(Motorsport-Total.com) – Every time Max Verstappen has spoken about the new technical regulations so far, he immediately added a very important caveat: His opinion on the new rules is independent of the sporting balance of power. “If I were winning, I would still say exactly the same thing,” he asserts.
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This means that two elements must be considered separately: the sporting picture and Verstappen’s dissatisfaction with the direction Formula 1 has taken. And it also means that, from his perspective, basically two different solutions are required.
Red Bull needs to find a lot of performance, especially on the chassis side – something team principal Laurent Mekies admitted in Suzuka – while Verstappen is simultaneously waiting to see what adjustments the FIA will make.
Regarding the latter, the four-time world champion has already accepted that no fundamental changes will take place during the 2026 season. He expects little from this break and the big meeting scheduled for April 9.
Verstappen said he is talking behind the scenes with the governing body about possible improvements, primarily in the hope that “bigger things” can be changed for 2027. To what extent that happens or not seems crucial for his future decisions.
Wolff already joked in Zandvoort about the current situation
Nevertheless, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff shared the impression that both aspects are linked to a certain extent. After the Chinese Grand Prix, when asked about Verstappen’s criticism, the Austrian noted that he is currently in a “horror show” with the new Red Bull car.
“If you look at the onboard footage he had yesterday in qualifying, it’s just horrific to drive,” the Mercedes team principal said in Shanghai. “And you can see that, but it’s not like that with many other teams.”
The same Wolff also reacted to rather strange rumors in the Austrian press in the days following the Chinese Grand Prix, which once again linked Verstappen with Mercedes – this time completely out of the blue.
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“The amazing thing is that these silly rumors are already appearing in March. It’s silly enough that we usually have to talk about it in July. I don’t know who brought that up again,” Wolff replied to OE24.
“We have two drivers with whom we have long-term multi-year contracts. I couldn’t be happier with the two of them. Both are delivering top-class performances, so there is absolutely no reason to even think about a change in the driver pairing or other drivers. I say this with the greatest respect for Max.”
Although these rumors are unfounded and the timing in March is indeed rather laughable, Wolff’s reaction is nonetheless interesting. His statements and Mercedes’ current results underscore exactly the risk Verstappen took when he decided against a move to the German manufacturer at the end of last year.
Wolff admitted several times last season that he had spoken with the Verstappens – something he repeated again in the Netflix series Drive to Survive – and explained that it was simply his duty as team principal to explore what a four-time world champion is planning.
Verstappen ultimately decided to remain loyal to Red Bull. Given the political reality at the time – with the dismissal of Christian Horner and the promotion of Mekies, with whom Verstappen gets along well – this decision is quite easy to explain.
Furthermore, the idea was that the Dutchman could first wait and see how the cards would fall under the new regulations. This way, a potential move would no longer be a gamble, but an assessment based on facts.
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However, the flip side of the coin was frequently discussed in the paddock and has now, in a way, become reality: Should Mercedes emerge as the dominant force under the new rules, Wolff would no longer necessarily need Verstappen to lead the Brackley team back to winning ways.
This is related to negotiating positions and financial aspects: In mid-2025, the sporting picture under the new rules was still a question mark. Now it is clear that Mercedes can win even with its current lineup, making it less necessary to pay enormous sums for a big name in the form of a multiple world champion.
Incidentally, Wolff spoke about exactly this topic last year during an entertaining and much-quoted media session with the Dutch press in Zandvoort:
Question: “So it could be a good thing that Max is staying at Red Bull for now? You don’t have to pay him 100 million a year next year and can first see which team has the best car for 2027?”
Wolff: “Hopefully us. And then I only have to pay ten percent. And that’s exactly what I said to Raymond Vermeulen.”
Question: “And what did Raymond say?”
Wolff: “Raymond said ‘stingy Austrian’, and then I said ‘greedy Dutchman’!”
Although this was said with a smile – fitting the tone of this entire media session – it does reflect the current situation. Reports in Italian media suggesting that the door is completely closed for the foreseeable future seem somewhat premature and also too simplified. For a four-time world champion of Verstappen’s caliber, doors can always open.
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However, the need for Mercedes to look around has become significantly less than it was a year ago.
Firstly, Andrea Kimi Antonelli is beginning to fulfill his promise as an absolute top talent, and secondly, the car seems competitive enough to win all season races so far even without Verstappen at the wheel. From Mercedes’ perspective, the urgency of the flirtation that arose last summer has therefore significantly diminished.
The question of “life decisions” more important than anything else
The very first step – and by far the most important – remains for Verstappen himself to reflect on what he called “life decisions” in Japan: in other words, the decision of whether he wants to stay in Formula 1 after this season. Everything else is subordinate to that and only comes into play afterwards.
The follow-up questions are linked to many other factors, things that cannot even be discussed in April and require much more time, such as Red Bull’s development curve in solving its current problems and other developments in the driver market.
Verstappen’s name will, as in every silly season, likely play a prominent role again if he decides to stay in Formula 1 – especially if Red Bull fails to improve the RB22 quickly. However, the situation regarding Mercedes looks different now than it did about ten months ago.
The door is perhaps not necessarily completely closed, as suggested elsewhere – that Wolff could offer Verstappen a competitive car and thus save him from retirement still sounds like an appealing story in a way – but the first question remains what Verstappen himself wants regarding his future.
Everything else is subordinate to that and therefore a matter for later.
As for all these other aspects, Wolff’s joke in Zandvoort now appears almost prophetic. The “stingy Austrian” he referred to seems to have all the facts on his side at the moment.
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