Records & Trophies broken - 2023 Hungarian GP Review

Max Verstappen is breaking Formula 1 records with Red Bull Racing.

Lando Norris is breaking Formula 1 trophies for Max Verstappen!

We're hosting live race screenings for Formula 1 fans in Mumbai for the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix.

Where: Malad and Dadar SOCIAL

When: 30th July, 5.30 pm onward (IST)

Soumil Arora, Kunal Shah, Sundaram Ramaswami and Siddharth Shah will host a pre/post race interaction & F1 quiz for all attendees.

In this episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast, Soumil Arora and Kunal Shah review the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix where admittedly, the Saturday was definitely more exciting than the Sunday. 

Max Verstappen running away at the start, Oscar Piastri jumping into P2, Lewis Hamilton's pole position, Zhou Guanyu being overzealous on the brakes and more.

Tune in!

(Season 2023, Episode 37)

Follow our host on Twitter: Soumil Arora and Kunal Shah

Image courtesy: Red Bull Content Pool

**Inside Line F1 Podcast: Episode 37 - Hungarian Grand Prix Review**

**Hosts:**
* Soumil Arora
* Kunal Shah

**Key Points:**

* Max Verstappen's dominance continues with his 12th consecutive Formula One race win and 44th overall victory.
* Sergio Perez had a strong recovery drive after qualifying in P9, showcasing his entertaining driving style.
* Lewis Hamilton secured pole position by a mere 0.03 seconds, highlighting the incredibly close competition at the front of the grid.
* Lando Norris is breaking trophies, literally, with his podium celebrations.
* McLaren has made significant strides in recent races, moving up the midfield and challenging for podium finishes.
* Alpine, on the other hand, has struggled since the Spanish GP, despite adding new members to their board.
* Zhou Guanyu's overzealous braking at the start caused a chain reaction, affecting several drivers, including Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.
* Ferrari's pit stop issues continue, with another slow stop costing Charles Leclerc valuable time.
* The cost cap era has not prevented teams like McLaren and Aston Martin from making significant improvements to their cars.
* Verstappen's points tally at the halfway mark of the season is comparable to Sebastian Vettel's entire title-winning season in 2012.
* The Belgian GP at Spa is the next race on the calendar, where Verstappen won from P14 last year.

**Quotes:**

* "Max Verstappen and Red Bull are breaking all the records." - Soumil Arora
* "Checo Perez is where the entertainment lies, if you really want entertainment." - Kunal Shah
* "McLaren is the team making the strides. They are the ones exciting us." - Soumil Arora
* "Alpine has added two new members to the board again. That's the difference." - Kunal Shah
* "Zhou Guanyu went into Daniel, who went into Esteban, who went into Gasly." - Soumil Arora
* "Ferrari finds a new way to just trip over themselves time and time again." - Soumil Arora
* "Verstappen has as many points at the halfway mark this year as Sebastian Vettel had in his entire title-winning 2012 season." - Kunal Shah

**Overall Message:**

The Hungarian Grand Prix provided more excitement in qualifying than in the race itself, with Max Verstappen dominating from start to finish. McLaren continues to impress with their upgrades, while Alpine struggles to find consistency. Ferrari's pit stop issues persist, and Lando Norris continues to break trophies in his unique style. The Formula One community eagerly anticipates the upcoming Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, where Verstappen will aim to extend his winning streak.

[00:00.000 -> 00:22.000] Guys and girls, it's broken.
[00:22.000 -> 00:25.360] No, I'm not just talking about Max Verstappen's trophy.
[00:25.360 -> 00:30.040] I'm also talking about the hearts of every single Lewis Hamilton fanboy and fangirl,
[00:30.040 -> 00:31.480] partially including myself.
[00:31.480 -> 00:35.600] I'm also talking about Max Verstappen breaking records this weekend.
[00:35.600 -> 00:39.640] And I'm also talking about the Inside Line F1 podcast breaking a little bit of a timeline
[00:39.640 -> 00:43.080] routine because this episode is coming out on a Tuesday.
[00:43.080 -> 00:45.040] But that's for good reason because every single
[00:45.040 -> 00:50.160] member of the InsideLine F1 podcast is now in Indian Standard Time, which is beautiful,
[00:50.160 -> 00:55.040] which means we're also going to do lots of more fun events with all four of us on ground in Mumbai
[00:55.040 -> 00:59.280] this Sunday. So by the way, folks, if you were a part of our event at Versova Social last week for
[00:59.280 -> 01:11.400] the Hungarian GP, join us this Sunday as well at Dadar and Versova Social. So that's going to be a lot of fun. But this folks is the Inside Line F1 podcast. We're one of the top 1.5 most
[01:11.400 -> 01:15.960] heard podcasts in the world. And my name is Somal Arora. I'm the host of the Indian Racing
[01:15.960 -> 01:21.600] League on Star Sports. Joining me as always, a Formula One expert in Norway, also an FIA
[01:21.600 -> 01:28.640] accredited F1 journalist, Kunal Shah. And finally, Kunal, we are an hour away from each other, which is incredible, not three
[01:28.640 -> 01:30.920] and a half hours in terms of time zones.
[01:30.920 -> 01:36.280] But what's even more incredible is the fact that the focus of our race review is actually
[01:36.280 -> 01:38.520] not going to be the race.
[01:38.520 -> 01:39.600] It's not going to be the race.
[01:39.600 -> 01:41.440] That's another broken thing, right?
[01:41.440 -> 01:46.060] We are calling this the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix race
[01:46.060 -> 01:53.380] review but Sommel nobody will debate it with us. They're actually qualifying was
[01:53.380 -> 01:59.900] more interesting in Hungary around the Hungaroring than the race itself. So it's
[01:59.900 -> 02:09.920] epic in in every way how we... I actually look forward to the Saturday more than the Sunday, pretty much every race weekend.
[02:11.840 -> 02:14.880] Well, Las Vegas is going to certainly help you out with that regard as well.
[02:15.040 -> 02:19.760] But I find it to be amazing Kunal that the gaps were so ridiculous.
[02:19.760 -> 02:21.520] Now, I'll put it into context, right?
[02:21.600 -> 02:29.040] We all saw Lewis Hamilton pip Max Verstappen for pole position by 0.03 seconds, that's three thousandths.
[02:29.040 -> 02:31.480] You know what that translates into into a length term?
[02:31.480 -> 02:37.960] Over a four and a half kilometer circuit, Hamilton was just 17 centimeters ahead of
[02:37.960 -> 02:38.960] Max Verstappen.
[02:38.960 -> 02:45.200] For context, a size 2.5 kid's shoe in the UK size chart is 21 centimeters.
[02:47.200 -> 02:47.640] Imagine that being the gap.
[02:48.440 -> 02:52.560] It blows my mind. And by the way, that was also one of the larger gaps because Carlos Sainz got beaten
[02:53.120 -> 02:57.360] to Q3 by Fernando Alonso by one thousandth of a second, which is even smaller.
[02:57.400 -> 02:59.720] And all of Q1 was...
[03:00.560 -> 03:03.600] I can't even remember the numbers because they are so close.
[03:03.640 -> 03:05.360] Wasn't it just about a second?
[03:05.360 -> 03:07.360] It wasn't the shortest gap ever,
[03:07.360 -> 03:09.220] but it was just about a second.
[03:09.220 -> 03:12.440] I mean, hats off to even drivers like Logan Sargent
[03:12.440 -> 03:14.860] who are still about finding their feet
[03:14.860 -> 03:17.400] for being that close or that away from wherever.
[03:17.400 -> 03:22.200] But Daniel Ricciardo, I think it was 13 hundredths
[03:22.200 -> 03:28.000] of a second that he was ahead of Yuki Sonoda and he went into Q2.
[03:28.000 -> 03:30.000] What a lovely story that was.
[03:30.000 -> 03:33.000] In all, I mean, yes, you started with Broken.
[03:33.000 -> 03:39.000] You know, we literally on a Tuesday are releasing what we call a qualifying review episode,
[03:39.000 -> 03:41.000] even though we wanted to do this on the Saturday.
[03:41.000 -> 03:44.000] But we frankly, we wanted to wait to see how the race goes.
[03:44.000 -> 03:45.760] But my goodness, Somil,
[03:45.760 -> 03:53.520] what is with the racing? I mean, we actually saw decent racing. Okay. I would say it wasn't like
[03:53.520 -> 03:57.680] a bore fest. It wasn't that, you know, drivers started in the positions, they finished it. It
[03:57.680 -> 04:03.920] definitely wasn't. In fact, just before the race, we had Mario Isola on wire play. And Mario said,
[04:03.920 -> 04:07.080] it's going to be a very strategically interesting race.
[04:07.080 -> 04:08.800] And we quizzed him, why?
[04:08.800 -> 04:11.800] And he said, every driver had two sets of hard,
[04:11.800 -> 04:14.760] two sets of mediums and two sets of softs available.
[04:14.760 -> 04:16.800] And Lando Norris was the only one
[04:16.800 -> 04:19.320] on the news medium at the start.
[04:19.320 -> 04:20.700] And we said, oh my goodness,
[04:20.700 -> 04:22.360] imagine all the strategy options.
[04:22.360 -> 04:24.440] And this is where I realized I'm still bad at math
[04:24.440 -> 04:31.120] because 20 drivers into three permutations and combinations, and I said, okay, let me see if I'm
[04:31.120 -> 04:39.440] still good at it. I wasn't. Okay. But it was still bad. And Yuki Tsunoda remains the only driver to
[04:39.440 -> 04:43.840] have used every single compound in the race, but still not scored a point.
[04:43.920 -> 04:45.920] every single compound in the race, but still not scored a point.
[04:50.520 -> 04:50.840] Yeah, it was a shame how that played out for him, but even worse for his teammate, Daniel Ricardo, because
[04:55.200 -> 04:55.480] after a point, once Max Verstappen went past, and by the way, this was my prediction for the weekend,
[05:01.440 -> 05:01.720] when Hamilton took pole position, I really thought that why should I spend whatever I'm going to spend to watch Oppenheimer,
[05:03.520 -> 05:03.840] if I really just want to see a blast.
[05:10.080 -> 05:14.000] I thought it would happen at turn one,, Verstappen and Hamilton racing together, it always, always works out terribly. But no, I ended up watching Oppenheimer, which is ridiculously good by the way,
[05:14.000 -> 05:19.200] if you're looking for movie reviews in a Formula One podcast, go watch it now. But Dutch would,
[05:19.200 -> 05:23.760] or rather unfortunately for us, Verstappen was also able to take the lead and run away past. So
[05:23.760 -> 05:29.000] that was a moment that I was waiting for that went away rather flatly, which is partially
[05:29.000 -> 05:32.080] good because I think it's the first time in history that Verstappen and Hamilton have
[05:32.080 -> 05:34.000] been able to race without touching each other.
[05:34.000 -> 05:38.320] But to the point, when I looked at the entire weekend, I thought, okay, Verstappen-Hamilton,
[05:38.320 -> 05:39.320] let's watch out for that.
[05:39.320 -> 05:42.560] Let's also watch out for how Danny Rick, I said, how Danny Rick?
[05:42.560 -> 05:43.560] Wow.
[05:43.560 -> 05:48.080] I tend to lose my articulation when it comes to Ricardo because his smile is so positive.
[05:48.080 -> 05:53.760] But I thought Kunal that he would be having somewhat of a meh weekend on the whole.
[05:53.760 -> 05:56.440] I think it's still rated as a 7 on 10, no?
[05:56.440 -> 06:01.640] Because he out qualified Yuki Tsunoda regardless of how tiny the margins were.
[06:01.640 -> 06:05.920] Eventually his race was also okay had it not been for a French, rather
[06:05.920 -> 06:10.160] a French dissolution that happened in front of him. Both Alpines had a superhero landing
[06:10.160 -> 06:19.840] and one cracked its seat. You're back with your ratings aren't you? 7 on 10 for Daniel Ricardo.
[06:19.840 -> 06:27.200] I don't know what I would rate him as but yeah yeah, he was ahead of Yuki. Importantly, if you dig through all the post-race data,
[06:27.200 -> 06:30.520] I think Ricardo did 40 laps on that medium tire,
[06:30.520 -> 06:31.880] and he was super consistent.
[06:31.880 -> 06:34.160] He finished ahead of Yuki Sonoda in the race,
[06:34.160 -> 06:38.000] despite having the first lap incident where he was literally
[06:38.000 -> 06:41.360] down to the bottom most part of the race standings
[06:41.360 -> 06:42.520] that you can be.
[06:42.520 -> 06:46.840] But all in all, it's a very energized start
[06:46.840 -> 06:49.120] for Daniel Ricciardo, just the kind of positivity,
[06:49.120 -> 06:53.360] the momentum he would like when he's come back to Formula
[06:53.360 -> 06:55.480] One in the worst possible car, et cetera.
[06:55.480 -> 06:58.760] Let's see how he goes in Spa.
[06:58.760 -> 07:01.520] Because it's one thing to have a great start.
[07:01.520 -> 07:04.360] It's another thing to actually capitalize and use
[07:04.360 -> 07:06.600] that momentum to go forward.
[07:06.600 -> 07:10.880] But are we genuinely not gonna speak of the record?
[07:10.880 -> 07:12.080] I know this is something like,
[07:12.080 -> 07:14.640] you know, Max had all the airtime.
[07:14.640 -> 07:16.640] He did all he had to.
[07:16.640 -> 07:18.920] We had the podium yet again.
[07:18.920 -> 07:20.600] We shouldn't speak about Max Verstappen.
[07:20.600 -> 07:24.160] The truth is great drive, great start.
[07:24.160 -> 07:25.880] He said, you know what I
[07:25.880 -> 07:31.240] am gonna break the latest or last possible into turn one and I'll see what
[07:31.240 -> 07:36.640] happens with Lewis and sometimes I get this feeling you know Max knew that he
[07:36.640 -> 07:40.960] was gonna beat Lewis that race he was just wondering can I humiliate him a
[07:40.960 -> 07:44.960] little bit while I beat him because of the whole legacy clash of generations
[07:44.960 -> 07:45.120] you know whatever but they kept it clean like you said and he he just ran away humiliate him a little bit while I beat him because of the whole legacy clash of generations,
[07:45.120 -> 07:51.200] you know, whatever, but they kept it clean, like you said, and he just ran away and Max scored his
[07:51.200 -> 07:58.240] 44th win in Formula 1, that's, you know, driver 44, car 44, by finishing 33 seconds ahead. So,
[07:58.880 -> 08:04.640] you know, whatever you do, their fate seems linked together if you ask a numerology expert.
[08:07.480 -> 08:11.000] do their fate seems linked together if you ask a numerology expert. 33 being Max's old race car number which I'm sure you guys remember.
[08:11.000 -> 08:17.440] Exactly, but that start was so much fun because you saw Max Verstappen just taking control
[08:17.440 -> 08:21.480] of the situation and then running away with it which is what a champion would do. That's
[08:21.480 -> 08:26.160] my Max talk for today over and done with. I know it's good to make
[08:26.160 -> 08:30.240] friends with Red Bull. They keep on giving us more guests. We had David Kulthar on the podcast
[08:30.240 -> 08:34.480] earlier this year. We have had Helmut Marko on the show, which by the way, folks, if you haven't
[08:34.480 -> 08:40.400] quite heard, was an incredible episode. No bias, because he gave us so much insight into how he
[08:40.400 -> 08:45.280] judges and scouts drivers and also who he is as a person as well. But I know it's good to
[08:45.280 -> 08:49.840] make friends at Red Bull but I don't know. Let's, what do we talk about in that case right? They're
[08:49.840 -> 08:55.120] just only going to get even better because the upgrade that they have will eventually, Red Bull
[08:55.120 -> 08:59.040] will get more data on it, they'll start to refine a little bit more and then instead of dominating
[08:59.040 -> 09:05.200] by 33.33 seconds, they will dominate by 45 and the world will be the same, I suppose. But we also
[09:05.200 -> 09:11.120] have to talk a little bit about the other driver in Red Bull Kunal because the podium seemed like
[09:11.120 -> 09:16.400] on the cards at one point, it vanished a little bit. But what was most surprising to me was the
[09:16.400 -> 09:20.800] fact that when Sergio Perez qualified in P9 in qualifying, he said that he was satisfied.
[09:20.800 -> 09:29.180] And why wouldn't he be? He's finally made it into Q3. And that too in one qualifying attempt you know the last time he actually got there in the top 10
[09:29.180 -> 09:32.160] was actually the sprint qualifying and then we know how that whole thing turned
[09:32.160 -> 09:38.300] out. I think Chekhov had a brilliant race recovery he was super quick he made all
[09:38.300 -> 09:43.200] the moves on track he was entertaining I mean in the whole Red Bull Verstappen
[09:43.200 -> 09:52.000] dominant era nobody can deny that if you're bored of Max Verstappen winning everything, topping every session,
[09:52.000 -> 09:56.000] Checo Perez is where the entertainment lies, if you really want entertainment.
[09:56.000 -> 09:59.000] But that actually reminds me, we just spoke of qualifying, right?
[09:59.000 -> 10:05.800] You know the Red Bull era of domination, what is it? Verstappen will top FP1, FP2, FP3, Q1, Q2, Q3,
[10:05.800 -> 10:07.480] win the race, take the fastest lap,
[10:07.480 -> 10:10.740] and score the fastest pit stop of the race.
[10:10.740 -> 10:14.720] What is Mercedes' era of domination now?
[10:14.720 -> 10:17.360] We will take pole position without being fastest
[10:17.360 -> 10:20.000] in any sector on the quali.
[10:20.000 -> 10:20.960] I think that was incredible.
[10:20.960 -> 10:23.120] And they did it two years in a row in Hungary.
[10:23.120 -> 10:26.200] So there is something about Hungary, which Mercedes likes,
[10:26.200 -> 10:28.000] where they're like, we are not going to top all the sectors,
[10:28.000 -> 10:31.200] but we'll top the qualifying standings, right?
[10:31.200 -> 10:34.520] And, but I think enough with the top stuff.
[10:34.520 -> 10:36.600] Let's just get down to a banter,
[10:36.600 -> 10:39.880] because on one hand, like you started off the show,
[10:39.880 -> 10:42.920] Max Verstappen and Red Bull are breaking all the records.
[10:42.920 -> 10:49.360] 12th consecutive Formula One race win, and they won everything since everybody can remember or forget. I
[10:49.360 -> 10:54.920] almost forget since when have they been winning. But the interesting thing is, Lando
[10:54.920 -> 10:59.480] Norris, he is the second quickest driver in the second quickest team at the
[10:59.480 -> 11:03.160] moment. At the start of the season it was Aston Martin delivering all the
[11:03.160 -> 11:06.080] excitement because like hey everybody else has fallen asleep.
[11:06.080 -> 11:07.640] Ferrari and Mercedes are nowhere.
[11:07.640 -> 11:10.000] Middle of the season, and we've literally now
[11:10.000 -> 11:11.720] crossed the midway point of the season.
[11:11.720 -> 11:14.000] I mean, God goodness, we still have half of the season
[11:14.000 -> 11:15.840] to talk about later on.
[11:15.840 -> 11:20.320] Yes, 52% of the season is now over, which means 48% remains.
[11:20.320 -> 11:22.080] That math is easy for me, right?
[11:22.080 -> 11:25.400] But, but now we have McLaren.
[11:25.400 -> 11:27.000] They are the ones making the strides.
[11:27.000 -> 11:29.400] They are the ones like going to excite us saying,
[11:29.400 -> 11:31.000] Oh my God, you know, are they good in Austria?
[11:31.000 -> 11:32.200] Are they good in Silverstone?
[11:32.200 -> 11:32.600] Yeah.
[11:32.600 -> 11:34.600] Oh my God, can they actually be good in Hungary?
[11:34.600 -> 11:35.400] And they were.
[11:35.400 -> 11:36.200] Can you?
[11:36.200 -> 11:40.200] And they didn't even bring their third upgrade here, Samuel.
[11:40.200 -> 11:47.160] And the best thing, Landon Norris is on a is on a is on a trophy breaking streak. He did it in Silverstone
[11:47.880 -> 11:54.400] The trophy fell off the podium. Okay. Oh, yeah, and he actually said, you know what? I'll give it a second attempt
[11:54.400 -> 11:56.400] Why don't I just do it? Boom it broke
[11:57.320 -> 12:05.120] And I love Landon Norris for suggesting an ancient Japanese technique of fixing pottery and he suggested that to Max Verstappen on his story
[12:05.120 -> 12:09.840] as well. Love the banter 100 percent. But no, you're so right about this because the air of
[12:09.840 -> 12:16.880] volatility is amazing. You know what Kunal, since the Spanish GP, Alpine have scored seven points.
[12:16.880 -> 12:24.960] Do you know how many points have McLaren scored in the meanwhile? 70. Literally 10 times of that.
[12:24.960 -> 12:29.640] And again, they've uplifted themselves from that lower midfield fight straight up to the top.
[12:29.640 -> 12:37.080] And Aston Martin, just one driver are struggling and gasping for air. I know it's the tires and the composition and the way they've changed that's making a difference.
[12:37.080 -> 12:40.680] But 70 points for McLaren and 7 only for Alpine in the last five races.
[12:40.680 -> 12:45.760] But Somil, this is where Alpine takes the cake. Since Spain, they've added two new
[12:45.760 -> 12:53.640] members to the board again. Okay. Exactly. That's the difference. You keep
[12:53.640 -> 12:57.520] adding the points, we'll keep adding board members. I don't even think all of
[12:57.520 -> 13:00.840] them speak French. I know definitely Otmar doesn't speak French. But either
[13:00.840 -> 13:09.420] way, Laurel Rossi, you know this is why Otmar kept saying all along, we don't take more pressure from Lauro Rossi's comments, you know, I was
[13:09.420 -> 13:14.520] like wow, if my boss made a public statement, I would not go ahead and tell
[13:14.520 -> 13:18.160] the public that we don't take more pressure. He probably knew Lauro Rossi
[13:18.160 -> 13:21.940] was going and he was gonna report to another Alpine head, so Alpine has added
[13:21.940 -> 13:26.960] two more heads to this, Bruno Marin and I guess the new CEO, I forget their names.
[13:26.960 -> 13:28.040] I don't need, there's so many of them.
[13:28.040 -> 13:31.480] It doesn't even matter. It doesn't even matter. Honestly, at this stage,
[13:31.480 -> 13:32.280] it doesn't matter.
[13:32.280 -> 13:35.680] It could be 15 different CEOs and they could be reporting to every single one of
[13:35.680 -> 13:39.520] them. Then they have the ex Suzuki MotoGP boss as a part of their team.
[13:40.200 -> 13:43.000] And he also has, correct. Yeah. Davide Briviu.
[13:43.200 -> 13:45.820] I don't know what he's handling. I don't know what Otmar is handling.
[13:45.820 -> 13:48.960] I don't know what Loro Ross.
[13:48.960 -> 13:50.120] It's a French team.
[13:50.120 -> 13:51.160] It's a French team.
[13:51.160 -> 13:52.960] I know, unfortunately, the French
[13:52.960 -> 13:55.800] are facing lots of internal chaos in the country.
[13:55.800 -> 13:57.000] That's a temporary thing.
[13:57.000 -> 14:01.000] But French teams have always faced chaos in their existence.
[14:01.000 -> 14:06.200] I can't remember a well-operated French Formula Racing teams, yes? Formula
[14:06.200 -> 14:11.920] One teams, no. Ligier in the past was okay for a little bit. Prost was absolutely horrible.
[14:11.920 -> 14:16.080] Renault has always been plagued by issues. The two years that Renault probably won, they
[14:16.080 -> 14:21.000] just probably weren't a French team. And they returned back to action in 2008. And then
[14:21.000 -> 14:26.320] things just started to spiral out of control. Do you ever remember a French team working?
[14:26.320 -> 14:28.480] And now Kunal, I know they've gotten more American investment.
[14:28.480 -> 14:33.720] I know a couple of actors, including the actor that played the role of Deadpool, Ryan Reynolds,
[14:33.720 -> 14:35.120] has invested in the team.
[14:35.120 -> 14:39.600] But the only thing that's happened since then, only thing remarkable is that Esteban Ocon's
[14:39.600 -> 14:41.960] seat crashed because Joe Guanyu hit him.
[14:41.960 -> 14:42.960] That's all.
[14:42.960 -> 14:49.360] Joe Guanyu, we have to talk about his start. It was very strange. He said it's never happened to him again. Of
[14:49.360 -> 14:52.560] course he's never started from P5 again. So we don't know if it was actually the
[14:52.560 -> 14:57.200] engine or him getting having the nerves. But he made the start and poor chap he
[14:57.200 -> 15:01.880] saw all the cars drive by and he got so eager on the brakes. He thought the
[15:01.880 -> 15:05.000] later I brake the more, the lesser cars will overtake me. Usually it's like the later I brake, the lesser cars will overtake me.
[15:05.000 -> 15:07.500] Usually he's like, the later I brake, the more cars I will overtake.
[15:07.500 -> 15:09.900] In his case, it was probably the reverse.
[15:09.900 -> 15:10.700] And then guess what?
[15:10.700 -> 15:15.000] He went into Daniel, who went into Esteban, who went into Gasly, and it had to be the two
[15:15.500 -> 15:22.000] Alpines that sort of paid the price of, you know, Joe's or Zila's approach, whatever.
[15:22.000 -> 15:22.300] Right.
[15:22.300 -> 15:27.480] But in the end, Al Alpha Romeo, great in qualifying.
[15:27.760 -> 15:29.520] We have no clue where they came up from.
[15:29.520 -> 15:32.100] Okay, and I don't think everybody is down to tires.
[15:32.100 -> 15:35.720] We need to tell, we need to sort of applaud the team
[15:35.720 -> 15:39.880] when they actually come up with upgrades that are working.
[15:39.880 -> 15:44.120] But Somil, the one team whose upgrades
[15:44.120 -> 15:45.760] have been of most interest.
[15:45.760 -> 15:50.320] You know, and we spoke about this, I just said it a few minutes ago.
[15:50.320 -> 15:55.640] Andrew Shovlin made a statement, pre going to Hungary, that in this cost cap era, there
[15:55.640 -> 15:58.280] is only so much you can do to improve your pace.
[15:58.280 -> 16:02.280] That's what he said of Mercedes and why it was so difficult to catch Red Bull.
[16:02.280 -> 16:08.240] But the truth is McLaren, look at their in-season jump. Aston Martin, look at their jump between seasons.
[16:08.240 -> 16:16.440] They're not saying cost cap is working against us. I mean, McLaren at the moment are definitely P2, unless you think it's Carlos Sainz who's P2.
[16:16.440 -> 16:27.400] I am in denial. I'm not that bad in denial, to be very honest. But if you're asking generally who's P2, it's always gonna be Carlos Sainz or Mark Webber
[16:27.400 -> 16:32.320] Something like that. Old reference, let it slide past. But the point being you're so right
[16:32.360 -> 16:37.160] It's and I remember Kunal, we had Craig Scarborough on the podcast in March
[16:37.280 -> 16:44.600] And he very clearly stated that he was disappointed with the approach that McLaren has gone through and he said that it might recover
[16:45.040 -> 16:49.280] disappointed with the approach that McLaren has gone through and he said that it might recover but he's not sure about the extent to which it might and Craig Scarborough by the way folks
[16:49.280 -> 16:53.280] has studied Formula One technically the aerodynamics of teams and drivers and cars
[16:53.280 -> 16:58.000] oh did I say aerodynamics of drivers interesting Seb Vettel's cut comes to mind but he studied the
[16:58.000 -> 17:03.520] aerodynamics of race cars for quite a while and he knows what concept is potentially good
[17:03.520 -> 17:06.760] potentially bad he's someone who's been it and done it for quite a while but he knows what concept is potentially good, potentially bad. He's someone who's been at it and done it for quite a while.
[17:07.080 -> 17:11.280] But the fact is, even he got caught out by McLaren and their new upgrades,
[17:11.280 -> 17:14.000] which is quite a remarkable thing to achieve at the end of it.
[17:14.160 -> 17:18.600] But I need to loop it back to Ferrari for a little bit Kunal, because when
[17:18.600 -> 17:22.960] normal teams pay homage to their past, people do it with a special livery.
[17:23.240 -> 17:26.080] We saw McLaren bring out the chrome livery.
[17:26.080 -> 17:27.880] We saw Williams bring out a special livery
[17:27.880 -> 17:31.560] for their 799th GP, which was remarkable.
[17:31.560 -> 17:33.920] The way Ferrari pays homage to their past
[17:33.920 -> 17:37.280] is by executing a 1970s-like pit stop.
[17:37.280 -> 17:39.240] And that was a beautiful thing for me to see.
[17:39.240 -> 17:40.880] They are very, very good at remembering
[17:40.880 -> 17:44.080] their past, which is a nice and humble touch of them
[17:44.080 -> 17:44.640] on their part.
[17:44.640 -> 17:48.320] They're good at remembering and reminding us of their past as well. You
[17:48.320 -> 17:52.600] spoke of French teams being mismanaged, the last time an Italian team wasn't
[17:52.600 -> 17:57.080] mismanaged was when they had a French boss. I'm making a reference to
[17:57.080 -> 18:03.560] Jean-Claude and the Michael Schumacher, Rory Byrne, Ross Braun era but yeah I mean
[18:03.560 -> 18:05.920] you know Ferrari finds a new way to just
[18:05.920 -> 18:10.720] trip over themselves time and time again. A couple of races ago, we didn't use our tires enough. We
[18:10.720 -> 18:15.520] are now back to, oh my God, our tires are, you know, burning before we even realize, before we
[18:15.520 -> 18:20.640] even start the race and the wind is still a bother for them. And then guess what Charles Leclerc does,
[18:20.640 -> 18:25.360] again, goes very hot on the brakes and picks up a pit lane speeding
[18:25.360 -> 18:30.140] incident I mean can you imagine what the drivers have to do to compensate for the
[18:30.140 -> 18:33.360] car's weaknesses but I guess that's going to be the story now the new story
[18:33.360 -> 18:37.920] is they're going to scrap this existing concept and make a completely new car
[18:37.920 -> 18:43.760] for 2024 which I wonder how much more will it look like the Red Bull racing
[18:43.760 -> 18:48.600] car everybody's converging designs but everybody's just converging to what Red Bull is eventually doing.
[18:49.080 -> 18:56.560] But that's pretty much the catch being Kunal, the catch being that even Red Bull is no longer looking like a Red Bull anymore.
[18:56.600 -> 18:59.920] Yeah, I have a feeling they're going to go zero power just to prove a point.
[18:59.920 -> 19:01.720] Of course, I'm kidding when I say this, but.
[19:04.880 -> 19:07.320] For all you know, they might as well.
[19:07.320 -> 19:12.400] And here are the headline numbers that F1 Statsguru has dug out that prove this, right?
[19:12.400 -> 19:17.280] Verstappen has as many points at the halfway mark this year as Sebastian Vettel had in
[19:17.280 -> 19:20.320] his entire title-winning 2012 season.
[19:20.320 -> 19:23.720] Coincidentally, both were two-time champions at that time.
[19:23.720 -> 19:28.440] Verstappen has accumulated 281 points so far, Kunal.
[19:28.440 -> 19:30.560] That is beyond me.
[19:30.560 -> 19:33.520] He's also claimed full points in each of the last three races.
[19:33.520 -> 19:38.920] 34 in Austria, 26 in the UK and 26 in Hungary.
[19:38.920 -> 19:43.800] First driver ever to do so since the point for the fastest lap was introduced ahead of
[19:43.800 -> 19:44.800] the 2019 season.
[19:44.800 -> 19:45.120] It's just numbers that he's breaking consistently, like every other day. Also, since the point for the fastest lap was introduced ahead of the 2019 season.
[19:45.120 -> 19:48.640] It's just numbers that he's breaking consistently, like every other day.
[19:48.640 -> 19:49.640] There's no point.
[19:49.640 -> 19:53.360] He could be fitting in the new upgrades, be 45 seconds faster.
[19:53.360 -> 19:55.160] I think in Belgium, it's going to be scary.
[19:55.160 -> 20:00.520] Because remember last year, he won this very race from P14 and won it comfortably.
[20:00.520 -> 20:01.520] Yeah.
[20:01.520 -> 20:11.040] And, you know, I'm going to add some numbers. We all know that Verstappen finished 33, whatever, half a minute ahead of Lando Norris.
[20:11.040 -> 20:18.640] But Norris actually finished that same gap ahead of Fernando Alonso and the Ferrari.
[20:18.640 -> 20:25.220] So going back to McLaren, RRP2, and I'm actually looking forward to Spa although you know
[20:25.220 -> 20:30.040] it's going back to that whole weekend of sprint race, sprint qualifying, qualifying
[20:30.040 -> 20:36.440] race weekend. This whole alternative tire allocation approach, this whole test we
[20:36.440 -> 20:41.380] had you know hard in Q1, medium in Q2 and soft in Q3, I actually loved that on
[20:41.380 -> 20:46.700] the Saturday-Sunday. It made for more interesting qualifying
[20:46.700 -> 20:48.620] while sort of also giving us a race.
[20:48.620 -> 20:49.460] And guess what?
[20:49.460 -> 20:51.800] The one team that got it wrong horribly was again, Ferrari.
[20:51.800 -> 20:54.720] They said, we made lots of weekends on the,
[20:54.720 -> 20:56.500] we made lots of week, no,
[20:56.500 -> 20:59.300] we made lots of mistakes on this weekend,
[20:59.300 -> 21:00.620] starting all the way from Friday.
[21:00.620 -> 21:01.780] So that's where it is.
[21:01.780 -> 21:05.000] So Spa is where the next bit of fun is going to be.
[21:05.000 -> 21:10.000] SPA is what our next episode is going to be in about 48 hours or so.
[21:10.000 -> 21:14.000] Yeah, exactly and SPA is also what our next event is going to be.
[21:14.000 -> 21:21.000] So as I mentioned at the start folks, if you are in Mumbai, we've got two options for you in terms of joining us.
[21:21.000 -> 21:25.600] We always normally have one F1 pit stop where you can come in, discuss the sport with
[21:25.600 -> 21:30.800] us, watch the race together and enjoy with the community and also drive on the Red Bull F1
[21:30.800 -> 21:37.360] simulator. This time it's going to be Versova Social and Dadar Social. So the action doubles
[21:37.360 -> 21:41.600] up. Kunal is going to be there as a part of one of them. F1 Stats Group is also going to be there
[21:41.600 -> 21:45.240] again. It's myself and Siddharth Shah as always in another location as well.
[21:45.240 -> 21:48.120] So make sure you join us by clicking on the link
[21:48.120 -> 21:50.480] in the description of this episode.
[21:50.480 -> 21:53.680] And yes, do also subscribe to the Insideline F1 podcast
[21:53.680 -> 21:55.360] for more such quality episodes
[21:55.360 -> 21:57.800] and rate us very well in case you enjoyed it.
[21:57.800 -> 22:00.000] But let's have another episode
[22:00.000 -> 22:02.400] previewing the Belgian GP in a couple of days.
[22:02.400 -> 22:04.760] And then we'll see you this Sunday.
[22:04.760 -> 22:05.400] Bye folks, take care.
[22:20.460 -> 22:22.460] you