George Russell clarifies Toto Wolff team radio after Mercedes boss left ‘ashamed’

George Russell says Toto Wolff’s excitable team radio message was “understandable” after the clash between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen opened the door for Mercedes to win last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix.

Russell claimed Mercedes ‘ first victory since November 2022 in Austria last weekend, with the British driver inheriting the lead after Norris and Verstappen collided while duelling for the lead on Lap 64 of 71.

George Russell clarifies Toto Wolff team radio message

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher and Sam Cooper

The sight of Verstappen and Norris coming to blows drew an emotional response from Mercedes boss Wolff, who immediately took to team radio to alert Russell to the situation.

“George, you can with this. You can win this, George,” Wolff was heard telling his driver.

Russell, who was braking from high speed at the time he received the message, responded: “Just let me f**king drive!”

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Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com after the race in Austria, Wolff admitted he will be “forever ashamed” by the timing of his message, describing it as “the single dumbest thing I’ve done in 12 years at Mercedes.”

Appearing on Sky F1 ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Russell leapt to the defence of his boss, claiming Wolff’s emotion was indicative of his “passion” to succeed.

Put to him that Wolff can’t be blamed for getting excited, he said: “No, of course not.

“We live and breathe this together and I think it goes to show the passion that he has. If he’s not feeling these emotions, then he doesn’t care. And he clearly cares.

“And he wants to win more than more than anyone, so I feel pretty fortunate to have a boss like Toto to feel that and experience it with him.”

Asked if he always talks to his boss in the way he did over team radio in Austria, Russell laughed: “No, no, no!

“Formula 1 are pretty good at clipping the best bits of the radio.

“There’s a lot of context before and my engineer was on the radio for a good 15 seconds before and with Toto on top there was so much going on.

“What a moment for us it was and it’s understandable. We’ve not been in that position for a long time [and] everyone gets excited.”

Appearing in the drivers’ press conference at Silverstone, Russell declared that Mercedes are now in a position to fight at the front and compete for regular podium finishes after returning to winning ways at the Red Bull Ring.

He told media including PlanetF1.com: “It’s always great to be back on the top step and obviously there’s been so much hard work from the whole team to improve the car and get us in a in a position to do that.

“I said afterwards I felt like we should have won the race in Montreal and ended up P3 and at the weekend probably should have finished P3 and we won the race.

“That’s how racing goes sometimes, but it’s so great.

“We now have an opportunity to be fighting the front, fighting for podiums, and ready to capitalise when things happen.”

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