Wolff hits out at Russell 'myth'

Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has hit back at the claims that George Russell is losing his form, branding any criticisms a "myth."

Russell has found it difficult to replicate his form from his first season with the team this campaign, when he beat Lewis Hamilton and took the only win for Mercedes of the year in the tough W13.

He has spoken previously about not feeling comfortable in the car, with his third place in qualifying hampered by a late retirement due to contact with Lando Norris at Zandvoort.

Even though Russell appears to acknowledge that he is suffering from a poor run of form, Wolff says he is trying to get this out of his head.

"I'm trying to really bang into his head that he hasn’t lost his form, that it's just a myth that he's making up," Wolff told media, including RacingNews365.

"You don't unlearn to drive and you don't lose your form, you can have up and downs like all of us have and racing drivers too.

“But every single weekend when things have gone against him, it was pretty clear why that was and it wasn't the driving.

"In that respect it's no such thing that in Spa and Budapest your capability of moving this car is less good than it is three weeks later in Holland. He just needs to have a clean weekend like he didn't have before and this one was much better."

Wolff: I've never doubted George

Wolff insists no intervention is needed, despite Russell's results suggesting that he is experiencing a run of bad form.

"I never bought into this [being in a] 'groove' thing or not," he explained.

"When you and I are having a bad day, nobody knows. But if a driver has a bad day, then he's probably a tenth off and that makes all the difference in a qualifying.

"All the drivers have days that are not so good and we've seen these ups and downs with George, but the quality of driver he is, I've never doubted him for a minute."