Rosberg warns Russell over negotiation ‘tactic’ used by ‘horrible’ Toto Wolff

Nico Rosberg recalled how he found Toto Wolff “horrible” to negotiate with, the Mercedes boss making a vanishing act his “tactic”.

Rosberg made that reveal as George Russell continues his wait for a new Mercedes contract, the team yet to announce a decision on either seat for F1 2026.

Is George Russell now dealing with ‘horrible’ Toto Wolff tactic?

Russell is piecing together arguably his strongest F1 campaign to date, winning from pole in Canada and adding a further four podium finishes to his season achievements so far.

Yet, Russell has not been given a new contract to extend his Mercedes career beyond F1 2025 as it stands, with rookie team-mate Kimi Antonelli in the same boat, amid swirling speculation that Mercedes could snatch reigning four-time World Champion Max Verstappen away from Red Bull.

Confirming ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix that “I still have no reason to be concerned about my future with Mercedes“, Russell’s situation had Rosberg recalling his past experiences of contract negotiations with Wolff, the Mercedes team boss and one-third owner.

While stressing Russell is not for certain experiencing the same thing, if he is, Rosberg says the Brit will find that Wolff “disappears” on him, which is far from ideal when it comes to sorting out your F1 future.

“Toto’s horrible to negotiate with, because his tactic is to disappear,” Rosberg revealed, the 2016 World Champion having served as a Sky F1 pundit in Belgium.

“So when you try… like George now, he’s trying to get hold of him, Toto will disappear. George will be trying to write Toto to get him [to get] a move on, or whatever, and Toto disappears.

“By the way, this is not a fact; this is just me making it up. But I remember from my time that was his style, just like disappearing, not answering, being hard to reach… and it’s horrible, because you’re like, ‘come on!’

“You have nothing, you have no chance… do whatever you can; you need to find a way to cross paths.”

Nonetheless, Russell and Antonelli are expected to be confirmed by Mercedes for F1 2026, with Verstappen remaining at Red Bull.

Latest F1 2025 head-to-head standings

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

Verstappen is under contract at Red Bull until the end of 2028, but speculation of a move to Mercedes has been fuelled by the existence of a performance-related exit clause in that deal, one which it is believed Verstappen could have triggered, had he been P4 or lower in the Drivers’ Championship after this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

P4 Russell is 28 points behind Verstappen going into that race, with a maximum of 25 up for grabs, which based on that information, means the clause could no longer be triggered this year.

Wolff hinted at some positive news coming for Russell, as he spoke about the Mercedes driver saga at the Belgian GP.

Asked by Sky F1 if Russell’s contract situation was making him drive better, Wolff replied: “No. As a driver, he’s so mature and stable that I don’t think that makes any difference on performance.

“On the contrary, I would wish to have him in a safe place a little bit earlier.

“We haven’t managed to do that now, but I’m optimistic that he’s going to sleep well over the summer break.”

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