Merc♚edes have been told “it’s not all about money” by David Coulthard in response to their inte🔜rest in signing Max Verstappen.

Mercedes are still ๊yet to name their replacement for Lewis Hamilton, who will go to F✤errari next year.

Toto Wolff has openly courted Verstappen at stages of this seas🐠on, when the turmoil within Red Bull threatened to spill over. But now, Andrea Kimi Antonelli is likelier to replace Hamilton.

“൲In Monaco there was a meeting between Toto, Jim Ratcliffe of INEOS, and Ola Källenius, who 🍃is the chief executive of Mercedes,” Eddie Jordan claimed on the Formula For Success podcast.

“Together they ♉put together a fighting fund to cover off the possibility of a salary requirement for Max.

“M🐷ax was aware of🎃 it. I’m not sure he was at the meeting," Jordan alleged.

He continued: “Surely that gives some🅷 indication of the steely commitment frꦕom Toto and his team, to actually get Max on board at some stage?

“We s🌟houldn’t be surprised to see♕ Max in a Mercedes in the coming years.”

Ex-F1 driver Coulth🐷ard responded: “Max is the highest-earning driver in Formula 1. Maybe that will 🧜swing to Lewis at Ferrari, I don’t know.

“Itꦐ’s not all about ꦬthe money, it’s about the performance.

“You ca൲n put together a fighting fund but all the money being spent on ♐the driver isn’t being spent on the car.”

Jordan offe🏅red examples from his time as an F1 boss, when he convinced sponsors to pay up to l🍨and Damon Hill.

“I always wanted young drivers because they were betꦬter value,” he in🀅sisted.

“I would have gone for Oscar Piastri…”

'Rolling the dice for future performance'

Sky Sports’ Martin Brundle insisted at last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix that any paperwork that may have previously insisted allowing Verstappen a ‘get-out clause’ on the 🎶condition that Helmut Marko first left Red Bull is no longer inꩲ play.

Coulthard previously said: “I have not had sight of the contract, but if I believe the paddock rumour, then he has a contract. He’ll be at Red Buﷺll.

“As long as the car aꩵnd the team give him belief that he can battle for grand prix victories, I don’t see that changing.

“He’s comfortable there, happy there. As we’ve seen with Lewis, just because you decide to go somewhere else, it doesn’t mean you’re going so♔mewhere better.

“At the moment he decided to go to Ferrari, the🐻y were stronger than Mercedes. Now, Mercedes are stronger than Ferrari.

“You are rolling the dice for where the future perf✅ormance will be.

“When team꧟s are winning, they look at each other nodding - ‘how great are we? We’ve achieved our technical targets…’

“Then that same team - whether it be Red Bull after the Sebastia♏n Vettel years when the focus was on the engine - it’s easy to point a finger at something outside of your co♏ntrol.

“At McLaren if we had issues, Ron Dennis was comfortable say🌄ing it was the Mercedes, because he didn’t build🦹 the engine.

“Within these marriages ❀of convenience, there is always finger 🅷pointing.

“After 𒆙success comes a lack of success. People say ‘I was part of a winning team, which one is getting it wrong?’

“It’s difficult to put up your hౠand and say ‘I got the numbers🎃 wrong’.”

The onset of the new F1 regulations from 2026 ♚may offer Mercedes a new opportunity to land Verstappen.

Their engine is mooted as a valuable comm🐬odity when the regulations kick in, and might prove tempting for top drivers.

Co🐠ulthard added about Verstappen’s long-term future: “He could go to Mercedes. He can’t go to F🅰errari for the next two years unless Charles or Lewis get fired, or they walk away, because they have firm contracts.

“Logically that only leaves a move to Mercedes. Toto has be🦂en open - his style of management is to say ꦛ‘yes, he’s a target’.

“McLaren have two brilliant drivers, two No1♛s which will become complicat🗹ed.

I see Max staying at Red Bull but꧑ Mercedes is somewhere he cไould move to.”