Toto doesn’t give up
Max Verstappen At the press conference on the eve of the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring, he was asked about the possibility of Mercedes as early as 2025, a prospect on which, in addition to Toto Wolff, even Ola Kallenius came out in the open in Barcelona last weekend.
The Dutch driver responded to the question by underlining that what matters is having a competitive car and that Red Bull is working well to try to improve the RB20. Furthermore, Verstappen has already given indications to guide the development of the RB21 2025 and added that all this should be sufficient for the experts to understand that in 2025 Verstappen will still be a Red Bull driver also because “In F1 it’s not like you can suddenly say ‘hello everyone, I’m changing teams’‘” as the three-time world champion highlighted.
The Austrian newspaper oe24 has reached it Toto Wolff pressing the team principal on this ‘wall’ raised by Verstappen regarding a hypothetical transfer to Mercedes in 2025. Wolff doesn’t want to stop dreaming of Verstappen joining Mercedes as early as next season: “Verstappen in Red Bull in 2025? Did he really say that? He didn’t say yes outright, but I wasn’t there. We want to keep the possibility open for as long as possible. If we demonstrate that we have a fast car then all the fast drivers will want to drive for us.”. When it was pointed out to Wolff that Mercedes now has an extra fan in Helmut Marko, the number one on the Mercedes pit wall admitted that Austria has not been a territory of recent conquest for the cars built in Brackley: “We are growing, but with the new regulations we have never shone at the Red Bull Ring.”
