Russell-Verstappen Lineup ‘Wouldn’t Work’

Despite his highly impressive current form, George Russell could be racing for his career at Mercedes.

It is notable that, while 18-year-old rookie Kimi Antonelli is clearly on a long-term deal under Toto Wolff’s wing, established star Russell’s contract is up for renewal.

Team boss Wolff appears to be grappling to handle the situation – hailing Russell as within the top three talents in Formula 1 today, whilst carefully not ruling out snapping up Max Verstappen for 2026.

Russell, 27, is also capturing attention and ruffling feathers off the track, describing McLaren’s current advantage as even bigger than Red Bull’s in the recent past.

“Right,” Lando Norris replied in the Telegraph. “I thought he was a bit smarter than that, but clearly not.

“George thinks he can play a lot of games but I don’t fall for any of them.”

Until this year, Russell has been in Lewis Hamilton’s shadow at Mercedes, but he is now earning the plaudits of the pundits.

“I don’t think Russell is very cool, but he is doing really well,” former F1 driver Christijan Albers told De Telegraaf. “He is reasonably consistent, and in qualifying he is always there. He is still Mr Saturday.

“In China he was really good again,” he added.

De Telegraaf journalist Erik van Haren, however, wonders: “What is Mercedes going to do with him?

“If they were so convinced about him, and think he is a superstar, they would have extended his contract a long time ago. If you look at the other teams, you see that their top drivers are tied up for the long term.

“I have the feeling that Wolff will wait a few more races to see what happens next door at Red Bull. It could very well be that Verstappen becomes available after all, and Wolff doesn’t want to miss that chance.”

It is rumoured that Wolff actually offered Verstappen an eye-watering 100 million euros per year to switch to Mercedes over the winter – which was turned down.

“If it doesn’t work out again,” van Haren says, “he will of course extend Russell’s contract. But if he can get Verstappen, and that is a realistic scenario, then I think Toto will want to do that. And I don’t think Toto will want to lose Antonelli after one year.”

Another issue for Russell, Albers argues, is that he does not get along at all with quadruple world champion Verstappen.

“That wouldn’t work out,” he said. “You can tell that Toto is already busy with Zak Brown to poke around everywhere. He also uses Zak for certain statements.

“They are at least busy making life difficult for Christian Horner.”

So if Mercedes heads into 2026 with a Verstappen-Antonelli lineup, van Haren predicts: “Then Russell can go to Red Bull.”