Mercedes: New penalty on the way; Antonelli to act as slipstream provider for Russell at Monza

With his third-place finish at Zandvoort, George Russell has reclaimed second place in the World Championship (from Lewis Hamilton), but he now trails championship leader Kimi Antonelli by 59 points.

The Englishman is wise enough to realise that Monza 2026 is the race in which he must significantly reduce the gap to 20-year-old Kimi. This is because Antonelli must drop to the back of the field due to a power unit change; from there, the Bolognese driver will have to stage a spectacular comeback to limit the damage.

Russell, for his part, ideally needs to win here; he has the car to do so, but his track record at Monza is modest – just once on the front row (in 2022, finishing second), and only once on the podium (also in 2022, finishing third). That’s hardly impressive for a Mercedes works driver.

The situation ahead of the first Monza practice sessions: Kimi Antonelli will be focusing entirely on endurance pace – and he’ll provide Russell with a slipstream in qualifying, as he, Antonelli, has to start from the back of the grid anyway.

George says: “It simply shows that we’re acting as team players here. I put the team first at Zandvoort, and here Kimi will do the same for me. Antonelli will help me in qualifying.”

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“At this stage of the season, you can’t be selfish, because it’ll come back to bite you in late summer or autumn. But there may well come a point when everyone has to look out for themselves.”

Russell also confirms that he’s in for the same treatment that Kimi Antonelli has to endure in front of his home crowd at Monza: “As far as grid penalties go, I know I’m due one too; we just don’t know yet when we want to take it.”

Monza wasn’t an option for Russell because Mercedes – following Kimi’s penalty – still has another string to its bow.

Russell looks back on Zandvoort because it’s also an indicator of how the rest of the season will unfold: “I think McLaren underperformed in the Netherlands on Friday, whilst we looked better in the sprint than we actually were.”

“For me, McLaren were the best team in Hungary and the Netherlands, but that was on a completely different circuit to this one. And Mercedes are a development package behind. When that arrives – we’ve got our sights set on Malaysia – then we should reclaim our dominance.”

“We must always try to make the most of our opportunities, and when I say that McLaren were the best team at Zandvoort, we’re not doing too badly with the sprint victory and two podium finishes.”

What sort of race does Russell expect here in Italy? George continues: “High-energy circuits aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but these Grands Prix have been very entertaining. We’ve got four straights here to build up speed and put it to good use – I can well imagine the fans being treated to plenty of action.”

“I don’t see us as favourites here at Monza, but we certainly have a better chance than we did at the Hungaroring and Zandvoort. There, the chassis played a bigger role than the power unit; here in Italy, it’s the other way round. But this season’s qualifying sessions have shown that the top cars are often separated by just a few hundredths. So anything is possible.”