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George Russell and Kimi Antonelli almost came to blows during the Canadian Grand Prix Sprint race, which has exposed an issue with intra-team title fights that McLaren never had to deal with during Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s battle last year.
During the opening laps of the Sprint race at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, Kimi Antonelli and George Russell had fans on the edge of their seats as the two Mercedes drivers duked it out for the lead of the race.
The Briton ended up reigning victorious, with his younger counterpart falling down to P3 as a result of his skirmishes off the race track. Antonelli was seemingly forced wide by Russell upon his exit from turn one, and portrayed a furious figure on the team radio.
George Russell and Kimi Antonelli’s tussle aided Lando Norris’ drive to P2… Does Toto Wolff need to implement any team orders for Sunday’s Grand Prix?
The 19-year-old called for his Mercedes teammate to be handed a penalty. Of course, with them both sharing the same garage, it was always unlikely for Brackley’s finest to put in a request to race control.
However, it also exposed an issue with intra-team title fights that McLaren never had to deal with last year.
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Mercedes’ Montreal Sprint fight would have been reported to the stewards ‘had it been two different teams’
McLaren chiefs Andrea Stella and Zak Brown came under fire on multiple occasions during last year’s campaign for their notorious management of Norris and Piastri out on track.
Dubbed ‘Papaya rules’, the team policy was that both drivers must respect each other’s space at all times to ensure that the atmosphere within the team did not delve into any sort of toxicity.
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The decision was scrutinised during the height of their title fight, but in fairness to Stella and Brown, it often saw Norris and Piastri duking it out fairly.
Yes, there was the collision at last year’s Canadian GP, but Norris immediately held up his hands and took the blame for it.
There was never a case of one side of McLaren’s garage looking to penalise the other, but the same can’t be said for Antonelli and Russell’s tussle in Montreal.
Antonelli immediately put pressure on race engineer Peter Bonnington to raise the issue with race control, to which the highly experienced right-hand man quickly side-stepped.
- READ MORE: F1 fans now think Toto Wolff is using his own ‘papaya rules’ with George Russell and Kimi Antonelli
During F1 pundit Martin Brundle’s assessment of the incident, he highlighted how it would have been a different story if the duo were racing for two different outfits.
“Had it been two different teams, the losing team in that incident would have been pushing hard with race control,” was his verdict on Sky Sports F1.
Toto Wolff vowed that things would be discussed inside the confines of the team’s offices at the Montreal-based circuit, following Antonelli’s continued fury following the drop of the chequered flag to signal the end of the race.
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