Toto Wolff has expressed his disinterest in resolving a disagreement with the CEO of Mercedes' direct Formula 1 competitor, Red Bull.
Speculation suggests that Wolff's hesitation in choosing a successor for Lewis Hamilton next year might be due to his hope that Max Verstappen will leave Red Bull prematurely alongside Adrian Newey.
Wolff seems to be banking on Verstappen growing weary of internal team conflicts and possibly doubting Red Bull's capability to develop a competitive new engine for 2026 compared to Mercedes.
However, at the Imola Grand Prix, Christian Horner, the beleaguered team principal of Red Bull, revealed that over 200 Mercedes' F1 engine team members had switched to Red Bull Powertrains.
"He needs to work on mathematics," Wolff retorted, "It was 19 engineers."
"I'm looking forward to the 2026 season to see the difference in performance between the different power units."
Earlier in May, Wolff had rebuffed remarks from Oliver Mintzlaff, the new co-CEO of Red Bull GmbH. Mintzlaff had criticized Wolff's public attempts to entice Verstappen as "inappropriate."
"What he says has no relevance to me," Wolff had countered at the time. "Maybe he just wants to be on TV."
Continuing his criticism, Wolff has made it clear he has no plans to mend his relationship with Mintzlaff, doubting Mintzlaff's alignment with the expectations set by Dietrich Mateschitz regarding his legacy, as stated in an interview with Salzburger Nachrichten.
"I am not sure whether Mintzlaff is fulfilling what Dietrich Mateschitz expected of him in terms of his legacy," Wolff said.
When questioned about the possibility of seeking discussions with the Red Bull CEO to settle their differences, Wolff firmly stated, "I'm not interested in that at all."
