Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has dropped a big hint about discussions with Max Verstappen for a potential 2026 seat ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix. This comes a day after George Russell opened up about Mercedes’ ongoing talks with Verstappen.
Russell has pledged his loyalty to Mercedes and admitted that he has been meeting all performance expectations. However, his contract, which expires at the end of 2025, has not yet been renewed. Is Mercedes exploring other options?
Related: George Russell on Aston Martin’s Radar Despite Pledging Loyalty to Mercedes
Despite Verstappen’s refusal to part ways with Red Bull last year, Russell confirmed that Mercedes is still interested in having the Dutch driver on board. Newsweek Sports reported Russell’s comments when asked about discussions on his contract extension with Mercedes. He said:
“No major updates yet. It’s not something that I’m pressing massively because, as I’ve always said, the performance is the priority, and I feel with the performance I’m showing at the moment – still in line with the performance I’ve shown over all these years – I’ve got zero reasons to be worried.
“But obviously, it does help if there was pen on paper. But let’s see.”
He added:
“From my side, I don’t think I have anything really to worry about. I think, as a team, it depends where you put your aspirations.
“We’re second best at the moment, maybe third best. We might be overperforming slightly to be second best.
“As Mercedes, they want to be back on top, and if you’re going to be back on top you need to make sure you’ve got the best drivers, the best engineers, the best pit crew, and that’s what Mercedes are chasing.
“So, it’s only normal that conversations with the likes of Verstappen are ongoing. But from my side, if I’m performing as I’m doing, what have I got to be concerned about? There are two seats in every Formula 1 team.”
Wolff was asked in a press conference what more Russell needs to do to secure his 2026 seat. The Mercedes team boss said:
“Nothing. He has been part of our program since 10 years or so. He’s always performed to the expectations that we have set, and he’s continuing to do so. We have found, you know, we haven’t given him a car to win World Championship in the last three years. So that’s completely on us. And the times the car has been good, he has been winning races.
“And you can see, you know, today he’s always there. You know that when he’s getting in the car, he’s going to extract what is in the car. So having said that, you know, for whatever reason, in early summer, those kind of contract discussions start to end up being accelerated in the media or accelerated because of a lack of information. So everything is normal. Everything goes to plan.”
When asked if Russell was on top of Mercedes’ list for 2026, Wolff said:
“Well, he needs to be top of the list because he’s a race winner with us. He’s a Mercedes Junior. He’s been with the team for a long time.”
Given Russell’s comments about Verstappen delaying his contract extension, Wolff was quizzed if he expected Russell to be talking to other teams. His answer hinted that talks with Verstappen are indeed ongoing, prompting Russell to consider other options. He said:
“Again, we are going into territory that I don’t want to discuss out here, but people talk, people explore. And most important is that in our organization, we are transparent, but it doesn’t change a millimeter of my opinion of George, his abilities, or anything else.”
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