2025 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[venkyhere]

If Max replaces Russel at Mercedes, that will be a hammer blow moment in the ego battle that's been brewing between the two. Russel is confident that it's Kimi who will be axed, and giving statements to the media 'of course teams will chase best driver.... blah blah' , but I suspect he is in for a rude shock.

[avantman]

If Max replaces Russel at Mercedes, that will be a hammer blow moment in the ego battle that's been brewing between the two. Russel is confident that it's Kimi who will be axed, and giving statements to the media 'of course teams will chase best driver.... blah blah' , but I suspect he is in for a rude shock.

oh,that would be a perfect scenario if Kimi got axed. Kimi's, Max and George fan all would be happy.

[Big Tea]

Two sides to a coin. 1) We do not need him in our team. 2) We do not need him in another team.
If he is not driving for Merc, and the Merc does not finish 1&2 each point he scores is one lost to Merc. Can they risk that? I would be happy to see George and Kimi driving for Merc (or is some are correct Lando) but someone scoring points for any other team may be those missing at the end of the season

[Matt2725]

Max has as many championships as George has wins. Does anybody honestly think that if Max were in the exact same car in the exact same scenarios as George over the years, there would only be 4 wins? A big fat no.

I mean the dude literally scored fewer podiums than Hamilton in each and every season as teammates. Even Button was good enough to score more over the same stint of three years. And look what Leclerc does in the same car now. What are we even talking about?

Ludicrous levels of missing context in this comment. Leave these takes for Reddit or X.

[Chuckjr]

Max knows where the new regs are headed and he wants first and all subsequent slices of the 2nd Merc dominant era.

He knows Merc, with their literally endless world resources for power unit research, development, testing, and production, are going to carry that team to even more records starting next year. Even if it’s as much of a disaster as last time, they wont change the regs for 4 - 5 years best case, due to hard commitments made years and years ago. Toto, with Max at the helm, sees likely a 2/10ths to 3/10ths separation available from the field each and every lap on top of their engine dominance/settings. It’s going to be 2014 all over again. With Max at the helm, Toto ensures the ultimate combo.

Red Bull is done. Horner screwed the pooch and let everyone slip away. Smh. Max will sign this summer and Kimi will stay. It is George, unfortunately, that will get the axe. Kimi is good enough and will be happy to learn under Max during Max’s prime years. There will be no conflict. Toto has learned some from the Red Bull model—one really strong driver and one supporting driver, and in this case, a happy to learn driver. Its a perfect pilot pairing and really the best way to handle the “situation” Max brings.

Max’s calm response to Kimi plowing him (which actually was a gift contract wise), and Toto’s constantly compliant attitude to Max’s driving aggression this year especially, says to me at least, that both parties are just waiting till contract exit clauses are met between Max and Red Bull, and then Dark Max signs. Having Max ensures Merc can beat the McLaren boys between better engine settings and programming, and the fastest driver on the grid.
All just my opinion.

[Dee]

Max knows where the new regs are headed and he wants first and all subsequent slices of the 2nd Merc dominant era.

He knows Merc, with their literally endless world resources for power unit research, development, testing, and production, are going to carry that team to even more records starting next year. Even if it’s as much of a disaster as last time, they wont change the regs for 4 - 5 years best case, due to hard commitments made years and years ago. Toto, with Max at the helm, sees likely a 2/10ths to 3/10ths separation available from the field each and every lap on top of their engine dominance/settings. It’s going to be 2014 all over again. With Max at the helm, Toto ensures the ultimate combo.

Red Bull is done. Horner screwed the pooch and let everyone slip away. Smh. Max will sign this summer and Kimi will stay. It is George, unfortunately, that will get the axe. Kimi is good enough and will be happy to learn under Max during Max’s prime years. There will be no conflict. Toto has learned some from the Red Bull model—one really strong driver and one supporting driver, and in this case, a happy to learn driver. Its a perfect pilot pairing and really the best way to handle the “situation” Max brings.

Max’s calm response to Kimi plowing him (which actually was a gift contract wise), and Toto’s constantly compliant attitude to Max’s driving aggression this year especially, says to me at least, that both parties are just waiting till contract exit clauses are met between Max and Red Bull, and then Dark Max signs. Having Max ensures Merc can beat the McLaren boys between better engine settings and programming, and the fastest driver on the grid.
All just my opinion.

Yes, but Max is not soley driven by how many records he gets. As much of a robot he is in the car, he is a person outside of it. He has built relationships around him at Red Bull. GP especially. He will not leave a team he is emotionally attached to quickly.

[zibby43]

Max knows where the new regs are headed and he wants first and all subsequent slices of the 2nd Merc dominant era.

He knows Merc, with their literally endless world resources for power unit research, development, testing, and production, are going to carry that team to even more records starting next year. Even if it’s as much of a disaster as last time, they wont change the regs for 4 - 5 years best case, due to hard commitments made years and years ago. Toto, with Max at the helm, sees likely a 2/10ths to 3/10ths separation available from the field each and every lap on top of their engine dominance/settings. It’s going to be 2014 all over again. With Max at the helm, Toto ensures the ultimate combo.

Red Bull is done. Horner screwed the pooch and let everyone slip away. Smh. Max will sign this summer and Kimi will stay. It is George, unfortunately, that will get the axe. Kimi is good enough and will be happy to learn under Max during Max’s prime years. There will be no conflict. Toto has learned some from the Red Bull model—one really strong driver and one supporting driver, and in this case, a happy to learn driver. Its a perfect pilot pairing and really the best way to handle the “situation” Max brings.

Max’s calm response to Kimi plowing him (which actually was a gift contract wise), and Toto’s constantly compliant attitude to Max’s driving aggression this year especially, says to me at least, that both parties are just waiting till contract exit clauses are met between Max and Red Bull, and then Dark Max signs. Having Max ensures Merc can beat the McLaren boys between better engine settings and programming, and the fastest driver on the grid.
All just my opinion.

Yes, but Max is not soley driven by how many records he gets. As much of a robot he is in the car, he is a person outside of it. He has built relationships around him at Red Bull. GP especially. He will not leave a team he is emotionally attached to quickly.

The team around him at RB is very different. Newey and other key senior figures are gone and Max’s own father’s personal mission in life seems to be to get Horner sacked.

You can always make new friends. Look at Lewis.

[Lasssept]

Erik van Haren:

"Within now and about a month and a half it will be clear whether the current number three in the standings will 'simply' continue to drive for Red Bull next year, or will switch to Mercedes."

[Dee]

Max knows where the new regs are headed and he wants first and all subsequent slices of the 2nd Merc dominant era.

He knows Merc, with their literally endless world resources for power unit research, development, testing, and production, are going to carry that team to even more records starting next year. Even if it’s as much of a disaster as last time, they wont change the regs for 4 - 5 years best case, due to hard commitments made years and years ago. Toto, with Max at the helm, sees likely a 2/10ths to 3/10ths separation available from the field each and every lap on top of their engine dominance/settings. It’s going to be 2014 all over again. With Max at the helm, Toto ensures the ultimate combo.

Red Bull is done. Horner screwed the pooch and let everyone slip away. Smh. Max will sign this summer and Kimi will stay. It is George, unfortunately, that will get the axe. Kimi is good enough and will be happy to learn under Max during Max’s prime years. There will be no conflict. Toto has learned some from the Red Bull model—one really strong driver and one supporting driver, and in this case, a happy to learn driver. Its a perfect pilot pairing and really the best way to handle the “situation” Max brings.

Max’s calm response to Kimi plowing him (which actually was a gift contract wise), and Toto’s constantly compliant attitude to Max’s driving aggression this year especially, says to me at least, that both parties are just waiting till contract exit clauses are met between Max and Red Bull, and then Dark Max signs. Having Max ensures Merc can beat the McLaren boys between better engine settings and programming, and the fastest driver on the grid.
All just my opinion.

Yes, but Max is not soley driven by how many records he gets. As much of a robot he is in the car, he is a person outside of it. He has built relationships around him at Red Bull. GP especially. He will not leave a team he is emotionally attached to quickly.

The team around him at RB is very different. Newey and other key senior figures are gone and Max’s own father’s personal mission in life seems to be to get Horner sacked.

You can always make new friends. Look at Lewis.

That is all correct but why fight so much to have Horner removed/demoted if you can move to another team?

You would do that if wanted to stay on, with the people you want in charge.

As far as I have seen, Max signed in March of 2022 for five years. In hindsight, signing before an engine deal was secured was the wrong thing to do. If he held on for a bit longer, he would have had more say in it. The engine deal is what I think has led to the breakdown of the team. Newey, Marko, Wheatley and the Verstappens wanted Porsche on board. They don't believe in Ford.

Is he tied down until 2028? I think he is, unless he pays an incredible sum to get out of it... and that is why he is trying so hard to get Horner removed.

If he could easily leave and go to Merc, he wouldn't care about Horner.

[TeamKoolGreen]

I think season end team principals' top 10 drivers ranking are very meaninful and Russell was in the top 3 only once in his whole career...everyone understood quickly after Hamilton's level was already very overrated.

Since 2015 no one has scored more highly than Hamilton in the TP ratings (one year's scores are somewhat obscured). Trashing Russell because these scores "are very meaningful" and then dismissing a decade's worth of them with your next breath is a bold strategy.

At least with Russell we have a benchmark in his three years up against Hamilton. I don't think we have anything similar for any of the other top drivers on the grid.

Again, you guys seem to miss the point completely. I can disagree with those rankings and trash them as much as you like. They represent ultimately what team bosses think about the drivers. And they, the team bosses ultimately make decisions on drivers, not us fans, even if you think they are wrong and do know nothing.

What are you trying to prove mentioning Hamilton's rating from 2015? This modern, or shall we say older version of Hamilton in new gen cars was rated:
4th in 2022, 5th in 2023 and 7th in 2024. Hamilton is not an F1 top 3 driver by any count. No surprise Leclerc is trashing him, as most expected him to do. And yes, by bigger margin and more importantly much more consistently than Russell was ever capable of. That's not my opinion, that is just a fact.

Russell never conceded Hamilton a single race or sprint win. (in both of LHs wins, George was either DNF or DSQ. And that was with Hamilton 3 years younger , coming from his title challenge in 2021. Leclerc already conceded a sprint pole and win. Pretty weak on Leclercs part.

George had more poles last year than both ferraris combined. And he did it in a slower car lol

[TeamKoolGreen]

If Max replaces Russel at Mercedes, that will be a hammer blow moment in the ego battle that's been brewing between the two. Russel is confident that it's Kimi who will be axed, and giving statements to the media 'of course teams will chase best driver.... blah blah' , but I suspect he is in for a rude shock.

Lies.

That isn't what George has been saying or implying at all. George has been complimentary of Max and has said that he understands why Mercedes are inquiring about him.

And hence , George has talked to McLaren and Red Bull.

[TeamKoolGreen]

I don't even like Max. Indeed, I'd probably go out of my way to be negative, such as saying his 21 championship is fake etc.

But looking at things objectively and impartially, nobody can say George is overall equal to Max, let alone better.

There are many 'what ifs', just as there are in any comparisons. But come on, let's work on what's highly probable rather than highly unlikely.

Max has as many championships as George has wins. Does anybody honestly think that if Max were in the exact same car in the exact same scenarios as George over the years, there would only be 4 wins? A big fat no.

Uh that whole example makes no sense. Because who is in the Red Bull when Max would be at Mercedes in those years ? Let's say prime Fernando Alonso or Schumacher was in the Red bull for 2022,2023 and 2024. You think Max would have more than 4 wins in the zero pod Mercedes ? Get real. That's nonsense

[MB_Racer]

If Max replaces Russel at Mercedes, that will be a hammer blow moment in the ego battle that's been brewing between the two. Russel is confident that it's Kimi who will be axed, and giving statements to the media 'of course teams will chase best driver.... blah blah' , but I suspect he is in for a rude shock.

Lies.

That isn't what George has been saying or implying at all. George has been complimentary of Max and has said that he understands why Mercedes are inquiring about him.

And hence , George has talked to McLaren and Red Bull.

Facts

[Watto]

I don't even like Max. Indeed, I'd probably go out of my way to be negative, such as saying his 21 championship is fake etc.

But looking at things objectively and impartially, nobody can say George is overall equal to Max, let alone better.

There are many 'what ifs', just as there are in any comparisons. But come on, let's work on what's highly probable rather than highly unlikely.

Max has as many championships as George has wins. Does anybody honestly think that if Max were in the exact same car in the exact same scenarios as George over the years, there would only be 4 wins? A big fat no.

Uh that whole example makes no sense. Because who is in the Red Bull when Max would be at Mercedes in those years ? Let's say prime Fernando Alonso or Schumacher was in the Red bull for 2022,2023 and 2024. You think Max would have more than 4 wins in the zero pod Mercedes ? Get real. That's nonsense

I am pretty sure he is saying just that if Max was driving the Mercedes in the time George has been there he would have had more wins than the 4 George has had; his whole point was trying to compare a 4xWDC with a 4 time race winner is well poor.

[Sevach]

That's provably false, as Williams scored more points in 2021 than they did in 2022 and 2020. That alone should be enough to disprove the claim.
McLaren are rinsing everyone in 2025, and beat Mercedes in 2024.
Making the cooling solution out to be some sort of massive differentiator is a view I guess, but it would be baseless.

I think engine installation is gonna be a factor next year.
Right now engines are frozen, haven't changed much since 2021, it's "easy" for a costumer to match the factory team.

Right now Mercedes engineers on both engine and chassis side are working together to better make a cohesive package, developing the cooling around the needs of their project, developing engine modes on what their simulations say.

Mclaren and Williams will get a big sealed chunk of metal and be told, "these are the operating parameters... best of luck".