Despite his outstanding driving to win the Belgian Grand Prix, George Russell was eventually disqualified due to a mandatory weight check on his vehicle.
Toto Wolff is confident that George Russell will emerge as Mercedes’ top driver, even though Eddie Jordan obviously doesn’t think so. According to the former owner of an F1 team, once Lewis Hamilton departs for Ferrari in 2025, fans might not be satisfied with Russell leading Mercedes in the future.
Following Hamilton’s announcement that he would be joining Ferrari following the 2024 season, Russell is expected to assume the lead role as Mercedes’ principal racer. Jordan, though, doesn’t think the 26-year-old will make the pain of finally losing Hamilton go away.
“Let’s be honest, George Russell has won one grand prix,” the 76-year-old stated in an interview with the Formula for Success podcast. Can he win the World Championship the following year or the year after? Lewis, in my opinion, was carrying too much weight. George managed to get around Lewis’s early-year frustration of not having the exact car he wanted. Lewis didn’t feel that the car was good enough to be able to complete the task, not that he didn’t care.
“Nevertheless, Lewis managed to get his act together as the season went on. And he caused us all to glance up, thinking, “Perhaps Lewis still has it.” And I believe that he went to Ferrari as a result of his financial situation changing.”
But, Mercedes CEO Wolff has stated that he has total faith in Russell’s skill and ability to guide the team to another championship win. Shortly after Hamilton announced his move to Ferrari, Wolff hailed Russell’s promising future.
“With all the talk about Lewis, George hasn’t gotten enough attention,” Wolff remarked. George might take over as the team’s lead driver in the future. He belongs to the same generation as Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, and a few others.
“There’s no doubt that when Lewis leaves, I couldn’t hope for a different team captain. We just need to make the best decision for the second driver and seat because we have such a strong foundation and a swift, skilled, and intelligent guy in the car.”
Wolff hinted that “maybe it’s a chance to do something bold” and added that he doesn’t feel pressured to sign Russell’s teammate.
At the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday, Russell appeared to have won his third race of the season after edging out teammate Hamilton to cross the finish line first. After the required emptying of any leftover fuel, the Mercedes was discovered to weigh 1.5 kg less than what was allowed by the rulebook during a post-race inspection.
The FIA stewards were then consulted on this, and they verified that Russell had been disqualified from the race classification an hour after the finish. As a result, Hamilton won his 105th Formula One race; Oscar Piastri of McLaren finished second, and Charles Leclerc of Ferrari finished third.
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