Toto Wolff has revealed that he promised Lewis Hamilton that he would not make a move for Max Verstappen while the seven-time world champion was still with Mercedes.

The Admission comes in the latest series of Drive to Survive, as the Mercedes boss ponders his options following the shock news that Hamilton had signed for Ferrari.

The Austrian was considering a number of potential 'replacements' for Hamilton, and discussed his options with his wife, Susie.

"You don't think Max is an option?" she asks, to which Toto replies: "I think he is.

"I haven't spoken to him because I promised Lewis I wouldn't talk to him," he adds, "but I will have the conversation now."

Also on the Austrian's shopping list were the Spaniards, Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso.

"I mean, race pace, race-craft is still very good," he says, to which his wife refers to the two-time world champion's age.

"You're not going to be starting a new era with a long contract with Fernando," she says of the 43-year-old, "it's an interim."

Wolff eventually opted to stay in-house, taking a gamble on 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli, the Austrian having previously said he made the decision to sign the Italian youngster "five minutes" after hearing of Hamilton's move to Ferrari.

"I made up my mind five minutes after Lewis Hamilton told me that he's going to Ferrari," Wolff told reporters at Monza, following his confirmation of Antonelli's drive last September.

"Obviously we were discussing other options and looking at the Max idea," he added, "we didn't discount it completely with looking at what happened at Red Bull. But instinctively that is the line-up with these two (Russell and Antonelli) that I always wanted, bearing in mind the fast-tracking that we did with Kimi and everything related there too, but that was immediately what I wanted to do."

If he'd really made the decision after 5 minutes, why didn't he tell poor old Susie, in order that they could have their breakfast in peace, not to mention the Drive to Survive crew whose time he was clearly wasting.

Honestly, there are times some of these scenes almost appear staged.