George Russell has admitted that he would never close the door on rival teams offering him a drive and holding talks, despite his obvious ties to Mercedes.

Russell is having a strong season in his Williams car with him regularly outperforming the pace many believe it to possess, particularly on Saturdays in qualifying.

Indeed, it's clear that he's pushing himself and his car to the very limit and those performances are not going unnoticed, with growing talk suggesting that he is going to head to Mercedes to replace Valtteri Bottas alongside Lewis Hamilton from next season.

However, until anything is made official there are all sorts of situations that could play out and, according to Russell, he'd never rule out a move to another team, potentially one of the Silver Arrows' rivals, if the opportunity ever arose.

Speaking to the F1 Nation podcast, he explained:

"I am a Mercedes driver and I am currently loyal to Mercedes.

“They have stood by my side since day one and given me all of my opportunities. I trust that they have my best interests at heart.

“But I always like to keep a relationship open with everyone really. I never like to close any doors and if somebody asked for a conversation then I would never say no.

“You never know what happens in the future and things change pretty drastically.

“You only have to look at Stefano [Domenicali]. He was team principal of Ferrari and now he is the CEO of Formula 1. I guess maybe 10 years ago, you might not have predicted that.”

Formula 1 is a ruthless business and with Russell showing superb quality, speed and consistency, there may well come a point where he needs to cut ties with Mercedes and forge a new path elsewhere.

Many, though, are expecting the Mercs to give him an opportunity sooner rather than later now.