SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium -- Toto Wolff insists Mercedes held "zero" discussions with Sebastian Vettel about the possibility of a switch from Ferrari.
On Saturday Ferrari confirmed a new three-year deal for the championship leader, ending speculation of a switch to Mercedes for 2018 or 2019. Immediately after the confirmation of the deal Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda suggested the team had sounded out the German about the possibility of a drive.
Lauda told Sky: "We discussed it briefly once with him, but the more competitive Ferrari goes the less the reason he would want to leave. So therefore we stopped right away a couple of months ago.
"I think every driver, if he's clever, talks to more than one team. Then when you negotiate you're in a better position. That's what he did."
With Lewis Hamilton out of contract at the end of 2018, discussions with Vettel were seen as Mercedes weighing up options in case the Englishman decides not to sign a new deal beyond next season.
When a two-part question was raised to the top three after qualifying -- the second of which was to Vettel about what "went wrong" in his discussions with Mercedes -- Hamilton smiled and replied: "Can he answer first? I'm interested to hear his..."
To which Vettel said: "Nothing. Nothing went wrong. I think I'm very happy. I think Niki is generally a happy guy so... nothing went wrong."
Lauda's comments were a point of interest in Wolff's traditional Saturday evening media briefing and were met with a firm denial.
"No discussions that took place," Wolff said. "Zero. Zero. I'm always telling the truth, I'm even changing the order of the drivers [a reference to the driver switch at the Hungarian Grand Prix] just to say the truth!"
The questioning continued later in the session, with Wolff suggesting Lauda had been referring to a casual chat with Vettel about the future rather than a formal discussion about the possibility of a deal.
"Have you ever caught me not saying the truth in the five years I've been ever? I don't tell lies. I don't say anything to you if I don't want to tell you. So what I'm saying to you is the truth. There were zero conversations with Sebastian over a contract. Zero.
"Niki had a chat and a coffee with Sebastian down there and asked him what he is doing next year, and Sebastian said I'm thinking about it. They had a conversation. They didn't have coffee actually because there isn't a coffee shop in the middle of the paddock, it was only crossing each other.
"But I'm not saying that in a negative way, I think that the exchange in the communication is important. And Niki is our ambassador in that sense. That's it. But there was no discussions."
Following Vettel's extension, Valtteri Bottas is expected to be retained by the world champions. Bottas joined on a one-year deal at the start of 2017, replacing the retired Nico Rosberg, a short deal which gave Mercedes flexibility this season's driver market going into 2018 with the likes of Vettel and Fernando Alonso in the final year of their contracts.