Toto Wolff won’t rule out attempting to sign Max Verstappen to Mercedes at the end of the decade despite not having pursued the chance to pinch him from Red Bull Racing for next season.
Wolff has long coveted Verstappen’s signature, having lost the contest to sign him as a teenager to the Red Bull program.
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Red Bull offered the Dutchman a debut with Toro Rosso as a 17-year-old in 2015, whereas Mercedes was willing only to induct him into its young driver program.
Rumours have periodically linked Verstappen to a possible Mercedes switch, with speculation ramping up from 2024 amid political drama at Red Bull Racing that has gradually dismantled much of the original team.
The ructions coincided with Lewis Hamilton announcing a planned move to Ferrari, and Wolff sounded out Verstappen about replacing the seven-time champion for 2025. The Dutchman, though, was on the way to a fourth consecutive title and couldn’t be coaxed.
The door remained open, however, and last year George Russell revealed that negotiations on his own contract extension were being delayed because Wolff was in talks with Verstappen’s management about a possible move.
Verstappen’s contract contained an exit clause that would make him a free agent if he were outside the top three in the championship at the mid-season break. Ironically Russell was the driver contending against him for the place.
But the exit clause was never activated, and Verstappen confirmed he would be staying with the team for at least another season.
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This year, however, a more favourable exit clause — the Dutchman had to only be outside the top two at the break, which he was — appeared to put Verstappen on the market at a time Red Bull Racing is struggling for competitiveness.
Even if Verstappen had been interested in pursuing a Mercedes switch, though, the door to him was closed. The German marque is the favourite to sweep both titles, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli shaking off his rookie-season wobbles to lead teammate George Russell at the top of the drivers championship table.
Rumours that Verstappen could attempt to squeeze himself into McLaren instead subsequently took off, but the Dutchman recommitted to Red Bull Racing until the end of 2030 in the lead-up to his final home Dutch Grand Prix last week.
Wolff said that once again the timing hadn’t been right for both parties to pursue the relationship.
“Pretty early in the late [European] spring it was clear that we would continue like we do,” he said, per Autosport. “We have an open and in a way the most transparent relationship as we can have.
“The situation was very different to what it was last year, where both sides were exploring whether co-operation could happen or not.
“Pretty early we felt for us that being with George and Kimi was the right decision to continue for various reasons, but it seems that the driver line-up is just the right positive dynamic.
“It allows Kimi to grow and for George to bring out his best game because he has a quick, young teammate.
“Therefore it seemed pretty logical that Max would stay with Red Bull. Better the devil you know.”
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He did, however, leave the door open for further discussions about a Verstappen tie-up later in the decade, once the new competitive order under these regulations settles.
“Wait what happens in two or three years, where contracts open up again and probably his options are not just one team but maybe three or four at a time, and wait [to see] who performs the best.”
Wolff is also satisfied to call Verstappen a Mercedes sportscar driver, with the Dutchman’s GT team fielding a Mercedes AMG GT3 EVO.
Verstappen got behind the wheel of the Red Bull-branded car at the Nürburgring 24 Hours earlier this year, where he put him and his co-drivers in a winning position before retiring with a technical problem.
“The paths have crossed already with the GT racing,” Wolff said.
“I think when we jointly developed that program a year and a half ago it seemed a long shot. It seemed to be a long shot because could Red Bull ever allow Max in a Mercedes GT3?
“But they were open-minded and we are thankful for that because the project has been a success, the Red Bull Mercedes project. We have this joint co-operation between the two brands and Max, and it is nice to see that it’s successful.”
The Verstappen-Mercedes tie-up may come under new scrutiny under his new Red Bull Racing deal, though not because of the energy drinks brand.
Ford partners with Red Bull in building the team’s Formula 1 power unit in a relationship that sees close collaboration between the two.
Ford Racing global director Mark Rushbrook said earlier this year that he prefers “our Ford drivers to stay in Ford”.
“That’s the right program for him right now, but obviously we’d love to [have] him in a Ford in the sportscar world,” he said.
Rushbrook also hopes that Verstappen would tackle Le Mans in the brand’s hypercar entry sometime in the future.
Wolff, though, said he intended to keep Verstappen in the Mercedes fold.
“What the future holds, I don’t know, but the mindset is what I have just said. I don’t know where the paths are going to cross. Will it be in karting, will it be in GTs, or will it be in F1 or some other joint projects in the future?
“I think that may happen one day, but maybe not necessarily with Max in a Mercedes Formula 1 car.”