Mercedes chief thought Kimi Antonelli was a ‘lost child’ when they first met

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff joked that technical director James Allison initially thought Kimi Antonwlli was a ‘lost child’ upon their first meeting.

Kimi Antonelli is already smashing records in Formula 1, becoming the youngest pole sitter (19 years, six months and 18 days) and the youngest championship leader (19 years, 7 months and 4 days). He is also the second youngest race winner, beaten only by Max Verstappen.

Given the 18-year-old minimum age to race in the category and the infrequent nature of top teams gambling on such young talent, these records look set to stand for a significant period.

Officially joining the Mercedes Junior Team in April 2019, Antonelli has been a part of the Mercedes set-up since before his teenage years.

Talking to Sky Sports after Antonelli’s second success at the Japanese Grand Prix, Wolff said: "You see how quickly it goes and how quickly we age also, no?

"Because that seemed like it was years ago when he was a kid. When he came into the office, he met James Allison, and James thought it was a kid who had lost his parents and was looking for someone.

"And it's incredible. Yesterday he was 14, today he's 19, he's winning two races in a row in Formula 1, and we are really happy about the development that he's taking."

Aware of Antonelli’s potential, Mercedes was keen to protect it’s future driver from the media gaze during his junior career, meaning interview opportunities with the Italian during his season in F2 were non-existent, aside from appearances in the top-three press sessions.

Hailing the team that had spotted Antonelli’s talent and nurtured him through the years, Wolff added: "The truth is, we as a team starting from Gwen (Lagrue), who runs our junior programme, who spotted him when he was 11 to the whole team, the engineers that gave him the opportunity, the marketing people that have been looking at him and protecting him...

"That's another factor now. We need to protect him from people talking about world championships. All of us, it's a joint effort to have two junior drivers in the lead of this championship."