Toto Wolff has conceded that George Russell with face a “disadvantage” getting into the Japanese Grand Prix, with the workforce boss admitting that his driver will have to hold the concern he skilled in Qualifying forwards to race day.
While Kimi Antonelli surged to pole place throughout Saturday’s session at the Suzuka Circuit – marking his second consecutive P1 slot after claiming his first-ever pole final day trip in China – it proved to be a tougher afternoon for Russell, who couldn’t match the tempo of his workforce mate.
The Briton ended Qualifying in second place however with a deficit of almost three-tenths to Antonelli, the 28-year-old going on to suggest that a “small adjustment” made to the rear suspension on his automotive had reworked it “for the worse”.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Wolff additionally pointed to this as the seemingly trigger for Russell’s struggles in the session when quizzed on what had occurred.
“I think we did probably a set-up [change] on the other side, something we did that we expected to have less impact than it had,” Wolff defined.
“It put the car on the nose, so too much oversteer, and that made it very difficult for him.”
Pushed additional on whether or not this had been to guard any tyres for the race, and if the concern was one thing that could possibly be modified for race day, the Austrian responded: “No, it’s probably the opposite – I think he needs to carry this into the race now, which is certainly a disadvantage, but these things happen.”
Sharing his ideas on Antonelli’s Qualifying, Wolff spoke positively about the 19-year-old’s perspective and method.
“I think when you hear his radio communication, also in the intercom in the garage, he’s just calm, not putting himself too much under pressure, putting the one lap in that was very good – Bono [Pete Bonnington, Antonelli’s Race Engineer] told him to put a banker in,” mentioned Wolff.
“And then he pushed it a little bit hard on the last one and it wasn’t so good, but it’s really pleasing to see.”
