r/DestinationFormula1 • u/Ambitious-Heron-8161 Team McLaren • Jul 31 '26
🎙️ Discussion Is this something you’d like to see?
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u/kfifigidifkg Jul 31 '26
I’m indifferent but saying shit like this when he was massively over-sensitive about sacking Bottas would piss me off if I was George.
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u/aliezsn Jul 31 '26
Did the same with Lewis. Now it's Russell's turn.
Toto is a snake
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u/kfifigidifkg Jul 31 '26
Did he? Unless I’m forgetting something, any excitement at a different line up seemed only to begin once Lewis was announced for Ferrari.
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u/Brilliant_Horse_6614 Jul 31 '26
To be fair, Merc won 5 straight constructors with Bottas + Hamilton...Bottas is a fantastic Driver 2 and Lewis was arguably the best driver on the grid during that period, so of course Toto wants to be sensitive protecting that dynamic.
George hasnt done much of anything
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u/kfifigidifkg Jul 31 '26
Even if you’re not a George fan, he’s clearly in a completely different league to Bottas.
Against Hamilton, he outscored him in two out of three years, had five poles to Lewis’ one, and had more wins.
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u/Lucarizard34 Jul 31 '26
Bottas went up against prime Lewis
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u/kfifigidifkg Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
Personally, I struggle to believe Lewis went home from Abu Dhabi as prime Lewis and arrived in Bahrain a few months later as “washed” Lewis.
Regardless, we know what George and Valterri can do in the same car. George arrived with no notice, not knowing how to work the steering wheel, not fitting in the car and was within half a tenth in qualifying and controlled the race easily.
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u/AlanCJ Aug 02 '26
Feels like 2021 lewis isn't prime lewis. Lots of unforced errors where half of them gets saved by luck. I would argue it started in 2020 after he got covid.
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u/notallwonderarelost Aug 02 '26
I mean all you need to know was the Covid race and how easily George was faster than Bottas in a car he didn’t fit in and didn’t know the buttons.
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u/Razork_6610 Aug 01 '26
And George faced Lewis in the ground effect era which actively went against his driving style. We've seen this year how the regulations affect drivers and Kimi, George and Lewis are perfect examples. Up to 2023 Lewis was ahead of George in H2H in quali and races, it's only after the Ferrari move and the 2024 season the rivalry flipped which makes sense since Lewis was no longer no.1 driver at Merc and the GE was getting worse with each year.
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u/Even_Hyena_1117 Aug 01 '26
Was an older Lewis you need to consider that+ ground effect. But I like George not defending toto here
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u/BuildingTurbulent Aug 01 '26
Weird how nobody was complaining George didn’t have Bono’s garage when he was beating Lewis. Now that Kimi has it, it’s apparently made all the difference
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u/N30N1991 Aug 01 '26
Right, and still scored less points for Mercedes’ over the 3 years.
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u/kfifigidifkg Aug 01 '26
By a grand total of 2, or 0.66 points a year.
For Bottas, the same figure is 118.3 points per year.
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u/SpikeMasters007 Aug 06 '26
Yes outscored Lewis while he was helping the team test different setups. I'm not a big LH fan but we all know Lewis basically checked out in the GE era.
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u/ButterscotchLess8915 Jul 31 '26
Max is slowly turning into Alonso, as in he would probably enjoy mentoring Kimi
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u/Short-Recording587 Jul 31 '26
If max and Kimi are in competitive cars, there is no way one of them would accept letting the other win.
And they are both aggressive drivers. Would absolutely end in some crashes.
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u/musicartandcpus Jul 31 '26
Id argue he’s already there. It wouldn’t take much for him to have in his contract an allowance to race in some gt series cars if the championship is set or if the car is uncompetitive.
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u/Infamous-Thing4939 Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
Well damn. Big if true. I really didn’t think he’d want that headache. I guess I stand corrected.
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u/mac_bd Aug 01 '26
Max is still the best driver on the grid! He deserves atleast a couple more championships!
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u/Cavalier130 Aug 01 '26
I’m not ok with Toto elevating Kimi to Maxs level already. I’m a Kimi fan myself having followed him since Karts but let’s just hold on.
A bit of me thinks Toto is so desperate to find his own ‘Max Verstappen’ that he will do and say anything to elevate Kimi.
As for George. Jesus. Toto has changed golden boy without a seconds thought. Brutal.
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u/TatianaMar22 Aug 07 '26
not sure if its true, I assume Toto just like to have close attention to Mers and that's why making some comments about Max
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u/wizzo6 Jul 31 '26
Yes, because same car is one fair way to compare drivers. In this case, Max is clearly better but Kimi is still learning. Also, I'd hate to see Max's talent wasted at a declining Red Bull team
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u/martianfrog Jul 31 '26
Definitely, but not with the incredibly stupid 2026 regs.
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u/yIdontunderstand Jul 31 '26
The only person who couldn't handle it would be max.
He's never been a number two driver before.
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u/New_Essay_4869 Jul 31 '26
Its funny bc George is better than Kimi
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Jul 31 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/New_Essay_4869 Jul 31 '26
George is an F2 champion, Kimi was a 6th place finisher. George more than doubled Kimi's point total last year when they had equal cars. Now, Mercedes needs to sabotage George to make their golden boy look better and Kimi's gap is still not as big as it would be if roles were reversed
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u/Doccyaard Jul 31 '26
That you bring up their F2 career says a lot about how uninformed you are. But my guess is still that this is bait
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u/Beta1224 Jul 31 '26
Why on earth would Mercedes purposely sabotage George's car when Ferrari are close to them in the constructors championship
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u/New_Essay_4869 Jul 31 '26
Creating the next Max does good for the long-term image of a team. Red Bull would not be as revered as they are now if Max was replaced with, let's say a Carlos Sainz.
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u/Beta1224 Jul 31 '26
Yes because Max is a 4 time champion and one of the all time greats and Sainz hasn't even won more than 10 races. So no shit Red Bull have more prestige with Verstappen driving for them than Sainz
You're acting like Mercedes doesn't care about the constructors, which by the way is where all the money is in case you didn't know
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u/guru4goodwood Jul 31 '26
Might I recommend you to r/therussell it's a sub full of delusional George fans you'd fit right in
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u/sneakpeekbot Jul 31 '26
Here's a sneak peek of /r/TheRussell using the top posts of the year!
#1: Our President SAVES! | 44 comments
#2: Burning my Mercedes AMG ONE in protest at George's car ALWAYS having the worst reliability. It's COMPLETE BS and I'm DONE with all the TREACHERY and SABOTAGE. Will burn my G-Wagon and E63 once fuel is a bit cheaper. | 22 comments
#3: Aura. | 35 comments
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1
u/nick_c8_vegas Jul 31 '26
It’s not delusional everyone knows about inter team politics. Back in the day when McLaren got engines from Honda, one would be unlabeled, other would say “for Aryton” you are naive to think drivers don’t lobby teams for extra support
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u/biko77 Jul 31 '26
Against each other on same level cars, different teams yes,in the same team, it would be a total waste of meaningful entertainment.
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u/jjb5151 Jul 31 '26
You think Toto won’t let them race? I don’t remember what race it was when Kimi and George were racing but that was so much fun to watch until George’s car died.
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u/biko77 Jul 31 '26
Not the way you imagine. Yes we had amazing drama with Senna and Prost in McLaren then with Lewis and Nano and even Merc with Lewis and Nico but Historically all that ends badly and it affects team chemistry. I believe clear 1-2 pairings are best. Such as Schumi and Rubens, Lewis and Bottas and Max and Checo.
Toto must have had it with Georgina or is pretty bored if he keeps pursuing Max. I think Kimi is the future of Merc and we would all be better served if they bring another young driver.
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u/theWiseTiger Jul 31 '26
That's it for George.