Wolff discloses key ‘Bono’ message that sparked Antonelli’s Suzuka pole

The Italian driver arrived off the back of a superb weekend in Shanghai, where he capitalised on his team-mate’s issues to claim his maiden pole and secure his first F1 victory.

Today, Antonelli outperformed Russell convincingly, beating him by almost three tenths and once again taking pole ahead of tomorrow’s race.

Speaking to Sky Sports after qualifying, the Mercedes team principal said: "When you hear his radio communications and also on the intercom in the garage, it's just calm. Not putting himself under too much pressure. Putting that one lap in that is very good. Bono told him to 'put a banker in'. 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."

Speaking about Russell’s qualifying, Wolff added: "We did a set-up tweak on the other side. Something we expected to have less impact than it had and it put the car on the nose, so too much oversteer and that made it very difficult for him."

Asked whether that set-up choice could help him in the race, the Austrian finally said: "It's probably the opposite. He needs to carry this into the race now, which is certainly a disadvantage but these things happen."

At the start of the season, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella had voiced concerns over a lack of collaboration with Mercedes as a power unit supplier, but Wolff insisted the papaya team’s issues are simply down to early teething problems.

Reflecting on McLaren’s limited running, Wolff explained that Norris had been hit by a hydraulic issue on one day, followed by an ERS problem the next. He acknowledged that a sequence of failures like that is far from ideal and not something Mercedes wants to see on any of its customer teams.

However, he stressed that there is still plenty to learn at this stage, pointing out that the regulations are still in their early days and that such issues are to be expected.