Lewis Hamilton fired Mercedes warning by Toto Wolff amid George Russell's woes

08 August 2023 , 16:39

603     0

Hamilton has kicked on since Mercedes' double podium in Barcelona, while Russell has struggled for form (Image: Getty Images)

Toto Wolff warned Lewis Hamilton that his strong run of form could "quickly fall off" and pointed to George Russell as an example close to home.

The seven-time world champion, 38, has been scoring well of late and finished fourth or better in six of his last seven races. As a result, he's now just one point behind his old Formula 1 rival Fernando Alonso in the race to be 'best of the rest' behind the Red Bull drivers in the championship standings.

His team-mate, however, has found things more tricky of late. Russell beat Hamilton by 35 points across their first season together at Mercedes, but is 49 adrift of his fellow Brit after the first dozen races of 2023.

Russell's first podium of the year, at the Spanish Grand Prix in June, was followed by a DNF in Canada. And that appears to have halted his momentum, with just single-figure points hauls to show for three of his last four outings.

Mercedes have brought a few upgrades in recent weeks. But, when asked if those changes to the W14 could be behind Russell's struggles, team principal Wolff admitted he could not be sure that was the case.

Sebastian Vettel warns of looming F1 ban and is "very worried about the future"

Instead, he pointed to the inconsistent nature of the car and suggested Hamilton could just as easily suffer a leaner period. He said: "These cars are on the knife's edge. You can quickly fall off it and lose the confidence.

"On the other side, if you're within that corridor of sweet spot... having said that, the car has no sweet spot! But being more in that zone of understanding what it will do next, I think there's a big difference and you can quickly be in either one of these situations, and obviously it goes against you."

Meanwhile, Russell declared himself "definitely ready" for the summer shutdown, to reset himself before the hectic second half of the season begins with the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of this month. "It’s been a season of two halves," said the 25-year-old.

"The first six races were really strong. The last six races, not so much. I've a few ideas why that is, a lot of missed opportunities this season, for various reasons. Some from mistakes of my own, some like the failure in Australia cost me a lot of points.

"But if you're not fighting for the P1 in the drivers' championship, you just want to maximise the constructors' and, so far, we're doing that. It's needed, this break, for everybody in the sport – it has been a pretty intense start to the season."

Daniel Moxon