Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff gave some words of encouragement over the radio to George Russell during qualifying at the 2026 F1 Austrian GP — “Just drive.”
Russell went on to score pole position and win his second race of the season. Now, Russell sits P2 in the World Drivers’ Championship, 40 points behind teammate Kimi Antonelli. The young Italian has significantly impressed during the start of the season, scoring five consecutive wins in a row. Russell, on the other, has felt on the back foot, going without points in both Canada and Monaco. The Austrian GP marked a return to form for the British driver.
Toto Wolff explained the reasoning behind his radio message during a print media session after the 2026 Austrian GP.
Wolff explains “just drive” radio message to Russell
The Mercedes Team Principal stated that his “just drive” comment was meant to be a reminder to Russell. The comment arose during Q2 of qualifying at the 2026 Austrian GP, where Russell appeared to be struggling with the car in comparison to his teammate.
Wolff explained that it is quite common for athletes to overthink, and he wanted Russell to focus on driving his car as fast as possible.
“It’s such a high-pressure environment that you have a young teammate and that’s your year. And then he’s so strong, you have a DNF, you’re falling behind. And I think every top athlete, you can kind of get yourself in a spiral.
“It’s not a spiral of negativity, it’s more a spiral of overthinking. ‘What can I do more? Where do I need to optimise?’
“And then sometimes you forget about the coalescence and it’s just driving the car. And this ‘just drive’ is something that we talk a lot about. It’s just being in the moment of driving the car.
“Don’t overthink too much about the strategy, what Kimi [Antonelli’s] doing. Drive the car as fast as you can and look at the tyre temperatures and don’t burn them. So that’s the only metrics you need to look at.
“And that’s what I was trying to say.”
Wolff on Russell’s return to form at 2026 Austrian GP
George Russell scored his first race win since the 2026 season opener in Australia. The British driver’s season has not gone as many predicted. From an unfortunate DNF in Canada to his seemingly lack of pace compared to his teammate, Russell’s win in Austria represents a much-needed return to form for his season.
Wolff emphasised that the team has been experiencing ups and downs, which is being reflected in the drivers’ performances. He has not written out Russell in terms of the championship.
“I was saying before that in this sport we tend to — and the same with some of our competitors — to swing between mania and depression. It’s like one weekend we’re the greatest, and we are world champions, and this is all fantastic. And the next weekend, it’s five days later, it’s a big depression. That everything is shit, the upgrade didn’t work, the engine is not what we wanted.
“But the weekend before it was actually the best. And I think it’s important to keep the balance, to keep the neutrality. You’re going to have swings in performance. You’re going to have DNFs that go in your favour or not.
“And some you win, some you score solid points, some you lose. It’s over the 22 races that we’re going to have in the season, hopefully, that you need to optimise on that rather than to swing emotionally and then declare a state of emergency and everything is down the shit. I mean, if we would have spoken about George [Russell] 36 hours ago, we would have said, this campaign is really not going and is he ever going to recover?
“Now, Sunday afternoon, he’s the real deal. So let’s keep the trajectory, that’s important. And that’s why I have never had any doubt that this can go very long in a drivers’ championship, who can potentially win.
“There’s a three-way race at the moment and that’s why it’s about scoring those points.”
