Günther Steiner expects the Italian to win the title battle between George Russell and Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes
If former Haas team principal Günther Steiner is to be believed, Kimi Antonelli will win the 2026 World Championship duel against George Russell. “I think George will be runner-up and not world champion,” he said on the podcast “The Red Flags.”
“[Antonelli] has a really good teammate, a really good driver whom I rate very highly,” explains Steiner. “And I thought this year would be his time for the title. But I think Kimi is slowly taking it away from him, provided he keeps his nerve.”
In the World Championship standings, the 19-year-old Italian leads his teammate. Only twenty points separate the two Mercedes drivers after four race weekends.
Nevertheless, Steiner emphasizes: “[Antonelli] hasn’t won the thing yet. But he shows all the signs of a driver who remains unfazed by it all. My biggest concern is that he, like Oscar [Piastri] last year, will lose his composure.”
Missed opportunity for Piastri
The McLaren driver led the championship for most of the 2025 season. Nevertheless, the Australian could only secure third place in the standings in the end, while Lando Norris was crowned world champion.
“He had it under control until the summer break,” said the former Haas team principal. “After the summer break, a few things happened that he didn’t like. Then he lost the title. Maybe only [Antonelli] can beat himself, but we’re still very early in the season.”
Steiner isn’t the first expert to see the Italian’s rise as a potential threat to Russell at Mercedes. Martin Brundle had already emphasized before the Miami weekend that, in Russell’s position, he would be worried about his teammate’s performance.
And while Antonelli secured the Grand Prix victory around Hard Rock Stadium, the Brit was only interested in damage control on race Sunday. In the end, he finished in fourth place.
The two will face off again at the Canadian Grand Prix. In 2025, Antonelli secured the first podium of his still-young Formula 1 career here, while Russell claimed his first win of the season. Compared to Miami, the Mercedes driver is more comfortable at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.