George Russell and Toto Wolff are aligned to stitch up a new contract for the Brit to stay with Mercedes F1 team beyond the 2025 season.
After loosing Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari, Russell took over the mainstay mantle at Mercedes for 2025 alongside rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The Brit had his first chance to ‘lead’ a F1 team and call the shots albeit taking the team and his teammate along with him.
He hasn’t disappointed thus far with podium finishes in 2025 along with one win in Canada. He has been consistent in his results whenever the car is in a good place. With Antonelli only learning his trade, Mercedes would like to retain stability in their line-up ahead of a big change in F1 2026.
It is crucial for Mercedes to keep Russell, especially when attempts to get Max Verstappen have failed so far. Their next big bet is Antonelli, who will take a couple of years to get going. Both the Brit and team boss Wolff are aligned to continue beyond the current deal that ends in 2025.
Although there are rumours of Aston Martin eyeing talents like Verstappen and Russell, but the Brit has maintained that his first priority has been Mercedes, even though he knows the wish list of having the Dutchman in the team. “I’m not talking with anybody else and any teams who have shown interest, I have been quite open to say my intentions are to stay with Mercedes,” he said.
“That’s always been clear. And I am loyal to Mercedes. They gave me this chance to get into Formula 1. There haven’t been any hard feelings with any of the talks that have been going around, especially around Max. Because, like I said on numerous times, why wouldn’t teams be interested in Max? If every driver had no contracts for next year, Max would be number one for every single team.
“And that’s understandable. But ultimately, there are two seats for every race team. I knew if I continue to perform as I’m doing, my position would not be under threat whatsoever. So, I feel in a good place. We’re in no rush to do contract negotiations. We want to win together. Especially Kimi and I being team-mates now – we’re getting a result like Canada, both junior drivers from Mercedes, we’re both doing the job in terms of performance.
“Why would you want to change something that’s working?,” summed up Russell. Team boss Wolff concurred with the Brit. They are clearing the busy part of the year before getting into serious talks to stitch up a new deal for the Brit to continue on. While neither will admit about flyaway chats, but most likely the negotiations have begun behind the closed doors.
“It’s been so long with us, and he’s growing,” said Wolff to media. “The steps he’s made from the young driver in Williams, then coming to Mercedes at a difficult time, being on par with Lewis and then since Lewis left, being clearly a senior driver in the team, it comes naturally. It’s not like there’s some politics. It’s just taken the place that he merits and deserves. The ambience in the team is great.
“And we’ve written some kind of timeline when we want to settle these things. With triple headers, getting out of the way, and one race after the other now in June and July, but we’re going to get there. He’s been a Mercedes junior in the same way that Kimi was since he was 16, so it isn’t dependent whether he wins a race, whether he performs, because we know he can,” summed up Wolff.
Here’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli on first podium
Here’s George Russell on Canadian GP fight
