[ad_1]
Toto Wolff says George Russell’s performance at the Sakhir Grand Prix confirmed the British driver as a Formula 1 star of the future.
Russell was on his way to winning at Sakhir having taken the lead on lap 1 until a tire mix-up when he pitted under the Safety Car.
Mercedes fitted the tires assigned by Valtteri Bottas to Russell’s Mercedes, forcing him to make a second pit stop to avoid a possible disqualification.
Even despite this second stop, Russell made his way across the field from fifth to second on new medium tires, including an overtake of Bottas on the outside of Turn 6.
Russell was closing in on Sergio Perez for the race lead, but then suffered a puncture that dropped him back onto the field where he finally finished the race in ninth place.
Reflecting on Russell’s performance as a substitute for Lewis Hamilton this weekend, Wolff said the 22-year-old consistently “gave too much.”
“By saying we don’t expect anything better than a top five, I wanted to take the pressure off him because he really isn’t in a championship fight,” Wolff said. “Our team has already done it and it’s about learning, working in a new environment and having a little more pressure.
“I think the pressure was huge on Friday, so we thought taking it off a bit would be good. I think today they confirmed their potential for us.
“We didn’t want to set high expectations and overdelivered, overdelivered and overdelivered. He overdelivered on Friday, overdelivered yesterday in qualifying just a few hundredths behind Valtteri and overdelivered today. His career was incredible. “
Although Russell could not secure the standout result, Wolff believes he proved that he has “all the ingredients a future star needs” to succeed in F1 at the level of performance he displayed in his first outing with Mercedes.
“He came off the starting line with the best reaction time in a car that is not made for him, that is too small with paddles that don’t fit his hands and he took the lead and drove a brilliant race, and he could have won twice, ”added Wolff. “This is not the same as Spain [2016] where we learned as a team when we are in a tough fight for the championship.
“I didn’t want the radio to fail and we learned that George Russell is someone to count on in the future. It has all the potential and all the ingredients that a future star needs. In that sense, I am sad for the result he could have had in his first race with Mercedes, but on the other hand, I am happy for his performances.
