Revealed: Four drivers who could replace Max Verstappen<\/a><\/p>\nBut speaking to Austrian broadcaster ORF ahead of Spa, Wolff seems to have scuppered the idea that Verstappen could appear on the team\u2019s line-up in 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cDiscussions have been taking place over the last weeks and months, so they are all up to date,\u201d Wolff said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe direction of travel is definitely that we want to continue with George and Kimi. That is the absolute priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you can\u2019t look past someone like Max and the plans he has for the future. We did that, but I don\u2019t think there will be any big surprises.\u201d<\/p>\n
While we won\u2019t be able to definitively know Mercedes\u2019 driver line-up until the ink has dried on next season\u2019s contracts, it certainly sounds like Verstappen has been counted out of the running.<\/p>\n
As far as the flight tracking data and fabricated images depicting Wolff boarding Verstappen\u2019s jet go, Wolff sounded quite tickled \u2014 noting that this has brought a new complexion to the realm of F1 silly season rumours.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s new is that people are doing photo collages with airplanes. We\u2019ve never had that before,\u201d Wolff said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if you spend your holidays close to each other, it doesn\u2019t mean that you\u2019re going to work together in Formula 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have always gotten along well and by chance we like to spend our holidays at the same places.\u201d<\/p>\n
Max Verstappen: A future outside of Red Bull?<\/p>\n
It can be difficult to imagine Max Verstappen competing for any non-Red Bull affiliated Formula 1 team, considering it was the team\u2019s junior program that provided Verstappen with a launch point into the Formula 1 world when he was still just a teenager.<\/p>\n
However, rumours of unrest between the driver and his team have begun to swirl.<\/p>\n
Despite securing four consecutive World Driver Championships with Verstappen, Red Bull Racing has begun to falter. In mid-2024, as the competition introduced upgrade packages that led directly to Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari snatching race wins, the once-dominant Red Bull struggled to introduce upgrades of its own to counter the performance of its rivals.<\/p>\n
Because of Verstappen\u2019s strong start to 2024, he was still able to wrap up the World Championship title well before the end of the season; the team itself, though, slipped to third overall in the constructors\u2019 standings.<\/p>\n
The start to the F1 2025 season has been grim. While Verstappen has still managed to secure two Grand Prix victories, it\u2019s clear that the RB21 is no longer the cream of the crop. Red Bull now sits fourth in the constructors\u2019 standings, with 165 of its 172 total points being scored by the Dutch driver.<\/p>\n
As mentioned above, many of the team\u2019s major players have either departed of their own accord or have been fired. The shocking sacking of longtime CEO and team principal Christian Horner just after the conclusion of the British Grand Prix seems to imply that key leadership is keen to make a major change \u2014 and, potentially, to keep Verstappen at the team.<\/p>\n
Though Verstappen has previously expressed a desire to conclude his Formula 1 career with Red Bull Racing, the ever-changing tides of the sport may require him to adopt a different mindset to remain competitive.<\/p>\n
Further, just because Toto Wolff has expressed Mercedes\u2019 intention to remain with Kimi Antonelli and George Russell for F1 2026 does not necessarily mean that Verstappen has been ruled out of the picture for 2027 and beyond.<\/p>\n
Read next:\u00a0Max Verstappen to Mercedes? Who will drive for Red Bull in F1 2026?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rumours have abounded that reigning champion Max Verstappen is in discussions with Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff regarding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,1613,1881,44,82],"class_list":["post-18897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-home-page","tag-mercedes","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18897","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=18897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}