As Mercedes continue to struggle on track, the search for their new driver goes on. The Silver Arrows need to find another partner for George Russell after Lewis Hamilton signed with Ferrari.
It’s abundantly clear that the top target for Toto Wolff is world champion Max Verstappen. Wolff has been throwing everything at Verstappen in the hope of prising him away from Red Bull.
He’s ready to pay him an even larger salary than seven-time world champion Hamilton. And to sweeten the deal, he’ll also try and recruit the Bulls’ chief engineer Pierre Wache and director Helmut Marko.
However, Red Bull expect Verstappen to honour a contract that runs until 2028. And the Dutchman has little incentive to leave right now given his historic level of dominance.
Nico Rosberg says Wolff held extensive talks with the manager of Fernando Alonso, but he’s off the table too. That’s after he signed a new multi-year contract with Aston Martin earlier this month.
Mercedes could promote Andrea Kimi Antonelli from F2 but there may be concerns over his readiness for a top F1 seat. Antonelli began an extensive testing programme at the Red Bull Ring in Austria last week.
Perhaps the top free agent on the market is Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who will give up his seat to Hamilton. There have been talks with the Spaniard, but he wants a longer deal than Mercedes are prepared to offer.
Nico Rosberg says one Mercedes move would be ‘a lot of fun’
Speaking to Sky at the Chinese Grand Prix, Rosberg, who won a title at Mercedes in 2016, discussed the state of their driver search. He feels that Russell, currently 14 points ahead of Hamilton, is showing he can lead a team.
He says it would be ‘huge’ if Wolff could tempt Sebastian Vettel out of retirement to race alongside him. But he wonders if they would see the best version of the German driver, who hung up his helmet at the end of 2022.
“George is driving like a number one driver at the moment,” he said. “That’s great, because that wasn’t so clear either. That’s good for Mercedes.
“Sebastian next to him would be huge for us. Everyone would have a lot of fun seeing that.
“Sebastian wasn’t as dominant at Aston Martin last year as Alonso is now. So there are questions about whether he’s still as fast as he was in his heyday.”
Is Sebastian Vettel going to Mercedes?
Vettel is unquestionably one of F1’s all-time greats, having won four world championships with Red Bull between 2010 and 2013. Across a 299-race career, he took 53 wins, 57 poles and 122 podiums.
But it’s also true that his performances seemed to drop off in the final years of his F1 career. He lost out to Charles Leclerc in both of their seasons together at Ferrari, and they decided to drop him for Sainz for 2021.
At Aston Martin, he out-performed Lance Stroll, but as Rosberg points out, 42-year-old Alonso has exerted even more dominance over the Canadian. You can see their relative performance below.
Vettel said recently that he remains in contact with Wolff, though they haven’t held formal talks over a return. Still, former colleague Bernie Collins reckons that he’d accept an offer from Mercedes, and the German feels physically fit enough to resume his F1 career.
Russell would welcome the prospect of racing alongside Vettel, but Rosberg isn’t the only one to send Wolff a warning. David Croft also fears he was past his best when he retired, and journalist Joe Saward thinks it would be ‘completely mad’ to take the risk.
As they acquire 100% of Sauber ahead of their 2026 entry, Audi have also emerged as a potential interested party. It’s unclear, though, whether Vettel would entertain the prospect of racing in the midfield again rather than towards the front.
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