Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff admits he regrets not signing Max Verstappen when he had the chance several years ago.
Verstappen made his Formula 1 debut in 2015, having been ushered into a Toro Rosso seat by Red Bull at just 17 years of age.
Red Bull was able to offer Verstappen a spot on the grid through its junior team, despite the Dutchman not being part of its driver programme until a handful of months before his F1 debut.
In an interview with ESPN, Wolff revealed that he too had held talks with Verstappen but says Mercedes was unable to match Red Bull’s offer of an immediate F1 drive.
“I spoke to Jos [Verstappen] and Huub Rothengatter [Jos Verstappen’s manager] when they came to my office in Brackley and that must have been when Max was in karting or the end of his karting days [in 2013] just before Formula 3 [in 2014],” he said.
“And then we spoke again when Max and Jos visited me in my house in Vienna. We spent a few hours discussing his future.
“Do I regret missing out on Max? Certainly. But it wasn’t an option back in the day.
“We had two drivers that I was extremely happy with, in Nico [Rosberg] and Lewis [Hamilton, and when Nico left, Valtteri [Bottas] was then the option and Max wasn’t even available.”
Verstappen has since bagged two F1 titles and is currently on course for his third.
The 25-year-old claimed his first championship in 2021 following an intense season-long fight against Hamilton.
The rivalry that existed between the pair has left Wolff to concede that they wouldn’t work well partnered together.
“Would Max and Lewis have functioned? Maybe not,” he said.
“And Lewis is a Mercedes guy since forever, so that hard question I never needed to ask myself for the organisation. Everything happens for a reason.
“But I had two drivers in the seats, no deal with a junior team, so it was clear that the option with Toro Rosso was what they needed to do. And they did well.”
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