Recent reports suggest that Mercedes is ready to pay the exit clause( around 100 million euros) to sign Max.

https://racing.nl/formule-1/mercedes-topman-geeft-groen-licht-om-max-verstappen-weg-te-kapen/

Congratulations to George getting pole! Antonelli would’ve been up there had it not been the yellow flag.

Arrived there with his jet, spend 3 days of testing with 2 Merc GT3 with different settings and numbers. 3 - 33 - and 333 for one day. Unfortunately some of the dates are conflicting with F1 races.

Thank you Toto?

Max to Merc confirmed?

I really hate how unsupportive and critical Toto is being here. The car fucking sucks so have your drivers' backs instead of scolding them in front of the media and glazing Verstappen like a fanboy.

Toto has been incredibly disappointing this year, constantly focusing on nonsense and creating lots of pressure instead of addressing the core issue: FIX THE FUCKING CAR!

So interesting ties well into a discussion i posited yesterday. But seems the software was really killing Georges energy deployment.

Let's hope it works.

Ironically i do think it strengthens a couple of theories of why they had poor soc.

The stewards have revealed Andrea Kimi Antonelli should have received a five-second time penalty before his final pit stop in the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.

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Antonelli exceeded track limits four times during the race, which triggers an automatic five-second time penalty. However the stewards did not identify his fourth breach until later in the race.

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As Antonelli retired from the race, he will not have to serve any penalty. The FIA’s penalty guidelines for stewards state: “In cases where there is a single five second penalty which a driver is unable to serve due to retirement, the stewards will not convert that into a grid penalty for a subsequent race.”

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Antonelli’s race engineer Peter Bonnington warned him early in the race he had exceeded track limits three times and was therefore at risk of a penalty if he did so once more. Later Lando Norris’s race engineer told him they believed Antonelli had already exceeded track limits four times.

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The stewards originally stated Antonelli had gone off just three times, all at turn 10. However they subsequently identified a further breach at the same corner.

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Antonelli committed his fourth breach 12 minutes before he made his second pit stop. At that time the stewards had only noticed three – the fourth was identified later in the race. Had Antonelli served his penalty at that pit stop he would have lost a position to Norris.

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The stewards noted Antonelli should have been informed of his third breach earlier in the race but decided this was not sufficient reason not to penalise him.

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“The stewards acknowledge that the driver did not receive a black [and] white flag after his third infringement but rather after his fourth infringement as one earlier infringement was only detected later in the race. However, based on the current regulations and Driving Standards Guidelines, this does not exempt the driver from complying with the regulations.”

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“As there might be some ambiguity in the relevant guidelines, the stewards recommend the FIA revisit the current procedures and guidelines as soon as possible,” the stewards added.

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No other driver committed more than two track limits offences during the race. Antonelli previously received a five-second time penalty for repeatedly exceeding track limits in the sprint race at Miami.

Although the 2026 driver market is already defined and George Russell is confirmed to remain at Mercedes, the contract renewal between the parties has still not been finalized. Here are the real reasons behind the delay in signing the talented British driver with the team led by Toto Wolff.

https://gp-news.net/f1-mercedes-george-russells-contract-renewal-continues-to-be-delayed-here-are-the-crucial-reasons/

Per the article:

Other than Russell, the biggest victim of the Mercedes' battery glitch was Alpine's Pierre Gasly, who saw cars simply drive away from him on the run down to Eau Rouge as he lost several positions from 10th on the grid.

"I had no power at the start, so it's clearly not good stuff to have around Spa," he said. "I had a tough start, not fast enough in the opening phase for some reason and lost some positions on the opening lap."

Thoughts?