Toto Wolff vows to 'learn from mistake' after failing to sign Max Verstappen for Mercedes
Toto Wolff has admitted he made a mistake in publicly courting Max Verstappen throughout the 2025 season, but has not ruled out a future move for the Red Bull racer
Toto Wolff hinted his pursuit of Max Verstappen slowed down Mercedes' contract negotiations with George Russell as he vowed to "learn from our mistakes". Russell and Kimi Antonelli this week finally put pen to paper on new contracts to race for the Silver Arrows in 2026 after months of talks.
Those discussions with Brit Russell in particular dragged on after Wolff had publicly explored the idea of an audacious swoop for four-time champion Verstappen earlier in the year. The Austrian team boss has now conceded that the situation was "destabilising" for the team.
He said: "The truth is, you've got to learn from the mistake. There wasn't any on-purpose flirting. It's just a coincidence. It was clear that you needed to have that conversation.
"We ended up in the same place in the summer, which obviously doesn't look good and is destabilising for everyone. But that's the past. Now, everything is cleared, contracts are signed, and we move forward."
That said, Verstappen's manager Raymond Vermeulen has already publicly stated his client will consider his options if Red Bull are not competitive next year. And Wolff failed to rule out another chase for the Dutchman, should the racer consider a fresh start.
He added: "[Pairing Russell with Verstappen] would certainly be good entertainment for everyone. But we don't want to create any rumours here. Kimi and George is what we want to do in the future and going forward. And it's a good line-up."
READ MORE: How Max Verstappen to Mercedes could still be on cards despite double contract dealREAD MORE: The eye-catching George Russell claim which says what many are thinking about MercedesMercedes continue to see Antonelli as a star of the future despite what has been a challenging debut F1 campaign at times. The Italian teenager made a very impressive start but suffered from burn-out throughout most of the European season which badly affected his performances and results.
Wolff fully knows that Antonelli has had a difficult debut campaign, though he has backed the youngster to make progress in 2026 in which he will head into every race having already competed on that track in F1, other than the new Madrid Grand Prix which is an unknown quantity for everyone.
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"You have five or six races to go – tracks that he doesn't know," Wolff added. "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."