Toto Wolff: We tried to slow down Kimi.
After the Monaco Grand Prix, Mercedes drivers experienced opposite emotions – Kimi Antonelli secured his fifth consecutive victory, while George Russell failed to score points for the second race in a row, finishing thirteenth. Team principal Toto Wolff commented on the race results.
Toto Wolff: “On one hand, I’m happy for Kimi. The guys made me go up on the podium. They said, ‘You live here, you have to go.’ But I was looking at George, who had a less than ideal weekend. I want to maintain emotional balance – we need to lift team spirit as we head to Barcelona.
It’s just incredible what Kimi is capable of. He controlled the situation and at times was one and a half seconds faster than everyone else. On the restarts, he pulled away – just unbelievable. Bono [Peter Bonnington, Antonelli's race engineer] and I tried to slow him down! I told Kimi that he already had a half-minute lead, but he kept showing such lap times. Then we thought, maybe he just has that rhythm.
As for George, we need to keep moving forward. The season is long – last year everyone thought the title would go to Oscar Piastri, but then everything changed. In Montreal, he lost 25 points due to dramatic events, but as I said, the season is long.”
When asked why George Russell was unable to serve his 5-second penalty, Wolff said: “We weren’t fully prepared for his pit stop. We had some confusion with the strategy ourselves, then he came in, and we couldn’t serve the five-second penalty. It’s a shame because we lost third or fourth place.”
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Toto Wolff: We tried to slow down Kimi.
Following the Monaco Grand Prix, the Mercedes drivers experienced opposite emotions – Kimi Antonelli secured his fifth consecutive victory, while George Russell failed to score points for the second race in a row, finishing thirteenth. Team principal Toto Wolff commented on the race results.