Toto Wolff explains why Mercedes would rather risk reliability than sacrifice performance

Toto Wolff has said he’d rather have Mercedes’ current performance level with reliability quibbles than be bulletproof and slow.

Mercedes has had a variety of reliability issues this season, which have had an effect on both drivers’ championship challenges.

Toto Wolff prefers performance over reliability at Mercedes

Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trust.

With both George Russell and Kimi Antonelli suffering reliability issues that have ended their races prematurely, costing each significant points scores, Toto Wolff has said he prefers the current situation over having rock-solid dependability while having to chase more lap time.

Following on from his Spanish Grand Prix retirement due to a battery issue, Antonelli’s Silverstone race was undone by a wheel shield failure that saw him drop down the order from second place, having been hunting down race winner Charles Leclerc in the closing stages.

It was another big loss of points for the championship leader, whose advantage over Russell has dwindled down to 25 points as the season approaches its halfway mark; Russell himself suffered heartbreak in Canada when he retired from the lead with a similar battery issue to Antonelli’s.

Russell finished in second place last weekend, despite having had a more low-key weekend than Antonelli throughout. His performance had been compromised somewhat by a consistent straight-line speed issue that Mercedes was never quite able to rectify, meaning the team will carry out extensive investigations before the Belgian Grand Prix.

“He had, the whole weekend, a straight-line issue,” Wolff told media, including PlanetF1.com, after the chequered flag.

“We couldn’t see anything on engine power. It must have been down to some kind of mechanical situation, whether it was toe or something else, but definitely the data confirmed that he was down, but very difficult to identify.

“It was much better at the end of the race; we didn’t see that anymore, but nevertheless, something we need to understand.”

More on Toto Wolff and Mercedes

George Russell addresses Mercedes favouritism claims over Kimi Antonelli

Toto Wolff tells George Russell to stop overthinking after Austria win

Despite the issues that have hampered Mercedes‘ races recently, the Austrian said he has no desire to temper the pushing of the engineering envelope by pulling back on performance.

“I think we are such a performance [oriented] organisation on the chassis and engine side; we want to squeeze everything out,” he said.

“I’d rather dial back a little bit on something that is really good, and fix some of the reliability gremlins rather than running behind performance.

“So far we’ve won seven races out of nine, and I’d rather have this than slow and reliable.”

With Russell revealing his “gratitude” after taking second place on a day in which he was forced to make a stop due to a slow puncture on his W17, the British driver said he believes the current points gap between himself and Antonelli is reflective of the performance gap between himself and his teammate.

“Whether the luck has balanced out or not, I’m not sure,” he said.

“However, based on my performances and based on his performances over the course of these nine races, I think probably a 25-point gap is in his favour, is probably correct. He has done a better job than me this year to this point, so he deserves to be ahead of me.

“Whether it should be 25 points, whether it should be 10 points, whether it should be 35 points is a debate, but in that ballpark between, you know, I obviously lost 15 points as well in Monaco with the drive-through penalty. I think anywhere from 10 to 30 points behind is probably about fair.”

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!

Read Next: Mark Webber quashes ‘nonsense’ Oscar Piastri claim amid Verstappen rumours