Brundle warns Russell he should be "worried" as Wolff 'won't want to let Verstappen slip again'

Former F1 driver Martin Brundle believes that George Russell should be "worried" about his future at Mercedes, as team principal and CEO Toto Wolff "would not miss out" on Max Verstappen again

The Sky Sports analyst emphasises that Wolff will not make the mistake of letting Verstappen slip away again, with the Austrian missing out on the Dutchman in his junior days after signing Lewis Hamilton from McLaren.

With that statement, Brundle underlines that Russell's position at Mercedes is not as secure as it seems, especially now that Verstappen is increasingly linked to a possible departure from Red Bull.

The Brit has not yet signed a contract extension beyond 2025, although Wolff stated earlier in the season that discussions are ongoing.

Should Russell be worried about Verstappen?

"I think if Max Verstappen sprung into the marketplace, I would be quite worried for George," Brundle explained at Sky Sports F1. "Kimi [Antonelli] is their man for the future. There are a lot of ifs and buts, but George is doing a great job as a team leader. But Toto missed Max once; I don’t think that he’ll miss him a second time should he get the opportunity."

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Brundle believes that Wolff - who admitted to making a mistake by letting Verstappen slip away early in his career - would not miss the opportunity to bring the four-time world champion to his team, no matter how well Russell is currently performing, with Brundle seeing the Brit's performance in Bahrain as 'one of his strongest F1 races ever'.

"In an ailing Mercedes, he had other ideas, and he drove around fundamental braking and electrical issues brilliantly to hang on", assesses Brundle. "Having made a great start, too, this was surely one of his finest F1 drives. Very timely too, as he looks for a new contract with the team for 2026 and beyond, especially given paddock talk about Max Verstappen being in the marketplace," concluded the F1 commentator and analyst.

This article was written in collaboration with Nicole Mulder