Rosberg suggests Russell is giving Wolff a taste of his own medicine in stalled Mercedes talks
George Russell’s next Mercedes deal is still sitting in the out-tray, and Nico Rosberg reckons he knows why. Speaking on Sky F1’s The F1 Show, the 2016 World Champion hinted the holdup isn’t about loyalty or timing, but the nuts and bolts: money and marketing days.
Mercedes, on paper, has no drivers signed for 2026. Both Russell and Kimi Antonelli are out of contract at the end of this season, while Max Verstappen has already nailed his 2026 colours to Red Bull. The expectation after that was simple: Verstappen stays put, Russell re-ups with Mercedes, story over. Yet here we are with eight to go, and no signature.
According to Rosberg, the negotiating table is where this has slowed. Russell, he says, isn’t fully sold on some of the terms — notably salary and how many days he’s expected to work for sponsors. And in a twist Rosberg clearly enjoys, he thinks Russell is playing hardball the Toto way.
“It’s horrible to negotiate with Toto,” Rosberg admitted, recalling his own contract battles. He painted a picture of Wolff going off-grid when the ask goes up. This time, Rosberg suggests, Russell’s the one going quiet, “fighting Toto with his own medicine.”
There’s also the inevitable benchmarking. Russell came through as a Mercedes junior and, as Rosberg put it, he won’t be near the Lando Norris pay bracket right now. Russell’s camp, though, evidently feels the results and leadership he’s shown justify a correction. It’s hard to argue with the logic: Russell’s a proven race winner, now fronting the team after Lewis Hamilton’s departure, and his stock hasn’t exactly dipped.
The other battleground is those sponsor days. Modern F1 drivers are business assets as much as athletes, and the marketing workload has ballooned. Rosberg said the number can run to around 60 days — and with half-days counted, it can feel closer to 80. That’s a lot of handshakes and camera time when you’re also trying to drive development, train, and live out of a suitcase. “Painful,” was his word, more than once.
Sky F1’s David Croft added the obvious subtext: Russell believes he’s a different, stronger driver than when he last signed. With Hamilton gone, he’s shouldered more of the team’s public and competitive burden, and he believes that deserves recognition in the contract.
From the Mercedes side, Toto Wolff has been steady and, frankly, pretty relaxed in public. He’s said several times he expects Russell and Antonelli to be the 2026 line-up and that the work now is “optimising” travel and marketing hours to protect performance. In other words, yes, those sponsor days are on the agenda — and Mercedes knows the current load has been heavy.
“We want to have the best performance of the drivers,” Wolff said, conceding that media and partner obligations have been a strain and need recalibrating. He also downplayed any theatre around the moment itself: don’t expect a fireworks announcement when Russell does sign. It’ll be a simple “we’ve got a signature” note and on we go.
So what’s really happening? It looks like classic brinkmanship rather than a marriage on the rocks. Russell wants terms that reflect his status and protect his bandwidth. Mercedes wants its marketing machine fed but not at the expense of lap time, and it doesn’t want to blow up its salary structure. Both can be true.
The timing is the only slightly awkward piece. With the 2026 regulations approaching and driver markets locking in early, it’s not nothing that Mercedes still hasn’t inked its lead driver. But if Wolff’s tone is any guide, nobody in Brackley is losing sleep. And Russell, who’s had the fastest of educations in pressure management over the past few seasons, is hardly the type to let a negotiation bleed into Sundays.
Rosberg’s read gives this a human edge: top-level drivers want to be paid like their peers and, increasingly, they want their time back. In 2025’s hyper-commercial F1, that second point might be the bigger fight. If Russell walks away from these talks with a few fewer days on the sponsor treadmill and a number more to his liking, that’s not posturing — that’s a driver protecting performance.
The rest of the paddock is watching because the blueprint matters. If Mercedes budges on marketing days for its team leader, others will ask for the same. If it doesn’t, expect more of these slow-burn negotiations where drivers go silent and teams pretend not to mind.
For now, the message from both sides is calm. No drama, no ultimatums, just the last turns of a deal that — logic and Wolff’s own words suggest — gets done. And when it does, don’t expect a drum roll. Expect a line in a press release, a nod in the pen, and everyone back to work.
