Toto Wolff has not hidden his desire to sign Max Verstappen since rumors of the Dutchman contemplating a Red Bull exit first emerged at the start of the 2024 season. However, Mercedes being mechanically inferior to Red Bull led to Verstappen claiming that he was happy on the faster team.
Wolff understood the challenges and shifted his focus to improving Mercedes’ on-track performances, which the team achieved.
Mercedes won back-to-back races in Austria and Britain, which was good progress for a team that hadn’t won since 2022. But Wolff still understands that Red Bull is still the superior team, and Verstappen is happy driving for them. That, however, doesn’t mean that he will stop trying to poach the Dutchman.
“you came?” “you’re literally
at my front door” https://t.co/K2iAjEwPf3 pic.twitter.com/VmSK1aQa6r— did you talk about Max today? (@T0T0W0LFF) July 19, 2024
Wolff said,
“Max is, it looks like the strongest driver in the best car at the moment. That’s why we always left the door open for him.”
At the same time, Wolff spoke about the need to match up to Red Bull consistently before thinking of concretely approaching the 26-year-old.
Red Bull is losing its dominant grasp on the F1 grid, with multiple key entities including Adrian Newey leaving the team. This could hand Mercedes (and other rivals) an advantage in catching up fully, and dethroning the reigning World Champions.
If Mercedes does get the better of Red Bull, Verstappen could jump ship too. But that is a possibility that Red Bull chief Helmut Marko doesn’t pay much heed to.
Marko dismisses Wolff’s attempts
Wolff has to complete the difficult task of replacing Lewis Hamilton before the 2025 season begins and Verstappen is his number one target.
Unfortunately for him, from a performance standpoint, Red Bull has the upper hand. Despite others seemingly catching up, Red Bull is leading the Championship (as is Verstappen), halfway into the season.
Marko reminded Wolff of the same when he spoke about Red Bull’s ambitions. He said,
“We’re not going to go along with that, we’re focused on winning the World Championship.”
Marko is also focused on helping Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez get back to form. If the Mexican too, gets out of the slump he is in, Red Bull could prove to be unbeatable in the Championship, yet again.
