Toto Wolff, the Mercedes principal, has admitted the team let George Russell down. The British driver failed to score a point at the Belgian Grand Prix after a clash with Lewis Hamilton which Russell attributed squarely to his car’s performance not being up to scratch.
The race at Spa was won by Russell’s teammate, Kimi Antonelli, who now leads Russell by 50 points in the world championship, a serious blow to the British driver’s title hopes.
Russell was clipped by Hamilton on the opening lap sending him off into the gravel and ending his race. Russell said it had been a racing incident but insisted he would not have been alongside Hamilton but for his Mercedes failing to deploy sufficient power on the run to the Les Combes corner. Russell had been outspoken all weekend about the issue of a deficiency in electrical energy deployment and felt it had been hugely costly, which Wolff addressed.
“We had an issue on all Mercedes engines that we lacked the power out on the straights,” Wolff said. “That bit him [Russell] badly and it goes 100% on us.
“George has 100% our support. George 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 may be on the driving. But we are in this together, we all make mistakes, today is the mistake of the team and the another day is going to be the driver. We just need to minimise it and support each other.”
Russell said the result had left him numb with disappointment, while insisting he felt he should not have been competing for the corner with the Ferraris who had swept past him on the Kemmel straight, and Wolff admitted he understood his driver’s strong reaction.
“It’s completely understandable that the moment you’re out of the race, it’s so frustrating and the emotions boil,” he said. “We are trying to solve the issues, he’s doing everything he can to get on top of his driving. I’m going to try to put my arm around him.”
Hamilton was found by the stewards to be culpable and given a five-second penalty, but he too felt it was only a racing incident and that he would speak to Russell about it.
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“I was in the position where George obviously looked like he lost power and then he swooped around the outside and just had a small coming together,” he said. “I will text George later on. The last thing you ever want to do is come together with your teammate or with your old team who you highly respect.”
