‘He’s been formidable this year’ – Wolff praises Russell after ‘in control’ Singapore Grand Prix victory

Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has praised George Russell’s “in control” performance en route to victory in the Singapore Grand Prix, claiming the Briton has “been formidable this year”.

Russell claimed his second win of the season at the Marina Bay Street Circuit on Sunday after starting from pole and controlling proceedings throughout, finishing more than five seconds clear of Max Verstappen.

It marked Russell’s first win in Singapore, a track where he had previously only managed a best result of fourth and suffered several incidents, most notably crashing out from third on the final lap in 2023.

When asked how Russell has developed as a driver since then, Wolff admitted that the Briton had cut out critical errors during a season which has included only one none-score in 18 races.

“I think we’ve seen George in the past with these moments, but not recently, and that’s the step-up that he has made also this year, that these things don’t happen again,” said Wolff.

“He was in control of the race today, eking out an advantage, managing it when Max was a bit closer, and there was not at any moment a doubt that there was any risk in his driving.

“He’s been formidable this year. I haven’t seen mistakes. There were weekends that he himself said I could have done more, that it wasn’t a good race.

“But this happens with any driver. You can see when it merges, the car being in a perfect space, and the driver being on top of things, that becomes the dominant formula, and that is what we’ve seen here.”

The Mercedes boss was at a loss to explain why the team was so competitive in Singapore, with Kimi Antonelli also showing impressive pace and finishing fifth after being stuck behind Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari for much of the race following a poor start from P4.

“That was never a nice place for us in terms of car performance. It’s obviously a great place, other than driving,” he said.

“And if you would have told me that we’re dominating in the way we did today, I would have not believed it. But from the get-go on both tyres, driver and car, were just in sync and not to be beaten.

“Kimi is also one that always sees the glass half-empty, and what he will see is a Q3 that didn’t go to plan, that could have put him in the first row, and a start in Turn 1 that wasn’t so good.

“That’s at least his honest feedback after the race, and for him it’s more like maybe a front position that was lost, rather than a P5 that was won.

“But solid delivery, the manoeuvre on Leclerc was strong. It wasn’t caught by the cameras, but we could see on the telemetry a huge braking event, that there was so much pressure in the system that it started to oscillate.

“So yeah, that was good, and maybe that’s a bit comforting after the other parts of the race.”