George Russell reacts to Mercedes team orders: 'Always been our rules'

George Russell has weighed in on the call that forced him to cede position to Kimi Antonelli during the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix.

The Briton found himself in an unusual position at Zandvoort on Sunday after a Virtual Safety Car period reshuffled the strategic picture for Mercedes. Antonelli, who had been running ahead of Russell before the VSC, was brought in for a set of soft tyres while Russell stayed out on older rubber, a split-strategy call that temporarily promoted Russell to second behind race leader Lando Norris.

With Antonelli now behind on significantly fresher tyres, Mercedes inverted their cars and instructed Russell to let his teenage team-mate through. 

The 19-year-old Italian then used his pace advantage to secure second place, 4.370 seconds clear of Russell at the chequered flag.

It was a call that secured a double podium for Mercedes and speaking after the race, Russell pointed to Mercedes' established internal policy on strategy splits as the reasoning behind the position swap.

"We've always said as a team, when we're on different strategies, we're never going to fight and we're always going to invert, and that's always just been our sort of rules," Russell told media including RacingNews365.

"And the fact is Kimi was ahead of me before the VSC and he tried something different to protect us as a team. He kind of copy-pasted what the Ferraris did.

“Could I have kept him behind? Maybe. But equally, it could have been a P5 as well. So, in the end, he deserved to be P2. I think P3 was a fair result for me and, yes, a long season."

Russell now sits 59 points behind Antonelli in the drivers' championship after 12 rounds, with the Italian leading on 242 points to Russell's 183.