{"id":226010,"date":"2025-06-30T07:06:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T07:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/226010\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T07:06:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T07:06:10","slug":"max-verstappen-to-mercedes-complication-emerges-as-russell-lifeline-teased","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/226010\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen to Mercedes ‘complication’ emerges as Russell lifeline teased"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen could trigger a \u201ccompletely mad\u201d driver market by moving from Red Bull to Mercedes for 2027, with George Russell handed a one-year contract extension for the F1 2026 season.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That is the claim of Sky F1 pundit Karun Chandhok, who has spotted a \u201ccomplication\u201d with rumours that Verstappen could switch to Mercedes as soon as next season.<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen \u2018complication\u2019 to result in George Russell lifeline at Mercedes?<\/p>\n

Despite being officially under contract with Red Bull until the end of the 2028 season, Verstappen has been persistently linked with a move away from the team over the last 12 months.<\/p>\n

Christian Horner, the Red Bull team principal, told media including PlanetF1.com last year<\/a> that Verstappen\u2019s deal contains a \u201cperformance element\u201d that could see him leave before the end of 2028.<\/p>\n

It has been speculated that Verstappen will have the power to activate an exit clause for F1 2026 if he is lower than third in the Drivers\u2019 standings after a certain point of the 2025 season, believed to be around the time of next month\u2019s summer break.<\/p>\n

Analysis: Where will Max Verstappen be in F1 2026?<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0How Max Verstappen to Mercedes could shake up F1 2026 driver market<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Could George Russell inadvertently trigger his own Mercedes exit?<\/a><\/p>\n

Russell, whose current contract is due to expire at the end of F1 2025, revealed ahead of Sunday\u2019s Austrian Grand Prix that negotiations between Verstappen and Mercedes are \u201congoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team boss, did not deny the claim when asked by media including PlanetF1.com<\/a> in Friday\u2019s press conference at the Red Bull Ring, calling for such details to be kept \u201cbehind closed doors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Appearing on Sky F1\u2019s coverage of the Austrian Grand Prix, former Red Bull junior Chandhok declared that every team on the grid would be interested in Verstappen.<\/p>\n

And he speculated that Mercedes might be pushing for a short-term deal for Russell to keep its options open for the F1 2027 season.<\/p>\n

Asked if Verstappen would be open to a move to Mercedes for F1 2026, he said: \u201cI guess the answer is yes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know what the thresholds are in terms of being able to extricate himself from the Red Bull contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if you were Max Verstappen, you would look at next year in particular and look at the performance of all of the top four teams and then pick and choose where you want to go for the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I think any of the teams on this grid would want to have Max in the car. He is the standout driver of recent times.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in Max\u2019s case, the new generation of rules, the new generation of power units could set the tone for the next five, six years, like it happened with Lewis [Hamilton] back in 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like next year, there\u2019s a bit of a dance going on where people are trying to gauge the situation and then in 2027 the market could go completely mad.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut reading between the lines, that\u2019s where the complication is.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause what does that mean? [Does Mercedes] give George just a one-year deal? Does he want that? He wants long-term stability.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s where I think there\u2019s some complexities in terms of ironing this whole deal out.\u201d<\/p>\n

F1 contracts: Made to be broken?<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 F1 2025 driver salaries revealed: Who are the highest-paid drivers on the grid?<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 F1 driver contracts: What is the contract status of every driver on the F1 2025 grid?<\/a><\/p>\n

Russell\u2019s contractual situation means he, rather than rookie team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, would be most at risk for F1 2026 if Mercedes is successful in its pursuit of Verstappen.<\/p>\n

Yet despite the uneasy relationship between Russell and Verstappen<\/a>, Wolff raised the possibility that the pair could form an effective partnership as Mercedes team-mates.<\/p>\n

He told media including PlanetF1.com:\u00a0\u201cI can imagine every lineup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had [Nico] Rosberg and Hamilton fighting for a World Championship, so everything else afterwards is easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are pros and cons of having two drivers fighting each other hard and we\u2019ve seen examples where that functions and other examples where it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when it comes to the contact situation, our sport is pressure. Constant pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether you\u2019re in the car, outside of the car, you just need to cope with that. George knows that, like any other driver knows it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel that when you\u2019re being put in a comfort zone, sometimes that is actually more detrimental to performance than having a certain pressure point in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chandhok refused to rule out the possibility of Verstappen and Russell becoming team-mates at Mercedes, claiming the lineup would turn the Silver Arrows into a \u201csuper team.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cCrazier things have happened in F1.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, if you had George and Max in the same team, that would be a Mercedes superteam in terms of a driver lineup, so you\u2019d at least think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on Max Verstappen and Red Bull from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Max Verstappen news<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Red Bull news<\/a><\/p>\n

Chandhok\u2019s fellow Sky F1 pundit Naomi Schiff identified Verstappen as the key to the driver market, with teams reluctant to finalise their plans for F1 2026 until the reigning four-time World Champion makes a decision on his future.<\/p>\n

Asked if Russell, who has been linked with the likes of Red Bull and Aston Martin, could be lured away by a rival team as Mercedes delay a decision, she said: \u201cYes, absolutely.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think the thing that stands out the most here is that I feel even last year we had the same sort of scenario, where Max was controlling the driver market.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd as long as he was not very clearly saying \u2018I am staying at Red Bull for next year\u2019, a lot of teams are keeping their options open.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what ended up having Carlos Sainz waiting a long time as well and this year we\u2019re seeing a similar thing with George, so that says a lot about Max and how much the teams up and down this paddock want him.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut George is an incredible driver, there\u2019s no doubt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a big chance that he\u2019s going to stay at Mercedes, but there\u2019s no doubt that if he doesn\u2019t there\u2019ll be plenty teams up and down this paddock who are going to want him for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0Max Verstappen \u2018annoyed\u2019 as George Russell bombshell triggers Horner response<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen could trigger a \u201ccompletely mad\u201d driver market by moving from Red Bull to Mercedes for 2027,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,9824,225,1073,4859,12,226,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-226010","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-george-russell","12":"tag-home-page","13":"tag-max-verstappen","14":"tag-mercedes","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-red-bull","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114771052781898242","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}