Will Stroll Or Wolff Win Verstappen’s Signature?

When you’re the best of the current crop of Formula 1 drivers and already a four-time champion when still aged just 27, you’ll find your name is Max Verstappen and that every team on the F1 grid is desperate to acquire your services to help bring them future success.

Toto Wolff, the part owner, CEO, and team principal of Mercedes, has long regretted not signing a young Verstappen when he joined Red Bull instead, and he has made it clear that he is still eager to see him in a Silver Arrow. Also, Lawrence Stroll, the owner of the Aston Martin F1 outfit, is extremely ambitious, with his sights set on rising to the very top of the sport’s pecking order, and the facilities he is creating at their base near Silverstone are superb and state-of-the-art.

Stroll is compiling a strong engineering team there and pulled off a master stroke recently by acquiring the services of Red Bull’s legendary designer, Adrian Newey, who has achieved success wherever he has worked his magic. Newey will join Aston Martin on 1st March this year after a short period of gardening leave, and Stroll is so hopeful that this will assist their push towards front-of-the-grid success. The Canadian is also well aware that, to be successful in both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships, you really need a pair of top-quality pedallers, and he has already been reminded of this by Newey. This explains Stroll's admiration for Verstappen. Currently one Aston Martin car is occupied by his reasonably talented son, Lance Stroll, and the other by the far more gifted but veteran Spaniard, Fernando Alonso. Now aged 43, the latter can at times still show impressive pace, but the fact is that he hasn’t won a Drivers’ title since way back in 2006 or even a single Grand Prix since 2013, and the passing of time only makes it ever more difficult for Alonso to achieve further success at the highest level of world motorsport.

With Formula 1 set to embrace a fascinating group of highly talented young rookies this season and with seven of the 20 drivers on this year’s grid not even born when Alonso first raced in F1, Stroll senior is aware that change is needed on this front within his team if the right personnel become available. Paddock rumours refuse to go away about him looking to lure Verstappen to his outfit with a world record, a massive financial offer, and, of course, an opportunity to work in collaboration with Newey—something Verstappen has already said he would simply love.

It needs to be said, though, that Verstappen is contracted to Red Bull until 2028, but there are almost certainly contractual clauses allowing the outfit to drop him if he doesn’t continue to perform so well and also other clauses allowing the Dutch driver to depart prematurely if Red Bull fails to provide him with a potentially title-winning car. This used to be a foregone conclusion, but far less so after last season when McLaren and Ferrari outpaced Red Bull, demoting the team to only third in the Constructors’ Championship, although the exceptional talents of Verstappen ensured he still ended up claiming the Drivers’ title.

Formula 1 team owners and team principals well know who is quick and who is less so among all the drivers constantly lining up, begging to drive for them, with established stars sometimes quietly making their interest and availability known, as with Sir Lewis Hamilton’s surprise move away from Mercedes to Ferrari, which shook the F1 world when announced a year ago. Verstappen has made it abundantly clear that he has no desire whatsoever to remain in F1 until aged 40 and beyond, as is already the case with Hamilton and Alonso. After having amassed significant wealth as well as racing titles, the Dutchman, like many other leading racers in the past, is now far more focused on seeking more success on track rather than money, and this tends to be achieved by being in the best car on the grid. This was something Hamilton benefitted from repeatedly during much of his time as a Mercedes driver, racking up so many race wins and titles.

Turning back to Wolff and Mercedes, the Austrian has placed 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli in the seat vacated by Hamilton, and he acknowledges that this is a gamble, which may or may not bear fruit. The young Italian has had a meteoric rise through the motorsport ranks to F1 and has clear speed, if as yet lacking experience. Wolff is very hopeful that his young protégé will become the next Verstappen but acknowledges that too much should not be expected of him too soon, with accidents along the way likely as he continues on a steep learning curve. The bottom line is that Wolff does not want to risk losing out again, as he did with a young Verstappen. However, if the latter were to respond positively to Wolff’s ongoing overtures to join him at Mercedes, it would be fascinating to see whether George Russell, who is out of contract at the end of this year, or Antonelli would be retained as his teammate.

These are but a few of the many fascinating aspects of the new Formula 1 season, which is gradually drawing nearer, and I’ll return to this theme shortly.