David Coulthard loves Toto Wolff’s ‘honesty’ about Mercedes ‘mistakes’ that have cost George Russell

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David Coulthard has revealed a conversation he had with Mercedes chief Toto Wolff after the conclusion of the Hungarian Grand Prix, and the F1 pundit loved the Austrian executive’s “honesty” over the “mistakes” that have cost George Russell.

The British Mercedes driver suffered from yet another car-related issue at the most recent round of racing in Hungary. Russell’s W17 went into anti-stall at the beginning of the 70-lap race, which left him amongst the backmarkers at the end of the very first lap.

Here’s how the F1 championship looks at the summer break. Predict the top five at the end of the season 👇

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Russell ended up recovering relatively well, considering the Hungaroring’s notoriety for being a difficult circuit to overtake on. He took the chequered flag in P7, while teammate and title rival Kimi Antonelli extended his championship lead with a P3 finish.

• READ MORE: Martin Brundle says George Russell ‘summed it up best’ with his latest comments on 2026 F1 rules

David Coulthard reveals Toto Wolff’s ‘not good enough’ verdict on Mercedes’ performance in 2026 so far

During Channel 4’s highlights of the Hungarian Grand Prix, F1 pundit David Coulthard was asked whether Toto Wolff will be happy with his team’s performance heading into the summer break.

Despite the Silver Arrows being comfortably in control of both championships at the midway point of the season, Coulthard revealed Wolff’s fury following the conclusion of the race weekend in Hungary.

“No, not at all,” Coulthard began, before adding: “I actually spoke to Toto as I was coming from commentary, and he was going, ‘Not good enough’ in that wonderful Austrian accent.

“I love his honesty; he doesn’t try and PR code anything. There have been a number of mistakes they’ve made. A lot of those have fallen on George, but Kimi, of course, in Barcelona had issues as well.”

• READ MORE: Five worst moments of George Russell’s F1 career including Australian GP disaster and Singapore GP heartbreak

Through the various issues that he has suffered so far in 2026, as well as simply being off the pace of his high-flying teammate on certain occasions, Russell will now need to overturn a 59-point deficit to Antonelli in order to secure a maiden world title for himself.

We’ve seen bigger deficits overturned in the past, namely Max Verstappen versus McLaren last year, but it becomes even more difficult when you are fighting against a title rival who is racing in identical machinery.