Who slept the worst last night: Toto Wolff

Dear readers,

It’s been a while since I wrote my last column. In September 2025, Oscar Piastri got caught up in an accident before my spine started making sitting in the office a nightmare. So now I’m back – and I have a bit of the feeling that I’ve woken up in a time machine.

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You might think it’s 2014/15/16 again. The “new Formula 1” is one with more electric power, about which purists like me are currently complaining the loudest. Mercedes has mastered the new regulations best and built the strongest power unit. Honda has made a big mistake. And the toughest duels are between the two Mercedes drivers themselves. Only now they are no longer called Hamilton and Rosberg, but Russell and Antonelli.

Toto Wolff must feel a bit like he’s in the second part of “Back to the Future.” Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg entered the 2014 season as best friends and came out of the 2015 season as bitter rivals. Is the same movie playing again at Mercedes, just with a changed cast in the roles of Marty and Biff? Many signs from Canada suggest that George Russell and Kimi Antonelli have only given their team boss the first of many sleepless nights.

How will Wolff let the duel run now?

On Sunday evening in Montreal, just before boarding a private jet with Russell, Wolff muttered something about having a problem when his drivers freak out on the radio and thus draw the attention of the race stewards. “Apart from that, they behaved like racers fighting for a world championship. I can’t see anything wrong with that.”

For almost 30 laps, Canada 2026 surprisingly reminded of Hamilton’s and Rosberg’s epic duel in Bahrain 2014, which also had several close moments but never ended in a crash. Wolff let the duel run, and he did so again this time. Even though he grinned in an interview with ServusTV: “I don’t know… If I have to watch more races like this, maybe I’d rather take a step back.”

The memories of 2014/15/16 are probably still too present. Back then, it all started with hard duels that were sportingly fair and thrilled millions of fans. In the end, however, the Mercedes leadership devised strict guidelines for internal team conduct in duels and introduced the rule that drivers must pay for bodywork damage they cause themselves.

Bahrain 2014: The beginning of the team war

What started harmlessly in Bahrain 2014 ended in several mini-disasters. In Belgium 2014, Rosberg sliced a tire on Hamilton with the front wing. In Spain 2016, they took each other out (and a certain Max Verstappen took advantage of the opportunity to win his first Grand Prix). A few weeks later, in Canada, Rosberg fell back due to contact at the start. And in Austria, they crashed into each other again.

Photo series: Hamilton vs. Rosberg: The crash chronology

Toto Wolff has never made a secret of the fact that he would prefer not to experience such an explosive situation within his own team again. When it came to finding a successor for Rosberg at the end of 2016, he preferred to bring in the obedient Bottas rather than the rebellious Wehrlein, with whom the whole saga might have started over again.

But now he is right back in the same movie as back then, with two drivers who act like buddies on the outside but between whom sooner or later sparks will almost certainly fly. For a very simple reason: because both are exceptionally good.

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What is different now compared to ten years ago

There are also differences compared to ten years ago. First: Mercedes does not have the luxury of being able to turn the power unit up and down almost at will and thus manage the lead over the rest of the world. When Russell and Antonelli fight and think more about themselves than the interests of the team, as in the F1 sprint on Saturday, the first pursuers are not far behind and lie in wait hoping to capitalize.

Second: This time, it is not the more established of the two drivers who can ultimately drive a fraction faster, but the newcomer. Whenever Antonelli was behind Russell in Montreal, the latter had to sweat heavily. Whenever Antonelli got past, the air seemed to go out of the duel.

It is possibly like back then, with Russell in the Rosberg role and Antonelli in the Hamilton role: two outstanding racers, one of whom is equipped with marginally more sheer natural talent. That is not to say that Russell can no longer become world champion. Rosberg managed it back then, winning at least one of three possible titles with enormous effort.

In which drawer does the “Racing Intent” actually lie?

Toto Wolff now has to consider whether there are lessons from ten years ago that could spare Mercedes a similar fiasco as at the start in Barcelona back then. He might want to dig out the old guidelines document again, which has gathered some dust over the years. And in the end, he will surely let as much run as possible. Because he is smart enough to understand that such an epic man-to-man duel is much more the stuff of legends than a world championship fight manipulated from the command center. Nobody needs that in a Formula 1 that is already under strict scrutiny by long-standing purists like me.

How will it all end? I don’t know either. But let’s put it this way: betting now that Russell and Antonelli will sooner or later crash seems to me a bold move.

Only: Even though there is now a 43-point gap between Antonelli and Russell, and even though Antonelli might be the slightly faster Mercedes driver overall – anyone who already declares the world championship over has still not understood the dynamics of Formula 1 after all these years. When I had to give in to my spine in 2025, Oscar Piastri supposedly had a hand on the world championship trophy. In the end, Lando Norris was world champion.

That was in September. Now it’s only May. So there is still plenty of time for crazy twists in Formula 1 2026. And for a few more sleepless nights for Toto Wolff.

Yours

Note: It is in the nature of things that this column reflects my subjective perception. Anyone who disagrees is welcome to discuss it with me, on my Facebook page “Formula 1 inside with Christian Nimmervoll.” There you won’t primarily find “breaking news” from the Grand Prix circus, but mainly strictly subjective and sometimes quite biting assessments of the most important developments behind the scenes of Formula 1.

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