Toto Wolff said he was “massively annoyed” and “not in a happy place” after George Russell retired from the Bahrain Grand Prix. Russell pulled over at the side of the track on lap 50, having looked in line for a podium. The power unit problem came as a safety car period was ending.
The start had gone well for Kimi Antonelli and Russell: starting third and seventh respectively, they moved into the top two after poor getaways by Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, who had started from pole and second place. The race then turned against the team, before the mechanical problem ended Russell’s hopes.
Wolff said: “It’s a power unit failure. It wasn’t caused by the safety car. We haven’t assessed it yet.” He also acknowledged that his team had not had the speed it hoped for before the weekend and that there was substantial work to do to recover.
For Russell, the retirement was another blow to his championship hopes. He said he was “beyond disappointment” as he watched those hopes slip away with another retirement. Wolff, meanwhile, lamented the consequences of the failure for his driver’s points and the team’s constructors’ points.
Formula 1The FIA linked several cars’ loss of power to an unusual combination of factors on the formation lap. The start procedure was abandoned before the race began in its original grid order after a delay of almost an hour.
Formula 1After finishing fifth, Isack Hadjar criticised a difficult race in his Red Bull, including a lack of battery in the closing laps. He said the problem was on the chassis side, not with the power unit.
Formula 1After a delay of one hour and 33 minutes, McLaren and Ferrari chose dry-weather tyres even though intermediates appeared better suited to the opening laps. Lando Norris acknowledged that his team’s gamble did not work.
Formula 1Starting seventh at Sepang, Russell surged to second before a power-unit failure cost him a podium. “You’ve almost got to laugh,” he said, as the gap to his championship rival widened.
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