Toto Wolff admits that some of George Russell’s deficit to Mercedes team mate Kimi Antonelli in Qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix is “not his fault”.
Antonelli claimed his sixth pole position of the season on Saturday in Spa, beating Max Verstappen to the fastest time by more than three tenths.
While Antonelli will start from the front row once again, Russell was only able to qualify P4, but will be promoted a spot due to a 10-place grid penalty for Lando Norris.
Russell complained about straight-line speed through all three practice sessions and was left half a second adrift in Qualifying, with Wolff admitting that the Briton lacked top speed compared with his Italian team mate.
“George is obviously suffering from a lack of straight-line speed we are unable to explain – a couple of tenths,” Mercedes’ Team Principal told F1 TV.
“We’ve literally left no stone unturned. Is it the power unit? Kimi has a brand-new power unit and this makes the difference? We will see on the next tracks because they will be less energy starved, it doesn’t make a big difference.
“Then there’s a few tenths that George needs to find, lots of it he has already found but over a few corners there’s still two tenths, two and a half tenths.
“So overall, he’s recovered well but at the moment he doesn’t gel with the car. He hasn’t for the last two weekends and that’s probably not his fault, we just need to bring it together.”
Antonelli holds a 25-point lead in the Drivers’ standings ahead of Sunday’s race, despite having non-scored in two of the last three races due to car problems.
Wolff admitted that despite this, the momentum was still behind the Italian teenager as he looks for his sixth Grands Prix win this season.
“He was born to do this. He’s in a way reflective, calm, when the situation doesn’t work out,” said Wolff.
“There’s not much complication around him. They do the work with [race engineers] Bono and Stefan and his ability to compartmentalise, analyse, put it aside and then just go.
“Also, obviously he has the momentum behind him. It’s much easier if you are the underdog a bit – the young kid – things are going easier than being the one who is expected to perform.”
