Towards the home race
In the lead-up to the Italian weekend in Monza, the eyes of enthusiasts are mainly focused on Andrea Kimi Antonelli. No one at the beginning of the year would have imagined that the young Italian would arrive at the home GP as the World Championship leader with a 59-point advantage over teammate George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, tied in second place in the standings. Instead, the 20-year-old from Bologna has forcefully taken on the role of favorite and is now starting to ‘pull’ the entire Mercedes team to his side. According to many insiders, the team order imposed in his favor by Toto Wolff at Zandvoort represents a point of no return, at least for this season: Russell risks being relegated to the role of Antonelli’s ‘wingman’, especially if the threat posed by Ferrari and McLaren in the standings becomes increasingly concrete.
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First and second driver
Who has no doubts about Antonelli’s ‘dominance’ in the Mercedes hierarchy is Riccardo Patrese, who remains to this day the last Italian driver to finish a World Championship in the top two positions, coming second in 1992 behind teammate Nigel Mansell at Williams. In an interview given to the sports betting site Betpack, Patrese had no problem defining Russell as the “second driver” of the Mercedes team. “As far as the championship is concerned, it will be very difficult to beat Antonelli because he has a good points margin and does not make mistakes, he drives with his head. Reliability can also be a factor, but looking at the current situation, Antonelli is the favorite for the championship. All this is very hard for Russell to accept, I am sure, but the fact is that Kimi is beating him at the moment. In your head, you always think you can hold on and then improve, but at the moment the reality is that every time both cars are at their maximum potential, Kimi is stronger than Russell“.
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Time to look around
Patrese also referred to the market rumors that long linked Max Verstappen to Mercedes, before the Dutchman renewed with Red Bull until 2030. “Russell will be happy that Verstappen signed with Red Bull, but he has to accept being number two at Mercedes – Patrese stated – if there are movements in the future, he might consider a new opportunity, because if he doesn’t like being number two there, maybe he thinks he can become number one elsewhere. When all these speculations about Verstappen were going on, it must not have been easy for him. Max is a driver everyone would want to have”, concluded the Italian.
