George Russell has confirmed there are performance-related guarantees in his Mercedes contract to race in 2027 as well as next season, suggesting his seat is safe should boss Toto Wolff pursue Max Verstappen again.<\/p>\n
After a long wait for a delay Mercedes confirmed Russell and current teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli for 2026, although details on contract lengths were not included in the announcement.<\/p>\n
Russell\u2019s extension had been put on ice while Wolff openly courted Verstappen in the hope he could be lured away from Red Bull for next year.<\/p>\n
Sources with knowledge of the deal have told ESPN that Russell\u2019s Mercedes deal is a one-plus-one deal, common in Formula 1, with clauses for a second season if certain circumstances are met.<\/p>\n
Russell has confirmed that to be true in an extensive recent interview with The Telegraph.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is something I haven\u2019t actually said publicly, but the deal is, if I\u2019m performing [next year], we have a specific clause that if I reach [a target], we will automatically renew for 2027,\u201d Russell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo my seat for 2027 is in my hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019m not being strung along here. We\u2019re not going to be in the same position as we were six months ago. If I perform, and I don\u2019t want to go into details, but if I perform, then 100 per cent I\u2019ll be staying.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Englishman has won twice this year and admitted the wait for his deal to be finalized ended up being positive.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything works out for the best,\u201d Russell added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually wanted to sign the deal back in October 2024 but the deal I got today is substantially better than what I would have got had I signed it then. So yeah, sometimes I think you just have to trust in your ability and I feel I\u2019m only getting stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clauses in Verstappen\u2019s own deal had opened the door for Wolff to entertain that prospect in the first place. Sources familiar with Verstappen\u2019s deal told ESPN he could have left were he fourth or lower in the championship at the summer break – the Dutchman was third at the end of the Hungarian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
It is unclear whether similar escape clauses exist in the four-time world champion\u2019s contract for 2026 but it is likely there will be some mechanism to escape should Red Bull\u2019s new project with Ford, coming into force under the sweeping rule change coming into effect next season, fall short competitively.<\/p>\n
Russell and Verstappen are known to have a frosty relationship, with the Englishman publicly criticising the Red Bull driver ahead of last year\u2019s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, labelling him a \u201cbully\u201d – Verstappen called the Mercedes driver a \u201closer\u201d in reply.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just say hello to each other,\u201d Russell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t really speak. But we don\u2019t ignore each other. I don\u2019t lose sleep over it. And for sure he doesn\u2019t lose sleep over it. So it doesn\u2019t bother me one single bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cLife is short. We\u2019re all adults. We all learn from these experiences. You don\u2019t need to be best mates as teammates … Max is an incredible driver. There\u2019s no denying that. But that\u2019s why I would relish going up against him. We all believe we\u2019re the best.\u201d<\/p>\n
SEE ALSO: How Norris rediscovered F1 title \u2018favorite\u2019 tag in Mexico<\/p>\n
Russell and Mercedes hope 2026 is a return to championship-winning form – Russell joined the team in 2022, right as its dynasty period of titles came to an end.<\/p>\n
Russell stated after winning the Singapore Grand Prix last month that he feels ready to challenge for a title.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not just marketing talk,\u201d Russell said of the growing hype around the new Mercedes engine project.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d probably say potentially the only ones who wouldn\u2019t [swap teams] would be the McLaren guys.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell has confirmed there are performance-related guarantees in his Mercedes contract to race in 2027 as well…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[2571,49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-243625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-auto-racing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}