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Toto Wolff has confirmed Mercedes are once more considering a move to tempt the four-time world champion Max Verstappen, with a place potentially available at Mercedes from next season as current driver George Russell has yet to have his contract renewed for 2026.
Russell had revealed on Thursday that Mercedes were interested in Verstappen stating: “It’s only normal that conversations with the likes of Verstappen are ongoing.” Wolff was then faced with a barrage of questions on the subject when the Mercedes team principal addressed the press at the Austrian Grand Prix and ultimately acknowledged that the team were indeed investigating options with Verstappen and suggested that talks were taking place.
“As a team principal responsible for the best car brand in the world it is clear you’re exploring what a four-time world champion is going to do in the future,” he said.
Verstappen is contracted with Red Bull until 2028, but with performance-related exit options understood to be available to him, reported to be if the driver is outside the top four by the summer break which falls after the Hungarian GP. He is currently third.
Wolff was open in his previous pursuit of Verstappen until the middle of last season when the Dutch driver committed to staying at Red Bull and Mercedes signed Kimi Antonelli on a multi-year deal. In Austria, Wolff insisted he did not want to hide any negotiations from his drivers.
“What we are trying to do in the team is be transparent,” he said. “You can choose to hold things under wraps, or do what we’ve done in the last 20 years I’ve been here is putting it out there and saying this is the situation. These drivers are clever people and they talk to each other.
“I’m saying it how it is and there’s no such thing as saying we are going to sign Max, because it’s so far away that it’s not realistic at that stage. So with George, we talk about everything.”
Verstappen did not deny talks were taking place when asked, instead deflecting the issue. “I don’t think we need to talk about that,” he said. “I don’t know, do you want me to repeat what I said last year? I don’t know. It’s the same answer.”
Last year when faced with the same questions at this race, Verstappen emphatically confirmed he would remain at Red Bull.
His team had brought upgrades to the Red Bull Ring, hopeful they might improve his fortunes but it was Russell who was quickest in first practice in Spielberg, while McLaren’s Lando Norris, also boasting upgrades, topped the timesheets in the second session in what is something of a big weekend for the British driver.
Intensely self-critical, Norris will have subjected himself to no little soul-searching in the two weeks since he climbed disconsolately from his stricken car at the Canadian Grand Prix after hitting his McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri.
The clash was considered inevitable at some point between the two drivers vying for the world championship but its implications have far more import for Norris.
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Norris was attempting to pass Piastri in Montreal, clipped the Australian’s car and clattered off into the pit wall, his race over. He held his hands up immediately, his contrition clear even as McLaren had already all but acknowledged it was a matter of when not if the two finally came together, given the team’s stance on allowing their drivers to race one another.
Yet for McLaren, while aghast that their primary principle of racing but not actually biffing one another, had been thwarted, there has been no panic and certainly no sudden imposition of restrictions curtailing their drivers’ freedom to compete. Having dealt with it, it is business as usual.
For Norris, however, it represents a bruising reminder of quite what is at stake and the intensifying pressure on him to deliver if he is to retain his world championship ambitions.
With 10 races gone Norris now trails Piastri by 22 points and while it is far from an insurmountable gap with 14 meetings to go, of more concern is that the form is overwhelmingly with the Australian. Norris had begun as favourite and had taken victory in the season opener in Australia, where Piastri made his only major mistake thus far, spinning off in sudden, treacherous rain in Melbourne. Since when and until Canada, the Australian enjoyed a run of eight consecutive podiums including five wins.
Norris’s performances in contrast have been peppered with minor errors and some more costly, including Canada and crashing out of qualifying in Saudi Arabia.
“Lando himself will have to show his character to overcome this kind of episode,” observed team principal Andrea Stella and Austria is a chance for Norris to reset and reassert at a key moment for the 25-year-old.
