“No intention behind” public meeting between Verstappen and Wolff

It’s a cliche, but no less true for being oft-repeated, that a picture is worth a thousand words. So, it was entirely natural that images of Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff and Max Verstappen’s father engaged in a cosy chat in the Canadian Grand Prix paddock would go viral on social media and stoke much speculation about what the agenda might be.

Red Bull has had to fight to keep its star driver over the past two seasons, despite having him under a long contract, as Verstappen has become manifestly frustrated with the team’s inconsistently competitive machinery. It is understood that although Verstappen is contracted until the end of 2028, the performance clauses become more demanding of the team as each season passes.

It’s also understood that Wolff has had several discussions with ‘Team Max’ over a potential move to Mercedes.

But in this case, there was a deliberately contrived air to the proceedings. If Wolff and Verstappen wanted to hold covert talks, then doing so outside the Mercedes hospitality unit (by its front door in fact), in full view of the paddock was hardly the way to do it – especially with media arriving at exactly that time for the scheduled Kimi Antonelli press conference.

Was the aim, then, to put further pressure on Red Bull to improve after a less than stellar start to the season? Team principal Laurent Mekies – himself no stranger to mischief, as evinced by the recent game of job title ‘ping pong’ with McLaren – was determined to dismiss the meeting as inconsequential.

“I tell you what, as much as it may sound exciting to see that from the outside, I really don’t think there is an intention particularly behind [it],” Mekies said when asked by Motorsport.com if he felt he was being sent a message.

“If any of these guys wants to have a chat, it’s going to be a story anyway. So, we speak all the time with Max and with Jos. It’s completely natural that they can have a conversation with Toto. Max was racing [in the Nurburgring 24 Hours] in a Mercedes last week, a GT3.

“So, I genuinely don’t think it’s part of a game plan to get a message or another through.”

Nevertheless, there are still questions over Verstappen’s intentions in the coming months. A long-time critic of the 2026 F1 regulations, Max has strongly suggested he would be willing to quit the category unless something is done to fix the “anti-driving” effects of excessive energy management.

Laurent Mekies has played a key stabilising role in Red Bull Racing after two disrupted seasons – and appears to have kept Verstappen engaged

Photo by: Mark Thompson / Getty Images

Only this week, he indicated that the proposed shift to a 60-40 split of internal combustion engine power to electrical deployment in 2027 could persuade him to stay. But it has now emerged that the so-called “agreement in principle” announced by the FIA failed to achieve the necessary majority vote. Further talks on a compromise solution will take place this weekend.

“Max cares about the sport, and the reason he’s so vocal is because he genuinely cares about Formula 1 being the pinnacle of motorsport,” said Mekies when asked if he felt Verstappen’s commitment to F1 hinged on the proposed 2027 changes being implemented rather than diluted.

“And he wants to see, I’m sure as most of you, flat-out qualifying. He wants to see the fastest drivers being able to push as hard as they want in the corners without losing any lap time due to that.

“There has been a fantastic openness from the stakeholders, from the FIA, from F1, from all the teams to say, ‘Yeah, we need to do something about it.’ And therefore, I’m sure it’s been encouraging for him and for all of us to see that we are all ready to make steps to fix it, and I think it’s important for the sport.”

All true enough – while not actually answering the question…

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– The Autosport.com Team