F1 Today | Mercedes intends this deal for Russell, 'employee accusing Horner finds new position'

GPblog understands that the German team's intention is to sign George Russell to a multi-year contract.

This could mean that should Max Verstappen end up joining Mercedes in 2027, he could become the Briton's teammate from that season.

At the moment, neither Russell nor his teammate, Kimi Antonelli, has a contract signed with Mercedes for the upcoming campaign, when a new regulation change will come into effect.

According to British medium The Daily Mail, the staff member that accused the ex-team principal of Red Bull Racing, Christian Horner, of transgressive behaviour, is no longer employed by Red Bull, but reportedly found a new position in motorsports. Whether that new role would be within F1 is not known.

The FIA's decision to delay the start of the Belgian Grand Prix because of the weather conditions was heavily debated after the session. For example, Max Verstappen was not satisfied with their call, citing he would have began at 3 o'clock.

To begin with, George Russell was not on the same page as the Dutchman. Even as he likes to drive in such conditions, he explained: "But the fact is, when you’re doing over 200 miles an hour out of Eau Rouge, you literally cannot see anything; you may as well have a blindfold on. It isn’t racing, it’s just stupidity."

Among others, analysts Jeroen Bleekemolen and Nicky Catsburg also supported the decision to delay the start.

Lewis Hamilton agreed with Verstappen, and also talked about what he thinks led to the delay. "I think we sat down and spoke about it, and most of the drivers said in the last race we shouldn't have restarted. So I think they just focused on visibility. As soon as someone up ahead said visibility was really bad, which wasn't great, but it wasn't as bad as the last race and I think they just waited just to be just to be sure."