Mercedes boss Toto Wolff insists that a new deal with George Russell is merely a "formality".

The 'announce' has been expected for some time now, especially as the question of escape clauses in Max Verstappen's contract has been settled... for now.

Nonetheless, with no new deal confirmed, despite the assurances of George Russell and Wolff, many are wondering what is causing the delay.

"We clearly know what we expect from each other, what we want. It's a formality," insisted Wolff at Zandvoort. "But at the same time, it's important to discuss even the slightest details like 'how can we extract the most performance out of George?' or how to structure his marketing obligations."

As for Russell.

"Toto and the team were very willing to work through the summer break to come to a resolution," said the Briton, "but I wanted just to take that time because those two weeks are pretty precious for all of us.

"There's no major rush, and I don't want to really put a timeline on it," he added. "When it will happen, it will happen. If that's next week, a month, two months, three months, it will be what it will be."

Indeed, what will be, will be, but Wolff admits that he is still eyeing a future partnership with Verstappen.

"Max will have his reasons why he's staying at Red Bull," said the Austrian. "What he said is he owes them. And it's not the first moment you can walk away when the team doesn't perform. Beyond the contract.

"So I think things have fallen in place like they are today, and who knows what happens in the future. But the integrity that he has shown to his team and the integrity that I and the team have shown to our drivers, I think that's important."

The Austrian was keen to make clear that he has been totally open with his current drivers in terms of Verstappen.

"That's what I said to George," said the Austrian. "It is my obligation as a team principal here to explore what a four-time world champion is going to do in the future and what his situation is. Any driver out there will say that Max, as it stands, is probably the best. That's not a secret. And every team needs to go for the best driver.

"Sometimes you need to wait," he added. "Sometimes you can't have the best at the moment, sometimes you need to wait for the time, and sometimes you need to develop the best. And for me today, what we have is a very good combination, let's see what it is in two or three years. It may be different.

"It never came to the situation where it was like: 'Okay, we are going to do this'," he insisted. "Neither on Max's side, nor on my side. It was never that one dimension of 'have we got a shot'? It was more: 'Does that make sense from the Mercedes perspective? And does that make sense from the Verstappen perspective?'

"Could that mean our paths will never cross because the timings are wrong? Well, that can happen, yeah."

As for his other driver, Kimi Antonelli.

"We just continue to believe in him," said the Austrian. "He just needs time. We are fully on the mission, and single race weekends or a session like we had before is not going to change our opinion. Short term, we're going to say, 'That's not good,' but Kimi is a long-term investment."

Check out our Saturday gallery from Zandvoort here.