Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff on George Russell and Kimi Antonelli: balancing talent and expectations. Toto Wolff defends Mercedes’ decision to keep George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.

Mercedes makes its driver choice

The announcement of George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s contract extensions for 2026 has, at least for now, eased Toto Wolff’s concerns. While there was never serious doubt about keeping the current driver pairing for next season, the general impression is that rumors and potential negotiations for alternative options—perhaps even with Max Verstappen—are just postponed for a few months. Speaking at the Autosport Business Exchange event in New York, the Mercedes F1 team principal expressed great satisfaction in finalizing the agreements and strongly defended the decision to retain the current lineup.

Toto Wolff speaks

“First of all,” the Austrian manager explained at the forum organized by the English publication Autosport, “I think there was a lot of hype around Hamilton leaving and an eighteen-year-old coming in, and the perceived risk we were taking. But in reality, it wasn’t such a big risk because we still had George with us. In a way, Russell has always been underrated all these years, perhaps due to his more introverted personality… And of course, when your teammate is Lewis Hamilton, it’s normal not to get much attention. I mean, if George had Lewis’ style, he might get more photos. But he’s not like that.”

The “enormous pressure” on Kimi Antonelli

This is a sensible and understandable explanation—Russell rarely gets attention despite his outstanding performances this year—even if it partly contrasts with the communication choice to confirm the drivers only for 2026 (although this does not exclude the possibility that George has an automatic renewal clause based on performance). Wolff also spoke about his protégé Kimi Antonelli, reaffirming the decision to keep the Bolognese driver in the team: “With Kimi, we have long-term plans. We knew that having him race for a year under the current regulations would be challenging because all the other drivers have much more experience with ground-effect cars. The tires are very complex to understand, there are many tracks he has never raced on, and then there is the enormous media pressure that comes with being Italian.”

“Italy is a country that hasn’t had a world champion in God knows how long, I think 50 or 60 years. All this contributed to solid results in his first year in F1, and I think the highlights were definitely the pole position in the Miami sprint race and the podium in Montreal, but also some very tough races. The media pressure was enormous in Europe, but we learned the lesson. We protected him a bit, and the last races were really positive for him. Next year will be a completely different starting point,” concluded Toto Wolff.