Wolff opens up on Verstappen to Mercedes potential

Toto Wolff has reiterated the strong relationship he has with the Verstappens, but insists only "God knows" if the Dutch driver will ever race for Mercedes in F1.

With confirmation of Lewis Hamilton joining Ferrari coming before the start of the current F1 season, who would replace him was a major talking point for much of the year.

With the environment at Red Bull looking increasingly unstable, and the performance of the team suffering on track, there was intense speculation linking Max Verstappen with a move away from the Milton Keynes-based team.

Whilst those rumours persist on some level, the 27-year-old will be racing for the current constructors' champions next season.

Whether he remains there long-term, despite having a contract until the end of 2028, remains to be seen. If he does not, the 62-time grand prix winner has been most-heavily linked with Mercedes, with its team principal's relationship with the Verstappen family often put front and centre of such reports.

Over the past year, Wolff has suggested Verstappen is a driver that got away from him - and his team - in the past and that it is a partnership that needs to happen in the future. However, those remarks were no doubt in part to further de-stablise Red Bull.

Nevertheless, the Austrian insists he gets on well with the three-time drivers' champion and that the tumultuous 2021 did not break his relationship with the Dutch family.

"We get on very well, not always in the visibility of the public eye," Wolff said of Max on the High Performance Podcast.

"I've known Jos [Verstappen, Max's father] for a long time. He's my age, we have similar views on racing.

"And I wouldn't want the year 2021 to put any shadow on any personal relationship that we have. It was bad enough that year, but the relationships are intact."

'God knows what happens in the future'

With Verstappen proving not to be a viable option to replace Hamilton for 2025, Wolff turned to Mercedes junior Kimi Antonelli to partner George Russell next term.

In the wake of that announcement, which came at the Italian Grand Prix in September, the 52-year-old moved to distance himself from openly courting Verstappen earlier in the year.

Despite it doing little the quell the flames of speculation engulfing Mercedes' driver line-up plans post 2025, Wolff argues it "feels natural" to continue to invest in "homegrown" junior drivers.

"It feels natural now to go to the next generation," he explained.

"Max is a great driver and an interesting personality, and God knows what happens in the future, but having Kimi and George in the car, homegrown, real Mercedes juniors that delivered every step of their career that we supported - I'm very much looking forward to that situation."

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