Russell ends speculation over Mercedes future despite no official announcement
“No announcement this weekend, but I’ll be racing here next year. One hundred per cent. It hasn’t even been discussed (with Toto Wolff). We don’t need to discuss it. It’s not even a question mark. I don’t want to go into any more detail, but I will be here next year and that’s the fact of it.”
Photo: Race Pictures
Mercedes is now set to begin next season with the same driver pairing it has relied on for the past two years. After an up-and-down rookie campaign, Kimi Antonelli has emphatically silenced his critics with a sensational second season so far, showing remarkable progress throughout the year and emerging as a solid championship leader despite his retirement in Barcelona.
Russell, meanwhile, has fallen slightly short of the lofty expectations that followed his impressive 2025 campaign, which had seen many tip him as the favourite for this year’s title. Even so, with only a third of the season completed, he remains firmly in the fight. As Verstappen proved last year, nothing can be ruled out until the final race, especially with cars that are still in the early stages of development and have plenty of room for improvement.
Verstappen does not want to talk about his future anymore
“It’s just crucial. I think for us as a team, we want to just improve from where we started this season to where we want to end it. We know that we are lacking performance, so it’s more about just trying to improve the car. I think that’s what everyone wants. We don’t like to be the fourth best team, so we want to be better, and that’s what we are working on at the moment.”.