George Russell urged to create Mercedes 'war zone' in F1 title hunt

Former F1 driver David Coulthard has suggested George Russell should now consider the Mercedes title battle a “war zone”.

After winning the opening round of the campaign in Australia, Russell was forced to watch team-mate Kimi Antonelli take victory at the following two events.

The strong run from Antonelli has seen the teenager climb to the top of the drivers' championship after three events.

Mercedes' lightning start to the sport's new era has left many to assume the fight for the title will be between the two Silver Arrows drivers.

But having now fallen behind in the standings, Russell has been urged by Coulthard to no longer play along as a friendly team-mate to Antonelli.

“If I were George Russell, this is now a war zone,” Coulthard told the Up to Speed podcast.

“No more Mr Nice Guy. We said it after Kimi got his first victory.

“There was a really good interview that I saw online with Toto and George, where they were sort of debriefing in real time. 

“I thought it was great that Mercedes shared that on their socials.

“It gives us an insight to the fact that Toto is there, in one moment, sort of trying to pick up George.

“And then on the other side going 'you did it, I believed in you'.”

Antonelli's rise to the head of the standings comes at the start of his second F1 campaign.

While he has shown impressive speed across the opening segment of the season, Coulthard has questioned whether Antonelli can maintain such form throughout the year.

“The other thing will be, does he have the pace of a grand prix season? Because that is tiring,” he said.

“That's what we saw with Oscar Piastri last year. He got to Baku, needed to win that race, and made a series of mistakes.

“That's where Lando [Norris], having more experience, was able to come through.”