Toto Wolff says Lewis Hamilton and George Russell “do what they believe is right” amid Mercedes F1 set-up debate
Debate has been sparked about the intra-team dynamic at Mercedes after Hamilton claimed teammate Russell’s superior performance in Saudi Arabia a fortnight ago was down to a “50-50” set-up call.
Russell, who comfortably out-qualified and out-raced Hamilton in Jeddah, countered the seven-time world champion’s comments in the build up to this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, stressing there was no “luck” involved.
After Russell once again headed Hamilton in Friday’s rain-affected second practice in Melbourne, team boss Wolff confirmed the pair had opted for alternativ💃e set-ups.
“We tried two different things on both cars,” Wolff ﷺtold Sky. “It worked on one car, not on the other. So it’s a good direction that we’ve got.”
Asked about the set-up directions picked by his two drivers last time 🥃out in Jeddah, Wolff said: “I think the drivers go♓t to do what they believe is right for their car.
“Everyone is pursuing the set-up directions and that changes betw�🌌�een Friday and Saturday very often. Then you realise that one set-up is maybe better than the other one.
💎“But it’s not that we are com💮ing up with set-ups that they have to run.”
Russell💫 finished🤪 fourth-fastest and was pleased with the progress he made from FP1.
"FP2 was a little bit frustrating with the weather coming in but it was a reasonable💛 session for us,” he explained.
“W🀅e definitely made a step from FP1,🍒 which is a good thing. FP1 I wasn't very happy with the car. FP2 I was pretty happy.
"We know we are not where we need to be as a team. We know 🍌we have more to come in a couple of races time.
"We just need to maximise our chances and try to have a similar weekend to Jeddah when we exceeded the potential of ♈the car.”
Hamilton, who was second-fastest in FP1, could onlℱy𒁃 manage a time good enough for 13th after seeing his dry-weather running curtailed by a decision to pit for set-up changes.
"This morning was good, this afternoon wasn't so good,” he said. “The car is similar [to Bahrain and S🐓audi Arabia]. It fel🅘t a bit better this morning.
"We made some🍃 changes, didn't work, so we will revise them tonight. Then it rained so it wasn't the greatest of s▨essions.
"We won'☂t be competing with the Red Bulls. I think we have the pace to be around fifth, same as the last race."
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