New Delhi, Sep 14 (IANS) Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has explained that the team would look to "unlock" the potential in George Russell following his recent setback at the Spanish GP, where the Briton finished fifth and conceded that he is "not in the fight for the drivers' title".

Russell had the pace and was on two pit stop strategy at the first-ever Madring race but struggled when he changed tyres as he settled for the fifth place with his teammate and title rival Kimi Antonelli winning and taking an 81-point gap in the championship battle.

Wolff explained that Russell was the quickest, but they need to find ways to unlock his potential.

"You can see the pace he had towards the end when he was catching Leclerc,” Wolff said, as quoted by Formula 1. "You know that he was fastest out on track but after the tyre changes, the pace wasn't there and I just don't know where it is. We have to analyse it because clearly it's in him, it's in the car, and we just have to unlock it.

He underlined Russell's achievement of having won F2 and F3 before. "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.

"Every single karting championship, Formula 3 in his rookie year, Formula 2 in his rookie year, went into the Williams. I mean, we're talking about a top driver.

"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. 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," he added.

Russell ruled himself out of the championship battle after the title lead widened following the Spanish GP. However, the Team Principal believes that his comeback is still possible.

"It's a mechanical sport,” the Team Principal explained. "You can DNF, you can crash out, and it happens two times in a row, and then suddenly what looked like a nice buffer is not anymore because you have six races to go.

"So in my opinion, we just need to ignore the points until it is mathematically not realistic anymore, or not real anymore for them to win, and until then just concentrate on every weekend, try to bring your best game," he added.

--IANS

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