George Russell addresses Mercedes favouritism claims over Kimi Antonelli

George Russell has shut down talk of favouritism within Mercedes towards his teammate Kimi Antonelli, adamant the team’s main objective is to win the Constructors’ Championship.

Although Russell entered the F1 2026 championship as the pre-season favourite, it is his teenage teammate who is leading the Drivers’ standings.

George Russell rejects Mercedes favouritism claims over Kimi Antonelli

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Winning five races in succession from China to Monaco, Antonelli raced out to a 68-point lead over Russell. But the Briton has since pegged it back to 25 points.

In a season in which Mercedes’ W17 has emerged as the package to beat, Russell and Antonelli have both won grands prix. They’ve also both been hampered by issues.

From battery-related retirements to penalties, Safety Cars and, more recently, a broken wheel shield, the teammates have gone from positions of strength to failing to score.

Russell suffered the brunt of those issues as Antonelli went on his five-race charge, leading to conspiracies that Mercedes was favouring Antonelli.

Although both drivers came through Mercedes’ junior programme, it has been claimed that Toto Wolff has a vested interest in Antonelli, as he decided to promote the Italian directly into the Mercedes F1 team instead of putting him with a customer team, such as he did with Russell at Williams.

Russell shut down that conspiracy in an interview with the Daily Mail.

“I did hear on the grapevine that there is chatter about favouritism (towards Antonelli),” he said.

“It doesn’t bother me – and nor is it true.

“When I was younger, I might have wanted to tackle that accusation.

“But there are 2,000 people in the team, and they are all on a bonus if we win the Constructors’ Championship, so why would there be favouritism?

“We are both allowed to race, unless the team’s overriding aim to win the maximum points available is under threat.”

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The online claims of favouritism towards Antonelli were put to bed by Mercedes’ technical director James Allison last month.

The Briton shot down that narrative as he explained that Mercedes’ primary ambition was the Constructors’ title.

Adamant that favouritism is “alien” within an F1 team, he told the Nu Silver Arrows radio show: “If you ever wanted that feeling of favouritism… to understand where it sits on our psyche, you’d need to come and work in a team.

“Because if you were lucky enough to come and work in a team, you would instantly be imbued with the culture of that team.

“You would understand how utterly alien that thought is to anyone in a team, and, when we hear it, it’s like we’re hearing another language.

“It’s an argument you can never win, because both sides of it are just completely divorced from one another, because it is in all of our interests that both our drivers prosper.

“We’re ambivalent about which one is better than the other. We want a 1-2 in every race, and we don’t care about the order.”

He added: “Weirdly, it is not the Drivers’ Championship, it’s the Constructors’ Championship.

“If we’re lucky enough to win a bonus, we win it on the basis of the Constructors’ position, not the drivers’ – we don’t get anything for that.

“So everything we care about is constructors-oriented, and favouritism makes zero sense to us in that respect.

“We just want maximum points from both drivers at all times.”

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