Toto Wolff calls chaotic Sepang race "one of my worst experiences"
Toto Wolff described Mercedes’ race at Sepang as “one of my worst experiences” after George Russell retired five laps from the finish, turning a difficult afternoon into a significant blow for the team’s championship campaign.
Kimi Antonelli finished second behind Max Verstappen, who claimed his first victory of the year, but Russell’s third DNF of the season dominated Wolff’s reaction. The W17 was suspected of suffering a power unit failure, leaving Mercedes without a result from its other car despite the race’s multiple interruptions.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Wolff said Mercedes had arrived without the pace it expected and would need to do substantial work to recover. The race then compounded that concern, with a Virtual Safety Car and two Safety Cars shaping a chaotic contest.
“Then the race went against us. With such an advantage: one VSC, two safety cars, you couldn’t be more unlucky,” Wolff said. “To make things worse, a PU failure with a few laps to go to the end with George, which is terrible for his championship and not good at all for our constructors’ points.”
Wolff warns of the cost of further DNFs
Antonelli’s second place offered Mercedes a strong result on one side of the garage. Wolff said the rookie “did the job” and scored a few more points than Lewis Hamilton, but stressed that Russell’s retirement could carry much greater weight over the remaining seven races.
“It’s just this overarching topic, the DNFs, that could cost us dearly for the remaining seven races,” Wolff said. “A championship is quickly turned around against you or for you if you have a DNF, and that’s why that can’t continue.”
The retirement compounds the pressure on Russell after another lost result, with previous coverage of his Mercedes setbacks reflecting how quickly race-day problems can alter his prospects. At Sepang, the immediate damage was clear: Mercedes lost the chance to convert its position into points with both cars, while Antonelli was left to carry the team’s result alone.
Wolff’s frustration was not limited to the failure itself. Mercedes had already fallen short of its expected pace, and the late retirement added a costly reliability concern to the performance work ahead. Antonelli’s podium points softened the outcome, but Russell’s DNF left Wolff focused on the risk of further retirements as the season moves into its final seven races.
Simone Scanu
He’s a software engineer with a deep passion for Formula 1 and motorsport. He co-founded Formula Live Pulse to make live telemetry and race insights accessible, visual, and easy to follow.