Toto Wolff snaps at Kimi Antonelli over George Russell radio complaints | F1 | Sport

Toto Wolff had to step in multiple times to calm down teenager Kimi Antonelli after the young Mercedes racer lost his temper at team-mate George Russell during Saturday’s Montreal Sprint race. His fury stemmed from an incident early in the short-form race when he tried to overtake Russell for the lead, only to have the door slammed firmly in his face.

Antonelli felt Russell had been too aggressive in his defending, having been forced to go off track to avoid a collision, and called the Brit’s actions “very naughty”. Team principal Wolff was swift to reply and told the 19-year-old over the radio: “Kimi, concentrate on driving please, not on the radio moaning”. But the Austrian’s words were not heeded as Antonelli complained several times more.

The young Italian ended up crossing the line third, despite his best efforts to overtake Lando Norris having lost second place to the McLaren driver as a result of that early setback. And his mind was clearly still on the incident with his team-mate as, when race engineer Peter Bonnington told him the Sprint had finished, his reply was: “If we need to race like this, that’s good to know.”

That sparked another angry retort from Wolff who spoke over the radio again to remind his driver that he should not be airing the team’s dirty laundry in public. He snapped back at the racer: “Kimi, now is the fourth time you’ve talked about this. We talk about this internally, not over the radio, okay?”

Upon hearing that radio message as it was played on the live broadcast, Sky Sports commentator David Croft noted Wolff’s tone. “That’s stern,” he said. “Kimi is still fuming, and Toto I think is angered by the reaction, and what he saw on track as well.”

Co-commentator Martin Brundle agreed, adding: “It’s interesting that the headmaster has had to step in there, isn’t it? Bono was very much trying to calm him down too but, finally, the boss has come on the radio to say, ‘Stop this’.”

The Mercedes pair exchanged a brief handshake after climbing out of their cars, though Antonelli was stony-faced as he responded to the result. He said: “I was quite well alongside and I got pushed off, but it is what it is. And then I made a mistake into turn eight and compromised my race there.”

Russell, as the winner, was understandably more relaxed about the situation. He said: “It was a cool race. It was definitely very difficult to get a gap around here. It felt quite easy to follow and the slipstream was quite powerful with the overtake mode. It was a good battle with Kimi and I’m glad we’re both standing here after the race.

“Miami was a bit of a bogey track for me and there’s been this huge break in the calendar, so there have been a lot of people with a lot of things to say. But, ultimately, I just wanted to get back racing and it feels like the season is going to really start now, with I think six races in eight weeks.”