{"id":690090,"date":"2026-05-23T20:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T20:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/690090\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T20:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T20:11:10","slug":"mercedes-boss-defends-antonellis-fury-following-clash-with-russell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/690090\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes boss defends Antonelli’s fury following clash with Russell"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Formula 1 sprint in Canada began aggressively enough, as polesitter George Russell<\/a> pulled up on the grid with his Mercedes<\/a> angled aggressively to cut off any challenge from team-mate Kimi Antonelli<\/a> at launch.<\/p>\n

But this was nothing compared with the events of lap six, when Antonelli tried to pass around the outside into Turn 1, only to be given no room at all \u2013 and indeed a tap of wheel-to-wheel contact. That sent Antonelli into the run-off area and then, as he lined up to try another pass into Turn 8 later in the lap, he ran over the grass, enabling Lando Norris<\/a>\u2019 McLaren<\/a> to slip by into second place.<\/p>\n

Antonelli complained repeatedly over the radio about Russell\u2019s driving etiquette, warranting not just an instruction from race engineer Peter\u00a0Bonnington to focus on the race, but also two interventions from team principal Toto Wolff. It\u2019s not unknown for Wolff to take to the airwaves to either throw an arm around a driver\u2019s shoulder or read the riot act, but seldom does he do it twice.<\/p>\n

In this case, the very emphatic message was that matters such as these are not to be discussed over the radio.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, Wolff was keen to frame the race positively, as a learning experience for both drivers as they battle for a world championship for the first time. He has been in this scenario before, mediating between\u00a0Lewis Hamilton<\/a> and Nico Rosberg<\/a> during their ultimately toxic rivalry as team-mates between 2013 and 2016.<\/p>\n

\"F1's <\/p>\n

F1’s driving standards guidelines state that when attempting to pass on the outside, the attacking driver’s front axle has to be beyond the front axle line of the other car at the apex in order to be intitled to “racing room”<\/p>\n

Photo by: Andy Hone\/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

“It was good,” Wolff said after the race.\u00a0“Good cinema, and the race was good as well. For us, actually a very good learning experience about how we want to do things \u2013 or also how we don\u2019t want to do them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“You can see how quickly you give away an advantage when you simply fight each other too hard. And there are always two people involved.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“So now we\u2019ll discuss it: what can we learn from it, what conclusions can we draw, so that in the future we simply avoid these situations.<\/p>\n

“If it\u2019s not George but another driver, then you also wouldn\u2019t expect him to drive alongside you there and invite you through. And I think that\u2019s the consequence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Team-mates can overtake each other in moments like these. But probably defending that hard, the way it happens when it\u2019s about the championship \u2013 you can\u2019t expect someone to just open the door anymore.”<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

On the radio,\u00a0Antonelli had complained not only that Russell had pushed him off, but that his “mirror was alongside”. This is a reference to the FIA\u2019s much-discussed driving standards guidelines document, which describes the circumstances in which drivers are entitled to “racing room” when attempting to overtake.<\/p>\n

Actually, though, the guidelines differ for attempted passes on the inside and outside lines. When trying to overtake on the outside, the attacking driver\u2019s front axle has to be beyond the front axle of the car they are trying to pass at the apex, rather than alongside the mirror.<\/p>\n

This, of course, will form part of that internal discussion Wolff will have to mediate once his drivers calm down. But he remained outwardly supportive of\u00a0Antonelli\u2019s emotional reaction to the battle, as a championship contender.<\/p>\n

“You can\u2019t expect to have a lion in the car and a puppy outside of it,” Wolff said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Formula 1 sprint in Canada began aggressively enough, as polesitter George Russell pulled up on the grid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[12295,64,63,318989,285603,817,813,816,3875,945,336766,85],"class_list":["post-690090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-canadian-gp","tag-circuit-gilles-villeneuve","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-mercedes","tag-mercedes-boss-defends-antonellis-fury-following-clash-with-russell","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}