Toto Wolff loves being the troublemaker for Red Bull. Despite repeated statements from Max Verstappen confirming his stay with Red Bull for 2025, the Mercedes team boss keeps insinuating that the 3-time champion can still leave the Milton Keynes outfit for them. As if Wolff’s act of being in denial of Verstappen’s statement at the Austrian GP wasn’t enough, the Austrian has doubled down on the 2025 Red Bull exit scenario.

The media at the Thursday press conference in Austria was relentless. They kept pressing Max Verstappen for confirmation on his Red Bull contract till they got a concrete “yes”. However, in the initial attempts to answer, the Dutchman sounded very hesitant. Even Wolff highlighted how Verstappen never “clearly said yes”. RB Team Principal Christian Horner labeled his rival team boss’ comments as a form of “distraction”. But like the reporters, Wolff was relentless. In another interview, the Mercedes boss confessed that his Verstappen comments are for “amusement” but he has a “serious thought” behind it.

Once again, ahead of the British GP, a home race for both Mercedes drivers, Toto Wolff has added fuel to the fire. When questioned by Motorsport-Total about the Red Bull driver’s answer, he replied, “He couldn’t say anything else, could he? They had to really press him for the answer.” When further questioned about if Wolff would put his hand on the fire that the reigning champion would continue driving for Red Bull, he slyly answered, “I would put my hand in the fire that Max will drive Formula 1 next year.”

Toto Wolff is chasing Max Verstappen to replace Lewis Hamilton – the irony doesn’t get better. Who knew the foes from 2021 could turn into friends so fast? One Direction said it best – “Does it ever drive you crazy, just how fast the night changes?” The old animosity has died down so much that it has turned into very unusual support between rivals.

Toto Wolff defends Max Verstappen after 2021 accusations return to haunt the champion

After Max Verstappen’s aggressive battle with Lando Norris, McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella brought back the Dutchman’s ugly 2021 battle with Hamilton. He claimed the FIA’s negligence in disciplining Verstappen has returned to tarnish the sport. Surprisingly, Toto Wolff, who used similar reasoning against the Red Bull driver in 2021, turned around to refute Stella’s claim.

“I don’t think you can take this conclusion,” Wolff said. “It’s been so long, in a way, from our side. We are in a different place today, and I think he (Verstappen) is. It takes two to tango,” he added, before claiming he hadn’t watched their battle closely. “I first need to watch it before I have an opinion, but I wouldn’t see that as a big consequence of 2021 not having been managed well to what happened in 2024. I don’t think they have a correlation.”

F1 is witnessing a driver friendship tearing apart while old rivals turn into mates at the same time. Netflix needs to dedicate an episode for this storyline on 2025’s Drive to Survive. In the end, a 3-time champion (most probably 4-time, by 2025) replacing a 7-time champion is bound to dominate the media space for a while.