Today it has been reported to Sky Italy that Max Verstappen and Mercedes F1 team have been intensifying talks. With Verstappen being open to the move to Brackley for the 2026 season.

This comes after George Russell spoke to Sky Sports F1 about the delays in a contract announcement with the Mercedes team for the 2026 season. Sharing that Mercedes have been in conversation with the 4-Time World Champion’s team about the possibility of him driving for the team from 2026 onwards.

For Toto Wolf this would bring an end to years of “flirting” with the possibilty of Verstappen driving for his team. And for them this move would be a no brainer, with Max being the best driver on the grid for a number of years now.

But for Russell this would mean an exit from the team he worked so hard to reach and waited so long to be apart of.

Russell joined Formula One in 2019, after winning the F2 World Championship in a very competitive season, with Williams. After being backed by Mercedes to join the grid. Russell was always seen as the natural replacement for Valterri Bottas at the team, and after an impressive debut in 2020 for Mercedes at the Sakhir Grand Prix (Filling in for Lewis Hamilton who had contracted COVID), many believed that Russell would join Mercedes for the 2021 season.

But he would have to wait for the 2022 season for his chance at a full-time drive for Mercedes. And by this point the team that dominated the Turbo Hybrid era of F1 was now fighting for the lower points positions.

Even with this poor season George managed to pick up his first win in Formula One at the Brazilian Grand Prix, fending off his then teammate Lewis Hamilton.

George proved his worth against the 7-Time World Champion beating Hamilton in the standings for two out of the three seasons they were paired together at Mercedes. And this year he sits 4th in the championship just behind Max Verstappen. Does Mercedes see this as underperforming? Or is this a plot to lessen the contract value of the man from Kings Lynn.

Toto Wolff has invested so much into the career of Russell it would seem a waste to throw away the career that George has built up through his time with Mercedes, especially when George stuck around for this seat in an underperfoming and struggling William’s team.

I think the more sensible option would be to sign George for another year, and if Max Verstappen wants to leave Red Bull then it will give him a chance to view the performance of the teams in 2026 with the new regulation changes, and then make his decision as to whether he would like to continue his F1 run with the Red Bull Racing team.

For Red Bull it would mark the end of an era and potentially the end of the team fighting at the front of the F1 World Championship, as Verstappen has scored a large majority of the teams points over the past few seasons. Verstappen has gone through 5 teammates since the departure of Daniel Ricciardo at the end of the 2018 season.

At the end of the day Max will be able to drive for whoever he wants due to his reputation he has built in F1, but is it worth Mercedes time and money in the present that is George Russell, I don’t think so.