With George Russell expected to replace Valtteri Bottas as Lewis Hamilton’s new teammate next season, ex-Red Bull racer Albon has been linked ൲with the potenti♎al opening at Williams.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner claimed on Friday that Mercedes was attempting to b൩lock Albon from joining Williams, something Wolff later denied.

However, speaking after qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix, Wolff admitted Mercedes would expect Albon to be completely “free” fro🌱m his Red Bull contract if he was to drive for its customer✨ team.

“I꧃t’s one thing about the power unit and I think Albon, as I said yesterday, is a driver that deserves a seat in Formula 1,” Wolff said. “But it’s tricky to have a 100% Red Bull driver on a Mercedes powe🍌r unit.

“So, happy to work with him, as long as they let him free from his Red Bull contract. And on the other side, we’re supporting Nyck de Vries obviously, and he’s in talks with Willia🐟ms, to get the seat there. So there are quite some balls in the air.”

Horner also suggested that Mercedes personnel had been calling Albonℱ directly to try and put him off his “prefer🦩ence” of returning to the grid with Williams.

Asked to shed some light on what Horner meant by his comments, Wꦜolff said: “Alex is in regular contact with Gwen Lagrue, who is running our Mercedes junior programme, and they were discussing with James Vowles, our head of strategy, the opportunities for next year.

“Things get always… tweaked, in a way. He wasn’t told to do or not do anything, it was just exploring the opportunities🍬 for Alex and for Nyck in an amicable way between Alex a🌌nd the group.”

Wolff also confirmed there would be no contractual stumbling blocks standing in the way of Mercedes Formula E world champi🙈on Nyck de Vries driving for Ferrari-powered Alfa Romeo.

“Nyck is his own free agent,” Wolff explained. “🍒He is a Mercedes works driver in Formula E, but I will never stand in the way for Nyck to dr🍸ive in Formula 1.

“We have no management contract with him, neither do we have an option of taking him back in. Therefore, N🐈yck can d꧒rive in anything.”