George Russell and Kimi Antonelli told to ‘Shut the f*** up’ by F1 expert

Mercedes

George Russell and Kimi Antonelli told to ‘Shut the f*** up’ by F1 expert

Kimi Antonelli was told to stop moaning on team radio

Originally written by Sam Cook. This version is a translation.

Sunday 31 May 2026 19:00

Mercedes' F1 drivers have been told to get their heads down and stop moaning on the team radio by an F1 pundit.

For the first time this season, Russell and Antonelli fought hard for the lead in both races at last weekend's Canadian Grand Prix, with Russell getting the better of the young Italian in the sprint race, before having to retire from the main race with a battery issue.

But in the sprint race, Antonelli had to be told by his team boss Toto Wolff to 'stop moaning' on two occasions, after some aggravated radio messages from the 19-year-old.

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In the early stages of the main race, they also fought each other hard, and arguably pushed the limit of what is acceptable, particularly between team-mates.

Both drivers were vocal on team radio throughout that weekend, with Antonelli claiming that Russell should have to give him a position back after feeling like he'd been pushed off track.

Schiff's advice to Mercedes' drivers

The former driver turned pundit then gave her thoughts on why it can be good to see emotion from championship rivals however, adding: “You can just tell that there's a lot of passion, right? Firstly, obviously Kimi’s new to new-ish to F1 and so he's got a long career ahead of him. George has been waiting for this moment for an extremely long time and when you're competing against your team-mate with equal equipment, it's that much harder to create that gap.

“And if Kimi happens to end up being extremely consistent for the remaining races and they don't have reliability issues, trying to close a gap of 43 points is a task. And yes, it can very easily swing again if he has a DNF or if there's a big moment, but if things go okay, 43 points is a tough haul to catch up. So, George's emotions in that moment are understandable.”

F1 Mercedes George Russell Kimi Antonelli Naomi Schiff