George Russell is having the best season of his Formula 1 career and yet remains without a contract for 2026.
The headline results suggest Russell's tracking towards a similar result to 2022: a win, a good number of podiums, and fourth in the championship.
But he looks well placed to eclipse that and the sentiment in the paddock is that Russell is performing at a very high level and has filled the void left at Mercedes by Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari move very effectively.
Despite Hamilton's switch, Russell's form at the end of last year, and how he has started 2025 against rookie team-mate Kimi Antonelli, Russell is a free agent for next year. There is no new Mercedes deal yet, and no obvious alternative.
It's an unusual situation as the lack of options - every other top seat is taken - means Russell should be in a commanding position for a new contract and yet does not really hold the cards. If anything, he has been more of a passenger as Mercedes' on-again/off-again interest in Max Verstappen has given team boss Toto Wolff a desire to hold out just a little longer.
Russell, for his part, claims he doesn't mind that: "There haven't been any hard feelings with any of the talks that have been going around, especially around Max.
"If every driver had no contracts for next year, Max would be number one for every single team. And that's understandable."
Verstappen is understood to have an exit clause potentially becoming active at the start of the summer break in August that would give him the opportunity to move team next year. But everything he says indicates that even if that chance arises, he will not take it - he will stay with Red Bull.
So what's with the Russell/Mercedes holdout? For Russell, the usual sentiment applies: "I'm not concerned at all about next year. I know I'm going to be on the grid next year. I feel in a good place. We're in no rush to do contract negotiations. We want to win together."
And for Wolff, he insists "it's not like there's some politics", this is just taking its due course as Russell's enhanced status means giving contract discussions the focus that "he merits and deserves".
It's a nice sentiment and is probably true, especially as historically Mercedes contract renewals have been sorted in the second half of the year - although past delays in wrapping up Hamilton contracts do give just a little pause for thought about whether things will definitely be as straightforward as Wolff suggests.
"We've agreed on some kind of timeline when we want to settle these things, with triple headers getting out of the way and one race after the other now in June and July," he says.
"But...we're going to get there."
Wolff is hesitant to put a timeline on the matter to avoid questions if that moment comes and goes without a deal being done.
One common suggestion whenever this gets discussed in the F1 paddock is Mercedes might be waiting for Russell's home race at Silverstone at the start of July. But it's not been rushed before so why would it be now? Russell's previous deals were announced in September 2021 (for 2022 and 2023), and then in August 2023 (for 2024 and 2025). Before him, the bulk of Hamilton's renewals came in July and August.
It is surely a case of when it will happen, rather than if. There's a long-standing relationship here and while Russell is known to have had informal chats with a couple of teams about his situation, it has never gone as far as a contract offer and Mercedes is his management so would know if there was concrete interest or a real risk of him moving.
"I'm not talking with anybody else and any teams who have shown interest, I have been quite open to say my intentions are to stay with Mercedes," says Russell.
"That's always been clear. And I am loyal to Mercedes. They gave me this chance to get into Formula 1."
Of the potential suitors, there are very few with open seats. Russell continues to be sporadically linked to the likes of Aston Martin or even as a back-up option for McLaren or Red Bull should any of their drivers leave. And he will surely not go anywhere near a team like last-placed Alpine at the moment, even with its potential to improve as a Mercedes customer next year.
Russell's priority is Mercedes, and Mercedes knows that. This gives a strong hand to a team that historically does its dealings in the second half of the year. And it got a glimpse of its potentially mega driver future with Russell and Antonelli sharing a podium for the first time in Canada.
"We're getting a result like today, both junior drivers from Mercedes, we're both doing the job in terms of performance," Russell said after that race.
"Why would you want to change something that's working?"
