'Verstappen not convinced by Mercedes: This is why'

On the Backstage Boxengasse podcast, Ralf Schumacher was asked whether any announcements might be made ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix.

At that, the former F1 driver responded: “I can hardly imagine anything happening before the summer break. I think they want to wait and see what Mekies does. With this recent change, new people are coming in. That was also a problem before. To be fair, with Christian Horner, some well-established people from Formula 1 didn’t want to join.''

Schumacher continued: ''Now, of course, if there’s a list and Max Verstappen can be presented with “Okay, here we are now, this is where we’re heading, it will take a year,” I can definitely see that happening.''

Schumacher has done a 180 degree turn in his feeling about a possible switch from Verstappen.

In recent weeks, the German had maintained that there was a strong chance the Red Bull Racing driver would move to Mercedes. However, that impression seems to have shifted, as suggested by his earlier comments in the podcast.

The German also admitted that his perspective was different just last week. Schumacher went on to describe Red Bull as Verstappen’s “home.”

According to Michael Schumacher's brother, things would be different at Mercedes: ''Mercedes, with their own interests, had to apparently give their go-ahead first. That also took quite a while.''