Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said the team needs to work to restore George Russell’s confidence after the British driver blamed a lack of speed for the collision that ended his and damaged his title chances.
Russell was trying to retake fourth place from Lewis Hamilton around the outside when the Ferrari driver clipped his rear wheel and sent him spinning into the gravel trap, putting him out of the race on the first lap.
In an expletive-filled message to Mercedes over the radio, Russell directed the blame at the car, not Hamilton, saying it was 鈥渦nacceptable鈥� he’d had a dramatic loss of speed on the previous straight, dropping him from third to fifth behind Hamilton.
鈥淚t was a new problem but it wasn鈥檛 only on George鈥檚 side. Instead, it affected all the Mercedes engines, some more, some less, and Kimi (Antonelli) too,” Wolff told Sky Sport Germany, suggesting a software problem was to blame.
“We have an engine that鈥檚 incredibly strong, a car that is fast but simply not stable enough and we need to get on top of that because we鈥檙e losing valuable points in the constructors鈥� championship.鈥�
Wolff added: 鈥淲e just need to try to make the best possible equipment available for him. That鈥檚 not just a fast car and a good engine but something that holds up and gives him confidence in the car again.鈥�
Antonelli went on to win the race, doubling his advantage over Russell to 50 points. Russell is now third in the standings, five points behind Hamilton, who got a five-second penalty for causing their collision.
鈥淐ar crossed over right in front of me,鈥� Hamilton said, adding he’d lacked front-end grip to avoid the collision because he was following another car closely.
Russell has been struggling to match Antonelli’s pace in recent races and, even before Sunday’s race, had suggested an issue with the Mercedes car may be holding him back after he lost out in straight-line speed to Antonelli in qualifying.
Russell told Sky Sports he had 鈥渘o words at the moment鈥� after the incident, when asked about the impact on the title race.
鈥淭he incident shouldn鈥檛 have happened if I had the speed down the straight,鈥� he said.
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