George Russell admitted he was shocked when Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff shouted at him on the radio during the Austrian Grand Prix.
Wolff came on the radio to tell Russell he was in position to win the race after Max Verstappen and Lando Norris collided while battling over the lead.
Russell’s race engineer Marcus Dudley told him Verstappen had suffered a puncture in the collision. As it emerged Norris had also incurred damage, Wolff called out: “George, you can win this. You can win this, George.”
Wolff sent his message as Russell was heading into the high-speed braking zone at turn three. Race engineers ordinarily avoid talking to their drivers at these critical points on the lap, and an alarmed Russell told his team boss: “Let me fucking drive.”
Russell said he was surprised by the unexpected message as he was running third and trying to stay ahead of Carlos Sainz Jnr and Oscar Piastri.
“I knew Oscar was going to be quick, and he sort of came a little bit out of nowhere towards the end of the race on those hard tyres. For me it was pretty difficult.
“Then suddenly I had Toto screaming in my ear, ‘you can win this’. And I almost crashed when he screamed into my ears. It was that loud.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
However Russell said he appreciated Wolff’s eagerness for the team to score its first win since the penultimate victory of 2022.
“I think it just goes to show the passion that we all share,” he said. “And it’s obviously been a tough couple of years for us. It feels great to be back on the top step.”
Although it took a slice of luck for Russell to score his first win since Interlagos in 2022, Russell was happy to take it.
“It’s racing. Sometimes it goes against you and I feel like we’ve probably missed out on one or two possibilities of victories.
Montreal was one, arguably Singapore [2023], things could have gone very slightly differently last year, and today it went for us. So it’s how the cookie crumbles.”
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories – and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2024 Austrian Grand Prix
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…