{"id":620342,"date":"2026-04-21T01:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T01:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/620342\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T01:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T01:24:12","slug":"the-mercedes-metrics-that-will-block-potential-max-verstappen-f1-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/620342\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mercedes &#8216;metrics&#8217; that will block potential Max Verstappen F1 switch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/tag\/russell\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">George Russell<\/a> has said that \u2018hitting the metrics\u2019 in regards to his contract situation with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/tag\/mercedes\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mercedes<\/a> will ensure his future with the team, likely blocking any possible move by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/tag\/verstappen\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Max Verstappen<\/a> to join the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/series\/single-seater\/formula-1\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Formula 1<\/a> title leaders.<\/p>\n<p>The Silver Arrows have hit the ground running this season, with victories in all three Grands Prix, as well as the one Sprint held so far.<\/p>\n<p>Its W17 has been the class of the field, with Russell taking victory in the opening round in Australia, followed by Andrea Kimi Antonelli\u2019s two successes in Shanghai and Suzuka.<\/p>\n<p>It leaves Antonelli leading the Drivers\u2019 Championship, with Russell second, and the German marque comfortably leading the Constructors\u2019 title.<\/p>\n<p>Verstappen, by comparison, has endured a torrid start to the year so far, with poor results, discontent with the new regulations, and the impending loss of his Red Bull race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase to McLaren.<\/p>\n<p>2025 saw hot rumours of talks with Toto Wolff about a potential move, which notably left Russell under threat of losing his drive, and its 2026 dominance will ensure further speculation that Verstappen could attempt the move again.<\/p>\n<p>But speaking to media, including Motorsport Week, Russell indicated that the deal he renewed towards the end of last season \u2013 along with Antonelli \u2013 guarantees his status as a Mercedes driver for a while longer.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/George-Russell-Mercedes-Chinese-GP--1024x576.webp.webp\" alt=\"George Russell has warned that Mercedes faces a closer battle later in the year\" class=\"wp-image-240714\"  \/>George Russell is locked in with Mercedes<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, it is pretty much that you hit the metrics and move on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo I will be here next year with the team, and there is not really much more to say.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a multi-year deal, it is numerous years as we said last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOften in a lot of these contracts, even if the metrics are not hit, if things are happy, then you continue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut as I said, the metrics will very likely be hit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Russell and Verstappen have shared a tumultuous rivalry previously and this will no doubt put a smile on the Brit\u2019s face, but he will need to be on his game with Antonelli now proving to be a worthy challenger to threaten his championship favourite status.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-vivid-red-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-e381c894268883913eb098fcee043c48\">READ MORE \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/2026\/04\/19\/kimi-antonelli-tipped-to-hold-crucial-advantage-over-george-russell\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kimi Antonelli tipped to hold crucial advantage over George Russell<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell has said that \u2018hitting the metrics\u2019 in regards to his contract situation with Mercedes will ensure&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,817,3875,825,945,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-620342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-george-russell","12":"tag-max-verstappen","13":"tag-mercedes","14":"tag-motor","15":"tag-motor-sports","16":"tag-motosport","17":"tag-motosports","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620342","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=620342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}