Toto Wolff has made no secret of wanting to bring Max Verstappen to Mercedes, especially with Lewis Hamilton leaving the team after 2024. However, despite the rumors and speculations, the Dutchman has consistently denied any intention of leaving Red Bull. Nevertheless, F1 commentator David Croft feels there is still a good chance of this happening.
Croft, while discussing the situation with Matt Baker on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, articulated the question on fans’ minds: “Could Verstappen be coming to Mercedes? There’s still that question hanging in the air.”
He added that both he and Martin Brundle believe Verstappen doesn’t need to rush into making a decision about his future. Croft stated,
“You can make a decision on the 27th of December if you want, if the offer is there from Mercedes, as long as you have a clause to leave Red Bull this year.”
Croft also felt the Silver Arrows have a dilemma on their hands — whether they want to promote 18-year-old Andrea Kimi Antonelli to F1 from F2 or not. He pointed out that if Mercedes decides not to promote Antonelli next year and instead focuses on securing him for 2026, they would need to ensure they don’t lose him to another team.
He then recalled how Wolff once missed out on signing Verstappen, who then joined Red Bull back in 2015.
Croft then also mentioned that there are rumors that the so-called “Helmut Marko clause,” which would have allowed Verstappen to leave Red Bull in case the Austrian left the team, no longer exists.
Despite this, he was confident that if Verstappen wanted to leave, he could. He believes so because according to him, there is no point in a Formula 1 team retaining a driver who is not happy.
One of the key points Croft made was that Mercedes and Wolff cannot impose a strict deadline on Verstappen to make his decision, especially because of his status and also because he is the one driver the Mercedes boss wants on his side at any cost.
