Mercedes rejects Antonelli team orders after Spa

Toto Wolff says Mercedes will not favor Andrea Kimi Antonelli over George Russell with championship-driven team orders after the Belgian Grand Prix, insisting the team’s priority is to protect race wins rather than manipulate the title fight.

That stance stands out because Antonelli left Spa with his sixth victory of the season and a 50-point lead over Russell, prompting fresh questions over whether Mercedes should now start backing the 19-year-old Italian. Wolff’s answer was clear: “We would never take a victory from any of the drivers.” He added that “if it’s George who is in front, even if he’s behind in the championship, at this stage of the season, we wouldn’t do that.”

Mercedes has still tightened its internal approach, but not in the form of winner-swapping orders. Wolff said the team changed its thinking after the Spanish Grand Prix, where Russell and Antonelli lost significant time fighting each other. Since then, Mercedes has wanted to stop the pair from costing themselves results through what Wolff described as “yo-yo” racing.

“After the lesson we learned in Barcelona, where we lost a lot of time, the mission we set for [the Belgian Grand Prix] was to not lose time with each other,” Wolff said. He said Mercedes did not want to end up in a back-and-forth fight and then have Ferrari or Red Bull close in and take advantage, adding that “without the DNF, Kimi would have won the race” in Spain.

That distinction is now central to Mercedes’ line. The team is willing to set boundaries to stop Russell and Antonelli hurting the overall result, but Wolff says it will not ask one driver to hand the other a victory simply because of the championship standings.

Wolff framed that as a broader competitive necessity for Mercedes. “Since Barcelona, we would anyway always give priority to winning the race,” he said. “And if that meant that Kimi or George was in front, that’s what we would do. It’s a constructors’ championship as much as a drivers’ championship.”

For Russell, that means Mercedes is still publicly committing to equal treatment even though Antonelli has become the clear points leader. For Antonelli, it means his advantage does not yet translate into protected status inside the team as the title fight moves on from Spa.