Mercedes asked George Russell to give back second place to Kimi Antonelli at the end of the race at Zandvoort. Toto Wolff fully assumes this decision and assures that the team would have acted the same way with the roles reversed.
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The instruction given by Mercedes to George Russell in the last laps of the Dutch Grand Prix is nothing unusual in Toto Wolff’s eyes. The head of the German team believes that his team simply applied a principle established before the race.
Kimi Antonelli was in second place when the virtual safety car caused by Esteban Ocon’s stop gave him the opportunity to switch to soft tires. His pit stop, however, put him back behind Russell, who had continued his race on much older hard tires.
Mercedes then asked the Briton to let his teammate pass again to restore the order that existed before this stop.
“Obviously, team orders are always difficult to accept.”
Mercedes wanted to avoid a battle between its drivers
The decision was far from trivial in the championship. By keeping second place, Russell would have reduced his gap to Antonelli to 53 points. By letting the Italian pass, the gap finally rose back to 59 points.
But Wolff explains that Mercedes had defined a clear rule during its Sunday morning strategic meeting: its drivers should not waste time fighting each other when direct rivals were close enough to take advantage.
“It’s something we always agree on during the Sunday morning strategic meeting: we don’t waste time fighting among ourselves when there are competitors right behind.”
This threat was very real at Zandvoort. Lewis Hamilton was quickly catching up to Russell with fresher tires and even tried to take third place from him in the last laps.
Wolff talks about the difficulties faced by Ferrari
The head of Mercedes considers that a battle between his two drivers could have cost the team more points. To support his reasoning, Wolff notably mentioned some situations experienced by Ferrari earlier in the season.
“We saw it with Ferrari at the start of the year, I think in Shanghai. You lose a lot of time in the race, we risk losing more points and that’s why we try to be proactive to avoid losing any.”
Russell therefore quickly followed the instruction and allowed Antonelli to regain second place. The Briton then had to defend his third position against Hamilton until the checkered flag.
A mission he ultimately succeeded in, allowing Mercedes to place both its cars on the podium behind Lando Norris.
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“We would have done the same the other way around”
Wolff nevertheless acknowledges that it is difficult to ask a driver fighting for the championship to voluntarily give up a position.
“You can’t ask a driver to be a lion in the car and, at the same time, to let himself be passed.”
But in the case of Zandvoort, Mercedes considers that Antonelli legitimately deserved this second place since he already held that position before his stop under VSC.
“Kimi was clearly running second, ahead of George, and that’s essentially the order we restored after the stop.”
Wolff especially insists that Antonelli did not receive any special treatment related to his position as championship leader.
“It was completely normal and we would have done exactly the same the other way around.”
Russell himself also acknowledged after the race that the decision was logical, believing that Antonelli would probably have passed him thanks to his fresher soft tires.
Antonelli keeps a 59-point lead over Russell
The maneuver nevertheless had a significant impact on the championship. Russell had gained three points on his teammate by winning the Sprint on Saturday, but the gap between the two Mercedes drivers finally returned to its pre-weekend level.
Antonelli thus keeps a 59-point lead over Russell, now second in the championship tied on points with Hamilton but ahead of the Ferrari driver by number of wins.
In a season where Mercedes has two drivers still mathematically in the title race, managing team orders could therefore become an increasingly sensitive topic. Wolff warns, however, that the philosophy will remain the same: to protect above all the collective result without systematically favoring one of his two drivers.
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