Russell remains calm amid Verstappen rumours: Briton downplays 'hype'

21:37, 24 Jul

byKada Sarkozi

With all the rumours around the future of Max Verstappen, George Russell is also yet to sign a contract with Mercedes. The British driver however is not stressed out.

Talking to GPblog among others, Russell explained that regarding the contract, he is focusing on his performance, and "everything else will sort itself out.” He also explained that his future's in Mercedes' hands.

The Briton in general is quite calm about the situation. To begin with, he explained that he did not see the interview Toto Wolff gave to ORF about the team wanting to continue with him and Antonelli next season.

"No, not really. That was for you, not for me. What happens behind closed doors is behind closed doors. Nothing from my side has changed," the driver began to explain to this website and others at the Belgian track.

"It's not something I'm looking for, it's not something I really care about. And as I said, these last months, I've gone from a position where I was stressed about my future and I was concerned about it, and I've continued to perform - I just think, it's in my own hands. So there's no point losing sleep about it. Mercedes need the best drivers in their race car and I believe that I'm right up there. I don't think there's many people doing a better job than I am. I need them and they need me and that's how it goes in racing."

'More hype externally', Russell explains

"I mean, the conversation has been ongoing, but not sort of directly with me as such. There's a lot more hype around it externally than there is internally."

"The truth is I'm not even…, I think about it on a Thursday because you guys asked me the question, but these past few months have sort of allowed me to think how I feel about the scenario like this. And you can choose to stress about it, and choose to try and secure your future. Or you can choose not to worry about it and focus on the things such as performance which secures your future for you."

"So right now my view these two weeks off have been great to reset sort of psychologically and mentally. I feel happier probably now than I was in the months gone by at peace with everything that's going on and I'm just thinking about race by race I'm in no rush to secure my my future it'll be what it'll be."

He continued with explaining that his performances speak for themselves. "From my side, there is no tension because, there's two cars to every team. I'm performing the best I've ever performed. I have the majority of the points for the team. So if you look at the facts, you would argue my job is safe. So that's why I'm not concerned at all, because if I stop performing, maybe I need to be concerned, but I need to be more concerned about my performance, not about my future."