Max Verstappen turns down Mercedes once more, even though Toto Wolff is said to have offered him a new contract for 2027.
Max Verstappen has been talked about a lot over the past year as a possible move from Red Bull to Mercedes, where Toto Wolff is in charge.
Verstappen owes a lot to Red Bull, who gave him a spot in their Formula One team when he was just 17, starting with their sister team, Toro Rosso, at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix.
Now, 11 years later, Verstappen has won four World Championships with Red Bull and almost won a fifth in 2025, only to lose the title to Lando Norris.
This year, 2026, hasn’t gone as planned for Verstappen. He’s currently in seventh place in the World Championship, 101 points behind the leader, Kimi Antonelli.
Because things aren’t going so well, people are wondering if Verstappen might be thinking about leaving Red Bull, with Mercedes as the most likely new home.
Toto Wolff has brought Mercedes back to the top after a few tough years. It makes sense that he’d want to start a new winning era, like he did when he had Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton in the 2010s.
Former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher recently said Wolff tried to bring Verstappen to Mercedes for the 2027 season. But Schumacher says the financial offer was “so bad” that Verstappen wouldn’t accept it if he decided to leave Red Bull.
Schumacher thinks Wolff made the offer on purpose, just to see what the market looked like, even though Mercedes already has two drivers competing for the 2026 title.
He told Sky Sports Germany, “There’s no spot at Ferrari right now. At Mercedes, Toto Wolff made an offer to Max behind the scenes. But it was so bad financially that it’s out of the question. I think that’s on purpose. Why would Toto Wolff want an expensive Max Verstappen alongside Kimi Antonelli, the future star?
Then you’d have two drivers battling each other in one team. Wolff knows how tricky that is from the Rosberg and Hamilton days. It’s a headache and could hurt Kimi. So, it just doesn’t make sense.”