Irked Mercedes drivers want F1 Mexico GP team orders review

Kimi Antonelli wants to sit down with Mercedes and review their team orders at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Having dropped behind his teammate as a result of early chaos, George Russell asked Mercedes to switch their cars around because he felt he had more pace to challenge for the podium.

Russell, who became increasingly agitated over team radio, vowed to give the place back to Antonelli if he could not do so, and Mercedes eventually agreed and instructed the 19-year-old Italian to move aside.

Having failed to make progress, Russell stuck to his word and allowed Antonelli back past as the pair finished sixth and seventh.

Antonelli revealed that he had no idea about Russell’s request.

“I didn’t know he was asking that on the radio,” Antonelli said after Sunday’s race. “I just got the information from the team to make the swap into T4, which kind of caught me by surprise initially. But, yeah, I mean, I respect their decision.

“Obviously we need to review and I would like to understand the reason behind the decision in order to move forward and then, yeah, now we’ll focus on to Brazil.”

Antonelli added: “I mean, obviously, I had to drop back. And, I was very close to George when I was behind him.

“But then I couldn’t really…I had to start pushing more. And Piastri had a bit more pace, so I had to start defending from him, which was not ideal, you know.

“And then it kind of put us in a more unfavourable position. But that’s why I was a bit worried because also making this swap was quite difficult, because Piastri was very close to George.

“So I was a bit nervous about that, but, yeah, it’s what it is and we’ll focus on the next one.”

Did Mercedes wait too long?

While Antonelli wants a review into Mercedes' team orders call, he acknowledged he appreciated Russell staying true to his word.

“I really appreciate that from the team because at least I got the position back,” he said.

“Of course, you know, we need to review because I think if we would have held position, obviously, it’s very easy to talk now, but if we would have held position, probably we would have had a better chance to undercut Ollie [Bearman] and probably would have had a better shot to finish maybe P4 and P5.

“But obviously, as I said before, it’s easy to talk now and we just need to review in order to not make the same mistake.”

Russell concurred with Antonelli that a review is needed, and felt Mercedes “left it too long” to make the decision.

“My tyres were in a good place, I was ready to attack. Ultimately, we left it too long and by that point there was no need to swap positions. Either do it straight away or not at all,” he explained.

“We need to sit down and talk as a team, ultimately, I’m not battling with Kimi in the championship... we’re battling Ferrari and Red Bull for the championship,” Russell said.

“Ultimately, we finished P6 and P7, [and it] could have worked out different.”