Toto Wolff assesses Kimi Antonelli’s performance after impressive P4 on debut in Australia

Toto Wolff believes Kimi Antonelli got the “result that he merits” after finishing fourth on debut at the Australian Grand Prix.

Antonelli arrived in F1 amid plenty of attention, filling the seat left vacant by seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton at the Silver Arrows.

While the 18-year-old seemed comfortable throughout the three practice sessions, now that he is firmly in the F1 spotlight, this task appeared tougher in Qualifying, as he dropped out in Q1 – although bib damage on his floor hindered his pace.

But the Grand Prix itself saw Antonelli live up to his promise, as he climbed from 16th to fourth by managing the conditions perfectly as fellow rookies Isack Hadjar, Jack Doohan and Gabriel Bortoleto fell by the wayside.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 16: Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy driving the (12) Mercedes AMG — Antonelli scored an impressive fourth-placed finish on his debut in Australia

Asked if the Italian's performance in Melbourne made him feel vindicated for selecting the teenager to partner George Russell, Mercedes Team Principal Wolff said: “I think we always knew his potential since he was a kid. He performs under pressure.

“In Qualifying that wasn’t his doing, he just hit the bump at the wrong place. He would have qualified much further ahead.

“In the Grand Prix, we saw that he was able to reel in everybody slowly but surely without making any mistakes. He had a little spin, but otherwise P4 is the result that he merits.”

Antonelli was initially relegated to fifth with a five-second penalty for an unsafe release handed out in the closing stages of Sunday's race, but this was quickly overturned after Mercedes successfully launched an appeal.

It added further gloss to what had already been an impressive weekend for Mercedes. With the pecking order being typically murky heading into Australia, it had been expected that Mercedes and Ferrari would be in close competition.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 16: Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy and Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team — Antonelli took Hamilton’s seat after the seven-time World Champion opted to move to Ferrari

However, this battle failed to materialise with Charles Leclerc and Hamilton finishing eighth and 10th, and Russell declared afterwards that Mercedes look “a step ahead” of the Scuderia – though he conceded McLaren and Max Verstappen’s Red Bull had the advantage.

Offering his assessment after the opening weekend, Wolff added: “If you look at the real pace today, the pace result would be P4, P5.

“I think it is a solid first weekend but looking at it from a glass half-empty side, you have to say that the pace of the McLaren is just very strong. It’s something we need to understand, the way they are able to manage the tyres, and to extract the performance.

“We need to get better if we want to fight on merit for race victories and world championships. There is definitely something we need to find.”