Why have George's weekends been so much more difficult than Kimi's so far? Why do Kimi's races seem much more straightforward? Here's a theory, based on the tidbits of information we've got.
At the beginning of the year, Alex said that, of all the drivers, he believed the new regs would suit Lewis the best (and was clowned for it, Cassandra 2.0). I'm in no position to be analyzing driving styles, but some conversations on Reddit seem to grasp the bigger picture:
Lewis's driving style is very aggressive, braking late and making more of a V shape on the corners. Kimi's style has largely been compared to Ham's.
George's style is very smooth, braking early and making U shaped corners.
This difference means George tends to lose time in low speed corners, but is really fast on medium and high speed corners. The stability of his approach worked great with the ground effect cars, because it didn't disrupt the airflow under the car as much. However, the 2026 regulations removed the emphasis on the floor and made the cars a lot more stable, so Lewis's style has minimal downsides now. Also, the cornering speeds have dropped overall, meaning more low speed and fewer high speed corners.
From that, we can infer that the optimal setups offered by the computer for the 2026 cars can be applied for Kimi nearly straight up, as the new regs play directly into his strengths. For George, not so much. Hence the setup troubles that he's been having. His feel of the car doesn't quite match the data, and he and his team keep second-guessing themselves when they compare with how things are going on the other garage — leading to confusion and unnecessary tweaks between FP3 and Quali.
Not necessarily. First, he can adapt. Albon — our main source for this piece — has said he believes George is one of the most adaptable drivers on the grid. And we have seen that, many times. How he studied Lando's racing line in Spa 2021 during the red flag and used that to change his approach and put his tractor in P2. Or a couple of months ago when he started getting intermittent power steering assistance mid Q3, in an already challenging rain soaked Vegas, and still managed to secure a P4. Plus, we don't know how much of George's style is his actual preference and how much is just because that's what worked best for the past few years.
Second, George and his team can explore alternative setups and focus more on his feeling of the car, since he is the one who will have to drive it after all. It doesn't matter if a certain setup is theoretically better if it doesn't give George the confidence to push all the way. I wouldn't expect them to get it right every single time, but Barcelona was evidence that it can work, with George dunking 3 tenths on Kimi in qualifying.
Additionally, Mercedes can bring updates to help him, much like McLaren did for Lando last year, which allowed him to have quite a big jump in performance. And, if all fail, in-race strategy can still make a slower car get a better result, as seen with Lewis this very weekend.
So we're not doomed, then?
Well, not necessarily. For one Mercedes is notoriously bad at in-season development. Their strategies suck too. I swear the team writes the strategy for every race at pre-season testing and clock off, because they are completely incapable of reacting to anything (quali results, safety cars, other team's strategies, weather, you name it).
Moreover, time is not on George's side. We still have 2/3 of the races to go and a lot can and will happen. But he is down a lot of points, even if to little fault of his own. His side of the garage is not helping either, making foolish mistakes and failing to give him crucial information that could have lead to much better results. He can't be flawless whilst adapting/testing, so he really needs his team's support right now, but their competence is questionable. And let's not forget that gaining points on your teammate is always harder. Even if the team is not prioritizing one over the other, it's not gonna go all out to take points from them either.
I'm afraid this season is going to be an uphill battle for George.
That's his challenge to face, though. All we, fans, can do, is to continue to support him, show appreciation for his achievements and never fall for the washed allegations.
Our GOAT is not washed. He's cooking. Let's have some patience and let him cook.
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