Andretti Reaction & Qatar Grand Prix Preview with @NaturalParadigm | Grid Walk October 5, 2023

This could potentially be the MOST jam packed episode of Grid Walk yet! Briana & Nicole had such a great chat with Bryson Sullivan (NaturalParadigm) that there is bonus content! Briana, Nicole, & Bryson discuss the F1 fandom, reminisce about the USGP of 2022, & cover the Qatar Grand Prix. But that is only some of F1 fun that you can expect on episode 37 of Grid Walk!

Time for an F1 Ring update! A few weeks ago Grid Walk chatted about the rumors of the FIA approving the F1 application of Andretti. This week the FIA did announce that they have approved the Andretti bid to be added as the 11th F1 team on the grid. But the FIA’s announcement was only HALF of an announcement?! Andretti still needs to be approved by Formula One Media (FOM) and Liberty Media! Is this the FIA’s way of putting pressure on FOM and Liberty Media who haven’t necessarily agreed with the public’s positive view about Andretti?

Grid Walk heads into the wild because the zebras are at it again! The FIA is still not doing the best job at hiding their Red Bull favoritism…oops! At the Singapore GP Max Verstappen managed to get away with multiple penalties. So only Max Verstappen is able to chill out in the pit lane like that? AlphaTauri just didn’t show up to their stewarding hearing for Max Verstappen impeding Yuki Tsunoda? Shoutout to the F1 team for calling this out and filing a complaint on the FIA’s inconsistency!

Okay, just for fun, let’s imagine the current F1 season WITHOUT Red Bull Racing. There would be no Max Verstappen or Checo Perez on the podium or finishing in the points. F1 fans had a slight preview of F1 without Red Bull Racing at the top at the Singapore Grand Prix (but reality came back quickly at the Japanese Grand Prix). Nicole brings you through what the point standings of what the current F1 Constructors Championship would be if there was no Red Bull!

A majority of the F1 fandom was freaking out about certain Formula 1 social media metrics that were released last week. Somehow the F1 fandom concluded that these social media numbers showed that the dominance of Red Bull is RUINING the sport. Well Grid Walk is here to debunk that conclusion! What does the original data really show about F1 social media numbers? What observations can we make from F1 Google Search trends? When was the Tifosi NOT Googling about Ferrari?

Bryson Sullivan shares a podium for the Qatar GP - Which F1 team will (*most likely*) be 2nd to Red Bull ? Why can’t Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team fix their drag issue?

The F1 race predictions continue and the ice bath gets closer for one of the Grid Walk hosts! Briana & Nicole share their predictions for the Qatar GP. There are extra points up for grabs since there is an F1 Sprint Race this weekend!

00:00 TikTok Fun Fact

01:36 Formation Lap

04:00 Andretti Update (F1 Ring)

11:54 Comment Shoutout

12:43 FIA Inconsistencies (Into the Wild)

20:08 Thoughts on F1 Fandom

21:08 F1 Constructors without Red Bull

29:17 Memories of 2022 USGP

30:55 BuzzRadar F1 Social Data Chaos

39:08 Data Collection Methodology

43:47 Google Trend Data

46:49 Qatar Grand Prix Preview with @NaturalParadigm

52:17 Mercedes Drag Issues

55:40 Who Will Be 2nd to Red Bull at the Qatar GP?

59:54 Other Race Weekend Things to Know

01:02:47 Race Weekend Predictions

01:10:37 Yellow Sector Notes

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**Formation Lap**

* No quizzes this week, instead, a TikTok fun fact is shared about holding down the edges of TikTok videos to play them at 2x speed.

**Gridlock**

* FIA approves Andretti's bid for an 11th team in F1, but Formula One management and teams have not yet agreed to anything regarding media rights or the Concorde Agreement.
* Discussion on the potential pressure the FIA is putting on Formula One to push the new team through.
* Speculation about whether other teams are starting to take notice and complain about the perceived favoritism towards Red Bull.

**Into the Wild**

* Recent stewarding decisions in Singapore and Japan are examined, highlighting inconsistencies and perceived favoritism towards Red Bull.
* Discussion on the lack of action taken against Red Bull for impeding incidents, and the subsequent formal complaint issued by other teams.
* FIA's response to the complaints and their promise to not use the incident as a precedent.
* Debate on the impact of such stewarding decisions on the overall perception of the sport and its integrity.

**Twilight Zone**

* Hypothetical scenario of Red Bull not existing in Formula One and its potential impact on the current standings.
* Detailed analysis of the revised Constructors' Championship standings, with Aston Martin moving up to P3, Mercedes leading with 443 points, and Ferrari in P2 with 384 points.
* Speculation on the number of race wins Fernando Alonso would have had in this alternate reality, with the possibility of six P1 finishes.
* Discussion on the implications for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes in terms of the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships.

**Yellow Sector Notes**


1. **Data Scrutiny and Accuracy:**

* The hosts emphasize the importance of scrutinizing the data presented in the article, as they believe it may not accurately reflect the overall health and success of Formula One.
* They point out that the data is limited to a specific time frame (January to May) and does not consider other crucial factors such as at-track attendance and revenue generated from Grand Prix events.

2. **Vanity Metrics:**

* The hosts discuss the concept of "vanity metrics," which are metrics that may provide a superficial view of success but lack deeper insights into the sport's overall performance.
* They argue that metrics like new followers and social media reach, while important, should not be the sole indicators of Formula One's success.

3. **Contextualizing Social Media Data:**

* The hosts highlight the need to consider the context surrounding social media data.
* They point out that F1's social media presence has seen a significant increase in recent years, and the current dip in certain metrics should be viewed in relation to the exceptional growth experienced during the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

4. **Non-English Speaking Mentions:**

* The hosts emphasize the significance of non-English speaking mentions in Formula One's social media presence.
* They argue that the article's analysis potentially overlooks a substantial portion of the sport's global fan base, which may skew the conclusions drawn from the data.

5. **Google Trend Data:**

* The hosts present Google trend data to provide a broader perspective on Formula One's online interest.
* They show that global search trends for F1 have remained relatively consistent in 2023 compared to the previous year, indicating sustained interest in the sport despite the perceived decline in social media metrics.

6. **Track Characteristics and Performance:**

* The hosts shift the discussion to track characteristics and their impact on team performance.
* They analyze the upcoming Qatar Grand Prix and predict the potential podium finishers based on the circuit's layout and the teams' recent performances.

7. **McLaren's Resurgence:**

* The hosts highlight McLaren's remarkable progress during the season, moving from midfield positions to regularly competing for podium finishes.
* They attribute this success to McLaren's effective development and upgrades, emphasizing that it's not solely due to copying Red Bull's car design.

**Sector 1: Predictions**

- For the sprint race, Briana predicts Carlos Sainz for P3 and Nicole predicts Oscar Piastri.
- For P8 in the sprint, Briana predicts Fernando Alonso and Nicole predicts George Russell.
- For the team not named Red Bull with the most points in the spread, both Briana and Nicole predict McLaren.

**Sector 2: Grand Prix Predictions**

- Briana and Nicole both predict McLaren as the top team, not Red Bull, scoring the most points in the Grand Prix.
- For P2, both Briana and Nicole predict Lando Norris.
- For P3, Briana predicts Sir Lewis Hamilton and Nicole predicts Carlos Sainz.
- For P10 and last in the points, Briana predicts Lance Stroll and Nicole predicts Valtteri Bottas.
- For the last to finish crossing the checkered flag, Briana predicts Kevin Magnussen and Nicole predicts Bottas.

**Sector 3: Yellow Sector Notes**

- Updates and insights from the Formula One paddock, including driver activities, team news, and upcoming events.

**Sector 4: Outro**

- Encouragement for listeners to subscribe, rate, and share the podcast, followed by a humorous exchange between the hosts.

[00:00.000 -> 00:05.000] I love hearing people try to explain social media sounds.
[00:05.000 -> 00:08.000] Because I mean, not that I would be any better at it, but
[00:08.000 -> 00:09.000] It's a song.
[00:09.000 -> 00:10.000] Uh-huh.
[00:12.000 -> 00:14.000] I don't... it doesn't matter.
[00:14.000 -> 00:15.000] But I just...
[00:15.000 -> 00:23.000] Oh, which reminds me, did you know that you can hold down the edges of TikToks and it plays at 2x speed automatically?
[00:24.000 -> 00:25.080] No.
[00:25.080 -> 00:34.080] Mm-hmm. I've been meaning to tell you that because I know you can like hold down and go in and like adjust your playtime speed and you could like pick, but you don't even need to do that.
[00:34.080 -> 00:45.200] You can literally hold down both sides of the screen. Fun facts, everyone! Here's your fun fact of the day that has nothing to do with Formula 1, but you can literally either side, so depending on your dominant hand
[00:45.200 -> 00:47.060] or how you choose to scroll.
[00:47.060 -> 00:49.900] I noticed my left hand, weird, I think.
[00:49.900 -> 00:54.460] And yeah, you can like two times speed.
[00:55.760 -> 00:58.320] This is groundbreaking for my brain,
[00:58.320 -> 01:01.540] because I watch everything else at two times speed.
[01:01.540 -> 01:03.520] I knew this was gonna, if you didn't know already,
[01:03.520 -> 01:05.760] but I was like, I don't know if this is public information.
[01:05.760 -> 01:08.480] It was someone that came up and said, all right, I'm going to tell you this story and
[01:08.480 -> 01:10.080] I understand it's going to be a long one.
[01:10.080 -> 01:12.080] So just put your finger on the corner of the screen.
[01:12.080 -> 01:14.720] And I was like, incredible.
[01:14.720 -> 01:15.720] Yeah.
[01:15.720 -> 01:16.720] So life has been changed.
[01:16.720 -> 01:17.720] Wow.
[01:17.720 -> 01:18.720] Oh my gosh.
[01:18.720 -> 01:21.440] I might actually go back to TikTok.
[01:21.440 -> 01:22.440] That's yeah.
[01:22.440 -> 01:27.440] I'm trying to coerce you back to TikTok. They've sent me here to get you
[01:27.440 -> 01:34.480] back. Yeah, to rope me back into. My FBI man was like, we need her. Anyway.
[01:36.720 -> 01:40.640] All right, there's so much to discuss today. So we're gonna do a speedy formation lap that
[01:40.640 -> 01:44.880] gets right into it. No quizzes to start us out today. Instead, we just got a TikTok fun fact.
[01:42.760 -> 01:47.600] formation laps that gets right into it. No quizzes to start us out today. Instead, we just got a TikTok fun fact. This Monday,
[01:47.600 -> 01:50.960] the FIA announced that they approved Andretti as a new F1
[01:50.960 -> 01:55.160] team, but included that F1 has not yet. Is the FIA looking to
[01:55.160 -> 01:58.120] put some pressure on Formula One management to push the new team
[01:58.120 -> 02:03.280] through? Speaking of the FIA, we go into the wild again to
[02:03.280 -> 02:05.840] discuss some important F1 drama from the Singapore and Japan
[02:05.840 -> 02:10.960] back-to-back that we just didn't get to on the other shows. Why can't the FIA be consistent with
[02:10.960 -> 02:15.760] their stewarding? Why does it always seem to favor one specific team and are the other nine teams
[02:15.760 -> 02:22.800] finally taking notice and complaining about this? F1 news outlets and social media went wild when
[02:22.800 -> 02:27.400] a study was released last week that showed a drop in social media vanity metrics this season.
[02:27.400 -> 02:32.480] Is interest in Formula One really down? By how much? And is this report actually a big deal?
[02:34.480 -> 02:40.600] Next, Red Bull and more specifically Max is dominating the championship, but what if they didn't exist?
[02:40.600 -> 02:45.380] Would Fernando be ahead of Lewis based on his P2s that are gonna be upgraded to race wins?
[02:45.580 -> 02:48.580] What would be the status of the constructors? We step into the tri-
[02:48.580 -> 02:52.580] I can't speak today. This has been a thing all day.
[02:52.880 -> 02:57.340] We step into the Twilight Zone because we can and it is fun to do so.
[02:58.340 -> 03:03.360] We had so much fun content from our recording session with Bryson last week that we held some of it for this week's episode.
[03:03.920 -> 03:08.800] Bryson helps us preview the Qatar GP this weekend with his podium on how he thinks the teams not named
[03:08.800 -> 03:15.440] Red Bull will perform at this track that we haven't raced at since 2021. Then you and I will
[03:15.440 -> 03:20.240] make our predictions both for the sprint race, because it is a sprint weekend, and the Grand Prix
[03:20.240 -> 03:27.000] as we duke it out to not end up in an ice bath at the end of the season. Lastly, as always, we end the show with the L Sector Notes, one story you should know
[03:27.000 -> 03:29.000] from every team on the grid.
[03:29.000 -> 03:34.000] That wraps up the Formation Lab for episode 37 of GridWalk, a weekly Formula 1 podcast
[03:34.000 -> 03:38.000] that releases our fascinating stories to discuss across the entire F1 grid.
[03:38.000 -> 03:42.000] Don't forget to like and subscribe if you're watching on YouTube, and please leave us a comment.
[03:42.000 -> 03:45.480] Let us know your excitement levels for the untracky news this week. Also, follow TurnOnAutoDownloads and leave us a review if you're watching on YouTube and please leave us a comment. Let us know your excitement levels for the untracky news this week.
[03:47.960 -> 03:49.840] Also, follow, turn on auto downloads and leave us a review if you're listening on any audio platform.
[03:49.840 -> 03:52.560] All these things greatly help support the show.
[03:52.560 -> 03:56.000] Cooling down our lined up for the grid, it's lights out.
[03:56.000 -> 03:58.560] And away we go. This week's gridlock.
[04:03.760 -> 04:05.640] Welcome back to the F1 Ring.
[04:05.640 -> 04:11.120] A couple weeks ago we got rumors of the news that dropped today, so we felt like we should
[04:11.120 -> 04:20.840] return to the arena and give you a fight update about the Andretti bid into F1.
[04:20.840 -> 04:28.000] So it was announced today that the FIA has approved Andretti's bid to be the 11th team in an F1.
[04:28.000 -> 04:31.000] And notably, all the press releases, the notice is like,
[04:31.000 -> 04:36.000] and Formula One management and the F1 teams haven't agreed to anything to do with media rights
[04:36.000 -> 04:42.000] or letting them into the Concord Agreement, which is the agreement that all the teams use to decide, you know, how to split up the money.
[04:42.000 -> 04:46.120] And so essentially, the FIA says, you can race, and F1 needs to
[04:46.120 -> 04:52.120] decide if they're going to get any money for it. And I think my alarm bell started going
[04:52.120 -> 04:56.640] off in my head, because we talked about this recently on the show, we talk about this outside
[04:56.640 -> 05:01.720] of the show all the time, that essentially, this to me feels like the FIA needed some
[05:01.720 -> 05:06.680] public pressure to get F1 and FOM to move it along on this
[05:06.680 -> 05:11.760] approval process. And because the idea of an 11th team in general, but specifically
[05:11.760 -> 05:18.920] Andretti joining the grid, has overall been publicly very popular. So to me, I saw this
[05:18.920 -> 05:26.480] all and I went, oh, this is, please put some pressure on F1 to approve this. And that is all I could see through it.
[05:26.480 -> 05:29.120] What were your thoughts when you saw this news?
[05:29.120 -> 05:32.960] Yeah, it definitely, as soon as I saw the announcement, I was like,
[05:32.960 -> 05:35.760] Oh, things are about to get interesting.
[05:35.760 -> 05:39.200] We're about to get some more sassy statements back and forth.
[05:39.200 -> 05:42.080] I'm really excited.
[05:42.080 -> 05:43.120] I mean, that's not the word.
[05:43.120 -> 05:48.000] I'm waiting in anticipation for FOM's response of like
[05:48.640 -> 05:51.840] because they have to come up with something like in the interim of how they're like really going
[05:51.840 -> 05:58.880] to form a response but I hope it's some kind of sassy like okay FIA thank you for this and like
[05:58.880 -> 06:05.360] for all these other reasons. I'm curious to see I, they definitely obviously will be brought up this weekend,
[06:05.360 -> 06:06.600] especially on media day.
[06:06.600 -> 06:11.880] So once we get more statements from drivers and other, you know, team administration,
[06:11.880 -> 06:16.480] I think that'll also be really interesting how we'll continue to see if at all, at all
[06:16.480 -> 06:20.760] the team's perspective has changed, excluding Alpine.
[06:20.760 -> 06:21.760] I don't think so.
[06:21.760 -> 06:25.000] But like, if for some reason it has, then that would
[06:25.000 -> 06:27.000] be, you know, maybe there's something that we don't know.
[06:27.000 -> 06:29.000] I'm anticipating that.
[06:29.000 -> 06:34.000] Currently, how I still feel though is, you know, we're living in the Red Bull dominance.
[06:34.000 -> 06:37.000] The future of F1 is kind of like, ah, this is where we are.
[06:37.000 -> 06:47.600] And I don't know if throwing in Andretti is, you know, necessarily introducing more competition and not just like traffic.
[06:47.600 -> 06:50.240] So that's how I'm feeling.
[06:50.240 -> 06:52.240] We'll see where it goes.
[06:52.240 -> 06:55.680] Where are you at right now with this?
[06:55.680 -> 07:00.000] You and I have both been very much on the record that we don't care if an 11th, 12th,
[07:00.000 -> 07:04.000] 13th, 14th, 15th team gets added.
[07:04.000 -> 07:06.480] And so I agree with everything you said in regards to that.
[07:06.960 -> 07:10.520] Similarly, though, I think the FIA has decided to use its
[07:10.520 -> 07:13.080] political capital to strong arm F1.
[07:13.080 -> 07:15.600] Like I think they're in a situation where they're going to
[07:15.600 -> 07:21.200] have to let Andretti in because the public perception of this is
[07:21.640 -> 07:23.480] overall positive.
[07:24.200 -> 07:26.320] I don't feel like you and I are in a vacuum
[07:26.320 -> 07:28.560] in our like, nope, don't really want that,
[07:28.560 -> 07:30.720] don't need another team, don't really care.
[07:31.680 -> 07:33.640] But we're definitely in the minorities
[07:33.640 -> 07:35.260] in feeling that way.
[07:36.480 -> 07:39.680] I agree I'm intrigued to see what the teams say
[07:39.680 -> 07:43.920] and how they politely tell us that the FIA
[07:43.920 -> 07:45.880] shouldn't have announced this because it wasn't ready
[07:45.880 -> 07:46.880] to be announced.
[07:46.880 -> 07:51.600] Which isn't the first time in the last year that the FIA has done that, just a reminder
[07:51.600 -> 07:58.020] that the 2023 race calendar was dropped, or the 2024 race calendar was dropped by- next
[07:58.020 -> 08:04.240] year's race calendar was dropped by the FIA, even though it's an FOM thing that, like,
[08:04.240 -> 08:05.840] Formula One is in charge of creating the race calendar and the FIA, without though it's an FOM thing that, like, Formula One is in charge of creating
[08:05.840 -> 08:10.320] the race calendar and the FIA, without FOM's knowledge, just went, here everyone goes!
[08:10.320 -> 08:18.400] So, like, um, there's a pattern of them giving information to the public in order to, uh,
[08:18.400 -> 08:21.000] make background political maneuverings.
[08:21.000 -> 08:25.080] I don't know why that was a mouthful to get out.
[08:25.080 -> 08:29.280] F1's response that they pushed out through the media today,
[08:29.280 -> 08:33.800] or when this was announced, is just this.
[08:33.800 -> 08:34.960] I'll read it to you right now,
[08:34.960 -> 08:38.880] because it made me laugh at how simple and snarky it was.
[08:38.880 -> 08:41.960] We note the FIA's conclusions in relation
[08:41.960 -> 08:44.880] to the first and second phases of their process,
[08:44.880 -> 08:45.120] and will
[08:45.120 -> 08:49.600] now conduct our own assessment of the merits of the remaining application."
[08:49.600 -> 08:50.600] And that's it.
[08:50.600 -> 08:51.600] That was it.
[08:51.600 -> 08:53.560] They didn't even name Andretti in the statement.
[08:53.560 -> 08:55.520] They were just like, great.
[08:55.520 -> 08:57.280] Bleep you.
[08:57.280 -> 08:58.760] Go away.
[08:58.760 -> 09:06.160] That's exactly what I wanted them to- that is exactly the statement I was hoping for and like
[09:07.760 -> 09:13.360] My anticipator has been met. Oh wow. Thank you. I've always the best kind of sad
[09:13.360 -> 09:17.480] It kind of does feel like the f1 ring statement. It looks like the right way
[09:19.760 -> 09:32.640] Since we're not gonna get into like the nitty gritty details, we will link below a link to episode like three weeks ago where we went through the POV of all the parties involved.
[09:32.640 -> 09:37.960] But just crash course, a reminder that the FIA makes more money depending on the number
[09:37.960 -> 09:42.400] of teams and drivers on the grid because they make a flat fee based on that.
[09:42.400 -> 09:47.640] And then the F1 and Formula One management and the teams make
[09:47.640 -> 09:52.960] money based on the quality of the sport on track. And as soon as you understand where
[09:52.960 -> 09:59.640] the financial incentives are for everyone involved, it becomes very clear why not only
[09:59.640 -> 10:03.600] in this case the decisions are being made the way they're being made, but also if you
[10:03.600 -> 10:08.840] think about things like stewarding and why the FIA doesn't care to make the product better is
[10:08.840 -> 10:13.640] because there's zero financial incentive for them to do so. And in the world we live in,
[10:13.640 -> 10:20.360] that's kind of what is the driving force of absolutely everything. Where is the financial
[10:20.360 -> 10:29.760] incentive? But circling back to something you said earlier about Media Day and press conferences, and this will definitely come up, I just am excited because this is
[10:29.760 -> 10:35.060] the one topic that Christian Horner and Toto Wolff agree on, and I love when hell freezes
[10:35.060 -> 10:39.160] over and they make similar statements about things to the press.
[10:39.160 -> 10:43.800] At time of recording we haven't gotten the lovely graphic of who's being interviewed
[10:43.800 -> 10:45.200] with who and what and where,
[10:45.200 -> 10:48.400] and I'm just really hoping Toto and Princeton are together.
[10:48.400 -> 10:51.360] Samara Or at least as long as they're back.
[10:53.600 -> 10:59.280] I'm pretty sure Toto's back at the circuit this week. They'll both be asked. But yes,
[10:59.280 -> 11:04.320] if they were both in the Team Principal press conference this week. Oh, and then stick them
[11:04.320 -> 11:05.600] next to whoever's the current Team Principal at LPM because I can week. Oh, and then stick them next to whoever's
[11:05.600 -> 11:07.000] the current Team Principal at Alpine
[11:07.000 -> 11:08.560] because I can't keep up.
[11:08.560 -> 11:10.400] And Zach Brown.
[11:10.400 -> 11:13.180] Ryan Reynolds in the Media Day Conference.
[11:15.360 -> 11:18.840] Yeah, because Alpine will supply Andretti
[11:18.840 -> 11:21.160] with a power unit, so that's why Alpine
[11:21.160 -> 11:23.720] has the financial incentive to support Andretti.
[11:23.720 -> 11:25.840] And Zach Brown is buddy-buddy with Andretti,
[11:25.840 -> 11:28.400] even though he's secretly definitely based on his quotes,
[11:28.400 -> 11:32.760] doesn't support an 11th F1 team because financial incentive,
[11:32.760 -> 11:34.400] but he is really good friends with the Andrettis.
[11:34.400 -> 11:35.760] So, you know, I just want-
[11:35.760 -> 11:38.480] Zach Brown is friends with everyone.
[11:39.480 -> 11:41.880] I just want everyone with conflicting points of views
[11:41.880 -> 11:47.280] to have to sit in one room and answer mediocre questions about this topic.
[11:47.280 -> 11:52.280] A real life F1 ring!
[11:52.280 -> 11:54.280] There you go, real life F1 ring.
[11:54.280 -> 11:59.280] Someone one more time, because I also just forgot what I had responded to.
[11:59.280 -> 12:03.280] You didn't actually have to respond to the same thing, I just was like resetting.
[12:02.760 -> 12:05.800] spawn the same thing. I just was like resetting.
[12:09.200 -> 12:13.880] Natural and organic podcast hosts. Okay.
[12:15.200 -> 12:15.760] I don't even like podcasts.
[12:18.440 -> 12:18.480] They make me fall asleep. No, they literally don't.
[12:19.040 -> 12:19.240] They don't.
[12:19.800 -> 12:20.480] They do not.
[12:25.040 -> 12:29.560] So shout out to whoever commented on our YouTube video last week that there would be no possible way for them to ever fall asleep to an episode of Gridwalk.
[12:29.560 -> 12:34.240] We know, we see you, and that was my favorite comment that we received last week.
[12:34.240 -> 12:36.680] I'm trying to find...
[12:36.680 -> 12:43.280] Not even a hope alarm, I just tried to pick our loudest sounder possible for that exact
[12:43.280 -> 12:46.480] reason. We haven't gone into the wild even
[12:46.480 -> 12:52.280] though the FIA aka the Zebras referees, Zebras is so much more fun aka into the wild, there's
[12:52.280 -> 12:57.360] your recap. Even though they give us plenty of reasons to all the time, we've just had
[12:57.360 -> 13:06.080] a lot of better things to talk about, except now it just feels very necessary and, uh, hello, Red Bull?
[13:06.080 -> 13:12.520] Yeah, I feel like every time the FIA does something, the conversation in our pre-production
[13:12.520 -> 13:19.000] meeting is, so the FIA favored Red Bull again, and the other person goes, yup, and we go,
[13:19.000 -> 13:20.720] do we want to talk about that on the show this week?
[13:20.720 -> 13:22.760] And we go, everyone knows.
[13:22.760 -> 13:23.760] It's a headache.
[13:23.760 -> 13:27.560] But, while that whole thing happened again,
[13:27.560 -> 13:29.360] there's an interesting wrinkle to it
[13:29.360 -> 13:32.160] that I think is worth discussing.
[13:32.160 -> 13:34.760] And that's why we have Into the Wild this week.
[13:34.760 -> 13:39.000] So in Singapore, Max, it was honestly a disaster
[13:39.000 -> 13:42.880] of FIA stewarding in favoring specifically Max Verstappen
[13:42.880 -> 13:43.720] and Red Bull.
[13:43.720 -> 13:45.800] So he sped in the pit lane,
[13:45.800 -> 13:49.120] he had two impeding incidents
[13:49.120 -> 13:50.840] that were very clearly impeding,
[13:50.840 -> 13:53.600] and he got reprimands for both when there are...
[13:53.600 -> 13:55.520] Wait, it wasn't even the speeding in the pit lane,
[13:55.520 -> 13:58.400] it was his like 20 second hesitation.
[13:58.400 -> 13:59.240] Like he just stopped.
[13:59.240 -> 14:01.240] Oh yeah, no, you're right, it was the opposite.
[14:01.240 -> 14:03.400] Oh, what, and then GP's like,
[14:03.400 -> 14:05.520] oh yeah, okay, you're fine. Like that,
[14:05.520 -> 14:13.040] talk about like, bro, I got you. It was like impeding an entire line of drivers in the pit
[14:13.040 -> 14:17.200] lane to prevent them from getting their lap. It was the opposite of speeding for sure.
[14:19.680 -> 14:26.620] But then on track, he impeded both Logan and Yuki and it was so clear and obvious and every
[14:26.620 -> 14:32.600] example from every prior Grand Prix would that is that would be three grid drop places
[14:32.600 -> 14:36.660] each for both of those impeding incidents.
[14:36.660 -> 14:40.700] And basically he got a, oh no, don't worry, Max, we're so sorry.
[14:40.700 -> 14:42.860] We thought, you know, our rules are wrong.
[14:42.860 -> 14:48.400] Like, so sorry. And what, what okay but none of that is new we
[14:48.400 -> 14:54.240] deal with that almost every week it's a nightmare moving on max has his own rules we got it what
[14:54.240 -> 15:05.680] made this one particularly drama filled is that it seems like alfatari chose to just not show up to the Yuki hearing because, ah,
[15:05.680 -> 15:09.200] no, no, no, we don't fight Red Bull. No, no, no.
[15:09.200 -> 15:13.000] Yeah, everyone, they locked the- a helmet marker just went up to the Alphatari garage.
[15:13.000 -> 15:17.720] It was like, shut store, block! Like, no one's going.
[15:17.720 -> 15:23.920] And then Williams was alerted to, like, the ability to go fight for this via WhatsApp,
[15:23.920 -> 15:29.480] which is not normal procedure. There was like no official FIA correspondence. And
[15:29.480 -> 15:33.400] then so by the time you got to Japan, all the other teams were
[15:33.400 -> 15:37.720] like, what is this? Like you like, they finally got to where
[15:37.720 -> 15:40.960] we all were and teams that were not Williams and Al-Fatari
[15:40.960 -> 15:45.440] issued a formal complaint that said, this can't happen anymore.
[15:45.440 -> 15:48.400] And I don't remember the last time something like that
[15:48.400 -> 15:52.720] happened where like Aston Martin was issuing a complaint
[15:52.720 -> 15:54.360] about something that had nothing to do with them
[15:54.360 -> 15:55.200] because they were like,
[15:55.200 -> 15:58.200] these stewards were so bad that this happened.
[15:59.240 -> 16:03.080] It felt like it was the team started to do in what we
[16:03.080 -> 16:06.160] commonly see in sports when, you they're just like you can't
[16:06.160 -> 16:17.040] do that you can't do that like it's just exactly what I imagined. Yeah and then the FAA issued a
[16:17.040 -> 16:26.260] response which essentially was oops promise when we do that we won't do that again. Too bad Red Bull's the only one that got the advantage
[16:26.260 -> 16:27.200] for us doing that.
[16:27.200 -> 16:29.560] Oh, well, we're so sorry.
[16:29.560 -> 16:31.580] We won't do it again.
[16:31.580 -> 16:34.780] And I know that I'm like not using their exact words,
[16:34.780 -> 16:38.520] but what they actually said is that they will throw this out
[16:38.520 -> 16:41.160] and never use this as a precedent setting event,
[16:41.160 -> 16:43.800] which is their way of saying, oh yeah, we really,
[16:43.800 -> 16:46.340] yeah, that was pretty obvious Oh, yeah, we really yeah, that was that was pretty obvious that yeah
[16:46.340 -> 16:50.700] No, we were you too much. We showed our what? Oh, no
[16:51.220 -> 16:55.580] People cannot tell us that we're not favoring Red Bull
[16:56.580 -> 17:01.220] Yeah, so so we're gonna say we definitely did there we messed up there
[17:01.220 -> 17:05.720] But they can't even a like say they messed up by just saying, we'll never do that again.
[17:05.720 -> 17:06.600] But we know that's not true.
[17:06.600 -> 17:08.600] They'll do that the next time Max and Pete, so on,
[17:08.600 -> 17:10.400] because that's what always happens.
[17:10.400 -> 17:11.880] So I just...
[17:11.880 -> 17:16.560] So, but what I think is monumental from this, despite my personal,
[17:16.560 -> 17:19.360] like, ah, why are we still here?
[17:19.360 -> 17:25.300] Is I do think it's good to see other teams starting to push back on this.
[17:29.800 -> 17:32.800] Cause when the FIA started doing this, everyone was just so tired of specifically Lewis winning that they were letting it all slide.
[17:32.800 -> 17:37.000] And now guess what the result of doing that is, is that now for some reason,
[17:37.000 -> 17:41.760] we have a group of the sports referees whose job it is to make sure everyone's
[17:41.760 -> 17:46.000] following the rules, making sure nine out of the ten teams are following the rules.
[17:46.000 -> 17:48.000] Like, I-I-I-blah-blah-blah-ha!
[17:48.000 -> 17:50.000] But yay?
[17:50.000 -> 17:54.000] Yeah, but then we also get to Japan, and like...
[17:54.000 -> 17:58.000] Checkpoint!
[17:58.000 -> 18:01.000] Just was all over the place.
[18:01.000 -> 18:05.440] I just still need- I'm still unclear on the unretiring
[18:08.380 -> 18:09.120] how is that chill and allowed but like
[18:10.580 -> 18:12.320] it I Don't know. I can't think of another time
[18:12.320 -> 18:18.320] I've seen a team do it as I'm sure it's happened in practice like you know, I just can't remember
[18:18.320 -> 18:24.960] So it's just it all just feels icky and gross and it feels too much of like, oh, we're not gonna do it again
[18:24.960 -> 18:29.200] And then it just kind of felt like they were like sort of still doing it.
[18:29.200 -> 18:35.080] And there's always going to be human error in refereeing. Look, I watched the
[18:35.080 -> 18:50.480] Eagles game this weekend. So. But the, it's when like you have a big enough sample size that the quote-unquote human error doesn't
[18:50.480 -> 18:55.520] really feel like random human error anymore when it all slants one way, which is something
[18:55.520 -> 18:59.640] we complain about every time we go into the wild, where somehow, just magically, it always
[18:59.640 -> 19:01.440] seems to benefit one team.
[19:01.440 -> 19:06.760] And it's frustrating, because when weekends like this happen, it just continues
[19:06.760 -> 19:11.600] to put asterisks after asterisks on what we're seeing as unprecedented dominance. They don't
[19:11.600 -> 19:13.600] need the help this year.
[19:13.600 -> 19:25.520] Bad reality. Like, that's it. And then they'll just be like, oops! That's undeniable.
[19:25.520 -> 19:31.240] It's so crazy to me that it, we'll see what happens this weekend.
[19:32.160 -> 19:32.360] Yeah.
[19:32.360 -> 19:34.660] Like I go into every weekend now expecting it.
[19:34.860 -> 19:38.920] And now my, now I at least have this like tiny lifeline of hope, which is that other
[19:38.920 -> 19:42.980] teams have started to complain about it that are not just Mercedes and like,
[19:43.360 -> 19:45.800] please, please keep complaining
[19:45.800 -> 19:50.480] because I just it would be so much more enjoyable to watch this sport if I knew
[19:50.480 -> 19:56.520] that if Red Bull if Checo spearheads a car that maybe he'll get a penalty for
[19:56.520 -> 20:05.800] it because Lewis Hamilton brushes against someone and it's like 20 seconds, but like, check out, it's everything.
[20:10.200 -> 20:12.920] Formula One as a sport does not belong to anyone.
[20:12.920 -> 20:15.360] It doesn't belong to men, doesn't belong to, you know,
[20:15.360 -> 20:18.640] a certain racial demographic or age group or whatever.
[20:18.640 -> 20:20.400] It's everyone's sport.
[20:20.400 -> 20:24.020] And it's one of those things that's so simple, so visceral.
[20:24.020 -> 20:27.100] Just build a car and go as fast as you can
[20:27.100 -> 20:28.420] around a racing track.
[20:28.420 -> 20:31.880] And yet that simple objective expresses itself
[20:31.880 -> 20:35.040] in so many ways, all the beautiful technical details
[20:35.040 -> 20:37.580] and strategy and we get these fantastic drivers
[20:37.580 -> 20:38.760] coming out of it too.
[20:38.760 -> 20:41.180] It's a very unique sport and I hope as many people
[20:41.180 -> 20:43.220] as possible can enjoy it.
[20:43.220 -> 20:47.000] It's such a fantastic version of art and science
[20:47.000 -> 20:50.000] in a way I have never seen anywhere else.
[20:50.000 -> 20:54.000] And just being able to be a part of this community,
[20:54.000 -> 20:56.000] and Brian and I both love sports,
[20:56.000 -> 20:58.000] but I mean, at least speaking for myself,
[20:58.000 -> 21:01.000] there is no sport that I've ever experienced like F1.
[21:01.000 -> 21:03.000] It is so in its own,
[21:03.000 -> 21:06.360] and something I agree that everyone
[21:06.360 -> 21:08.560] definitely should be able to experience.
[21:08.560 -> 21:12.820] So I had sparked this discussion with my
[21:12.820 -> 21:16.800] cousin and brought into one that we've always had about what if Red Bull didn't
[21:16.800 -> 21:21.160] exist? Like if it wasn't, if they were not there, what would it currently be like?
[21:21.160 -> 21:22.960] What would our Sundays currently be like?
[21:22.960 -> 21:27.600] In disclaimer, this is all just for fun. We're doing this because we can.
[21:27.600 -> 21:33.760] And it's literally just for funsies. Don't worry, I don't think we're suddenly gonna like delete
[21:34.400 -> 21:38.800] Red Bull from society in the Twilight Zone. Don't worry, you don't have to live into this reality.
[21:38.800 -> 21:43.520] If you would like to prefer, you know, this is a thing if like that this isn't a thing,
[21:43.520 -> 21:47.120] you can skip ahead. But I think it's just really fun to imagine,
[21:47.120 -> 21:48.960] here's what we would be, here's everything.
[21:48.960 -> 21:52.760] So what my cousin had started doing
[21:52.760 -> 21:55.480] is he did this all by hand,
[21:55.480 -> 22:00.320] shifted, removed Max and Checo from the equation.
[22:00.320 -> 22:02.860] Red Bull does not exist, except Al Fatari does.
[22:02.860 -> 22:05.120] So don't question that, I'm gonna put that out right now. Al Fatari is a thing, Red Bull is not exist except Al Fatari does so don't question that I'm gonna put that out right now
[22:05.640 -> 22:10.080] Al Fatari's a thing, Red Bull is not a thing. Every driver is shifted up
[22:11.080 -> 22:17.940] Every fastest lap time is the next fastest lap time. Sprint race, everything is shifted up and the entire season is
[22:18.580 -> 22:24.620] recalculated to give you what the current driver standings and constructors standings would be
[22:26.560 -> 22:27.120] if there were no Red Bull.
[22:34.880 -> 22:35.440] And a reminder, this isn't super obvious because there's so many more points for P1 than P2 and P3
[22:40.000 -> 22:49.720] that it's like not a guarantee that it's just like if you you can't just like take Max and Checo out of the drivers and then auto shift everyone up because like winning a race is so much more substantial. Sorry, that was my, my disclaimer, just in case, like not
[22:49.720 -> 22:53.880] everyone's going to know the points at the back of their hands.
[22:53.880 -> 22:59.380] So today I am going to present and Brianna hasn't seen this just yet. What this alternate
[22:59.380 -> 23:07.040] reality of no Red Bull, except there is an Alphaatari, Formula One would be, and we're gonna start
[23:07.040 -> 23:13.000] with the Constructors' Championship since technically that's been wrapped up this year,
[23:13.000 -> 23:16.600] where would we be if there was no...
[23:16.600 -> 23:20.400] Max, should I start from the bottom?
[23:20.400 -> 23:21.400] Build suspense?
[23:21.400 -> 23:33.600] Yeah, let's build up the suspense. P9, we got Haas with 24 points, AlphaTauri with 28 points, AlphaRomeo with 37 points,
[23:33.600 -> 23:43.880] Williams 52, Alpine 141, McLaren 254, and now where everything gets interesting, because
[23:43.880 -> 23:46.280] you can see this definitely shifted
[23:46.280 -> 23:50.240] at some point in the season.
[23:50.240 -> 23:56.000] Before you go through that, I just want to point out that the difference in the bottom
[23:56.000 -> 24:02.400] five, or like now constructors versus like what they are.
[24:02.400 -> 24:03.720] Alternate reality!
[24:03.720 -> 24:08.000] Yeah! versus like what they are. Alternate reality! Yeah, so Haas is currently eighth, they would be last
[24:08.000 -> 24:14.720] here. Al Fatari is currently tenth, and they'd be second to last here, so they got to move up.
[24:15.360 -> 24:28.060] Alfa Romeo, shockingly, is in... that's seventh, and they're ninth right now, then the McLaren Alpine Williams is like, as is.
[24:28.060 -> 24:31.020] But I just thought it was interesting just how much the bottom three shuffled, and I
[24:31.020 -> 24:34.620] wanted to point that out before we get lost in the more interesting top three here.
[24:34.620 -> 24:40.980] Liam Lawson gains a lot of points, and so does Joe NVB earlier in the season, because
[24:40.980 -> 24:47.560] they're kind of at that cusp of out of the points, so when you're removing two drivers and you're able to shift up so much,
[24:47.840 -> 24:50.200] you're kind of gaining a lot more in the back of the grid.
[24:50.400 -> 24:55.320] So a lot of these points, quote unquote, existed in the gaining of the beginning
[24:55.320 -> 25:00.560] of the season, and we've since seen a shift, which is a fantastic segue into
[25:00.560 -> 25:09.360] our P3 of this alternate reality constructors championship, Aston Martin! 348 points!
[25:11.040 -> 25:15.200] I went rogue there. I was like, nah, this is a podium. We're gonna do podium sounders here.
[25:16.320 -> 25:23.920] Um, 348, and what they actually have is 221. They are P4, but like, you know,
[25:23.920 -> 25:28.160] Red Bull at the top. So they so they are P3. Interesting. I
[25:28.160 -> 25:33.440] thought they would be higher because how many races would that Fernando have won? Like four?
[25:34.480 -> 25:39.760] I'm shocked that they're not at least in P2, just because winning races.
[25:39.760 -> 25:44.000] Fernando Alonso would have had six P1s.
[25:44.000 -> 25:45.000] Oh my gosh, he would have had six P1s.
[25:45.000 -> 25:47.080] Oh my gosh, he would have won six races?
[25:47.080 -> 25:47.920] Yeah, yeah.
[25:47.920 -> 25:50.320] Is that the highest on the grid?
[25:50.320 -> 25:52.760] Like he would have been winning the most races, right?
[25:52.760 -> 25:55.000] It would be the highest on the grid,
[25:55.000 -> 25:57.680] but then he starts to fall off into,
[25:57.680 -> 25:59.240] there's like knot points.
[25:59.240 -> 26:04.240] Lou is falling in, he'll have two P1s and five P2s,
[26:04.960 -> 26:06.380] and there's like there's like
[26:06.380 -> 26:13.020] certain shifting here that like puts other teams in like a lot of higher
[26:13.020 -> 26:17.420] points yeah yeah okay wait but since we're on this like race winning like
[26:17.420 -> 26:23.500] sidebar could you just so Fernando won six races Lewis won two races we know
[26:23.500 -> 26:26.500] Carlos actually won one race in real life,
[26:26.500 -> 26:30.000] but who else would have won a race this season and how many?
[26:30.000 -> 26:30.700] I'm just curious.
[26:30.700 -> 26:33.900] So we would have seen Charles win three races,
[26:33.900 -> 26:37.400] and we would have seen Lando win two races.
[26:37.400 -> 26:40.900] And on one of these beautiful spreadsheets
[26:40.900 -> 26:44.300] will tell me exactly which race that would have been.
[26:44.300 -> 26:45.760] You don't need to do that. No, I
[26:45.760 -> 26:53.840] will. We would have seen an Azerbaijan P1 finish for Charles and an Austria finish for Charles.
[26:54.960 -> 27:01.760] So here's the fake world that we could all live in. And Charles Leclerc could probably,
[27:01.760 -> 27:12.000] you know, wants to pretend to live in this anyway. So since we, um, yeah, I mean, I mentally would like to live in that as well. Um, wait, okay. So
[27:12.000 -> 27:17.760] that means that in this world, Fernando has won six races. So Aston Martin has won six races and
[27:17.760 -> 27:22.960] they're only P3. I know we have Ferrari and Mercedes left. Lewis has won two races and Ferrari
[27:22.960 -> 27:25.840] has won four races. Now my gut instinct
[27:25.840 -> 27:31.680] tells me that that means Ferrari should be ahead in the Constructors, but I have a feeling without
[27:31.680 -> 27:35.280] even looking at it that that's not going to be the case just because of how inconsistent they are.
[27:36.000 -> 27:47.800] You would be thinking correct because the P2 in this fake Constructors is Ferrari 384. You can see like a good drop off in races where, you know, like someone
[27:47.800 -> 27:52.300] doesn't finish or someone doesn't finish.
[27:53.720 -> 27:54.640] Wait, but this is like,
[27:57.000 -> 27:57.800] Mercedes.
[27:57.800 -> 28:06.960] Mercedes is like probably a constructors champion, like in this alternate reality, there's just a lot more
[28:07.920 -> 28:14.720] higher ending finishes, like looks more like a double P5 finish, like P5 and higher finish for
[28:14.720 -> 28:18.640] Mercedes and such and things. So that's like really where it starts to make the difference
[28:18.640 -> 28:27.520] is when you're having both of the teammates finish, which really, if you're not watching on YouTube, Mercedes has 443 points
[28:27.520 -> 28:34.480] compared to Ferrari's 384. That's a pretty significant gap for winning two less races.
[28:34.480 -> 28:39.040] And then for winning two less races than Aston Martin, like Ferrari's closer to Aston Martin
[28:39.040 -> 28:49.760] than they are to Mercedes. This would have been wild. And I will keep it going. So I'll give you just for funsies, an update at the end of the season as to what could
[28:49.760 -> 28:51.560] have been in the final.
[28:51.560 -> 29:00.240] If Lewis Hamilton wins his ninth in this like fake universe, I don't want to know.
[29:00.240 -> 29:01.240] Okay.
[29:01.240 -> 29:04.600] So if we never do this again, this is where it finishes.
[29:04.600 -> 29:07.520] Lewis was P1, Mercedes also wins.
[29:07.520 -> 29:11.400] If you don't see this information ever again, there you go.
[29:11.400 -> 29:16.840] No, we'll, we'll do like a fun off season update with this for sure.
[29:16.840 -> 29:17.840] Either way.
[29:17.840 -> 29:20.040] And I'll just cry.
[29:20.040 -> 29:23.240] It was really hard to explain to them that I was like, Oh yeah, no, Max is winning this
[29:23.240 -> 29:24.240] race this weekend.
[29:24.240 -> 29:27.000] If something else happens, it's unimaginable.
[29:27.000 -> 29:29.520] And we were sitting there and for a minute,
[29:29.520 -> 29:31.160] for like a half a second last year at Kota,
[29:31.160 -> 29:32.920] like it looked like maybe Lewis,
[29:32.920 -> 29:35.160] but that was also because I didn't have my live timing
[29:35.160 -> 29:36.000] to see that it couldn't happen.
[29:36.000 -> 29:37.600] No, but then you started to do the math,
[29:37.600 -> 29:38.440] you're looking at it and you're like,
[29:38.440 -> 29:39.520] now his tires are degrading,
[29:39.520 -> 29:40.720] look at those lap times go down.
[29:40.720 -> 29:43.240] I said, you're destroying all of my hope in person
[29:43.240 -> 29:45.120] as I'm watching this all go down.
[29:45.120 -> 29:46.120] Yeah, I really was a fun moment.
[29:46.120 -> 29:51.480] I apologize. I apologize. I don't think I knew you guys then, but I was also in Austin
[29:51.480 -> 29:56.520] in 2022 for the USGP. And in that moment when Max had that slow pit stop, it was like, oh,
[29:56.520 -> 29:59.760] this is actually, this could potentially be on. And as he was slowly catching Lewis, I
[29:59.760 -> 30:04.800] was like, well, this isn't really going to work out. And as soon as he passed him, I
[30:04.800 -> 30:08.520] started walking over slowly to the podium to get a good spot so that was how that went
[30:08.520 -> 30:17.760] yeah it was a shack hey hey diesel diesel diesel is listen don't incredible
[30:17.760 -> 30:27.240] don't sleep I mean that's so seriously I love him big fan
[30:31.920 -> 30:32.080] Was that the race where he refused to give max the trophy because he didn't he's like nah
[30:34.360 -> 30:38.560] Not that I don't ever if that was the race But there was certainly an interaction that he had in one of the races where they're like, so what are you here for?
[30:38.560 -> 30:40.560] What do you drive about for me one big man?
[30:42.800 -> 30:45.360] Louis Arrowton. No, but what about the cars at Louis Arrowton?
[30:51.360 -> 30:55.840] And listen, there is space for that type of fan. I don't want anyone to feel, you know, like they don't belong here, but that's just a different profile of fan that I am and other
[30:55.840 -> 31:02.160] people are. We get to flex some fun muscles in this segment where we tell people to calm down.
[31:02.160 -> 31:08.420] I actually, in our pre-production, it it's called this segment, you need to calm down. So I was feeling extra swifty while
[31:08.420 -> 31:21.120] outlining this. Be it too loud. Okay. The universe of Formula One decided to just
[31:21.120 -> 31:25.340] have a complete meltdown about a bunch of social media metrics that a
[31:25.340 -> 31:30.580] company put out last week and essentially it was the world is ending
[31:30.580 -> 31:34.540] and Red Bull dominance is killing the sport and everything that Drive to
[31:34.540 -> 31:39.780] Survive built for the sport is tumbling down and yada yada yada it was a it was
[31:39.780 -> 31:46.080] basically the most apocalyptic clickbait thing across my entire timeline.
[31:46.080 -> 31:50.000] Context here, we both work in marketing,
[31:50.000 -> 31:53.980] where pulling numbers like this for companies
[31:53.980 -> 31:56.780] is something that we actually do.
[31:56.780 -> 32:01.780] And the, I'll just like tell everyone up front
[32:01.800 -> 32:04.560] that the takeaway I would have presented
[32:04.560 -> 32:05.440] and taken from
[32:05.440 -> 32:12.640] this data is nothing like what actually got aggregated. So I went to the source
[32:12.640 -> 32:19.000] to get the original report. There's this company called BuzzData that I did some
[32:19.000 -> 32:23.880] preliminary research into. They're a pretty small company. Crunchbase lists
[32:23.880 -> 32:25.640] their size between 11 and 50 employees. They're a pretty small company. Crunchbase lists their size between 11
[32:25.640 -> 32:30.440] and 50 employees. They're a private company that seems to be like a data
[32:30.440 -> 32:36.360] company where they help companies with research, data collection, trends, and then
[32:36.360 -> 32:42.560] there seems to be some actionable strategy off of it, but I have to admit
[32:42.560 -> 32:45.480] that I was a little confused by their website.
[32:45.480 -> 32:49.520] They were founded in 2012, so they're not a new company.
[32:49.520 -> 32:58.900] They're putting out a three-part series on taking social media data and drawing conclusions
[32:58.900 -> 33:00.680] about F1.
[33:00.680 -> 33:06.920] And they posted the first of this series, so again, small company, not a lot of following,
[33:06.920 -> 33:09.240] and they posted it on their LinkedIn.
[33:10.680 -> 33:13.600] This white paper about,
[33:14.480 -> 33:16.600] did Formula One plateau,
[33:16.600 -> 33:18.560] is kind of what they're trying to figure out
[33:18.560 -> 33:20.000] with their data.
[33:20.000 -> 33:22.200] Then this was taken and aggregated
[33:22.200 -> 33:24.360] by like a bunch of news sites
[33:24.360 -> 33:27.900] that didn't draw the right conclusions, in my opinion.
[33:29.800 -> 33:31.820] Yeah, people just,
[33:33.440 -> 33:38.200] I think when you don't have to be looking at social stats
[33:38.200 -> 33:42.340] in your day job, it's very easy to look at numbers
[33:42.340 -> 33:45.760] or you see, oh my God, there's such a different decrease
[33:45.760 -> 33:47.440] in the number of new followers.
[33:47.440 -> 33:49.160] And it's like, so totally not the same.
[33:49.160 -> 33:53.240] And it's like, okay, but also, you know,
[33:53.240 -> 33:58.240] are, did you go from like a zillion followers
[33:58.240 -> 33:59.680] to zero followers?
[33:59.680 -> 34:01.640] Like who is commenting?
[34:01.640 -> 34:04.320] Like what, there's so many other things to be looking at
[34:04.320 -> 34:05.280] and not just like
[34:05.280 -> 34:12.240] you're gaining in followers to like determine the entire health and success of this entire franchise.
[34:13.280 -> 34:19.280] Right, like what is the value of, I always call metrics like the ones we're about to look at as
[34:19.280 -> 34:26.300] vanity metrics, because they exist, they're counting metrics maybe is another way to put it but
[34:26.300 -> 34:32.480] like what do they mean for you as a company. So like what does a new follower mean to Formula
[34:32.480 -> 34:38.040] One in its growth and then you need to make sure you're comparing that to good comparables
[34:38.040 -> 34:45.680] and extrapolating that out. F1 has made it very clear that how they measure success, whether this is right or wrong, is
[34:45.680 -> 34:52.440] with at-track attendance and revenue generated by attending Grands Prix. Not even viewership
[34:52.440 -> 35:00.920] is something that F1 seems to really super care about for the value of their sport. So,
[35:00.920 -> 35:08.440] and I, well, the number one thing that was pulled out of this presentation is this
[35:08.440 -> 35:11.320] graphic I'm gonna put on the screen on YouTube that Nicole's looking at now
[35:11.320 -> 35:18.040] which is a graph about the figures for January to May so just the beginning of
[35:18.040 -> 35:27.040] a season for the past three years and And they pull out mentions, new followers, and social reach.
[35:27.040 -> 35:28.460] And when I say the past three years,
[35:28.460 -> 35:31.560] they pull 21, 22, and 23.
[35:31.560 -> 35:36.560] So if you are only comparing 23 to the greatest two years
[35:37.720 -> 35:41.040] in F1 growth and reach, guess what?
[35:41.040 -> 35:44.440] It's gonna be down, for sure, 100%.
[35:44.440 -> 35:54.000] But this data that certain news outlets chose to cherry pick out of this company's presentation
[35:54.000 -> 35:58.000] and not even getting into the validity of the actual presentation yet
[35:58.000 -> 36:11.500] is the most misleading graph in the entire presentation as someone who went through and read the entire thing. Also, like, January to May is such like a random selection of time,
[36:11.500 -> 36:15.720] but okay, so we're gonna look at F1 and it's like, it's like this, like, stopping in May,
[36:15.720 -> 36:21.160] like, why, maybe, like, if you wanted to do, like, the first race to the end of this,
[36:21.160 -> 36:26.560] like, the season, January to May just feels like such a random arbitrary selection
[36:26.560 -> 36:33.760] of time to be tracking this. It doesn't seem like there would be any sort of driving point.
[36:33.760 -> 36:39.840] To then release in October? To me it felt like they cut it off in May for 2023 to be able to
[36:39.840 -> 36:45.160] run the data, but then it took them until now to release it. Like, so, so like, yes,
[36:45.160 -> 36:47.760] you can totally poke holes in the methodology here
[36:47.760 -> 36:49.040] and what this means.
[36:49.040 -> 36:51.520] I find it interesting that in going through
[36:51.520 -> 36:53.560] the entire presentation,
[36:53.560 -> 36:58.040] I didn't get the takeaway that this company believes
[36:58.040 -> 37:00.720] that F1 super has plateaued.
[37:00.720 -> 37:01.980] Like if anything,
[37:01.980 -> 37:05.440] and I think people take plateau as a really negative word.
[37:05.440 -> 37:10.740] I think their takeaway seemed to be more along the lines of, okay, yeah, this year wasn't
[37:10.740 -> 37:13.660] astronomically great.
[37:13.660 -> 37:14.820] But it's not bad.
[37:14.820 -> 37:20.460] And I'm going to show you some other slides and data from the presentation that, like,
[37:20.460 -> 37:25.720] gives better context to this screenshot here that I pulled out of an F1 news article
[37:26.900 -> 37:33.560] But this is the conclusion graph that they made so the white line is
[37:34.700 -> 37:39.820] Corresponds to the left part of the graph and that is the number of F1 mentions on social media
[37:39.820 -> 37:50.400] And then the bar chart which corresponds to the right of the graph, is the driver margin that they won the championship by at the end of the season.
[37:50.400 -> 37:59.600] And they estimated how much Max was going to win by based on how the season was going. I don't even think that's enough.
[37:59.600 -> 38:07.520] But it doesn't actually matter. And you'll see that like F1 mentions from 2016, which
[38:07.520 -> 38:14.040] was the Rossberg Hamilton year, did take a dip between 2018, which you would call Lewis
[38:14.040 -> 38:18.740] Hamilton's, one of Lewis Hamilton's more dominant seasons. But then it did start to steadily
[38:18.740 -> 38:27.040] increase to 2019 and 2020. Then of course, there's 21 and 22 with the huge spike. And if you see the dip in F1
[38:27.040 -> 38:34.320] mentions that everyone is talking about, it is still so much higher than anything that happened
[38:34.320 -> 38:43.040] before. There's nothing that has shown that this has gone back to a pre-Abu Dhabi level of interest.
[38:43.040 -> 38:47.000] And I would actually, on this this graph show you that the interest we
[38:47.000 -> 38:52.320] have right now is over the course of the 21 season not that much lower.
[38:52.320 -> 38:54.280] We're talking about a couple million.
[38:54.280 -> 38:56.860] It's really not that big of a deal.
[38:56.860 -> 38:59.680] So did it go down?
[38:59.680 -> 39:00.780] Yes.
[39:00.780 -> 39:03.000] Is that actually a bad thing?
[39:03.000 -> 39:05.000] I don't know.
[39:05.000 -> 39:08.000] And I'm going to, before I throw it to you, Nicole, for reactions,
[39:08.000 -> 39:11.000] and then we can talk through some other data that I personally pulled
[39:11.000 -> 39:13.000] to give some more context to this.
[39:13.000 -> 39:18.000] I want to throw in the caveat here is that I didn't love the clarity and methodology on this data.
[39:18.000 -> 39:23.000] This is not something, the only reason I am pulling up this data and showing this to everyone
[39:23.000 -> 39:26.480] and talking through this is because everyone's talking about it and I need to poke
[39:26.480 -> 39:31.320] holes through it. I wouldn't personally trust these numbers. For starters it
[39:31.320 -> 39:38.320] doesn't seem like they took into account non-english-speaking mentions of F1 and
[39:38.320 -> 39:43.800] while we like to look because we're from the United States and that's our
[39:43.800 -> 39:47.760] viewpoint I think it's common to look at it through that lens.
[39:47.760 -> 39:49.060] From our point of view,
[39:49.060 -> 39:52.840] F1 has been growing astronomically globally.
[39:52.840 -> 39:55.480] And if you're not taking in things like Italian,
[39:55.480 -> 39:58.240] which I'll show you some Italy numbers in a second,
[39:58.240 -> 39:59.980] like that really matters.
[39:59.980 -> 40:02.840] Like this is a global sport.
[40:02.840 -> 40:05.800] There also were some graphs in here that were messed up,
[40:05.800 -> 40:09.120] which to me shows a attention to detail
[40:09.120 -> 40:11.800] that doesn't make me feel super confident
[40:11.800 -> 40:13.920] believing all this data.
[40:13.920 -> 40:17.320] So my takeaways in going through all of this is
[40:17.320 -> 40:18.820] what everyone is aggregating
[40:18.820 -> 40:21.160] isn't actually what this presentation is saying.
[40:21.160 -> 40:22.800] And I don't really trust the data
[40:22.800 -> 40:24.760] in this presentation anyway.
[40:24.760 -> 40:31.040] I'm so stuck on the not taking into account English speaking mentions because like that's
[40:31.040 -> 40:33.360] so much of my timeline.
[40:33.360 -> 40:35.360] Like I can't imagine that.
[40:35.360 -> 40:37.560] You mean non-English speaking?
[40:37.560 -> 40:38.560] Yep.
[40:38.560 -> 40:42.600] Is that, that's what I meant to say depending on whatever I said before.
[40:42.600 -> 40:46.440] I meant to say non-English speaking mentions.
[40:46.440 -> 40:53.840] That is so much that comes up on my timeline and I am English speaking, so just knowing that that exists,
[40:53.840 -> 41:05.200] I think that takes out... Wow, so much Checo conversation, just like so much Ferrari conversation. This is crazy. Allegedly.
[41:05.320 -> 41:06.000] Allegedly.
[41:06.000 -> 41:11.040] They made it, they made it, they did not make it clear enough in that nothing in
[41:11.040 -> 41:14.000] this explained their process to me.
[41:14.600 -> 41:19.360] And it was a common hole poked by other data people who went through this.
[41:19.360 -> 41:23.800] So I just, I wanted to bring it up that most people think they didn't, and
[41:23.800 -> 41:26.880] there was no retort from the CEO.
[41:28.240 -> 41:34.720] Well, and looking at this, I mean, still with this data, I'm not terrified. I don't think F1 is dead
[41:34.720 -> 41:42.720] and dying. I think looking pretty good based on that, this conclusion graph of what is currently
[41:42.720 -> 41:47.340] being discussed matches or is pretty close like the height of the sport it
[41:47.660 -> 41:53.820] Is very interesting to see that headlines were able to spin this and run it in so many ways
[41:54.620 -> 41:56.620] so a
[41:57.620 -> 42:00.680] Reminder to click if you click on an article
[42:01.220 -> 42:06.000] That's talking about any kind of data, click over to the source and see
[42:06.000 -> 42:11.040] what the source concluded in general is something I would just recommend even if you're not
[42:11.040 -> 42:18.440] normally a data person. Because yeah, if you only saw these total figures for 21, 22, 23,
[42:18.440 -> 42:22.520] like you could be whipped up into a frenzy. And does this frenzy really matter in the
[42:22.520 -> 42:29.360] grand scheme of things? No. Like this is so unimportant. But like, you know, if we were talking about politics,
[42:29.360 -> 42:38.080] or things that actually matter in your life, like just just a reminder. Now, I will say that,
[42:38.080 -> 42:44.240] like, while I don't think F1 should be freaking out because of this social media data,
[42:42.040 -> 42:45.380] I don't think F1 should be freaking out because of this social media data.
[42:45.380 -> 42:49.140] We have seen less demand for tickets.
[42:49.140 -> 42:51.980] Like their astronomically priced Grand Prix tickets
[42:51.980 -> 42:55.220] aren't just magically selling out.
[42:55.220 -> 42:58.900] I think that TV viewership numbers are down
[42:58.900 -> 43:03.100] which will eventually hurt the media buying,
[43:03.100 -> 43:08.320] the cost of selling their media rights. Like I think there are other
[43:08.320 -> 43:17.360] indicators that F1 isn't in major growth anymore and plateauing might be a good word for what it is
[43:18.080 -> 43:25.600] but I don't think social media chatter is a high personally on I actually think despite everything
[43:25.600 -> 43:29.800] that's going on and the lack of people's perceived topics to talk about that
[43:29.800 -> 43:35.160] social media chat is doing pretty well I was like wow 500,000 people want to see
[43:35.160 -> 43:41.880] Red Bull win every week that's that's shout out to you guys I guess and this
[43:41.880 -> 43:45.600] is why you should listen to gridlock because we give you other interesting things going on
[43:45.600 -> 43:48.920] all the time besides just who's winning races.
[43:51.320 -> 43:53.560] Do you want to see some Google trend data?
[43:53.560 -> 43:56.280] Oh, I love Google trend data.
[43:56.280 -> 43:58.720] Google trend data is,
[43:58.720 -> 44:01.640] gives you how many people are searching for a topic
[44:01.640 -> 44:04.040] and then they can give you global numbers.
[44:04.040 -> 44:05.520] So this is the Formula
[44:05.520 -> 44:11.680] 1 topic, so people searching things related to Formula 1 worldwide. And again, apologies
[44:11.680 -> 44:17.480] audio listeners, you should go over to YouTube for this. But you'll see this the past five
[44:17.480 -> 44:22.820] years and you'll notice that there's always going to be peaks in data like this because
[44:22.820 -> 44:30.240] race weekends are always going to be the height of a week and that's why there's a little why this looks like a jagged heart rate monitor
[44:30.240 -> 44:36.960] here. The massive peaks you see here is the start of the 22 season and the end of the 21 season
[44:37.680 -> 44:46.480] but just bite that like 2023 has been relatively consistent with the end of 22 and we haven't returned to 2018,
[44:46.480 -> 44:54.120] 2019 or 2020 levels of search at all. We're still above that even worldwide people searching
[44:54.120 -> 45:00.840] on Google for F1 related things. There you go. That looks pretty good to me. Um, but
[45:00.840 -> 45:06.560] then I also went into like some specifics. so you'll see this is the United States graph
[45:06.560 -> 45:11.120] which I always like to look at because you see compared to the worldwide just how much it's
[45:11.120 -> 45:18.560] spiked in the last three years. Wow. And then lastly here's Italy and guess what Italy compared
[45:18.560 -> 45:27.200] to all those other ones had a much larger bump in 2022 and And shocker, when Ferrari is competing in the championship,
[45:27.200 -> 45:35.760] they seem to care a lot. That is so hysterical. You can literally see like, the drop off,
[45:36.720 -> 45:41.040] like probably mid season is also what I'm assuming looking like, oh no,
[45:42.240 -> 45:47.040] like, oh no, Red Bull is figuring out things and they're not DNFing all the
[45:47.040 -> 45:48.040] time.
[45:48.040 -> 45:54.280] Yeah, and then you can see with them like an overall interest increase similar to the
[45:54.280 -> 46:01.600] US, but they have a much bigger 2019 for a similar reason because Seb was competitive
[46:01.600 -> 46:02.600] at the beginning of the season.
[46:02.600 -> 46:06.200] So it's not as big of a 2022 spike because general interest was up.
[46:06.200 -> 46:12.200] But yeah, you'll also notice that Ferrari cared a lot less about Abu Dhabi compared to like worldwide.
[46:12.200 -> 46:14.800] And I say Ferrari, but just Italy.
[46:14.800 -> 46:18.400] Italy was like, Italy was just sad about the state.
[46:18.400 -> 46:20.600] That's who I just assume all of Italy is.
[46:20.600 -> 46:23.000] That's just the boot is Tifosi.
[46:23.000 -> 46:26.560] Yeah, like Ferrari was just sad about the state
[46:26.560 -> 46:31.440] of their 2021 car. It just was like, you guys go fight over there. I'm tired. You guys go Google
[46:31.440 -> 46:39.440] this. I'm not going to Google to see more madness. Yep. So, um, there are, I guess I love looking at
[46:39.440 -> 46:50.320] this in my own time. There's other things that people can look at to see just general interest in F1. Don't get too sucked into vanity metrics on social media. You're gonna go
[46:50.320 -> 46:57.760] crazy. So Bryson's podium is actually a look-ahead podium. We're gonna toss
[46:57.760 -> 47:01.920] Red Bull aside. We know that track characteristics have really played a big
[47:01.920 -> 47:06.640] effect on which of the, you know, Aston, Ferrari,
[47:06.640 -> 47:10.400] Mercedes, McLaren teams do well at a racetrack.
[47:10.400 -> 47:15.560] So we've asked him to give us a podium based on what he thinks performance is going to
[47:15.560 -> 47:19.440] be for the next race at the Qatar GP.
[47:19.440 -> 47:25.920] P3 to P1 being the team that he predicts based on track characteristics is going to be the
[47:25.920 -> 47:27.040] closest to Red Bull.
[47:27.040 -> 47:30.120] I don't know if we can say compete with Red Bull here.
[47:30.120 -> 47:34.280] Yeah, I think it's pretty clear that your bet should be on Red Bull.
[47:34.280 -> 47:37.880] And I also think that one of the major worries that we had at Katara the last time we were
[47:37.880 -> 47:42.560] there, which was these aggressive curbs, should be a little bit better this time.
[47:42.560 -> 47:46.320] It shouldn't be quite as big of an issue, but we'll still keep an eye on it.
[47:46.320 -> 47:48.440] I think one of the things that really excites me
[47:48.440 -> 47:50.980] about Formula One is how variable it can be.
[47:50.980 -> 47:52.480] People like to think of upgrades
[47:52.480 -> 47:53.880] as the sort of thing that you would get
[47:53.880 -> 47:56.180] in like Gran Turismo or Forza,
[47:56.180 -> 47:57.020] but you plug it in and it just-
[47:57.020 -> 47:59.480] I have bought a new rear wing.
[47:59.480 -> 48:00.520] You've got a new rear wing.
[48:00.520 -> 48:02.400] That will give you exactly this much performance.
[48:02.400 -> 48:04.960] And the thing is, Formula One cars are so complex
[48:04.960 -> 48:06.760] that you never really know for sure. I mean for
[48:06.760 -> 48:11.080] the first time in a long time we saw Red Bull revert to an older specification of
[48:11.080 -> 48:14.360] floor because the upgrade they brought didn't quite work and that we can where
[48:14.360 -> 48:17.120] they were having so many problems and I think the thing I want to convey before
[48:17.120 -> 48:21.560] talking about Qatar is just that the setup of the car is actually worth more
[48:21.560 -> 48:26.900] lap time than an upgrade or more precisely you can't even maximize the performance of the
[48:26.900 -> 48:28.780] upgrade without having the right setup.
[48:29.140 -> 48:33.640] So it's entirely possible for teams to be wrong-footed by a particular circuit as
[48:34.260 -> 48:38.100] Singapore was a bogey track for Red Bull last time out.
[48:38.640 -> 48:41.700] Oh, the reason why I bring this up is because Qatar is also a circuit that
[48:41.700 -> 48:43.040] you've only ever raced at once.
[48:43.460 -> 48:49.000] And so because of that, there's not this voluminous data of background for car history there
[48:49.000 -> 48:52.000] and knowing what the tire temperatures are going to be and track surface.
[48:52.000 -> 48:58.000] And there are all kinds of weird peculiarities at Qatar that could actually be a factor in setting the competitive running order.
[48:58.000 -> 49:02.000] That being said, it is much more of a medium to high downforce track.
[49:02.000 -> 49:06.480] It's much more like Hungary than Japan or even
[49:06.480 -> 49:10.020] Singapore because even though Singapore is also a very high downforce track and
[49:10.020 -> 49:13.500] McLaren and Mercedes tend to do you know well and higher downforce tracks
[49:13.500 -> 49:16.680] Singapore doesn't have a lot of high-speed corners then have a lot of
[49:16.680 -> 49:20.680] corners that require a lot of lateral grip whereas Suzuka has a ton of those
[49:20.680 -> 49:24.520] in the first sector but Suzuka also requires a lot of straight line
[49:24.520 -> 49:25.040] performance on the second half of the lap. Qatar has fewer straights than Japan a ton of those in the first sector, but Suzuka also requires a lot of straight line performance
[49:25.040 -> 49:30.240] on the second half of the lap. Qatar has fewer straights than Japan is the first thing I would
[49:30.240 -> 49:34.160] say. And the second thing is that it still requires high downforce. So I still expect
[49:34.160 -> 49:40.480] Red Bull to win, but I don't expect them to win by quite as much margin in Qatar as it did in Japan.
[49:40.480 -> 49:47.420] But in terms of my number three, who I think is going to be the third best team, I think it's going to be Ferrari.
[49:47.420 -> 49:52.420] The reason that I think that is Ferrari has demonstrated an ability post Monza to really
[49:52.420 -> 49:56.260] get their tire degradation a bit better under control.
[49:56.260 -> 49:58.820] And they've put a little bit more downforce on the car, which seems to help them in the
[49:58.820 -> 50:00.020] high speed stuff.
[50:00.020 -> 50:04.540] Their tire degradation was actually slightly related to not only an overall lack of downforce,
[50:04.540 -> 50:07.560] but also the way they were deploying their hybrid energy.
[50:07.560 -> 50:11.400] They did a study to figure out, okay, well, at what speeds are we deploying the hybrid?
[50:11.400 -> 50:14.980] And if you don't have enough traction to handle that grip, it turns out that you actually
[50:14.980 -> 50:17.880] are accelerating tire wear as a result of that.
[50:17.880 -> 50:20.160] So that's something they fixed post Monza.
[50:20.160 -> 50:24.720] I think that will help them in a track like Qatar, but I think they will be beaten by
[50:24.720 -> 50:25.360] two teams
[50:25.840 -> 50:31.620] And so we'll just go to the the number two in this celebration now, I actually think is Mercedes
[50:32.480 -> 50:34.480] I think Mercedes will be second
[50:35.360 -> 50:41.600] And the reason the reason why I think that is Mercedes still at this point has a straight line speed deficit
[50:42.000 -> 50:46.620] Um, their power unit is still very strong, but the chassis creates a decent amount of drag.
[50:46.620 -> 50:48.620] Now we do have to be a little bit careful here
[50:48.620 -> 50:51.300] to differentiate between baseline drag,
[50:51.300 -> 50:53.460] i.e. drag with the DRS closed
[50:53.460 -> 50:56.020] versus the DRS effectiveness delta.
[50:56.020 -> 50:58.300] And Japan was a difficult track for establishing that
[50:58.300 -> 51:01.100] because if you look at the fast F1 data
[51:01.100 -> 51:03.100] that comes from F1,
[51:03.100 -> 51:05.760] the fastest speed along the circuit is
[51:05.760 -> 51:09.960] actually on the main straight but the location of the official FIA
[51:09.960 -> 51:16.200] speed trap was 70 meters after 130R. So when you see the fastest cars going in
[51:16.200 -> 51:19.080] the speed trap that doesn't actually reflect who was fastest on the main
[51:19.080 -> 51:23.000] straight and so it was a good way to sort of separate those two things and it
[51:23.000 -> 51:27.720] really established that Mercedes has a relatively high level of baseline drag and
[51:27.720 -> 51:30.080] their DRS effectiveness is not super awesome.
[51:30.080 -> 51:31.080] Like Red Bull.
[51:31.080 -> 51:34.600] Red Bull's DRS effectiveness is in the stratosphere.
[51:34.600 -> 51:36.120] It's unbelievably good.
[51:36.120 -> 51:42.520] And so there is a decently long main straight in Qatar, but it's half as long as Suzuka
[51:42.520 -> 51:44.240] and it's still just as high downforce.
[51:44.240 -> 51:48.940] So I really don't expect them to be as bad there as they were in Japan.
[51:48.940 -> 51:53.920] Did you have any questions? And for those of you just listening on audio on YouTube I'm gonna put up some
[51:53.920 -> 51:57.160] graphs with some of the data points that Bryson's talking about so you can head
[51:57.160 -> 52:01.300] over to the YouTube channel and go look at that if you want a visual
[52:01.300 -> 52:06.160] representation of essentially Mercedes, Draggy, Red Bull fast.
[52:08.240 -> 52:14.400] It's not always as easily identifiable as that, but in this case kind of is. Mercedes is struggling
[52:14.400 -> 52:19.360] with aerodynamic efficiency, kind of the ratio of downforce to drag, but also just overall drag
[52:19.360 -> 52:27.160] levels are difficult. How much of that, in your opinion, do you think is baked into the fact that they've
[52:27.160 -> 52:32.640] retrofitted this… their car right now is the chassis they came into the year with,
[52:32.640 -> 52:34.960] with retrofitted bodywork on top of it.
[52:34.960 -> 52:37.640] There's so much of the car that was baked in.
[52:37.640 -> 52:40.400] Do you think this is because of that?
[52:40.400 -> 52:45.720] Why they can't get rid of this drag issue, or do you think it's a fundamental lack
[52:45.720 -> 52:51.120] of understanding on how to create a more aerodynamically
[52:51.120 -> 52:52.960] efficient car right now?
[52:52.960 -> 52:54.560] Both.
[52:54.560 -> 52:55.720] I think it's both.
[52:55.720 -> 52:57.800] And I'll add on top of that, the cost cap
[52:57.800 -> 52:59.600] is limiting their development as well.
[52:59.600 -> 53:01.840] I think people don't seem to realize that Mercedes is
[53:01.840 -> 53:06.480] essentially driving around Frankenstein's monster in a sense.
[53:06.480 -> 53:11.360] This is a car that still had very much the fingerprints of the zero-pod philosophy in
[53:11.360 -> 53:14.920] it in the fundamental aspects of its design.
[53:14.920 -> 53:18.560] So yes, it had different side pods, and you can change the side pods mid-season, sure,
[53:18.560 -> 53:20.600] but where are the side impact structures located?
[53:20.600 -> 53:21.600] Can you change those?
[53:21.600 -> 53:22.600] No.
[53:22.600 -> 53:25.000] How far forward is the driving position?
[53:25.000 -> 53:27.960] That's a function of the ZeroPod design as well. We mentioned that Lewis Hamilton had
[53:27.960 -> 53:31.700] a problem with that earlier in the season. And even something a little bit more subtle
[53:31.700 -> 53:36.520] that we don't talk about as much, but is just as critical, is the gearbox. The gearbox,
[53:36.520 -> 53:40.920] even though it's not explicitly for a ZeroPod, can't really be changed mid-season. Otherwise,
[53:40.920 -> 53:44.320] you're going to have penalties and it's going to be cost cap problems. But people need to
[53:44.320 -> 53:46.480] realize that the gearbox not only sort
[53:46.480 -> 53:50.400] of you know has the the casing for covering the gears but it also has the
[53:50.400 -> 53:54.240] mounting points for the rear suspension the rear suspension is mounted directly
[53:54.240 -> 53:59.680] to those points on the gearbox and also the size and layout of your diffuser is
[53:59.680 -> 54:03.600] directly informed by how large the gearbox is and the kind of real estate
[54:03.600 -> 54:08.500] it occupies. Red Bull is constantly having gearbox problems and sync issues and Max is
[54:08.500 -> 54:11.940] complaining about the downshifts and crazy stuff with the gearbox probably
[54:11.940 -> 54:16.180] because they've gone extremely small and extremely tight on that gearbox
[54:16.180 -> 54:21.380] mechanical design to maximize the real estate for their diffuser. And so it's
[54:21.380 -> 54:30.700] one of these interrelated aero and mechanical things. So Mercedes is driving a compromised design if you wanted to look forward and give hope to some Mercedes fans in the future
[54:30.860 -> 54:35.900] Why could the w15 suddenly be better than either the w14 or the w13?
[54:35.940 -> 54:38.420] The reason is it's genuinely a clean sheet design
[54:38.800 -> 54:44.660] But zero influence whatsoever from zero pot philosophy zero pot is dead. It's dead like disco
[54:46.440 -> 54:53.680] so the the right way to describe the potential ambition of Mercedes is they're going to
[54:53.680 -> 54:57.120] have a completely new car and as we speak you know Lewis is at the factory
[54:57.120 -> 55:01.000] in Brackley giving some input on where he thinks that the car should go but
[55:01.000 -> 55:04.960] broadly speaking this particular car is better at circuits that have high
[55:04.960 -> 55:07.920] downforce requirements but also don't have many straights and
[55:07.920 -> 55:12.720] typically more front limited than rear limited. The front end of the W14 is
[55:12.720 -> 55:16.440] actually very strong in fact it's too strong it's the rear end that's
[55:16.440 -> 55:20.200] constantly stepping out either through lack of downforce or mechanical setup
[55:20.200 -> 55:23.740] both of which are compromised by the design of the car and the ZeroPod
[55:23.740 -> 55:25.160] legacy but believe it or not I think Mercedes is still going to be second setup, both of which are compromised by the design of the car and the ZeroPod legacy.
[55:25.160 -> 55:29.920] But believe it or not, I think Mercedes is still going to be second fastest in Qatar
[55:29.920 -> 55:34.720] precisely because they're not going to be hurt quite as much by that top speed deficit.
[55:34.720 -> 55:38.480] And I think their ability to adapt to the new track is going to suit them very well.
[55:38.480 -> 55:41.000] And also they're the last winners of this race.
[55:41.000 -> 55:46.000] And so that should suit them a little bit, if not guarantee a win.
[55:46.000 -> 55:47.000] It won't hurt.
[55:47.000 -> 55:48.000] All right.
[55:48.000 -> 55:49.000] And tell us about your P1.
[55:49.000 -> 55:52.000] Well, my P1 is McLaren.
[55:52.000 -> 55:56.760] I mean, that was the perfect sound effect.
[55:56.760 -> 55:58.200] I enjoyed that quite a lot.
[55:58.200 -> 56:00.720] We love the P1 sound.
[56:00.720 -> 56:02.560] Like sassy trumpets.
[56:02.560 -> 56:07.680] You know, I think people, obviously people seem like Claren fighting,
[56:07.680 -> 56:11.960] you know, for victories in many races currently, and certainly fighting for the podium in the
[56:11.960 -> 56:18.320] last four or five races. It's hard to imagine where this team was in Bahrain, you know,
[56:18.320 -> 56:23.640] qualifying like a second and a half or something off the pace and DNFing both cars immediately.
[56:23.640 -> 56:25.400] Senior management admitting up front that
[56:25.400 -> 56:31.060] they didn't hit the development targets, a car that was stumbling to make any Ford progress
[56:31.060 -> 56:35.400] and suddenly it's completely come alive, you know, starting with Austria and then building
[56:35.400 -> 56:37.160] on the upgrade package after that.
[56:37.160 -> 56:40.840] I know many people want to say they're just making their car like a Red Bull and that's
[56:40.840 -> 56:43.400] why it's so fast and that's what's going on.
[56:43.400 -> 56:46.160] I think that does a slight disservice to the work.
[56:46.160 -> 56:47.400] It's easier said than done.
[56:47.720 -> 56:50.300] Well, like everyone wants to be as fast as the Red Bull.
[56:50.300 -> 56:52.680] That doesn't mean anyone else has been able to do it.
[56:52.960 -> 56:54.640] It is easier said than done.
[56:54.680 -> 56:58.040] Number one, even if you exactly copied the geometry of the car or attempted to
[56:58.040 -> 56:59.520] and tried to race it, it wouldn't work.
[56:59.520 -> 57:02.060] I mean, the, the pink Mercedes is an example of that.
[57:02.060 -> 57:05.400] I mean, it is, that was a fast car, but it was actually tweaked quite a bit
[57:05.400 -> 57:07.020] from the exact copy that they made.
[57:07.020 -> 57:09.060] I'll have a thread on Twitter about that,
[57:09.060 -> 57:10.500] that we can talk about later.
[57:10.500 -> 57:12.880] But the thing about, the thing about McLaren though,
[57:12.880 -> 57:15.540] is that their upgrades that they've brought
[57:15.540 -> 57:18.480] have reached a level of efficacy
[57:18.480 -> 57:22.700] that is unparalleled in recent history in Formula One.
[57:22.700 -> 57:25.540] We've never seen a team start at the midfield
[57:25.540 -> 57:26.900] or back of the midfield
[57:26.900 -> 57:30.320] and be competing for podiums regularly during the season.
[57:30.320 -> 57:33.400] And if that sounds depressing for Mercedes fans
[57:33.400 -> 57:36.240] or frustrating a customer team's beating us,
[57:36.240 -> 57:37.080] how can that be?
[57:37.080 -> 57:39.640] This is an outrage.
[57:39.640 -> 57:40.760] It is an outrage.
[57:40.760 -> 57:43.240] First of all, let me validate those questions, number one.
[57:43.240 -> 57:44.480] But number two, it's proof
[57:44.480 -> 57:45.760] that there's lap time to be found.
[57:45.760 -> 57:50.400] It proves that a better fundamental understanding of the car
[57:50.400 -> 57:52.400] and an ability to extract the most out of it
[57:52.400 -> 57:54.880] can give you more lap time than you have.
[57:54.880 -> 57:58.400] I mean, sure, the developmental slope of the ZeroPod
[57:58.400 -> 58:00.360] wasn't actually terrible initially.
[58:00.360 -> 58:02.480] They thought that it might actually be a good design.
[58:02.480 -> 58:06.880] It was only until Red Bull proved how much way faster
[58:06.880 -> 58:08.560] you could actually go that they said,
[58:08.560 -> 58:10.180] okay, actually, this isn't gonna work at all.
[58:10.180 -> 58:12.680] And not only that, but the same is true for Ferrari.
[58:12.680 -> 58:16.280] Ferrari, can you imagine Ferrari, the prancing horse,
[58:16.280 -> 58:18.240] the team that was actually fighting
[58:18.240 -> 58:20.920] for the world championship until the midway point,
[58:20.920 -> 58:22.800] you know, last season.
[58:22.800 -> 58:24.120] They are saying, hey, listen,
[58:24.120 -> 58:25.360] we have to totally reinvent our
[58:25.360 -> 58:30.720] car not because it's inherently bad per se but because red bull and now you know mclaren is
[58:30.720 -> 58:34.480] finding so much more time and just to round out the point i'm saying about mclaren saying that
[58:34.480 -> 58:39.200] it's it's overly simplistic to suggest that mclaren's going fast simply because they're
[58:39.200 -> 58:43.040] copying red bull it's doing a disservice to the work that their engineers are doing
[58:43.040 -> 58:46.280] developing their own concepts i mean if you look at just the
[58:46.280 -> 58:50.900] Side pod design of McLaren's car and the engine cover that has these sort of gullies in the back
[58:51.200 -> 58:55.080] Red Bull doesn't have that Red Bull doesn't have water slides in their side pod
[58:55.080 -> 59:00.700] I mean, there's a lot going on there that is intellectually independent of what Red Bull is doing
[59:00.700 -> 59:06.360] So I just want to caution people against this idea that saying well just make your car like Red Bull be fast Well, that's not actually what McLaren is doing. So I just want to caution people against this idea that's saying well just make your car like Red Bull it'll be fast. Well that's not
[59:06.360 -> 59:12.060] actually what McLaren is doing. Although, although, I'm thinking a lot more
[59:12.060 -> 59:18.300] recently about McLaren's choice for a pull rod front suspension. Where the only
[59:18.300 -> 59:22.540] other car on the grid that also has a pull rod front suspension is the Red Bull.
[59:22.540 -> 59:27.120] Is the RB19. You know, last year and earlier this year
[59:27.120 -> 59:31.200] we kind of just written this off as just, well, you know, it's a cosmetic difference, you know,
[59:31.200 -> 59:35.920] push rod versus pull rod, maybe it's a little bit easier to access the mechanical components
[59:35.920 -> 59:41.440] with one design, but I think we should revisit this. I think the amount of pace that McLaren is
[59:41.440 -> 59:46.760] finding seemingly inexplicably, I need to recover all bases
[59:46.760 -> 59:50.920] and look at all the similarities and differences between what Red Bull does and what McLaren
[59:50.920 -> 59:55.760] does and others do, and that pull rod front suspension is on my radar.
[59:55.760 -> 59:59.480] I don't even know anymore.
[59:59.480 -> 01:00:00.480] I don't know.
[01:00:00.480 -> 01:00:04.640] Like, ha, predictions for this sport?
[01:00:04.640 -> 01:00:06.720] Good fun. Good fun. good fun, good jokes.
[01:00:06.720 -> 01:00:14.000] We did a much better job pre-reset and now I was just like, I scored a point!
[01:00:14.000 -> 01:00:20.560] No, you were doing much better pre-reset. I was struggle busing, having too much
[01:00:20.560 -> 01:00:31.100] fate in certain red cars at the wrong time. Yeah, and then you completely swore off ever selecting a Ferrari car, and then that went
[01:00:31.100 -> 01:00:34.000] poorly too, because they started to figure things out.
[01:00:34.000 -> 01:00:36.000] Yeah, it, uh...
[01:00:36.000 -> 01:00:42.000] If you play hard to get, then Ferrari does well.
[01:00:42.000 -> 01:00:47.120] Before we get into predictions, since we recorded that race
[01:00:47.120 -> 01:00:51.160] preview with Bryson last week, I do actually have some updates
[01:00:51.160 -> 01:00:54.240] that I think everyone would be interested in knowing about the
[01:00:54.240 -> 01:00:54.840] guitar GP.
[01:00:56.480 -> 01:01:01.480] Uh, so we've only F1's only ever raced at this circuit once, and
[01:01:01.480 -> 01:01:04.240] it was in 2021, which is the prior regulations.
[01:01:04.320 -> 01:01:05.520] So this is the first time with these
[01:01:05.520 -> 01:01:11.440] regulations on this circuit and the circuit has been completely resurfaced and there are new curbs
[01:01:11.440 -> 01:01:16.960] so even though they've only raced the circuit once it's technically also already completely new
[01:01:18.960 -> 01:01:23.040] teams don't know anything so guess what it's a great time to have a sprint race
[01:01:23.280 -> 01:01:23.640] anything. So guess what? It's a great time to have a sprint race.
[01:01:25.520 -> 01:01:26.920] We're the one practice.
[01:01:31.400 -> 01:01:35.160] The one practice is during like daytime hours and the races during nighttime hours, or it's like dusk to nighttime. It doesn't matter.
[01:01:35.200 -> 01:01:38.600] Basically the one practice the teams get is not.
[01:01:38.600 -> 01:01:40.880] System variables.
[01:01:41.480 -> 01:01:47.540] Right, right. So they have no data with this set of regulation cars. The only data they
[01:01:47.540 -> 01:01:52.760] have is from a different type, like basically the circuit was different then, and they get
[01:01:52.760 -> 01:02:10.900] no valuable practice time. So it's gonna be a, it's gonna be a mess. So much chaos. And Pirelli is bringing the C1, the C2, and the C3, so almost as hard as they can go.
[01:02:10.900 -> 01:02:13.700] But that's because there's high stress on it.
[01:02:13.700 -> 01:02:16.660] It's pretty much like all high speed corners.
[01:02:16.660 -> 01:02:19.060] It's high speed corners and one straight.
[01:02:19.060 -> 01:02:20.060] So squiggly.
[01:02:20.060 -> 01:02:28.800] Yeah, like almost no braking is this track. It's closest to Silverstone and Suzuka is what people describe it as.
[01:02:28.800 -> 01:02:35.200] So that is those are things to add on to our prior race preview with
[01:02:35.200 -> 01:02:35.500] Brayson.
[01:02:35.500 -> 01:02:39.500] I feel like we should have an over-under on track limits.
[01:02:39.500 -> 01:02:45.000] But I can't even begin to think of like a proper number.
[01:02:45.000 -> 01:02:48.000] I just probably would take your service has been temporarily
[01:02:48.000 -> 01:02:48.600] disconnected.
[01:02:48.600 -> 01:02:49.800] No.
[01:02:49.800 -> 01:02:51.600] All right.
[01:02:51.600 -> 01:02:54.600] So now it's time to attempt to predict the most unpredictable
[01:02:54.600 -> 01:02:56.600] sport that's ever been predicted.
[01:02:56.600 -> 01:03:01.200] And per pre-hire points, the teams have no idea what's going
[01:03:01.200 -> 01:03:01.400] on.
[01:03:01.400 -> 01:03:03.000] So we're going to try to tell you.
[01:03:03.000 -> 01:03:08.840] I just think there's like a really good chance that some teams just get their setup so wrong
[01:03:08.840 -> 01:03:09.840] this week.
[01:03:09.840 -> 01:03:12.880] I mean, you're screwed because only one free practice.
[01:03:12.880 -> 01:03:17.800] Yeah, and because of the sprint, like Park Ferme is so early.
[01:03:17.800 -> 01:03:21.200] They have one free practice and then they go straight into qualifying on Friday, so
[01:03:21.200 -> 01:03:24.840] then you can't do or change the car in any way because it gets locked in.
[01:03:24.840 -> 01:03:28.960] So if things are bad, come qualifying for a team, just know it's
[01:03:28.960 -> 01:03:36.680] going to be bad the whole weekend. On that really positive note, who do you have? Oh,
[01:03:36.680 -> 01:03:44.200] so we're doing sprint predictions as well. So who do you have as your P2 in the sprint?
[01:03:44.200 -> 01:03:45.240] Or P3, sorry.
[01:03:45.240 -> 01:03:49.140] Oh my God, I was like, I predicted the wrong things.
[01:03:49.140 -> 01:03:50.960] Nope, it's P3 in the sprint.
[01:03:50.960 -> 01:03:53.420] I can't read.
[01:03:53.420 -> 01:03:56.420] My P3, I can't speak.
[01:03:56.420 -> 01:04:01.420] My P3 in the sprint is Mr. Smooth Operator, Carlos Sainz.
[01:04:03.140 -> 01:04:06.280] Circling back to, I wasn't allowed to predict Ferrari
[01:04:06.280 -> 01:04:09.320] and I've now started doing that again.
[01:04:09.320 -> 01:04:15.360] That was a self-imposed rule, but I went with Oscar Piastri.
[01:04:15.360 -> 01:04:17.320] OK.
[01:04:17.320 -> 01:04:21.240] I think that Oscar's difficulty right now in comparing
[01:04:21.240 -> 01:04:26.760] to Lando is he can't keep up with the life of the
[01:04:26.760 -> 01:04:31.040] tire as much and as we've learned sprints have no tire degradation so I
[01:04:31.040 -> 01:04:35.920] think he'll perform really well. Yeah I think I was in that same you know I just
[01:04:35.920 -> 01:04:40.280] always feel good about Ferrari and sprints and when they don't need to be
[01:04:40.280 -> 01:04:45.240] too concerned about tire deck even though they've gotten a lot better with that.
[01:04:45.240 -> 01:04:46.640] Who do you have for your P8?
[01:04:47.520 -> 01:04:49.120] Fernando Alonso.
[01:04:49.120 -> 01:04:51.120] Okay, fair.
[01:04:51.120 -> 01:04:53.800] Yeah, I mean, I have him mentally
[01:04:53.800 -> 01:04:56.200] in the like six, seven, eight range.
[01:04:56.200 -> 01:05:00.320] I think that Aston has really struggled lately
[01:05:00.320 -> 01:05:03.480] and I don't see that getting better here,
[01:05:03.480 -> 01:05:05.600] but I can't see a world where Fernando Alonso
[01:05:05.600 -> 01:05:09.960] doesn't score points in the session, therefore I have him there.
[01:05:09.960 -> 01:05:11.320] Where do you have?
[01:05:11.320 -> 01:05:14.280] I have George Russell in P8.
[01:05:14.280 -> 01:05:19.080] Sprint just doesn't seem to be where I think George will perform.
[01:05:19.080 -> 01:05:23.080] I think Lewis will be higher, so I just... and where I'm kind of...
[01:05:23.080 -> 01:05:27.400] You start doing that mental math and now McLaren like has themselves in the mix of things
[01:05:27.400 -> 01:05:31.200] And I like kind of feel like I have to care about Ferrari and I do believe that like, you know
[01:05:31.200 -> 01:05:37.520] I don't think Fernando Alonso's just gonna like disappear, especially if it's to know if there is any gaining points
[01:05:37.520 -> 01:05:39.520] I think a lot of that rides on
[01:05:40.120 -> 01:05:42.120] Saturday
[01:05:42.160 -> 01:05:45.840] That's George ended up my p8. Sorry, George, not a
[01:05:45.840 -> 01:05:46.920] punishment, but
[01:05:48.200 -> 01:05:49.400] you're not sorry at all.
[01:05:49.400 -> 01:05:50.760] Not sorry about it.
[01:05:51.640 -> 01:05:54.120] All right, what team not named Red Bull do you have scoring the
[01:05:54.120 -> 01:05:55.200] most points in the spread?
[01:05:55.480 -> 01:05:56.920] I have Ferrari.
[01:05:57.920 -> 01:05:58.720] I have McLaren.
[01:05:58.920 -> 01:06:03.920] Mm hmm. Very fair. And as we get into other predictions, I may
[01:06:03.920 -> 01:06:06.400] have also had that thought elsewhere.
[01:06:06.400 -> 01:06:11.760] Well, let's move on into the Grand Prix predictions and we'll lead right into that because I have
[01:06:11.760 -> 01:06:16.440] McLaren as my top team, not Red Bull scoring the most points in the Grand Prix.
[01:06:16.440 -> 01:06:23.520] I also have McLaren as the non-Red Bull team with the most points. I hedged my bets. I
[01:06:23.520 -> 01:06:25.000] decided to go split C's here.
[01:06:26.040 -> 01:06:28.680] I had a double McLaren and I was just like,
[01:06:28.680 -> 01:06:33.520] if one thing happens, so that was my most strategy
[01:06:33.520 -> 01:06:34.920] in all of this.
[01:06:34.920 -> 01:06:38.340] So I had the opposite strategy where I went
[01:06:38.340 -> 01:06:41.180] in one of the sessions, McLaren is going to score
[01:06:41.180 -> 01:06:43.640] the most points in my opinion, that's not named Red Bull.
[01:06:43.640 -> 01:06:49.840] So I was like, if I put them for both, then I feel like I'm guaranteeing myself a point. Mm-hmm
[01:06:50.520 -> 01:06:52.520] probably a two but
[01:06:52.720 -> 01:07:00.380] Right now, you know a prediction battle. I'm feeling like a point is a win. It's huge. It's very huge. I'd you know
[01:07:01.680 -> 01:07:08.320] Would you all right? Go ahead? No, no, you would you like to start at P2 or do you want to work our way to the top?
[01:07:08.960 -> 01:07:14.720] Yeah, I'll start at P2. All right. You can go first. Who do you have for P2?
[01:07:15.440 -> 01:07:20.160] Lando Norris. I figured that's why I was like, you can just go first because I also have Lando
[01:07:20.160 -> 01:07:26.540] Norris. P3 though, I have Sir Lewis Hamilton. Ooh, I have Carlos Sainz.
[01:07:26.540 -> 01:07:28.300] I'm riding on the Carlos Sainz.
[01:07:28.300 -> 01:07:31.140] You're really low on Mercedes this week.
[01:07:31.140 -> 01:07:32.180] I am.
[01:07:32.180 -> 01:07:37.180] I have such gut heebie-jeebies of drama overflowing
[01:07:40.500 -> 01:07:45.000] and off-track issues becoming an issue on track.
[01:07:46.120 -> 01:07:48.280] I don't think we've seen the last of that yet.
[01:07:48.280 -> 01:07:50.760] So I do kind of-
[01:07:50.760 -> 01:07:53.120] And in what way do you think it's gonna bleed on track?
[01:07:53.120 -> 01:07:54.920] Make a bold prediction, Nicole.
[01:07:54.920 -> 01:07:56.720] Well, George is gonna be in the way.
[01:07:57.960 -> 01:07:59.040] Oh, that's calm.
[01:07:59.040 -> 01:08:00.800] I thought you were thinking that like George was gonna
[01:08:00.800 -> 01:08:02.160] take out Lewis or something.
[01:08:02.160 -> 01:08:04.520] Well, I don't wanna put that out in the universe,
[01:08:04.520 -> 01:08:08.280] but like, I do get worried that if someone maybe accidentally
[01:08:08.280 -> 01:08:10.160] turns into a turn somewhere else
[01:08:10.160 -> 01:08:12.960] or gets too upset about a track limit or something,
[01:08:12.960 -> 01:08:15.000] it's not not possible.
[01:08:15.000 -> 01:08:18.360] In my brain, I do have Lewis at a P4 place,
[01:08:18.360 -> 01:08:21.920] but I kinda have a fear that he's gonna be stuck behind
[01:08:21.920 -> 01:08:23.580] and it's gonna be a switcheroo,
[01:08:23.580 -> 01:08:25.840] kind of a lot of what we've been seeing recently.
[01:08:25.840 -> 01:08:28.400] So as much as I would love to have Lewis on my podium,
[01:08:28.400 -> 01:08:32.480] I have him in like a P4 spot because of external factors.
[01:08:32.480 -> 01:08:36.160] I just have Mercedes outperforming Ferrari.
[01:08:36.160 -> 01:08:41.040] This weekend is gonna be all about operations and getting your setup right quickly.
[01:08:41.040 -> 01:08:42.640] And uh...
[01:08:42.640 -> 01:08:44.320] Chaos. I'm going...
[01:08:44.320 -> 01:08:46.960] Who knows? I guess this is what we're
[01:08:46.960 -> 01:08:52.900] doing all right p10 last in the points who you got Alex Albon running with the
[01:08:52.900 -> 01:08:58.040] bed it probably will be maybe higher there's potential here of like maybe a
[01:08:58.040 -> 01:09:05.000] positive spin but I love my I love this bit one One day it'll work. Again.
[01:09:05.000 -> 01:09:07.000] It's worked before.
[01:09:07.000 -> 01:09:09.000] I have Lance.
[01:09:09.000 -> 01:09:14.000] It's better than I anticipate him. It just never is enough.
[01:09:14.000 -> 01:09:34.640] I have Lance as my P10. I don't think the Aston Martin's any good, but I think Lance needs a good weekend and I'm putting that out in the universe. Okay that is yeah. I would love that also for Lance. That's where I'll put it out in the universe.
[01:09:34.640 -> 01:09:38.800] And then who is your last to pass the checkered flag? So again reminder they need to
[01:09:38.800 -> 01:09:43.120] take the checkered flag if they DNF they don't count. Who'd you got?
[01:09:43.120 -> 01:09:46.000] I struggled with this so hard.
[01:09:46.000 -> 01:09:49.000] Every week! This is the hardest to predict.
[01:09:49.000 -> 01:09:53.000] I felt so good about my Botas pick last week,
[01:09:53.000 -> 01:09:56.000] but then of course it ends up being like a DNF.
[01:09:56.000 -> 01:09:58.000] So it was just so bad.
[01:09:58.000 -> 01:10:00.000] I'm going a different step.
[01:10:00.000 -> 01:10:02.000] I'm going Kmag.
[01:10:02.000 -> 01:10:08.000] Because I'll give you my reasonings after you can give your last to finish in the points
[01:10:08.000 -> 01:10:10.900] or last to finish crossing the checkered flag.
[01:10:10.900 -> 01:10:16.000] I was debating actually between a Haas or
[01:10:16.000 -> 01:10:19.500] Alfa Romeo and I did go with VB this week.
[01:10:19.500 -> 01:10:21.200] It's very fair.
[01:10:21.200 -> 01:10:22.900] I just feels like a coin flip.
[01:10:22.900 -> 01:10:32.360] Yeah, and it just becomes I just feel like Alfa Romeo has more likely a DNF potential.
[01:10:32.360 -> 01:10:38.960] But I'm saying K-Mag, it may be an Alfa Romeo this week, but it's a coin flip.
[01:10:38.960 -> 01:10:41.880] The hardest to predict.
[01:10:41.880 -> 01:10:43.120] Welcome back to Yellow Sector Notes.
[01:10:43.120 -> 01:10:45.840] Not the fastest walk around F1, but we will complete
[01:10:45.840 -> 01:10:51.200] a full lap around the paddock, hitting every F1 garage, and this week I have an actual Haas note
[01:10:51.200 -> 01:10:59.040] that feels worthy of celebrating. They still exist! They do! But starting with Ferrari,
[01:10:59.600 -> 01:11:09.920] Charles was announced this week as the face of the new Facebook and Ray-Bans collab that basically just look like Snapchat spectacles but the ad was really cool you
[01:11:09.920 -> 01:11:14.240] should head over to at RedWalk Show and see the video Nicole put together on it.
[01:11:14.240 -> 01:11:18.880] F1 Arcade has announced its next location we already knew that it was
[01:11:18.880 -> 01:11:22.600] coming to Boston in spring but this summer it's actually going to be in
[01:11:22.600 -> 01:11:29.860] Washington DC as well I will continue to groan that they haven't announced New York or LA yet because we
[01:11:29.860 -> 01:11:35.560] both want to go. Maybe we need to make a Boston or DC trip. Esteban participated
[01:11:35.560 -> 01:11:41.420] in an Alpine rally event this past week. Both Mercedes drivers are supporting the
[01:11:41.420 -> 01:11:49.660] Girls Go Free initiative at the Silverstone Museum where girls are getting free tickets to see the what looks to be amazing museum
[01:11:49.660 -> 01:11:53.800] all about motor sports at the Silverstone track. So if you live in that
[01:11:53.800 -> 01:11:58.140] area or you can get there please take the girls to go see it this month. It's
[01:11:58.140 -> 01:12:03.780] free! K-Mag played in Confetti with a sponsor. Williams will still have their
[01:12:03.780 -> 01:12:06.440] golf delivery this week. This is the last week.
[01:12:06.440 -> 01:12:09.760] So I'm excited and I'm sad to see it go.
[01:12:10.720 -> 01:12:13.440] Red Bull did a really cool show run in Chicago
[01:12:13.440 -> 01:12:14.260] this past weekend.
[01:12:14.260 -> 01:12:15.920] Speaking of cities, that would be great
[01:12:15.920 -> 01:12:17.720] to have an inflow in Arcade.
[01:12:17.720 -> 01:12:21.080] Okay, so this story is really cool for Alfa Romeo.
[01:12:21.080 -> 01:12:23.840] Their whiskey sponsor is Whistlepig.
[01:12:23.840 -> 01:12:25.140] And Whistlepick released a
[01:12:25.140 -> 01:12:29.860] line that is inspired by the F1 team and the promotion that they did for it is
[01:12:29.860 -> 01:12:34.460] they put barrels of the whiskey in the Sauber wind tunnel to expose it to G
[01:12:34.460 -> 01:12:39.380] forces and to see if that would like better infuse the whiskey. So it's just
[01:12:39.380 -> 01:12:44.940] it's a fun PR stunt it's also really cool and the whole thing is inspired by
[01:12:44.940 -> 01:12:45.800] both the drivers,
[01:12:45.800 -> 01:12:50.960] so there's a 77 in it for VB, and then they chose some traditionally Chinese ingredients
[01:12:50.960 -> 01:12:54.760] to be infused in the whiskey because of Joe.
[01:12:54.760 -> 01:12:59.120] Two notes for Aston Martin this week, one is they posted a loss publicly on the F1 team
[01:12:59.120 -> 01:13:02.560] for their 2022 financials.
[01:13:02.560 -> 01:13:06.080] Take that all with a grain of salt. I'll just put that out there. And two,
[01:13:06.080 -> 01:13:11.200] Aston Martin is publicly pushing for more standardized parts for the 2026 regulations
[01:13:11.200 -> 01:13:17.920] for cost reduction purposes. I am completely anti-that. Please don't make the one non-spec
[01:13:17.920 -> 01:13:23.200] series more spec. Thank you. But now you'll see why the notes are connected. You know,
[01:13:23.200 -> 01:13:25.000] cost reduction. Yep.
[01:13:25.000 -> 01:13:30.000] McLaren's new wind tunnel has officially been announced as online and fully operational,
[01:13:30.000 -> 01:13:34.000] so all future updates and specifically the future work they're going to be doing for
[01:13:34.000 -> 01:13:37.000] next year's car will be done in their new wind tunnel.
[01:13:37.000 -> 01:13:41.000] Yuki cooked for Liam Lawson on the Alfitari YouTube channel.
[01:13:41.000 -> 01:13:44.000] It was a really cute video, you should go check it out.
[01:13:44.000 -> 01:13:47.400] And lastly, tire update.
[01:13:47.400 -> 01:13:53.440] I'm sure you saw at the Japanese GP that Pirelli had all the teams testing some new tires because
[01:13:53.440 -> 01:13:58.680] they were planning on bringing a new C2 for next year, but they have completely scrapped
[01:13:58.680 -> 01:14:02.400] that because they saw no improvement in the tests that they ran.
[01:14:02.400 -> 01:14:05.080] So the new C2 wasn't going to be any better than the old C2.
[01:14:05.080 -> 01:14:08.880] So next year, it's going to be the same compound.
[01:14:08.880 -> 01:14:10.800] That is the gridwalk for September.
[01:14:10.800 -> 01:14:11.300] Yep.
[01:14:11.300 -> 01:14:11.800] October.
[01:14:11.800 -> 01:14:12.300] Yep.
[01:14:12.300 -> 01:14:12.800] Yep.
[01:14:12.800 -> 01:14:13.300] Yep.
[01:14:13.300 -> 01:14:13.800] Huh?
[01:14:13.800 -> 01:14:14.440] What month is it?
[01:14:14.440 -> 01:14:15.120] Where are we?
[01:14:15.120 -> 01:14:16.920] Who am I?
[01:14:16.920 -> 01:14:20.240] That is the gridwalk for October 5, 2023, completed.
[01:14:20.240 -> 01:14:21.120] Happy October.
[01:14:21.120 -> 01:14:23.280] Happy spooky season, everyone.
[01:14:23.280 -> 01:14:25.700] How was my sector time today, Nicole?
[01:14:25.700 -> 01:14:30.700] Faster than all of those news outlets blew those social stats way out of proportion.
[01:14:30.700 -> 01:14:37.700] Thank you to VoiceOverMan and Bryson again, we got a little bit of spillover into this
[01:14:37.700 -> 01:14:42.700] week as well, so great to have you, and our four-legged executive producers.
[01:14:42.700 -> 01:14:45.840] Hey audio listeners, you smell great today.
[01:14:46.140 -> 01:14:49.080] Don't forget to follow, turn on auto downloads and rate-
[01:14:49.080 -> 01:14:50.360] Oh, that's so creepy.
[01:14:50.400 -> 01:14:50.800] Why?
[01:14:50.800 -> 01:14:52.480] It's so good to smell nice.
[01:14:52.480 -> 01:14:53.440] Like, I don't know.
[01:14:53.680 -> 01:14:56.040] I like to get up and do some ASMR.
[01:14:56.080 -> 01:14:56.440] No.
[01:14:56.480 -> 01:14:56.760] Okay.
[01:14:56.760 -> 01:14:57.400] I'm sorry.
[01:14:57.400 -> 01:15:01.120] I didn't mean to make you feel creepy if you smell nice.
[01:15:01.560 -> 01:15:02.440] Sorry.
[01:15:03.120 -> 01:15:04.440] No, they're not creepy.
[01:15:04.440 -> 01:15:06.200] You're creepy. Just imagine I'm
[01:15:06.200 -> 01:15:08.960] imagining someone listening to the podcast right now walking
[01:15:08.960 -> 01:15:11.520] down the street with it in their earbuds and you just got all
[01:15:11.520 -> 01:15:14.720] close to the mic and told them they smelled nice. Yeah, that
[01:15:15.000 -> 01:15:16.760] gives off creepy vibes.
[01:15:16.800 -> 01:15:20.000] There you go. There you go. Okay, well, I hope you smell
[01:15:20.000 -> 01:15:29.120] bad. What was I like it subscribe rate the rate the podcast give us a thumbs
[01:15:29.120 -> 01:15:33.560] up subscribe click it share with your friends this is the kind of madness that
[01:15:33.560 -> 01:15:37.000] you definitely want all your friends to know that you listen to you're still
[01:15:37.000 -> 01:15:41.640] listening through to the outro please let us know and just like tell someone
[01:15:41.640 -> 01:15:49.980] they smell nice because if you're listening comment that I quote I smell nice and quote, okay
[01:15:50.840 -> 01:15:53.120] All of these things really help
[01:15:54.080 -> 01:15:57.980] Other people find the podcast. I kind of feel like I should redo this whole out
[01:16:01.040 -> 01:16:06.340] Well, all right if you want to hear more of this nonsense outside of this podcast, we
[01:16:06.340 -> 01:16:12.400] also run social media accounts. You can find us everywhere at Gridwalk Show on Instagram,
[01:16:12.400 -> 01:16:19.940] TikTok, Twitter, Threads. So at Gridwalk Show, you'll find us places. We will be back. You'll
[01:16:19.940 -> 01:16:25.120] hear us when you search it. We'll be back to walk the Formula One grid every Thursday.
[01:16:25.120 -> 01:16:27.520] We sincerely hope you join us.
[01:16:27.520 -> 01:16:30.480] Today felt like a Google... a great...
[01:16:30.480 -> 01:16:35.680] Oh, just... I can't. This needs to end.
[01:16:35.680 -> 01:16:37.120] Today felt like a grid...
[01:16:37.120 -> 01:16:38.560] That's it! Thank you for listening!
[01:16:38.560 -> 01:16:39.680] Bye!
[01:16:44.410 -> 01:16:53.730] Outro