Racing
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Kimi Antonelli’s fifth straight grand prix win in Monaco has pushed him 68 points clear of George Russell after six races, sharpening the sense that Mercedes is tilting toward the 19-year-old far faster than anyone expected.
Monaco laid that shift bare. Antonelli took pole and converted it into another victory, strengthening his position at the head of the championship, while Russell finished outside the points after another zero-score weekend. What had been framed by Mercedes as an open fight between two evenly backed drivers now looks increasingly uneven from the outside.
Part of that perception came from the way Russell’s race unraveled. Marc Surer, writing for Motorsport-Total.com, said Mercedes’ handling of Russell’s penalty looked “typical for a number 2 in the team.” Russell was given a five-second penalty, but Mercedes failed to serve it at the following pit stop, which led the FIA to increase the sanction. That contributed to Russell dropping back to third and then out of the points altogether.
Russell’s slump has only made the internal contrast starker because Antonelli has looked so comfortable in the same car. After qualifying in Monaco, Russell admitted that his driving style is not currently matching the 2026 Mercedes, saying there are clear differences between him and Antonelli that worked in his favor last year but now fit his teammate “perfectly.”
Ralf Schumacher, speaking on Sky’s Backstage Boxengasse podcast, said Antonelli had made Russell look “really old” in Monaco and called the championship gap “a disaster” because “naturally everyone assumed that he would be fighting for the world championship.” Schumacher also suggested Russell is aware of Antonelli’s standing inside the team, saying Toto Wolff loves the Italian “like a son.”
Wolff has publicly rejected the idea that Russell is being sidelined. The Mercedes team principal said after Monaco that Russell still has the team’s full confidence and blamed setup mistakes for part of his difficult weekend. He also insisted Mercedes has no reason to rethink its lineup, saying he “can’t imagine a better driver pairing” than Antonelli and Russell.
At the same time, Wolff’s praise for Antonelli has underlined why the balance of attention has shifted. He described the Italian as “a new global rock star” for Mercedes after Lewis Hamilton and urged people to enjoy the performances of “one of the greatest talents” he has seen rather than burden him with too much expectation.
That rise is now affecting the wider driver-market picture as much as Mercedes’ internal one. Schumacher said Wolff would be “crazy” to bring in Max Verstappen and recreate the kind of Hamilton-Rosberg pressure battle Mercedes once had when Antonelli already looks capable of carrying the team’s future. In Schumacher’s reading, “a clear number two, which George Russell is developing into right now, would be perfect,” a verdict that says as much about Antonelli’s authority at Mercedes as it does about Russell’s fading position.