Mercedes, the engagement rules do not change: no pro-Antonelli team orders. “Priority to the Constructors’ title”

+59 for Antonelli over Russell

Thanks to the third place achieved in a comeback in Budapest and the problems that once again ruined George Russell’s race – who fell to last position after a problem at the start and then climbed back ‘only’ to seventh place, Andrea Kimi Antonelli went on vacation with a 59-point lead in the championship over his teammate. Between them, 50 points behind Antonelli, is Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari. However, the Mercedes team leaders – perhaps mindful of the complications that McLaren sometimes inflicted on itself last year when it had both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri fighting for the championship against an ‘external’ opponent (in that case Max Verstappen) – have decided to for now stick to their non-intervention line in favor of Antonelli from a championship perspective.

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Priority to the Constructors’ title

Speaking to journalists present in Budapest at the end of the Hungarian GP weekend, Mercedes’ deputy team principal, Bradley Lord, reiterated that the priority for the moment remains focused on team objectives: winning GPs and winning the Constructors’ title. “The principle is simple: if a Mercedes can win the race, a Mercedes must win it, and this is what comes first of all. The team comes first and the Constructors’ Championship is the team’s primary goal“. This is essentially the same concept already expressed by team principal Toto Wolff after the Belgian GP.

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Any orders from the pits towards the two drivers, therefore, will for now be given only if deemed functional to winning a race, to avoid mutual slowdowns that end up favoring a rival, as happened to Lewis Hamilton’s advantage in the Barcelona GP. “We are halfway through the season and it is too early to think about these things. We do not focus on hypothetical scenarios – Lord commented – we want to win both championships, absolutely, and we will give ourselves the best chances to do so by bringing two cars to the finish line as often as possible in the highest possible positions, something we have not managed to do in any race so far this year”, he concluded.

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