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Them 🥹

Correct me if i'm wrong, but around this time last year, Max was about 100 points behind Lando. Max cut the gap down to two points by Abu Dhabi, and if he can do that, so can George.

merryslilhobbit

The level of restraint George has is unbelievable.

I would have taken a sledgehammer or set fire to that car by now.

aina-txt

i can’t believe i’m saying this but like zak brown never talked down on his drivers to the press. whatever was going on behind the scenes, he always defended both lando and oscar. clearly there’s something wrong with george’s car and toto seems unwilling to actually listen to him.

ipractical-joker

happy sunday, death to f1tv

obliviousinfinity

claim it now folks great things are happening after the summer break (if george has one more reliability issue im sending a bomb to torger wolff)

magnetic-rose

there is genuinely some really weird shit going on between the antonellis and mercedes. like, kimi's billionaire dad being so involved in the garage he gets a say when kimi gets to change his engine? toto saying kimi can get a special engine for monza while simultaneously saying he has no idea if they can fix george's engine? toto saying in an interview literally not that long ago that he was glad lewis chose to leave mercedes so he wouldn't have to make a choice and then kimi saying this week that toto had chosen him for mercedes months before lewis announced his leave. toto's son karting with marco antonelli's company.

IT'S JUST FUCKING SUSPICIOUS IDK!!!!

falenalunare

So this is weird as fuck to me. This is a quote from the article about Kimi knowing he was going to merc before the Lewis announcement:

“This was even before Lewis was announced to [be joining] Ferrari. He said, ‘Look, Lewis is going to Ferrari, and we are thinking of putting you in the car for next year.’

“My eyes were wide open. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’

“I hadn’t even started F2. I still had so much to prove, to prove that I could earn that spot.

“[He asked] if the opportunity comes, will you be ready, and I said, ‘Well, I’ve got to be ready!'”

Not only did Toto offer him the seat before Lewis’ announcement, Toto offered him the seat before he’d even seen Kimi compete in F2.

crispycathottub

The thing is, Red Bull is currently regretting the hell out of building everything around Max and letting his camp get so involved with decisions. Because they're sitting around powerless while Max deliberates what to do and they can't get an answer from him until October. So many of their sponsors could pull out, so many (more) of their talent could leave, and they won't know until October.

And that's Max. He has historically had no desire to move anywhere else, and now only wants to because the combination of new shit regulations and Red Bull having internal power struggles and hemorraging talent was too much.

Antonelli is almost certain to leave for Ferrari. Generously, I'd say within the next 10 years. Realistically, I can't see it being more than 7. He's a genuinely stupid choice to build a team around.

I can only see two semi-realistic (somewhat) long term plans:

1. Torger uses the prestige of the level of involvement he's allowing in Mercedes to keep the Antonelli's around for the full 10 years, while also using their involvement in the junior formulas to fast-track Jack to replace Antonelli at the end of those 10 years.

2. Torger *AND* the Antonelli's leave within the next 5 years or so, leaving a heavy gap in management due to both their heavy involvement. They already have a much weakened junior program, which would also potentially leave them without an obvious 1st driver, the combination plunging them into the midfield. Torger gets to be a "legend" the entire mercedes team relied on.

Alternatively, Torger is being played like a fiddle by Jos Verstappen 2.0 because Marco Antonelli knows how to cater to his massive ego, is assuming Kimi will stay at least a decade also because of said massive ego, and is going to have a very rude awakening in a few years.

In any case, it's rich old white men playing rich old white men games, with zero regard to logic or anyone else's dreams/loyalty/livelihood. May it backfire on them all.

singapore ‘25, you’re forever famous.