Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says George Russell is not being considered for a drive at Mercedes next year because it would put the rookie driver under too much pressure early in his career.
Russell has impressed in his first 12 races with Williams this year. He had consistently out-qualified team mate Robert Kubica and almost, though his FW42 chassis has not been competitive, he almost reached Q2 in Hungary.But while other drivers such as Max Verstappen were given rapid promotions into a front-running teams, Wolff is reluctant to give Russell an apprenticeship at Mercedes.
“I don’t think that you’re given the possibility to learn in a Mercedes because you’re being put in a car that is able to win races and championships in a high-pressure environment,” he said. “And I think it can go terribly wrong for a young driver that has the talent to become a world champion if he’s thrown in that environment next to the best driver of his generation who has been who has been with us for seven years. I wouldn’t want to burn George.”
Russell is on a long-term deal to drive for Williams. “I think that he’s in a very good place at Williams, helped them to come back to form, learn and appreciate when a car functions well,” said Wolff. “He was seeing me after the qualifying and he was actually very happy that they finally have more understanding how to tune the car.
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“I think it’s this moments that he needs to learn to appreciate that one day if he’s given a car that fights for championships and races he appreciates that situation as well. So I think it would come too early and on top of that I try to be respectful to all contracts we sign and we signed a contract, we knew what we were doing, we made it with Williams and this is where he is and this is where he’s going to learn.”
Wolff said drivers like Verstappen are unusual because they have had both the talent and the opportunity to learn in a front-running team.
“These guys come into Formula 1 at a very young age and there are exceptions to the norm such as Max Verstappen that have been given an environment at Toro Rosso to learn and to make mistakes and then even at Red Bull was given the room to make mistakes.
“It’s impressive to see his progression in all kind of aspects. As a personality there’s not one bad word about Honda, only good words about his team, the commitment to the team and that is absolutely the right behaviour of a driver. We wouldn’t expect anything else.
“But he was also given the possibility, even though he’s extremely talented and well developed by his environment, he was given the possibility to learn which is certainly a strength of Red Bull and the Toro Rosso situation.”
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Phylyp (@phylyp)
16th August 2019, 12:13
Given what I’ve seen of Russell’s calm temperament and good attitude, this is probably even more a reason why Ocon shouldn’t replace Bottas, but should gain more experience working as a team player in a junior team.
Jeanrien (@jeanrien)
16th August 2019, 14:39
I don’t really want to see Ocon at Mercedes either next year but this is more a personal view and I don’t think he ‘deserved’ the seat on a plate, he hasn’t done anything for it except get a word from Wolff. I didn’t like the spite on one year at Williams and attitude in general.
Maybe better that than the McLaren way, didn’t seem they exploited Magnussen and Vandoorne very well based on their record. Gasly and Kvyat are other examples at RBR. Can’t think of anyone promoted ‘too early’ at Mercedes but they didn’t have anyone promoted early at all. Leclerc and Verstappen tends to prove Wolff points, promising but not error free (but hard to argue that Leclerc was definitely the good choice for Ferrari this year).
I hope they manage to extract the best out of Russell actually, he is definitely promising (as was Gasly)… Still not sure if they are performing that well or if their team mate are under par.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
16th August 2019, 18:28
Really Mercedes should have decided by now whether they want Bottas or Ocon. The other teams are waiting, but they won’t wait forever, they need certainty about who’s driving for them next year because that could affect the design of their car. This delay is going to hurt those drivers chances of getting another seat. As far as I can tell there’s no logical reason for such a delay, unless they have already decided they want Ocon to drive for them.
pSynrg (@psynrg)
16th August 2019, 12:27
I see where Toto is coming from, but I would have to disagree.
If there is a young driver giving the impression of being ready for a top tier seat then it’s George Russel. I’m convinced he could to a Max, and beyond!
Patrick (@anunaki)
16th August 2019, 13:41
No one can do a Max. Russel is only a few months younger than Max. Max was only just 17 (and 3 days) when he did his first test and 17 when he started his first full season in F1. Then he was promoted to redbull at age 18 and started with a win. This will probably never happen again.
Also Max was really dominant throughout his karting career taking on older kids and he had an unbelievable debut season in F3 aged 16 only losing out to Ocon in the Prema car because of technical issues on his own car. Ocon had already two years of experience in car racing at that time.
Of course their will be more very good racing drivers, but nobody will ever be like Max. He’s ridiculously good. Just look where he is in the redbull this year.
Dean
16th August 2019, 15:13
It won’t happen again and it shouldn’t happen again. Let’s be clear here… Max was NOT ready for F1 when he joined TR. The only reason he was given the drive was to keep him out of the clutches of other teams. Other teams wanted him but we’re not prepared to give him an F1 drive. Speaks volumes to me. There is no doubting Maxs massive talent but that has come after an error strewn 5 years of learning. He did his learning in F1 when he should have been learning in f3, F2 like all other drivers. Until last season what he provided was promise.
He arrived in F1 2-3 seasons too early.
That said…what a driver he is turning out to be. The future of F1 is very safe with VER, LEC, NOR, RUS & SAI.
Aapje (@aapje)
16th August 2019, 16:47
I agree. If Max had been ready for F1, he wouldn’t have been soundly beaten in 2015 by Sainz, who did get several seasons in GP3 and Formula Renault 3.5 to mature. He also wouldn’t have languished at Torro Rosso, taking a very long time to move on to Red Bull, because his progress was halted by being promoted to F1 too soon.
Can you imagine what would have happened if he had been given time to mature? He might even have won his first race after being promoted to Red Bull, rather than languishing far behind Ricciardo for season after season, as actually happened.
Daniel
16th August 2019, 18:28
2015
Verstappen 49 pts
Sainz 18 pts
Johnny H.
17th August 2019, 3:39
“he wouldn’t have been soundly beaten in 2015 by Sainz”… how did he got beaten by Sainz?
Season 2015, Max 49 points – Sainz 18 points, qualifying 9-10.
bebop
17th August 2019, 17:37
Johnny H.:
Irony:
the expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.
Aapje (@aapje)
17th August 2019, 23:35
It was sarcasm.
Matn
17th August 2019, 8:55
Dean,
You realise Verstappen would have finished 5th in his very first race in F1… in Toro Rosso..? (engine blew 5 laps before the end) he took two P4’s. Verstappen crashed once in his rookie year… Alonso crashed (even worse) the year after doing a similar move… was Alonso ready…? He also crashed only once in his second year…. In his thrid year he took his first driver out, which didn’t happen again ever since.
Verstappen was ready, his elbows out style led to major controversy, but never even got investigated over the ‘Verstappen rule’. Mybe you weren’t ready, Verstappen was though….. raising the minimum age to 18 seems a good idea though…not many drivers (read one in a million) would be as ready as he was.
PeterF
17th August 2019, 9:48
They are being sarcastic
anon
17th August 2019, 10:01
Matn, I’m not sure what you are basing that claim on for Verstappen’s first race, because it’s a pretty inaccurate description of the 2015 Australian Grand Prix.
In the 2015 Australian Grand Prix, Verstappen only briefly ran as high as 5th place for two laps – lap 25 and lap 26 – and only because he was yet to make his first pit stop, which meant he was artificially promoted up the order by people in front of him pitting earlier than he did (Verstappen having been one of the last to make his first pit stop).
When he did finally make his pit stop on lap 32, he ended up back in the position that he’d been running most of that race in, which was 8th place. As an aside, his engine failure then occurred after he had rejoined the race in 8th place, so again the claim that his engine “blew 5 laps from the end” is also wrong.
In reality, Verstappen was not anywhere near challenging for 5th place in his first race – the only way that you could make such a claim is by very selectively cherry picking those two laps during the race where he ran 5th, whilst simultaneously ignoring what was happening in terms of pit stop sequence, and then falsely claiming that those two laps were representative of the broader sequence of events in the race when they clearly are not.
Matn
17th August 2019, 21:01
2Anon,
Your right, I was wrong…somehow I had that race different in my mind…
Though to my defense, Verstappen DNF-ed just after putting on fresh Soft tyres while the drivers in front of him all had older Mediums, P5 was optimistic, though P6 would have been very realistic.
I’ll fresh up my memory the next time :-)
Robbie (@robbie)
17th August 2019, 15:11
The thing for me upon first hearing of this young son of Jos, Max, was that what was being said about him indeed made him sound exceptional, and I haven’t heard the same things said about another young driver since. We often hear of young up and coming drivers being termed ‘the next Senna, Schumacher’ etc. and I can’t recall who said what exactly about Max, but just remember being instantly intrigued because it did truly sound like he was an anomaly, and here we are.
So in that sense I think Max was not promoted too early, whereas the majority of drivers his age in a similar setting would perhaps be better off held back a bit such as TW is suggesting for GR. With Max, the mistakes did not demoralize him or pressure him. Rather he took it in stride and learned and grew for that is how much potential was/is in him. Others with perhaps talent but less potential might have things go ‘terribly wrong’ as TW puts it, and we’ve certainly seen it happen, but I don’t think that was ever in the cards for Max.
So I don’t look at Max for what he did or didn’t do in his first race or season or what have you…it is where he has come to in a short period of time, as forecasted by those who talked him up in the very beginning and have now had their predictions vindicated. I think Max in a WCC car will be unstoppable, and that would include even if he had that now at 21.
erikje
17th August 2019, 18:06
seems i missed a lot of those fake accidents and errors during those illustrious 5 years ;)
Not only did he make hardly any mistakes but he raised the bar in passing other drivers.
It was a force of nature coming into F1. He made some mistakes of course. But looking at the errors LEC makes this year alone, it was a nothing special.
Dean
16th August 2019, 15:17
I’d just like to counter “there will never be another Max” with…2007, 2008, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018. I won’t bother with details as they are quite easy to find 😀
Patrick (@anunaki)
16th August 2019, 16:07
Lewis didn’t even debut on the age Max is right now
Dean
16th August 2019, 18:31
If we are comparing drivers bursting onto the scene then there are non that compare to Lewis. Max would never have had a first 2 seasons like Lewis Did as he WAS NOT ready for F1. Lewis was. That’s my point.
Matn
17th August 2019, 9:02
Dean… Lewis was actually older in his debut year than Max is after 5 full seasons…?
Completely apples and oranges, you just throwing things against the wall cause of being a Lewis fan… don’t try and compare their junior series, there’s hardly ever been a driver as dominant as Max was in karts.
As for the 2014 F3 series…9 DNF’s explains a lot…. 10 podiums (of which 7 P1’s) in his first ever 14 finishes in formula racing…. in a very mediocre car (VAR against Prema, equals Mercedes for Ocon).
Max got into F1 at age 17 for good reasons… RBR offered him a seat, knowing he’de become a Mercedes junior otherwise… they had little choice.
JohnH (@johnrkh)
16th August 2019, 15:20
@anunaki Get a room :))
Patrick (@anunaki)
16th August 2019, 16:03
@johnrkh
(Y)
Boudi
16th August 2019, 15:27
@anunaki Verstappen is outstanding but is not God and is not career error free, actually his career is full of own mistakes that denied him and his teams a lot of points. his debut race was catastrophic with TR, he drove into his teammate and ended 10th instead of a well earned 6th I believe. His first ever win with Red Bull came at Barcelona where Red Bull used to dominate dur superior downforce and due to the fact 1. HAM & ROS took each others out from 1st and 2nd, and Redbull messed Ricardio’s race, putting him on 3 stop strategy compared to 2 for VER. Not to take anything away from the guy, he’s super fast and he matured this year, I like his new approach, but just don’t take it to the extreme. He’s not a championship winner and he’s 3rd in the constructors where he should be when MERC has the best car. So nothing unusual.
Patrick (@anunaki)
16th August 2019, 16:09
He did not crash into Sainz on his debut. His car broke down and he DNF
And all drivers have made mistakes. Including Vettel and Lewis. People make mistakes
Boudi
16th August 2019, 19:15
My point, which denies the claim he should say no driver ever will be like Max or will do what Max did.
Aapje (@aapje)
16th August 2019, 20:48
Even Max did not do what people say Max did. Truly a legend.
Matn
17th August 2019, 9:08
Boudi…
Ow boy..did you get that one wrong… max would have finished P5 in his debut race, if his engine wouldn’t have failed just before the finish.
You’re referring to the first race the year after… Sainzs held up Max after the pitstops and got stuch for many laps…. it completely ruined his race and could have finished 4th (in a TR). He did not crash into Sainz, they touched, but did no damage to either of them.After the race Sainz mentioned this was payback for what happened in Singapore the year before…. Max made it very clear this should never happen again, RB knew by then they’de loose Max over such issues.
As for his first win…check the laptimes charts, than you;ll know who was the faster driver on track… Dan ruined his race by fighting Vettel, goign of track, getting a puncture and so on… don;t blame RBR for the faster driver to win a race
anon
17th August 2019, 14:39
Matn, as I have explained above, that claim that he would have finished in 5th is wrong as he only ran in 5th for two laps due to pit stop strategy and was on course to finish closer to 8th, before his engine then failed just over halfway into the race.
The only way that you can come to that conclusion is by deliberate cherry picking two unrepresentative laps from that race and falsely claiming that he was in that position for most of the race when, quite bluntly, he was not.
Patrick (@anunaki)
16th August 2019, 16:30
Meh I’m too drunk to do this :D
Nevermind
socksolid (@socksolid)
16th August 2019, 12:31
On the other hand having russell drive for williams for another season will hurt russell’s development. If the first year in f1 is about proving your speed your second season should be in a team where you can prove you can handle pressure and snatch good result when things go your way. Williams can not really offer that which could lead to russell’s development stalling. Russell needs a tough team mate and faster team so he can be put into the mid field where he can prove he consistently fast. No matter how you put it there is no good path from backmarker williams to front running dominating mercedes. You need something else in the middle and russell needs it quick.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
16th August 2019, 12:41
@socksolid – that’s a brilliant viewpoint.
Robbie (@robbie)
17th August 2019, 15:29
I’m not so sure about that. I don’t subscribe to a cut and dry formula of speed in year one and moving to a better team in year two. That isn’t really most drivers’ reality. I think that those that matter inside F1 know when a driver is doing well in spite of their equipment. The teams all know of the problems Williams, for example, is having, and can suss out when GR, for example, is having a good day, and is learning and growing. Those inside F1 in the know are not going to punish GR for the terrible car he has. Is he progressing, no matter the equipment, is what folks are loooing for. Example, Gasly with a much better car has squandered it.
So to me if GR is still at Williams next year he still has a great opportunity to show poise, patience, maturity, positive attitude, and show that stability from one year to the next can see him continue to contribute and have his input add to the team and the package.
As to handling pressure, I think pressure comes in various forms and certainly not all drivers are experiencing the same type or level of pressure at once. There’s the pressure drivers put on themselves, there’s lesser pressure situations when a driver new to a team is really just expected to adapt, gel, learn, and grow, and exceeding that is just gravy, and then there’s more pressure in his second season on the team when the newness is not there, and then there’s the ‘real’ pressure of fighting for wins and WDCs while not squandering the capable equipment all while being up against a top driver or two.
Toxic
16th August 2019, 13:45
Maybe wait till he beats a disabled person. Which as points stand is not happening yet.
anon
17th August 2019, 14:57
That is really a very narrow minded view of the situation, and one that seems to be driven by your own personal bias rather than any rational assessment of the situation.
We have a situation where Kubica is being comprehensively demolished in every single metric that you can look at, from qualifying (yet to outqualify Russell, or even look remotely capable of doing so), to laps spent ahead of their team mate (Russell having led Kubica by over six times as many laps that Kubica has), to times that the driver has finished ahead of their team mate (10-2 in Russell’s favour, and one of those successes for Kubica was only because Russell was forced into a front wing change due to damage caused by Kubica).
You yourself have been far harsher on drivers in other teams who have been more competitive against their team mates than Kubica has been against Russell, but in the case of Kubica, it seems that you want instead to reach for any explanation that means you can avoid criticising Kubica for his performances.
Moi
18th August 2019, 1:31
Funny. Wrong, but funny.
GtisBetter (@)
16th August 2019, 13:50
The way i see it, the first year is about communication with team and engineers, learning tracks, setup and tyres. And making mistakes. Second year is showing that you have progressed from your first year by being faster and smarter. And still some mistakes.
Then you get a new drive and you are expected to deliver. Everybody is different and you can put some drivers in a winning car right away and some need more time to develop. Every driver will take the chance at a top drive right away and most drivers will confess they weren’t ready at that time, but you just can’t say no, cause you never know if such an opportunity comes again.
mmertens (@mmertens)
16th August 2019, 17:54
Maybe Toto is evaluating how he will cope with Williams on this road to recovery. Depending on next years car, Williams might just reach the midfield or be a couple of tenths off the pack, and it’s there we might see Russel begins to shine, trying to get points on more races. This move actually will be able to provide him more time, experience and enhancing and building a solid career on the long term. I really like Toto’s pragmatic approach here.
Robbie (@robbie)
17th August 2019, 15:31
@passingisoverrated Very true and well said.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
16th August 2019, 18:39
I agree, Russell should be promoted to another team, which logically is Racing Point. That would mean promoting one of their drivers … to Mercedes …
erikje
17th August 2019, 18:39
racing point does not have drivers capable for the Merc team.
Or dad must buy Mercedes.. that;s an option ;)
Only Facts!
16th August 2019, 13:31
Does Toto manages Russel as well? I mean, he is a Mercedes driver, but is Toto his manager as he is to Bottas?
Because that line of thinking does not translate well when you think that his #1 driver was put in a McLaren right away against no other than Alonso and performed well. Verstappen sat in a RBR and won right away.
Promoting young drivers hás worked just fine when they are champions in the making. So either Toto thinks Russel is not worth It, or we’re back to paragraph one: how many drivers does he manage?
RocketTankski
16th August 2019, 14:19
Considering these team bosses take something of a salesman’s attitude to the truth, I won’t believe a word until I see the grid in Australia! If Bottas is approaching a “soft landing” and George is not ready then it has to be Ocon right? Toto made him pinkie promise that he won’t challenge Lewis in the corners and stays away from Max in the paddock :-)
Gabriel (@rethla)
16th August 2019, 14:27
Yeh just look at what happened to Gasly and Kvyat. They threw them into RB to quick and they got an underperforming number 2 driver out of it. Mercedes wouldnt wa…. oh wait.
JohnH (@johnrkh)
16th August 2019, 15:26
So I think we can expect a decision on the 2nd Merc seat next week then.
us-brian (@us-brian)
16th August 2019, 16:11
Russell will be at Mercedes. Maybe not next year but eventually. He does seem calm and composed. However he has not had much to race against. Mainly his teammate who is a shell of his former self. After just a few laps they are to far behind one of the other teams cars. He needs a year at Racing point or another team before moving up to Mercedes. Because it seems he is lacking experience (at least in F1) of consistent wheel to wheel and high pressure racing.
The problem is that Racing Point is not where they used to be in recent years and Williams…… Not in contention at all.
So how do you get that experience of coping with high pressure. I think Mercedes might need to invest a bit more into one of those two teams to become more competitive and help them develop their upcoming drivers.
Max was a fluke success. His attitude as a young Teenager and fearlessness helped him out. Many other drivers were too concerned about keeping their nose clean but produced no good results on track. Ocon has a similar attitude to Max and would do OK at Mercedes. But Mercedes are most likely less forgiving on making errors in their Works team at this point than what Red bull were letting Max get by with in his first year with them.
Plus Red Bull was competitive at times but was not challenging for the championship at all when Max got there.
Yes Red Bull kicked out Gasly and Kvyat but I believe that they are not anywhere close to what Max and Ocon are capable of.
Russell will get his chance. He just has to wait a bit longer to get there unless he starts getting worse. Or Mercedes decides to pull out of F1.
Witan
16th August 2019, 16:25
I believe Wolf is wrong about Russell – he is level headed and professional and fast. But he is British and the marketing people wouldn’t want two Brits in one team, a team barely German in composition as it stands.
In that respect a Fin is possibly better than a Frenchman. There is something about Nordic identities which gets a sympathetic response while other historically prominent ones do not. Not exactly a vanilla nationality but an empathetic one.
So perhaps Bottas will stay. Makes more sense in a broader range of markets. And Daimler are in F1 for marketing.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
16th August 2019, 16:30
One word, desperation. No point in russel working as a number 2, he’s got time.
Aapje (@aapje)
16th August 2019, 17:09
I find it hard to judge whether Russell has the potential to be a Bottas-level driver or whether he is more talented than that. Kubica seems to have severe problems extracting speed from his car. The other cars that Russell has been racing have also been piloted by second or third-rate drivers, like Giovinazzi and Stroll. I want to see him race drivers like Ricciardo and Raikkonen to see how he deals with that level of racecraft.
Russell gets a lot of credit for being mature, but Bottas is mature as well and that doesn’t prevent people from criticizing him harshly when his pace is lacking. Actual results always matter more than personality. I don’t think it makes sense for Mercedes to replace Bottas with Russell, rather than let Russell prove himself more.
I hope that Russell either moves to a better team or Williams get their act together again, so he gets the chance to show his true talents and gets challenged in a way that will teach him a lot.
Xcm
16th August 2019, 19:43
Only the clueless would think russel had any chance at that race seat… sadly we have some of those clueless people here in the comment section. Probably the same people who think redbull would hire alonso.
Edvaldo
16th August 2019, 21:59
If the guy is ready, why not? It worked well with Hamilton and Verstappen.
And i believe Russell may develop into a far better driver than Ocon quite quickly.
John H (@john-h)
16th August 2019, 22:10
👍 Valtteri Bottas likes this
Jose Lopes da Silva
16th August 2019, 23:34
“As a personality there’s not one bad word about Honda, only good words about his team, the commitment to the team and that is absolutely the right behaviour of a driver. We wouldn’t expect anything else.”
This seems to target Alonso.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
17th August 2019, 4:00
Ahah, that’s very true, didn’t think about it.
Robbie (@robbie)
17th August 2019, 14:41
I don’t think TW would be feeling the need to make a dig at FA. He’s talking strictly about Max this season imho. But in honesty let’s recall that prior to this year there was negativity towards Renault and their lagging Pu. And let’s recall 2016 when Nico won the WDC and LH spent the season running his own team down for favouring Nico. TW even published a letter defending his team and their integrity to counter the conspiracy theorists that LH was feeding. One can expect certain things, but not always get them.
JMDan (@danmar)
17th August 2019, 3:48
At least one person in F1 seems to get it.
Matn
17th August 2019, 9:13
i think Mercedes has the luxury of being lazy, they (still) have a dominant car which allows them to take the safe route.
Therefore I think Bottas will be driving for them next season as well, he’s not winning, but beats Lewis in quali on a regular basis, Lewis wins most races…what else could they wish for…..
Ocon will go out the backdoor, probably not good enough to take that 2nd seat… being a hothead and not having been behind the wheel is no safe bet. This gives Mercedes another year to let Russel grow… he will be at Mercedes probably the year after.
Both RBR and Ferrari have placed their bets on young drivers and for both it seems to work out just fine…. I wouldn’t be amazed if Russel could do to Hamilton what Leclerc is doing to Vettel…. I doubt Mercedes will want that to happen.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
17th August 2019, 11:54
Well promoting young drivers too soon can be a problem, but so can not having a drive for them.
One wonders why Mercedes even bother to have a young driver programme. They’re hardly likely to put one in their car, Racing Point is pretty much a closed shop now that Lance is there so all they have is a possibility of putting one in at Williams but they won’t pay Williams the sort of money they can get from a pay driver so even Williams is a hard sell for them.