Contractual quirks

One curious quirk of Max's reported contract situation was that if George overtook him in the standings by Hungary, then Max would have been free to take George's seat. So it was in George's interest not to overtake Max in the championship standings.

Not that I'm saying that affected George's performance at all. Even when the Mercedes has looked off the pace recently, George has been comfortably outperforming Kimi. Nevertheless, it would have been strange if George had managed to get ahead of Max, only for that to trigger Max's release clause and see him take George's seat at Mercedes.

Mercedes's driver dilemma

When discussing Mercedes's drivers for next season, Toto Wolff was recently quoted as saying, "Until the summer break, everything is going to be done."

This is just a theory, but maybe Toto's statement mentions the summer break because that is when the wording of Max's reported release clause comes into effect.

Presumably Mercedes will know after the summer break whether Max's contractual release clause has been triggered. If it is, they'll sign Max for 2026. If it isn't, they'll stick with George and Kimi.

Personally, I'd love to see Max and George as team-mates for all the drama it would deliver, but all the noise seems to suggest that if Mercedes do sign Max, it will be in place of George.