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Toto Wolff believes that Fernando Alonso’s defensive maneuver on George Russell was on the aggressive side at the Australian GP. The Mercedes Executive Director felt that the Spanish driver’s data proved it was a deliberate tactic to defend the Brit.
The Spanish champion tried to defend George Russell at Turn 6 on the final lap of the race. A miscalculated braking maneuver resulted in the British driver losing control of his car and crashing.
Several drivers have spoken about the issue but their opinions are split. While some felt it was a common defence tactic used by most drivers, others felt it was a bit extreme.
Alonso was slapped with a 20-second time penalty where he dropped from sixth place to ninth. However, the debate over the issue is about the rules of engagement when it comes to using defensive tactics on the track.
Wolff claimed that his driver had also taken partial responsibility that it might have been the wrong corner for attempting an overtake. On the other hand, Alonso felt that the penalty was harsh and wouldn’t have been issued if George Russell hadn't had a retirement. Lando Norris felt the Mercedes driver should have anticipated it, while Nico Hulkenberg and Charles Leclerc felt the Spaniard deserved the penalty.
Speaking at the team principals' press conference about Alonso’s incident with George Russell, Wolff said:
“You can hear the drivers. They obviously understand much more on a track that I've never raced on. They're split. I think Fernando was aggressively defending with trying to take out the momentum before the corner. Maybe he's overdone it. And George was just trying to, you know, make an overtake there, but also takes a certain part of responsibility for having lost the car there. So what I make of this accident, I think in these high-speed corners, maybe.”
“You need to take a little bit of the karting philosophy out of killing speed before the corner in order to have a better accident. But who am I to say, I'm not sitting in that car, I've never been on that level, so I'm just an observer and I look at the data and throttle and brake input, and that was very different on that lap to all the others.”
Mercedes boss weighs in on George Russell and Lewis Hamilton’s retirement
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has moved on from the double retirements of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton at the Australian GP race weekend. He felt that their main issue was performance and pace.
The 52-year-old believes that the team are aware of the necessary steps to take to turn around their performance. He felt both retirements were common occurrences. The Australian explained that Hamilton’s engine failure was a critical one, which they did not anticipate. In terms of performance, they have had the pace in the low speed corners but have been slow in the medium and high speed corners.
Asked how much the result in Melbourne hurt, Wolff said:
“My calibration is different. I think we are honest. We know where we are on track and what performance step we need to make. And if the car is quick, I'm happy. If the car is not quick, none of us is happy. And whether we DNF or not is a matter of Constructor points. But we're looking for pace. George had an accident and Lewis DNF'd on the engine, which both of them can happen when you go racing cars.”
Explaining Hamilton’s retirement, he added:
“Yeah, that one is for the bin. It is a very highly unusual failure that we have, a hardware failure that we didn't see coming before. So yeah, we can't reuse that. And it depends how the season develops, whether we need one more or not. I can't really see at that stage whether that will be needed or not.”
George Russell and Lewis Hamilton’s retirements have cost Mercedes vital points in the Constructors' championship. As a result, they have dropped down to fourth place in the standings.
The Silver Arrows squad have scored 26 points in the first three races of the season. To add to their miseries, their customer team McLaren are 29 points ahead of them. With an uphill climb ahead and 21 more races on the calendar, it will be interesting to see how they manage to turn around their performance.
