Toto Wolff made the surprise admission that he hopes Nyck de Vries will one day race for his team's bitter rivals Red Bull.
De Vries has been a Mercedes reserve driver for the past two seasons, but has now left the team after finally earning an opportunity to race in Formula 1. The F2 and Formula E champion made the most of his debut appearance as a stand-in for Williams at Monza earlier this year and has secured a full-time contract with AlphaTauri.
Mercedes were happy to allow him to leave for a race seat, even with the sister team of their Red Bull rivals. And, in a new interview, Silver Arrows chief Wolff went one further and said he hopes De Vries does well enough to earn the chance to race for the senior team.
"I thought about it," said the Austrian when asked by Polish outlet Swiatwyscigow if Mercedes would one day welcome De Vries back to the team if his AlphaTauri adventure does not go to plan.
He added: "I hope that he stays there, and I hope that he's successful in AlphaTauri. I hope he will be good enough to make it into a Red Bull seat one day, because he deserves that. And then we will take it like sportsmen, and we will fight it out."
Even though De Vries is leaving for a Red Bull contract, Wolff has made it clear Mercedes wish nothing but success for the Dutchman. There was a light-hearted moment after the Abu Dhabi season finale last month when Mercedes staff literally delivered the racer to the AlphaTauri garage on a trolley.
And before the AlphaTauri move was completed, the Austrian made it clear he felt De Vries belongs on the F1 grid. When assessing the racer's debut performance at Monza, where he secured Williams' best result of the season, Wolff declared: "Niki [Lauda] would have taken off his hat.
"I think if one of the teams who still have a free seat don't pick him up now, then I don't understand the world anymore." Williams and Alpine were said to be considering him, but of course it was AlphaTauri who won the race for his signature after an in-person meeting with Helmut Marko.
Lewis Hamilton has also heaped praise upon De Vries in recent months, declaring he was "incredibly happy for Nyck". He told reporters in September: "He's such a good lad, a good human, and he's been a good part of our team working with us. For Nyck to have jumped in and finished in the top 10, that's mega for your first race."
