Toto Wolff says that in 2026 Mercedes will continue with his current attitude of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, although it may not make a big announcement when contracts are agreed.
Russell and Antonelli must still have confirmed extensions of their contracts by Mercedes, where Russell says that he is not in a hurry to complete the details of his deal in Zandvoort. Wolff admits that there are certain bottlenecks with regard to his schedule, away from races that still have to iron, but that both drivers will race from the team next year.
“I always said that there will be no big news because we do this,” said Wolff. “Of course we will continue with both. With George there are a few things where we want to optimize part of the trips and the marketing days, how many hours we do – he is an experienced driver and it is always important for us to talk about it.
“We want to have the best performance of the drivers and I think we both have given them a lot of tension with marketing activities and media activities. This is how we calibrate again. Is there an announcement in Monza? No, but I don’t think it will even be a big announcement. It will just give you the heads of the heads of the agreement.”
While Russell is fighting for third place in the driver’s championship, Antonelli had a Dutch Grand Prix filled by incidents. After he had left the right track to end his FP1 early, Antonelli did not succeed in the Q3, but produced a strong Vechtback drive before earning a fine for collision with Charles Leclerc-a weekend of which Wolff says that it is all part of the development of the Rookie before what Mercedes hopes.
“At the beginning of the year, when we made it clear in Monza last year that we would give him the opportunity, we also said that we would teach him a year and there would be times when we would get out of our hair and there would be other moments of glare. And I think this weekend is almost that.
“The mistake in FP1, clearly something that puts him on the back of the back all weekend. And then in the race there are moments of great driving. As soon as he was in free air, he was – behind the McLaren – the fastest car, caught up and then again involved in that accident that unfortunately meant the end for Charles’ Race and also for Kimi’s race.
“But of course we want him to go for the movements. So ups and downs, and that was definitely expected from this season.
#change #Mercedes #arrangement #Wolff #Racer