Wolff put on the spot as Russell shares Verstappen Mercedes talks

Mercedes and Red Bull may be keen to avoid public chat about their 2026 Formula 1 driver line-ups, but the drivers themselves have done little to quieten things down.

George Russell, who is yet to sign a new Mercedes deal for 2026 and beyond, gave the firmest clue yet in Austria that his team has been reconnecting with Max Verstappen’s camp again, having failed to sign the four-time world champion in the past.

“As Mercedes, they want to be back on top, and if you’re going to be back on top you need to make sure you’ve got the best drivers, the best engineers, the best pitcrew, and that’s what Mercedes are chasing. So, it’s only normal that conversations with the likes of Verstappen are ongoing,” Russell said when asked about the delay sorting out his own contract.

“I feel with the performance I’m showing at the moment I’ve got zero reasons to be worried.”

A day prior Verstappen had been annoyed and bemused at questions doubting his commitment to Red Bull, but he equally was careful to avoid giving a firm answer ruling out a switch. Verstappen feels at home at Red Bull, the team that propelled him to four consecutive world titles, and is understood to be happy to remain at Red Bull as is.

But with F1’s wholesale technical regulations changes on the horizon, including new power units with a bigger reliance on electric energy, the Dutchman’s entourage would have been accused of negligence had it not at least sounded out the various options on the table.

In the new era the hybrid component will potentially be a big performance differentiator and Red Bull is ambitiously debuting its in-house power unit developed at Red Bull powertrains to take on the might of Mercedes and others.

Did Russell put Wolff on the spot?

In stating the quiet bit out loud, Russell appeared to force Wolff’s hand when the Austrian was featured in Friday’s FIA press conference, and understandably faced a volley of questions about his driver line-up for 2026. But Wolff said he had no issue with Russell openly alluding to Verstappen talks.

“I like what George says and I’m always supportive of the driver and there is no such thing as saying things I wouldn’t want him to say,” Wolff insisted.

“I think we are very transparent in the team of what we do, what we plan and we’ve been like that since I was being put in charge of that. So, that’s not the issue. Clearly, you need to explore what’s happening in the future, but it doesn’t change anything of what I said before about George or about Kimi [Antonelli], about the line-up that I’m extremely happy of having.”

Answering a different question about chasing Verstappen, he said: “We are going into territory that I don’t want to discuss out here, but people talk, people explore. And most important is that in our organisation, we are transparent, but it doesn’t change a millimetre of my opinion of George, his abilities or anything else.”

A vote for Verstappen would not be a vote against Russell

Russell has been one of F1 2025’s standout and most consistent performers, accentuated by a first grand prix victory for anyone other than Verstappen and the two McLarens in Canada.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, George Russell, Mercedes

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images via Getty Images

So, Mercedes’ approach to make the 27-year-old wait is more down to any – remote or not – chance to land Verstappen than any sort of doubts about its current driver pairing.

When asked what else Russell needs to do to earn a new deal, Wolff replied: “Nothing. He has been part of our programme for 10 years or so. He’s always performed to the expectations that we have set and he’s continuing to do so.

“We haven’t given him a car to win world championship in the last three years, so that’s completely on us. And the times the car has been good, he has been winning races. You know that when he’s getting in the car, he’s going to extract what is in the car.

“Having said that, for whatever reason, in early summer those kind of contract discussions start to end up being accelerated in the media or accelerated because of a lack of information. Well, what I have been doing the last 30 years in a normal business, contract discussions are not being held in town halls. So, everything is normal. Everything goes to plan.”

“Define flirting”

Wolff was then confronted with comments he made two months ago when he was asked similar questions and said: “I always say I don’t flirt outside if I’m happy in the relationship, professionally. I’m super happy with the line-up that we have. I couldn’t wish for anything better, and Max is at Red Bull, we haven’t had a conversation, we’re continuing our trajectory.”

Does restarting those exploratory talks not count as flirting? Some mental gymnastics ensued. “Define flirting,” was Wolff’s cheeky reply. “No, nothing changed, there is no flirt in that sense, you know? You can flirt, or you have conversations…”

World Champion Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1 shakes hands with team mate and race winner Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

If it ever comes to that, Mercedes’ Sophie’s Choice seems unlikely to result in its young prodigy Andrea Kimi Antonelli making way rather than Russell, but Wolff said the bubbling rivalry between Verstappen and Russell was not necessarily a reason to rule them out as a potential pairing.

“I can imagine every line-up, I had [Nico] Rosberg and [Lewis] Hamilton fighting for a world championship, so everything else afterwards is easy,” he joked.

“There’s pros and cons of having two drivers fighting each other hard and we’ve seen examples where that functioned and other examples where it didn’t.”

When asked if he has any deadlines in mind, Wolff’s response was: “You make it sound like that we have been asking: ‘When do you want to join and what are the terms?’ That’s not how it is and how it works.

“I want to just have the conversations behind closed doors, not in town halls.”