Christian Horner is seemingly losing patience with Toto Wolff's unapologetic public appeal to sign Max Verstappen for Mercedes.
The three-time world champion has a contract that runs until 2028, but that hasn't stopped Wolff from naming Verstappen as his preferred option to replace Lewis Hamilton.
After Verstappen's latest win in China, Wolff was again asked about Mercedes' interest in the championship leader.
He said: “Are we [able] to convince him? I don't think it's a matter of convincing, Max knows motor racing better than anyone. He will take decisions that he feels are good for him.
Christian Horner has grown tired by Toto Wolff's comments
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“And I think a few factors play a role but he's the one that is going to trigger some more domino stones to fall after but everybody is waiting for what he's going to do.”
Horner has grown tired of Wolff's comments about Verstappen's future and feels the Mercedes boss has much bigger problems to solve closer to home.
“If you speak to Max - and it’s not about pieces of paper, we know he has a contract until the end of 2028, it's about how he feels in the team and the relationship he has in the team and the way he’s performing," Horner said.
“I don’t think Toto’s problem is with his drivers, he’s got other elements that he needs to be focussing on rather than focussing on drivers that are unavailable.”
Horner added: “I don’t know how many more times he [Verstappen] needs to say it, he’s said it numerous times.
“I’m not going to get drawn into…I think sometimes it’s just designed to create noise.
"We moved ahead today of the races Mercedes has won in the modern era [117 in total for Red Bull, 116 for Mercedes excluding its nine 1950s wins].
"Of the teams in form, why on earth would you want to leave this team?
“Mercedes are the third team behind their customers [McLaren and Aston Martin] at the moment, so I think his [Wolff's] time would be better spent perhaps focussing on the team, rather than the driver market.”
Max Verstappen continues to dominate F1
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The Chinese Grand Prix proved to be another frustrating race for Mercedes as George Russell could only manage sixth while Lewis Hamilton climbed up from 18th to finish ninth.
They moved further clear of Aston Martin in the Constructors' Championship, but they're now 44 points adrift of McLaren.
Wolff accepts that their current position is "not good enough" with upgrades planned for the Miami Grand Prix next month.
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Toto Wolff has made public appeals to try and convince Max Verstappen of joining Mercedes
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He said: “I think considering where we put the cars altogether, the drivers and the team was not in a good position today.
“Not good enough overall. P6 I think it was, and P9 but it was lacking pace.
“So we’ve got to dig deep. We’ve got something coming from Miami that looks like a good step. Let’s see where that brings us.”
