Mercedes boss Toto Wolff blasts 'f**k up' which cost George Russell first F1 win

Toto Wolff was raging with so much anger that he could not watch a replay of his team’s huge “f**k up” which cost Mercedes a one-two finish at the Sakhir Grand Prix. George Russell, deputising for Lewis Hamilton, was on course for his first career victory when disaster struck.

Wolff worked so hard in persuading Williams to part company with their star for a one-off race.

And Russell excelled in his first taste of a Championship-winning car.

The 22-year-old started in second place on the grid, alongside team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

And the Brit got off to the perfect start as burst into the lead on the opening lap.

Russell led for the majority of the race but Mercedes messed up a double-stacked pit stop, fixing Bottas’ tyres to Russell’s car.

That mistake left both drivers far down the pecking order when they rejoined the track – especially as Russell has to pit again on the following lap to reattach his own tyres.

“Today, it was a colossal f**k up,” Wolff told Sky Sports.

“Simply one of the tyre crews didn’t hear the call, they must have had radio failure in the garage and when the car came in then they didn’t know that we had to change the one tyres and that is why we ended up with the wrong sets of tyres.”

Wolff then admitted he could not watch the replay and was questioned on if the call to double-stack was correct.

“It was actually a safety stop,” the Austrian replied. “We were fine on the hard and we could have stayed out and we had to gap.