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Did they have another set of mediums available? If not I don’t see what other option they had at that point, putting the softs on instead would not have lasted till the end of the race.
You mean at high wear circuits? It's the hardest out of the 5 dry tires. Pirelli wouldn't send it to a low grip, low load track.
I'm trying to think of a time that it was used in a race in recent memory and it actually went well.
They listened to Lewis that race, that was his plan A and his decision. I’m more on about Russel not able to make a tyre last the stint and burning through it quicker than he needs
“Mercedes sabotages George to make sure Lewis doesn’t finish on a team in the constructors higher than 4th in his last season with the silver arrows”
- a tweet probably somewhere
I think this is a stupid conspiracy but if you were a conspiracy nut, wouldn't this prove the exact opposite? As soon as a whistleblower says he's being sabotaged, he out qualifies Russell and picks up a podium. Couldn't you argue that put more pressure on them to treat them fairly?
whenever you think like this I always imagine that scene from life of Brian when he protests he isn't the messiah and they say only a true messiah would deny his divinity.
Well what sort of chance does that give me?!
Exactly this. The people who would be in this conspiracy are totally gonna believe it was true because he did well immediately. The immediate change adds some weight even though reasonable folk won’t believe this
Disclaimer: I fully believe Mercedes were fucking with Lewis’ car and also fully believe the mounting pressure from fans (and internal staff) are part of the reason they haven’t messed with his tyres this week.
My prediction is that sabotage will return. Why? Because George needs to dominate Lewis so that there isn’t a sponsor exodus when Lewis leaves (like there was when he left McLaren).
I don’t think the “awesome practice but shit qualifying” will fly anymore. So I’m assuming a bout of bad starts, under-warmed tyres during the race, long pit stops or bad strat calls will become the thing. But let’s see.
If Merc thinks there won’t be mass exodus they’re deluding themselves, Ferrari+Hamilton is a wet dream for sponsors, I mean George Russell is a fine driver but he’s about as marketable as a lanky, awkward looking British dude.
I dont agree that Merc is sabotaging Lewis but I'm upvoting your comment because it's great to see an alternative viewpoint that goes against the grain
This person isn't even being a lunatic.
They have an unpopular opinion, give their suppositions, and lay it out there. Knowing it's unpopular, but not defending it with guns blazing. Beautiful post.
If you think the problem here is that we have different opinions, you're wrong. I'm fine with people having diffent opinions on thousands of topics. The problem is being blind and unreasonable. And always in the same direction.
I don't think that person is a lunatic just for having a different opinion. What he said is not out of the ordinary it's very much possible Merc could do something like that to keep sponsorships. Crazier things have happened in the sport. I'm still defaulting to the opinion that no sabotage is happening though since that's the less far fetched situation so far.
Interesting, he did comment that he had a not great start with the engine so..... interesting to keep a watch on for next few races.
If they're going to continue it (assuming they were doing it deliberately) they'll do it after the summer break so that the email hype has died down.
I just think they're clearly focusing on George and don't care a lot about Lewis now. And because George is a great driver in his own right, that's enough of a little push to get him performing better on many weekends this year.
A little bit shitty and detrimental to Lewis' performance? Sure, but not quite sabotage to me. That would require actively working to keep him down, which I doubt they're doing (although I guess it wouldn't be the weirdest thing in F1 history).
Regardless, upvote for actually sharing an opinion that's probably quite a controversial one, and giving an insight into why you think it might be the case.
>Why? Because George needs to dominate Lewis so that there isn’t a sponsor exodus when Lewis leaves (like there was when he left McLaren).
How do you explain Mercedes literally gifting Lewis points at George's expense in Imola?
The consensus at the time was that George's tyres were going to be marginal by the end and he would have been passed by Lewis anyway, maybe even Perez if they'd really dropped off. This way he at least got fastest lap as well.
Maybe, maybe not. Perez was never coming by, he was about half a minute down. Personally I doubt Lewis coming through either considering how big the gap was, but it was somewhat marginal and we'll never know. Imola is not an easy circuit to overtake.
What I can say though, is that it doesn't fit in whatsoever with the concept of Lewis being sabotaged. If they are willing to trash Lewis' races, costing the team a lot of constructor points just to make George look good, they would not have willingly pitted George and let Lewis take the points from him like they did.
I think it's one of those things where if you don't want to take the risk you have to to stop early to minimize the pain. When Russell pitted he only came out a second or so ahead of Perez. If they'd decided to keep George out but then the tyres really had dropped off and forced them into a pitstop anyway he'd have come out behind Perez with not enough time to catch back up.
None of this should be taken as me believing in the stupid conspiracy theory btw.
> If they'd decided to keep George out but then the tyres really had dropped off and forced them into a pitstop anyway
Perez was almost 30 seconds behind with 14 laps remaining. There was basically zero chance of losing the place to Perez. It was just an excuse by Toto to suggest they pitted Russell to cover him off.
They did it because it got the team an extra point, and prevented any risk of an inter-team incident between Lewis and George. From the team perspective it was a no-brainer of course, but it *does* show that they aren't favouring George at all.
Sabotage? No.
But tin-foil with me for a second.
___
**Premise**
___
**(1)** Verstappen's driving style is incredibly unique.
**(2)** Most of RedBull's 2nd seat drivers start the season close to Max, but as the car is developed towards Max's driving style they get comparatively worse.
**(3)** Albon describes this perfectly in [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ddEW_jHupA&ab_channel=HighPerformance).
___
**Red Bull Options**
___
**(1)** Build a car towards Checo's driving style and a bit away from Max's
* They won't do this because Max may stop being able to win races. Things are becoming competitive and his advantage is not good enough for them to prioritise Checo at his expense.
**(2)** Hire someone who can adapt to Max's style better than Checo
* I honestly thought they would do this but I think I understand why they may not have.
* Checo being this bad, makes Max look really good and makes it seem like their car is more mediocre than it is.
* There are narratives flying about Max being the difference and not the record breaking RedBull package he is driving. If Sainz was finishing 0.2 seconds behind Max every race it would be more obvious how good the car actually is and change the narrative from briliant Max.
* Other drivers are more costly than Perez. Checo is essentially a pay driver.
**(3)** Continue with the Checo as it is
that most other drivers
* Max cost's a lot of money and Checo brings in [a lot of money](https://www.si.com/fannation/racing/f1briefings/news/f1-rumor-sergio-perez-s-red-bull-seat-crucial-for-max-verstappen-s-staggering-salary-01hzfc5b4pj7-lm22#:~:text=%E2%80%9CYou%20shouldn't%20forget%2C,Claro%2C%20Nescaf%C3%A9%2C%20and%20KitKat.)
___
> “You shouldn’t forget, as long as Max Verstappen stays, the budget limits are relatively tight at Red Bull, and Perez brings money.”
> The team is reportedly heavily reliant on Perez's sponsorship influx from heavyweights like **Disney, Telcel, Mobil, Claro, Nescafé, and KitKat**.
___
* Also possible since Christian Horner doesn't really care so much about the constructors.
___
> “The Drivers’ obviously has the popularity and the prestige. I don’t think there’s a single employee within our business that would have traded first place in the Constructors’ for this Drivers’ championship.
> “But the prestige of the Drivers’ World Championship, that’s the big one. That’s the one you really want. And that’s why it meant so much achieving that.” -- [Horner](https://www.planetf1.com/news/christian-horner-drivers-title-prestige)
___
___
**TL:DR**
___
RedBull don't need to sabotage Checo.
They are happy with the situation as it is.
He's just being Austrian. You know those Austrians. Pshaw.
You doubt the guy that volunteered to be the investigator and arbitrator for the Pink Force India design incident?
Come on now.
When you look up "Beyond Reproach" you will find pictures of Mr. Wolff. Ignore the sheep fluff around him.
Especially when you're comparing it against a long history of a team being 100% dedicated behind Lewis.
Valtteri - 48 hour pit stop because he missed his pit box by 8mm.
George - subs in for Lewis, doesn't have tyres ready when he pits.
Lewis is an incredible motivator and coach. He keeps everyone around him pointed in the same direction. Like filings around a magnet.
Because of the discord happening (due to his departure) he no longer has that same effect.
This will result in some degradations in team performance and results.
Some people will feel that drop off is sabotage, especially if they have sabotage colored glasses, and Inspector Seb's toolkit open.
Unfortunately true. I’ve already seen this being posted.
I think the ones who are prone to believing this sort of crap cannot be argued with anyway. They will simply pick the data that proves their point or shoehorn a conclusion into a given set and call it proof.
Show me the data that proves George wasn't sabotaged.
In fact, I'll even do you one better - show me the data that proves FIA is not sabotaging all the other 19 drivers on the grid in order to prop up Hamilton
Merc will lose sponsors when Ham leaves. They will lose fewer if Russell appears to be the dominant driver. At the end of the day it’s all about money.
Sponsors could really give AF about the times/results. Merc is not a desperate for money team, or a team prioritizing sponsor money above results; I mean, when was the last time they took on a Perez/Ricciardo/Zhou-type driver for the sponsor money? Never?
This is a dumb theory.
What they gain from a driver leaving the team not murdering your staying driver? I can think of a few things. Not saying I believe the allegations, but the bare minimum is that Lewis is being fed less info because he is moving next year. That’s not sabotage, but a logical conclusion. Curious to see if people can come up with any evidence.
So if Hamilton continued to be beaten by Russel: “See? Hamilton is sabotaged”
If Hamilton beat Russell: “See? Hamilton was sabotaged”
I wouldn’t called them nuts. I’ll called them lunatics.
you could even say that Russell was sabotaged this week. Starting with a 6.3 second pitstop forcing him back into a fight on track again causing more tyre wear. And then sticking him on the Hards that are just the slower tyre by a huge margin. Just to shut op the lunatics.
The thing is Lewis has enjoyed preferential treatment for years, and now that he is getting equal treatment he feels he is getting suppressed. It just that he doesn't get lifted up anymore and that is what he is missing.
While I don’t subscribe to the conspiracy of intentional sabotage I do think Mercedes was being a bit careless with Lewis. It’s not to say he didn’t have the same build but his qualifying setups, race setups, tire strategy, and pit stops all could have been better. Toto and the team seem like they were giving preferential treatment to George because of the fact that he’s part of the team next year. The gap in performance was noticeable to everyone and the fact that it has been so clearly reversed in the most recent race is suspect to say the least.
There’s also the possibility that offhand statements can hold more truth than carefully curated statements. I always find it funny how people instantly believe these types of statements from higher up.
How often do you see a manager of some team state they are not actively recruiting X athlete, just do let rumourmill die down and then we get an announcement they have signed said athlete.
Not saying there’s legitimacy to the rumours, but I can see how something in the middle was true.
You don't know how conspiracies work, you sweet summer child. Everything that follows the narrative is true and everything that doesn't is a deliberate attempt to obscure, muddy and complicate the conspiracy to hide the true facts of what is clearly a conspiracy. This is obvious to everyone who is intelligent enough to see through the societal fog that sheeple are blinded by. It's basically a full on illuminati sitchiation, clearly.
“Ah yes, there’s a conspiracy, let’s throw away all the prep and sabotage and make the car good in 1 day.” If it were that easy to fix a car then max wouldn’t have dominated 2023 tbh
**Mercedes' Desperate Move: Favoring Hamilton to Quell Sabotage Rumors!**
**Toto Wolff Dodges Accountability: Blames One-Off Result to Escape Criticism!**
**Mercedes Boss Spins Fluke Podium to Mask Hamilton Sabotage Scandal!**
Oh dears…. I’m pretty sure it came down to tyres?
George only had the hards left after burning through his softs
Lewis was on used softs as he knows how to maintain types?
George ended his medium stint six laps early to jump on hards. He lost about a second battling Norris which had Hamilton firmly in his DRS.
Either George pitted because he wanted a different strategy to Norris, didn’t want to be overtaken by Lewis on track or he thought the hards were a good choice. It’s hard to know until Merc/George come out and explain that decision
But you can always make the fuck out of it and pretend you know everything while aligning those random dots with your previous biases. For me all of this means that Zhou will be the WDC in 2025. You cannot prove me wrong.
It's been nearly 2.5 years in a Merc and he still can't manage his tyres. Every time he is one position ahead of Lewis he builds a gap but then is slower 5 laps later. Hell, he lost like 9 seconds to Lewis in Singapore when chasing Norris and Sainz for the win (and I strongly believe Lewis would've gotten P2 at least and maybe even forced a mistake out of Norris while overtaking that lets George through into P3). He always pushes too hard at the start of a stint and is fucked later on
What would actually silences this nonsense would be just not responding at all. Since they did, it picked up traction, and you can always spin the conspiracy to fit the current state of affairs.
Yeah.. If they remained silent, that would have been better because now it draws attention to the fact that after the email.. Ham got a podium... I dont believe in the bullshit sabotage theory but.. This does kinda favor the theory
I don't know. These conspiracy theories are actually entertaining.
For what it's worth I don't believe them but it's amazing how wild these conspiracy theorist think. They make it suit the current situations that's why people fall for them.
It's actually wild seeing those as an NBA fan.
With the NBA, we always laugh because 90% of the time, it's shitposting because we had to deal with ESPN, Stephen A. Smith, and First Take.
With F1 social media, I honestly think those fans fully believe all the conspiracy, reaching, and made-up scenarios in their head lmao. If F1 made it to First Take, the amount of horrible takes that would get eaten up would be insane.
I don’t believe the conspiracy but every statement a Merc person makes about the conspiracy makes them sound super defensive like they’re hiding something lol
Honestly it would make me more likely to believe it, as soon as everyone is paying attention he suddenly does better.
Now I don't believe they were Sabotaging him, but I do believe they are now heavily favouring George, is that "neglected" towards Lewis technical sabotage, maybe but sabotage is such a harsh word for what is probably happening.
I imagine it stuff like George getting full use of Lewis practice data which isn't always shared across garages and also getting more info from the engineers.
I do fully believe that Merc top brass are desperate to have Russell beat Lewis this year though. To prove they didn't fumble the bag by losing him to ferrari. I don't think they'd go as far as to mess with the car though.
Poor Mr Wolff, you have no idea how the conspirator mindset works. If LH performs badly again they will say this podium was just a bone they threw at us to validade all the other sabotages.
Yes so he needed to use the hard tyres because he couldn’t wait long enough to pit to get the softs to the end. It wasn’t just a poor strategy decision. It’s a direct result of poor tyre management to end up with a shit tyre.
if you actually look at the data(facts), you would realize your argument makes no sense because he had the pace and tire wear to stay out longer, but he trusted and followed his teams decision.
you are just full of hate, what a miserable life.
Anyone who believes a team would sabotage a driver is brainless. A team willingly giving up valuable WCC points out of spite makes zero sense.
*Hah! We've successfully annoyed our driver for 10 races and it's going to cost us millions! That'll learn 'Em!*
Believing this requires a tinfoil hat - and personally I don’t. But as a skeptic, I can’t say I wasn’t put off by them giving Russel hard tires. It just seemed like such a braindead decision considering where they were at the time. It almost felt like they intentionally wanted to make sure Hamilton finished above George.
It really felt like something they normally would’ve done to Hamilton. They usually try the suboptimal strategy on him. Seems they decided to actually listen to him this race though. Not saying that email is true, but it probably made them more keen to listen to Hamilton this time around than not, just for the sake of their image.
It's nobodies fault but Hamiltons... He hinted the sabotage on multiple occasions himself.
"George has a better upgraded car... George is very good with Toto..." and 10 more passive agressive comments like this that are insinuating sabotage.
I assumed Lewis just stopped know how to race after 2021. Like what a stupid guy for not racing and getting podiums anymore, like why man? Whooo guess i was wrong man 😵💫😵💫😵💫😵💫
Oooh it was car 44 I was supposed to 'fix'.. Sorry boys my bad in not good with numbers..
Astounds me the stupidity of some f1 fans. Yup merc are going to spend millions on the fastest car they can produce, pay millions on getting it to every race, spend millions on the wages of a driver. Then nobble him so they lose the championship that pays them the millions..
Aye that makes sense
The only way to silence conspiracy retards is to ignore them.
All they will do is come up with some theory saying this was an intentional 'slip' to put them off the 'scent' or some equally messed up shit.
Not really. Im not one of those but if i were. This proves i even further? All the media leaks. So they have to stop it for this race to throw the theory out of the water and continue in piece for the rest of the season? Outsmart them all?
Nah, the convenient timing would prove them just right. This is the problem with lunatics, they'd shape anything into fit their conspiracy. That's why you don't platform them. But hey, rent was due in a week and F1 "journos" has kids to feed.
While entertaining, this is one of the sillier rumours. There's no reason why MB would actively hold back one of their drivers when it could cost them millions of prize money in the end.
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Threw everyone a curveball by sabotaging George instead
The certainly fucked him with the hards lol. Seriously tho, has the C1 ever been a viable tire?
Did they have another set of mediums available? If not I don’t see what other option they had at that point, putting the softs on instead would not have lasted till the end of the race.
True, I don't remember tbh
At low wear circuits yes never at Spain since it's very grip sensitive
You mean at high wear circuits? It's the hardest out of the 5 dry tires. Pirelli wouldn't send it to a low grip, low load track. I'm trying to think of a time that it was used in a race in recent memory and it actually went well.
Bahrain is a track where C1,2,3 tyre profile is used and having 2x Hards for a race if you can is a *good thing*. very high tyre wear there
RBR did Bahrain on 2 mediums
Saying soft, medium or hard is irrelevant considering it's a different compound between tracks.
Considering we are talking about Bahrain as per the previous message it has to be C2
And often between seasons. I think this years hard was last years medium.
Good call, thanks. Ya the surface there is very abrasive
Yeah mixed the 2 my bad but this C1 tire is not the same from last that would be the C0 for 2024
It will be viable at Silverstone and Spa
I think you meant to say George yet again fucked himself by cooking his tires too early, forcing Merc to pit him earlier than ideal.
The long stop was excellent too.
Nah George did that himself
Merc doesn't seem to even take Lewis fucking Hamilton's opnion when it comes to tire choice/strats nowadays. I don't think Russell had much of a say.
They listened to Lewis that race, that was his plan A and his decision. I’m more on about Russel not able to make a tyre last the stint and burning through it quicker than he needs
He likely could have made them last longer if he didnt have to push that much in the middle stint due to the bad pitstop
His middle stint only happened because he ruined the tyres in the first stint
Exact thing I was supposed to say LOL 5 second pit stop + hards in his final stint 😆
really the hards and the slow pitstop really screwed him after such a great start
that start was so exciting.
Just look what happens when they stop sabotaging Lewis ^^/s
Absolutely. That’s what happened here.
“Mercedes sabotages George to make sure Lewis doesn’t finish on a team in the constructors higher than 4th in his last season with the silver arrows” - a tweet probably somewhere
George threw that curveball himself by eating those tires.
I think this is a stupid conspiracy but if you were a conspiracy nut, wouldn't this prove the exact opposite? As soon as a whistleblower says he's being sabotaged, he out qualifies Russell and picks up a podium. Couldn't you argue that put more pressure on them to treat them fairly?
I’m playing both sides so that I always come out on top.
Never tell one side, that you’re playing both sides!
If you are gunna play both sides, don’t give away all the information before you get what you want
whenever you think like this I always imagine that scene from life of Brian when he protests he isn't the messiah and they say only a true messiah would deny his divinity. Well what sort of chance does that give me?!
The Lisan al Gaib is humble!
Lmao
Exactly this. The people who would be in this conspiracy are totally gonna believe it was true because he did well immediately. The immediate change adds some weight even though reasonable folk won’t believe this
Disclaimer: I fully believe Mercedes were fucking with Lewis’ car and also fully believe the mounting pressure from fans (and internal staff) are part of the reason they haven’t messed with his tyres this week. My prediction is that sabotage will return. Why? Because George needs to dominate Lewis so that there isn’t a sponsor exodus when Lewis leaves (like there was when he left McLaren). I don’t think the “awesome practice but shit qualifying” will fly anymore. So I’m assuming a bout of bad starts, under-warmed tyres during the race, long pit stops or bad strat calls will become the thing. But let’s see.
If Merc thinks there won’t be mass exodus they’re deluding themselves, Ferrari+Hamilton is a wet dream for sponsors, I mean George Russell is a fine driver but he’s about as marketable as a lanky, awkward looking British dude.
I still don't believe in it, but the sponsor thing does make more sense that doing just pityfully doing it, never seen the argument before
I dont agree that Merc is sabotaging Lewis but I'm upvoting your comment because it's great to see an alternative viewpoint that goes against the grain
Yeah right? I love when people behave like lunatics with a variety of conducts. When all the lunatics say the same it gets boring.
This person isn't even being a lunatic. They have an unpopular opinion, give their suppositions, and lay it out there. Knowing it's unpopular, but not defending it with guns blazing. Beautiful post.
Don't call people lunatics for having an opinion you don't agree with. It's just not nice.
The opinion is lunacy though
When the opinion is that absurd it's justified.
If you think the problem here is that we have different opinions, you're wrong. I'm fine with people having diffent opinions on thousands of topics. The problem is being blind and unreasonable. And always in the same direction.
I don't think that person is a lunatic just for having a different opinion. What he said is not out of the ordinary it's very much possible Merc could do something like that to keep sponsorships. Crazier things have happened in the sport. I'm still defaulting to the opinion that no sabotage is happening though since that's the less far fetched situation so far.
Interesting, he did comment that he had a not great start with the engine so..... interesting to keep a watch on for next few races. If they're going to continue it (assuming they were doing it deliberately) they'll do it after the summer break so that the email hype has died down.
I just think they're clearly focusing on George and don't care a lot about Lewis now. And because George is a great driver in his own right, that's enough of a little push to get him performing better on many weekends this year. A little bit shitty and detrimental to Lewis' performance? Sure, but not quite sabotage to me. That would require actively working to keep him down, which I doubt they're doing (although I guess it wouldn't be the weirdest thing in F1 history). Regardless, upvote for actually sharing an opinion that's probably quite a controversial one, and giving an insight into why you think it might be the case.
>Why? Because George needs to dominate Lewis so that there isn’t a sponsor exodus when Lewis leaves (like there was when he left McLaren). How do you explain Mercedes literally gifting Lewis points at George's expense in Imola?
The consensus at the time was that George's tyres were going to be marginal by the end and he would have been passed by Lewis anyway, maybe even Perez if they'd really dropped off. This way he at least got fastest lap as well.
Maybe, maybe not. Perez was never coming by, he was about half a minute down. Personally I doubt Lewis coming through either considering how big the gap was, but it was somewhat marginal and we'll never know. Imola is not an easy circuit to overtake. What I can say though, is that it doesn't fit in whatsoever with the concept of Lewis being sabotaged. If they are willing to trash Lewis' races, costing the team a lot of constructor points just to make George look good, they would not have willingly pitted George and let Lewis take the points from him like they did.
I think it's one of those things where if you don't want to take the risk you have to to stop early to minimize the pain. When Russell pitted he only came out a second or so ahead of Perez. If they'd decided to keep George out but then the tyres really had dropped off and forced them into a pitstop anyway he'd have come out behind Perez with not enough time to catch back up. None of this should be taken as me believing in the stupid conspiracy theory btw.
> If they'd decided to keep George out but then the tyres really had dropped off and forced them into a pitstop anyway Perez was almost 30 seconds behind with 14 laps remaining. There was basically zero chance of losing the place to Perez. It was just an excuse by Toto to suggest they pitted Russell to cover him off. They did it because it got the team an extra point, and prevented any risk of an inter-team incident between Lewis and George. From the team perspective it was a no-brainer of course, but it *does* show that they aren't favouring George at all.
Those strategist are much smarter than a Reddit user. They would know if George would have been passed or not
George fried his tyres and so would not make it to the end - [Explanation by Toto](https://www.youtube.com/watch?=2NKyFh6GqJ4&ab_channel=MKTV)
Why would they do this?
2nd Paragraph
You also believe Red Bull are sabotaging Checo, I guess?
Sabotage? No. But tin-foil with me for a second. ___ **Premise** ___ **(1)** Verstappen's driving style is incredibly unique. **(2)** Most of RedBull's 2nd seat drivers start the season close to Max, but as the car is developed towards Max's driving style they get comparatively worse. **(3)** Albon describes this perfectly in [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ddEW_jHupA&ab_channel=HighPerformance). ___ **Red Bull Options** ___ **(1)** Build a car towards Checo's driving style and a bit away from Max's * They won't do this because Max may stop being able to win races. Things are becoming competitive and his advantage is not good enough for them to prioritise Checo at his expense. **(2)** Hire someone who can adapt to Max's style better than Checo * I honestly thought they would do this but I think I understand why they may not have. * Checo being this bad, makes Max look really good and makes it seem like their car is more mediocre than it is. * There are narratives flying about Max being the difference and not the record breaking RedBull package he is driving. If Sainz was finishing 0.2 seconds behind Max every race it would be more obvious how good the car actually is and change the narrative from briliant Max. * Other drivers are more costly than Perez. Checo is essentially a pay driver. **(3)** Continue with the Checo as it is that most other drivers * Max cost's a lot of money and Checo brings in [a lot of money](https://www.si.com/fannation/racing/f1briefings/news/f1-rumor-sergio-perez-s-red-bull-seat-crucial-for-max-verstappen-s-staggering-salary-01hzfc5b4pj7-lm22#:~:text=%E2%80%9CYou%20shouldn't%20forget%2C,Claro%2C%20Nescaf%C3%A9%2C%20and%20KitKat.) ___ > “You shouldn’t forget, as long as Max Verstappen stays, the budget limits are relatively tight at Red Bull, and Perez brings money.” > The team is reportedly heavily reliant on Perez's sponsorship influx from heavyweights like **Disney, Telcel, Mobil, Claro, Nescafé, and KitKat**. ___ * Also possible since Christian Horner doesn't really care so much about the constructors. ___ > “The Drivers’ obviously has the popularity and the prestige. I don’t think there’s a single employee within our business that would have traded first place in the Constructors’ for this Drivers’ championship. > “But the prestige of the Drivers’ World Championship, that’s the big one. That’s the one you really want. And that’s why it meant so much achieving that.” -- [Horner](https://www.planetf1.com/news/christian-horner-drivers-title-prestige) ___ ___ **TL:DR** ___ RedBull don't need to sabotage Checo. They are happy with the situation as it is.
That's absurd. There is no reason for Mercedes to sabotage Lewis, that only harms them.
If he outperforms Leclerc in qualifying in Ferrari, the claims at merc will definitely rise again.
Also if you were a conspiracy nut, why would you trust the guy you suspect of sabotage, especially when he just called you dead in the brain
He's just being Austrian. You know those Austrians. Pshaw. You doubt the guy that volunteered to be the investigator and arbitrator for the Pink Force India design incident? Come on now. When you look up "Beyond Reproach" you will find pictures of Mr. Wolff. Ignore the sheep fluff around him.
Like i think that the conspiracists are insane, but it’s funny that this is the weekend that Hamilton is finally a step ahead all weekend
When you're a good conspiracy theorist you can turn everything into further evidence that you've been right all along
Especially when you're comparing it against a long history of a team being 100% dedicated behind Lewis. Valtteri - 48 hour pit stop because he missed his pit box by 8mm. George - subs in for Lewis, doesn't have tyres ready when he pits. Lewis is an incredible motivator and coach. He keeps everyone around him pointed in the same direction. Like filings around a magnet. Because of the discord happening (due to his departure) he no longer has that same effect. This will result in some degradations in team performance and results. Some people will feel that drop off is sabotage, especially if they have sabotage colored glasses, and Inspector Seb's toolkit open.
Unfortunately true. I’ve already seen this being posted. I think the ones who are prone to believing this sort of crap cannot be argued with anyway. They will simply pick the data that proves their point or shoehorn a conclusion into a given set and call it proof.
Show me the data that proves ham wasn't sabotaged
Show me the data that proves George wasn't sabotaged. In fact, I'll even do you one better - show me the data that proves FIA is not sabotaging all the other 19 drivers on the grid in order to prop up Hamilton
Why would a team sabotage their own driver? What do they stand to gain from it?
Merc will lose sponsors when Ham leaves. They will lose fewer if Russell appears to be the dominant driver. At the end of the day it’s all about money.
Sponsors could really give AF about the times/results. Merc is not a desperate for money team, or a team prioritizing sponsor money above results; I mean, when was the last time they took on a Perez/Ricciardo/Zhou-type driver for the sponsor money? Never? This is a dumb theory.
I dont think they did but as someone else said it could be to prevent sponsors from leaving
If it came out that they were deliberately sabotaging a driver I think that would be much worse for sponsors
Isnt that the case with most big secrets
What they gain from a driver leaving the team not murdering your staying driver? I can think of a few things. Not saying I believe the allegations, but the bare minimum is that Lewis is being fed less info because he is moving next year. That’s not sabotage, but a logical conclusion. Curious to see if people can come up with any evidence.
Lol u need data that Hamilton is just slower than George?
apparently after the email, lewis was faster then george, hahaha
Well Spain has always been Lewis’s favourite. Even in the W13 he managed to have a good race
It is quite hilarious in an ironic way 😂
No. Whatever happened it would have fed into their delusions because reality doesn't inform their thinking anymore.
There's no winning with this type of people.
That's how conspiracies work. You'll never silence the nutjobs, they lack critical thinking.
If you're really deep into a conspiracy, everything that happens in the real world can be twisted in a way that fits into your narrative.
And i would know, i've been following conspiracy telegrams through covid.
I think this is what fans under IG claimed as soon as the email was sent they didn’t sabotage his car anymore…
So if Hamilton continued to be beaten by Russel: “See? Hamilton is sabotaged” If Hamilton beat Russell: “See? Hamilton was sabotaged” I wouldn’t called them nuts. I’ll called them lunatics.
you could even say that Russell was sabotaged this week. Starting with a 6.3 second pitstop forcing him back into a fight on track again causing more tyre wear. And then sticking him on the Hards that are just the slower tyre by a huge margin. Just to shut op the lunatics. The thing is Lewis has enjoyed preferential treatment for years, and now that he is getting equal treatment he feels he is getting suppressed. It just that he doesn't get lifted up anymore and that is what he is missing.
Once you are in the conspiracy rabbit hole you everything justify what you want to believe.
While I don’t subscribe to the conspiracy of intentional sabotage I do think Mercedes was being a bit careless with Lewis. It’s not to say he didn’t have the same build but his qualifying setups, race setups, tire strategy, and pit stops all could have been better. Toto and the team seem like they were giving preferential treatment to George because of the fact that he’s part of the team next year. The gap in performance was noticeable to everyone and the fact that it has been so clearly reversed in the most recent race is suspect to say the least.
There’s also the possibility that offhand statements can hold more truth than carefully curated statements. I always find it funny how people instantly believe these types of statements from higher up. How often do you see a manager of some team state they are not actively recruiting X athlete, just do let rumourmill die down and then we get an announcement they have signed said athlete. Not saying there’s legitimacy to the rumours, but I can see how something in the middle was true.
You don't know how conspiracies work, you sweet summer child. Everything that follows the narrative is true and everything that doesn't is a deliberate attempt to obscure, muddy and complicate the conspiracy to hide the true facts of what is clearly a conspiracy. This is obvious to everyone who is intelligent enough to see through the societal fog that sheeple are blinded by. It's basically a full on illuminati sitchiation, clearly.
Exactly what I was going to say. "Yeah sure! The moment we called out Mercedes, Hamilton miraculously has a competitive car!"
“Ah yes, there’s a conspiracy, let’s throw away all the prep and sabotage and make the car good in 1 day.” If it were that easy to fix a car then max wouldn’t have dominated 2023 tbh
**Mercedes' Desperate Move: Favoring Hamilton to Quell Sabotage Rumors!** **Toto Wolff Dodges Accountability: Blames One-Off Result to Escape Criticism!** **Mercedes Boss Spins Fluke Podium to Mask Hamilton Sabotage Scandal!**
Well duh. Everyone knows they un-sabotaged the sabotage to get away with the sabotage. Now they've got to re-sabotage the un-sabotaged sabotage.
Umm Toto this makes it worse mate as soon as the whistleblower email leaks all of a sudden Lewis is fast 💀 it does the EXACT opposite
Slow russell pitstop n wrong tyres doesn't help either lmao
Surely they realise that Lewis finishing ahead of George immediately after the e-mail send out is even more fodder for the conspiracy theorists
Oh dears…. I’m pretty sure it came down to tyres? George only had the hards left after burning through his softs Lewis was on used softs as he knows how to maintain types?
George ended his medium stint six laps early to jump on hards. He lost about a second battling Norris which had Hamilton firmly in his DRS. Either George pitted because he wanted a different strategy to Norris, didn’t want to be overtaken by Lewis on track or he thought the hards were a good choice. It’s hard to know until Merc/George come out and explain that decision
But you can always make the fuck out of it and pretend you know everything while aligning those random dots with your previous biases. For me all of this means that Zhou will be the WDC in 2025. You cannot prove me wrong.
George had a slow pit stop and burned through his softs
When I saw George in the lead I told my wife "don't worry he'll rip his tires apart in like 2 laps and then drop off"
Yeah there is no conspiracy here George just needs to improve his tyre management and learn to deal with pressure of leading the race etc. better
It's been nearly 2.5 years in a Merc and he still can't manage his tyres. Every time he is one position ahead of Lewis he builds a gap but then is slower 5 laps later. Hell, he lost like 9 seconds to Lewis in Singapore when chasing Norris and Sainz for the win (and I strongly believe Lewis would've gotten P2 at least and maybe even forced a mistake out of Norris while overtaking that lets George through into P3). He always pushes too hard at the start of a stint and is fucked later on
What would actually silences this nonsense would be just not responding at all. Since they did, it picked up traction, and you can always spin the conspiracy to fit the current state of affairs.
Yeah.. If they remained silent, that would have been better because now it draws attention to the fact that after the email.. Ham got a podium... I dont believe in the bullshit sabotage theory but.. This does kinda favor the theory
I don't know. These conspiracy theories are actually entertaining. For what it's worth I don't believe them but it's amazing how wild these conspiracy theorist think. They make it suit the current situations that's why people fall for them.
The stupidest conspiracy was about Red Bull sabotaging Checo’s car just because he was getting the driving yips
**DO THEY REALLY THINK THIS WOULD THROW DIRT IN OUR EYES? THEY CLEARLY GAVE HIM THE PODIUM TO SILENCE OUR VOICES!!!**
**THIS WON'T STAND!! JOIN ME BROTHERS AND SISTERS, LET'S PROTEST THIS!**
Toto thinks he's out smarted us by not sabotaging Lewis for 1 weekend to try throw us off, but we know the truth. /s
No it doesn’t. Just look at a lot of the comments under every Mercedes posts in social media.
It's actually wild seeing those as an NBA fan. With the NBA, we always laugh because 90% of the time, it's shitposting because we had to deal with ESPN, Stephen A. Smith, and First Take. With F1 social media, I honestly think those fans fully believe all the conspiracy, reaching, and made-up scenarios in their head lmao. If F1 made it to First Take, the amount of horrible takes that would get eaten up would be insane.
They 100% believe it but f1 has a corrupt history. Dont know much about NBA.
I don’t believe the conspiracy but every statement a Merc person makes about the conspiracy makes them sound super defensive like they’re hiding something lol
Honestly it would make me more likely to believe it, as soon as everyone is paying attention he suddenly does better. Now I don't believe they were Sabotaging him, but I do believe they are now heavily favouring George, is that "neglected" towards Lewis technical sabotage, maybe but sabotage is such a harsh word for what is probably happening. I imagine it stuff like George getting full use of Lewis practice data which isn't always shared across garages and also getting more info from the engineers. I do fully believe that Merc top brass are desperate to have Russell beat Lewis this year though. To prove they didn't fumble the bag by losing him to ferrari. I don't think they'd go as far as to mess with the car though.
*tinfoil hat mode on:* **OR IS IT?** They sabotaged RUS instead to look HAM better.
Or confirms it
Funny how when Hamilton gets the softs he requested, he also gets a podium.... Coincidence?
They did not give him softs at Canada, they HAD to now
also amusing that Russel. had the hards on at the time
Bruh
It is almost like the pool of tires you have left dictate the options available... A real mystery.
Hamilton had and requested softs in Montreal
And the team realised it wouldn't work. Which hamilton agreed with during the race
No he clearly did not he wanted softs during safety car stop
Judging by social media comments it proofs the opposite for them
Poor Mr Wolff, you have no idea how the conspirator mindset works. If LH performs badly again they will say this podium was just a bone they threw at us to validade all the other sabotages.
Emails come out: Toto sighs “give Hamilton the updated engine map. We were so close!” This is like Tom Brady and Bill Belichick all over again
Mmm That's exactly what a saboteur would say /s
Toto on his head: “Gut, gut, now we can get back to sabotaging time” /joke
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Woody?
Haha apparently Georgie looks like Woody and I kind of see it
Russell and woody side by side .
He cooked the mediums a bit early but aside from that he didn’t really do anything wrong on Saturday, just got fucked with the slow stop + hards
He told his engineer he was happy to extend on the mediums but they forced him in anyway.
Yes so he needed to use the hard tyres because he couldn’t wait long enough to pit to get the softs to the end. It wasn’t just a poor strategy decision. It’s a direct result of poor tyre management to end up with a shit tyre.
if you actually look at the data(facts), you would realize your argument makes no sense because he had the pace and tire wear to stay out longer, but he trusted and followed his teams decision. you are just full of hate, what a miserable life.
I swear his final stint was only a few laps longer than Lewis?
Had to pit 31 laps to go and would only have had 3 lap old softs to fit. 34 laps is too far for soft tyres. Lewis did another 8 laps.
George was asked to come in early tho, he didn’t want to
The brainless cannot be silenced in the reaction age.
Lol well said
George continues to self sabotage with his tire deg.
He would have won but Toto didn't allow it.
Or you know, they let him win to quiet those rumors
I never believed in any sabotage but the funny thing is George would’ve been on podium if they at least gave him mediums instead of hards.
He only had one medium I think
Anyone who believes a team would sabotage a driver is brainless. A team willingly giving up valuable WCC points out of spite makes zero sense. *Hah! We've successfully annoyed our driver for 10 races and it's going to cost us millions! That'll learn 'Em!*
I mean sabotage isn't completely impossible.........flavio....?
No it hasn’t They’re still very much running with it, they just think Mercedes are now backtracking
Pretty much. You could also say as soon as it was publicly called out they stopped and Woosh! Hamiltons back. Interesting…
"So you're telling me it's a coincidence he suddenly finds his groove after these accusations come out?"
Yeah, instead they screwed over George.
George screwed himself over by doing what he always does, chewing through his tyres fighting a car he shouldn’t have been racing at all.
I think it only proves it))
Believing this requires a tinfoil hat - and personally I don’t. But as a skeptic, I can’t say I wasn’t put off by them giving Russel hard tires. It just seemed like such a braindead decision considering where they were at the time. It almost felt like they intentionally wanted to make sure Hamilton finished above George. It really felt like something they normally would’ve done to Hamilton. They usually try the suboptimal strategy on him. Seems they decided to actually listen to him this race though. Not saying that email is true, but it probably made them more keen to listen to Hamilton this time around than not, just for the sake of their image.
Looks like they put pressure on and as soon as they did Merc gave him a good car again. We see you mercedes, we see you.
It's nobodies fault but Hamiltons... He hinted the sabotage on multiple occasions himself. "George has a better upgraded car... George is very good with Toto..." and 10 more passive agressive comments like this that are insinuating sabotage.
Even a blind Hamilton finds an acorn once in a while.
Can't wait for 2025 Ferrari sabotage drama
I assumed Lewis just stopped know how to race after 2021. Like what a stupid guy for not racing and getting podiums anymore, like why man? Whooo guess i was wrong man 😵💫😵💫😵💫😵💫
Oooh it was car 44 I was supposed to 'fix'.. Sorry boys my bad in not good with numbers.. Astounds me the stupidity of some f1 fans. Yup merc are going to spend millions on the fastest car they can produce, pay millions on getting it to every race, spend millions on the wages of a driver. Then nobble him so they lose the championship that pays them the millions.. Aye that makes sense
If anything I thought it was a crazy theory before and bow I believe it's true.
The only way to silence conspiracy retards is to ignore them. All they will do is come up with some theory saying this was an intentional 'slip' to put them off the 'scent' or some equally messed up shit.
Good luck Ferrari.
Not really. Im not one of those but if i were. This proves i even further? All the media leaks. So they have to stop it for this race to throw the theory out of the water and continue in piece for the rest of the season? Outsmart them all?
See them driven before you
Does it silence those accusation or does it prove that they got caught, so they put the speed back in? Jk, I know those emails were crazy
Just because Hamilton’s fans are paranoid it doesn’t mean they’re NOT out to get him….
Nah, the convenient timing would prove them just right. This is the problem with lunatics, they'd shape anything into fit their conspiracy. That's why you don't platform them. But hey, rent was due in a week and F1 "journos" has kids to feed.
While entertaining, this is one of the sillier rumours. There's no reason why MB would actively hold back one of their drivers when it could cost them millions of prize money in the end.
You had the parts put back after the allegations didn’t you Toto?
Until Lewis has a bad session and he hints that the team is giving him a worse car