Wolff shields young star amid 'sub-par' results in rookie campaign

The young Italian definitely had some great moments already, including a Sprint pole in Miami and achieving his first podium at the Canadian Grand Prix.

However, other than that P3 finish in Montreal, since the Emilia-Romagna GP he did not finish on four occasions, and was P18 in Monaco.

Toto Wolff sees the 'reality of the rookie season' in the Italian's results, he told GPblog among others.

"It was a rough run since Montreal for us, two races that were really sub-par and everybody feels that way in the team and for Kimi also. As a team and for Kimi, we need to go back to a baseline. He's a great driver, there's a reason why we took him," the Mercedes team principal said about the rookie.

Is the Italian trying too hard, or is Wolff putting too much pressure on the youngster? "I'm not sure he's trying too hard. He wants to do well. And obviously there's a tonne of information that's coming down on him, then his way of trying to extract the best from the car and I think saying, 'OK, I know I can drive. What is it I need to do for that to come back?"

"And maybe the whole word for us as a team and for the drivers is simplification. We are overthinking," he explained.

The British Grand Prix proved to be another difficult one for the Italian, but Wolff acknowledged that was because of the team's strategy calls and Isack Hadjar running into the back of his Mercedes.

He underlined: "It's just important now to keep him in a good frame of mind and not make him suffer or blame himself too much."

Antonelli was not positive after the British Grand Prix. "I'm not super happy to be honest. Too many zeros scored and just… I've been, after Canada, I've been struggling to find some positives to be honest."

He added: "It's just, it feels like, yes, nothing is really working on our way and just need to focus and reset and trying to find again the light at the end of the tunnel because definitely I'm not going through a nice moment."

There are two weekends left before the summer break, one at Spa and then the grid will visit the Hungaroring.