Nov.11 (GMM) Toto Wolff says Mercedes will now throw its full weight behind George Russell’s bid to beat Max Verstappen to second place in the drivers’ championship.
With Kimi Antonelli already secure as world champion and Mercedes securing the constructors’ title in Brazil, Russell’s championship position is now the team’s remaining priority.
Verstappen is 17 points ahead of Russell, with Lewis Hamilton only one point behind the Mercedes driver.
“We want George Russell to score as many points as possible in the last races and reclaim second place in the World Championship,” Wolff said.
“Having achieved our biggest goals, everything now revolves around Russell. We owe him that, after he has had such a difficult time several times this year.”
Wolff admitted Mercedes had contributed to Russell’s frustration, particularly in wet qualifying at Interlagos.
“He dominated on the wet track, but then we cost him pole position,” he said.
Russell had been on a potentially pole-winning lap when engineer Marcus Dudley instructed him to back off to create space ahead.
The rain then intensified, ruining his final opportunity.
“I should have f*ing finished the lap. You f*ing told me to back off. What the hell?” he shouted on the radio.
His frustration then continued into the post-qualifying FIA press conference, with moderator Tom Clarkson revealing that Russell actually left before the session had finished.
“He actually walked out of the press conference while it was still going on,” Clarkson told F1 Nation.
“He was just done with it. He was done with it.”
Clarkson admitted he was concerned about how much the difficult season was affecting Russell.
“I just came away thinking, ‘George, you need to chill, because this is going to start eating away at you.'”
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