{"id":558392,"date":"2026-03-23T04:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T04:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/558392\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T04:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T04:55:12","slug":"f1-champion-max-verstappen-isnt-happy-at-red-bull-and-george-russell-mercedes-seat-is-temporary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/558392\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 champion Max Verstappen ‘isn’t happy’ at Red Bull and George Russell Mercedes seat is ‘temporary’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Concerns have been raised over George Russell<\/a>‘s future at Mercedes<\/a>, even if he wins the 2026 F1 drivers’ title. <\/p>\n

\nRussell raced through most of the 2025 season without knowing whether he would race at Mercedes the following year, eventually rewarded with a contract extension last October<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\nSince then, Russell has emerged as the favourite to take the 2026 title, pulling off a flawless weekend at the Australian Grand Prix and currently leads the drivers’ standings with 51 points<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Article continues under video<\/p>\n

\nTwo F1 pundits believe that, even if Russell wins the title this year, there is still one major impediment to his remaining at Mercedes. Max Verstappen<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\nF1 HEADLINES: Max Verstappen disqualified after race win as Red Bull ban confirmed<\/a> <\/p>\n

Could Mercedes throw Russell over for Verstappen?<\/p>\n

\nVerstappen’s start to the new regulations couldn’t have gone much worse<\/a>, suffering his first DNF of the year in Shanghai and is one of the most vocal opponents of the 2026 cars in the paddock. <\/p>\n

\nSpeaking on the Stay On Track podcast<\/a>, F1 legends Damon Hill and Johnny Herbert discussed Mercedes and the drawn out process regarding Russell’s 2025 contract saga. <\/p>\n

\nHill initially commented: “It wasn\u2019t like Toto was desperate to re-sign George.” <\/p>\n

\nTo this Herbert then uncovered his recent findings from the F1 rumour mill, and said: “I\u2019ve heard little rumours again with Max not being very happy where he is. Is he going to be taken by Mercedes?” <\/p>\n

\nIn response, Hill said rather starkly, that: “George is temporary.\u201d <\/p>\n

\nHill further elaborated and added: “I feel like I\u2019m relating to this a little bit. It\u2019s almost as if you\u2019re standing there going \u2018why can\u2019t you recognise what I\u2019ve got? Why is there not the same fuss over my offering?’ <\/p>\n

\n“George has got the opportunity now to win the championship, but that\u2019s not going to guarantee him his future at Mercedes.” <\/p>\n

\nREAD MORE: Max Verstappen ‘looking into’ future Nurburgring races after F1 cancellations<\/a><\/p>\n

Related\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Concerns have been raised over George Russell‘s future at Mercedes, even if he wins the 2026 F1 drivers’…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,55782,813,816,44,918,11525,85],"class_list":["post-558392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-f1-news-gossip","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-news","tag-red-bull","tag-sheona-mountford","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558392","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=558392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}