Toto Wolff acknowledged that Mercedes had a significant dose of luck for Kimi Antonelli to win the Spanish Formula 1 GP in Madrid. The Italian was more than seven seconds behind Lando Norris of McLaren when a VSC completely changed the situation in the battle for victory.
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The neutralization was activated to allow the removal of Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin, which had stopped in the runoff area of turn 20. The moment directly favored Antonelli, as Norris had just passed the pit entry when the VSC was activated, while the period ended shortly before the McLaren driver made his own stop.
“Today, the racing gods were with us, and we literally managed to pull Kimi when the VSC was activated. It’s a shame for McLaren because they had just passed, but Kimi drove well, very, very well,” Wolff told Sky Sports.
The Mercedes boss also explained how the team reacted quickly to the opportunity. According to him, the strategy group already had the possibility in mind, and as soon as they realized that the incident with Stroll would not be resolved quickly, the order to stop Antonelli was made within seconds.
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“Someone said: ‘This won’t be resolved quickly with the Aston Martin on the barrier,’ and then it was strategy 2.0. Bono (Antonelli’s race engineer) confirmed again, Bono spoke with Kimi, and everything happened in about three seconds,” Wolff explained.
This victory extended Antonelli’s lead in the drivers’ championship to 81 points over second-placed George Russell, who finished fifth. Lewis Hamilton, third in the standings, was 101 points behind the Italian after the Madrid round.
Even with the pressure increasing for the championship lead, Wolff highlighted Antonelli’s calmness: “I think he is calm. Sometimes, for me, even a little too calm,” joked the manager, also mentioning a moment when the young Italian driver touched the wall five laps before the finish and only asked the team to check the car.
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