No change to Mercedes' driver lineup in 2026 - Wolff

Toto Wolff says Mercedes will continue with its current driver lineup of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli in 2026, even though it might not make a big announcement when contracts are agreed.

Russell and Antonelli have yet to have extensions of their contracts confirmed by Mercedes, with Russell saying he is in no rush to finalize the details of his deal in Zandvoort. Wolff admits there are certain sticking points relating to his schedule away from races that still need ironing out, but that both drivers will race of the team next year.

“I always said there's not going to be any big news, because we're doing this,” Wolff said. “We're continuing with both of them, of course. With George there's a few things where we want to optimize some of the traveling and the marketing days, how many hours we're putting in – he’s an experienced driver and for us it's always important to talk about it.

“We want to have the best performance of the drivers and I think we've given both of them quite a strain with marketing activities and media activities. This is how we're recalibrating. Is there going to be an announcement in Monza? No, but I don't think it's going to be even a big announcement. It's just going to give you the heads up and say we've put a signature on the agreement.”

While Russell is fighting for third in the drivers’ championship, Antonelli had an incident-filled Dutch Grand Prix. After going off track to end his FP1 early, Antonelli failed to reached Q3 but produced a strong fightback drive before earning a penalty for colliding with Charles Leclerc – a weekend that Wolff says is all part of the rookie’s development ahead of what Mercedes hopes is a title-contending 2026.

“At the beginning of the year, when we made it clear last year in Monza that we would give him the opportunity, we were also saying that we would give him a year of learning and there would be moments where we'd tear our hair out and there would be other moments of brilliance. And I think this weekend pretty much sums that up.

“The mistake in FP1, clearly something that puts him on the back foot for all of the weekend. And then in the race, there’s moments of great driving. Once he was in free air, he was – behind the McLaren – the quickest car, caught up and then again was involved in that accident that unfortunately meant the end for Charles' race and also for Kimi's race.

“But we want him to go for the moves, obviously. So ups and downs, and I was absolutely expecting that from this season. Every one of those days is going to be a learning for next year. We're not fighting for a constructors’ championship. Of course, it's P2 and P3 that is at stake, but this has less relevance than next year when it's important to score the points.”