Toto Wolff prepares seat for Max Verstappen

Toto Wolff ready to welcome Max Verstappen

From bitter rival of Mercedes to standard-bearer of the stable in Brackley: this could be the path of Max Verstappen already in 2025, should the three-time F1 world champion decide to end his relationship with Red Bull. Backing up the hypothesis are statements by Toto Wolff to 'Fox Sports Australia', which sound like more than just a boutade.

"We will have a vacancy and we will be the only team to have this problem, unless Max decides to leave Red Bull: at that point the slot would no longer be free, at least as far as we are concerned," admitted Wolff, who went on to explain that the relationship between Verstappen and Mercedes "è is bound to begin, sooner or later".

Wolff then went on to reiterate the point, saying that Mercedes will move in the summer to fill the post vacated by Lewis Hamilton's announced farewell in the direction of Ferrari, but any decision will be contingent on the intentions of the Dutch driver, who may decide to find a solution to get rid of his current contract, which expires in 2028.

"I could not give him in the past a seat in Mercedes, I tried to get him to run in F2 but I was too late, he already had the agreement with Red Bull to run in Toro Rosso. Now we are ready to close the circle" admitted Wolff, who però has not ruled out other options for the post-Hamilton, one of which leads to the Italian Kimi Antonelli, currently running in F2.