{"id":764894,"date":"2026-06-27T14:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T14:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/764894\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T14:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T14:58:11","slug":"mercedes-to-keep-f1-driver-line-up-for-2027-says-toto-wolff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/764894\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes to keep F1 driver line-up for 2027, says Toto Wolff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mercedes<\/a> boss Toto Wolff has ended speculation that Max Verstappen<\/a> could join for the 2027 Formula 1 campaign by confirming his desire to retain George Russell<\/a> and Kimi Antonelli<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Verstappen potentially joining the Silver Arrows was a hot topic last year due to the various exit clauses in the four-time world champion\u2019s Red Bull contract, which expires in 2028.<\/p>\n

But when they were no longer valid, the Dutchman publicly committed to Red Bull for 2026 with Russell and Antonelli both being retained at Mercedes. However, background speculation continued.<\/p>\n

Yet after a dominant start to the 2026 regulation switch, with Antonelli leading the standings and Russell in third, Wolff sees no reason for change leaving Verstappen’s future up in the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to change things,\u201d said Wolff, when asked by Sky Sports about the Mercedes 2027 line-up. \u201cWe\u2019ve said that also to George, I think it\u2019s a line-up that is good for us. I\u2019m very happy with the two of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those comments came at the Austrian Grand Prix, just days after Russell confirmed he\u2019ll \u201c100%\u201d be racing at Mercedes next year, considering he was the one largely at risk for 2026.<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Mark Thompson \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

That was despite the 28-year-old consistently outperforming his rookie team-mate in 2025, but the potential in teenager Antonelli was always clear and that is coming to fruition this season.<\/p>\n

The rapid 19-year-old has won five of seven grands prix to establish a 50-point lead over pre-season title favourite Russell, who at Monaco in June was left bemused by his pace deficit.<\/p>\n

But Wolff is confident his veteran driver will bounce back in the title fight, having spoken just minutes after Russell topped final practice<\/a> in Austria while Antonelli was fastest in FP1 and FP2.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s coping well,\u201d added Wolff. \u201cYou can see the last one and a half days was difficult and then at the end now he was quickest.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’re talking about fine margins and I think it’s about, keep yourself in the confidence zone, trust in your driving, trust in the decisions that you’re making with your mechanics in terms of set-ups and then often it’s just that simple, just drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn’t need to prove to anyone that he has the speed we know he has and the ability.\u201d<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has ended speculation that Max Verstappen could join for the 2027 Formula 1 campaign…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[3032,45812,49,48,578,270882,576,577,3024,1885,1881,272144,2190,272145,82],"class_list":["post-764894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","tag-austrian-gp","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-f1-austrian-grand-prix","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mercedes","tag-mercedes-to-keep-f1-driver-line-up-for-2027","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-says-toto-wolff","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764894","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=764894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}