The infighting inside Crimson Bull is a hilarious spectacle for its rivals. For Mercedes Staff Principal Toto Wolff, particularly, it’s music to his ears. The Austrian has pulled all of the stops to poach Max Verstappen for 2025, however to no avail. Nevertheless, with Max’s father Jos Verstappen publicly re-igniting his feud with Crimson Bull Staff Principal Christian Horner, the 3-time champion could be reevaluating his loyalty to the crew. Moreover, his father’s newest crisp response to the Mercedes rumors has disrupted the driving force market but once more.
Within the Thursday press convention forward of the Austrian GP, Max Verstappen confirmed his Crimson Bull keep for 2025, placing a dent in Toto Wolff’s dream of signing him. The Milton Keynes outfit breathed a short-lived sigh of aid earlier than getting disrupted by the Jos-Horner quarrel the following day. Jos uncovered Horner for “doing everything” to sideline him from Crimson Bull’s ‘Legends Parade’ in Austria. Although Horner denied this, Max supported his father’s stance, explaining how this complete distraction may’ve been prevented.
Not-so-coincidentally, this Jos-Horner feud is now overlapping with Max’s Mercedes transfer hypothesis. After the 3-time champion’s heroic Pole on Saturday, his father but once more fueled his exit rumors. “There are so many things at stake. I don’t want to say too much,” Jos responded to a query on his son’s future. “So a move by Max to Mercedes is not to be excluded?” Sky Deutschland additional prompted. “Exactly”, the 52-year-old replied succinctly, including, “There’s a lot going on about him, but I don’t want to say anything more about that either.”
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If this isn’t a touch for Toto Wolff to maintain persevering with his pursuit of the reigning world champion, what’s? By the way, Horner had amusingly used Jos Verstappen as a pawn whereas taunting Wolff’s pursuit of Max. Even that has backfired for the Briton.
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Toto Wolff considers signing Jos Verstappen for Mercedes amid Christian Horner row
Even after Max Verstappen reiterated his loyalty to Crimson Bull for 2025, Toto Wolff remained in playful denial. When Christian Horner was questioned about his rival crew boss’ relentless feedback on signing his star driver, he termed it as a “tactic of distraction”. The 50-year-old then joked about how “Jos is potentially available” if Wolff needs a Verstappen at any value.
When it was the Mercedes boss’ likelihood to retort, he plainly termed the distraction accusation as “stupid”. As for the Jos Verstappen joke, Wolff mischievously stated, “That wouldn’t be bad either.” Although the banter is humorous, Wolff’s hopes of signing Max stay “wishful thinking”, as per Helmut Marko.
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Max Verstappen is the only real sufferer of this large heap of an off-track mess. His Pole by over 4-tenths across the Crimson Bull Ring, was sadly overshadowed by the distractions. Hopefully, the leaders get their arguments straight, so F1 stays about racing and never drama, in contrast to Netflix’s positioning of it.