New theory emerges after Toto Wolff’s ‘screaming’ radio messages to George Russell

George Russell smiling in a post session interview

Screaming at George Russell over the radio in Austria, it has been suggested Toto Wolff’s message to his driver was down to a “small concern” that Russell can overdo it when he has a sniff at a win.

Just 24 hours after Lewis Hamilton predicted Mercedes would “potentially” be winless this season, such was Max Verstappen’s pace advantage, Russell found himself P1 at the Austrian Grand Prix.

George Russell nabbed Mercedes’ first win of the season in Austria

Benefitting from the lap 64 crash between race leader Verstappen and second-placed Lando Norris, Russell took the lead heading into Turn 4.

His team boss Toto Wolff was very, very excited. “You can win this!” he shouted over the radio.

Russell snapped back: “Let me f*cking drive!”

With Russell later revealing he “almost crashed” with Wolff “screaming in my ear”, the team boss told media including PlanetF1.com: “I think I know the drivers pretty well and what they need at times to encourage or to refocus, because I spend so much time with them. So I think I know the psychology.

“But this one is the single dumbest thing I’ve done in 12 years at Mercedes. I will be forever ashamed of this.”

However, experienced F1 journalist Julianne Cerasoli, speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, wonders if Sunday’s message, not Wolff’s first to Russell, is because Mercedes have a “small concern” about the driver.

More on George Russell and Toto Wolff’s thoughts on that radio shout

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👉Toto Wolff left feeling ‘forever ashamed’ after the ‘dumbest thing I’ve done’

“I do feel Mercedes feels George sometimes he changes a little bit and he gets a bit overly aggressive or he starts making mistakes when he feels he’s got a chance to win,” she said.

“And that has happened before. That happened in Singapore last year, the team felt like he was trying to control everything inside the team because he felt he had a chance. And it happened in Canada as well.

“So there is this small concern at Mercedes about how he…”

Peeling off as Davide Valsecchi chipped with a negative hand gesture, she continued: “He’s saying I’m under-rating him. No, no. There is this concern, and that’s why Toto got on the radio going, ‘Come on, George, come on, George’.”

“No,” was podcast host Tom Clarkson’s input. “I think Toto got on the radio because he just couldn’t believe that they were about to win a Grand Prix.”

Cerasoli replied: “But then in Canada, he goes like, ‘Focus George’ so he feels the need to do that with him. So it’s this little bit that he needs to improve.

“But this weekend he maximised. Maybe the best scenario for him is this, not having a chance for winning, and then just end up winning.”

Russell’s 25 points saw him extend his advantage over his team-mate Hamilton in the race for P7 in the Drivers’ standings to 26 points with the seven-time World Champion fourth in Austria.