Formula 1: Toto Wolff laughs off Max Verstappen to Mercedes rumors

Mercedes team principal and CEO Toto Wolff laughed off reports that he contacted Max Verstappen about driving for the team in the 2020 Formula 1 season.

Earlier this month, Red Bull Racing team manager Helmut Marko stated that Max Verstappen and his father Jos, a former Formula 1 driver himself, had been contacted by Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport team principal and CEO Toto Wolff on numerous occasions over the last few months about Max driving for Mercedes in the 2020 season.

Max signed a contract extension in October of 2017 to continue driving for the team through the 2020 Formula 1 season, but Marko revealed that the contract extension that he signed has a performance clause in it.

As a result, the 21-year-old Dutchman is reportedly free to pursue other options if Red Bull Racing do not provide him with a car capable of winning this season’s championship.

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The 2019 season is notably the Milton Keynes-based team’s first season using Honda engines after they confirmed last June that they would end their 12-year partnership with Renault following the conclusion of the 2018 season.

Shortly after Marko said what he said, Jos denied the rumors and stated that Wolff does not even have Max’s phone number. Max himself then called the rumors “funny” and confirmed what his father stated.

Now Wolff himself has chimed in, and he has stated that all three of them, meaning himself, Max and Jos, had “quite a laugh” about what Marko stated and the rumors that then resulted from it.

Here is what Wolff had to say about the matter, according to Motorsport.

"“We had quite a laugh about it all three of us. I haven’t got Max’s number and I’ve never spoken to him on the phone. As Max rightly said I’ve known Jos for a long time and I would consider him a friend.“We talk about babies and go-karting and when do we put our babies in a go-kart together and which team are we going to set up. There is no talking about Max nor his contract. For the right reasons, Max is very committed to the Honda/Red Bull situation.“We are committed to our drivers and we are not planning to engage in any sort of discussions and nor are Jos or Max, so I don’t know where that came from.”"

Mercedes’ two drivers, five-time champion Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, both signed contract extensions last July. Hamilton signed a two-year contract extension to continue driving for the team through the 2020 season while Bottas signed a one-year contract extension to continue driving for the team through the 2019 season.

Bottas’s one-year contract extension carries with it an additional one-year option that could allow him to continue driving for the team through the 2020 season as well. This one-year option likely favors Mercedes as opposed to the 29-year-old Finn when it comes to making the decision about whether or not he will return to the Brackley-based team next year.

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While these rumors about Max Verstappen making the switch from Red Bull Racing to Mercedes have seemingly been shot down, at least in regard to the 2020 Formula 1 season, Verstappen did make clear before the 2019 season began that he has a “Plan B” if Red Bull Racing’s Honda experiment ends up failing. Whether or not that plan involves Mercedes is unknown.

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