Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff addressed the issues that plagued George Russell at the F1 Bahrain GP, calling the Briton’s drive to P2 “unbelievable.”
Russell endured a difficult evening at the F1 Bahrain GP, as his W16 was riddled with technical issues.
A series of radio messages broadcast between Russell and his race engineer, Marcus Dudley, revealed the Mercedes driver had to contend with several electronic glitches and failures, including the loss of brake-by-wire functionality and transponder problems, which saw him briefly disappear from the timing screens. At one point, Russell was warned by his race engineer that he was at risk of losing the functionality of his entire dashboard display.
Wolff commends Russell’s “unbelievable” drive amid technical malfunctions
Despite these issues, Russell kept a charging Lando Norris at bay in the closing stages of the race while racing on fading soft tyres. He ultimately finished second, splitting the McLaren drivers on the podium.
His impressive drive earned him praise from Wolff, who commended Russell for his “unbelievable” performance at the F1 Bahrain GP.
“We had a…The brake-by-wire failed suddenly, and then it took a while to find the settings to kind of reset it,” Wolff explained after the race in his print media session.
“And I think on the dash we didn’t have all the things that we expected, and we also feared that we would lose the whole dash.
“Which would mean no buttons, no wheels to turn any of the settings, no shift lights, and obviously he had it in the back of the mind and it didn’t take his concentration away.
Wolff continued: “To be honest, [Russell] managing the system coming in and out whilst having Norris behind him. It’s just an unbelievable drive, to be honest, what he did. Considering the car was wounded, finishing P2 in front of Norris is just really a great result.
“He secured this podium on top of that. Taking the soft for such a long time was also created between managing and then attacking when he needed to. (…) That was just very good skill.”
Mercedes still unsure of the cause of Russell’s W16 issues
“We don’t know the [cause] yet,” Wolff admitted.
“Maybe some wiring looms in the car, or maybe it was triggered by the failure in the F1 system and then it caused our system to go a bit bananas.”
