Toto Wolff was enraged by the decision to hand George Russell a five-second time penalty at the United States Grand Prix.
Russell and the man he replaced at Mercedes, Valtteri Bottas, went wheel to wheel at Turn 12 as the Silver Arrows star dove down the inside of his Sauber counterpart and consolidated his position by using up all of the track on his way out of the corner.
Bottas veered off track to avoid a collision with Russell, who was dismayed when the penalty was subsequently relayed over the team radio, replying: “What?!”
Wolff was similarly upset, as he jumped in to tell Russell: “Total joke with the penalty George. Total joke.”
The odds were against Russell from the very start at Circuit of the Americas, as essential repair work carried out when his car was meant to be sealed under parc ferme conditions forced him to start from the pit lane.
Weaving his way through the pack, the 26-year-old encountered Bottas and thought he had managed to pass the Finn without issue until learning of the time penalty from the Mercedes garage.
Tension boiled between Russell and Bottas three years ago when the drivers blamed each other for a high-speed collision at the 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix which put both of them out of the race.
Russell confronted Bottas in his cockpit and implied that he had defended ninth place more aggressively than usual due to the rumours that they were effectively battling it out for the same Mercedes seat. Wolff called that ‘bull***t’ and vowed to speak with Russell, who swiftly issued an apology.
“It wasn’t my proudest day,” he said. “I knew it would be one of the best opportunities to score points this season and, when these points matter as much as they do to us right now, sometimes you take risks. It didn’t pay off and I have to take responsibility for that.
“Having had time to reflect on what happened afterwards, I know I should have handled the whole situation better. Emotions can run high in the heat of the moment and mine got the better of me. I apologise to Valtteri, my team, and anyone who felt let down by my actions. That’s not who I am and I expect more from myself, as I know others expect from me.”
Russell stepped in to replace Bottas for the start of the 2022 season and immediately accomplished something his predecessor never did by beating Lewis Hamilton in the Drivers’ Championship standings.
