The Briton was lined up in the seventh grid slot when, at lights out, his car went into anti-stall, dropping him to last place—behind even the Cadillac duo. Although he managed to recover by dispatching midfield cars with relative ease, he had to settle for seventh, once again finishing behind Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
The Italian, meanwhile, maximized his result brilliantly. After completing lap 1 in sixth, he opted for an alternative strategy by extending his opening stint on mediums, which gave him the opportunity to battle Lewis Hamilton for the final spot on the podium—a battle he ultimately won. In doing so, he extended his lead at the top of the World Championship.
“Things hadn’t been going particularly well for us since Friday. Then we had the damage on George’s car yesterday and Kimi’s penalty. So to finish third and sixth (seventh, in reality) was a decent recovery. Still, it’s not where we should be,” Wolff began in an interview with British broadcaster Sky Sports.
“Once again, we made a mistake at the start on George’s car. That’s simply unacceptable and not good enough on our part,” he confessed, before turning his focus to the blue-flag signaling system, which failed to function correctly during the closing stages of the race—an issue even reported by Brazilian driver Gabriel Bortoleto. As a result, several lapped cars whose engineers failed to alert them held up the leaders.
“And then there was the issue with the signaling system, plus the cars further back defending during the battle between Lewis and Kimi. Honestly, it’s shameful to see some of the engineers at those teams, these Teletubbies, not telling their drivers what was happening behind,” he declared. The reference stems from the characters in the classic show, who communicated through short, simple, and repetitive phrases.
“Overall, I’m not happy with the whole situation. But when the dust settles, we head into the summer break with a healthy lead in the Drivers’ Championship and a good cushion in the Constructors’ Championship as well. That’s down to having a fast car and a great team—one that sometimes gets unlucky, like today with the Virtual Safety Car, but also needs to improve in terms of reliability,” he acknowledged.
Finally, Wolff refused to rule Russell out of the championship fight, noting that half the season still remains. “There is a long way to go, without a doubt. But we need to figure out what happened. There was a throttle response far higher than what he actually applied. We need to iron out these kinds of issues,” he concluded.
Formula 1 now enters the summer break. The 2026 season resumes from August 21–23 with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.
