Toto Wolff believes the rivalry between George Russell and Kimi Antonelli won’t escalate—he says the situation in Canada was “resolved in a conversation”
Is history repeating itself at Mercedes? After multiple clashes in the 2016 World Championship duel between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, exactly ten years later there could be another internal Mercedes battle for the title between George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.
We got a “preview” of a possible duel last weekend in Canada. In both the Sprint and the race in Montreal, Russell and Antonelli battled head-to-head for several laps each, fighting for the win.
Although there was no crash, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff admits that he wasn’t entirely happy with one or two situations. “They know where the line is,” the Austrian said in an interview with Sport Bild.
However, he also emphasized there: “In Canada, they almost went too far.” Among other things, Antonelli nearly rear-ended Russell once before the final chicane on Sunday. “But we cleared that up in a conversation,” Wolff revealed.
So does that mean Mercedes is now tightening the screws? “No,” Wolff clarifies, emphasizing: “We’ll hold off on team orders for as long as possible—and if possible, not at all. We don’t think we need them and are letting the guys drive.”
But what makes Wolff so confident here? After all, he’s experienced a very similar situation before. “Both come from our junior program. That’s a different starting point,” the team boss clarifies.
“They know what they owe to Mercedes,” Wolff emphasizes. “Of course, drivers would rather win the Drivers’ Championship than the Constructors’ Championship,” the Austrian acknowledges, “but the team comes first,” he explains.
Wolff hopes that Russell and Antonelli have taken this to heart as well. However, the first duel between Hamilton and Rosberg at the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix also took place without a collision. The accidents didn’t happen until later ..