Mercedes boss Toto Wolff made a last-minute decision to join race winner Kimi Antonelli on the Monaco Grand Prix podium, but admitted he stood there with \u201cmixed feelings\u201d following George Russell\u2019s disastrous race.<\/p>\n
Antonelli took his fifth consecutive victory of the season in Monaco as teammate and championship rival Russell finished outside the points due to a Mercedes mix up over an unserved time penalty.<\/p>\n
During its various winning streaks over the years, Mercedes has always attempted to send different members of the team to the podium to represent various departments from its workforce.<\/p>\n
However, when a Mercedes board member was late for their flight following the red flag delay on Sunday, Wolff, who lives in Monaco, was convinced into taking their place on the podium.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t gone to a podium for 10 years because it\u2019s always difficult to balance between one side of the garage being happy, the other one not,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday I couldn\u2019t avoid it because the board member that I wanted to go has said he needs to catch a flight, and then the team said, \u2018you\u2019ve got to go, it\u2019s your home race.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd while standing there, I\u2019m always with mixed feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Antonelli\u2019s remarkable run of form sits in stark contrast with Russell\u2019s recent difficulties.<\/p>\n
At the Canadian Grand Prix two weeks ago, Russell retired from the lead of the race with a power unit failure and now lies 68 points adrift of his teammate in the championship standings.<\/p>\n
Wolff admitted Mercedes had let Russell down in Canada and Monaco, but remains adamant the British driver is still in the title race.<\/p>\n
– Can George Russell bounce back after Monaco struggles?- Lewis Hamilton on \u2018happier\u2019 year with Ferrari: \u2018Have to remind people who I am\u2019- Monaco Grand Prix: Kimi Antonelli takes fifth-straight victory in chaotic race, Hamilton behind<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Montreal race was his to win, we let him down,\u201d Wolff said of Russell on Sunday. \u201cToday probably we could have had a podium, if not for the penalty mistake. And I\u2019ve talked with him yesterday and today: this is a long championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cLuck swings you in a direction, and then sometimes it doesn\u2019t. And it\u2019s not a question of not knowing how to drive. It\u2019s about having a car underneath that you feel confident with and that you can go fast. And that\u2019s the fact.<\/p>\n
\u201cFormula 1 is about physics and not mystics. You don\u2019t unlearn how to drive and you don\u2019t become a miracle wonder driver. So I\u2019m not stressed at all for his performances because we know he\u2019s one of the best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mercedes boss Toto Wolff made a last-minute decision to join race winner Kimi Antonelli on the Monaco Grand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-722983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}