Martin Brundle spotted a telling sign that George Russell is ‘not happy’ with Mercedes at Monza

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Mercedes driver George Russell once again produced the best result possible at the Italian Grand Prix.

George Russell came home in fifth, unable to challenge Charles Leclerc at Monza, but managing to keep his old Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton at bay.

Russell finished more than half a minute behind Italian Grand Prix winner Max Verstappen, but opened up a nearly identical gap to Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who had another race to forget.

Russell wasn’t happy with Mercedes choosing to put him on soft tyres for his final run in qualifying.

He believed that he would have been faster on the mediums, but a miscommunication meant he had to settle for a place on the third row of the grid.

His race was uneventful to say the least, and while he was only seven seconds behind Leclerc, he was never in a position to try and overtake the Monegasque driver.

Martin Brundle and Nico Rosberg were speaking about Russell before the race and commenting on his long-term F1 future.

They believe his contract situation should have been sorted out a long time ago, and Brundle has noticed a change in his mood in the paddock as a result.

READ MORE: Best moments of George Russell’s F1 career including first pole, podium, win, title and more

Martin Brundle thinks George Russell is ‘not happy’ with his Mercedes F1 contract situation

Russell and Antonelli are both still waiting to sign a contract extension at Mercedes, despite the fact that Toto Wolff has verbally confirmed that both drivers will be staying with the team in 2026.

Brundle was asked whether he would stick with Antonelli and Russell if he were in Wolff’s position on Sky Sports F1 (7/9 12:49 pm), and he said: “I’d take him. I would have signed George a long time ago, because George is not happy, is he?

“It’s very easy to see that George feels quite bruised about all the Max talk and what have you through the summer.

“But when you look at the calm at McLaren and other teams, I just think they’ve injected too many of their own problems into the driver line-up. I’d keep him. What would you do?”

Rosberg replied: “Unfortunately, at the moment, you’d have to still wait [on Antonelli], and you have to wait it out until the end of the season and maybe make the call in the winter then, because at the moment, it’s hard to sign it today.

“There are too many mistakes still happening from young Antonelli, but I do believe he has huge potential, and he should be there next year.”

READ MORE: All you need to know about Mercedes F1 Team from team principal to lineage

George Russell says losing ground to Ferrari was a ‘shame’ after the Italian Grand Prix

Russell is said to be making a similar demand to Lewis Hamilton behind the scenes at Mercedes when it comes to his contract.

It’s believed he wants more time to concentrate on maintaining his fitness levels during the season, as opposed to spending more time on commercial activities.

Wolff may feel he has to give Russell this level of flexibility, considering how vital he’s been to their position in the constructors’ championship this year, with Antonelli struggling after his initial strong form.

Speaking in his official post-race press conference, Russell explained: “P5 was likely the maximum we could have achieved today, given our pace and our starting position.

“I was reasonably pleased in the early stages to be fighting the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc ahead. We thought they would have a bit of an advantage over us, but we were within DRS range of him for a while.

“Unfortunately, even with DRS, overtaking is incredibly difficult here, and we couldn’t mount an attack.

“It is a shame that we leave here having lost a little bit of ground to Ferrari in the constructors’ [championship].

“That said, it could have been worse, and we go into these final eight races with a good chance of taking second in the final standings. We will regroup now in the next week and look to perform well in Baku.”