© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
After an unbelievable set of mistakes and bad luck that cost George Russell his first race win, Toto Wolff gives first comments on the Sakhir Grand Prix.
Unbelievable is the word. George Russell was on the brink of passing Sergio Perez to reclaim his P1 in the race, after a mix-up with the tyres during Mercedes’ “safety stop” dropped him a few places. But then he suffered a tyre puncture that prevented a fairy tale ending.
“First of all the podium It’s great to see,” said Mercedes’ team boss Toto Wolff told Sky Sports F1 after the race.
“It’s a refreshing new podium with Esteban and happy for him to score. Checo has incredible pace.
“Overall for us, it was just a colossal f*** up. I’m not allowed to say that but it was.
“Simply put, one of the tyre crews didn’t get a call. We had a radio failure in the garage and when the car came in they didn’t know to change the tyres and had the wrong tyres.
“This is accidentally why we had the wrong set of tyres out.”
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Wolff was asked if Valtteri Bottas’ tyres got put on George Russell’s car.
“Exactly. Then we obviously had to pit again. But then the race wasn’t lost, but then one bad thing comes…”
The botched stop came during a Safety Car period and Wolff confirms it was done as a “safety stop”.
“We did need to double stack because it was a Safety Car stop. We were fine on the hards and could have stayed out, but we had the gap and this is when you do these things.
“You can question that but I think it is absolutely the right call. Still, I cannot even watch these pictures.
“Overall we were doing a good job. Technical failures happen. It wasn’t any human error. These things happen and we have to learn from it.”
