George Russell was on damage limitation mode in F1 Austrian GP, as Toto Wolff admits wrong set-up choice that derailed their weekend.
Already coming into the weekend, Mercedes was not too optimistic about its chances in F1 Austrian GP due to the tarmac and hot temperature. They hoped that it will work out after their success in Canada, but it wasn’t to be. Russell was a bit off in qualifying, as was Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
The Italian’s race eventually ended on Lap 1 itself. It looked good for Russell initially after he managed to pass Lewis Hamilton at Turn 1, but the Ferrari driver re-passed the Mercedes driver soon. It all went downhill for them, as he dropped off from his tail then.
It was damage limitation for Russell eventually, as they did not have the pace to fight at all. “This was a bit of a perfect storm,” said Russell to media. “The tarmac’s like one of the roughest of the season. Obviously, high-speed circuit, you’re going around the track many times. So, the most number of laps in the season and then 50 degrees track temp.
“So, it was sort of that perfect storm, really. I was expecting a bad race and it was worse than I even could imagine. The problem is so clear, coming off the back of Canada with the win, with no tyre overheating, we’re the quickest. But as soon as you get to a track where there’s a bit of overheating, we drop off so much.
“So, to be honest, the team have been working so hard for six months now to try and solve this issue. We’ve got ideas, but nothing that’s really, we’re not really making major headway right now. For sure damage limitation, I think. I still take pride in the fact that almost every race this year, we’re maximising the results. Today, P5, we definitely could not have achieved anything higher than P5.
“The same way as last week, the win was the potential, and we got the win. So, fingers crossed, it stays cloudy for the rest of the season,” summed up Russell. Post-race, team boss Wolff noted that they tried a set-up which ran in Canada, but the experiment didn’t work out.
In hindsight, they should have stuck to the set-up they used last year in Austria, which would have helped them to secure a podium at least. “When you look at our performance last year, we won the race here,” said Wolff to media. “And we were, I don’t remember, 10, 15 seconds behind the leaders. That was a very solid performance, and this year we’re a minute behind the leaders.
“So that is clearly out of the ordinary, what happened in the race. We do experiment at the moment a little bit how to put the car on track, where we put the balance. And clearly, this one we got wrong. And we know that. So I think it’s not only down to those factors. Asphalt, long corners and heat. Clearly, that’s not our sweet spot, but it doesn’t explain the gap. And I think we know why.
“But in hindsight, you always know. The only positive I take from this race weekend is that we tried something extreme, which was good in Montreal and was a complete shot in the knee here. Because we could have gone to the setup we had last year and that would have put us, I don’t know, on the podium maybe. But that is not what we tried.
“And you see the McLarens, they brought some updates and they drive easily away. We felt that there was a certain direction we wanted to pursue, which is perfectly logical for Canada and a bit counterintuitive for Austria. And our long runs looked very good. So we thought Kimi’s long run was maybe, second, third fastest was really good.
“We can stick to that. And then obviously the temperatures got hotter, the grip ramped up and then you kind of come to the conclusion you should have maybe stuck to what we knew from last year here,” summed up Wolff.
British GP livery (the story is as per press release) –
As F1 gets set to celebrate its 75th anniversary, the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team will mark the occasion with a tribute to the incredible past, present, and future of the three-pointed star. Mercedes-Benz invented the car, and racing has been a part of our story almost from the start. From the earliest victories in the 19th century to eight consecutive World Constructors’ Championships in the modern era, a commitment to performance and innovation in motorsport runs throughout.
This weekend, the team will mark the past, the present, and future. The past is represented by the all-conquering Mercedes-Benz W196, the first Mercedes to race in the Formula One World Championship. It won nine of the 12 races it entered and captured two titles. Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team driver George Russell drove the W196 at Aintree in Liverpool recently, the venue at which Stirling Moss became the first British driver to win his home race in 1955. Imagery of the event will be available tomorrow.
The W196 will be on display in the team’s Silverstone Club hospitality all weekend at the British Grand Prix. Its tartan seat pattern has also been the inspiration for the adidas x Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team Silver Arrows pack, a fanwear collection that brings a bold, eye-catching look to the track. The present will be represented by several activations, including the appearance of the Mercedes-AMG ONE, the marque’s high-performance hypercar that features F1 technology and Power Unit, and developed collaboratively between Mercedes-AMG and Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains.
The future will be seen with the CONCEPT AMG GT XX, Mercedes-AMG’s pioneering technology programme, that recently launched at Mercedes-AMG’s Affalterbach headquarters with George Russell, Kimi Antonelli, and Valtteri Bottas. A concept car that offers insight into the first series-production model based on AMG.EA high performance will be on display at Silverstone. Its revolutionary drive train features three axial flux motors and delivers over 1,000 kW (>1,360 hp) peak output. Its top speed of more than 360 km/h puts the CONCEPT AMG GT XX in the realm of the all-time F1 speed record of 378 km/h (Valtteri Bottas during Qualifying in Baku, 2016).
The concept car’s eye-catching sunset beam orange livery is inspired by the revolutionary Mercedes C111 vehicles of the 1960s and 1970s; sunset beam orange accents will feature on the W16 including the famous three-pointed stars on its nose and engine cover, driver overalls, and both George and Kimi will run special helmets incorporating the colour in celebration of the CONCEPT AMG GT XX launch. The high-voltage battery in the CONCEPT AMG GT XX is a completely new development. It benefits from all the experience from the AMG ONE and Formula 1 as well as the knowledge of the best engineers from Mercedes-AMG in Affalterbach and Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP) in Brixworth (UK).
Markus Schäfer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Chief Technology Officer, Development & Procurement, said: “The best minds in our global R&D network have contributed their extensive expertise – from Mercedes-Benz in Sindelfingen and Untertürkheim to Mercedes-AMG in Affalterbach and YASA in the UK to our Formula 1 drivetrain experts at Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains in Brixworth. Together, they have developed the CONCEPT AMG GT XX and are providing an insight into pioneering drivetrain technology and the future of performance.”
Here’s race start: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-austrian-grand-prix-norris-leads-as-verstappen-is-knocked-out-on-the-race-start.1836270947058772854
Here’s how F1 Austrian GP panned out
Here’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Toto Wolff on incident
