Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes George Russell was always overlooked and “underrated” during his time as Formula 1 team-mate to Lewis Hamilton.
Since Hamilton’s departure to Ferrari at the start of the year, Russell has assumed the team leader position at the German marque.
The 27-year-old has backed this moniker, winning two Grands Prix so far this season.
That said, despite a strong showing for the Brackley-based squad, which has helped it mount a battle for second-place in the Constructors’ Championship, Russell’s future with the team looked tentative to say the least only a couple of months ago.
Amid prolonged contract negotiations with the Briton, Wolff was reportedly dealing with Max Verstappen behind closed doors.
Paddock murmurs strongly suggested that the Austrian was looking to capitalise on Red Bull’s bleak run of form to goad the four-time F1 champion into a race seat for 2026 and beyond.
However, as Verstappen signalled his intent to stay loyal to the Milton-Keynes-based squad at the Dutch Grand Prix weekend, Mercedes responded by confirming Russell and team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli for next season at Austin.
Wolff has since maintained that Russell’s extension was always a matter of ‘when’ and not ‘if’.
Now, he heaped further praise on the Kings-Lynn native as he compared his time alongside seven-time World Champion, Hamilton.
“First of all, I think there was so much hype around Lewis leaving and an 18-year-old coming, and the risk that we were taking, but as a matter of fact, there was not so much risk because we had George,” he said at the Autosport Business Exchange New York.
“And in a way, he was always underrated in all of those years, maybe because of his more introverted personality.
“And then obviously if your team-mate is Lewis Hamilton, you won’t get a lot of, how can I say, percentage of eyeballs.
“I mean if George would have bought into the fashion style of Lewis, maybe it would have given him more photos, but that’s not how he is.”
Wolff backs Antonelli F1 decision
Hamilton’s departure also meant Wolff had to act quickly to fill in the 40-year-old’s shoes at Mercedes.
Despite strong interest from drivers up and down the grid, including Carlos Sainz, Wolff chose to put his faith into 18-year-old Antonelli.
The Italian had shown blistering pace throughout his junior career, even prompting Wolff to promote him into F2 directly after his FRECA title triumph last season.
And while Antonelli has shown sparks of his brilliance with a maiden podium at Montreal and a Sprint pole at Miami, the 18-year-old has still struggled to show consistent results in the W16 – especially during the European leg of this season.
Though Antonelli had tons of mileage in F1 machinery under the Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) regulations, Wolff cites Antonelli’s lack of familiarity with the incumbent ground effects cars and the media hype as the main determining factor for the Italian’s patchy start to life as an F1 driver so far.
“Bringing Kimi on was a long-term plan. We knew that giving him one year in the current regulations would be tough. Because all of these drivers have driven those ground effect cars,” he explained.
“The tyres are very tricky to understand, many race tracks that he hasn’t been to, and then the enormous media pressure that comes up when you’re an Italian.
“This country has been starved for a world champion since God knows, 50, 60 years, and all of that has happened. All of that led to good results.
“I think the highlight was certainly the pole in the sprint in Miami and the podium in Montreal, but also, to some very difficult races.”
That said, looking forward to the 2026 regulations reset, where everybody starts on a clean slate, Wolff is confident Antonelli has enough talent and resources to drive his progress.
“The media pressure was enormous in Europe, and I think we’ve learned the lesson. We’ve shielded him a little bit, and the last two races were really good, back on track,” Wolff said.
“Next year’s gonna be a completely different starting point for him, having seen it all, having been there, and I’m sure it’s gonna be a very good one.”
READ MORE – How George Russell coped with ‘annoying’ speculation over Mercedes F1 future in 2025
Discussion about this post