(Motorsport-Total.com) – Kimi Antonelli returns from the summer break with a 50-point lead over Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) and a 59-point lead over his Mercedes teammate George Russell. However, an internal team order in favor of Antonelli is not a topic at Mercedes for the second part of the 2026 Formula 1 World Championship.
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That is “not even a consideration at the moment,” Russell dismisses before the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort: “The season is not even halfway through, and we just have to keep pushing as a team.”
Russell won the season opener in Australia but then fell behind Antonelli in the internal team comparison. The sprint win in Canada and at the Austrian Grand Prix kept him alive in the championship race – but in Belgium and Hungary, Antonelli scored 40 points and Russell only six.
What Jolyon Palmer says about the team order issue
Mercedes will only consider a team order “if Ferrari stops making mistakes,” believes Formula 1 expert Jolyon Palmer. He says in the podcast F1 Nation: “If Ferrari gets closer, they will support Kimi. Unless George catches up again. But at the moment Hamilton is 50 points behind. George is just as much a threat as Lewis regarding the title. Therefore, I currently see no reason for Mercedes to think about it. They have everything under control.”
What is clear, however, is that while Antonelli can afford a bad weekend due to his points lead, Russell has probably already used up his credits in the championship race. Even though one must always put things into perspective: there are still eleven race weekends to go – and 291 points to be awarded. And to understand how quickly a seemingly commanding lead in the Formula 1 World Championship can melt away, one only has to think back to the 2025 season.
Russell feels he had “a good phase in the middle of the first half of the season, and then the last three race weekends were difficult for various reasons. But I am now looking forward to attacking again and trying to find a good rhythm.”
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Despite Hungary setback: Software bugs fixed
Among the “various reasons” was a prolonged software problem that caused Russell not to be able to extract the full performance from his package. But even though the race weekend in Budapest did not go as desired recently, “that was fixed in Hungary. Hungary was a challenging weekend for other reasons.”
“The car was not well set up from the first practice. We had a few problems with the chassis, and it was just a tough weekend. That happens sometimes,” he says. Bitter, because: “If I only look at my performance, it was the first weekend in a long time that really went smoothly. Still, on Sunday we had the chance for a good result, maybe even the podium. But then another problem happened at the start.”
Russell himself has now resolved “not to overthink everything anymore. I want to get back to trusting my own qualities and driving a bit more by instinct. Maybe I did that too little before the summer break.”
“I am not thinking about the championship, but race by race. I know I have to improve performance if I want to have a say in the championship. So that is the priority now. And if the performance improves, the points deficit will decrease. It is ultimately quite simple,” says Russell.
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