Toto Wolff reveals commercial backlash before F1 title win.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has revealed that the team lost two sponsors after it promoted Kimi Antonelli into a Formula 1 race seat. Speaking after Antonelli clinched the world championship at the Mexico City Grand Prix, Wolff recalled the doubts that surrounded the young Italian when he replaced Lewis Hamilton. The admission arrives as Antonelli, aged 20, becomes the youngest world champion in Formula 1 history.
Wolff Reveals the Commercial Cost of the Antonelli Gamble
Wolff made the remarks while reflecting on the criticism that followed the decision to hand a works Mercedes seat to a teenager with only one season of Formula 2 behind him. The promotion was always going to attract attention, and Wolff now says it carried a direct financial price.
“Who Is This Kid?” Wolff Recalls the Sponsor Doubts
Wolff did not name the two sponsors involved, but he was clear about the reasoning behind their exit. “I was thinking about it earlier, we had two sponsors leaving because of that, because who is this kid?” Wolff said. “There were others who stayed with us to this day, some here are reaping all the reward after the tough year.”
The sponsors that remained, in Wolff’s telling, have now been rewarded for their patience. Those that left stepped away before Antonelli delivered the results that silenced his critics.
From Tears at Spa to a Dominant Championship Season
Wolff also reflected on how difficult the early part of Antonelli’s Formula 1 career had been. “They said he shouldn’t even be in F1, he should be on a smaller team, 10 races and no points, the tears in Spa, and then this,” he said. The reference to Spa recalls Antonelli’s emotional moment at the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix, which Wolff has spoken about before.
Wolff said the belief inside the team never disappeared. “I’m very proud of the team, everyone kept believing in him and he delivered,” he said. Before the Mexico weekend, Wolff also said he did not know what had happened over the winter to explain Antonelli’s improvement.
Antonelli Breaks Vettel’s Youngest Champion Record
The result completes a rapid rise. Antonelli joined Mercedes for the 2025 season at 18, after Lewis Hamilton left for Ferrari, and has now won the title in only his second year in Formula 1. At 20 years and 68 days, he beats the record previously held by Sebastian Vettel by more than three years.
He is also the first Italian champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953, ending a wait of 73 years. Antonelli arrived in Mexico with a 123-point lead over teammate George Russell after winning in Austin, his ninth victory of the season, and needed only a ninth-place finish to be sure of the crown, even if Russell won the race.
The Austin race underlined the gap. Antonelli led from the start and won from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, with Verstappen third after winning the previous two races. Hamilton finished fourth and Russell eighth, leaving the title decision for Mexico.
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Mercedes Silence Critics of the Antonelli Promotion
Antonelli’s season has been dominant. After winning in China for his first victory of 2026, he went on to take nine wins by Austin, including a third consecutive pole and win at Miami, leaving Russell, Hamilton and four-time champion Max Verstappen chasing. That form contrasts sharply with the criticism Wolff described when Antonelli was first handed the seat.
Wolff had been openly confident ahead of the weekend. After Austin he described the drive as “the race of a champion who isn’t a champion yet,” and said the result would bring either “a big tequila party” in Mexico or caipirinha in Brazil a week later. He also said Antonelli was 99.9 percent certain of the title, while stressing that he still had to finish the job.
The commercial picture looks very different from the one Wolff described. Back in May, after Antonelli won in Miami, Wolff warned about the hype building around the driver in Italy. “There are so many requests for his time from the media, from sponsors,” he said, adding that the team had to “keep the handbrake on.”
Wolff has said Mercedes has followed Antonelli since he was 11 years old, a young kart racer proudly standing in the team’s garage wearing Mercedes gear. Wolff has also described him as “like an AI agent that is constantly evolving and learning.”
Hamilton’s departure created the vacancy that Antonelli filled. Hamilton finished fourth in Austin as the Mercedes driver closed in on the crown. Ferrari will reach two decades without a drivers’ championship next year.
Antonelli himself has said he is just getting started. Before Mexico, he said it would be “very cool” to become the next Italian champion, but that the title “has to be just the beginning.”
The season continues with the Brazilian Grand Prix on 8 November, followed by Las Vegas, Qatar and the Abu Dhabi finale on 6 December. Antonelli will now race as the reigning champion.
Wolff’s comments offer an insight into the commercial pressure that can follow a major driver decision. By his account, two partners walked away because of the unknown quantity in the car, while others stayed and are now benefiting from the team’s success. Mercedes backed its choice, and the results have now backed the team.
Wolff’s message was simple: the team stayed united through the criticism, the sponsor losses and a difficult rookie season, and it now holds the sport’s biggest prize. Antonelli, still only 20, believes this is just the start. For a driver once asked “who is this kid?”, the answer is now Formula 1 world champion.