Kimi Antonelli is desperate to avoid his Formula 1 title race relationship with team-mate George Russell becoming “personal”. While the Italian teenager concedes the two of them are not the closest of friends, Antonelli wants to “maintain the good environment” at Mercedes over the rest of the season and avoid repeating past animosities at the Silver Arrows.
It is Mercedes‘ first experience of two team-mate gunning against each other for the title since 2016 when Nico Rosberg was giving as good as he got from Lewis Hamilton, who at that time was a three-time world champion. Tensions boiled over between them on multiple occasions and it created a toxic atmosphere within the team.
The closest Antonelli and Russell have come to a falling-out was at the Canadian Grand Prix in May, when a near-miss in the Sprint race led to the teenager accusing his team-mate of pushing him off track. He was swiftly shut down by team principal Toto Wolff, who told Antonelli to stop moaning and speak about it in private. Since then, there haven’t really been any public complaints from either driver directed at the other.
“We don’t want to recreate a bad environment in the team,” Antonelli told the Press Association. “We don’t want to split the team, we want the team to be united. Of course, sometimes, one of us is a bit p****d, not happy, but we move on.
“It is not like we are going to go out for dinner, but it [the relationship with Russell] will remain as it is now to maintain the good environment. I have never lived a situation where it is not like that, but I can only imagine how bad it would be.”
Of the two, Antonelli has the least reason to be unhappy. He leads the championship, 50 points clear of Russell and 45 ahead of nearest challenger Hamilton heading into the Hungarian Grand Prix. He turns 20 in August and will still be at the top of the standings by then no matter what happens at the Hungaroring, having been very impressive despite racing against multiple champions, some of whom are more than twice his age.
He said: “The goal is to be one of the best in the sport and win as much as possible. I want to make my own legacy – to be remembered as definitely one of the greats. Obviously it requires a lot to be able to be consistent, and to deliver every year because F1 is draining. It takes away a lot of energy, a lot of effort, and a lot of sacrifices.
“Especially when you fight for your first world championship, it is mentally very draining. It is not easy. When you grow up and you have been in that situation over and over again, then you are able to cope with it much better. But I am not going to lie, weekends are demanding for me.
“Finding myself in this position is surreal. If I can achieve the goal, it would be a dream come true. But the job is not finished. I have to keep pushing. I have to keep raising the bar. Many people ask me, ‘Are you going to start thinking about the championship?’ But that is pointless. The situation can flip in a millisecond. There is still a long way to go.”