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George Russell revealed that he was close to crashing after Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff gave him an unexpected dose of motivation on the radio. This happened during the final stages of the 2024 F1 Austrian GP.
On lap 64 of the race, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, who were running P1 and P2, made contact with each other on turn 3. They had been battling closely for the last couple of laps and ended up colliding, damaging both cars. Verstappen suffered from a puncture and Norris had to retire his car. This gave Russell an unforeseen opportunity.
The Mercedes driver started the race in P3 and ran in the position consistently. After the top two drivers fell down the order, it gave him an easy lead. This was unexpected for the team, and at the same time, it was a huge gain for them since their performance since the start of the season was very poor.
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Amid this, Mercedes team principal made a surprising appearance on Russell's team radio, telling him that he could "win this." However, the driver was too focused on the race itself since Oscar Piastri was chasing him on a softer compound, and hence asked Wolff to "let [him] race."
Explaining his comment later, George Russell revealed that he was taken aback by the message and was close to crashing.
"On those hard tyres for me was pretty difficult [getting away from Piastri]," he told the media in Austria. "And then suddenly I had Toto screaming in my ear, "You can win this!"
"I almost crashed when he screamed into my ears, it was that loud, but I think it just goes to show the passion that we all share. It's obviously been a tough couple of years for us, so it feels great to be back on the top step."
Toto Wolff himself later mentioned that it was one of the "stupidest" things he had done. He stated that he was too focused on the crash between the two drivers and did not see that Russell was on a tricky part of the track.
George Russell on Mercedes' form after winning the Austrian GP
Earlier, 2024 was marked as the Brackley-based team's worst start to a season in the past decade. However, they started showing signs of improvement in the car since the Monaco GP.
Although the W15 did not look in a position to win until the two leading drivers were out of contention for P1, they looked rather competitive. As mentioned, George Russell was running constantly in P3. His teammate Lewis Hamilton pulled his car into P4.
Speaking of the improved performance after the race, Russell claimed that they could have won the race earlier in Canada as well:
"I think we’re riding a bit of a wave at the moment,” F1 quoted him as saying. "These last three races have been incredible."
"I think realistically we probably could have won the race in Canada so this probably makes up for one too many mistakes my side there, and I’m just really proud to be back on the top step."
Austria marked George Russell's second F1 victory and the team's first since Brazil in 2022, which the Briton also won.
