Toto Wolff consciously chose not to intervene during the fight between his drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli at the Italian GP. The Austrian told the international media that he was ready to step in on the team radio between the two, but deliberately did not do so.
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Russell and Antonelli came together in the final stages of the race. The Italian had newer tires compared to Russell and increased the pressure. After some pushing and pulling, Antonelli even ended up in the gravel trap and had to prepare another attack which ultimately succeeded.
“We prepared for all possible scenarios,” Wolff explains. “The drivers have always thought about the importance of the team and that can be very difficult. Especially in the case where Kimi is fighting to win his home race and George is fighting to stay in the title battle.”
“At certain moments we did think: ‘this is clean, but a bit too dangerous’. I already had a finger on the radio buttons towards both drivers and their engineers, but I did not press it. The last incident was just unfortunate. George tried not to cut the corner and therefore there was little space for Kimi.”
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Despite the 1-2 for the Mercedes team, Wolff is cautious. “The moment with Kimi could have turned out differently and then we would have looked like total idiots. We will talk about the moment and that will make us stronger again when it comes to racing in the future. I thought it was important at that moment to show that there is racing spirit in the team.”
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