{"id":230530,"date":"2025-10-21T18:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T18:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/230530\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T18:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T18:27:09","slug":"george-russell-warned-mercedes-could-drop-him-even-if-he-wins-2026-f1-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/230530\/","title":{"rendered":"George Russell warned Mercedes could drop him even if he wins 2026 F1 title"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">Ex-F1 driver Karun Chandhok fears that a 2026 world championship win for George Russell might not be enough for him to secure his long-term future with Mercedes.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Ahead of the 2025 F1 United States Grand Prix, Mercedes announced new deals for Russell and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/f1\/racer\/1043641\/andrea-kimi-antonelli\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kimi Antonelli<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">While Toto Wolff insisted he had no intention of not retaining either driver, there had been some uncertainty amid Mercedes\u2019 interest in signing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/f1\/racer\/852\/max-verstappen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Max Verstappen<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Wolff \u201cflirted\u201d with the idea of signing the four-time world champion &#8211; something he has since admitted he regrets.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">This meant that contract negotiations, particularly with Russell, were drawn out.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Russell wanted security in having a deal beyond 2026, as well as a reduction in the number of media-related activities he was required to take part in.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Russell will also be encouraged by paddock rumours suggesting Mercedes could be a championship-winning force again next year when the new technical regulations come into play.<\/p>\n<p>Chandhok\u2019s warning for Russell<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Speaking on Ted Kravitz\u2019s Podbook in Austin, Chandhok advised Russell that he needs to be \u201cin the driving seat of his own contract process\u201d.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Currently, Russell is managed by Wolff and Mercedes due to his long-standing association with their junior programme, which he joined in 2017.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWhy not? Well, Frank Williams did it four times. Frank Williams lost four World Champions,\u201d Chandhok said when asked if the 2026 F1 title would guarantee his Mercedes F1 future.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cTo me, this whole experience, it should be a kind of a, not a red light, but an orange light, at least for George, that it\u2019s time for him to separate his management away from the race team he\u2019s with.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/george-russell-mercedes-amg-f1-petronas.jpg\"   type=\"image\/jpeg\" alt=\"George Russell\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.5\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>George Russell<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIt\u2019s put him in the passenger seat of this whole process. It\u2019s been dragged out. In effect, Toto\u2019s been negotiating on both sides of the table for this deal.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cAnd really, for \u201827, if Max is a contender, and he absolutely is a contender for that seat for \u201827, then George has got to spend, I think, next year trying to get control of his own destiny.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cHe needs to put himself in the driving seat of his own contract process, his own decision-making process, and also understand what\u2019s happening [in] the rest of the market. Because, you know, as long as Mercedes has been managing him, why would they do that?<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWhereas he needs to understand, is there an option to go to Aston for \u201827? Is there an option to Ferrari? Who knows what the Honda power unit will be like? Maybe that\u2019s the place to be, or the Audi one. Or the Red Bull Ford.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our F1 Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ex-F1 driver Karun Chandhok fears that a 2026 world championship win for George Russell might not be enough&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,3875,945,85],"class_list":["post-230530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-mercedes","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}