After a wretched Bahrain Grand Prix for Red Bull, Martin Brundle believes George Russell should be “worried” about his seat as Toto Wolff won’t want to miss a second opportunity to sign Max Verstappen.

Red Bull had a trying weekend at the Bahrain International Circuit where a brake issue meant Verstappen only qualified P7. And it didn’t get any better in the Grand Prix.

Martin Brundle: I would be quite worried for George Russell

With his RB21 suffering balance issues and his brakes still not perfect, Verstappen then had two slow pit stops over the course of the race.

An issue with Red Bull’s light system saw him delayed in his first stop, that lasted 4.4s, while his second was marred by a sticky right-front wheel.

He crossed the line in sixth place, over half a minute down on race winner Oscar Piastri and dropped points to the McLaren pairing in the Drivers’ Championship.

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Verstappen didn’t hide his disappointment when put to him by Viaplay that he had plenty to talk about with the team.

“At the moment not. I don’t feel like it,” he said. “Nothing went well.”

It had Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko admitting that the “concern is great” that Verstappen could be in a position later this season that would allow him to activate an escape clause in his contract.

And that, says Brundle, could be bad news for Mercedes’ George Russell as Wolff has already said no to signing Verstappen once, and he doubts he’ll do it again.

Wolff, who publicly courted Verstappen for much of last season, admitted in 2023 that he regretted not signing Verstappen when he had the chance before the Dutchman joined the Red Bull fold.

Prior to Verstappen joining Red Bull as a junior in August 2014, Jos Verstappen approached Wolff about his son becoming a part of the Mercedes family. Mercedes though, didn’t have a junior team such as Red Bull’s Toro Rosso, and Wolff wasn’t open to the idea of putting a rookie in the car alongside Lewis Hamilton.

He came to regret that.

“I spoke to Jos and Huub Rothengatter [Jos Verstappen’s manager during his F1 career] when they came to my office in Brackley and that must have been when Max was in karting or the end of his karting days [in 2013] just before Formula 3 [in 2014].

“And then we spoke again when Max and Jos visited me in my house in Vienna. We spent a few hours discussing his future.

“Do I regret missing out on Max? Certainly. But it wasn’t an option back in the day. We had two drivers that I was extremely happy with, in Nico and Lewis.”

But when Rosberg sensationally retired just days after winning the 2016 World title, Mercedes had lost the opportunity to sign Verstappen.

“Nico left, Valtteri [Bottas] was then the option as Max wasn’t even available,” he added.

Brundle cannot see Wolff passing up on the opportunity a second time.

“I think if Max Verstappen sprung into the marketplace, I would be quite worried for George, actually, because Kimi is obviously their man for the future,” he told Sky F1.

“So there’s a lot of ifs in there.

“George is doing a great job for him as team leader, but Toto missed Max once, I don’t think that he’ll miss him a second time should he get the opportunity.”

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