Should Mercedes have double-stacked Russell? Montoya dissects Monza 2026

Italian fans may have erupted when Andrea Kimi Antonelli crossed the line first at Monza, but for me the decisive moment was not on the final lap. It was in the pit lane midway through the race, when the virtual safety car was activated and George Russell – the leader – was left out. The defeat at Luzhniki taught me something victory never tells you: a mistimed strategy can erase all the effort of a driver. Mercedes left Monza with a perfect 1-2, but the internal picture was not as simple as the result suggests. Antonelli started from P19, overtook a host of rivals to deliver the first win for an Italian driver at this circuit since 2026. Russell controlled the early pace and looked like the number-one candidate for victory. When the virtual safety car appeared, Antonelli was called into the pits while Russell stayed out. That moment changed the entire structure of the race. Juan Pablo Montoya, a man who has faced many harsh pit-stop situations, pointed out the blind spot: “He was leading and he should have had the priority on the pitstop. Under the virtual safety car, it’s quicker to stop than staying out. They should have stopped him, they should have double-stacked him, and he should have stopped ahead of Antonelli.” Montoya did not deny Antonelli could still have caught and won, but he wanted the race to be decided on track, not in the pit lane. I do not believe in luck; I believe in numbers lined up straight. Looking at the operations: under VSC, the whole field slows and the gaps are compressed. At that point, the time cost of a pit stop drops significantly compared with normal racing conditions. If Mercedes had double-stacked, Russell could have stayed ahead of Antonelli after both completed their tyre changes. Antonelli, with fresher tyres, might still have attacked, but at least Russell would have had a chance to defend on a track where DRS and slipstream turn every small gap into a threat. What makes this debate valuable is not the question of who is better. It is the question of what Mercedes was optimising for. If the target was a team 1-2, leaving Russell out could be justified by a one-stop hard-tyre strategy. Toto Wolff said after the race that Russell “had no chance” and “fought with worn-out tools”. But Montoya sees the issue on a deeper level: when the team has two drivers in the lead, they can handle the situation by giving the leader priority, rather than turning him into a shield for his teammate. Based on my experience following many seasons, teams often overrate track position and forget that fresh tyres at Monza are worth more than a position on track. Mercedes did not make a technical mistake, but they missed the chance to put Russell in a fairer fight against Antonelli. When a leading driver is left out with worn hard tyres while his teammate gets the perfect pit window, a team victory can hide a biased decision. The running track and the football pitch are not opposites; they are two beats of the same heart. Just as a relay runner must hand over in the correct zone, Mercedes needed to hand over the strategic advantage at the right time. They did not do that for Russell. Antonelli deserves praise for his talent and composure, but the strategic story still leaves a big question: are the Brackley team quietly betting on Antonelli’s long-term future, with Russell merely a pawn in that chess game? Spectators watch the move; I watch an entire chessboard moving. At Monza, the pit-lane move mattered more than any overtake. If Mercedes really wanted fairness, they should have let Russell and Antonelli fight with the same weapons. Instead, they chose a safe outcome for the team but one that was unfair to the man leading the race. The greatest failure is learning to read the race before it starts. Montoya read the chessboard from the moment VSC appeared. Mercedes did not. The next round will show whether this team is correcting its path; at Monza, they got a victory and a crack.