George Russell has insisted he nonetheless has full “belief” in Toto Wolff and Mercedes, however says any new F1 contract should swimsuit each side.
Russell is out of contract on the finish of 2025 and, regardless of placing collectively arguably the perfect marketing campaign of his F1 profession to date, was rumoured to be on his means out of the staff.
Mercedes explored the opportunity of signing Max Verstappen for subsequent 12 months.
Nonetheless, forward of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Verstappen lastly ended any hypothesis linking him to Mercedes by confirming he’ll drive for Purple Bull in 2026.
A brand new Mercedes deal for Russell now appears to be like to be inevitable, however the principle sticking level is the size of the deal.
Russell would really like a longer-term deal to offer him much-needed safety, however Mercedes will possible want a shorter contract to offer them the chance to discover signing Verstappen once more sooner or later.
On Thursday in Hungary, Russell conceded that the final six months have been “conflicting” for him.
“Now, after all, these final six months have been a really distinctive state of affairs the place I don’t have big energy in that form of settlement, and perhaps the pursuits weren’t aligned for a while, which has, after all, put me in danger for these final six months,” Russell mentioned.
“However then it was my job to carry out and cut back that danger. So, I don’t know, to be sincere. I don’t want for it to return to something like that. I nonetheless belief Toto and I nonetheless belief within the staff that they are going to at all times help me so long as I’m performing. In order that’s what I have to give attention to. However after all, for each Kimi and I, these previous months haven’t been essentially the most assuring for our future, and that’s simply been a bit conflicting.”
Russell admitted that the size of his new Mercedes deal remains to be “one thing we’d like to consider”.
The British driver was adamant that successful – not cash – is on his thoughts when negotiating.
“I imply, it’s one thing we’d like to consider, what’s within the curiosity of each events actually – what do I would like from this as a lot as what do Mercedes need? It has been clearly a little bit of a singular state of affairs we discovered ourselves in over these final six months,” he defined.
“The very fact is from my facet, I need to win, that’s the solely factor I care about.
“Greater than cash, greater than variety of days of sponsorship, greater than something, I need to win and that for me is an important factor about my future.”
