The unwritten rules of contract negotiations in Formula 1 state that prize assets should be kept under lock and key. Yet one of the star performers of the 2025 season, George Russell, still doesn’t have a Mercedes contract in his pocket for next year. Even after crowning an impressive campaign to date with victory from pole position in the Canadian Grand Prix, he shrugged off suggestions there’s cause to worry, saying, “I’m not concerned at all about next year; I know I’m going to be on the grid,” but until he puts pen to paper the uncertainty about where remains.
That applies to Mercedes as much as Russell. While the 27-year-old has been on its books since the start of 2017, his situation means that he is obliged to evaluate opportunities elsewhere and there’s no lack of teams who would be interested even if there are few obvious vacancies for next year. Everything points to a new Mercedes deal, and soon, although the hesitation is all about Max Verstappen. Mercedes and team principal Toto Wolff have flirted with Verstappen for some time, and while there is even an outside chance the reigning world champion might force his way out of Red Bull the door will be kept open. With the chances of that receding, an extended stay for Russell seems likely.
“He’s been so long with us and he’s growing,” said Wolff after Russell’s Montreal win. “The steps he’s made from the young driver in Williams, then coming to Mercedes at a difficult time, being on par with Lewis [Hamilton] and then since Lewis left being clearly the leader of the team, it comes naturally. It’s not like there’s some politics. He’s just taken the place that he merits and deserves.
“The ambience in the team is great and we’ve agreed on some kind of timeline when we want to settle these things, with tripleheaders getting out of the way and one race after the other now in June and July. But we’re going to get there.”
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It’s a win-win situation for Mercedes. Signing Verstappen would be a no-brainer for any team given he is F1’s pre-eminent driver, single-handedly keeping Red Bull near the front, but it’s a long-shot at best and in Russell Mercedes already has an outstanding driver in place. Kimi Antonelli, who is producing a good but not yet great rookie campaign, is on a long-term deal, so it would be Russell who would be reluctantly sacrificed if a change were made. Given how much Mercedes has invested in him, it is almost for the best that Verstappen isn’t available as it would be a big call to sacrifice a driver you’ve developed, especially one operating at such a high level.
Russell’s rise to near the top of F1 has been one of sustained progress, starting with his early promising performances in an uncompetitive Williams in 2019 and rising to some dizzying peaks with the team – notably his amazing second place on the grid in the wet at Spa in his third season. While that farcical race-that-never-was means this is often overlooked, what was technically his first F1 podium finish in 2021 was fully deserved thanks to that sensational lap. He’d already served notice of his front-running credentials by all but winning the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix on his one stand-in outing for Mercedes towards the end of his second season in F1. If anything, his promotion to Mercedes for his fourth year in 2022 came a year late. Russell would surely agree, given his arrival coincided with the Mercedes domination of F1 – winning 15 out of a potential 16 world championships over the previous eight seasons – ending.
That’s not to say that Russell was without jagged edges that needed rounding off dur ing his Williams stint. Like all inexperienced drivers, there were errors, most notoriously crashing under the safety car while on course for his first points at Imola in 2020 (dubbing it an “amateur mistake”) then wiping out Mercedes stablemate Valtteri Bottas at the same track a year later. That was a humbling lesson given his initial defiance gave way to apology, a climbdown beyond some less robust drivers mentally.
