Mercedes acknowledged that it did not have enough pace to fight for victory at the Dutch Grand Prix in Formula 1, but left Zandvoort with a one-two on the podium. Kimi Antonelli finished second, ahead of George Russell who took P3, while the team extended its lead in the constructors’ championship.
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Kimi Antonelli led much of the race and even believed in the possibility of winning, after gaining positions in both starts. However, the Italian lost performance with the second set of hard tires and was eventually overtaken by Lando Norris of McLaren.
“I’m disappointed to have led so many laps today and not have won. Unfortunately, the pace wasn’t there,” said Antonelli. The young driver assessed that second place was the best possible and highlighted the importance of finishing ahead of the two Ferrari cars.
Russell had to recover after losing positions at the start and managed to get back to third place. When Antonelli made his stop during the Virtual Safety Car period, the Briton briefly occupied second position, but Mercedes decided to swap the cars again to preserve the team’s strategy and avoid a battle that could have benefited Ferrari and Norris.
“It was clear we couldn’t waste time fighting, as we also needed to protect ourselves from the Ferraris behind. If we had done that, we probably would have lost a lot of time and I would have lost the podium,” explained Russell.
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Toto Wolff confirmed that the priority became securing positions ahead of the Ferraris after Norris overtook Antonelli: “We didn’t have the pace to fight for the win today. Finishing second and third was therefore a matter of limiting the damage, but both the drivers and the team did a good job to maximize our result,” he said.
The Mercedes boss also explained that Antonelli’s stop during the Virtual Safety Car allowed the use of newer and softer tires, while Russell was responsible for keeping Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc behind. Wolff added that if the positions had been reversed, the team would have made the same decision.
“We leave Zandvoort knowing we need to improve the car’s pace. We have more developments coming, but in the last two races we haven’t had the fastest car,” Wolff concluded.
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