Do you have any updates on what way Carlos is leaning? Like, has Flavio Briatori convinced him yet? Or, you know, James. James Vals. And I want to get back to James Vals in a second.

No, it doesn't. Like, he hasn't. He basically, what he had told us on Thursday was the fact that he's trying to just leave this for now and focus on it, like, during the week. So, like, from, like Monday to Wednesday, those are the days he has his meetings. He talks to his team. They're having conversations with other teams and trying to, like, sort through it all. I find it interesting. They'll adam sort of this resurgence of Mercedes over the past few races.

Yep.

And we're starting to see, like, hey, that's the old Mercedes coming back here. Like, wow, like, here we go. And everybody should be like that because, one, they have championship pedigree.

Yep.

Two, they have an incredible infrastructure. Three, they have an amazing team behind the scenes. And they were always going to figure this out. It's the question of, hey, like, can they keep this sustained sort of momentum going and. Yeah, they can because they have an aggressive upgrade schedule coming up.

Mm hmm.

And it's. They figured it out. They figured that. They finally figured out this regulation. They know the direction they need to go in. They know how easy it is to slip. So let's say, you know, this year kind of goes that way. Then next year they're going to be fighting for championship.

Yeah. And do you want to put a rookie driver in?

100%. So now you're starting to. If I'm total wolf, I'm thinking differently.

Even though he says he's not, by the way. He says he's not.

I would, dude, think about this for a second. Right. It's kind of like, okay, 2025, you could have a chance of winning a constructors championship. So don't you want the two most experienced, best drivers in your car?

Well, I would think so. Like what? Okay, I know Kimmy's doing really, really well in formula two, but I don't. I still don't think he's going to win a this year. And, like, it doesn't mean. He doesn't mean he won't, but mathematically.

Like, one race he's. One race is.

But I mean, like, win the championship and get booted.

Championship. Yeah. No, I don't think so. I don't think.

Because if you win the championship, you're. No one ever wins the f two championship twice. You're. You win, you're. You're done. So I can understand why they don't want him to be done and then have him go to like Formula E or something like that. But it does make a lot of sense for a Valtteri Bottas to jump in for just a season, doesn't it?

Sure.

Or I mean, or even a, I mean, Carlos would have made sense too, but they're just not going that direction.

Well, it doesn't like, I don't know, man, here I'm hearing differently. I'm here.

What are you here?

A couple, I'm here and they've had a couple conversations.

And is that in the recent? That's got to be recent then because they were sent. Okay.

Very recent.

So they, they are talking. They're talking.

But it still looks like this is going to be Antonelli seat at Mercedes. I think though, if I'm total wolf, I would be looking at next season as a potential to win a championship and I really would want to bring in an experienced driver to put alongside George.

Yeah, yeah.

Again, like who is that going to be? Is it going to be, could it be Esteban? Could it be Carlos? I mean your next, your next best bet would be to put Carlos in there like I would anyways. But I think Adam, like for Toto, it's, it comes down to like waiting this out a bit for him. He doesn't want to make any like a rash decision. Like he told me he wants to start thinking about who he wants to put in there and have something ready to go by the autumn and that looks like his trajectory. Like he wanted. He wants to have somebody in there by the autumn. Now who is that going to be? It's anybody's guess now, right? Depending on the team's performance. If it keeps going like this, like, let's say like Hungary's like Mercedes hunting ground spa probably is going to be good for them as well. Hey, like if they have two solid performances there, let's say they capture another win at one of those. Yeah, you've got to start. I think if I'm, if I'm running that team, I'm thinking now differently about my driver pairing for next year.

Right, right. Well, I, I'm curious now because this Mercedes being good wrinkles the wrinkles the picture even more. Right. Like it's just this is such a different year than last year. You, you almost got get used to the fact that, oh, things are about the same and drivers are going to swap seats and everybody will know what it looks like next year. And this, like, we don't know what it's going to look like in two weeks.

We don't, nobody knows. That's the other thing. It's like no one knows where any of these drivers are going. Even these drivers don't even know where they're going. And no one knows what the driver picture is going to look like for next year. And if you sit here and you make a claim, like, it's gonna be so and so and so, I mean, you could look really silly. So for, for me, it's just I'm thinking like a team principal, who would I want? Who would I want in there, right? For me, I would want. I would want my driver line to be very experienced for next year if I'm Mercedes. So I would want, I would want George and Carlos. That's what I would want.

Who seem like both affable guys that can get along. You're gonna, you're not gonna have crazy tension in the, in the garage? I don't think I. You'll have some tension, but not crazy.

A little. Yeah, a little.

A little is good. You want a little tension, there should be a little competition. You just don't want to kill each other.

If you're Williams, Adam, like, you know, you, you want, you've got Alex, right? If you're not going to bring Logan back, I would want, I would want Valtteri. He would be my next, he'd be my next candidate.

And James knows him really well. Do you know anything about their personal relationship? Did they get along and.

Yeah, I mean, like, they've, they were at Mercedes together for a long period of time. And like I had mentioned, I sat down and spoke with James, two of the drivers that he wants at his team. If he can't get one, he's going to try and get the other. It's going to be Carlos or Valtteri. And for him, experience and a driver who wants to sign up for this project and be a part of the team for a long period of time, that's what he's sort of looking for, to have continuity, to have the two drivers who have that experience. He doesn't want to bring up any rookies. He doesn't want young drivers. He wants experienced f one veterans on his team.

Okay. Okay.

That's what he wants, man.

Well, I'm. I'm. Because I think people still talk about Williams like it's, it's like the Red Bull version of. For Mercedes, right? Like it's the Mercedes.

Not anymore.

Yeah, not anymore.

Anymore.

Yeah. It would be quite the coup if they were able to get ocon or signs in there, it seems like they're going to be able to get one of them, so.

Yeah. Or vulture. Right. I mean, vulture would be great. Not forget. Yeah, let's not forget about him. Like, he's. Just because he's having a hard time down at Sauber, it doesn't mean that he's not a.

Well, I think that's a fun.

Yeah. You know?

Yeah. I think everybody knows that's a function of the car. Right. Like, it's just a bad cardinal. Right. And they're there. They just can't seem to. Whatever it is, they can't get it going.

I mean, they haven't even upgraded it, really. Like, they haven't really brought many upgrades. Like, trying to remember. Like, they brought. What did they bring? The british grand prix. It literally was, like, nothing. It was. I think it was, like, some floor fences, and that was it. Like. And then you look down beside them, and, like, this is like a Haas b spec car sitting right beside them, and I'm like, how is this possible?

That's bad. Such a shame. I feel for them. I feel for Joe. Gwen, yu, and Baltry. Just because they're both good. Know. I think people forgot about Joe, and he might lose that seat, and it's like, man, that's not even his fault. It's just a bad cardinal.