Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has revealed a fundamental team mistake that led to George Russell losing the championship lead at the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix.
Russell found himself as the second-best Mercedes in Suzuka, unable to match the pace of teammate Kimi Antonelli in qualifying for the race.
The Briton’s race was initially compromised by a mysterious problem that hindered his W17 in Q1, leaving him out of touch with the young Italian.
Russell’s race was one of frustration, losing positions at the start, and dropping to fourth, unable to overhaul the McLaren of Oscar Piastri, and losing third to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Wolff has revealed the cause of Russell’s off-colour weekend, citing a single critical decision made which proved to be a disastrous mistake.
“I think the race went against him starting with the qualifying set-up decisions,” Wolff told media including Motorsport Week.
“With the set-up decision that put the car in a spot that was literally from FP3 to qualifying much worse.”
“Driver mistakes” also to blame for George Russell
But Wolff indicated that Russell was not entirely blameless for his below-par performance in Suzuka, the Mercedes Team Principal citing mistakes by the Briton.
“And then the start, certainly we don’t give the two drivers the best of tools for the starts, but then it was also driver mistakes on the start,” he said.
Wolff also had bad luck as a result of the Safety Car, which led to Oliver Bearman’s massive crash at Spoon Curve.
“We had to make the call for the Safety Car because we were risking the position to [Charles] Leclerc and then luck fell onto Kimi’s side, who was very quick at that stage and bad luck for George that he lost these positions there.
“On top of that, we had a software glitch that gave him a super clip and he got overtaken by Leclerc. So, this is literally everything that went wrong for him.”
Wolff’s admission that Russell’s changes were caused by Mercedes making changes becomes all the more intriguing when tempered by blaming blame firmly at his lead driver’s door.
Further mistakes are ill-advised.
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