George Russell admitted he was shocked when Mercedes crew principal Toto Wolff shouted at him on the radio throughout the Austrian Grand Prix.
Wolff got here on the radio to inform Russell he was in place to win the race after Max Verstappen and Lando Norris collided whereas battling over the lead.
Russell’s race engineer Marcus Dudley informed him Verstappen had suffered a puncture within the collision. Because it emerged Norris had additionally incurred harm, Wolff referred to as out: “George, you possibly can win this. You may win this, George.”
Wolff despatched his message as Russell was heading into the high-speed braking zone at flip three. Race engineers ordinarily keep away from speaking to their drivers at these essential factors on the lap, and an alarmed Russell informed his crew boss: “Let me fucking drive.”
Russell mentioned he was shocked by the surprising message as he was operating third and making an attempt to remain forward of Carlos Sainz Jnr and Oscar Piastri.
“I knew Oscar was going to be fast, and he form of got here slightly bit out of nowhere in the direction of the tip of the race on these onerous tyres. For me it was fairly troublesome.
“Then abruptly I had Toto screaming in my ear, ‘you possibly can win this’. And I virtually crashed when he screamed into my ears. It was that loud.”
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Nonetheless Russell mentioned he appreciated Wolff’s eagerness for the crew to attain its first win for the reason that penultimate victory of 2022.
“I believe it simply goes to point out the fervour that all of us share,” he mentioned. “And it’s clearly been a tricky couple of years for us. It feels nice to be again on the highest step.”
Though it took a slice of luck for Russell to attain his first win since Interlagos in 2022, Russell was comfortable to take it.
“It’s racing. Typically it goes towards you and I really feel like we’ve most likely missed out on one or two prospects of victories.
Montreal was one, arguably Singapore [2023], issues might have gone very barely in another way final yr, and right this moment it went for us. So it’s how the cookie crumbles.”
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