Max Verstappen: Toto Wolff laughs off Red Bull accusation of Mercedes approach

Max Verstappen

Wolff laughs off Red Bull accusation of approaching Verstappen

Was Helmut Marko telling porkies?

Matthew Scott

Wednesday 17 April 2019 16:19

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Toto Wolff has laughed of suggestions that he has been keeping close tabs on Max Verstappen with an eye on bringing the Dutchman to Mercedes in the future. Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko recently claimed that Wolff was "repeatedly" calling his driver and father Jos Verstappen.

Verstappen Jnr and Sr were quick to dismiss any notion of negotiations with Wolff, although it was confirmed that Jos and the Mercedes team principal regularly spoke as friends.

Completing the trio of denials at the Chinese Grand Prix was Wolff, who like Max, said he did not even have the means to call the Dutchman if he wanted to.

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Wolff said: "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.

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"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 are known to have made previous attempts to sign Verstappen in 2017, before Red Bull signed him to a bumper contract.

However, Wolff says there is now no reason to look outside of the existing partnership of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas when time comes for deals to be renewed.

"After 2020 we will first discuss with Valtteri and Lewis, and once that decision is taken, we'll turn to the paddock. But hopefully the line-up stays forever."