Kimi Antonelli F1 title battle “a warzone” for George Russell

David Coulthard has warned George Russell it is time to ditch his “Mr Nice Guy” persona in the Formula 1 world title “warzone” with Kimi Antonelli.

Russell faces the best opportunity of his F1 career to win the world championship, with Mercedes having the dominant car across the opening three rounds of the season.

But through poor luck and being outperformed by Antonelli, he has won just one grand prix compared to the Italian’s two, and finds himself nine points behind in the standings.

“If I was George Russell, this is a warzone. No more Mr Nice Guy,” said Coulthard on the Up to Speed podcast.

“We said it after Kimi got his first victory. And actually, there was a really good interview I saw with George and Toto online, where they were sort of debriefing in real time, and I thought it was great that Mercedes shared that on their socials.

“It gives us an insight that Toto is there in one moment trying to pick up George, and on the other side, he’ll go into the other room with Kimi and say ‘You did it, I believed in you, who’s your daddy?’.”

Russell must “get his elbows out”

Russell and Antonelli have yet to go toe to toe in battle this season, much like the McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in the early phases of 2025. But it is unlikely that this pattern will hold for too long.

When the time to engage in combat arrives, Coulthard urged Russell not to hold back.

“I think George is realising that this is his opportunity, and any advantage they’ve had in these opening races, will slowly be eroded as their customer teams understand how to use their engines, as Kimi continues to grow in confidence,” he added.

“You don’t want a really confident team-mate. You want a team-mate that is slightly thinking, ‘I’m not sure I can beat him in qualifying’. Trust me, I know, because I had team-mates where I would sit there looking at the lap time in qualifying thinking, ‘I’ve got one more set of tyres. I don’t think I can go any faster’.

“So George has to start eroding that confidence within Kimi, and he’s having to do that while the façade of the team – we’re Mercedes, we all love each other.

“But it will all come to a head, and as far as I’m concerned for George, he has to get his shoulders behind that and get his elbows out sooner than later, because Kimi is growing in confidence right now.”