{"id":869103,"date":"2026-08-24T00:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T00:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/869103\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T00:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T00:38:12","slug":"mercedes-boss-toto-wolff-defends-ordering-russell-to-give-up-2nd-place-to-antonelli-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/869103\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes boss Toto Wolff defends ordering Russell to give up 2nd place to Antonelli \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

ZANDVOORT, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 Mercedes boss Toto Wolff defended the use of team orders in the Formula 1 title fight after George Russell protested when he was asked to give up second place in the Dutch Grand Prix to teammate Kimi Antonelli.<\/p>\n

Over team radio, Russell questioned the call to let Antonelli past in the final stages of Sunday\u2019s race, suggesting it left him vulnerable to Ferrari\u2019s Lewis Hamilton behind with little to gain for the team. Antonelli was on fresher tires but eventual winner Lando Norris was far ahead.<\/p>\n

Russell, who held off Hamilton to keep third, relented after the race and said his teammate and title rival Antonelli \u201cdeserved to finish ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Mercedes
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy waves for the podium after taking the seond place at the Formula One Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort , Netherlands, Sunday, Aug. 23, 2026. (AP Photo\/Darko Bandic)<\/p>\n

\u201cTeam orders are always harsh from one driver\u2019s perspective,\u201d Mercedes team principal Wolff said, arguing that not swapping positions would have left both drivers a target for Hamilton. \u201cWe\u2019re not losing time with each other if there are competitors breathing down our neck. We\u2019ve seen it with the Ferraris at the beginning of the year in Shanghai, you just lose so much race time, you risk losing more points.\u201d<\/p>\n

Antonelli had been ahead of Russell earlier in the race before Mercedes brought him in for fresh tires and that was another reason for the switch, Wolff added.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, it wasn\u2019t a very difficult call, because Kimi was running second, clear of George, and that\u2019s basically the order we restored after the stop. So, a completely normal modus operandi, and we would have done it the other way around also,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Antonelli will take a grid penalty at his home race<\/p>\n

Antonelli, who turns 20 on Tuesday, faces another obstacle in his quest to become F1\u2019s youngest-ever champion.<\/p>\n

He will need to take a hefty grid penalty at his home Italian Grand Prix in two weeks\u2019 time as Mercedes plans to swap his car\u2019s power unit to head off potential reliability problems in the second half of the season. That will put Antonelli over his allowance of key components for the year.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur theory, our calculations say that that\u2019s the best track to take it. Obviously, our algorithms don\u2019t take the nationality into consideration,\u201d Wolff said. \u201cWe\u2019re here to fight for a championship and not the most PR, so that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monza is a high speed track where Mercedes\u2019 engine is likely to be strong, and overtaking is relatively easy, giving Antonelli a chance to make up places. He\u2019s accepted the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it still will give me a chance to do a great result and bring home good points,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

\n See AP\u2019s full auto racing coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ZANDVOORT, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 Mercedes boss Toto Wolff defended the use of team orders in the Formula 1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-869103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869103","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=869103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}