If Verstappen wants to join me at Mercedes, bring it on! Brit GEORGE RUSSELL is up for the challenge as Max's dad has talks with Toto Wolff

George Russell has told this column that he would welcome Max Verstappen as his Mercedes team-mate.

The two 26-year-olds are among the outstanding talents of their age but Verstappen’s numbers trump Russell by dint of winning three world championships to none, and — yikes — by 59 wins to one.

Verstappen has made extraordinarily brilliant use of his Red Bull, and he is signed up until the end of 2028. However, the new regulations coming in 2026 mean he remains the sport’s most marketable commodity, his future uncertain. He is obtainable for approximately £80million a year.

No team, if they could afford the price tag, and offer him winning equipment, would turn down the Dutchman’s services. He is a winning machine, like no other.

Furthermore, his father, Jos, is diametrically opposed to the Red Bull management of Christian Horner and would be open to career alternatives for his son should a rival show signs of prospective success. Jos remains in dialogue with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, trust me.

The superbly talented Russell, who leads even Lewis Hamilton 7-1 in qualifying this season and by 54 to 42 points, is a major player in his own right, but has not been given the equipment to prove it at Mercedes. His sole win came in Brazil in 2022.

‘I wouldn’t shy away from jumping alongside Max,’ Russell told me. ‘Nor would I shy away from him jumping in with us. I had the biggest challenge of joining Mercedes against the greatest driver of all time statistically, in qualifying and in the race, and I performed against him, and that’s all I can do.

‘Max can take a year off for 2026 and see which the best team is. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he did that. Remember, 2026 is a lottery. So, you truly don’t know what will transpire.

‘I am a loyal guy and Mercedes have given me the opportunity, but I want to be a world champion. That’s not us at the moment. But a year ago McLaren were the slowest team and now they are the quickest.’

Russell’s Mercedes team have struggled to get a grip of the current regulations but he still believes in them. He explained: ‘When you look at the data and you correlate it with how it feels, you understand why last year wasn’t good and nor was the year before. It was all at the rear and is now all at the front.

‘The problem is that the changes we made were too much. It was in the right direction, but we carried on going and overshot. It shows there is always a compromise.

‘We have a great team and have other great people joining. And we have James (Allison, technical director) back at the helm and he’s letting nothing slide. There’s clear leadership.

‘I’m quite a rational person. Morale does get knocked when you realise it is going to be a tough season. But my job is to beat my team-mate and get the most out of the car.

‘What gives me hope is that Max was in his seventh season when he fought for a title and I’m in my sixth, and I’m 26, and Fernando Alonso is 43. Seeing him perform as he is, I see no reason why I can’t go into my forties. So, I know my time will come. I’m not worried at all.

‘I believe we will get our chance. Now it is Max’s chance, but for the first six years it wasn’t, which was frustrating for him. So, I have to keep working hard and not lose motivation because you don’t know when that chance will come. Lando (Norris, of McLaren) and Charles (Leclerc, of Ferrari) and I have won races, but none of us has had the chance to fight for championships.’

Hamilton is off to Ferrari next year. Russell steps up to be No 1 for the Silver Arrows.

‘It’s a fresh start for the team,’ says Russell. ‘So many people here have shared success with Lewis, but change often ignites a new spark for everyone. It does that for Lewis, and it sparks that for us here next year.

‘It is good that Lewis is leaving us now — rather in 2021, when it would have been difficult for the whole team.

‘You have to adopt and evolve, and we are in that process of building from the ground up.’

Michel Boeri must be the longest-serving administrator in elite sport. A lawyer, he has served as president of the Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM) since 1972, and is a former president of the FIA Senate. He might have won election as president of the FIA had Max Mosley not inveigled himself, in 1993, as heir to Jean-Marie Balestre.

I think I detected Boeri’s successor during the post-race ceremonials last Sunday. In blazer and ACM tie stood Andrea Casiraghi, 39. He is the elder son of Prince Albert’s sister, Princess Caroline, and fourth in line to the throne of Monaco. He was ecstatic at seeing home-town boy Charles Leclerc win the race and looked every inch the man being fitted out as the new Me Boeri.

How did the Automobile Club de Monaco think their snoozefest went last Sunday? ‘They thought they had done a brilliant job, as always,’ I was told.

Carlos Sainz has been hotly tipped for a move to Sauber, having been ditched by Ferrari for next year. But that is to forget Williams. Would the Grove team not offer him a better home from where the Spaniard could assess his options as Audi’s takeover of Sauber takes hold from 2026?

None of the fans I spoke to in and around Monaco gave a hoot that the race was a processional bore. The occasion and merriment made it special for them, and, anyway, some of their number could barely catch sight of the race from their yacht vantage points. Yet the fact is that the top 10 on the grid finished exactly as they started, a first in Formula One history.

A can of Red Bull is still on offer to any reader who reveals the name of the KC who investigated the Christian Horner debacle.