Fernando Alonso offers services to Max Verstappen in Mercedes rumours quip

As the Max Verstappen to Mercedes rumours rumble on, Fernando Alonso says he doesn’t have any advice for the World Champion but he’ll happily be a “consultant”.

But it will cost the Dutchman a pretty penny.

Fernando Alonso, double World Champion and Max Verstappen consultant?

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Verstappen has once again found himself linked to Mercedes after George Russell reignited the rumours when he claimed in Austria that Verstappen’s talks with Mercedes were “ongoing”.

A week later, ongoing talks turned into ‘concrete negotiations’ that were followed up by claims Verstappen had said ‘yes’ to Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff.

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As the Drivers’ log stands, Verstappen or Mercedes may need to buy out his contract as it is understood his exit clause at Red Bull states he has to be lower than fourth after the Hungarian Grand Prix to trigger an exit. He’s currently P3, 46 points ahead of fifth-placed Charles Leclerc with only 58 points in play before the deadline.

Neither Verstappen nor Wolff have given any indication that a deal is imminent, although the Austrian did admit to Sky F1 that they are talking, but “I want to just have the conversations behind closed doors, not town halls”.

Conversations that Nelson Piquet Jr., the brother of Verstappen’s partner Kelly, believes could see Verstappen head to Mercedes.

Speaking on the Pelas Pista podcast, he said of Mercedes’ British Grand Prix: “Who knows next year, with Max there…”

He added: “They are talking, everyone knows right? Just missing final contract details, but everyone knows that it’s an option. They are talking.”

Stressing the talking, he said Verstappen won’t make a decision until August which coincideds with Wolff’s deadline of the summer break to announce Mercedes’ F1 2026 driver line-up.

But if Verstappen still has questions or doubts about his choice of Formula 1 teams for the future, he probably shouldn’t ask Alonso, unless he’s willing to open his wallet.

Asked if he had any advice for Verstappen, the Aston Martin driver told the media including PlanetF1.com: “No advice.”

“Well, I can be a consultant,” continued the Spaniard, who founded driver management company A14 Management, adding with a smile, “but they need to pay a huge amount of money at the moment of advice.”

Should Verstappen leave Red Bull, it would be a huge blow for the team who only last week parted ways with now former team principal Christian Horner.

The Briton was relieved of ‘operational duties’ with immediate effect last Wednesday, with Laurent Mekies replacing him as team boss and CEO of Red Bull Racing.

It has been speculated that it was done in order to retain Verstappen after his camp, most notably his father Jos, clashed with Horner several times in the last 18 months.

Former Formula 1 driver Gerhard Berger claims the threat of Verstappen’s defection “that could certainly have been one of the factors that tipped the scales.”

In a conversation with Krone Zeitung, Berger continued, “As we know, the Verstappens and Horner were not the best of friends. I do think Max will stay at Red Bull.

“You could see it was going this way at Red Bull Racing. If Horner was really surprised, that’s a bad sign, because even as an outsider you could have guessed it.”

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