Sunday’s second place at the Dutch Grand Prix was one of the most contested Mercedes has taken all season, and it was the driver at the top of the standings who did the criticising.
Kimi Antonelli finished ahead of teammate George Russell at Zandvoort on Sunday 23 August 2026, after a late Mercedes team order swapped them to keep the Italian ahead of a charging Lewis Hamilton.
“It put us a little bit at risk. I feel we put George at risk,” Antonelli told reporters after the race.
Speaking to MotorBiscuit the same day, he went further, saying the strategy was “too risky to cover me from Lewis” and that Mercedes had “unnecessarily complicated things.”
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The public verdict from the championship leader on his own team is unusual, and the timing sharpens it: Antonelli will start from the back of the grid at his home race in Monza on Sunday 6 September.
Wolff confirmed the Monza penalty on Friday
Team principal Toto Wolff confirmed the grid drop at Zandvoort on Friday 22 August. Mercedes decided to fit a fresh power unit for Antonelli at the Italian Grand Prix after two separate technical failures, including a retirement in Barcelona, forced the team past its seasonal component allocation.
“We need big points. Kimi is going to probably lose some in Monza starting in the back, so hopefully we can pocket some here,” Wolff said.
The minimum penalty is a 10-place grid drop, but Mercedes plans to install several new power unit elements together and Antonelli is expected to start last.
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The layout at Monza, with its long full-throttle straights, is among the best circuits on the calendar for recovering positions, which softens the sporting cost of starting from the back.
Ferrari is bringing an engine step to the same race
Ferrari plans to arrive at Monza with what may be the biggest power unit development of the 2026 season: a redesigned turbocharger and related upgrades targeting up to 30 horsepower over the current specification, according to GPblog. Monza’s long straights amplify any true engine gain, though the site cautioned that “a dyno gain is not automatically a lap-time gain.”
Hamilton dropped to third in the standings on Sunday after being overtaken on countback by Russell at Zandvoort. Both are on 183 points, 59 behind Antonelli’s 242.
Wolff defended the Zandvoort call on Sunday. “It would have been the other way around exactly the same. This is how we are operating. Both drivers know that,” he said.
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Antonelli’s tone on Russell was warmer. “George, I have to thank him because he made my life a lot easier,” he said.
The Italian Grand Prix runs from 4 to 6 September at Monza.
