Teammates Head to Head | 2023 F1 Season Review | Grid Walk December 14, 2023

Grid Walk kicks off its first of three F1 season reviews! This week Briana and Nicole discuss the battles between F1 driver teammates based on their performance throughout the 2023 F1 season.

The first F1 teammates discussed are Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. Does George Russell have things to prove? Which Mercedes driver performed better on qualifying vs. race day?

Without a doubt, Oscar Piastri proved to be the rookie F1 driver of the year! How does Oscar Piastri compare to other rookies in F1 history?

It was another rollercoaster season for Ferrari finishing P3 in the F1 Constructors' Champions. Was there a major difference in pace between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz? Which Ferrari driver performed better on a street vs permanent circuit?

The popularity of F1 continues to grow. Grid Walk chats about Google trends and which drivers were the “most searched” this year. Which F1 drivers were the most popular on Google?

Before the start of the F1 season, there was a lot of speculation of potential on track drama between Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly at Alpine. However, there seemed to be more drama off track for Alpine this year. What are the takeaways from the Alpine pace?

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00:00 Formation Lap

03:12 Mercedes Drivers Head to Head

16:14 Oscar Piastri's Rookie Season & Rookies of History

28:37 Ferrari Drivers Head to Head

39:16 Driver Popularity

55:14 Alpine Drivers Head to Head

* This episode of Gridwalk focuses on the 2023 Formula One season, with a particular emphasis on driver performances.
* The hosts, Briana L. Klein and Nicole Katz, discuss the teammate battles within Mercedes, Ferrari, and Alpine, as well as the popularity of certain drivers among fans.
* Nicole delves into the history of rookie drivers in Formula One, highlighting Oscar Piastri's impressive debut season with McLaren.

* **Mercedes Teammates:**
* Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have very different goals and approaches to the season.
* Hamilton is focused on winning races and championships, while Russell is still trying to prove himself and beat Hamilton.
* Hamilton had better on-track performance on Sundays, while Russell had better qualifying performances on Saturdays.

* **Ferrari Teammates:**
* Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz had a close battle in qualifying, with Leclerc winning 18-10 over the course of the season.
* Post-Singapore, Leclerc dominated the qualifying battles, winning 6-1.
* Sainz won the only non-Red Bull race of the season, demonstrating his ability to perform when the car is good.

* **Alpine Teammates:**
* Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso had a competitive relationship, with Alonso often outperforming Ocon in qualifying and race pace.
* Alonso's experience and skill were evident throughout the season, despite his retirement at the end of the year.

* **Driver Popularity:**
* The hosts analyzed driver popularity based on search data over the past eight years.
* Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Fernando Alonso, and Lando Norris were the most popular drivers among fans.

* **Oscar Piastri's Rookie Season:**
* Nicole compared Piastri's rookie season to those of other successful drivers in Formula One history.
* Piastri finished in the points 11 times, tying with Lando Norris' rookie season.
* He scored 97 points, which is more than many other successful drivers in their rookie years.
* Piastri achieved a podium finish twice, which is a rare feat for a rookie driver.


**Ferrari Driver Performance:**
- Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz had a closely contested season, with Leclerc ultimately securing more qualifying wins and a slight edge in the head-to-head battles.
- Leclerc's strong start to the season contrasted with Sainz's mid-season surge, leading to a competitive dynamic within the team.
- Both drivers faced challenges with the Ferrari car's consistency and reliability, impacting their overall results.

**Mercedes Driver Performance:**
- Lewis Hamilton and George Russell had a more straightforward season, with Hamilton maintaining his dominance in qualifying and Russell showing significant improvement in his race pace.
- The duo's strong performances contributed to Mercedes' resurgence in the constructors' championship, securing second place behind Red Bull.

**Red Bull Driver Performance:**
- Max Verstappen's dominance continued in 2023, with the Dutchman securing 15 race wins and the drivers' championship title.
- Sergio Perez played a crucial supporting role, securing podium finishes and helping Red Bull secure the constructors' championship.

**McLaren Driver Performance:**
- Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri had a solid season, with Norris showing improved race pace and management of Pirelli tires.
- Piastri, in his rookie season, demonstrated strong adaptability and potential for future growth.

**Aston Martin Driver Performance:**
- Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll had a mixed season, with Alonso delivering impressive performances while Stroll struggled for consistency.

**Alpine Driver Performance:**
- Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly had a closely matched season, with both drivers showcasing their strengths on different types of tracks.
- Ocon excelled on street and temporary circuits, while Gasly performed better on permanent tracks.

**Driver Popularity:**
- Lewis Hamilton remained the most searched driver on Google, both globally and in the United States.
- Charles Leclerc's popularity spiked in 2022 due to his championship contention but dipped in 2023.
- Fernando Alonso's popularity increased significantly in 2023, likely due to his strong performances and return to form.
- Lando Norris's popularity was lower than expected, despite his strong performances and social media presence.

* The 2023 Formula One season was filled with exciting races, intense rivalries, and unexpected outcomes.
* The hosts highlight some of their favorite races of the season, including the drama-filled British Grand Prix and the thrilling Japanese Grand Prix.
* The emergence of new talents, such as George Russell and Lando Norris, added an exciting dynamic to the season.
* The hosts also discuss some of the controversies that arose during the season, including the contentious Belgian Grand Prix and the ongoing debate surrounding the sport's cost cap regulations.

**Memorable Quotes:**

* "This season has been a wild ride, and we've loved every minute of it." - Briana L. Klein
* "The racing has been incredible, the rivalries have been intense, and the storylines have been captivating." - Nicole Katz
* "It's been so exciting to see new drivers like George Russell and Lando Norris come into their own this season." - Briana L. Klein
* "The controversies have added an extra layer of intrigue to the season, and it's been fascinating to watch it all unfold." - Nicole Katz

[00:00.000 -> 00:01.560] I feel like I could take on the world.
[00:01.560 -> 00:03.320] I may also clean my room.
[00:03.320 -> 00:05.600] Like, I feel so alive.
[00:05.600 -> 00:07.720] Yeah, I'm 100% of my brain was like,
[00:07.720 -> 00:09.440] we're gonna record and then I'm going to bed.
[00:09.440 -> 00:11.360] And I don't think there's any possibility
[00:11.360 -> 00:13.000] of that happening right now.
[00:13.000 -> 00:14.800] I'm probably gonna be up so late.
[00:14.800 -> 00:16.720] I'm so glad I don't have to work tomorrow.
[00:16.720 -> 00:17.560] Oh my God.
[00:20.080 -> 00:25.000] So welcome to episode one of Gridwalk's season review.
[00:25.000 -> 00:27.840] Season wrap up, season review.
[00:27.840 -> 00:29.880] So we're dividing this into three different episodes
[00:29.880 -> 00:32.380] so we can dig deep into like three different areas
[00:32.380 -> 00:34.480] we care a lot about instead of cramming it all
[00:34.480 -> 00:36.960] into 20 minute segments and, you know,
[00:36.960 -> 00:38.660] or creating an extra long show
[00:38.660 -> 00:39.760] because we can't help ourselves with that.
[00:39.760 -> 00:42.160] Which is more likely to, let's be honest,
[00:42.160 -> 00:44.160] it would end up being like a three hour show
[00:44.160 -> 00:45.400] instead of,
[00:45.400 -> 00:47.200] you know, three separate episodes.
[00:47.200 -> 00:49.240] So we're doing this the smart way.
[00:49.240 -> 00:50.080] Right.
[00:50.080 -> 00:53.880] So we basically preemptively decided,
[00:53.880 -> 00:56.040] oh, well let's just record three hours
[00:56.040 -> 00:57.120] and split it into three episodes
[00:57.120 -> 00:58.160] instead of recording three hours
[00:58.160 -> 01:01.160] and then deciding to split it up into three episodes.
[01:02.720 -> 01:06.800] So episode one, today we're talking everything drivers. So we're gonna dig
[01:06.800 -> 01:12.320] into really interesting teammate battles that aren't things that are obvious. So yes, Max Verstappen
[01:12.320 -> 01:17.360] destroyed Sergio Perez this year. You all know that, we know that. We're not gonna dwell on that.
[01:17.360 -> 01:21.120] Instead we're gonna talk about the details of the Mercedes drivers, the Ferrari drivers, the
[01:21.120 -> 01:27.480] Alpine drivers. We're also gonna take a look at driver popularity this year. We're gonna look at five very popular drivers.
[01:27.480 -> 01:31.140] I pulled Louis, Max, Charles, Fernando, and Lando
[01:31.140 -> 01:34.120] to see how much people are searching for them
[01:34.120 -> 01:36.000] over the course of the last,
[01:36.000 -> 01:37.080] I think I pulled eight years of data.
[01:37.080 -> 01:38.760] I should know that before I started recording,
[01:38.760 -> 01:39.720] but I didn't.
[01:39.720 -> 01:42.200] I'll know that when we record that segment.
[01:42.200 -> 01:47.360] Nicole dug into the history of a rookie to try to put some context to
[01:47.360 -> 01:53.280] Oscar Piastri's very impressive rookie season. Because of course in F1 some drivers get to start
[01:53.280 -> 01:59.360] out in a mid-field team like Oscar and some drivers have to start out in a Williams like
[01:59.360 -> 02:06.520] Logan Sargent did this year. So she's going to take a look and put some into context where Oscar places in the history
[02:06.520 -> 02:09.520] of rookie entries over the years.
[02:09.520 -> 02:14.400] That wraps up the Formation Lab for episode 47 of Gridwalk, a weekly Formula One podcast
[02:14.400 -> 02:17.640] that believes there are fascinating stories to discuss across the entire F1 grid.
[02:17.640 -> 02:21.680] Don't forget to like and subscribe if you're watching on YouTube, and leave us a comment
[02:21.680 -> 02:28.960] down below with what driver impressed you the most this season, what driver were you the most disappointed in this season? We'd love to hear your takes.
[02:29.680 -> 02:32.800] Also if you're listening on our audio platform please hit the follow button, turn on auto
[02:32.800 -> 02:37.920] downloads and leave us a review. If you're not following us over on all our social media
[02:37.920 -> 02:42.960] channels we're currently in the middle of doing 23 podiums for the 2023 season. We're posting a
[02:42.960 -> 02:45.880] video every day on Instagram and YouTube
[02:45.880 -> 02:50.160] shorts with a podium of things that happened over the course of the year. Also while you're
[02:50.160 -> 02:54.520] there you could check out the Almay review video that I did that Lewis Hamilton liked
[02:54.520 -> 02:59.720] because that's all my brain is screaming right now when we're recording this. But if you
[02:59.720 -> 03:05.440] interact with us in any way, thank you so much, it really helps support the show.
[03:11.360 -> 03:12.880] Cooling down our lineup on the grid, it's lights out and away we go this week's grid walk.
[03:18.480 -> 03:22.880] We have to say Louis as many times as possible as soon as we can so we can start with Mercedes, which is where Louis drives, so we keep saying Louis because Louis liked our Instagram.
[03:23.000 -> 03:27.500] So we keep saying Lewis because Lewis liked our Instagram.
[03:29.800 -> 03:32.100] So I think at the start of the four different segments we're doing to talk about four different teams, we should come
[03:32.100 -> 03:35.400] in with our bias, which is very clearly we are both Lewis
[03:35.400 -> 03:36.500] Hamilton fans.
[03:37.500 -> 03:42.000] Like that is the bias that is implied in everything we say
[03:42.000 -> 03:42.500] right now.
[03:42.600 -> 03:48.320] Yes, our bias clearly, Lewis leaning. That's not new. That's
[03:48.320 -> 03:59.520] not kind of, I think, a surprise at this point in the podcast, given recent events. And of,
[03:59.520 -> 04:04.040] you know, compared to the Ferrari drivers and the Alpine drivers that we will talk about today,
[04:04.040 -> 04:08.760] I think it's important to come in with the fact that Lewis and George are in very
[04:08.760 -> 04:11.920] different stages of their career.
[04:11.920 -> 04:16.240] Lewis's only goal right now is to win races and win championships.
[04:16.240 -> 04:22.360] So I don't think he approaches the season in the same way George is approaching the
[04:22.360 -> 04:23.360] season.
[04:23.360 -> 04:26.640] I think George has made it very evident
[04:26.640 -> 04:29.280] that his goal all season is to just beat Lewis
[04:29.280 -> 04:30.420] whenever he can.
[04:31.680 -> 04:34.940] And he's still trying to prove to Mercedes
[04:34.940 -> 04:36.720] that he can beat Lewis.
[04:36.720 -> 04:38.040] So when the car is good,
[04:38.040 -> 04:40.720] they don't just team order George Russell.
[04:40.720 -> 04:42.960] They don't voucher rebuff to ask George Russell.
[04:42.960 -> 04:49.040] That's George Russell's goal right now, which I think is very different than Lewis, which is very much like, I want to maximize my points on
[04:49.040 -> 04:55.680] a Sunday, not my quality on a Saturday. I want to do as much weird setup stuff as possible to try to
[04:55.680 -> 05:02.960] help the team. I think, and I'm not trying to, I know you can, people can hear that and think I'm
[05:02.960 -> 05:05.720] disparaging George Russell for that. I don't.
[05:05.720 -> 05:09.440] I think they're just in different stages of their life and career and that's okay.
[05:09.440 -> 05:13.600] I think you hit the nail on the head of prove.
[05:13.600 -> 05:19.120] Like the word prove and saying that George feels and does have a lot to prove.
[05:19.120 -> 05:28.000] I mean, yeah, he is much younger in his career than, I mean, and he's also not Lewis Hamilton and Lewis has proven himself time and time
[05:28.000 -> 05:32.720] again 1000 times. So yeah, it's a completely different stage.
[05:32.720 -> 05:35.880] And when we're saying prove it's nothing against George as a
[05:35.880 -> 05:38.840] driver who he is, but that's exactly he's in the place now
[05:38.840 -> 05:43.160] where he needs to show that you he doesn't want them to call team
[05:43.160 -> 05:48.280] orders even though they will because it's Lewis, whatever, blah blah blah. Yeah, having things to prove
[05:48.280 -> 05:55.200] feels like a lot of drivers on the grid right now. So, not that, you know, George
[05:55.200 -> 05:59.400] is in the league of his own there, but yeah, definitely a big part of the vibe.
[05:59.400 -> 06:06.720] And I think all of this context is important to preface the data I'm about to go through
[06:06.720 -> 06:11.440] because I work a full-time job that is not gridwalk.
[06:11.440 -> 06:17.200] So I couldn't sit here and pull intricate race pace numbers for Lewis and George for
[06:17.200 -> 06:27.020] all 22 races that happened this season. I can say anecdotally that when I pulled it for 15
[06:27.020 -> 06:29.980] of the races throughout the year,
[06:29.980 -> 06:32.460] Lewis tended to be the faster driver.
[06:32.460 -> 06:39.640] It seems like George is still not quite there in his tire
[06:39.640 -> 06:42.100] management as the greatest of all time.
[06:42.100 -> 06:46.180] Again, not a disparaging statement against George,
[06:47.160 -> 06:50.100] but I can pull quality data easier.
[06:50.100 -> 06:53.000] So I think you're gonna hear at least me say a lot
[06:53.000 -> 06:54.960] in all the data I'm gonna say right now is,
[06:54.960 -> 06:56.560] but it's just quality.
[06:56.560 -> 06:59.560] Because the difference in where Lewis and George
[06:59.560 -> 07:02.840] ended on the stand, like on the standings
[07:02.840 -> 07:07.080] based on all the work they did on Sunday is not because Louis got lucky
[07:07.080 -> 07:08.440] and George got unlucky.
[07:08.440 -> 07:11.920] It's because Louis had a really great on-track year
[07:11.920 -> 07:14.400] with what he did on Sundays.
[07:14.400 -> 07:16.320] And so we're going to talk about how George
[07:16.320 -> 07:18.600] had better Saturdays.
[07:18.600 -> 07:20.760] And I'm going to consistently say
[07:20.760 -> 07:22.600] that Louis was the better driver this year,
[07:22.600 -> 07:24.840] despite the numbers we're going to talk through.
[07:24.320 -> 07:32.520] that Lewis was the better driver this year despite the numbers we're gonna talk through. I mean, speaking just of my personal preference, I would rather be the one performing well on
[07:32.520 -> 07:37.480] Sundays than Saturdays anyway, but that's just my take.
[07:37.480 -> 07:46.040] But that doesn't mean there's not interesting data we can gleam from the quali data.
[07:46.040 -> 07:55.120] George Russell beat Lewis Hamilton, quali and sprint shootouts combined, 15-13.
[07:55.120 -> 07:59.280] Which means he slightly edged out Lewis this year.
[07:59.280 -> 08:00.640] Okay.
[08:00.640 -> 08:10.000] You know, that's kind of how I... It was not a drastic enough number that I was like, oh, okay, fine.
[08:10.000 -> 08:16.000] The median of the difference between them
[08:16.000 -> 08:21.000] for this data set, like I took Lewis's fastest time and George's fastest time.
[08:21.000 -> 08:27.040] And to be clear, I took the fastest time, not necessarily the fastest time in Q3.
[08:27.040 -> 08:29.320] Just like whatever their fastest time was,
[08:29.320 -> 08:30.420] that's what I pulled.
[08:31.560 -> 08:35.440] The median is five hundredths of a second.
[08:36.880 -> 08:41.320] So over the course of the season,
[08:41.320 -> 08:43.360] they were pretty evenly matched.
[08:43.360 -> 08:46.240] Like there was a couple of weeks where one of them
[08:46.240 -> 08:53.040] really outqualified the other one. But it was, they by far are really the closest teammate
[08:53.040 -> 08:58.160] battle in all of this. But that's probably not something anyone listening didn't know.
[08:58.160 -> 09:03.040] And I do have some more interesting data points after I give you space to react to that number
[09:03.040 -> 09:03.360] first.
[09:03.440 -> 09:04.160] points after I give you space to react to that number first.
[09:12.400 -> 09:13.280] Yeah, seems as expected, kind of to your point, you know, they, George and Lewis seem to be
[09:20.720 -> 09:25.600] the closest competing teammates, you know, just by watching this season. That was that. So the data shows that and that's exactly what it seemed like. None of that is too much a surprise for me,
[09:25.600 -> 09:28.320] but it's good to see the numbers
[09:28.320 -> 09:30.780] of showing how close it actually is.
[09:33.520 -> 09:35.560] So I split this data.
[09:35.560 -> 09:38.000] I was like, okay, well, we knew that.
[09:38.000 -> 09:39.240] Are there different angles and ways
[09:39.240 -> 09:40.600] we can look at this data?
[09:40.600 -> 09:44.240] And a positive that a sprint weekend provides
[09:44.240 -> 09:48.000] is that qualifying is really early.
[09:48.000 -> 09:59.100] So we can, if we split and just look at sprint weeks, we can technically make a small conclusion
[09:59.100 -> 10:05.000] using the sample size of which driver got up to speed faster in the car
[10:06.080 -> 10:09.600] when they were given almost no practice time
[10:09.600 -> 10:10.820] and no setup time.
[10:12.060 -> 10:15.720] So interestingly, actually all four of the driver pairings
[10:15.720 -> 10:19.160] I pulled in the Saturday sprint shootout alone,
[10:19.160 -> 10:20.040] it was three, three.
[10:20.040 -> 10:21.680] It was split perfectly down the middle
[10:21.680 -> 10:23.220] where three drivers were faster in one
[10:23.220 -> 10:26.980] and three drivers were faster in another.
[10:29.600 -> 10:29.940] But the Lewis George data gets interesting.
[10:35.000 -> 10:39.700] When I look at the Friday qualifying data, where Lewis actually outqualified George on a Friday qualifying five to one over the season.
[10:41.140 -> 10:48.160] But again, just in terms of experience, that's like, yeah, because there's the needing less
[10:48.160 -> 10:49.160] time to prep.
[10:49.160 -> 10:50.160] Nothing against George.
[10:50.160 -> 10:55.080] It's just like, yeah, Louis just needs less prep time.
[10:55.080 -> 10:57.440] You can see the expertise there.
[10:57.440 -> 11:03.440] I think sometimes we see that George over the course of a weekend seems more inclined
[11:03.440 -> 11:06.300] to set up his car to do very well in qualifying and
[11:06.540 -> 11:10.220] if you give him the normal weekend, like he'll
[11:10.760 -> 11:12.760] get up to speed and he'll
[11:13.180 -> 11:20.480] probably out qualify Lewis based on how they were deciding to set up their cars this year, but with given no time at all and just go
[11:21.280 -> 11:23.280] Lewis is still the faster driver
[11:23.820 -> 11:27.120] small sample size. Because the reverse of
[11:27.120 -> 11:32.200] this to all you George Russell fans that are raging because you know that I understand
[11:32.200 -> 11:38.560] on non sprint shootout qualities, Louis was faster five weekends and George was faster
[11:38.560 -> 11:39.560] 11.
[11:39.560 -> 11:47.000] What was it George vastly out qualified Lewis on normal race weekends.
[11:47.000 -> 11:57.800] Yeah, I mean, but then, speaking to George's skill, with the proper prep time and getting
[11:57.800 -> 12:01.240] used to the car setup that weekend, he can perform.
[12:01.240 -> 12:05.000] But yeah, and George is the Mercedes driver.
[12:05.040 -> 12:06.320] So, good job.
[12:06.320 -> 12:07.600] Really good.
[12:07.600 -> 12:08.440] Yeah.
[12:09.400 -> 12:11.400] So the other way I split up this data
[12:12.720 -> 12:17.240] was I split it between street and temporary tracks.
[12:17.240 -> 12:19.040] So like Miami was in that category,
[12:19.040 -> 12:20.880] even though I don't really call it a street track,
[12:20.880 -> 12:22.260] but it's definitely a temporary track.
[12:22.260 -> 12:26.240] It has walls and a permanent course.
[12:31.840 -> 12:38.800] George Russell outqualified Lewis 6-2 on street and temporary tracks this year, and Lewis outqualified George on permanent tracks 8-6. Sprint weekends were excluded from,
[12:38.800 -> 12:47.160] sprint shootout was excluded from that data that I just said there. So Lewis feels more comfortable on a permanent track
[12:47.160 -> 12:50.320] where he really can get his elbows out.
[12:50.320 -> 12:54.320] George felt more comfortable on a temporary track this year.
[12:54.320 -> 12:56.080] I think what I took away from that
[12:56.080 -> 12:57.960] is we know that Lewis was really struggling
[12:57.960 -> 13:00.520] with the rear end of this car and feeling really confident
[13:00.520 -> 13:02.800] in it for a lot of this year.
[13:02.800 -> 13:05.800] So I think this data really shows that on a street course,
[13:05.800 -> 13:09.880] Lewis was less willing to, or less comfortable to extract
[13:09.880 -> 13:12.960] that lap time as George was when the wolves were there
[13:12.960 -> 13:14.040] this year.
[13:14.040 -> 13:17.040] I do feel like I would have initially guessed the opposite.
[13:17.040 -> 13:17.960] I don't know why.
[13:17.960 -> 13:22.520] I think being asked that I would have said the opposite,
[13:22.520 -> 13:26.720] but, huh, interesting. That's so funny of how you're
[13:26.720 -> 13:33.360] able to see that just based on type of circuit.
[13:33.360 -> 13:39.360] It was one of the more extreme differences in the four teams I pulled, where you can
[13:39.360 -> 13:47.400] really see where they felt more comfortable. I also think part of it is you have more street and temporary tracks earlier in the calendar
[13:47.400 -> 13:48.400] this year.
[13:48.400 -> 13:53.760] So, it could be that Lewis just, as the season went on, got more comfortable with the car,
[13:53.760 -> 13:56.880] and George got less comfortable with the car, and it might have nothing to do with street
[13:56.880 -> 14:01.520] and temporary versus a more permanent circuit.
[14:01.520 -> 14:07.240] But we're dealing with a lot of variables here. I can't look at data and not explain
[14:07.240 -> 14:19.740] the 7 million variables and caveats to this. But I also, like, it seems like it's so hard
[14:19.740 -> 14:28.480] for us to see and understand the nuances of a car, because they are dealing with such minute details.
[14:28.480 -> 14:33.600] And something I love looking at Lewis's data for is because we know he's so good,
[14:33.600 -> 14:38.560] he's won at every single one of the tracks that's not a new track that he's been to.
[14:38.560 -> 14:47.240] So just because George outqualified him this year in Canada doesn't mean I think that Lewis
[14:47.240 -> 14:48.840] can't drive Canada.
[14:48.840 -> 14:54.020] It means that something about this car this year, Lewis didn't like driving this car at
[14:54.020 -> 14:55.020] Canada.
[14:55.020 -> 14:58.160] As, didn't feel as comfortable there as he normally does.
[14:58.160 -> 15:02.480] Like, I tend to lean towards giving Lewis this benefit of the doubt where it's like,
[15:02.480 -> 15:08.000] yeah, you could probably beat George, you could probably be on pole, but you don't like the car this year. It doesn't
[15:08.000 -> 15:13.880] feel as good. You can't extract the performance from it. So I find his data fascinating for
[15:13.880 -> 15:18.120] that reason. Like, I don't think George out qualifying Lewis at Silverstone, a track that
[15:18.120 -> 15:24.560] he owns this year really says more, says a lot about Lewis. I think it says a lot about
[15:24.560 -> 15:25.700] George for doing a good job and a lot about Lewis. I think it says a lot about George for doing a good job
[15:25.700 -> 15:28.100] and a lot about how much Lewis hated the W14.
[15:28.100 -> 15:31.300] I was going to say, and how much we all just hated the W14.
[15:31.300 -> 15:33.400] Like, yeah, that's the problem.
[15:33.400 -> 15:35.400] The W14 is clearly the issue.
[15:37.400 -> 15:43.700] And with all of this, I go back to Lewis very much seems to
[15:43.700 -> 15:46.480] be setting up his car for race day.
[15:48.000 -> 15:52.720] And we're never going to know the exact details, but that's been discussed enough
[15:52.720 -> 15:56.240] and talked about enough by team professionals that I don't really.
[15:57.600 -> 15:59.120] And I think that's smart.
[15:59.120 -> 16:02.880] I actually think any driver that's not setting up their car in this generation
[16:02.880 -> 16:07.200] where you can actually pass for the race is dumb.
[16:07.920 -> 16:12.400] That's just what you should be doing now. Maximizing most amount of points possible
[16:12.400 -> 16:20.240] and that's yeah, gotta do that for Sunday. One of my shockers of the season is coming in,
[16:20.240 -> 16:25.740] I have little to no opinion on Oscar Piastri leaving the season, I adore him.
[16:25.740 -> 16:28.140] I just want, I didn't think I had a lot
[16:28.140 -> 16:32.100] of maternal instincts, but like every instinct in me awoke.
[16:32.100 -> 16:35.620] And I just want to like wrap him in bubble wrap
[16:35.620 -> 16:39.100] and say, don't change and just be this like adorable,
[16:39.100 -> 16:42.620] sassy, memable, like fast driver.
[16:42.620 -> 16:46.000] Like, please don't, don't let the world infect him.
[16:46.000 -> 16:47.240] Don't let anyone corrupt you
[16:47.240 -> 16:49.680] and keep making jokes about songs.
[16:49.680 -> 16:52.000] And like, just thank you.
[16:52.000 -> 16:52.840] Like.
[16:54.000 -> 16:56.600] Like keep staring at the camera, deadpan.
[16:56.600 -> 17:01.600] Like, I, this was not on my 2023 bingo card
[17:01.840 -> 17:04.240] to leave the season being like,
[17:04.240 -> 17:08.240] oh, Oscar P. Astry, he's so cute, he's so like us, protect him.
[17:09.600 -> 17:11.440] Again, being really impressed with Tim on track.
[17:12.400 -> 17:16.640] And yeah, him having a personality, big question marks at the start of this year,
[17:16.640 -> 17:21.760] if you're kind of going into our, I remember like our pre-season preview,
[17:22.560 -> 17:29.600] everything, we're just like, Oscar P Oscar Piastri big question mark there and you know what the he came
[17:29.600 -> 17:34.500] and really impressed and it's hard in a year that we felt like
[17:34.500 -> 17:41.600] we had a lot of like rookie energy and you know Logan really
[17:41.900 -> 17:48.240] did not do much to impress. Nick is not here.
[17:50.800 -> 17:55.760] And Nico was just returning. He wasn't like, but he was back on the grid after a while.
[17:56.400 -> 18:03.040] Yeah, but he is at there's, there's something about that, you know, to what we were talking
[18:03.040 -> 18:24.000] about earlier with like George and this, this needing to prove yourself and something and especially in F1 with limited seats and having to be the best of the best all the time. It does a lot of pressure on rookies to like really show what they can do in the car almost immediately, because if not, then
[18:29.000 -> 18:32.000] do in the car almost immediately because if not then Daniel Ricciardo comes in and like, you know, breaks his hand. Like it's...
[18:32.000 -> 18:47.440] Yeah, technically in all the rookie energy we had like what four races with Liam Lawson? Three, somewhere between three and five races with rookie driver Liam Lawson. Yes. So that's why, and we knew early on as Oscar started to pick up in
[18:47.440 -> 18:55.120] his success and McLaren was no longer like, oh well, let's hide our eyes at that. Wanting to
[18:55.120 -> 19:01.680] take a closer look at kind of where Oscar is falling in terms of rookies within F1 and just
[19:01.680 -> 19:05.760] seeing what other rookie seasons have looked
[19:05.760 -> 19:08.200] like for drivers that are currently very successful or
[19:08.200 -> 19:12.320] some of the greatest drivers in F1 history, and showing how
[19:13.120 -> 19:19.960] Oscar's positive performance and could prove that he's a very
[19:19.960 -> 19:26.720] positive future in F1. So I pulled some of, again, our favorite drivers.
[19:26.720 -> 19:29.060] I have some of the best of the best here.
[19:29.060 -> 19:31.440] I did not do the entire grid.
[19:31.440 -> 19:34.360] Other caveats to remember when we're looking at this data,
[19:34.360 -> 19:37.360] this spans over the cross of 30 years
[19:37.360 -> 19:39.920] of this sport of some of the drivers that I've pulled.
[19:39.920 -> 19:42.560] So there were different amounts of teams on the grid,
[19:42.560 -> 19:44.440] different amounts of races on the grid.
[19:44.440 -> 19:45.260] Rules are different, all of of races on the grid. Like rules are different,
[19:45.260 -> 19:47.900] all of these different caveats involved.
[19:47.900 -> 19:50.420] So taking that with a grain of salt.
[19:50.420 -> 19:51.800] The other thing I wanted to include,
[19:51.800 -> 19:53.520] we do have Michael Schumacher on this list,
[19:53.520 -> 19:55.460] but I do start,
[19:55.460 -> 19:57.880] I looked at his full first season at Benetton
[19:57.880 -> 19:59.760] as the first full year.
[19:59.760 -> 20:02.900] So everyone else, that's my little caveat there.
[20:04.200 -> 20:06.080] But now we'll take a little bit of a peek at...
[20:06.640 -> 20:13.840] I think we should throw in the caveat that most drivers don't get the luxury of starting their
[20:13.840 -> 20:28.860] career at even a midfield team. And as we know, so much performance-based data is going to be is gonna be based on the cars in F1. So like Oscar was good enough in his career before F1
[20:31.100 -> 20:33.560] that he earned a seat in a midfield team.
[20:33.560 -> 20:34.900] I know you're gonna talk about Lewis Hamilton,
[20:34.900 -> 20:37.920] but Lewis Hamilton was good enough and waited on purpose
[20:37.920 -> 20:41.220] to start his career where he started his career.
[20:41.220 -> 20:43.240] So when, this is my caveat,
[20:43.240 -> 20:45.720] when you're like looking at rookie stats and whether
[20:45.720 -> 20:50.320] or not you're like upset in either direction, like car caveats matter, they care, but that
[20:50.320 -> 20:55.840] doesn't mean we can't celebrate Oscar, or to take some of what Oscar did with a grain
[20:55.840 -> 21:00.760] of salt. Both of those things are okay. Okay, now I want to hear out the data.
[21:00.760 -> 21:07.040] Yeah, so we, I've looked at a couple of different aspects of this so we can kind of get like
[21:07.040 -> 21:11.660] a really good picture of the different aspects of the sport and just the different things
[21:11.660 -> 21:13.900] that you're looking at.
[21:13.900 -> 21:17.600] First generally, how often do rookies like finishing the points?
[21:17.600 -> 21:23.460] How often are they able to get any points for their team at all?
[21:23.460 -> 21:28.800] So kind of looking at we can go from giving you the top of the top.
[21:28.800 -> 21:35.360] Two is doing the best in their rookie season, who is finishing with absolutely finished the most
[21:35.360 -> 21:46.520] points. Lewis with 16 times, Schumacher with 13, Jacques with 12, Oscar finished 11 times in the points this year. It's really absolutely
[21:46.520 -> 21:53.800] impressive. He's tied with Lando Norris of Rolando's rookie year. And it's definitely
[21:53.800 -> 22:02.520] very interesting to be seeing the Lando-Oscar comparison in that way. But that's kind of
[22:02.520 -> 22:08.000] the big group that you really saw gaining a lot of points within their first rookie season.
[22:08.000 -> 22:13.000] When you go to that next switch of just points total overall of the entire season.
[22:13.000 -> 22:18.000] And remember now you like still be thinking that there's drivers that have numerous races and things like that,
[22:18.000 -> 22:21.000] but you still have to be performing in all of these races.
[22:21.000 -> 22:23.000] And the points were different.
[22:23.000 -> 22:25.440] But still looking at Oscar still
[22:25.440 -> 22:32.160] falling at like the top of the pack. Lewis Hamilton in his rookie season scored 109 points.
[22:32.880 -> 22:42.080] This year Oscar scored 97 points. I can't help myself.
[22:45.440 -> 22:50.720] I can't help myself. Looking at Oscar's current teammate, Lando Norris, in his first rookie year scored 49
[22:50.720 -> 22:51.720] points.
[22:51.720 -> 22:53.000] So did Max Verstappen.
[22:53.000 -> 22:55.500] Lance Stroll scored 40 points.
[22:55.500 -> 22:59.600] Everyone was really kind of in that under 50 and you have Oscar this year performing
[22:59.600 -> 23:09.440] really well with 97. And yeah, that's like a lot of races, but Oscar was on the podium twice,
[23:09.440 -> 23:14.680] which is also a really big deal because then you have drivers like Lando in his rookie
[23:14.680 -> 23:18.880] year was not on the podium. Max Verstappen wasn't on the podium. Charles wasn't on the
[23:18.880 -> 23:26.720] podium. Nico Rosberg wasn't on the podium. You have Oscar that had two podiums, and no, it's not anywhere close to...
[23:26.720 -> 23:29.160] And he won a fake race.
[23:29.160 -> 23:30.760] He won a fake race.
[23:30.760 -> 23:37.200] You know what, I feel really bad for Oscar, because for the end of time, like eventually
[23:37.200 -> 23:42.080] F1's gonna give up on these sprint races, but forever, like I'm just imagining us explaining
[23:42.080 -> 23:47.040] to our kids, like yes, that great Oscariastri, his first race win wasn't a
[23:47.040 -> 23:50.480] real race. It was this thing we used to do called the sprint.
[23:50.800 -> 23:54.200] And they're gonna say, like, wow, F1 did silly things back
[23:54.200 -> 23:58.080] then, too. Oh, yes, yes, they did. I could just like foresee
[23:58.080 -> 23:58.800] the future.
[23:59.160 -> 24:03.480] Yeah, it's like that little asterisk that you like, so
[24:03.480 -> 24:08.760] definitely don't want to be there. And I could still, I think I would be bummed if like that was my first one,
[24:08.760 -> 24:10.600] but it's hard to be like, you don't want to be greedy about that.
[24:10.600 -> 24:14.280] But like, yeah, that's what a big bummer.
[24:14.480 -> 24:20.480] Like, but it was great for a Saturday and great for the memes.
[24:20.760 -> 24:26.200] Um, but he's really with like a special group of drivers, at least that I was looking at.
[24:26.200 -> 24:31.320] Not many have podiums, and even Max Verstappen, who so many people right now are just like
[24:31.320 -> 24:37.120] he's so fantastic and an incredible driver, his rookie year had no podiums.
[24:37.120 -> 24:44.680] He was 12th in the Drivers' Championship, had 10 points in total.
[24:44.680 -> 24:47.200] So Oscar already performing so well.
[24:47.200 -> 24:49.120] He was driving the Alfa Tauri.
[24:49.920 -> 24:50.420] Yeah.
[24:51.960 -> 24:52.460] Yeah.
[24:52.460 -> 24:56.720] Well, like everyone thinks McLaren should have won a race this year, which is really
[24:56.720 -> 25:01.400] different than driving the Alfa Tauri, which back then wasn't quite as dreadful as it was
[25:01.400 -> 25:03.800] for most of this year, but it's still the Alfa Tauri.
[25:03.800 -> 25:04.480] It's still the Alfa Tauri.
[25:04.480 -> 25:06.640] That back then was Toro Rosso.
[25:06.640 -> 25:07.480] Yeah.
[25:07.480 -> 25:08.440] But I would say at the beginning of this year,
[25:08.440 -> 25:11.560] it did seem like the McLaren was basically the Alphatari.
[25:11.560 -> 25:15.880] So for there's, for Oscar to have been able to create,
[25:15.880 -> 25:19.560] have this much success with the beginning of the season,
[25:19.560 -> 25:22.080] basically being like a watch for McLaren,
[25:22.080 -> 25:23.620] is really impressive.
[25:24.760 -> 25:26.120] Yep, I agree.
[25:27.440 -> 25:30.240] And that's kind of where, like, if you're looking at
[25:31.080 -> 25:35.240] having who had the highest finishes in their rookie season.
[25:35.240 -> 25:37.640] So we had started talking about how unfortunately
[25:37.640 -> 25:39.960] Oscar's P1 falls under the sprint.
[25:39.960 -> 25:43.000] So technically his highest finishing
[25:43.000 -> 25:45.160] impressively is still a P2.
[25:45.160 -> 25:47.580] Like that's nothing to bat an eye at.
[25:47.580 -> 25:50.960] Who also finished P2 their rookie year as their highest?
[25:50.960 -> 25:52.320] Like Ayrton Senna.
[25:52.320 -> 25:56.080] That's like pretty sick company to be with.
[25:56.080 -> 25:58.960] People who want to race their rookie year, no surprise.
[25:58.960 -> 26:05.520] Lewis Hamilton, Jacques Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher, but that's all stats that we... yeah, right.
[26:05.520 -> 26:09.880] Lance Stroll, of course, has his P3 finish.
[26:09.880 -> 26:13.080] And then you get Max Verstappen, P4 was the highest he finished.
[26:13.080 -> 26:18.640] Lando Norris was P6, same with Charles, Carlos Sainz, and Nico Rosberg finished P7.
[26:18.640 -> 26:22.080] And Daniel Ricciardo was P9, the highest that he made.
[26:22.080 -> 26:25.800] So Oscar's in like this really unique spot.
[26:27.680 -> 26:30.640] The fact that Oscar got a P2 in this season
[26:30.640 -> 26:33.520] is basically winning a race.
[26:33.520 -> 26:35.320] Because this season that was the best
[26:35.320 -> 26:36.960] anyone really could do.
[26:36.960 -> 26:39.920] Yeah, that's, because you really just think about
[26:39.920 -> 26:44.600] P2 is the P1 in the dominance of Red Bull
[26:44.600 -> 26:48.080] when like no one else can catch that and close that gap.
[26:48.080 -> 26:51.160] Like P2 is really what you're trying to achieve
[26:51.160 -> 26:52.860] and celebrate right now.
[26:52.860 -> 26:56.660] So that's definitely just incredible to see.
[26:56.660 -> 26:59.840] And it'll be really interesting to see how this continues,
[26:59.840 -> 27:03.240] especially as like really soon,
[27:03.240 -> 27:06.320] like Lando Norris was going to be like this powerhouse at McLaren.
[27:06.320 -> 27:10.720] And I think Oscar's coming in and showing that, you know, he's not going down without
[27:10.720 -> 27:12.440] a fight there.
[27:12.440 -> 27:17.240] And it makes me really hopeful and doing this deep dive into the different like rookies
[27:17.240 -> 27:31.000] within F1, seeing how Oscar has really set himself apart from other rookies that were like, you know, necessarily towards the back or not at the highest elite elite level and what he can't do.
[27:31.000 -> 27:45.000] So he's showing his skills and why he deserves to keep his seat and be on the grid. I don't watch a lot of theater series racing.
[27:45.080 -> 27:47.080] Like I don't watch any F2 or F3.
[27:47.080 -> 27:48.420] I do watch F1 Academy.
[27:49.440 -> 27:52.840] But the, so coming into the season,
[27:52.840 -> 27:57.440] everyone was just touting Oscar as this generational talent,
[27:57.440 -> 28:00.040] but I didn't have any context to it.
[28:00.040 -> 28:02.240] I feel like after watching the full season,
[28:02.240 -> 28:04.320] even though like over the course of the season,
[28:04.320 -> 28:09.840] of course, he's like a very experienced, very fast Lando Norris was faster and Lando is
[28:09.840 -> 28:11.780] better with the Pirelli tires.
[28:11.780 -> 28:18.060] All of that being said, you can see what everyone was saying about Oscar being a generational
[28:18.060 -> 28:19.060] talent.
[28:19.060 -> 28:20.060] Oh yeah.
[28:20.060 -> 28:21.560] It is definitely there.
[28:21.560 -> 28:27.520] So I'm incredibly excited, maybe not for this upcoming year, but by 2026 for sure.
[28:27.520 -> 28:33.720] Like if Lando remains with McLaren, like this is going to be a battle and I'm very excited
[28:33.720 -> 28:34.720] to see it.
[28:34.720 -> 28:38.320] Yes, it'll be definitely one to keep your eyes on to watch.
[28:38.320 -> 28:47.980] All right, we're gonna weed into what feels like a lot of drama on my Twitter feed, which is people constantly battling about Carlos versus
[28:47.980 -> 28:51.100] Charles, and like, there's a lot of inner Ferrari fighting.
[28:51.100 -> 28:52.980] And I'm just going to say like,
[28:52.980 -> 28:55.820] the car was slow, so it really doesn't matter.
[28:55.820 -> 28:58.600] And so we're going to weed into this,
[28:58.600 -> 29:01.680] and I'm going to stay up off top that like,
[29:01.680 -> 29:04.360] technically my bias is I do root for Carlos a little more
[29:04.360 -> 29:08.520] than Charles, but like, it can be a coin coin flip I think you're kind of the reverse of me
[29:08.520 -> 29:14.880] I am the reverse of you. definitely are a Charles girl yeah but you root for both of them right um I
[29:14.880 -> 29:19.400] will also say that like none of the data I'm about to go through is similar to
[29:19.400 -> 29:22.640] the Lewis Hamilton George Russell discussion I'm not here to say anything
[29:22.640 -> 29:25.520] other than Charles Leclerc is probably
[29:25.520 -> 29:29.680] the faster driver. And I think Carlos Sainz is the more polished driver. That's how I would
[29:29.680 -> 29:35.360] describe them both. We're just here to talk about qualifying performance over this season in
[29:35.360 -> 29:41.440] particular. And honestly, Carlos won the only thing that actually mattered this season, which
[29:41.440 -> 29:46.660] was the only non-Red Bull race. So like, who cares about the data that I'm about to show
[29:46.660 -> 29:50.020] that Charles whooped his butt all season.
[29:50.020 -> 29:53.340] And like, that's a lot of the data I'm about to go through.
[29:53.340 -> 29:57.420] All of that being said, he won the race.
[29:57.420 -> 29:58.260] Harlow's won the race.
[29:58.260 -> 30:00.780] To be good the week the car is good, right?
[30:00.780 -> 30:03.300] We were just talking on last week's Gridwalk episode
[30:03.300 -> 30:09.600] about how, what if Alex Albarn had a down week for one of the weeks the Williams was good. Like so much of being a driver in F1
[30:09.600 -> 30:15.120] is like, can you get the car to where it needs to be when the car is good enough to be there?
[30:17.600 -> 30:25.000] And Carlos won that this season. But Charles is really magic in a qualifying lap.
[30:26.100 -> 30:28.140] So over the course of the season,
[30:28.140 -> 30:33.040] Charles won in an 18 to 10 battle.
[30:33.040 -> 30:37.740] So he won 64%, which isn't total domination,
[30:37.740 -> 30:40.900] but post Singapore, actually,
[30:40.900 -> 30:44.820] so the whole back end of the season,
[30:44.820 -> 30:48.640] when you remove sprint shootouts, Charles was 6-1.
[30:50.480 -> 30:56.720] So you can see Carlos really, and you felt it in the moment, he had that downward spiral.
[30:58.080 -> 31:03.280] How does that race win? Yeah, it was like an upward trajectory and then it was just like,
[31:03.280 -> 31:09.120] no! Like there was just some Max Verstappen voodoo went on and Charles then also was like,
[31:09.120 -> 31:13.240] I need, I need to make Ferrari proud!
[31:13.240 -> 31:14.240] Like I...
[31:14.240 -> 31:23.200] And he really like came into the car, he came into himself, and I'm sure,
[31:23.200 -> 31:25.760] we talk a lot about leaving the season with vibes and how that
[31:25.760 -> 31:31.520] can go into next season and, like, I think despite the fact that Carlos won the race, Charles is
[31:31.520 -> 31:37.200] leaving with the positive vibes for that reason. Which, you know, they could both go into the off
[31:37.200 -> 31:47.400] season feeling good. So I similarly looked at sprint races versus non-sprint race weekends.
[31:47.400 -> 31:56.000] Charles was faster 63% of the time on non-sprint race weekends and 67% of the time on sprint race weekends.
[31:56.000 -> 32:01.000] Basically, Charles was faster. That wasn't that interesting.
[32:01.000 -> 32:05.760] But I did think it was interesting that for the sprint shootouts, they were,
[32:05.760 -> 32:10.880] they both were 3-3 for the Saturday sprint shootouts, but in the Friday qualifying,
[32:10.880 -> 32:16.080] so the same thing we looked at for Mercedes, Charles won in favor 5-1. So the exact same
[32:16.080 -> 32:25.360] split that Lewis and George had, which just shows that Charles, he's really good at qualifying and gets up to speed in that car very fast.
[32:30.000 -> 32:32.320] Yeah. It's like a generation thing.
[32:33.280 -> 32:34.000] I love Saturdays.
[32:37.520 -> 32:38.480] He's right. Yeah, no, we talk about that a lot.
[32:43.040 -> 32:48.640] The Charles, Max, well, Max, not so much anymore. He's really learned, but like Charles, George, and Lando seem to be really great in a qualifying lap and they can really pull that together. And they just haven't
[32:48.640 -> 32:54.800] gotten their Saturdays to a point that like the world championship caliber drivers have.
[32:55.360 -> 33:02.080] So like Lewis and Max, magic. Like the being able to maintain like that energy, that pace,
[33:02.080 -> 33:05.000] that management, like it's again,
[33:05.000 -> 33:09.000] the millions of variables that make them the greatest sharpers in the world like
[33:09.000 -> 33:13.000] that. Yeah. There's not there yet, but still great.
[33:13.000 -> 33:18.000] And we're not talking about McLaren in this segment or actually because his
[33:18.000 -> 33:22.000] head to head with Oscar was so clear cut. I didn't pull his data for this,
[33:22.000 -> 33:23.000] but I really, what,
[33:23.000 -> 33:31.920] what impressed me the most about Lando this season was that his race pace and his management of the Pirelli tires definitely seems
[33:31.920 -> 33:36.560] improved year over year. He seems to be starting to figure it out more than we're seeing in Charles
[33:36.560 -> 33:42.640] and George. When I say street tracks, you probably, one of the first things you think of is how much
[33:42.640 -> 33:45.360] Charles loves street tracks.
[33:49.760 -> 33:53.360] So you would probably think that when I split it between temporary and street and permanent tracks, that Charles dominated in street tracks, right?
[33:55.840 -> 34:00.640] That's what I would want. That's what I would want because that would make sense. But because
[34:00.640 -> 34:05.440] it's Charles, it's going to be a no. He grew up on these streets!
[34:05.440 -> 34:07.440] Ha ha ha!
[34:07.440 -> 34:10.940] Well, he was better.
[34:10.940 -> 34:14.640] The head-to-head was Charles won 5 and Carlos won 3.
[34:14.640 -> 34:17.140] But it was pretty close. They were off by 2.
[34:17.140 -> 34:22.440] But in permanent tracks, he had a really good season,
[34:22.440 -> 34:27.760] which is really why in the head-to-head, he
[34:27.760 -> 34:33.560] made the difference at the end of the season in permanent tracks, winning 10 of those qualifying
[34:33.560 -> 34:36.200] battles and Carlos only won four.
[34:36.200 -> 34:45.000] Yeah, I mean, Carlos' unbelievable, I say unbelievable downfall, but like Charles had such
[34:46.320 -> 34:48.360] unbelievable downfalls every weekend.
[34:48.360 -> 34:48.800] So.
[34:51.560 -> 34:52.000] Yeah.
[34:52.040 -> 34:55.320] And of course, like it's really hard.
[34:55.920 -> 34:59.600] I find it always very difficult to look at Ferrari head to head with the two of
[34:59.600 -> 35:04.720] them, because I always feel like there's some caveat every week that like this
[35:04.720 -> 35:06.820] week, Carlos was screwed. this week, Carlos was screwed.
[35:06.820 -> 35:08.140] This week, Charles was screwed.
[35:08.140 -> 35:09.140] They messed this up.
[35:09.140 -> 35:10.140] They didn't do that.
[35:10.140 -> 35:14.460] Like, there just always seems to be something more in the race than in qualifying.
[35:14.460 -> 35:17.140] So it is hard to...
[35:17.140 -> 35:23.540] I feel like if I was showing anyone my work here, it would just be, like, 7 million asterisks
[35:23.540 -> 35:25.680] just explaining, like explaining the caveat to every
[35:25.680 -> 35:34.000] line of data. But I had to pull it together somehow. I think the biggest thing was their
[35:34.000 -> 35:39.000] trend. Charles had a very strong start to the season. Carlos really came on in the middle
[35:39.000 -> 35:50.740] of the season. And then Charles ended the season very strong against his teammate in qualifying. So probably deserving of the giant contract that keeps getting rumored.
[35:51.020 -> 35:55.040] Yeah, I was going to say, so this is, this boy's just trying to really
[35:55.040 -> 36:01.560] solidify his butt in that red car until basically 2030, but.
[36:04.920 -> 36:05.000] Oh, and the median difference between, uh, the difference every week between basically 2030, but.
[36:08.200 -> 36:12.120] Oh, and the median difference between the difference every week between their lap times was one 10th.
[36:12.120 -> 36:14.520] So there was a bigger difference over the course
[36:14.520 -> 36:16.920] of the season between Charles and Carlos
[36:16.920 -> 36:18.340] than Lewis and George.
[36:18.340 -> 36:22.520] But again, we're talking such fine margins.
[36:22.520 -> 36:25.640] Like the reality is like, did Charles squeak it out more than
[36:25.640 -> 36:30.200] Carlos more often than not this season? Yes. Are we talking about squeaking it
[36:30.200 -> 36:34.200] out over the course of the season? Yeah.
[36:34.200 -> 36:41.560] It's like tiny, but that's huge, but it's tiny, but huge.
[36:41.760 -> 36:49.800] Right. So I think that's why, like, I really wanted to pull and look at Ferrari.
[36:49.800 -> 36:56.760] So I think the reality of Formula One data is it's all right.
[36:56.760 -> 37:00.560] Like, we're sitting here trying to parse out, like, did Charles have a better season than
[37:00.560 -> 37:05.920] Carlos and, like, what does, and, like, I see people debating who's a better driver all the time.
[37:05.920 -> 37:09.320] And I think they're both such different drivers, which
[37:09.320 -> 37:11.240] is an interesting challenge for Ferrari.
[37:11.240 -> 37:16.520] But they both had good seasons.
[37:16.520 -> 37:19.680] So I can't tell you right.
[37:19.680 -> 37:21.680] Even after pulling all of this data,
[37:21.680 -> 37:24.680] I don't confidently feel great telling you that Charles
[37:24.680 -> 37:25.120] clearly had the better season. Carlos won a race. after pulling all of this data, I don't confidently feel great telling you that Charles clearly
[37:25.120 -> 37:26.680] had the better season.
[37:26.680 -> 37:27.680] Carlos won a race.
[37:27.680 -> 37:28.680] I...
[37:28.680 -> 37:32.480] Ferrari, it's very much, well, in terms of what?
[37:32.480 -> 37:39.120] Because they were so all over the place throughout sprints, throughout qualis, throughout races.
[37:39.120 -> 37:47.240] Like if you're looking at, you know, specific race days by race performance, like I feel like you're going to be able to easily say Carlos.
[37:47.240 -> 37:49.120] But then you're also going to have to, again,
[37:49.120 -> 37:50.320] all of the asterisks.
[37:50.320 -> 37:51.640] But that's Ferrari.
[37:51.640 -> 37:55.000] And Ferrari is pain, and we love it.
[37:59.000 -> 38:00.840] Yeah.
[38:00.840 -> 38:04.480] I think the reality is, if their car was good enough
[38:04.480 -> 38:07.880] to compete with Red Bull next year, like I would probably back
[38:07.880 -> 38:12.200] Charles, but he also hasn't proven that he can not make
[38:12.200 -> 38:18.920] mistakes yet. But I, I felt the loss of him having nothing to
[38:18.920 -> 38:28.000] race for this season. Because he, he can be so exciting. Like of all the things that we missed out on this season,
[38:28.000 -> 38:33.000] because things were so dominant, I did feel the year-over-year loss of a sad Charles.
[38:33.000 -> 38:34.000] Yes.
[38:34.000 -> 38:35.000] If we're being honest.
[38:35.000 -> 38:38.000] Because he was sad in a different way this year that wasn't as fun.
[38:38.000 -> 38:40.000] No, it was like despair.
[38:40.000 -> 38:42.000] It was like, oh, it wasn't even –
[38:42.000 -> 38:50.500] not that it's ever fun to watch sad Charles as I like root for him, but this was just, yeah, it was, I missed the sad Charles.
[38:50.500 -> 38:52.800] That's like the sad Charles we love.
[38:53.000 -> 38:56.000] And also miss the like action pack Charles.
[38:56.000 -> 38:59.800] Like, I mean, getting to see that on track action with checko in Vegas.
[38:59.800 -> 39:00.700] I'm like, this is what I want.
[39:00.700 -> 39:01.500] This is the Charles.
[39:01.500 -> 39:04.000] I love this is what I want to see happen.
[39:01.120 -> 39:02.600] I'm like, this is what I want. This is the Charles I love.
[39:02.600 -> 39:04.960] This is what I want to see happen.
[39:04.960 -> 39:11.360] And not a DNF or grid penalty disqualification, blah, blah,
[39:11.360 -> 39:14.160] blah, blah, blah.
[39:14.160 -> 39:17.000] Hanging out in P8, because that's how the Ferrari was
[39:17.000 -> 39:19.400] for a lot of this year.
[39:19.400 -> 39:22.000] So in discussing what we wanted to review
[39:22.000 -> 39:25.560] for the year in drivers, An interesting one that came up was
[39:26.520 -> 39:30.100] popularity of drivers. Were there any drivers that became more popular this year?
[39:31.360 -> 39:36.960] There's, we can always be looking at social media, social media followers. That data gets a little muddy.
[39:37.240 -> 39:41.760] So what I pulled for us to discuss today is Google trend data.
[39:41.800 -> 39:45.800] So a little prelude to what is Google trend data.
[39:45.800 -> 39:50.800] So what it does is it is a relative number
[39:50.900 -> 39:55.740] about how often people are searching for a topic.
[39:55.740 -> 39:57.960] So, and when I say searching,
[39:57.960 -> 40:00.360] I mean physically going to Google,
[40:00.360 -> 40:03.720] or if you have Google as your default browser on your phone
[40:03.720 -> 40:08.720] and saying, you know, Lewis Hamilton, non-alcoholic drink.
[40:11.120 -> 40:14.240] Whatever the search is, if it has Lewis Hamilton in it,
[40:14.240 -> 40:16.920] it goes into this index number.
[40:16.920 -> 40:19.400] And then you can put up to five topics
[40:19.400 -> 40:22.480] and a number is pulled that is relative
[40:22.480 -> 40:24.000] to the other numbers.
[40:24.000 -> 40:26.800] So the number themselves don't make a lot of any,
[40:27.360 -> 40:32.800] don't mean anything. The numbers themselves don't mean anything concrete. It's the number in
[40:32.800 -> 40:41.920] relation to another number. I also point out that this is not a popularity data point. It just tells
[40:41.920 -> 40:49.560] you how often they're searched. You know, people who are very unpopular have very high scores on Google trends
[40:49.760 -> 40:54.200] because a lot of people are Googling and researching the bad thing they did.
[40:54.720 -> 40:55.880] Right. So again,
[40:56.000 -> 40:59.280] not a popularity scale to anyone who doesn't have experience with this,
[40:59.440 -> 41:01.560] just how often they're being searched.
[41:02.360 -> 41:05.880] It's popularity in like a, in a different type of definition.
[41:05.880 -> 41:09.200] It's popularity in terms, yeah,
[41:09.200 -> 41:13.400] and like searchability and not just like popularity
[41:13.400 -> 41:14.560] for Gina George.
[41:17.040 -> 41:22.040] It's interest, positive and negative, not just positive.
[41:23.320 -> 41:24.160] Yes.
[41:24.160 -> 41:28.280] Is something going on that people are looking you up?
[41:28.280 -> 41:30.000] Is kind of what it is.
[41:31.400 -> 41:35.320] So I pulled data all the way back to 2015
[41:35.320 -> 41:37.760] for five drivers to compare to each other.
[41:37.760 -> 41:40.960] So I pulled Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc,
[41:40.960 -> 41:45.880] Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris as the five drivers.
[41:45.880 -> 41:50.080] All for probably pretty obvious reasons why I picked these five drivers to compare to
[41:50.080 -> 41:51.200] each other.
[41:51.200 -> 41:58.200] And then my data goes back to 2015, and I pulled a yearly number to compare.
[41:58.200 -> 42:05.280] So there is so much nuance in this data where you can pull it daily, you can pull it monthly, all but I just wanted to
[42:05.280 -> 42:10.480] get over the course of a year, how do they all compare to each other?
[42:10.480 -> 42:14.440] So if you are listening on audio only, I'm going to do my best to verbally describe this
[42:14.440 -> 42:15.440] to you.
[42:15.440 -> 42:19.480] But you can also always head over to our YouTube video where this will be up on the screen.
[42:19.480 -> 42:24.680] So something interesting about this is these are the global search index numbers over time
[42:24.680 -> 42:25.440] for all the different
[42:25.440 -> 42:31.680] drivers. So of course back in 2015, Charlotte Clare and Lando Norris had zeros because
[42:33.600 -> 42:38.960] they weren't in Formula One yet, they weren't big enough to be on this scale. Their first numbers
[42:38.960 -> 42:46.200] don't come until about 2018. But you can really see both how the drivers relate to each other in searches.
[42:46.200 -> 42:51.920] And then also over time, the numbers grow, showing the popularity growth globally for
[42:51.920 -> 42:52.920] F1 as well.
[42:52.920 -> 42:59.200] I know every time we're going to look at data for F1 over the course of many years, that
[42:59.200 -> 43:09.400] 2021 is always going to have like this little funky thing happening. But every time it just makes my whole like body like,
[43:10.400 -> 43:11.920] like just.
[43:14.080 -> 43:16.240] Well, sticking with 2021,
[43:16.240 -> 43:18.960] something I find interesting about the global search index
[43:18.960 -> 43:20.920] is that what was going on with Lewis Hamilton
[43:20.920 -> 43:22.360] and Max Verstappen that year,
[43:22.360 -> 43:25.120] didn't really give a search bump
[43:25.120 -> 43:32.000] to other drivers on the grid not involved in that. And that might feel obvious, but
[43:32.000 -> 43:40.960] I think it goes to show that if a championship fight is going to have a positive impact,
[43:40.960 -> 43:46.760] it really positively impacts. And again, remember positive is just meaning an increase.
[43:46.760 -> 43:48.460] Doesn't mean a good.
[43:48.460 -> 43:53.460] So it's going to impact the drivers involved in it,
[43:53.920 -> 43:57.540] but you'll see that like to 2020 to 2021,
[43:57.540 -> 43:59.600] Charles, Fernando, and Lando,
[43:59.600 -> 44:02.880] their search index really doesn't go up at all.
[44:04.000 -> 44:07.200] And Louis and Max's skyrocket because so many people
[44:07.200 -> 44:10.200] are searching for those two names on Google.
[44:10.200 -> 44:13.360] And even though every, like, even though of course,
[44:13.360 -> 44:16.300] Max and Louis has come down in 22 and 23,
[44:16.300 -> 44:19.460] they're still by far the two most searched names
[44:19.460 -> 44:21.120] on this graph.
[44:21.120 -> 44:28.800] And something that shocked me was that there were more searches 2016 through 2019
[44:28.800 -> 44:34.520] for Max Verstappen than Lewis Hamilton, despite the fact that Lewis Hamilton was involved
[44:34.520 -> 44:40.360] in a, well, Lewis Hamilton won the championships in 17, 18 and 19 and Max Verstappen was searched
[44:40.360 -> 44:46.200] more those three years. Yeah, that was also one of the things that stood out to me.
[44:47.300 -> 44:53.100] And honestly, I I'm not surprised that Lewis and Max
[44:53.400 -> 44:56.000] have a higher index than Fernando.
[44:56.200 -> 45:00.900] I think I'm just surprised at how low Fernando is,
[45:01.300 -> 45:03.700] maybe even more recently at all.
[45:03.800 -> 45:07.360] It's that just seems like he would be,
[45:07.360 -> 45:10.840] have more of a gap to Lando and Charles
[45:10.840 -> 45:13.840] in terms of like popularity and searching
[45:13.840 -> 45:17.240] or frequency of being searched would be my assumption.
[45:17.240 -> 45:21.960] So I am very surprised about the Alonzo of it all.
[45:22.840 -> 45:23.680] Right.
[45:22.000 -> 45:24.000] the Alonzo of it all. Right.
[45:24.000 -> 45:35.000] I thought it was really interesting that in 2022, Charles' interest really spiked up because he was competing for the championship.
[45:35.000 -> 45:40.000] But he dipped back down this year because he wasn't competing for the championship.
[45:40.000 -> 45:46.000] And Fernando spiked up because of everything that happened at the beginning of this season.
[45:46.000 -> 45:49.000] And he, so he had more searches this year than Charles did.
[45:49.000 -> 45:57.000] So you can really see with Charles and Fernando the effect that being on the podium does
[45:57.000 -> 46:01.000] for the amount of times that people search for you as an F1 driver.
[46:01.000 -> 46:08.320] And being in that conversation again, being the storyline really matters for how
[46:08.320 -> 46:12.800] many times people search for you, which again sounds obvious, but the data doesn't always
[46:12.800 -> 46:20.880] align that way. I think what's interesting to me, though, is that of these five drivers,
[46:20.880 -> 46:25.300] the most searched driver last year and this year is Lewis Hamilton, despite the fact that he wasn't
[46:25.300 -> 46:29.000] competing for a championship at all. So yeah, Charles and
[46:29.000 -> 46:34.820] Fernando get this like, competitiveness bump. But Lewis
[46:34.820 -> 46:38.300] doesn't get a downward turn like the other ones do when they're
[46:38.300 -> 46:41.420] not competitive, which just shows you like, he is a global
[46:41.420 -> 46:44.480] super superstar in a very different way than all these
[46:44.480 -> 46:45.200] other drivers.
[46:45.200 -> 46:46.960] Yeah, for sure.
[46:46.960 -> 46:53.440] This is, it's really crazy to see this like, drawn out and like in a qualitative way.
[46:53.440 -> 47:00.720] This is things that I know to be true, but being able to see is cool.
[47:00.720 -> 47:05.140] Now something that really surprised me on here is, so we talked about Lewis and Max
[47:05.140 -> 47:08.440] and Charles and Fernando, and we haven't really said Lando a lot.
[47:08.440 -> 47:16.080] So Lando, for the most part, averages out to be the least searched driver on Google.
[47:16.080 -> 47:21.320] And he doesn't seem to have gotten a big 2023 bump in any way, despite the fact that McLaren
[47:21.320 -> 47:26.880] was doing really well at the back half of the season. He is a very popular
[47:26.880 -> 47:35.680] driver with a younger generation, and I was shocked at how far below for 2023 his search index was
[47:35.680 -> 47:49.360] to Fernando and Charles globally. Yes, I do find that very surprising. I do think it's really interesting. The 2020 to 2021 is his steepest increase,
[47:49.360 -> 47:56.800] which like, it just screams like the COVID drive to survive effect of like the, like Lando Norris
[47:56.800 -> 48:00.880] of it all, like the discovering driver personalities, everyone's home. And I really
[48:00.880 -> 48:08.720] feel like that's when Lando started hitting his stride in terms of like content and building his fan base was in that time frame. So that's really interesting to be
[48:08.720 -> 48:20.080] able to see like that growth right there. But the gap is it is very wild. But again, it's so evident
[48:20.080 -> 48:28.680] about how even being even it's feel to say, in actually competing with Max in
[48:28.680 -> 48:33.920] whatever way, whether it was legitimate, not when I say legitimate being like it would
[48:33.920 -> 48:36.120] have lasted the whole season.
[48:36.120 -> 48:40.440] Like I don't mean legitimate in ways of certain people are cheating, but in the ways of like,
[48:40.440 -> 48:45.960] okay, Ferrari was leading at the beginning of 2022 because Red Bull had certain things going on,
[48:45.960 -> 48:47.500] and then they figured their stuff out,
[48:47.500 -> 48:49.120] and we saw how that went down.
[48:49.120 -> 48:51.200] As for Martin, we obviously learned
[48:51.200 -> 48:53.660] certain things on their car had to change drastically
[48:53.660 -> 48:56.240] that affected the rest of their car for the rest of the year.
[48:56.240 -> 48:59.080] But Lander has not been in that place
[48:59.080 -> 49:01.680] where, at least at the start of the season,
[49:01.680 -> 49:04.120] that seems like he could have that momentum to kind of gain
[49:04.120 -> 49:05.120] that push and spike.
[49:05.760 -> 49:15.360] And so that, it's a big difference. Really gives you that. The non-Lewis Hamilton category, how much
[49:15.360 -> 49:22.240] it, the on-track seems to affect these numbers, really was my number one baffling takeaway.
[49:22.240 -> 49:25.640] Where I was like, Oh, okay, got
[49:25.640 -> 49:28.480] it. If you're not Lewis Hamilton, it doesn't matter how
[49:28.480 -> 49:31.600] popular you are. People don't seem to be searching for you on
[49:31.600 -> 49:36.920] Google that much. Right. I'm going to be really interested to
[49:36.920 -> 49:41.460] monitor this over time and see what happens when Max stops
[49:41.460 -> 49:45.420] winning. Because he's now a multi-time world champion. And
[49:45.420 -> 49:51.700] I wonder if he stays up there at the search volume of Lewis Hamilton when he's no longer
[49:51.700 -> 49:58.500] winning races. Like that, I wonder if he falls back with the group of searches that are race
[49:58.500 -> 50:08.320] dependent or if because he's become this generational champion, if his interest will stay up that
[50:08.320 -> 50:11.240] high, no matter what.
[50:11.240 -> 50:12.240] Yeah.
[50:12.240 -> 50:13.960] Very interesting to see.
[50:13.960 -> 50:17.400] I agree.
[50:17.400 -> 50:18.960] So those were the global numbers.
[50:18.960 -> 50:21.520] This is the US numbers.
[50:21.520 -> 50:26.040] So let me explain to those just listening the difference here.
[50:26.040 -> 50:29.960] Lewis Hamilton is by far, and it is not even close,
[50:29.960 -> 50:33.720] the most searched driver in the United States.
[50:33.720 -> 50:36.720] While the global graph has multiple points,
[50:36.720 -> 50:40.500] Max being more searched, Max being close to Lewis,
[50:40.500 -> 50:48.160] Lewis being close to Max, the gap of space is monumental. Lewis Hamilton is the driver of
[50:48.160 -> 50:56.720] the United States and it's not even close. Also Max Verstappen doesn't become a highly searched
[50:56.720 -> 51:07.300] name until 2021. And I find it fascinating that you can't actually see the 2021 bump on the USA graph.
[51:07.300 -> 51:10.820] On the global graph, it was slow, slow growth,
[51:10.820 -> 51:12.860] giant spike in 2021,
[51:12.860 -> 51:14.840] and then it comes back down a little bit,
[51:14.840 -> 51:17.100] but still higher than 2020.
[51:17.100 -> 51:22.040] And then back to a slow growth trend line below 2021.
[51:22.040 -> 51:28.880] This is a pretty steep growth starting in 2018 till you hit the pandemic,
[51:28.880 -> 51:35.120] you get that pandemic drive to survive bump, spike in 2021, and then actually every driver
[51:35.120 -> 51:45.000] search index keeps increasing in 22 and 23, which I did not expect at all.
[51:45.840 -> 51:48.200] I also found that the USA graph,
[51:48.200 -> 51:52.640] unlike the global numbers that seem to be a little finicky
[51:52.640 -> 51:54.800] for Charles, Fernando and Lando,
[51:54.800 -> 51:57.360] depending on how they're doing in the championship,
[51:57.360 -> 52:01.320] Charles's interest spike that happened last year in 2022,
[52:01.320 -> 52:03.000] stuck for 2023.
[52:03.000 -> 52:06.620] He actually grew in US searches this year, despite not
[52:06.620 -> 52:13.480] being as competitive on track. So it seems that USA Audience seems much more interested
[52:13.480 -> 52:19.720] in personality, and when they like a driver and a name has become a household name, it
[52:19.720 -> 52:26.820] just keeps getting searched, versus the global audience kind of goes with what's happening on track
[52:26.820 -> 52:30.360] a little bit more globally.
[52:30.360 -> 52:39.560] Or everyone was searching for Charles's piano melodies on Spotify and SoundCloud and but
[52:39.560 -> 52:47.400] no, like very much to your point, but... I couldn't be... No, but like, but my point is that that stuff matters.
[52:47.600 -> 52:48.300] That...
[52:48.700 -> 52:49.800] Oh, hi Harper.
[52:50.000 -> 52:51.200] Do you want to make an appearance?
[52:51.200 -> 52:53.200] We have a dog.
[52:54.200 -> 52:58.100] Four-legged executive producers come to say hello.
[52:59.200 -> 53:00.800] I love Charles with it.
[53:00.800 -> 53:02.000] Oh, oh!
[53:04.000 -> 53:05.000] Do you want to go. Hello, Harper! Say hello to the people.
[53:05.000 -> 53:06.000] Can you hear that?
[53:06.000 -> 53:07.000] Yes.
[53:07.000 -> 53:08.000] That's her hello.
[53:08.000 -> 53:09.000] That's her hello.
[53:09.000 -> 53:10.000] Oh, yeah.
[53:10.000 -> 53:11.000] Oh, this is recorded.
[53:11.000 -> 53:12.000] That's great.
[53:12.000 -> 53:15.000] But you're making a joke about SoundCloud, but I do think...
[53:15.000 -> 53:28.560] This is a very large dog that's
[53:28.560 -> 53:31.400] currently trying to crawl into my lap.
[53:31.400 -> 53:34.320] I do think the US audience cares about all of that.
[53:34.320 -> 53:36.520] Lewis Hamilton is a celebrity here.
[53:36.520 -> 53:42.640] He gets a lot of searches, probably from a US audience, about his appearances with fashion
[53:42.640 -> 53:46.480] and his work with Brad Pitt on the Apple TV movie that they're working on.
[53:46.480 -> 53:52.160] I do think that a US audience really cares about something like a Charlotte Clare SoundCloud drop.
[53:52.160 -> 53:57.600] So the key is for drivers to be involved in more things outside of motorsports.
[53:57.600 -> 54:00.960] It's like we've said that before.
[54:00.960 -> 54:02.960] Shocking.
[54:02.960 -> 54:06.160] But again, I'll point out that I was shocked by Lando Norris's
[54:06.160 -> 54:13.440] numbers. I think so much of F1 media, like he's such a darling of the British media,
[54:13.440 -> 54:18.120] that I was expecting when I pulled the USA and global numbers that he was going to be
[54:18.120 -> 54:24.400] higher and more searched than he actually was. So again, I'm not to anyone who's a Lando
[54:24.400 -> 54:25.920] Norris fan, I'm not saying he's not popular.
[54:25.920 -> 54:27.120] He very clearly is.
[54:27.120 -> 54:29.760] And his numbers are close to Fernando Alonso in the US.
[54:29.760 -> 54:32.400] And that's a world champion with like years
[54:32.400 -> 54:34.880] of being a name in motor sports.
[54:34.880 -> 54:37.280] So like his numbers are great.
[54:37.280 -> 54:39.120] We're comparing him to Lewis Hamilton here.
[54:39.120 -> 54:40.840] Like these are not reasonable numbers
[54:40.840 -> 54:42.720] for people to be compared to.
[54:42.720 -> 54:47.300] But I just, I expected him to be closer to Charles. Yeah, I agree. That was...
[54:47.300 -> 54:51.080] When I put him in here, I thought he was gonna be P3, not P5.
[54:51.080 -> 54:57.040] No, definitely my biggest like plot twist here too. I thought Lando would be like raking in
[54:57.040 -> 55:01.160] these Google searches, but just shows again, it's the power of the brand.
[55:01.160 -> 55:08.160] I'm sure his socials do incredible as well, because I think his audience is younger.
[55:08.160 -> 55:11.160] Maybe they're searching less on Google, but everyone searches on Google.
[55:11.160 -> 55:18.200] So that is why I love the search indexes, because it's really such a good number.
[55:18.200 -> 55:23.800] The last driver pairing we have to chat about here is the French Peen driver pairing.
[55:23.800 -> 55:25.600] I think this was one of the ones where we came into
[55:25.600 -> 55:32.880] the season and there were high hopes and expectations for Sparks flying and I felt
[55:32.880 -> 55:37.840] like we went through a season of tension building. Like they felt very evenly matched over the course
[55:37.840 -> 55:44.720] of a season, there were some spicy end of season team radios, things that both drivers didn't like,
[55:45.000 -> 55:49.000] end of season team radios, things that both drivers didn't like. But I was very intrigued to see their qualifying head-to-head,
[55:49.000 -> 55:51.000] to see just how close they were.
[55:51.000 -> 55:55.000] I'm excited to see it in a numerical way, because going into the season,
[55:55.000 -> 55:59.000] I felt like it was going to be spicy Mean Girl drama between Pierre and Esti Bestie,
[55:59.000 -> 56:03.000] but then it kind of just felt like it was, towards the end, like you said,
[56:03.000 -> 56:26.880] we started to see a little bit of the feistiness, but really just felt like it was like the Alpine internal logistics versus anyone working for Alpine. Some of that they took out on each other more than like actually any kind of animosity there was.
[56:31.200 -> 56:36.480] I'm done with all of this. Well, the median difference was three hundredths of a second.
[56:38.240 -> 56:41.680] It was 15 to 3 overall in favor of Pierre.
[56:42.200 -> 56:43.380] overall in favor of Pierre.
[56:48.380 -> 56:48.420] And they were in the 50% all the way through
[56:52.980 -> 56:57.100] for every number I polled, they were so evenly matched. So if you remove the sprint shootouts, Pierre is 12 to 10.
[56:57.100 -> 57:01.580] So 55%, they were equal on sprint shootouts, three to three.
[57:01.580 -> 57:04.060] They were equal on weekends
[57:04.060 -> 57:06.560] that didn't involve a sprint shootout. So when there
[57:06.560 -> 57:12.720] was the full practice schedule, it was eight to eight, 50%. They evenly split. When you give them
[57:12.720 -> 57:27.120] time to prepare, it's a coin flip on who was better that week. It's like they grew up together weeks that we're learning racing techniques and things.
[57:30.720 -> 57:33.320] Now I will like, oh, we forgot to name bias at the beginning of this. We're big Esty Bestie fans.
[57:36.640 -> 57:39.960] Right. Probably implied by the fact that we just keep saying
[57:39.960 -> 57:42.360] Esty Bestie and now I'm upset that I didn't put my Esty
[57:42.360 -> 57:45.360] Besties on the podium baby sounder on our
[57:47.200 -> 57:49.760] our media board for this recording. Estee Besties on the podium baby! There you go, I did it.
[57:52.160 -> 57:57.680] They both had podium moments this season. Like they really were so evenly matched on track.
[57:58.240 -> 58:02.080] If I was going to say something that makes me worried as an Estee Bestie fan,
[58:02.080 -> 58:09.080] like he has much more experience with the team. Pierre definitely was able to come on board quickly.
[58:09.080 -> 58:10.640] So if I was trying to feel optimistic
[58:10.640 -> 58:12.840] about Pierre's chances next year, I would say,
[58:12.840 -> 58:14.460] oh, like a whole year under his belt,
[58:14.460 -> 58:19.460] like it might swing more in his favor next year.
[58:19.720 -> 58:23.360] And the season trend does say that
[58:23.360 -> 58:26.740] where SC Bestie had a much stronger start of the season
[58:26.740 -> 58:28.760] and Pierre got much more comfortable in the car
[58:28.760 -> 58:31.020] as the season went on.
[58:31.020 -> 58:33.480] Which unfortunately for Pierre,
[58:33.480 -> 58:37.920] is when the car got worse, relative to their peers.
[58:37.920 -> 58:42.920] So like, it was unfortunate for him there, great for Esti.
[58:43.060 -> 58:46.560] But I had an interesting split here.
[58:47.720 -> 58:50.520] Again, I pulled the street and temporary tracks
[58:50.520 -> 58:52.680] versus the permanent circuits.
[58:53.700 -> 58:58.600] Estie Bestie won the street track battle six to two,
[58:58.600 -> 59:02.600] winning 75% of those qualifying sessions.
[59:05.720 -> 59:06.720] Monaco, baby.
[59:06.720 -> 59:08.220] Pierre won...
[59:09.600 -> 59:10.600] Yes.
[59:10.600 -> 59:17.600] Pierre won on the permanent tracks 10 to 4, 71%.
[59:17.600 -> 59:21.600] So again, part of that is I think Pierre had a better second half of the season
[59:21.600 -> 59:29.520] than first half of the season and the inverse for S.C. Bestie, but it does seem like Esteban preferred this car on street and temporary
[59:29.520 -> 59:33.600] circuits overall, did much better than Pierre there, and Pierre felt much more comfortable
[59:33.600 -> 59:34.560] on permanent tracks.
[59:38.320 -> 59:44.320] Right. Yeah. I'm shocked at how even, how they really just evened each other out. It
[59:49.000 -> 59:52.000] is not what had been on my 2023 bingo card.
[01:00:06.800 -> 01:00:09.440] I'm going to be really intrigued for them next year. But actually looking at all this data made me more intrigued for their actual performance on track, then all of the explosives everyone keeps expecting to happen.
[01:00:09.440 -> 01:00:13.000] They are so evenly matched.
[01:00:13.000 -> 01:00:17.580] I know that when you look at race pace, overall over the course of the season, Esteban felt
[01:00:17.580 -> 01:00:20.880] much more comfortable managing the tires in this car.
[01:00:20.880 -> 01:00:24.400] So I think it would be interesting to see next year if Pierre gets, as he gets more
[01:00:24.400 -> 01:00:28.100] comfortable with the Alpine, if his tire management will get better,
[01:00:28.100 -> 01:00:35.200] and they'll be more evenly matched on race day, as well as clearly evenly matched they are on a qualifying day.
[01:00:35.200 -> 01:00:39.400] But I didn't even want to like really dive into race data for this,
[01:00:39.400 -> 01:00:45.040] because the Alpine just, if it can make it through a weekend, good for that car.
[01:00:45.360 -> 01:00:48.840] Yeah, it was it felt like it was a Ferrari at points this year
[01:00:48.840 -> 01:00:51.880] when it was just like, again, like this.
[01:00:52.040 -> 01:00:55.760] What I was like, yeah, people were speculating about explosions
[01:00:55.760 -> 01:00:59.440] between SCVSE and Pierre when it's really just like potential explosions
[01:00:59.440 -> 01:01:02.800] within the PU of Alpine like.
[01:01:03.680 -> 01:01:04.680] Right.
[01:01:04.760 -> 01:01:09.280] Like they're they're fighting their own team. They're just trying to get the
[01:01:09.280 -> 01:01:15.600] car to finish a race. They're ending the season in P6 as an engine manufacturer team. They're a
[01:01:15.600 -> 01:01:20.160] works team. This is embarrassing. They don't have enough time to fight with each other,
[01:01:21.520 -> 01:01:25.160] other than the temporary time where they're on track,
[01:01:25.160 -> 01:01:27.280] it seems to be the vibe.
[01:01:28.280 -> 01:01:31.960] But I'm going to be intrigued to see if next year they keep up
[01:01:31.960 -> 01:01:35.440] the same trend where Esteban does better on street and temporary
[01:01:35.440 -> 01:01:38.320] tracks and Pierre does better on more permanent circuits,
[01:01:38.880 -> 01:01:41.840] or if that was a one-off, this version of the Alpine where
[01:01:41.840 -> 01:01:42.920] they felt more comfortable.
[01:01:44.080 -> 01:01:50.000] Thank you so much to our voiceover man, to Lewis Hamilton for liking our Instagram posts.
[01:01:50.000 -> 01:01:53.480] We're never going to get over this and we'll like be yelling about it for months and months
[01:01:53.480 -> 01:01:54.800] and years to come.
[01:01:54.800 -> 01:01:57.720] And thank you to our four-legged executive producers.
[01:01:57.720 -> 01:02:03.760] Again, this is one of our three season reviews of the F1 2023 season.
[01:02:03.760 -> 01:02:05.200] So once you finish listening to this one,
[01:02:05.200 -> 01:02:08.960] make sure you go catch the other two if you haven't listened to them already. If you are
[01:02:08.960 -> 01:02:13.440] watching on YouTube, sound off in the comments your favorite moment from the F1 2023 season.
[01:02:13.440 -> 01:02:17.200] What things surprised you? What things did you completely expect? And what are you hyped for in
[01:02:17.200 -> 01:02:21.680] 2024? Anything like that, we're really, really curious of what you're thinking and where your
[01:02:21.680 -> 01:02:25.520] vibes are at the end of this season. So subscribe,
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[01:02:44.520 -> 01:02:49.520] show on Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter, and threads. We are doing 23 podiums to wrap up the
[01:02:49.520 -> 01:02:56.000] F1 2023 season. So if you haven't gotten enough F1 2023 season wrap up content from us, check out
[01:02:56.000 -> 01:03:01.200] our socials for all of our podiums that you have. You can check out and see of our favorite things
[01:03:01.200 -> 01:03:05.780] of the entire year. And we will be back to walk the Formula One grid every Thursday,
[01:03:05.780 -> 01:03:07.140] including in the off season.
[01:03:07.380 -> 01:03:12.220] And we sincerely hope you join us, but this is all feeling like a big grid
[01:03:12.220 -> 01:03:13.900] wrap up and not a grid walk.
[01:03:17.570 -> 01:03:20.130] Bye!