Verstappen and Russell as a duo at Mercedes? 'It's like pairing Senna and Prost'

It was Russell who revealed that Verstappen and Toto Wolff, the team manager of Mercedes, had been in contact. The Austrian team manager did not deny this, and Verstappen did not want to say anything about possible contact with Mercedes.

Russell is often mentioned as the driver who would have to make way for the potential arrival of Verstappen. Button also likes the idea of a duo between the two at Mercedes, as he told in the podcast The Sports Agents: "I would love to see it. Whether it would happen or not, I don't know. But, you know, from my point of view as a fan of the sport and also doing TV work, yes, we want to see that."

Button sees, with a potential team of both Verstappen and Russell, an old rivalry coming back: "We want to see that within a team. It's Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, do you know what I mean? So I am a big fan of both of them. I think they're both very skilled. I feel for George a little bit because, you know, everyone's saying if Max does go to Mercedes, it'll be George that's leaving."

Finally, the Brit said: "It's a real strange situation we find ourselves in, trying to replace an amazing driver with another amazing driver at Mercedes. So if they were teammates, yeah, I think it'd be great for us. Very difficult for Toto though."

GPblog had already revealed that Verstappen prefers to stay at Red Bull. However, the Dutchman takes two key factors into account. First, the power of Christian Horner needed to be scaled back, with dismissal if necessary. That latter has happened, so one of Verstappen's wishes has been fulfilled.

Yet, it is still not certain that Verstappen will stay at Red Bull. The Dutchman's other wish is to see improvements in performance, especially for 2026. At this moment, Red Bull cannot compete for the title, but Verstappen wants to be able to do so next season. If there seems to be no perspective on good performances, leaving Red Bull is still a possibility.