Mercedes make clear team orders decision as Toto Wolff threatens driver replacement

As the Formula One title race heats up, Mercedes have made a key decision that could impact Kimi Antonelli's chances.

We are now 11 races into the 2026 Formula One season, giving us a good idea on who is competing for what once the on-track action resumes after the summer break.

To the surprise of many, it is Mercedes youngster Antonelli who is currently the firm favourite to win the Drivers' World Championships following his strong start to the season.

Heading into the summer break, the 19-year-old boasts six race wins, nine podiums and a total of 219 points, putting him 50 points clear of of Lewis Hamilton in second place.

Before the season began, it was widely expected that Antonelli's Mercedes teammate George Russell would emerge as the title favourite, but the Brit currently sits 59 points adrift.

With that in mind, some Mercedes fans have suggested that it could soon be time for the team to accept that Antonelli is their best chance of reclaiming the Drivers' title and giving him preferential treatment., particularly given the improvements of teams across the grid.

But it appears that Brackley-based team aren't yet prepared to consider such measures, as deputy team principal Bradley Lord has doubled down on team principal Toto Wolff's decision to brush off any suggestions of Mercedes altering the finishing order following the Belgian Grand Prix.

"The simple principle is, if a Mercedes can win the race, a Mercedes must win the race, and that’s what comes first," Lord said in a mid-season review.

"The team comes first, and the Constructors’ Championship is the team’s primary focus and primary objective.”

Expanding on this belief, he added: "We’ve seen the fight swing, sort of all the way out to the point where I think all of you know it was being written that there was only one possible winner of the championship, and then, in the space of three races, we’ve seen that swing completely the other way as well.

“We’re at the halfway stage, and it’s far too early to even be thinking like that. We’re not focused on the ‘what if?’ scenario.

“We want to win both championships, absolutely, and we’ll give ourselves the best chance of doing that by getting two cars to the finish as often as possible in the highest possible positions that we can, which is what we’ve failed to do at every single race so far this year.”

Instead, Lord has promised to focus on the reliability issues that both cards have struggled with throughout the first half of the season thus far.

A battery issue caused Russell to retire early in Canada and Antonelli to do so in Barcelona, with Russell more recently facing issues that have plagued him in straight lines.

“So that’s the focus: cars reliable, keep the cars fast, and then enable the drivers to keep it their best shot for winning the Drivers’ Championship,” he said.

“But as I say, that core principle: if a Mercedes can win, a Mercedes must win, and we don’t mind which of the two cars it is, and we will do what we need to do in order to ensure that the quickest of those cars on any given Sunday can do that. That’s the priority for us.”

READ MORE: George Russell goes X-rated against Mercedes in rant that Sky F1 viewers didn't hear

Toto Wolff threatens to sack drivers on one condition

Having two championship-challenging drivers is something that is far from strange for Mercedes, as Wolff and the rest of the team dealt with the fierce rivalry between Hamilton and Nico Rosberg for four years.

Although the rivalry ultimately saw them win three Constructors’ World Championships, it saw the friendship between the pair fall apart, replaced by a fierce rivalry.

Wolff has made it clear that under no circumstances will he let such rivalry bubble up once again.

“I will not allow it,” he emphatically told RacingNews365. “That’s never going to happen to me again.

“That’s never going to happen to the team again. Simple.

“I’m just taking a driver out if he does that.”