Raymond Vermeulen, the long-time manager of Max Verstappen, has hinted that Charles Leclerc could be Toto Wolff\u2019s backup option if the reigning World Champion decides not to join Mercedes in the future.<\/p>\n
Speaking ahead of Verstappen\u2019s victory in Azerbaijan, Vermeulen praised the Red Bull star\u2019s composure and focus, qualities he believes set him apart in the paddock.<\/p>\n
“Max is someone who knows exactly what he wants, and especially what he doesn\u2019t want.\u201d he told De Telegraaf.<\/p>\n
Vermeulen added that Verstappen\u2019s sole priority remains winning titles. Should Red Bull fail to deliver a competitive car in 2026, the Dutchman would be prepared to look elsewhere, with multiple teams already keeping a close eye on his future.<\/p>\n
Asked about Mercedes\u2019 interest, Vermeulen suggested that Wolff would not hesitate to turn to another top driver if Verstappen declines.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone calls everyone else,\u201d he said, referencing inquiries he has received from other team bosses, including McLaren\u2019s Zak Brown. \u201cOr don\u2019t you think Toto will call Charles Leclerc? That\u2019s the puzzle everyone is putting together for themselves. And everyone is selfish, wants the best for themselves. Logical too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Raymond Vermeulen, the long-time manager of Max Verstappen, has hinted that Charles Leclerc could be Toto Wolff\u2019s backup option if the reigning World […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":495607,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[17927,17288,26691,26689,16925],"news_category":[16921,16715],"gn_keywords":[18545,17971,26688,26686,17986],"acf":{"news_source":"","link_picture":"","announce":"Raymond Vermeulen says that \"Everyone calls everyone else\", trying to complete the \"F1 puzzle\"","video":[]},"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_twitter_image":"","rank_math_snippet_shortcode":"","rank_math_primary_category":"","rankmath_seo":{"focus_keyword":"","description":"","title":"","canonical_url":"","robots":"","facebook":{"title":"","description":"","image":""},"twitter":{"title":"","description":"","image":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/495606"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/495606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":495608,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/495606\/revisions\/495608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495606"},{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=495606"},{"taxonomy":"gn_keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gn_keywords?post=495606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}