this is a professional assassination, or one in the works. Mercedes has never protected george’s public image. and i think i know why: to control him. to have the opportunity to discard him whenever they want. like just look how crazy Toto was when Oscar posted that he was not gonna drive for Alpine. he was crazy with the kid, calling him names to the press. just because he was an example of a driver deciding his own fate, what he thought was better for his future. without thinking of loyalty and whatnots.
Toto has never intended for George to have that liberty. he can’t talk with other teams if he wants to leave Mercedes, because all his management comes down to Wolff himself. that’s exactly why Wolff is not afraid of not backing down George, why he talks shit about him and never take accountability if things go wrong. he has this perfect victim to rely all the responsability.
i really think he wanted George to win this wdc, because he knows that Antonelli doesn’t have the same experience. but when he saw, after a few problems with George’s car, that there was no other competition and Antonelli could win easily, he just moved his plan forward. George doesn’t matter anymore, now all he wants is the youngest wdc winner ever.
Because, after Hamilton left, he understood that he can’t do the same thing that he did to George, if he wants another legend. That type of control is not what he needs now. He needed another Max. A kid nurtured by the team, especially when it came to his public image. That’s why he had a freaking documentary before joining F1. That’s why he is always protecting him from italian media, even though they only talk bad about george mostly.
“Antonelli is just a kid”. And they did a very good job with creating that image. Even when there’s proof of his bratty character, is always dismiss. People don’t care if he was driving while texting or that he insults drivers when they don’t give him what he thinks he deserves. But, most important, people don’t care if all his wins are because of the advantage of just driving the fastest car. not even when the only time he was having a w2w battle with George, he was doing a terrible job. And i’m not even talking about all the track limits in every race.
Wolff is throwing George apart, because he is not necessary anymore. putting his driving style to question for his bad performance, even when people can see his car has problems. he knows nobody will remember this in the future, just who wins. and right now the only answer for him is Antonelli. I don’t know what George can do in this position but I need him to just realise that he has no backing from Mercedes. He has to make his own path to victory, because his team is not with him.