© Wolfgang Wilhelm for Daimler AG
After the Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying Toto Wolff revealed Mercedes has made its decision on who will drive alongside Lewis Hamilton in 2022.
After George Russell’s impressive P2 at the Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying, Toto Wolff was asked if Mercedes has made a decision between the young Briton and Valtteri Bottas for Mercedes’ 2022 seat.
“Yes”, Wolff said, adding that he has “always been genuine” with journalists.
Wolff also jokingly said he was “a little bit disappointed, because [Russell] should have been on pole”.
“I think we know what we have with George,” Wolff continued.
“He’s been outstanding in the junior categories, he’s been outstanding at Williams, he’s been outstanding when he’s been [driving for Mercedes] in Bahrain.
“And if I needed to have that ultimate proof, then something would have been wrong. It’s not down only to [performance], the decision is also considering other factors.”
“If it would have been an easy decision, we would have made it earlier, because we know what we have with Valtteri and we know what we have with George.
“Both of them deserve being looked after. Both deserve to be looked after in the best possible way, because both of them are part of the family, and we hold them up high.
“So there are pros and cons, like with any driver line-up, and at the end, there is no such thing as a perfect discussion.
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“We just need to manage it well, and manage the situation well, with whoever driver is not going to be in a Mercedes next year, and make sure there is an exciting programme.
“And on the other side, manage the situation internally like we’ve always had.
The Austrian went on to praise Russell’s performance in qualifying.
“I looked at the onboards of the drivers and I think from the beginning he’s the only one who in La Source gained so much time to everyone else, as he’s the only one who’s on the apex.
“So that is a fact of driving and also having the right set-up and the tyre temperatures in the window. The way Williams has approached qualifying was very clever. Risky but clever.
“He was very committed through Eau Rouge and the car also looks very good through the rest of the lap, but it needs a driver to maximise that or exploit the full potential of the package or overperform the package, and all that came together today.
“You saw a brilliant lap from a brilliant young driver,” concluded Mercedes’ team boss.
