Juan Pablo Montoya has warned Toto Wolff that he needs to sign George Russell before Red Bull “come with a lot of money” to secure their future, just in case Max Verstappen leaves the team.
Although he reckons Russell has been in a “bad mood” his entire F1 career, the former F1 driver has billed the Briton as the “most desired person” on the F1 grid without a contract.
George Russell is out of contract at the end of the year
A Mercedes junior since 2017 and his infamous PowerPoint presentation to team principal Wolff, Russell joined the Formula 1 grid in 2019 with the Mercedes-powered Williams team.
Experiencing arguably their worst period ever, the former championship-winning team struggled just to score points with Russell’s sole high note his runner-up result at the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix, a two-lap event behind the Safety Car as the rain bucketed down at Spa.
But after three years of biding his time at Williams, he was finally promoted to the Mercedes F1 team in 2022.
Alas, his arrival coincided with the beginning of F1’s ground-effect aerodynamic cars, with Mercedes yet to nail the regulations.
Russell, though, has eked out a victory in three of the four seasons of the current technical era, two in F1 2024, and recorded his most recent win at the Canadian Grand Prix where he beat Max Verstappen and his Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli.
Mercedes team-mates: F1 2025 head-to-head stats
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates
That was his fifth podium of the F1 2025 championship with the Briton sitting P4 in the Drivers’ Championship, but that, as Montoya points out, was not what Russell expected when he joined Mercedes on the back of seven successive Drivers’ titles from 2014 to 2020 and a runner-up result in a 2021 championship that went down to the wire.
“George has been in a bad mood since he entered F1 because he joined Mercedes that went from winning everything to not winning,” he told AS Colombia.
“So it was a bit sad and difficult for him, but he’s matured a lot and has done a good job.”
Montoya is in fact so impressed with Russell’s performances, he finds it baffling that Mercedes haven’t yet confirmed the 27-year-old on a new contract.
Russell is out of contract at the end of this season and has been linked to Aston Martin and Red Bull, with Red Bull team principal Christian Horner confirming he’d held informal talks with the Briton earlier this year.
But while those were informal in April, Montoya has warned that Red Bull could make a genuine play for Russell as rumours surrounding Verstappen and the possibility of him either using an exit clause in his contract to swap teams or retire altogether continue.
The seven-time Grand Prix winner reckons Wolff needs to lock Russell into a new contract sooner rather than later.
“Now the problem is that at this point,” he continued, “George still doesn’t have a contract.
“Personally, after this win, I would assume that they would have signed him by now and would secure it for him, because he and Max are probably the two most desired people without a contract.
“Max, theoretically, he has a contract, but George is the most desired person in the field, who at this moment I would say doesn’t have a contract.
“So, if you look at it that way, Red Bull could come with a lot of money to secure themselves in case Max leaves.
“He wants to go work with Red Bull and with Max? I would say 100 per cent no.
“Personally, regarding Toto right now, I do not think you need Max with Mercedes as it is right now.”
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