George Russell makes his feelings clear on Max Verstappen becoming his teammate as Mercedes interest confirmed
George Russell has already made his feelings clear on Max Verstappen becoming his Mercedes teammate, as the Red Bull driver has been linked with a shock switch.
Russell, 27, is currently at Mercedes while Verstappen races for Red Bull and sits third in the Drivers’ Championship behind McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri heading into Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.
On Friday, it emerged that Mercedes were considering pursuing Verstappen ahead of the 2026 F1 season, according to Russell that is.
When asked whether talks were ongoing over a new contract for himself, Russell told Sky Sports: “Yeah, a little bit. No major updates yet.
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"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."
And Russell gave very little away about his opinion on Verstappen on Friday, but this was not the case earlier this month.
Following Russell’s victory at the Canadian Grand Prix, Verstappen’s team, Red Bull, complained to the FIA, claiming that Russell was 'driving erratically' and showed 'unsportsmanlike behaviour'.
But the protest was later dismissed.
After the race, Russell was questioned by reporters about his own future and explained how he was “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 was then pressed on the potential of Verstappen joining the German manufacturer.
"There haven't been any hard feelings with any of the talks that have been going around, especially around Max,” Russell explained.
"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."
He added: “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 teammates now – we're getting a result like today, 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?"
Topics: Formula 1, George Russell, Max Verstappen, Mercedes, Motorsport
Luke Davies