Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff said he intended to put an arm around an emotional George Russell ahead of the Hungarian GP, after the driver appeared distraught following a first-lap retirement at the Belgian GP.
For Wolff, it was a bittersweet afternoon this past Sunday as Italian teenager Kimi Antonelli claimed a fighting victory — his sixth of the season — to extend his lead in the drivers’ championship to 50 points ahead of team-mate Russell.
Russell, who began the race 25 points shy of his teammate, fell to third in the title race after a collision with former teammate and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari.
Speaking to Sky Sports soon after his enforced retirement, Russell blamed his car’s lack of power for his plight and accident.
“I got totally swallowed up down the straight,” he said.
“I lost three positions going down into Turn 5. It was a racing incident. Maybe I could have gone a bit wider, maybe he could have braked a bit more.”
Hamilton was adjudged responsible for the accident and handed a five-second penalty by the stewards, but Russell repeated his complaint from previous days that his lack of performance was due to a power deficit in his car.
“The incident shouldn’t have happened if I had the speed down the straight … I’m very, very disappointed. I appreciate everyone’s working hard to solve the problem, but I’m stood here now on lap five of the race.
“I felt like I was in a good position to fight for the lead at Turn 1, and then suddenly no power. It was all gone.”
Wolff defended Mercedes power units, which are used by the factory team and others including rivals McLaren.
“We came out with a product this year that is so strong, and I’d rather have to fix reliability than accelerate a slow engine,” he said.
“We’re giving it 100%. We need to because we have lost a lot of points due to reliability. We should be further ahead.
“George has 100% our support. He had a difficult weekend. Half of it is to be attributed to the power unit, that wasn’t as good as it should have been, and the other half maybe on the driving.
“We are in this together. We all make mistakes. Today is the mistake of the team and another day the driver. We just need to minimise it and support each other.”
He said he understood why Russell felt emotional and nonplussed.
‘The moment you’re out of this race, it’s so frustrating and the emotions boil. We are trying to solve the issues.
‘He’s doing everything he can to get on top of his driving, and I’m going to try to put my arm around him.’
