Seven laps from the end at Zandvoort, Mercedes moved George Russell aside for teammate Kimi Antonelli, protected second place and quietly widened the championship leader’s advantage. Mika Hakkinen wants the next call of that kind to be a lot harder to justify.
“All these drivers have a huge fanbase these days in the world, and if the team are going to decide one day that this driver is going to be number two, the fans are going to crucify this team,” the Finn told Sky Sports.
The verdict lands with 11 rounds to run and Antonelli holding a 59-point lead over Russell in the drivers’ championship, with Russell tied on 183 points with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton behind him.
Lap 65 of 72 at Zandvoort
The call at Zandvoort on 24 August was procedural rather than personal. A virtual safety car on lap 55 had handed Antonelli fresh tires, and with two Ferraris closing, Mercedes ordered Russell to let his teammate through on lap 65.
Read also: Illness ends Mads Pedersen's Vuelta with Montreal Worlds 25 days out
Antonelli finished second behind race winner Lando Norris. Russell held Hamilton off for third and gave up three points to his teammate in the standings.
Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin explained the call as race protection: with Antonelli on fresher rubber and likely to come through anyway, the team did not want Russell to burn time fighting the sister car with the Ferraris closing.
Russell accepted the call in the moments after the race.
“Of course when you’re in the race, you want to fight for every single position,” he told Formula1.com after the race.
Read also: Infantino's re-election math runs through a 64-team World Cup
“With the pace with the new tyre, he would’ve overtaken me anyway so it was the right decision.”
Hakkinen’s warning is preemptive
Hakkinen’s point is not that Mercedes were wrong at Zandvoort. It is that a similar call, once the season’s math forces a straight choice between two title contenders, will land very differently with fans.
“Which team is going to do this kind of change and what are the arguments they are going to give and tell the fans? This is going to be an important factor,” Hakkinen said.
“So, you have to be very careful these days how you are activating these kinds of team orders.”
Read also: 'Certainly not close to Lewis or Max': Norris addresses the £30m salary chatter
He reached back into his own driving career to underline how far the culture has shifted.
“When I was racing against Michael Schumacher when he was at Ferrari, they started doing team orders already at the first race of the season,” Hakkinen said.
The Italian Grand Prix runs at Monza this weekend, with lights out scheduled for 3pm local time on Sunday, 6 September.
Read also: Xabi Alonso faces biggest Chelsea test yet as Arsenal await at Emirates
Read also: He turned 40 on Tuesday, then won at the US Open: Monfils matches a Jimmy Connors record
