Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has explained he needs to sort out the finer details of George Russell ’s 2026 Formula 1 contract before making next year's line-up official.

Wolff has always insisted he wanted to keep both Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli next season, though a layer of doubt lingered until Max Verstappen became contractually unavailable in late July due to a performance clause in his current Red Bull deal .

Although nothing obvious is now preventing new deals for the 27-year-old and his rookie team-mate, Wolff has explained: “With George, there's a few things where we want to optimise, some of the travelling and the marketing days. He's an experienced driver, and for us, it's always important to talk about it.

“We want to have the best performance of the drivers

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