About the contract. There was nothing about what type of performance he needs to extend his contract - be it a number of wins, points or standings in the championship. However, I can bet that both sides included clauses for it, including technical malfuctions. This is the guy who came into merc with 'no second driver' clause. I don't think he signed anything without bullet proofing it to hell and back (he did once and is still paying for it).
The only explanation for their weird media behavior that I can think of is torger punishing George for something. If you think back to Monaco, torger said something about having to go to the podium because the boards had to catch a plane. Really, they fly private and they just had to rush to the airport and not even stay for the podium they have been waiting for years? The more likely outcome was that they have seen the absolute disgrace of the race and decided to bail. We also now know that the ceo talked to George before leaving. I wonder, what was said.
They have also been present for Canada, the CTO of Mercedes Benz was sitting in the garage, watching George DNF. I bet he was not very pleased with seeing their work go to waste. (they provide the battery, but the case for it comes from a different company that Benz is using).
After Barcelona it is even worse: one of their cars is dead on track, and the other has been fucked over by the pit wall and the mechanics. This team looks like a flaming garbage bin if you look at it from outside.
Okay look, noone knows the exact intricacies of anyone's contract. What we do know though is George has signed a clause on the basis of "If I perform x amount, you HAVE to re-sign me" which differs massively from the clause we know Max has of "If you make sure I perform x amount, I promise I won't leave". And whilst they're both performance based clauses, they're both constructed in different ways and tell different stories about their position in a team. George spoke openly that he felt his clause put the power in his hands, but I personally feel it reveals that he's having to force the teams hand to re-sign him and suggests he's in a weak bargaining position?
If Toto was punishing George for something, they have no reason to play it out in public. No sensible team would amplify an inter team issue in the public facing content. Their job is quite literally to do the opposite.
I know there's a very popular conspiracy on here that the AMG board are in some way bullet-proofing George and protecting him, but it's based largely on fan conjecture taken from a functional corporate PR presence. I don't think the AMG board will be impressed by any reliability and performance issues. I don't think they would have left Monaco in anger given one of their cars still won and ultimately that's all they care about.
I agree, the team looks a bit of a mess right now, but everything you read on tumblr, twitter, reddit.... its all just fan perception, not fact. We're all just making shit up to make sense of things and serve our own narratives
