Toto Wolff admits regret over Mercedes F1 driver decision

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has revealed he regrets throwing rookie Kimi Antonelli in at the deep end at last season’s Italian Grand Prix.

The teenager was handed the chance to show what he could do in front of his home fans during FP1 on the same weekend he was confirmed as the man to replace Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton.But it quickly turned into a nightmare debut, with Antonelli slamming into the barriers and cutting his afternoon short at the wheel of George Russell’s Mercedes.And speaking to media at the Austrian GP last month, Wolff admitted he made a mistake in putting his driver on the track on a weekend full of high emotion.”I think when we look at last year, it wasn’t our most intelligent call to put him in the car in Monza, give him all the pressure, and then obviously with the incident, that’s something that’s in the back of your mind,” Wolff said.