Mercedes

George Russell regrets 'wrong' Mercedes decisions as contract announcement looms

Kerry Violet Tuesday 8 July 2025 20:57 Updated: 11:41

Mercedes F1 star George Russell has revealed his regrets over a series of decisions made by Mercedes at last weekend's British Grand Prix.

The 27-year-old endured a race to forget in front of his home crowd at Silverstone, crossing the line in P10 on Sunday, his second-worst finish of the season, and it couldn't have come at a worse time for the Brit.

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Heading into the British GP, rumours were spiralling over Russell's future with Mercedes as team boss Toto Wolff confirmed the Silver Arrows' interest in signing four-time champion Max Verstappen to their ranks.

If Verstappen were to announce his early exit from Red Bull at any point during the season, it would not bring good news for Russell, whose own contract with Wolff's F1 team expires at the end of this year.

Neither Russell nor his rookie team-mate Kimi Antonelli have secured contracts for 2026 and beyond, but after a dismal weekend for the driver duo, Russell has reflected on where the team went wrong.

Kimi Antonelli DNF'd at Silverstone and George Russell finished P10

Mercedes admit disastrous decisions made at British GP

"Everything just went wrong at every single point to be honest," Russell explained to the media after just managing to scrape into the points on Sunday.

Whilst Russell's assessment of Mercedes' strategy last weekend was hardly glowing, the forecast was chaotic at Silverstone with typically unpredictable British weather playing havoc with the track conditions.

As a result, strategy went out the window for many teams, including Mercedes, who gambled with their tyre decisions as rain poured down in Northamptonshire.

"I feel at the beginning, pitting to slicks was not a stupid decision as we knew it was going to be dry for 25 minutes, but we had 15 minutes’ worth of [virtual] safety car and that didn’t allow us to warm the tyres, it didn’t allow us to [utilise] the gains of when it was dry. By the end of that stint, we were five seconds a lap faster than the wet runners.

"Then at the end maybe I called to pit one or two laps early, but I wasn’t expecting the hard tyre and of course then it all just went wrong. Really disappointing day, if you play it safe, you’ll come home with a safe result and that’s not really what we were going for."

Max Verstappen Mercedes George Russell Toto Wolff Silverstone British Grand Prix