George Russell may get $30 million salary boost as Toto Wolff hails "better than expected" Bahrain performance

Ever since Lewis Hamilton made the high-profile switch to Ferrari, George Russell has stepped up to lead Mercedes, with rookie Kimi Antonelli proving to be an unexpectedly strong match. While Hamilton continues to find his footing at Ferrari, Russell has been delivering consistently strong performances, notching three podiums in the first four races of the season. The 27-year-old is inching closer to his first win of the year—especially if McLaren stumbles. Now, reports suggest Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is considering rewarding Russell with a contract extension and a significant salary bump, signaling his importance to the team.
According to Autosport, paddock sources say Toto Wolff is weighing a two-year extension on Russell’s contract, keeping him at Mercedes through 2028, alongside a raise to a hefty $30 million per season. Forbes previously reported that Russell was earning $23 million annually as of October 2024. With more podiums—or a race win—he could be well on his way to securing that upgraded deal. Meanwhile, with Kimi Antonelli impressing in his debut season unlike many rookies, talk of bringing in Max Verstappen from Red Bull to Mercedes may die down.

Russell’s recent performance at Bahrain Grand Prix, where he claimed second place while Lando Norris finished third, earned high praise from Wolff, who called it an “unbelievable drive.” Wolff said, “Today it was just an unbelievable drive. Really, just probably considering the car was wounded, finishing in front of Norris is just really a great result.”
He also admitted he hadn’t anticipated such a strong showing from the team in Bahrain: “We would have expected that Bahrain would have been one of the very difficult forums for us because of the very granular, rough circuit. And I think at the end we qualified P2 and P4 [which became P3 and P5 after Qualifying penalties]. We had a car that was able to be solid on the podium and that is better than we expected. So, you can call a race a success if you win, but in the circumstances, it was much better than we expected.”
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McLaren’s Oscar Piastri won the Bahrain Grand Prix while his teammate Norris took the third spot. Russell will once again try to beat the winning McLaren driver at the next race, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah.