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Mercedes mechanics were inspired by Kimi Antonelli fighting on with car damage at the British Grand Prix last time out.
Antonelli was on course to pass Charles Leclerc and win the race before sustaining a broken wheel shield, which forced him to make two unscheduled pit stops.
Engineer Peter Bonnington called Antonelli into the pits to retire as he fell to the periphery of points and struggled to turn the car, but he insisted on continuing.
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Kimi Antonelli wowed Mercedes by refusing to retire from British GP
While Antonelli received a five-second penalty for multiple track limits breaches that cost him two points, there was still some value to staying in the race.
As explained by Viaplay F1 commentator Nelson Valkenburg on The Race F1 podcast, he did himself ‘so many favours’ internally with the display of resolve.
George Russell gained 18 points on Antonelli in the championship, but there’s still a sense that the team are subconsciously gravitating towards the teenager.
Russell received a blunt radio message from Toto Wolff after the race and admitted that his performance wasn’t good enough, having been the slower Mercedes driver once again.
“The fact that he fought so hard for a single point at Silverstone… he did himself, unbeknownst to him, so many favours within the Mercedes team by being the way he was at that point, not bemoaning the fact that he had issues,” Valkenburg said.
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“I spoke to a few mechanics and people within the team afterwards. They’re all Kimi converts now, and that makes the position that George has within the team a little bit more difficult.
“You hear on the onboard radio Toto swiping at George during qualifying sessions, ‘Just drive, don’t moan so much.’ And then on the other hand, you’ve got this bouncy young kid that refuses to give up, even for a single point.
“This is, mentally, a difficult position for Russell to be in, if you’re not automatically the quicker of the two.”
Both drivers have their own mechanics, but there is a natural overlap between the two sides of the garage, including at pit stops.
Antonelli is 25 points clear of Russell in the championship heading into this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix. With Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton only seven further back, it’s not guaranteed to be an intra-team battle during the run-in.
There is a scenario, albeit distant for now, where the team have to back one driver over the other. Of course, if Russell can overhaul Antonelli’s advantage, that won’t be his concern.
Antonelli struggled relative to his teammate in his rookie season, scoring less than a third of the team’s points, but his emergence as a generational talent this year has galvanised the Silver Arrows.
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