Toto Wolff is doing all he can to keep the pressure off Kimi Antonelli, who leads the 2026 Formula 1 Championship after four races.

Mercedes won all four races in 2026 so far, and while George Russell was expected to be the one bagging the victories, the Briton has only won the season opener in Melbourne while Antonelli won the other three races.

But Wolff maintains it is too soon to load Antonelli with the burdens of a Championship battle too soon, adding that he has a lot of time ahead of him to win in the future without having to overdo it now.

The Mercedes boss said in Miami: “I think all of us collectively that are close to him, we need to keep re-emphasizing and repeating the message: this is a long game. He has a killer of a teammate that is extremely fast.

“The others are catching up in performance, and we want to play the long game. He can hopefully win many Championships over 10 years, 15 years. We don't want to stumble now with these huge expectations that will sit on him because the moment he has a bad race—which will happen, where he makes a mistake—people will say maybe Kimi is not the one superstar that we thought.

“Let's keep that trajectory," Wolff suggested. "It's a share price that's going up. He's 19 years old. I don't think I was able to take my own flight when I was 19 and slide my way to the terminal of the airport, so it's incredible what he's doing.”

Calibrating, mentoring, and calming down

Wolff also reflected on how far Antonelli has come since he made his debut in 2025, where he showed flashes of talent and pace while it was clear that he lacked experience.

“When you think about what we said last year, it's exactly how his performance, how his development happened," Wolff said. "We had these great ups and moments of brilliance and then moments where he was allowed to make mistakes.

“We needed to calibrate and continue to mentor him whilst having pressure on him. He's able to analyze it, but then don't overthink it. He compartmentalizes it—okay, I made a mistake; I put it away.

“This year we start the season; he's done Grands Prix, he's worked with the team, he knows the pressure that the media puts upon him. Nevertheless, we just really need to stay kind here because such a success for such a young man at that stage, all of Italy will be on him.

"The family and us, we are really the first ones actually to calm [him] down. Marco [Antonelli's father] is pretty good at keeping his son grounded, even when he's winning," Wolff concluded. (Source: Formula 1 Official website)