I was “straightforward and fair” to Mercedes drivers amid Verstappen flirt

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff believes he handled the 2026 Formula 1 driver market “in the most straightforward and fair way”.

That’s despite Wolff wooing four-time world champion Max Verstappen until it emerged that the Red Bull driver would be unable to activate a performance clause to exit his Red Bull contract early; the speculation cast doubt on incumbents George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s short-term future.

Mercedes eventually made an unchanged line-up official on Wednesday ahead of the 2026 season.

Wolff told Sky Sports F1 on Friday that he was going to learn from what he called a “mistake”, insisting “there wasn’t any on-purpose flirting” and claiming this was “just a coincidence”, while admitting the uncertainty over the driver line-up ended up being “destabilising for everyone”.

Subsequently asked by Autosport in the Friday press conference if he had experienced any conflicting moments when negotiating 2026 deals, given he called it his ‘responsibility’ to find out where Verstappen’s future lay, Wolff said more confidently: “Being open and transparent is the best path forward. Sometimes it bites you a bit. And when you look back, maybe certain events could have been better – coincidences that happened. But I’ve always done it in the most straightforward and fair way.

“I stand by the driver choices – by George and Kimi. Like I said, this is the full focus, and that was always the aim, throughout the more tricky part over the summer.”

Even after Verstappen was ruled out of the driver market, it took two and a half months for Mercedes to finalise its 2026 contracts, with Russell’s contractual PR appearances allegedly the main issue.

With hindsight, Wolff insisted this line-up was a “no-brainer” and there was “never” any doubt rookie Antonelli was going to make progress.

“It was always the decision that we took from the get-go,” the Austrian said. “It was the lineup that we chose last year. We knew that George can hold up the leadership role in there. It’s been really great, and Kimi is in a learning year. So going forward, it was pretty much a no-brainer.

“When you look at [Antonelli’s] junior record, his personality, there’s no doubt in me or within the team that it was the wrong decision to take and give him the opportunity.”

Antonelli finished the last two grands prix in the top five after a tough European spell in what Wolff still calls “a learning season”. The Mercedes team boss reckons the 19-year-old Italian will gain competitiveness in his sophomore campaign as F1 moves on to brand-new cars in 2026.

“You have five or six races to go – tracks that he doesn’t know,” Wolff pointed out. “Austin is one of them. I’m sure we’re going to see some very good results. We’re going to see trickier sessions and trickier weekends.

“But all of that is being reset with the start of next season. He will have seen the tracks. The cars are new for every driver – that’s a big factor. These guys have been around these cars for a while, and he will have seen how to best manage pressure from the media and all of the stakeholders. That was the aim for this season – to do exactly that.”

Additional reporting by Ronald Vording

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