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Mercedes will not back Kimi Antonelli’s Formula 1 title bid with team orders, despite the Italian extending his championship lead over George Russell at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Sunday’s race at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit was a contrasting tale for the Mercedes pairing, with Antonelli clinching the victory, while Russell retired on the opening lap after being spun into the gravel by Lewis Hamilton.
Toto Wolff explains Mercedes’ stance on Kimi Antonelli and George Russell
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It was Antonelli’s sixth victory in 10 Grands Prix, and yet the Italian only holds a 46-point lead in the drivers’ standings.
It’s been a campaign in which the Italian either finishes on the podium or doesn’t score at all. He retired from the Barcelona Grand Prix while fighting Russell for second place, and finished outside of the points at Silverstone when he broke a wheel shield as he chased Charles Leclerc for the lead.
Russell, who dropped to third in the standings after his Belgian GP, has also had his share of misfortunes. A battery failure forced him to retire in Canada, where he was fighting Antonelli for the win; a controversial penalty in Monaco left him outside of the points, while the collision with Hamilton ended his Belgian GP at Turn 6.
Although his Spa DNF has dropped Russell to 50 points behind Antonelli, his deficit doubled in one afternoon, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has ruled out backing Antonelli’s title quest with team orders.
While he is keen to avoid another back-and-forth battle between his drivers as happened in Barcelona, with the two opening the door for Hamilton to scamper off into the distance, he says Mercedes’ priority is to score maximum points – and it doesn’t matter who is ahead.
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“So you know after the learning that we had in Barcelona, the kind of mission that we set for today is that we are not going to lose time with each other,” Wolff told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media.
“We don’t want any yo-yoing, and then have a Ferrari or a Red Bull breathing down our neck and losing a victory, as happened in Barcelona – without the DNF Kimi would have won the race.
“So, since Barcelona, we would in any case always give preference to the race victory.
“And if it meant that Kimi or George were ahead, this is what we would do. This is a constructors’ championship as much as a drivers’ championship.
“We would never take a victory away from any of the drivers. So if it is George who is ahead, even though he’s behind in the championship, at that stage of the season, we wouldn’t do that.”
Russell cut a dejected figure in the immediate aftermath of his latest retirement, declaring he was “numb to the disappointment” as it had happened too often.
He wasn’t even angry with Hamilton for the contact as he felt he wouldn’t have been in that position were it not for his W17 running out of battery power.
Asked about his driver’s mindset and whether Mercedes needed to give Russell extra support after Spa, Wolff said: “I think all drivers when – at least the ones that I have worked with – when they have difficult spells, and it happens to any sports person, you need to find a way of motivating or building up.
“George has his way, and I’m definitely trying to do that. And I’ve known him for such a long time. I understand the frustrations, and the team is 100 per cent behind him.”
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
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