Toto Wolf, the principal of the Mercedes team, claims that a new contract is approaching with George Russell following his victory at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Russell is out of contract at the end of the season and despite saying the current Mercedes lineup continues until 2026, Russell has yet to finalise terms for the extension. Russell won his second victory in Singapore. This was the venue that crashed from a podium spot in 2023, and Wolff said the 27-year-old developed into a driver raised by a driver given the correct matineelie.
“I think we’ve seen George in these moments (of mistakes) in the past, but not recently. That’s the step-up he made again this year. “He controlled the race, yelled for advantage and managed it when Max (Verstappen) got a little closer. There was no doubt that there was a risk to his driving.
“He’s scary this year. I haven’t seen any mistakes. There was a weekend where he himself said I could do more, it wasn’t a good race, but this happens with any driver.
“When it’s just merged, when the car is in perfect space, the driver is on top of things – when it becomes the dominant formula, you can see. That’s what we saw here.
“On the contract side, good things will take a while. It’s about the details, not on the big topic.”
Russell’s victory admitted that after Mercedes had unexpectedly strong performances throughout the weekend, he was unsure where Singapore’s pace came from.
“In these cars, they’re just boxes of surprises,” he said. “Why (similarly) the last three races to McLaren (similarly) (similarly) probably (similarly) and we’re probably struggling to answer. Likewise, Max is back and again lacking performance (on Sunday).
“The margins are very small by placing the car in the aerodynamic window on the right, extracting the biggest mechanical grip without killing the tires and extracting the sweet spots of the Pirellis.