Toto: I’d love to sign Max
IT NOW seems a matter of when, not if, Max Verstappen joins Mercedes after Toto Wolff declared for the first time: ‘I would love to have him here.’
That is the extraordinary upshot of another turbulent weekend in the Red Bull scandal tearing the team apart.
Mail Sport understands that Max and his father Jos Verstappen are determined to move away from Christian Horner, who remains resolutely in position as Red Bull team principal after being cleared of ‘coercive behaviour’ towards a female employee.
Horner, for his part, said last night: ‘No individual is bigger than the team.’
While Verstappen, 26, is more likely to move at the end of the year, an accelerated transfer for yesterday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix winner cannot be ruled out.
A well-placed source has talked of the possibility of a domino effect starting with Verstappen going to Mercedes this season; Lewis Hamilton would then go early (rather than in 2025) to Ferrari in place of Carlos Sainz; Fernando Alonso then joins Red Bull.
However, for that to come to pass several huge contracts would need to be untied.
Verstappen (left) is signed up until 2028, though there are break clauses written in to his deal — including one that would be triggered if motorsport adviser Helmut Marko left the team.
The prospect of that was voiced over the weekend, but was knocked down yesterday by 80-year-old Marko.
Wolff added: ‘Let’s word it like this, it is a decision that Max needs to take and there is no team up and down the grid who wouldn’t do handstands
to have him in their car.’
Horner added: ‘You can’t force people to be somewhere just because of a piece of paper. I have no doubt about Max’s passion going forward. But you can never say never. If a driver wants to go, they would go.’
Meanwhile, Damon Hill hailed rookie teenager Ollie Bearman last night after he beat Lewis Hamilton on his shock Ferrari debut. Seventime world champion Hamilton embraced the 18-year-old as he climbed out of his scarlet machine at the end of the race.
‘A star is born now,’ 1996 world champion Hill posted on X. ‘To jump in at such short notice, on a track as intimidating as Jeddah, in a Ferrari of all things, and hold up under immense pressure from Lando and Lewis and keep it together. Wow.”