Mercedes expect 'great things' from Lewis Hamilton's teenage replacement despite nightmare F1 debut

But the teenager suffered a nightmare start to life in Formula One after crashing heavily in practice on Friday at the Italian Grand Prix.

Nevertheless, Antonelli has been earmarked as one of the best up-and-coming drivers in the sport and has been a Mercedes protege since he was 11.

Silver Arrows team principal Wolff, who has championed the youngster after just one year in Formula 2, reckons he can make an immediate impact.

"Kimi has been with us since the age of 11," Wolff told BBC Sport.

"We have seen that, back in the day, his karting has been exceptional, maybe the only one who came close to this was Max Verstappen's karting trajectory.

"And then he went through the formula series, winning in the rookie years and that is very special.

"Kimi has all he needs, the ability and the speed, and he has been part of the team a long time, he has tested a lot.

"We expect great things, but not from the beginning. It is clear we need to give him time and see how he develops."

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However, Friday's practice session showed there might still be a gulf in class between Hamilton and Antonelli.

The seven-time world champion set the pace by beating McLaren's Lando Norris by 0.003 seconds as Ferrari's Carlos Sainz finished third.

Meanwhile, Antonelli was making his debut for Mercedes in place of Russell and was the fastest on the first lap.

But when Hamilton beat his time, the Italian tried to beat the man he would eventually replace but ended up going too fast and crashed heavily.

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While he walked away from the wreckage, Russell's car has been badly damaged and the Briton had to wait nearly 30 minutes before he could take over in the second session.

Wolff went on to say that he believed the pressure might have got to the young driver.

"Clearly here, with everything piling up on him in Monza, that is very difficult to cope with. Is that the reason why he put it in the wall? Maybe," Wolff said.

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"For him, it feels certainly terrible, but it is part of the development curve. What we see is there is performance, and we have even seen that in the few laps we have seen but what he did, the car couldn't take.

"A strong driver needs to recover from these things, cope with the pressure, but obviously this weekend wasn't easy for him - you still need to compete in F2, you have all these shenanigans around you in Monza, an Italian kid that is being hyped, first time in a Mercedes car.

"That must be a heavy burden but if he wants to be a champion one day he needs to cope with that, and I’ve no doubt that he can and he will."