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Formula 1 team order controversies are a recurring theme of the 2025 season, but Mercedes managed to upset both its drivers with its mid-race dispute in Mexico.
Mercedes found itself in the thick of the battle for the podium places in Mexico, with George Russell and Kimi Antonelli running fifth and seventh before Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton’s lap six battle shook up the pack.
Russell found himself forced wide and dropped to seventh while Antonelli was able to capitalise and become the lead Mercedes in sixth behind Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, Ollie Bearman’s Haas and Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari, who was about to become a non-factor in the battle once he served his 10s penalty.
Antonelli pitted first on lap 22, followed by Russell three laps later, and the pair found themselves back together by lap 30 on track.
Antonelli was running behind his former F2 team-mate Bearman, but as he struggled to find a way past him, Russell’s frustration grew, as his conversations with race engineer Marcus Dudley show.
How it unfolded over team radio
Lap 35
Russell: I’ve got more pace here.
Marcus Dudley: You’re free to overtake.
[Followed by a half-move into Turn 1 on the next lap]
Lap 36
MD: OK George, let’s manage these front brakes for a lap or two.
GR: We got a Ferrari and Haas ahead, we can fight for the podium here.
MD: I know but I do need brakes at the end of the race, though.
Lap 37
GR: I’ve got a **** McLaren up my **** arse, do you want me to let him past?
MD: No, thank you.
GR: Ah, I was just checking.
GR: I’m happy to give the position back to Kimi if I can’t overtake Bearman, we’re just compromising both our races here. I’ve got much more pace here, guys.
Lap 40
MD: Rear surface temperatures are sky-high, George. Let’s get these under control.
GR: Marcus, I’ve got a f***ing car in my arse. A car much quicker than ours. I’m trying to hold position, I’ve got much more pace than Kimi here, and we can fight for a podium. I’m happy to give the position back if I don’t achieve it. But my tyres are getting f***ed sat here.
MD: Understood, but we do need to get these tyres to the end of the race.
Mercedes then finally decided to swap the cars on lap 41, with Antonelli’s race engineer Peter Bonnington telling Antonelli: “OK Kimi, so team instruction, we need to invert the cars, I’ll leave you to decide where best to do it. We think Turn 4.”
A surprised Antonelli replied “Why?”, with Bono telling him: “Yes, it’s a team decision. We will re-invert if George doesn’t get through Bearman.”
Antonelli then immediately chose Turn 4 to allow Russell past, while still keeping Oscar Piastri behind.
But by then, according to Russell, his tyres, brakes and engine were all cooked, and he couldn’t make any inroads on Bearman. Instead, Antonelli and he were passed by Piastri and had lost out ot Verstappen, meaning they were stuck in sixth and seventh.
True to his word, Russell allowed Antonelli back past, but neither driver was happy after the race.
After crossing the line in sixth place, a clearly disgruntled Antonelli told Bonnington: “We need to talk about this because we lost a possible P4 today.”
Speaking to media after the race, Antonelli said the order “caught [him] by surprise” and said he wants to sit down with the team and understand the decision before Brazil.
“I was very close to George when, when I was behind him and I had to start pushing more,” Antonelli explained.
“And Piastri had a bit more pace, so I had to start defending from him, and which was not ideal, and then it kind of puts us in more unfavourable position.
“But that's why I was a bit worried, because also making this swap was quite difficult, because Piastri was very close to George, so I was a bit nervous about that.
“Obviously, it's very easy to talk now, but if we had held position, probably would have had a better chance to undercut Ollie and probably would have had a better shot to finish maybe P4 and P5.
“But obviously, as I said before, it's easy to talk now, and we just need to review and in order to not make the same mistake.”
‘We left it too long’
As for Russell, his primary frustration lay with those drivers - Charles Leclerc and Verstappen - who cut Turn 1 on the opening lap and, in his mind, gained an advantage.
“If I’d come round the first corner in P3, we would’ve finished P3, that’s the story of the season,” he said.
“Leclerc just made no attempt to stay on the track, Verstappen obviously just [went] full risk and got it wrong, but continued in his place.
“The guys who did the right thing were the ones who came off worst.”
But his frustration was compounded by Mercedes’ indecision over swapping the cars.
He added, “my tyres were in a good place, I was ready to attack. Ultimately, we left it too long and by that point there was no need to swap positions. Either do it straight away or not at all”.
Russell was quick to take any blame away from his engineer, saying: “Marcus ultimately is conveying a message. He’s not the one in that position making the decisions.”
But, like Antonelli, he wants a review into what happened, given Mercedes is in such a close fight for second in the constructors’ championship and lost vital ground to both Red Bull and Ferrari in Mexico.
“We need to sit down and talk as a team, ultimately, I’m not battling with Kimi in the championship... we’re battling Ferrari and Red Bull for the championship,” Russell said.
“Ultimately, we finished P6 and P7, [and it] could have worked out different.”
What Mercedes said
Team boss Toto Wolff was absent from Mexico, although he was intently following proceedings remotely.
Team representative Bradley Lord said Wolff "very much believes in letting the pit wall fly the plane as it were, and providing the input rather than quarterbacking".
Lord said "I think it's impossible to say" whether anything would have changed had Mercedes implemented team orders earlier.
"Later on, George had clean air, closed up on Bearman on the same life tyre, and was unable to get past," Lord said.
"So I think ultimately, neither driver quite had the pace to be able to do that. Today, it was not easy to overtake, full stop.
"We saw lots of cars getting stuck in that dirty air and in DRS trains as well. So I'm not sure it would have changed a huge amount of the outcome.
"But again, we haven't yet had the time to really do that analysis and see."
