Toto Wolff tried to cool down the atmosphere at Mercedes after the intense battle between George Russell and Kimi Antonelli in the Sprint race of the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula 1. The manager described the duel between the drivers as ‘a great show’, but made it clear that he does not want to turn the internal rivalry into a ‘Star Wars’.
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For the first time this season, Russell and Antonelli had a direct confrontation on the track. The Italian, championship leader, came off worse in the dispute, complained on the radio during the race, and even heard Wolff asking him to calm down.
The first big moment happened on the sixth lap of the Sprint in Montreal. Antonelli tried to overtake Russell at turn 1, but ended up on the grass after a slight touch between the cars when the Briton was defending his position on the exit of the corner.
Later on the same lap, the young Italian again went off track after passing over a bump approaching the chicane at turns 8 and 9. The loss of speed opened the door for Lando Norris to take second place in the race.
After the race, Wolff said he enjoyed the spectacle provided by the battle between the Mercedes drivers: “It was a great show. A tough fight, not just between our two cars, but also with Lando and further back. I enjoyed watching it,” said the team principal.
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The Austrian acknowledged, however, that the internal battle ended up costing a possibly better result for Mercedes in the Canadian Sprint: “You build an advantage with two cars and then start fighting a bit, and you can lose the race. If this went on longer and we had a bit of bad luck, Norris could have ended up winning,” he said.
Even with the tense atmosphere on the radio, Wolff avoided direct criticism of Antonelli, and highlighted that situations like this are part of the team’s learning process: “We don’t want to lose a race or crash into each other. Sometimes you need a moment like this to remind you what our goals are,” he added.
The manager also emphasized that he prefers to see this kind of situation happening in a Sprint rather than in a main GP: “We don’t want headlines talking about ‘Star Wars’ or saying this is escalating, because it’s not. It was emotion of the moment, Kimi is a young driver, and I think George would probably do the same,” Wolff concluded.
