Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix podium was one of two “perfect” moments he has witnessed in Formula 1.
Mercedes’ 19-year-old prodigy, Kimi Antonelli, took the first grand prix victory of his career in China, finishing ahead of teammate George Russell and former Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton on the podium.
The trio were joined by Antonelli’s race engineer, Peter Bonington, who also engineered Hamilton to his six drivers’ championships with Mercedes.
Wolff said the sight of all four on the podium was among the highlights of his F1 career and only matched by Mercedes’ first one-two victory at his home race in Austria in 2014, when Nico Rosberg and Hamilton were joined on the podium by then-Williams driver Valtteri Bottas, who was also being managed by Wolff.
“There’s these few moments that are just perfect in Formula 1, and I had one of them in 2014, and maybe that was now the second one,” Wolff said of the China victory.
“Looking at the podium, Kimi winning his first grand prix, doing a one-and-two with George — whose race was affected, obviously, at the beginning — Lewis third and Bono right in the middle of them.
“He’s been with Lewis for so many years, and he’s been part of Kimi’s success and growing him and developing him. And then these three spraying champagne on each other on the podium, Lewis having beaten [Ferrari teammate Charles] Leclerc, so he’s in a good mood.
“I mean, this was just great to see.”
Antonelli lost the lead of the race to Hamilton in the first corner but was back past the Ferrari by the second lap.
A battle for second place behind Antonelli allowed him to open up a multiple second lead, which Wolff said was only ever at risk from the 19-year-old pushing too hard.
After a lock up into Turn 14 with a handful of laps remaining, Wolff got on the radio to Bonington to remind Antonelli to take it easy.
“All systems looked well and at the end it was OK, it’s just when Kimi can’t help himself, with another fastest lap and another fastest lap,” Wolff said.
“And we know the pattern from Monza, from his first FP1 [when he crashed on his second lap]. So I said to Bono, come on, let’s tell him to calm down. And he said, ‘no, I think he’s in a groove.’
“I said, ‘yeah, he may be in a groove, but we don’t want him to lose this race.’ Then bam, he missed the braking [at Turn 14]. I said, ‘well, yeah, OK, now you calm down’.”
