Wolff Might Be 'Undermining' Russell With Some Of His Actions According To Hill

Thursday, 13 June 2024 at 18:00

1996 World Champion Damon Hill suggested that Mercedes's team principal might be undermining one of his drivers through his actions.

Although he scored Mercedes's best result of the season up until that point, the ninth round in Canada wasn't George Russell's best race.

Mercedes finally had a competitive car that was perhaps capable of winning. The 26-year-old even started from pole, yet he made too many mistakes in crucial moments during the race, which meant he finished "only" in P3.

On lap 21, Russell led the Grand Prix, but he lost two positions in a matter of seconds. As he tried to defend Lando Norris, he didn't manage to stop his car to make the corner and had to go through the run-off area.

This resulted in loss of another position to Max Verstappen, who was in third place. It was then that his team principal, Toto Wolff, came on the radio to tell Russell: "Focus, George, focus."

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This message might sound encouraging to some, but former F1 driver and World Champion Damon Hill gave his perspective on the most recent episode of Sky Sports F1 podcast, suggesting actions like this might be undermining the 26-year-old.

"I think the problem with George is he started off in a high profile seat before he got to Mercedes. He wasn't making lots of mistakes."

"When you get to the sharp-end, you get the focus, everyone is watching everything you do, criticising everything much more. At least being more observant of any failing at all."

"So I don't know. I think it can be slightly undermining if you're getting coached by your team boss over the team radio over the race, being told to focus. I think he knows what he's doing to quote a famous racing driver."

With that last sentence, the 1997 Champion probably referred to the famous quote of Kimi Raikkonen, who told his engineer during the race: "Leave me alone, I know what I'm doing."