‘George’ – Untelevised George Russell radio in Kimi Antonelli battle

Toto Wolff didn’t only intervene during Kimi Antonelli’s Sprint rant, he also stepped in when George Russell got heated during his battle against his teammate in the Grand Prix.

A stern “George” was followed by a warning that if the teammates cannot clean up the racing, then Mercedes will put a “stop” to it.

‘If we can’t tidy up the racing, then we will have to stop it’

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Antonelli and Russell’s rivalry reached a flashpoint at the Canadian Grand Prix as Antonelli tried to assert his dominance over his teammate, and Russell attempted to re-establish himself as team leader.

The Briton had the upper hand during the Sprint as he twice shut the door on Antonelli, with the latter saying his teammate’s antics were “unfair” and deserved a “penalty”.

As the Italian was not willing to let it go, Mercedes team principal Wolff stepped in: “It’s the fourth time to talk about this, we shall talk about this internally and not on team radio.”

Russell won the Sprint, while Antonelli came home in third place.

That, though, wasn’t the only time Wolff had to get on the radio to one of his drivers.

Antonelli and Russell’s battle in Montreal continued in the Grand Prix as they fought for the win, both drivers making mistakes at the hairpin that handed the other the advantage.

Running less than half a second apart, Russell was concerned that the Italian had overtake mode on him, which was confirmed by his race engineer Marcus Dudley.

Russell wanted his teammate to back off as he recharged, “he needs to back up a bit”, and was annoyed when Antonelli came out ahead down into the final chicane with both drivers off the track.

Dudley: “Kimi will give you position.”

Russell: “Convenient just [before] Turn 3.”

Dudley: “I think that was when it was given to him. So head down.”

Wolff: “George…

Dudley: “… a lot of laps to go.”

Shortly after on Lap 26 came the warning from Dudley that Mercedes wasn’t happy with how the two were racing one another.

Dudley: “Too close at the moment this is. Just information, if we can’t tidy up the racing, then we will have to stop it.”

Told that Antonelli’s gap was 0.4, and then 0.6, Dudley informed Russell: “Both cars are under investigation.”

Alas, Russell’s battle against his teammate ended on Lap 30, as he came to a halt with a battery issue, coming to a stop on the side of the track.

“Car status unknown so jump out if you can hear me,” said Dudley.

Sunday’s result meant Antonelli extended his lead over Russell to 43 points over Russell with his fourth Grand Prix win on the trot.

Wolff was asked about Mercedes’ messages to the drivers, saying it was more of a heads up that they were on notice if they continued racing one another that hard.

“I think when you ask them to tidy it up, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be stopping it, you allow actually the racing, but you’re saying you know you’re on watch,” he said.

“We had a few situations that could have ended in DNF, since that is as a driver you’re very well aware where you want to place your car and how much risk you want to take.”

The team will sit down with Antonelli and Russell to discuss their racing in Montreal, with Wolff warning them that he would not hesitate to put the “handbrake on” if it benefitted the team.

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“I think we want to look at the pictures today and have [the drivers] come to the right conclusions in terms of saying, ‘do you think that was the level of fighting you think is right? And if that is, why is that?'” he said.

“We will say why we think one or two situations could have been avoided, and ‘what do you want to do to mitigate it?’ But definitely, more than ever, this fight is on.

“There’s so much at stake for both. There’s so much at stake that you have to, as a team, as uncomfortable as the ride is sometimes, you have to accept that this is the fight they’ve been trained for.

“Equally, if there was a situation where we believe the team’s points are at risk of losing, or there was a situation where we were losing so much time to our competitors behind, then we would not be a millimetre hesitant of putting the handbrake on.”

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