‘One of My Worst Experiences’: Wolff Fumes After Russell’s Latest Mercedes DNF

While Max Verstappen celebrated his first win of the season, the mood in the Mercedes garage was entirely different. George Russell retired with five laps to go while running third, felled by yet another power unit failure — his third DNF of the season and Mercedes’ fourth overall, following Antonelli’s mechanical issue in Barcelona.

Toto Wolff didn’t hide his frustration with the media: “I’m so massively annoyed and not in a happy place.” His verdict on the whole affair was even blunter: “It’s one of my worst experiences, to be honest.” On the failure itself, the Mercedes boss explained it wasn’t linked to the Virtual Safety Car periods: “It’s a PU failure. It wasn’t caused by the Safety Car, so we haven’t assessed it yet.”

Wolff also pointed to a cruel run of circumstances: “We had such an advantage, [but then] two VSCs or one VSC, two Safety Cars… you couldn’t be more unlucky.” Still, with seven races left in the season, he struck a cautiously confident tone about fixing the reliability issues: “I think we have a good action plan.”

Antonelli’s second place at least brought points — but after three Mercedes retirements in just a few months, Wolff’s optimism is starting to sound like wishful thinking.

Source: Formula1.com (https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/one-of-my-worst-experiences-wolff-not-in-a-happy-place-after-russell-dnf-at-bahrain-gp-in-malaysia.31mD5xtSaBYdMAkMZNxCHQ)