Aston Martin is reportedly considering George Russell as a lead driver for its 2026 campaign, the year when Formula One enters a new era of regulations. The report arrives amid Mercedes’ delay in signing a contract extension with Russell, which expires at the end of 2025.

Russell has been gaining considerable attention in the paddock, especially after he won the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, marking his first win of the season. The Briton started the Montreal race on pole and bravely defended his position from Max Verstappen, who closed in towards the end as the pair made their way through trailing traffic. Eventually, Russell crossed the finish line first under the yellow flag.

According to a report by Motorsport.com, Russell is on Aston Martin’s radar. The Silverstone outfit views him as a lead driver for next year, when F1 will experience a major reset with new regulations and cars powered by an equal ratio of internal combustion and electric power. What makes the matter more intriguing is that Mercedes has yet to extend his contract.

While the delay for the contract extension is yet to be known, Russell was asked if he was talking to any other team. He said:

“No, 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. That’s always been clear.

“And, you know, I am loyal to Mercedes. They gave me this chance to get into Formula 1. There haven’t been any hard feelings with any of the talks that have been going around, you know, especially around Max because, like I said numerous times, why wouldn’t teams be interested in Max if everybody could, if every driver had a clean, no contracts for next year, Max would be the number one for every single team. And that’s understandable.

“But ultimately there are two seats for every race team and I knew if I continued to perform as I’m doing, my position would not be under threat whatsoever. So, I feel in a good place. We’re in no rush to do contract negotiations.”

Newsweek Sports reported Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff’s comments on Russell’s contract extension, which is expected to materialize soon. He said:

“He’s giving us all the reasons to do that quickly. We know what he’s capable of doing and he has been leading this team now since a while. He has the pace and the right attitude.

“He’s been a Mercedes junior [for] such a long time, and we are on track in doing what we’ve always planned.”

He added:

“The ambience in the team is great and 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 in June and July but we’re going to get there.”