Scott Mitchell-Malm

It's definitely a conversation that I don't think we've had very often in the last, I would say, 10 years.

Probably since the Nico Rosberg-Hamilton fight at Mercedes, because it hasn't been...

It hasn't been as strong a variable because there's been other stuff, you know, Hamilton versus Vettel years when he was at Ferrari, for example.

There are bigger factors behind the way the battle plays out, whereas now you're getting really into the finer details of the driving demands, the styles, the consequences either way.

So the conversation shifts.

It's a different conversation for us to have.

It's a different conversation for fans to have.

There are different narratives that emerge.

So you can see why to some people it might seem like, you know, making excuses for a driver or not fully understanding how the swings could possibly be this big.

But it's the kind of thing that happens.

It's just now it's playing out in the context of a title battle.

And it's why through the year you do often see sometimes, I think it probably happens every single team at least a handful of times over the year, even with the best drivers, there are just weekends where the gaps between the teammates are much bigger than normal because some of these variables have a bigger output in certain situations.

We do not have to call it that.

The first Spanish Grand Prix of the season.

Let's just call it Barcelona.

they will be asking that but at this point i would like to go back to a conversation after china which we had editorially within the team where there was basically a discussion over what kind of thing we should do on antonelli after china because that was a win where yes circumstance in qualifying helped him have track position but he was then really good in the grand prix on sunday and russell could have won that race he had enough of the race where he was

behind Antonelli early on where it could have played out differently and he couldn't beat Kimi on that day we said is this now the opportunity for us to see how the audience will react with some how good is Antonelli content is he in the championship fight

And I distinctly remember part of that conversation featuring a phrase to the effect, well, even Mercedes doesn't think Antonelli's really in this fight because Toto Wolff was playing it down and saying how little you needed to hype Antonelli at the moment because it was basically asking a bit much of him to do it for the whole season.

So four races ago...

after he'd already become a Grand Prix winner, there was still quite a clear thing of like, you know, this was a great result and he does look like he's in a better place than he was a year ago, especially in the middle of the season, all of this.