Wolff confirms decision made over Russell and Bottas for second Mercedes seat

Wolff hailed Russell's performance in Belgian GP qualifying

Ian Parkes

Saturday 28 August 2021 19:17

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has confirmed a decision has been made as to who will partner Lewis Hamilton at the F1 team in 2022.

Wolff, though, is refusing to state at present whether it is George Russell or Valtteri Bottas, claiming Mercedes "need to manage the situation well" with regard to who will miss out.

Wolff was asked on two separate occasions whether a decision had been made, and he twice replied "yes", adding on one occasion to the journalist concerned: "You know I've always been genuine with you".

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In attempting to read between the lines, it appears Russell has been given the nod, with Wolff now trying to line up a place for Bottas, either in F1 or elsewhere.

"If it would have been an easier decision we would have made it earlier because we know what we have with Valtteri and we know what we have with George," said Wolff.

"Both of them deserve being looked after in the best possible way because both of them are part of the family and we hold them up high."

At one point asked if a Hamilton/Russell partnership would be difficult to manage, Wolff replied: "There are pros and cons with any driver line-up, and in the end, there is no such thing as a perfect discussion.

"We just need to manage it well, and manage the situation well with whoever is not going to be in a Mercedes next year to ensure there is an exciting programme.

"And on the other side manage the situation internally like we always have with Nico [Rosberg] and George."

Russell's qualifying lap "brilliant"

Wolff has declared to being amazed by Williams driver Russell's performance in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix, with the Briton even out-performing a renowned master of the wet in Hamilton to secure second on the grid behind Max Verstappen.

After initially joking to being "a little bit disappointed because he should have been on pole", Wolff added: "I looked at the onboards of all the drivers.

"From the beginning, he was the only one who, in La Source, gained so much time to everyone else. He was the only one who was on the apex.

"That is certainly a factor of driving, of having the right set-up and tyre temperatures in the window.

"The way Williams approached qualifying was very clever, risky, but clever, with two consecutive laps, and the first defensive. They took a risk and they won.

"He [Russell] was very committed through Eau Rouge and the car also looked very good through the rest of the lap.

"It needs a driver to maximise that or exploit the full potential of the package, or over-perform the package, and all that came together.

"We saw a brilliant lap from a brilliant young driver."

Insisting Russell's performance "doesn't make any difference" to his decision now, he continued: "We know what we have with George.

"He has been outstanding in the junior categories, he has been outstanding at Williams, he was outstanding when he was with us in Bahrain [in last year's Sakhir GP when he replaced Hamilton]."