Days after Christian Horner’s firing, Max Verstappen takes his $50M private jet to the same location as Mercedes boss Toto Wolff

Christian Horner's firing from Red Bull was understood to be an attempt to stop the Toto Wolff camp from poaching Max Verstappen to Mercedes. However, mere days after the Briton was sacked, the Dutch driver's $50 million black and orange-themed jet (valuation as per F1 journalist Kym Illman and avbuyer.com) landed in Sardinia, Italy, where Wolff has been staying in the offseason.

Verstappen has been part of the Red Bull squad since 2016 and won four drivers' titles with the team. Moreover, he is the reigning world champion, but his stride at the top of the table would seemingly end this year as the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have both leapfrogged him in the championship standings.

This downturn in form was paired with the departure of several high-ranking officials from Red Bull, which allowed rival teams to try to snub Verstappen from the Milton Keynes-based squad. Mercedes was at the forefront of the list, and it was understood that Christian Horner's sudden sacking by the Austrian team was made in an attempt to make the 27-year-old's camp happy.

However, Max Verstappen's Falcon 8X, which he bought earlier this year, arrived in Sardinia, Italy, where Wolff was present. This led to speculations that the Dutchman was moving to Brackley. But there is nothing concrete to suggest that Verstappen's travel plans are related to a potential move to Mercedes.

Mercedes currently has George Russell and Kimi Antonelli as their current driver lineup.

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Lewis Hamilton recommends Max Verstappen to join Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton (L) and Max Verstappen (R) at the qualifying for the 2025 F1 Grand Prix of Monaco - Source: Getty

Kimi Antonelli had filled in for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes as the Briton made his way out of Brackley to join Ferrari for the 2025 season. Hamilton was a part of the squad for a dozen years and won six drivers' titles with the team.

Hamilton, who already had experience winning world titles with Mercedes, shared his thoughts on Max Verstappen possibly moving to the Brackley-based squad.

"Max didn’t do anything. He did what he needed to do in terms of winning, so I don’t think it would be a problem. He’s coming from a great team," said Hamilton (via MSN.com). "Many, many years ago I was being asked something about… I think I was just so diehard Mercedes at the time, and I remember saying something about Red Bull being only a drinks company. And I’ve always regretted it because I was just saying that Mercedes at the time were great, I was really just trying to gee up my team." "But what I can say is, if anyone was going to ask me about Mercedes, it’s an amazing team also with naturally the passion, they’ve got great personnel, it’s a great factory, a great environment to work in," he added.

Max Verstappen sits behind Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in the drivers' standings. Piastri leads the table with 234 points.

Edited by Samya Majumdar