Toto Wolff made it clear that he does not intend to revive the rivalry that marked Mercedes between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. The team principal stated that he will take drastic measures if Kimi Antonelli or George Russell take the Formula 1 title fight to a level that harms the team.
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For the first time since Rosberg’s title in 2016, Mercedes again has two drivers involved in the championship fight. Although Lewis Hamilton, from Ferrari, is among the two in the standings, Antonelli leads the championship with a 59-point advantage over Russell.
In an interview with RacingNews365, Wolff was categorical when asked about the possibility of a new rivalry similar to the one experienced between Hamilton and Rosberg from 2014 to 2016.
“I will not allow that. That will never happen with me again. It will never happen with the team again. Plain and simple. I will remove a driver from the team if he does that,” he declared.
The executive’s position reinforces a stance adopted by Mercedes since the end of that internal dispute, which generated several conflicts on and off the track. Wolff had previously stated that the team learned from how it managed the rivalry between its former drivers.
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Despite Antonelli’s comfortable lead in the standings, Wolff highlighted that the gap could be much smaller if Russell had not faced so many problems throughout the season. According to the Mercedes boss, reliability failures and unfavorable circumstances compromised the Briton’s campaign in several stages.
Commenting on Russell’s most recent setback at the Hungarian GP, Wolff again criticized the team’s performance. “Once again we had a problem that ruined George’s start. That is not acceptable and not good enough on our part,” he told Sky Sports F1.
Russell suffered an anti-stall system problem right at the start of the race in Budapest, dropped to the back of the pack, and finished only in seventh position, while Antonelli climbed the podium and extended his lead in the championship.
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