Toto Wolff believes that George Russell, who attempted to get past Fernando Alonso late in the race, should take some “responsibility” for his collision at the Australian Grand Prix.
Alonso braked 100 meters earlier than on the previous lap as he approached Turn 6 on the penultimate lap of the race at Melbourne’s Albert Park. He then accelerated once more and applied the brake once more to make the corner entry, taking Russell by surprise and causing him to crash into the barrier after trying to avoid it.
Alonso received a drive-through penalty from the stewards for the maneuver, which was later changed to a 20-second time drop, and three penalty points applied to his super license. Russell thinks that if the Aston Martin driver had not received the penalty, a “can of worms” would have been opened.
The drivers disagreed on how harsh the punishment should be before the Japanese Grand Prix. Nico Hulkenberg specifically attacked Alonso, while Lando Norris blamed Russell.
Although Wolff did not go so far, he did argue that Alonso and the former grand prix winner should share some of the blame for the collision.
“You can hear the drivers, they obviously understand much more on a track that I’ve never raced on, and they’re split,” Wolff told the media.
“I think Fernando was aggressively defending by trying to take out the momentum before the corner, and maybe he’s overdone it.
“George was just trying to [set up] an overtake there, but [he] also takes a certain part of responsibility for having lost the car there.
“So what I make of this accident, I think in these high-speed corners, maybe you need to take a little bit of the karting philosophy of killing speed before the corner to have a better exit.”
Arguably siding more with his own driver, however, Wolff added: “But who am I to say?
“I’m not sitting in that car, I’ve never been on that level, so I’m just an observer and I look at the data and throttle and brake input, and that was very different on that lap to all the others.”
