‘Nervous’ Russell ‘ringing around’ as Brundle claims ‘something’s up’ with Verstappen

Amid fresh rumours from Sky Italia that Max Verstappen is in ‘concrete negotiations’ with Mercedes, Martin Brundle believes there may be “something” to the continued speculation.

The knock-on from that, he says, will have a “nervous” George Russell phoning rival teams to secure his place on the F1 2026 grid, with the Briton tipped to be the driver who Mercedes say goodbye to.

Max Verstappen to Mercedes?

Verstappen has been the subject of rumours about his Formula 1 future with more than a year now after Toto Wolff publicly courted the Red Bull driver last season.

He gave up on that after the 2024 summer break when he announced Kimi Antonelli as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement, with Russell already committed until the end of the F1 2025 season.

That did little to silence the Verstappen whispers, it only moved the speculation on to 2026.

Red Bull has been open about the fact that Verstappen has a performance clause in his contract, one that reportedly allows him to leave the team if he sits lower than third in the World Drivers’ Championship standings at a specific point in the F1 2025 season. It is understood that changes to the top four after Hungary.

Helmut Marko was quizzed on this after Verstappen’s DNF at the Austrian Grand Prix, which left him just nine points ahead of Russell in the race for third place in the Drivers’ standings.

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“He has a contract until 2028, like all top teams; there are release clauses based on performance, and as things stand, there’s no reason at all why this contract couldn’t be fulfilled,” Marko insisted to ORF.

“They [the clauses] are currently such that there is no concern whatsoever about an exit.”

But while Marko was bullish in his response, Sky Italia is claiming that losing Verstappen to Mercedes is a very real prospect for Red Bull.

‘Mercedes, concrete negotiations with Max Verstappen,’ reported Sky Italia on X. ‘Dutchman ready to break free for next season.’

It has been speculated that it is Russell who would make way for Verstappen given his team-mate Antonelli is a new protégé of Wolff’s, the team boss backing the teenager by putting him in the Mercedes in his debut campaign.

Brundle reckons Russell, who has been linked to Aston Martin, has to be calling around to ensure he has a seat for the F1 2026 season should the ongoing rumours prove to be true.

“I think George Russell is nervous and ringing around a little bit,” he told Sky F1. “There’s no smoke without fire.

“2026 is massive, biggest change ever in F1 for the chassis and power unit and you guess Mercedes will be there or thereabouts.

“Would you put Red Bull (there) and can Max actually get out of his contract? Something’s up.”

The Formula 1 paddock won’t have to wait much longer for the long-running storyline to reach its conclusion as Wolff told the media, including PlanetF1.com, in Austria that he would make a decision during the summer break at the very latest.

“You need to be respectable towards the stakeholders in all of that process,” the Mercedes team principal said. “The organisation, the drivers, everybody. You need to understand the way forward.

“And I don’t want to be sadistic in letting a driver wait or not taking any decisions when it should be taken. So I feel we’re in a good space. We’re [in] June.

“Obviously there’s lots of discussions around. I’ve been open with it and transparent.

“And at a certain stage in the next couple of months – until the summer break, we need to know. Until the summer break, everything is going to be done.”

Pressed on whether that meant before or after the summer break, Wolff smiles and said: “Maybe in the middle.”

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