Toto Wolff issues Kimi Antonelli strong 'thieves' warning

Toto Wolff believes Mercedes must help protect Kimi Antonelli from "time thieves" following his breakthrough win at the Chinese GP.

Antonelli became the first Italian to win a grand prix for nearly 20 years in Shanghai following a dominant performance in which he also became the youngest-ever driver to set pole position, eclipsing Sebastian Vettel's old record.

Now into his second session, Wolff has been vocal previously about the need to protect Antonelli from the pressures of outside influences in F1, with Lewis Hamilton's replacement still only being 19 years old. 

Following on from the success in China, Wolff believes Antonelli needs to learn to be stricter with his time and learn to say: 'No' to people whom he labelled as "time thieves", and thus distracting Antonelli off-track from his performances on it.

"It is something which comes naturally to him," Wolff told media, including RacingNews365, when asked about his team radio comments to Antonelli after he crossed the line. 

"Very similar to the talent in the car, he is someone who has always been able to capture the room and people, and he is quite affectionate.

"It's a little bit of an Italian thing, but he's able to take people on his journey with him, being very warm, and that's why he has so many great relationships in the team. 

"The mechanics love him, the engineering and comms and marketing people, but in a way, we need to shield him from that, because people take advantage.

"He really struggles to say: 'No', and now he needs to learn how to say: 'No', because there'll be so much interest and so many time thieves who will come up and affect his career."