Podcast: Inside Line F1
Published Date:
Mon, 21 Mar 2022 22:18:33 +0000
Duration:
1596
Explicit:
False
Guests:
MP3 Audio:
Please note that the summary is generated based on the transcript and may not capture all the nuances or details discussed in the podcast episode.
A lot happened in the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix - a Ferrari 1-2, double DNF for the Red Bulls and Lewis Hamilton's 7th consecutive podium finish. And of course, heroics from Valtteri Bottas & Kevin Magnussen.
Tune in to the race review episode on the Inside Line F1 Podcast with Soumil and Kunal.
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Topics discussed -
(Season 2022, Episode 14)
Follow our hosts on Twitter: Soumil Arora and Kunal Shah
Image courtesy: Ferrari
# Inside Line F1 Podcast: Bahrain Grand Prix Review
## Episode Summary:
The Inside Line F1 Podcast, hosted by Soumil Arora and Kunal Shah, delves into the thrilling season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, which witnessed a Ferrari 1-2 finish, a double DNF for Red Bull, and Lewis Hamilton's seventh consecutive podium.
### Key Points:
1. **Ferrari Dominance:**
- Ferrari secured a commanding victory with Charles Leclerc taking the race win, followed by Carlos Sainz in second place.
- This marks Ferrari's first 1-2 finish since the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix and their first race win since the 2021 Austrian Grand Prix.
2. **Red Bull's Double DNF:**
- Both Red Bull drivers, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, suffered retirements due to fuel system-related issues.
- This unexpected setback leaves Red Bull with a significant deficit in the championship standings.
3. **Hamilton's Consistent Podiums:**
- Lewis Hamilton extended his streak of consecutive podium finishes to seven, despite Mercedes' struggles with the new car.
- Hamilton's consistency highlights his ability to adapt and maximize results even in challenging circumstances.
4. **Alfa Romeo's Poor Starts:**
- Alfa Romeo drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu both had poor starts, dropping down the order in the opening laps.
- Bottas attributed this to limited testing opportunities due to the team's car reliability issues.
5. **Red Bull's Fuel System Concerns:**
- The fuel system issues that plagued Red Bull in Bahrain raise concerns about the reliability of the new cars.
- The team has five days to resolve these problems before the next race in Saudi Arabia.
- There is uncertainty whether this issue could potentially affect other teams throughout the season.
### Notable Quotes:
- "It's been 15 years since Ferrari last won the championship. If Bernie Eccleston was still in charge, he would definitely repeat his statement that Formula One needs Ferrari to be winning." - Kunal Shah
- "The whole air of respect between Verstappen and Leclerc is lovely. They've grown up racing go-karts together and know how naughty the other can get." - Soumil Arora
- "Carlos Sainz's disappointment with finishing second shows his ambition and determination to challenge for the title." - Soumil Arora
- "Red Bull started on the worst footing possible, but at least they know they had a car to compete with Ferrari." - Kunal Shah
- "The new generation of Formula One cars seem to be better in terms of raceability, with drivers able to follow and overtake each other more easily." - Kunal Shah
- "Mercedes' strategy was confusing, especially with the hard tire compound on Hamilton's car. They were fortunate to get a podium due to Red Bull's retirements." - Kunal Shah
- "Race control's decisions were generally fair and consistent, including the track limits enforcement and penalties." - Soumil Arora
- "Valtteri Bottas and Kevin Magnussen were the standout performers in the midfield, with Bottas overcoming limited testing and Magnussen continuing his impressive comeback." - Kunal Shah
### Overall Message:
The Bahrain Grand Prix was a thrilling start to the 2022 Formula One season, with Ferrari showcasing their dominance and Red Bull facing unexpected challenges. The midfield battles were entertaining, and race control showed signs of improvement. The upcoming races will determine whether Ferrari can maintain their momentum and if Red Bull can bounce back from their disappointing start.
[00:00.000 -> 00:24.520] Ah, so who would have thought last year that Ferrari would end up dominating this way in
[00:24.520 -> 00:25.840] the first race of the season.
[00:25.840 -> 00:28.120] But let's be honest folks, this has happened before.
[00:28.120 -> 00:31.600] We've seen this happen in 2017, we've seen this happen in 2018.
[00:31.600 -> 00:34.280] Is this the year that Ferrari finally gets it done?
[00:34.280 -> 00:37.920] Now I know the answer, we all want it to be yes, but there's a lot more things that we
[00:37.920 -> 00:42.080] have to discuss and there's a lot more of that that we're going to discuss along with
[00:42.080 -> 00:46.580] this very point of this episode of the Inside Line F1 podcast and Pits to Podium.
[00:46.580 -> 00:47.580] So welcome along.
[00:47.580 -> 00:48.580] My name is Somal Arora.
[00:48.580 -> 00:53.240] I'm the host of the Driving Force on Disney Plus Hotstar, joined by Kunal Shah, the former
[00:53.240 -> 00:57.840] marketing head of Force India, which then became Racing Point, which then became Aston
[00:57.840 -> 01:01.200] Martin, and it has now become a very fast but very slow green machine.
[01:01.200 -> 01:02.680] Nothing to do with Kunal, though.
[01:02.680 -> 01:04.440] That's just the way things have ended up for them.
[01:04.440 -> 01:07.160] But welcome. Welcome on to the show folks and
[01:07.160 -> 01:11.040] seriously Kunal I read something very funny on reddit which is the best
[01:11.040 -> 01:14.840] place to go to of course if you want funny stuff that Ferrari left Mission
[01:14.840 -> 01:20.000] Vino to push... After the inside line F1 podcast and pits to podium right? That's true that's true
[01:20.000 -> 01:26.760] that's true good plug. Sorry I interrupted you. I read somewhere that Ferrari, totally okay if it's an
[01:26.760 -> 01:30.680] interruption like that, totally worth it right. But it's amazing, someone wrote
[01:30.680 -> 01:36.200] that Ferrari left Mission Winnow to pursue Mission Win now and we knew that
[01:36.200 -> 01:41.660] they were good but they were this good, that's just outstanding. I think it
[01:41.660 -> 01:46.840] was a really good opening race of the season because there was so
[01:46.840 -> 01:51.040] much anticipation about these cars, how will they qualify, will they be able to
[01:51.040 -> 01:55.840] race together, will it give us you know entertainment, will they allow you know
[01:55.840 -> 02:01.000] drivers to fight. So irrespective I mean you know not not considering which
[02:01.000 -> 02:11.280] teams were in the battle, just the very fact that we had an entertaining race is actually a very good start to this era of Formula One and of course like Bernie Eccleston said you
[02:11.280 -> 02:18.240] know for Formula One to be you know more successful, more popular he needs Ferrari to
[02:18.240 -> 02:31.600] be winning. So if Bernie was the chief of the sport still he would have definitely repeated this statement. I think it's great if the wait for Tifosi is going to end the season. It's been what,
[02:32.400 -> 02:39.840] it's 15 years. I remember you know we ran a graphic yesterday for the Ovia play, you know viewers
[02:40.640 -> 02:45.000] and 15 years is incredibly long for a team like Ferrari.
[02:46.560 -> 02:47.400] But we know that,
[02:47.400 -> 02:50.440] we just know that they had the best start to a season
[02:50.440 -> 02:52.160] since a long, long time.
[02:52.160 -> 02:53.960] They got the pole, they got the race win,
[02:53.960 -> 02:55.840] they got the fastest lap.
[02:55.840 -> 03:00.480] And like F1 stats guru Sundaram has been become very popular
[03:00.480 -> 03:03.760] with this particular stat of his that each time
[03:03.760 -> 03:05.040] Ferrari have scored pole
[03:05.040 -> 03:09.280] and win in the first race of the season they've gone on to win the World
[03:09.280 -> 03:13.680] Championship and that actually has happened seven times in the history of
[03:13.680 -> 03:18.080] Formula One and Ferrari. Come on Punal you just took the hype train and you
[03:18.080 -> 03:23.120] accelerated the speed from 100 to 300. Now that's the lovely work of
[03:23.120 -> 03:25.120] F1 stats guru right there you You can check him out on all his
[03:25.120 -> 03:30.400] social media handles. But it makes me ask a question right, why is this particular race
[03:30.400 -> 03:35.360] different from what happened in 2017 and 2018 where remember they also won the first couple
[03:35.360 -> 03:40.960] of races and generally Kunal, in terms of the atmosphere this feels different and is it the
[03:40.960 -> 03:47.300] pole that kind of adds to it because in those couple of races they didn't really have the pole and now that it's a one-two, now that the
[03:47.300 -> 03:51.140] expectations have been compounded by testing, it sort of feels like the time
[03:51.140 -> 03:57.100] when it didn't really feel that way in 2017 and 2018. It didn't and you know
[03:57.100 -> 04:01.820] it's like this, there was always a sense of nervousness about the Ferrari
[04:01.820 -> 04:05.060] at that time, different team even though it was
[04:05.060 -> 04:08.860] the same red color or a different red color of the car as well right. There is
[04:08.860 -> 04:14.420] some air of more, there's some air of certainty around this setup but again
[04:14.420 -> 04:19.500] very early days you know pre-race and after qualifying pretty much everyone
[04:19.500 -> 04:24.100] thought Ferrari at the single lap pace but not the race pace but we all saw how
[04:24.100 -> 04:25.240] that turned out as well.
[04:25.240 -> 04:29.640] So I think it's a very good start for Ferrari
[04:29.640 -> 04:33.040] but let's see how it goes over the next 22 races
[04:33.040 -> 04:35.000] because it's a long season.
[04:35.000 -> 04:38.560] And if there's one thing I can guarantee will happen
[04:38.560 -> 04:41.720] is that the pecking order will change.
[04:41.720 -> 04:47.360] It will evolve through the course of the season.
[04:47.360 -> 04:51.760] Absolutely but think of it right they've got 44 points and their closest rivals
[04:51.760 -> 04:56.080] at least on track have got none so that's how ridiculous of a gap Ferrari
[04:56.080 -> 04:59.520] have already and it's gonna be so hard for them to claw back but just the word
[04:59.520 -> 05:04.640] on Charles Leclerc and all that restart was tremendous and I think there's a
[05:04.640 -> 05:05.680] lovely thing right, whenever
[05:05.680 -> 05:10.880] Verstappen and Hamilton end up battling, in a way you kind of felt that Verstappen pushed
[05:10.880 -> 05:15.520] Hamilton way beyond the limit and kind of took advantage of his sportsmanship and took things
[05:15.520 -> 05:20.080] a little more seriously. With Leclerc, there's this air of mutual respect in a way and we saw
[05:20.080 -> 05:28.520] this in Silverstone 2020, we saw this in Austria 2019. These two guys just make for such a lovely couple and it kind of adds to the whole point
[05:28.520 -> 05:33.880] of why this feels different because Ferrari have won this race after a fight in Australia
[05:33.880 -> 05:35.400] in those couple of years that I mentioned previously.
[05:35.400 -> 05:40.160] It was just more of a procession and we were just too happy because Ferrari is winning.
[05:40.160 -> 05:46.800] You know, it's very right what you pointed out, the whole air of respect and, you know, between
[05:46.800 -> 05:51.680] Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, because, you know, I think it's down to this feeling.
[05:51.680 -> 05:54.160] They've grown up racing go-karts together.
[05:54.160 -> 05:59.680] You know, I remember going into this weekend, how people were sharing images and videos of them
[05:59.680 -> 06:00.680] racing in karts.
[06:00.680 -> 06:03.960] They all know how naughty the other one can get.
[06:03.960 -> 06:05.840] Mind you, I'm using the word naughty and
[06:05.840 -> 06:14.320] not dirty. Okay. And in the end, I'm glad they kept it clean because it was close, you know,
[06:14.320 -> 06:20.480] and this is despite the fact that Red Bull wanted Max to have just one attempt, like they radioed
[06:20.480 -> 06:25.960] him. And it was, you know, typical of both of them to use DRS to use all
[06:25.960 -> 06:31.320] the late braking that they could to get track position but that Ferrari and
[06:31.320 -> 06:37.280] Charles Leclerc were just a little too quick for Red Bull to catch up on and
[06:37.280 -> 06:43.240] you know my understanding is that you know in the previous era of Formula
[06:43.240 -> 06:45.920] One there was a lot of tyre management that kept going on.
[06:45.920 -> 06:49.200] Drivers would sit behind a two-second gap,
[06:49.200 -> 06:51.200] save the tyres and then attack later on.
[06:51.840 -> 06:54.960] This era, at least of course based on the first race,
[06:54.960 -> 06:57.360] I think there is tyre management, which is natural,
[06:57.360 -> 07:01.600] but it's been compounded by what's also called brake management
[07:01.600 -> 07:05.840] because Max's attack or repeated attacks on
[07:05.840 -> 07:10.640] Charles did not come for as long as we would have liked only because he was
[07:10.640 -> 07:15.280] also managing his brakes and you know Mark Hughes has put out a very
[07:15.280 -> 07:19.800] interesting technical reasoning behind this so it's best you go up on formula1.com
[07:19.800 -> 07:26.720] and read it but that was what actually halted Max's charge for victory and
[07:26.720 -> 07:31.760] this includes the fact that Max wanted to have a faster outlap and you know
[07:31.760 -> 07:36.560] whatever else to try and get the jump on Charles Leclerc and maybe that's the way
[07:36.560 -> 07:41.320] it's gonna go because Red Bull has a very powerful DRS wing as we've seen
[07:41.320 -> 07:45.000] and the offset between the new tire
[07:45.000 -> 07:47.640] and the old tire was almost three and a half
[07:47.640 -> 07:51.460] to four seconds during the pit stop.
[07:51.460 -> 07:54.200] So that was another interesting play for us to see.
[07:54.200 -> 07:56.000] So teams have gathered all this data.
[07:56.000 -> 08:00.920] They're only going to get smarter with every day
[08:00.920 -> 08:02.720] that goes closer to the next weekend
[08:02.720 -> 08:04.600] because they'll be processing this data,
[08:04.600 -> 08:10.080] rebuilding their race scenarios, and sharpening their tools that will help them literally from
[08:10.080 -> 08:15.440] this weekend itself somehow. Yeah exactly that's such a good point you mentioned and Max was
[08:15.440 -> 08:21.520] furious about it but it was kind of curious why he didn't quite push immediately right after
[08:21.520 -> 08:28.240] the restart he kind of backed off and seems like that was the reason why But still the racing was good and we shall discuss that more in depth
[08:28.240 -> 08:30.680] But also Carlos Sainz got on very very close
[08:30.680 -> 08:34.720] He was pretty handy all throughout the weekend not exactly to the level of Charles
[08:34.720 -> 08:39.440] But it's interesting that he's come out and said that a 1-2 for him personally was a bit disappointing
[08:39.440 -> 08:44.840] And that's the kind of spirit you want to see there that this means that this could just end up being a lovely battle
[08:41.720 -> 08:46.200] That's the kind of spirit you want to see there. This means that this could just end up being a lovely battle three ways essentially,
[08:46.200 -> 08:50.640] because we now have Max, Carlos, Charles, maybe who knows Sergio Perez could join in the fight.
[08:50.920 -> 08:52.560] This is turning out to be fun.
[08:53.760 -> 08:57.720] It is, you know, the top three in qualifying, like we spoke about after qualifying,
[08:57.720 -> 09:00.440] Samuel, were 0.13 away from each other.
[09:00.880 -> 09:10.680] And like Carlos Sainz said, if he had to a go again he would have made up to 10th and you know he labeled Bahrain as one of his toughest weekends with
[09:10.680 -> 09:16.040] Ferrari so it's all about him figuring out with the team because at the end of
[09:16.040 -> 09:21.560] the day you know his disappointment stems from the fact that he has a fast
[09:21.560 -> 09:26.720] car this season. Last season he showed that he can be quicker than
[09:26.720 -> 09:30.960] Charles when it matters. So for him to have finished second obviously is
[09:30.960 -> 09:35.240] disappointing because he wants to go and get his title as well you know add to
[09:35.240 -> 09:40.280] the signs legacy while also prove Renault and and Red Bull wrong in their
[09:40.280 -> 09:45.440] choices they made earlier on in his career and the likes and you know just to talk about
[09:45.440 -> 09:52.640] consistency Carlos Sainz had his 16th consecutive points finish this weekend which i think is pretty
[09:52.640 -> 09:58.240] fantastic. Yeah exactly and we also have to give a shout out to Abhishek Dhakle because he got the
[09:58.240 -> 10:02.880] prediction right he bet on Charles and yeah that that is the one episode that you should also check
[10:02.880 -> 10:08.520] out if you've got the time to now that it it's a bit retrospective, maybe you can have a look and compare what we think
[10:08.520 -> 10:11.760] were the one words for each of the team before the season began.
[10:11.760 -> 10:16.360] But Red Bull Kunal, the word for Red Bull was largely to do with the benchmark, the
[10:16.360 -> 10:19.800] expectation and to carry on the momentum that they built up.
[10:19.800 -> 10:25.520] But seriously, this unprecedented in a way, as I mentioned earlier on, they've dropped 44 points
[10:25.520 -> 10:31.040] to Ferrari and this just well could have been a Red Bull 13 for all we know. I had Perez just close
[10:31.040 -> 10:36.160] up to Carlos Sainz and the fuel pump, for all we know right now, it's apparently something to do
[10:36.160 -> 10:41.360] with the fuel pump, which is now known to be a standard part among all the teams. Can we expect
[10:41.360 -> 10:50.560] this to happen to everyone throughout the season? What's this whole kerfuffle going about? So first things first, you know, Max Verstappen could have actually
[10:50.560 -> 10:59.120] had pole position. He lost pole by a very, very narrow margin on the last corner of his Q3 lap.
[10:59.120 -> 11:05.960] He was actually almost ahead of Charles and he would have had a very very narrow margin pole
[11:05.960 -> 11:09.080] position of course this is only in retrospect this is after seeing
[11:09.080 -> 11:14.540] telemetry data so he could have started from pole, led the race, done his thing
[11:14.540 -> 11:18.600] that would have been and by leading the race of course he would have had cleaner
[11:18.600 -> 11:21.840] air and hence he wouldn't have had all those brake issues because he was saving
[11:21.840 -> 11:30.000] his brakes from lap three or thereabouts and again lots of technical reasons behind why brakes were overheating as well. I'm not going to get
[11:30.000 -> 11:34.880] into that. Like I said Mark is better to you know be the person who's going to read about this but
[11:34.880 -> 11:41.440] very crucially Somal, you know the only thing Red Bull could do was try during the pit stops which
[11:41.440 -> 11:45.280] they did do so and talking about fuel pumps it is a
[11:45.280 -> 11:48.960] standardized part but there are two things to sort of keep in mind out here
[11:48.960 -> 11:54.560] right first is you know just because I've given you a standard part doesn't
[11:54.560 -> 11:58.840] mean you use it the same way the other teams would do so so it's also about how
[11:58.840 -> 12:03.360] they've placed that standard part and if that was their placement is is a problem
[12:03.360 -> 12:05.360] within the entire casing
[12:05.360 -> 12:09.080] that they've got or the packaging as we call it right and then second is if it
[12:09.080 -> 12:15.080] is actually a fuel pump problem or a packaging problem can it be solved you
[12:15.080 -> 12:18.640] know in less than a week's time because we've got a back-to-back weekend you
[12:18.640 -> 12:23.960] know we're racing in Saudi Arabia in no time as well and the third thing of
[12:23.960 -> 12:25.600] course is going to be,
[12:25.600 -> 12:29.000] if it's a standard part used in a standard way,
[12:29.000 -> 12:31.920] then could it just be that it becomes a lottery
[12:31.920 -> 12:35.320] that any team or driver could hit it
[12:35.320 -> 12:37.320] maybe once or twice or multiple times
[12:37.320 -> 12:38.640] through the season at any point?
[12:38.640 -> 12:39.840] And could this be an issue?
[12:39.840 -> 12:42.880] Because that's also something that's been brewing
[12:42.880 -> 12:46.160] on the internet saying, is the AFI aware of this,
[12:46.160 -> 12:51.440] are the teams aware of this, seems like they are and are they trying to sort of find a common fix
[12:51.440 -> 12:56.160] to it right and then of course there is this other theory saying the fuel pumps were fine it was the
[12:56.160 -> 13:04.000] E10 fuel that actually caused a problem so we will know only in due course what the issue is but yeah
[13:04.000 -> 13:08.360] Red Bull was literally they've started on the worst footing that they could have
[13:08.360 -> 13:12.760] as, you know, drivers world champion team and got a lot of ground to make up.
[13:12.760 -> 13:18.320] But the good thing, Samuel, is at least they know they had a car to compete with Ferrari.
[13:18.320 -> 13:24.800] At least we did not see the two prancing horses prance away from the raging bulls.
[13:28.400 -> 13:33.120] At least we saw two teams fight at the front and that sort of gives us a bit of a pecking order I would say.
[13:35.200 -> 13:39.200] Yeah exactly but I think that makes it feel more frustrating knowing that you could have beaten
[13:39.200 -> 13:44.160] them but you end up with nothing. You kind of get the frustration in the Red Bull camp right now but
[13:44.160 -> 13:48.160] that's Red Bull. And speaking of Red Bull, speaking of all the battles they had with nothing, you know, you kind of get the frustration in the Red Bull camp right now but that's Red Bull and speaking of Red Bull, speaking of all the battles they have with Ferrari,
[13:48.160 -> 13:52.640] raceability Kunal, it's the biggest question we had in mind coming into this season about whether
[13:52.640 -> 13:58.720] these cars will be good and will we actually get to see some racing. One race in, I think it was
[13:58.720 -> 14:02.480] decent enough, I mean it's too little to maybe give a comprehensive opinion on whether these
[14:02.480 -> 14:05.120] cars are actually better because
[14:09.280 -> 14:13.280] of course a lot of the battles that we saw were very similar to what we saw in say Abu Dhabi 2014 where you have a move down the first corner cut back down the second you have a move around the
[14:13.280 -> 14:17.760] outside of the third so that's that's very similar very cliche in a way you could put it to Bahrain
[14:17.760 -> 14:23.760] but otherwise Kunal it's it seemed all right but what do you reckon are this are this new I mean
[14:23.760 -> 14:28.640] not are this is this new generation of Formula One car actually better?
[14:28.640 -> 14:29.800] I mean, many people had complaints
[14:29.800 -> 14:31.760] about how slow the cars look,
[14:31.760 -> 14:32.960] which wasn't a problem for me
[14:32.960 -> 14:34.480] because I watch a lot of Formula Two
[14:34.480 -> 14:35.520] and those cars look slow,
[14:35.520 -> 14:36.760] but they are so much fun in racing.
[14:36.760 -> 14:39.640] But what do you think about this whole thing?
[14:39.640 -> 14:41.400] So first things first, you know,
[14:41.400 -> 14:43.520] Bahrain is a circuit where we've seen
[14:43.520 -> 14:45.040] fair amount of overtaking in the past
[14:45.040 -> 14:48.600] So we actually saw the same amount of overtakes or thereabouts I would say
[14:48.600 -> 14:51.960] Yeah, and I'm not going by the total number of overtakes
[14:51.960 -> 14:53.920] I'm just saying in general it seemed like
[14:53.920 -> 14:59.920] Drivers who wanted to make an overtake could make an overtake with with a fair bit of ease. So that was that was good. So but
[15:02.000 -> 15:05.000] Did you did you check out who won the crypto.com overtake award though?
[15:05.000 -> 15:07.000] Do we do we not bother with that here?
[15:07.000 -> 15:12.000] No, we do not bother with that. I'm just happy we had a battle.
[15:12.000 -> 15:20.000] Yeah, we can let it slide. I'm just happy that we could have the Charles versus Max battle go on for a couple of laps.
[15:20.000 -> 15:25.080] They seemed like they could follow each other, they could out break each other, like I said.
[15:29.600 -> 15:31.560] The followability of the cars, if that's the word, if the cars could just follow each other,
[15:31.560 -> 15:34.000] it seemed more ease,
[15:34.000 -> 15:35.880] they seemed at more ease to do that.
[15:35.880 -> 15:38.960] The question, like I said, is the whole brake
[15:38.960 -> 15:41.460] and tire management that sort of goes on.
[15:42.440 -> 15:46.240] So was it also the abrasive know, the abrasive circuit surface of
[15:46.240 -> 15:51.480] the Sakhir International Circuit? I'm sure it was as well. So we will only see over the
[15:51.480 -> 15:57.440] next couple of weekends how it all sort of evolves some will write, but at the moment
[15:57.440 -> 16:03.720] it seemed like the car seemed far easier to sort of being wheel to wheel battle. No drivers
[16:03.720 -> 16:05.360] were complaining of, you know, it being tougher in any particular radio that I sort of being wheel-to-wheel battle no drivers were complaining of you know
[16:05.360 -> 16:11.640] it being tougher in any particular radio that I sort of heard. Yeah I think
[16:11.640 -> 16:14.840] just the judgment element has to come in because we saw Ocon making that
[16:14.840 -> 16:18.280] contact with Mick so that kind of you can excuse that in a way not that the
[16:18.280 -> 16:22.080] stewards did and we shall come to that in a second but that seemed good that we
[16:22.080 -> 16:27.080] could see some racing go on maybe something like Jetta will prove to be a better example because that's a tighter
[16:27.080 -> 16:31.560] circuit and we can get a better idea of how much following is possible but race
[16:31.560 -> 16:35.000] strategy Kunal, you and I had a chat before this episode began and we were
[16:35.000 -> 16:38.720] just really confused to see like what in the world just happened especially with
[16:38.720 -> 16:43.180] Mercedes who put on the hard compound on Lewis Hamilton and when he came out it
[16:43.180 -> 16:45.920] felt like IndyCar and I was watching the
[16:45.920 -> 16:50.320] race feeling live with around 100 odd people. Everyone over there went bonkers because A,
[16:50.320 -> 16:55.520] it's Hamilton struggling, of course, they love to cheer Hamilton doing bad, but the second part is,
[16:55.520 -> 16:59.360] it's just kind of unprecedented, right? We haven't quite seen this happen ever in Formula
[16:59.360 -> 17:03.120] One for a very, very long time because the blankets were so useful. Now they're taking
[17:03.120 -> 17:08.640] away, just adds another layer of struggle. So Mercedes kind of got it wrong but they still got
[17:08.640 -> 17:12.540] a podium so that's just bizarre considering how things played out. They
[17:12.540 -> 17:19.400] got a they got a podium purely because of the double retirement that you know
[17:19.400 -> 17:25.040] double retirement that Red Bull had right right? But talking about race strategy, it was
[17:25.040 -> 17:30.400] actually very easy to dissect the strategy, at least for me. For Red Bull, it
[17:30.400 -> 17:34.800] was finding a way across the Ferrari car. So it was just like, we will throw
[17:34.800 -> 17:38.320] whatever we can at the Ferraris to try and undercut them, because like I said,
[17:38.320 -> 17:42.680] the undercut was very, very powerful, right? Is that going to remain for the
[17:42.680 -> 17:46.080] season or not? One doesn't know, but the truth is that that to remain for the season or not one doesn't know
[17:46.080 -> 17:49.760] but the truth is that that was what you know Red Bull was trying to do and they
[17:49.760 -> 17:53.920] tried it you know several times sticking still to race strategy you know we had
[17:53.920 -> 17:57.800] Mika Hakkinen on the we are play broadcast so for all those in in the
[17:57.800 -> 18:01.280] Nordics and several other markets where we are play broadcast you all would have
[18:01.280 -> 18:05.260] seen Mika made this very very bold bold prediction before the race. He said,
[18:05.620 -> 18:09.000] I think we're going to see a three stopper. And I still remember David Coulthard,
[18:09.000 -> 18:13.620] who was with him said, wow, that's a very bold prediction. And guess what?
[18:13.620 -> 18:18.220] That's exactly what happened. We had a three stopping race, uh, you know,
[18:18.220 -> 18:23.420] with, uh, which just added to the excitement, I would say. And that gave,
[18:23.420 -> 18:25.840] uh, you know, Max at least two more attempts
[18:25.840 -> 18:29.960] to sort of try and make an overtake on Charles.
[18:29.960 -> 18:30.960] You could also see it this way,
[18:30.960 -> 18:32.800] that gave Max two more attempts
[18:32.800 -> 18:35.560] to be even more angry on the radio with his pit crew.
[18:35.560 -> 18:37.200] So that was actually,
[18:37.200 -> 18:42.200] I would say that was Max's or Red Bull's strategy.
[18:43.060 -> 18:46.160] The midfield strategy was fairly simple.
[18:46.360 -> 18:53.080] The midfield strategy was like, just overtake all you can, who you can, when you can.
[18:53.080 -> 19:01.400] Because there was just so many, you know, overtakes that happened in the midfield, especially the Alfa Romeos.
[19:01.400 -> 19:06.200] They were driving around the others like those are mobile chicanes, if I may call it that.
[19:06.200 -> 19:08.760] And Mercedes was just like, okay, we're slow.
[19:08.760 -> 19:11.200] Mercedes was almost a second slower lap
[19:11.200 -> 19:15.040] because by the time Pierre Gasly's Honda,
[19:15.040 -> 19:17.160] you know, had an issue and brought out the safety car,
[19:17.160 -> 19:18.960] say 12 laps before the end,
[19:18.960 -> 19:22.660] they were almost a minute down on the lead Ferrari,
[19:22.660 -> 19:26.000] which is 57 laps, 60 seconds down.
[19:26.000 -> 19:27.960] It's more than a second a lap slower.
[19:27.960 -> 19:31.920] And we saw their issues with the hard tire, you know, with the warmup and
[19:31.920 -> 19:33.400] Hamilton's outlap and the like.
[19:33.400 -> 19:39.640] So Mercedes were just very blessed to sort of get a podium on a weekend when they were
[19:39.640 -> 19:42.760] by far the third fastest car, Sommel.
[19:42.800 -> 19:47.800] And my mind actually goes back to 2017, 2018, since that's what we started
[19:47.800 -> 19:52.640] talking about, because at that time we had Ferrari versus Mercedes up at the
[19:52.640 -> 19:56.360] front. We had Red Bull in a league of their own, faster than the other midfield
[19:56.360 -> 19:57.600] teams and then everybody else.
[19:58.080 -> 20:03.120] And it's just that, you know, Red Bull and Mercedes have sort of swapped places.
[20:03.120 -> 20:05.000] So it's Ferrari and Red Bull at the front.
[20:05.000 -> 20:08.200] And then Mercedes doing what Red Bull did at that time, which is fill up,
[20:08.640 -> 20:13.280] you know, slots five and six and pick up the pieces if somebody else up ahead falters.
[20:14.080 -> 20:14.800] Yeah, you're right.
[20:14.800 -> 20:18.280] And from last year, McLaren have just directly swapped with Haas.
[20:18.640 -> 20:20.240] Alpina, where they are.
[20:20.240 -> 20:24.200] Aston Martin have maybe done a Williams,
[20:24.600 -> 20:27.160] but Williams have kind of swapped around
[20:27.160 -> 20:31.840] with some other team. It's funny right it's it's very simple how things are
[20:31.840 -> 20:35.600] eventually going about but I think what's evident is that we thought that
[20:35.600 -> 20:38.840] this would be closer of course whenever a new regulation comes in there's always
[20:38.840 -> 20:42.440] a bit of a gap in terms of how you interpret it some concepts will go right
[20:42.440 -> 20:50.000] some concepts will go wrong we saw that in 2014 as well where we saw clear distinct groups emerge eventually. So then they will bunch up maybe if not
[20:50.000 -> 20:54.320] at the end of this year, it'll take some time but we will see them get very very close towards the
[20:54.320 -> 20:58.320] very end like we did see with this past generation of cars. But interesting how Ray's strategy
[20:58.320 -> 21:04.080] eventually pulled out and yeah crazy how just taking away the tyre blankets changed so much
[21:04.080 -> 21:05.440] and how everything
[21:05.440 -> 21:08.140] just kind of became so interesting with strategy.
[21:08.140 -> 21:11.840] But another thing to talk about Kunal is race control.
[21:11.840 -> 21:12.840] Were they fairer?
[21:12.840 -> 21:13.840] Were they better?
[21:13.840 -> 21:17.320] We don't quite know how it worked out for the whole VAR system, but at least from what
[21:17.320 -> 21:22.680] we could see, the track limits enforcation, if that's a thing, was a bit better.
[21:22.680 -> 21:25.880] We saw it to be a little more consistent all the way through where they had said
[21:25.880 -> 21:27.960] that you need to have at least one tire on the white line
[21:27.960 -> 21:28.800] and that that was good.
[21:28.800 -> 21:30.440] Ocon's penalty was fair.
[21:30.440 -> 21:31.680] Good start I'd say.
[21:31.680 -> 21:33.800] And plus changing any to all cars
[21:33.800 -> 21:35.600] in terms of lap cars also helps out.
[21:36.680 -> 21:39.280] You know Samuel, despite talking so much Formula 1
[21:39.280 -> 21:41.520] with you all the time, I actually have a question
[21:41.520 -> 21:43.680] and I don't know the answer to this.
[21:43.680 -> 21:50.400] I thought tire blankets were banned from 2024. The original plan was to ban them from
[21:50.400 -> 21:56.080] 21, then that became 22 and that was pushed forward to 24. So I'm not entirely
[21:56.080 -> 22:00.320] sure what the issue was. I was on Google as well trying to see what was what,
[22:00.320 -> 22:05.680] couldn't get much but either way, the hard compound had a warm-up
[22:05.680 -> 22:10.480] challenge it was clearly the the it was clearly a compound that was you know
[22:10.480 -> 22:16.040] struggling to get into the working temperature right but moving on to two
[22:16.040 -> 22:20.200] other things we had the Alfa Romeo's they had a they had a fantastic great
[22:20.200 -> 22:27.480] Guan Yu Joe you know he points on debut. Yuki Sonoda, another meme doing
[22:27.480 -> 22:33.080] the rounds that Honda's last manual on how to use the Honda engines was in
[22:33.080 -> 22:38.360] Japanese and which is why Yuki was the only driver who sort of was a Honda
[22:38.360 -> 22:44.480] powered car that could, you know, finish the race in the points. I would say I
[22:44.480 -> 22:46.300] would pick two real stars
[22:46.300 -> 22:51.620] from the midfield that has to be Valtteri Bottas for what he did and then
[22:51.620 -> 22:57.920] of course for you know Kevin McNewson as well and Bottas even more so keeping a
[22:57.920 -> 23:08.160] couple of things in mind first is he had lack of testing that Alfa Romeo had so many testing issues right that that he
[23:08.160 -> 23:14.400] actually he actually turned around and said that the reason why he had a bad
[23:14.400 -> 23:19.080] start is because they did not get enough time to practice as many starts because
[23:19.080 -> 23:23.240] of restricted testing that he had and then Kevin
[23:23.240 -> 23:31.180] McNicholson you know his crazy Formula One love affair is only getting crazier you know he's he's he
[23:31.180 -> 23:38.420] was another fantastic you know driver to watch this weekend. Yeah exactly and I
[23:38.420 -> 23:43.620] loved I loved how Gunter Steiner was happy and he was swearing when he was
[23:43.620 -> 23:48.720] still happy so it's fun to see that but yeah Valtteri Bortas very interesting and I just wonder what
[23:48.720 -> 23:52.900] could happen if their starts are better too because that Alfa Romeo looks like a
[23:52.900 -> 23:55.960] fast car when it finishes right so that's also going to be interesting to
[23:55.960 -> 23:59.980] see but good for Joe Guan Yu and Fernando Alonso in the points again but I was
[23:59.980 -> 24:03.080] very impressed with Esteban Oco and Kunal because even with that penalty
[24:03.080 -> 24:08.000] ending up finishing where he was was interesting because he was way faster than Fernando
[24:08.000 -> 24:14.680] he got the points good day. Yeah and you know four teams scored double points
[24:14.680 -> 24:20.360] Alpine being one of them so El Plan was definitely working as well Swamil and I
[24:20.360 -> 24:29.000] would say even race control was working fairly well we saw some some pretty quick decisions, prompt decisions, clear decisions being made.
[24:29.240 -> 24:35.680] You can argue that they were not tested as much as, you know, Michael Massey was tested last season.
[24:35.680 -> 24:39.360] But I think it's a good start overall for race control as well.
[24:40.400 -> 24:44.640] Yeah, exactly. But Kunal, before we go, moment of the race, what do you reckon it was for you?
[24:45.000 -> 24:54.000] Yeah exactly but Kunal before we go, moment of the race, what do you reckon it was for you? The moment of the race for me was Netflix filming Kevin Magnussen all the way from Thursday of the Grand Prix weekend.
[24:54.000 -> 24:59.000] I think what a perfect time to actually film a comeback such as Kevin's.
[24:59.000 -> 25:09.760] You know he had retired from Formula 1 and you guys know the drill but the fact is Netflix has it recorded so it's just about making sure that they edit it correctly
[25:09.760 -> 25:13.460] don't add too much drama because anyway the real-life story in itself is so
[25:13.460 -> 25:19.320] fantastic but yeah the clearly Ferrari one two was the highlight of the weekend
[25:19.320 -> 25:24.320] I would say just the manner in which they got it and you can hear my daughter
[25:24.320 -> 25:26.080] she's also excited she's gonna come
[25:26.080 -> 25:31.840] here any minute because she's wearing a red Ferrari t-shirt but yeah the fact is they had an
[25:31.840 -> 25:38.160] answer to everything that Max and Red Bull threw at them through the entire weekend's sommel.
[25:40.000 -> 25:48.160] Yeah exactly what a fun way that we saw this weekend end out and for me the moment has to be that wheel-to-wheel battle between Leclerc and Verstappen.
[25:48.160 -> 25:51.920] If only it could have gone on for longer, but I'm asking for a bit too much, right?
[25:51.920 -> 25:54.240] Next weekend is going to be a lot of fun and jitter.
[25:54.240 -> 25:57.120] Make sure you join us right here on the Inside Line F1 Podcast
[25:57.120 -> 25:59.840] and pitch the podium for our race weekend coverage,
[25:59.840 -> 26:01.920] which starts off on Thursday or Friday.
[26:01.920 -> 26:03.600] We'll see when we record that preview episode,
[26:03.600 -> 26:06.760] but we've also got the qualifying episode now and the race review
[26:06.760 -> 26:07.640] there as well.
[26:07.640 -> 26:09.240] So thank you so much for watching.
[26:09.240 -> 26:10.880] Thank you so much for listening.
[26:10.880 -> 26:11.960] See you next week, folks.
[26:11.960 -> 26:14.160] Have a good weekend, and enjoy your journey
[26:14.160 -> 26:15.360] on the Ferrari high train.
[26:15.360 -> 26:16.720] Bye-bye.
[26:16.720 -> None] Bye-bye. you