George Russell started in third place. The Briton was in a good spot to land on the podium until he started having issues. Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team principal and CEO explains what happened.
Wolff told GPblog and others, “Clearly our worst performance so far this year, the pace just dropped away with a blistering tyre and overheating tyres, and so far we haven't got the explanations.”
Mercedes struggled unexpectedly
Russell went from an opportunity to being on the podium to fifth place. He finished 27 seconds off the race winner, Oscar Piastri. Russell started to drop back when he began to have issues with his tyres. However, Wolff claims, “There was no risk there. There was never any risk. We had a band coming off the tyre, there was no integrity risk.”
After being asked if he was surprised that Ferrari did not have the same tyre issues Mercedes had he responded, “Today we saw no land against Ferrari and Max also. So that was an additional negative, that when you manage your expectations of being second quickest — and even that is not obviously what we would wish to achieve — and it panning out like it did, it just adds to the frustration of the situation.”
Russell remains fourth in the World Drivers Championship standings.
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