Toto Wolff fears Mercedes F1 and Kimi Antonelli will be hit with FIA penalty

Photo: © IMAGO

Mercedes

Toto Wolff fears Mercedes F1 and Kimi Antonelli will be hit with FIA penalty

A major penalty could be coming Antonelli's way

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Wednesday 29 July 2026 08:58

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It may be Mercedes and 19-year-old superstar Kimi Antonelli who are leading the way in both championships, but this hasn't calmed Toto Wolff's fears that his F1 team could be heading for a major penalty from the FIA.

Antonelli had massive shoes to fill when he replaced Lewis Hamilton at Wolff's squad in 2025, where he struggled to keep up with George Russell across the European leg of the calendar in particular.

The Italian teenager burst onto the F1 scene in front of a home crowd in 2024 when he took to the track at the Italian GP in George Russell's car, crashing it shortly after.

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Fast forward to his first outing at Monza as a full-time F1 driver for Mercedes and Antonelli crashed yet again during FP2.

In 2026 however, it is not Antonelli's driving that puts him at risk of a disappointing result in front of home fans, but instead, the reliability issues that have plagued Mercedes across an otherwise dominant season so far.

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Mercedes could ask Antonelli to sacrifice home race

Under the F1 2026 sporting regulations, each driver is only permitted a set number of power unit parts that they are allowed to change before incurring a penalty.

For example, at the Belgian GP earlier this month, reigning champion Lando Norris did well to qualify in third, though he was forced to start the race from P13 after taking a 10-place grid penalty due to McLaren's decision to fit a fourth power electronics unit on his car.

A similar punishment is heading Mercedes' way if their reliability issues continue, a concern that Wolff addressed when speaking at last weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix.

During the final round of the championship before the summer shutdown, Wolff said: "In terms of engine penalties, I still very much hope we don't need to take it and we need to decide when that is, when we need to take one and which tracks."

The Austrian team principal then admitted he may have to ask Antonelli to once again sacrifice a positive result in Monza, revealing: "There could be one that can be very special for Kimi, but on paper it looks like it's a good place to take an engine penalty.

"So we need to speak to Marco [Antonelli, Kimi's father] whether we want to take an engine penalty in Monza.

"Baku is also one, maybe Baku. We take the pressure off [of Antonelli] in Monza to start from the back, it's just our reliability has been not good and whether we take a penalty or not, we shall see."