F1 News
Windsor blasts 'pathetic' Wolff for 'lack of F1 understanding'
Mercedes team principal and CEO Toto Wolff has been slammed for his 'pathetic' management and 'ridiculous' criticism of George Russell. Peter Windsor, team manager of the Williams F1 team in 1991, pulled apart Mercedes's strategic decisions at the Hungarian Grand Prix in July, highlighting Wolff's 'lack of F1 understanding' speaking to the Cameron F1 YouTube channel.
Russell was knocked out of qualifying in Q1 at the Hungarian Grand Prix after a strategic blunder from his Mercedes team. Mercedes and Russell made the mistake of setting his last lap time too early, alongside the lack of fuel in his car which led him to abandon his final lap. The session had already been disrupted after Sergio Perez crashed into the barrier and brought out the red flag.
Wolff, who has been at the helm of the Mercedes team for over 10 years, has led The Silver Arrows to eight constructors titles and seven world drivers titles as the Brackley-based squad dominated from the beginning of the turbo hybrid era in 2014 to 2020. Windsor, however, believes the Austrian showed a 'lack' of knowledge in this case.
"What I find very odd is that George Russell can in any way be criticised for what happened in Hungary. That to me shows Toto Wolff’s lack of understanding of Formula 1 because if he allowed George Russell’s team to send him out in a Q1 when nobody knew exactly what was going to happen to the track conditions, they were maybe going to go a bit wetter, maybe a bit drier, what traffic was going to be like," he said. Windsor has been a consistent member of the F1 paddock since 1985, having worked for Williams, Ferrari, and as a journalist.
Windsor hammers Wolff's 'pathetic' management
Windsor's criticism didn't stop there. He explains what Mercedes and Wolff should've done to avoid a sloppy Q1 elimination. "Whenever you’re in that situation, you always put enough fuel in the car in case the guy does want to do every lap because you never know what the weather conditions are going to be. To cut it as fine in changing weather track conditions is not even Formula Ford stuff, it’s pathetic. That’s as bad as Williams not taking a spare chassis to the Australian Grand Prix, I’m sorry that’s just pathetic management," Windsor said. He compared Wolff's management to that of James Vowles after Williams failed to bring a spare chassis to the Australian Grand Prix. This forced Logan Sargeant to sit out a Grand Prix. "To blame the driver for that (Russell's Q1 exit) is ridiculous," Windsor concluded.