Wolff: "A new star is born"

For a moment George Russell seemed to imitate Max Verstappen's trick in Spain 2016 in Bahrain. Due to a lot of bad luck, the replacement of Lewis Hamilton grabbed the gold. Eternal shame, but according to Mercedes team boss, the Brit still gets enough opportunities. "It's just the beginning of a fairytale."

Russell is the new star in F1

“I have been taken away from races before, but twice in one race?” Was the initial reaction of Russell after the Sakhir GP Sunday. A special soft for the Williams driver who seemed to beat teammate Valtteri Bottas with flying colours nearly all weekend. 

At the same time, Toto Wolff knows that there will be plenty of opportunities for Russell in the future. The Austrian told Sky Sports F1 after the race: “It will not have been his last attempt for victory; it's just the beginning of a fairytale that didn't work out well today. I would say that a new star has been born. ”

Russell performed three times above expectations

Wolff was amazed at the Williams driver's performance. The team boss had set a P5 as a target for the Brit: "We did not want to set expectations too high and he delivered above expectations, he delivered above expectations, he delivered above expectations."

“He did that on Friday, he did yesterday in qualifying and he did today. His race was incredible. So this is not a sad day. This is a day when we learned as a team. We have learned that Russell is someone we can count on in the future. He has the potential and all the ingredients a future star needs. ”

This article was written and originally published by Corwin on the Dutch edition of GPblog.com.