Russell faces tough reality check: 'Antonelli is clearly the number one at Mercedes'

With his second-place finish at Zandvoort, the Italian further extended his lead at the top of the championship. Until Hungary, Lewis Hamilton occupied second place in the standings, 50 points behind Antonelli, but George Russell has now moved into that position and sits 59 points adrift of his teammate despite winning the Sprint on Saturday.

Speaking on Backstage Boxengasse, Schumacher highlighted Antonelli's remarkable consistency, pointing out that the Italian has finished on the podium in ten of 12 races, with technical problems responsible for the only two occasions on which he missed out. Despite winning just once in the last six races, he believes Antonelli continues to deliver consistently without making mistakes and has clearly established himself as the stronger Mercedes driver.

Mercedes team principal played down the significance of the late team order that saw Russell allow championship rival Antonelli through during the Dutch Grand Prix. Speaking to media, including GPblog, Wolff explained that such scenarios are discussed and agreed upon by the drivers and the team during their pre-race strategy meeting.

Mercedes' priority is to avoid wasting time by allowing its drivers to fight unnecessarily when rivals are close behind, with Wolff pointing to Ferrari's experience in Shanghai earlier this season as an example of how internal battles can cost valuable points.

In this case, the decision was particularly straightforward because Antonelli was already running ahead of Russell before the pit-stop sequence, meaning the swap simply restored the previous order. Wolff added that Mercedes would have made the same call had the situation been reversed.