ElysiumNotes

(Sorry Mclaren fan here seeing George get the smallest taste of what we've dealt with all season)

But that also my point, all the customer teams are having issues (but for that we also have to factor that they’re running on different software, chassis, etc.) yet George is on the main team with the most info and only his car is breaking down.

While Kimi may get hit in the future, it would make sense to put effort into figuring it out now before it takes out both cars. And it takes into question the leadership and management of the team.

Now I’m am new and binged the 2025 season before 2026 started, but I meant to add McLaren into this. Where even last year when ‘papaya rules’ were at play (whether or not I agree with that) at least both cars were working for the most part; it just came down to racing and strategy for that team. The team was competent enough to make the fight about something else, hence the overblown drama, other than the car impacting only one driver. (this may be wrong as again I’m lacking a lot context outside the races)

Anyways, we were talking about post-race debrief video from the Merc TikTok page and i was mostly ranting about Torger’s ‘one side of the garage is happy and the other is not’ comment. I said that when the reason the other is not happy is because you guys can’t build a damn car properly. Someone else wisely advised that from a team perspective Merc is doing pretty well and plenty of other logical points.

Now, and here is a little bit more venting, but also my main point/question…..

I sorta get that. But I’d argue that Mercedes actually haven’t done that well at all. Ignoring the WDC of it all, this is still an f1 team which is comprised of 2 cars. It’s not something like Motogp where there are first and second line bikes from the same manufacturer; so reasonably both drivers should be operating the same machinery and the only real changes are set up preferences and maybe a strategy call. However since China only 1 car, which is literally 50% of this team, is having frequent problems that they somehow can’t fix despite 2 separate breaks and a major upgrade package; and that not even including strategy botches in Japan or being put into the wrong strat mode during a race in Miami.

You’d have to question Mercedes capabilities at all, if they can only function as a team at 50%. (Or in clearer terms, can only operate 1 car at max/top performance and not divert resources to the other to bring it up to proper standard)

Which brings me to my half question….Is Mercedes actually a top 4 team?

And I mean this in a broader sense, not just this year (but it is included for the consideration), but also past years and eras when we have had strategy errors, sahkir 2020, the ground effect era, brocedes getting to that point, etc. If they’ve always operated like this, then was it just Lewis carrying the team on his back during those dominant years?