Toto Wolff has responded to a claim by former Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko that George Russell will never have another shot at the F1 title.
Russell’s F1 title hopes are hanging by a thread, with Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli needing only two points from five races to take the 2026 crown.
Toto Wolff: ‘I respect his opinion, but he’s wrong’
Russell struggled all weekend at the United States Grand Prix as his faint title hopes all but disappeared.
Heading into the weekend, the Brit knew that should teammate Antonelli win the race, he would require a top eight to continue the championship battle to Mexico – and eighth was where he took the flag.
This was just the latest in a string of underwhelming performances from Russell, with his victory in Azerbaijan proving to be the exception in recent months, as Antonelli established his dominant points lead, while Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, and Max Verstappen all closed in on the driver second in the standings.
Speaking earlier in the weekend, former Red Bull man Marko said: “Russell is no longer the number one driver.
“Antonelli has quite clearly taken that spot from him.
“I doubt whether he’ll ever have another chance at the world titleor be given number one status anywhere.”
Issuing a staunch defence of his driver, Wolff responded: “He’s my Austrian not so buddy, but I respect his opinion. But I think he’s wrong on George.
“George has all the ability. I think the car doesn’t suit him. I think that at the beginning of the season, it’s maybe difficult to cope with a situation where you’re feeling like this is my year to come, and then you have this wonderkid on the other side that starts to really chip away.
“And I believe that in a new season, George, if we provide him a quick car, it’s absolutely possible.
“He has absolutely what he needs to to win a championship. So I think it’s a bit too easy to say, let’s forget about all these years where he won in F2 and in F3 in his rookie years and the European Championships back to back in karting, and that’s still all there.”
While Antonelli has now notched up nine wins for the season, Russell remains stuck on just three.
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And the situation could have been worse still, with reliability problems costing Antonelli likely wins in both Barcelona and Silverstone.
Showing the high regard in which he still holds Russell, Wolff added: “George, for all of us in the team, is a champion and has won in every category, and I think he he merits to be put in the group of the the very best ones.
“We’ve seen that last year, and this year, like you like say, we see this variability in results.
“When it when when we land the car in the way that suits him, he’s absolutely fine. But when it drops out of that operational window, he struggles, and he struggles more than maybe Kimi. That is on us.
“We just have to work it out with him how there can be such a difference in driving in performance because George is not half a second slower, three-tenths slower than Kimi. It’s just absolutely not the case.
“So what is it that he doesn’t like? What is it that we need to do in terms of modifying the car, setting it up in a different way for him to go fast? Because it’s all there; the intelligence, the ability, the determination.”
Read more: Wolff lifts the lid on ‘weird’ Kimi Antonelli US GP admission
Originally published by Planet F1 —
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