“I knew that was a points-paying opportunity for me” – Williams driver George Russell has spoken out on the Valtteri Bottas crash at Imola earlier this season.
Just a few weeks back, at Imola, George Russell crashed into Mercedes “teammate” Valterri Bottas, leading to a heated verbal altercation between them. After a lot of blame game, Russell finally admitted his mistake, especially after he saw the replay of it.
Toto Wolff played a crucial role in calming down things between the Mercedes senior and junior drivers. Russell, Autosport.com, feels his relationship with Wolff and Mercedes has grown since that incident, as he bids to make it to the team full-time in 2022.
“If anything, my relationship with Toto has grown since the incident in Imola. There was a lot of tough love. But he ultimately wants to extract the absolute maximum from me, or from what he believes I can achieve.
“We had a very good conversation about it all. I took the evening to reflect upon it, and that morning [the next day]. And, to be honest, throughout the whole week. But as soon as I was back in my house on Sunday night, I knew what I did wrong.”
“Mercedes are a family to me, as Williams are a family to me. And Lewis and Valtteri are team-mates to me, as Nicholas [Latifi] is a team-mate to me. Had that been Nicholas in the exact same circumstances, I probably would have backed out of it and I would have had words with him afterward about it. But, if that was any other competitor, as I saw Valtteri, I went for it. Because I knew that was a points-paying opportunity for me.
