Toto Wolff expects George Russell to bounce back despite difficult season at Mercedes

[p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/russell-george/xxF56RaN/"]Russell[/a], ‌28, started the campaign as title favourite, but has won just twice to the ‌Italian's eight in the 14 rounds to date.[/p][p]Still second in the ‌championship, the Briton finished fifth at the new Madrid circuit on Sunday while [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/antonelli-andrea-kimi/ptGu0mT1/"]‌Antonelli[/a] celebrated victory in the first Spanish Grand Prix held at ‌Madrid's new circuit and went 81 points clear in the standings.[/p][p][b]"When it comes to George, you can have good races, bad races. Good years and bad years. ‌But we're talking about the driver that has ⁠won everything that you could have ‌potentially won before," [/b]Wolff told reporters at the Madring.[/p][p]"Every single karting championship, Formula ​3 in his rookie year, Formula 2 in his rookie year, (he) went into the Williams (team). I mean, we're talking about ​a top driver.[/p][p][b]"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," [/b]continued the ​Austrian.[/p][p]"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."[/p][embed guid="89bbbd25-714c-47b5-a24e-549f3675c776" url="https://x.com/MercedesAMGF1/status/2099498409774449072" social-type="twitter" /][p]Russell said on Sunday he was ‌no longer realistically in the running and was just focusing on getting good results in the remaining races.[/p][p]It is rare for a driver to win eight races in a season and not take the title but it has happened before, and sometimes the driver with most wins is not champion. Wolff cautioned that it would only take two blanks on Antonelli's side for Russell to be back in the frame.[/p][p]That said, he also backed Antonelli to stay focused and take nothing for ‌granted.[/p][p][b]"Kimi, from his personality - he's so grounded, 100% racer, not distracted from ​anything outside, super family situation. And that's why I see no ‌risk that he's losing the plot because he's so dominant,"[/b] said the Austrian.[/p][p]"I promise you that he's not thinking about it (the title). The way this kid is able to compartmentalise, and be a young kid and then get into the car and be ⁠the mature racing driver, if he ⁠says to himself 'I'm not thinking ‌about the championship', he's not thinking about the championship."[/p]