George Russell entered the 2025 Formulation 1 season in an interesting place. With Lewis Hamilton’s transfer to Ferrari, Russell had inherited the veteran position at Mercedes, with younger phenom Kimi Antonelli securing the second seat with the Silver Arrows.
Like Antonelli, nevertheless, Russell additionally entered the 12 months on an expiring contract.
Due to an incredible begin to the 2025 season — Russell has three podium finishes over 4 race weekends to enter this week’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix fourth within the Drivers’ Championship standings — there are studies that the driving force is near a brand new cope with Mercedes.
Talking with the media in Jeddah, Russell harassed that he was not … harassed about his contract standing with the group.
“From my aspect, there’s actually no stress, no worries in anyway,” started Russell when talking with Sky Sports activities F1. “With regards to contracts, everybody will get so enthusiastic about it, and the actual fact is, drivers have had contracts, and in the event that they don’t carry out, they’ll get booted out.
“For drivers, efficiency is our forex. That’s what we’ve bought. And in the event you carry out, every little thing’s good. So, I’m simply excited to go racing this weekend, deal with efficiency, and the long run types itself out.”
Russell was additionally requested a few report from Autosport that he was closing in on a brand new cope with the group, that may see him signal for 2 extra seasons with an possibility for a 3rd, in addition to rumors about Mercedes remaining excited about securing Max Verstappen’s providers if potential.
“Rumors are by no means that truthful are they,” responded Russell.
“If you mentioned rumors, I didn’t actually hear a lot. A number of of them are moderately shut, I assume, however on the finish of the day, we’ve by no means mentioned a contract previous to Might or June in a season.”
Russell then described the “ruthless” nature of Formulation 1, the place “drive to outlive” is extra than simply the title of a documentary collection, however a lifestyle.
“I’d say the extra irregular level is what number of drivers have these, form of, long-term offers.
“However everybody’s bought exit clauses, they’ve all bought efficiency clauses. A driver that’s on a three-year contract, it doesn’t actually imply something in the event that they’ve bought an exit clause, or the group has an exit clause if the driving force doesn’t carry out. It doesn’t actually imply lots.
“If you happen to’ve bought a contract with a group however the group needs you gone, the group finds a method to get you gone.
“That’s how this sport works, and that’s the way it ought to work as a result of we’re 20 of the perfect on the planet and it’s ruthless. There’s no time to fiddle. All you are able to do is deal with driving quick.”
Russell will flip his consideration to driving quick on Friday, within the first of three follow classes on the difficult Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
