Although Antonelli started sixth on the Monza grid, a poor start dropped him to 10th, with the rookie only climbing to ninth by the flag after Fernando Alonso’s retirement after a penalty was applied, dropping him from eighth.
This was due to forcing Alex Albon off track, also earning Antonelli a penalty point as Wolff branded his performance “underwhelming” following another disrupted weekend at beaching his W16 early in FP2, robbing him of the second session.
After a bright start which included fourth on debut in the chaotic wet Australian GP, leading and posting fastest lap in Japan, Sprint pole in Miami and a maiden grand prix podium in Canada, Antonelli’s form has dipped throughout the year.
Some of his DNFs have been due to mechanical failures, such as at Imola and in Spain, but driving mistakes have eliminated him from contention or cost valuable track time in practice.
However, the 19-year-old is determined to use Wolff’s criticism as motivation to get back to the level of performance he showed earlier in the season.
“I understand the comment, Toto and I are very open to each other, and [the comment] was mainly about the race,” Antonelli told media.
“Qualifying was actually pretty good despite the off in FP2, but then in the race, especially on the hard tyre, I struggled a bit, and made a mistake at the start, so I think [the comment] was mainly related to the race.
“I agree with the comment, which wasn’t the best, but I took it as a positive and fuel to do even better this race weekend.
“On the hard tyres, I just made a lot of driving mistakes because I was struggling to find rhythm and trying different things, but just ended up making mistakes.
“For sure, [Wolff] doesn’t want that to happen again because I lost a lot of time, and the conversation was pretty clear; he just wants me to have a clean weekend to regain the momentum that I had in the first seven races.
“Obviously, the European season was quite tough, and now I am looking forward to this last part of the season out of Europe because it is calmer and I’ll have more time for myself, so I am really looking forward to that.
“I’m really looking forward to having clean weekends, getting back the momentum, and that is what the team wants.”
The next race of the F1 season is the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which takes place over 51 laps of the 6.003 kilometres Baku City Circuit, on Sunday, 21 September 2025.
