Silly season has kicked off early this year, with key players on the Formula 1 grid already rumoured for big seat swaps.

George Russell is one of those drivers, and he’s pointed out just how strange it is for drivers to be locking into long-term contracts this early in the season — something that never used to be the case when Lewis Hamilton was at Mercedes.

Contract negotiations were never this early “when Lewis Hamilton was here”

Everywhere you look, it seems as if Formula 1 teams are hard at work preparing their five-year plans.

It was a trend that seemed to kick off with Lewis Hamilton, who announced his swap to Scuderia Ferrari in 2025 over a month before the 2024 season actually kicked off in full force. His departure from Mercedes and the displacement of Carlos Sainz Jr. resulted in something of a snowball effect, with teams looking to cement their driver line-ups at the earliest date.

And now here we are, just five races into the 2025 season, and driver market rumours are spreading like wildfire, with speculation running rampant about whether or not George Russell will renew his contract with Mercedes, or if Max Verstappen will take his place.

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Speaking to The Athletic, a subsidiary of the New York Times, Russell admitted that these early contract negotiations are extremely new.

“When Lewis was here, they never discussed the contract prior to June (or) July. It was always the summer,” Russell said.

“The abnormal part is probably how many drivers have signed so early (on long-term deals).”

Russell is one such driver without a long-term deal, though as he told Sky Sports F1 during the build-up to the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, even a long-term contract does not guarantee a long-term seat.

“When it comes to contracts, everyone gets so excited about it, and the fact is, drivers have had contracts, and if they don’t perform, they’ll get booted out,” he told Rachel Brooks.

“For drivers, performance is our currency. That’s what we’ve got. And if you perform, everything’s good. So, I’m just excited to go racing this weekend, focus on performance, and the future sorts itself out.”

While Saudi Arabia wasn’t the strongest race for the Mercedes team this season, Russell has nevertheless cemented himself as a potential dark horse competitor for the F1 2025 championship.

He currently sits fourth overall in the standings, with 72 points to leader Oscar Piastri’s 99, and that’s all thanks to a series of strong performances to start the year: Second in Bahrain, third in Australia and China, fifth in Japan and Saudi Arabia.

Currently, rumours suggest that Russell is on the cusp of signing a contract extension that will see him remain at Mercedes until the conclusion of the 2028 season.

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