Naomi Schiff Issues Blunt ‘Shut The F*** Up’ Warning To Russell And Antonelli Over Radio Behaviour

Former racing driver Naomi Schiff has delivered a brutally direct message to George Russell and Kimi Antonelli over their team radio conduct.
The two Mercedes drivers are currently locked in a fierce drivers’ championship battle, with their team established as the dominant force on the 2026 grid.
At last weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, the pair competed for the lead in both the sprint race and the main race for the first time this season.
Russell edged out Antonelli in the sprint race, but was forced to retire from the main event due to a battery issue before the race concluded.
In the early stages of the main race, the two team-mates pushed hard against each other and arguably tested the limits of acceptable intra-team competition.
Antonelli claimed over team radio that Russell should return a position to him, believing he had been pushed off the track during their battle.
During the sprint race, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff intervened on the radio twice to speak directly to Antonelli, telling the teenager to stop moaning.
Schiff weighed in on the matter on the Up to Speed podcast, reinforcing Wolff’s stance with characteristically blunt language directed at both drivers.
“Toto had to come on twice, which is like, once the boss comes calling on the radio, you shut the f*** up,” Schiff said, drawing laughter from her co-hosts on the podcast.
Schiff also offered a more sympathetic reading of the emotions on display, acknowledging the unique pressures both drivers are facing in their title fight.
“You can just tell that there’s a lot of passion, right? Firstly, obviously Kimi’s new-ish to F1 and so he’s got a long career ahead of him,” she explained during the same podcast discussion.
She added that Russell had waited a long time for this kind of championship opportunity, making his frustrations entirely understandable given the circumstances he finds himself in.
“George has been waiting for this moment for an extremely long time and when you’re competing against your team-mate with equal equipment, it’s that much harder to create that gap,” Schiff continued.
Schiff also noted that Antonelli’s consistency could prove decisive, pointing to the 43-point gap between the drivers as a significant but not insurmountable challenge to overcome.
“If Kimi happens to end up being extremely consistent for the remaining races and they don’t have reliability issues, trying to close a gap of 43 points is a task,” she said, rounding out her assessment of the title picture.
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