Wolff rejects claims Mercedes favours Antonelli over Russell

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has dismissed claims that his team favours Kimi Antonelli over George Russell, calling them “brainless” and “completely nonsensical” at Friday’s Singapore Grand Prix press conference. He asked: “Do they think I have a button and that says ‘George engine failure now’?” He also challenged the idea that Mercedes would disadvantage one driver while fighting for the constructors’ championship.

The online accusations followed Russell’s power-unit failure during the race in Malaysia, which forced an early power-unit change and a grid penalty. In Singapore, Russell used Mercedes’ older aerodynamic package while Antonelli retained the newer parts.

Russell said he had initiated the discussion about returning to the older specification before Sunday’s race in Malaysia, before the failure. He also said Mercedes was confident the performance issue was specific to Malaysia.

Antonelli led Russell by 84 points in the championship at the time. Wolff said Mercedes aims to give both drivers equal equipment and opportunity. He described the different Singapore specifications as a comparison: the team did not yet know which would be quicker, and there was no political thinking behind the decision.