Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has vehemently come to the defence of George Russell after the British driver endured an unexpectedly underwhelming and inconsistent Formula 1 campaign ahead of the upcoming race weekend.
Coming into the championship season, Russell was the bookmakers favourite for the drivers title, and many anticipated that he would comfortably ease his way to his first world championship crown.
Not only has that scenario failed to materialize, but it has been Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli who has cruised to dominance, with the 20-year-old almost certainly set to be coronated at the upcoming Mexico City Grand Prix.
Despite what has been a bitterly disappointing year for Russell, Wolff insists the British driver remains one of the very best competitors in Formula 1, even if he has fallen short of performance expectations throughout the season.
George, for all of us in the team, is a champion and has won in every category, the Mercedes team principal told media members. And I think he merits being put in the group of the very best ones—we've seen that last year.
This year, we see this variability in results. When we land the car in the way that suits him, he's absolutely fast. But when it drops out of that operational window, he struggles; and he struggles more than maybe Kimi, Wolff explained.
Put plainly, Russell has too often been unable to extract the exact same level of performance from the W17 challenger as Antonelli. Whilst dominant on his strong days, too frequently the eight-time grand prix winner has had to play second fiddle to his younger team-mate, on top of experiencing more than his fair share of bad luck and technical reliability issues.
Further reflecting on the glaring disparity in pace—not only between his two drivers, but also from when the car is performing as hoped versus when it falls outside its ideal window—Wolff revealed that the Silver Arrows squad will work closely with Russell to close the delta to Antonelli.
That is on us, the Austrian executive stated. We just have to work it out with him on how there can be such a difference in performance, because George is not half a second slower, or three tenths slower than Kimi. It's just absolutely not the case.
So what is it that he doesn't like? What is it that we need to do in terms of modifying the car, setting it up in a different way for him to go fast, because it's all there in intelligence, the ability, the determination.
Read our in-depth analysis to discover how Mercedes plans to resolve technical hurdles and help Russell unlock his true potential in the remaining races.
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