{"id":488155,"date":"2025-10-10T11:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T11:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/488155\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T11:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T11:04:10","slug":"mercedes-boss-toto-wolff-says-tough-monza-criticism-lit-a-fire-under-andrea-kimi-antonelli-sports-news-blitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/488155\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says tough Monza criticism \u2018lit a fire\u2019 under Andrea Kimi Antonelli \u2014 Sports News Blitz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><strong>Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has suggested that his blunt verdict on Kimi Antonelli\u2019s performance in Monza may have been just what the young driver needed.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">After calling the Monza weekend \u201cunderwhelming,\u201d Wolff says that the comment may have \u201clit a fire under the a***\u201d of the rookie.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Wolff\u2019s criticism came after a difficult Italian Grand Prix weekend for Antonelli, during which he ended up beached in the gravel in one session and then put in an overall performance Wolff described as \u201cunderwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">He made clear, though, that the tough assessment doesn\u2019t diminish his faith in the driver\u2019s future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cIt doesn\u2019t change anything on my support and confidence in his future, because I believe he\u2019s going to be very, very, very good,\u201d Wolff said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sqsrte-large\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><strong>Signs of progress after Monza<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Since Monza, Antonelli has shown signs of recovery. Wolff pointed to better weekends in Baku and Singapore as evidence of growth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Wolff admitted that the European leg of the season had brought heavy attention and pressure on Antonelli, contributing to the strain on his performances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cSince Baku I think we\u2019ve seen a lot of big focus. Certainly Europe hasn\u2019t helped, because there was so much attention on him and expectations were so high.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cI feel like he has less work outside, in terms of media duties and sponsorship duties, and he\u2019s spending all of his time with his engineering team and that\u2019s good,\u201d said the Austrian.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><strong>READ MORE<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesportsnewsblitz.com\/news\/2025-singapore-gp-statement-victory-for-george-russell-papaya-rules-cast-shadow-over-mclarens-constructors-win-fernando-alonsos-foul-mouthed-rant-and-more\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2025 Singapore GP: Statement victory for George Russell, \u2018Papaya Rules\u2019 cast shadow over McLaren\u2019s Constructors\u2019 win, Fernando Alonso\u2019s foul-mouthed rant, and more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has suggested that his blunt verdict on Kimi Antonelli\u2019s performance in Monza may&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-488155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115349544343461404","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}