Mercedes and Verstappen 'keep open communication' over future move - Wolff

Max Verstappen (left) has been happy for Toto Wolff to speak openly about his interest in signing him at Mercedes

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says he has an "open communication channel" with Max Verstappen regarding a potential future with the team.

Wolff has abandoned hopes of signing the Red Bull driver for next season, and Mercedes are expected to confirm soon that Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli will race next season alongside George Russell.

But in an exclusive interview with BBC Sport, Wolff said he had talks this year with Verstappen and his management about a move for next season.

He admits it was a "long shot" but said he made the approach because "there was not a zero possibility" in the wake of the disruption at Red Bull - following allegations of sexual harassment and coercive, controlling behaviour made against team principal Christian Horner by a female employee.

"Red Bull was the dominant car at the beginning of the season," Wolff says. "And that changed a bit. It's Max Verstappen dominant at the moment.

"And the relationships were dysfunctional. I'm not sure they are back in a great place, but it is what it is. There was a moment, or there was an opportunity, to at least have conversations of what it could be in the future, and this is what we did."

These talks took place despite the fact Verstappen is under contract at Red Bull until the end of 2028.

Verstappen's father Jos, an integral part of the driver's management team, remains in dispute with Horner - who has been cleared by two internal Red Bull investigations which dismissed the complaint against him.

At the Dutch Grand Prix last weekend, Max Verstappen said he "gets on very well with Toto - he's very open about what's happening within his team". And the three-time world champion said there was "nothing wrong" with Wolff discussing publicly his interest in him.

Asked whether Verstappen could join Mercedes for 2026, Wolff said: "Much too early. For the benefit of our drivers next year, I don't want to have any conversation about 2026 or beyond, because we very much hope that the 2025 line-up will be the line-up going forward."

And asked whether he and the Verstappens had agreed to revisit their talks, he said: "We have not given each other any, let's say, timings. It is more like, keep the communication channel open, while knowing that his priority is to make it function with Red Bull and our priority will be to make it function with the two drivers we have."

Antonelli set for promotion

The acceptance that Verstappen will not join Mercedes next year has switched Wolff to his plan B for a driver to partner Russell, following Lewis Hamilton's move to Ferrari.

Antonelli - who has just turned 18 and is in his first season in Formula 2, where he has won two races - has been a Mercedes young driver since he was 11, and has been doing an extensive test programme this year in cars from previous seasons to prepare him for F1. That preparation continues on Friday, when he will make his race weekend debut by driving in first practice at the Italian Grand Prix.

Wolff would not confirm that Antonelli has the 2025 seat in our interview, but it's very clear that is the direction of travel.

Asked why he would not wait, give Antonelli more time in F2, or find him a seat in a less high-profile F1 team, as he did with Russell for three years at Williams, Wolff says: "Without pre-empting too much about next year's drivers, in a way, when such talent comes up, it's not right either to park someone, or place someone with another team.

"With George it was probably a year too long with Williams. But then also we didn't really have any space before.

"Let's see what happens, but in a way I think we took the right decision for the benefit of Lewis, the team's benefit, Kimi. It feels right."

Andrea Kimi Antonelli only turned 18 on 25 August

Antonelli is regarded as possibly the hottest talent outside F1, and he was fast-tracked into F2 this season, bypassing Formula 3. Will he be ready, assuming he is chosen?

"You will only find out if someone is ready for F1 when you throw them in the cold water," Wolff says. "I think Kimi is prepared. We are doing the utmost to give him testing days.

"We are not sitting with him in the car. He needs to do it. He has the talent, the intelligence, the ability, all of it to do it well. And we need to provide an environment, if he was in the car, where he can learn and develop.

"You've got to give young drivers time. George is a formidable driver, one of the best. You can't expect an 18-year-old to sit in the car and outperform him. That's not going to happen. Impossible.

"And that’s why we need to make sure the press - especially in Italy - wouldn't be putting too much pressure on him."

Saying goodbye to Hamilton

It was Wolff's belief in Antonelli which triggered the process that led to Hamilton joining Ferrari.

Knowing Antonelli was not far from being ready for F1, Wolff initially offered Hamilton only a one-year deal when they were negotiating a new contract last summer.

In the end, they compromised on what is known as a "one plus one" - a firm deal for 2024, and an option to leave if Hamilton wanted in 2025.

After talks with Ferrari in the winter, Hamilton decided to move - earning a longer contract and a significant jump in salary. Does Wolff have any regrets about the decisions that led to Hamilton leaving?

"No," he says. "We decided as a team for that and we were always very transparent with Lewis and the good thing with him is he is able to put himself in your position and understood where we were coming from.

"So in that respect there are no bad feelings, there is no betrayal.

"It was also for the good of him to change. This was the longest run between a driver and a team. It was 12 years overall. And maybe he needed to, in a way, change and reinvent himself.

"Being a driver for Ferrari is super-prestigious. Maybe for us as a team also it is important to emancipate ourselves and go in a different direction."

Moving on from Abu Dhabi 2021

The decision does mean, though, that Mercedes and Hamilton will no longer be able to avenge what they see as the injustice of Abu Dhabi 2021.

In the final race of that championship, after a bitter year-long fight between Hamilton and Verstappen, race director Michael Masi failed to implement the rules correctly during a late safety-car period.

Under pressure from Red Bull - and a desire for the race not to finish under a safety car - Masi made a series of decisions that bypassed the rules and led directly to Verstappen passing Hamilton on the final lap of the race to win the championship, when before the safety car the Briton was on track to become champion.

For a long time Wolff and Hamilton were bitter about that, and Hamilton is still strongly motivated to win an eighth world title that he believes he should already have.

How does Wolff feel about the fact that his and Hamilton's story will end without the chance to win that eighth title together?

"You have to look at it from a point more detached than we do," he says. "He is the greatest F1 driver of all time. He has beaten all the records and there is only this one, with championships, where he is equal with Michael Schumacher, another great - if not, with Lewis, the greatest driver. So it is what it is. And we can't change that.

"Would I have wanted it to go the other way? Absolutely. Do I think what happened in 2021 was anywhere near fair? No, it wasn't. But we can't turn back time and there are worse things than losing a race or a World Championship. There is more drama in the world out there."

On Mercedes' return to winning

Mercedes have been on top of the podium on three occasions this season

After two troubled seasons Mercedes have finally found their way back to the winner's circle. Russell has taken one win - inherited after Verstappen collided with Lando Norris' McLaren while disputing the lead in Austria - and Hamilton two, in Britain and Belgium.

How have they finally done it?

Wolff says: "We never lost faith that we would eventually understand how we could extract more performance from these very special cars, ground-effect cars."

This year started, if anything, worse than 2023 ended. Mercedes finally changed their car philosophy but were still uncompetitive. The breakthrough, Wolff says, came in late spring, when they realised they were not operating their car in the correct way.

"We changed that and saw some first moments of performance,” he says. "And then all of the development in the factory was steered in that direction, and this is the results we’re seeing on track today."

But why did it take so long?

"That’s a good question. It's the most difficult sport because it is the interaction between man and machine, and the development is pure science," Wolff says.

"After winning eight world titles, maybe there were items we needed to change in extrapolating and correlating data, and our competition is formidable.

"We knew it was never going to be easy, and it's clear that no sports team in the world has won every single championship they participated in, and the results weren't what we thought. But it was still a third and second place in the championship."

Towards the end of Mercedes' run of championship success, Wolff was considering stepping back from his front-line role as team principal.

But ultimately he changed his mind, and says he will be around for a good while yet.

"I want to wake up most of the mornings and enjoy what I'm doing and going to the races, and that feeling has come back," he says.

"It wasn't there in 2020. Interestingly that was our most dominant year. But I enjoy it now and I see myself in that role for a while.

"Looking long-term and in a few years, hopefully after we've had more success, I would like to comment from the sidelines and criticise from the outside, and maybe do 15 races and not 24. But that is still quite a few years away."