21/04/2025
NEWS STORY
Toto Wolff dubs Jeddah Mercedes worst performance as George Russell insists that fifth was the best possible result.
Having qualified third, there was talk that the Briton might convert his superb performance on Saturday evening to a win, especially if the two drivers ahead were to trip over one another.
However, Russell finished a distant fifth, left for dead by Charles Leclerc and then Lando Norris, while his teammate struggled home in sixth.
"Tonight was all about the tyres and unfortunately, ours were suffering from overheating," said the Briton. "I was pushing to stay with Verstappen at the start of the second stint, but it quickly became clear that we weren't going to be able to hang on.
"I tried to manage the tyres a little more but, with the tyre age offset they had built, Leclerc and Norris were able to move ahead. After that, my tyres dropped off the cliff and it was all about just bringing the car home in P5.
"Ultimately, we didn't have the pace today. Even if we had managed more at different points, that was the maximum available to us this evening."
"It was clearly our worst performance of the year so far," said Toto Wolff. "The pace just dropped away with blistering, overheating tyres and so far we haven't got an explanation."
Even more frustrating for the Austrian was Russell's sheer pace in qualifying, which in turn led to the claims of a possible win.
"You manage your expectations being the second quickest, and even that is not obviously what we would wish to achieve," said the Austrian, "and then you see the race panning out like it did. It just adds to the frustration of the situation."
"I was pushing hard to stay with Max at the beginning of the second stint," said Russell, "but I knew I wasn't going to be able to hold on and we fell off that cliff towards the end. I was dropping a second a lap in the last 15 laps, but to be fair, we just didn't have the pace and even if I had managed more, I think I still would have come home in P5.
"We know that it's a bit of a weakness of our car at the moment," he admitted. "And coming home P5 on a bad day we'll take it, but we need to try and improve it quickly."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Jeddah here.