Toto Wolff shuts down Kimi Antonelli radio rant after Russell clash

Toto Wolff had to intervene on team radio as Kimi Antonelli fumed following a fiesty battle with George Russell during the Canadian Sprint race.

The two Mercedes drivers came close to contact during a battle in the Miami Sprint, with Antonelli taking to team radio to call for a penalty for his teammate after feeling he had been pushed off track.

Toto Wolff responds to Kimi Antonelli during George Russell battle

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With Russell and Antonelli maintaining their first and second place positions off the start of the 23-lap Sprint race in Montreal, the Italian driver was able to keep pace with Russell through the opening five laps.

Starting Lap 6, Antonelli attempted to go around the outside of Russell through Turn 1 after getting significantly alongside through the braking zone, only for Russell to close the door and force Antonelli into the escape area.

Gathering his Mercedes back up after bouncing across the grass, Antonelli attacked again and slid up the inside of Russell at Turn 7, again bouncing across the grass after sailing wide.

Antonelli was left furious by the first incident, taking to the team radio to say, “That was very naughty!” and following that up in a separate message, “That should be a penalty, I was alongside the mirror!”

With race engineer Pete Bonnington pleading with his driver to stay cool behind the wheel, Antonelli interrupted to say, “That was not fair, he pushed me off!”

At this point, team boss and Mercedes CEO Toto Wolff felt he needed to intervene, and he instructed his driver to “concentrate on the driving and not on the radio moaning”, after which Antonelli did appear to calm down.

Aside from another message to say he suspected some damage from his off, which Bonnington replied to say there was nothing obvious in the data, Antonelli didn’t speak again until the chequered flag, in which he appeared to have calmed down.

“Yeah, if we’re racing like this, it’s good to know,” he said, to which Wolff replied, “It’s the fourth time to talk about this; we shall talk about this internally and not on team radio.”

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Toto Wolff intervenes after Kimi Antonelli complaints against George Russell

With Antonelli and Russell clearly attempting to keep a lid on the tension after the chequered flag, the duo spoke in the press conference about the incident, in which the Italian admitted there had been an element of him being too optimistic in his second move.

“I need to check it as well, to be fair, I was quite well alongside, and there was definitely contact, so I need to recheck that,” he said.

“It was hard racing and, at Turn 8, it was definitely too optimistic. I also took a massive bump, and I almost spun in a straight line, so that induced the lock-up, but yeah, just need to recheck it, and then yeah, we’ll talk about it later.

“I think if you’re well alongside, you can overtake pretty much anywhere. Obviously, there are corners that are more difficult, but I don’t think there’s never been an overtake around the outside in Turn 1.

“But I agree that he was defending his position, so it was just hard racing. Of course, we’re both lucky not to crash, but, at the end of the day, it was still a very fun race.”

Russell explained the battle from his point of view as being, “It was just a good hard battle, and obviously I defended into Turn 1, and, you know, you never get overtaken around the outside of that corner, so I knew it was kind of pretty safe.

“But kudos to Kimi for giving it a go, I respect that, and obviously, we came out unscathed. Then, into Turn 8, this track is very dirty as well offline, we’ve seen all weekend, so I was quite nervous to defend too tightly, because I knew there was a chance of locking up if I went there, and that was about it, really.

“So I’m glad that we’ve both sat here now. It could have been something different, but it wasn’t, and that’s how racing should be.”

Asked about the fact that Antonelli had suggested he was “very naughty” in his defence, Russell pointed to how the FIA stewards had not taken any interest in the incident.

“I mean, I need to see, I need to see it. I’ve not seen it,” he said.

“I don’t know if it was under investigation or not. I don’t think it was, so yeah.

“From my side, it’s like kids in karting, we know overtaking on the outside, there’s a certain element of risk that comes with that, and they’re amazing overtakes when they come off, but the chances are quite slim.

“So there’s only one direction I was going, and I was going to close the line; that’s my right to do so. So, as I said, respect to him for giving it a go.

“Emotions are always high for all of us in the cockpit, but I’m sure we’ll both talk about it after.”

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