, which was registered at 45G.

Soon after the crash, Sky Sports F1 spoke to Mercedes head of communications Bradley Lord who said on the broadcast: "It's unfortunate it ended the way it did, but he was on the limit, pushing the limit from lap one. That's always good to see and it's all part of the learning curve."

Despite the unfortunate and early ending to his maiden F1 session, Antonelli is still expected to be named as Hamilton's successor. That announcement could still come this weekend in the teenager's home country.

Aged just 18, he has a phenomenal record in junior single-seater categories and is highly regarded by Mercedes staff. And there is plenty of hype externally, too, as evidenced by the number of cameras which were trained on him as he sat in the team garage minutes before the start of the session.

One of them was Sky's, with pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz describing what was going on and making a significant comparison. He said: "I've been working in this pit lane for 23 years and I've seldom seen attention like Kimi Antonelli is getting at the front of this garage.

"It was three deep with photographers at the front of the garage. I haven't seen attention on a driver like this since the Michael Schumacher days - I promise you, it's that much. Bearing in mind you've got Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, the stars of Ferrari, you've got Lewis Hamilton in the next garage for heaven's sake!

"He's going to be a Ferrari driver next year, and yet it's the Italian star of tomorrow and the man who we all expect to be a Formula 1 driver for Mercedes next year who's getting all the attention. Star quality and expectation, and that's why he's so popular at the moment."

2024-08-30T12:23:45Z dg43tfdfdgfd