Hungarian GP 2023 F1 race review

Spanners and Trumpets are joined by Kyle ‘Edgy’ Power and professional race car driver Bradley Philpot as they cast all the F1 trophies by hand. From Mercedes’ misses to Red Bull’s triumphant reign, from Ferrari’s fiascoes to McLaren’s magnificence, no logistical bottleneck goes unsolved in this, the latest episode of Missed Apex Podcast. 

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Spanners Ready Spanners���� (@SpannersReady)

spanners@missedapex.net

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Matt Trumpets mattpt55 (@mattpt55)

matt@missedapex.net

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Matt Trumpets (@mattpt55) on Instagram

Matt Trumpets (@mattpt55) on Threads

Kyle Power Kyle Power (@KylePowerF1) / Twitter

Brad Philpot Brad Philpot 🏁 (@BradleyPhilpot) / Twitter

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Sure, here is a detailed summary of the podcast episode transcript:

**Introduction:**

* The podcast episode titled "Papaya Got a Brand New Bag" discusses the recently concluded Formula One race in Hungary.
* Hosts Spanners, Matt Trumpets, Kyle Power, and guest Brad Philpot join the conversation.

**Main Discussion:**

* The race witnessed Max Verstappen securing a dominant victory with a significant margin, marking the largest winning gap since 1487.
* Verstappen's triumph also extended Red Bull's record of consecutive race wins to 12, the highest in Formula One history.
* The episode focuses on analyzing the intense battle for second place between McLaren and Mercedes.
* Lewis Hamilton's performance is scrutinized, with his mistake at the start of the race costing him a better position.
* Sergio Perez's impressive drive from a lower starting position to challenge for second place is also discussed.
* The panel debates the reasons behind Aston Martin's sudden loss of form and questions whether Fernando Alonso's expectations were misaligned.
* Wang Yujo's execution of the "Bottas Bolarama" maneuver at the Hungaroring is mentioned, highlighting his learning from his time at Sauber.

**Mercedes' Struggles:**

* The panel discusses Mercedes' overall performance, identifying several areas where they fell short.
* Lewis Hamilton's error at the start, coupled with cooling issues and pit stop inefficiencies, contributed to their struggles.
* The team's risky strategy in qualifying, which nearly resulted in Hamilton's elimination in Q1, is also criticized.
* Mercedes' inability to match Red Bull's consistent sub-two-second pit stops is highlighted as a recurring issue.

**Conclusion:**

* The episode acknowledges Max Verstappen's exceptional performance and Red Bull's dominance in the current season.
* Despite their struggles, Mercedes is still considered the second-best team, but they have room for improvement.
* The panel emphasizes the importance of tire preparation and track evolution in qualifying, citing Alpine's effective strategy as an example.

**Overall:**

The podcast provides an engaging and informative analysis of the Hungarian Grand Prix, delving into key moments, driver performances, and team strategies. The panel's insights offer a comprehensive understanding of the race dynamics and the ongoing Formula One season. Certainly! Here's a detailed summary of the podcast episode transcript:

**Introduction:**
- The podcast episode focuses on analyzing the Formula One trophies and discussing various aspects of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
- The hosts, Spanners, Matt Trumpets, Kyle Power, and Brad Philpot, engage in a lively discussion about the performances of different teams and drivers.

**Key Points:**

1. **Mercedes' Missed Opportunity:**
- Mercedes faced a strategic blunder during the race, resulting in a missed chance for a potential victory.
- Lewis Hamilton's optimistic undercut attempt led to a significant time loss due to slower tire warm-up.
- The team's decision to keep Hamilton on the hard tires proved to be a mistake, as he struggled to match the pace of other drivers.

2. **McLaren's Impressive Performance:**
- McLaren emerged as the third-best team, showcasing strong performances from both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
- Norris demonstrated excellent racecraft, managing his tires effectively and holding off Sergio Perez in the latter stages of the race.
- Piastri, despite some early challenges, showed potential and is expected to improve further as he gains more experience.

3. **Norris' Driving Abilities:**
- Norris' performance in Hungary highlighted his exceptional driving skills and race management abilities.
- The hosts praised Norris' ability to extract the maximum potential from the Pirelli tires, even when they were nearing their limits.
- Norris' confidence and belief in his own abilities were also discussed, with comparisons drawn to Max Verstappen.

4. **McLaren's Potential and Targets:**
- McLaren's strong showing in Hungary raised questions about their potential for the remainder of the season.
- The team's operational and tactical soundness, combined with the drivers' performances, suggest they could challenge Mercedes for second place in the Constructors' Championship.
- McLaren's focus on development and their allowance for upgrades could further enhance their competitiveness.

5. **Red Bull's Dominance and Verstappen's Performance:**
- Red Bull maintained its dominance with Max Verstappen securing a comfortable victory, extending his lead in the Drivers' Championship.
- Verstappen's performance was analyzed, with discussions about the difficulty in assessing his true pace given the lack of competition from his teammate, Sergio Perez.
- The hosts acknowledged Verstappen's consistency and ability to deliver impressive results in a dominant car.

6. **Sergio Perez's Performance:**
- Perez's struggles in qualifying and his subsequent recovery drive were discussed.
- The hosts highlighted the challenges faced by Perez in a car designed around Verstappen's driving style.
- Perez's potential performance in a car better suited to his preferences was also considered.

7. **Pirelli Tire Allocations and Sustainability:**
- The recent changes to Pirelli's tire allocations were evaluated, with mixed opinions among the hosts.
- The requirement to use all three tire compounds in qualifying was praised for adding an exciting strategic element.
- However, concerns were raised about the reduction in tire sets, which could potentially limit strategic options and discourage teams from attempting three-stop strategies.
- The hosts also discussed the environmental impact of tire production and the need for sustainability initiatives within the sport.

**Conclusion:**
The podcast episode provided insightful analysis and commentary on the Hungarian Grand Prix, highlighting key moments, performances, and strategic decisions. The hosts engaged in thought-provoking discussions, offering their perspectives on the current state of Formula One and the potential for future developments. * **Qualifying Format:**

* The new qualifying format was generally well-received by the podcasters.
* They praised the decision to have all drivers use the same type of tire in each session, as it eliminated the artificial advantage that teams with softer tires had in previous years.
* However, they also expressed concern about the limited number of practice laps available to drivers, which they felt compromised the quality of the racing.

* **Sergio Perez's Performance:**

* The podcasters were divided on Sergio Perez's performance at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
* Some felt that he had a disappointing weekend, pointing to his poor qualifying performance and his inability to challenge for a podium finish.
* Others argued that Perez was unfairly criticized, as he was driving a car that was not as competitive as Max Verstappen's.
* They also noted that Perez had made significant progress since joining Red Bull, and that he deserved more time to prove himself.

* **Daniel Ricciardo's Performance:**

* The podcasters were impressed by Daniel Ricciardo's performance at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
* They praised his qualifying performance, in which he outqualified his teammate Yuki Tsunoda, and his strong race, in which he finished in the points.
* They also noted that Ricciardo had been struggling for form in recent months, and that his performance in Hungary was a sign that he was starting to turn things around.

* **Alfa Romeo's Performance:**

* The podcasters were surprised by Alfa Romeo's strong performance at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
* They praised Zhou Guanyu for his impressive qualifying performance, in which he qualified in fifth place, and his solid race, in which he finished in the points.
* They also noted that Alfa Romeo had been struggling for form in recent months, and that their performance in Hungary was a sign that they were starting to make progress.

* **Alpine's Performance:**

* The podcasters were disappointed by Alpine's performance at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
* They pointed to the team's poor qualifying performance, in which both Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon were eliminated in Q1, and their disappointing race, in which both drivers retired.
* They also noted that Alpine had been struggling for form in recent months, and that their performance in Hungary was a sign that they were in need of a turnaround. * **Podcast Episode Transcript:**

**[01:13:32.000] Kyle Power:** No, it wasn't.

**[01:13:33.040] Matt Trumpets:** Oh my God. It was entirely the tires.

**[01:13:34.560] Kyle Power:** They gave them new tires and the tires were entirely designed

**[01:13:37.840] Matt Trumpets:** to make Aston slow.

**[01:13:39.360] Kyle Power:** Aston, oh my God.

**[01:13:40.280] Matt Trumpets:** So this is the thing, like that's obviously not true.

**[01:13:45.080] Kyle Power:** Yeah, it's not true because the dip started

**[01:13:47.480] Matt Trumpets:** before the new tires came in.

**[01:13:49.160] Kyle Power:** And then Alonso's thing was like,

**[01:13:51.400] Matt Trumpets:** oh, well, also Red Bull are also struggling.

**[01:13:55.200] Kyle Power:** And then they won by 30 seconds.

**[01:13:57.140] Matt Trumpets:** So someone has told Alonso that they were gonna be

**[01:14:01.040] Kyle Power:** on the podium every race because he said that.

**[01:14:03.180] Matt Trumpets:** And I was like, oh, wow. He really knows something that is completely

**[01:14:08.680] Kyle Power:** contrary to any logical guess or the evidence of our own eyes. And then sure enough, they

**[01:14:14.320] Matt Trumpets:** have dipped down. So he's got to find something to blame. It's the tires. I don't believe

**[01:14:17.040] Kyle Power:** that at all. And Brad has pointed out that we haven't mentioned Ferrari at all. Well,

**[01:14:22.960] Matt Trumpets:** in that case, Brad, take it away. In fact,

**[01:14:25.840] Kyle Power:** what I would say to you, Brad, giving me little notes in the Zoom message chat, is that I'm on it.

**[01:14:32.640] Matt Trumpets:** That's what I'd say. It's actually Kyle that was saying we hadn't mentioned Ferrari,

**[01:14:36.800] Kyle Power:** but I was then just going to say loads about that because I find it quite an interesting situation

**[01:14:42.480] Matt Trumpets:** that McLaren, in their new upgraded guise, have

**[01:14:46.640] Kyle Power:** currently almost exactly 50% of the points that Ferrari have on the board. We've got

**[01:14:51.320] Matt Trumpets:** half the season left to go. So by my calculations, even if McLaren just scored 10 points more

**[01:14:57.760] Kyle Power:** than Ferrari per race, maybe less, they're going to easily overhaul them by the end of

**[01:15:03.480] Matt Trumpets:** the season. And you'll have had a team that's gone from being one of the worst, and sometimes at the

**[01:15:08.520] Kyle Power:** beginning of the season, the worst car on the grid, and a car that would have entered

**[01:15:13.160] Matt Trumpets:** the season, potentially thinking they're going to fight for the championship, you could have

**[01:15:17.280] Kyle Power:** them swap in the standings.

**[01:15:18.760] Matt Trumpets:** McLaren could get fourth.

**[01:15:21.040] Kyle Power:** Well, at the rate they're starting cars on soft tires and making them sit behind

**[01:15:26.320] Matt Trumpets:** cars on medium tires, undercutting the leader on the track with the person behind who gets

**[01:15:32.160] Kyle Power:** speeding penalties and then results in the both of them being passed by Russell at the end of the

**[01:15:36.800] Matt Trumpets:** race. It's hard not really to agree with you then. It's weird to think that Ferrari might be at risk,

**[01:15:43.600] Kyle Power:** but right now, given the decision-making

**[01:15:45.920] Matt Trumpets:** at Ferrari and their inability, because they put them on two sets of hard tires, they were the

**[01:15:53.520] Kyle Power:** highest up team to do this. And again, if you look at the finishing and who finished on what tires,

**[01:15:58.560] Matt Trumpets:** it's pretty obvious the hard tire was a terrible tire to be on. So either the car is such a

**[01:16:03.040] Kyle Power:** disaster, they can't run

**[01:16:05.120] Matt Trumpets:** the softer compound, in which case the car is a disaster and genuinely fourth fastest.

**[01:16:10.640] Kyle Power:** Or as I might have pointed out in the past, Ferrari is so terrible at understanding the

**[01:16:15.700] Matt Trumpets:** tires that they of all the top teams will make the choice to put their car on the slowest

**[01:16:21.040] Kyle Power:** possible tire every time they have that choice, doesn't really matter

**[01:16:25.160] Matt Trumpets:** how you cut it, they're at serious risk.

**[01:16:27.700] Kyle Power:** Piastri's not a joke as a driver, Norris is quite good, and the McLaren is now very, very

**[01:16:33.480] Matt Trumpets:** fast.

**[01:16:34.480] Kyle Power:** It's, they have more season left than they have points to give, right now.

**[01:16:38.760] Matt Trumpets:** Yeah, and we've seen this before, I've said this countless times on this podcast, it's

**[01:16:43.560] Kyle Power:** like they have no confidence

**[01:16:45.120] Matt Trumpets:** in their own decision making. And they asked the drivers, they did it again, I think Sites

**[01:16:49.680] Kyle Power:** clapped back. It was like, well, tell me, you know, what's, what's going on. And you can't,

**[01:16:54.480] Matt Trumpets:** when you're driving the car, you can't be having to try to think and call your own strategy,

**[01:16:59.280] Kyle Power:** which is what Sites is doing. They missed, they missed the trick in the first stint,

**[01:17:03.440] Matt Trumpets:** they should have instantly put Sites

**[01:17:05.040] Kyle Power:** ahead of Leclerc to make use of his softs, then pit him out of that. They didn't do that.

**[01:17:09.520] Matt Trumpets:** And bless him, I don't know what the guy's name is, the strategy guy, when he comes out of the

**[01:17:13.520] Kyle Power:** club checking. Oh yeah. And yeah, we are checking. His voice now is almost synonymous with a bad

**[01:17:22.640] Matt Trumpets:** decision. You know, bad is, a bad

**[01:17:25.680] Kyle Power:** decision is just about to be made when you hear him say that. Yeah I know but can I, can I, we're

**[01:17:31.120] Matt Trumpets:** on it, we're on it, we're on it, we're on it and you can trust me. Yeah yeah. Buy your used car

**[01:17:35.840] Kyle Power:** from. We're on it as balls are rolling around everywhere because they've dropped them already.

**[01:17:39.920] Matt Trumpets:** The we're on it, it was like that's the least confidence I've ever had from a reassuring radio

**[01:17:45.040] Kyle Power:** comment ever. But let's defend, I'm going to defend the race engineer a little bit. So Javier

**[01:17:50.320] Matt Trumpets:** Marcos Pedros is the Spanish engineer that is managing Leclerc, as far as I can Google,

**[01:17:55.600] Kyle Power:** but I have, I'm assuming he goes by Javi. But I don't feel like he's like Bono going like,

**[01:18:03.120] Matt Trumpets:** stay calm, box, box, box, this is what we're doing,

**[01:18:05.360] Kyle Power:** here's the strat, how do you feel about this?

**[01:18:07.080] Matt Trumpets:** I feel like he's almost like someone in Ferrari, DM me,

**[01:18:10.360] Kyle Power:** I will not give away the source, I promise,

**[01:18:12.940] Matt Trumpets:** I never have ever revealed a source,

**[01:18:15.000] Kyle Power:** I don't feel like he's making decisions,

**[01:18:17.580] Matt Trumpets:** it feels like he's a middleman,

**[01:18:19.000] Kyle Power:** it feels like he's having to go back and forth

**[01:18:20.760] Matt Trumpets:** and it feels like he's terrified

**[01:18:22.400] Kyle Power:** that he's gonna upset the driver

**[01:18:23.840] Matt Trumpets:** and then he's gonna upset the management. And I don't feel that individual there does not

**[01:18:28.840] Kyle Power:** sound like he's empowered to be the boss over the radio in the way that Verstappen's engineer

**[01:18:38.040] Matt Trumpets:** is like his boss, that feels like. Bono's in charge of Hamilton. I don't get that sense

**[01:18:42.580] Kyle Power:** of Ferrari, Kyle.

**[01:18:43.580] Matt Trumpets:** Yeah, and yeah, it's nothing against him personally,

**[01:18:46.600] Kyle Power:** and I don't think it's his fault.

**[01:18:47.760] Matt Trumpets:** It's like he's turning around to his strategy team

**[01:18:49.960] Kyle Power:** and he's like, what do we do, what do we do?

**[01:18:51.720] Matt Trumpets:** And they're like, I don't know, we don't know.

**[01:18:53.320] Kyle Power:** Say something, just say something.

**[01:18:54.760] Matt Trumpets:** Say anything to the driver, just delay him,

**[01:18:56.880] Kyle Power:** because I don't think he's getting the feedback,

**[01:18:58.520] Matt Trumpets:** because their internal processes are just jelly.

**[01:19:01.560] Kyle Power:** I don't know what's going on.

**[01:19:02.680] Matt Trumpets:** Matt, are we being unfair here?

**[01:19:04.200] Kyle Power:** Because I don't always like to name an individual and

**[01:19:08.160] Matt Trumpets:** go, okay, well, that's a bad job. Because we don't understand the pressures, we don't

**[01:19:12.120] Kyle Power:** understand the organisation and the structure. However, since Rob Smedley, race engineers

**[01:19:18.320] Matt Trumpets:** are significant personalities in the sporting team. So I think we're okay, aren't we, looking at those personalities?

**[01:19:26.800] Kyle Power:** Yeah, but as someone who has suffered a long time with the Knicks being owned by the Dolans,

**[01:19:32.040] Matt Trumpets:** and if you're a New Yorker, you'll get that.

**[01:19:34.080] Kyle Power:** I'm not.

**[01:19:34.880] Matt Trumpets:** What I would say is the problem here is that everyone's waiting for Agnelli on his yacht to pick up his cell phone and answer a question.

**[01:19:42.080] Kyle Power:** There we go. Yeah.

**[01:19:43.720] Matt Trumpets:** It is a right mess. Look, I'm with you on this.

**[01:19:45.040] Kyle Power:** It is a right mess. Look, Ferrari is not going to win the driver's championship,

**[01:19:49.120] Matt Trumpets:** they're not going to win the constructors championship. Why are you screwing around,

**[01:19:53.040] Kyle Power:** undermining signs ahead on the track with Leclerc, who then gets the speeding penalty?

**[01:19:59.520] Matt Trumpets:** The only thing that should matter to you is how many how many gross points can my team bring home

**[01:20:05.200] Kyle Power:** this weekend to keep me out of McLaren's clutches? They're being ridiculous with their decision

**[01:20:10.640] Matt Trumpets:** making. Can you hear Matt? I don't think I've heard Matt like that. I'm going to save that

**[01:20:14.480] Kyle Power:** replay. That's going all over the TikToks. Wow, Brad, match that energy right now. Start just

**[01:20:20.240] Matt Trumpets:** yelling at the YouTube. So I understand Matt's frustration because when you've got a company,

**[01:20:27.200] Kyle Power:** a race team, a sporting entity that's employing a group of professionals to make these strategic

**[01:20:33.680] Matt Trumpets:** decisions with all the information available to them, and we've said this in the past about bad

**[01:20:37.600] Kyle Power:** strategic decisions, probably about Ferrari, and you've got people like Matt but like thousands of

**[0 **Missed Apex Podcast Transcript Summary**

The Missed Apex podcast crew, joined by professional race car driver Bradley Philpot, engaged in a lively discussion centered around Formula One trophies and various aspects of the recent race.

**Key Points:**

1. **Trophy Controversy:**
- Lando Norris's signature champagne celebration resulted in the destruction of a delicate porcelain trophy on the podium.
- Some found it amusing, while others, including Kyle Power, expressed concern for the disrespect shown to the trophy's craftsmanship.
- The responsibility for the incident was debated, with some suggesting that the organizers should have ensured the trophy's safety.

2. **Missed Apex Awards:**
- Kyle Power nominated Aston Martin as his "Missed Apex" for their disappointing performance, despite initial promises of podium finishes.
- Brad Philpot chose Lando Norris for his champagne celebration mishap, highlighting the importance of respect for the handcrafted trophies.
- Matt Trumpets selected Alpine for their double DNF, urging them to come back stronger in the upcoming Spa race.

3. **Upcoming Special Episode:**
- The podcast crew announced a midweek episode where they will collaborate with Australian F1 experts Jono and Steve to create their ultimate F1 grid of drivers from the 21st century.

**Overall Message:**
The podcast provided an entertaining and informative analysis of the recent race, with discussions ranging from lighthearted moments to serious debates about driver and team performances. The upcoming special episode promises an exciting exploration of the greatest F1 drivers of the century.

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[02:02.920 -> 02:09.000] You are listening to missed apex podcast. We live F1.
[02:20.000 -> 02:26.560] Welcome to missed apex podcast. The title of today's show is Papaya Got a Brand New Bag.
[02:26.560 -> 02:33.280] That's suggested by Darren Johnston on Twitter. Harry Lye is the runner up, suggesting alpining
[02:33.280 -> 02:39.280] for some luck. I'm your host Richard Ready, but my friends call me Spanners, so let's be friends.
[02:39.280 -> 02:47.100] If you haven't seen the race yet, I'm not going to spoil it for you, but Verstappen won. By loads.
[02:47.100 -> 02:53.780] The biggest winning margin since 1487. Max Verstappen wins by 30 seconds. Of course,
[02:53.780 -> 02:59.260] no safety car here, which is rare these days, but it means that margin of advantage wasn't
[02:59.260 -> 03:09.080] concealed. But as far as 2023 goes, that advantage was ever thus. It's the most race wins in a row for an F1 team ever, 12.
[03:09.080 -> 03:13.240] And had Mercedes not won in Interlagos, it would be well over 20.
[03:13.240 -> 03:14.480] Is it man?
[03:14.480 -> 03:15.520] Is it machine?
[03:15.520 -> 03:18.360] Is there anything worth left to fight for?
[03:18.360 -> 03:22.080] Is there any point in following Formula 1 anymore?
[03:22.080 -> 03:24.040] Of course there is, you absolute nutters.
[03:24.040 -> 03:25.360] F1 is bloody brilliant.
[03:25.360 -> 03:30.640] If you disagree, you're a turnip. So today we are going to talk about this fantastic battle
[03:30.640 -> 03:35.840] brewing between McLaren and Lewis Hamilton. I'm joking, I'm joking. McLaren and Mercedes.
[03:35.840 -> 03:41.920] Was the Perez drive really a statement? Where is Aston Martin and where on earth did their form go?
[03:41.920 -> 03:45.200] What did they tell Alonso was going to happen in the
[03:45.200 -> 03:48.960] development phase? Because he seems very, very surprised. And of course, we'll analyze
[03:48.960 -> 03:55.920] how well Wang Yujo executed the now traditional Bottas Bolarama maneuver at the Hungaro Ring.
[03:55.920 -> 04:01.000] Who says he's not learning anything at Sauber? We're an independent podcast produced in
[04:01.000 -> 04:09.120] the podcasting shed with the kind permission of our loving and supporting partners. We aim to bring you a race review before your Monday morning commute. We might be wrong,
[04:09.120 -> 04:14.720] but we're first.
[04:14.720 -> 04:20.760] I'm joined in the shed by Tile Whisperer Matt. Two Rumpets. Hey Matt!
[04:20.760 -> 04:25.440] Joe and a Ricardo and Ocon and a Ghazly. Corner pocket.
[04:25.440 -> 04:31.000] It was it was like a game of F1 billiards. It was it was just incredible. I watched it
[04:31.000 -> 04:36.120] from I think Ocon's on board and obviously feeling for you as a massive Ocon fan and
[04:36.120 -> 04:42.520] at first the whole universe just opened up for him and there was a massive gap for him to sail
[04:42.520 -> 04:45.360] into. The exact gap that happened
[04:45.360 -> 04:49.280] to be the very end of that billiard sequence you described.
[04:49.280 -> 04:56.560] Yeah, it was a remarkable confluence of events. And as you noted in the opening, very Botas-like.
[04:56.560 -> 05:02.600] It very much was. We're joined by the universally popular Brad Philpott. How's it going, Brad?
[05:02.600 -> 05:05.200] So we had lots of questions to be answered this weekend,
[05:05.200 -> 05:10.880] and some of them have been answered, like is the McLaren pace from Silverstone real,
[05:10.880 -> 05:16.000] and how will Ricciardo do in his new old home? And some of them were answered, and some other
[05:16.000 -> 05:21.280] questions like are the rest of the field in general closer to Red Bull were answered in
[05:21.280 -> 05:27.360] a way that we might not like. Yeah, well, it depends on which side of the fence you are. You and I are both staunch
[05:27.360 -> 05:32.200] neutral so it won't matter too much to us. And we're also joined by the edgiest of F1
[05:32.200 -> 05:37.040] pundits and local radio F1 darling Kyle Power. Hey Kyle.
[05:37.040 -> 05:41.760] Hey. We finally get some softer tyres from Pirelli, but then they're nerfed by the
[05:41.760 -> 05:42.760] ATA.
[05:42.760 -> 05:45.120] But we, you in particular, have been just
[05:45.120 -> 05:50.800] ranting about that. What's ATA? The Alternative Tire Allocation. Oh, the
[05:50.800 -> 05:54.160] qualifying format. I think that's interesting. We will definitely get into
[05:54.160 -> 05:59.560] that. That is your panel and let's get on with reviewing this race.
[06:03.000 -> 06:08.200] So what we tend to do here on Miss Apex Podcast for race reviews is get stuck into the things
[06:08.200 -> 06:14.840] we find most interesting. So yes, we will talk about Max Verstappen's fantastic, soaring,
[06:14.840 -> 06:22.360] eagle-like performance, like a trained owl swooping in for his keepers, a bit of worm,
[06:22.360 -> 06:25.100] whatever, whatever owls do. He was magnificent and we're gonna
[06:25.100 -> 06:31.020] cover that. Don't worry Verstappen fans. But the thing of most interest in this race was
[06:31.020 -> 06:39.300] the battle for P2. And I would suggest it was Lewis Hamilton's to lose would be my start
[06:39.300 -> 06:44.820] point and very much we saw that both McLarens were going to be in the fight and we had a
[06:44.820 -> 06:46.440] Sergio Perez coming from the back
[06:46.440 -> 06:49.600] taking his now traditional driver of the weekend performance
[06:49.600 -> 06:54.000] from an under-qualifying position up to challenging for second place
[06:54.000 -> 06:57.000] So, where do we start in this P2 battle?
[06:57.000 -> 07:03.600] So, I think I'm going to go to Brad as the most kind of declared Hamilton fan out of our slot
[07:03.600 -> 07:06.000] So you and me, I think we're out and out Hamilton fans.
[07:06.000 -> 07:07.440] So we'll admit that.
[07:07.440 -> 07:10.000] Brad, are you going to sit here and deny it now?
[07:10.000 -> 07:11.840] I was forced into,
[07:11.840 -> 07:15.000] I was polarized by events from a couple of years ago.
[07:15.000 -> 07:17.440] So I would never normally consider myself a fan
[07:17.440 -> 07:18.840] of a particular driver, but.
[07:18.840 -> 07:21.480] You took a camp, didn't you, for Twitter followers?
[07:21.480 -> 07:22.680] Yeah, there we go.
[07:22.680 -> 07:24.440] There you go, so there's your Lewis Hamilton
[07:24.440 -> 07:25.440] yellow Mercedes hat. But look, I think we're both fans. So there's your Lewis Hamilton yellow Mercedes hat.
[07:25.440 -> 07:28.880] But look, I think we're both fans and admirers of how Lewis Hamilton drives.
[07:28.880 -> 07:37.120] Immediately, turn one, he, in my opinion, fluffed it. Yes. Yeah. And I think as fans of Lewis
[07:37.120 -> 07:41.440] Hamilton, you have to be, and the fans of any driver, you can't set your driver up as a god.
[07:42.160 -> 07:50.960] When there's a mistake, you have to point out the mistake. I was so surprised how far and how hard he squeezed Verstappen when the move was basically
[07:50.960 -> 07:51.960] lost already.
[07:51.960 -> 07:52.960] Yeah, exactly.
[07:52.960 -> 07:55.320] So the start itself was fine.
[07:55.320 -> 07:57.720] His actual initial getaway was okay.
[07:57.720 -> 08:01.440] Verstappen's was better though because from further back he drew alongside.
[08:01.440 -> 08:02.440] Matt's shaking his head.
[08:02.440 -> 08:03.440] Yeah, we'll get to Matt.
[08:03.440 -> 08:08.880] I was looking at exactly how Hamilton was positioning himself and he'd very much immediately
[08:08.880 -> 08:13.720] angled towards Verstappen to try and cut him off. But unfortunately what happens in an
[08:13.720 -> 08:17.880] early phase of a start, if you've got that kind of steering angle on and you're struggling
[08:17.880 -> 08:23.640] for traction and you don't happen to just really nail that initial part of the start,
[08:23.640 -> 08:26.800] you make your life more difficult because you can't put as much power down
[08:26.800 -> 08:28.200] with any steering angle in.
[08:28.200 -> 08:29.760] I don't know whether that is the reason
[08:29.760 -> 08:31.120] that Verstappen drew alongside,
[08:31.120 -> 08:32.440] but for whatever reason,
[08:32.440 -> 08:34.160] Max from the dirty side of the grid
[08:34.160 -> 08:37.440] did manage to draw pretty much fully alongside.
[08:37.440 -> 08:39.640] And as you mentioned from quite early on,
[08:39.640 -> 08:41.040] it looked like that move was done.
[08:41.040 -> 08:43.580] There's no way once you're that far up the inside
[08:43.580 -> 08:52.480] at turn one at Hungary on the first lap you're not coming out of at least the turn in and apex and early exit
[08:52.480 -> 08:57.800] phase of the first corner ahead. So Hamilton really at that point needed to regroup, take
[08:57.800 -> 09:04.040] a different stance and slot in and try and cut back. But by squeezing Max so much it
[09:04.040 -> 09:05.320] put him under complete threat
[09:05.320 -> 09:08.080] from the two McLarens, and they duly got past.
[09:08.080 -> 09:10.840] Matt, you had some thoughts there on the start phase.
[09:10.840 -> 09:17.040] Yeah, I did. Specifically, Hamilton himself admitted he had wheelspin at the start, even
[09:17.040 -> 09:22.120] though, well, he said, I hit my numbers and I still had wheelspin. And it sounded like
[09:22.120 -> 09:31.280] he was going to say, well, this is what my engineers told me to do, but then he sort of backed off and said, well, we'll have a look at it. But fundamentally,
[09:31.280 -> 09:35.440] he did not get off to a good start. And that's why we saw that squeeze maneuver,
[09:35.440 -> 09:39.120] which I think had been planned from the start, not work out for him.
[09:39.120 -> 09:39.920] Kyle.
[09:39.920 -> 09:45.840] Yeah. In Hamilton's defense on the start, and I completely get what Brad's saying that he he should
[09:45.840 -> 09:50.960] have maybe slotted back in now going down to turn one, there's an awful lot going on. He probably
[09:50.960 -> 09:55.760] had lost the McLarens in his mirrors and wasn't sure where they were. So he couldn't exactly he
[09:55.760 -> 10:00.720] was overlapped with the Stapham. So if you then backed off and try to slot in, I'm pretty sure
[10:00.720 -> 10:07.960] that he was thinking that there's definitely going to be a McLaren on the inside and he got himself kind of hung out to dry and then boxed in. And I think
[10:07.960 -> 10:13.000] the real damage was done in turn to with Norris launching it around the outside. I mean, I
[10:13.000 -> 10:17.040] think Lewis could have been a little bit ruder and run Norris out of road, but that's not
[10:17.040 -> 10:20.880] really his style, but I don't think he could have really backed off too much and cut back
[10:20.880 -> 10:26.560] in because I'm pretty sure he, he was convinced there was going to be a McLaren on his inside already.
[10:26.560 -> 10:29.020] And with the mirrors, they've got no peripheral vision.
[10:29.020 -> 10:30.680] It's really hard to see what's going on there.
[10:30.680 -> 10:35.300] So I think he just played it safe, very safe, which we've kind of been used to Lewis doing
[10:35.300 -> 10:36.300] in recent times.
[10:36.300 -> 10:37.840] He's been more on the cautious side.
[10:37.840 -> 10:42.880] I'm going to argue slightly because I feel like with the squeeze with Verstappen, what
[10:42.880 -> 10:50.440] he left himself with was he was never going to get a good angle for a sharp exit out of turn one towards turn two. Verstappen
[10:50.440 -> 10:54.840] was never going to do anything else but run him all the way to the edge, which is exactly
[10:54.840 -> 10:59.400] what Hamilton would have done in that situation as well. And it basically let Norris and Piastri
[10:59.400 -> 11:05.760] pick their lines. So Piastri just hugged the inside and rolled up on the inside, and Lando Norris was able
[11:05.760 -> 11:08.640] to get a run by taking a proper sort of wide entry.
[11:08.640 -> 11:10.200] So, I don't know, Brad.
[11:10.200 -> 11:14.240] I can't help but just wish...
[11:14.240 -> 11:17.880] Was this like a 2021 flashback where he went, it's Verstappen, I'm fighting Verstappen?
[11:17.880 -> 11:21.560] And it's like everyone else, the whole world was going, no, you're not, you're fighting
[11:21.560 -> 11:22.560] the McLarens.
[11:22.560 -> 11:27.020] I think he had mentally, before the start, assumed he was you're fighting the McLarens. I think I think he had mentally before the start
[11:27.240 -> 11:33.700] Assumed he was going to be the one getting to turn one ahead and it was almost like it was I know this is this
[11:33.700 -> 11:36.640] Sounds silly because it's a very obvious thing that could happen
[11:36.640 -> 11:40.840] But it was almost like he hadn't banked on maybe max would make it there first
[11:40.840 -> 11:50.320] it was like he'd hung everything on getting a really clean start, getting into turn one first, and then see what happens. And if I was the driver behind,
[11:50.320 -> 11:54.220] or either of the two McLarens behind, you're watching that going on in front of you, seeing
[11:54.220 -> 11:59.840] the pole sitter squeeze the person that started P2 right up to the inside, thinking, brilliant.
[11:59.840 -> 12:04.200] And as you said, Spanners, I can pick my line now, I can see exactly where they're going
[12:04.200 -> 12:09.060] to go, and I can now go a little bit wider, cut back, get a great run around his outside
[12:09.060 -> 12:10.060] at the next corner.
[12:10.060 -> 12:17.200] Yeah, well, to me, it was Piastri that very much did the damage there by taking that line,
[12:17.200 -> 12:21.580] that inner line, and having no obstruction at all.
[12:21.580 -> 12:25.200] He not only got off Hamilton from being able to come back on the line,
[12:25.200 -> 12:29.720] but because of the order they went into the corner, opened the door for Norris to get
[12:29.720 -> 12:30.720] round Hamilton.
[12:30.720 -> 12:35.280] Yeah. And as we sort of said, the damage was done pretty much straight off the line. Hamilton
[12:35.280 -> 12:41.320] got himself into this position that he couldn't really get out of. And then he boxed himself
[12:41.320 -> 12:44.800] in. If he could have swung out wide, what he could have done, he could have just full
[12:44.800 -> 12:47.760] wanged it and just driven off track around the outside and then
[12:47.760 -> 12:49.440] archied it later, which we've seen people do.
[12:49.440 -> 12:54.840] Hang on, which Verstappen did in 2021 after his damage. You know, he was continually going
[12:54.840 -> 12:56.960] wide at turn one to overtake people.
[12:56.960 -> 13:01.240] Yeah, yeah. So he could have done that, but I think the damage was done immediately. And
[13:01.240 -> 13:08.200] just going back to what Brad said about Lewis and his head thought he was going to be P1 in there. Remember, this is probably arguably one of the dirtiest
[13:08.200 -> 13:13.420] sides of the grid for P2 of the whole season. And I know Red Bull haven't been great at
[13:13.420 -> 13:18.560] starts this year. So he actually, yeah, probably convinced himself entirely that he goes, there's
[13:18.560 -> 13:22.600] no way Verstappen can get the jump on me, at least going into turn one. But we know
[13:22.600 -> 13:27.800] it's Verstappen. And I think we've been chatting in the group chat some of us thinking if Hamilton is in the lead into turn
[13:27.800 -> 13:33.160] one if he doesn't defend hard there was going to be well a kind of a yeah a harpooning like
[13:33.160 -> 13:37.520] Verstappen was going to send it on him come what may I think going into turn one so yeah
[13:37.520 -> 13:41.040] maybe Lewis was sort of double thinking himself a bit too much but yeah it wasn't the best
[13:41.040 -> 13:44.280] car placement but I don't think he could have done an awful lot about it once he was already
[13:44.280 -> 13:46.440] overlapped he was kind of pinned on the outside and couldn't
[13:46.440 -> 13:52.440] really do too much. I think whatever the reason coming out of turn three from pole position
[13:52.440 -> 13:58.480] in fourth place was that set Hamilton up for a difficult afternoon. Yeah. Because looking
[13:58.480 -> 14:02.400] at the gaps towards the end of the race and not wanting to skip to the end but ultimately
[14:02.400 -> 14:08.320] Hamilton didn't really finish that far behind Norris. Looking at the results I've got here, he was sitting maybe seven seconds total behind
[14:08.320 -> 14:13.200] Norris by the end of the race. If you think about how much time he lost in the, you know,
[14:13.200 -> 14:18.160] just in the early stages, like naturally you do, even if you've got a fast car, the field spreads
[14:18.160 -> 14:26.500] out and then he's got to work through the rest of the race. It was already going to be a fight back
[14:26.500 -> 14:28.640] on a track where it's very hard to overtake.
[14:28.640 -> 14:31.240] I mean, it is a Hamilton track, it does go well here,
[14:31.240 -> 14:33.920] but he did hold his hand up straight away to his team
[14:33.920 -> 14:36.140] and just say, sorry guys, that's my bad.
[14:36.140 -> 14:37.620] And I think that's obviously
[14:37.620 -> 14:39.640] because he obviously understands racing.
[14:39.640 -> 14:41.480] And I think that backs up what we were saying,
[14:41.480 -> 14:43.160] I think probably realized in that moment,
[14:43.160 -> 14:44.520] yeah, I've made a wrong choice.
[14:44.520 -> 14:49.280] I've sacrificed too much of my entry and not enough of Verstappen's entry. You know,
[14:49.280 -> 14:54.480] Verstappen's got performance to spare in that car. He was very aggressive there. I don't even think,
[14:54.480 -> 14:59.520] like, it's not really a deliberate overtaking move. Verstappen had no choice but to fight the
[14:59.520 -> 15:05.480] inside once he got there. Lifting would have put yourself in a Norris Bottas situation.
[15:05.480 -> 15:09.720] So yeah, anyway, a very interesting kind of turn one manoeuvre. Hamilton knows that wasn't
[15:09.720 -> 15:16.120] optimal and ultimately, I do wonder, Matt, if we had a different race. If he lets Max
[15:16.120 -> 15:21.800] go into that corner once he's got the overlap, he's now ahead of the McLarens. It's hard
[15:21.800 -> 15:26.080] to overtake. Maybe the result is different because behind the McLarens, it's hard to overtake, maybe the result is different because behind
[15:26.080 -> 15:31.200] the McLarens, I think he said, he said, I don't have enough performance to overtake,
[15:31.200 -> 15:36.120] which suggested to me not struggling to keep up, but no delta, especially on the straights
[15:36.120 -> 15:37.120] to pass.
[15:37.120 -> 15:43.560] Yeah, I think that's an entirely fair assessment of the race from Mercedes' point of view.
[15:43.560 -> 15:46.160] We wanted to be first, we wanted to defend,
[15:46.160 -> 15:51.760] and if that had been the case, we would have seen a much longer stint on those mediums likely,
[15:51.760 -> 15:56.320] which would have also helped him out in terms of his overall finishing position. But what I
[15:56.320 -> 16:07.520] do want to add is the real unsung tragedy here was the fact that Norris, out of all the top four, was on a fresh set of mediums. And if I saw
[16:07.520 -> 16:15.920] a scenario where Max didn't have an easy walk, it was Norris getting ahead on his fresh tires
[16:15.920 -> 16:22.080] and making Max really have to work to get around him. And because of the way the opening started
[16:22.080 -> 16:25.280] with Hamilton, and because also Piastri, darn
[16:25.280 -> 16:30.360] him, is such a good driver, we wound up getting the most boring possible start
[16:30.360 -> 16:34.040] to the race we could have asked for. Yeah, but can you just imagine what was
[16:34.040 -> 16:38.440] going on in Piastri's little helmet when he saw all that open up in front of
[16:38.440 -> 16:42.680] him, like, oh yeah, you're a car, you know, that feeling when the
[16:42.680 -> 16:50.080] pack just opens up ahead of you and you almost can't believe you've got that clean air to drive into. Yeah, Ka-ching was probably going through his
[16:50.080 -> 16:56.400] head. It was just like result. But also, oh my god, I'm now P2 in my debut season. Probably,
[16:56.400 -> 17:01.920] yeah, the nerves probably went through the roof a bit, a bit. But I think say Hamilton got ahead
[17:02.560 -> 17:05.940] of, well, stayed, well, maintained P1, I don't think it would have
[17:05.940 -> 17:10.040] made that much difference because Mercedes already by lap three, I think, was saying
[17:10.040 -> 17:13.800] your brakes are overheating and they had cooling problems. And now it's actually come onto
[17:13.800 -> 17:17.800] the radar in the first stint. Why are we so slow? What's going on? And they're having
[17:17.800 -> 17:21.960] to turn the engine down essentially because they are overheating. So I think he would
[17:21.960 -> 17:27.600] have been, it would have been a train behind Hamilton at the start. And I'm pretty sure the others would have, would have got him because Norris
[17:27.600 -> 17:31.520] was hanging on, Norris and Piestra were hanging like okay to Verstappen. Verstappen would
[17:31.520 -> 17:35.720] have almost certainly passed Hamilton within the first few laps, particularly when DRS
[17:35.720 -> 17:38.400] went. Hamilton would have lost time. And then I'm pretty sure that McLaren's would have
[17:38.400 -> 17:41.320] jumped on him then. So I don't think overall it made that much difference.
[17:41.320 -> 17:46.560] I agree with you on everything until the McLaren's would have definitely jumped him. I think overall it made that much difference. I agree with you on everything until the McLarens would have definitely jumped him.
[17:46.560 -> 17:49.360] I think that's something, you know, it would have been nice to see play out.
[17:49.760 -> 17:55.120] But Brad, I know we're kind of focusing on what Mercedes did wrong before we get to what McLaren did right.
[17:55.480 -> 18:00.320] But I think there's more than just Lewis Hamilton's mistakes with Mercedes.
[18:00.320 -> 18:02.800] And the cooling issue was one that Kyle has brought up.
[18:03.120 -> 18:05.780] It's something that Mercedes suffer with a lot.
[18:05.780 -> 18:07.080] So they've suffered with the cooling issue.
[18:07.080 -> 18:10.160] They're having to do something to compensate for that.
[18:10.160 -> 18:13.800] And then we've got the issue of the pit stops again.
[18:13.800 -> 18:16.040] Yeah, I think I disagree with Kyle slightly
[18:16.040 -> 18:18.240] in that it wouldn't have been any different
[18:18.240 -> 18:21.920] because I think if Hamilton had just been behind Verstappen,
[18:21.920 -> 18:24.200] you know, just come second at the beginning
[18:24.200 -> 18:26.000] of the phase of the race, held
[18:26.000 -> 18:29.000] off the McLarens into the first few corners. I think then you've got a situation where
[18:29.000 -> 18:33.800] Verstappen drives off, so there's no cooling problem. So Hamilton isn't stuck behind Verstappen
[18:33.800 -> 18:37.560] because Verstappen's cleared off. And as it happened, he was having to almost drop back
[18:37.560 -> 18:42.480] deliberately from the McLarens to help this cooling issue.
[18:42.480 -> 18:47.040] The pit stops. I tweeted about this because it's very frustrating. Every
[18:47.040 -> 18:51.800] time you see Mercedes in the pits, you basically assume it's going to be a pretty bad stop.
[18:51.800 -> 18:58.520] And a stop which would be bad for other front-running teams is a good stop for Mercedes. Under three
[18:58.520 -> 19:00.400] seconds is a good stop for Mercedes.
[19:00.400 -> 19:03.200] If Mercedes come up 2.9, we're like, OK, whew.
[19:03.200 -> 19:05.960] Yeah, exactly. You think, well, at least they haven't lost loads.
[19:05.960 -> 19:07.040] And when you look at the end,
[19:07.040 -> 19:09.500] Hamilton's like 1.6 behind Perez at the line.
[19:09.500 -> 19:10.560] I know it's not as simple as this
[19:10.560 -> 19:12.100] because other factors come in during the race.
[19:12.100 -> 19:13.960] But if you look purely at the gaps,
[19:13.960 -> 19:16.360] the amount that Hamilton lost just in the pit stops
[19:16.360 -> 19:17.840] to Perez would have put him ahead of Perez
[19:17.840 -> 19:18.680] by the end of the race.
[19:18.680 -> 19:19.500] Over three stops.
[19:19.500 -> 19:21.760] We're at the stage where Mercedes can't,
[19:21.760 -> 19:23.320] Mercedes don't have a car that's dominant
[19:23.320 -> 19:25.600] and they can afford to just relax in the pit stops.
[19:25.600 -> 19:31.840] I kind of understood when they had a really good car, their pit crew just taking it calmly,
[19:31.840 -> 19:36.800] easily, making sure there wasn't a mistake, although we did also see mistakes even back then
[19:36.800 -> 19:41.920] in the pits. But now there's no excuse because you've got teams that are much lower ranked teams
[19:41.920 -> 19:46.960] regularly producing low two-second pit stops. Red Bull with a 1.9 today.
[19:47.840 -> 19:53.840] What is the excuse at this point? Like they've had a lot of time to refine the pit stop procedures
[19:53.840 -> 19:57.840] and other teams manage to regularly produce much faster pit stops.
[19:57.840 -> 20:01.120] So it's not like they're having bad stops, that is like their stock
[20:01.840 -> 20:05.120] stop is around three seconds and then you add that up over the
[20:05.120 -> 20:10.400] course of three stops, Matt, and that is, you know, we're talking, well, we're finding a lot
[20:10.400 -> 20:16.160] of reasons why they didn't get a podium today. And that's one, there's three legs to the not
[20:16.160 -> 20:22.640] getting a podium today, isn't there? It's the pit stops, the turn one, and this cooling issue.
[20:22.640 -> 20:25.600] Well, in the whole second, stand on the hard tire, but we'll get to that later.
[20:25.600 -> 20:29.200] No, I find myself both agreeing with Brad,
[20:29.200 -> 20:36.600] and if I'm thinking in Mercedes terms, what I'm going to say to you is I've looked at a whole season's worth of pit stops,
[20:36.600 -> 20:48.960] and if we get 1.9 second pit stops, we'll eventually mess one up to the point where the average will still be worse than what we're doing with what we currently do. I know they would make that argument. I think they would be wrong,
[20:48.960 -> 20:55.440] but I know they would make that argument. Kyle. But how often do we see Red Bull mess pit stops up?
[20:55.440 -> 21:00.880] They don't. They're like, yeah, as Brad said, 1.9 second pit stop. And remember when we've gone to
[21:00.880 -> 21:05.880] these larger wheels and heavier wheels, they were like, that's the end of sub two second pit stops
[21:05.880 -> 21:07.760] because it's going to be almost impossible because the wheels
[21:07.760 -> 21:09.600] are just heavier and bigger and bulkier.
[21:09.600 -> 21:10.600] And they've managed to nail one.
[21:10.600 -> 21:12.360] So that's unbelievably impressive.
[21:12.360 -> 21:13.680] But traditionally, Red Bull have always
[21:13.680 -> 21:14.760] been amazing at pit stops.
[21:14.760 -> 21:17.280] So yeah, I don't know what's going on at Mercedes.
[21:17.280 -> 21:20.040] They all practice pit stops, but maybe it
[21:20.040 -> 21:22.960] is time for a bit of a procedural review.
[21:22.960 -> 21:26.400] Yeah, because the margins for a podium over
[21:28.960 -> 21:31.680] Perez were quite small. Brad, last one on the pit stops.
[21:32.480 -> 21:37.360] Well, it wasn't pit stops, it was another thing Mercedes got wrong. It was just throwing something
[21:37.360 -> 21:40.400] out. Whilst we're burning Mercedes on some fan bonfire...
[21:40.400 -> 21:41.760] I've got a couple more actually as well.
[21:43.280 -> 21:48.580] The strategy in qualifying, the unnecessarily risky strategy in qualifying, which again
[21:48.580 -> 21:52.720] is a thing, it's not just like a one-off and you go, okay, they just got it wrong this
[21:52.720 -> 21:59.200] time. They do this regularly, they take a risk to get the ideal conditions or the final
[21:59.200 -> 22:03.960] run in a qualifying session, but when they've got a car which they don't need to do that
[22:03.960 -> 22:09.880] with and you have a whole host of potential problems that throws up, like it did this time. Hamilton
[22:09.880 -> 22:11.400] was nearly out in Q1 because of it.
[22:11.400 -> 22:16.000] Oh my goodness, but yeah, what I'd not really considered was, because of Russell being out,
[22:16.000 -> 22:20.960] they didn't have the opportunity to have two cars up there fighting the McLarens, where
[22:20.960 -> 22:30.000] they could have really played with overcut, going long, split strategies, and if you didn't quite catch qualifying, you know, the risk was in Q1 where they should
[22:30.000 -> 22:35.680] comfortably get through, they were restricted to the hard tyre, but both drivers waited until the
[22:35.680 -> 22:42.080] end of the session where they came out on fresh tyres. So they could have been out there circulating,
[22:42.080 -> 22:50.480] just kind of putting in bankers, but instead they came in late-ish, put the new hard tyres on, and then went out with just enough time
[22:50.480 -> 22:52.520] to do one lap, and they had no other lap.
[22:52.520 -> 22:57.560] Both drivers were outside the top 15, and basically if anything goes wrong, if there's
[22:57.560 -> 23:00.300] traffic, if there's a yellow flag, that was them done.
[23:00.300 -> 23:04.760] And I think Mercedes well-wishers all around the world, when it was clear what they were
[23:04.760 -> 23:10.000] doing, went, oh my goodness, this is going to be a disaster. And the fact is the Mercedes needs
[23:10.000 -> 23:14.800] a little bit of time to get heat into these tyres. And Lewis Hamilton kind of nailed his lap.
[23:14.800 -> 23:22.800] But the fact is they had to wait in Q3, in sector 3, Q, to leave a gap to set the time. And then by
[23:22.800 -> 23:30.600] the time they even started their hot lap, their tire prep was just wrecked. So Hamilton's quick lap in ideal conditions was p8
[23:30.600 -> 23:34.080] And I'm struggling to believe that they couldn't have got both drivers
[23:34.800 -> 23:41.800] P9 p10 just by being a bit safer, but look but Kyle it's it's a it's another example of Mercedes strategy
[23:41.800 -> 23:47.000] I know I know Ferrari take, of the flack for it, but
[23:47.000 -> 23:52.400] we can point to quite a lot of areas where Mercedes will be feeling like they could have
[23:52.400 -> 23:53.400] done better.
[23:53.400 -> 23:57.720] Yeah, I mean, Mercedes isn't quite the new Ferrari, but they're kind of trying their
[23:57.720 -> 23:58.720] best.
[23:58.720 -> 23:59.720] No, sorry if I implied that.
[23:59.720 -> 24:03.960] But yeah, that qualifying thing was ridiculous. I think it was like two minutes, 40 seconds
[24:03.960 -> 24:08.400] left when they sent them out of the pit lane and I was screaming at the TV, just like, what are you doing?
[24:08.400 -> 24:12.640] Why are you putting all the pressure on your drivers for that? Because there's been a lot of
[24:12.640 -> 24:16.800] track limits things as well. So now they're under pressure. They have to nail a lap. They have to,
[24:16.800 -> 24:21.680] they cannot make a single mistake at all. And yeah, all of the queuing at the end of the lap.
[24:21.680 -> 24:25.380] Now these tyres are crucial and tyre prep is absolutely crucial to prep them.
[24:25.380 -> 24:27.200] So George Russell is coming up
[24:27.200 -> 24:30.320] and the gentleman's agreement went flying out of the window
[24:30.320 -> 24:31.400] and people are jumping him.
[24:31.400 -> 24:32.640] I think it was Sainz got ahead of him.
[24:32.640 -> 24:34.080] Then Norris flew out ahead of him
[24:34.080 -> 24:37.040] because Norris had just had a lap deleted
[24:37.040 -> 24:37.880] because of track limits.
[24:37.880 -> 24:41.000] And it turned into an absolute cluster fluff
[24:41.000 -> 24:42.440] into the last corner.
[24:42.440 -> 24:44.360] And all of them were tripping over each other
[24:44.360 -> 24:51.760] and it was just completely and utterly unnecessary. And you saw in, I think you saw in like Q2, Red Bull got it
[24:51.760 -> 24:55.760] right. They sent Verstappen out after he had his lap time deleted with like a good five minutes to
[24:55.760 -> 24:59.760] spare just to go in there and get the lap in. Now you know when you've got a quick car that the track
[24:59.760 -> 25:05.160] evolution is not going to screw you over that that hard. Mercedes, I don't know why they chose to do that.
[25:05.160 -> 25:06.600] It wasn't arrogant.
[25:06.600 -> 25:10.080] I think it was overconfidence, if there is a difference.
[25:10.080 -> 25:12.760] But I just, yeah, it was actually the other way,
[25:12.760 -> 25:16.160] where they were too worried about making out of Q1
[25:16.160 -> 25:19.200] and they thought they had to do this hail Mary at the end.
[25:19.200 -> 25:20.840] I do want to move on from Mercedes, guys.
[25:20.840 -> 25:23.240] So one more point from Matt and then Brad.
[25:23.240 -> 25:24.680] Okay, two things.
[25:24.680 -> 25:27.680] I know you said one more point. Point one, Mercedes, terrible on the
[25:27.680 -> 25:34.280] hard tire and they know it. Point two, looking at qualifying specifically, you could take
[25:34.280 -> 25:39.640] Alpine, for example, who sent their drivers out when no one was on track, brought them
[25:39.640 -> 25:46.720] back in, refueled, sent them back out to make another lap if they needed to, saw they didn't, and in they
[25:46.720 -> 25:53.280] came. Mercedes ran a very risky strategy. It resulted in Russell getting jumped by three drivers
[25:54.000 -> 25:58.240] ruining his tire graph on a tire they could barely get hot enough to begin with anyway.
[25:58.240 -> 26:03.040] To be fair, three, and then also Hamilton earlier on in that that lap, I think, over to Hamilton.
[26:03.040 -> 26:03.680] Oh, did Hamilton?
[26:03.680 -> 26:08.240] Yeah, I think he did early in the lap they came out Russell Hamilton Kyle oh right I'm
[26:08.240 -> 26:10.600] gonna go and re-watch all of qualifying.
[26:10.600 -> 26:11.600] Brad?
[26:11.600 -> 26:19.200] My my only point was Mercedes for everything we've just said I still think are the second
[26:19.200 -> 26:23.920] team that you know they're still I know McLaren finished in front of them and if we take Verstappen
[26:23.920 -> 26:25.040] out of the equation okay take Red Bull because I know Perezaren finished in front of them, and if we take Verstappen out of the equation,
[26:25.040 -> 26:25.880] okay, take Red Bull,
[26:25.880 -> 26:27.400] because I know Perez was up there too,
[26:27.400 -> 26:28.760] take Red Bull out of the equation,
[26:28.760 -> 26:32.040] this was a thrown away win for them this weekend.
[26:32.040 -> 26:34.600] You know, if we're looking at the closer teams,
[26:34.600 -> 26:38.880] the fight between McLaren, Aston, Mercedes, Ferrari,
[26:38.880 -> 26:40.000] say if that was the season,
[26:40.000 -> 26:42.760] they would have effectively thrown away a top result
[26:42.760 -> 26:44.120] from some areas.
[26:44.120 -> 26:46.840] Having said that, the package, again,
[26:46.840 -> 26:49.120] with the caveat that Red Bull are miles up the road,
[26:49.120 -> 26:51.920] the package is the next best.
[26:51.920 -> 26:54.720] And I think it was errors,
[26:54.720 -> 26:56.680] but over the rest of the season,
[26:56.680 -> 27:00.920] Mercedes are still the team I would back to do the best.
[27:00.920 -> 27:02.280] Yes, no, I think I agree with you.
[27:02.280 -> 27:04.880] So looking at this race in isolation though,
[27:04.880 -> 27:10.160] they threw away the chance to have both drivers up there fighting. So when Lewis Hamilton attempted a
[27:10.160 -> 27:15.920] very, very optimistic undercut, I thought, because there was a three second gap. So I don't know why
[27:15.920 -> 27:20.080] they thought there was a three second undercut on, and I don't think he was struggling with the
[27:20.080 -> 27:25.120] tyres. So that seemed odd to me as well. and then he ended up being like nine seconds behind
[27:25.680 -> 27:29.440] oddly it was really odd brad like how the hell did they end up nine seconds behind that never
[27:29.440 -> 27:34.320] got answered and hamilton also asked the question you you should you've got a massive undercut
[27:34.320 -> 27:40.640] effect and yet he was over double the gap back from norris and the pit stop was slower but it
[27:40.640 -> 27:47.600] wasn't like four seconds slower so maybe he had a terrible in slash out lap or something but he seemed to have amused himself.
[27:47.600 -> 27:48.600] Yeah. Kyle.
[27:48.600 -> 27:51.120] Uh sorry I think I'm just about to steal Matt's point.
[27:51.120 -> 27:52.600] No do it steal it steal it.
[27:52.600 -> 27:58.080] It was the it was the uh the hard tyre warm-up and Toto alluded to this after the race and
[27:58.080 -> 28:01.600] said we were too gentle bringing the tyres in. Now with these tyres and the nature of
[28:01.600 -> 28:07.760] them if you go out and just spank it immediately out of the pits, you will take a disproportionate amount of life out of the tyres. So you've got
[28:07.760 -> 28:14.320] to gently bring them in. And he kind of inferred that they were way too gentle in bringing them in.
[28:14.320 -> 28:19.600] And Hamilton was just too easy. So I think that may have been slightly conscious to go that slow,
[28:19.600 -> 28:23.040] but it was way, way, way too slow. It was, it was odd.
[28:23.040 -> 28:25.120] Jason Vale But then why the undercut?
[28:25.120 -> 28:27.120] If you know by undercutting, you're
[28:27.120 -> 28:30.080] going to have to go four seconds off the pace or whatever it was.
[28:30.080 -> 28:31.080] Like way slower.
[28:31.080 -> 28:31.580] Why undercut?
[28:31.580 -> 28:33.440] Then the undercut isn't on the table, is it?
[28:33.440 -> 28:35.600] I don't think it ever was on the table anyway, Matt.
[28:35.600 -> 28:38.960] Well, the undercut, it was a thing.
[28:38.960 -> 28:43.320] I think it was a reasonable and aggressive choice for Mercedes
[28:43.320 -> 28:45.080] to make at that point.
[28:48.080 -> 28:48.280] But the hard tire was a terrible tire for them.
[28:54.240 -> 28:54.440] And what they didn't do is recognize that and get him off of it quickly.
[28:57.640 -> 28:57.840] Instead, they hung him out, hoping maybe
[29:01.200 -> 29:01.400] that a safety car would arrive and save the day for them.
[29:03.400 -> 29:03.600] And it just it wrecked his race.
[29:05.600 -> 29:10.560] If he'd come in at a normal time to get onto that medium tire, I really honestly believe he would have at least had Perez at
[29:10.560 -> 29:11.560] the end of the race.
[29:11.560 -> 29:16.440] Yeah, and it's just, you know, imagine like what McLaren would have had to have done with
[29:16.440 -> 29:21.680] two Mercedes up there. So, they, they, let's go to McLaren, because enough of what Mercedes
[29:21.680 -> 29:29.720] did wrong, let's go to what McLaren did right, I believe in the third best car. Firstly, they had two drivers who are on a high from
[29:29.720 -> 29:34.280] Silverstone, two drivers who are absolutely going for it and I don't really feel put a
[29:34.280 -> 29:41.840] wheel wrong but in that moment where Hamilton attempted the doomed undercut, initially it
[29:41.840 -> 29:45.120] looked a little bit odd because they gave the second driver priority
[29:45.760 -> 29:50.640] and people were saying oh my goodness you know well they've cost Piastri a place there. Is this
[29:50.640 -> 29:56.560] just a case Matt of... oh let's go to Kyle then. Is this just a case that like McLaren kind of know
[29:56.560 -> 30:00.880] their drivers and they know kind of let's get... they'll say they were protecting against the
[30:00.880 -> 30:08.800] undercut but I don't think it's unreasonable to say this feels like Norris' race, this feels like he's controlling the pace more, let's just let's protect him from
[30:08.800 -> 30:14.720] Hamilton, yes, but also let's get the position swapped. Piastri's a rookie, get over it if you
[30:14.720 -> 30:18.880] want, if we if there's an opportunity to swap later maybe, but I don't think it's unreasonable
[30:18.880 -> 30:22.720] if you have an instinct that one driver is going to have a better race than the other.
[30:23.280 -> 30:26.880] No it's not unreasonable and McLaren do have form for this previously.
[30:26.880 -> 30:32.640] And I think back to the 2007 Monaco Grand Prix when Hamilton was furious as a rookie
[30:32.640 -> 30:36.400] that they decided to pit him early when he had extra fuel on board against Alonso. So
[30:36.400 -> 30:42.160] they do tend to favor the senior driver over the rookie driver initially. But what made it
[30:42.160 -> 30:45.260] particularly strange, and I think a few of us messaged this, like
[30:45.260 -> 30:49.300] we're just like, they've completely screwed Oscar over here. They would have been able
[30:49.300 -> 30:53.660] to see Hamilton's sector times, his abysmal sector times coming out of the pits, which
[30:53.660 -> 30:58.500] meant they probably had time to actually, we don't need to instantly react. We can now
[30:58.500 -> 31:03.780] bring, we can bring, yeah, we can bring Norris in, no, Piastri in first and keep the same
[31:03.780 -> 31:07.080] order because Hamilton was far from setting the timing sheet.
[31:07.320 -> 31:08.240] They brought Norris in first.
[31:08.240 -> 31:09.000] You were right the first time.
[31:09.080 -> 31:09.320] Yeah.
[31:09.480 -> 31:09.800] Yes.
[31:09.840 -> 31:10.160] Yes.
[31:10.200 -> 31:10.440] Yes.
[31:10.440 -> 31:11.920] But they, but they, yeah.
[31:11.920 -> 31:13.480] So it was a bit of a strange decision.
[31:13.480 -> 31:15.960] Zach Brown did actually say that it goes, we thought, we thought
[31:15.960 -> 31:16.840] that's how the race would play out.
[31:16.840 -> 31:20.320] So clearly they had more confidence in Norris's pace than Piastri's.
[31:20.320 -> 31:23.640] But if I was Oscar, I would have been a little bit peeved, but to be fair to him
[31:23.640 -> 31:25.480] after the race, he didn't really question it that much.
[31:25.480 -> 31:28.120] He was like, it wasn't great, but it is what it is.
[31:28.120 -> 31:30.200] And then Norris really showed me how to drive, basically,
[31:30.200 -> 31:31.040] is what he said to the rest of the team.
[31:31.040 -> 31:32.520] I think it's a fair play, man.
[31:32.520 -> 31:35.380] That's such an honest comment from a rookie,
[31:35.380 -> 31:37.600] just going like, yeah, my more experienced teammate,
[31:37.600 -> 31:39.280] he done brilliant there.
[31:39.280 -> 31:40.480] And this is why I think, Matt,
[31:40.480 -> 31:42.680] if we may do some tire chat here,
[31:43.720 -> 31:46.160] Piastri doesn't have the same experience
[31:46.160 -> 31:53.440] of managing high-wear Pirelli races. So his whole, his entire F1 career, they've had Pirelli
[31:53.440 -> 31:59.360] being kind of overcautious on the compounds. Yeah, well, the thing that sticks out to me,
[31:59.360 -> 32:05.600] number one, is that at Silverstone, the positions were reversed, and the decision was reversed. They
[32:05.600 -> 32:10.880] pitted Piastri first, which was an undercut on Norris, but the safety car actually came in and
[32:10.880 -> 32:20.000] sort of made that irrelevant for McLaren to have to deal with. Here, you have Hamilton right behind
[32:20.000 -> 32:26.320] Norris pitting, an obvious undercut attempt. They brought Norris in, and what Norris did that was
[32:26.320 -> 32:34.560] absolutely brilliant was he drove his way ahead of Piastri on those new tires. And then he proceeded
[32:34.560 -> 32:43.120] to just teach, as you say, Piastri a small lesson on how to get the absolute most out of the Pirelli
[32:43.120 -> 32:46.680] rubber, which Piastri is good at, but still obviously
[32:46.680 -> 32:48.360] has some learning to do.
[32:48.360 -> 32:54.040] Brad, how good was Norris' performance today? Because he separated himself from his teammate,
[32:54.040 -> 32:58.800] he held his nerve, so he had a few things to do. He had to manage a quite complicated
[32:58.800 -> 33:06.320] tyre strategy, he had to beat his teammate, and also he had to hold off Perez in his relative box.
[33:06.320 -> 33:10.760] I think Norris drove exactly as we've grown to expect him to drive nowadays.
[33:10.760 -> 33:16.680] I think he's just super fast, really strong in all areas, totally rounded, ready for a
[33:16.680 -> 33:20.280] car that can win, and he'll just rack up the wins.
[33:20.280 -> 33:21.280] Same as Verstappen, really.
[33:21.280 -> 33:26.720] I put Norris basically in the same bracket as Max. I think Piastri has
[33:26.720 -> 33:31.280] been surprisingly close. Obviously the gap at the end of the race wasn't really reflective of
[33:31.280 -> 33:36.880] his relative pace. The damage I think, I don't, again, not quite sure where he got that
[33:36.880 -> 33:43.440] quite exactly what it was, but I think until that point Piastri was looking reasonably strong. So
[33:44.400 -> 33:46.640] I think they're both impressive and I think
[33:46.640 -> 33:51.560] they'll be effectively identical by next year. But Norris is just exactly as I expect him
[33:51.560 -> 33:52.560] to be.
[33:52.560 -> 33:57.040] So Brad, I don't know how much experience you have in driving in series with high tyre
[33:57.040 -> 34:01.600] wear, so you have like multiple tyre changes, but one thing that struck me was it looked
[34:01.600 -> 34:05.920] like Perez was absolutely chewing Norris up, got
[34:05.920 -> 34:09.040] within three seconds and then Norris kind of came to life.
[34:09.040 -> 34:17.600] I was watching this and thinking as long as he can make Pérez work the tyres very hard
[34:17.600 -> 34:21.320] in the catching phase, then it might not be too bad once he gets there. We know what the
[34:21.320 -> 34:29.920] Hungaroring's like and certainly in the whole middle sector of the lap, if you're following someone and your tyre's already near the limit, it's hard
[34:29.920 -> 34:36.080] to keep them alive and hard for them to be fresh enough to then have the pace different to make a
[34:36.080 -> 34:41.200] pass. Obviously Perez is in what is now in one statistic the most dominant car of all time,
[34:41.200 -> 34:50.960] so Perez should have made easy meat of Norris regardless, but the Perez question is a separate topic. But I think Norris was managing it, although he said
[34:50.960 -> 34:55.760] he was driving as fast as he could, that is one way to manage it. I think he was doing everything
[34:55.760 -> 35:01.520] he needed and then still had enough left in reserve to push on once Perez arrived effectively.
[35:01.520 -> 35:02.640] Yeah. Kyle.
[35:02.640 -> 35:05.340] Yeah. So on Norris, Norris set off the race.
[35:05.340 -> 35:07.580] And I'm really surprised nobody used the G word
[35:07.580 -> 35:10.440] this weekend, which is graining.
[35:10.440 -> 35:12.220] I don't think they had that much graining,
[35:12.220 -> 35:13.740] but a few of the drivers said that the tyres
[35:13.740 -> 35:15.200] kind of went away from them,
[35:15.200 -> 35:17.060] and then they came back to them at the end.
[35:17.060 -> 35:18.380] So particularly with Norris,
[35:18.380 -> 35:19.620] so yeah, Norris was sort of struggling
[35:19.620 -> 35:22.860] and sounding a little bit angry with his engineer
[35:22.860 -> 35:24.420] telling him that Perez was closing.
[35:24.420 -> 35:25.040] He was like, yeah, mate,
[35:25.040 -> 35:29.920] I'm pushing as hard as I can. But yeah, he did. He did say that the tires came back to him at the
[35:29.920 -> 35:34.880] end, and then he was a little bit stronger. But on the subject of Norris, you know, sort of ability
[35:34.880 -> 35:39.200] to deliver racewind if he gets a car, it's a good point that Brad makes. If you listen to Norris's
[35:39.200 -> 35:43.440] interview after the race, he's starting to drop a few comments, though. I think Norris thinks in his
[35:43.440 -> 35:46.840] head that he's the same level as Max. He really, truly believes it because he's starting to drop a few comments though. I think Norris thinks in his head that he's the same level as Max. He really truly believes it because he's starting to
[35:46.840 -> 35:51.040] get, show some frustration now he's getting close. He's like, yeah, I just need a better
[35:51.040 -> 35:56.240] car. And because Max is one of his best mates, it's awkward seeing when your best mates do
[35:56.240 -> 35:59.040] well. And I've truly believe that he thinks if he can get in that red bull that he can
[35:59.040 -> 36:03.760] stick it to Max. So let's hope that McLaren can close them down eventually, because I
[36:03.760 -> 36:08.400] think, you know, in the future for Formula One is looking pretty bright. And, you know, I wouldn't be surprised
[36:08.400 -> 36:12.880] if we see these two knocking several shades of something out of each other over the next
[36:12.880 -> 36:17.540] few seasons, because it's going to be a fierce, fierce competition. I think Norris truly believes
[36:17.540 -> 36:19.480] that he is on Max's level.
[36:19.480 -> 36:25.880] And at the moment, it would be hard to argue that. And I would say that he's in a privileged
[36:25.880 -> 36:31.760] position in that he has a rookie who's talented, who is very clearly kind of almost accepting
[36:31.760 -> 36:36.160] a number two position. Like it's a learning year, he's got support from McLaren, and he's
[36:36.160 -> 36:41.360] looking at his teammate kind of with awe and going, that's cool. I wish I can do that someday.
[36:41.360 -> 36:45.520] It's almost the perfect position for Norris to be in right now if McLaren can kick
[36:45.520 -> 36:52.960] on and I was wrong in what I was thinking about with McLaren. I thought the Silverstone performance
[36:52.960 -> 36:57.760] on race pace was purely going to be down to the fact that the tyres were lasting forever and I
[36:57.760 -> 37:03.120] thought they'd struggle if there was some tyre management required. The one lap pace had been
[37:03.120 -> 37:05.400] there even before the upgrade. But
[37:05.400 -> 37:11.040] this is significant. It's real. And I don't think they're as fast as the Mercedes. I think
[37:11.040 -> 37:16.480] they did everything just about perfectly. So can it be maintained, Matt? If we're talking
[37:16.480 -> 37:22.160] about McLaren's targets, if you said to them, OK, you're going to be the third fastest car
[37:22.160 -> 37:28.580] and finish third in the constructors, they would have bitten your hand off for that in the first three races.
[37:28.580 -> 37:31.060] But now they've got a bigger target.
[37:31.060 -> 37:32.540] Potentially they're talking about P2.
[37:32.540 -> 37:37.260] Well, I actually think they're the second fastest car now.
[37:37.260 -> 37:38.260] Ah, you're wrong.
[37:38.260 -> 37:39.260] Genuinely, on merit.
[37:39.260 -> 37:40.260] Nah.
[37:40.260 -> 37:46.960] Where they are weak is in the low speed turns and in the low speed stuff and they don't have the same
[37:48.160 -> 37:53.840] absolute maximum speed as a Mercedes. Yeah, so they're medium and high speed.
[37:54.720 -> 38:00.400] Their medium and high speed is just killing right now and here's what you need to know.
[38:00.960 -> 38:06.960] Remember, McLaren showed up to testing and said, look, you know, we had this revelation.
[38:06.960 -> 38:12.640] We realized that the car we were building was just not going to work. But we also realized
[38:12.640 -> 38:19.040] we couldn't build the car we wanted in time for the beginning of the season. So the car that we
[38:19.040 -> 38:23.680] just see now with all their new developments is the car they wanted to show up to the season with.
[38:23.680 -> 38:31.040] But about a third of the parts they intended to bring actually haven't shown up yet. So we're not even seeing
[38:31.680 -> 38:37.200] like McLaren in full flight yet. We don't know where they're going to wind up when they finally
[38:37.200 -> 38:42.960] get the last of this development onto their car. But they have clearly solved an issue that,
[38:43.840 -> 38:46.320] as far as I can tell, only Red Bull has solved,
[38:46.320 -> 38:51.000] which is the ability to run a super low ride height and still have a fairly compliant chassis.
[38:51.000 -> 38:57.760] And for the next phase of development restrictions, and I can't remember what the official term for
[38:57.760 -> 39:02.440] that cutoff point is, but McLaren were sixth in the Constructors' Championship, I believe,
[39:02.440 -> 39:05.520] with by far the biggest potential, or biggest allowance, to bring upgrades in the Constructors' Championship, I believe, with by far the biggest potential,
[39:05.520 -> 39:11.680] or biggest allowance, to bring upgrades in the next phase. So if they've got the actual budget,
[39:11.680 -> 39:16.080] which I don't doubt they have, they're going to be allowed to spend more than all these other
[39:16.080 -> 39:20.800] teams that they're now fighting at the front of the grid in the next phase of the season. So
[39:21.360 -> 39:26.480] that also bodes well for them staying up there. Okay, Red Bull. We keep a
[39:26.480 -> 39:33.600] watchful eye on McLaren, a suspicious side eye on their performance and a real thorn in Mercedes'
[39:33.600 -> 39:38.800] side. A bit of a perhaps a disappointment to Mercedes who, you know, had McLaren not unlocked
[39:38.800 -> 39:44.320] this, would be probably looking comfortably like the second team and they would be being left alone
[39:46.460 -> 39:50.480] to potentially close down the gap on Red Bull. That's what they'd be talking about. But now
[39:50.480 -> 39:54.640] they are under significant pressure under McLaren and McLaren are not giving them any
[39:54.640 -> 40:02.400] room to hide. So from a McLaren Mercedes perspective, you know now McLaren are operationally sound.
[40:02.400 -> 40:05.360] They're tactically sound. their drivers are absolutely on it,
[40:05.360 -> 40:10.480] they've got one driver in their peak and one driver with all the potential in the world.
[40:10.480 -> 40:16.720] So I would say, you know, the biggest challenge on the grid at the moment is Mercedes staying ahead
[40:16.720 -> 40:20.640] of McLaren. So let's go to Red Bull, who have been absolutely dominant. Now,
[40:20.640 -> 40:25.000] one of the main criticisms we get on this show is that we don't praise
[40:25.000 -> 40:33.000] Max Verstappen enough. And he won by 30 seconds, the biggest margin for a long, long time.
[40:33.000 -> 40:37.880] So on the face of it, you go, that's incredible. His teammate finished third and only qualified
[40:37.880 -> 40:47.280] eighth. Is it man? Is it machine? My general argument is exactly the same as when Lewis Hamilton was dominant in the Mercedes
[40:47.280 -> 40:50.080] and he was not being challenged by Bottas,
[40:50.080 -> 40:54.800] which was, we don't really know how well he's doing.
[40:54.800 -> 40:56.400] So he could have driven that car
[40:56.400 -> 40:58.440] to the absolute limit today.
[40:58.440 -> 41:01.600] He could have driven it, you know,
[41:01.600 -> 41:03.040] he could have won by 40 seconds.
[41:03.040 -> 41:10.720] He could have been a third of a lap slower every lap and still won the race. It's a difficult position, Brad, especially for people
[41:10.720 -> 41:16.560] like you and I who perhaps some people think, can you believe we get accused of bias sometimes?
[41:17.360 -> 41:17.840] Unreal.
[41:18.560 -> 41:23.520] So first off, Perez actually qualified ninth, not eighth, so he was slightly worse than you thought.
[41:23.520 -> 41:23.840] Okay.
[41:25.280 -> 41:29.280] I'm just keeping a close eye on that because, and the reason is, Perez is the only other
[41:29.280 -> 41:35.000] person in the Red Bull, and so we have a fair understanding of Perez's level, and when Max
[41:35.000 -> 41:39.520] is off streets ahead of everyone else down the road, the person that we're comparing
[41:39.520 -> 41:41.000] him to directly is Perez.
[41:41.000 -> 41:47.200] Obviously Perez had to come through the field today, so it's not, You can't look at the ultimate gap and say that's the gap.
[41:47.200 -> 41:51.360] No, but it's not unheard of to have a number one driver have that kind of gap to their
[41:51.360 -> 41:57.840] teammate in a dominant car. So you know, you've got Weber, Barrichello, Eddie Irvine,
[41:57.840 -> 42:04.240] you've got Bottas, you know, so it isn't like unheard of for a car to be designed around
[42:04.240 -> 42:05.000] a driver. So you know, if there was a... it's a of for a car to be designed around a driver.
[42:05.000 -> 42:08.240] So if there was a... it's a discussion for a different time.
[42:08.440 -> 42:13.720] But if you had a Perez designed Red Bull, yes, it might be ultimately not as fast,
[42:13.720 -> 42:16.240] but the gap wouldn't perhaps be as quite as stark.
[42:16.480 -> 42:19.800] I think it's clear this is a car that's designed for Verstappen, and rightly so.
[42:20.280 -> 42:23.360] I would always have a number one driver and I would always provide that number
[42:23.360 -> 42:27.360] one driver with the car that exactly suits them.
[42:27.360 -> 42:33.360] But week to week, Brad, race in, race out, we don't really have a way to tell how good
[42:33.360 -> 42:35.400] Verstappen drove today.
[42:35.400 -> 42:41.160] So you really just have to judge him on whether we see any mistakes made and generally he's
[42:41.160 -> 42:42.560] pretty clean, isn't he?
[42:42.560 -> 42:47.040] Not a lot goes wrong, but that also makes it harder to judge
[42:47.040 -> 42:51.120] because just like all the other drivers you mentioned that were dominating in their periods,
[42:52.320 -> 42:56.960] they're not under pressure and therefore you might have multiple drivers throughout the field in a
[42:56.960 -> 43:01.760] particular race who are actually putting in stronger performances if you had some objective
[43:01.760 -> 43:10.540] way of actually measuring that. But it's just the person out front is having a nice easy day. He's having to be checked on by his engineer
[43:10.540 -> 43:13.800] saying, is everything still right out there, Max? And he's like, yeah, it's cool.
[43:13.800 -> 43:14.800] Yeah, literally.
[43:14.800 -> 43:18.340] And he even said afterwards, the car was great. It was a rocket ship today. And we know when
[43:18.340 -> 43:24.980] a car is really good and doing everything you want it to do, you have an easier day.
[43:24.980 -> 43:26.200] So yeah, Max is clearly
[43:26.200 -> 43:32.180] doing a great job because you're not consistently that far ahead of a teammate and pulling all
[43:32.180 -> 43:38.200] these multiple wins. Even in a really good car, if you're not doing a pretty decent job,
[43:38.200 -> 43:42.800] those results don't come. If Perez was the lead driver in Red Bull this year, it would
[43:42.800 -> 43:45.000] look like one of the closest seasons
[43:45.000 -> 43:48.200] ever. We just wouldn't realise he was driving a car which was capable of, you know, four,
[43:48.200 -> 43:52.620] five tenths faster lap times each lap. We just assumed that's what the car could do.
[43:52.620 -> 43:58.120] So I think Verstappen is doing a great job, is the short version, but as with all of these
[43:58.120 -> 44:02.640] similar periods from other drivers who have been out front in a really fast car, it's
[44:02.640 -> 44:06.620] just hard to tell. And that's probably one of the reasons we don't focus on it
[44:06.620 -> 44:08.140] because it's almost a foregone conclusion.
[44:08.140 -> 44:08.980] Yeah, exactly.
[44:08.980 -> 44:11.300] Kyle, just like when Brad beat you
[44:11.300 -> 44:14.300] at the recent Mist Apex karting at Brighton,
[44:14.300 -> 44:16.180] he just happened to have the fastest car.
[44:16.180 -> 44:17.600] That was the only reason he won.
[44:17.600 -> 44:20.620] And we don't even know how well he did against you.
[44:20.620 -> 44:24.500] My belly probably accounted for some of that as well.
[44:24.500 -> 44:25.040] I have to say.
[44:25.040 -> 44:25.680] I feel you brother.
[44:25.680 -> 44:26.360] I feel you.
[44:26.360 -> 44:27.760] Yeah, yeah, I did.
[44:27.760 -> 44:28.840] I'm carrying a bit of timber.
[44:28.840 -> 44:34.160] So, um, uh, yeah, on the Verstappen thing, look, I think Verstappen is probably
[44:34.360 -> 44:38.400] one of the first thoroughbred Formula One drivers we have seen.
[44:38.400 -> 44:39.880] His father was an F1 driver.
[44:39.880 -> 44:41.440] His mother was a racing driver.
[44:41.440 -> 44:46.800] He is literally born and bred to be a Formula One champion.
[44:46.800 -> 44:50.560] Now he's sort of matured and after his first couple of years, I truly believe if that car
[44:50.560 -> 44:54.920] was not as good, and it was more difficult to drive, he would still be doing the same
[44:54.920 -> 44:59.360] thing. So I think the fact that he's out front, and he's put himself into position where it
[44:59.360 -> 45:03.400] almost he looks infallible, it almost looks like almost a dead certainty that he's going
[45:03.400 -> 45:09.360] to win the race, and he can do it so calmly just speaks volumes. I think it is, you know, with everything
[45:09.360 -> 45:13.000] with the Schumacher domination with the Hamilton domination, it's a combination of the team
[45:13.000 -> 45:17.360] and everything gelling perfectly, but only the real greats get into that position where
[45:17.360 -> 45:21.760] they can win so calmly. For instance, you wouldn't see a Fissie Keller do something
[45:21.760 -> 45:31.120] like that. You know, you wouldn't see Bottas go and do something like that. They're extremely very good drivers, but they are not absolutely like incredible. And I do
[45:31.120 -> 45:34.880] truly believe that Verstappen is doing an incredible job and he is making it look easy.
[45:34.880 -> 45:39.680] So to dominate Formula One and make it look easy is not easy in itself.
[45:39.680 -> 45:45.080] Okay, apologies to all the Giancarlo Fisichella fans, that is obviously not true.
[45:45.080 -> 45:48.960] So what you're saying is he's the Ivan Drago of Formula One.
[45:48.960 -> 45:50.200] He's like a machine.
[45:50.200 -> 45:52.200] He's made of iron.
[45:52.200 -> 45:53.200] Matt Trumpets!
[45:53.200 -> 45:58.240] Go on, finish off some Verstappen stuff, then we'll talk about Mr. Perez.
[45:58.240 -> 46:04.460] Well, you know, if we're going to talk about Verstappen, we need to talk about Red Bull.
[46:04.460 -> 46:06.600] And we need to specifically talk about...stappen, we need to talk about Red Bull, and we need to specifically talk about—
[46:06.600 -> 46:08.680] Why do you fluff qualifying, Matt?
[46:08.680 -> 46:13.560] The fact that he did not have the greatest qualifying.
[46:13.560 -> 46:18.720] In fact, if you go back and look at Verstappen's radio messages, what you generally see is
[46:18.720 -> 46:20.560] a very unhappy driver.
[46:20.560 -> 46:21.760] The balance is terrible.
[46:21.760 -> 46:23.960] The fronts are like ice.
[46:23.960 -> 46:27.280] And for all that, he just barely lost
[46:27.280 -> 46:33.680] out to Hamilton. Show up to race day when the temperatures were like almost 50 C on the track,
[46:34.400 -> 46:40.960] and suddenly on full fuel on medium tires, he's like, oh, this is the best car I've ever driven.
[46:40.960 -> 46:45.560] I can't thank the team enough. Let's contrast that with Hamilton. At the
[46:45.560 -> 46:50.140] end of qualifying, he's like, I can't thank the team enough. The car was perfectly balanced
[46:50.140 -> 46:55.220] in the corners when there was absolutely no fuel in it. And I was on the soft tires. Show
[46:55.220 -> 47:01.340] up today, much hotter, much more fuel. And, and he, after the race, he's like, the car
[47:01.340 -> 47:05.920] was terrible, terrible to drive until it was almost empty.
[47:05.920 -> 47:11.920] And the picture I come away with is Red Bull figured out, based on the new rules and the
[47:11.920 -> 47:19.440] new tires, exactly what they needed to prioritize to absolutely crush their opponents today,
[47:19.440 -> 47:23.680] and everybody else, to a greater or lesser degree, didn't quite get it right.
[47:46.280 -> 47:51.120] Oh, I've just thought of another reason to delay talking about Perez. Brilliant, else to a greater or lesser degree didn't quite get it right. few tyres around the world. Well, I've got a better idea. If you want to save shipping, you know the PR people that stop the drivers saying stupid things? Just leave them at home.
[47:51.120 -> 47:54.820] Then you don't have to ship 20 people around the world. They get to brief them once before
[47:54.820 -> 48:00.800] they leave the factory and then the drivers are just free to be kind of cancel scatterguns,
[48:00.800 -> 48:08.480] like cancelled, I'm cancelled, Sonoda's cancelled, Verstappen's cancelled, Hamilton cancels himself and the PR people are at home tearing their hair out. But you
[48:08.480 -> 48:13.360] know, the carbon footprint of flying people, that's significant. I can think of loads of
[48:13.360 -> 48:18.760] people we don't need to take. We can half the Red Bull caterers, surely. So I was a
[48:18.760 -> 48:25.800] little bit anti the fact that, okay, we're doing this, we're making this sporting change to save freight,
[48:25.800 -> 48:32.120] and it felt like an optics thing. Matt taught me that word. So it felt like, look, here's
[48:32.120 -> 48:35.880] a show that we're doing something, like the tyre blankets as well, when it's like, yeah,
[48:35.880 -> 48:39.040] really? Yeah, that's great. You don't need to be in a luxury motorhome. You can all just
[48:39.040 -> 48:46.400] bring some three by three gazebos and a pop-up barbecue. So I was against it for that reason, but Kyle,
[48:46.400 -> 48:53.000] my goodness, I loved seeing the challenge throughout qualifying of all of the top three
[48:53.000 -> 48:57.560] teams having to use all three tyres. I actually thought it was great.
[48:57.560 -> 49:02.680] Yeah, I really like that aspect of it and I like the fact that they changed the allocations
[49:02.680 -> 49:08.160] a bit more because if you remember to the before times, before the event, in the long, long ago, before COVID, before COVID,
[49:08.160 -> 49:13.520] before the event, COVID, yes, before COVID, the teams used to be able to choose what allocation
[49:13.520 -> 49:17.440] they brought for themselves. And of course, we already stopped that before COVID. And we've had
[49:17.440 -> 49:22.320] this allocation enforced upon us. So this evening out, so they've given them one more hard, one more
[49:22.320 -> 49:28.520] mediums and halved their allocation of softs. That's great. But I think all... so that's great. And then force them to use
[49:28.520 -> 49:34.640] the compounds in qualifying. Yes, big thumbs up. I think that actually really, really worked.
[49:34.640 -> 49:39.320] But reducing the sets, like you, I think is a bit of a virtue grab and a little bit misplaced.
[49:39.320 -> 49:42.800] Like if you're trying to cut down costs, why are we having night races? Why are we going
[49:42.800 -> 49:48.400] to these events, sham events that we don't really want to go to in races? It's like they could cut down.
[49:48.400 -> 49:51.760] But the lighting alone, the lighting alone for a street race.
[49:51.760 -> 49:56.480] So what I found most frustrating was, and it's something that I've been banging on about on
[49:56.480 -> 50:02.160] this podcast for the last few years, is Pirelli not bringing soft enough compounds, being too
[50:02.160 -> 50:07.240] risk averse. And finally, this weekend, they bought the soft compounds, and then they've reduced
[50:07.240 -> 50:08.960] the sets at the same time as the ATA.
[50:08.960 -> 50:12.880] So I was really like the ATA, but they reduced the sets, which is also going to dissuade
[50:12.880 -> 50:15.620] teams from one running loads in FP1.
[50:15.620 -> 50:19.800] And I actually think that this whole ATA thing was saved by the rain in FP1.
[50:19.800 -> 50:20.800] Really saved them.
[50:20.800 -> 50:24.040] So we didn't see loads of cars sitting in the pit lane.
[50:24.040 -> 50:28.240] But also, it's going to discourage people from going for a three-stop if you don't have
[50:28.240 -> 50:30.880] the mega tyres to make it work.
[50:30.880 -> 50:35.680] So I love the fact that a more even allocation, I love the fact that they had to use the hards
[50:35.680 -> 50:39.800] and mediums and the softs in their relative sessions in qualifying, but I didn't like
[50:39.800 -> 50:43.440] the fact that they've reduced the sets because I do think that they are actually hurting
[50:43.440 -> 50:50.720] the strategy with doing that. So some tweaks, give them the 13 sets, but bring this off the compounds,
[50:50.720 -> 50:52.880] and give them those two extra sets that they need.
[50:53.440 -> 50:56.160] Right. So let's be clear.
[50:56.720 -> 50:57.120] Okay.
[50:57.120 -> 51:00.000] Doing something is always better than doing nothing.
[51:00.560 -> 51:01.120] You don't know that.
[51:01.120 -> 51:04.560] This was an experiment, and from a sporting point of view,
[51:04.560 -> 51:06.160] requiring the hard, the medium,
[51:06.160 -> 51:11.520] and the soft, we can all agree, worked much better than any of us thought it would ahead
[51:11.520 -> 51:12.520] of time.
[51:12.520 -> 51:13.520] I'm stunned how well it worked, yeah.
[51:13.520 -> 51:14.920] Yeah, it was genius.
[51:14.920 -> 51:19.200] It's a much bigger challenge for the teams, a much bigger challenge for the drivers.
[51:19.200 -> 51:21.760] Kyle, you have an absolute point.
[51:21.760 -> 51:26.320] It's going to be a problem for the running. Having two fewer sets
[51:26.320 -> 51:33.280] through the free practices could easily be solved by not requiring the teams to give back any tires
[51:33.280 -> 51:39.120] until after the end of free practice three, I think. But I also want to bring up that
[51:39.120 -> 51:47.040] Lewis made a very good point, which is that Pirelli is required to bring fresh, wets, and inters to every race.
[51:47.040 -> 51:47.440] Yeah.
[51:47.440 -> 51:53.680] Almost never get used. And I think, again, this is what I like to call some low-hanging fruit,
[51:53.680 -> 52:00.000] perhaps easy to look at in terms of making the sport slightly more environmentally conscious.
[52:00.000 -> 52:04.480] You can call it greenwashing, but you have to admit that the thousand or so tires they're
[52:04.480 -> 52:11.360] going to save per season, especially considering how dirty tires are to manufacture, is also not exactly,
[52:11.360 -> 52:14.400] you know, pancakes. Sorry, did you say I can call it greenwashing?
[52:15.280 -> 52:20.640] Okay, you can call it greenwashing, but it's significant within the context of the sport.
[52:20.640 -> 52:24.480] By can call it greenwashing? Yeah, of course.
[52:24.480 -> 52:30.960] Okay, it's greenwashing. Brad. So I work for a tyre company and something that I did at work last
[52:30.960 -> 52:35.440] week was sit through a large presentation about sustainability going forward for tyre production.
[52:36.560 -> 52:42.880] And um... Your look says it all. But yeah, okay, there were more interesting parts to my week,
[52:42.880 -> 52:49.200] but what was interesting about that was all the major tire companies are committed to,
[52:49.200 -> 52:51.240] certainly for road tires, including
[52:51.240 -> 52:54.680] a very high proportion of sustainable materials
[52:54.680 -> 52:58.600] or recycled materials or recyclable materials.
[52:58.600 -> 53:01.840] And I think that the format, I really
[53:01.840 -> 53:03.120] enjoyed the qualifying format.
[53:03.120 -> 53:06.600] I loved seeing everyone forced to be on the same type of tire
[53:06.600 -> 53:07.560] in each session.
[53:07.560 -> 53:09.240] I liked seeing that direct comparison
[53:09.240 -> 53:13.680] and not having slower teams be able to kind of artificially
[53:13.680 -> 53:16.000] bump up to the next session by being on one step
[53:16.000 -> 53:16.720] softer tires.
[53:16.720 -> 53:18.560] I preferred that.
[53:18.560 -> 53:20.800] Obviously, the problem with the tire allocation
[53:20.800 -> 53:23.200] and not running enough laps on the practice sessions
[53:23.200 -> 53:24.880] for fans at the track, that is an issue.
[53:24.880 -> 53:25.280] And so my suggestion would be, I mean, it's too late now because I've already done this, tyre allocation and not running enough laps on the practice sessions for fans at the track, that is an issue.
[53:25.280 -> 53:28.160] So my suggestion would be, I mean it's too late now because I've already done this, but
[53:28.160 -> 53:35.400] it would be for Optics not to focus on the number of sets being taken to each race because
[53:35.400 -> 53:38.880] I don't know about you guys, well I know Matt would have known, but I didn't know how many
[53:38.880 -> 53:39.880] they took.
[53:39.880 -> 53:45.840] I would have found it probably more of a, more of a, maybe a better
[53:46.000 -> 53:50.080] sustainability message for Pirelli to talk about what
[53:50.080 -> 53:52.480] they're doing in terms of the materials going forward and how
[53:52.480 -> 53:57.560] committed they are to, to using more sustainable materials. And
[53:57.560 -> 53:59.800] maybe they could look at the number of wet tires they take as
[53:59.800 -> 54:01.000] well to each round.
[54:01.480 -> 54:04.760] That's yeah, so the materials and recycling is a good is a
[54:04.760 -> 54:05.480] good point.
[54:05.480 -> 54:09.960] Hamilton raised this as well, and you've already said it, is taking the wet tyres to several
[54:09.960 -> 54:10.960] rounds.
[54:10.960 -> 54:13.920] I mean, are they producing a whole new set of wet tyres every time?
[54:13.920 -> 54:15.820] So they have produced a range.
[54:15.820 -> 54:19.480] Are they destroying these wet tyres when they don't get used and then remanufacturing them
[54:19.480 -> 54:20.480] again?
[54:20.480 -> 54:21.480] If they are, why?
[54:21.480 -> 54:27.240] Why aren't they zipped up in a bag, keep them away from UV and in a dark room, and hermetically sealed, and use that same set?
[54:27.240 -> 54:28.960] Brad, do you have a quick answer for that?
[54:28.960 -> 54:32.920] Yeah, Pirelli actually pushed back on that. So they said that Hamilton's claims on that
[54:32.920 -> 54:37.560] issue were not correct, and that they don't throw them away. I didn't read in detail.
[54:37.560 -> 54:42.680] It was something I saw in a news headline, so I didn't go into the details, so Matt might
[54:42.680 -> 54:44.800] know more, but I think that wasn't quite correct.
[54:44.800 -> 54:47.040] Okay, I think, though, I do want to move on we
[54:47.040 -> 54:50.600] have spent quite a lot of time in that qualifying format Matt. About the race
[54:50.600 -> 54:56.640] two. Okay. And about the softer compounds. I just want to point out that all of the
[54:56.640 -> 55:06.160] top six teams ran one hard and two mediums and we brought the softest compounds.
[55:06.160 -> 55:07.600] Yes, we did.
[55:07.600 -> 55:11.560] So I'm just telling Pirelli now, it's going to work.
[55:11.560 -> 55:14.520] Bring the softer compounds, it's going to work.
[55:14.520 -> 55:15.880] Yeah, Kyle's nodding to that.
[55:15.880 -> 55:17.360] I think we're all saying that.
[55:17.360 -> 55:18.360] Pirelli, yes, please.
[55:18.360 -> 55:21.560] I was surprised when they announced that quite late.
[55:21.560 -> 55:23.320] They said we're bringing softer compounds.
[55:23.320 -> 55:24.760] It must have been planned in advance though.
[55:24.760 -> 55:28.080] But yes, please, Pirelli, be brave, bring the soft compounds.
[55:28.080 -> 55:29.600] It's definitely better.
[55:33.680 -> 55:38.000] All right, I've delayed Perez's chat long enough. And actually, what I'm going to do
[55:38.000 -> 55:43.440] is I'm just going to recuse myself. I'm going to hand it over to Matt to manage the Sergio
[55:43.440 -> 55:50.100] Perez chat. I'll leave you the question, because in the Sky commentary it was described as a statement
[55:50.100 -> 55:54.720] drive, and as a Perez fan, I don't think it was.
[55:54.720 -> 55:55.960] I'm a little disappointed.
[55:55.960 -> 55:59.960] I'm disappointed enough to just put you three on screen and go and take a little break.
[55:59.960 -> 56:05.160] Well, I'm gonna start with the fact that Perez made Q3 for the first time in five races,
[56:05.160 -> 56:10.520] and then he finished his third on the podium, even though he only started ninth.
[56:10.520 -> 56:11.660] So I don't know.
[56:11.660 -> 56:12.840] Is that an improvement?
[56:12.840 -> 56:13.840] Seems like it to me.
[56:13.840 -> 56:14.840] Kyle, what do you think?
[56:14.840 -> 56:18.920] I think it's a bit of an improvement, but it's still an underperformance, isn't it?
[56:18.920 -> 56:24.440] Putting P9 when your teammate is lost out to pole by three thousandths of a second and
[56:24.440 -> 56:25.520] was really unhappy
[56:25.520 -> 56:30.080] with the balance. Now, didn't hear Sergio complaining too much about the balance. And
[56:30.080 -> 56:37.200] let's not forget, first flying lap in FP1, he sticks it into the wall with his shiny new parts
[56:37.200 -> 56:47.320] on. That is not good. It wasn't so good. And you have kind of have to ask the question that why was he pushing
[56:47.320 -> 56:51.400] that hard on his first lap with his shiny new parts? I think it's a driver clearly under
[56:51.400 -> 56:55.880] pressure, but credit where credit's due, these things can snowball. He's under pressure,
[56:55.880 -> 56:59.840] he needs to go and make a good impression. So you push a bit harder, you're more likely
[56:59.840 -> 57:03.560] to make mistakes when you push harder, and it can easily snowball and get out of control.
[57:03.560 -> 57:07.560] So he didn't, he recovered it. Okay. But yeah, as Verstappen said, the car was set up well
[57:07.560 -> 57:12.800] for the race. He, he didn't do a good job in qualifying at all. So his, his recovery
[57:12.800 -> 57:17.560] drive is flattered by his bad performance in qualifying. And he got through the pack.
[57:17.560 -> 57:22.240] I think the Red Bull today was probably the strongest it's looked all season in compared
[57:22.240 -> 57:25.760] to everyone else. So I think it was a decent drive from Perez
[57:25.760 -> 57:31.920] I don't think it was a career defining drive shall we say. So counterpoint without just
[57:31.920 -> 57:37.280] wanting to beat up on Perez I think he did probably the bare minimum that he could get
[57:37.280 -> 57:43.600] away with this weekend and us not consider it adding to the pile of bad performances.
[57:43.600 -> 57:47.640] You had two pretty major errors in practice.
[57:47.640 -> 57:52.760] Obviously the crash car mentioned the big lock up in the next session. He then qualifies
[57:52.760 -> 57:59.080] for Q3, but right at the back of Q3 in an absolutely dominant car. And we can probably
[57:59.080 -> 58:03.560] set aside whether or not he's got an identical car to Max, because I think he probably does.
[58:03.560 -> 58:09.360] And I think he just can't live with the kind of setups you need to drive it fast and so that's not the car's fault.
[58:10.160 -> 58:15.040] The driver has to drive it fast. So anyway, the car has such a margin on everyone that you should
[58:15.040 -> 58:21.600] be up the front regardless and I mean I think that's still one of the biggest gaps to a teammate
[58:21.600 -> 58:28.880] in the field. Admittedly Max obviously one of the best drivers in the field, but... And then in the race, he finishes nearly 40 seconds behind
[58:28.880 -> 58:34.000] the winner. I know he has to come through the field again. That's his fault. So I think
[58:34.000 -> 58:40.600] probably consider it the absolute bare minimum performance. And I think the Perez question
[58:40.600 -> 58:48.480] is still unanswered, particularly when Ricciardo actually had a pretty strong weekend, stronger than I thought he was going to have. Maybe we're going to talk about Ricardo
[58:48.480 -> 58:49.480] later.
[58:49.480 -> 58:54.920] The warmth and empathy in your response there, Brad, as a fellow driver, really speaks to
[58:54.920 -> 59:01.640] me as a fellow human being. But I'm just going to say this, in slight defense of Perez, I
[59:01.640 -> 59:08.160] have heard, as a rumor, that he's insisting to drive the same car as Max because it's the fastest
[59:08.160 -> 59:11.960] possible car, even though his engineers are telling him if he
[59:11.960 -> 59:15.080] would accept a slightly slower car, he would be closer to Max,
[59:15.320 -> 59:15.840] Kyle.
[59:16.200 -> 59:20.520] Yes. And I think we said this on the previous race review for
[59:20.520 -> 59:24.400] Silverstone that yeah, a fast car is not necessarily easy to
[59:24.400 -> 59:25.420] drive and Max can
[59:25.420 -> 59:30.200] live with it on the nose. Schumach used to do this as well. And Hamilton in the McLaren
[59:30.200 -> 59:33.980] days Button alluded to it, said he can drive the car unbalanced on the nose and I can't
[59:33.980 -> 59:39.780] deal with it. So it just goes to show that yeah, it's a good plus for Max, but also for
[59:39.780 -> 59:45.080] Perez it is extremely hard. Brad's exactly right. Like he's not, he's not driving the car
[59:45.080 -> 59:47.020] or cannot handle the setups the way they are,
[59:47.020 -> 59:48.920] but fair play for sticking with it.
[59:48.920 -> 59:50.000] But he's not accepting,
[59:50.000 -> 59:53.020] he doesn't want to accept second rate tools in his eyes.
[59:53.020 -> 59:54.800] So he's not going to accept a slower setup,
[59:54.800 -> 59:57.440] which will probably be better for him overall.
[59:57.440 -> 01:00:00.640] He's trying to force himself into driving this car.
[01:00:00.640 -> 01:00:02.880] And that's probably exasperated by the fact
[01:00:02.880 -> 01:00:06.480] that they had new upgrades this weekend, they get no time to
[01:00:06.480 -> 01:00:08.940] test them on actual track at all. They get no time to do
[01:00:08.940 -> 01:00:11.820] that. So so he was kind of probably backed in backed into
[01:00:11.820 -> 01:00:14.900] a corner. So yes, it was a decent, it was a decent drive
[01:00:14.940 -> 01:00:17.340] and a good drive. But one thing I found really surprising about
[01:00:17.340 -> 01:00:19.820] his drive today, and that was the fact that he got stuck
[01:00:19.820 -> 01:00:23.940] behind Hamilton for three laps on much fresher tyres. I'm I was
[01:00:24.060 -> 01:00:26.880] absolutely expecting him to blitz past
[01:00:26.880 -> 01:00:31.280] Hamilton but he was really struggling in the middle sector. He was dropping way back behind
[01:00:31.280 -> 01:00:34.480] Hamilton in the middle sector which was not putting him close enough to make advantage of
[01:00:34.480 -> 01:00:40.720] the DRS down the straight. Dirty air is dirty air, right Brad? Yeah, I wasn't quite so surprised
[01:00:40.720 -> 01:00:46.000] about that just because Hungaroring is so hard to overtake on but I also think
[01:00:46.000 -> 01:00:52.800] Max in the same position would have done it faster so I think I'm at risk of just sounding
[01:00:52.800 -> 01:00:57.840] mean to Perez so I've probably said everything I need to about the Perez situation. He's
[01:00:57.840 -> 01:01:04.680] got a bunch more races this year to prove me wrong and do better but as it stands either
[01:01:04.680 -> 01:01:06.720] Max is absolutely godlike and the car
[01:01:06.720 -> 01:01:11.360] isn't actually quite as good as we think and Perez is doing a really decent job, or it's
[01:01:11.360 -> 01:01:15.440] more likely the car is just as good as we think it is and Perez just doesn't have his act together
[01:01:15.440 -> 01:01:21.600] this season and his seat is at risk. Well, as much as we have tried to spare spanners,
[01:01:27.600 -> 01:01:34.520] tried to spare spatters. The elephant in this room is actually in an Alpha Tau'ri named Daniel Riccardo, and his performance this weekend has raised more questions about Perez's
[01:01:34.520 -> 01:01:36.160] seat than it has answered.
[01:01:36.160 -> 01:01:41.400] I've been a bit of a Riccardo naysayer over the last two years. I've been quite critical
[01:01:41.400 -> 01:01:48.680] of his performances versus Norris, and I mean, I think it was clear for all to see that Norris spanked him for two seasons and
[01:01:49.400 -> 01:01:51.560] Didn't matter what Ricardo did in response
[01:01:51.560 -> 01:01:53.160] He I know he had the one win at Monza
[01:01:53.160 -> 01:01:57.440] but we know the reasons for that and it was a real anomaly in those two seasons and
[01:01:57.880 -> 01:01:59.040] And he was you know
[01:01:59.040 -> 01:02:03.080] Kind of chased away from the seat and replaced with a rookie and I was very
[01:02:03.440 -> 01:02:06.320] Well, I'm happy that he went away and kind of had a mental reset,
[01:02:06.320 -> 01:02:08.760] but I was not optimistic he would be
[01:02:08.760 -> 01:02:10.680] on Sunoda's pace this weekend.
[01:02:10.680 -> 01:02:12.960] And I think I've been proven wrong
[01:02:12.960 -> 01:02:17.220] because in Q1, he was a fractionally quicker.
[01:02:17.220 -> 01:02:20.400] So Sunoda did an 18.919,
[01:02:20.400 -> 01:02:24.080] Ricciardo was 18.90, so a hundredth quicker in Q1.
[01:02:24.080 -> 01:02:27.160] That then afforded him Q2 and obviously on the softer tyres
[01:02:27.160 -> 01:02:32.040] he went nearly a second quicker. And 13th start, you know, starting 13th, getting pretty much
[01:02:32.400 -> 01:02:37.360] bulked at the first corner because of the other incidents that were going on and finishing 13th in a car
[01:02:37.360 -> 01:02:41.160] that's been one of the very worst of the field. I think we're a super strong performance,
[01:02:41.160 -> 01:02:45.840] so we'll see what happens going forward. But I was actually impressed by Ricciardo this weekend.
[01:02:45.840 -> 01:02:50.580] Yeah, I think he's been incredibly good and sound this weekend. Now, Christian Horner
[01:02:50.580 -> 01:02:56.280] made a very interesting comment a few days before the weekend, and that was, he was,
[01:02:56.280 -> 01:03:00.840] that was, when they got Ricciardo back into the simulator, he was amazed at how many bad
[01:03:00.840 -> 01:03:09.280] habits that he had picked up. So I think he got a bit lost at McLaren, and it just kind of goes to show that maybe Red Bull really good at getting the best out of some of their
[01:03:09.280 -> 01:03:13.840] drivers or he reacts well to being treated in in Red Bull because Horn had said yeah, he used exact
[01:03:13.840 -> 01:03:18.080] words of he's picked up all these bad habits, but we kind of knocked them out of him. And we got him
[01:03:18.080 -> 01:03:24.080] back to where he was. So jump in the car. Yes, he had one test in it. But go to hungar in hugely
[01:03:24.080 -> 01:03:25.200] physical track. And yeah,
[01:03:25.200 -> 01:03:28.400] Brad, you're supervised of this, but when your neck goes and you're not quite up to
[01:03:28.400 -> 01:03:32.720] finish, you're doing this, it is horrible. So it's probably one of the worst tracks you can come back
[01:03:32.720 -> 01:03:37.680] to, to jump back into an F1 car in. And yeah, I expected him to be a couple of attempts off
[01:03:37.680 -> 01:03:42.800] Sonoda all weekend, because I think it's a big ask to get you to match somebody who's been in the car
[01:03:42.800 -> 01:03:49.680] all season and knows it inside out. And he jumped straight in. And yeah, he pretty, he out qualified Snowda. And he did really well,
[01:03:49.680 -> 01:03:53.760] 13th in the race. He was last, I think, after the first lap after the Alpines retired,
[01:03:53.760 -> 01:03:58.720] because he got caught up in the cluster fluff at turn one. So he was actually ready. He actually
[01:03:58.720 -> 01:04:04.400] put in an amazing drive. So yeah, I think he massively, massively proved all of us wrong,
[01:04:04.400 -> 01:04:05.520] because I, at the end, I was sad to see him go all of us wrong, because I, at the end,
[01:04:05.520 -> 01:04:09.200] I was sad to see him go out of the sport, but it was deserved. He did really, really bad at
[01:04:09.200 -> 01:04:14.080] McLaren. So it's interesting that bad habits comment, because that's a bit of a dig at McLaren,
[01:04:14.080 -> 01:04:14.400] really.
[01:04:14.400 -> 01:04:22.720] Chew on this. He did a 40 lap stint on mediums to finish his race. A 40 lap stint. And that was his
[01:04:22.720 -> 01:04:25.540] first race back. I was fully in the camp of,
[01:04:25.800 -> 01:04:28.840] I'm not even gonna bother to compare him to Tsunoda
[01:04:28.940 -> 01:04:32.540] until he's had, you know, a couple of races at minimum
[01:04:32.940 -> 01:04:35.640] to come up to speed on the Alpha Tauri.
[01:04:35.740 -> 01:04:38.120] And then he walks in, and everyone's like,
[01:04:38.220 -> 01:04:40.720] oh, Friday, he looks so slow. I'm like, no, yeah, no.
[01:04:40.820 -> 01:04:44.020] They're just making sure he can drive the car
[01:04:44.120 -> 01:04:47.200] in a straight-ish kind of line.
[01:04:47.200 -> 01:04:52.080] And then he shows up to qualifying, does the job he does, and despite getting punted in
[01:04:52.080 -> 01:04:55.400] the diffuser, which I'm sure must have cost him some points down first.
[01:04:55.400 -> 01:04:59.800] It made him faster because it put, it put, uh, you know, it put energy into the rear
[01:04:59.800 -> 01:05:01.080] of the car.
[01:05:01.080 -> 01:05:06.560] He still winds up finishing ahead of Sunoda in the race and in quali- I mean just,
[01:05:07.280 -> 01:05:13.520] yeah, no, if you're Daniel Ricciardo, this this is like a dream weekend. Somehow I walk into this
[01:05:13.520 -> 01:05:18.480] team and I've done better than the person who's been here for two years. I agree, and I'm back,
[01:05:18.480 -> 01:05:24.240] and so I assume we've finished assassinating Perez, and you know, my third favorite probably
[01:05:24.240 -> 01:05:25.880] driver on the grid is Yuki
[01:05:25.880 -> 01:05:31.240] Snowda. And really, it's a bit of a nightmare scenario, De Vries being sacked and then having
[01:05:31.240 -> 01:05:36.120] Ricciardo come in, because it's sort of a little bit lose-lose, because Snowda was already
[01:05:36.120 -> 01:05:41.080] showing he was better than De Vries, and that was great. So as a Snowda fan, his job is
[01:05:41.080 -> 01:05:51.600] to beat De Vries, and then hang on in there, beat whoever comes in next season, maybe Lawson, and then go to Red Bull, have an apprentice season at
[01:05:51.600 -> 01:05:55.880] Red Bull, wait for Verstappen to retire with five championships or whatever, and then he
[01:05:55.880 -> 01:05:57.420] goes on to be the number one.
[01:05:57.420 -> 01:06:02.040] Now it's become a lot more complicated, especially if Riccardo is going to go in there and perform.
[01:06:02.040 -> 01:06:09.520] Well, the thing that I've heard that complicates your narrative there is that Sunoda is essentially
[01:06:09.520 -> 01:06:17.800] a Honda driver, and Honda is going to have absolutely bupkis to do with Red Bull in 2026.
[01:06:17.800 -> 01:06:23.720] So we might actually see Sunoda at Aston, assuming Alonso eventually gets old enough
[01:06:23.720 -> 01:06:25.280] to not want to drive an F1 car.
[01:06:25.280 -> 01:06:29.680] Okay, well in that case then Sonoda has to wait for Lance Stroll to win a championship,
[01:06:29.680 -> 01:06:33.120] get bored, retire and go to London to do a business degree.
[01:06:33.120 -> 01:06:39.000] Because that's what Canadian billionaires do, satisfy their father's dreams to be an
[01:06:39.000 -> 01:06:42.520] F1 driver and then go and do a proper job, apparently.
[01:06:42.520 -> 01:06:48.400] Alright, so last team I want to get to before we get to the awards is Sauber,
[01:06:48.400 -> 01:06:51.600] Alfa Romeo, Alfa Romeo for a few races yet.
[01:06:51.600 -> 01:06:53.800] What on earth is going on with Alfa Romeo?
[01:06:53.800 -> 01:06:58.000] Just from nowhere, Juan Ugo starts in fifth place.
[01:06:58.000 -> 01:07:00.280] And that is just absolutely incredible.
[01:07:00.280 -> 01:07:03.080] That is the standout performance of qualifying.
[01:07:03.080 -> 01:07:07.960] And I just like, I thought it was one of those random things, Brad, where, you know, in Friday
[01:07:07.960 -> 01:07:14.360] practice or FP3, they just do a low fuel glory run and you go, okay, well, that's good.
[01:07:14.360 -> 01:07:18.120] That shows us how much fuel other teams are carrying.
[01:07:18.120 -> 01:07:21.880] And then they showed off by carrying it into FP1, into Q1.
[01:07:21.880 -> 01:07:24.400] And I thought, oh, well, maybe that's just a hard tyre.
[01:07:24.400 -> 01:07:28.120] And then they kept, then he goes and gets 5th! What is going on with Sauber?
[01:07:28.120 -> 01:07:33.800] Yeah, so that qualifying result was so surprising, I didn't even realise it had happened until
[01:07:33.800 -> 01:07:37.120] I looked back at the results after because I just wouldn't have expected to see them
[01:07:37.120 -> 01:07:43.040] there at all. I was reading about what actually happened to Joe at the start because it almost
[01:07:43.040 -> 01:07:45.440] looked from the replay I initially saw that
[01:07:45.440 -> 01:07:48.640] he just wasn't paying attention. It looked so bad. It looked like he just missed the
[01:07:48.640 -> 01:07:55.600] light. However, he said in his post race comments that there was an issue, like a clutch issue
[01:07:55.600 -> 01:08:00.120] where he had to effectively do like a manual start. He said it wasn't even a race start.
[01:08:00.120 -> 01:08:05.080] He had to just pull away because the car just didn't go when he told it to.
[01:08:08.720 -> 01:08:11.200] And then that caused the whole extra problem of him trying to overcompensate a turn one, and he actually took full responsibility for
[01:08:11.560 -> 01:08:13.160] breaking too late at the first corner.
[01:08:13.160 -> 01:08:16.600] So he he had a problem, but potentially a technical problem,
[01:08:16.960 -> 01:08:21.280] then compounded it massively by trying to overcompensate, which to any
[01:08:21.280 -> 01:08:26.080] any up and coming drivers out there listening, never listening, never try and overcompensate for a
[01:08:26.080 -> 01:08:30.400] bad thing that's happened. Just carry on like it didn't happen because it always makes it worse.
[01:08:31.040 -> 01:08:34.640] And then obviously he got a penalty for that and his race was done, but the qualifying pace was
[01:08:34.640 -> 01:08:39.040] genuinely impressive. Shows some teams over one lap, it doesn't matter that if you need to keep
[01:08:39.040 -> 01:08:45.440] your tyres alive for a longer stint, and they can do decent results. You're a gambler Kyle, I imagine you
[01:08:45.440 -> 01:08:52.880] in some seedy lock-ins playing a bit of poker, it's when you've got the three aces and you
[01:08:52.880 -> 01:08:59.200] really should win and then some idiot who had a 7-2 suddenly like flopped a full house and they
[01:08:59.200 -> 01:09:04.160] beat you and you know you should have won that hand so the next hand you go crazy and go all-in
[01:09:04.160 -> 01:09:07.360] that's what Juan Ulloa did. A bad thing happened and then he went,
[01:09:07.360 -> 01:09:11.040] I've got to make up for it immediately. Yep, we've all been there.
[01:09:11.840 -> 01:09:18.160] Yes, we've all been in that same bar. Yes, I feel really sorry for Sauber,
[01:09:18.160 -> 01:09:21.840] really, because that was their best performance. They had been running around pretty much near
[01:09:21.840 -> 01:09:28.240] the back at a summer race this year, being the slowest car and for whatever reason, they didn't have any upgrades, I don't think,
[01:09:28.240 -> 01:09:33.440] for whatever reason, it just clicked. It works in these temperatures, in the speed range of this
[01:09:33.440 -> 01:09:38.160] track, it just clicked. And obviously the new construction of tyre probably has helped them
[01:09:38.160 -> 01:09:44.080] more than other cars, but they were sitting there pretty and with Joe going, and it's interesting to
[01:09:44.080 -> 01:09:45.000] hear from Brad
[01:09:45.000 -> 01:09:48.120] that it was a mistake because we were watching the footage earlier and you can see him release
[01:09:48.120 -> 01:09:49.120] the clutch.
[01:09:49.120 -> 01:09:51.320] Nothing happens and it kind of goes when he pulls the clutch back in.
[01:09:51.320 -> 01:09:53.400] It's really strange what happened.
[01:09:53.400 -> 01:09:55.540] Something flashes up on his steering wheel briefly.
[01:09:55.540 -> 01:10:00.200] So yeah, and then overcompensating, Bottas got caught out in that crash as well.
[01:10:00.200 -> 01:10:02.320] So he kind of ruined Bottas' start.
[01:10:02.320 -> 01:10:03.840] Hang on, hang on, hang on.
[01:10:03.840 -> 01:10:05.600] Kyle, how can you possibly say whose
[01:10:05.600 -> 01:10:16.480] fault it is until we've played the game? Whose fault is it? Okay, so, so Joe pile drives into
[01:10:16.480 -> 01:10:22.400] the back of like eight cars emulating Bottas in 2021, but Kyle, whose fault do you think it was?
[01:10:24.240 -> 01:10:27.760] Clearly, clearly Joe's fault, but there is a mitigating factor.
[01:10:27.760 -> 01:10:29.280] Yes, he broke a bit too late.
[01:10:29.280 -> 01:10:32.480] And this is just like with the Bottas thing a few years ago.
[01:10:32.480 -> 01:10:34.720] He was running really close to the car in front.
[01:10:34.720 -> 01:10:38.400] You lose downforce when you're running that close to a car in front and you lose braking
[01:10:38.400 -> 01:10:39.400] performance.
[01:10:39.400 -> 01:10:40.400] He probably didn't account for that.
[01:10:40.400 -> 01:10:49.080] And once you get so close to a car in front, you lose all downforce and that just exasperates the situation. And he's gone into there. So he hasn't actually steamed in. It
[01:10:49.080 -> 01:10:54.400] wasn't a huge hit. It was a love tap, really. But it's caused the catalyst was terrible.
[01:10:54.400 -> 01:10:59.400] And it ended up, but that's over as well, unfortunately. And it's just the whole, yeah,
[01:10:59.400 -> 01:11:02.360] I feel really bad for Sal, because they're probably rubbing their hands with glee. He
[01:11:02.360 -> 01:11:06.680] goes, right, this is gonna be great. Starting to order the champagne for the Christmas party. This
[01:11:06.680 -> 01:11:09.440] is going to be great. We're going to get loads of points here and boom.
[01:11:09.440 -> 01:11:10.440] No, all over by that one.
[01:11:10.440 -> 01:11:15.480] This will be the best send off for Derek in the clutch department. He's been working on
[01:11:15.480 -> 01:11:19.960] those clutches all season and now he's fired. Brad?
[01:11:19.960 -> 01:11:30.120] I was sad for the Alpines, not because I'm a particular fan, but because Gasly got a mega run down to the first corner, got past a bunch of people, and then was immediately
[01:11:30.120 -> 01:11:31.120] nerfed.
[01:11:31.120 -> 01:11:34.960] And obviously Ocon was hit so hard he broke his seat, which is something I've never even
[01:11:34.960 -> 01:11:35.960] heard of.
[01:11:35.960 -> 01:11:43.480] Yeah, well, the thing with Ocon is he actually encountered Gasly's rear wheels, with his
[01:11:43.480 -> 01:11:46.780] rear wheels, and it just spat his car like he said
[01:11:46.780 -> 01:11:51.940] you know two to three meters in the air and it was the landing that broke his
[01:11:51.940 -> 01:11:58.000] seat the seats aren't really designed to absorb G's that particular direction but
[01:11:58.000 -> 01:12:03.240] it does bring me back to Mercedes in a way if Russell had been that far up on
[01:12:03.240 -> 01:12:05.520] the grid would they have started one of the
[01:12:05.520 -> 01:12:11.840] Mercedes on the soft tires? And if they had, like, what would the different result we have seen?
[01:12:11.840 -> 01:12:15.600] Because I don't know, I don't know about you, but to me, it was pretty obvious Mercedes was just not
[01:12:15.600 -> 01:12:21.280] having a good time on the hard tires. Yeah. So look, yeah, well, better luck next time,
[01:12:21.280 -> 01:12:25.920] Salba, I suppose, Audi, Alfa Romeo. But yeah, it was good to see, you know,
[01:12:25.920 -> 01:12:30.800] those guys get their chance, get their shot. And you know, Wanyu Zhou, I think, is that his highest
[01:12:30.800 -> 01:12:36.000] qualifying? It must be. And then he's got that chance. He knows he's on telly, the further up
[01:12:36.000 -> 01:12:39.440] you are, you know, your family's going to see you and they're all gathered round and they're,
[01:12:39.440 -> 01:12:44.080] oh, there he is, there's a little bubby. Go on, puppy, go on, puppy, you can do this. Oh,
[01:12:45.680 -> 01:12:52.000] is, there's a little puppy, go on puppy, go on puppy, you can do this. Oh, he didn't start. Oh, he like took everyone out. Yeah, but imagine if he'd actually made a good start, who would
[01:12:52.000 -> 01:13:00.560] he have taken out? Oh, like, Biastri, Norris, Max. I'm just saying, it was all there just like it was
[01:13:00.560 -> 01:13:05.240] for Valtteri. A real shame because I see see potential. Obviously, a completely washed weekend for Alpine,
[01:13:05.240 -> 01:13:08.440] so there's not too much to say about the French outfit.
[01:13:08.440 -> 01:13:11.000] I have to say, initially, though, it was like,
[01:13:11.000 -> 01:13:12.640] I saw two Alpines come together.
[01:13:12.640 -> 01:13:14.440] That's what I saw in the distance.
[01:13:14.440 -> 01:13:16.560] I thought, oh, this is going to be amazing.
[01:13:16.560 -> 01:13:18.720] Please say it was Ocon taking up Gasly,
[01:13:18.720 -> 01:13:21.120] so that I can rip Matt on the podcast.
[01:13:21.120 -> 01:13:24.200] But no, they were both innocent.
[01:13:25.760 -> 01:13:29.280] Aston Martin hasn't come up because they've kind of faded
[01:13:29.280 -> 01:13:30.880] to where I said they'd fade.
[01:13:30.880 -> 01:13:32.000] It was just the tires.
[01:13:32.000 -> 01:13:33.040] No, it wasn't.
[01:13:33.040 -> 01:13:34.560] Oh my God. It was entirely the tires.
[01:13:34.560 -> 01:13:37.840] They gave them new tires and the tires were entirely designed
[01:13:37.840 -> 01:13:39.360] to make Aston slow.
[01:13:39.360 -> 01:13:40.280] Aston, oh my God.
[01:13:40.280 -> 01:13:45.000] So this is the thing, like that's obviously not true.
[01:13:45.080 -> 01:13:47.480] Yeah, it's not true because the dip started
[01:13:47.480 -> 01:13:49.160] before the new tyres came in.
[01:13:49.160 -> 01:13:51.400] And then Alonso's thing was like,
[01:13:51.400 -> 01:13:55.200] oh, well, also Red Bull are also struggling.
[01:13:55.200 -> 01:13:57.140] And then they won by 30 seconds.
[01:13:57.140 -> 01:14:01.040] So someone has told Alonso that they were gonna be
[01:14:01.040 -> 01:14:03.180] on the podium every race because he said that.
[01:14:03.180 -> 01:14:08.680] He said, we're gonna be on the podium every race. And I was like, oh, wow. He really knows something that is completely
[01:14:08.680 -> 01:14:14.320] contrary to any logical guess or the evidence of our own eyes. And then sure enough, they
[01:14:14.320 -> 01:14:17.040] have dipped down. So he's got to find something to blame. It's the tyres. I don't believe
[01:14:17.040 -> 01:14:22.960] that at all. And Brad has pointed out that we haven't mentioned Ferrari at all. Well,
[01:14:22.960 -> 01:14:25.840] in that case, Brad, take it away. In fact,
[01:14:25.840 -> 01:14:32.640] what I would say to you, Brad, giving me little notes in the Zoom message chat, is that I'm on it.
[01:14:32.640 -> 01:14:36.800] That's what I'd say. It's actually Kyle that was saying we hadn't mentioned Ferrari,
[01:14:36.800 -> 01:14:41.920] but I was then just going to say loads about that because I find it quite an interesting situation
[01:14:42.480 -> 01:14:46.640] that McLaren, in their new upgraded guise, have
[01:14:46.640 -> 01:14:51.320] currently almost exactly 50% of the points that Ferrari have on the board. We've got
[01:14:51.320 -> 01:14:57.760] half the season left to go. So by my calculations, even if McLaren just scored 10 points more
[01:14:57.760 -> 01:15:03.480] than Ferrari per race, maybe less, they're going to easily overhaul them by the end of
[01:15:03.480 -> 01:15:08.520] the season. And you'll have had a team that's gone from being one of the worst, and sometimes at the
[01:15:08.520 -> 01:15:13.160] beginning of the season, the worst car on the grid, and a car that would have entered
[01:15:13.160 -> 01:15:17.280] the season, potentially thinking they're going to fight for the championship, you could have
[01:15:17.280 -> 01:15:18.760] them swap in the standings.
[01:15:18.760 -> 01:15:21.040] McLaren could get fourth.
[01:15:21.040 -> 01:15:26.320] Well, at the rate they're starting cars on soft tires and making them sit behind
[01:15:26.320 -> 01:15:32.160] cars on medium tires, undercutting the leader on the track with the person behind who gets
[01:15:32.160 -> 01:15:36.800] speeding penalties and then results in the both of them being passed by Russell at the end of the
[01:15:36.800 -> 01:15:43.600] race. It's hard not really to agree with you then. It's weird to think that Ferrari might be at risk,
[01:15:43.600 -> 01:15:45.920] but right now, given the decision-making
[01:15:45.920 -> 01:15:52.560] at Ferrari and their inability, because they put them on two sets of hard tires, they were the
[01:15:53.520 -> 01:15:58.560] highest up team to do this. And again, if you look at the finishing and who finished on what tires,
[01:15:58.560 -> 01:16:03.040] it's pretty obvious the hard tire was a terrible tire to be on. So either the car is such a
[01:16:03.040 -> 01:16:05.120] disaster, they can't run
[01:16:05.120 -> 01:16:10.640] the softer compound, in which case the car is a disaster and genuinely fourth fastest.
[01:16:10.640 -> 01:16:15.700] Or as I might have pointed out in the past, Ferrari is so terrible at understanding the
[01:16:15.700 -> 01:16:21.040] tires that they of all the top teams will make the choice to put their car on the slowest
[01:16:21.040 -> 01:16:25.160] possible tire every time they have that choice, doesn't really matter
[01:16:25.160 -> 01:16:27.700] how you cut it, they're at serious risk.
[01:16:27.700 -> 01:16:33.480] Piastri's not a joke as a driver, Norris is quite good, and the McLaren is now very, very
[01:16:33.480 -> 01:16:34.480] fast.
[01:16:34.480 -> 01:16:38.760] It's, they have more season left than they have points to give, right now.
[01:16:38.760 -> 01:16:43.560] Yeah, and we've seen this before, I've said this countless times on this podcast, it's
[01:16:43.560 -> 01:16:45.120] like they have no confidence
[01:16:45.120 -> 01:16:49.680] in their own decision making. And they asked the drivers, they did it again, I think Sites
[01:16:49.680 -> 01:16:54.480] clapped back. It was like, well, tell me, you know, what's, what's going on. And you can't,
[01:16:54.480 -> 01:16:59.280] when you're driving the car, you can't be having to try to think and call your own strategy,
[01:16:59.280 -> 01:17:03.440] which is what Sites is doing. They missed, they missed the trick in the first stint,
[01:17:03.440 -> 01:17:05.040] they should have instantly put Sites
[01:17:05.040 -> 01:17:09.520] ahead of Leclerc to make use of his softs, then pit him out of that. They didn't do that.
[01:17:09.520 -> 01:17:13.520] And bless him, I don't know what the guy's name is, the strategy guy, when he comes out of the
[01:17:13.520 -> 01:17:22.640] club checking. Oh yeah. And yeah, we are checking. His voice now is almost synonymous with a bad
[01:17:22.640 -> 01:17:25.680] decision. You know, bad is, a bad
[01:17:25.680 -> 01:17:31.120] decision is just about to be made when you hear him say that. Yeah I know but can I, can I, we're
[01:17:31.120 -> 01:17:35.840] on it, we're on it, we're on it, we're on it and you can trust me. Yeah yeah. Buy your used car
[01:17:35.840 -> 01:17:39.920] from. We're on it as balls are rolling around everywhere because they've dropped them already.
[01:17:39.920 -> 01:17:45.040] The we're on it, it was like that's the least confidence I've ever had from a reassuring radio
[01:17:45.040 -> 01:17:50.320] comment ever. But let's defend, I'm going to defend the race engineer a little bit. So Javier
[01:17:50.320 -> 01:17:55.600] Marcos Pedros is the Spanish engineer that is managing Leclerc, as far as I can Google,
[01:17:55.600 -> 01:18:03.120] but I have, I'm assuming he goes by Javi. But I don't feel like he's like Bono going like,
[01:18:03.120 -> 01:18:05.360] stay calm, box, box, box, this is what we're doing,
[01:18:05.360 -> 01:18:07.080] here's the strat, how do you feel about this?
[01:18:07.080 -> 01:18:10.360] I feel like he's almost like someone in Ferrari, DM me,
[01:18:10.360 -> 01:18:12.940] I will not give away the source, I promise,
[01:18:12.940 -> 01:18:15.000] I never have ever revealed a source,
[01:18:15.000 -> 01:18:17.580] but it doesn't feel like he's making decisions,
[01:18:17.580 -> 01:18:19.000] it feels like he's a middleman,
[01:18:19.000 -> 01:18:20.760] it feels like he's having to go back and forth
[01:18:20.760 -> 01:18:22.400] and it feels like he's terrified
[01:18:22.400 -> 01:18:23.840] that he's gonna upset the driver
[01:18:23.840 -> 01:18:28.840] and then he's gonna upset the management. And I don't feel that individual there does not
[01:18:28.840 -> 01:18:38.040] sound like he's empowered to be the boss over the radio in the way that Verstappen's engineer
[01:18:38.040 -> 01:18:42.580] is like his boss, that feels like. Bono's in charge of Hamilton. I don't get that sense
[01:18:42.580 -> 01:18:43.580] of Ferrari, Kyle.
[01:18:43.580 -> 01:18:46.600] Yeah, and yeah, it's nothing against him personally,
[01:18:46.600 -> 01:18:47.760] and I don't think it's his fault.
[01:18:47.760 -> 01:18:49.960] It's like he's turning around to his strategy team
[01:18:49.960 -> 01:18:51.720] and he's like, what do we do, what do we do?
[01:18:51.720 -> 01:18:53.320] And they're like, I don't know, we don't know.
[01:18:53.320 -> 01:18:54.760] Say something, just say something.
[01:18:54.760 -> 01:18:56.880] Say anything to the driver, just delay him,
[01:18:56.880 -> 01:18:58.520] because I don't think he's getting the feedback,
[01:18:58.520 -> 01:19:01.560] because their internal processes are just jelly.
[01:19:01.560 -> 01:19:02.680] I don't know what's going on.
[01:19:02.680 -> 01:19:04.200] Matt, are we being unfair here?
[01:19:04.200 -> 01:19:08.160] Because I don't always like to name an individual and
[01:19:08.160 -> 01:19:12.120] go, okay, well, that's a bad job. Because we don't understand the pressures, we don't
[01:19:12.120 -> 01:19:18.320] understand the organisation and the structure. However, since Rob Smedley, race engineers
[01:19:18.320 -> 01:19:26.160] are significant personalities in the sporting team. So I think we're okay, aren't we, looking at those personalities?
[01:19:26.800 -> 01:19:32.040] Yeah, but as someone who has suffered a long time with the Knicks being owned by the Dolans,
[01:19:32.040 -> 01:19:34.080] and if you're a New Yorker, you'll get that.
[01:19:34.080 -> 01:19:34.880] I'm not.
[01:19:34.880 -> 01:19:42.080] What I would say is the problem here is that everyone's waiting for Agnelli on his yacht to pick up his cell phone and answer a question.
[01:19:42.080 -> 01:19:43.720] There we go. Yeah.
[01:19:43.720 -> 01:19:45.040] It is a right mess. Look, I'm with you on this.
[01:19:45.040 -> 01:19:49.120] It is a right mess. Look, Ferrari is not going to win the driver's championship,
[01:19:49.120 -> 01:19:53.040] they're not going to win the constructors championship. Why are you screwing around,
[01:19:53.760 -> 01:19:58.480] undercutting signs ahead on the track with Leclerc, who then gets the speeding penalty?
[01:19:59.520 -> 01:20:05.200] The only thing that should matter to you is how many how many gross points can my team bring home
[01:20:05.200 -> 01:20:10.640] this weekend to keep me out of McLaren's clutches? They're being ridiculous with their decision
[01:20:10.640 -> 01:20:14.480] making. Can you hear Matt? I don't think I've heard Matt like that. I'm going to save that
[01:20:14.480 -> 01:20:20.240] replay. That's going all over the TikToks. Wow, Brad, match that energy right now. Start just
[01:20:20.240 -> 01:20:27.200] yelling at the YouTube. So I understand Matt's frustration because when you've got a company,
[01:20:27.200 -> 01:20:33.680] a race team, a sporting entity that's employing a group of professionals to make these strategic
[01:20:33.680 -> 01:20:37.600] decisions with all the information available to them, and we've said this in the past about bad
[01:20:37.600 -> 01:20:44.000] strategic decisions, probably about Ferrari, and you've got people like Matt but like thousands of
[01:20:44.000 -> 01:20:45.560] other people at home as well,
[01:20:45.560 -> 01:20:48.160] who watch and understand and take these things seriously,
[01:20:48.160 -> 01:20:51.300] who could genuinely make better strategic calls
[01:20:51.300 -> 01:20:52.420] from their sofa.
[01:20:52.420 -> 01:20:56.440] Not saying that, like there's no exaggeration there,
[01:20:56.440 -> 01:20:59.140] that you could, Matt could have called the race better
[01:20:59.140 -> 01:21:00.560] from his position.
[01:21:00.560 -> 01:21:02.700] It makes you wonder what on earth is going wrong.
[01:21:02.700 -> 01:21:04.920] I didn't quite catch this message,
[01:21:04.920 -> 01:21:09.480] but there was a part where I think it was Leclerc, in fact I'm sure it was Leclerc,
[01:21:09.480 -> 01:21:15.600] asked a question and the engineer said, we'll deal with this at the end. And he said, no,
[01:21:15.600 -> 01:21:21.240] I need to know now, the race is happening now. He was actually asking if he could pit,
[01:21:21.240 -> 01:21:24.480] if he could get on tyres, Matt. So from that point of view, I think you're justified to
[01:21:24.480 -> 01:21:30.000] be yelling at the telly as someone who likes Leclerc. Yeah, I like Leclerc
[01:21:30.000 -> 01:21:36.480] too. They punted his pit stop, he came out behind Sainz. Sainz should have been sent through on the
[01:21:36.480 -> 01:21:40.720] softs and it all should have been dealt with in a much different way to begin with. I think
[01:21:40.720 -> 01:21:44.960] probably everyone would agree with me, but dealing with the situation there, they screwed up Leclerc's
[01:21:44.960 -> 01:21:46.240] pit stop. What they should have said was,
[01:21:46.240 -> 01:21:50.000] we screwed up your pit stop, but we're trying to get maximum points for the team.
[01:21:50.000 -> 01:21:54.080] You're not winning the driver's championship anyway, so just suck it up and deal. Sorry.
[01:21:54.640 -> 01:22:01.600] And instead, they undercut signs. Leclerc got a penalty, and that opened up Russell to pass
[01:22:01.600 -> 01:22:05.360] signs and get close enough to Leclerc that he wound up taking sixth
[01:22:05.360 -> 01:22:12.000] place and they lost like essentially what three, four, five points because of it, which doesn't
[01:22:12.000 -> 01:22:18.400] seem like a lot, but times how many races are less left times, how much ahead of McLaren they are.
[01:22:19.120 -> 01:22:21.200] Those are going to add up quick. That's just what I'm saying.
[01:22:21.760 -> 01:22:25.120] Yeah, it's crazy. And it was this time last year I sat on
[01:22:25.120 -> 01:22:31.840] this same race review and I did say if a semi-drunk bloke on the sofa can call it better than semi
[01:22:31.840 -> 01:22:38.000] drunk to maybe look, that's you and me out Kyle. Yeah. Yeah. It was heavy. So bloke got to say,
[01:22:38.000 -> 01:22:42.160] if it can call it better, then, then they need to level, look at what they're doing. Now we're
[01:22:42.160 -> 01:22:48.560] starting to hear the drivers getting a bit angry now. I think the drivers have completely lost confidence. They have their like,
[01:22:48.560 -> 01:22:52.800] their great hope in Charles Leclerc and I fear if they keep gaffing like this,
[01:22:52.800 -> 01:22:56.960] that they're going to lose Leclerc to someone else because I think he's almost had enough.
[01:22:56.960 -> 01:23:05.560] CW I'm just going to come back with the thing with drivers is you have to be consistent about how you're going to handle situations.
[01:23:05.560 -> 01:23:13.400] If Mercedes and Toto has taught us anything, the only way to manage good drivers in a complex
[01:23:13.400 -> 01:23:17.600] relationship is to be very clear with them ahead of time what the rules are and how things
[01:23:17.600 -> 01:23:18.880] are going to be played.
[01:23:18.880 -> 01:23:24.080] And what it's starting to smell like and feel like to me is they have told Leclerc,
[01:23:24.080 -> 01:23:25.680] well, no matter what, you're
[01:23:25.680 -> 01:23:27.580] going to finish ahead of sides.
[01:23:27.580 -> 01:23:29.940] And that's to their own detriment.
[01:23:29.940 -> 01:23:32.840] And it's just, it's wrong.
[01:23:32.840 -> 01:23:36.360] It's wrong because they're not in a position where they're going to win either championship
[01:23:36.360 -> 01:23:37.360] right now.
[01:23:37.360 -> 01:23:43.040] And I just, just from a podcasting point of view and from a pundit point of view, talking
[01:23:43.040 -> 01:23:49.040] to our audience now, I know, in fact, if you listen to most F1 podcasts,
[01:23:49.040 -> 01:23:51.880] there is always a focus on the negative things
[01:23:51.880 -> 01:23:54.800] that happened more than these people did brilliantly.
[01:23:54.800 -> 01:23:57.600] And that's because in a motorsport scenario,
[01:23:57.600 -> 01:24:00.300] it's just much easier to see the bad things.
[01:24:00.300 -> 01:24:02.400] It's much harder to spot
[01:24:02.400 -> 01:24:04.640] when people do kind of a quiet, good job.
[01:24:04.640 -> 01:24:05.680] So I think on the race reviews
[01:24:05.920 -> 01:24:11.480] you do it does stand out when people do do something bad and in the race reviews we do tend to kind of
[01:24:11.720 -> 01:24:15.900] Point those things out as they are the most kind of eventful things that have happened
[01:24:15.900 -> 01:24:19.300] I think in the news shows that gives us more of an opportunity to say right
[01:24:19.720 -> 01:24:23.600] Looking at things in the round. Who do we think is doing a good job?
[01:24:23.600 -> 01:24:29.080] And I think that is going to be a feature of race reviews. I'm not sure there's an awful lot we can do
[01:24:29.080 -> 01:24:34.020] about that because the things that really stand out and bite you are when you have those
[01:24:34.020 -> 01:24:39.600] radio interactions with Ferrari, when you see wheel-to-wheel action and a multiple world
[01:24:39.600 -> 01:24:45.920] champion kind of gives up three places off pole, or when a team balks some pit stop, or when
[01:24:45.920 -> 01:24:51.000] they fluff a bit of strategy, those are the things that kind of come out and bite you.
[01:24:51.000 -> 01:24:55.280] And in a high pressure sport where there is an ultimate pace, and there is an ultimate
[01:24:55.280 -> 01:25:02.560] performance available in that man-machine combo, then that is always going to be kind
[01:25:02.560 -> 01:25:06.080] of a reality. When you've got sport like javelin,
[01:25:06.080 -> 01:25:07.240] it's, well, who threw it the furthest?
[01:25:07.240 -> 01:25:08.280] You know, oh, that was good.
[01:25:08.280 -> 01:25:10.400] That one went really far.
[01:25:10.400 -> 01:25:12.400] Where there's a limit to the ultimate performance.
[01:25:12.400 -> 01:25:15.120] And a lot of time, you know, if you do sim racing,
[01:25:15.120 -> 01:25:17.760] you do kart racing, your best performances are
[01:25:17.760 -> 01:25:20.680] when nothing goes wrong and you're able to just do
[01:25:20.680 -> 01:25:23.800] what you do well throughout the course of the race.
[01:25:23.800 -> 01:25:25.840] All right, let's move on to the podium.
[01:25:30.400 -> 01:25:38.880] A Hungarian Grand Prix where Pirelli turned up with the awesome responsibility that they have
[01:25:38.880 -> 01:25:45.880] taken on in Formula One, which is pretty much drive all the strategy and all the excitement.
[01:25:45.880 -> 01:25:51.400] Pirelli now dictate with Formula One the shape of the races. It's an incredibly
[01:25:51.400 -> 01:25:55.900] hard job. They got it right. I want to, you know, acknowledge that and encourage
[01:25:55.900 -> 01:26:00.400] and hope that they will continue giving us challenging tyre management
[01:26:00.400 -> 01:26:06.600] conditions for a race that is almost like an endurance race compressed down to
[01:26:06.600 -> 01:26:11.500] two hours, if that makes sense. It gives the teams something to focus on and something
[01:26:11.500 -> 01:26:17.140] to manage. If you go back and watch full races where there was a tyre war and the teams were
[01:26:17.140 -> 01:26:22.360] just trying to make the best performing tyre to last a race distance, I would challenge
[01:26:22.360 -> 01:26:26.380] you to say that that is better racing than what we have
[01:26:26.380 -> 01:26:32.340] in the Pirelli era. Of course, I believe that the best era of F1 was the grooved tyres.
[01:26:32.340 -> 01:26:36.940] No one agrees with me. It will make Kyle spitting mad and Matt spitting mad as well. Do you
[01:26:36.940 -> 01:26:40.720] know what? We can do a whole podcast on it because you're wrong. The grooved tyre era
[01:26:40.720 -> 01:26:48.800] was absolutely the correct way to go. Grooved tyres, rip the wings off, stop all shaking your heads at me, I've muted you all. There's no way that anyone can come
[01:26:48.800 -> 01:26:53.860] back at me. However, for the Hungarian Grand Prix we have to give out some awards, so let's
[01:26:53.860 -> 01:26:57.600] start with our Good Thing Award. It's our thing of the weekend!
[01:26:57.600 -> 01:27:06.080] Oh, I suppose we do get to be rather positive here. Okay, who's the most positive among us?
[01:27:06.080 -> 01:27:07.720] I think it's Kyle.
[01:27:07.720 -> 01:27:09.820] Kyle, you bastion of joy.
[01:27:09.820 -> 01:27:11.700] And do you know why you're a bastion of joy?
[01:27:11.700 -> 01:27:17.500] Because you've got two lovely little kittens in your house and I, Kyle, I want to come
[01:27:17.500 -> 01:27:20.120] to your house and play with your kittens.
[01:27:20.120 -> 01:27:21.360] Please do, because they're growing up fast.
[01:27:21.360 -> 01:27:29.280] I almost want to find a way to stop them growing up so quick because they're adorable. Yeah I know you just you have to just just move house hope they stay in the
[01:27:29.280 -> 01:27:34.720] old house and then get new kittens. No the kitten phase goes so so quickly I will be at your house
[01:27:34.720 -> 01:27:41.280] in a second uh with some IPA and a fishing rod uh but in the meantime in your spirit of joyful
[01:27:41.280 -> 01:27:45.840] kitten parenting who was your thing of the weekend this weekend?
[01:27:45.840 -> 01:27:47.840] Or what was my thing of the weekend?
[01:27:47.840 -> 01:27:51.280] Or when? Or when was your thing of the weekend?
[01:27:51.280 -> 01:27:55.160] I was torn on this one and I'm not going to take the one that I think somebody else will
[01:27:55.160 -> 01:27:59.520] take or I hope someone takes it. My thing of the weekend is Pirelli finally bringing
[01:27:59.520 -> 01:28:05.520] soft the compound tyres. That's my thing. I've been banging on about it for ages. I've made Twitter
[01:28:05.520 -> 01:28:11.120] posts. I've sat on here for the last two years, I think, going on about it and they finally did it.
[01:28:11.120 -> 01:28:17.040] I think it was you. I think it was you. I think the head boss of Pirelli said, hey, Giovanni,
[01:28:17.600 -> 01:28:26.080] what compounds are we bringing? I cannot take the pressure from Kyle Power anymore. Let's go two steps softer. And they went, fine, fine.
[01:28:26.080 -> 01:28:29.160] Let us do what this Kyle says.
[01:28:29.160 -> 01:28:31.840] Clearly, that was the only logical explanation.
[01:28:31.840 -> 01:28:33.440] And if you want to follow Kyle's rants,
[01:28:33.440 -> 01:28:35.020] he does sit and have a rant on Twitter.
[01:28:35.020 -> 01:28:37.840] So at KylePowerF1 on Twitter.
[01:28:37.840 -> 01:28:38.480] Go follow him.
[01:28:38.480 -> 01:28:40.520] I've been giving some parroting advice recently.
[01:28:40.520 -> 01:28:41.760] And yeah, it seems to have gone down well.
[01:28:41.760 -> 01:28:42.720] You've got a mega tweet.
[01:28:42.720 -> 01:28:44.600] Yeah, go and follow Kyle and check that out.
[01:28:44.600 -> 01:28:45.480] Everyone's links
[01:28:45.480 -> 01:28:51.920] are in the show notes in your app or on YouTube. Matt puts them there later on. So, Brad. Hello,
[01:28:51.920 -> 01:28:57.620] Brad. You don't need any help with followers. You've got far too many followers on Twitter.
[01:28:57.620 -> 01:29:02.360] You haven't quite caught me on Twitter yet, have you? But you're streets ahead on threads.
[01:29:02.360 -> 01:29:06.160] I'm winning on threads. Yes. And Instagram. Everyone follow me on Instagram. I'm winning on threads, yes! And Instagram, everyone follow me on Instagram,
[01:29:06.160 -> 01:29:10.480] I'm posting more pictures, I promise. But yeah, on threads I'm winning, Brad.
[01:29:10.480 -> 01:29:14.240] Yeah, I'm going to put that down to the fact I think I've got an underscore in my name
[01:29:14.240 -> 01:29:22.400] on threads and Instagram, at Bradley underscore Philpot. So my thing of the weekend was that,
[01:29:28.000 -> 01:29:34.000] My thing of the weekend was that, for whatever happened today, we got a really interesting Saturday and I enjoyed qualifying. The grid was kind of mixed up, but not artificially.
[01:29:34.000 -> 01:29:41.000] It wasn't a reverse grid, it wasn't a wet session, it was just quite mixed
[01:29:41.000 -> 01:29:47.280] and it gave us the prospect of a really interesting Sunday, which didn't quite materialize, but I really enjoyed Saturday.
[01:29:47.280 -> 01:29:49.040] So that's my thing of the weekend.
[01:29:49.040 -> 01:29:52.960] I don't know, I feel like you just said a bunch of negative stuff and then said Saturday was fine.
[01:29:53.280 -> 01:29:53.780] Yeah.
[01:29:53.780 -> 01:29:54.280] Oh, okay.
[01:29:54.280 -> 01:29:56.720] Saturday was good. Saturday was really good.
[01:29:56.720 -> 01:29:59.800] I had a... and not just because Hamilton was on pole,
[01:29:59.800 -> 01:30:04.000] it was just the kind of... I enjoyed the sessions. I enjoyed the way they went.
[01:30:04.000 -> 01:30:05.040] I did as well. I did as well I did
[01:30:05.040 -> 01:30:11.920] as well but I had friends over who had never seen me watch a live F1 session before and it just
[01:30:11.920 -> 01:30:17.760] happened to be Hamilton's first poll in like 18 months and they now understand how obsessed I am
[01:30:17.760 -> 01:30:22.720] with Formula One and I got told off quite a lot. I know I've just done a whole thing of the weekend
[01:30:22.720 -> 01:30:29.800] can I retract that and do a different one? Yeah sure. Yes. Because I've just seen Paddy in the in our live chat
[01:30:29.800 -> 01:30:36.800] mentioned the F1 juniors. Now I saw some negative comments about the F1 juniors on Sky, but
[01:30:36.800 -> 01:30:42.520] I thought they were great. I thought they were really professional. And okay, it's the
[01:30:42.520 -> 01:30:45.320] first time and they're saying a lot of it was
[01:30:45.320 -> 01:30:51.400] brilliant it was fantastic but I was really impressed and in particular the
[01:30:51.400 -> 01:30:56.520] young ginger lad whose name escapes me I thought he could be slotted onto
[01:30:56.520 -> 01:31:01.640] Saturday Night TV present game shows literally right now he was that good.
[01:31:01.640 -> 01:31:05.200] I'm sorry if we've been offensive there because I think only gingers can
[01:31:05.200 -> 01:31:10.400] call each other gingers. You have previously said, I'm sure someone said ginger's a hate word but I
[01:31:10.400 -> 01:31:14.560] don't say it like that because I am one. You even called my beard ginger before the show.
[01:31:14.560 -> 01:31:18.800] You've got a bit of a ginger beard. So yeah, okay. Yeah, they were excellent and they actually were
[01:31:18.800 -> 01:31:25.080] my thing of the weekend despite what any of the naysayers say. Matt Trumpets, you are the reason why.
[01:31:25.080 -> 01:31:26.760] All the links are in the show notes below,
[01:31:26.760 -> 01:31:30.180] but you are at MattPT55 on Twitter and on threads,
[01:31:30.180 -> 01:31:33.200] and Matt Trumpets on Instagram and Facebook.
[01:31:33.200 -> 01:31:34.440] So everyone go follow Matt.
[01:31:34.440 -> 01:31:35.700] I'm actually, I'm annoyed,
[01:31:35.700 -> 01:31:36.900] everyone listening to my voice now,
[01:31:36.900 -> 01:31:40.420] I'm annoyed that so few of you follow Matt on social media.
[01:31:40.420 -> 01:31:42.900] Please fix that immediately, thank you.
[01:31:42.900 -> 01:31:44.980] What's your thing of the weekend, Matt?
[01:31:44.980 -> 01:31:49.920] Well, this is challenging for me because I had the one thing,
[01:31:49.920 -> 01:31:51.600] but I've also got the other thing.
[01:31:51.600 -> 01:31:57.440] And I was really surprised no one has so far mentioned Hamilton passing three cars
[01:31:57.440 -> 01:32:03.560] in a single lap chasing down Perez at the end of the race as a thing to be impressed by.
[01:32:03.560 -> 01:32:27.760] But that's not my thing of the weekend. I just mention it by the by. My thing of the weekend is Oscar Piastri on the radio after his fight with Perez. And his engineer comes on and goes, did Perez force you off the track, you poor victim, you? And he goes, Oh, yeah, he didn't leave me a lot of room just absolutely
[01:32:27.760 -> 01:32:33.200] refusing to play the game that clearly the everybody wanted him to play he was supposed to
[01:32:33.200 -> 01:32:39.840] say yeah yeah he was supposed to say no he left me no room and i'm crying now i nearly died and
[01:32:39.840 -> 01:32:47.720] it's all because of sergio exactly uh but i think that gets my thing of the weekend, because that was very impressive.
[01:32:47.720 -> 01:32:48.720] That's very good.
[01:32:48.720 -> 01:32:53.960] But also, like, on the Ringer podcast earlier, I was urging Americans not to be fooled by
[01:32:53.960 -> 01:32:59.760] British politeness, because a Brit being polite could mean anything.
[01:32:59.760 -> 01:33:03.600] They could be about to murder you, and you're like, oh, what a polite, lovely, you know,
[01:33:03.600 -> 01:33:04.600] young man.
[01:33:04.600 -> 01:33:10.560] But with Australians, it's like understatement. So yeah, so yeah, you just hit the wall, flipped
[01:33:10.560 -> 01:33:14.320] over caught on fire and went into the sun. How you doing? Oh, yeah, mate. Yeah, I've
[01:33:14.320 -> 01:33:18.280] got a little bit of a scrape on my elbow, but I will get some kangaroo juice in there
[01:33:18.280 -> 01:33:26.120] and it will be fine. Yeah. So Piastri is not going to play that game. They are not a yelling, particularly emotional
[01:33:26.120 -> 01:33:30.800] bunch. Unless they're playing cricket, in which case they're utter, utter turnips. Come
[01:33:30.800 -> 01:33:37.760] on England. Me, thing of the weekend, no one took Norris. How's no one taken Norris? Oh,
[01:33:37.760 -> 01:33:42.280] I'm amazed I get to have Lando Norris. Okay, good. So I'm not like a mega Lando Norris
[01:33:42.280 -> 01:33:46.100] fan or anything, but when you have the machinery
[01:33:46.100 -> 01:33:50.560] under you, and you have a quick team mate, and you have the opportunity to shine in this
[01:33:50.560 -> 01:33:55.980] environment where P2 was the best available, he got it.
[01:33:55.980 -> 01:34:00.340] And he got it well, and he managed the pace well, he managed the tyres well, he managed
[01:34:00.340 -> 01:34:02.820] the gap to a charging Perez well.
[01:34:02.820 -> 01:34:04.620] Thing of the weekend, Lando Norris.
[01:34:04.620 -> 01:34:09.680] All right, well that's enough for positivity. I guess we get to continue being negative
[01:34:09.680 -> 01:34:11.760] with our Missed Apex award.
[01:34:12.320 -> 01:34:14.960] Oh no, you missed the Apex.
[01:34:15.600 -> 01:34:19.680] All right, let's lay down some heat. Let's lay down some hot takes.
[01:34:19.680 -> 01:34:28.400] Kyle, you're a kind of negative guy. You're always just, you know, teasing kittens and dangling
[01:34:28.400 -> 01:34:32.440] a thing in front of them, a feather, which they're destined to never catch. So you're
[01:34:32.440 -> 01:34:37.320] a kind of horrible guy. What's your negative thing of the weekend?
[01:34:37.320 -> 01:34:39.320] That is the exact toy that I have been using.
[01:34:39.320 -> 01:34:48.080] Yes. I know, I've been watching the videos and they're so lovely. My negative thing of the weekend is Aston.
[01:34:48.640 -> 01:34:54.000] Like, what's happened is Aston Anonymous, like they're probably all sitting around just like,
[01:34:54.000 -> 01:34:54.960] what's happened?
[01:34:54.960 -> 01:34:58.400] You know, I once believed I could be on the podium every race.
[01:34:58.400 -> 01:35:01.920] I even believe he made the comment that we will crush them when he comes in now.
[01:35:01.920 -> 01:35:04.160] And yeah, what's happened?
[01:35:04.160 -> 01:35:05.680] Oh yeah, he said crush, didn't he?
[01:35:05.680 -> 01:35:08.000] We're going to crush whatever upgrades come.
[01:35:09.000 -> 01:35:11.480] And I just don't know what's gone on there.
[01:35:11.480 -> 01:35:15.200] And I think it's only a finite amount of time where Alonso is going to start
[01:35:15.200 -> 01:35:19.040] getting a bit impatient because, as you said earlier, they've obviously promised
[01:35:19.040 -> 01:35:21.920] him something, they've been telling him a lot of things and it's not delivering.
[01:35:21.920 -> 01:35:23.440] So, yeah, it's happening.
[01:35:23.440 -> 01:35:25.440] So they are my missed apex
[01:35:25.440 -> 01:35:29.520] of the weekend. And without dwelling on it too much, okay, so obviously I'm just some mug in a
[01:35:29.520 -> 01:35:35.760] shed, but from race one I was like, yeah, this is good, but they came from seventh to second.
[01:35:35.760 -> 01:35:40.480] So they've obviously front loaded the development. Something's happened, you know, they've thrown it
[01:35:40.480 -> 01:35:51.360] all at a good start and that's kind of what Force India did and that's kind of what Racing Point did so that it felt obvious but Alonso seems distraught about it like they obviously
[01:35:51.360 -> 01:35:56.640] didn't sell him on that. They told him something else and it's not quite happening but look we'll
[01:35:56.640 -> 01:36:03.120] wait and see maybe it is magically the tyres that came in three races after their predictable and
[01:36:03.120 -> 01:36:06.320] predicted to drop off in development. Who
[01:36:06.320 -> 01:36:09.480] knows, maybe. Brad, who missed the apex for you?
[01:36:09.480 -> 01:36:14.760] So I actually found this funny, but it's still, they missed the apex in this moment. Lando
[01:36:14.760 -> 01:36:23.800] Norris doing his signature champagne celebration. Oh no! And destroying a 40,000 euro six month
[01:36:23.800 -> 01:36:25.000] lead time trophy.
[01:36:25.200 -> 01:36:27.440] Handmade, handmade trophy.
[01:36:27.440 -> 01:36:28.440] And then laughing over it.
[01:36:28.440 -> 01:36:31.960] So for those people who switched off by this point,
[01:36:31.960 -> 01:36:34.560] or who don't know Norris's signature move,
[01:36:34.560 -> 01:36:37.200] he, ever since he's in the junior categories,
[01:36:37.200 -> 01:36:38.080] and he's on the podium,
[01:36:38.080 -> 01:36:41.040] he basically slams his champagne bottle into the floor,
[01:36:41.040 -> 01:36:43.960] and that then sets a big jet of champagne off,
[01:36:43.960 -> 01:36:45.740] and it looks really cool.
[01:36:45.740 -> 01:36:47.220] But he's got this wrong a couple of times.
[01:36:47.220 -> 01:36:51.860] He has smashed a bottle before and just looked forlorn.
[01:36:51.860 -> 01:36:56.420] And today he smashed a trophy because he knocked Max's trophy
[01:36:56.420 -> 01:37:00.220] off the top step and it was made of beautiful porcelain
[01:37:00.220 -> 01:37:01.460] and it smashed to pieces.
[01:37:01.460 -> 01:37:05.360] Yeah, I just, some of that is on the people who decided to have a
[01:37:05.360 -> 01:37:10.800] delicate porcelain trophy on the podium of an F1 race. So I would suggest the responsibility is
[01:37:10.800 -> 01:37:17.360] shared, but oh yeah, that is, it was a little bit heartbreaking. Kyle? Yeah, can I just, I think,
[01:37:17.360 -> 01:37:22.240] because it is kind of funny, but if I was the person who'd spent six months making that by hand
[01:37:22.880 -> 01:37:26.740] and watched somebody just smash it, then walk over it
[01:37:26.740 -> 01:37:30.840] and then basically just laugh about it. I thought that was a bit disrespectful.
[01:37:30.840 -> 01:37:35.060] Hang on, hang on. I would say Lando Norris is entirely used to being able to do that
[01:37:35.060 -> 01:37:39.400] his whole career and most of the trophies are not indestructible.
[01:37:39.400 -> 01:37:45.720] Although it was funny, but it didn't really actually think about it.
[01:37:45.720 -> 01:37:46.720] Did it rub you wrong, Kyle?
[01:37:46.720 -> 01:37:47.720] It did.
[01:37:47.720 -> 01:37:48.720] It may have done.
[01:37:48.720 -> 01:37:50.240] To me, it depends on what the drivers were told.
[01:37:50.240 -> 01:37:53.000] So if at the beginning of the race, they've gone, right, just so you know, guys, there's
[01:37:53.000 -> 01:37:54.000] a podium thing.
[01:37:54.000 -> 01:37:57.400] And like these trophies like, whoa, like the, you need to really take care.
[01:37:57.400 -> 01:37:59.600] But I suspect that brief wasn't made.
[01:37:59.600 -> 01:38:04.160] Although, you know, I understand your sympathy towards the, the people who organized that,
[01:38:04.160 -> 01:38:08.320] Kyle. Uh, uh, Kyle, wait till you have, like, kids or more kittens.
[01:38:08.320 -> 01:38:10.800] You just never have anything nice because you can't trust them.
[01:38:10.800 -> 01:38:13.480] Uh, Matt, who missed the apex for you?
[01:38:13.480 -> 01:38:17.920] Well, this is actually a challenge because I was going to go with the exact one that
[01:38:17.920 -> 01:38:23.000] Brad picked, and now, now I find myself up in the air.
[01:38:23.000 -> 01:38:24.000] Don't take mine, don't take mine, don't take mine.
[01:38:24.000 -> 01:38:27.360] What do I choose here? Because my main choice has been taken
[01:38:27.360 -> 01:38:29.360] There were so many things that went wrong
[01:38:29.600 -> 01:38:30.600] but
[01:38:30.600 -> 01:38:33.760] At the end of the day, it's got to be Joe
[01:38:34.560 -> 01:38:36.160] into Ricardo
[01:38:36.160 -> 01:38:41.040] Into Ocon into Gasly corner pocket. I mean, uh, I I
[01:38:41.960 -> 01:38:45.720] Actually, I'm a big Joe fan. So this is particularly painful for me
[01:38:45.720 -> 01:38:53.200] I don't think the start thing was necessarily his fault based on the onboard I viewed although I know they're going to look at it
[01:38:53.200 -> 01:38:58.480] Later, which means we'll never know what really happened if it was his fault or not, but the braking thing
[01:38:58.720 -> 01:39:04.640] yeah, that was pretty much a hundred percent on them and it was just yeah, he just got caught out with the
[01:39:07.280 -> 01:39:12.720] much 100% on them and it was just, he just got caught out with the dirty air and the fault tanks and we've seen plenty of drivers before make that exact same mistake. But only
[01:39:12.720 -> 01:39:15.960] Botas has taken out more drivers, so at least there's that.
[01:39:15.960 -> 01:39:20.120] Okay, well that's cool. I can't believe you left me with the most obvious one, which is
[01:39:20.120 -> 01:39:27.360] the Myst Apex award for me goes to Alpine, double DNF, lame, come back stronger in spa,
[01:39:27.920 -> 01:39:33.600] keep your seats together Ocon. All right, thank you very much for listening to MIST APEX podcast,
[01:39:33.600 -> 01:39:38.240] I hope you've enjoyed it. If you have, you might consider supporting us at patreon.com
[01:39:38.240 -> 01:39:45.120] forward slash MIST APEX. Go and follow all the crew on the social media and you can always email me and Matt by emailing
[01:39:45.120 -> 01:39:51.440] feedback at missedapex.net. We absolutely love hearing from you. But until next time,
[01:39:51.440 -> 01:39:57.120] which I think will be midweek, where we're going to, I think me, Matt and the Australians,
[01:39:57.120 -> 01:40:02.160] Jono and Steve, I think we're going to try and pick our grid of the century. So I think we're
[01:40:02.160 -> 01:40:05.360] going to put together our top 20 drivers for the ultimate F1 grid of drivers from the century. So I think we're going to put together our top 20 drivers for
[01:40:05.360 -> 01:40:11.040] the ultimate F1 grid of drivers from this century. But until we see you next, work hard,
[01:40:11.040 -> 01:40:43.760] be kind and have fun. This was MrApexPodcast. I'm actually surprised how passionate that trophy chat got.
[01:40:43.760 -> 01:40:46.240] And no Keith, I'm not victim blaming the trophy.
[01:40:42.010 -> 01:40:45.290] I'm actually surprised how passionate that trophy chat got.
[01:40:45.290 -> 01:40:48.250] And no, Keith, I'm not victim blaming the trophy.