When Lewis Hamilton announced his bombshell move to Ferrari for 2025, Mercedes eventually turned to its own ranks by effectively handing George Russell the role of leading the team forward, while the squad accelerated its programme around junior phenom Andrea Kimi Antonelli to prepare the Italian teenager for an earlier than planned F1 debut.
In their first year together, it has been difficult to gauge Mercedes’ relative performance compared to its rivals, with team chief Toto Wolff calling the W16 a “surprise box” that yielded two wins but also plenty of mediocre weekends. What didn’t help was a suspension update that led the team astray for several weeks, before the Brackley squad reverted to its baseline.
But amid that fluctuating form, what cut through was how Mercedes was vindicated in its decision to back Russell. Now properly being the ‘man of the house’ following Hamilton’s departure, Russell has by all accounts taken another step forward to cement that role.
Russell’s qualifying prowess was never in doubt after besting Hamilton over one lap during their time together, but he has coupled that with steel and composure under pressure, making his wins in Canada and Singapore look routine.
“He’s been formidable this year. I haven’t seen mistakes,” Wolff said. “There were weekends that he himself said, I could have done more and I wasn’t a good race. But this happens with any driver. But you can see when it just merges, the car being in a perfect space, and the driver being on top of things, that becomes a dominant formula, and that is what we’ve seen here.”
George Russell has seamlessly stepped into Lewis Hamilton’s shoes at Mercedes
Photo by: George Russell/Lewis Hamilton
It’s a far cry from Russell’s race ending mistake two years ago, when he touched the wall chasing down Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and McLaren man Lando Norris for the win.
“I think we’ve seen these moments in the past, but not recently,” Wolff said. “And that’s the step up that he’s made also this year, that these things don’t happen again.”
Russell concurred: “I’m a very different driver today to the one I was a couple of years ago, and I feel more complete, more confident. I know exactly what I need to do in given circumstances. I feel ready to fight for a championship. I feel ready to take it to my next step.”
When questioned by Motorsport.com on what exactly has changed since 2023, he replied: “I think it comes with experience, just knowing how to maximise every situation. Probably a couple of years ago I was driving a bit more tense and over-pushing in circumstances when I shouldn’t have been. Now I just feel much more relaxed.
“When it was raining an hour before the race, I just said: ‘You know, it is what it is. It’s the same for everybody. There’s nothing I can do, so there’s no point stressing about it.’ I think myself a few years ago would have been slightly different.”
Dealing with the Verstappen noise
That doesn’t mean Russell’s continued role as de facto team leader was completely uncontested, as Wolff held exploratory conversations with Max Verstappen’s entourage during the nadir of the Milton Keynes squad’s 2025 slump.
Russell put on a brave face in public, saying it was only normal for Mercedes to explore a deal with the best driver available, and while he said he wouldn’t be the one making way, it still would have challenged his status at the team after only one season.
“I don’t take that personally, because I made it clear from the beginning, I’m happy to be team-mates with anybody,” Russell said, boosted by his successful stint alongside seven-time world champion Hamilton. “Whoever my team-mate will be, it doesn’t concern me either.”
Photo by: Shameem Fahath / Motorsport Network
But the Verstappen exploration and the subsequent delays in getting Russell’s contract over the line did emphasise the unusual situation of Russell being managed by Wolff and Mercedes, so therefore not fully being in charge of his own destiny.
Now the t’s are crossed and the i’s are dotted, the exact length of Russell’s new deal is not public, but it would not be a surprise if there was still plenty of flexibility baked in. Mercedes is tipped to come out of the gates swinging in F1’s new rules era next year, which could still make the team an attractive proposition for the likes of Verstappen if Red Bull misses the mark.
But speaking to Motorsport.com earlier this summer, Russell added that flexibility “should work both ways”, as he would not want his hands to be fully tied if the opposite scenario happened and more competitive options emerged down the line.
That’s why he wasn’t necessarily craving long-term stability either. “The number one priority is having a world championship winning car, and I want that to be with Mercedes,” Russell said. “I think drivers who are chasing long term deals feel they need that security.
“I’ve never had a long term deal, and I don’t need a long term deal, because it should always be about performance. And if I’m not performing, the team shouldn’t be tied in with me. That’s as simple as that.”
If Mercedes does find its way back to title-contesting ways, Russell will finally get the opportunity he has been chasing for so long, having joined the team just when its powers waned at the start of the ground-effect era. Seeing his former F2 rival Lando Norris fight for the championship has only made his desire to get that same chance more acute.
“I’m definitely more hungry than ever,” Russell told Motorsport.com. “I would have hoped that by now, seven seasons in, I would have at least had a year of fighting for a championship. When I joined Mercedes, we thought every year would be a championship fight. Unfortunately, it hasn’t turned out that way.
“Arguably, nobody would have predicted two years ago that McLaren would have made this step. Lando did five years with them and had no fight either. So you’ve just got to accept the fact that that is the nature of F1. That’s always been the case. And you look at Michael Schumacher, he was in his fifth year with Ferrari, in his 30s, before he won a championship with them. I’m 27, so I’ve still got a bit of time on the side.”
Antonelli gets used to life in F1
On the other side of the garage, there have been no doubts over Antonelli’s extended stay for some time now either. But formal confirmation the 19-year-old will stay where he is will be a shot in the arm to the young Italian, who has been introduced to the whirlwind of being an F1 driver the hard way.
Wolff never disputed that he dealt Antonelli a brutal hand, first by putting him into the car for FP1 at Monza last year, which ended in a crash after what had been a mesmerisingly quick lap.
Then there was the full experience of being posted on motorsport’s frontlines earlier than he had ever dreamed of, struggling to cope with the attention and energy around his homecoming in Imola while being all lost at sea due to Mercedes’ maligned rear suspension faux-pas.
That development sidestep, and the reality of F1’s extremely tight field, has only made Antonelli’s inevitable rookie errors seem bigger and more consequential than they would have been in other years. But after fiercely protecting Antonelli in public, Wolff tried a different tactic in Monza and gave his wonderkid more of a cold shoulder, calling his performance “underwhelming”.
Antonelli started from pole in the Miami GP sprint
Photo by: James Sutton / Motorsport Images
Antonelli responded well to the challenge with stronger weekends and top five finishes in Baku and Singapore, adding to his maiden podium in Montreal and sprint pole in Miami that provided Mercedes with enough evidence that its choice to promote Antonelli was not a mistake.
“He’s shown us enough in the early part of the season to confirm our expectations that he had the talent to be in F1 and be with Mercedes,” said trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin.
“We’ve upped the amount of preparation that we’re doing, trying different things in terms of getting ready for the race weekends going into these remaining races. And we’ll just keep reviewing until we get it right.”
Antonelli will now get to do so without having to look over his shoulder, as Mercedes sticks to what the real plan has been all along. To get Antonelli’s rookie blues out of the way and ensure he is fully ready for F1’s 2026 era, when Mercedes plans to take him and Russell to new heights.
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