{"id":33665,"date":"2025-07-31T00:11:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T00:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/33665\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T00:11:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T00:11:12","slug":"kimi-antonelli-delivers-mercedes-contract-update-as-max-verstappen-talks-fade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/33665\/","title":{"rendered":"Kimi Antonelli delivers Mercedes contract update as Max Verstappen talks fade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kimi Antonelli has delivered an update on his Mercedes contract situation, following the discovery that Toto Wolff&#8217;s talks with Max Verstappen have faded.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of this weekend&#8217;s Belgian Grand Prix, the Mercedes team principal delivered his biggest indicator yet that <a href=\"https:\/\/racingnews365.com\/toto-wolfff-hints-at-final-decision-over-max-verstappen-signing-for-mercedes\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Verstappen will not be signing for the Silver Arrows next season.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As a result, it is widely expected that Antonelli and George Russell will be retained, at least for the 2026 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Antonelli&#8217;s contract does expire at the end of this campaign, with the teenager having endured a difficult run of form at a time when Mercedes&#8217; seats have been a hot topic.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Italian has scored points in just one of the past six races, whilst he retired in four of those. F1&#8217;s European races have not been kind to the 18-year-old, who is hoping to make progress in Spa-Francorchamps.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, when it comes to his future, Antonelli has never been concerned about his seat and has insisted the atmosphere within the team is better than ever.<\/p>\n<p>Discussing speculation surrounding his future, Antonelli told media: &#8220;I&#8217;ve never been worried, to be honest. I know the situation, I know what the team wants, especially looking at the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So I think also Toto has been clear recently, so that&#8217;s obviously good to see. But, I think the team is working well. The line-up is good. Me and George are working well together, and we are trying to work together also as a team to find performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So, I think we&#8217;re doing a pretty good job. And also there&#8217;s a really good atmosphere in the team. It&#8217;s always nice to go back to the factory and see how much the team is pushing, not only for this year, but also ahead of next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So, this means above that there&#8217;s a good dynamic in the team. And yeah, but I&#8217;m sure the team knows what&#8217;s the best for, especially next year.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kimi Antonelli has delivered an update on his Mercedes contract situation, following the discovery that Toto Wolff&#8217;s talks&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":["post-33665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33665","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=33665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}