George Russell crashed into Valtteri Bottas during the 2021 Imola Grand Prix leading to a heated-up aftermath of the incident. The young Briton has now revealed that team principal Toto Wolff was pretty angry with how things turned out to be.
Russell was being hyped as the Mercedes junior who would take Bottas’ seat in the 2021 season. Amid the rumours came the terrible crash as Russell in his Williams was attempting to pass the Mercedes.
The young Briton was left furious after the collision. He emerged from the wreckage and confronted Bottas in his cockpit by slapping his helmet.
Later, Russell even implied that Bottas had unnecessarily defended his position in a dangerous manner because he thinks his seat at Mercedes is threatened by the Mercedes junior.
Toto Wolff angry after the damage
The crash had cost the Silver arrows an estimated damage of $1.5 Million on Bottas’ car. Wolff, at the time, had revealed that the team will now need to divert funding from the future upgrades on the 2021 car.
These upgrades would have been vital in Lewis Hamilton’s run for the 8-championship title. Having one and a half million taken out of the overall budget of $145 Million, Wolff was quite displeased by the incident.
Speaking on the High-Performance Podcast, Russell revealed that on the Sunday night of Imola GP, he flew home with Wolff and the Austrian was pretty angry with what had happened.
George Russell ‘almost happy’ with the crash
Russell, who successfully moved to Mercedes in the 2022 season, feels that these mistakes make a driver mature in his career.
Last year, after the incident had panned out, Russell issued a public apology to both, Mercedes and Williams, and Bottas for his behaviour.
Recalling the moment, Russell stated that he was ‘almost happy’ with that crash. It turned into an opportunity to get to know the Mercedes team as he spoke to the chief mechanic and chief engineer and apologised.
He further explained that this incident helped him build a closer relationship with Bottas’ group of engineers and team because he knew them already.
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