{"id":887674,"date":"2026-09-08T07:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T07:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/887674\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T07:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T07:02:11","slug":"george-russell-comment-catches-rosberg-eye-after-italian-gp-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/887674\/","title":{"rendered":"George Russell comment catches Rosberg eye after Italian GP defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

As questions are asked about Mercedes<\/a>\u2019 strategy at the Italian Grand Prix, Sky F1 pundit Nico Rosberg says George Russell<\/a>\u2019s 50-lap run on the hard tyres may not have cost him the win to Kimi Antonelli.<\/p>\n

Instead, it may have been Sergio Perez, who joined Antonelli in pitting behind the Virtual Safety Car, and came out ahead of Russell.<\/p>\n

Nico Rosberg explains George Russell\u2019s Mercedes strategy dilemma<\/p>\n

Russell<\/a> and Antonelli put on a thrilling show at Monza on Sunday as the Mercedes teammates fought for the race win.<\/p>\n

Although Russell lined up second on the grid with Antonelli down in 19th place, Antonelli clinched victory by 3.857s over the Briton.<\/p>\n

It raised questions about the teammates\u2019 strategies.<\/p>\n

While Russell swapped from the medium Pirelli tyres to the hard rubber when the race was red-flagged on Lap 3, Antonelli swapped from the hard tyres to the mediums.<\/p>\n

A Virtual Safety Car on Lap 28 saw Antonelli pit for a second set of new medium tyres, while Russell, who didn\u2019t have a fresh set, stayed out.<\/p>\n

Antonelli made short work of those ahead of him to climb to second place to fight Russell for the lead. He made the telling pass with four laps remaining and immediately broke free of overtake mode\u2019s one second.<\/p>\n

Pundits pondered whether Mercedes\u2019 split strategies had cost Russell.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very clear internally in the team, okay? George is leading the race,\u201d Rosberg told Sky F1.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gets the best strategy to get in the fastest way possible to the end of the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gets the first choice. Doesn\u2019t matter where Kimi is or what he\u2019s doing or whatever. He gets it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s what Mercedes now needs to confirm.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point for George, the best way was to stay out and not come in and take those medium tyres. And if that\u2019s the case, then it\u2019s all easy and fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Russell may have given the biggest clue yet as to what went wrong when he spoke with Max Verstappen in the cooldown room after the race.<\/p>\n

More from the Italian Grand Prix on PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

Antonelli and Russell telemetry data settles Mercedes Monza strategy debate<\/a><\/p>\n

Winners and losers from the 2026 Italian Grand Prix<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI had Perez come out of the pits in front of me,\u201d he told the Red Bull driver, who joined the Mercedes teammates on the podium. \u201cAnd it was plus four seconds on the delta.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four seconds was Russell\u2019s deficit at the chequered flag.<\/p>\n

It had Rosberg pondering if that, more than strategy, cost Russell the win at Monza.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the cooldown room, George said, \u2018I lost four seconds in the VSC because of Perez going too slowly.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich might again show us that his strategy was a good one because that was actually there, the race win lost in that Perez problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

The German was quick to dismiss the suggestion that Mercedes wanted Antonelli to win given he is leading the championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cEqual opportunity for both,\u201d was Rosberg\u2019s firm reply.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has to be, and that is the case. They\u2019re racing for the championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Antonelli\u2019s Monza victory extended his advantage in the standings to 66 points, with Lewis Hamilton a further 10 off the pace.<\/p>\n

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n

Read next: Nico Rosberg makes feelings clear on Lewis Hamilton vs Charles Leclerc clash<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As questions are asked about Mercedes\u2019 strategy at the Italian Grand Prix, Sky F1 pundit Nico Rosberg says…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":887675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,3024,1613,66014,25251,1881,44,3764,22395,82],"class_list":["post-887674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-home-page","tag-italian-grand-prix","tag-kimi-antonelli","tag-mercedes","tag-news","tag-nico-rosberg","tag-popular","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887674","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=887674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}