What has Toto Wolff said about Verstappen to Mercedes rumors?

Low hours at Mercedes after a difficult Miami GP in which they did not get into their stride until Saturday afternoon, after the sprint. Lewis Hamilton finished sixth and George Russell came in eighth. Under such a gloomy scenario, Toto Wolff’s chances of convincing Max Verstappen to join the project in 2025 don’t look too promising. Why would the Dutchman swap a championship-winning car for fourth on the grid? Those who know the three-time champion best say that it’s unlikely that he will move next year and even Wolff has started to accept it.

Verstappen, best placed to make a decision on his future

“If I were him (Max) I would not leave, at least in 2025, but it is in his hands. But he’s the leading driver, he’s the top guy at the moment and that’s why it’s for him to take those decisions. “There may not be any decision to make and it will continue as it is,” the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Team Principal and CEO explained in Miami this week, adding that Carlos Sainz is a posible alternative: “I think we’ve talked about the possibilities. I want to be fair to these guys and not make it look like we are playing chess with humans because we are not doing that. I think we want to take our time, see where Max’s thinking goes, and at the same time monitor the other drivers. Carlos was very strong in Miami again and that’s why we are a little bit in an observation mode at the moment.”

Meanwhile, promising teenager Andrea Antonelli continues testing in F1 to show his capabilities. He featured in Austria and in Imola. Wolff denies that they have asked the FIA for a super license for the 17-year-old Italian, and is keen to avoids feeding rumors when his F2 campaign is still discreet: ”So many stories were created, and it doesn’t do him any favours because he needs to concentrate on his F2 campaign. He’s doing lots of testing for us in order to bring him up to speed. As for the deadline, he added, “I think this decision of the second driver is weeks if not months away. We didn’t make any approach to the FIA about getting an earlier release.”

Regarding last weekend’s race in Miami, Wolff congratulated McLaren, Mercedes customers since 2021 who are performing better than their suppliers, and celebrated the progress at the end of the race: “I want to congratulate McLaren, Lando, Zak [Brown], Andrea [Stella] and the team; [McLaren] have made such a massive step since last summer and they won fair and square and this is with a Mercedes engine. And that is so important for all of us to see that you can make these steps if you bring in the right upgrades and do the right work. Lando’s victory has been deserved for a long time and is good for the sport, very positive,” he said.

He concluded: “In terms of the positives for the teams, we were quicker than [Sergio] Pérez at the end on the same tire. On the Hard, we struggled a lot, but I wasn’t happy on Friday at all with the Sprint race. Then we put in some solid work, structured for the Grand Prix qualifying, accepting that this is the pace level at the moment and then just carrying it over into the race. And finishing sixth and eighth is not something to be proud of, but it’s a step in the right direction”.