Wolff admits: 'Russell made clever use of confusion to overtake Perez'

Toto Wolff' s radio messages to George Russell during the French Grand Prix were meant to bring the Mercedes driver out of a "loop of being upset" as he continued to worry about his moment of contact with Sergio Perez.

Russell kept worrying about moment with Perez

Russell was close on Perez's heels for a long time, but hit the RB18 when he tried to overtake. The Mexican then cut the corner, but it was Russell who seemed unable to let go of the incident in the laps that followed. Even after the race, in which he managed to outsmart Perez by making clever use of a miscommunication during the Virtual Safety Car, the Mercedes driver returned to the incident.

Russell's frustration led to Wolff speaking out on the radio. While the driver felt Perez should have given up the spot to him, the team principal stated that he could still overtake the Red Bull driver on the track. When Russell again argued that race control 'should do something', he was told by his team that he was not in front and that the position therefore did not belong to him.

Russell was not satisfied with that either, and the driver continued to grumble that he was disadvantaged. At that point Wolff intervened again to calm his driver down. Later, the Mercedes boss explained that he feared Russell's frustration would take over. "“I felt he was a little bit stuck in his loop of being upset about the situation," Wolff said according to The Race. "He just needed to drop the upset-ness and concentrate on beating him on track."

Wolff acknowledges that Russell eventually secured the position by reacting cleverly to the confusion that arose during the final Virtual Safety Car. "At the end he was clever, there was confusion with the virtual safety car and he just did it," said the Mercedes team boss.