Toto Wolff shares major update on the 'Max Verstappen-Mercedes' potential partnership

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has poured cold water on any suggestions of Max Verstappen being approached by the German team in the near future. Wolff was one of the frontrunners who had kept an eye on the relationship between the Dutch driver and Red Bull.

After the early season intra-team political back and forth within Red Bull, there were suggestions that Toto Wolff had opened up discussions with Max Verstappen on a possible move to replace Lewis Hamilton.

It did appear that ultimately Max Verstappen thought the better of the move and decided to stay with Red Bull. Mercedes, on the other hand, decided to sign young Kimi Antonelli and promote him from Formula 2. For the 2025 F1 season, the German team has George Russell and Antonelli on the team. Max Verstappen, on the other hand, is with Red Bull and has reaffirmed his call to continue with the Austrian team.

At the same time, things are quite open for 2026. New regulations have a major question mark on the Christian Horner-led squad as the team will be building a power unit for the first time. At the same time, Mercedes has decided to pause talks on George Russell's contract for now.

When questioned about a possible future that features Max Verstappen, Toto Wolff was quick to shut it down as he said that the team was happy with the driver lineup it had. He told the media, including Motorsport,

"We have to concentrate on our current driver line-up. We have to do the best we can with what we have. And I don't flirt with others when we have a good relationship [with our current drivers]. That will be no different this year. So at the moment it [a possible move for Verstappen] is not on our radar."

He added,

"When we decided to go for Kimi, we explicitly opted for a young driver who has enormous potential. It will be important for him that he is given the time to develop, learn the circuits and be ready for next year, when the rules change."

Max Verstappen's 2025 F1 season does not start on a positive note

Max Verstappen has seen his 2025 F1 season start with a stutter. The Red Bull driver didn't have the best Friday in the F1 Australian GP as rivals Ferrari and McLaren appear to be a step ahead. Looking back at the first day of running, Verstappen said,

“Today the grip wasn’t great and we were struggling on all four tyres, particularly in sector one and the final sector. It feels like we are not up there at the moment but we will work to find more pace. There are no major balance issues, so I think this makes things a bit harder to fix. But this isn’t anything that we didn’t expect when we arrived here."

He added,

"Positively, I think we were surprised with the pace that the car showed. Historically, we have not been that good here in Melbourne since the new tarmac update so will see how we go over the weekend. However, we will continue to work to find a bit more pace ahead of qualifying.”

While Max Verstappen didn't have the best start to the season, Mercedes is also not in the best shape as the team struggled to put together a decent run on Friday.