Martin Brundle casts doubt on George Russell’s Mercedes future

Ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, the fourth round of the 2025 Formula 1 season, Sky Sports F1 commentator Martin Brundle has cast doubt on George Russell’s seat at Mercedes. Despite the Briton’s impressive start to the season, the former racing driver expects that team principal Toto Wolff won’t pass up a chance to sign reigning champion Max Verstappen. 

This comes after the Dutchman’s frustration surrounding his Red Bull car so far this season. The four-time world champion sits just a single point behind his McLaren rival Lando Norris, but he hasn’t hidden his annoyance with his RB21, especially after a difficult day of qualifying on the Bahrain International Circuit yesterday. 

With the driver also being unhappy over the demotion of his team-mate Liam Lawson after just two race weekends, according to advisor Helmut Marko, his disappointment with his machinery has only compounded his unhappiness.

Talking after the Suzuka race, Verstappen said the following: 

“My reaction was shared with the team,” he admitted. “In general. About not only the swap, but I think about everything.

“We discussed that already during last weekend, race weekend. Back at the factory.”

Speaking on Sky Sports F1 ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Brundle unpicked the goings on behind the garage doors.

“I think if Max Verstappen sprung into the marketplace I would be quite worried for George, actually, because Kimi is obviously their man to flip flop for the future,” Brundle stated. “But there are a lot of ifs in there. George is doing a great job for them as team leader.

“But Toto missed Max once, I don’t think he’ll miss him a second time should he get the opportunity.”

Russell has firmly established himself as team leader at the Brackley outfit alongside rookie driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli for the 2025 season, but this hasn’t stopped rumours of Wolff engaging in talks with Verstappen and his team over the past year.

Despite this, the Austrian businessman firmly placed his support behind his drivers in a conversation with Motorsport.com.

“Yes, absolutely,” he said on the two soon putting together a new contract. “I mean, it is almost an open secret that we have every intention to keep our drivers for the long term. We are not disclosing every discussion that we have with the drivers and that is why this is going in the direction that it should go.

“But there is more to any contract than just giving a driver the fixed guarantee that he is going to be in the car. There are terms to it that you need to discuss for the best interest of the team and the driver, so it is a structured process.”

George Russell will start third on the grid after a one-place grid penalty.

“I’m fine with it, to be honest,” he told Sky Sports F1. “It’s a long race, and unlike the first three races of the season where qualifying was everything, I think here, generally speaking, you end up finishing in the order of the pace of the car. So, P2, P3 – no biggie.

“We’ve got to be realistic. Our fight is with Charles, I’m sure Max is going to come back through, and then Lando is going to be the interesting one. I’m not sure what happened yesterday but I’m confident he’s going to come back through and he’s going to be in our race at some point.”