could not be triggered<\/a>.<\/p>\nIt was widely assumed in the F1 paddock that a repeat of the same scenario could take place in 2026, even as the current Mercedes drivers head the pack, but new comments from Wolff have altered that view.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Max to Mercedes thing for now is not on,\u201d he said at this weekend\u2019s Japanese GP, in an interview with the Press Association. \u201cThe situation is completely transparent. We have clear contracts with both (Russell and Antonelli).\u201d<\/p>\n
Russell\u2019s multi-year extension to his Mercedes contract was eventually announced in October 2025. Antonelli\u2019s own extension was disclosed at the same time.<\/p>\n
As Verstappen\u2019s contract situation revealed last year, most F1 deals include clauses that mean a party can exit a contract if certain results are not achieved and multi-year deals can be arranged as 1+1, meaning one year guaranteed with more as an option.<\/p>\n
\u201dSomeone said that the Max discussions will eventually come back on the table again,\u201d Wolff added in Japan. \u201cBut no, there are not any Max discussions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could not be happier with the two drivers that we have. Their positioning, with the age gap and how it aligns well with our strategy, means there are not any discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the same interview, Wolff also referenced comments about Russell\u2019s position possibly being precarious \u2014 after all, Wolff is a close friend of Antonelli\u2019s family and has long viewed the Italian as a long-term Mercedes F1 racer \u2014 from 1996 F1 world champion Damon Hill on his Stay on Track podcast.<\/p>\n
\u201cI respect Damon tremendously,\u201d Wolff said of this. \u201cI read his book, and I can relate to many things in his life. And he is a world champion, and there are not many that can say that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut on that particular topic, I wouldn\u2019t have said it that way because George has been with us since 2017. There is no reason why that shouldn\u2019t keep going until 2037.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toto Wolff has said the prospect of the Mercedes Formula 1 team swooping to sign four-time world champion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-564874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","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\/564874","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=564874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n