{"id":75225,"date":"2025-08-18T10:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T10:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/75225\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T10:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T10:35:10","slug":"george-russell-says-he-would-pay-to-be-a-world-champion-as-mercedes-racer-shares-latest-on-contract-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/75225\/","title":{"rendered":"George Russell says he \u2018would pay to be a World Champion\u2019 as Mercedes racer shares latest on contract talks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">George Russell has spoken of there being \u201cno rush\u201d for himself and Mercedes to agree on a new deal, with the Briton\u2019s future beyond 2025 yet to be settled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">Mercedes have not formally confirmed Russell and team mate Kimi Antonelli\u2019s places at the squad for the 2026 season, though Silver Arrows boss Toto Wolff recently commented that <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/latest\/article\/wolff-wants-to-stay-with-kimi-and-george-as-it-stands-for-2026-mercedes-line.6KlUstZySy5Ehj58zC8BTw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he intends to retain the pair \u201cas it stands\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">It comes after Wolff openly expressed his interest in reigning four-time World Champion Max Verstappen, who has since confirmed that <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/latest\/article\/its-time-to-basically-stop-all-the-rumours-verstappen-confirms-hes-staying.2xjitPqnx2kg3bw89Pvo76\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he will continue with Red Bull into next year<\/a> and the new era of F1 regulations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">Speaking just before the summer break at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Russell stated that there were \u201cno updates\u201d regarding his contractual situation with Mercedes, but he did say things were moving \u201cin the right direction\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cTo be honest, now, with the time of the year that we\u2019re in, there\u2019s no time pressure from my side,\u201d said Russell. \u201cThere\u2019s no major time pressure from the team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cThe truth is, we\u2019ve been in contact a lot this week, but nothing about contracts or the future, because <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/latest\/article\/it-tripped-us-all-up-wolff-admits-reverting-back-to-older-suspension-package.161hhDUAEdP51Mn7gezLNG\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">we need to get the car back on track<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cOf course, we\u2019re having conversations about the future. Things are going in the right direction, but it\u2019s not like we need to get this done right here and right now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cWe\u2019ll get things done when the time is right and not rush it, because it\u2019s an important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">Russell was then asked if signing his next contract is a more complicated process than previous deals, as he looks to go from a race winner to a title challenger.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cFor sure,\u201d the 27-year-old replied. \u201cI\u2019m seven years into F1 right now. I feel that I\u2019m at my peak, and I still feel that I\u2019m getting stronger as a driver.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cI was maybe more anxious about getting a deal done maybe 12 months ago, then six months ago ahead of 2026. But right now, I\u2019ve waited so long that I want to make sure that it\u2019s right.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cIt\u2019s got to be right for the team, it\u2019s got to be right for myself, it\u2019s got to all make sense \u2013 the duration has to be right both ways. So, it\u2019s not as simple as just saying, \u2018Are you happy with what you\u2019re being paid?\u2019 That\u2019s a very small factor of it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cYou\u2019ve got to have faith in the performance in the future as well, because I would pay to be a World Champion, I would pay to fight for a World Championship, and that\u2019s where I am right now. That is the priority for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell has spoken of there being \u201cno rush\u201d for himself and Mercedes to agree on a new&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1687,372,6537,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-75225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}