2024 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[Jurgen von Diaz]

Verstappen to Merc in 2025? I highly doubt it. That would mean that they would keep Antonelli in F2 and then what, sacking Russell from Merc 2026 to make room for Antonelli?

[Matt2725]

Russell is a good driver in a good car but lets not forget he didn't score a single point in a williams before joining mercedes.compare to lewis he still have problems with tire saving .spa was the exception.kimi is six in f2 if he is the next big thing he need to go for champion

Wrong facts. George scored points in Williams.

it took him three seasons thats why its easy to forget

In one of the slowest cars on the grid. Still even in one of the slower cars that notoriously lacked downforce, he handily outqualified Hamilton at Spa in the wet in 2021, whilst Hamilton had one of the fastest cars on the grid at the time.
So he can't be all that bad.

[Paa]

Verstappen to Merc in 2025? I highly doubt it. That would mean that they would keep Antonelli in F2 and then what, sacking Russell from Merc 2026 to make room for Antonelli?

Or just a straight Max / Russell swap.
If (big if) Max would leave, then RedBull would also be exposed without any top driver, so it would make sense for most parties involved.

[Dunlay]

Verstappen to Merc in 2025? I highly doubt it. That would mean that they would keep Antonelli in F2 and then what, sacking Russell from Merc 2026 to make room for Antonelli?

Or just a straight Max / Russell swap.
If (big if) Max would leave, then RedBull would also be exposed without any top driver, so it would make sense for most parties involved.

They are cut throat competitors at the top. Toto would spend a fortune to bring Max and keep George along, while finding a midfield team for Antonelli. He wouldn't let go George to Red Bull, unless there are contractual clauses that allows George to leave. There is no way Toto would want to contribute to strengthen Red Bull. A weak Red Bull is an opportunity for Mercedes to shine. I would personally love to see George at Red Bull if Max is in Mercedes, but after a year of seeing them together in one team. We would know George's level against Max.

[Paa]

Verstappen to Merc in 2025? I highly doubt it. That would mean that they would keep Antonelli in F2 and then what, sacking Russell from Merc 2026 to make room for Antonelli?

Or just a straight Max / Russell swap.
If (big if) Max would leave, then RedBull would also be exposed without any top driver, so it would make sense for most parties involved.

They are cut throat competitors at the top. Toto would spend a fortune to bring Max and keep George along, while finding a midfield team for Antonelli. He wouldn't let go George to Red Bull, unless there are contractual clauses that allows George to leave. There is no way Toto would want to contribute to strengthen Red Bull. A weak Red Bull is an opportunity for Mercedes to shine. I would personally love to see George at Red Bull if Max is in Mercedes, but after a year of seeing them together in one team. We would know George's level against Max.

Don't forget that Max is also contracted to RedBull until 2028. So they'll have to enter to some kind of negotiations if they would like him before that. Releasing Russell could be one to sweeten the deal.
Seems like that Marko clause is closed for Max. There are some performance related clauses, but we don't know exactly what, so it might not be that easy for Max to just leave.

[Jurgen von Diaz]

Verstappen to Merc in 2025? I highly doubt it. That would mean that they would keep Antonelli in F2 and then what, sacking Russell from Merc 2026 to make room for Antonelli?

Or just a straight Max / Russell swap.
If (big if) Max would leave, then RedBull would also be exposed without any top driver, so it would make sense for most parties involved.

They are cut throat competitors at the top. Toto would spend a fortune to bring Max and keep George along, while finding a midfield team for Antonelli. He wouldn't let go George to Red Bull, unless there are contractual clauses that allows George to leave. There is no way Toto would want to contribute to strengthen Red Bull. A weak Red Bull is an opportunity for Mercedes to shine. I would personally love to see George at Red Bull if Max is in Mercedes, but after a year of seeing them together in one team. We would know George's level against Max.

In that case, if Red Bull couldn't get Russell, they would go with the Ricciardo & Perez pairing. Good luck, Horner.

[Big Tea]

Or just a straight Max / Russell swap.
If (big if) Max would leave, then RedBull would also be exposed without any top driver, so it would make sense for most parties involved.

They are cut throat competitors at the top. Toto would spend a fortune to bring Max and keep George along, while finding a midfield team for Antonelli. He wouldn't let go George to Red Bull, unless there are contractual clauses that allows George to leave. There is no way Toto would want to contribute to strengthen Red Bull. A weak Red Bull is an opportunity for Mercedes to shine. I would personally love to see George at Red Bull if Max is in Mercedes, but after a year of seeing them together in one team. We would know George's level against Max.

Don't forget that Max is also contracted to RedBull until 2028. So they'll have to enter to some kind of negotiations if they would like him before that. Releasing Russell could be one to sweeten the deal.
Seems like that Marko clause is closed for Max. There are some performance related clauses, but we don't know exactly what, so it might not be that easy for Max to just leave.

"contracted " could turn out to be a very flexible word if what we hear is true.
There seem to be more clauses than page numbers in Max's contract and I have little doubt if he decided to go he would just wave 2 fingers on the way through the door as he told them.

I think the only reason Max would stay is the lack of an equivalent or better drive elsewhere. If things do not suit him it could even be in a different series or his own Sim series.

[Jurgen von Diaz]

If Max wins the championship, the performance clause cannot be fulfilled. He even leads by a large margin at the moment. I think Max cannot leave just like that. Other clauses are with Helmut.

[PlatinumZealot]

Verstappen to Merc in 2025? I highly doubt it. That would mean that they would keep Antonelli in F2 and then what, sacking Russell from Merc 2026 to make room for Antonelli?

They missed out on Carlos. It would seem hypocritical to give anyone esle but antonelli more than a one year contract because that was effectively what they were giving Lewis beyond 2024 (one more year). So yeah stuck in a hard place. So yeah.. They offered Carlos one year and he was not about that life. Bottas is the other next best.. But Bottas doesn't want to go back to being the step child. Let's see what he does now that no seats are free.

[PlatinumZealot]

If Max wins the championship, the performance clause cannot be fulfilled. He even leads by a large margin at the moment. I think Max cannot leave just like that. Other clauses are with Helmut.

Max appears to not like corporate settings. I think he's staying put at RedBull where he can scream and throw tantrums over the radio and play sim games streams and curse like a sailor. The last RedBull number 1 who liked throwing tantrums took a few years to calm down didn't he? And he effectively weakend the teams he went to with that attitude.

[Jurgen von Diaz]

Verstappen to Merc in 2025? I highly doubt it. That would mean that they would keep Antonelli in F2 and then what, sacking Russell from Merc 2026 to make room for Antonelli?

They missed out on Carlos. It would seem hypocritical to give anyone esle but antonelli more than a one year contract because that was effectively what they were giving Lewis beyond 2024 (one more year). So yeah stuck in a hard place. So yeah.. They offered Carlos one year and he was not about that life. Bottas is the other next best.. But Bottas doesn't want to go back to being the step child. Let's see what he does now that no seats are free.

Bottas would be crazy if he would not take Merc's one-year deal at this point. It may be that Sauber smells blood and offers a one-year deal to Bottas to keep options open for '26.

[Jurgen von Diaz]

If Max wins the championship, the performance clause cannot be fulfilled. He even leads by a large margin at the moment. I think Max cannot leave just like that. Other clauses are with Helmut.

Max appears to not like corporate settings. I think he's staying put at RedBull where he can scream and throw tantrums over the radio and play sim games streams and curse like a sailor. The last RedBull number 1 who liked throwing tantrums took a few years to calm down didn't he? And he effectively weakend the teams he went to with that attitude.

Max wants the best car, so I think his intentions are to be in the best car, whether he can scream there or not.

[Hammerfist]

It will be antonelli and russell at Merc next year imo. Max may move to aston martin in 26 so he can beat up on lance and show that no teammate is ever close to him on pace. A risky move though. That whole project may turn out to be a dud even with Newey there. Will Honda deliver a quality power unit? Its no sure thing.

[Lasssept]

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has confirmed next season's car is "likely to be a close cousin" of the W15.

"Given that the recent developments have been successful at bringing the performance we hoped, and next year's car is likely to be a close cousin of this year's car, we're now more confident that we can carry this momentum into next year, more so than we have been in the previous years," - Shovlin told select media

https://racingnews365.com/mercedes-reve ... -contender

[PlatinumZealot]

Not surprising. A big chunk of the resources will be for 2026 and there is no reall championship push for 2025... As yet.

If Mercedes are strong by 75% of the season and RedBull is stil bringing upgrades that means the 2025 championship fight is on.... If RedBull stop bringing upgrades by then that means they have a rocketship for 2025 and no one will challenge them.