The Mercedes team principal is calm
Andrea Kimi Antonelli On Sunday in China he had the great opportunity to score his first victory in F1 and he didn’t let it slip away. George Russell had problems in Qualifying and managed at the last minute to grab the front row, but then in the dynamics of the race he lost much more time in the battles with the Ferraris than his teammate who was able to fly undisturbed towards success having a sufficient advantage to make even the block with a subsequent long one a few kilometers from the checkered flag harmless.
Now the partial in terms of GP victories between Russell and Antonelli is one draw. In the standings the two are separated by four points because the Italian driver made a mess in Saturday’s Sprint and it will be interesting to follow the direct comparison between the two in Japan. Toto Wolff he is aware that some tension between Russell and Antonelli will be inevitable, but he is sure that he will not relive what happened between Hamilton and Rosberg.
“The relationship and experience between Russell and Antonelli is completely different from that between Hamilton and Rosberg – the words of the number one on the Mercedes wall in the press conference – Antonelli and Russell come from our academy, Kimi has even been with us since his karting days. Nico and Lewis, on the other hand, have been rivals for their entire career since karting, there was also a good friendship between the two which then turned into a healthy rivalry, then into rivalry and finally into natural hostility. When you are fighting to win the championship, it is perfectly normal for there to be a bit of aggression between teammates and it is in the order of things for the team to manage this possible situation. I’m sure, however, that the foundations will be totally different given that Russell and Antonelli grew up as Mercedes drivers.”
