Toto Wolff downplayed the chances of Kimi Antonelli being named a favorite for the Formula 1 title, even after the driver extended his championship lead with a third-place finish at this Sunday’s Hungarian GP (26). For the Mercedes boss, it’s still too early for any conclusions about the title fight.
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The Italian started seventh, after receiving a three-place grid penalty for an incident in qualifying, and drove a recovery race, finishing behind only Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. Over the 70 laps, he showed strong pace, as well as good tire management, on a weekend where the German team did not show the performance it had been exhibiting throughout the year.
The result was also favored by the difficulties of the main rivals. Lewis Hamilton finished fourth, but dropped to fifth after receiving a 5s penalty for speeding in the pit lane. George Russell, on the other hand, faced a complicated Sunday and finished only in seventh position. With this, Antonelli opened a 50-point lead over the British Ferrari driver and 59 over his teammate.
After the race at Hungaroring, Wolff ruled out treating Antonelli as the big favorite for the championship. “It’s too early to say that and I’m superstitious. Even with a 50-point lead, there are still many races ahead. A retirement for either of them can completely change the situation, and we haven’t exactly been excellent in reliability either,” he stated.
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“We simply need to keep extracting the maximum from each day, from Friday to Sunday. We hope that, at the end of the season, that will be enough,” he added.
Formula 1 now enters its summer break after the halfway point of the championship. The season will resume in a month, at the Dutch GP, at the end of August.
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