2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

[Lasssept]

[Lasssept]

[PlatinumZealot]

This is serious. Kimi has the race pace on George. I think George is using the same tactic he did against Lewis, which is to set the car for qualifying and try to hold on in the race.. But it not necessary to be 3 tenths up in Q and then fade in the race!

This is ominous. I don't see him getting on top of Kimi for a whole season without some luck. In fact Kimi seems to be Verstappen style driver using every bit of track and is somehow able to push and preseve tyres at the same time!

[Badger]

George's season was doomed and resurrected in the space of like one minute But not a good day for him in terms of driving.

[OverheatedTurbo]

George's season was doomed and resurrected in the space of like one minute But not a good day for him in terms of driving.

Driving was abismal bar the medium stint. He can’t be this slow if he wants to have a shot at the championship. The team also needs to bring more upgrades. Ferrari has brought 16 performance upgrades in 3 GPs.

[aray]

After today's race, I think it won't be long before Merc starts to put all their bet on Kimi.

[dominaze]

Russell...such a poor race pace...anyways, the car clearly lacks front end bite

[Matt2725]

I like Russell but his race pace was abysmal on the hards. Mediums was fine but it was horrible after that.

[Tonino]

Atrocious from George today. Had the race pace of a fridge being dragged through quicksand. Absolutely nowhere. Kimi is head and shoulders above him right now. If George keeps serving up performances like this we need to stop pretending and put our full focus behind Kimi.

Sad but to me this is just more evidence that George isn't a world class driver. I just don't see a future world champion when I watch him. I see a solid driver who can occasionally put together a great qualifying lap but struggles to consistently deliver on Sundays.

At this point, he's looking like he's barely a step above Bottas. Harsh? Maybe. But if you're supposed to be the team leader and a driver with just one full season of F1 experience is making you look average week after week, then those are exactly the conversations people are going to have.

Awful. Just absolutely freaking awful.

[Lasssept]

[venkyhere]

Today is the day Antonelli has delivered the psychological knockout punch to Russel, even if he DNF-ed due to PU trouble. Antonelli is the faster driver, whatever be the nature of the track, whatever be the grip/life of the tyres, as we have seen in these 6 races. We saw glimpses of this in 2025 itself - Brazil, Vegas etc, where the learning curve in his first year was super steep. Now, in his second year, it's beyond doubt. The kid has improved by leaps and bounds, not just in terms of driving technique, but mentally as well. Russel simply has to accept that Antonelli is more talented.

[zibby43]

Today is the day Antonelli has delivered the psychological knockout punch to Russel, even if he DNF-ed due to PU trouble. Antonelli is the faster driver, whatever be the nature of the track, whatever be the grip/life of the tyres, as we have seen in these 6 races. We saw glimpses of this in 2025 itself - Brazil, Vegas etc, where the learning curve in his first year was super steep. Now, in his second year, it's beyond doubt. The kid has improved by leaps and bounds, not just in terms of driving technique, but mentally as well. Russel simply has to accept that Antonelli is more talented.

Kimi needs to start consistently qualifying better at circuits where you can’t pummel the tires into submission and force the issue of getting lead driver treatment.

[avantman]

Today is the day Antonelli has delivered the psychological knockout punch to Russel, even if he DNF-ed due to PU trouble. Antonelli is the faster driver, whatever be the nature of the track, whatever be the grip/life of the tyres, as we have seen in these 6 races. We saw glimpses of this in 2025 itself - Brazil, Vegas etc, where the learning curve in his first year was super steep. Now, in his second year, it's beyond doubt. The kid has improved by leaps and bounds, not just in terms of driving technique, but mentally as well. Russel simply has to accept that Antonelli is more talented.

Kimi needs to start consistently qualifying better at circuits where you can’t pummel the tires into submission and force the issue of getting lead driver treatment.

You mean he needs to be faster than he is capable of?
What happened with his front wing btw, where did he get that damage?

[Brahmal]

Today is the day Antonelli has delivered the psychological knockout punch to Russel, even if he DNF-ed due to PU trouble. Antonelli is the faster driver, whatever be the nature of the track, whatever be the grip/life of the tyres, as we have seen in these 6 races. We saw glimpses of this in 2025 itself - Brazil, Vegas etc, where the learning curve in his first year was super steep. Now, in his second year, it's beyond doubt. The kid has improved by leaps and bounds, not just in terms of driving technique, but mentally as well. Russel simply has to accept that Antonelli is more talented.

There is no sense in throwing the baby out with the bathwater. George is an excellent driver, who doesn't seem to agree with this ruleset so far. Will that continue with big PU changes possibly on the horizon? Who knows. There are tifosi who want to bin off Leclerc now, which would be similarly unwise.

[zibby43]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Kimi received a 5s penalty for track limits.

Because he ended up with a DNF, I believe that will manifest as a 3-place grid drop in Austria.