Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff still does not dare to name World Championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli as the title favorite for this season. The young Mercedes driver is competing for the first time this season for the drivers’ championship win, and with a fifty-point lead over second place Lewis Hamilton, he currently also has the best starting position. However, Wolff is too ‘superstitious’: “One or two retirements can already turn the championship around.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli won a Grand Prix for the first time during the recent GP China. The young Italian immediately followed that up with four more wins, allowing him to take the lead in the championship from teammate George Russell. The Mercedes driver is in a strong position as Formula 1 travels to Zandvoort. Yet Toto Wolff still does not dare to name Kimi Antonelli as the title favorite.
“It is still too early to say anything about that,” Wolff said to various media when the title chances of Kimi Antonelli were discussed. “I am superstitious, even though the difference is fifty World Championship points. There are still so many races to go; one or two retirements can hugely turn the championship around, and we have not done so well in terms of reliability yet.” For example, Kimi Antonelli retired during the recent Grand Prix in Barcelona, causing him to lose a valuable second place.
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Wolff does dare to look ahead to the next race, the Dutch GP. “Since its return, Zandvoort has been a unique challenge,” he says in Mercedes’ preview. “It is a difficult circuit to master. However, the fans create an incredible atmosphere. It is a race that teams and drivers look forward to. We have come close, but have never won there in the modern era. This is our last chance to change that, and that is a challenge we gladly take on.”
Also too early for team orders
For Mercedes, besides Kimi Antonelli’s title chances, it is also still too early to say anything about possible team orders for its two drivers. Deputy team boss Bradley Lord explains how the team still comes first at the Silver Arrows. “The starting point is: if a Mercedes can win, then a Mercedes must also win,” the top man told the media. “We do not care which of the two cars that is, and we will do everything necessary to ensure that the fastest of those cars on a given Sunday can actually do so. That is our priority.”
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Read everything here about the Dutch GP in Zandvoort
