Mercedes make George Russell vow amid F1 form concern

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has insisted the team will work with George Russell to determine how he can extract more performance from the car.

Russell has struggled to match the pace of team-mate Kimi Antonelli for much of the season, with his championship hopes now fading.

The Briton sits 81 points behind Antonelli, who added to his victory tally last time out at the Madring by claiming his eighth win of the season.

Having spent five years with Mercedes, this campaign marks the first time Russell has had a genuine title-contending car at his disposal.

However, with his hopes of securing a maiden world championship slipping away, Wolff insisted Mercedes has not forgotten what Russell is capable of.

“When it comes to George, you can have good races, bad races, good years and bad years,” Wolff told media including RacingNews365.

“But we're talking about the driver who has won everything that you could have potentially won before.

“Every single karting championship, Formula 3 in his rookie year, Formula 2 in his rookie year, went into the Williams. I mean, we're talking about a top driver.”

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Wolff: Russell has 'all he needs' to fight

Russell convincingly outpaced Antonelli last year, in what was the latter's rookie season on the grid.

However, the 20-year-old has adapted better to the new-for-2026 cars and is now the heavy favourite to seal the title come the end of the year.

While Mercedes has seemingly found a new star driver, Wolff insisted it is not giving up in its pursuit to get Russell back up to form.

“We need to find out what it is for him to be able to unleash that potential, and of course there's the psychological side,” he said.

“If you have a run like him this year you're taking a beating but the great ones, they recover and I think that George has all he needs to fight for championships.”