Wolff wants to re-sign George Russell ’asap’

As Formula 1 hops from Bahrain to Saudi Arabia, rumours are swirling that George Russell’s future at Mercedes appears safe.

The 27-year-old driver is arguably riding the most consistent wave of form of any other competitor in 2025, despite the fact that his contract is expiring.

Some are convinced Toto Wolff has left the contractual door open in the event he can snap up a disgruntled Max Verstappen - but authoritative reports are now emerging that the Mercedes boss has put a two-year deal on Russell’s table for 2026 and 2027, with an option for 2028 as well.

Sky Italia reported rumours that the deal could be worth an impressive 30 million euros per year.

"Toto Wolff would like to close the deal as soon as possible," the broadcaster claims.

Auto Motor und Sport gave only two drivers a full 10-out-of-10 for their performances in Bahrain - polesitter and winner Oscar Piastri, and Russell.

"A masterpiece," the German magazine said, detailing the Briton’s self-management of technical problems. "He still finished ahead of (Lando) Norris."

Wolff agreed: "I’m almost speechless about his performance.

"There was so much talk about Lewis Hamilton who left us to go to Ferrari, about Kimi (Antonelli) who arrived as the youngster with high potential, but little was said about George," the Austrian added.

"I have always said that is not fair, because he is one of the best drivers around."

If Wolff still wants to sign Verstappen, it’s theoretically possible that he could loan his 18-year-old protege Antonelli to another team.

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali thinks a perfect place for the rookie Italian would be Ferrari.

"Italy needs a driver who, especially in today’s world, represents a point of reference for the young people," he said on Italian radio Rai.

"Before comparing him to some champion, I think it’s right to wait a little, but the certainty is that he will become a protagonist in our world," Domenicali added.

"So an Italian in an Italian car would be really nice, but I think Toto Wolff doesn’t agree at the moment."

Honda backs away from Verstappen-to-Aston rumours

Honda has moved to play down bubbling speculation that Max Verstappen’s next move in Formula 1 could be to Aston Martin.

In Bahrain, the quadruple world champion’s patience with Red Bull appeared to fracture - and his manager Raymond Vermeulen was even seen in a testy exchange with Dr Helmut Marko.

"I believe Red Bull has a big problem if Max leaves," former F1 driver Felipe Massa told Viaplay.

"If he was driving for McLaren, the team would possibly win all the races in the championship."

McLaren, though, is clearly happy with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Verstappen, on the other hand, is linked with Mercedes and Aston Martin in the event he can trigger a performance-related exit clause.

Mercedes now seems likely to re-sign George Russell for 2026.

"Aston Martin is mentioned a lot now," Dutch journalist Erik van Haren observes.

Part of the reason is that Adrian Newey is now working for Aston Martin - while another reason is recent comments made by Honda’s F1 boss Koji Watanabe.

After Suzuka, he made clear he wants Verstappen to remain Honda-powered after 2025.

"I was asked ’Do you want to supply power units to Max?’," Watanabe now explains to as-web.jp. "So I just answered. Do you expect me to say ’No, we don’t want to supply them?’

"I saw an article online that said Honda has a say in deciding Aston Martin’s drivers, but that’s already a given - the same goes for Red Bull. I wish they’d stop making short-sighted articles like that."