Can Russell's good performance put pressure on Hamilton's contract?

According to Toto Wolff, George Russell's performance over this race weekend will not affect the contract negotiations with Lewis Hamilton. Russell replaces the coronavirus-infected world champion.

The 22-year-old Brit finished the first two practice sessions at the top of the timesheets. He said that those results could be misleading. All this happens at a time when Hamilton is negotiating with his team Mercedes about a new contract for the coming seasons. At the moment there is no agreement yet, and due to Hamilton's time out with the coronavirus, Wolff said the talks have been further delayed.

Russell's good results in the first two sessions make you wonder if Hamilton is worth such an expensive new contract. After all, why should they have to offer him another expensive contract when they already have a good replacement who would very much like to go to Mercedes? But team boss Toto Wolff says a good performance by Russell will not affect Hamilton's contract. "We know what we have with Lewis and he knows what he has with the team," he told RaceFans.

“Such a situation would never be utilised as some kind of bargaining power, neither by him, nor by us – it could do both directions. I respect very much who he is, how he drives, his records, and whatever happens this week or next has no influence on our talks," said Wolff.