Drop George Russell for Max Verstappen at Mercedes, suggests former Ferrari stalwart
Former Ferrari stalwart and Felipe Massa's race engineer Rob Smedley feels he would 100% go for Max Verstappen in place of George Russell if he was at Mercedes. The seat at the German team is starting to garner a lot of intrigue, with most of it coming from the fact that the Dutch driver's future is a question mark.
To add to it, George Russell's contract comes to an end in 2025, and for some reason, there has been no extension signed for now. This has led to speculation around the future of the Brit and whether it is going to be with the German brand. At the same time, there's a question mark over Max Verstappen's future as well, as Red Bull is on sticky ground with a dwindling performance level in the last 18 months.
The question was put forward to Rob Smedley, a former Ferrari man who was part of the team during the Michael Schumacher days as well, on the F1 Nation podcast. Smedley was quite blunt in his assessment as he claimed that he would pick Max Verstappen over George Russell. He said,
“Oh, that’s a very, very tough question because you’ve got a four-time world champion who is a guy who is one of those very, very special drivers and there’s very few of them who can drive over and above what the car can actually deliver. And he did that on Saturday in Miami and he did that at the start of the race."
He added,
“So if I was in a position to make this decision, which is what you’re actually asking me, would I want Max Verstappen in my car over anybody else on the grid right now? Yeah, 100% I would. No doubt.”
Max Verstappen's ability to push the team to do 100%
Expanding on his point, Smedley said that he would pick Verstappen over everyone else because of the kind of determination the driver has for winning. For the Dutch driver, if there is one thing that seems evident is that he just wants to race and not focus on anything else. Talking about how the 4x F1 champion would have the ability to push the team forward, Smedley said,
“I would take the talent and that grit and that determination. You know Max as well as I do, he cares about one thing which is to go racing. The rest of it, the periphery nonsense that kind of hovers around Formula 1, he has no interest in whatsoever."
He added,
“If you can put somebody that motivated and that focused in your team, in any position, and that talented, whether it’s in the engineering team, the commercial team, or in the cockpit, you want them, 100% you want them, because Formula 1 is all about putting that talent in, getting that talent in play, and then orchestrating it so that it can work together. ”
For the time being, it does appear that Max Verstappen has committed to being at Red Bull for 2026, while Mercedes looks set to extend George Russell's stint at the team. It is F1, however, and we're never away from one or two shock moves.