Christian Horner and Andy Cowell are charmed by the rumours that George Russell might be heading their way for 2026. The rumours come amidst all the rumours regarding Max Verstappen joining Mercedes, as the follow-up question is who he will replace. With Andrea Kimi Antonelli just joining the team, the most obvious driver to make room would be Russell.
The four-time race winner himself was quite confident about driving for the Silver Arrows in 2026, he still hasn’t got a contract past the current season. This would make a swap between Verstappen and Russell an option for next year.
Horner surpised Russell’s contract not extended yet
When asked about this possiblitiy, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner found it remarkable Russell isn’t re-signed for 2026 yet.
“Well, it’s remarkable that George is still on the market. We haven’t engaged in any discussion with George. So, he’s obviously pretty confident that he’s going to get to retain where he is.
“But look, we’ve got strength in depth within our team. You can see the Racing Bulls drivers, you can see Lindblad that we’re running today, and ’26 is going to be a transformational year.”
With severe chassis changes, more emphasis on the electrical part of the power train and the introduction of active aerodynamics, the deck for the 2026 season will be completely shuffled.
“It’s the biggest rule change in Formula 1 probably in the last 50 years,” Horner said. “Where both chassis and power unit are being introduced at the same time. Nobody, with hand on heart, can know what the pecking order is going to be.
“It could be either one of these gentlemen either side of me. It could be Ferrari, it could be Mercedes, it could be anyone. There’s an awful lot of subjectiveness to 2026, and it’ll only be really this time next year that you’ll have a clear indication of what that pecking order is.
“So, there are no guarantees that jumping into a Mercedes car would automatically be a better proposition.”
Cowell happy with current line-up
Aston Martin team principal Andy Cowell was quite clear about the rumours that Russell might be heading to the Silverstone outfit for 2026.
“We’re super fortunate,” he explained. “We’ve got this exciting run into ’26. As Christian mentioned, changing the power unit – we’re working with Honda on that – changing the aerodynamics, we’ve got Adrian working on that, we’ve got new facilities.
“But the stability that we’ve got in having Lance and Fernando signed up for next year means that they’re not only helping us now develop the tools that we’re using for ’26, ’27 and beyond, but they’re working directly on the concept of the car.”
Bringing Adrian Newey on the team means that the drivers are an important part in designing the car. Cowell explains that bringing in Russell for 2026 would compromise that process.
“The discussions in the wind tunnel are about the aerodynamic shape, but they’re also about driver environment. How much space is there in the cockpit?
“Adrian tends not to leave much space in the cockpit. Everything’s exceptionally tight. But that stability of having two drivers signed up through into ’26 is really helping us.”
