F1 News: Mercedes Boss Insists He Wouldn’t Ask George Russell To Move Over For Hamilton
After Sergio Perez was asked to move over for Max Verstappen at the Spanish Grand Prix, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has been questioned a lot about whether he’d ever ask Lewis Hamilton to move over for George Russell to overtake him.
Hamilton has been struggling so far this season, whereas Russell has shown a surprising level of performance with him continuing to come at least 5th in every race so far – the only driver to do that this season. Because of this, Russel sits 34 points ahead of Hamilton in the Driver Standings.
This is obviously a polarising result, with Lewis Hamilton having such a history in the sport and this being Russell’s first year in an F1 car that has serious potential. Sorry, Williams. But would Wolff ever ask Hamilton allow Russell to overtake him? Apparently not.
“No, 100 per cent no,” he told The Telegraph.
“One hundred per cent we will allow them to race until a driver is mathematically out of contention, we’re not making such a call.”
At the same time, he confirms that he wouldn’t ask Russell to move over for Hamilton, either.
“It makes no difference,” he insists.
He adds that Hamilton only sits lower on the board than Russell because of the bad luck he’s encountered.
“I think when you look at the bad spells that Lewis had – I mean look at the race today, stuck again, contact with Esteban, stuck behind Fernando, the red flag in qualifying and then you know what happened in races before…
“I think the pendulum will swing so that these unlucky situations will stop with Lewis.
“He could have been right there and closed on Lando’s [Norris] pit stop window or even fight with George and Lando in the front because that was his pace.
“They are very much on the same pace, one practice the one leads, then the other, and that is great how also they work together to get our car straight, because we need to get that car straight.”
