What Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff made of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli contact
Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff weighs in on his drivers making contact in the Canadian Grand Prix sprint race.
Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff has given his take on the contact that occurred between George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the Canadian Grand Prix sprint.
The title battle between Russell and Antonelli heated up as the Mercedes duo twice came to blows in a fight for the lead during the first ever sprint race to be held at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Antonelli was forced onto the grass at Turn 1, and again at the Turn 8/9 chicane as he failed in his attempts to overtake Russell for the lead in the early laps of Saturday’s shortened race.
The second off-track excursion led to Antonelli losing a position to McLaren’s Lando Norris. The 19-year-old Italian had to settle with third as Russell took the win to cut his championship deficit down to 18 points after four grands prix and three sprint races.
Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, was asked for his verdict on the clashes following the sprint.
"It was great cinema!” Wolff told Sky Sports F1. "Tough fighting, not only between our two but also with Lando [Norris]. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it.
"If you fight a bit, you can lose a race. If that goes a bit longer in a race, Norris may well win.
"I really enjoy these moments as they allow us to learn and say, 'how are we handling these things in the future?’
"You don't want to lose a race, you don't want to crash into each other and sometimes it needs a little moment to remind us of our objectives.
"This is not particularly against one or the other but there is a framework we want to establish and I would rather have it in a Sprint race.”
Antonelli protested on several occasions that Russell’s defence was unfair and even called for his team-mate to be penalised, prompting Wolff to intervene and order his driver to “concentrate on the driving, not the radio moaning”.
On Antonelli’s repeated radio outbursts, Wolff added: "We don't want to start race five with headlines like 'Star Wars' or 'this is escalating' as it's not.
“It's emotion and he is a young driver. George [Russell] would probably have done the same so we will see how we handle it."
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