Toto Wolff joked he would shove a pillow under the a**e of Kimi Antonelli before hailing the Italian’s maturity as he moved within reach of the world championship.
Antonelli claimed third place under the lights in Singapore on Sunday to stretch his advantage in the drivers’ standings to 102 points ahead of Mercedes team-mate George Russell.
That opens the possibility that the 20-year-old could confirm his place as Formula One’s youngest world champion at the next round in Texas in a fortnight. As things stand, he would need to win at the Circuit of the Americas with Russell ninth or lower and Lewis Hamilton fifth or lower.
Antonelli’s dominance of the season has been remarkable, especially given his difficult debut campaign last year, and he is all-but certain to clinch his place in the sport’s history books over the next few races.
He has, though, proved that he has a penchant for pushing track limits. He again received a final warning for the violation in Singapore, as he has done on several occasions this season, with one more fault leading to a penalty.
Mercedes boss Wolff has a solution as he admitted it causes tension on the pit wall.
“I have a good strategy, I’m going to put a pillow from the hotel under his a**e, under his butt, so he can actually see the road,” Wolff said.
“Because I think it’s like this, you know, he can’t see it (the track).
“So yeah, under his a**e so he can see, and it stresses us. Half the race we already have three strikes, but it also shows that he’s pushing the limits a lot.”
Antonelli was off the pace for much of the weekend in Singapore but profited from the McLaren pair colliding to take fourth in Saturday’s sprint before making late moves to rise from fifth to third in Sunday’s main event.
Max Verstappen completed a perfect weekend, backing up sprint victory with a dominant race. The four-time world champion remains 119 points adrift, with Antonelli admitting it would be “very scary” if the Dutchman were in the title fight.
Antonelli was on the radio during the race to ask about issues he felt with the car but battled on to ultimately stand on the podium. Russell recovered to ninth after having to start from the back of the grid.
“I think how he (Antonelli) has driven is mature and good,” Wolff added. “We talked about it and he said, ‘I’ve just got to keep my calm here and make sure that I finish the race’.
“So handling a difficult car at that stage and trying to develop it and learn, it’s good.”
It remains a possibility that the penultimate round in Qatar could be cancelled and the season finale in Abu Dhabi replaced by Imola – if F1 bosses decide they cannot race in the Middle East due to the ongoing conflict.
If that happened, 25 available points would be off the table, moving the Italian ever closer to the championship.
“I haven’t looked at it from that perspective because at the moment I have the thought of how many points is it actually and when could he win it?” Wolff said.
“The aim must be to score points, not to lose too many on the others.
“And then it’s going to come towards him. And whether that’s in Mexico or Brazil or further down the line, we shall see.
“And I guess whether Qatar and Abu Dhabi happens at the moment, everybody says so. You need to go the direction of this is six more races to go and not four.”
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