To: Mr GW Russell
c/o Monaco
Dear George,
I hope you’re recovering from the weekend. And I start by saying that I hardly presume to tell you anything you don’t know. You are the experienced competitor in the heat of battle, at the pinnacle of your game. But here goes, my tongue only half in cheek…
I trust your trip back to Monaco went without too many bumps – or thumps! I say that because I believe you took the return jet to the principality with Toto and Kimi. I joked to someone at Mercedes that perhaps Toto should have sat between the pair of you. As a precaution.
I know it is not like that, really, and that your relations with Kimi are respectful, you the elder statesman of 28, he learning from you at 19, even if the partnership was strained in a public way over the weekend. Such is the inevitable price you pay for fighting for the world championship when one car is dominant and the leading team’s two drivers are so keenly matched.
Anyway, please forgive my flippancy over your seating arrangements. But it was hard to avoid the quip after the close dancing on track in Montreal. What a spectacle it was for us observers, even if it set butterflies off in the stomachs of your pit-wall wallahs.
It doesn’t matter what I think but, for what it’s worth, I thought you drove within the rules in Saturday’s sprint. You held your line and let Kimi know that teenage exuberance does not of itself earn him the right to get past you on the outside of the opening bend.
A budding rivalry is emerging between Mercedes team-mates Kimi Antonelli (left) and George Russell
For what it’s worth, I thought Russell (right) drove within the rules in Saturday’s sprint, when Antonelli was forced off the track
With your obstinacy you laid down a marker that some drivers – namely you, in this case – won’t yield to anyone. Would your pal Max have done anything different? Not on your nelly!
You realise that within the rules, and the conventions of racing, you must make yourself impossible to be bettered. And it gave you the win, much-needed after Kimi’s streak of three (two of which we know were brought about by luck for him and ill-luck for you – your technical gremlins in qualifying in Japan and the safety car timing in China).
Miami was a different story on a low-grip track that does not suit you; and he did everything right, a great display from a fabulous talent in just his second season – wow – in F1.
Back on the subject of defending hard, such an approach obviously plays into the minds of rivals. Again, I cite Max as the most sharp-elbowed of adversaries. And, other than for a couple of occasions – including his fracas with you in Barcelona last year – I believe Max is weapons-grade tough but a fair racer. You have to earn every pass against him, and you.
It was interesting to note how Kimi reacted. A bit petulantly. He revealed an excitability that you may wish to exploit. Just saying. He’s fast but still raw, if learning on the hoof.
As for Sunday’s race. What a spectacle. Toto indicated afterwards that the wheel-to-wheel stuff might be dialled down. I understand his need to manage the situation in the best interest of the team. But it has lit up the season.
You were in and out of the hospitality area as he spoke – perhaps heading to see the stewards over throwing your head restraint on the track in annoyance when your power unit packed up on you when you were leading after those 30 first pulsating laps.
I got the email informing the media that you were handed a $5,000 fine suspended for a year. You apologised on social media, I see, as part of your plea bargain. You thought it was a bad example to set. In truth, probably nobody watching objected to a spur-of-the-moment show of understandable emotion.
In case you missed what Toto said, it was this: ‘It’s always easy at the end to say, “Well, that was great for the team and great for the sport and didn’t we all enjoy watching the battling?” And that is true to a degree. But there is another side which we need to look at and that was it was close a few times. Kimi tucking back in and locking the tyres could have ended in a double DNF and not because of over-aggressive driving each other, but simply caused by a mistake.
‘So it’s important to analyse the race and discuss with the drivers whether they think it was a bit close and, if that is the case, how can we avoid these very, very tough situations where we’ve been a little bit too close. As much as we look very sportsmanlike today, there could be a situation where we would maybe turn it down a notch.’
Let’s hope for the sake of entertainment that Toto Wolff (left) does not rein in his drivers too far
Please don’t, Toto, but I guess the subject was discussed on the flight. Or will be soon if not.
As for the points deficit, I hardly need to remind you that you are 43 points behind Kimi. ‘Yikes!’ say some. But that is not very much at all with 17 races remaining. The margins sound greater now that 25 points are awarded for a win, rather than 10 when Lewis joined the sport.
You may remember another Kimi – Raikkonen – came from 17 points back in the final two races to pip Lewis to the title by a point in 2007. By my reckoning 17 points then is equivalent to 42.5 points in new money – as I say, a deficit eclipsed across just TWO races. And, as you know better than me, didn’t you come from fourth after four races in your F2 season to win by 70 points?
I see from reader comments on the Daily Mail Sport website that your fans allege ‘sabotage’, suggesting your engine was kiboshed from within. I don’t believe that for a moment.
I do, however, pull their leg at Mercedes that some of them are secretly rooting for Kimi – the young starlet by whom they are dazzled. But deliberately skewing it? No way. And you take confidence in being the proven No 1 in repute until such time as it is proved otherwise.
Enough for now. Have a nice break. Dust yourself down. Get ready for the Monaco Grand Prix a week on Sunday, or more importantly in qualifying the day before.
That is no place for sophomores. It is for cool heads – the kind of driver, say, in his eighth year in Formula One. I wonder who I might be talking about.
Yours, Jon
Lewis Hamilton (left) led Kimi Raikkonen (right) by 17 points with two races to go in 2007 – but the Finn clawed his way back to win the title
Antonelli might be 43 points clear but there is still plenty of time for Russell to overhaul him
Ferrari still have a long way to go
Lewis Hamilton has his mojo back. He produced a fine drive to finish second in Montreal. A neat overtake on Verstappen secured his best finish at Ferrari.
This performance followed his defiant statement breezily and happily aired 48 hours earlier that he would be sticking around for another season, even if others want to ‘retire me’.
‘Get used to it,’ he added. I liked his spiritedness. But, without being begrudging, Ferrari have plenty of work to do to reach the top. Their Prancing Horses have not won a race since Carlos Sainz, who made way for Hamilton, triumphed in Mexico in 2024.
They are the third-best team, albeit lying second in the constructors’ table, and were helped to the podium on Sunday by McLaren (second-best after Mercedes) shooting themselves in the foot by inexplicably plumping for intermediate tyres in the faintest of drizzle at the start. Nevertheless, it is good to see Hamilton happy and on the front foot again.
