Wolff says it is too early to compare Kimi Antonelli to Ayrton Senna

Toto Wolff said it was too soon to compare Kimi Antonelli to Ayrton Senna after the 20-year-old sealed his first Formula One world championship at the Mexican Grand Prix and, with a fifth-place finish at Sunday’s São Paulo Grand Prix, helped Mercedes secure the constructors’ title in Brazil.

Antonelli grew up watching films of Senna’s races and has spoken of the Brazilian as an inspiration; Senna won three world titles before he was killed in a crash at the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola in 1994.

“Comparing Kimi to Senna? I was always not very keen in having this comparison because Senna is a giant of the sport,” Wolff said. “Who he was as a person, who he was as a racing driver and I feel that setting these standards for a 20-year-old driver is a lot of pressure. That’s why I want to, how can I say, not compare him at this stage. He’s Kimi; Senna was Senna.”

Before the Interlagos weekend Antonelli visited the Senna family at their estate, paid respects at Senna’s grave and posted a photograph of himself sitting in Senna’s Lotus 98T, the car that wore the No 12 and which Senna drove to victory in the Spanish and Detroit Grands Prix in 1986. “ I will carry these memories with me forever,” he posted, and Senna’s niece Paula presented him with a sculpture, saying she was pleased to see “a special character” in Antonelli.

Wolff said he appreciated how the Senna family had taken to Antonelli, noting they had called him Senninha — “little Senna” — and adding: “It’s sweet to see that how the Senna family embraces him. They say that it’s the first time that it looks like there is a second Senna. And that is the first time that you can say, OK, he’s a little bit like him. But maybe at that stage he’s a Senninha and not a Senna yet. So let the Senninha develop, let him become a Senna.”

Mercedes clinched both drivers’ and constructors’ titles with three races still to go; the São Paulo result secured the team’s ninth constructors’ championship and their first drivers’ and constructors’ double since 2020. Wolff said that despite enjoying the quickest car in the first half of the season Mercedes had been caught by Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari and did not expect a return to the prolonged dominance the team experienced earlier this decade. “It looks like the most maybe competitive era that is about to start, because the teams have become so professional in capability, in resource, that these kind of runaway seasons, I don't see them any more,” he said. “You can see how quickly it goes from being dominant and within a few races you realise that your upgrade doesn’t work and you fall back and you’re just third on the road. It’s great for the sport. I wished it was the era of Mercedes and me running away with another few championships. I don’t think it’s the reality.”

Antonelli has adopted the No 12 in tribute to Senna and has already said he will retain that number next season rather than adopting the No 1 available to the reigning world champion.