Mercedes Formula 1 team principal Toto Wolff says he has been left “massively annoyed and not in a happy place” following a chaotic Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia that ended with a late power unit failure for George Russell.
After starting from third and seventh, Kimi Antonelli and Russell made? incredible starts to take first and second, capitalising on polesitter Max Verstappen and second-placed Lewis Hamilton’s poor getaways.
Russell looked in line to secure a podium, but as a safety car period was ending, he pulled over at the side of the track with a power unit issue on lap 50.
“It’s a power unit failure. It wasn’t caused by the safety car. We haven’t assessed it yet,” Wolff told Sky Sports F1 after the race. “I’m so massively annoyed, and not in a happy place.
“First of all, we didn’t have the speed that we were hoping to have before the weekend, so there’s a lot of homework to be done in order to recover, which I’m sure we will.
“Then the race literally, if you consider the fight with Lewis behind, went against us. We had such an advantage, one VSC, two safety cars, you couldn’t be more unlucky.
George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
“And to make things worse, a PU failure with a few laps to go until the end for George, which is terrible for his championship and not good at all for our constructors’ points.
“So, as much as I love to be here when I look at the pure races, one of my worst experiences, to be honest.”
Russell said he was “beyond disappointment” as he watched his championship hopes slip away with another retirement.
Antonelli continues to lead the drivers’ championship with 320 points. Russell follows in second with 236 points and Hamilton is third with 214 points.
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