{"id":18716,"date":"2025-07-23T19:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T19:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/18716\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T19:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T19:34:08","slug":"toto-wolff-closes-the-door-on-max-verstappen-to-mercedes-for-f1-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/18716\/","title":{"rendered":"Toto Wolff closes the door on Max Verstappen to Mercedes for F1 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/tag\/mercedes\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mercedes<\/a> boss Toto Wolff has appeared to rule out a move to sign Max Verstappen for 2026, as he reiterated his desire to retain the team\u2019s current <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/series\/single-seater\/formula-1\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Formula 1<\/a> line-up.<\/p>\n<p>There have been widespread reports that Verstappen could be Mercedes-bound since George Russell divulged that the two parties are engaged in active discussions.<\/p>\n<p>But although he was reticent when probed on the speculation at\u00a0Silverstone,\u00a0the Dutchman did not provide an assurance that he will still be with Red Bull next season.<\/p>\n<p>Verstappen\u2019s uncertain prospects have caused doubts to emanate about Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli\u2019s seats as neither driver has a contract in place past 2025.<\/p>\n<p>However, Wolff has insisted that the German marque intends to embark on the impending regulation change with Russell alongside Antonelli in an unchanged pairing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not just about the team making a decision. The drivers also need to know where they stand,\u201d Wolff told ORF.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have always tried to stick to this rule. And we will do it again now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe direction we want to take is to continue with George and Kimi. That\u2019s our top priority. Everyone is informed. There will be no big surprises.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Toto-Wolff-Mercedes-F1-Canada-2025-1024x576.webp.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-212580\"  \/>Toto Wolff has taken a clear stance on Mercedes\u2019 2026 line-up<\/p>\n<p>Wolff denies meeting Verstappen<\/p>\n<p>Verstappen and Wolff were both tracked to an Italian island earlier this month, with a fake image showing the latter boarding the Red Bull driver\u2019s jet doing the rounds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s new that people are making photo collages with airplanes. We\u2019ve never seen that before,\u201d Wolff remarked.<\/p>\n<p>But on a serious note, Wolff has contended that it was a mere coincidence that the duo were located in an identical area during the three-week break between rounds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not like if you\u2019re on vacation close to each other, you\u2019re going to work together in\u00a0Formula 1,\u201d the Austrian continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve always gotten along well. It just happens that we vacation in the same area.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/2025\/07\/23\/the-potential-f1-driver-market-chaos-max-verstappen-to-mercedes-could-trigger\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The potential F1 driver market chaos Max Verstappen to Mercedes could trigger for 2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has appeared to rule out a move to sign Max Verstappen for 2026, as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[16007,49,48,578,576,577,3024,1885,1881,82,16008],"class_list":{"0":"post-18716","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-antonelli","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-george-russell","15":"tag-max-verstappen","16":"tag-mercedes","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-wolff"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}