Toto Wolff Dissects Lewis Hamilton’s Dominance Over George Russell With Inconclusive Explanation

Before George Russell joined Mercedes in 2022, there was one thing he was known for, and that was being Mr. Saturday. Why Mr. Saturday? Because, more often than not, he had a Willimas under him that wasn’t very competitive, but he still managed to belt out qualifying performances way above the Williams’ punching scale. And in his three seasons with Williams, none of his teammates succeeded in out-qualifying him on merit. But coming to Mercedes, even Russell knew that would change because he would be going up against arguably one of the best qualifiers in Formula 1—Lewis Hamilton.

The 2023 season has proved how difficult it is to out-qualify Hamilton. In the past seven races, Russell has yet to start ahead of his teammate and compatriot. And last time out in Hungary, Hamilton managed to do something only two other drivers have done so far this season—beat Max Verstappen in qualifying. And while Hamilton started on pole, Russell started 18th. And although his performance was better in Belgium, Hamilton was still way ahead of him. And Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff explained why.

At the end of qualifying on Friday, Hamilton was 0.9s off Verstappen in first, qualifying 4th. But Russell was 1.6s off the Dutchman, qualifying 8th. The seven-tenths gap is enormous, and while Wolff might’ve given a reason why the gap is that significant, even he isn’t sure exactly why. As quoted by motorsport-total.com, Wolff said the drivers have “different rear wings and configurations.” Hamilton has a low downforce setting which helps him go faster on straights, and Russell has a high downforce configuration. Considering Spa’s fast and flowing nature, the low downforce setting for Hamilton gave him an advantage over Russell on one-lap pace, but Toto believes Russell might have the edge on Sunday.

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He said Russell’s rear wing is “practically a barn door,” but “that can be an advantage for the tire performance on Sunday. But on Friday, it was no help. We still have to see why.” While Mercedes needs to go over why there’s such a big difference between both W14s before the Sprint Shootout on Saturday, Russell expressed his feelings post-qualifying after he, too, couldn’t understand the gap.

George Russell wasn’t happy with his qualifying

Qualifying in Spa was in difficult, undulating, ever-changing conditions. So drivers needed to decide when to transition from wet tires to slicks. And this came into play in Q3 when the sun started shining brighter than a Spa race weekend has seen in the past couple of years. When asked about his car, he said it “didn’t feel bad. But this time, I was nowhere with all the laps. We have to understand that.” He continued, “We were just slow with it everywhere.”

Although qualifying isn’t as crucial in Spa as in Hungaroring, Russell was still upset with how it all played out. He said, “We know that qualifying isn’t everything at Spa, but I would definitely have liked to have been further up the field.”

Do you think the Belgian GP will feature another George Russell fight through the field?

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