George Russell urged to "reassert himself" at Mercedes amid Kimi Antonelli threat

David Coulthard has warned that George Russell must assert his authority at Mercedes after Kimi Antonelli’s rapid rise intensified their early title fight

Former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard has urged George Russell to "assert himself" within Mercedes after his team-mate Kimi Antonelli secured his maiden F1 win at the Chinese Grand Prix.

Russell currently leads the drivers' championship with 51 points, but his team-mate follows just four points behind him in second. After Mercedes had a dominant start to the season, Russell quickly became the favourite for the drivers' title. But Antonelli's win from pole position in China has posed a threat to the Briton.

"[George Russell] needs to reassert himself within that team. Kimi, you know, it's all nice and cute but getting his first grand prix victory is getting in the way of him trying to win a world championship," Coulthard argued on the Up To Speed podcast.

Antonelli went on to secure pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix, and Russell will start alongside him in second. Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff and Russell confirmed after qualifying at the Suzuka circuit that the team had made a set-up change to his car, which resulted in the 28-year-old battling oversteer.

"It was really odd, to be honest. We made a set of adjustments going into qualifying, and the car just did not feel the same as it has in the whole weekend," Russell said in the post-qualifying press conference.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, George Russell, Mercedes

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images

"And you saw my first laps in Q1. I was down in P7, P8, and we had to make a massive adjustment during qualifying with the front wing to adapt. The team have already had a look. We don't know whether something incorrect was done or what happened.

"But I'm kind of glad again to be in this position because after Q1, I was like, I'm not sure where we'll end up."

He added: "We had a mechanical issue to the car on the rear end, and it was just mainly through the Esses. I couldn't attack any of the corners. The rear was trying to step out on me throughout.

"I'm sure we'll try and see what happened. There's not really anything we can do now. But as I said, it's a good place to start for tomorrow and it's going to be a long race."