George Russell health ‘touch and go’ with Valtteri Bottas on standby

We very nearly saw an early return of Valtteri Bottas at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, as George Russell fell ill with a “touch and go” respiratory illness that very nearly warranted him stepping back from competition.

As it stood, Russell’s health improved day by day. Come the start of the race, he was able to pull together an impressive overcut strategy, nursing his tyres in an effort to finish second overall.

Valtteri Bottas on standby in George Russell health struggle

George Russell’s second-place finish at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix would have been impressive in any circumstances, considering the strength of the overcut strategy he employed to bypass the competition. But add in the fact that he was battling a brutal respiratory illness all weekend long, and that charge is all the more incredible.

The news of Russell’s illness came on Thursday when Mercedes announced the driver would skip his media obligations in an effort to recover.

Speaking to media after the race in Baku, team principal Toto Wolff told media that Russell’s performance was “very impressive considering that on Friday morning, it was touch and go whether it would be Valtteri [Bottas] in the car.

“It was George himself that said, ‘I’m not sure I can do it.”

Thankfully, the British racer was able to “recover a little bit in the morning,” Wolff explained, which saw him get behind the wheel for practice.

“Then every day, he went strong, and then doing a one-and-half hour race here in Baku, not putting a single foot wrong – that was a super merited P2,” Wolff enthused.

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Russell managed to qualify fifth on Saturday. Come the race itself, he did drop back to sixth, but his superb tyre management enabled him to maintain track position and hold onto his hard tyres far longer than much of the competition. When he pitted, he managed to emerge second on the track.

The key to that performance, Russell stated in the post-race FIA press conference was “just staying out of trouble.

“I don’t think we had a spectacular weekend, to be honest. And obviously, Carlos [Sainz] just did an amazing job, and Liam [Lawson] also did a great job yesterday qualifying ahead of us.

“But all of the cars who we ordinarily fight sort of made mistakes or underperformed, and we sort of picked up the pieces.

“So, obviously, really happy to finish P2 all things considered. But also, I think the cool temps helped us a little bit. So just good to capitalize on all of those things.”

Regarding his health, Russell expressed his gratitude that Baku isn’t one of the most physically taxing events of the F1 season.

“Had it been Singapore, for example, I think I would have called it a day on Friday, to be honest, and probably wouldn’t have done the race,” the Briton said after a well-timed cough.

But was there more on the table? Toto Wolff argues it could have been possible.

“It’s always a bit optimistic to say that he could have given Max a hard time,” Wolff said, “but our first analysis showed that we were within a tenth of Max in terms of pure performance.

“I think, yeah, it would have been a race at the front, at least.

“Whether it would have been enough for a win, I don’t know, but the car was good on both tyres, and his pace was impressive.”

Valtteri Bottas, then, will need to wait until the F1 2026 season to return to the grid when he joins the all-new Cadillac team.

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