{"id":493686,"date":"2025-06-27T02:37:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T06:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/?post_type=news&#038;p=493686"},"modified":"2025-06-27T02:44:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T06:44:15","slug":"russell-hints-mercedes-pursuit-of-verstappen-delays-his-contract-extension","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/russell-hints-mercedes-pursuit-of-verstappen-delays-his-contract-extension\/","title":{"rendered":"Russell hints Mercedes&#8217; pursuit of Verstappen delays his contract extension"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"83\" data-end=\"238\">George Russell thinks that Mercedes&#8217; ongoing interest in Max Verstappen may be a factor behind the delay in renewing his own contract with the team.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"240\" data-end=\"510\">The 27-year-old Briton is approaching the end of his current deal and while many in the paddock expected an extension to be a formality, no announcement has yet been made.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"240\" data-end=\"510\">Speaking on Thursday, Russell acknowledged that discussions were underway but indicated that nothing concrete had been agreed.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"240\" data-end=\"510\">\u201cYes, a little bit. There\u2019s no substantial news yet,\u201d he said when asked about negotiations. \u201cIt\u2019s not something I\u2019m pushing for in a big way\u2026 I don\u2019t have any reason to be concerned. But obviously it helps if there was something signed.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">George Russell has suggested Mercedes&#8217; continued pursuit of Max Verstappen is delaying an extension to his expiring contract \ud83d\udcd1\ud83d\udc40 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7cboiH4f2o\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/7cboiH4f2o<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SkySportsF1\/status\/1938283392883192123?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">June 26, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"879\" data-end=\"1140\">However, in a more pointed remark during a later interview with Sky Sports, Russell appeared to allude to Mercedes\u2019 behind-the-scenes interest in Verstappen, suggesting the team\u2019s ambition to return to the top of Formula 1 may be driving their broader search.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1142\" data-end=\"1483\">\u201cFor my part, I don\u2019t think I have anything to worry about,\u201d he said. \u201cBut as a team, it depends on where you set your sights. As Mercedes, they want to get back to the top. And if you want to get back to the top, you have to make sure you have the best drivers\u2026 so it\u2019s only natural that conversations with people like Verstappen continue.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>George Russell thinks that Mercedes&#8217; ongoing interest in Max Verstappen may be a factor behind the delay in renewing his own contract with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":493687,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[17680,17140,17288,16926],"news_category":[16921,16715],"gn_keywords":[18340,17971,1081],"acf":{"news_source":"","link_picture":"","announce":"The 27-year-old Briton is not rushing his new deal, but says it would feel better if he there was something signed","video":[]},"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_twitter_image":"","rank_math_snippet_shortcode":"","rank_math_primary_category":"","rankmath_seo":{"focus_keyword":"","description":"","title":"","canonical_url":"","robots":"","facebook":{"title":"","description":"","image":""},"twitter":{"title":"","description":"","image":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/493686"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493686"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/493686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":493690,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/493686\/revisions\/493690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493686"},{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=493686"},{"taxonomy":"gn_keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gn_keywords?post=493686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}