Eddie Jordan’s ‘conspiracy inside my head’ in the Max Verstappen to Mercedes saga

Although undecided as to whether the “conspiracy inside” his head is leading him astray, Eddie Jordan believes F1 will see Max Verstappen in a Mercedes at “some stage”.

But his fellow podcaster David Coulthard is standing a bit closer to the fence as he reckons Verstappen will be a Red Bull driver next season but “could” one day swap to Mercedes.

Could Max Verstappen leave Red Bull for Mercedes?

Between Lewis Hamilton leaving Mercedes for Ferrari and Red Bull’s off-track dramas, a lot has been written and said about Max Verstappen and his F1 future despite the reigning World Champion having a Red Bull contract that runs through to the end of the 2028 season.

He’s been widely linked to a move to Mercedes, either in 2025 or the year after, those rumours fuelled by Toto Wolff’s very public pursuit of the driver.

So much so that even when Verstappen said “yes” he would be a Red Bull driver next season, Wolff questioned if he’d really said that .

All in all, it has former F1 team boss Jordan wondering if there is a “conspiracy” in play.

“Max drives for Christian and Toto has made it very clear he wants and will get Max into a Mercedes by ’26, hopefully by ’25,” he said in the latest Formula For Success podcast.

“Now when people make those kinds of comments, I have to think, the conspiracy inside my head tells me ‘is this something that’s unfolding?’

“Now it’s probably not, but nevertheless it goes through my mind is Max, because we clearly know that Max’s father and Christian don’t get on, and a lot of this revolves around Helmut Marko.”

He posed the question to his fellow pundit, former F1 driver Coulthard who sat very firmly on the fence as he debated the merits of swapping teams, using Hamilton’s decision to leave Mercedes for Ferrari as a prime example of rolling the dice.

“I’ve not personally had sight of the contract, but if I believe the sort of paddock rumour then he has a contract, he’ll be in Red Bull,” DC replied.

“And I think as long as the car and the team give him a belief that he can battle from grand prix victories I don’t see that changing. I think he’s comfortable there, I think he’s happy there.

“And as we’ve seen with Lewis, just because you decide to go somewhere else doesn’t mean that you’re going somewhere better.

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“The moment he made the decision to go to Ferrari, Ferrari were stronger than Mercedes. Right now, Mercedes, they’ve scored more points up until the weekend in the previous five races than any other team. So they’ve been doing a good job, brilliant comeback from a difficult start to the year.

“So you’re really rolling the dice of where the future performance will be. You know this as well as I, when teams are winning that everybody’s looking at each other, nodding, going, ‘how great are we, we’ve achieved our technical targets’.

“And then that same team, whether it be Red Bull after the Vettel years, the focus was on the engine, saying the engine wasn’t performing. It’s always easy to sort of point a finger at something outside of your own control.

“I remember at McLaren, if we ever had any issues, Ron [Dennis] was quite comfortable to say it was Mercedes because he didn’t build the Mercedes engine. So within these marriages as convenience, there’s always a little bit of finger-pointing.

“But off the back of success comes lack of success, and everyone starts looking at each other, going, ‘Well, I was part of a winning team, which one of you is getting it wrong now?’ It’s a massively complicated sport.”

Told to get off the fence, DC replied: “Well he could go to Mercedes. He can’t go to Ferrari for the next two years, unless Charles is fired, or Lewis get fired, or they walk away because they have firm projects.

“Logically that only leaves a move to Mercedes and Toto has been very open, as he has said, that Max has always been he’s a target. He’s a grand prix winner. McLaren have two brilliant drivers that are in my mind number ones, which will become complicated for the team when they consistently are delivering that.

“So, yeah, I see Max staying a Red Bull, but Mercedes could be somewhere he can move to.”

Mercedes are already planning for the prospect with Jordan mentioning reports Wolff, together with Mercedes’ higher-ups and INEOS, have put together a “fighting fund” to cover the Dutchman’s salary.

“So just to finish on that,” Jordan added, “we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that in Monaco there was a meeting between Toto, Jim Radcliffe of Ineos, Ola Källenius who is the executive of Mercedes, and together they put together a fighting fund to cover off the possibility of a salary requirement to cover Max.

“And Max was aware of it. I’m not actually sure he was at the meeting, but surely that gives some indication about the steely commitment by Toto and his team to actually get Max on board at some stage.

“So, we shouldn’t be surprised to see Max in a Mercedes car in the next years.”

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