Fever, medication, and doubts: George Russell almost couldn’t drive in the Formula 1 race in Baku—Toto Wolff reveals how close it really was.
The Mercedes Formula 1 team almost didn’t field regular driver George Russell at the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, opting instead for substitute driver Valtteri Bottas – the future Cadillac driver. Team boss Toto Wolff revealed this after Russell’s second place in the race.
Wolff said in his interviews with Sky and ORF: “George was quite ill—really, really sick with a fever. It was touch and go. On Friday, we were really close to putting Valtteri in.”
Russell himself had doubts due to his illness. “George said, ‘I’m not sure I can do it.’ But then the medication kicked in and he felt better,” Wolff explained. The emphasis is on “better,” but “not good.” According to Wolff, Russell “recovered somewhat during the day, but it got worse again every night.”
Russell: I wouldn’t have raced in Singapore!
Russell himself says that the venue worked in his favor: “Luckily, it was Baku. Even though it’s one of the most difficult tracks, it’s perhaps one of the easiest mentally and physically.”
He also said he felt “much better” on Sunday than he did on Friday and Saturday. On Thursday, Russell skipped media day to focus on his recovery.
“If it had been Singapore, I would have called it quits on Friday, to be honest, and probably wouldn’t have raced,” Russell said. “So yes, it was lucky timing in a way. Also, I haven’t been sick in a few years, and now it just hit me all of a sudden — but I’m on the mend.”
Did Russell even have a chance of winning?
Wolff considers this statement an understatement and described Russell’s performance as a “great feat.” Wolff went on to say: “To drive a one-and-a-half-hour race here in Baku without making a single mistake on either type of tire—that was an absolutely deserved second place,” combined with a “mega performance.”
And might even more have been possible if Russell had been able to start from further ahead than P5 on the grid? At the finish line, the Mercedes driver was ultimately only 14.6 seconds behind Max Verstappen in the Red Bull.
Wolff says: ” It’s always a bit optimistic to say he could have made life difficult for Max, but our initial analysis showed that we were within a tenth of Max in terms of pure performance.“
”So I think, yes, it would have been at least a race at the front – whether it would have been enough for a win, I don’t know. But the car was strong on both tires and his pace was impressive.”
Praise from Wolff for Antonelli after fourth place
According to Wolff, Russell’s Mercedes teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli performed similarly well, finishing fourth, another 7.1 seconds behind Russell. After a few difficult races, Wolff described this result as “consolidation” and a “good result.” But: “Kimi is obviously not happy because he would have preferred to be on the podium, but [it was] solid.”
Although not without some noise: after the start, Russell complained loudly over the radio about what he considered to be a hard maneuver by Antonelli, which cost Russell a few positions.
Wolff, on the other hand, considered the situation in Turn 1 to be “actually okay” and said: “You know, these things happen. It wasn’t intentional on Kimi’s part, no pushing or anything. It was okay.”