Antonelli to sit out Barcelona session after fifth victory in a row

"Barcelona is a more traditional, and therefore representative, circuit; it's a real test of a car," Wolff began about the upcoming F1 weekend in Mercedes' preview.

Youngster Antonelli is in the form of his life, having scored five consecutive victories after another confident performance in Monte Carlo. Meanwhile, Wolff expects George Russell to bounce back after resetting.

He continued: "Kimi will naturally take confidence from Monaco, but the focus has to be on continuing to build and doing the job in Barcelona. For George, the last races have not gone his way, but that is part of racing. He is very strong mentally, we know the level he can deliver, and he has the right people around him. The objective is simple: reset, focus on the weekend ahead, and put together the performance we know he is capable of."

For Antonelli, this weekend will be 60 minutes shorter. While teams would like to relax the rookie regulations for this year due to the abrupt changes to the F1 calendar, Vesti will drive the Italian's car during the first Friday practice session of the weekend.

"Fred will also drive Kimi’s car in FP1. He has been an important part of our development work with the W17 and in helping us understand how to unlock more from the package. This session is a good opportunity for him to connect that simulator work with the real car, and for us to gather another useful data point as we keep working to improve," Wolff said.

The Danish driver said: "Barcelona is a very familiar track. We first ran these new cars there back in January, so it will be interesting to return after the first five months of racing and see how much performance we’ve unlocked.

"I’ll be driving in FP1, so I’m very excited to get my first taste of the W17. It is something I’ve been waiting for since the beginning of the year. I’ll also be working closely with the team throughout the weekend," he concluded.