Even before the start of the Austrian GP, George Russell ruled himself out of the race for the win. That was despite Mercedes finding some crucial pace lately, and him starting the race from P3. However, luck favored the 26-year-old, and he inherited the race win from a crash that ended Lando Norris’ race and dropped Max Verstappen to P5 from the lead of the Grand Prix.
Russell understood that fully well and acknowledged his luck in the post-race presentation. Speaking with David Coulthard, he said,
“Incredible. It was a tough fight out there at the beginning of the race, just to hold onto that P3 and I saw on the TV that Max and Lando were going pretty hard. I knew Lando would want to try and get that race win but the team has done an amazing job to get us in this fight. You’ve got to be there at the end to pick up the pieces and that’s where we were.”
The win marked Russell’s first in Austria and Mercedes’ first since the Briton’s triumph in Sao Paulo in 2022. Clearly, it was a welcome win for the Silver Arrows and meant a lot to them.
Moreover, as the race winner himself put it, it was a testament to the team’s hard work to get there. That is precisely why it called for a celebration that matched the emotion. As a result, the entire team gathered outside the garage for a quick photo session.
Once that was out of the way, champagne flew all around. Every team member who got their hands on a bottle, emptied it to get Russell soaking wet. There was, however, one face missing from it all: Lewis Hamilton. The seven-time champion himself had a forgettable race with a P4 finish.
The growing gulf between Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes
With Hamilton announcing his imminent exit from Mercedes for a move to Ferrari in 2025, many believed the Briton would start to grow apart from his current team. However, none predicted it to take as much of an ugly turn as speculations in the media suggest lately.
The anonymous email saga hasn’t done any favors in curbing the rumors either. The said email, which apparently came from a Mercedes insider, alleged an intentional sabotage of Hamilton at the team. It reached several journalists and high-ranking F1 officials in the same manner as the one in the Christian Horner-inappropriate behavior saga did.
Team boss Toto Wolff took great offense to the contents of the circulated email. In an attempt to clear the allegations against himself and the team, the Austrian boss filed a complaint with the police. The authorities, however, found no offense to further carry forward the investigation.