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Laurence Edmondson
Toto Wolff has confirmed Mercedes is exploring the possibility of signing Max Verstappen in the future, but insists it is not impacting ongoing contract talks with George Russell for 2026.
Speculation over Verstappen leaving Red Bull for Mercedes intensified on Thursday after Russell said his talks were being delayed because his team is also pursuing the four-time world champion.
Russell is out of contract with Mercedes at the end of this year, which also has 18-year-old Andrea Kimi Antonelli signed on a long-term deal.
Verstappen is under contract with Red Bull until 2028, although the team’s motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has spoken openly about performance-based clauses that could see the 27-year-old leave before that date.
“First of all, there is no delay in George’s contract situation because it’s pretty clear since a long time what our timings were,” Wolff told Sky Sports. “We’ve known each other for such a long time so there is no such thing as a delay.
“But also 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, and that could be a long time in the future. But that has no effect on us putting a signature on George’s contract.”
Wolff added that Russell was aware of Mercedes’ position on Verstappen.
“What we are trying to do in the team is be transparent, as we are,” the team boss added. “You can choose to hold things under wraps, or do what we’ve done in the last 20 years I’ve been here [which is] putting it out there and saying this is the situation.
“These drivers are clever people and they talk to each other. I’m always open about these things, and 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.”
Prior to those comments, Wolff spent the majority of Friday’s press conference at the Austrian Grand Prix deflecting questions about his pursuit of Verstappen.
When Wolff was asked if there was a deadline for signing Verstappen, he said his “conversations” were not at that stage.
“You make it sound like we have been asking when do you want to join and what are the terms. That’s not how it is and not how it works. And I come back to my previous answer.
“I want to just have the conversations behind closed doors. Not town halls. And we have two drivers that have been in our programme since a long time.
“Drivers that I’m perfectly happy to have. Drivers that will do great in the future of the team. So it’s a bit different situation.”
Speaking in a press conference on Thursday, Verstappen refused to give a direct answer on where he would be driving in 2026, adding fuel to speculation about his future.
“I don’t think we need to talk about that,” Verstappen 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.
“I don’t even remember what I said last year, really. But again, it’s not really on my mind. Just driving well, trying to push the performance, and then we focus on next year.”
When Wolff was asked what Russell needed to do to be given a contract extension, he added: “Nothing. He has been part of our programme since 10 years or so. He’s always performed to the expectations that we have set. And he’s continuing to do so.
“We haven’t given him a car to win world championship in the last three years. So that’s completely on us. And the times the car has been good, he has been winning races.
“And you can see today [in free practice], he’s always there. You know that when he’s getting in the car, he’s going to extract what is in the car. So having said that, for whatever reason, in early summer, those kind of contract discussions start to end up being accelerated in the media or accelerated because of a lack of information.
“Well, what I have been doing the last 30 years in a normal business, contract discussions are not being held in town halls. So everything is normal. Everything goes to plan.”
Asked if Russell and Verstappen could be a possible driver line-up for the future, Wolff added: “Well, I can imagine every line-up. I’ve had [Nico] Rosberg and [Lewis] Hamilton fighting for a world championship, so everything else afterwards is easy.
“So, yeah, there’s pros and cons of having two drivers fighting each other hard. And we’ve seen examples where that functioned and other examples where it didn’t.”
