Martin Brundle believes that George Russell is “not happy” at Mercedes due to a lack of a contract renewal. The Englishman’s current deal with the Formula 1 titans is set to expire at the end of the season.
And while Toto Wolff has insisted that he and Kimi Antonelli will remain in 2026, Brundle is concerned that the team principal hasn’t tied the 27-year-old down with a new contract. Speaking with Nico Rosberg on Sky Sports F1, the pundit said: “I would have signed George a long time ago, because George is not happy, is he? It’s very easy to see that George feels quite bruised about all the Max [Verstappen] talk and what have you through the summer.
“But when you look at the calm at McLaren and other teams, I just think they’ve injected too many of their own problems into the driver line-up. I’d keep him.”
It comes after Wolff was reportedly interested in luring four-time world champion, Max Verstappen, away from Red Bull this summer, which added further pressure to the performances of Russell and Antonelli. And despite a deal failing to come to fruition. the 53-year-old has made it no secret that he hopes to sign him in the future, only adding to the tensions of the team, according to Brundle.
Rookie Antonelli, meanwhile, is also still yet to receive an extension despite making a somewhat worthy replacement for Lewis Hamilton, who left the team to join Ferrari alongside Charles Leclerc. As it stands, Mercedes currently sit third in the Constructors’ Championship, trailing McLaren and Ferrari respectively in first and second.
Russell currently sits fourth in the Drivers’ Championship standings with 194 points from six podiums and his sole win in Canada in June. And as he trails Oscar Piastri, who holds the top spot for McLaren by a mammoth 130 points, a turnaround in the final eight Grand Prix of the season looks incredibly unlikely.
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Antonelli, meanwhile, currently sits eighth in the standings with just a single podium to his name, and his lacklustre performance in Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix highlighted his struggles this season. After qualifying in seventh, Antonelli crossed the line ninth at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, receiving a black and white final warning flag for repeated track limit violations.
He also received a five-second penalty for running Alex Albon of Williams off the track. Speaking about Antonelli’s performance at his native GP, Wolff said: “Underwhelming this weekend. Underwhelming. You can’t put the car in the gravel bed and expect to be there. All of the race was underwhelming.
“It doesn’t change anything on my support and confidence in his future because I believe he’s going to be very, very, very good. But today was underwhelming.”
When asked how Mercedes unlocks the 19-year-old’s true potential going forward, the Mercedes head honcho added: “Just freeing him up. Freeing him up. You know, he’s a great driver. He has this unbelievable ability and natural talent. He’s a race driver. It’s all there. But we need to get rid of the ballast.”
He continued: “I think a clean weekend means almost not to carry too much trauma of previous mistakes into the next session or into the next weekend because that is [baggage]. You’re not going to attack the corner hard if you’ve been off there before you’ve finished your session or maybe you’re not attacking a driver that should not be in your way.”
Antonelli and Russell, who finished fifth in Italy, will now turn their attention to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which takes place at the Baku City Circuit in just under two weeks’ time.