George Russell reveals Mercedes contract negotiations 'might take longer than ordinarily'

George Russell has revealed that the much-awaited contract negotiations with Mercedes might take longer than expected. The British driver is in a peculiar situation at the German team as the two parties continue to negotiate the terms of the partnership.

At the start of the season, George Russell's contract was never expected to be this big elephant in the room. The driver had been part of the setup even before he joined F1, and with Lewis Hamilton moving on to Ferrari, he was the one in a senior role. Russell has even shown this season that he can handle the senior role, and he has stepped up remarkably this year.

The contract extension with George Russell was a no-brainer as well, but then Max Verstappen became available on the market, and that complicated things. It does appear that the duration of the contract is one of the sticking points between the team and the driver, as Toto Wolff is hoping to keep his options open for 2027.

Talking to the media in the pre-race press conference, George Russell tried to placate the rumors to a certain extent but made it clear that the extension might take longer than expected. He said,

"We're in positive talks at the moment. As I said, nothing was going to happen during the summer break because from both of our sides there was no reason for it to happen. We wanted to ultimately enjoy the short time we had off, but things are moving in the right direction."

He added,

"Hopefully in due course, but as I said before the break, we need to make sure it's right. There isn't any time pressure from my side. There's no time pressure from the team's side, so it may take longer than ordinarily, but there's no need for you guys to read any more into that than the reality."

George Russell on why there could be a delay

It is quite clear that George Russell will be a Mercedes driver for 2026, as neither of the parties has a viable option that they could go for. With that being said, the driver would not be happy if he is offered only a one-year extension and has to go through the same process once again.

Talking to the media, the driver is not divulging any information on what the sticking point is. Instead, the driver has put this down to a paucity of time for both parties, as he said,

"It's just juggling a lot of priorities between on track performance, development of 2026, sponsorship events, and getting back in shape training wise and then of course doing the contract, it's not like the world stops just to sort it."

With George Russell sticking to his guns, it would be interesting to see how the relationship with Toto Wolff evolves after this, because it is quite clear that there are certainly a few disagreements that have not been resolved yet.