Toto Wolff hit with unusual ‘taste of his own medicine’ in George Russell talks

Nico Rosberg has claimed George Russell is "fighting Toto with his own medicine" as he negotiates a fresh Mercedes F1 contract.

Russell's deal expires at the end of the current season, and whilst boss Toto Wolff has confirmed he will be staying for 2026, no official announcement from Mercedes has been made. 

At the Italian GP, Wolff claimed only the "nitty gritty" details were left to be agreed with Russell, for whom Mercedes manages, with talks having been ongoing for most of the year. 

Rosberg, the 2016 world champion, has experience negotiating with Wolff, signing fresh deals in 2014 and 2016, and detailed why Russell could be trying to engineer a sweeter deal for himself.  

"It is horrible to negotiate with Toto, he just disappears off Planet Earth when you're trying to get better terms, he doesn't even let you talk with him, it is horrible and I suffered a lot," Rosberg told Sky Sports F1. 

"But now George is doing the same to Toto; it is like he is fighting Toto with his own medicine because George is apparently not happy with a couple of terms in his contract.

"George is a Mercedes junior, so he certainly won't be on a Lando Norris-level salary, and George feels that Lando is equal to him, and he can drive at Lando's level and win races and championships, if he has the car.

"So he will feel that it is unfair, that he's so far away from Lando's salary, and then there are things like sponsor days, the teams have so many sponsors paying so much money, and the only way a team can give back to a sponsor is logo space, which is limited and driver time.

"They want their customers to be able to meet George Russell and they're using the drivers so much, and I'm not allowed to say it is painful for us because everyone will say: 'Oh shut up, you earn so much money, all you have to do is go to a sponsor event, shake some hands and take some pictures.'

"But it is painful, and George will try to reduce the number; it can be like 60 days in 365, so that's a lot of days, and some of those 60 days are split into half days, so it can be like 80 days."