Dismissing speculation over his recent holiday in Sardinia, Toto Wolff appears to shut down talk of a bid for Max Verstappen... for now.

With speculation already at fever pitch, when it was revealed that both the Mercedes boss and the four-time world champion were holidaying in Sardinia, the writing appeared to be on the wall.

Not so, insists the Austrian.

"What's new is that people are doing photo collages with aeroplanes, we've never had that before," he tells ORF. "But if you spend your holidays close to each other, it doesn't mean that you're going to work together in Formula 1," he adds. "We have always gotten along well and by chance we like to spend our holidays at the same places."

Other than Verstappen's understandable doubts over Red Bull, the speculation hasn't been helped by the delay in extending George Russell's contract.

"Discussions have been taking place over the last weeks and months, so they are all up to date," insists Wolff. "The direction of travel is that we want to continue with George and Kimi. That is the first priority."

However...

"You can't look past someone like Max and the plans he has for the future," he admits. "We did that, but I don't think there will be any big surprises."