Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said he was “massively annoyed” after the late unreliability that delivered a potentially knock-out blow to George Russell’s title hopes in the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Mercedes had already been experiencing an unexpectedly difficult weekend on F1’s return to Sepang with the team outqualified by both Red Bull and Ferrari despite bringing a long-awaited car upgrade.
Although Red Bull’s Max Verstappen proved too fast in Sunday’s chaotic, twice-delayed race, Mercedes were still on course for second with Kimi Antonelli and third with George Russell when, with five laps to go during the second Safety Car phase, the latter’s car was stopped by a suspected power unit failure.
The retirement cost Russell 15 points and saw the British driver slip 84 points behind team-mate Antonelli in the title race with seven rounds left.
“I’m so massively annoyed, and not in a happy place,” a frustrated Wolff told Sky Sports F1.
“First of all, we didn’t have the speed that we were hoping to have before the weekend, so there’s a lot of homework to be done in order to recover, which I’m sure we will.
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“Then the race literally, if you consider the fight with Lewis [Hamilton] behind, went against us. We had such an advantage, one VSC, two Safety Cars, you couldn’t be more unlucky.
“And to make things worse, a PU failure with a few laps to go until the end for George, which is terrible for his championship and not good at all for our constructors’ points.
“So, as much as I love to be here when I look at the pure races, one of my worst experiences, to be honest.”
Wolff acknowledged the solid race that Antonelli drove to come home in second but was left concerned by the latest incident of Mercedes unreliability. It was the third engine-related issue to force one of the W17s to retire from a race this season, and the team’s fourth reliability-related DNF overall.
“He scored a few more points than Lewis behind him, and I’m happy because he did the job,” added Wolff.
“But it’s just the overarching topic, the DNFs, that could cost us dearly, also for the remaining seven races.
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“A championship is quickly turned around against you if you have a DNF, and that can’t continue.”
Mercedes introduced the first big upgrade onto their car since May’s Canadian Grand Prix this weekend but that did not translate into the expected performance in lap time.
Wolff, though, is confident the team are already working through the problems.
“I think we have a good action plan,” he said.
“James [Allison] is fully on top of it with his leadership team. That lifts my mood because I know with such a tremendous group of people – in the same way as that HPP [Mercedes High Performance Powertrains] are going to sort it out – but that gives me real relief for the moment to know that they are the best and they are going to find solutions.
“I think we will come back strong.”
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Russell: Title win now ‘exceptionally unlikely’ this year
For Russell, the late reliability heartache induced an unwanted feeling of deja vu.
“You’ve almost got to laugh. I’m beyond disappointment,” he told Sky Sports F1.
“It’s just so many times this season it’s happened. It’s a real shame, but we just keep on fighting. Just keep on trying to go.
“The podium looked very certain. Solid race, not amazing race, but solid race. Not the first time, so I’m pretty used to this feeling and these questions.”
Russell had already admitted for several races that he needed to rely on good fortune to beat Antonelli to this year’s world title having fallen over 60 points off the pace since the summer break.
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The Briton had appeared to give himself a glimmer of hope with a dominating win last week on the streets of Baku, in a race his team-mate finished fifth after crashing in qualifying, but the 84-point deficit he now heads to Singapore trailing by represents the biggest of the season.
Asked if the reality of Sunday’s DNF meant he now had to concede that his title ambitions were over for this year, Russell replied: “I don’t need to say I think it’s gone or whatever, but of course, it’s exceptionally unlikely.
“That’s just the reality I knew if I wanted to come back I needed luck on my side. Unfortunately, I’ve had luck not on my side.
“A three-point loss being behind Kimi turned into an 18-point loss. Of course, if the issue was on the other side it would have been an 18-point gain.
“It’s a real shame, but that’s just how it is.”
Antonelli satisfied with ‘maximum result’ behind Verstappen
Although Antonelli was unable to go toe-to-toe with Verstappen for victory, Russell’s late retirement means the 20-year-old Italian has clearly now moved a significant step closer to becoming the sport’s youngest-ever world champion this year with a points lead back in excess of three race wins.
“Max has been very, very quick all weekend,” said Antonelli, who has fallen 11s behind the Red Bull driver before the late Safety Car wiped out Verstappen’s lead.
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“Red Bull, they’ve been doing a great job, and we’ve just been struggling more than previous races. I think we’re still trying to understand the new package because also this track, with such a rough tarmac and high temperatures, it made our life more difficult.
“And probably next week in Singapore, we hopefully will have a better read on the package and also understanding what set-up needs to be run. But I think today, with the pace we had, P2 was the maximum we could have achieved.”
Formula 1 heads straight to Singapore for the last Sprint weekend of the season with track action starting this Friday, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime