Toto Wolff is hoping his Mercedes drivers will take on board their lessons following a clash between George Russell and Kimi Antonelli. Russell claimed victory in Saturday’s Sprint race in Montreal, but only just ahead of Lando Norris.
It ought to have been far more straightforward as the two Mercedes cars had built nearly a three-second advantage within merely a handful of laps remaining, but the opportunity arose for Norris when Kimi Antonelli made a bid for the lead.
The teenager launched a daring manoeuvre around the outside at turn one, but Russell shut the door firmly, forcing his team-mate off the circuit in the process. Antonelli branded the move “very naughty” and remained furious when he crossed the line in third, having surrendered second to Norris as a consequence of that clash.
Team principal Wolff firmly instructed his young driver: “Kimi, now is the fourth time you’ve talked about this. We talk about this internally, not over the radio, okay?”
The duo briefly exchanged handshakes after climbing from their cars, but championship leader Antonelli appeared stony-faced as he remarked on the incident: “I was quite well alongside and I got pushed off. But it is what it is.”
Russell displayed a grin as he commented: “It was a good battle with Kimi and I’m glad we’re both standing here after the race.”
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Their team boss also relished it, describing the battle as “great cinema” for those witnessing a captivating maiden F1 Sprint race on Canadian territory. But he will be determined to quash any discord, having lost grip of Lewis Hamilton’s internal title battle with Nico Rosberg a decade ago.
Wolff took his own advice and declined to say whether he believed Antonelli was justified in feeling hard done by. The Austrian added that he was relieved this incident occurred now and with minimal consequences, allowing both his drivers to learn from it.
He said: “You could see how quickly it goes. You create a gap with two cars and then you start to fight a bit, and you can lose a race.
View 2 ImagesKimi Antonelli and George Russel clash during the sprint.(Image: Mark Sutton – Formula 1, Formula 1 via Getty Images)
“If it goes on longer and it’s a bit unlucky for us, and it’s the Grand Prix, then Norris may well win. You don’t want to lose a race because you crashed into each other. Sometimes it needs a little moment to remind ourselves what our objectives are.
“This is not particularly against one or the other, but there’s a framework that we want to establish and I’d rather have it in a Sprint race, where it’s not a lot of points, than in a main race. We don’t want to start, at race five, to have headlines that this is escalating, because it’s not. It’s the emotion.
“He’s a young driver, and I think George would have probably done the same, so we just need to see how we handle it.”
Speaking to Sky Sports afterwards, Russell once again defended his conduct, saying: “I just took my normal line into turn two, and that’s all there is to say really. It’s always been discussed [internally]: You race each other hard but far.
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“There’s never ill-intention on my side but, on the same not, I’m not just going to wave somebody by. We’re both fighting for our championship, but it’s always the team first.
“We’ll both talk about it after, for sure. But for me I’ve got the peace of mind that it wasn’t investigated and, if the FIA think it was fine, so do I. We need to have a chat.
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“It’s inevitable when you’ve got cars qualifying one and two most weeks, we’re going to be racing each other. We’re standing here, it finished one-three when it should have been one-two.”