Former Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley stated that he believed that Mercedes were still chasing Red Bull driver Max Verstappen as George Russell's contract saga continues. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff had been quite open about his interest in signing the four-time F1 reigning world champion this year and even held talks with him despite the latter having a contract with the Austrian team until the end of the 2028 season.Although the Dutch driver announced that he would be staying with the Milton Keynes-based outfit next year, current Mercedes incumbent George Russell and the German team have not signed a contract extension till now.While appearing on the F1 Nation podcast, Smedley, who had worked as Felipe Massa's race engineer at Ferrari and Williams F1, spoke about Max Verstappen still being a factor in George Russell's reported new deal with the Brackley-based outfit for next year and said:"Mercedes will - as any team with a bit of common sense would - try to get Max Verstappen in their car. You just want the best athlete on your team. I think that if Mercedes were willing to do that with Lewis Hamilton [1+1 year contract], they would certainly do the same with George Russell if the reward is Max Verstappen."The 28-year-old has a contract with Red Bull, which ends after 2028, although certain performance clauses could allow him to leave in 2026 and 2027 as well.Aston Martin team principal chimes in on Max Verstappen interestAston Martin team principal and CEO Andy Cowell stated that he was flattered by the reports of Max Verstappen being interested in a potential move to Silverstone-based outfit.Speaking with Motorsport.com, the Brit reflected on the subject and said:“Max showing media interest – I don't know what the right phrase is, but Max showing media interest is flattering. In his opinion, he can see that this is a team that's determined and that is taking the right steps. We are really fortunate that we've got Lance and Fernando, who've got great experience, carrying across through to at least the end of 2026."That means we've got drivers that we can just chat to openly about next year. When I chat to Adrian and when I chat to all the engineers, what we're determined to do is to come up with a really fast race car. And then we want every single driver with a superlicence to want to drive our car.”Max Verstappen has been linked with Aston Martin for quite some time, with rumors even claiming that the British team offered a whopping $1 billion previously to sign him away from Red Bull. Although neither Aston Martin nor Verstappen's management confirmed the reports.