Toto Wolff, speaking in a recent interview with ESPN, admits that he regrets not hiring Max Verstappen when he was still available, but simply did not have a vacancy for him.
Instead, Red Bull saw the potential in the young Dutch driver at the time, and out him in their junior team, Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri) back in 2015, when he was just 17 years old. In 2016, Red Bull placed Verstappen in their car - replacing the underperforming Daniil Kvyat - and he went on to win on debut at the Spanish Grand Prix that year.
Now on his eighth season with Red Bull, Verstappen has already won two Formula 1 Championships, and is currently dominating the 2023 season, with a third F1 Crown beckoning.
Toto Wolff revealed that he had talks with Team Verstappen when the Dutchman was in Formula 3, regarding an F1 seat with Mercedes.
There was no place for Max
He said: "I spoke to Jos and Huub Rothengatter [Jos Verstappen's manager during his F1 career] when they came to my office in Brackley and that must have been when Max was in karting or the end of his karting days [in 2013] just before Formula 3 [in 2014].
"And then we spoke again when Max and Jos visited me in my house in Vienna. We spent a few hours discussing his future.
"Do I regret missing out on Max? Certainly. But it wasn't an option back in the day," Wolff maintained.
"We had two drivers that I was extremely happy with, in Nico and Lewis, and when Nico left [at the end of 2016], Valtteri [Bottas] was then the option and Max wasn't even available," he insisted.
Wolff also touched on the prospect of having Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in the same team, something he felt wouldn't work, and looking at their bitter 2021 F1 Title fight, that is probably true, as these two such fiercely competitive drivers would not co-exist in the same team.
"Would Max and Lewis have functioned? Maybe not," the Austrian reflected. "And Lewis is a Mercedes guy since forever, so that hard question I never needed to ask myself for the organisation. Everything happens for a reason.
"But I had two drivers in the seats, no deal with a junior team, so it was clear that the option with Toro Rosso was what they needed to do. And they did well," he added.
"After that we always had friendly contact but never discussing driving," Wolff responded when asked if there were any further discussions to lure Verstappen from Red Bull to Mercedes.
Mercedes were not sure Verstappen was the real deal
Another reason behind a Verstappen/Mercedes deal not materializing was the fact that the former was not having a strong Formula 3 season, as unlike insiders, Mercedes didn't have a clear idea how good he was.
"Back in the day I think there wasn't huge hype around Max, because Max and Van Amersfoort weren't winning the championship that year [2014]. Esteban won in a more competitive car," Wolff pointed out.
"So the insiders knew that Max probably was in an inferior package and in his first year, and the insiders knew there was a very good one coming, but it wasn't clear that he was that good at that stage.
"You can only say when someone grows in Formula 1 and matures that he is a true World Champion -- an outstanding one. Before we had Lewis and then Michael Schumacher and before that [Ayrton] Senna.
"Who is the next one? Was it clear that Max would step into these shoes? It wasn't clear back then," the Mercedes boss concluded.
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