Mercedes Just Walked Away From Max Verstappen

Mercedes have just walked away from Max Verstappen. And this time, it wasn't Toto doing the talking. You need to pay attention to this man in the future, folks, because the Lord has spoken. Bradley Lord, to be specific. Toto Wolff's former communications boss at Mercedes, and now his deputy. He said this for your consideration. Ahem. Personally, my feeling would be that the direction of those comments is not increasing, but decreasing as Red Bull's performance and the competitiveness of the car improve. Well, that's interesting. Those are comments about a current Red Bull driver who is still under contract, from the mouth of Wolff's number two. That Max Verstappen's anger about the regulations for this year are cooling off because Red Bull's getting better. Although, as will become clear later in the video, and based on what you've already seen from Max, I don't think that really is the case. But I don't think anyone's told Toto that yet. But it's still a strange thing to say for two reasons, my ladder folk. First, Max himself said the opposite a smidge over a fortnight ago. And second, Bradley doesn't say things by accident, because con guys, they can't afford to do that. Whatever they say, it's intentional. So, what was he saying? And why did he choose to say this on a German YouTube channel, three days before a race weekend? I'll be honest with you. Until about a year ago, I really didn't expect Lorde to be elevated into his current position. As far as I was concerned, I thought Bradley Lorde was always just going to be the communications director, as in, the guy that Toto would choose to handle Sky Sports F1's pit wall thing because he just couldn't be bothered to talk to the likes of David Croft and Martin Brundle. And it also was down to the fact that, well, Toto bases himself in the garage anyway. So, you would have to have a separate feed that they may not necessarily get access to, because, well, it's in the garage. The pit wall, you know, that is a little bit more easy to make happen. He's also not part of the F1 commission. He's not a major team principal figure. So, it just makes you think, well, who is this guy to really speak? Unless he's just some sort of spin doctor. And when he does usually come out to speak, most people tend to tune out. Because, well, he doesn't carry the same charisma as the boss. I think the overall arc to anyone who gets Bradley, they just go, what was Toto busy? But in actuality, I believe he is the equivalent within Mercedes of Don Draper from Mad Men. He is the one selling the stories about the cars. And that has been his job, in a way, since the turbo hybrid era began in 2014, when he was employed by Mercedes. Every press release and every interview and interaction he had with Sky Sports F1, it came from his very mouth and him knowing exactly how Mercedes tends to operate itself within modern day Formula 1. Many people look to the Mercedes social media accounts and think they're slightly unhinged and very down with the kids sometimes. Bradley is ultimately the one who signed off on that momentum to make it very Gen Z coded before most of the other people within the paddock and the teams decided to go that way. And now he looks, at the very least, like part of the succession conversation of Wolf. Then he became the Mercedes-Benz motorsport comms director. Then the strategic comms director for 2021, which is why we see him regularly on Sky Sports. And then he got the official team rep title two years later. Now, when you hear they're all team representative, it usually is the kind of person that tends to speak more with the media than the team principal does, either because they're too busy with something or they're simply not on the track, or maybe because they're just too important to do all the sundry stuff with media and the big bosses, they only come out after the race or when it's really, really important. And now he is Toto's second in command. He is the deputy team principal. And Mercedes' own statement on his promotion said it formalised responsibilities that had grown organically. Translation? He was already running the team's message, so he may as well big up his titles to reflect that. That does happen a lot in F1. They tend, folks, to lean into new jobs that weren't in their original description and therefore everything catches up. But that, to me, is very curious. Because with Bradley's promotion to team principal, and it's so likely when the time comes, when Toto either retires or decides to go for the role of Stefano Domenicali, or even the next FIA president, that this will be now effectively the third team principal that Toto Wolff has had a hand in moulding into his own image. I mean, you've only got to look at James Vowles over at Williams. Then there's Jérôme D'Ambrosio, who was the previous driver development director, and we all thought he was going to succeed Toto. But then he went off to become Fred Vasseur's second over at Ferrari. It's starting to become very clear that Toto is trying to build up influence by melding people within his own organisation to become team principals of the future, and it's very clear now that the next person to get this treatment is good old Bradders. Now, of course, I'll bring out the spanner for this next bit because I don't know for sure what the exact succession plans are or what the communications or the tutelage that Bradley has had in the eyes of being the next Toto Wolff, but I think it's very clear to see that there is a very logical pattern forming. And based on his own press release, he's been given the additional responsibility of still being in charge of communications as well as being deputy leader. Why? Well, we'll get to that in due course, but I do think it's very important to pay attention to Bradley because if you look at how he does things, that is the way Mercedes is going to operate in the years to come. So when this guy, the message guy, the protégé, goes on this German YouTube channel before the Canadian Grand Prix weekend and plants a story about Max's anger fading, you should ask why he chose those words for that channel on this weekend, the one when Mercedes are bringing their big upgrade package for both George and Kimi. Here's the thing. The premise isn't wrong, what Bradley said, because Red Bull is indeed recovering. We saw that for ourselves in Miami. We saw a RB22, according to Max, pick up as much as six tenths of a second, recovering half of their perceived gap to the front runners with just one fell swoop. Instead of being on the fourth row, Max got on the front row until he spun it on Sunday. That could have easily been a podium, but we all know it was a very beleaguered fit after recovery from the back. We now revert to normally scheduled programming, and I'm just really wanting to stress to you the contradictions that we are seeing between the two main head ponchos of Mercedes because Toto had been talking to La Gazzetta dello Sport, and I'm sharing with this now for your consideration. Red Bull was a big surprise because they made a huge step forward, going from more than a second behind the leader to being right there at the front fighting with Verstappen. Now, that is pretty legit stuff right there. Toto right here is validating the Red Bull recovery drive instead of just brushing it off. He's taking it very, very seriously. And to then back this up even further, their own technical director of Red Bull, Pierre Vaché, has said that instead of the small step they were bringing to Montreal off the back of Miami, they are going to be bringing more parts, as in these are actually competitive and crucial parts that will only build upon what they learned from the Miami Autodrome. So, if you're expecting Max to fall off, then I don't think so. I think my prediction may stand that he is still in contention for a podium. The win? No, that might be too early to say. Sure, Max may not like the 26 cars, but if the pace picks up, he might be more willing to look the other way or at least tone down his criticisms. But whatever he thinks, Red Bull's recovery is on the record from multiple sources. The premise does stand, in my opinion. Now, do you remember the quote I led with at the top of the video regarding what Bradley said, regarding what he thought about what Max's take was on the regulations and how his car was actually performing? Two things were happening in that sentence. First, Lorde was acknowledging that Red Bull is indeed getting better, that they are not going to be also-rans or being threatened by the midfield. So, if they were hoping, Mercedes, that their basic now B-team Alpine is going to be running rings around them, they can think again. And second, he links all of that to Verstappen's anger calming down, and that would be hugely great music to the likes of Stefano Domenicali's ears. It would be akin to Michael Jackson's Human Nature on ambient mode, because right now, I'm hearing that and I'm thinking, oh, that's lovely. But where does Bradley base off of this? Has he actually talked to Max about this? And that is saying something, considering that they were reportedly in talks. But no, Bradley doesn't really back any of this up from Max. No, he's only really kind of just giving his own personal take on things. He's covering his ass, essentially. All of this is basic, classic comm-speak. But then, Lorde apparently goes on to say that he wasn't really trying to put words in Max Verstappen's mouth, as in he's not really trying to assume anything. But with that statement that I shared with you, he was doing just that, as in equating Red Bull equals better equals happier Max. In isolation, that's all well and good. That could be just his own opinion. But it goes completely against all of the things that Max has been saying over the last few months and continues to say. Because what Bradley is inferring is that since Red Bull is doing better and Max seems a little calmer, Mercedes either has less need or less likely means to be able to chase him. They already have their own perfectly coded drivers that fit their team ethos, and with Max, there's really nothing to see here. Each link slots into the next. The story flows. TLDR, the first thing that Bradley said was true, but then the second part of what he said was just pure, absolute spin. And that is exactly what communications directors do. But if you ever want to get down to the truth of the matter or what's going on, just listen to the first half, and then the second half usually tends to mean what the team wants you to think. And then there is a third part as well, and that is, of course, the conclusion, and the mathematics. And right now, the mathematics are very much in Mercedes' favour because, well, Kimi Antonelli is leading the championship, George Russell is second, 20 points behind, and sure, that in of itself is a talking point for another video and has been beaten to death, but the fact is, though, the maths are mapping. Because then you've got Max Verstappen in seventh place with only 26 points to his name as of recording. In short, Mercedes doesn't need to chase Max anymore, not that I'm saying Max wanted to be chased by Mercedes, I'm just saying that it's really all starting to cool down right now because, well, they've already got the new generation in the seat and he's already amassed more wins in his teen years than Max ever did, and he's theirs. He is very much coded to what Mercedes thinks and does, ideally for the next decade or so. It's simply a matter of the Lord saying it out loud. Now, there's also a fourth thing for you to chew on, the door closing. This is the money shot, my friend. Because, well, their job would be on the line. So what they would like to do, as I just said, you take the truth and then you take your own interpretation of the truth and then you entwine it into something that you really want people to get behind and believe and come to the same conclusion as you. And then if you can add more and more frequency to it, and as in you flood the zone, then you can just simply overwhelm people and just make you think, oh, Mercedes is all conquering, which is exactly what they did over the winter, didn't they? And by the time anyone notices that there's any spinning to be had here, there is a brand new story that is taking precedent or it doesn't really matter what you think anymore. It's old news and there's something even more spicy to take into account or nobody's really paying attention anymore. So it's not really going to get you the clicks because you've really just got to think about where Bradley said this. He didn't choose your conventional outlet. He didn't pick the Times or the Independent or the Daily Express. He didn't even pick an English speaking F1 centric news site No, he chose Champ One and then that got picked up by some smaller outlets and I wouldn't be surprised in the next few days or maybe after this video, we see more of the conventional places taking it up. It's also on a German channel. It's very Mercedes friendly and it's not a British based media outlet that has really had something against Max Verstappen or has taken an interest in Max going to Mercedes for yonks now. So Bradley picked his moment and picked the audience where the message could maybe land with less exposure. Nice one, but I'm on to you bradders because you've got to remember the timing here. This, what he said, was around the same weekend where he was representing Mercedes at the Nürburgring itself watching Max race a Mercedes GT3 for 20 hours leading the thing before a mechanical issue scuppered his team's dream of a win on debut. He led the interview by saying something rather wholesome that this was his first time at the Nürburgring and he was also bringing his son along and that is a classic comm thing to do. You start off things with a little bit of warmth, a little bit of emotion before you then get to the main political beat as in, oh, that's nice, are you bringing your son? Oh, that's some nice father-son bonding, isn't it? And then wham, we're not interested in Max anymore. And oh yeah, Lorde also did say that the GT program and the F1 program, they are two completely separate things. So even the romantic idea that I had in mind of the story, that Max in a Mercedes GT3 was the soft launch to him eventually being in one of their W Formula One cars. Yeah, that's been escorted out of the door now. So I really don't see that happening. It's just something that happens to be the case within its own separate category and it has nothing to do with Formula One. It's just a case of the staff and look to Mercedes GT cars and says, that's the car I want for my own racing team. There you go. Simple as. And then you've got to pay attention to what Toto was doing around the same time. Now, actually, let's go a little bit further back, shall we? Because it is actually relevant. Because what Brad has said is not the first time that Mercedes have tried to separate the regulations take from Max's own anger. It's happened before. Back in March, in fact, when it was really bad. There, Wolf basically argued that Max wasn't really mad at the rules, but that his car was a horror show to drive. He probably wouldn't mind the rules if he was winning in maybe a W17 or 18 maybe. So when Bradley Lord says the comments are softening as the car gets better, that's the team returning to the same chestnut they've been harping on about for months. Max says, I don't like the rules. Mercedes hears, you don't like your car. And once the car improves, Mercedes get to say, see, told you. And then Toto went to La Gazzetta dello Sport and also flirted with Max again, as well as the comment I shared with you. Praising Red Bull's progress and keeping the door open, maybe just a crack. He was maintaining the stance that many people believe Mercedes were having. Whilst, quietly, on just a very discreet YouTube channel, the video itself only has a couple of hundred of views. He was actually saying the complete opposite, that Mercedes were cooling off regarding the idea of Max Verstappen in Formula One. All the while, to the main outlets, to the people that were actually paying attention, Wolf was trying to keep it warm or at least delay the inevitable. Now that, to me, is a little bit strange because whichever reality that you yourself believe or Max believes, Mercedes is ready to go when they have to pivot. And one more thing that was said about the same day, the likes of Ford Racing's Mark Rushbrook said something more about the participation of Max Verstappen in the actual project and his feedback it was absolutely exemplary, as was him absolutely praising the project itself as well. And you've really got to hand it to the partnership because that power unit is not that far off of Mercedes on their first full fat attempt at making a powertrain without Honda partnership or IP involvement. Solid stuff, but Ford is basically doing the manufacturer thing here. Praising Max, but never going as far as making the whole program sound hostage to one driver, whilst also giving him an into a potential Le Mans outing with Logan Sargent in the future. Mercedes, meanwhile, is making the Verstappen story feel less necessary. The two automakers going the complete opposite direction within the same news cycle. But there's a little bit of a problem with that. And can you guess what it is? Yeah, it all starts around the Miami Grand Prix and it's something that was said from Max Verstappen himself, where he again, ultimately finished fifth because the Miami Grand Prix, it wasn't a chase for a podium or a battle with Kimi Antonelli. It was just a straight up recovery mode on hard tyres, which really didn't quite make the mustard at the end of things. After the chequered flag, somebody from GP blog asked Max Verstappen what his stance on the regulations were now that he had his first full Grand Prix with the tweaks that were arriving for that race. Max said that, sure, my car drives a bit better, but what I said before about the regulations is still the same. And that's on top of him also saying not that long before that, that the tweaks were nothing more than a tickle. And all this weeks before what Bradley said on that Champ 1 interview. Oops. It gets worse for Lord because Max didn't stop there. I mean, did you expect him to stop? So here's more for you. He kept going, did Max. F him. You still need to go a bit slower in places to go faster. It's still not how I would like to see it. It's still punishing you. The faster you go through corners, you go slower on the next straight. That's not what it should be about. Now, I don't think you need me to tell you that that doesn't really sound like a man who is calming down or that the anger is fading or anything like that. So sorry, Bradley. I think you might be getting your thinking wrong here because the critiques that I'm hearing from Max is not that much different to what I heard in 2023 or during the shakedown or during testing or throughout any of the other race weekends we've had this year so far. The only thing I can see is that Max was able to separate his own car from the rules and then Bradley was trying to stitch them back together again. And that's the whole game here in that Bradley's trying to think one way, but Max is saying a completely different thing. And it just tells me that if these two men were working together, their lives would be absolutely miserable. If Bradley was the team principal and Max Verstappen was the star driver alongside Kimi Antonelli. Because these men are not on the same page. Bradley either read Max completely wrong or more interestingly, he read the room correctly, but decided the room needed a different ending. That bodes poorly for any working relationship between the two men. But then again, the message guy doesn't accidentally plant a story the subject has on record contradicted and done so consistently. He made a choice, did the Lord. Because again, communications people cannot and they do not lie. Whatever they say, there is something behind it. The choice that Bradley made was to try and cool down and ultimately end the Max to Mercedes story right there and then. All the while controlling how Mercedes parks the story. As in, it's not a case of Max Verstappen showing no interest or committing to Red Bull through 2028. It's just a case of Mercedes managing it so that means, oh, they were the ones to walk away from Max as in, oh, we don't need him anymore. We're not desperate for him anymore. Yeah. He's fine at Red Bull. The car's doing better. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Toto still being Toto because, well, that's what we're expecting Toto to say. He's just holding things off until Mercedes can get their message straight. And what we saw with Bradley right there and then on that small YouTube channel was the dress rehearsal. All of this before Antonelli's championship lead becomes the story nobody can ignore or call a fluke or even if Russell claws it back. If those two can provide entertainment and keep it clean and then ultimately a constructor's title, that's all the team has to say in order to just go, well, yeah, we're good without Verstappen. You've got to remember, Kimi will only improve from here. It's only his second season. So choosing a German channel to launch this approach instead of a British one, the team starts to make sure that it ends things on their terms to an audience that is receptive and will not weed into things. And he closed another door as well. The one where Kimi Antonelli, quite seriously, I think, wanted to try and get his Nordschleife permit by the end of the year. Because as I've said in previous videos, what Max Verstappen has been able to do, even though he didn't win the thing, he was leading most of it, has inspired many other drivers, including Norris and Russell and now Kimi, to maybe give it a go themselves in the fullness of time. But unfortunately, Bradley Lord took a look at that and told another publication, Nitro, the answer was no. That he just likened what Kimi was saying to a joke and that he should come back maybe when he himself has four world championships to his name. And him softening all of this and just laughing it off, it sort of makes it even worse and that really, he just doesn't take Kimi seriously in that regard. He just thinks, oh, that's just teenage tempestuousness or something like that. Or being starstruck by the likes of Verstappen. And maybe a little bit of inherent risk management on Mercedes since, well, Toto and Niki, they've had their own negative experiences around the Nordschleife. They're pretty big bad ones too, near life-threatening. And the only way that Kimi can get around it is to have enough championship clout of his own to actually push back against the empire. So a picture of the scene at Bratli. Antonelli is angling for a Nordschleife of permanent opportunity, but the likes of Bratli and probably Toto have said no. The door closes behind him. Meanwhile, in a completely different building, Max Verstappen gets asked the same question he's been asked a hundred times. Mercedes next year, Max? And he'll say what he said consistently at this point. He's happy at Red Bull with Ford's support and that this year's regulations still aren't what they should be. Moving on. And somebody else who has moved on is the deputy of Wolf. All without Toto having to say a word himself. That's where we are, folks. I'm not saying that at this point, Mercedes has called time on Max completely because Toto is still hoping, but it is just that. It's hope. And that the real motivation from Mercedes right now is to get the paddock believing that realistically, Max is not going to the team. That it's all going to cool down in the fullness of time and that this was just the opening act of saying that. The door is almost shut regarding Max and Mercedes, but I really don't think Max has been that interested in keeping that door open anyway. But one thing that you can leave open-ended is this video right here, because, well, all you got to do to get there is to click on it. I mean, it's not a door, but there you go. Anyway, I'll go freshen up and I'll be right with you.