{"id":816184,"date":"2026-07-21T10:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T10:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/816184\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T10:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T10:52:13","slug":"mercedes-is-open-to-team-orders-now-but-its-not-what-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/816184\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes is open to team orders now \u2013 but it\u2019s not what you think"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mercedes<\/a> might enforce team orders if Kimi Antonelli<\/a> and George Russell<\/a> risk losing victory due to their wheel-to-wheel action, its Formula 1 team principal Toto Wolff stated.<\/p>\n

The Silver Arrows took their eighth victory of 2026 when Antonelli won Sunday\u2019s Belgian Grand Prix, but Wolff has previously made it clear that he was displeased by the team losing out to Ferrari<\/a> on two occasions.<\/p>\n

The Austrian was particularly aggrieved by the Barcelona race, where Russell and Antonelli spent six laps battling for the lead. This caused them to be undercut by Lewis Hamilton<\/a> who, on fresher tyres, gained 13 seconds on the Italian over those six laps.<\/p>\n

The context of the title race \u2013 with Antonelli\u2019s lead over Russell up to 50 points and Ferrari a credible title threat \u2013 led a journalist to ask Wolff, in his post-race media session at the Belgian Grand Prix, whether it was time to \u201cring-fence\u201d Antonelli as the team\u2019s lead driver and ask Russell to make way for his team-mate when he\u2019s ahead.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

Wolff unsurprisingly declined to make Russell a number-two driver at such an early stage in the season \u2013 we\u2019ll reach the halfway point after this weekend\u2019s Hungaroring round \u2013 especially with the Briton\u2019s title chances very much alive.<\/p>\n

However, the team boss did make it clear that Mercedes couldn\u2019t afford to let a Barcelona-style scenario happen again.<\/p>\n

\"Andrea <\/p>\n

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, George Russell, Mercedes<\/p>\n

Photo by: Steven Tee \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kind of mission that we set for today is that we are not going to lose time with each other,\u201d he replied. \u201cWe don’t want any yo-yoing and then have a Ferrari or a Red Bull breathing down our neck and losing a victory, as it happened in Barcelona. You know, without the DNF, Kimi would have won the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince Barcelona, we would in any case always give preference to the race victory. And if it meant that Kimi or George were ahead, this is what we would do.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, this is a constructor championship as much as a driver championship. We would never take a victory away from any of the drivers. So, if it is George who is ahead, even though he is behind in the championship, at that stage of the season, we wouldn’t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russell previously insisted he and Antonelli could be trusted to go wheel to wheel without colliding, following their Montreal fight, but subsequently changed his stance due to their Catalan setback.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s clear the win for the team is the priority,\u201d he said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter which driver.<\/p>\n

\"Andrea <\/p>\n

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, George Russell, Mercedes<\/p>\n

Photo by: Steven Tee \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cYou saw in Canada, Kimi and I fought really hard, but we were pulling away from everybody else, so the win for the team was not under threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then you look in Barcelona and suddenly you have another driver who\u2019s in the fight. And okay, Lewis had the safety car, this helped a lot. Without the safety car, you know, Kimi and I were losing time together and it would have given the opportunity to Ferrari to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that is when, you know, we need to be smart as team-mates and it\u2019s very clear, you know, the team wants to win the race. It doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s myself or Kimi.\u201d<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mercedes might enforce team orders if Kimi Antonelli and George Russell risk losing victory due to their wheel-to-wheel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[3032,3272,49,48,578,282831,576,577,3024,1881,286301,82],"class_list":["post-816184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","tag-belgian-gp","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-f1-belgian-grand-prix","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-mercedes","tag-mercedes-is-open-to-team-orders-now-u2013-but-itu2019s-not-what-you-think","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}