'You can't put a leash on a driver' - Antonelli responds to Mercedes team order threats

Andrea Kimi Antonelli says that his Mercedes Formula 1 team “can’t put a leash on a driver” amid flaring title battle tensions.

His team boss Toto Wolff suggested after the Canadian GP that he might have to put a “handbrake” on the fighting between Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, after the pair clashed several times.

However, Kimi Antonelli confirmed that following meetings between Montreal and Monaco, it was reaffirmed that he and Russell are free to race – as long as it doesn’t lead to a car getting damaged.

“We had this discussion after the race weekend,” said the Italian when asked for the latest take on the position at Mercedes.

“Actually, we had one couple of days ago before coming here, and we had a chat.

“We reviewed all the episodes of the race, and basically, the end of the discussion was you can race each other freely, as long there's respect, and as long as you don't put yourself in situations that could damage one of you or both of you.

“So the team doesn't want to put any rules.

“Of course, understandably they want both cars to finish, and to get as many points as possible for the team.

“And that is very well in our minds as well, because we race for ourselves, because we want to be the best, we want to win.

“But we also race for the team, because we want to reward as well as the 2000-plus people that work back in Brackley and Brixworth, and we want the team to win as well.

“So we’re aware, and for sure, we're going to keep racing each other like we did in Canada.

“Of course, a bit more smartly, but definitely the team wants us to race freely, because it's also the way to be, you can't really put a leash on a driver that is fighting for wins and the championship.

“You can't really tell him, ‘Oh, just sit back.’ Of course, it can happen, but the team wants us to race fairly.”

After the Montreal race, Russell suggested that the world championship is now Antonelli’s to lose, given his early lead.

However, the 19-year-old doesn’t see it the same way.

“To be fair, I don't really give weight to that line,” he said.

“Because it's so early into the season, still 17 – maybe more – races left, and it still is very, very early to think or talk about the championship.

“So yeah, to be fair, I just continue on trying to excel, try to do my best whenever I go in the car, trying to maximise the result, and then we'll see where we end up in at the end of the season.

“But I also think it's difficult to think about losing something when you don't even have it.

“I didn't win the championship, so how can I lose something that I didn't even achieve?

“So definitely I will race as I always did, enjoy it as much, and then, as I said before, we'll see where we end up at the end of the season.”

Asked which of the two Mercedes drivers is under more pressure – himself as the leader or Russell as the chaser – Antonelli suggested that he wasn’t feeling any.

“I don't feel, to be fair, that much pressure,” he said.

“I feel pretty relaxed about the situation, because, as I said, it's still very early on into the season, and I just want to keep on doing what I'm doing, trying to raise the bar and trying to win as much as possible.

“And then, of course, George is a super strong teammate, and he will make my life very hard, but on my side, I just try to deal the best way as possible with every situation, and then trying to excel at what I do.”