Toto Wolff urged to give Kimi Antonelli new F1 deal amid confidence crisis

Nico Rosberg has urged Toto Wolff to hand Kimi Antonelli a new Mercedes F1 contract to relieve the “horrible” pressure he’s facing after another disappointing qualifying display at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Antonelli has endured a difficult run of form, as he was knocked out in Q1 at Spa-Francorchamps.

The Italian also struggled in the sprint part of the weekend, spinning off in SQ1 and qualifying at the back of the field.

Reflecting on Antonelli’s rough run of races, Rosberg called on his former boss to give the 18-year-old a new contract.

Like Mercedes teammate George Russell, Antonelli is out of contract at the end of the year.

Given Mercedes’ interest in Max Verstappen, Rosberg feels that a new contract would give him much-needed confidence.

“What I would do in Toto’s case would be signing a contract with him,” Rosberg said.

“It’s not much money. It would give him such a boost of confidence and then if by any chance it really goes bad towards the end of the year you can still pay him out and make a change as we’ve always seen in F1 but just by signing that contract, it would give him certainly this one step change of comfort, relaxation, time. I think that could be something interesting.”

Rosberg has backed Antonelli to recover from his lowly grid position, with rain a possibility on Sunday.

“In Australia, he almost finished on the podium from all the way back there. He finished fourth if I am not mistaken,” Rosberg added.

“He can do the same tomorrow, why not? If the conditions are mixed and all over the place. Anything is possible. It really hurts me to see him in an interview like that because I can super relate how tough and how horrible the moment is for him. George again is P6 and he’s down all the way almost at the end of the grid. It’s so, so tough.

“Everybody is criticising you and looking at you a little bit negatively and internally, it’s a very difficult dynamic. He doesn’t have a contract for next year either so his whole dream is also at play here. It’s horrible for him.”

Antonelli to start from the pit lane

Antonelli revealed after qualifying that he plans to start from the pit lane.

By doing this, he will be able to change his car setup and adapt it to the weather.

“I think I’ve been lacking confidence to be honest today more than yesterday,” Antonelli explained.

“Just struggling to get the best out of the car. For sure, it’s a bit trickier now. Just a difficult moment to be honest. I need to find the light out of the tunnel again.

“Hulkenberg last race - he went from P19 to P3 so it would be amazing to do the same thing. It looks like it’s going to rain but we will start from the pit lane just because we want to change the car and try to build from there.”