Russell: Looking outside Mercedes isn’t crossing my mind

The Williams driver is currently a member of the Mercedes junior driver programme and raced for the reigning world champions at the Sakhir Grand Prix last season in place of Lewis Hamilton while he recovered from COVID-19.

With Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Russell all out of contract at the end of the 2021 season, the team will need to make a decision on who they want to have in their car as the sport enters a new era with the change in sporting regulations.

Russell is now in his third year in Formula 1 with Williams and has shown plenty of potential, most notably while leading the Sakhir Grand Prix for Mercedes.

While Brackley-based outfit have not yet made their intentions ahead of next season public, the 2018 F2 champion said that he has "faith" in the team that have been "loyal to me since day one".

"Mercedes have been loyal to me since day one, so that isn’t even crossing my mind at the moment," Russell said. “They have their faith in me, I have my faith in them.

"Time will tell. It’s been clear since day one since 2016 when I signed for Mercedes, to do the job on the track and the opportunities would come. That’s been the case through GP3, F2, and then with my career in F1.

“Obviously we signed the three year deal back in 2018. Let’s wait and see. But at the moment, that thought hasn’t even crossed my mind.”