Russell not worried about Antonelli 'shootout'

Sep.9 (GMM) George Russell insists he is not worried he could be left without a Mercedes race seat for 2026.

Red Bull’s leadership power struggle this year triggered a series of high-profile personnel departures – including Adrian Newey.

The turmoil, with Max Verstappen’s father Jos very much now in the anti-Christian Horner camp, has now coincided with a significant performance decline.

Toto Wolff has been openly campaigning to replace the Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton with Verstappen for 2025, but the Dutchman appears locked into his contract at least until 2026.

Some are therefore seeing 2025 at Mercedes as a shootout for perhaps just one cockpit for the following season between incumbent Russell and team boss Wolff’s protege Kimi Antonelli.

Russell insists he’s not worried.

“It will be great at Mercedes in 2026,” he said.

“Nothing has been signed for the future yet, but it is not something I am really thinking about.”

Verstappen ultimately might be more attracted by Aston Martin for 2026 and beyond, with the Silverstone based team to be named as Newey’s new home on Tuesday. The team is also switching to works Honda power.

Mercedes’ technical director James Allison, however, thinks the Brackley based team is setting itself up very strongly for the new engine rules for 2026.

“I wasn’t in the team in the run-up to 2014, when the new generation of engines was being developed,” he is quoted as saying by DAZN, “but those who were tell me the feeling is very similar now.”

Russell, 26, agrees with that.

“Mercedes is going to be a great place to be, especially with the engines,” he said. “But there are other teams with a Mercedes engine too, so we can’t be overconfident just because we think we’re going to have a fast engine.

“McLaren will have a fast engine and Williams will have a fast engine. I don’t even see McLaren as a customer team, because everything is the same. They are their own team with the same engine.

“And as it stands, they are doing better than us right now.”