F1 News: Verstappen's manager admits talks with Toto Wolff

(GMM) Max Verstappen’s manager has confirmed he has sat down for talks with Mercedes team boss and co-owner Toto Wolff.

The quadruple world champion is jointly managed by his father, and Jos Verstappen’s own long-time manager Raymond Vermeulen, who amid intense speculation sat down for an interview at Silverstone.

Raymond Vermeulen, Manager of Max Verstappen and Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing talk in the Paddock during previews ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Australia at Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit on March 13, 2025 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool //

“Some things I read are really far from reality,” Vermeulen told the Dutch publication Formule 1.

The paddock talk may be all about Verstappen’s team for 2026, but Vermeulen insists the real “focus” is on improving the performance of Red Bull’s 2025 car.

“We have a contract with Red Bull, and we are committed, as we have been for eleven years,” he insisted, referring to the agreement that theoretically should run through 2028.

“We now mainly want the performance to return. And quickly too.”

However, Vermeulen acknowledged the public interest in Verstappen’s future – especially as he is not hiding that he sometimes sits down with Wolff for coffee.

“In Formula 1, everyone talks to everyone else,” he said. “It makes sense that we also talk to Toto, just as it makes sense that we also talk to A, B, C and D.

“I don’t find it so shocking that we occasionally drink a cup of coffee, but now a whole media circus is being made of it.

“But on the other hand, that’s Formula 1.”

Both Red Bull and the Verstappen camp have not hidden that Verstappen’s contract features performance-related exit clauses, but Vermeulen insisted: “Perhaps nothing will happen.

“That wouldn’t be strange. It has happened before that performance clauses were activated and then it blew over. But we can’t give 100 percent clarity about next year now, no.

“Nobody can,” he added, echoing team boss Christian Horner’s own admission at Silverstone that Red Bull is not “100 percent” certain if Verstappen will still be a Red Bull driver in 2026.

Horner also faced the firestorm of speculation on Friday and played down the theory that if Verstappen does leave, Red Bull will simply snap up the unseated George Russell.

“We haven’t engaged in any discussion with George,” the Briton insisted. “So he’s obviously pretty confident that he’s going to get to remain where he is.”

And Horner couldn’t resist tempting a headline – and a cheeky dig at his nemesis Zak Brown – by giving a cheeky answer when asked what his ‘plan B’ is in the event Verstappen leaves.

“Oscar Piastri,” he smiled.