Podcast: Missed Apex
Published Date:
Sun, 12 Mar 2023 20:00:00 GMT
Duration:
1:29:27
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.
Spanners and Trumpets are joined first by driver analyst Kyle ‘Edgy’ Power to chew the post-Bahrain fat and then former Mercedes and Haas F1 strategist Mike Caufield stops by for a special strategy summit. From lap time leaps to Pirelli’s predicament, from Mercedes misfires to lightening the F1 load, no tyre degradation curve goes unplotted in this, the latest episode of Missed Apex Podcast.
Please consider supporting us on patreon. We exist only because of our patron support:
Missed Apex F1 is creating Podcasts
Or use our Tip Jar to support our 2023 advertising campaign and help us grow the podcast
Send us your mailbag questions at feedback@missedapex.net
Spanners Ready Spanners���� (@SpannersReady)
spanners@missedapex.net
Matt Trumpets mattpt55 (@mattpt55)
Matt Trumpets (@mattpt55@mastodon.social)
COME HERE TRUMPETS PLAY MAR 17th with NYC SKA ORCHESTRA!!!
Shrine World Music Venue (shrinenyc.com)
Kyle Power Kyle Power (@KylePowerF1) / Twitter
Mike Caulfield Mike Caulfield (@MikeCaulfieldF1) / Twitter
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
**Missed Apex Podcast - Episode Summary**
* **Introduction:**
* The podcast begins with the hosts, Spanners, Trumpets, and Kyle Power, discussing the recent Bahrain Grand Prix and the state of Formula One after the first race of the season.
* **Mercedes' Struggles:**
* The hosts analyze Mercedes' poor performance in Bahrain, attributing it to the team's struggles with their new car concept and the cost cap regulations.
* They also discuss the potential impact of the cost cap on the competitiveness of the field and the transfer of technology between teams.
* **Ferrari's Issues:**
* The hosts discuss Ferrari's disappointing result in Bahrain, focusing on the team's decision to sack Chief Aerodynamicist David Sanchez after just one race.
* They speculate on the reasons behind Sanchez's departure and the potential impact it could have on Ferrari's development.
* **McLaren's Problems:**
* The hosts discuss McLaren's struggles in Bahrain, attributing them to the team's misinterpretation of the new floor regulations.
* They also discuss the team's new wind tunnel, which is expected to be operational in June, and its potential impact on McLaren's development.
* **Alpine's Progress:**
* The hosts discuss Alpine's strong performance in Bahrain, highlighting the team's impressive reliability and Fernando Alonso's impressive drive.
* They also discuss the team's history and the challenges it faces in competing with the top teams.
* **Conclusion:**
* The hosts wrap up the podcast by discussing the upcoming races and the potential for a more competitive season as the teams continue to develop their cars.
**Additional Notes:**
* The hosts also briefly discuss the recent news of Red Bull's cost cap breach and the potential consequences for the team.
* The podcast includes several humorous exchanges between the hosts, particularly regarding the gardening leave regulations and the guillotine-style management at Ferrari.
* The hosts also make several references to historical events and figures in Formula One, demonstrating their deep knowledge of the sport. # Missed Apex Podcast Episode 131 Transcript
## Introduction
* Spanners and Trumpets are joined first by driver analyst Kyle ‘Edgy’ Power to chew the post-Bahrain fat and then former Mercedes and Haas F1 strategist Mike Caulfield stops by for a special strategy summit.
* From lap time leaps to Pirelli’s predicament, from Mercedes misfires to lightening the F1 load, no tyre degradation curve goes unplotted in this, the latest episode of Missed Apex Podcast.
## Alpine and Aston Martin’s Troubles
* Spanners and Matt discuss the struggles of Alpine and Aston Martin in the Bahrain Grand Prix.
* Alpine, despite their strong development cycle last season, had a disappointing start to the season, with Fernando Alonso finishing ninth and Esteban Ocon finishing 17th.
* Aston Martin, on the other hand, had a surprisingly strong performance, with Fernando Alonso finishing ninth and Esteban Ocon finishing 17th.
* The team is hopeful that they can extract more performance from the current car and make significant improvements throughout the season.
## Mercedes’ Struggles
* The hosts discuss Mercedes’ struggles in the Bahrain Grand Prix, where they finished third and fourth, well behind Red Bull and Ferrari.
* Toto Wolff, the team principal, has been critical of the team’s performance, saying that they have made a “S-ball drop” and that they may have to write off the season.
* Kyle and Matt discuss the different opinions within Mercedes about whether to continue developing the current car or to switch to a new concept.
* They also discuss the team’s decision to bring a significant upgrade to the Imola Grand Prix, which could potentially help them close the gap to Red Bull and Ferrari.
## Interview with Mike Caulfield
* The hosts interview Mike Caulfield, a former strategist for Mercedes and Haas, to get his insights on the start of the season and the challenges facing the teams.
* Caulfield discusses the atmosphere in the paddock in Bahrain, which he describes as “relaxed and chilled.”
* He also talks about the challenges of preparing for the first race of the season, given the limited amount of testing that teams had.
* Caulfield explains how teams use historic data from previous races and testing sessions to help them make decisions during the race.
* He also discusses the changes to the tires for the 2023 season, including the introduction of a new C1 tire and a new construction for the front tires.
## Conclusion
* The hosts wrap up the episode by discussing the upcoming Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and the challenges that the teams will face there.
* They also discuss the importance of fan engagement and the need for Formula One to continue to grow its audience. ## Missed Apex Podcast: Post-Bahrain Strategy Summit with Kyle 'Edgy' Power and Ex-Mercedes/Haas Strategist Mike Caulfield
### Introduction
- The podcast begins with hosts Spanners and Matt Trumpets discussing the recent Bahrain Grand Prix and the performance of the new Pirelli tires.
- Driver analyst Kyle 'Edgy' Power joins the conversation to provide his insights on the tire data and the impact of the new regulations on car performance.
- Former Mercedes and Haas F1 strategist Mike Caulfield joins the show for a special strategy summit, where he discusses the complexities of race strategy and the challenges faced by teams in making the right calls.
### Discussion:
**Tire Performance and Data Analysis:**
- Kyle Power explains that Pirelli has been conducting extensive tire tests throughout the off-season, but the teams have limited access to this data.
- The new C1 tire, which is the hardest compound available this year, is performing more like a C2 tire in terms of degradation and lap times.
- The medium tire (C2) was not used by any team during the Bahrain Grand Prix due to its lack of performance compared to the other compounds.
- The soft tire (C3) and the new C4 tire showed similar levels of degradation, with a difference of only 0.04 seconds per lap.
- Pirelli is aiming to create a mix of one-stop and two-stop races, with some teams opting for a more aggressive strategy to gain an advantage.
**Strategy Summit with Mike Caulfield:**
- Mike Caulfield discusses the challenges of race strategy, including the need to consider tire degradation, fuel management, and the performance of the car.
- He explains that teams often have to make quick decisions based on limited data and that there is always an element of risk involved in strategy calls.
- Caulfield emphasizes the importance of communication between the team and the driver, as the driver provides valuable feedback on the car's performance and tire condition.
- The strategy team also needs to consider the impact of track conditions, weather, and the performance of other cars on the grid.
- Caulfield believes that the new regulations have made it more difficult for teams to predict tire degradation and fuel consumption, which has added an extra layer of complexity to strategy decisions.
**Other Topics Discussed:**
- The impact of the new regulations on car performance and the potential for teams to erode the advantages gained last season.
- The difficulty of overtaking at certain tracks due to the increased downforce generated by the new cars.
- The challenges faced by teams in managing tire temperatures and avoiding overheating.
- The importance of driver feedback in helping the team make informed strategy decisions.
- The role of simulation tools in helping teams prepare for race weekends and make strategic decisions during the race. * **Race Lap Time:**
-> 01:13:01.160] that's the difference between where you are and where you want to be, you know, what's the delta.[01:13:01.160 -> 01:13:05.040] And then you can kind of use that to see, right, okay, if I stay out, I'll be X seconds behind them.[01:13:05.040 -> 01:13:08.920] If I pit, I'll lose X seconds in the pits, and then I'll be X seconds behind them.[01:13:08.920 -> 01:13:10.600] So, if it's a bigger loss than what you'll gain, then it's not worth pitting.[01:13:10.600 -> 01:13:13.200] If it's a smaller loss than what you'll gain, then it is worth pitting.[01:13:13.200 -> 01:13:15.560] But then you've also got to factor in, if I pit, will the person ahead of me also pit?[01:13:15.560 -> 01:13:19.720] And if they do, then I've lost out. So, it's a bit of a gamble, really, and you're kind of trying to second guess what the other teams are going to do.[01:13:19.720 -> 01:13:24.720] And then you've also got to factor in the track position, because if you're in a good track position, you don't want to give that up by pitting.[01:13:24.720 -> 01:13:25.240] So, it's a lot of things to consider.[01:13:25.240 -> 01:13:28.480] And then you've also got to factor in the track position, because if you're in a good track position, you don't want to give that up by pitting.[01:13:28.480 -> 01:13:30.040] So, it's a lot of things to consider. ## Missed Apex Podcast: Strategy Summit with Mike Caulfield
### Segment 1: Kyle Power's Analysis of the Bahrain Grand Prix
- Kyle Power, a driver analyst, joins Spanners and Trumpets to discuss the recently concluded Bahrain Grand Prix.
- They analyze the performance of Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes, with a focus on the impressive pace of Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
- They also delve into the strategic decisions made by the teams, particularly the timing of pit stops, and how they influenced the race outcome.
### Segment 2: Strategy Summit with Mike Caulfield
- Mike Caulfield, a former strategist for Mercedes and Haas F1 teams, joins the podcast for a special strategy summit.
- They discuss the various factors that affect tire strategy in F1, including tire degradation, car performance, and track conditions.
- Caulfield explains the concept of tire degradation curves and how teams use them to make strategic decisions during a race.
- They also discuss the importance of considering the performance of the car and the driver when making strategic calls.
### Segment 3: Insights from Mike Caulfield
- Caulfield shares his insights on the strategic decisions made by Mercedes and Red Bull during the Bahrain Grand Prix.
- He explains the reasoning behind Mercedes' decision to pit Lewis Hamilton early, and how it ultimately cost him the race.
- He also discusses Red Bull's strategy with Verstappen, which allowed him to maintain a significant lead throughout the race.
### Segment 4: Pirelli's Predicament
- The discussion shifts to the challenges faced by Pirelli, the sole tire supplier for F1, in developing tires that provide both performance and durability.
- They highlight the difficulties in balancing these two factors, given the varying demands of different tracks and driving styles.
- They also discuss the impact of tire degradation on race strategy and how it can lead to unpredictable outcomes.
### Segment 5: Mercedes' Misfires and Reducing the F1 Load
- The podcast delves into Mercedes' struggles in the early part of the 2023 season, focusing on their strategic errors and car performance issues.
- They discuss the challenges faced by the team in adapting to the new regulations and the pressure they are under to maintain their dominance in the sport.
- They also touch upon the ongoing debate about reducing the number of races in the F1 calendar and the potential benefits and drawbacks of such a move.
### Segment 6: Wrap-Up and Takeaways
- The podcast concludes with a summary of the key points discussed and the overall takeaways from the episode.
- They emphasize the importance of understanding tire strategy and how it can impact race outcomes.
- They also highlight the challenges faced by teams and drivers in making strategic decisions during a race and the role of experience and data analysis in this process.
[00:00.000 -> 00:02.000] Tired of spiraling about your finances?
[00:02.960 -> 00:06.400] Meet Clio, your AI personal finance assistant.
[00:06.400 -> 00:11.040] Clio's AI turns the complexity of your financial life into a simple conversation.
[00:11.040 -> 00:13.840] Whether you need help budgeting, saving,
[00:13.840 -> 00:17.440] or simply need someone to tell you not to buy that $7 latte,
[00:18.320 -> 00:20.480] Clio will always keep it 100 with you.
[00:20.480 -> 00:22.960] Kind of like a financially responsible older sister.
[00:22.960 -> 00:27.560] Get the convo started today and start saving for tomorrow. Download the Clio app directly
[00:27.560 -> 00:33.160] from the App Store or visit meetclio.com slash download. Most weight loss
[00:33.160 -> 00:37.280] programs are short-term fixes but managing your weight needs a long-term
[00:37.280 -> 00:42.000] solution and that's what makes Noom different. Noom uses science and
[00:42.000 -> 00:46.160] personalization to help you manage your weight for the long term.
[00:46.160 -> 00:50.080] Their psychology-based approach helps you build better habits and behaviors that are
[00:50.080 -> 00:51.800] easier to maintain.
[00:51.800 -> 00:53.040] The best part?
[00:53.040 -> 00:57.300] You decide how Noom fits into your life, not the other way around.
[00:57.300 -> 01:00.760] Sign up for your trial today at Noom.com.
[01:00.760 -> 01:05.000] That's N-O-O-M dot com to sign up for your trial today.
[01:05.000 -> 01:08.720] Looking for a fun way to win up to 25 times your money this football season?
[01:08.720 -> 01:14.240] Test your skills on Prize Picks, the most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports.
[01:14.240 -> 01:18.280] Just select two or more players, pick more or less on their projection for a wide variety
[01:18.280 -> 01:20.720] of statistics, and place your entry.
[01:20.720 -> 01:22.280] It's as easy as that.
[01:22.280 -> 01:28.000] If you have the skills, you can turn $10 into $250 with just a few taps.
[01:28.000 -> 01:33.000] Easy gameplay, quick withdrawals, and an enormous selection of players and stat options
[01:33.000 -> 01:37.000] are what make PrizePicks the number one daily fantasy sports app.
[01:37.000 -> 01:39.000] Ready to test your skills?
[01:39.000 -> 01:44.000] Join the PrizePicks community of more than 7 million football fans who have already signed up.
[01:44.000 -> 01:49.000] Right now, PrizePicks will match your first deposit up to $100.
[01:49.000 -> 01:54.000] Just visit prizepix.com slash get100 and use code get100.
[01:54.000 -> 02:01.000] That's code get100 at prizepix.com slash get100 for a first deposit matchup to $100.
[02:01.000 -> 02:07.840] PrizePix, daily fantasy sports made easy. You
[02:07.840 -> 02:13.500] are listening to missed apex podcast. We live at one
[02:24.800 -> 02:29.400] Welcome to missed apex podcast recorded Podcast, recorded Friday March 10th.
[02:29.400 -> 02:34.280] I'm your host Richard Ready, but my friends call me Spanners, so let's be friends.
[02:34.280 -> 02:37.720] Later in this show we're going to be catching up with Mike Caulfield, who's been a senior
[02:37.720 -> 02:40.680] strategist in Haas and at Mercedes.
[02:40.680 -> 02:49.520] We're going to get his take from being live on the ground in Bahrain, and we'll take a bit of a delve back to the last big regulation change, learn a little bit about
[02:49.520 -> 02:55.520] the tyre challenges as well from a strategist point of view. Is undercut still king? We'll
[02:55.520 -> 03:00.120] find out. But first, we're going to do a little round up of all the stories coming
[03:00.120 -> 03:10.560] out of Formula 1. Yes, we're not journalists from a fancy newspaper. We're more like F1InAShed.com. But we think there's room for fan spaces in podcasting. A shared
[03:10.560 -> 03:15.860] fan experience between you and me. And that's why we remain an independent podcast produced
[03:15.860 -> 03:19.800] in the podcasting shed, with the kind permission of our better halves. We aim to bring you
[03:19.800 -> 03:26.160] a race review before your Monday morning commute. We might be wrong, but we're first. Joining
[03:26.160 -> 03:32.360] me in my wrongness as always, the wrongest of them all, Matt. Two rumpets.
[03:32.360 -> 03:36.160] Where there's a wind tunnel, there's a way.
[03:36.160 -> 03:39.400] And Kyle Power. How's it going, Kyle?
[03:39.400 -> 03:43.600] Very well, Cheers. Happy that Formula One is back, but is it the Formula One we want?
[03:43.600 -> 03:48.080] Ooh, we can get straight into that then. What Formula One do you want, Kyle Power?
[03:48.800 -> 03:53.440] I want a nice close field with at least three top teams battling at the front.
[03:53.440 -> 03:58.240] That's what I'd like. I know I'm asking for a unicorn but we've had it before and it would be
[03:58.240 -> 04:04.400] very nice to have it again. When did we last have three teams with a legitimate shot at the title?
[04:05.240 -> 04:06.880] 2010?? 2012?
[04:06.880 -> 04:12.680] So let's transport ourselves back to 2010 then. Who was in the running, Matt? 2010 we
[04:12.680 -> 04:19.080] had Mercedes, kinda, with... no? Who was in the running then? Well hang on, Mercedes won
[04:19.080 -> 04:25.160] races though, not Mercedes, McLaren. I'm thinking of Lewis Hamilton. So Lewis Hamilton won races in 2010,
[04:25.160 -> 04:27.720] and then we had a legitimate fight
[04:27.720 -> 04:30.880] between Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel.
[04:30.880 -> 04:33.080] Didn't really know who was gonna come out
[04:33.080 -> 04:34.840] on top at that point.
[04:34.840 -> 04:38.360] Also, Ferrari and Alonso were in the mix.
[04:38.360 -> 04:39.200] Remember that was Alonso,
[04:39.200 -> 04:40.640] I think it was his first season with Ferrari.
[04:40.640 -> 04:43.520] He won the first race and they were kind of in a mix.
[04:43.520 -> 04:45.040] Also 2012 was another season
[04:45.040 -> 04:48.800] like that where we had three people potentially going into the final rounds of three different
[04:48.800 -> 04:54.000] manufacturers which is McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari again going in with a genuine chance
[04:54.000 -> 04:57.440] of winning the title so it'd be great to get back to those days and I thought we were going to have
[04:57.440 -> 05:06.500] it this year. Well what conspired then in those years to give to give us such a close battle at the top. Was it stability of regulations?
[05:06.500 -> 05:10.000] 2010 was only the second year of the massive reg changes,
[05:10.000 -> 05:12.000] so I don't know why it came about in 2010.
[05:12.000 -> 05:15.000] It just, there'd been stability in tyres for quite a few years,
[05:15.000 -> 05:19.000] but in 2012 was, yeah, there'd been stability in the regulations
[05:19.000 -> 05:20.000] for a couple of years.
[05:20.000 -> 05:23.000] It was the second season, I believe, of the Pirelli tyres,
[05:23.000 -> 05:24.000] and they just hit a bit of a sweet spot.
[05:24.000 -> 05:28.800] It was just one of these nice occurrences where three teams tend to
[05:28.800 -> 05:33.000] be genuinely fast. This happened again in 2003 when there was a tyre war as well. We
[05:33.000 -> 05:39.640] ended up having Williams, McLaren and Ferrari at the front, genuinely battling for the titles.
[05:39.640 -> 05:47.440] So just to counter that then, Kyle, whilst that's all very nice, you've had to go back 20 years
[05:47.440 -> 05:49.280] to give three examples.
[05:49.280 -> 05:51.280] So it's not the norm in Formula One, is it?
[05:51.280 -> 05:55.520] It's not like something radical and strange is happening last season and this season.
[05:55.520 -> 05:58.280] No, I did say I was asking for a unicorn.
[05:58.280 -> 05:59.880] They do exist every now and then.
[05:59.880 -> 06:03.240] So yeah, generally there's a lot of hype.
[06:03.240 -> 06:08.000] We all thought we were going to get really a nice close-up, Mercedes were going to nail their concept, Ferrari were going to stop
[06:08.000 -> 06:11.920] Ferrari-ing and Red Bull weren't going to produce the beast of a car that they have.
[06:11.920 -> 06:15.920] But it's only one race, it's not all over, but I was a bit disappointed with the gaps
[06:15.920 -> 06:16.920] that I saw.
[06:16.920 -> 06:20.720] Well, Matt, I don't think it's a massive surprise, is it, that second year of a big
[06:20.720 -> 06:29.680] regulation change and it's much the same as the first year. Red Bull dominant, Mercedes struggling to get their concept, and Ferrari... Ferrari-ing, sadly, as Kyle puts it.
[06:29.680 -> 06:35.680] And let's just, in context of, we're one race in, so we're assuming that what we've seen is
[06:35.680 -> 06:41.760] representative. Sorry, it's going to be like this to 2026. Is it? Nothing but disaster all the way
[06:41.760 -> 06:45.440] around. Now, I think Kyle brings up an interesting point.
[06:45.440 -> 06:54.400] To me, the salient issue, especially in 2010, is that we had power units that were relatively
[06:54.400 -> 06:56.160] on par with each other.
[06:56.160 -> 06:57.600] There were some discrepancies.
[06:57.600 -> 07:03.220] We did have, if I'm remembering correctly, pretty much a freeze on engine development
[07:03.220 -> 07:07.040] at that point. We were the tail end of the V8 era,
[07:07.920 -> 07:16.480] and therefore it really was just down to the aerodynamicist being in the ballpark. And
[07:16.480 -> 07:21.040] the difference between then and now to me is we switched essentially from,
[07:22.800 -> 07:27.760] we've gone to ground effect again, aerodynamics, which is a field that had
[07:27.760 -> 07:32.960] long, has long been abandoned. So there's a lot more room for teams to be very, very wrong
[07:33.840 -> 07:40.320] without the data to tell them this. So if their modeling or wind tunnel or CFD is off,
[07:40.320 -> 07:45.720] they can, as Mercedes has, make very big mistakes, not realize it, and once you've made that
[07:45.720 -> 07:48.840] mistake it can take quite a while to come back.
[07:48.840 -> 07:53.900] But, isn't there too much of an emphasis on what's happening at the very top?
[07:53.900 -> 07:59.240] So given that in the last 20 years we're having to go back and really search like a needle
[07:59.240 -> 08:03.440] in a haystack for those seasons where there's been multi-team, like three teams fighting
[08:03.440 -> 08:10.500] at the top, do we as Formula One viewers just put too much emphasis on what's going on at the very, very front?
[08:10.500 -> 08:16.500] So, as a Colchester United fan, I can tell you that I've had very, very little experience
[08:16.500 -> 08:20.000] of watching Colchester United at the very top of any league.
[08:20.000 -> 08:25.440] And why is there not much more enjoyment in the midfield?
[08:25.440 -> 08:29.520] It seems like once one team is dominating, or one car is dominating,
[08:29.520 -> 08:31.440] people seem to write the season off.
[08:31.440 -> 08:33.600] And that is the same whether it's Verstappen,
[08:33.600 -> 08:37.280] whether it was Hamilton for years, Schumacher for years,
[08:37.280 -> 08:39.360] Vettel for those two really dominant seasons.
[08:40.480 -> 08:43.200] Why aren't people more satisfied to just kind of, you know,
[08:43.200 -> 08:44.960] enjoy the midfield battle?
[08:45.040 -> 08:50.360] Modern Formula One, I genuinely think that everyone, and you know, in the last few years,
[08:50.360 -> 08:54.840] there's been a lot of new fans come to the sports as well. And we were treated to 2001,
[08:54.840 -> 08:56.880] which was epic, regardless.
[08:56.880 -> 09:04.400] 2001, yeah. Yeah, sorry, 2021, yes, which was absolutely epic. And I think once the bar is set that high,
[09:04.400 -> 09:06.440] people just expect the same again and again.
[09:06.440 -> 09:08.400] So I think this is where this disappointment
[09:08.400 -> 09:10.700] has come about, but you make a very good point of,
[09:10.700 -> 09:12.240] you know, there's still some amazing fights.
[09:12.240 -> 09:14.440] We saw some, I still thoroughly enjoyed the race
[09:14.440 -> 09:16.140] and I will thoroughly enjoy the season.
[09:16.140 -> 09:18.040] I was just really hoping that we were going to get
[09:18.040 -> 09:20.040] a real sort of a three-way fight.
[09:20.040 -> 09:21.480] Two-way fights are great.
[09:21.480 -> 09:23.040] One-way fights, when you're in the same team
[09:23.040 -> 09:24.120] with the Mercedes domination,
[09:24.120 -> 09:25.800] at least you had sort of Rosberg and Hamilton
[09:25.800 -> 09:27.440] for those couple of years battling at the front.
[09:27.440 -> 09:29.040] We still had interest at the front,
[09:29.040 -> 09:30.140] but if one team runs away of it,
[09:30.140 -> 09:31.840] like the Schumacher years or the Vettel years,
[09:31.840 -> 09:35.560] then people aren't really gonna be that interested.
[09:35.560 -> 09:36.820] But I think there's a lot of hope.
[09:36.820 -> 09:39.040] And after 21, I think everyone wants the same,
[09:39.040 -> 09:41.320] you know, the same level of drama and it's hard.
[09:41.320 -> 09:43.120] They're always looking for that first high,
[09:43.120 -> 09:43.960] you know, when you go in.
[09:43.960 -> 09:45.000] It's like, yeah, exactly. It's almost like a drug and you can, trying to always looking for that first high, you know, when you go in. It's like, yeah.
[09:45.000 -> 09:46.520] You've got to wait for it.
[09:46.520 -> 09:47.340] Yeah, exactly.
[09:47.340 -> 09:48.180] It's almost like a drug and you can,
[09:48.180 -> 09:49.560] trying to get back to that first high
[09:49.560 -> 09:51.440] and that's what everyone's craving at the moment, I think.
[09:51.440 -> 09:53.120] So I think that's where all the disappointment comes in,
[09:53.120 -> 09:54.880] but I don't think it's panic stations just yet.
[09:54.880 -> 09:57.840] In the olden days when it was Schumacher dominating
[09:57.840 -> 09:59.800] and you were a Schumacher fan, Kyle.
[09:59.800 -> 10:01.240] So for you, that was all good stuff,
[10:01.240 -> 10:04.560] but it was like 2001 till 2074,
[10:04.560 -> 10:05.760] he won every championship in
[10:05.760 -> 10:11.040] a row. So literally five championships in a row. And it wasn't like, you know,
[10:11.040 -> 10:15.600] well Verstappen winning one with Hamilton right there. It wasn't like Hamilton winning
[10:15.600 -> 10:20.720] with the Ferraris all over them in 17 and 18. It was like just domination. He'd go out there and
[10:20.720 -> 10:25.040] just lap the field. And it was in the days before we had all the
[10:25.040 -> 10:29.760] testing hype and as much journalism covering. So you'd have no idea going into the first race,
[10:29.760 -> 10:33.200] who was going to come out with a good car. And you'd be like, come on, not Schumacher again,
[10:33.200 -> 10:37.040] not Schumacher again. And then he'd just look amazing. And you go, ah, he's ruining,
[10:37.040 -> 10:52.400] he's ruining everything. So it does happen. But I wonder what psychological effect that has. Is Lewis Hamilton really as happy with 2020 and 2019 as he was with 2015 and 2014?
[10:52.400 -> 10:53.400] You know what I mean?
[10:53.400 -> 10:59.260] So I almost feel like there's certain titles, World Championships, you can bundle into one.
[10:59.260 -> 11:03.480] So you can kind of bundle Vettel's into one or two.
[11:03.480 -> 11:05.560] Hamilton's, you could bundle in,
[11:05.560 -> 11:07.400] like the Bottas years,
[11:07.400 -> 11:09.560] you could bundle those championships together
[11:09.560 -> 11:11.280] and the hybrid ones together.
[11:11.280 -> 11:13.680] It's almost a bit silly sometimes to say,
[11:13.680 -> 11:15.720] oh, well, Hamilton's seven times world champion,
[11:15.720 -> 11:19.240] Schumacher seven, and then Vettel,
[11:19.240 -> 11:21.640] sorry, Verstappen, how many is he gonna collect
[11:21.640 -> 11:23.720] by the end of the regulation set?
[11:23.720 -> 11:24.880] How many has he got left to win
[11:24.880 -> 11:26.480] before they change the rules?
[11:26.480 -> 11:27.480] Another four?
[11:27.480 -> 11:28.480] 23, 24, 25.
[11:28.480 -> 11:29.480] So he's-
[11:29.480 -> 11:30.480] Yeah, another four.
[11:30.480 -> 11:34.000] So he'll be five-time world champion by the end of this regulation set.
[11:34.000 -> 11:37.800] And it's kind of a bit silly, because once you get on that conveyor belt of dominating
[11:37.800 -> 11:41.000] an era, you know, some of them are harder than others.
[11:41.000 -> 11:45.520] Well, this is actually sort of an interesting thing because unlike these previous
[11:45.520 -> 11:52.400] eras, we have both restrictions in terms of aerodynamic development for the team at the top
[11:52.400 -> 11:59.760] meant to be kind of a balancing counterweight to keep a team from getting away as they have done
[11:59.760 -> 12:09.400] in the past with Red Bull and Mercedes and going further back with Ferrari. And we don't really quite know how they're going to play out because this is only the
[12:09.400 -> 12:14.200] second year that we've really seen them be in effect.
[12:14.200 -> 12:21.680] So far, it hasn't worked in the way, entirely in the way, I think, that the FIA intended
[12:21.680 -> 12:23.960] at the top of the field.
[12:23.960 -> 12:29.240] But I think if we go back to the midfield a little bit, you can see that it's actually
[12:29.240 -> 12:33.080] brought the teams, I think, closer together.
[12:33.080 -> 12:37.440] I think it's just going to take longer to see that effect at the top because they have
[12:37.440 -> 12:44.560] – the top teams had already spent over the decades money and staff developing advantages
[12:44.560 -> 12:48.280] that aren't simply going to be eroded in a season or two.
[12:48.280 -> 12:49.940] Okay, so you have to remember
[12:49.940 -> 12:53.160] there's the aero development ballast.
[12:53.160 -> 12:56.240] That, I suppose, hasn't kicked in really a lot.
[12:56.240 -> 13:00.240] Like, you've got to do quite a bit to undo,
[13:00.240 -> 13:01.800] like you said, the baked-in advantage
[13:01.800 -> 13:02.960] of just being a good team,
[13:02.960 -> 13:07.080] having benefited from all that funding and unlimited development.
[13:07.080 -> 13:13.280] But actually in this regulation set now, Mercedes aren't used to operating within such a small
[13:13.280 -> 13:14.280] budget.
[13:14.280 -> 13:18.320] So they're used to being able to upgrade at will.
[13:18.320 -> 13:25.680] And the lack of upgrade budget might stop Seasons undoing themselves, if that makes sense. So
[13:25.680 -> 13:31.080] like Red Bull were quite good in the last phase at developing throughout a season. I
[13:31.080 -> 13:36.360] kind of guess, is there a danger that we're just stuck with an order once it sets in?
[13:36.360 -> 13:37.360] Kyle?
[13:37.360 -> 13:41.200] Yeah, I think there is a risk of that under the cost cap. I mean, this is all new for
[13:41.200 -> 13:46.160] everybody. So as you said before, not unlimited testing, but they had much bigger budgets
[13:46.160 -> 13:49.700] and they could be constantly running CFD simulations in the background now.
[13:49.700 -> 13:55.840] So there is a slight risk of a sort of unsavory kickback from these cost cap regulations is,
[13:55.840 -> 14:02.360] yeah, you could prevent teams from catching up or, you know, catching up easily.
[14:02.360 -> 14:05.800] They will be able to catch up and of course they will naturally start to migrate towards each other.
[14:05.800 -> 14:10.800] I do not expect Red Bull to have the advantage that we saw at the first race by the end of the season.
[14:10.800 -> 14:14.400] I really do not expect that, but it probably won't be a quick and easy fix.
[14:14.400 -> 14:19.600] So that is one little sour note that this CrossCat does give, it is harder and harder to catch up.
[14:19.600 -> 14:27.640] But Mercedes have been making noises that they, I don't know, well it depends which side of the team you believe, whether it's Hamilton or Toto-Wulff, but we might have a Mercedes
[14:27.640 -> 14:31.800] B car at some point. So they're already, sounds like they're thinking of allocating a lot
[14:31.800 -> 14:35.480] of their upgrade budget to just fixing the car again.
[14:35.480 -> 14:40.240] So we've got a Mercedes segment coming up, but I have to say, Kyle, you've ruined my
[14:40.240 -> 14:46.080] plan of news items to cover with that super interesting little diversion that you just did.
[14:46.080 -> 14:51.680] But it's quite nice to have a state of the nation of where we are within Formula One.
[14:52.320 -> 14:57.360] Well, I'd immediately like to pick a fight with that. It's going to be convenient to blame the
[14:57.360 -> 15:03.840] cost cap. And I think you could make an argument for perhaps allocating it more like they do wind
[15:03.840 -> 15:09.040] tunnel time, where if you're farther back, you get to spend extra money and if you're further forward you get more
[15:09.040 -> 15:13.440] restricted but you do have a problem with personnel so I can understand why it's just a flat number
[15:13.440 -> 15:20.000] all the teams have to adhere to relative to the creativeness of their accountants. But I'm going
[15:20.000 -> 15:30.980] to say that, and I believe it was Fred Vasseur talking in race car engineering, has made the point that the real sticking, this real problem here is
[15:30.980 -> 15:35.400] not so much the cost cap or the restrictions on testing. The real problem
[15:35.400 -> 15:40.680] is the increase and increasing complexity of gardening leave, particularly
[15:40.680 -> 15:46.360] for senior team members. And he talked about someone they acquired,
[15:47.280 -> 15:49.480] it might have even been Phallus he was talking about,
[15:49.480 -> 15:51.960] like you acquired him,
[15:51.960 -> 15:55.040] and it was almost, it's almost 15 months
[15:55.040 -> 15:58.240] before that person makes an actual contribution to the team.
[15:58.240 -> 16:00.320] And what that's done is slowed down
[16:00.320 -> 16:03.160] the transfer of technology amongst teams.
[16:03.160 -> 16:08.880] Because you could pick off a junior junior person who has a very tiny patch they're good at but to get someone like
[16:08.880 -> 16:13.360] Phallus who not only has a really wide breadth in his area which is
[16:13.360 -> 16:17.120] aerodynamics but is also high enough up to bring over knowledge from other
[16:17.120 -> 16:22.920] departments which is what allows the teams to catch up. It takes so long that
[16:22.920 -> 16:27.160] we see these baked in advantages for the teams not going
[16:27.160 -> 16:31.380] away as fast as they really should be and would have in previous years where you didn't
[16:31.380 -> 16:34.160] have this sort of thing going on.
[16:34.160 -> 16:37.880] And it's quite interesting with the sort of the phallus thing. So remember, it was a couple
[16:37.880 -> 16:41.760] of years ago, wasn't it, when there was a lot of big sort of power plays. So one from
[16:41.760 -> 16:45.200] the strolls at Aston and the other one from Red Bull poaching sort of engineers
[16:45.200 -> 16:49.600] from other teams. So that's that kind of two year almost grace period, gardening period has sort of
[16:49.600 -> 16:54.160] ended now almost and we're probably these cars now starting to see the results. So, so we're saying
[16:54.160 -> 16:58.880] that probably Aston Martin, you know, suddenly launching itself, propelling itself up the grid.
[16:58.880 -> 17:03.200] Do you think that's a direct sort of result of Fallows finally managing to have an input in,
[17:03.200 -> 17:05.120] in, into that car.
[17:09.160 -> 17:09.320] Yeah, I absolutely think that is the case. Red Bull are making,
[17:13.120 -> 17:13.840] you know, their sad attempt at jokes about it on the podium.
[17:17.760 -> 17:21.680] But the reality is that the Aston is its own creation. But a lot of what makes it fast as it is, and a lot of what is
[17:21.680 -> 17:29.080] responsible for that job would have come from Fallows time at Red Bull. After all, you know, you can't—the knowledge that's in your brain
[17:29.080 -> 17:34.160] can't be locked away separately when you move to a new team, and this is one of the
[17:34.160 -> 17:38.720] reasons you see the teams, especially the top teams, trying to be more and more controlling
[17:38.720 -> 17:41.080] with personnel who reach that level.
[17:41.080 -> 17:47.840] Controlling personnel is one of the key skills of Ferrari and the Queen
[17:47.840 -> 17:52.420] of Hearts at Ferrari has struck again. That guard was supposed to paint the
[17:52.420 -> 17:57.060] roses red, he planted white which isn't right, the roses should be red. So off
[17:57.060 -> 18:03.940] with his head. Matt, the chief aero guy has been sacked or resigned, but he's gone.
[18:03.940 -> 18:06.000] Yep, he fell or he was pushed.
[18:06.000 -> 18:07.000] It's one of the two.
[18:07.000 -> 18:08.000] Take your pick.
[18:08.000 -> 18:09.000] Wow, okay.
[18:09.000 -> 18:10.000] So who's the gent in question?
[18:10.000 -> 18:11.000] I forgot his name now.
[18:11.000 -> 18:14.000] This would be David Sanchez, I believe.
[18:14.000 -> 18:16.000] Okay, yes, David Sanchez.
[18:16.000 -> 18:21.000] But definitely, the timing is definitely a sacking timing, isn't it?
[18:21.000 -> 18:23.000] It's not, oh, I've been working hard on this concept.
[18:23.000 -> 18:24.000] We've done one race.
[18:24.000 -> 18:29.360] I've successfully set it on its path and now I'm resigning. That this is, I would need to
[18:29.360 -> 18:36.480] be convinced that this is anything other than a push. Maybe, I think this, I mean Ferrari,
[18:36.480 -> 18:41.040] I think I've said this on this podcast before, they have been known to have a guillotine style
[18:41.040 -> 18:48.880] management system when if it doesn't work the guillotine comes out. Yeah. They've got rid of that over the last couple of years and apparently when David Sanchez,
[18:48.880 -> 18:53.120] well when Charles Leclerc was told of David Sanchez was going to leave or he resigned,
[18:53.120 -> 18:56.960] inverted commas, whichever way you think that is when he resigned, apparently he was really
[18:56.960 -> 19:00.960] visibly a bit dejected and a bit depressed. And I don't know whether he's thinking I'm going to
[19:00.960 -> 19:04.560] have to go and get the mop because we've got the guillotine out again to clear up all the blood.
[19:04.560 -> 19:10.320] Oh Kyle! whether he's thinking, I'm going to have to go and get the mop because we've got the guillotine out again to clear up all the blood. Or he's genuinely like, this guy was good and I think
[19:10.320 -> 19:15.040] he's resigned due to the pressure. So I think the player is a bit dejected and it's not great
[19:15.040 -> 19:19.600] at Ferrari. We thought, you know, stability, we had team, they tried team principal stability,
[19:19.600 -> 19:23.040] that hasn't worked. They've changed that. Now they've got a new team principal and it looks
[19:23.040 -> 19:27.040] like if he has been pushed, they're going back to their old guillotine style ways.
[19:27.040 -> 19:29.920] Joe McCulloch Well, it's interesting because he's
[19:29.920 -> 19:38.320] responsible for the current car that's on track. And he reportedly was a key member of Bonato's
[19:38.320 -> 19:47.240] staff. So it wouldn't surprise me at all that this is just sort of a continuation of the Bonato purge. And
[19:47.240 -> 19:53.800] it may well have been when Bonato himself went, Sanchez started looking for the exits
[19:53.800 -> 19:58.400] just as a self-protective move. But what's also going to be interesting is where exactly
[19:58.400 -> 19:59.400] he winds up.
[19:59.400 -> 20:05.880] Well, yeah. So before we get to that, where it is, what I think, I think there was a good
[20:05.880 -> 20:07.720] chance he could have genuinely resigned here.
[20:07.740 -> 20:10.180] Like Ferrari is well-known as being one of the biggest sort of
[20:10.180 -> 20:12.040] pressure cookers in the pit lane.
[20:12.040 -> 20:15.600] And you have the Tifosi and the Italian press can be quite vicious.
[20:15.600 -> 20:18.980] So Sanchez might've been feeling the heat and when the car hit the track
[20:18.980 -> 20:21.780] and it didn't blow everyone away, he's probably could have been thinking,
[20:21.780 -> 20:24.640] you know what, I can't be dealing with this anymore.
[20:24.640 -> 20:28.480] I've tried my best and I'm just going to get shot down, so I will make this easy
[20:28.480 -> 20:29.840] for everyone and just walk.
[20:29.840 -> 20:35.480] But in the olden days, I would have said, like, Ferrari fans used to be people that
[20:35.480 -> 20:41.400] I would butt heads with far more often, but these days they're like Liverpool fans a few
[20:41.400 -> 20:47.240] years ago before they started getting successful again. They were just browbeaten and accepting.
[20:47.240 -> 20:50.320] But if it's still like that in the management, that's one thing.
[20:50.320 -> 20:58.280] Plus, if you read the Italian press, they're very, very hard on Ferrari in the same way
[20:58.280 -> 21:02.440] that the British press used to just absolutely murder the England football team.
[21:02.440 -> 21:08.120] So there was a picture of Graham Taylor on the front page of The Sun and he was like his head was morphed into
[21:08.120 -> 21:14.000] the head of a turnip and and that was like that was front page news. So yeah it
[21:14.000 -> 21:18.320] was a poison chalice being England manager. So whether that guillotine
[21:18.320 -> 21:21.120] style management that you're talking about there Kyle, thanks for that
[21:21.120 -> 21:29.160] imagery by the way, whether that comes from within the team or from pressures, say, from like the board, from Ferrari themselves or the
[21:29.160 -> 21:34.120] Italian press, that's interesting. But whether or not he resigned, whether or not he was
[21:34.120 -> 21:42.000] encouraged to leave, like me in higher education, that's still not good to lose someone so senior
[21:42.000 -> 21:48.640] at the very start of the season. Matt? Matthew Feeney Yeah, it's not good. And as I was just very
[21:48.640 -> 21:54.320] recently pointing out, one of your problems is any senior person that you happen to be able to
[21:54.320 -> 22:00.560] acquire from another team is going to take an awful long time to show up and have an impact.
[22:01.440 -> 22:09.360] But also, I mean, Bahrain is particularly an unrepresentative track. And so this car
[22:09.360 -> 22:14.280] that was around, I don't know, three quarters of a second off in Bahrain, you might see
[22:14.280 -> 22:20.160] in Jeddah being very, very close to the pace of the Red Bull. Indeed, Ferrari now has a
[22:20.160 -> 22:27.280] straight line speed advantage. And some analysis of the cornering shows that, unlike Mercedes,
[22:27.280 -> 22:33.280] which has a real, I think, downforce problem, Ferrari doesn't necessarily suffer from that
[22:33.280 -> 22:38.720] same particular problem. The other thing to realize is that their new rear wing, the single
[22:38.720 -> 22:44.160] pillar rear wing they were working on, isn't quite ready for prime time, and that may have
[22:44.160 -> 22:46.480] exacerbated Ferrari's issues with
[22:46.480 -> 22:52.640] rear tire degradation because they would have been losing some down forces. One of the main
[22:53.280 -> 22:59.200] purposes of that single pillar is to try and help get better airflow onto the rear wing which then
[22:59.200 -> 23:03.600] would generate a little extra helping downforce to maintain those rear tires.
[23:04.320 -> 23:08.800] Alright, I didn't follow any of that last bit, the techy bit. I didn't enjoy that as
[23:08.800 -> 23:13.360] much as I enjoyed the bit about the gardening leave and the politics of having to get people
[23:13.360 -> 23:17.840] in the transfer of tech. I enjoyed that, but the whole downforce thing got a bit lost,
[23:17.840 -> 23:18.840] if I'm honest, Matt.
[23:18.840 -> 23:20.640] Do you want me to try again?
[23:20.640 -> 23:25.600] No, no, no, no, no, no. know, I know there's going to be a lot of tech
[23:25.600 -> 23:28.800] in, I'm only kidding. I bet I could do it better the second time. There's, I know there's a lot of,
[23:28.800 -> 23:33.280] um, of, of tech things to talk about next. And I think I want to end before we go to the Mike
[23:33.280 -> 23:40.320] Caulfield segment, uh, do want to end rolling back to, uh, Mercedes, but you have some clues
[23:40.320 -> 23:45.920] as to why McLaren was struggling. Who wants to run with that? Matthew?
[23:47.760 -> 23:53.760] Well, this is along the lines of what we've been discussing. If you recall, there was a bit of a
[23:53.760 -> 23:59.440] regulation change, not a massive one. They raised the throat 10 millimeters, raised the floor edge
[23:59.440 -> 24:06.240] 15 millimeters. But as McLaren have discovered, much to their dismay, certain floor geometries, that would
[24:06.240 -> 24:13.600] be the fiddly bit shape on the edges, don't work as well at the higher, right, at the
[24:13.600 -> 24:15.360] higher floor edge height.
[24:15.360 -> 24:17.440] And they really got caught out.
[24:17.440 -> 24:19.600] They didn't think it would be a big adjustment.
[24:19.600 -> 24:21.800] Turned out to be a big adjustment.
[24:21.800 -> 24:25.680] Long story short, it took them until September to realize they needed
[24:25.680 -> 24:32.000] to change course, and that's why they weren't essentially ready for the start of the season.
[24:32.000 -> 24:36.280] And we're not going to see their update until, I think, Baku. That's going to be their car
[24:36.280 -> 24:41.880] that they intended to build. And they have said that had they found this about a month
[24:41.880 -> 24:45.760] earlier, you would never have heard about this issue.
[24:45.760 -> 24:48.600] But it's just a timing and production thing.
[24:48.600 -> 24:55.440] But this sort of be remedied by maybe a new head of aerodynamics coming from another team.
[24:55.440 -> 24:56.440] Is that like, say, Sanchez?
[24:56.440 -> 24:57.440] Is that what you're...
[24:57.440 -> 24:58.440] Yeah, maybe.
[24:58.440 -> 25:02.840] So Matt was telling me Sanchez came from McLaren in the first place, though.
[25:02.840 -> 25:09.520] Correct. He was there from I think 2007 to 2012, which overlaps with a certain championship
[25:09.520 -> 25:11.160] season, I can recall.
[25:11.160 -> 25:15.840] So Kyle, was this what you were alluding to earlier? Is this the rumour and gossip that
[25:15.840 -> 25:16.840] you were going to start spreading?
[25:16.840 -> 25:21.960] No, I think it's kind of well known that I think Sanchez is maybe, he was heading to
[25:21.960 -> 25:24.480] a British team, which could be one of seven.
[25:24.480 -> 25:30.080] British team coloured in orange, I think is quite expected. But if he was at McLaren from 2007 to 2012,
[25:31.120 -> 25:35.760] that was their last successful period, really. So that can't be a bad thing, maybe. Maybe he just
[25:35.760 -> 25:39.360] works in the environment there. Maybe it works for him. As long as you don't get people that
[25:39.360 -> 25:46.200] were working on the engine department in 2012, I think you're all right. That was it, that was it, 2012, wasn't it?
[25:46.200 -> 25:48.920] They had about 85 engine failures.
[25:48.920 -> 25:50.540] The Bosch pit stops.
[25:50.540 -> 25:54.360] Bosch pit stops, they had, they broke down in Singapore.
[25:54.360 -> 25:55.920] It was a Singapore Grand Prix
[25:55.920 -> 25:58.080] where Lewis Hamilton basically broke down,
[25:58.080 -> 26:00.800] got out of the car, marched straight to Nicky Lauda,
[26:00.800 -> 26:03.440] got signed for Mercedes, and that was it, job done.
[26:03.440 -> 26:04.720] I'm moving to Mercedes.
[26:04.720 -> 26:05.880] And- And the rumors go.
[26:05.880 -> 26:06.720] Yeah.
[26:06.720 -> 26:07.720] Matt.
[26:07.720 -> 26:10.200] Well, and I have some, if you were a McLaren fan,
[26:10.200 -> 26:13.020] it was a pretty dreadful outing.
[26:14.040 -> 26:16.600] I think the car isn't as bad as their results
[26:16.600 -> 26:18.600] at this particular race.
[26:18.600 -> 26:21.980] But the good news is their wind tunnel,
[26:21.980 -> 26:26.400] which is a big deal for them, is actually finished, and they're onto the
[26:26.400 -> 26:32.800] installation of equipment and correlation, expected to be up and running in June. And that is, in many
[26:32.800 -> 26:39.760] ways, going to be a bigger deal than probably a lot of people realize. So, there is some silver
[26:39.760 -> 26:45.680] lining on the horizon, if you're a McLaren fan right now. Okay, that's far on the horizon though.
[26:45.680 -> 26:50.040] So that you're talking then next season, or the season after, because the wind tunnel
[26:50.040 -> 26:51.600] is going to correlate straight away.
[26:51.600 -> 26:53.280] Oh, for upgrades!
[26:53.280 -> 26:54.400] Exactly.
[26:54.400 -> 26:59.080] For development, they no longer have to ship everything to Cologne, Germany to test it.
[26:59.080 -> 27:04.200] They can just walk down the hall and chuck it in there, as long as they've got the time
[27:04.200 -> 27:05.880] left under their restrictions, of course.
[27:05.880 -> 27:12.960] Okay, let's quickly take a trip to, I wanted to say Viri, but Viri is Renault's engine
[27:12.960 -> 27:14.560] manufacturing base, isn't it?
[27:14.560 -> 27:15.560] Yes, that's correct.
[27:15.560 -> 27:17.880] But Alpine is still based at Enstone.
[27:17.880 -> 27:18.880] Yep.
[27:18.880 -> 27:24.760] So Alpine was Renault, and Renault was, who was the Renault outfit before that?
[27:24.760 -> 27:25.120] Lotus. Lotus. Yeah, who was the Renault outfit before that? Lotus?
[27:25.120 -> 27:25.600] Lotus.
[27:25.600 -> 27:31.200] Yeah, that was Matthew Carter's Lotus. And I think that's as far back as we need to go.
[27:32.240 -> 27:38.960] So the Endstone outfit, Matt, again, in a very similar position to Alpine. And I think first and
[27:38.960 -> 27:43.200] foremost, actually, Kyle, we'll go to you here, because I know we've been following Gasly's
[27:43.200 -> 27:49.040] career and you go, oh, you poor, you poor dear., oh you just want to give him a bit of a hug don't you, because
[27:49.040 -> 27:55.440] he's gone from bottom of the midfield mediocrity finally to a works team and it feels like it's
[27:55.440 -> 28:02.240] nowhere. Yeah, they were apparently really bullish all through testing, there was a lot of confidence
[28:02.240 -> 28:06.540] coming out of them and I'm not right, they're going to turn up the engine and they're going to take some fuel out and
[28:06.540 -> 28:09.000] they're finally going to start going quick, but it never really happened.
[28:09.000 -> 28:10.960] The car looks stiff all the way throughout.
[28:10.960 -> 28:14.360] But one thing, which actually he was my driver of the race, actually, in the first
[28:14.360 -> 28:17.720] race, Gasly went from dead last to ninth.
[28:18.160 -> 28:20.320] And I believe with a bit of a mishap on the way.
[28:20.400 -> 28:23.920] Um, so actually he put in a really stunning drive actually.
[28:23.920 -> 28:26.080] So it was a really strong start, but yeah, I get what you're saying.
[28:26.080 -> 28:28.800] He, yeah, he was like, finally, I've got it.
[28:28.800 -> 28:29.480] All French team.
[28:29.480 -> 28:31.280] This is the dream team and my dream job.
[28:31.280 -> 28:33.040] And it starts on the back of the grid.
[28:33.080 -> 28:34.720] It's not, it's not ideal, is it?
[28:34.720 -> 28:39.080] But also, Alfa Tauri didn't exactly have a stellar, a stellar race either.
[28:39.080 -> 28:42.440] So it's not like he's going to be looking, you know, looking at back at his
[28:42.440 -> 28:44.400] ex-girlfriend thinking, well, what have I done?
[28:44.960 -> 28:48.240] You know, I think it's not entirely like that, but, but yeah, it was a shame. It would have been
[28:48.240 -> 28:53.520] nice to see Alpine a bit further up, but works team, I'd expect to see them pumping some really
[28:53.520 -> 28:58.240] strong performances from the mid-season onwards. Yeah, and like you can look back and kind of go,
[28:58.240 -> 29:02.640] oh, was that the right decision? And then you remember that she chucked all the items from your
[29:02.640 -> 29:06.000] kitchen out into the street from the second floor.
[29:06.000 -> 29:10.360] But Matt, they did have a few tussles with the Alpha Tauris on the way through.
[29:10.360 -> 29:14.200] I know Gasly had a good fight with Synoda.
[29:14.200 -> 29:19.160] You'd still probably say, medium term, it's still a good move, isn't it?
[29:19.160 -> 29:22.160] He's not going to start panicking and looking for an out in his contract.
[29:22.160 -> 29:31.000] No, no. In fact, if we remove the outlier of Aston's upgrade in performance, I think Alpine start
[29:31.000 -> 29:37.100] more or less where they finished last season, which is solidly fourth in the constructors.
[29:37.100 -> 29:42.720] And certainly if we look at the performance relative to Ferrari or Mercedes, they may
[29:42.720 -> 29:46.660] have actually gained a little bit on them.
[29:46.660 -> 29:52.480] Red Bull however, and Aston, has sort of upset that for most people.
[29:52.480 -> 29:58.320] But it's a works team, they had a very strong development cycle last season, they're very
[29:58.320 -> 29:59.840] happy with the upgrades.
[29:59.840 -> 30:04.080] And the other thing, and I've made this point before to realize, is that they redesigned
[30:04.080 -> 30:05.560] the entire rear end.
[30:05.560 -> 30:07.960] They went from, I think, pull rod to push rod suspension.
[30:07.960 -> 30:12.600] So there's a lot of new stuff there for them to dial in with setup.
[30:12.600 -> 30:17.720] I don't think we've seen the absolute maximum extracted from the current car, never mind
[30:17.720 -> 30:19.120] what they bring to it with development.
[30:19.120 -> 30:20.120] Alright, pause.
[30:20.120 -> 30:21.120] Spanners, pause.
[30:21.120 -> 30:24.960] When you say things that I don't understand.
[30:24.960 -> 30:26.600] So I've actually confession.
[30:26.600 -> 30:27.800] I've heard for like the last eight years.
[30:27.800 -> 30:31.600] How long we've been podcasting together nearly nine years.
[30:31.600 -> 30:35.300] It's getting that point where I'm starting to be embarrassed to tell people exactly how
[30:35.300 -> 30:35.700] long it is.
[30:35.700 -> 30:40.800] 2014 was the first season you and I were podcasting on Formula 1 and I have heard you say pull
[30:40.800 -> 30:48.480] rod and push rod suspension in that time thousands of times and I don't know the difference or why I should care. So why don't you two
[30:48.480 -> 30:53.160] break that down for me a little bit just in a few minutes. Well you're gonna hate
[30:53.160 -> 30:58.800] to hear this but in a pull rod suspension when the wheel is struck and
[30:58.800 -> 31:03.400] has to deal with the force it pulls on the rod that's attached to the damper
[31:03.400 -> 31:08.860] and in a push rod suspension when the wheel is struck and has to deal with a force, it
[31:08.860 -> 31:12.000] pushes on the rod that's attached to the damper.
[31:12.000 -> 31:16.080] And that is literally one of the major differences.
[31:16.080 -> 31:22.480] Actually, that makes sense because not necessarily in my mind or the listener's mind are these
[31:22.480 -> 31:23.480] things passive.
[31:23.480 -> 31:28.160] So, you know, you used to have active active suspension but of course this is all passive suspension
[31:28.160 -> 31:32.660] so this is basically the way in which the road through the wheel and the
[31:32.660 -> 31:37.400] suspension arms interacts with the the dampening system so actually that's not
[31:37.400 -> 31:41.440] as stupid and simplistic an explanation as you thought it was going to be Kyle
[31:41.440 -> 31:47.540] and also why they changed change these sort of these arrangements from push and
[31:47.540 -> 31:51.440] pull rod, it's got nothing really to do with the ride or the actual suspension
[31:51.440 -> 31:51.780] itself.
[31:51.780 -> 31:54.160] It's purely, mainly an aerodynamic reason.
[31:54.160 -> 31:59.120] So, so if you think you've got to, you've got a wheel that's going to, to put an
[31:59.120 -> 32:04.800] action on a damper, in suspension, if it's a, if it's a push rod, you need the
[32:04.800 -> 32:05.820] suspension to go in a diagonal
[32:05.820 -> 32:07.980] line from the bottom of the wheel to the top of the chassis.
[32:07.980 -> 32:10.140] So when the wheel moves up, it pushes on the bar.
[32:10.140 -> 32:13.180] If it's a pull rod, you basically flip the diagonal.
[32:13.180 -> 32:15.180] So you've got a diagonal bar going the other way.
[32:15.180 -> 32:17.020] So when it goes up, it pulls on it.
[32:17.020 -> 32:21.740] So basically it's just flipping diagonal bars, and it's going whichever way you want to suit
[32:21.740 -> 32:22.740] your aerodynamic preference.
[32:22.740 -> 32:23.740] Oh, is that right?
[32:23.740 -> 32:24.740] Oh, okay.
[32:24.740 -> 32:26.640] So like, it's like, oh, it's much of a muchness, but it can affect which way you want to suit your aerodynamic preference. Oh, is that right? Oh, okay. So like, it's like, oh, it's much of a muchness,
[32:26.640 -> 32:32.400] but it can affect which way you want to cut through the aero. Yeah. Huh. I learned a thing.
[32:33.440 -> 32:38.960] There are other differences as well. It's easier to adjust push rod setups
[32:40.000 -> 32:48.080] relative to pull rods because of where the entry to the chassis is located,
[32:48.080 -> 32:53.840] to where it essentially attaches to your dampers. And there's some other minor suspension
[32:53.840 -> 32:58.320] differences, second-order lever stuff and things like that. But on the whole,
[32:58.320 -> 33:03.600] they op—and there might be a little weight advantage to push rod, pull rod, I can't remember.
[33:03.600 -> 33:10.400] One of them has maybe a slight weight advantage. But we're getting into very much smaller margins. The biggest
[33:10.400 -> 33:15.000] difference, as Kyle has pointed out, will be aerodynamic in terms of where and how the
[33:15.000 -> 33:20.120] team is trying to get the air to go, both at the front of the car and at the back of
[33:20.120 -> 33:21.120] the car.
[33:21.120 -> 33:27.840] Oh, no, with that new information, that's pushed out other information from my brain. I've forgotten now how to emotionally connect with my
[33:27.840 -> 33:31.520] children but at least I understand the difference between pull and push rod
[33:31.520 -> 33:36.240] suspension. So let's circle back round to Mercedes. Haven't got as much time as I
[33:36.240 -> 33:40.640] hoped we would on this because we do want to make sure we hear from Mike
[33:40.640 -> 33:46.020] Caulfield but basically the Mercedes no-blame culture has
[33:46.020 -> 33:50.680] immediately failed to survive contact with the enemy. Toto Wolff is blaming
[33:50.680 -> 33:55.240] everyone but himself. Lewis Hamilton says the team didn't listen to him on the
[33:55.240 -> 33:59.760] direction of the car and I think the general feeling we're getting from the
[33:59.760 -> 34:05.680] tech side is almost like a it's fine's fine, it's fine, we're getting there, we're getting there.
[34:05.680 -> 34:08.320] Who's telling the truth? Who's correct, Kyle?
[34:08.320 -> 34:13.000] I don't know, and it's quite, it seems quite disjointed. I'm amazed that...
[34:13.000 -> 34:14.320] It's so bad, yeah.
[34:14.320 -> 34:18.120] Yeah, yeah, they're all making statements. I'm really quite disappointed in the statements
[34:18.120 -> 34:23.560] that have come out, to be honest. Like, sort of Toto's basically just said it, doom, you
[34:23.560 -> 34:25.040] know, there's a free horseman outside.
[34:25.040 -> 34:25.760] Yeah, Wolf smash.
[34:25.760 -> 34:30.800] You know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's all gone, it's all gone wrong basically. Lewis
[34:30.800 -> 34:35.760] was really positive at the start, but now he's said the team didn't listen to me. And it sounds
[34:35.760 -> 34:39.760] like he's had a pot shot of the team in the press, which doesn't really help anything.
[34:39.760 -> 34:43.200] And then Wolf said, no, we are all united. And then George Russell said, well, Red Bull
[34:43.200 -> 34:46.400] going to win every race. It is not, none of it is positive, is it?
[34:46.400 -> 34:49.640] And it's all slightly negative in a slightly different way,
[34:49.640 -> 34:52.680] which is a bit sort of bamboozling really.
[34:52.680 -> 34:54.920] Like I'm really surprised they haven't just kept their heads
[34:54.920 -> 34:57.000] down and said, okay, we're going to keep working on it.
[34:57.000 -> 34:59.480] They basically said, we've made a horrible,
[34:59.480 -> 35:00.880] we've made a Ferrari S ball drop,
[35:00.880 -> 35:04.800] but on the technical side, and we're screwed basically.
[35:04.800 -> 35:05.920] And we're going to try really hard to fix it.
[35:05.920 -> 35:08.280] And we might have to write off the season, which I'm really surprised
[35:08.280 -> 35:10.120] they have come out so negative so early.
[35:10.840 -> 35:12.960] Did you mention balls every appearance?
[35:13.000 -> 35:13.960] Are you on a dare?
[35:15.040 -> 35:15.840] I tried to sit funny.
[35:15.840 -> 35:16.840] You were hovering over the button, weren't you?
[35:18.520 -> 35:19.020] Trumpets.
[35:20.440 -> 35:22.360] Yeah, I agree with Kyle.
[35:27.760 -> 35:36.440] Yeah, I agree with Kyle. I'm surprised that the official team attitude of Mercedes is so downbeat. And I mean, I don't know if the word hysterical is in use anymore, but I'm
[35:36.440 -> 35:48.760] just astonished for a team that prides itself on engineering to what is a very, very emotional response to simply not being where they expect it to be.
[35:48.760 -> 35:51.640] Mercedes' usual response is, we'll work the problem.
[35:51.640 -> 35:52.520] We'll get there.
[35:52.520 -> 35:55.760] We've solved all sorts of complicated problems before.
[35:55.760 -> 35:58.920] We acknowledge this isn't an optimum outcome,
[35:58.920 -> 36:01.980] but we are working towards a solution.
[36:01.980 -> 36:04.580] And even if that solution is we feel
[36:04.580 -> 36:07.200] we need to change aerodynamic horses
[36:07.200 -> 36:12.480] midstream, that's what you would expect from them.
[36:12.480 -> 36:17.760] How much more expensive do we think it would be to come out with a completely different
[36:17.760 -> 36:23.120] chassis concept versus the upgrade program? So what's the penalty? Does it cost more money,
[36:23.120 -> 36:31.000] or does it mean that your concept is now at zero upgrades, whereas before your concept would have been at zero plus
[36:31.000 -> 36:37.640] one upgrades, which is one upgrade. What's the penalty for just going, right, scrap it?
[36:37.640 -> 36:46.080] The penalty is increased uncompetitiveness until the new concept hits the track and hopefully is validates the
[36:46.080 -> 36:52.560] numbers you developed in the design phase. Yeah, so there's different sort of theories
[36:52.560 -> 36:56.720] around this. And it seems like there's different ways of thinking coming from within Mercedes
[36:56.720 -> 37:01.760] itself. So, so, so what George Russell, I think, and what other people are calling for is just
[37:01.760 -> 37:08.360] scrap this year, use this year and use all of our upgrade tokens. So to answer Spanner's question, you know, how much does it cost?
[37:08.360 -> 37:12.120] If they stuck with this concept, they can probably bring two to three big upgrades,
[37:12.120 -> 37:15.960] or if they change the concept, they can change the concept, start with zero and probably
[37:15.960 -> 37:20.200] have no upgrades for it, but they set themselves up better for next year as a platform.
[37:20.200 -> 37:25.600] So I think half of Mercedes are maybe saying that we need to completely ditch this concept
[37:25.600 -> 37:30.520] and basically use this year as a change concept to try to wriggle out the wrinkles in it.
[37:30.520 -> 37:32.920] And then it'll put us on a better base to start next year.
[37:32.920 -> 37:36.180] Or the other half of the camp is saying, let's carry on with this concept.
[37:36.180 -> 37:38.320] Let's carry on developing it and it might work.
[37:38.320 -> 37:42.400] So yeah, so they could either write it off, have no upgrades and sort themselves out for
[37:42.400 -> 37:49.680] next year, or they can try and plow on and save some grace this year and then leave themselves maybe slightly compromised if they do genuinely
[37:49.680 -> 37:54.240] believe that this concept has hit a dead end. And the noises Toto Wolff is making sounds like this
[37:54.240 -> 37:58.480] concept has hit a dead end in his eyes. They're two rubbish choices really though, aren't they?
[37:59.520 -> 38:01.200] You wouldn't pick either, but that's what you are.
[38:02.160 -> 38:07.860] Well, it's very Highlander. There can be only one under the cost cap, says Total Wolf.
[38:07.860 -> 38:09.520] And I suspect he is right.
[38:09.520 -> 38:14.360] Mercedes already has an upgrade coming at Imola, a fairly big one that might gain them
[38:14.360 -> 38:15.440] back more performance.
[38:15.440 -> 38:18.820] And I do need to point out here, one of the reasons for my confusion about all of this
[38:18.820 -> 38:25.920] is if you look at Mercedes position now compared to last season, they're actually in a lot better place.
[38:25.920 -> 38:31.440] They have a car that works. They have a car that met their targets. Now, why their targets that
[38:31.440 -> 38:36.480] made them happy were so much off of, say, Red Bulls or Astons is perhaps a different question
[38:36.480 -> 38:40.320] to be asked, and I've seen it asked on Twitter before. But the fact of the matter is they
[38:40.320 -> 38:51.640] brought a car that met their targets. They have already a big upgrade plan to gain performance, it seems much more in a wheelhouse where setup can be
[38:51.640 -> 38:56.760] optimized, developments can be brought, and if they're looking at that long path
[38:56.760 -> 39:00.400] and saying we still don't think this is the one, that's also not a surprise. This
[39:00.400 -> 39:08.000] is only year two. So the statement from Wolff about the upgrade was, well, three tenths won't be enough.
[39:08.000 -> 39:12.200] So we can assume that they think their upgrade package was going to be three tenths.
[39:12.200 -> 39:13.600] Obviously other people will upgrade.
[39:13.600 -> 39:17.400] But if you look at the 0.6 off they were in qualifying,
[39:17.400 -> 39:20.000] he said both drivers didn't nail that lap.
[39:20.000 -> 39:22.000] They didn't go out for a second run.
[39:22.000 -> 39:29.480] And Lewis Hamilton was complaining that on the setup, they took out loads of front end, basically. So he was complaining, that's why
[39:29.480 -> 39:33.620] he was getting understeer and tyre wear in the race. So they didn't get the setup right,
[39:33.620 -> 39:38.280] they didn't tactically utilise the second run in qualifying, and they didn't nail the
[39:38.280 -> 39:43.320] qualifying laps. So maybe that three tenths upgrade, that might be significant.
[39:43.320 -> 39:47.680] Absolutely. It wasn't, yeah, it wasn't an unmitigated disaster, was it?
[39:47.680 -> 39:50.560] The way they've been talking, you haven't seen the race, but oh my God, they've
[39:50.560 -> 39:53.480] finished like 15th and 16th and they had nothing left.
[39:53.840 -> 39:55.400] So this is why I'm really surprised.
[39:55.400 -> 39:59.120] And this is why also I'm struggling to take it at face value.
[39:59.120 -> 40:02.080] I'm taking it with a large pinch of salt of what they're saying.
[40:02.080 -> 40:05.040] And I think they might be positioning themselves, but I don't,
[40:05.040 -> 40:08.960] I'm really disappointed in how they've acted about it. But as you say, they, they're not
[40:08.960 -> 40:13.200] bouncing. The pace difference at the start from last year was roughly similar. Remember, there
[40:13.200 -> 40:16.560] wasn't a safety car during the Bahrain race either. So that's why they said that they're
[40:16.560 -> 40:21.200] saying they're 50 seconds behind Red Bull. Well, they may well have ended up 50 seconds behind Red
[40:21.200 -> 40:24.880] Bull last year as well, but there was a safety car, which closes all the field up, field up.
[40:24.880 -> 40:27.520] So they've had a natural field progression, which we've not seen for a long
[40:27.520 -> 40:33.520] time in Formula One, to be honest. It's usually a safety car. So yeah, it doesn't actually look
[40:33.520 -> 40:39.360] as bad as they are making out, but there was lots of rumours before testing started that Mercedes
[40:39.360 -> 40:42.960] apparently had done a sudden U-turn in a bit of their concept and they were struggling to
[40:42.960 -> 40:47.080] manufacturing parts in time. And now these are unsubstantiated rumors
[40:47.080 -> 40:48.800] that there was a lot of this going around.
[40:48.800 -> 40:50.680] And now Mercedes is coming out and saying
[40:50.680 -> 40:53.440] that half the camp thinks that they've got the concept wrong.
[40:53.440 -> 40:55.360] This kind of adds some weight to those rumors.
[40:55.360 -> 40:56.880] So maybe they did have a, you know,
[40:56.880 -> 40:58.800] they got halfway through their development cycle,
[40:58.800 -> 41:00.080] and they're starting to make the parts and think,
[41:00.080 -> 41:00.920] hang on a minute.
[41:00.920 -> 41:02.720] No, we've gone up a cul-de-sac here.
[41:02.720 -> 41:04.720] We're in a dead end.
[41:04.720 -> 41:05.680] We might have to change it. But I feel a bit sorryde-sac here, we're in a dead end.
[41:05.680 -> 41:09.000] We might have to change it, but I feel a bit sorry, is it Mike Elliott, who I think is
[41:09.000 -> 41:11.600] kind of becoming a bit of a scapegoat for it?
[41:11.600 -> 41:14.840] How this usually works, as you all know, Span, as an engineering, you've got designers and
[41:14.840 -> 41:19.280] engineers can be very protective of their train sets.
[41:19.280 -> 41:22.840] So this concept might be his train set, that he's saying, this is my train set and it's
[41:22.840 -> 41:24.680] going to work, believe it, believe it, believe it.
[41:24.680 -> 41:27.360] And it might be to the point where he's going to get bullied out of it
[41:27.360 -> 41:30.640] and they have to reverse out of it. It's clearly some people who say do you still have faith in
[41:30.640 -> 41:36.240] this concept otherwise they wouldn't have got this far. My job in engineering was the will it
[41:36.240 -> 41:42.240] survive contact with reality test and sometimes you really did have to wrestle and pry design
[41:42.240 -> 41:45.280] concepts out of designers hands when they've spent years on it
[41:45.280 -> 41:50.320] and they absolutely believe it. But that's all the time we have. Make sure you follow Kyle Power
[41:50.320 -> 41:54.080] and all his links in the show notes below. And the person who puts those links in the show notes
[41:54.080 -> 42:00.880] below is Matt Two Rumpets. Go and follow him as well. Me and Matt earlier in the week caught up
[42:00.880 -> 42:06.300] with F1 strategist Mike Caulfield who who used to work for Haas and Mercedes, and
[42:06.300 -> 42:12.900] he gave us an insight into Formula 1 and into the start of the season that we couldn't possibly
[42:12.900 -> 42:16.880] dream of. So please enjoy this interview, he's a really nice guy, and I say goodbye
[42:16.880 -> 42:20.620] at the end of the interview, so I don't need to say anything else here, but we will see
[42:20.620 -> 42:25.480] you next on Sunday for our race review. I think it'll be live at 8 p.m. on YouTube,
[42:25.480 -> 42:27.000] but the podcast will be ready
[42:27.000 -> 42:28.800] for your Monday morning commute.
[42:28.800 -> 42:33.800] Most weight loss programs are short-term fixes,
[42:37.760 -> 42:40.880] but managing your weight needs a long-term solution,
[42:40.880 -> 42:42.940] and that's what makes Noom different.
[42:42.940 -> 42:48.400] Noom uses science and personalization to help you manage your weight for the long term.
[42:48.400 -> 42:52.320] Their psychology-based approach helps you build better habits and behaviors that are
[42:52.320 -> 42:54.060] easier to maintain.
[42:54.060 -> 42:55.300] The best part?
[42:55.300 -> 42:59.560] You decide how Noom fits into your life, not the other way around.
[42:59.560 -> 43:03.000] Sign up for your trial today at Noom.com.
[43:03.000 -> 43:07.000] That's N-O-O-M.com to sign up for your trial today.
[43:07.000 -> 43:12.880] Breast milk science. It's a thing. And it's our thing. We're Biheart. We're an infant
[43:12.880 -> 43:16.720] formula company on a mission to get a lot closer to the most super, super food on the
[43:16.720 -> 43:21.720] planet, breast milk. Our patented protein blend has more of the important and most abundant
[43:21.720 -> 43:25.620] proteins found in breast milk. We're the first and only US-made formula
[43:25.620 -> 43:28.960] to use organic, grass-fed whole milk, not skim.
[43:28.960 -> 43:30.800] We make our formula in our own factories
[43:30.800 -> 43:32.820] in Iowa, Oregon, and Pennsylvania,
[43:32.820 -> 43:34.860] using a small batch manufacturing process
[43:34.860 -> 43:37.500] that works to preserve the integrity of our ingredients.
[43:37.500 -> 43:39.200] We ran the largest clinical trial
[43:39.200 -> 43:42.260] by a new infant formula company in 25 years,
[43:42.260 -> 43:48.700] and clinically proved benefits like easier digestion, less gas, and softer poops versus a leading infant formula. We were
[43:48.700 -> 43:52.360] the first infant formula company to earn the Clean Label Project Purity Award. And
[43:52.360 -> 43:55.480] while we've put a lot into Biheart, there's a long list of things you won't
[43:55.480 -> 43:59.760] see on our ingredient list, like no corn syrup, no maltodextrin, no GMO
[43:59.760 -> 44:05.000] ingredients, no soy, no palm oil. Biheart, a better formula for formula.
[44:05.000 -> 44:07.000] Learn more at byheart.com.
[44:07.000 -> 44:11.000] Looking for a fun way to win up to 25 times your money this basketball season?
[44:11.000 -> 44:13.000] Test your skills on prize picks.
[44:13.000 -> 44:16.000] The most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports.
[44:16.000 -> 44:21.000] Just select two or more players, pick more or less on their projection for a wide variety of stats,
[44:21.000 -> 44:23.000] and place your entry.
[44:23.000 -> 44:28.920] It's as easy as that. If you have the skills, you can turn $10 into $250
[44:28.920 -> 44:30.560] with just a few taps.
[44:30.560 -> 44:33.200] Easy gameplay, quick withdrawals, and injury insurance
[44:33.200 -> 44:35.360] on your picks are what make Prize Picks
[44:35.360 -> 44:37.840] the number one daily fantasy sports app.
[44:37.840 -> 44:39.240] Ready to test your skills?
[44:39.240 -> 44:41.280] Join the Prize Picks community of more than
[44:41.280 -> 44:44.360] seven million players who have already signed up.
[44:44.360 -> 44:50.280] Right now, Prize Picks will match your first deposit up to $100. Just visit prizepix.com
[44:50.280 -> 44:57.000] slash get100 and use code get100. That's code get100 at prizepix.com slash
[44:57.000 -> 45:03.880] get100 for a first deposit matchup to $100. PrizePix, daily fantasy sports
[45:03.880 -> 45:10.720] made easy
[45:16.400 -> 45:29.280] we might be wrong but we're first and the reason we're wrong is because we really were just fans aren't we matt uh yes we are just fans and who needs correlation that That's for little kids. Yeah, who needs experts? Well, we do sometimes, because we like to bring on people who have
[45:29.280 -> 45:34.960] that intimate knowledge of Formula One so that we can talk to you with just a tiny bit
[45:34.960 -> 45:40.240] of borrowed authority. So today, Matt and I are joined by an experienced strategy engineer
[45:40.240 -> 45:50.000] with a demonstrated history of working in the motorsport industry. He is the ex-strategist for Mercedes and Haas and friend of Missed Apex podcast. Joining us
[45:50.000 -> 45:56.200] from parts unknown, it's Mike Caulfield. Hey Mike. Hiya, nice to be on again. Mike
[45:56.200 -> 46:00.460] Caulfield, if you're not familiar, has been a strategist at both ends of the
[46:00.460 -> 46:04.560] grid, Mike, and you're in Bahrain at the moment. Yeah, both ends in the middle,
[46:04.560 -> 46:06.880] pretty much featured everywhere in there.
[46:06.880 -> 46:10.880] So I've got the broad spectrum of what you need to do in that area.
[46:10.880 -> 46:12.400] So what was the atmosphere feel like?
[46:12.400 -> 46:15.200] Obviously, everyone excited and buzzing for that first race,
[46:15.200 -> 46:18.240] but I know very little about Bahrain, believe it or not.
[46:18.240 -> 46:21.920] My day to day commute doesn't take me towards that circuit.
[46:21.920 -> 46:22.880] What was it like out there?
[46:23.600 -> 46:25.480] Yeah, it was interesting actually.
[46:25.480 -> 46:27.880] It was, I kind of felt after testing,
[46:27.880 -> 46:29.240] everyone was a little bit calm.
[46:29.240 -> 46:31.040] Obviously behind the scenes, they probably weren't,
[46:31.040 -> 46:32.880] but out in the open, it was,
[46:32.880 -> 46:35.440] the paddock was actually, yeah, relatively,
[46:35.440 -> 46:38.600] I don't know, it was a bit eerie in a sense,
[46:38.600 -> 46:41.280] but like everyone seems kind of relaxed and chilled
[46:41.280 -> 46:42.800] and just ready to go.
[46:42.800 -> 46:44.520] I don't know if it's the case of,
[46:44.520 -> 46:45.680] obviously had a bit of a longer winter
[46:45.680 -> 46:48.760] break than this year, than we've had in the last couple of seasons.
[46:48.760 -> 46:53.300] So it just meant everyone was ready and everyone had a little bit more time for
[46:53.300 -> 46:55.760] preparation and just actually eager to get going.
[46:55.760 -> 47:01.020] Um, but yeah, it was obviously that usual buzz, chatted to a few people I knew, and
[47:01.020 -> 47:04.280] everyone was kind of, again, that prolonged break actually, they were ready to get
[47:04.280 -> 47:07.720] back into it and not dreading the season ahead just yet.
[47:07.720 -> 47:11.720] So I wonder if though the very short testing, because there was only three days of
[47:11.720 -> 47:14.760] testing where there's normally like a couple of stabs at it, did some of the
[47:14.760 -> 47:19.080] teams do you sense tip turn up thinking of Friday as kind of almost an extension
[47:19.080 -> 47:27.200] of the testing? Yeah I'd say that I mean you obviously only have two hours on a Friday and you still got to
[47:27.200 -> 47:29.040] do your work for the, for the race itself.
[47:29.040 -> 47:32.800] So, so you just, it's a continuation of pretty much what you've learned.
[47:32.800 -> 47:37.360] So maybe it's just got any slight unknowns, which you picked up on testing, um, on,
[47:37.460 -> 47:40.620] on your tires or run maybe high fuel pace or your low fuel pace.
[47:40.620 -> 47:43.920] You just want to maybe just get that a little bit more information on it, but
[47:44.440 -> 47:48.760] really looking at the run programs, most people did, I think most people stuck to what
[47:48.760 -> 47:50.840] they normally would do on a Friday anyway.
[47:50.840 -> 47:57.360] So it's just, yeah, just finalising that little bit of work, which they did during the winter
[47:57.360 -> 47:58.760] testing the week before.
[47:59.600 -> 48:03.640] Yeah, so some teams did seem more prepared than others.
[48:03.640 -> 48:06.760] And it was, I think, quite clear looking around the paddock
[48:06.760 -> 48:09.760] that certain teams had turned up with no concept
[48:09.760 -> 48:12.500] or a concept that they instantly got rid of.
[48:12.500 -> 48:14.320] But we'll dig into that a little bit more.
[48:14.320 -> 48:15.840] I think, Matt, I think we want to sort of focus
[48:15.840 -> 48:18.000] on the race one challenges,
[48:18.000 -> 48:19.280] perhaps from a team point of view,
[48:19.280 -> 48:24.240] but also digging into Mike's intimate strategy knowledge.
[48:24.240 -> 48:31.680] Well, yeah. And I think one of the first and biggest questions I had is, now, we had testing
[48:31.680 -> 48:36.840] at the same track where we were racing, but the race is the first time the teams really
[48:36.840 -> 48:38.360] sort of went all out.
[48:38.360 -> 48:44.520] So from a strategy point of view, like, how many surprises are you looking at on race
[48:44.520 -> 48:45.760] day, um,
[48:46.200 -> 48:48.300] compared to the knowledge you gained from testing?
[48:48.300 -> 48:51.740] Like how much of race one is really just, oh, we're still kind of learning
[48:51.740 -> 48:53.760] some stuff about this car and oopsies.
[48:53.980 -> 48:56.880] Who knew the tires would go 10 laps less than we thought they would.
[48:57.640 -> 49:03.100] Um, yeah, I mean, obviously, like you said, having that test a week before, um,
[49:03.700 -> 49:07.340] gives you that a little bit more information and Bahrain now has become testing.
[49:07.340 -> 49:11.240] I think the last three seasons is that we've done testing preseason testing
[49:11.240 -> 49:12.600] before going into the first race there.
[49:13.280 -> 49:17.000] Um, so you know, it's not just the continuation of this year.
[49:17.000 -> 49:19.680] You can look at previous years of what, what's it been like
[49:19.680 -> 49:21.080] going from testing into the race.
[49:21.080 -> 49:24.560] So you look at that historic information and you can kind of see, right.
[49:24.580 -> 49:25.060] Well, this is kind of what we saw, the degradation of the tires in testing. How did that correlate in the race. So you look at that historic information and you can kind of see, right, well, this
[49:25.060 -> 49:28.340] is kind of what we saw, the degradation of the tires in testing, how did that
[49:28.340 -> 49:29.300] correlate in the race?
[49:29.300 -> 49:31.460] And you start using that information going forward.
[49:31.460 -> 49:35.640] So I think probably going into this weekend's race, there was obviously some,
[49:36.220 -> 49:39.520] still some unknowns in terms of competitive order.
[49:39.580 -> 49:42.820] And, and obviously again, what the tires exactly we're going to do in that
[49:42.820 -> 49:43.520] situation.
[49:44.040 -> 49:50.080] Um, but it's, it's probably the most prepared teams are going to be for a race.
[49:50.340 -> 49:54.500] Other than maybe knowing exactly where they stand then for the rest of the season,
[49:54.500 -> 49:57.420] obviously, where you turn up now for the rest of the tracks of the year without
[49:57.420 -> 50:02.020] having done a week's worth of testing before turning up on that, on that Friday.
[50:02.560 -> 50:06.400] So yeah, there's, there's always a few surprises, but as a strategist,
[50:06.400 -> 50:10.880] there's some surprises every weekend as well. So you've always got to try and counter what
[50:10.880 -> 50:12.080] they may or may not be.
[50:12.080 -> 50:17.280] Yeah. It's worth remembering that Spain was traditionally the testing ground. So you would
[50:17.280 -> 50:22.480] have done a lot of testing sessions in Spain and Jerez as well, also in Spain. So Barcelona
[50:22.480 -> 50:25.440] and Jerez, and they would have been significantly
[50:25.440 -> 50:33.120] cooler testing conditions than Bahrain. So which one did you prefer as a testing bed
[50:33.120 -> 50:37.880] for the season going forward? Obviously, Bahrain is very representative of the Bahrain Grand
[50:37.880 -> 50:42.040] Prix, but with Spain, did that give you more of an indication, more different types of
[50:42.040 -> 50:46.480] corners? So, yeah, it's an interesting one.
[50:46.480 -> 50:49.600] Like, because like you said, Barcelona in February is very
[50:49.600 -> 50:51.000] unrepresentative.
[50:51.000 -> 50:54.800] So, and the main thing from kind of a strategy's point of view
[50:54.800 -> 50:56.880] is you're trying to get this information on the tyres and
[50:56.880 -> 50:57.600] what they're going to do.
[50:57.600 -> 51:00.480] And actually the tyres in Barcelona are going to be,
[51:00.480 -> 51:05.600] Barcelona winter testing, really unrepresentative of what you see
[51:05.600 -> 51:06.480] for the rest of the year.
[51:06.920 -> 51:12.120] Um, just because you've very rarely run in, in that kind of 17, 18 degree
[51:12.120 -> 51:16.480] tractor, not track 10, bare 10, which you kind of, is the match you get in Barcelona.
[51:16.480 -> 51:21.560] And so from a car performance point of view, yeah, it's Barcelona is a relatively
[51:21.560 -> 51:23.440] good place to test because it has all those factors.
[51:23.440 -> 51:26.960] It has the obviously different kinds of types of corners, but from a strategy
[51:26.960 -> 51:29.840] point of view, you always went into Barcelona testing knowing, but when you
[51:29.840 -> 51:33.280] got to the race in May, the tires would behave very differently and you also
[51:33.280 -> 51:39.240] had to do a lot of kind of, um, Ifs and buts of, of, well, this tire does this in
[51:39.240 -> 51:39.760] winter.
[51:40.080 -> 51:42.400] And so again, you're looking back at historic and going, right, how
[51:42.400 -> 51:43.880] does that translate going forward?
[51:43.880 -> 51:48.240] So a lot of the things you saw in the, in the kind of winter testing in Barcelona,
[51:48.240 -> 51:52.800] yeah, you just knew were not going to apply to pretty much any racetrack you came to in terms
[51:52.800 -> 51:58.080] of tyres and strategy anyway. And so I'm going to stray into Trumpets territory here, Matt,
[51:58.080 -> 52:07.680] because you did a nice breakdown on Twitter of the new tyres, and I have to admit, that passed me by completely.
[52:07.680 -> 52:12.680] And then you got a quote tweet and a retweet from none other than ex-strategist Mike Caulfield.
[52:12.680 -> 52:17.040] So I think I'm going to rely on you two to kind of give me a little bit of a rundown
[52:17.040 -> 52:20.840] of what's going on in the tyres and what the changes were. Matt, kick us off. What was
[52:20.840 -> 52:23.320] the big changes for this season?
[52:23.320 -> 52:28.880] Well, I think there were two big changes. First is we had a brand new tire in the series,
[52:28.880 -> 52:36.040] the C1, which the teams hadn't seen before and is on the harder end. And then we also
[52:36.040 -> 52:42.640] had a new construction of front tire. And so I think the question, that first and obvious
[52:42.640 -> 52:50.900] question is how hard is it to take a new tire in this series and as a strategist and a team, and then subsequently, how much
[52:50.900 -> 52:55.580] does something like, oh, well, we have some brand new construction on the front tires.
[52:55.580 -> 53:00.100] How much does that change or affect your job as a strategist?
[53:00.100 -> 53:02.460] Like how does that change what you're able to do?
[53:02.460 -> 53:03.460] Yeah.
[53:03.460 -> 53:05.920] So, so usually, so so Prelli obviously do a lot
[53:05.920 -> 53:08.480] of their testing for the next season's tires
[53:08.480 -> 53:09.400] from the previous year.
[53:09.400 -> 53:12.600] So every team gets the option to do a day or two days
[53:12.600 -> 53:14.600] of kind of Prelli tire testing.
[53:14.600 -> 53:15.540] You don't know what they're running.
[53:15.540 -> 53:17.200] They can bring a variety of compounds.
[53:17.200 -> 53:19.520] So you don't know if that's going to be what they choose,
[53:19.520 -> 53:21.720] what it is, what the construction is or anything.
[53:21.720 -> 53:25.360] So they're all blind tests and the information gets shared purely across, across the rest of the teams. yw'r adeiladau neu unrhyw beth. Felly, maen nhw'n testau gwblhau ac mae'r wybodaeth yn cael ei rannu
[53:25.360 -> 53:31.200] yn unig dros y rhan fwyaf o'r tîmau. Ac yna'r testau ar gyfer Aberdabbi yw pan fyddwch chi'n
[53:31.200 -> 53:36.240] gwneud ar gyfer y cyntaf beth bynnag y bydd y cysylltiadau nesaf yn mynd i fod. Felly rydych yn dechrau cael eich wybodaeth
[53:36.240 -> 53:42.800] o'r test Aberdabbi. Ond mae'n dal, nid ydyn nhw'n dweud i chi'n unig beth yw'r newidiadau ar hyn o bryd.
[53:42.800 -> 53:49.000] Ac hefyd, eto, nid ydyn nhw'n ei gynhyrchu hynny nid, ond mae'n cyfle tell you exactly what the changes are at that point. Um, so, and also again, they won't confirm this or not, but it's, uh, but it's a chance
[53:49.000 -> 53:54.560] of, um, there's a chance in that tire test, but actually you're still running the 2022
[53:54.560 -> 53:58.360] tires and you're a control group and someone else is running the 2023 tires, for example.
[53:58.360 -> 54:00.280] And you're, you're not sure which ones you've got.
[54:00.280 -> 54:02.640] You're not told that you never told that you never found out.
[54:03.200 -> 54:06.040] Um, so you look at that and you kind of find,
[54:06.040 -> 54:07.880] well, why is my degradation worse than theirs?
[54:07.880 -> 54:09.320] Or why is my degradation better than theirs?
[54:09.320 -> 54:11.760] And you can kind of start maybe guessing afterwards,
[54:11.760 -> 54:14.000] but you also might be something relative to your car,
[54:14.000 -> 54:14.820] which causes that.
[54:14.820 -> 54:17.480] So you can never be a hundred percent sure.
[54:17.480 -> 54:19.920] So obviously when you get to Bahrain,
[54:19.920 -> 54:22.960] well, the first test, now Bahrain,
[54:22.960 -> 54:24.960] this is the first time you obviously run them in anger.
[54:24.960 -> 54:27.020] And then with it being Bahrain, it is the first time you obviously run them in anger. And then with it being Bahrain,
[54:27.020 -> 54:29.340] it's the first time it's running a representative condition
[54:29.340 -> 54:30.660] as well for the first race.
[54:30.660 -> 54:33.220] So you start understanding what they're doing.
[54:33.220 -> 54:36.420] So again, go back again, third time I mentioned it,
[54:36.420 -> 54:37.700] but you look at historical data,
[54:37.700 -> 54:39.560] you look at how does that compound.
[54:39.560 -> 54:42.340] So obviously when you get a brand new compound whatsoever,
[54:42.340 -> 54:44.180] that's a whole new ballgame.
[54:44.180 -> 54:48.000] So what's that going to do? If there's a brand new construction on the front, right, let's have a
[54:48.000 -> 54:52.560] look. You get the feedback from the drivers in terms of the kind of performance, if it's more
[54:52.560 -> 54:57.920] understeery, oversteery from that aspect of it. But then you'll start comparing it going, okay,
[54:57.920 -> 55:02.400] we know last year's C3 did this, what's this year's C3 doing? Okay, the performance isn't
[55:02.400 -> 55:26.000] too different. What's the Delta between the tyres? And you start looking at, you compare last year's ym mis C3 ym mis hwn, iawn, nid yw'r cyflogad yn gwahaniaeth iawn, beth yw'r delta rhwng y tyriau, ac fe wnaethon nhw ddangos, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C3, ym mis C probably have muted for a few years in terms of they want to make a tire where you can push and it doesn't overheat and
[55:26.000 -> 55:29.520] you can just love the drivers to push but they still want it to the grade. So
[55:30.080 -> 55:35.040] again, is that a kind of is that a name they've tried to go for this year? The teams aren't told really what the
[55:35.240 -> 55:36.720] what their
[55:36.720 -> 55:40.240] ideas behind their changing constructions are. We've got to kind of figure that out themselves.
[55:41.240 -> 55:45.360] So that's that's the main things you look at and you try and just build that picture up of
[55:45.360 -> 55:50.400] how the changes have affected the cars and what you do in terms of the strategy.
[55:50.400 -> 55:53.440] So just looking historically at what Pirelli have done with the compound. So
[55:53.920 -> 55:57.920] Pirelli could obviously make a tyre that could last all race, that is well within their
[55:57.920 -> 56:11.360] capabilities. They are going to a spec and a set of requirements. But am I imagining it that they did they had a type of tyre early on where it was fairly consistent and then it would just suddenly drop off a cliff.
[56:11.360 -> 56:16.240] So you would see drivers almost mid-lap suddenly have just got no grip and they would have to
[56:16.240 -> 56:20.560] disappear and into the pits but they would drop down the grid and so people were waiting for them
[56:20.560 -> 56:25.240] to drop off a cliff. Is the aim now to have degradation
[56:25.240 -> 56:29.200] that kind of where the lap times just gently increase
[56:29.200 -> 56:30.600] throughout the stint?
[56:30.600 -> 56:33.880] No, so that has always been the aim
[56:33.880 -> 56:36.400] and that was always the target set by,
[56:36.400 -> 56:37.880] I think F1 itself.
[56:37.880 -> 56:39.240] So they wanted that kind of idea
[56:39.240 -> 56:40.960] that you'd have a fairly consistent tire
[56:40.960 -> 56:42.080] and then it would just hit the end.
[56:42.080 -> 56:43.680] That's what they want, all right.
[56:43.680 -> 56:44.800] That's what they kind of wanted
[56:44.800 -> 56:46.680] and that's always kind of been in the target letter.
[56:46.960 -> 56:50.920] But what they found with that was that people then just started managing it
[56:50.960 -> 56:55.040] because the management, the way they built the tire, if you managed it, it just extended it.
[56:55.040 -> 56:59.040] So then they were like saying this tire will do 20 laps, but the teams then found
[56:59.040 -> 57:02.040] out, well, if we manage it by going a second off the pace at the beginning, we
[57:02.040 -> 57:03.800] can actually get 35 laps out of this.
[57:04.040 -> 57:08.800] So, and then, and then you wouldn't get that kind of drop off and it was, and yeah, they just figured
[57:08.800 -> 57:13.200] it out. So the next one they wanted to do was to try and produce a tire where you could push flat
[57:13.200 -> 57:18.720] out or not push. And it still have that drop off at the same point. Not quite sure they've figured
[57:18.720 -> 57:23.520] that out yet in terms of what they want to do, whether they've got that, well, they haven't got
[57:23.520 -> 57:28.960] that. So, so now they've kind of, again, Bahrain's a very different circuit, it's always been a higher degradation one
[57:28.960 -> 57:38.080] based on the track surface, but based on what we saw this week, in testing and this weekend,
[57:38.080 -> 57:50.160] the C1 potentially looks now a little bit higher degradation than what we saw last season. Wait, so C1 is the new super hard one? No? Other way around? Why is it so confusing?
[57:51.280 -> 57:56.960] So this is actually where the big story comes in and from what the teams have told us. And
[57:56.960 -> 58:03.040] obviously, C0 was last year's C1. So the last year's C1 is still around in C0, and that's
[58:03.040 -> 58:08.800] supposed to be the hardest compound. And they're supposed to have started in a C1, which obviously fits between the C0 and C2.
[58:09.440 -> 58:14.400] From what, basically looking at all the data from testing and the race and chatting to the teams,
[58:15.040 -> 58:20.640] they actually are ranking this as more of a C2.5, the new C1. So it's quicker than the C2.
[58:32.080 -> 58:36.560] the C2, it degrades more than the C2, so basically it doesn't appear harder than a C2 tyre. Okay, I'm going to nod along and then go look up the tyre compound. Before we get back to,
[58:36.560 -> 58:41.120] I know, Matt's train of thought and Bill has a great question. I think the question a lot of
[58:42.000 -> 58:47.520] newer fans, not me, I know it, of course I do, is what game is
[58:47.520 -> 58:53.720] Pirelli trying to create? What game is F1 trying to create with these tyres, with these
[58:53.720 -> 58:58.760] compounds? What are they looking for? One stop, two stop, what are they trying to achieve?
[58:58.760 -> 59:04.880] Because you could have Formula E style, all weather, last however long you want tyres.
[59:04.880 -> 59:09.800] I think the aim, and the teams agree with this, I think the teams are on board of it,
[59:09.800 -> 59:15.400] Pirelli are on board of it, the aim is they want a mix between one and two stop races,
[59:15.400 -> 59:21.400] as in not like a two stop race is close to a kind of do a one stop and then you, I think
[59:21.400 -> 59:25.440] Matt kind of touched on it in his tweet, but it's an idea of someone will do a one stop,
[59:25.440 -> 59:28.960] but has to do a bit of management where someone will do a two stop and can push those tires that
[59:28.960 -> 59:33.280] bit more. And then they start to come towards the end, towards the end together, towards the end,
[59:33.280 -> 59:37.200] sorry. And then start interacting and you get in that kind of battle towards the end, will he catch
[59:37.200 -> 59:42.160] him? Won't he catch him? And it adds a little bit of an element in there. And then, then that brings
[59:42.160 -> 59:46.360] in that engineering aspect of right, how good are we at looking after our tires?
[59:46.360 -> 59:48.600] And then you can say, for example,
[59:48.600 -> 59:50.720] a car like a Red Bull looks really good on its tires
[59:50.720 -> 59:53.040] this year, which isn't great for the rest of us.
[59:53.040 -> 59:55.640] But that's what it is.
[59:55.640 -> 59:57.320] They look really good on their tires.
[59:57.320 -> 59:59.600] But then another team which might struggle with Deg,
[59:59.600 -> 01:00:01.520] no matter what they do in terms of management,
[01:00:01.520 -> 01:00:03.800] go, right, well, it makes no sense for us to manage,
[01:00:03.800 -> 01:00:04.920] because we're still going to have bad Deg.
[01:00:04.920 -> 01:00:05.840] So let's push it.
[01:00:05.880 -> 01:00:08.200] We'll have an extra stop in, but at least we'll push the tires.
[01:00:08.200 -> 01:00:11.360] And then you start kind of bringing those strategies together in that respect.
[01:00:12.280 -> 01:00:12.560] Right.
[01:00:12.560 -> 01:00:15.880] Well, I would like to know, and one of our listeners would like to know a
[01:00:15.880 -> 01:00:17.520] little bit more about this.
[01:00:17.560 -> 01:00:19.320] Uh, I am Bill ask.
[01:00:19.760 -> 01:00:23.720] I'm curious to hear more about why the medium tire was so disliked.
[01:00:23.760 -> 01:00:30.860] Now, I think you've already sort of touched on it, but am I understanding your thinking or the team's thinking is more
[01:00:30.860 -> 01:00:39.360] that Pirelli's new tire is simply in the wrong place in the numerical order?
[01:00:39.360 -> 01:00:46.400] Yeah, that's, at least from Bahrain, that's the kind of impression it gives. I mean, and Bahrain, yeah, I'll just state it.
[01:00:46.400 -> 01:00:50.720] It might not be overall, but if you do actually go and have one of your tyre guys and looks
[01:00:50.720 -> 01:00:54.640] at the actual tyre stiffness metrics, it might come out and it is perfectly in line.
[01:00:55.440 -> 01:01:00.160] But Bahrain has often been a place, a couple of years ago, where it was hard, medium and
[01:01:00.160 -> 01:01:01.760] soft, and the hard was absolutely useless.
[01:01:02.640 -> 01:01:05.040] Sometimes that hard tyre doesn't actually work
[01:01:05.040 -> 01:01:11.680] in Bahrain and sometimes it does. But I think going back to the question in that sense that
[01:01:11.680 -> 01:01:16.720] the medium was just yeah it just didn't seem to work around Bahrain for some reason. It was
[01:01:16.720 -> 01:01:22.800] it was a similar level of deg to what the CE1 was so to the hard tyre but the hard was just quicker
[01:01:22.800 -> 01:01:26.520] so it made no sense to run the medium because you would literally just be offset
[01:01:26.520 -> 01:01:30.280] on pace with no benefit in performance in terms of degradation or life.
[01:01:30.600 -> 01:01:33.520] So that's why none of the teams run it just because it didn't actually
[01:01:33.520 -> 01:01:35.200] offer anything from a strategic point.
[01:01:35.640 -> 01:01:41.920] And then again, the C3, which was a soft, um, wasn't again, that offset
[01:01:41.920 -> 01:01:46.240] the, like all the degradations were all within kind of 0.05,
[01:01:46.240 -> 01:01:52.400] 0.04 of each other. There wasn't like a soft tyre which was degrading at 0.3 seconds a lap and a
[01:01:52.400 -> 01:02:01.520] hard tyre which was 0.05. They were all kind of C3 soft was 0.2, the C1 was 0.17 kind of thing.
[01:02:01.520 -> 01:02:06.880] And so they're all very much a muchness in that sense, which meant,
[01:02:06.880 -> 01:02:11.280] but often you get a case where the medium and harder run in a race because the soft degrades
[01:02:11.280 -> 01:02:16.160] so much where this one, the medium just didn't bring anything in terms of performance into any
[01:02:16.160 -> 01:02:20.640] aspects. It didn't bring any life, didn't bring any degradation and it didn't bring any pace either.
[01:02:21.440 -> 01:02:21.760] Ouch.
[01:02:23.760 -> 01:02:25.520] So that's ouch to Pirelli, is it?
[01:02:25.840 -> 01:02:26.160] Yeah.
[01:02:28.160 -> 01:02:29.840] Can I just ask a quick follow-up?
[01:02:30.400 -> 01:02:36.160] Is it possible that that's just down to like where the sweet spot of that particular tire is?
[01:02:37.040 -> 01:02:38.480] Yeah, there's a good chance of that.
[01:02:39.520 -> 01:02:44.000] Like I said, the bar ends are very abrasive track surface, which often interacts with the
[01:02:44.000 -> 01:02:45.280] tires in a very different way to what which often interacts with the tyres in a very
[01:02:45.280 -> 01:02:50.800] different way to what like where we get to Saudi. I know that's not the the C1 isn't coming to Saudi
[01:02:50.800 -> 01:02:55.440] but Saudi which is a very smooth surface totally different type of track. This is where you'll see
[01:02:55.440 -> 01:03:00.160] sometimes where you kind of bring the same compound works in some places and doesn't work in some
[01:03:00.160 -> 01:03:04.160] others where you look at the track layouts and think oh that's a very similar track why is it
[01:03:04.160 -> 01:03:08.720] working differently but actually the track track operation just interacts with that
[01:03:08.720 -> 01:03:13.240] kind of rubber much differently and just causes a totally different effect.
[01:03:13.240 -> 01:03:16.920] So Matt, this would be a good opportunity to settle the argument you and Chris were
[01:03:16.920 -> 01:03:26.840] having on Sunday's show about front limited tyres and tracks and rear limited tracks. So Bahrain is a rear limited track
[01:03:26.840 -> 01:03:32.240] because there's lots of heavy braking and then you're sort of kind of stopped, is it
[01:03:32.240 -> 01:03:36.200] like point and squirt, stopped and then you're getting on the power and that's wearing the
[01:03:36.200 -> 01:03:41.920] back. So if you have like long radius corners like Barcelona Turn 3 up the hill, is that
[01:03:41.920 -> 01:03:47.800] a front, where's the fronts a little bit more? So what would you say without giving it away, Matt,
[01:03:47.800 -> 01:03:49.280] what would you say on the calendar?
[01:03:49.280 -> 01:03:50.620] Are there more front limited tracks
[01:03:50.620 -> 01:03:52.220] or more rear limited tracks?
[01:03:52.220 -> 01:03:55.160] Where would you tend to want your car to be stronger?
[01:03:55.160 -> 01:03:57.200] Are you trying to now go through all the tracks
[01:03:57.200 -> 01:03:59.180] in your mind and count them up?
[01:03:59.180 -> 01:04:01.420] Does it feel like a pretty even split?
[01:04:01.420 -> 01:04:03.240] We're asking you, Mike, for sure, not Matt.
[01:04:03.240 -> 01:04:04.080] Oh, is that me?
[01:04:04.080 -> 01:04:10.000] I'm sorry, I thought you were asking Matt. No, no, Matt had an argument with Chris about it. Yeah, so I think
[01:04:10.640 -> 01:04:17.280] based on my experience, the majority of the track was, and it's not only just, but is more rear
[01:04:17.280 -> 01:04:26.400] limited and front limited circuits. There's also the different aspects that in terms of how the tires work as well,
[01:04:26.400 -> 01:04:30.920] that you can run the front tires down to 100% worn and you'll still get some performance
[01:04:30.920 -> 01:04:35.640] out of them, whereas the rears will only wear to like 60, 70% there it goes.
[01:04:35.640 -> 01:04:40.600] So often, even if it is kind of a track, say like a Silverstone, which you could potentially
[01:04:40.600 -> 01:04:49.920] class as front limited, you're probably still maybe actually tire limited on the rear, not the front. Ah, that's interesting actually. So that's actually, yeah, in between
[01:04:49.920 -> 01:04:55.120] what Chris and Matt said. So yeah, that's really interesting, Matt.
[01:04:56.880 -> 01:05:05.920] Yeah, the thing actually that really I was most disagreeable with was he said it because it was just about which set of tires went off
[01:05:06.560 -> 01:05:11.240] but as Mike correctly pointed out and you know
[01:05:11.240 -> 01:05:15.280] I just say this going along because I had already learned this from other experts
[01:05:15.280 -> 01:05:20.560] It's more about the corner and the energy that you're putting into the fronts versus the rears
[01:05:20.880 -> 01:05:25.040] Rather than which set of tires goes off in the race.
[01:05:25.040 -> 01:05:27.640] Chris was basing his on, oh, well, the rears usually go off first,
[01:05:27.640 -> 01:05:28.880] so they're all rear limited.
[01:05:28.880 -> 01:05:32.120] And that's not technically correct.
[01:05:32.120 -> 01:05:34.720] Yeah, 100%, you're spot on there, yeah.
[01:05:34.720 -> 01:05:38.480] I'd say it's probably a 60-40 split, maybe rear to front.
[01:05:38.480 -> 01:05:42.600] But yeah, there's a lot of tracks where the front corners are
[01:05:42.600 -> 01:05:46.640] the most energy hitting tires. OK, so you're giving up performance in the front corners are the most energy-hitting tyres.
[01:05:46.640 -> 01:05:51.680] Okay, so you're giving up performance in the front if it's front limited as the stint goes on,
[01:05:51.680 -> 01:05:56.640] but you're not necessarily falling away in the same way that you would with the rears going off.
[01:05:56.640 -> 01:06:04.080] And so going into Jeddah, and there's those long sweepers through the corridor of horror,
[01:06:09.080 -> 01:06:14.840] long sweepers through the corridor of horror. I'm so like, I'm dreading going back there because the first race, I think it feels incredibly lucky that there wasn't a crash, a high-speed
[01:06:14.840 -> 01:06:18.960] crash with people coming round in the blind corners. So I will once again be holding my
[01:06:18.960 -> 01:06:23.880] breath for all the competitive sessions. But is that more front limited then because of
[01:06:23.880 -> 01:06:25.200] those sweeping left
[01:06:25.200 -> 01:06:28.960] right and will that change which cars deal with it well?
[01:06:28.960 -> 01:06:34.520] Yeah, it'll definitely be more front limited, yeah, this one. And just to give you a bit
[01:06:34.520 -> 01:06:39.960] of ease, they've actually changed quite a lot of the walls to remove some of the blind
[01:06:39.960 -> 01:06:42.560] I think they've done quite a lot of work this year.
[01:06:42.560 -> 01:06:50.240] Thank goodness, that was horrible. But yeah, it's definitely a lot of the sweeping ones, but Jeddah in general is not really
[01:06:50.240 -> 01:06:51.720] a high energy circuit at all.
[01:06:51.720 -> 01:06:56.360] So I don't think it's going to be, because it's so high speed, it's almost like the cars
[01:06:56.360 -> 01:06:57.360] are on rails.
[01:06:57.360 -> 01:07:03.280] They don't, it's the ones where you kind of got your Silverstone, like Maggots Becketts,
[01:07:03.280 -> 01:07:08.740] your Barcelona Turn 3, which is a long, prolonged energy which
[01:07:08.740 -> 01:07:10.420] builds it in the ones.
[01:07:10.420 -> 01:07:15.020] Whereas with Saudi, they're so switched back and you're not actually put it in for that
[01:07:15.020 -> 01:07:16.020] long a time.
[01:07:16.020 -> 01:07:20.580] So while you might get a high peak of it, it's not the sustained one, it's that sustained
[01:07:20.580 -> 01:07:24.620] energy which really damages the tire in that respect.
[01:07:24.620 -> 01:07:29.920] So as a strategist, are you going to bolt off on your softest set of tyres to get off the line,
[01:07:29.920 -> 01:07:33.840] change onto the hards and that's it? You probably would expect maybe a one-stop?
[01:07:34.640 -> 01:07:36.960] I'd very much expect it to be a one-stop, yeah.
[01:07:37.600 -> 01:07:41.920] Aw, then they haven't achieved their aim of an interesting one to two-stop race. But there's a
[01:07:41.920 -> 01:07:50.000] few tracks, aren't there, that are super smooth like that with no wear. Obviously Sochi's not on the calendar anymore, but there are those tracks where the tyres just can't come into it
[01:07:50.000 -> 01:07:55.200] because the surface isn't abrasive enough. So, but I guess is that there's nothing we can do about that, Matt?
[01:07:55.200 -> 01:08:04.300] No, and I think, not to speak for Mike, it's, if I'm right, it's not just the abrasiveness of the circuit,
[01:08:04.300 -> 01:08:08.840] but you're also saying it's the amount of energy that the tires have to absorb through the turns.
[01:08:08.840 -> 01:08:13.040] Yeah, yeah, correct. Yeah. So it's, it's a combination of the two. So like, yeah, you'll
[01:08:13.040 -> 01:08:18.720] get some circuits where yeah, smooth and it's very much a low energy circuits where the
[01:08:18.720 -> 01:08:23.320] tires absorb. So I kind of basically means that I'll touch. So Baku for example, is one
[01:08:23.320 -> 01:08:25.200] of like, you've got a lot of kind of.
[01:08:28.100 -> 01:08:30.520] Um, 90 degree corners in that, but you haven't got any of the ones where you're really leaning on that tire for a long period of time.
[01:08:30.520 -> 01:08:34.740] So you've got that combination of a smooth surface with no real high
[01:08:34.740 -> 01:08:36.840] energy kind of, kind of corners in there.
[01:08:36.840 -> 01:08:40.780] So that's another one where you'll see a lot of cars struggling to get the tires
[01:08:40.780 -> 01:08:42.220] work, especially at the harder compound.
[01:08:43.600 -> 01:08:44.080] Uh, yeah.
[01:08:44.080 -> 01:08:50.960] So I'm looking at the tire choice for Jetta. It's C2, 3, and 4. I've heard this
[01:08:50.960 -> 01:08:57.600] criticism off Pirelli before. Are they being too conservative with tracks like this, and
[01:08:57.600 -> 01:09:02.880] the compounds they're bringing? Or is there a reason they're not going like 2, 3, 5, or
[01:09:02.880 -> 01:09:06.000] 3, 4, 5 to try and make that second
[01:09:06.000 -> 01:09:10.840] stop happen despite the nature of the circuit. You see it's it's quite a
[01:09:10.840 -> 01:09:14.280] difficult one actually with the three compounds. I know they've brought in
[01:09:14.280 -> 01:09:20.160] like then a three compound choice to try and add this kind of strategic
[01:09:20.160 -> 01:09:25.760] options but actually what you do if you say you bought a C2, C3, C5.
[01:09:26.620 -> 01:09:29.120] Probably what you'll find is everyone qualifies on the C5 and
[01:09:29.120 -> 01:09:30.280] then it just won't be used.
[01:09:30.280 -> 01:09:35.020] And everyone then just uses a C3 and C2 same potentially if it's C3, C4, C5.
[01:09:37.320 -> 01:09:40.400] It's the, the, the hard, the softer compound just isn't touched for the
[01:09:40.400 -> 01:09:43.060] race because there's just that two bigger gaps or you, and especially
[01:09:43.060 -> 01:09:45.940] now where everyone gets a free tire choice for them people.
[01:09:46.040 -> 01:09:48.920] And then if you are too far the other way, then no one touches the hard
[01:09:48.920 -> 01:09:51.680] compound and everyone just sticks on the soft and medium, and it's just.
[01:09:52.520 -> 01:09:55.800] They're actually potentially adding, we've added in the C1 in there.
[01:09:56.240 -> 01:10:00.080] There actually might be starting to open up in some circuits, that chance where
[01:10:00.180 -> 01:10:06.000] actually we've got three compounds now, which allows that bit of strategic variability and
[01:10:06.000 -> 01:10:11.200] adds that extra stop in there. And I think you're seeing actually now that there are more circuits,
[01:10:11.840 -> 01:10:15.600] the last couple of years, especially with the new cars. And then I think the year before,
[01:10:15.600 -> 01:10:21.360] there are actually now more tracks now where a two stop is starting to become a reasonable
[01:10:21.360 -> 01:10:25.000] strategy in most races, even within the midfield.
[01:10:25.000 -> 01:10:30.000] So I think they're getting close to the rain. You're just, you're never going to achieve it everywhere.
[01:10:30.000 -> 01:10:36.000] I just don't think it is ever going to happen everywhere, but you'll get more than one stop at some places.
[01:10:36.000 -> 01:10:48.800] So I'm often criticized for cutting Matt off when he's getting too deep into tyre talk and people yelled at me and said they wanted to hear it more. That was about 25 minutes of Matt talking to a real F1 strategist about tyres
[01:10:48.800 -> 01:10:52.600] and I stood here even though I didn't understand a single word of it.
[01:10:52.600 -> 01:10:57.500] So let's not have that criticism again, but I do want to get on to some more racy-racy type things.
[01:10:57.500 -> 01:11:07.920] In fact, I think a good question here from Mike Holler, who asks you, I'd like to hear from you Mike, your reaction to Russell asking
[01:11:07.920 -> 01:11:12.000] to pass Hamilton and the ambition of the young drivers.
[01:11:12.000 -> 01:11:17.340] We said on our race review on Sunday, we reckon that Russell knew his tyres were going and
[01:11:17.340 -> 01:11:19.720] he was kind of, it was a bit of a cheeky ask.
[01:11:19.720 -> 01:11:25.720] So how do you deal with drivers trying to do that? Hey, I've got more pace.
[01:11:25.720 -> 01:11:27.720] Yeah, I mean, they're always going to try it.
[01:11:27.720 -> 01:11:31.440] And I think it's that scenario where when they raise it,
[01:11:31.440 -> 01:11:33.840] you look at it, but I mean, the team as well,
[01:11:33.840 -> 01:11:36.120] have got so much information on what his tyres are doing.
[01:11:36.120 -> 01:11:38.160] So they'll know if his tyres are going,
[01:11:38.160 -> 01:11:40.360] they know what his temperatures are,
[01:11:40.360 -> 01:11:42.440] they know what the situation is around him as well.
[01:11:42.440 -> 01:11:46.000] So you kind of, you basically go,
[01:11:46.000 -> 01:11:48.340] barring for a start, it's a track which you can overtake
[01:11:48.340 -> 01:11:51.420] and you can kind of generally follow.
[01:11:51.420 -> 01:11:53.000] Even though this weekend actually it looked
[01:11:53.000 -> 01:11:55.400] that following wasn't as easy as it has been,
[01:11:55.400 -> 01:12:00.060] but it's one of those ones where the driver's
[01:12:00.060 -> 01:12:01.640] always gonna say, if he's behind his teammates,
[01:12:01.640 -> 01:12:02.720] he's always gonna try and say it,
[01:12:02.720 -> 01:12:06.840] but you kind of, I've been in those situations before where you, we actually
[01:12:06.840 -> 01:12:10.400] do switch them around and actually the only reason they're actually within the
[01:12:10.400 -> 01:12:13.640] teammates, because in the DRS and then as soon as they get ahead of the team,
[01:12:13.640 -> 01:12:16.720] right, and the teammate gets to the DRS and it's just the same situation the other
[01:12:16.720 -> 01:12:17.120] way around.
[01:12:17.120 -> 01:12:20.640] So it's, um, yeah, it's, it's what they do.
[01:12:21.680 -> 01:12:26.400] I was thinking shades of Rosberg and Hamilton in Malaysia, where
[01:12:26.400 -> 01:12:29.560] finally Ross Braun had to come on and say, okay, you two cut it out.
[01:12:29.560 -> 01:12:31.800] We neither of you are going to get to the end of the race.
[01:12:31.800 -> 01:12:34.480] If you just keep on passing each other in DRS zones.
[01:12:34.920 -> 01:12:39.280] But if you don't mind, you mentioned that it was harder to follow.
[01:12:39.520 -> 01:12:43.600] You thought for teams this year are, are, are the teams already
[01:12:43.660 -> 01:12:48.700] eroding this regulation set that led to such good racing last season?
[01:12:49.600 -> 01:12:53.900] I mean, I can't say yes or no. And in a sense, I haven't looked
[01:12:53.900 -> 01:12:57.220] at like the actual numbers, but it's kind of the impression and
[01:12:57.260 -> 01:13:00.260] it wouldn't surprise me, but they're starting to add new
[01:13:00.260 -> 01:13:03.700] parts to the car, which is starting to remove some of the
[01:13:03.700 -> 01:13:08.960] aspects, which obviously, as soon as you increase performance, like aero performance, which have to, I mean, what was it?
[01:13:08.960 -> 01:13:14.320] Barring testing this year was about three seconds quicker than barring testing last year. So as
[01:13:14.320 -> 01:13:18.640] you're adding that kind of aerodynamic performance, you're going to create more downwash of the car,
[01:13:18.640 -> 01:13:24.720] which is going to start having that effect on following cars. So no matter what they do in
[01:13:24.720 -> 01:13:25.240] the regs,
[01:13:25.240 -> 01:13:28.480] you're always going to create something in there, which,
[01:13:28.480 -> 01:13:30.040] yeah, and the teams are going to do everything
[01:13:30.040 -> 01:13:31.360] that they can do for performance.
[01:13:31.360 -> 01:13:33.960] They, if they're allowed to do it,
[01:13:33.960 -> 01:13:35.880] the F1 won't have picked up probably
[01:13:35.880 -> 01:13:37.240] on every single aspect of it,
[01:13:37.240 -> 01:13:39.960] which doesn't create a negative effect.
[01:13:39.960 -> 01:13:41.520] And then they'll probably look at it and say,
[01:13:41.520 -> 01:13:44.320] well, right, okay, right, we need to close this out loophole.
[01:13:44.320 -> 01:13:45.120] We close this, not loophole, but just kind. Okay. Right. We need to close this out. Loophole. We close this.
[01:13:45.120 -> 01:13:49.500] Uh, not loophole, but just kind of stop areas where you got developed in this area.
[01:13:49.500 -> 01:13:51.500] But yeah, I'm saying that.
[01:13:52.100 -> 01:13:54.900] Yeah, I definitely, it looked more difficult than I've seen in
[01:13:54.900 -> 01:13:57.500] previous years for Bahrain, especially.
[01:13:58.060 -> 01:14:00.660] Um, and it's also that situation as well.
[01:14:00.660 -> 01:14:05.200] I think because we saw in qualifying a spread of the cars of about, what was it?
[01:14:09.360 -> 01:14:10.640] One and a half seconds, 1.6 seconds, a full 20 cars or something, which everyone obviously went fantastic.
[01:14:10.640 -> 01:14:11.280] This is going to be run.
[01:14:11.600 -> 01:14:15.520] Actually though, when you have so many cars close together, you're just going to
[01:14:15.520 -> 01:14:18.320] fall in a train because they're not got the overtaking Delta to actually be able
[01:14:18.320 -> 01:14:18.800] to pass.
[01:14:19.280 -> 01:14:22.800] So you actually start bringing in that artificial overtaking and for the DRS,
[01:14:22.800 -> 01:14:27.920] and then you get that kind of swapping back and forth and, and, or just not passing
[01:14:27.920 -> 01:14:28.880] and running in a train.
[01:14:28.880 -> 01:14:33.800] So actually sometimes having a lot of cars, close performance isn't great for
[01:14:33.800 -> 01:14:34.200] racing.
[01:14:34.440 -> 01:14:39.840] You, you've got an aerodynamic background as well, Michael, have I misremembered that?
[01:14:40.200 -> 01:14:41.160] I have indeed.
[01:14:41.760 -> 01:14:42.000] Yeah.
[01:14:42.000 -> 01:14:49.800] I mean, I wouldn't, I did an aeronautical engineering degree, but in terms of my aerodynamics
[01:14:49.800 -> 01:14:53.520] knowledge I wouldn't ever put myself in the same ballpark as the guys who do it.
[01:14:53.520 -> 01:14:56.840] Right, right. But you do have a kind of baseline knowledge of aerodynamics.
[01:14:56.840 -> 01:14:57.840] Yeah.
[01:14:57.840 -> 01:15:01.080] So you won't answer this question, honestly, but I always think that there's some kind
[01:15:01.080 -> 01:15:05.080] of cartel of aerodynamicists that have just overtaken Formula
[01:15:05.080 -> 01:15:11.440] 1. Because is it too simplistic when F1 fans go, well, just rip the wings off, take away
[01:15:11.440 -> 01:15:17.440] this aero? But I don't think F1 at its core would ever do that, just from a character
[01:15:17.440 -> 01:15:20.920] point of view. It likes having the aero. It likes having that lap time.
[01:15:20.920 -> 01:15:25.920] Yeah, 100%. I think that's one of the things which makes F1 what it
[01:15:25.920 -> 01:15:32.080] is. I mean, people talking about how new he designs his cars and like the absolute magical job he does
[01:15:32.080 -> 01:15:36.800] with like most of his cars he's ever produced. And everyone wants to like aspire to doing that
[01:15:36.800 -> 01:15:42.320] and what else we can do and how we, and you look at the performance considering the speed of these
[01:15:42.320 -> 01:15:48.880] cars now, not just with the engines, but I mean, just think if they were the weight of the were 20 years ago and
[01:15:48.880 -> 01:15:52.200] they had this kind of performance on it, then Christ, how fast I'd be.
[01:15:52.780 -> 01:15:54.400] Why don't we just, why don't they just do that then?
[01:15:55.400 -> 01:15:55.880] Go Matt.
[01:15:56.380 -> 01:16:02.440] It would be a utopia if we could get back down to around 700 kilograms and a much
[01:16:02.440 -> 01:16:05.460] shorter car with the engine performance
[01:16:05.460 -> 01:16:08.080] and the aerodynamic performance we have now.
[01:16:08.080 -> 01:16:11.760] But it just really doesn't seem like they can do it.
[01:16:11.760 -> 01:16:14.000] Yeah, 100% they're not gonna go to a shorter car
[01:16:14.000 -> 01:16:16.720] because obviously all the aero's trying on ground effect now
[01:16:16.720 -> 01:16:19.760] so obviously that longer car helps generate that.
[01:16:19.760 -> 01:16:22.400] But yeah, I mean, I was looking the other week,
[01:16:22.400 -> 01:16:24.240] I won't say where I was, but I was at a factory
[01:16:24.240 -> 01:16:28.120] and they had some of their historic cars out compared to the modern cars.
[01:16:28.120 -> 01:16:32.400] And yeah, it's quite a shock when you see them next to each other.
[01:16:32.400 -> 01:16:33.400] Yeah.
[01:16:33.400 -> 01:16:37.080] And when you, if you look at the old footage of old races and you see those cars, they're
[01:16:37.080 -> 01:16:39.440] dancing around and the tracks look huge.
[01:16:39.440 -> 01:16:44.200] I mean, even just go and look back to the groove tire era and Hamilton fighting Raikkonen
[01:16:44.200 -> 01:16:45.840] around Spa, and
[01:16:45.840 -> 01:16:50.440] it really does look like little toy cars flying around, whereas now they're these massive
[01:16:50.440 -> 01:16:53.040] machines. But I don't think it's going to get reversed.
[01:16:53.040 -> 01:16:59.120] No, I mean, I'm hoping like obviously 2026 is the next kind of regs change they're going
[01:16:59.120 -> 01:17:03.840] to do. So hopefully with the new PU rules coming in, that saves a bit of weight in that
[01:17:03.840 -> 01:17:06.760] respect and hopefully they can start dropping that weight limit.
[01:17:06.760 -> 01:17:10.560] Because I think that's the next thing they need to do is, right, how can we get this back down?
[01:17:10.560 -> 01:17:17.120] Like I said, if we can get it down to 700 kilos again, or 750 or something like that, it just helps.
[01:17:17.120 -> 01:17:23.440] Just anything, instead of it creeping up every year by another five kilos, three kilos, and it just keeps creeping up.
[01:17:23.440 -> 01:17:26.160] And so it would be nice to kind of try and get it back down.
[01:17:26.480 -> 01:17:29.960] But like you said, I mean, that touches on that kind of how big the cars are now.
[01:17:29.960 -> 01:17:33.400] It's it's especially when we go into a lot of street circuits now.
[01:17:33.440 -> 01:17:36.720] I mean, Monaco is obviously the original, but the cars are just too big for Monaco.
[01:17:36.720 -> 01:17:39.760] Now, not that you get overtaken there anyway, but it's just
[01:17:40.080 -> 01:17:42.320] you look at the size of them now, it's it's ridiculous.
[01:17:42.320 -> 01:17:44.600] But we're going to more and more street circuits.
[01:17:44.600 -> 01:17:49.040] And you kind of think, well, it's kind of how's this going to be good for the race it's good
[01:17:49.040 -> 01:17:54.160] for the spectacle but for the race in itself not convinced well i don't know about you i felt
[01:17:54.160 -> 01:17:58.160] attacked when he started saying you know it's creeping up three kilos here three kilos there
[01:17:58.160 -> 01:18:03.200] i'm like hey oh he's talking about the cars okay yeah they were supposed to lose two kilos and then
[01:18:03.200 -> 01:18:05.760] the teams decided uh as a majority that they'd rather not have to lose two kilos. And then the teams decided, uh, as a majority
[01:18:05.760 -> 01:18:10.640] that they'd rather not have to lose that way, uh, just for this season, as I recall. But
[01:18:11.280 -> 01:18:15.680] here's something that I just randomly thought of and I'll interject into the show for no
[01:18:15.680 -> 01:18:19.920] particular purpose. We're talking about this weight increase and it suddenly occurred to me
[01:18:19.920 -> 01:18:25.840] that that's a weight increase where we've dropped 40 or 50 kilograms of fuel. The cars need to get
[01:18:25.840 -> 01:18:31.920] through a race. So it's not just the car, the cars are actually, it's that plus about another
[01:18:31.920 -> 01:18:36.800] 40 kilograms that they've really gained from like, you know, when we still think of F1 as being a
[01:18:36.800 -> 01:18:42.480] quote unquote lighter formula. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. Um, and actually as well,
[01:18:42.480 -> 01:18:48.200] the fuel is starting to creep back up again because they removed the 110 limit the beginning last season.
[01:18:48.200 -> 01:18:50.080] So now it's, they're not even limited to that.
[01:18:50.080 -> 01:18:56.120] So, well, it's not significantly increased, but you now can have, if you need 112,
[01:18:56.120 -> 01:18:59.160] 113 kilos, they're going to be running out at the beginning of the race.
[01:18:59.800 -> 01:19:04.680] And would I be wrong in assuming that's because of the increased ethanol content
[01:19:04.880 -> 01:19:05.400] and the reduced
[01:19:05.400 -> 01:19:07.600] calorific content of the fuel?
[01:19:07.600 -> 01:19:08.600] Believe so, yeah.
[01:19:08.600 -> 01:19:13.700] I think that combined with, again, the cars being heavier just means it requires a bit
[01:19:13.700 -> 01:19:15.200] more to shift them, yeah.
[01:19:15.200 -> 01:19:16.200] To get it around, yeah.
[01:19:16.200 -> 01:19:17.200] All right.
[01:19:17.200 -> 01:19:19.400] Are we doing chemistry lessons still?
[01:19:19.400 -> 01:19:20.400] Who do you think you are?
[01:19:20.400 -> 01:19:21.400] Pat?
[01:19:21.400 -> 01:19:22.400] Who's doing the-
[01:19:22.400 -> 01:19:23.400] Simmons.
[01:19:23.400 -> 01:19:24.400] Pat Simmons.
[01:19:24.400 -> 01:19:27.160] So you're trying to talk about ethanol and compounds of fuel.
[01:19:27.160 -> 01:19:30.720] Look, when one free electron meets a...
[01:19:30.720 -> 01:19:32.640] And they love each other very, very much.
[01:19:32.640 -> 01:19:33.640] Exactly.
[01:19:33.640 -> 01:19:42.000] Fuels are born. Right, I want to go to Mike interjecting on my tweets and telling me I'm
[01:19:42.000 -> 01:19:50.000] wrong. It was really interesting, actually. I've been banging on that Aston Martin's performance, if they were to go up into the top three, would be the best
[01:19:50.000 -> 01:19:54.880] mid-regulation off-season performance ever. So obviously when there's a big regulation change,
[01:19:54.880 -> 01:19:59.040] it's a good chance to shuffle the deck, but normally that deck stays pretty settled. And
[01:19:59.040 -> 01:20:05.200] assuming, big assumption, that Aston Martin can stay third as the third fastest car all season. I said that's
[01:20:05.200 -> 01:20:12.080] the that's the best off-season mid-reg performance ever. You disagree? Yes. Go on then, go on then,
[01:20:12.080 -> 01:20:19.280] come at me. What teams have been able to leapfrog mid-regulation? Well, obviously I'll go to one
[01:20:19.280 -> 01:20:29.960] which I replied with on the on the tweets here., I have a slight bit of bias behind it. But the 2012 to 2013 Mercedes, for me, is, I was obviously
[01:20:29.960 -> 01:20:32.680] working there at the time, but there was no regulation change
[01:20:32.680 -> 01:20:35.440] between those two seasons.
[01:20:35.440 -> 01:20:38.200] The only thing which kind of slightly changed was obviously
[01:20:38.200 -> 01:20:40.160] tires changed a little bit.
[01:20:40.160 -> 01:20:43.160] But there was no major changes because we were going to 2014
[01:20:43.160 -> 01:20:44.120] to the brand new rules.
[01:20:44.120 -> 01:20:49.600] And obviously, Mercedes at the end of 2012 were struggling, just hung on to P6 in the
[01:20:49.600 -> 01:20:54.360] constructors in that very last race, almost lost it to Force India in that last one there
[01:20:54.360 -> 01:20:57.200] to be P7, but just hung on to P6.
[01:20:57.200 -> 01:21:01.760] And then obviously went to 2013, Hamilton came aboard and three race wins and P2 in
[01:21:01.760 -> 01:21:02.760] the constructors.
[01:21:02.760 -> 01:21:05.200] So obviously behind a very dominant Red Bull,
[01:21:05.200 -> 01:21:12.000] but in my eyes that was a greater achievement than what we saw actually into 2014, because
[01:21:12.000 -> 01:21:17.280] the 2014 was such a long-term project, whereas 2013 was a correction of, obviously a correction
[01:21:17.280 -> 01:21:21.440] of the things they'd made wrong in 2012, but they obviously still got a jump on a lot of the teams
[01:21:21.440 -> 01:21:25.200] who'd already got it right and got that performance improvement.
[01:21:25.200 -> 01:21:30.520] So was it all Lewis? It was, wasn't it? It was all Lewis Hamilton? No. What was the thing
[01:21:30.520 -> 01:21:35.680] that kind of clicked into place then to let you go? Because if I remember 2013 correctly,
[01:21:35.680 -> 01:21:40.240] Mercedes came out of the blocks and they were out qualifying the whole grid by about a second
[01:21:40.240 -> 01:21:45.600] and then falling back for a lot. And I think, was the first race win not Monaco,
[01:21:45.600 -> 01:21:48.220] where Vettel was complaining about the silver bus
[01:21:48.220 -> 01:21:49.700] parked at the front?
[01:21:49.700 -> 01:21:50.540] Yeah, yeah.
[01:21:50.540 -> 01:21:53.060] So yeah, they won at Monaco,
[01:21:53.060 -> 01:21:54.540] which basically qualified on pole.
[01:21:54.540 -> 01:21:57.140] And yeah, they just literally just drove,
[01:21:57.140 -> 01:21:58.540] drove like a Sunday drive, yeah.
[01:21:58.540 -> 01:21:59.900] Cause you just couldn't overtake, yeah.
[01:21:59.900 -> 01:22:01.820] But it was all part of the plan on that one.
[01:22:01.820 -> 01:22:05.120] But I mean, the other wins were Hungary and Silverstone.
[01:22:05.120 -> 01:22:08.720] And obviously Silverstone that year was the tyre exploding year.
[01:22:08.720 -> 01:22:14.160] Oh yeah, I forgot that Mercedes won that. I was there for that. That was insane. You did have a
[01:22:14.160 -> 01:22:18.400] blowout though, Hamilton had a blowout. Yeah, and they still finished, I think he
[01:22:18.400 -> 01:22:23.200] still came back and finished on the podium, I can't remember exactly because Nico won the race. But
[01:22:24.560 -> 01:22:47.040] yeah, I can't remember where Lewis, but he came back quite well into it, he continually had the tyre blowout and then won at Hungary as well which is obviously again another one which he can't overtake so qualifying is quite good. gamble responsibly when the fun stops, but I had won £90 from betting on tennis, I think it was
[01:22:47.040 -> 01:22:52.560] Wimbledon, and then so I had £90 in my betting account and because you all looked so strong in
[01:22:52.560 -> 01:22:57.280] qualifying and just looked like you had the fastest car, I piled it all on Hamilton to win
[01:22:57.280 -> 01:23:02.960] the championship and then the tyre regulations changed and Vettel won I think every single race
[01:23:02.960 -> 01:23:08.560] after that. Yeah, so after the shutdown, yeah, Red Bull won every race and I think Vettel won
[01:23:08.560 -> 01:23:13.040] nine out of the ten or something like that. It was ridiculous in that sense. But I mean,
[01:23:13.040 -> 01:23:16.240] that even fooled us because we've obviously won in Hungary and thought,
[01:23:16.240 -> 01:23:19.120] yeah, there was actually an air of confidence in the team. Well,
[01:23:19.120 -> 01:23:22.480] well, we've got a chance here. We really got a chance to kind of push on and then,
[01:23:22.480 -> 01:23:32.000] and then they just didn't quite get on top of the, the, the changes to the tires, um, the tire rules, um, what, what, um, Red Bull did.
[01:23:32.000 -> 01:23:35.240] But yeah, but again, it's still going from 12 to 13.
[01:23:35.240 -> 01:23:36.240] Yeah.
[01:23:36.240 -> 01:23:40.320] Obviously that qualifying pace was absolutely fantastic, but still there were some races
[01:23:40.320 -> 01:23:44.720] which were bad and, but obviously you still won some races and again, got a number of
[01:23:44.720 -> 01:23:45.120] podiums in there and it was, yeah, just a, some races and again got a number of podiums
[01:23:45.120 -> 01:23:46.120] in there.
[01:23:46.120 -> 01:23:51.120] It was a good season in terms of getting on top of that.
[01:23:51.120 -> 01:23:58.080] Okay, so last nosy thing then, since you drifted us back to that cut-off point between the
[01:23:58.080 -> 01:24:00.120] hybrid era and pre-hybrid era.
[01:24:00.120 -> 01:24:05.000] So 2013 was the last set of cars without the hybrid.
[01:24:05.000 -> 01:24:07.520] There was KERS, I think, wasn't there, in 2011,
[01:24:07.520 -> 01:24:09.160] and there was some energy recovery,
[01:24:09.160 -> 01:24:10.900] but not the out-and-out hybrid.
[01:24:10.900 -> 01:24:13.880] So did you guys know going into 2014
[01:24:13.880 -> 01:24:16.120] that you had absolutely nailed it,
[01:24:16.120 -> 01:24:17.800] or was it not until race one?
[01:24:19.620 -> 01:24:21.560] I think there was a quiet confidence
[01:24:21.560 -> 01:24:24.540] that it was gonna go quite well.
[01:24:27.280 -> 01:24:31.360] Obviously, you didn't know where everyone else stood and that was the thing you didn't know because it wasn't obviously just the PU,
[01:24:31.360 -> 01:24:36.560] there was obviously the other side of things but from everything which was in the team they were
[01:24:36.560 -> 01:24:46.720] quite confident on what was going to happen. I think one of the biggest indicators in terms of a PU side was coming was, I believe,
[01:24:46.720 -> 01:24:51.160] I think it was Williams were going from Renault to Mercedes engines or something.
[01:24:51.160 -> 01:24:57.120] I think Williams were Renault in 2013 and then yeah, going to Mercedes in 2014.
[01:24:57.120 -> 01:24:59.160] I think that was the case or something.
[01:24:59.160 -> 01:25:03.680] And obviously they got some of the information, which of what, like the Mercedes engine was
[01:25:03.680 -> 01:25:06.200] planning to start trying to plan their car for next year.
[01:25:06.800 -> 01:25:10.080] And the Renault guy, sorry, went now these numbers are copyright.
[01:25:10.080 -> 01:25:10.960] They're not right.
[01:25:10.960 -> 01:25:11.460] Kind of thing.
[01:25:11.840 -> 01:25:14.940] Um, which obviously proves straight away, which yeah, it was right.
[01:25:15.000 -> 01:25:17.720] And yeah, they were kind of, and then you had like all the stories of
[01:25:17.720 -> 01:25:21.200] kind of winter testing in, in, in 2014.
[01:25:21.940 -> 01:25:25.120] But people like Red Bull weren't literally didn't get their engines until
[01:25:25.920 -> 01:25:31.440] like a day before testing and started fired up and all the issues there. Whereas Merc had the
[01:25:31.440 -> 01:25:37.920] virtual track test to run the PU and that was running in December already. So they were quite
[01:25:37.920 -> 01:25:41.840] quietly confident, but yeah, it was going to do a good job.
[01:25:42.880 -> 01:25:48.000] Sorry, you said fired up and Renault 2014 engine in the same sentence and it just kind of made me laugh.
[01:25:48.000 -> 01:25:54.000] Mike, you've been so generous with your time, thank you. This gives us the kind of insight we couldn't dream of.
[01:25:54.000 -> 01:26:05.680] If I can do a quick fire and set of questions here from our listeners and see if you've got any kind of quick answers to them. Right, Simon has asked, have you or any of the teams you've
[01:26:05.680 -> 01:26:11.760] worked with ever looked at the data, seen that the data tells you to go a certain way, but just
[01:26:11.760 -> 01:26:18.320] something in your gut said to go a different way? And then obviously, how did that go? So just in
[01:26:18.320 -> 01:26:26.800] general terms, how often do you... I'm assuming you don't slavishly go to the data, you also, you know, oh, that didn't work so
[01:26:26.800 -> 01:26:33.120] well last time we did it. Yeah. Yeah. So obviously quick fire in that sense. Yeah. Especially as a
[01:26:33.120 -> 01:26:37.680] strategist, you can't just go with the data. You need to have a little bit of kind of a
[01:26:38.240 -> 01:26:42.960] experience, gut instinct on certain aspects of it. And sometimes, yeah, you'll, you'll see something
[01:26:42.960 -> 01:26:45.360] and go, I'm not confident with that.
[01:26:50.000 -> 01:26:55.280] And you will go a different direction. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. And then you learn from it and that's kind of, you go, okay. But generally that gut instinct is pretty strong.
[01:26:55.280 -> 01:26:57.600] Jason Vale I bet it's quite strong during the,
[01:26:57.600 -> 01:27:02.400] like the snap calls for safety cars, for example. That must be, you know, that's something where
[01:27:02.400 -> 01:27:08.960] you've seen the teams have different philosophies. Mercedes seem to kind of, they err on the side of, let's just let the laps go round and see
[01:27:08.960 -> 01:27:13.520] what everyone else is doing. And then you have teams like Red Bull who seem much more aggressive
[01:27:13.520 -> 01:27:18.960] and proactive in that regard. Yeah. And I think one, the biggest one example for me is the
[01:27:18.960 -> 01:27:29.080] Hungary call in 2020, where we pitted under the formation lap to get off the wet. And that was, that was, uh, I mean, the slight backstory for that one.
[01:27:29.080 -> 01:27:30.180] I want to actually have that race.
[01:27:30.180 -> 01:27:34.900] I was back in the factory and then, um, and because I'd just broken my, my phone.
[01:27:35.300 -> 01:27:40.100] Um, and, um, yeah, and I literally came up because I was a bit disconnected
[01:27:40.100 -> 01:27:42.460] being honest, why are we on the, why are we on these tires?
[01:27:42.560 -> 01:27:47.680] And as they, as they kind of say, you see the TV and I just went on the radio and I was just like, we need to box, we need to get
[01:27:47.680 -> 01:27:50.640] off these, let's go and do it. And again, it was that kind of gut instinct. So it was
[01:27:50.640 -> 01:27:54.480] like, yeah, once I called it, I was like, and then that kind of panic filled up going,
[01:27:54.480 -> 01:27:55.760] oh, geez, what have I just done?
[01:27:55.760 -> 01:28:03.280] I phoned from home to change the course of an F1 race. And can you set us up what was
[01:28:03.280 -> 01:28:08.400] happening with that? Because I got confused. There was one race where didn't Lewis Hamilton end up on the grid
[01:28:08.400 -> 01:28:11.920] completely by himself? It's not that one, is it? So that was the year later.
[01:28:11.920 -> 01:28:14.400] Ah, right. Where it was, again, it was something similar.
[01:28:14.400 -> 01:28:20.080] Like everyone was on, it was, yeah, everyone was on wet tyres. It just rained before the race in,
[01:28:20.080 -> 01:28:25.440] in Hungary. It's Hungary again. And then, yeah, this one was, this one was actually a,
[01:28:25.440 -> 01:28:30.880] it started under the safety car and then restarted. And then it was one of those ones where you go to
[01:28:30.880 -> 01:28:35.360] a standing start after a red flag, I think it was. And then yeah, everyone piled into the bits,
[01:28:35.360 -> 01:28:40.000] which you're allowed to do and Lewis didn't. Yeah. And ended up there. And it's quite amazing
[01:28:40.000 -> 01:28:43.760] that, and there must be some trust there as well, that you've, you know, you're not involved all
[01:28:43.760 -> 01:28:49.680] weekend. You see something on TV and phone up and someone trackside has got to decide whether you've been
[01:28:49.680 -> 01:28:55.360] at home paying full attention or whether you know you're on the old mother's ruin, are you on the
[01:28:55.360 -> 01:29:02.960] gin? They don't know do they? Yeah but hopefully it's just that case of I'd built up enough trust
[01:29:02.960 -> 01:29:05.440] but they just yeah yeah, I mean,
[01:29:05.440 -> 01:29:11.200] I know we got penalized for it, but that was an annoying penalty. Still got some points
[01:29:11.200 -> 01:29:16.880] within that season, which were very hard to come by. There was much screaming at the television
[01:29:16.880 -> 01:29:22.400] in my household when that happened. We were all like, yes, I'm going to go and look that up.
[01:29:22.400 -> 01:29:27.760] And we agree with you about that. That was a radio call during a...
[01:29:27.760 -> 01:29:28.760] So Hungary 2020.
[01:29:28.760 -> 01:29:32.160] So I'm going to go and look up the start of that race now and watch it in the context
[01:29:32.160 -> 01:29:33.160] of that.
[01:29:33.160 -> 01:29:37.720] Pete Shilcock asks, have you ever made defensive strategic decisions and then realized you
[01:29:37.720 -> 01:29:41.320] should have been more offensive and you would have gained several places?
[01:29:41.320 -> 01:29:49.440] I know it's the benefit of hindsight and he's sure the simple answer is yes, but if you have any examples that come to mind that would be appreciated, says Peter.
[01:29:50.720 -> 01:29:54.480] I mean, yeah, it's difficult to think of examples.
[01:29:54.480 -> 01:29:55.040] Oh, I know it is.
[01:29:55.040 -> 01:29:59.120] Yeah, it is. There's so many ones that kind of blend into it. I mean, often,
[01:30:00.240 -> 01:30:09.600] I think your case is obviously when you're maybe a lead in that kind of group, and you obviously want to protect against the undercut, so you kind of seek someone pit,
[01:30:09.600 -> 01:30:14.480] you protect against it, and then two laps later there's a safety car and you lose out for like kind of
[01:30:14.480 -> 01:30:18.960] four places because of that. And I mean, it's not really being the offensive,
[01:30:18.960 -> 01:30:22.720] you're just doing what you should do, because if you don't cover against the undercut, then
[01:30:22.720 -> 01:30:28.640] then you're going to look a fool and you haven't done your job properly and you can never account for when a safety scar is coming out.
[01:30:28.640 -> 01:30:38.960] So I'd say in that sense that, yeah, it's hard to pinpoint an exact example. There's definitely
[01:30:38.960 -> 01:30:41.760] times where I probably will have done it, but it's just, yeah, it's...
[01:30:41.760 -> 01:30:49.840] Well, me and Matt were talking about the undercut and overcut earlier so like the classic scenario that he's painted there is you know you defend against the
[01:30:49.840 -> 01:30:55.520] undercut and if someone ahead of you is defending against the undercut you may as well in lots of
[01:30:55.520 -> 01:31:02.240] situations then go long hope a safety car comes out and then you essentially get a cheap pit stop
[01:31:02.240 -> 01:31:06.080] but Matt we were talking about the differences between the over and
[01:31:06.080 -> 01:31:08.160] undercut and undercut strategies this season.
[01:31:08.160 -> 01:31:15.000] Well, yeah, I mean, you know, to take it back to Mercedes versus Aston, we saw Alonso with
[01:31:15.000 -> 01:31:30.400] an overcut work on Hamilton, and then I think we saw Stroll with an undercut work on Russell. And how do you as a strategist evaluate, like, is there a general 70% of a time an undercut
[01:31:30.400 -> 01:31:36.320] beats an overcut? Or is it really just contextual based on the actual cars that you're racing at
[01:31:36.320 -> 01:31:41.360] that moment at that specific track? Yeah, so it's a bit of both of those,
[01:31:41.360 -> 01:31:47.460] really. So you obviously have your tire curves going into a race. So you generally know what point you are on that degradation curve.
[01:31:47.460 -> 01:31:51.480] So, you know, if you go to a new tire, you're going to be a second of a lap faster.
[01:31:52.040 -> 01:31:53.920] Um, and then you've got to remember, right.
[01:31:53.960 -> 01:31:58.540] What stage of the tire curve is, is your opponent on, if they're doing it.
[01:31:58.540 -> 01:32:03.900] So for example, Alonso, once he's on bit younger tires, he's, he's still, you
[01:32:03.900 -> 01:32:06.820] still think, right, going to a new set of tires, I still should be half a
[01:32:06.820 -> 01:32:07.440] second faster.
[01:32:07.440 -> 01:32:09.980] But then that's not taking into account car performance.
[01:32:09.980 -> 01:32:12.580] So if he has a car performance advantage on you there, you've
[01:32:12.580 -> 01:32:13.740] got to try and take that into it.
[01:32:13.740 -> 01:32:17.100] So it's that difficult one there, but he probably does the
[01:32:17.100 -> 01:32:18.180] opposite in that respect.
[01:32:18.180 -> 01:32:21.360] So if they, if Mercedes don't pit, he pits and gets the
[01:32:21.360 -> 01:32:24.340] undercut, if they pit, he then just has to put in as much as
[01:32:24.340 -> 01:32:26.320] he can and then try and get the undercut. If they pit, he then just has to put in as much as he can and then try and get the overcut.
[01:32:26.320 -> 01:32:34.400] So it's very much down to that kind of tyre choice you're going to and what the car performance is of the cars you're fighting.
[01:32:34.400 -> 01:32:41.200] Oh Mike, thank you so much. I mean, today I really enjoyed all the non-tyre conversation we had,
[01:32:41.200 -> 01:32:45.120] and a delve back into the past was an unexpected delight. I do hope
[01:32:45.120 -> 01:32:49.000] you'll come and join us throughout the course of the season. You can follow Mike at Mike
[01:32:49.000 -> 01:32:54.400] Caulfield or F1 on Twitter. Is that where you like to hang out? You haven't got a TikTok
[01:32:54.400 -> 01:32:58.680] that you'd like to promote? You sure? No? Okay. And Instagram, which is just you on
[01:32:58.680 -> 01:32:59.680] the beaches. No? Okay.
[01:32:59.680 -> 01:33:00.680] Matt Pate Instagram is private, so...
[01:33:00.680 -> 01:33:06.000] Oh, there you go. So do go and follow Mike Caulfield by following the links in the show notes below.
[01:33:06.000 -> 01:33:08.000] Thank you so much for your time.
[01:33:08.000 -> 01:33:10.000] Of course, follow Matt at MattPT55.
[01:33:10.000 -> 01:33:15.000] And you can follow me as well, if you'd like, at SpannersReady on Twitter or RichardReady on Facebook.
[01:33:15.000 -> 01:33:20.000] We'll be back soon, but wherever we see you next, work hard, be kind, and have fun.
[01:33:20.000 -> 01:33:48.180] This was MrApexPodcast. Trumpets here.
[01:33:48.180 -> 01:33:55.160] Before we go, I just want to say I will be at the Shrine, 2271 Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard,
[01:33:55.160 -> 01:33:59.540] next Friday, March 17th, which might be known as St. Patrick's Day, with the New York City
[01:33:59.540 -> 01:34:00.700] Ska Orchestra.
[01:34:00.700 -> 01:34:06.160] If you're in the area and want to stop by and listen you can even say hi and if you ever
[01:34:06.160 -> 01:34:10.800] wondered what a ska version of Danny Boy sounded like well then you should definitely come see us
[01:34:14.400 -> 01:34:20.800] tired of spiraling about your finances meet Clio your AI personal finance assistant
[01:34:20.800 -> 01:34:27.020] Clio's AI turns the complexity of your financial life into a simple conversation. Whether you need help budgeting,
[01:34:27.200 -> 01:34:31.340] saving, or simply need someone to tell you not to buy that $7
[01:34:31.340 -> 01:34:35.480] latte. Clio will always keep it 100 with you kind of like a
[01:34:35.480 -> 01:34:38.420] financially responsible older sister. Get the convo started
[01:34:38.420 -> 01:34:41.540] today and start saving for tomorrow. Download the Clio app
[01:34:41.540 -> 01:34:45.600] directly from the App Store or visit meet Clio.com slash download.
[01:34:46.720 -> 01:34:49.320] Looking for a fun way to win up to 25 times your money this
[01:34:49.320 -> 01:34:53.040] basketball season. Test your skills on prize picks the most
[01:34:53.040 -> 01:34:56.240] exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Just select two
[01:34:56.240 -> 01:34:59.160] or more players pick more or less on their projection for a
[01:34:59.160 -> 01:35:02.980] wide variety of stats and place your entry. It's as easy as
[01:35:02.980 -> 01:35:08.400] that. If you have the skills you can turn $10 into $250
[01:35:08.400 -> 01:35:10.040] with just a few taps.
[01:35:10.040 -> 01:35:12.680] Easy gameplay, quick withdrawals, and injury insurance
[01:35:12.680 -> 01:35:15.560] on your picks are what make Prize Picks the number one
[01:35:15.560 -> 01:35:17.280] daily fantasy sports app.
[01:35:17.280 -> 01:35:18.720] Ready to test your skills?
[01:35:18.720 -> 01:35:21.600] Join the Prize Picks community of more than 7 million
[01:35:21.600 -> 01:35:23.840] players who have already signed up.
[01:35:23.840 -> 01:35:28.000] Right now, Prize Picks will match your first deposit up to $100.
[01:35:28.000 -> 01:35:33.000] Just visit prizepix.com slash get100 and use code get100.
[01:35:33.000 -> 01:35:37.500] That's code get100 at prizepix.com slash get100
[01:35:37.500 -> 01:35:41.000] for a first deposit matchup to $100.
[01:35:41.000 -> 01:35:45.000] PrizePix, daily fantasy sports made easy.
[01:35:43.580 -> 01:35:47.900] for dollars. Prize Picks. Daily Fantasy Sports Made Easy.