Toto Wolff has rubbished talk linking Max Verstappen with Mercedes as “nonsense” and stressed his satisfaction with the current driver line-up.
Verstappen has been linked to Mercedes for several years already, with Wolff said to be determined to persuade the Dutch racer to walk away from Red Bull to join the Silver Arrows.
Those rumours hit a peak in 2024 when then-Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was accused, but cleared, of inappropriate behaviour. That led to Verstappen’s father, Jos, claiming that Red Bull would “explode” if Horner remained in charge.
Lewis Hamilton’s decision to leave Mercedes added fuel to the fire as Wolff publicly courted Verstappen.
Although Verstappen would go on to win the F1 2024 title, Red Bull’s dominance was broken as McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes also won races with Red Bull relegated to P3 in the Constructors’ Championship.
More speculation emerged last season as Verstappen struggled to win races in his RB21, but he made it clear that he wasn’t going anywhere.
“I’m happy here. The goal was always to stay until the end of my career,” said the four-time World Champion, who has a contract through to the end of 2028.
However, Red Bull’s troubles at the beginning of this new technical era have again led to speculation that he could look elsewhere. Notably, Mercedes.
Verstappen has scored just eight points in the opening two race weekends of F1 2026, and sits 43 points behind championship leader George Russell in the Mercedes. When he left China without a single point, Verstappen was asked if he had noted any progress.
He replied: “Not at the moment… It’s really not where we want to be. I know everyone is, of course, trying their best, and I think they are as frustrated with it as I am within the team.
Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer claims Verstappen won’t be open to staying in this situation for very long.
“The conversation is going to happen,” he said on the F1 Nation podcast. “Max is not here to finish eighth in qualifying. He’s not here to not even fight for a podium. He’s going to be looking at a way to get into that Mercedes, because they have the best car.”
But with “the greatest respect to Max”, Wolff cannot fathom why he would want to drop either championship leader Russell or F1’s newest race winner, Kimi Antonelli, to make room for Verstappen.
After all, he already has a winning line-up that is sitting 1-2 in the Drivers’ Championship.
“The amazing thing is that these stupid rumors are already coming up in March,” the Mercedes team principal told OE24. “Stupid enough that you usually talk about it in July.
“I don’t know who brought it up again.
“We have two drivers with whom we have long-term, multi-year contracts. I couldn’t be happier and happier with the two of them.
“Both deliver top performances so there is no reason at all to even think about a line-up change, about other drivers. I say that with the greatest respect to Max.”
Last year, Russell signed a contract extension with Mercedes for the 2026 campaign, with an option to extend into 2027, while Antonelli is reportedly on a two-year deal.
