George Russell is Mercedes’ perfect leader. Now he needs a new contract to end any Max Verstappen links

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If Mercedes had concerns about what the post-Lewis Hamilton era of its Formula One team might look like, and who might lead it, George Russell has quickly put them to rest.

While other teams have made more headlines — McLaren’s domination and its team orders, Hamilton’s rollercoaster start at Ferrari, and Red Bull’s second-driver turmoil — Mercedes has enjoyed its best start to a year since 2021. The car has been stable, predictable, and consistent. Words not applicable to how the team had started the previous three seasons.

Kimi Antonelli’s rookie escapades have naturally gained attention after his excellent P4 on debut in Australia. But Russell, now in his seventh F1 season, has back-to-back third-place finishes to sit just a point behind second-placed defending champion Max Verstappen in the drivers’ standings, and has looked every bit the leader Mercedes needed for this next chapter.

“Little was said about George (over the winter),” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff told reporters after the season’s second race in China. “But I always said that’s not right, because he is one of the top drivers out there.

“If you want me to name the three that I consider to be the top, he’s absolutely among those three. If not top two. And maybe on his way to top one.”

Russell signed his most recent contract extension in the summer of 2023 (Jade Gao/AFP via Getty Images)

In a year where his F1 contract is up for renewal, the timing could not be better for Russell to hit his stride and gain such praise, particularly if the links to four-in-a-row world champion Verstappen, the only rival team driver who has seemed to pique Wolff’s interest in recent years, resurface.

Verstappen has a Red Bull contract through the 2028 season. But should the team’s tricky start to the current campaign continue to lag behind McLaren, plus considering the upcoming regulation changes for 2026 and his reported disagreement with the decision to drop teammate Liam Lawson after two races, the Dutchman’s future may be a talking point yet again this year. Despite the long-term agreement, all top driver contracts contain performance clauses, something Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko recently noted.

Aston Martin has been linked with a move for Verstappen, were he to become available, with a report in January that contained a dizzying £1 billion ($1.29 billion) price tag to prompt the team to deny it was true. However, Mercedes is the other outfit that is often mooted as a potential landing spot for Verstappen.

Wolff missed out on Verstappen when he was a junior in 2014. Unlike Red Bull, Wolff could not offer the then-16-year-old an F1 seat for the following year, so he encouraged the precocious youngster to take the offer from Mercedes’ rivals to get on the grid as soon as possible. Wolff has remained friendly with Max’s father, Jos, and there have been brief moments where a union seemed possible, notably amid the uncertainty at Red Bull early last year. Wolff did speak with Verstappen’s representatives in the summer, but both sides agreed it wasn’t the right time to seriously pursue a deal, making it straightforward for Antonelli to get the nod to replace the Ferrari-bound Hamilton.

Asked in Australia ahead of the race weekend if the links to Verstappen were over, Wolff said Mercedes needed to concentrate on its existing driver lineup. “I don’t flirt outside if I’m in a good relationship,” he said. “That is true for this year too, so at the moment, that is not on any radar.”

Wolff stressed his focus is on the existing team and ensuring Russell has “a contract pretty soon. He has a contract. Just (need to) agree on the final details.”

But as long as those final details are still to be agreed and Russell is not locked in for next year, in the event a move for Verstappen were to pop up on Wolff’s radar, it would leave him to seriously consider what his team’s long-term future may look like.

Max Verstappen and George Russell talk with Stefano Domenicali, CEO of Formula One Group, at the recent Australian Grand Prix (Clive Rose/Getty Images)

Russell has been molded by Mercedes to be the team’s leader. The long-term vision for its driver lineup is him and Antonelli. Hamilton’s shock departure did not change that plan; it merely accelerated it.

Rookie mistakes are to be expected of Antonelli, whose pace is undeniable. Yet, in Russell, Mercedes knows it has a driver capable of getting the maximum out of the car week in, week out. His comprehensive defeat of Hamilton in their qualifying head-to-head last year (20-4) was a surefire sign he was ready to step up.

Russell signed his most recent F1 contract extension in the summer of 2023, taking him through to the end of this season. In an interview with The Athletic at that year’s Singapore Grand Prix, he explained how he and Wolff had spoken about an agreement that would run “for a much longer duration” and that the length of a deal was nothing to match the strength of their joint commitment.

Still, the time will come soon to discuss what happens beyond this year. Ahead of last month’s season-opener in Melbourne, Wolff revealed that he and Russell had spoken a few weeks earlier about when it would be right to chat about a new contract, saying they would find some time “I guess before the summer.” He was clear that the current driver lineup was “the combination that I want to go forward with Mercedes.”

Russell added that the focus was on getting Mercedes back to peak form, having struggled through the past three years with F1’s current generation of regulations. “In this sport, performance speaks,” Russell told reporters. “So from my side, there’s no pressure. I’ve got no doubts about myself, and everything falls into place when the timing is right. As I said, we’ve got bigger fish to fry right now, which is getting us back on top.”

He is right: performance does speak, and he is conveying his message loud and clear. Through the rain in Australia, he kept calm and made zero mistakes — even if the outright pace of the car wasn’t there to challenge the McLarens or Verstappen’s Red Bull in the damp — to collect P3 after Oscar Piastri’s mistake.

McLaren’s pace prompted Russell to start the China weekend on the offensive, attempting to put pressure on the papaya-colored car by claiming it could win every single race this year (he made a similar prediction about Red Bull in 2023, and was one grand prix away from being correct). Splitting the McLarens on the grid, overtaking Norris briefly and then finishing third, ‘only’ 11 seconds off race winner Piastri, may have dampened that forecast somewhat — not that Wolff minded. “You’ve got to rattle the cage a little bit,” the Mercedes boss said, smiling.

After his Shanghai podium, Russell talked up Mercedes’ teamwork through these opening two races, merely feeling the pace had been lacking to properly challenge McLaren. “If we do deliver a car that is capable of fighting McLaren, I’ve no doubt we can finish ahead, because we’re doing such a solid job as a team,” Russell said. “We need to keep on pushing.”

Wolff lavished praise on Russell for his performance, saying it was a 10 out of 10 display, with the caveat: “I never give 10 out of 10, because I think there is always better.” McLaren may still be a step ahead, but Russell’s performance has given Wolff optimism. “There are reasons to be excited for what the future brings,” he said.

One would imagine the future that Wolff envisions revolves around his British driver, one of the few unconfirmed for a seat next year heading into a driver market ‘silly season’ that, barring some curveballs, could turn out to be static.

“George is a Mercedes driver,” Wolff said in China. “We love having him in the team, he’s a junior driver, Mercedes-grown talent. And that’s something to be proud of. This is where all my concentration goes to.”

If Russell keeps performing as he has so far this season, there is little more he can do. He has not put a foot wrong.

But until his future is secured beyond this year, and if uncertainty does seriously arise over Verstappen’s future, then F1’s fickle, unforgiving nature could pull focus away from those standout early displays.

(Top photo: Clive Rose/Getty Images)

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