’Number 2’ Russell all but concedes title

George Russell has effectively conceded that Kimi Antonelli now controls Mercedes’ 2026 title fight after the Italian sensationally charged from the back of the grid to win at Monza.

Antonelli’s home victory stretched his championship lead over Russell to 66 points, and Russell no longer sounds like a driver expecting to overturn it.

"Definitely Kimi’s in control of it and, you know, he’s deserving to be in control of it," he said.

"For me personally, I’m not even thinking about a fight or a comeback or anything. I’m just focused on taking it race by race and trying to maximise every single weekend."

"You know, he’s performing incredibly well. It’s going to be exceptionally challenging to overcome that gap, so I’m just sort of accepting that it is what it is and I’m just going to enjoy it from here on in and try and win as many races as possible."

Antonelli, however, refused to declare himself champion-elect.

"I don’t want to really look at it because we’ve seen in this season how things can change very quickly."

"On my side I just need to take one race at a time, just try to maximise every result, every opportunity I get, and then we’ll see what happens at the end of the year."

The race also raised questions about Mercedes’ internal hierarchy after Antonelli’s strategy ultimately proved stronger despite Russell being ahead on track.

Russell rejected the suggestion that his teammate had deliberately been favoured.

"I think, you know, I was on the hard tyre and Kimi was on the medium, so if either of us were to pit, it was going to be Kimi," he said.

"It takes nothing away from Kimi’s drive altogether."

Toto Wolff said Mercedes deliberately split the strategies "because we didn’t know which one would ultimately be better".

But the team nearly paid heavily for allowing the pair to continue racing late on. "I had my finger on the button, towards Marcus Dudley, Bono, Kimi and George."

"But I didn’t press it."

"We will talk about that situation as another building block how we want to race with each other in the future."

Ralf Schumacher believes the answer is now obvious.

"George has to realise that he’s currently number 2," he said on Sky Deutschland.

"Russell will only be driving for Antonelli from today onwards. That’s it."

Max Verstappen, who has little love lost with Russell, was amused by Antonelli’s latest blow to his teammate.

"He does it almost every weekend," said the Red Bull driver. "Every weekend there is another blow."

"He does that well."

The scale of Antonelli’s achievement was underlined by the reaction from Monza’s traditionally Ferrari-dominated crowd.

"What impressed me most was the respect the Ferrari fans showed for Kimi," Stefano Domenicali said.

"I’ve never experienced anything like it in Monza before - it was fantastic. It was an incredible Sunday for our country."

F1 legend Jean Alesi went even further, declaring that "Kimi has become more famous than Ferrari".