AUSTIN – On the day of the United States Grand Prix, Mercedes decided to have a little fun with Dutch driver, Max Verstappen, and Red Bull on Twitter, amid one of the greatest and most intense Formula One world championship battles ever.
Spotted at or around the 20-turn, 5.515km road course in Austin, Texas was a Mercedes vehicle − but with “Red Bull” text written on the side and (Max) Verstappen’s “33” toward the back.
So naturally, the team “confirmed” Max.
This inevitably led to the re-emergence of the famous Toto Wolff/Red Bull image − one of them, that is − from many years ago.
Toto, who is the team principal and CEO of the Mercedes team, holds a one-third stake in the outfit following a major move that took place last off-season.
It’s nice to see Mercedes having fun with Red Bull in a goofy sort of way, especially with Max recently winning the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas.
The 24-year-old Dutchman now leads the world championship standings by 12 points over Mercedes rival, Lewis Hamilton, after successfully holding off the hard-charging British driver during Sunday’s race, which could have been a two-point lead for Lewis had the Mercedes champion secured a win at Austin.
Taking into account all of this, plus the fact that Max’s current contract runs through the 2023 Formula One season, the Dutch driver appears set to stay at Red Bull for the duration of his career, or at the very least, close to it. – Agencies, October 27, 2021
