Wolff calls Antonelli a ‘Senninha’, not yet a Senna

“Kimi Antonelli isn’t Ayrton Senna yet, but he may be a Senninha,” Toto Wolff said. The Mercedes team principal praised the young driver while urging people not to measure him too soon against Formula 1’s Brazilian legend.

Ayrton Senna remains the last Brazilian driver to win the Formula 1 world championship. Yet as a new generation of Auriverde racers emerges, it is not those drivers who are being compared with the country’s legend. Antonelli, meanwhile, made an impression by winning five Grands Prix in a row early in the season. Only nine other drivers have achieved that run, and Senna is not among them.

Antonelli’s fifth straight win came with a grand slam at the Monaco Grand Prix, a venue associated with Senna’s dominance. That has fuelled the comparisons, but Wolff says the Italian driver should be allowed to develop at his own pace.

“We are trying to shield him from media and marketing activities, as much as we can,” Wolff said in Barcelona the following week. After the Brazilian Grand Prix, he explained that he had never been keen on the comparison: Senna, he recalled, was a giant of the sport, both as a person and as a racing driver.

Wolff also spoke about the way the Senna family had embraced Antonelli. “It’s sweet to see how the Senna family embraces him. They say it’s the first time it looks like there is a second Senninha,” he said. He would rather let the nickname accompany the young driver before inviting a more imposing comparison: “Maybe at this stage he’s a Senninha, not a Senna yet. So let the Senninha develop, let him become a Senna.”

A few days after winning the world title, Antonelli visited the Senna family ahead of the São Paulo round. At Interlagos, he raced in a yellow helmet evocative of the Paulista driver. For Wolff, that show of affection does not erase the difference between a prospect and an icon; it gives Antonelli room to build his own path without immediately carrying the weight of a vast legacy.