Toto Wolff took the radio to emotionally support Russell
It is quite rare to hear Toto Wolff speak on the radio during a race, but the Mercedes boss chose to speak to George Russell when the rain fell during the Monaco Grand Prix, in order to provide him with emotional support.
George seemed well on track to reach the podium before making a mistake at the Mirabeau turn, shortly after switching to intermediate tires on the wet track.
By joining the track, Russell collided with Sergio Pérez’s Red Bull, an incident for which he received a five-second penalty and two penalty points on his Super License.
Russell feeling frustrated by his mistake, Toto Wolff grabbed the team radio to talk to the driver.
(I) I have already done this before. It’s just to encourage or calm down a bit sometimes. Drivers don’t see if they are fast or not. I think when you slide all over the place and have no grip, someone tells you that you are actually quite fast… I do this because the race engineers are fully focused, studying the tires and the strategy, and in this respect, I am just trying to support them from an emotional standpoint.
This weekend, the silver arrows, with their numerous improvements, indeed seemed fast. George Russell finished in 5th place, just behind his teammate Lewis Hamilton, who secured the fastest lap in the race (1’15”660).
