Rosberg astonished by Wolff’s verdict on Antonelli after 'tough' Monza weekend

Nico Rosberg analyzed another challenging weekend for Kimi Antonelli, which began with a mistake in FP1 and ended with a ninth-place finish in the race at Monza.

Antonelli’s rookie season so far has fallen short of expectations. While it was perhaps predictable that he wouldn’t match the performance of a far more experienced teammate like George Russell, the young Italian has not only struggled on track but also made several mistakes, including another one at Monza.

Antonelli had indeed run off at the exit of the second Lesmo corner, spinning out just minutes into FP1, unable to restart and thus losing valuable preparation time for the weekend.

In qualifying, he managed to secure seventh, only to finish the race in ninth, also losing a position to Alexander Albon in the Drivers’ Championship after the latter’s seventh-place finish.

At the end of the race, summing up in a conversation with GPblog, Toto Wolff described the Italian’s weekend as ''underwhelming'', adding, “it doesn't change anything on my support and confidence in his future because I believe he's going to be very, very, very good.”

Kimi Antonelli at Monza

Rosberg surprised by Wolff's comments on Antonelli

As a guest on the Sky F1 Show podcast, Nico Rosberg shared his thoughts on this statement from his former team principal, who has always been very protective of Antonelli: ''It's a surprising one, because at the moment the only choice you really have is just give Kimi the most time possible in the most calm way possible and that means also not not criticizing him publicly.''

''This change of tone from Toto for the first time ever... usually there's a reason behind. Toto is very calculated in his comments. Perhaps he's wanting to put some pressure on Kimi and his family to try a different approach, modify their approach, review their approach.''

He then added: ''Kimi is a generational talent, and it's a bit strange that it's still so difficult. If you look at the statistics in racing it's 19-0 to George and in qualifying it's 17-2. And if you then if you put in mistakes, it will be like 15-1 probably.''

''It's a really hard one and an unfortunate one because we all want him to go well. He can go well, but the clock starts to tick at some point also. Tough one.''

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