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Fred Vasseur is not going to pretend he is unhappy about what happened between George Russell and Kimi Antonelli during the Canadian sprint race. The Ferrari team principal acknowledged the internal tension at Mercedes with a grin and said it is the kind of problem he would quite like to have.
What Happened in the Sprint
The two Mercedes drivers made contact during the sprint race in Montreal. Antonelli was visibly frustrated on the radio afterwards, and Toto Wolff had to intervene to refocus the young Italian on the remainder of the race. A direct conversation between the two drivers was arranged before qualifying, which both Russell and Antonelli subsequently described as having gone well.
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Vasseur's Reading of the Situation
Vasseur was asked about the incident when speaking to Canal Plus and responded with the relaxed confidence of a man whose own garage was not involved. "It remains a luxury problem. When you have drivers fighting for P1 and P2, you know tensions can arise. But ultimately you want competitive drivers. Every team goes through these kinds of situations and it is often precisely from that rivalry that extra performance emerges."
His compliment to Wolff for the way the situation was handled was genuine rather than ironic. "I hope they work it out in the right way. They have had a good conversation and resolved it this morning." He then added the line that captured his broader view of the situation. "You can never completely prevent such battles. But to be fair, they resolved it well this morning. It could easily have ended with two cars out of the race. Then you would be talking about a very different story altogether." From Ferrari's perspective, two Mercedes cars continuing to fight each other is considerably better than two Mercedes cars working in perfect harmony.
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