Verstappen to Mercedes? 'Wolff can't tempt him'

Toto Wolff now makes no secret of it: Max Verstappen is his ideal candidate to succeed Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. But does the three-time world champion make sense to move to a team if, in order to do so, he has to leave the strong Red Bull Racing and join an ailing Mercedes? Christijan Albers, former F1 driver and former team boss, shines his light on whether or not Verstappen will transfer to the German team.

That Mercedes is an option for Verstappen at all is, as we know, due to the internal problems within Red Bull Racing. For instance, the Dutchman has already made it known that as soon as Helmut Marko has to leave, he will also seek refuge elsewhere. Moreover, the Verstappen camp still would rather see team boss Christian Horner leave today than yesterday. Nevertheless, at the moment, peace seems to be signed between the warring parties.

So how can Wolff tempt Verstappen to switch to his F1 team? "He cannot tempt Verstappen," is Albers' conviction, speaking on the Telegraaf podcast. "That revolves around what is going on internally at Red Bull. If there is not a good atmosphere there, if he is not happy there, [then Mercedes has a chance]. But we keep speculating. Within the team and with his mechanics, Max is having a good time."

If it is not Verstappen who succeeds Hamilton, who will? Besides young talent Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Carlos Sainz's name regularly comes up. The Spaniard is due to leave Ferrari as Hamilton takes over his place in '25. Albers thinks it will be "interesting" to see what Wolff will do. "If you look at the field now, Sainz is performing super well. Sainz is under pressure to sign with Audi. If I were Sainz, I would go for a multi-year contract just at Audi. Then you get to know the team already. You learn the road. You can totally prepare for really the start of the season [2026]."