George Russell remains confident he will secure a new deal to continue driving for Mercedes next year amid rumours they have made an approach to Max Verstappen.
The Canadian Grand Prix winner’s contract to drive for Mercedes will expire at the end of this year. Despite the speculation surrounding Verstappen, Russell maintains he has not approached rival teams about a potential move in case he loses his Mercedes drive.
“Any teams who did reach out in the past I told ‘look, I am loyal to Mercedes, that’s where my future lies.” Ultimately, Mercedes are my managers, so it has to be dealt with through Mercedes in the first place. But there hasn’t been a lack of interest, let’s say.”
He made it clear he does not expect to change teams next year. “I’ve been focused on my side and I am loyal to Mercedes so I think everything will work itself out and the likelihood I’m not at Mercedes next year I think is exceptionally low,” he said.
Russell indicated he hopes to have a decision on his future by the Hungarian Grand Prix, before the summer break begins, in one month’s time. However he said “there’s not really any deadline in place.”
“Naturally, you try to have stuff done before the summer break. From my side, Mercedes manage me as well, so it’s not really a deadline [that’s] in my hands, as such.
“I’m not even thinking about it right now. Obviously there’s a lot of questions about it, but the more we speak, the less we [say anything] about it. Nothing really changes.
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“It’ll happen when the time is right. I expect probably in the next couple of weeks something to happen but we’ll need to wait and see.”
Approaching the halfway point in the championship, Russell is having his strongest season to date, and is now nine points behind Verstappen in the standings. He said his performance should speak for itself despite the latest reports linking Verstappen to his seat.
“There’s a lot of conversations behind the scenes that are not public and I know where [Mercedes’] loyalty lies and it doesn’t need to be public, it doesn’t need to broadcasted to everybody. We’ve obviously spoken a little bit more over the last week because there’s numerous news articles and what-not out there.
“But in all honesty it doesn’t really change anything my side because as I’ve said before I feel I’m performing better than ever and It’s as simple as that really, it’s performance speaks for everything.”
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