Toto Wolff reveals that Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen came close to becoming teammates but Mercedes ‘couldn’t give’ Red Bull driver a seat because of Nico Rosberg

• Wolff has revealed that he came close to signing Verstappen as a youngster 
• However, there was not enough space in Mercedes for them to sign Verstappen
• Nico Rosberg was holding a seat alongside Hamilton for Mercedes at the time

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has revealed that he came close to signing Max Verstappen as a youngster but couldn’t offer him a guaranteed seat alongside Lewis Hamilton.

With the Singapore Grand Prix coming up this weekend, Verstappen could win his 11th consecutive race and move closer to a third successive world title.

The Red Bull driver is without a doubt the best in the world on current form, and he could have been part of the Mercedes team before joining Red Bull in 2014.

Speaking to F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, Wolf opened up on how close he came to signing a young Verstappen.

‘Max was very good in karting, was good in F3, and it was clear that there’s a big one that’s growing,’ he said.

Toto Wolff has revealed that he came close to signing Max Verstappen as a youngster

The move could have seen Verstappen join Lewis Hamilton as part of Mercedes

However, Mercedes couldn’t offer him a guaranteed seat alongside Hamilton

‘We talked to them in the initial phases, and it was a nice discussion with (his dad) Jos and with Max involved as well.’

However, Wolff continued to reveal that they could not offer a seat to the youngster at the time due to the lack of space as Nico Rosberg was alongside Hamilton.

He continued: ‘But it was clear that we couldn’t give him a seat because we had Nico and we had Lewis.

‘We offered the support in F2 but, since Red Bull was able to offer them the AlphaTauri seat, or Toro Rosso back in the day, it got Max into the seat.’

Instead, Verstappen opted to join Red Bull while Rosberg shocked the F1 world by retiring just a year after winning the title.

It could have all been so different for Hamilton and Verstappen, who became rivals when they could have been teammates. 

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