Wolff rejects claims Mercedes favour Antonelli, calls critics 'brainless' ahead of Singapore GP

Toto Wolff, Mercedes Formula 1 boss, on 9 October 2026 dismissed critics who say the team is biased against George Russell as "brainless" in comments ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix. He made the remarks after Russell suffered an engine failure while running third at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia last Sunday and will start the Marina Bay race from the back of the grid due to a penalty for using too many engine parts.

Wolff, who has led Mercedes for more than 13 years, said Russell's championship hopes were effectively ended by the engine failure and noted Russell enters this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix 86 points behind team-mate Kimi Antonelli. He described accusations of favouritism towards Antonelli as "completely nonsensical" and linked some of the criticism to social media behaviour.

Addressing online claims directly, Wolff said: "We've had it in the past with Lewis (Hamilton) fans. "I mean, literally, I don't know what's going on. Do they think I have a button that says, 'George engine failure now', or disadvantaging one driver against the other when we are fighting for a Constructors' Championship, when we have always had the mindset of providing everybody equal material?"

He criticised the tone of some commentary, saying: "But I guess this is maybe where social media goes today. People hide behind their screens and then theylash out. "There's a lot of polarisation going on, and sometimes I read what people write. I find it hilarious. These people really contribute to my own entertainment when they are abusing the team or myself. I'm Satan, I've heard.""

Wolff reiterated a policy of treating drivers equally since taking charge in 2013 and emphasised his personal relationships with both racers, saying: "We have had Kimi since he was 11," and "George, who has been with us since he was 17, someone that I feel a lot of, how can I say, emotions for and compassion." He added that he and his wife Susie socialise with Russell and his fiancée Carmen Montero Mundt: "We are spending time with Carmen and Susie off the track with each other," and "If people would see that we're travelling together, we're having coffee in the same coffee shop, we're going to the gym."

As an example of equal treatment, Wolff outlined Mercedes' plan to run split car specifications at Marina Bay after an upgrade in Malaysia last weekend failed to deliver the expected performance gain, with Russell in the previous-spec car and Antonelli in the new specification. "We don't know which one is going to be quicker," he said, adding that early signs suggested "the new car seems to be a little more tricky to drive - not saying it's necessarily slower, because there will be goodness in it, but maybe we haven't just found a way of putting it all together and tuning it."

Wolff described the available data as limited: "The older car is a bit more stable, grippy, but that is really just one data point. That is one free practice session, and it will be needing more time to really come to more conclusive information." He also said the upgrade was Mercedes' first significant design change since June and could affect preparations for the following year: "We've put a few months of upgrades into the car, clearly pointing in a direction that we think is advantageous," Wolff said, "and maybe we just need to calibrate it a little bit in order to find the right way forward for 2027."

Mercedes will use the free practice sessions at the Singapore Grand Prix to assess the two specifications and gather the data Wolff said is necessary before drawing conclusions about the upgrade's effectiveness and its implications for the team's preparations for 2027.