Mercedes have yet to confirm contract extensions for drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, despite both being on deal which expire at the end of this season
Nico Rosberg believes George Russell is giving boss Toto Wolff a taste “of his own medicine” amid the contract stand-off at Mercedes. Despite the Brit’s current deal expiring at the end of this year, he has yet to put pen to paper on an extension.
Russell has been involved in months of talks with the team over his future. And team principal Wolff has made it clear on several occasions that he plans for both Russell and team-mate Kimi Antonelli to still be driving for Mercedes in 2026.
But neither racer has yet signed on the dotted line. Talks slowed down ahead of the summer break as Mercedes flirted with the idea of tempting Max Verstappen to join them from Red Bull, and only after the Dutchman confirmed he is staying put for 2026 did Wolff publicly commit to handing Russell an extension.
Talks have slowed again, though, first because the 27-year-old racer prioritised some down time over the summer break over negotiations about his future. But Sky Sports claims there is a contract on the table and now Russell is the one dragging his heels.
Rosberg knows exactly what it is like to negotiate with Wolff, having spent the final years of his own F1 career racing under the Austrian at Mercedes. And the 2016 champion gave the air of a man amused as he gave his view of Russell’s situation.
He said: “It is horrible to negotiate with Toto and he just disappears off planet Earth when you are trying to get better terms. He just disappears and just does not even let you talk with him. It is horrible. I suffered a lot.
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“But now, it is George doing the kind of reverse to Toto. It is like he is fighting Toto with his own medicine. George apparently is just not happy with a couple of terms in the contract. George is a Mercedes junior, so certainly he won’t be on a Lando Norris level salary [at McLaren], by far and away not, and George feels Lando is equal to him.
“George, by any means, can drive at Lando’s level and can win races and championships if he has the car. So of course, he will feel a little bit of, ‘That is not quite fair, that I am so far away from Lando’s salary’.
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“And then also, there are things like sponsor days. Nowadays, these teams have so many sponsors, asking so much… and they want driver time. They want their customers to be able to meet George Russell, and so they are using the drivers so much.
“So George also there, will try to reduce, and what is it, the number can go up to like 60 days or something, 60 in 365 days. That is a lot of days and some of those 60 days are split into half days, so it can actually be like 80 days. That is a lot, like when all we want to do is go to the Nordschleife and go racing in GT3 cars.”