Remember all the hard work that Niki Lauda did to sign Lewis Hamilton from McLaren. Toto Wolff is now given the similar task of signing Max Verstappen. But will Max Verstappen leave a team that he’s won 3 Championships with and is looking for the best team to win this year and probably for the upcoming year as well? But a Red Bull driver has urged Verstappen to join Mercedes. Why, though?
It is mostly possible that Red Bull will continue to dominate going into 2025 as we’ve seen in F1 over the last decade. Once a team starts to dominate new regulations, they continue to dominate for the rest of the years that the regulations prevail. And F1 has introduced major changes to the 2026 regulations that are set to shuffle the pecking order as well.
New engine regulations as well as major changes to chassis are set for 2026. The Hybrid Powertrain will deliver 50% power from the electrical components and the rest from the internal combustion engine. Also, active aerodynamics are likely to be introduced, with lighter and narrower car chassis. And Robert Doornbos, former Red Bull reserve driver suggests that Max Verstappen should keep these changes in regulations in mind and make the switch to Mercedes.
According to F1Maximaal.nl, Robert Doornbos said, “This [Red Bull] is the only team I know well. But I also know how Formula 1 works. Never change a winning team, yes, but this winning team won’t go on forever. This is how Formula 1 works. If you as a driver, as a smart driver, with all the titles and your good management, can time which next wave will become dominant.”
Explaining how he thinks Mercedes will dominate the new regulations, Doornbos added “That’s going to be Mercedes in my view. As a manufacturer, they have an advantage over a privateer. The team may have a budget cap, but Daimler is allowed to pump as many millions into those models and engines as they want. You then want to sit with a factory team. You may think: with Ford, it will be top. No, you don’t know that.”
The electrical systems will be ever so more important in the new regulations and Mercedes has been preparing the election road cars for a long time and has all that experience. With these new cars, it is ever so more important for teams to have experienced drivers, and probably why Toto Wolff is behind Max Verstappen to sign for the team. It is believed that Toto Wolff is pursuing the Dutchman very aggressively.
Toto Wolff offered Max Verstappen to bring Helmut Marko with him.
It is reported that almost everyone at Mercedes wants Max Verstappen to be the one to replace Lewis Hamilton. Toto Wolff is also rumored to have offered Max Verstappen a higher salary than Lewis Hamilton, urging him to sign for Mercedes. Tom Clarkson talked about the possibility of Verstappen signing for Mercedes and suggested that Wolff has also offered Verstappen to bring Marko to Mercedes.
Tom Clarkson said, “Now that Fernando Alonso is locked in at Aston Martin, Max is either going to stay at Red Bull or move to Mercedes. In Japan, I was told by several people that Toto Wolff is pursuing Max very strongly. He needs a signature signing because the last three years haven’t been going very well for the team, and it would be a real statement of intent. It was even mentioned to me that he said to Max, ‘Bring Helmut Marko with you if that’s what it requires.’”
Should Max Verstappen sign for Mercedes or stay with Red Bull?
