Verstappen's Switch To Mercedes Wouldn't Surprise Jordan For Two Reasons

Friday, 09 August 2024 at 12:00

Eddie Jordan said he wouldn't be surprised if Max Verstappen soon decided to leave Red Bull Racing and join Mercedes for two main reasons.

Lewis Hamilton's shock move from Mercedes to Ferrari made it seem like anything is possible in the driver market in 2024. Consequently, theories about Max Verstappen replacing him at Mercedes started emerging soon after the start of the season.

Maybe the speculations haven't gone silent because the team principal of Mercedes, Toto Wolff, himself said he would like the triple World Champion and that he was his number one priority.

However, it seems he wasn't able to make further progress. The Dutchman keeps saying he is happy at Red Bull, that loyalty is very important to him, and that he was lucky to find it there.

Does that mean he will stay with the Austrian team until his contract expires in the 2028 season? Former F1 team owner Eddie Jordan doesn't think so.

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The 76-year-old told F1-Insider two major reasons why he wouldn't be surprised to see the triple World Champion switching teams:

"The unrest at Red Bull, the departures of Adrian Newey and Jonathan Wheatley cannot please Max and his father."

"In addition, Mercedes has turned the corner and is getting stronger and stronger. I would, therefore, be anything but surprised if Max moves to Mercedes in 2026."

Mercedes's lack of performance was for long one of the main reasons why Verstappen wouldn't go there, but as we now know, they team have been able to turn that around and have caught up with the leading teams.

In fact, Silver Arrows won three of the last four races and stood on the podium in every single one of the last six Grand Prix weekends. That is better than Red Bull's performance—three podiums (two of which were victories) in the last six races.