Similarly to last season, Verstappen and Wolff's meeting has sent the F1 world into something of a frenzy, but is also unlikely to be down to anything other than a shared love of the Italian island. Last year, amid much speculation regarding Mercedes' pursuit of his services for the 2026 season, Verstappen clarified: "I love Sardinia, he loves Sardinia. I waved at him, we had lunch together and the kids played together. When you're there, you talk about everything except Formula 1. You can have many pleasant conversations with him and Susie [Wolff]."

However, in a recent interview with Sky Sports Germany, Mercedes boss Wolff has nonetheless raised eyebrows by not ruling out having Antonelli and Verstappen at the team together at some stage in the future. He said: "You have to give Kimi time to develop. Max is driving at his peak. He can do everything. The two respect each other. They're from different generations. But having both of them in one team is, of course, a completely different starting point."

The Austrian did, however, reiterate Mercedes' commitment to the current driver line up of Antonelli and George Russell, who currently sits P3 in the Drivers' standings, 59 points behind his championship leading teammate. Wolff said: "But in the current situation, we're happy with the dynamic between Kimi and George. We've made great progress as a team. Adding another variable now wouldn't be right for our long-term development."

But how would an Antonelli-Verstappen partnership look at Mercedes? Our hosts Jim and Ben take a look in the latest F1 Paddock Update episode!

And even though on-track action has paused for F1's summer break, there is still plenty to discuss with regard to the 2026 calendar, with the sport's CEO and President Stefano Domenicali confirming to GPblog, among others, that if F1 cannot travel to Qatar and Abu Dhabi for the final two rounds of the season, the championship will instead race in Europe.

Speaking to international media, Domenicali stated that the Qatar and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix are currently set to go ahead as planned, but acknowledged that due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, it remains uncertain whether that will still be the case. He said: “If the situation will not be clearer the way that we believe it should be before middle of September, we will make the decision.

What a European finish to the 2026 F1 season would mean for the sport is another hot topic of discussion of the latest F1 Paddock Update episode, which you can listen to below!