The rumours have been swirling for days: Did Max Verstappen and Toto Wolff have a meeting in Sardinia? GPblog has now confirmed the answer to that question.
This story originated with Ralf Schumacher. The former Formula 1 driver predicted last week in a podcast that the CEO of the Mercedes F1 team and Verstappen would meet. The German had noticed that Wolff's yacht and Verstappen's yacht were on their way to Sardinia.
It is known from flight data that Verstappen indeed flew to Italy on Friday. By now, his girlfriend Kelly Piquet seems to have shared photos on Instagram of that. The Brazilian, mother of Verstappen's first child, Lily, wrote that they had a 'mini-vacation'. Whether Verstappen was there was not clear from the photos. However, it's a fact that the F1 champion has no Grand Prix commitments for two weeks and is essentially on leave.
Wolff was also in Sardinia, so in theory, a meeting could have taken place to discuss a possible switch from Verstappen to Mercedes. But: no, Verstappen and Wolff did not meet in the south of Italy, as this site now knows from various sources. It was purely coincidental that both Wolff and Verstappen were in the same region at the same time.
If the two had wanted to speak, it would normally have taken very little effort. Both living in Monaco, they could easily meet in complete secrecy.