I Can't Believe It's Not Renault

Spanners and Trumpets are joined by Chris ‘Catman’  Turner and F1 Tik Tok titan Cristina Lee Mace as they discount all the rumours on the way to Baku. From Mercedes’ machinations to Alpine’s aspirations, from sprint race speculation to update uncertainty, no hopium is overlooked in this, the latest episode of Missed Apex Podcast. 

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Spanners Ready Spanners���� (@SpannersReady)

spanners@missedapex.net

Matt Trumpets mattpt55 (@mattpt55)

matt@missedapex.net

Matt Trumpets (@mattpt55@mastodon.social)

Chris ‘Catman’ Turner CatmanF1 (@catmanf1) / Twitter

Cristina Lee Mace Cristina F1 💚 (@cristina.formula1) | TikTok

Fast Cars Fast Talk | Cristina Formula 1

(7) Cristina 💚 (@CristinaLeeMace) / Twitter

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

**Mercedes Reshuffle:**

* Mike Elliott, the former Technical Director, has been moved to a managerial role.
* James Allison, the former CTO, has returned to his previous role as Technical Director.
* This move was prompted by Mercedes' disappointing start to the season and disagreements among the engineering team about the car's concept.

**Alpine's Aspirations:**

* Alpine aims to challenge Mercedes for fourth place in the Constructors' Championship.
* The team believes that it has the potential to make significant progress this season.
* Alpine's drivers, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, have shown strong pace in the first three races.

**American Races:**

* The debate continues over the number of races held in America.
* Some argue that there are too many races in the United States, while others believe that the growing popularity of F1 in America warrants the increased presence.
* The Miami Grand Prix is the next race on the calendar, and it is expected to be a major event.

**Kimi Raikkonen's Contention in 2008:**

* Kimi Raikkonen is often overlooked when discussing the 2008 Formula One season.
* Raikkonen won the Drivers' Championship that year, but his title victory is often overshadowed by the rivalry between Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa.
* Raikkonen's consistency and strong performances throughout the season were key factors in his championship win. ## Missed Apex Podcast Episode Transcript Summary

**Introduction**

- The podcast hosts discuss the upcoming Baku Grand Prix and the various rumors surrounding it, including Mercedes' machinations, Alpine's aspirations, and sprint race speculation.


**American Interest in Formula One**

- The hosts express concern about the sustainability of the recent surge in American interest in Formula One, given the high cost of attending races and the potential for the sport to become more focused on spectacle than competition.


**New Tracks and the Future of Formula One**

- The hosts debate the pros and cons of adding new tracks to the Formula One calendar, particularly in the United States. They discuss the need for a balance between expanding the sport's reach and maintaining the quality of the racing.


**Street Circuits vs. Traditional Tracks**

- The hosts discuss the relative merits of street circuits and traditional race tracks, with some expressing a preference for the latter due to their focus on single-seater racing.


**IndyCar and the Appeal of Overtaking**

- The hosts discuss the appeal of IndyCar racing, particularly the high number of overtakes and the closer competition between teams. They also discuss the use of push-to-pass in IndyCar and whether it could be a viable alternative to DRS in Formula One.


**Sprint Races and the Future of Qualifying**

- The hosts discuss the upcoming sprint races in Formula One, expressing mixed feelings about their impact on the sport. They also discuss the possibility of changing the format of qualifying for the sprint races.


**Conclusion**

- The hosts wrap up the podcast by discussing the overall state of Formula One and the challenges it faces in maintaining its popularity and relevance in the future. * **Summary of the Podcast:**

1. **Sprint Races Debate:**
- The hosts discuss the pros and cons of sprint races, acknowledging that they can be exciting but also dilute the value of traditional Grand Prix events.
- Cristina Lee Mace, a Formula 1 TikTok creator, expresses her support for sprint races, particularly for their ability to engage new fans and generate more excitement over race weekends.
- Matt Trumpets, a Formula 1 podcaster and journalist, voices his opposition to sprint races, arguing that they diminish the significance of the main race and add unnecessary complexity to the weekend format.
- Chris "Catman" Turner, a Formula 1 journalist and podcaster, takes a more neutral stance, acknowledging the benefits of sprint races for race promoters and the potential to mix things up, but also expressing concerns about the impact on the overall racing calendar and the strain it puts on teams and drivers.

2. **Kimi Räikkönen's 2008 Season:**
- Catman brings up Kimi Räikkönen's 2008 season, questioning whether he was a forgotten contender for the World Championship that year.
- The hosts discuss Räikkönen's inconsistent performances and tendency to crash, suggesting that he may not have been as competitive as some fans remember.
- They also mention the controversial incident at the Singapore Grand Prix, where Nelson Piquet Jr. was allegedly ordered to crash to benefit Fernando Alonso's championship chances.

3. **Upcoming Upgrades and Team Expectations:**
- The hosts speculate on potential upgrades that teams might bring to upcoming races, particularly the upcoming races in Baku and Imola.
- They discuss the significance of the "B-spec" cars that Mercedes and McLaren are expected to introduce, as well as the possibility of Alpine making further improvements to their car.
- Matt Trumpets expresses optimism for Alpine's progress, citing their switch to push-rod rear suspension as a sign of their commitment to improvement.
- Cristina Lee Mace sets a modest goal for Alpine, hoping to see both of their cars finish races without making major mistakes.

4. **McLaren's Struggles:**
- The hosts briefly touch on McLaren's disappointing start to the season, acknowledging that the team has been struggling for pace and results.
- Catman mentions the "size zero" concept that McLaren introduced in 2015, which was a very tight and aerodynamic package, but ultimately did not deliver the desired results.

**Overall, the podcast provides an engaging and informative discussion on various topics related to Formula 1, including sprint races, past seasons, upcoming upgrades, and team expectations.** ## Missed Apex Podcast: Discounting the Rumors on the Way to Baku

**Key Points:**

- The podcast discusses the latest rumors and speculations surrounding the Formula One world ahead of the Baku Grand Prix.

- McLaren's struggles and the impact of Andrea Seidel's departure are analyzed.

- Technical changes and upgrades expected for McLaren's car are discussed, with cautious optimism expressed.

- The podcast speculates on the potential impact of the sprint race on the Saturday of the Baku Grand Prix.

- A live show in London in June and a karting event on July 1st are announced, with details provided.

- The importance of Patreon support for the podcast's survival is emphasized.

- Recommendations for following the podcast hosts and crew on social media are given.

- Shopify and Prize Picks advertisements are included in the podcast.

**Detailed Summary:**

1. **McLaren's Struggles and Technical Changes:**

- McLaren's recent struggles are attributed to fundamental issues rather than a lack of technical ability.
- Andrea Seidel's departure as McLaren's Team Principal is seen as a setback for the team's stability.
- McLaren is expected to introduce a B-spec package for their car between the Baku and Imola races, which could potentially improve their performance.
- The podcast highlights the importance of stability in technical departments for Formula One teams.

2. **Technical Changes and Upgrades:**

- McLaren's engineering structure has undergone changes, with Stella taking over as Team Principal.
- The team is aiming to resolve design problems that have affected their car's performance.
- The podcast emphasizes that McLaren is not reverting to the Matrix-style engineering structure used in the past.

3. **Cautious Optimism for McLaren:**

- The podcast expresses cautious optimism about McLaren's prospects with the upcoming upgrades.
- Piastri's performance is seen as a positive sign, while Ricciardo's struggles continue.
- McLaren's potential to compete with Alpine and other midfield teams is discussed.

4. **Sprint Race Speculation:**

- The podcast considers the possibility of the sprint race on Saturday becoming a point-scoring race.
- Plans for a special race preview podcast are mentioned in case the sprint race format changes.

5. **Live Show and Karting Event:**

- The podcast announces a live show in London in June and a karting event on July 1st.
- Details regarding venue and registration are provided.

6. **Patreon Support and Social Media:**

- The importance of Patreon support for the podcast's survival is emphasized.
- The podcast encourages listeners to follow the hosts and crew on social media platforms.

7. **Shopify and Prize Picks Advertisements:**

- The podcast includes advertisements for Shopify and Prize Picks, highlighting their services and offerings.

**Overall Message:**

The podcast provides an informed and engaging discussion of the latest developments in Formula One, focusing on McLaren's struggles, technical changes, and the upcoming Baku Grand Prix. It also promotes the podcast's live show, karting event, and the importance of Patreon support.

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[01:47.000 -> 01:50.400] Sports Made Easy. You are listening to Missed Apex Podcast.
[01:50.400 -> 02:03.920] We live F1.
[02:03.920 -> 02:08.260] Welcome to Missed Apex Podcast, I'm your host Richard Ready, but my friends call me
[02:08.260 -> 02:10.720] Spanners so let's be friends.
[02:10.720 -> 02:12.960] It's spring break, still!
[02:12.960 -> 02:18.120] We've endured weeks of an F1 desert but soon we'll be breaking our F1 fast with a race
[02:18.120 -> 02:20.800] in Baku in just six days time.
[02:20.800 -> 02:22.960] That's right, because it's a sprint weekend.
[02:22.960 -> 02:30.240] We'll be looking a little into that in the show. We'll also be talking about the reshuffle at Mercedes. We'll ask are there too many races
[02:30.240 -> 02:37.040] in America? Should we be exploring other seasons? And was Kimi Raikkonen the 2008 contender that
[02:37.040 -> 02:46.560] everyone's forgotten about? But first, a little bit of missed Apex admin. We're going karting for the first time in 2023 and we want you to come with
[02:46.560 -> 02:52.400] us. So on July the 1st in the south of England, do you want to come and go go karting with
[02:52.400 -> 02:57.540] me and possibly Matt and a bunch of the other crew? We have, we're on the verge of booking
[02:57.540 -> 03:02.480] a nice little track just 30 minutes from the M25 and I think we're going to be releasing
[03:02.480 -> 03:05.120] those tickets this week. so do yourself a favor
[03:05.120 -> 03:12.480] there's only 42 spots so email me now at spanners at missedapex.net with the subject line
[03:12.480 -> 03:18.800] karting and I'll get you on that invite list spanners at missedapex.net and we are also going
[03:18.800 -> 03:31.200] to do instead of our live coverage this time we're going to do some Drive to Survive style coverage so expect contrived drama and red flags. We'll try and do a live recording in the morning as well but you
[03:31.200 -> 03:38.240] will get for your money 45 minutes on track which is plenty that's three sprint races and a place in
[03:38.240 -> 03:44.000] a final. There'll be pizza and chips and there will be beer afterwards as well. So for your
[03:44.000 -> 03:47.000] karting and your pizza and chips I think we'll be looking at about £140,
[03:47.000 -> 03:52.000] but that's for a whole day of missed apex, karting and a little bit of socialising as well.
[03:52.000 -> 03:56.000] Now then, we are still an independent podcast produced in the podcasting shed
[03:56.000 -> 03:58.000] with the kind permission of our better halves.
[03:58.000 -> 04:02.000] We aim to bring you a race review before your Monday morning commute.
[04:02.000 -> 04:04.000] We might be wrong, but we're first.
[04:03.920 -> 04:08.960] before your Monday morning commute. We might be wrong, but we're first.
[04:13.680 -> 04:14.320] I'm joined in the shed by Matt to Rumpets. How's it going, Matt?
[04:18.000 -> 04:22.960] I gotta say, I'm really looking forward to complaining about having five races and six weekends after weeks of complaining about having no races and four weekends.
[04:22.960 -> 04:28.000] If you don't complain about both things equally viciously, I will be very disappointed.
[04:28.000 -> 04:29.360] I'll do my best.
[04:29.360 -> 04:33.920] We're also joined by a kindly vet. It's Chris Catman-Turner. How's it going, Chris?
[04:34.880 -> 04:39.280] Good. I'm in the new podcasting setup in here and just to mark that occasion,
[04:39.280 -> 04:42.880] it has now started bucketing it down as you press record. So there we go.
[04:42.880 -> 04:48.040] Well, we can't hear it, so that's a testament to how posh your shed is. Shed life for the win. Shed life
[04:48.040 -> 04:53.880] forever. Absolutely love it. And Chris has always been our second Chris but to demote
[04:53.880 -> 04:58.160] Chris down to being our third Chris we have another person called Chris. We've
[04:58.160 -> 05:04.120] got Christina Mace from Canada joining us. Hey Christina. Hey I'm doing good.
[05:04.120 -> 05:06.760] You're doing good. The Canadian Grand Prix is not
[05:06.760 -> 05:11.920] far away. Have you booked your ticket yet? I wasn't able to get one but I very well may just
[05:11.920 -> 05:16.640] try to bribe people with some maple syrup to get in. You gotta go and check out Christina's
[05:16.640 -> 05:22.440] TikTok channel. She's Christina F1 and is somebody who is introducing and helping newer people through
[05:22.440 -> 05:26.520] the sport but unlike certain people who we won't name, the boys,
[05:26.760 -> 05:30.280] you actually care about the racing and F1 and it's super informative.
[05:31.040 -> 05:33.040] Zoom, zoom. Welcome to the shed, Christina.
[05:40.600 -> 05:43.480] Plenty to cover in the news today, but I think the big thing
[05:43.480 -> 05:45.760] we have to cover is the reshuffle
[05:45.760 -> 05:58.560] at Mercedes, that's got to be the big dirty news.
[05:58.560 -> 06:04.540] So if you cast your mind back to winter testing, when Mercedes were teasing that they'd made
[06:04.540 -> 06:25.920] steps forward from last season, everything was going to be positive, the one thing I to looking car just painted black but with no side pods and scaring all the Mercedes fans
[06:25.920 -> 06:32.680] not me I'm neutral of course but they did they did indeed roll out the the size zero
[06:32.680 -> 06:37.200] Mercedes again and even during those first few days of winter testing when they were
[06:37.200 -> 06:46.040] looking slow and cumbersome Mike Elliott was the man that seemed to be the most under fire, not just from pundits
[06:46.040 -> 06:52.200] like us and on the sofa screaming at our TVs, but it seemed to be internal as well. So Toto
[06:52.200 -> 06:57.520] Wolf seemed to be openly declaring war on that concept. And Mike Elliott did look a
[06:57.520 -> 07:03.140] little bit awkward and sheepish in front of the camera. And then indeed, as the opening
[07:03.140 -> 07:05.840] races panned out and the Mercedes pace wasn't
[07:05.840 -> 07:12.400] there, the pressure seemed to be not so subtly being pushed on the technical head. And so,
[07:12.400 -> 07:18.160] Matt, it has come to pass that Mike Elliott has been, well, he's, I don't want to say
[07:18.160 -> 07:26.760] failed upwards because that seems harsh, but he's been removed from that hands-on technical lead post and put in a more, well,
[07:26.760 -> 07:31.120] promoted into an overall managerial structural position.
[07:31.120 -> 07:37.240] But it's clear to me that although it's been a productive and honest conversation,
[07:37.240 -> 07:42.280] they do definitely seem to have gone, it's the concept and it was that guy.
[07:42.280 -> 07:46.760] Yeah, well, you know, just to get into it and to be clear,
[07:46.760 -> 07:50.800] it's not the side pods or the lack thereof per se
[07:50.800 -> 07:53.640] that has been the issue for Mercedes.
[07:53.640 -> 07:57.060] It's a sort of a long, complicated technical story,
[07:58.320 -> 08:00.160] which is more to do really, I think,
[08:00.160 -> 08:02.880] with the floor and the rear suspension
[08:02.880 -> 08:04.120] and those sorts of elements,
[08:04.120 -> 08:06.400] as we discussed with Summers on
[08:06.400 -> 08:17.360] the last Tech Time. But the reality is, Elliot himself felt adrift in this role and after
[08:17.360 -> 08:27.320] discussions, Allison was agreeable to coming back and taking over that more hands-on role, really.
[08:27.320 -> 08:33.720] And Elliot is looking more to the future, the larger organizational structures, things
[08:33.720 -> 08:37.340] where he feels he has more core competencies.
[08:37.340 -> 08:45.840] So this was inevitable, but it also, as you point out, hides a deeper tale of disagreement amongst the Mercedes engineering
[08:45.840 -> 08:52.920] team about the best way to proceed after last season's unhappy result.
[08:52.920 -> 08:56.880] That being said, though, Allison left the front line in 2021.
[08:56.880 -> 09:00.040] I can't remember exactly when, it might have been July.
[09:00.040 -> 09:10.080] So the ZeroPod concept would have been started under his watch. So if anything, Elliot kind of bore the brunt of Allison's mistakes, possibly.
[09:10.080 -> 09:15.200] And maybe you could say that they moved away not quick enough, because they only realised
[09:15.200 -> 09:19.000] in February this year that it just wasn't going to work.
[09:19.000 -> 09:25.840] But actually, you know, Allison coming back, he did leave initially because he had a couple of personal
[09:26.960 -> 09:31.120] concerns that made him leave the front line. He went to pursue other things. He said he wanted
[09:31.120 -> 09:36.240] to bow out gracefully, but I think he's now had, because he went to a three day a week role as a
[09:36.240 -> 09:51.680] CTO. And I think now he's had some time to be able to reevaluate and wants to bring that Mercedes team to the front. So you could, all the bluff is saying that Elliot is stepping down by himself and chose to do so,
[09:52.400 -> 09:57.040] but that could just be a lot of PR speak for moving someone aside gracefully.
[09:57.040 -> 10:02.960] It could be, but I want to point out one thing that I love about this story,
[10:02.960 -> 10:06.280] that you will frequently hear me rant about if you've listened to enough of
[10:06.280 -> 10:10.920] these shows, is how influential the media coverage of Mercedes
[10:10.920 -> 10:16.000] start of the season probably was with how rapidly this change
[10:16.040 -> 10:19.600] occurred. Because let's face it, the first tracks were not
[10:19.600 -> 10:23.680] Mercedes friendlies track. They weren't good for Mercedes and
[10:23.680 -> 10:25.520] this car concept. Australia is probably the
[10:25.520 -> 10:30.160] first track where we got some idea of what the potential of this current design is, not the new
[10:30.160 -> 10:37.360] design that we'll eventually see next season. And on top of that, we know from Mercedes and from
[10:37.360 -> 10:42.800] Elliot that the plan all along was sort of what I like to call the dip our toe in the water. Like,
[10:42.800 -> 10:46.500] we're going to show up with a bare bones model, make sure it's running
[10:46.500 -> 10:50.620] to the parameters we expected after the surprises we got last season.
[10:51.000 -> 10:54.400] And we already have a fair amount of development planned for it.
[10:54.460 -> 10:59.200] And they showed up and because that was their plan, they were off the pace.
[10:59.260 -> 11:07.120] And the relentless media hounding, I think is one of the main reasons we're even hearing this talked about
[11:07.120 -> 11:12.080] now instead of at the end of the season. Absolutely. And part of that might even be
[11:12.080 -> 11:18.240] self-generated. As you said, Toto was very vocal. Lewis was very vocal as well in criticizing that
[11:18.240 -> 11:24.240] concept. And they've said they're working with a flawed concept and they'll be revising it. So
[11:24.240 -> 11:26.880] I think they brought it on themselves somewhat.
[11:26.880 -> 11:32.760] But what I do enjoy seeing is they haven't just fired the guy and cast him aside, because
[11:32.760 -> 11:35.560] that's very much a football mentality.
[11:35.560 -> 11:39.720] Whereas in Formula One, what they've done is they've realised he's still got strength.
[11:39.720 -> 11:43.520] You don't get to be the technical director of a Formula One team without knowing your
[11:43.520 -> 11:50.560] stuff and being able to produce results. So they've moved him into a place where he's actually worthwhile,
[11:50.560 -> 11:53.960] and I think that's a good way to go.
[11:53.960 -> 11:59.600] Mason So the question is, will this yield any results?
[11:59.600 -> 12:07.040] Let's go over to our new friend, Christina, or Chris22 as I'm very quickly wanting to call her. We here
[12:07.040 -> 12:14.800] on Miss Apex Podcast in the shed, we abhor neutrality. Who are you a fan of within F1?
[12:14.800 -> 12:17.360] Within F1, I'm an Alpine girly this year.
[12:17.360 -> 12:20.080] Oh, not another one. Blimey.
[12:20.080 -> 12:24.400] Oh yeah, they're one of the few teams besides Red Bull that I feel like are coming into
[12:24.400 -> 12:26.840] the season actually knowing what they're doing.
[12:26.840 -> 12:30.700] And that's honestly my biggest bone to pick with Mercedes is that they've had so many
[12:30.700 -> 12:31.840] years of dominance.
[12:31.840 -> 12:34.720] They know how to function as a team that's succeeding.
[12:34.720 -> 12:38.000] And one of the big things last year was that they were, it felt like they were just struggling
[12:38.000 -> 12:42.800] to find what the problem was and just find a decent baseline.
[12:42.800 -> 12:46.320] And they're bringing so many things where it was essentially
[12:46.320 -> 12:53.560] trying to fix and not upgrade, which yes, it's something that they had to do. But overall this
[12:53.560 -> 12:59.880] year, having them swap out those staff members, but still keep them on and keeping, you know,
[12:59.880 -> 13:05.760] they're good, positive. They are good at having that good team mentality, but you were seeing cracks in it
[13:05.760 -> 13:12.560] when Lewis, George, Toto, everybody were having slightly different comments publicly about what
[13:12.560 -> 13:18.400] was going on and how the car was doing. So I'm hoping that this is a move in the right direction
[13:18.400 -> 13:23.200] of them actually tackling the problems and us seeing some real solid solutions.
[13:23.280 -> 13:28.880] problems and are seeing some real solid solutions. ALEC ROBERTSON Absolutely. And Allison being in charge is a good thing because he masterminded a
[13:28.880 -> 13:34.880] lot of race-winning and title-winning teams. Benetton, Ferrari, Renault, when Alonso was there.
[13:35.920 -> 13:41.040] But back in those eras, they had a lot of time to test out these new concepts. So maybe the
[13:41.040 -> 13:47.080] Size Zero concept would have been sunk before the season, back in the noughties,
[13:47.080 -> 13:50.360] because they would have had days and days and days to test it and go, oh, this isn't
[13:50.360 -> 13:52.040] correlating to what we're seeing.
[13:52.040 -> 13:53.720] Let's go back to something else.
[13:53.720 -> 13:58.360] Whereas now they've only got four days worth of testing all in one week, and they just
[13:58.360 -> 13:59.360] don't have the time.
[13:59.360 -> 14:01.680] So if they get stuck with a concept, then that's it.
[14:01.680 -> 14:05.800] So these guys are absolutely ingenious, but haven't had time to deal with it.
[14:06.520 -> 14:12.460] So this is not the only interesting thing to come out of this position swap.
[14:12.540 -> 14:17.560] It's important, I think, to note that Mercedes has had an outflow of what you
[14:17.560 -> 14:23.300] would call almost senior talent to other teams, they've lost some of the engineers
[14:23.300 -> 14:26.400] that might have been moving up into senior roles,
[14:26.400 -> 14:29.900] to Red Bull, to Ferrari, and other teams.
[14:29.900 -> 14:34.600] So, they have suffered a little of a talent gap at that level.
[14:34.600 -> 14:38.500] But it's also important, and I think this is one of the most interesting things,
[14:38.500 -> 14:40.300] but that would probably just be me,
[14:40.300 -> 14:46.440] is that the chief designer, John Owens, role has now been split and his assistant,
[14:46.440 -> 14:51.680] Giacomo Tortora, will be taking over a lot of the administrative details for maintaining
[14:51.680 -> 14:54.000] information about the cost cap.
[14:54.000 -> 14:58.120] Now I don't know if you file taxes, but I will tell you right now as an independent
[14:58.120 -> 15:02.600] contractor, the amount of work I have to do just to prep for my accountant to be able
[15:02.600 -> 15:05.400] to file my taxes is pretty time-consuming.
[15:05.400 -> 15:11.960] And this is sort of an interesting place where new regulations are interacting with the team
[15:11.960 -> 15:15.680] and possibly not helping them out all that much, because we're talking about the chief
[15:15.680 -> 15:20.680] designer of the car here spending a lot of time filling out spreadsheets with financial
[15:20.680 -> 15:23.640] information instead of, you know, designing cars.
[15:23.640 -> 15:27.920] I want to know about how fast they're going to go around in circles. Enough admin,
[15:27.920 -> 15:32.720] my goodness, and enough cost cap as well. Oh, it is nearly cost cap time, isn't it? When do those
[15:32.720 -> 15:38.560] figures get announced? Because I can't wait. And as much as it's not all about the drama,
[15:38.560 -> 15:47.600] I can't wait to see who stayed within the cost cap in 2022 as well. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that I think that Mercedes,
[15:47.600 -> 15:54.000] Haas, Alfa Romeo, Alfa Tauri, Alpine... I can probably name nine teams that I think stayed
[15:54.000 -> 16:00.960] within the cost cap in 2022. But I want to talk about the optimism, you know, coming out of one
[16:00.960 -> 16:05.680] particular part of Mercedes and that seems to be George Russell. So George Russell is
[16:05.680 -> 16:12.320] saying that they have gained more in the last two weeks than they did over winter. But as to your
[16:12.320 -> 16:18.880] point Christina about, you know, do they start talking like a team that's stuck in the high
[16:18.880 -> 16:30.240] midfield and not championship contending or do they act like a team that's just about to fix everything and get back into winning ways? George Russell is always very positive and is always like,
[16:30.240 -> 16:33.200] at the moment now, he's champing at the bit, isn't he? He's going to go,
[16:33.200 -> 16:35.920] no, it's going to be fine. Everything's going to be brilliant. It's cool.
[16:35.920 -> 16:40.560] And there's way more interviews like that from George Russell than from Lewis Hamilton.
[16:41.120 -> 16:43.600] Oh, Christina, sorry, that was aimed at you.
[16:43.600 -> 16:45.920] Christina Sato Oh, yeah, sorry. Oh, Christina, sorry. That was aimed at you. Christina Sallister-Galante Oh, yeah. Sorry. Well, honestly, it makes
[16:45.920 -> 16:51.040] sense. George spent how many? Three years. He spent three years in the Williams. So it
[16:51.040 -> 16:56.400] doesn't surprise me at all that he is comfortable with cars that don't make him entirely happy
[16:56.400 -> 17:01.680] and that he can see that silver lining. He has to have developed that positive mentality
[17:01.680 -> 17:05.360] to survive three years being at the back of the grid. Like for him,
[17:05.360 -> 17:11.440] it's just a completely different reality than Hamilton, who is like, no, I expect excellence
[17:11.440 -> 17:16.880] from this team. I expect to be listened to when I give feedback. And that was one of the things that
[17:16.880 -> 17:30.600] he voiced his frustration over was that, you know, the team didn't entirely listen to me as much as I think was warranted. So you know, I think it's probably more likely that their performance realistically is somewhere
[17:30.600 -> 17:35.400] in the middle of those two opinions because they're just coming from it with a unique
[17:35.400 -> 17:37.580] perspective comparatively.
[17:37.580 -> 17:41.960] Like it's not an unbiased opinion, it's their own personal perspectives.
[17:41.960 -> 17:43.980] Yeah, I agree.
[17:43.980 -> 17:49.500] And even Russell is very careful to point out that the advances he's seen in the simulator
[17:49.500 -> 17:52.240] still have to be confirmed on track.
[17:52.240 -> 17:58.240] And this is, this was Mercedes' original plan for this concept, which I do feel vaguely
[17:58.240 -> 18:02.320] compelled to point out, according to them, is only being dropped not because they don't
[18:02.320 -> 18:08.440] think they can catch Ferrari and beat them like a gong, but because they don't think they could catch Red Bull with
[18:08.440 -> 18:10.780] this particular concept.
[18:10.780 -> 18:15.960] So the only reason we're hearing all of this is because they've decided they can't beat
[18:15.960 -> 18:20.600] Red Bull at the rate they're going, not because they can't beat anybody else in their current
[18:20.600 -> 18:21.600] format.
[18:21.600 -> 18:26.640] And the development path for this car was always sort of preordained and
[18:26.640 -> 18:33.760] so it's not perhaps a huge surprise that these advances are coming when one would expect them to
[18:33.760 -> 18:39.120] and that they are adding a lot of speed because after all Mercedes were always fairly good with
[18:39.120 -> 18:48.880] their development and with being able to out engineer problems. One lovely thing about last year was that Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes all had vastly
[18:48.880 -> 18:54.480] different concepts. And that was so technically interesting, but unfortunately it's a little bit
[18:54.480 -> 18:59.920] inevitable that one of them is going to be the dominant package and they're all going to converge
[18:59.920 -> 19:04.560] on that. So we're not going to have for much longer, I would have thought, I think Ferrari
[19:04.560 -> 19:10.800] will go that way as well come next year. So Jose's just said, I know side pods maybe
[19:10.800 -> 19:15.840] isn't the problem, but maybe just try. Do you reckon, you know, in that scene in Happy Gilmore,
[19:15.840 -> 19:19.760] where Happy Gilmore, he does the dancing down towards the tee and does the hockey style run up
[19:19.760 -> 19:23.920] before hitting it and then shoot to McGavin secretly on the practice tee, tries it and
[19:23.920 -> 19:25.040] is all frustrated.
[19:25.040 -> 19:29.120] Do you think in the practice garage somewhere someone has sneaked some side pods
[19:29.120 -> 19:33.680] into the Mercedes wind tunnel? Maybe, maybe they have. Christina?
[19:34.400 -> 19:38.640] Yeah, just going back for two seconds to the concept of Mercedes being good at upgrades,
[19:39.280 -> 19:43.040] a huge part of it was also that they were capable of throwing money at a problem.
[19:43.040 -> 19:46.760] They were able to spend, like hire people
[19:46.760 -> 19:49.200] and spend that money to have their team continuously working.
[19:49.200 -> 19:52.680] They were able to have as many engineers as they wanted.
[19:52.680 -> 19:55.680] And this is where the cost cap is probably affecting them
[19:55.680 -> 19:57.120] more than all the other teams,
[19:57.120 -> 20:02.120] because they were spending a lot more than so many others.
[20:02.660 -> 20:06.800] The others are used to functioning under a constraint, whereas Mercedes,
[20:06.800 -> 20:12.960] they're adapting in a huge way to the cost cap to new regulations. It's kind of a perfect storm for
[20:12.960 -> 20:20.640] them to not succeed. Oh man, I can't get the happy Gilmore out of my head now. What if they turn up
[20:20.640 -> 20:25.400] in Baku with their side pods and they win and yeah, Toto Wolf comes
[20:25.400 -> 20:29.020] on the radio and goes, somebody learned to side pod.
[20:29.020 -> 20:32.500] But George Russell really does look and sound optimistic.
[20:32.500 -> 20:36.500] The quote was, and I don't know where this quote was from, Matt, but it was an interview.
[20:36.500 -> 20:38.000] Obviously, it's George Russell.
[20:38.000 -> 20:39.000] Big changes are incoming.
[20:39.000 -> 20:42.780] Naturally, you can't get things brought to the car quickly, but I think in due course
[20:42.780 -> 20:44.780] we'll see some big changes.
[20:44.780 -> 20:49.040] Asked if he has tried the changes on the Mercedes simulator he said yeah, we're working really hard
[20:49.040 -> 20:53.360] on these at the moment. Won't give too much away and we need to make sure they work as expected,
[20:53.360 -> 21:02.480] but clearly expecting something positive. But it just so happens that our next news story involves
[21:02.480 -> 21:06.040] Mercedes and the team that Christina has incorrectly
[21:06.040 -> 21:12.220] declared fandom for, the I can't believe it's not Renault team Alpine, think that they are
[21:12.220 -> 21:20.480] going to be fighting Mercedes this season. So, they think that Aston Martin is going
[21:20.480 -> 21:29.760] to be too far ahead to catch, but the Endstone team has not abandoned its goal of reaching at least fourth, and is going to, I assume that's in italics, Matt, so we're
[21:29.760 -> 21:32.600] ripping that off wholesale from another website.
[21:32.600 -> 21:35.360] You've been on mute the whole time.
[21:35.360 -> 21:40.920] So as I said, this has been a long-term goal for Alpine, and they've had this goal all
[21:40.920 -> 21:47.520] the way back to the golden days of a beatable and they've not quite managed to
[21:48.720 -> 21:55.120] make the leap and here they are once again putting their mouths where their money may or may not be
[21:55.120 -> 22:01.520] and saying they think they can make this happen. Even the most hardcore fans, sorry Matt, where did
[22:01.520 -> 22:06.000] we take that article from? I don't like to read out quotes and not know where we got it from.
[22:06.000 -> 22:15.000] I believe the quotes would have either come from The Race or motorsport.com. I'm going to look down at our links and tell you in just a second.
[22:15.000 -> 22:27.600] Very clever. But surely, Christina, you don't share that optimism. It's wild for them to think they're going to be fighting Mercedes? I don't think it's wild at all. Honestly, in my mind, Alpine are making progress
[22:27.600 -> 22:29.600] and they're advancing, whereas Mercedes
[22:29.600 -> 22:32.960] is kind of standing still and trying to figure out
[22:32.960 -> 22:34.320] where they're going to go.
[22:34.320 -> 22:36.880] So the big question is, does Mercedes
[22:36.880 -> 22:39.640] pick up their big boy pants or big girl pants,
[22:39.640 -> 22:44.000] whichever one they choose, and actually start making progress?
[22:44.000 -> 22:45.600] Because if they don't, then yes,
[22:45.600 -> 22:49.920] I do think it's very realistic for Alpine to catch up to them. As well, Alpine, the first
[22:49.920 -> 22:55.280] three races, we know that they have good pace. We have seen that. The results don't accurately
[22:55.280 -> 22:59.440] reflect necessarily what could have been good races. Ocon got how many penalties the first
[22:59.440 -> 23:08.720] time around, but Gasly went from back of the grid to getting points. And then up until that last moment in Australia,
[23:08.720 -> 23:09.920] both of them were performing well.
[23:09.920 -> 23:11.880] So we know that that car has pace.
[23:11.880 -> 23:14.640] It's just they were throwing points away
[23:14.640 -> 23:16.840] with tiny little things.
[23:16.840 -> 23:19.080] Well, hang on a minute, tiny?
[23:19.080 -> 23:20.000] Wow.
[23:20.000 -> 23:24.360] A wild rejoin and then smashing into your teammate isn't tiny.
[23:24.360 -> 23:29.900] It's one moment, you know, in a far larger race.
[23:29.900 -> 23:31.200] Is it a stupid mistake to make?
[23:31.200 -> 23:32.100] Yes, absolutely.
[23:32.100 -> 23:35.300] Gasly's starts are probably the thing that are holding him
[23:35.300 -> 23:39.100] back the most. The number of lap one incidents that he's
[23:39.100 -> 23:43.000] almost or fully been involved in, boy needs to work on that.
[23:43.000 -> 23:44.600] Like that is his weakest point.
[23:44.600 -> 23:46.220] I think the moment he gets good starts,
[23:46.220 -> 23:48.460] he would be fine and would be a lot more successful.
[23:48.460 -> 23:51.940] But yeah, no questions asked, that was a bad moment.
[23:51.940 -> 23:52.780] But at the end of the day,
[23:52.780 -> 23:55.680] it was one moment in how many laps?
[23:57.260 -> 24:00.540] Well, I think that is one of the best teammate
[24:00.540 -> 24:02.780] coming togethers of all time,
[24:02.780 -> 24:08.000] of just sheer like face palm moment. You see an Alpine
[24:08.000 -> 24:12.400] go joining the grass and then you see one of the pink Alpines is out, so that's probably
[24:12.400 -> 24:15.880] the one that had... Oh, they're both out. What's going on there? And then you just see
[24:15.880 -> 24:28.440] the replay because it's in mid-pack. Well, I think that is up there with Singapore 2017, with the Ferraris just inexplicably punting, what happened? Vettel
[24:28.440 -> 24:33.880] ping-ponged Verstappen into Raikkonen. And that was the most glorious start in the world
[24:33.880 -> 24:38.800] as well for Fernando Alonso. He'd gained like 10 places for the privilege of being in the
[24:38.800 -> 24:43.600] exact position for Raikkonen to come across and take him out. But honestly, if that was
[24:43.600 -> 24:50.720] in a higher profile team, we'd be talking about that in as high a terms as Interlagos. Was it 2018? Vettel again. Vettel and
[24:50.720 -> 24:55.360] Leclerc taking each other out. Oh, 2018's a good year for this. This is off the top of my head,
[24:55.360 -> 25:07.480] so tell me if I'm getting it wrong. Baku 2018, Ricciardo and Verstappen. I think that coming together, this one forgivable moment that
[25:07.480 -> 25:12.720] Christina's happy to hand wave away, I think it's up there in one of the, you
[25:12.720 -> 25:16.680] know, it's almost 2016 Spain-ish with the Mercedes guys.
[25:16.680 -> 25:21.520] Catman. I was gonna say it's also an expensive mistake given the cost cap
[25:21.520 -> 25:25.120] dilemma we've just talked about, You know, these errors that he's
[25:25.120 -> 25:30.000] making and the damage that he's causing are going to limit how much they can spend to try and fight
[25:30.000 -> 25:35.520] against Mercedes. I suppose the big difference, Matt, is that that was really unlucky. He just
[25:35.520 -> 25:40.560] happened to pick out his teammate, whereas all the other examples I said, there was a lot of needle
[25:40.560 -> 25:45.120] involved. Like Rosberg saw it was Hamilton coming, turned in, the Red Bull guys were
[25:45.120 -> 25:46.120] butting heads.
[25:46.120 -> 25:48.120] Vettel saw his Ferrari career disappearing.
[25:48.120 -> 25:54.000] Yeah, well, I gotta say, I don't think Christina's wrong to bring this up because after all,
[25:54.000 -> 25:59.560] we're talking about the potential of the car here, not the actual points scored by the
[25:59.560 -> 26:00.560] driver.
[26:00.560 -> 26:05.520] And if we look at the differences, it's interesting because they talk about in the article Pat
[26:05.520 -> 26:10.960] Fry does like how much more they think they have to gain to catch Mercedes, but with the
[26:10.960 -> 26:15.680] obvious caveat that they don't know what Mercedes is going to bring to the table.
[26:15.680 -> 26:21.200] The point I would like to make is that everybody talks a lot about how improved Aston Martin is.
[26:21.200 -> 26:30.560] Well, if we're going to talk about side pods, let's not forget that it was the Alpine design that Aston Martin stole and just made more extreme for their, for their
[26:30.560 -> 26:38.560] water slide side pods. So they have been doing original work on that car. And if Aston hadn't,
[26:38.560 -> 26:42.000] well, I don't know if we could call it lucked out exactly, but you know, maybe with the amount of
[26:42.000 -> 26:49.920] money Stroll was able to spend, we could call it that. Aside from that, they would absolutely be the class of this midfield if everyone had made the
[26:49.920 -> 26:55.760] normal expected development year over year. I dunno. I still, I think it's very optimistic,
[26:55.760 -> 27:01.200] but I think you guys are right. It does come down to them probably not expecting the massive
[27:01.200 -> 27:10.300] Mercedes leap that is definitely, definitely going to happen. If we can just believe hard enough, they can win in Baku and Miami.
[27:10.300 -> 27:14.500] If you're a Mercedes fan, completely neutral here, of course.
[27:14.500 -> 27:19.100] But someone who's not neutral on their race venues is these Americans.
[27:19.100 -> 27:22.400] Can we call Canadians Americans because of the continent?
[27:22.400 -> 27:25.320] Is there, what's the term for people who live
[27:25.320 -> 27:27.320] on the continent of America?
[27:27.320 -> 27:28.640] So that I can umbrella you.
[27:28.640 -> 27:31.520] I like to just umbrella people into pigeonholes.
[27:31.520 -> 27:32.560] North Americans.
[27:32.560 -> 27:33.400] There we go.
[27:33.400 -> 27:37.720] You North Americans and your greedy demand for races.
[27:37.720 -> 27:39.320] So we're gonna have the first American race
[27:39.320 -> 27:40.880] coming up in Miami.
[27:40.880 -> 27:42.440] And the big question is,
[27:42.440 -> 27:44.920] is there too many races in America?
[27:44.920 -> 27:46.520] But the criticism would
[27:46.520 -> 27:53.160] kind of be that, yes, America, we know you've recently discovered F1 and welcome, in numbers,
[27:53.160 -> 27:59.280] and it's been a dream. It's been a long dream for F1 to finally catch the attention of American
[27:59.280 -> 28:09.560] motorsport fans and actually for a lot of European fans, it's been a thrill. It's kind of like, it's like the cool kids, I'm an Americanophile, I love Hollywood, I
[28:09.560 -> 28:13.760] love the glamour of America, I loved it when they did the announcers at Cota, when they
[28:13.760 -> 28:18.680] introduced them like the ringside, who was the ringside announcer Matt, who did the,
[28:18.680 -> 28:19.680] it's Fernando Alonso!
[28:19.680 -> 28:20.680] Who was that?
[28:20.680 -> 28:26.980] Yeah, the boxing guy, I don't remember his name because you know, I'm old. Yeah fair, but I loved that
[28:26.980 -> 28:32.320] I loved all that razzmatazz and when America started to really grab hold of a Formula One
[28:32.320 -> 28:34.780] I thought it was so cool. I'm like, yeah, come on cool kids
[28:34.780 -> 28:37.300] Come on, come on play chess with the with the nerds
[28:37.440 -> 28:47.180] But now you're demanding that all the races are specifically in America or Canada. And Christina, you are heading off to Miami.
[28:47.180 -> 28:53.140] So first, before I make you answer for all of North America, are you excited to be heading
[28:53.140 -> 28:54.140] down to Miami?
[28:54.140 -> 29:00.260] I'm ridiculously excited. I have right here, these custom little Miami shoes that I'm currently
[29:00.260 -> 29:01.260] stitching together.
[29:01.260 -> 29:02.900] Oh, you're making Miami shoes?
[29:02.900 -> 29:05.460] Oh yeah, they're going to say Miami on the side there.
[29:05.460 -> 29:06.640] I'm gonna put a little blue stitching,
[29:06.640 -> 29:08.320] maybe some palm trees.
[29:08.320 -> 29:09.160] It's a lot of exciting.
[29:09.160 -> 29:11.400] I did exactly the same for Silverstone.
[29:11.400 -> 29:14.600] I put Northampton, I stitched that into the bottom
[29:14.600 -> 29:17.340] of my jeans, equally glamorous.
[29:17.340 -> 29:20.520] Yeah, and the thing I'm most excited about though
[29:20.520 -> 29:23.960] is that I have a long list of people who I know
[29:23.960 -> 29:26.160] through TikTok, through podcasting,
[29:26.160 -> 29:32.400] through just a whole bunch of different Formula One digital communities. But now I'm actually
[29:32.400 -> 29:35.920] getting to meet them in person and be like, you're real. You're really real.
[29:35.920 -> 29:38.640] JS Don't do that. I had podcasters and
[29:38.640 -> 29:44.400] influencers in my house last Sunday. It was, well, there was some cleaning up to do. Sorry,
[29:44.400 -> 29:48.320] Matt, you were just trying to get in there. I was just gonna say don't forget your life
[29:48.320 -> 29:52.560] vest if you're going to Miami because it does tend to flood down there I bet yeah.
[29:52.560 -> 29:57.760] And is this the one with the fake marina that is now real water? They're making it
[29:57.760 -> 30:03.080] real. They've made it real. But you know going down there I do worry with Miami
[30:03.080 -> 30:06.880] that it's much more about the people who are going to be at the circuit.
[30:06.880 -> 30:10.600] So everything seems to be catered towards making it an event that you would want to
[30:10.600 -> 30:15.640] go to, and I get that, and I get everyone's got to make money, but for me, Formula One
[30:15.640 -> 30:18.320] has always been a TV sport.
[30:18.320 -> 30:22.800] You know, realistically, I cannot imagine a season where I go to more than one race.
[30:22.800 -> 30:28.140] So the concern is that, yeah, they get a lot of feedback from influencers, celebrities,
[30:28.140 -> 30:31.840] and all the people in and around the paddock clubs, but for everyone else around the world,
[30:31.840 -> 30:35.320] it's not that much of a spectacle based on last season.
[30:35.320 -> 30:36.320] Yeah.
[30:36.320 -> 30:41.520] The big thing for me as well is that if you're anywhere, you're going to have a race.
[30:41.520 -> 30:44.760] You have to justify it, and you have to justify it to the fans.
[30:44.760 -> 30:50.040] You have to justify it to the people who are regularly watching. And in my mind, I don't
[30:50.040 -> 30:54.760] think people would be complaining as much about going into the States if those races
[30:54.760 -> 30:58.080] were good and were quality. Last year with Miami, we were hearing nothing but driver
[30:58.080 -> 31:09.480] complaints about the track. Looking at the Vegas layout, it has the longest straight in all of the calendar at 1.9 kilometers,
[31:09.480 -> 31:11.800] I think it was.
[31:11.800 -> 31:13.680] It is absolutely massive.
[31:13.680 -> 31:18.800] So that's the biggest bone I have to pick with it, is that if you're going to come to
[31:18.800 -> 31:22.200] the States, and the thing is, the States know how to do spectacle.
[31:22.200 -> 31:24.160] They do that fantastically.
[31:24.160 -> 31:25.600] So is it going to be an experience for people who
[31:25.600 -> 31:31.760] actually go to the race who are their track side? Yes, absolutely. Is it worth the five grand that
[31:31.760 -> 31:37.280] some people are paying tickets to go to Vegas? Are you paying five grand to Vegas? Yeah,
[31:37.280 -> 31:43.360] yeah. But Miami's not exactly cheap either. No, Miami isn't. It's not cost effective,
[31:47.560 -> 31:51.140] No, Miami isn't... it's not cost-effective, that's for sure, but I've been planning to go on a massive vacation since I was graduating and then COVID hit.
[31:51.140 -> 31:56.240] So now I have a very treat-myself mentality and I'm not going to look at the bill until
[31:56.240 -> 31:57.800] I have to look at the bill.
[31:57.800 -> 32:03.640] And also, if you're coming from Vancouver side of Canada, that is very much like a summer
[32:03.640 -> 32:06.080] holiday in Miami. You might melt.
[32:06.080 -> 32:07.200] Never.
[32:08.000 -> 32:08.500] Matt.
[32:09.040 -> 32:15.680] Well, what I love about this is, you know, the complaint is always that somehow the entire
[32:15.680 -> 32:22.560] continent of North America, which is easily as large as the entirety of Europe, has almost as
[32:22.560 -> 32:27.200] many races as Europe has. That's so unfair. And while your
[32:27.200 -> 32:32.400] point about quality is well taken, I mean, you know, Singapore was hardly, you know,
[32:32.960 -> 32:39.680] outside of crashes. It's not like always the most exciting race ever, nor is Monaco. Let's admit it.
[32:39.680 -> 32:42.720] I think there are even some other people on the panel who'd agree with me about Monaco.
[32:42.720 -> 32:50.000] I'm literally not watching Monaco this year. Do you remember I vowed last year if they kept Monaco on that I wouldn't be part of the race review.
[32:50.000 -> 32:51.280] So I'm going to stick to that.
[32:51.280 -> 32:52.320] I'm going to have a week off.
[32:52.320 -> 32:55.520] Going to have Jono or Antonia lead that one up with you, man.
[32:56.400 -> 32:57.680] Sounds good to me.
[32:57.680 -> 33:00.400] I'm looking forward to it because qualifying is always worth it,
[33:00.400 -> 33:02.960] even if the rest of the race underperforms.
[33:02.960 -> 33:05.600] But these races aren't just races.
[33:05.600 -> 33:10.600] They're excuses for rich corporations to do lots and lots of business.
[33:10.600 -> 33:16.200] So these destinations, Vegas, Miami, Singapore, Monaco, in certain ways,
[33:16.460 -> 33:20.060] they're less about the racing of Formula One, although that's there.
[33:20.060 -> 33:23.820] And a lot, lot, lot about the business of Formula One.
[33:23.820 -> 33:28.400] And I would argue there being in Miami, those parties, you get those invites,
[33:28.400 -> 33:32.480] you go to the Red Bull party, man, you are having the bestest of all times.
[33:33.360 -> 33:36.000] It's just an expensive disco as far as I can tell.
[33:36.640 -> 33:38.400] Oh, that was such an old man thing to say.
[33:38.400 -> 33:40.960] It's just loud noise, Al.
[33:40.960 -> 33:41.840] How old are you?
[33:43.760 -> 33:44.720] Sorry, old enough.
[33:44.720 -> 33:49.360] Old enough to remember standing on the wall at a disco and not dancing.
[33:49.360 -> 33:51.840] But yes, I think we could go even further than that.
[33:51.840 -> 33:56.800] So if you did a race per time zone, because there's 24 time zones, that's kind of how
[33:56.800 -> 33:58.800] F1 once goes to 24 races.
[33:58.800 -> 34:01.940] So that would mean that there'll be six in the USA.
[34:01.940 -> 34:06.080] We could break into some new markets like Africa and Greenland, for example,
[34:06.080 -> 34:09.520] and we could have some interesting parties around the world.
[34:09.520 -> 34:14.720] Jason Vale So, okay, I want Americans to stay as Formula
[34:14.720 -> 34:19.840] One fans to the level that they have been. And if I look at, for example, our podcast statistics,
[34:19.840 -> 34:27.720] the single biggest group of our listeners now is Americans. So I want that to stay, I want that to remain,
[34:27.720 -> 34:31.960] but let's be honest, it's not established.
[34:31.960 -> 34:35.040] At the moment, yeah, we are dating
[34:35.040 -> 34:38.240] like the prettiest girl at the prom at the moment,
[34:38.240 -> 34:40.720] and it's great, but you know, she's very popular,
[34:40.720 -> 34:42.080] she's got a lot of options.
[34:42.080 -> 34:44.800] So I don't know if that's a long-term thing.
[34:44.800 -> 34:48.560] And I don't wanna seem all needy saying to America,
[34:48.560 -> 34:52.640] are you hanging around? Are you gonna be F1 fans in 10 years? I hope so.
[34:52.640 -> 34:58.680] But with all these new tracks so quickly, it's like we've bought a
[34:58.680 -> 35:03.640] down payment. We've put a down payment on a mortgage for a relationship that...
[35:03.640 -> 35:05.040] Well we don't know.
[35:05.040 -> 35:07.520] We don't know, Matt, if this is a serious thing.
[35:07.520 -> 35:08.480] Is there a ring?
[35:08.480 -> 35:09.600] Is there a ring anywhere?
[35:10.800 -> 35:14.560] Who needs a ring when you can start rumors about pop stars and F1 drivers?
[35:14.560 -> 35:15.360] Oh, yeah, I forgot.
[35:15.360 -> 35:21.360] I was going to dedicate this entire show to the rumor that Fernando Alonso is dating Taylor Swift.
[35:21.360 -> 35:24.080] Does any of the panel have any input on that rumor?
[35:25.240 -> 35:26.080] No. I saw the first on that rumor? No.
[35:26.080 -> 35:27.920] I saw the first tweet that it originated from.
[35:27.920 -> 35:29.440] Is it just someone tweeted it
[35:29.440 -> 35:31.200] and now everyone's talking about it?
[35:31.200 -> 35:33.440] Yes, it was a tweet of someone being like,
[35:33.440 -> 35:35.760] they became single at the same time.
[35:35.760 -> 35:38.480] How amazing would it be if they dated?
[35:38.480 -> 35:39.600] Okay, good.
[35:39.600 -> 35:43.000] And it's a joke that's gone too far.
[35:43.000 -> 35:44.200] It's genius.
[35:44.200 -> 35:47.000] It is genius marketing and hats off.
[35:47.000 -> 35:52.000] Like, I've seen it came from an Instagram story, people talking about it was written up in Spanish magazines.
[35:52.000 -> 35:54.000] Does it matter?
[35:54.000 -> 35:58.000] All that matters is I put the proposition to my wife and she was like,
[35:58.000 -> 35:59.000] Wait, what?
[35:59.000 -> 36:04.000] And another hour of internet was lost as the origins of this rumor.
[36:04.000 -> 36:06.480] Yeah, no, this is exactly the thing. And,
[36:06.480 -> 36:10.560] no, you're not going to lose your American audience that quickly. We're not going to
[36:10.560 -> 36:14.160] just get fascinated with a new bright, shiny object.
[36:14.160 -> 36:16.880] Do you promise? I've been lied to before.
[36:17.840 -> 36:18.720] How dare you?
[36:18.720 -> 36:21.520] Remember when Germany used to love us? Where are they now?
[36:22.240 -> 36:25.360] Yeah, well, see, the point I would make is look at us.
[36:25.360 -> 36:29.480] We have we have finally just gotten an American driver.
[36:29.480 -> 36:31.680] And look at how many people were watching despite that.
[36:31.680 -> 36:33.840] And Germany, they're like, oh, no German driver.
[36:33.840 -> 36:35.160] And we're bored. Goodbye.
[36:35.640 -> 36:40.840] Yes. No, I think I think most of your American fans will stick with it.
[36:40.960 -> 36:42.080] But I agree.
[36:42.680 -> 36:46.060] We should be expanding to Africa and any other market
[36:46.060 -> 36:52.760] that has races at a time that doesn't mean I'm awake at 3am to see the finish after 17
[36:52.760 -> 36:55.640] red flags. Sorry, Australia, it just had to be said.
[36:55.640 -> 37:02.040] So, okay, so my fear is too many too fast. If you look at the European tracks, we've
[37:02.040 -> 37:07.000] had a long time to sort of trim it down and cull and adapt
[37:07.000 -> 37:11.000] and there's been a kind of an evolution of which tracks the F1 goes to
[37:11.000 -> 37:18.000] and Monaco aside, I don't know what kind of cursed painting or what kind of bribery
[37:18.000 -> 37:21.000] someone's got photos of someone in a compromising position
[37:21.000 -> 37:25.400] I don't know why Monaco remains as a Grand Prix circuit. But that aside,
[37:25.400 -> 37:29.360] you look at the the classic European circuit still on the calendar and it's
[37:29.360 -> 37:34.000] really hard to argue that it's not high-quality bespoke, designed
[37:34.000 -> 37:39.880] for single-seater racing tracks. Silverstone, Spa, Hungaro Ring, even
[37:39.880 -> 37:43.320] Barcelona which is looking a little bit cramped now. That is still, you know, a
[37:43.320 -> 37:49.460] classic mega track. If you're in a rush to kind of cash in on on the new
[37:49.460 -> 37:54.760] American popularity you've got Cota which is a quality track and Montreal
[37:54.760 -> 37:59.700] which is probably the best street circuit on the F1 calendar but then you
[37:59.700 -> 38:04.380] go to Miami you look at the likes of Vegas if they want even more races it's
[38:04.380 -> 38:09.380] not going to be a bespoke grade A circuit. They're going to look to go into cities. Street circuits
[38:09.380 -> 38:14.760] are trash for racing, and I just feel like if they pump it up, they're going to build
[38:14.760 -> 38:22.240] up the excitement, producing these below-quality racing excitement street races, and it's
[38:22.240 -> 38:36.000] going to be a castle built on sand. And that's not what I want for America. I want America to you know embrace it properly and be patient and have enough of a substantial and sustained following to go.
[38:36.100 -> 38:45.200] Let's build more coaches because the circuit of America's is one of the best tracks on the on the calendar there I've been yelling stuff for a while. Matt, you yell stuff now.
[38:46.000 -> 38:50.000] Road America, Watkins Glen, we already have some good circuits.
[38:50.000 -> 38:51.040] Yeah, exactly.
[38:51.040 -> 38:51.760] Upgrading.
[38:51.760 -> 38:57.760] Yeah, but those are places with a heritage of racing. So those places, if you could upgrade
[38:57.760 -> 39:03.680] them, they would take it seriously. There's a core blood of racing there that isn't necessarily
[39:03.680 -> 39:06.120] there if they just want to throw city center
[39:06.120 -> 39:07.120] tracks together.
[39:07.120 -> 39:10.080] Yeah, but you still have to grow the business.
[39:10.080 -> 39:13.520] Hence Vegas, which Formula One itself is promoting.
[39:13.520 -> 39:14.940] They've never done that before.
[39:14.940 -> 39:17.220] That's kind of an interesting experiment on its own.
[39:17.220 -> 39:22.400] And I've heard talk that Indianapolis is not out of the question when it comes to new U.S.
[39:22.400 -> 39:25.920] venues, despite the, um, was it 2005
[39:25.920 -> 39:30.320] Catman? Because you would know this. The rather interesting race in 2005.
[39:30.320 -> 39:47.000] Yeah, where only six cars started the race. Yeah, that was, that was really interesting. A good two hours wasted there. Watch. Shopify helps you do your thing however you ch-ching. Shopify is the global commerce platform
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[41:55.280 -> 41:58.160] I disagree that street racing is trash.
[41:58.520 -> 41:59.520] God's sake.
[41:59.600 -> 42:00.280] Wait, wait.
[42:00.800 -> 42:02.760] European to European.
[42:02.800 -> 42:06.640] I certainly, but the Americans are very used to their street racing.
[42:06.640 -> 42:09.480] If you just look at their recent IndyCar exploits,
[42:09.480 -> 42:13.680] Raymond Grosjean will tell you that street racing is exciting.
[42:13.680 -> 42:15.960] Yeah, well, they end up just in walls, don't they?
[42:15.960 -> 42:17.500] In fact, this is a little good segue,
[42:17.500 -> 42:20.280] whilst we're talking about American motorsport.
[42:20.280 -> 42:24.040] Christina, I've noticed on your TikTok channel, of which you
[42:24.040 -> 42:26.400] have about a billion followers,
[42:26.400 -> 42:31.460] you did a recent breakdown, really, you've been using this summer break to explore other
[42:31.460 -> 42:35.520] motorsport, which is something that I always nag myself to do, but I just don't. I know
[42:35.520 -> 42:40.920] exactly when the F1 races are. Formula E just comes and goes, I never know when it's on,
[42:40.920 -> 42:46.800] I just hear, like I see an odd tweet going, oh, that was quite a good Formula E race, but I never know what channel it's on,
[42:46.800 -> 42:50.600] how to watch it back or anything. And I think we get the same with Indy as well.
[42:50.600 -> 42:57.400] But can you convince us in a few minutes, why should us blinkered Formula 1 fans
[42:57.400 -> 43:02.000] check out Indy? Let's stick with, I think, IndyCar specifically.
[43:02.000 -> 43:10.560] I think one of the things that appeals is we probably know a lot of the drivers already so we can be emotionally invested and it's a bit more of a spec series but I think
[43:11.440 -> 43:16.080] it's hard for a lot of Formula One fans to get a hold of because it's either an oval or a street
[43:16.080 -> 43:22.640] track. IndyCar, the number of overtakes that you're going to see in a single race will sometimes be
[43:22.640 -> 43:25.600] more than you will see in an entire F1 season. That might be me
[43:25.600 -> 43:32.080] exaggerating a little bit, but the sheer number of overtakes you get in IndyCar makes it worth it.
[43:32.080 -> 43:37.680] You're actually seeing racing, and again, because it's a spec series, closer to, you don't actually
[43:37.680 -> 43:42.800] have a car that's making a runaway for it. You're going to have the pack close together for the
[43:42.800 -> 43:45.040] majority of the race. So you're actually
[43:45.040 -> 43:51.040] getting to see a lot of group racing. It's not one team is far, far, far ahead. You have three or
[43:51.040 -> 43:57.120] four different people contending for a race win and for a championship any given year. It is really
[43:57.120 -> 44:02.320] fun. It's really exciting. And my personal favorite thing about them is that if a car is still in a
[44:02.320 -> 44:05.600] drivable condition, but it's gone into a barrier, the
[44:11.200 -> 44:15.520] trackside marshals in their little safety car equivalent will come out, will get the car out of the barrier and turned around properly, and they can keep joining the race. They can keep going.
[44:16.400 -> 44:21.680] So you don't lose cars, and having more cars on track means you have more competitors,
[44:21.680 -> 44:29.520] which is better racing. I see the appeal of that, and I suppose you could just say, you know, if you want a spec series,
[44:29.520 -> 44:33.120] you know, definitely there are some great spec series out there, and IndyCar kind of falls
[44:33.120 -> 44:38.000] to that. But does the team element, which is so prevalent in Formula One,
[44:38.000 -> 44:39.680] does that have a factor in IndyCar?
[44:40.720 -> 44:40.960] No.
[44:40.960 -> 44:43.120] It doesn't really matter who's in what team.
[44:43.760 -> 44:46.280] They don't particularly collect team points.
[44:46.280 -> 44:51.640] They'll do a trophy at the end for the engine manufacturer that has the most points.
[44:51.640 -> 44:55.760] There's only two of them though, so it's a nice little thing they get at the end, but
[44:55.760 -> 44:58.360] there's not a whole bunch of stock placed into it.
[44:58.360 -> 45:03.480] At the end of the day though, the crown jewel of IndyCar is coming up next month, the Indy500.
[45:03.480 -> 45:06.640] Okay, I'm going to give anything a
[45:06.640 -> 45:12.240] chance, start with the Indy 500 because it is an absolute spectacle. There's a lot going on,
[45:12.240 -> 45:17.200] there's again a lot of familiar faces and as much as it is oval racing and you have to adjust and
[45:17.200 -> 45:22.800] get used to that, it's really fun, it's really exciting. It's just a different type of chaos.
[45:23.600 -> 45:27.960] So it is interesting across the generations because we probably span three and a half
[45:27.960 -> 45:33.440] generations here on this panel, but to hear you talk about Overtaking as a feature, like,
[45:33.440 -> 45:38.520] oh, it's got more Overtaking, so that must be better. Whereas the likes of me and Catman,
[45:38.520 -> 45:44.360] maybe some older European F1 fans... Catman, if we had watched F1 for the Overtaking, we'd
[45:44.360 -> 45:45.600] have stopped watching F1 a
[45:45.600 -> 45:51.280] long time ago. Anyone who sat through the 90s, you'd go, oh, there was an overtake. Oh, I was
[45:51.280 -> 45:55.840] napping for that overtake. I know, and they often didn't catch it on the replay either,
[45:55.840 -> 46:00.560] so you'd basically miss the one exciting thing or the ITV era being an advert.
[46:01.440 -> 46:07.600] One thing IndyCar has got right is the push to pass. So in F1 DRS, you know,
[46:07.600 -> 46:12.640] it just provides easy overtakes, whereas DRS, sorry, push to pass, I think, is it 10 pushes
[46:12.640 -> 46:16.320] that they've got that they can use through the race or is it 20? I can't remember. But
[46:16.320 -> 46:20.880] they can deploy them attacking or defending when they want to. So it's absolutely awesome.
[46:20.880 -> 46:26.760] And that's what F1 should do. Yeah, and it's not just overtakes.
[46:26.760 -> 46:28.440] It's not just overtakes.
[46:28.440 -> 46:31.060] It's the fact that they are quality overtakes.
[46:31.060 -> 46:32.920] You're talking about,
[46:32.920 -> 46:35.400] you're talking about cars that are separated by,
[46:35.400 -> 46:38.120] you know, like we talk about the delta to overtake
[46:38.120 -> 46:41.580] in Formula One is being a second, two seconds sometimes.
[46:41.580 -> 46:43.040] I have to be that much faster
[46:43.040 -> 46:48.640] or I'm not gonna make this pass happen. DRS has helped that some. In IndyCar, you're talking about cars that
[46:48.640 -> 46:55.440] are separated by thousandth of a second and they, all the overtakes are going to be quality.
[46:55.440 -> 47:00.280] The tire strategy, there's fuel strategy that all plays into it. And then as you say, there's
[47:00.280 -> 47:09.180] also the strategy with push to pass and more of it is in the driver's hands. The cars and engineers can and do make a difference along with the
[47:09.180 -> 47:13.800] strategist but so much more it's much more 50-50 between driver and team than
[47:13.800 -> 47:18.000] it is in Formula One where it's about 99% car and 1% driver.
[47:18.000 -> 47:23.400] Oh I don't think... I'm not gonna have that argument. I don't think it's that much.
[47:23.400 -> 47:26.720] I think definitely the
[47:26.720 -> 47:31.240] team sets the overall position of the car, but you can't say a driver doesn't make a
[47:31.240 -> 47:37.280] difference in Formula One. You can name a million teams over the last 10 years where
[47:37.280 -> 47:43.120] there was clearly one driver that was getting results and a driver in an identical car didn't
[47:43.120 -> 47:47.600] get that result. So I just think, what did you say? 95? I think that's a little high.
[47:47.800 -> 47:54.440] I think, OK, I will cite 2017 as a season where Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen
[47:54.560 -> 47:57.000] or Fernando Alonso in that Ferrari.
[47:57.000 -> 47:59.200] Yes, yes, yes. You caught me. You hooked me in.
[48:00.120 -> 48:04.080] There was a number of drivers who would have won that 2017 championship in that Ferrari.
[48:04.080 -> 48:06.080] The driver can make a difference. it's not 95% of the time.
[48:06.080 -> 48:06.560] Catman.
[48:07.440 -> 48:08.000] You git.
[48:10.400 -> 48:14.480] It's also down to the aerodynamics in IndyCar as well, and the fact that they're not so heavily
[48:14.480 -> 48:18.160] reliant on aerodynamics means that they can follow and they can overtake easier.
[48:18.160 -> 48:21.920] So as you said, Matt, it's all about pure overtakes rather than manufactured,
[48:21.920 -> 48:24.000] and that's why I absolutely love IndyCar.
[48:24.000 -> 48:26.480] But Christina, don't they love a little bit
[48:26.480 -> 48:29.320] of a manufactured competition caution,
[48:29.320 -> 48:30.520] you know, much in the way that F1
[48:30.520 -> 48:32.280] is now going down that route?
[48:32.280 -> 48:33.440] Yes and no.
[48:33.440 -> 48:37.200] I mean, IndyCar, this past weekend,
[48:37.200 -> 48:40.280] they had their practice run at Indianapolis
[48:40.280 -> 48:41.880] for the Indy 500.
[48:41.880 -> 48:43.500] And one of the drivers got released
[48:43.500 -> 48:48.560] and bumped into one of the other cars. And they just had a nice little apology on Twitter. They were just like, sorry man,
[48:48.560 -> 48:51.400] and he was like, it's all good. Your crew chief already came and apologized to me.
[48:51.400 -> 48:58.480] So it's, yes, they have drama and yes, they have tense moments, but they also travel together and
[48:58.480 -> 49:04.280] they all live together in the same buildings a lot of the time in Indianapolis. So that
[49:04.280 -> 49:06.240] friendship and that sense of community,
[49:06.240 -> 49:08.640] I think is also just a little bit different,
[49:08.640 -> 49:10.080] especially because they're not necessarily
[49:10.080 -> 49:12.400] directly competing with their teammates
[49:12.400 -> 49:16.160] in a lot of the same way that they are in Formula One.
[49:16.160 -> 49:18.520] I think you're mistaking IndyCar with NASCAR,
[49:18.520 -> 49:20.280] which is the WWE of racing.
[49:21.160 -> 49:22.600] Me, you think I'm doing that?
[49:22.600 -> 49:24.920] Oh, okay, sorry, sorry, sorry.
[49:24.920 -> 49:25.880] So it's NASCAR that's got the
[49:25.880 -> 49:29.880] reputation for the competition cautions and everything like that. So, oh, so I have, I'm
[49:29.880 -> 49:35.880] sorry IndyCar, I apologize. And I will, what's the event that I'm tuning into? The Indy 500.
[49:35.880 -> 49:36.880] And that is when?
[49:36.880 -> 49:37.880] Indy 500, yes.
[49:37.880 -> 49:39.500] In April, May? In May?
[49:39.500 -> 49:43.400] In May. Yeah. The whole month of May is the IndyCar month. And they do have a documentary
[49:43.400 -> 49:46.560] that is coming out this Thursday, I believe.
[49:46.560 -> 49:51.420] The hard part is that it's only available on the CW, so if you're not in America, you
[49:51.420 -> 49:53.840] have to be sneaky.
[49:53.840 -> 49:55.400] You have to break the law.
[49:55.400 -> 49:58.000] Okay, someone explain to me how to do that.
[49:58.000 -> 49:59.000] Matt?
[49:59.000 -> 50:04.640] There's also, I will say on Netflix, at least American Netflix, a lovely documentary about
[50:04.640 -> 50:06.000] Scott Dixon called
[50:06.000 -> 50:13.280] Born to Race. And if you are indie curious, that would be a really, really good one to watch to
[50:13.280 -> 50:17.600] dip your toe a bit deeper into the water. I don't know if it's available in UK or in Europe.
[50:18.240 -> 50:22.800] Okay, but back to Formula One, I think the push to pass is the most interesting thing that sparked
[50:22.800 -> 50:27.500] things off in my head here. So you have a certain amount of pushes that give you an extra boost.
[50:27.500 -> 50:33.300] So, you know, tactically, you know, if we applied that to Formula 1 and replaced DRS,
[50:33.300 -> 50:41.000] how would that play out? Because I do kind of wonder if, you know, DRS did a job and it was a sticking plaster.
[50:41.000 -> 50:45.180] And it was always meant to be, I think, a bit of a temporary
[50:45.180 -> 50:51.500] solution to the knee-jerk reaction of, we need more aero to make the cars faster, ultimate
[50:51.500 -> 50:56.460] lap time is all that matters. F1 went massively in the wrong direction with that a couple
[50:56.460 -> 51:00.740] of times and in fact, historically through F1, they've been doing the opposite. They've
[51:00.740 -> 51:05.120] tried to slow the cars down. Groove tyres! Bring groove
[51:05.120 -> 51:12.440] tyres back. Groove tyres, removing the window of aero that they're allowed to use. Yet a
[51:12.440 -> 51:16.440] couple of times they've had a knee-jerk reaction where the cars are too slow. Bolted on tons
[51:16.440 -> 51:23.160] of downforce and inevitably made this whole passing problem even worse. And DRS was a
[51:23.160 -> 51:25.740] sticking plaster just to make sure people wouldn't
[51:25.740 -> 51:32.800] get bogged down. But here's my thing, Catman. If you did a push to pass which is limited
[51:32.800 -> 51:38.760] in place of DRS which is effectively unlimited as long as you're within a second, a car who
[51:38.760 -> 51:45.120] qualifies badly, or a car who is further back in the pack than, or you know, under qualifies,
[51:45.120 -> 51:49.200] that they will always be at a disadvantage because even if they get through the pack,
[51:49.200 -> 51:52.800] they're now up with the leaders who haven't had to use their push to pass.
[51:52.800 -> 51:57.360] So doesn't it just kind of just exacerbate this thing of the people at the front have
[51:57.360 -> 52:02.400] an advantage over the people at the rear? If you're looking at people trying to work
[52:02.400 -> 52:09.460] their way through a pack, then absolutely. But if you're looking at people who've got similar spec machines driving against each
[52:09.460 -> 52:14.080] other, then it actually makes sense because you don't even need to use push to pass.
[52:14.080 -> 52:17.480] You could just say you can use DRS 20 times during a race.
[52:17.480 -> 52:18.000] You could do that.
[52:18.000 -> 52:19.760] DRS works exceptionally well.
[52:19.960 -> 52:23.920] You don't need a boost button or like an eighth gear like they do in the movies.
[52:23.920 -> 52:31.920] All you need is just the DRS flap to open and that would work. So I think, yeah, you should be punished for qualifying
[52:31.920 -> 52:38.480] poorly, but I think it would make the racing purer because if you could use it for attack and
[52:38.480 -> 52:45.840] defense as well, that would make it better, I think. Oh yeah, good point. Yes, so that the car in front could have DRS as well. Matt?
[52:46.960 -> 52:52.320] Well, yeah, I mean, and this is long been on the list of summer's favorite solutions to DRS.
[52:52.320 -> 52:58.480] Either give them a timed percentage of the Grand Prix or give them a specific number of times they
[52:58.480 -> 53:07.600] can use it and let the drivers have to use it tactically as they do in IndyCar. What would it put it into? DRS trains,
[53:07.600 -> 53:13.920] for one, because you'd run out of passes pretty quickly, wouldn't you? So it actually, I mean,
[53:13.920 -> 53:19.360] for cars that are faster, it should wind up being an advantage unless they qualify poorly,
[53:19.360 -> 53:22.960] and then they're going to have to be real careful about how they use it because they won't be able
[53:22.960 -> 53:28.560] to get around people they would normally get around if they'd started further up. It would actually make qualifying
[53:28.560 -> 53:33.040] more important than it currently is, something that we have discussed on this very show.
[53:33.040 -> 53:37.440] Qualifying? Where we're going, we don't need no stinking qualifying.
[53:42.160 -> 53:47.080] Because we're going to Baku where we're going to have a sprint race.
[53:47.080 -> 53:48.080] That's right.
[53:48.080 -> 53:52.640] More sprint races, more excitement, endless action.
[53:52.640 -> 53:55.200] The action can never ever stop.
[53:55.200 -> 54:02.040] I miss not having to talk about sprint races, but they are coming up, Matt, and you seem
[54:02.040 -> 54:03.040] excited.
[54:03.040 -> 54:05.540] I'm just wondering how you could not have started that
[54:05.540 -> 54:10.340] Baku to the future. How could you have missed that? Baku to the future, the sprint
[54:10.340 -> 54:15.800] race is here. Uncle Steve, we're gonna have to edit that in post. So, Baku to the
[54:15.800 -> 54:21.120] future, where we're going, we don't need no stinking qualifying. But Sunday was a
[54:21.120 -> 54:25.040] time that I could say to my family, I'm ring fencing it.
[54:25.040 -> 54:30.800] There's basically a barrier mentally around Dad and the TV and you do not intrude this
[54:30.800 -> 54:31.800] space.
[54:31.800 -> 54:35.880] And for two hours every few weeks, that arrangement worked well.
[54:35.880 -> 54:39.760] And then occasionally if there was time, I go, I'm just, I'm going to catch the qualifying
[54:39.760 -> 54:40.760] actually.
[54:40.760 -> 54:41.760] I'm going to catch the qualifying.
[54:41.760 -> 54:42.760] If I miss it, no problem.
[54:42.760 -> 54:44.040] I can catch up with it later.
[54:44.040 -> 54:48.800] But seeing as I've done, I've done all the dishes, I've done my chores, does anyone mind? I've played
[54:48.800 -> 54:54.360] Patank in the garden, I can go and watch qualifying now. And then, obviously, Friday's at work,
[54:54.360 -> 54:58.600] you have an earbud in and you pretend you're looking at a spreadsheet whilst in fact you're
[54:58.600 -> 55:03.600] listening to BBC Checkered Flag practice commentary or something like that. So there was this
[55:03.600 -> 55:05.280] staggered and staged build-up
[55:05.280 -> 55:11.440] of importance. But now we've come to the point where the karting event that we're doing in the
[55:11.440 -> 55:16.960] south of England, email spanners at mistapex.net now only 42 spaces, email me now, subject line
[55:16.960 -> 55:23.840] karting, that event falls on the Austrian Grand Prix. And I didn't realise until looking at the
[55:23.840 -> 55:25.680] calendar that there is a sprint race right in the middle of our event. And I didn't realize until looking at the calendar that there was a sprint race
[55:25.680 -> 55:27.160] right in the middle of our event.
[55:27.160 -> 55:29.480] And I emailed out to our patrons and I said,
[55:29.480 -> 55:33.160] would anyone not go to a karting event
[55:33.160 -> 55:35.420] because it clashed with the sprint race?
[55:35.420 -> 55:38.800] And pretty much everyone said,
[55:38.800 -> 55:40.600] screw the sprint race, I don't care,
[55:40.600 -> 55:42.480] I'm gonna come karting.
[55:42.480 -> 55:44.840] So is it really as important to everyone, Matt,
[55:44.840 -> 55:46.520] as everyone seems to think it is?
[55:46.520 -> 55:51.920] They've got the viewing figures that said more people tuned in to the sprint race than
[55:51.920 -> 55:56.240] the qualifying, and more people tuned in to the Friday qualifying than they did Friday
[55:56.240 -> 55:57.240] practice.
[55:57.240 -> 55:58.240] So that's it.
[55:58.240 -> 56:00.600] They've got a sniff of it, and they're hooked.
[56:00.600 -> 56:05.840] They are, and I will say that your lack of care about the sprint race will only extend until Perez
[56:05.840 -> 56:07.560] wins one or more.
[56:07.560 -> 56:08.560] Vamos, Chaco!
[56:08.560 -> 56:13.840] And you'll be very interested in all the sprint racing that's going on.
[56:13.840 -> 56:21.480] No, what's most interesting is that we know now, or at least it's been widely put forth,
[56:21.480 -> 56:24.740] that the Saturday sprints are not setting the Sunday grids.
[56:24.740 -> 56:26.080] The Friday qualifying will.
[56:26.080 -> 56:27.200] That's good.
[56:27.200 -> 56:34.440] And what we don't know, but what is very, very intriguing, is that the qualifying for
[56:34.440 -> 56:38.560] the sprint race will now be a separate Saturday morning thing, and the only thing they've
[56:38.560 -> 56:41.880] said about it so far is that it will be shorter.
[56:41.880 -> 56:42.880] Christina.
[56:42.880 -> 56:47.440] Yeah, and I mean, let's keep in mind as well,
[56:47.440 -> 56:49.640] it hasn't been confirmed that that new format's
[56:49.640 -> 56:51.360] going to be used at Baku.
[56:52.640 -> 56:54.840] They said most likely it's going to be,
[56:54.840 -> 56:58.480] but they're trying, Pirelli already shipped out the tires.
[56:58.480 -> 56:59.300] Like that's the thing.
[56:59.300 -> 57:01.200] And so if they're changing the format
[57:01.200 -> 57:03.520] and they're going to change tire allocation,
[57:03.520 -> 57:04.560] they're really limited on that right now
[57:04.560 -> 57:09.280] because Pirelli already shipped those out months ago. So we'll see what happens. But
[57:09.920 -> 57:15.920] the thing is, I enjoy the concept of sprint races. I like the idea of getting more racing on the
[57:15.920 -> 57:22.000] weekend. That I don't have a problem with, but their execution of it definitely needs work.
[57:22.000 -> 57:26.040] And my biggest annoyance is them saying, oh, well, we have stats to back up
[57:26.040 -> 57:30.080] the fact that more people watch these sprint races. You have six data points.
[57:30.080 -> 57:37.160] Six. They've had two years of three sprint races each. That's not good data. Are you
[57:37.160 -> 57:43.680] kidding me? Compared to the number of Grand Prix we've had, that is a tiny, tiny little
[57:43.680 -> 57:50.640] percentage. And does my begrudging view of the sprint race, does that count towards the statistics
[57:50.640 -> 57:54.640] that they're, you know, the fact that, you know, I was, we were house hunting and I arranged
[57:54.640 -> 57:59.560] it and then I was sat in a kid's playground last year and watching one of the sprint races
[57:59.560 -> 58:03.600] like on my phone because, yeah, because I'm an addict and they know, they know I'm an
[58:03.600 -> 58:08.800] addict and they know I'm going to try my best to watch that sprint race even though I would have been perfectly happy
[58:08.800 -> 58:14.720] just having qualifying and then the main event is the is the sheer number of views kind of kind
[58:14.720 -> 58:19.360] of worth it and the thing is I'm arguing against myself Matt because I will watch every sprint race
[58:19.360 -> 58:25.720] that I have an opportunity to and they and they know that yeah well I mean the question is do you want an
[58:25.720 -> 58:31.520] fp3 and a qualifying or you want a qualifying a qualifying and a race in a
[58:31.520 -> 58:36.120] weekend I mean I mean and let's not forget too that one of the arguments and
[58:36.120 -> 58:41.120] I think it's a fair argument is that this is a big win for race promoters
[58:41.120 -> 58:46.960] where sprint races happen because it makes the tickets a lot more worthwhile.
[58:46.960 -> 58:51.440] You can come on a Saturday and you can see a qualifying and a race on a Saturday. You can
[58:51.440 -> 58:57.520] see a race on a Sunday. You can see a practice session and a qualifying on a Friday. Every day
[58:57.520 -> 59:00.720] has something that really matters to the overall weekend.
[59:00.720 -> 59:28.720] Catman, I'm going to be positive. Let's you and me, let's be positive here for a second. all weekend. but the first stint is on Saturday. What's the point? If it's a separate championship, I don't care at all. That will literally give me the excuse to not watch it. Actually,
[59:28.720 -> 59:32.960] this solution, where it is part of the championship, but the races don't affect each other,
[59:34.000 -> 59:38.800] that's... in a world where I'm not going to get my own way of them bogging all the way off,
[59:39.440 -> 59:43.200] this is okay. That was you being positive, was it? Yep.
[59:40.840 -> 59:41.600] Okay.
[59:43.000 -> 59:43.280] That was you being positive, was it? Yup.
[59:46.760 -> 59:47.520] Yeah, I agree.
[59:47.640 -> 59:50.200] Uh, I wouldn't watch it if it was a separate championship.
[59:50.360 -> 59:52.120] I would, of course, as you said, I'm addicted.
[59:52.600 -> 59:53.080] Let's pretend.
[59:53.280 -> 59:54.320] Yeah, we wouldn't watch it.
[59:54.320 -> 59:54.600] Come on.
[59:55.080 -> 59:56.120] They're abusing us.
[59:56.120 -> 01:00:02.560] It's not fair, but I do think that I value my, my weekends.
[01:00:02.600 -> 01:00:09.680] At one point they were suggesting that they were going to make it a two-day weekend and just condense everything into that. And that would be okay, because as you said,
[01:00:09.680 -> 01:00:14.560] I have to compete with work and all that sort of stuff. I just don't think that diluting out the
[01:00:14.560 -> 01:00:20.720] racing makes it better. One main blue-ribboned event is far better than lots of little drip-fed
[01:00:21.680 -> 01:00:22.240] victories.
[01:00:22.240 -> 01:00:26.560] JS So that was the Max Verstappen suggestion.
[01:00:27.160 -> 01:00:30.760] Instead of sprint races, if you want to make it more interesting because the teams have
[01:00:30.760 -> 01:00:34.480] fewer sessions to dial in setups, just make it a two day weekend.
[01:00:34.960 -> 01:00:40.600] Unfortunately, I think, you know, the again, the business side of Formula One is not
[01:00:40.600 -> 01:00:46.800] really looking to lose days, nor are promoters, but it's not diluting. I, this is,
[01:00:47.680 -> 01:00:53.280] I get, I get so argumentative here. This is me having a rant. Sorry. I get so argumentative
[01:00:53.280 -> 01:01:00.480] about this. The sprint race is really its own unique thing because it's on fresh tires,
[01:01:01.120 -> 01:01:07.440] on low fuel, and we see faster lap times than we do in the actual Grand Prix when we get to that
[01:01:07.440 -> 01:01:13.520] same point in the race. So there's not, the strategy is a little bit different, mostly based
[01:01:13.520 -> 01:01:19.920] on what tires you choose to race on, but it, but it's the drivers being called upon to have a
[01:01:19.920 -> 01:01:25.920] slightly different set of skills in order to score points that will count in the championship
[01:01:25.920 -> 01:01:29.400] right now because a sprint race championship is not a separate thing.
[01:01:29.400 -> 01:01:37.320] Okay, so I still feel like Christine is the most positive on these and that you'll just,
[01:01:37.320 -> 01:01:41.080] you know, you'll eat up every race they have to offer.
[01:01:41.080 -> 01:01:50.720] If I'm going to be positive, I'm going to lean over to your side. I think I do like the fact that they get one little practice warm-up session and then they're
[01:01:50.720 -> 01:01:53.240] straight into the action. That could mix things up.
[01:01:53.240 -> 01:01:58.920] I mean, for me, it all comes back to the fact that we've only had six of them. I feel like
[01:01:58.920 -> 01:02:03.560] that's just not enough time for me to actually care. Because last year when we had sprint
[01:02:03.560 -> 01:02:06.120] races, I was like, oh, okay, I'm tuning in anyway.
[01:02:06.120 -> 01:02:08.000] This is just me watching something different.
[01:02:08.000 -> 01:02:09.440] Okay, they're racing again.
[01:02:09.440 -> 01:02:11.600] Okay, that's perfectly fine.
[01:02:11.600 -> 01:02:12.920] I think I'll care more this year
[01:02:12.920 -> 01:02:14.760] now that there are six of them.
[01:02:14.760 -> 01:02:15.580] But currently it's like-
[01:02:15.580 -> 01:02:16.940] Oh, there's six this year?
[01:02:16.940 -> 01:02:18.520] Yes, there are six of them.
[01:02:18.520 -> 01:02:20.320] Well, that's you breaking that news to me.
[01:02:20.320 -> 01:02:22.640] I must have known that, but I'd forgotten it.
[01:02:22.640 -> 01:02:24.080] I'd forgotten it, there's six.
[01:02:31.240 -> 01:02:35.120] Let's be honest, they aren't politely asking us if we'd like sprint races. They're just doing it slowly enough that we don't complain too much.
[01:02:35.120 -> 01:02:39.920] It is the future, we've got to stop being grumpy old gits about it and crack on.
[01:02:39.920 -> 01:02:45.000] So before we end the show on talking about what upgrades we might think might be around
[01:02:45.000 -> 01:02:50.640] the corner, I just want to quickly have a little bit of a story time with Uncle Catman.
[01:02:50.640 -> 01:02:52.680] Everybody gather round the tree.
[01:02:52.680 -> 01:03:00.200] Uncle Catman's going to take us back in time 15 years to a time when Alonzo wasn't definitely
[01:03:00.200 -> 01:03:03.280] dating the biggest pop star on the planet.
[01:03:03.280 -> 01:03:06.000] A time when Lewis Hamilton had just thrown away
[01:03:06.000 -> 01:03:10.000] a world championship and was claiming his first world title.
[01:03:10.000 -> 01:03:14.000] When Massa, a pre-accident Massa, was setting the world alight
[01:03:14.000 -> 01:03:17.000] and the reigning champion was Kimi Raikkonen.
[01:03:17.000 -> 01:03:22.000] But, Catman, was Kimi Raikkonen the 2008 contender
[01:03:22.000 -> 01:03:24.000] that we've all forgotten about?
[01:03:24.000 -> 01:03:28.000] And the jazz was just for me. You don't get jazz.
[01:03:28.000 -> 01:03:33.000] I was going to say, what old man music are you putting over my story time here?
[01:03:33.000 -> 01:03:37.000] I didn't know what I was going to say, so I thought if there was jazz covering, I could have had dead air,
[01:03:37.000 -> 01:03:46.720] and it would have been fine, like they do on Radio 1. All the time. Yeah, well, the answer to your question, Spanners, is no.
[01:03:46.720 -> 01:03:51.600] No, he wasn't the forgotten contender.
[01:03:51.600 -> 01:03:58.520] Everybody has been brought up recently with Felipe deciding to relive his past trauma.
[01:03:58.520 -> 01:04:03.400] I think it's healthy to relive your past traumas, but maybe now's the time to let them lie.
[01:04:03.400 -> 01:04:07.880] We said we wouldn't talk about it, but but basically it came to light in a Bernie interview and
[01:04:07.880 -> 01:04:12.960] Bernie always seems to be motivated to Bernie Eccleston to say things frankly that denigrate
[01:04:12.960 -> 01:04:14.240] and put down Lewis Hamilton.
[01:04:14.240 -> 01:04:22.720] It's a barely disguised agenda but he said we knew in season that at Singapore Nelson
[01:04:22.720 -> 01:04:27.440] Piquet Jr had been told deliberately to crash to allow Fernando Alonso
[01:04:27.440 -> 01:04:31.600] to benefit from the safety car and win the race. And then everyone said, well, given that knowledge,
[01:04:31.600 -> 01:04:35.120] that race should have been cancelled and Massa should have been declared world champion. And
[01:04:35.120 -> 01:04:38.080] that's why 2008, I think, is back in everyone's consciousness.
[01:04:39.040 -> 01:04:53.760] It is. And then people have decided to run with that to say all things about all different seasons and it's just gone a bit mad. But as you said though, I think the issue really is that would that have affected the
[01:04:53.760 -> 01:05:10.000] outcome? Would people have seen things differently? Not really. And you asked specifically about Kimi Raikkonen. I think that he's an odd character for sure, but also he was very prone to the odd
[01:05:10.000 -> 01:05:14.640] weekend where he just wouldn't turn up. And I don't know why that is. Maybe he was having too
[01:05:14.640 -> 01:05:21.280] many ice creams on yachts, but to be fair to him, he did have a few issues that year. He had some
[01:05:21.280 -> 01:05:26.640] breakdowns, he had some team errors and some bad luck, but the Ferrari
[01:05:26.640 -> 01:05:31.360] that year was very difficult to drive. It was very fast but very difficult to drive and he crashed
[01:05:31.360 -> 01:05:36.960] seven times during the season. Oh, unforced errors because I know there was, obviously there was a
[01:05:36.960 -> 01:05:42.720] crash that I posted about on Twitter where in the Montreal Grand Prix and the question that someone
[01:05:42.720 -> 01:05:45.120] had asked on Twitter was, what's the dumbest
[01:05:45.120 -> 01:05:49.900] thing your favourite driver has ever done? And straight away, it's Lewis Hamilton just
[01:05:49.900 -> 01:05:54.460] smashing into the back of Kimi Räikkönen in the pit lane when there was a red light.
[01:05:54.460 -> 01:05:57.880] And Kimi Räikkönen just very casually got out of his car, stood up, pointed at the red
[01:05:57.880 -> 01:06:03.880] light and walked away. So that's the level of his fury at that. But that's what led me
[01:06:03.880 -> 01:06:07.340] to think, you know, not all of those incidents were his fault.
[01:06:07.340 -> 01:06:08.180] Absolutely.
[01:06:08.180 -> 01:06:11.000] And he did have a few incidents of bad luck with that.
[01:06:11.000 -> 01:06:13.960] He had problems with the safety car in Australia,
[01:06:13.960 -> 01:06:18.080] but overriding for me was his crashes.
[01:06:18.080 -> 01:06:20.520] He crashed a lot when it was wet, as I say.
[01:06:20.520 -> 01:06:23.640] That was a year when they just had taken
[01:06:23.640 -> 01:06:24.800] traction control off the car.
[01:06:24.800 -> 01:06:31.680] So both him and Masa, I think, really struggled to adapt to that new regulation change.
[01:06:31.680 -> 01:06:33.800] And he just crashed a lot.
[01:06:33.800 -> 01:06:39.160] He had very poor qualifying, which meant that he had to really race through the pack a lot
[01:06:39.160 -> 01:06:40.160] of times.
[01:06:40.160 -> 01:06:42.560] So he was constantly much further down the pack.
[01:06:42.560 -> 01:06:46.240] He just couldn't make the same of the package that Felipe Massa could.
[01:06:46.880 -> 01:06:54.480] And this was Lewis Hamilton when he was a young lad, Massa when he was probably at his peak.
[01:06:55.040 -> 01:07:00.160] And we're not, I'm not saying for a moment that Massa at his peak was anything like Lewis or
[01:07:00.160 -> 01:07:01.040] Kimi at his peak.
[01:07:01.040 -> 01:07:01.360] Oh, that's huge.
[01:07:01.360 -> 01:07:01.600] Yeah.
[01:07:01.600 -> 01:07:02.160] Okay, good.
[01:07:02.160 -> 01:07:07.520] And I just think Kimi just wasn't there for most of the season.
[01:07:07.520 -> 01:07:12.160] I don't know why. Maybe he was just enjoying things too much and just not turning up to the races.
[01:07:12.160 -> 01:07:18.560] Yeah. Peaky, peaky performance. So in conclusion, Catman, was Kimi Raikkonen the silent 2008
[01:07:18.560 -> 01:07:26.600] contender we've all forgotten about? You're kind of saying, meh. big thumbs big thumbs down. Yeah I think we should
[01:07:26.600 -> 01:07:31.280] go back and revisit all the seasons for massive injustices. The Damon Hill,
[01:07:31.280 -> 01:07:39.600] Schumacher, give Damon Hill that first world title in 94? 94. Australia, stupid
[01:07:39.600 -> 01:07:43.960] Australia, stealing Damon Hill's championship. Right let's finish off
[01:07:43.960 -> 01:07:45.760] talking about the upgrades that we
[01:07:45.760 -> 01:07:51.840] expect to see coming in the upcoming races or perhaps, you know, in Baku, but perhaps stretching
[01:07:51.840 -> 01:07:56.640] out to Imola. What do we think is coming up? Looking around my panel, has anyone got any
[01:07:56.640 -> 01:08:04.000] optimism for any of the teams for any upcoming upgrades? Matt2Rumpets, you are MattPT55 on
[01:08:04.000 -> 01:08:05.000] Twitter.
[01:08:05.000 -> 01:08:07.000] Your wife still sells a range of books.
[01:08:07.000 -> 01:08:10.000] She is called Amanda Weaver and people should search for her books.
[01:08:10.000 -> 01:08:13.000] We should put a link in the show notes to her books.
[01:08:13.000 -> 01:08:18.000] They would make ideal presents for anybody wanting a distracting and engaging romantic novel.
[01:08:18.000 -> 01:08:24.000] Indeed, especially if the giver of said novel wants a couple of hours to watch Formula One over a weekend.
[01:08:24.000 -> 01:08:25.120] Just putting it out there. The giver of said novel wants a couple of hours to watch Formula One over a weekend.
[01:08:25.120 -> 01:08:26.440] Just putting it out there.
[01:08:26.440 -> 01:08:32.480] And try not to think about Matt's wife's romantic novels as Matt Trumpet's fan fiction, because
[01:08:32.480 -> 01:08:35.480] I can't not think of it that way, and I've bought seven.
[01:08:35.480 -> 01:08:36.480] I'm on my eighth A-Week.
[01:08:36.480 -> 01:08:37.480] They're good, aren't they?
[01:08:37.480 -> 01:08:38.480] I'm addicted.
[01:08:38.480 -> 01:08:39.480] They're really good.
[01:08:39.480 -> 01:08:40.480] I'm addicted.
[01:08:40.480 -> 01:08:52.400] I might be slightly biased in that viewpoint, to be fair. No, so the fun thing about this, the upgrades, we've had basically longer than summer break
[01:08:52.400 -> 01:08:55.920] for teams to get whatever acts they have together.
[01:08:55.920 -> 01:09:03.600] And what we know, the biggest things we know are the two Ms, Mercedes and McLaren,
[01:09:03.600 -> 01:09:06.920] both of whom have said more or less, yeah, we have B-spec
[01:09:06.920 -> 01:09:10.340] cars coming compared to what originally showed up on track.
[01:09:10.340 -> 01:09:16.900] And we would expect to see both of them sometime or in bits and pieces between Baku and Imla.
[01:09:16.900 -> 01:09:21.540] And I think there's another team that Christina might want to talk about that has also been
[01:09:21.540 -> 01:09:22.540] making some noises.
[01:09:22.540 -> 01:09:24.600] This is going to be Alpine again.
[01:09:24.600 -> 01:09:25.120] When will this end? It is going to be Alpine again. When will this end?
[01:09:26.000 -> 01:09:30.480] It is going to be Alpine. I mean, they, I said already in the show, but no way.
[01:09:31.200 -> 01:09:36.640] They're starting from a good baseline. And do they probably have to spend some time now, actually,
[01:09:36.640 -> 01:09:41.760] you know, fixing their dang cars. And there was, oh, I'd have to look to see if I'm remembering
[01:09:41.760 -> 01:09:48.760] this correctly, but there was that little bit of pessimism that popped in of being like, we have to completely rebuild cars now.
[01:09:48.760 -> 01:09:52.000] Are we going to be able to bring our upgrades or are we going to have to dedicate a lot
[01:09:52.000 -> 01:09:53.880] of that time to rebuilding those cars?
[01:09:53.880 -> 01:09:54.880] So that's my excuse.
[01:09:54.880 -> 01:09:55.880] That's your excuse.
[01:09:55.880 -> 01:10:02.720] If the Australian gets the gift that keeps on giving, can they actually bring an upgrade
[01:10:02.720 -> 01:10:05.200] or are they going to have to spend that time and their
[01:10:05.200 -> 01:10:10.160] machines rebuilding those cars? So right, you'll have to forgive us because there's a bit of
[01:10:10.160 -> 01:10:17.520] history here with Matt who has long been a Renault sympathizer and now is an Alpine fan and an Ocon
[01:10:17.520 -> 01:10:23.280] going there has not helped that at all because he's a massive Ocon fanboy. But I've been putting
[01:10:23.280 -> 01:10:25.960] up with Matt saying next next season, just around
[01:10:25.960 -> 01:10:29.560] the corner, just around the corner, you'll see Renault are going to dominate and be a
[01:10:29.560 -> 01:10:35.480] proper grown-up works team. So let's quantify this, because Matt has a habit of going, well,
[01:10:35.480 -> 01:10:41.440] they did finish sixth, which is quite good. For Renault, Renault should be aiming at World
[01:10:41.440 -> 01:10:45.200] Championship. So what would constitute success for you two? Let's start with you,
[01:10:45.200 -> 01:10:51.040] Christina. For your prediction and your optimism to be correct, what would we see from Alpine?
[01:10:51.760 -> 01:10:54.720] Honestly, I just want them to have a race where they don't make a mistake.
[01:10:54.720 -> 01:10:56.160] Where they just finish. Is that what...
[01:10:58.160 -> 01:11:03.600] I will be happy as a fan of theirs to see both of their cars cross the finish line and both of
[01:11:03.600 -> 01:11:09.880] their drivers saying, we didn't make any stupid mistakes, we put our best performances that we could
[01:11:09.880 -> 01:11:11.360] to this day out.
[01:11:11.360 -> 01:11:14.040] That as a fan, I would be happy.
[01:11:14.040 -> 01:11:21.320] As a critic though, I want to see that car actually, you know, fighting with people.
[01:11:21.320 -> 01:11:24.920] Because in those last couple of races we saw as well, a lot of the times the Alpines were
[01:11:24.920 -> 01:11:28.560] kind of just floating off in no man land. And I mean, that was kind of true
[01:11:28.560 -> 01:11:35.200] for a lot of Bahrain and Jeddah for a lot of the teams. But, you know, Australia, we got a peek of
[01:11:35.200 -> 01:11:40.880] Gasly actually holding off some of the faster cars, actually competing with them. So I want
[01:11:40.880 -> 01:11:45.360] to see that competition come back. As a critic, that'll make me happy to have them
[01:11:45.360 -> 01:11:50.480] have a car that actually goes wheel-to-wheel with someone else. Would you be offended if I said that
[01:11:50.480 -> 01:11:57.120] that was quite a low bar? Not at all. Is it a low bar? Yes. But right now my optimism in them is
[01:11:58.560 -> 01:12:02.640] it's a little low. I'm still hurting a little bit from Australia, quite frankly. And as well,
[01:12:03.520 -> 01:12:11.760] yes, they're elite athletes. Yes, they have that mentality. But it still can be a bit of an effort to come back from a hit like that,
[01:12:11.760 -> 01:12:16.160] where you know, especially Gasly, you made a mistake. You know, you did, you can hear it
[01:12:16.160 -> 01:12:21.120] in his voice. He's just like, he's going to be his biggest critic on that one. So I'm just excited to
[01:12:21.120 -> 01:12:31.800] see if they actually fully come out of the gates. And if I'm going to be super critical, I want them to actually be finishing ahead of one or two of either the Mercedes or the Ferraris.
[01:12:31.800 -> 01:12:32.400] Wow.
[01:12:32.400 -> 01:12:33.200] That would put me happy.
[01:12:33.200 -> 01:12:37.400] Wow. Matt, I'll go to you because I think that would be wildly ambitious.
[01:12:37.400 -> 01:12:40.800] I think if you're Alpine right now and you're an Alpine fan, points.
[01:12:40.800 -> 01:12:42.600] I think that's what we're talking, you know.
[01:12:42.600 -> 01:12:47.000] If you've got two cars in the points, that would be a wildly successful Alpine weekend right now.
[01:12:47.960 -> 01:12:49.960] Until the Gasly-Ocon
[01:12:50.400 -> 01:12:51.520] imbroglio.
[01:12:51.520 -> 01:12:59.280] They had fifth and sixth kind of locked up in those last two laps because Ocon, despite losing his strategy, and let's not forget in
[01:12:59.360 -> 01:13:05.800] Australia, he was put on lap two onto the hard tire to go to the end, not needing a pit stop, got absolutely
[01:13:05.800 -> 01:13:11.820] neutered by the red flags and fought his way back into the points, caught, caught up to
[01:13:11.820 -> 01:13:15.860] Gasly and on the start, and you had Gasly not come into him, it would have been two
[01:13:15.860 -> 01:13:19.920] Alpines finishing fifth in six in that race.
[01:13:19.920 -> 01:13:27.200] But I take Christina's point and I take a little more heart because to me, like I said, 95%,
[01:13:27.200 -> 01:13:34.000] 5% that's about right. Both Gasly and Alcon are talented drivers. And the thing in Australia
[01:13:34.560 -> 01:13:41.040] really, I think was a failure of race direction. There's a reason they started that race earlier.
[01:13:41.040 -> 01:13:46.380] It's because of the sun. The starting straight is right into the sun and that caused Frank, frankly, I
[01:13:46.380 -> 01:13:50.620] think a lot of the problems both with Sergeant and with, um, with Gasly into
[01:13:50.680 -> 01:13:57.940] turn one, that aside, what gives me real hope for Alpine is the fact they've gone
[01:13:57.940 -> 01:13:59.820] to push rod rear suspension.
[01:14:00.340 -> 01:14:03.320] So they have a lot more ground to cover.
[01:14:03.320 -> 01:14:05.440] They they've changed their rear suspension. So there's a lot more knowledge for them to gain a lot more ground to cover. They've changed their rear suspension.
[01:14:05.440 -> 01:14:08.120] So there's a lot more knowledge for them to gain,
[01:14:08.120 -> 01:14:10.100] a lot more room for them to improve,
[01:14:10.100 -> 01:14:12.160] and a lot of new tools for them to use
[01:14:12.160 -> 01:14:13.520] to make this progress.
[01:14:13.520 -> 01:14:16.080] In terms of quantifying that,
[01:14:16.080 -> 01:14:16.920] what I would say is,
[01:14:16.920 -> 01:14:19.280] I think Christina is essentially correct.
[01:14:19.280 -> 01:14:22.840] What you would be looking for is in any given race,
[01:14:22.840 -> 01:14:27.120] for one or both Alpines to be on or near the pace of either an
[01:14:27.120 -> 01:14:34.080] Aston, a Mercedes, or a Ferrari, and a lot of that is going to vary based on the characteristics of
[01:14:34.080 -> 01:14:42.080] the tracks where they race. But yeah, this is their gap. They plan to find another four or five tens
[01:14:42.880 -> 01:14:46.200] to put themselves into the conversation with the teams that
[01:14:46.200 -> 01:14:50.400] aren't named Red Bull but are named Mercedes, Ferrari and Aston.
[01:14:50.400 -> 01:14:53.800] That would be success for them by the end of the season.
[01:14:53.800 -> 01:14:57.880] Catman Chris Catman-Turner at CatmanF1 on Twitter.
[01:14:57.880 -> 01:15:03.760] Speaking of low expectations and low bars for success, I see you as a McLaren fan.
[01:15:03.760 -> 01:15:06.320] I don't know if I've just inferred that like out of context, but I've always see you as a McLaren fan. I don't know if I've just inferred that out of context,
[01:15:06.320 -> 01:15:10.080] but I've always seen you as a McLaren slash Williams fan.
[01:15:10.080 -> 01:15:15.440] Yeah, McLaren is my team and it hurts. I'm going to take the piss out of Alpine to try
[01:15:15.440 -> 01:15:16.960] and divert from my own problems.
[01:15:16.960 -> 01:15:19.120] You do that, but we are coming back to McLaren.
[01:15:19.120 -> 01:15:22.080] Okay, fine. Who put these two on together?
[01:15:22.080 -> 01:15:24.880] I know, it was unplanned. If I'd have known there was going to be
[01:15:24.880 -> 01:15:29.600] the best thing that's ever happened to this show. two Alpine fans on, I would have spread it out.
[01:15:29.600 -> 01:15:30.600] Yeah.
[01:15:30.600 -> 01:15:34.240] I just, I have one point to make about Alpine and then I'll move on to McLaren's woes.
[01:15:34.240 -> 01:15:40.200] But when Daniel Ricciardo left Red Bull to join Renault and they had this master plan
[01:15:40.200 -> 01:15:42.960] of saying, we're going to spend little money, but become champions.
[01:15:42.960 -> 01:15:49.280] Do you know what year they targeted as that championship winning? It was 2021.
[01:15:49.280 -> 01:15:50.280] Wow.
[01:15:50.280 -> 01:15:55.360] And that was one of the least optimistic ones, but that's the one because they kept setting
[01:15:55.360 -> 01:16:00.080] these targets for success, for improvement that just never seemed to come. But I think
[01:16:00.080 -> 01:16:06.080] Cyril Abitbol had set in motion a five-year plan, as far as I could tell. And I think
[01:16:06.080 -> 01:16:12.720] 2021 was like, that's the end, that's the last chance, saloon, let's bring in Otmar.
[01:16:12.720 -> 01:16:20.440] Yeah, absolutely. But they're making steady progress. There's a graph that tells you they've
[01:16:20.440 -> 01:16:25.120] been at fourth or fifth in the championship for the last three or four years now
[01:16:30.160 -> 01:16:35.440] the gap hasn't necessarily been closing effectively trumpets you said it was four or five tenths to the to the cars in front and in f1 that is an absolute lifetime and you're talking race pace
[01:16:35.440 -> 01:16:41.040] you're talking quality pace well this would be race pace and this would be pat frey talking about
[01:16:41.040 -> 01:16:47.760] what they need to find in his opinion to be at the back end of the Aston
[01:16:47.760 -> 01:16:53.440] Mercedes Ferrari pack. So he's saying over the course of the next of the rest of this season,
[01:16:54.080 -> 01:17:00.320] if they find that much, they think they will be in, they will be in with a shout in some races
[01:17:00.320 -> 01:17:07.760] to be fighting legitimately with these cars. And you know, I will point out, it took the other cars a while to get around
[01:17:07.760 -> 01:17:11.840] Gasly when they got around him, when he was running further up the order.
[01:17:13.720 -> 01:17:17.760] So like, there are hints and signs, and there's a reason Abeetable is doing
[01:17:17.760 -> 01:17:22.480] World Rally Championship for Hyundai now and not running a Formula One team anymore.
[01:17:23.280 -> 01:17:25.840] So the potential exists.
[01:17:25.880 -> 01:17:29.040] I'm not saying it's going to be a minted reality because that
[01:17:29.040 -> 01:17:33.520] would be foolish of me, but the potential exists with a car design.
[01:17:34.160 -> 01:17:38.640] And, and with the engineering that they have, that they might find that gap.
[01:17:39.400 -> 01:17:41.440] And there's quite a gap back to McLaren, isn't there, Catman?
[01:17:41.440 -> 01:17:41.840] Oh yeah.
[01:17:41.840 -> 01:17:42.800] I hadn't forgotten about it.
[01:17:44.000 -> 01:17:50.280] I was reminded earlier, I was reminded earlier of the size zero concept. So we were talking
[01:17:50.280 -> 01:17:55.160] about Mercedes no pods and I remembered the McLaren size zero and went and did a little
[01:17:55.160 -> 01:18:00.160] bit of a digging on it and it was 2015 they came out with this real tight package and
[01:18:00.160 -> 01:18:04.760] it was a year after they declared you can't win the championship if you've got a custom
[01:18:04.760 -> 01:18:05.600] engine. They weren't even the second if you've got a customer engine.
[01:18:05.600 -> 01:18:06.240] We're not going to.
[01:18:06.240 -> 01:18:09.000] They weren't even the second best Mercedes team.
[01:18:09.000 -> 01:18:10.600] Williams were beating them at the time.
[01:18:10.600 -> 01:18:13.680] And they just kept making these radical choices.
[01:18:13.680 -> 01:18:14.520] We've got to be different.
[01:18:14.520 -> 01:18:15.200] We've got to be wild.
[01:18:15.200 -> 01:18:16.240] We've got to be crazy.
[01:18:16.240 -> 01:18:17.120] Size zero.
[01:18:17.120 -> 01:18:20.880] They came out with the flappy, cooler things on the back of the,
[01:18:20.880 -> 01:18:24.480] it was like a giant parachute that quickly got abandoned.
[01:18:24.480 -> 01:18:30.200] And it just felt like they kept having to play a wild joker and that was the thing that
[01:18:30.200 -> 01:18:31.660] was going to get them back on top.
[01:18:31.660 -> 01:18:36.520] Because in 2015, they were still a top team that were just having a little dip.
[01:18:36.520 -> 01:18:38.480] That dip's gone on, you know, an awful long time.
[01:18:38.480 -> 01:18:43.440] What I'd like to see from McLaren, and I'm sure you would, is just getting the fundamentals
[01:18:43.440 -> 01:18:46.320] right and getting back up there to be a championship
[01:18:46.320 -> 01:18:47.320] team.
[01:18:47.320 -> 01:18:48.320] Absolutely.
[01:18:48.320 -> 01:18:50.920] And unfortunately, they've lost the guy who I thought could do that.
[01:18:50.920 -> 01:18:54.240] Andrea Seidel has moved on to the Audi project.
[01:18:54.240 -> 01:18:57.280] So I think he would have been the guy to have done that.
[01:18:57.280 -> 01:19:01.680] As you said, as we said earlier on, I think teams need stability in their technical department
[01:19:01.680 -> 01:19:05.440] to be able to produce a decent result.
[01:19:05.440 -> 01:19:09.720] These guys get there because they know what they're doing, and they have proven track
[01:19:09.720 -> 01:19:10.720] records.
[01:19:10.720 -> 01:19:14.240] So give them stability, and they can produce results.
[01:19:14.240 -> 01:19:17.920] The problem is if you swap and change every few years, you start getting to the point
[01:19:17.920 -> 01:19:23.240] where it's like our British government, in that they look short term rather than going
[01:19:23.240 -> 01:19:24.240] long term.
[01:19:24.240 -> 01:19:25.280] So it's the same idea. That's as
[01:19:25.280 -> 01:19:26.480] much political as I ever get.
[01:19:26.480 -> 01:19:28.560] I have no strong opinions one way or the other.
[01:19:29.920 -> 01:19:35.920] So yeah, unfortunately for McLaren, I do think that they are in a bit of a problem at the moment,
[01:19:35.920 -> 01:19:41.360] and they're only going backwards. I alluded last time that I think that the relatively
[01:19:41.920 -> 01:19:45.680] naive driver pairing might be responsible for that. And I do think that's
[01:19:45.680 -> 01:19:53.440] the case, but I don't know if they necessarily have the technical ability at this point to be
[01:19:53.440 -> 01:19:57.520] able to challenge further. Trumpets, I know you've got insight on that.
[01:19:58.560 -> 01:20:05.920] I do. And in fact, we will recall that McLaren, along with Mercedes, is one of the teams that knew they
[01:20:05.920 -> 01:20:11.360] weren't going to be ready for the start of the season. They have essentially a B-spec package
[01:20:11.360 -> 01:20:16.240] coming, and we should, I think, see it somewhere between Baku and Imola, and at that point, we'll
[01:20:16.240 -> 01:20:22.240] know sort of where they really are. But possibly the biggest upgrade for McLaren is going to be
[01:20:22.240 -> 01:20:26.780] their change in engineering structure, which
[01:20:26.780 -> 01:20:31.660] everybody seems to be pretty happy about, and which is, I think, hastened, actually,
[01:20:31.660 -> 01:20:37.420] by the departure of Stella, or by Seidel, rather, because Stella is there now. And he's
[01:20:37.420 -> 01:20:43.520] a long-time McLaren person. And in discussions with Brown, essentially what they came to
[01:20:43.520 -> 01:20:48.500] is there were some problems that should have been resolved with the design of this car.
[01:20:49.220 -> 01:20:55.740] Going back, I think to 2021 that weren't, and that was an issue for them.
[01:20:55.780 -> 01:21:02.120] And they have sought to alleviate or solve that problem by improving the
[01:21:02.120 -> 01:21:10.240] structure of their engineering department, but they hasten to add, we are not going back to the Matrix style that was brought in by
[01:21:10.240 -> 01:21:17.160] Ron Dennis shortly before he flamed out in his war with the other financiers of McLaren.
[01:21:17.160 -> 01:21:22.400] Oh, I forgot how Matrix F1 was like Total Football, but for Formula One.
[01:21:22.400 -> 01:21:26.960] Yeah, it was baffling no one understood it and it was
[01:21:26.960 -> 01:21:34.360] a disaster on many many levels but if I'm a McLaren fan I would actually have
[01:21:34.360 -> 01:21:37.840] a reasonable amount of optimism I think they've done better than they would have
[01:21:37.840 -> 01:21:48.940] expected for the car they knew wasn't competitive. Piastri has done a good job, more so than Ricardo. And if the upgrades
[01:21:48.940 -> 01:21:54.520] bring the, uh, bring the performance they hope, then they're going to be in the conversation
[01:21:54.520 -> 01:22:00.600] once again with Alpine and whichever the slowest of the Mercedes Ferrari Aston teams is on
[01:22:00.600 -> 01:22:01.920] a race by race basis.
[01:22:01.920 -> 01:22:05.320] I'm missing you being here. Last week when you were going on too much,
[01:22:05.320 -> 01:22:09.840] I could just jab at you, but now I can't reach across the internet. You're far away.
[01:22:09.840 -> 01:22:16.000] It's just lies because all you want is for me to show up and bring more whiskey bottles, do you?
[01:22:16.000 -> 01:22:20.200] Do, and keep it away from Kyle so I can have some next time. That would be fantastic.
[01:22:20.200 -> 01:22:20.600] Some more fervent the next day.
[01:22:20.600 -> 01:22:25.880] Hey, but we got some really positive feedback for the show where we had six of the crew here
[01:22:25.880 -> 01:22:30.960] in the house, in the shed, doing a live show and I really did want to see what we'd be
[01:22:30.960 -> 01:22:34.600] like interacting with each other in person and it went down really well.
[01:22:34.600 -> 01:22:36.420] I enjoyed it.
[01:22:36.420 -> 01:22:40.560] Those episodes are edited a little bit more but I was surprised at how little I had to
[01:22:40.560 -> 01:22:41.560] edit out.
[01:22:41.560 -> 01:22:47.720] It was all technical edits and it went well and it's given me the confidence to say well let's go ahead and book some some venues.
[01:22:47.720 -> 01:22:51.920] So we're looking for a venue in June in London to go and do a live show plus I
[01:22:51.920 -> 01:22:58.320] am trying before the karting event on July 1st to do something podcast wise
[01:22:58.320 -> 01:23:02.320] for the people that turn up for the karting. So we'll do a podcast, go and do
[01:23:02.320 -> 01:23:05.280] some karting, pizza and chips and then some beer and
[01:23:05.280 -> 01:23:10.720] a social, try and find somewhere to crash. Those nights tend to get a little bit messy but they've
[01:23:10.720 -> 01:23:16.640] always been very very enjoyable so email spanners at mistapex.net if you want to come karting with
[01:23:16.640 -> 01:23:22.240] us. What else do I need to remind you about? Be a patron! patreon.com forward slash mistapex
[01:23:22.240 -> 01:23:26.480] because we do our Friday previews. Our patrons have been enjoying them.
[01:23:26.480 -> 01:23:29.120] So after Friday practice, me and Matt jump on
[01:23:29.120 -> 01:23:33.000] and we just waffle very much in the old doom scrolling
[01:23:33.000 -> 01:23:34.680] remain indoors podcast style.
[01:23:34.680 -> 01:23:36.240] So that's been going down well.
[01:23:36.240 -> 01:23:37.520] That's open for any tier.
[01:23:37.520 -> 01:23:42.520] So $1.99 a month, you get that, you get an ad free feed
[01:23:44.240 -> 01:23:45.800] and at the $5 tier, come and join us
[01:23:45.800 -> 01:23:49.980] in our Patreon Slack group, which is a great place to be, and you find out about things
[01:23:49.980 -> 01:23:57.800] like live shows and podcasts, live podcasts and karting first. Patreon.com forward slash
[01:23:57.800 -> 01:24:02.720] Missed Apex. It's the reason Missed Apex survives. Go and follow my panel. Firstly,
[01:24:02.720 -> 01:24:07.960] our new friend Christina. I believe we go to Christina.Formula1 on TikTok?
[01:24:07.960 -> 01:24:10.140] That is correct.
[01:24:10.140 -> 01:24:11.140] And you're on Twitter also?
[01:24:11.140 -> 01:24:13.960] I am on Twitter at Christina Lee Mace.
[01:24:13.960 -> 01:24:18.760] You won't regret it. Go and follow Christina. Go and check out her content. It's very popular.
[01:24:18.760 -> 01:24:22.400] It's popular for a reason. The links will be in the show notes below. You can follow
[01:24:22.400 -> 01:24:29.640] Catman. His content is less popular because it's mainly like putting your arm up a cow in a big glove.
[01:24:29.680 -> 01:24:32.520] That's mainly what you do day to day as a vet.
[01:24:33.480 -> 01:24:35.600] Pretty much or a hamster, whichever you prefer.
[01:24:35.680 -> 01:24:37.320] Oh, so much more of a challenge.
[01:24:37.760 -> 01:24:38.640] Smaller glove, though.
[01:24:38.720 -> 01:24:39.720] Save money on gloves.
[01:24:39.840 -> 01:24:42.040] At CatmanF1 on Twitter.
[01:24:42.160 -> 01:24:43.840] Go give my crew a follow.
[01:24:43.840 -> 01:24:44.480] Go follow them.
[01:24:44.600 -> 01:24:46.820] Their links are always in the show notes below.
[01:24:46.820 -> 01:24:49.840] And you guys, not enough of you follow Matt.
[01:24:49.840 -> 01:24:52.840] At MattPT55 on Twitter, he has opinions
[01:24:52.840 -> 01:24:56.200] and he will tell you them whether you want them or not.
[01:24:56.200 -> 01:24:58.480] And go and follow him on Instagram and Facebook
[01:24:58.480 -> 01:25:02.560] because we do get a lot of live and interesting pictures
[01:25:02.560 -> 01:25:06.440] from your jazz and your saxophone and trumpets or whatever
[01:25:06.440 -> 01:25:08.840] and it's a good follow.
[01:25:08.840 -> 01:25:13.900] I like to think so and yeah I do have a habit of dropping the occasional photo from a live
[01:25:13.900 -> 01:25:16.880] venue where I'm performing for those who like that kind of thing.
[01:25:16.880 -> 01:25:20.920] Go and search for Matt Trumpets on Instagram and Facebook and follow me, I'm the best one,
[01:25:20.920 -> 01:25:25.840] SpannersReady on Twitter, Richard Ready on Facebook and follow the show at MissedApexF1.
[01:25:25.840 -> 01:25:30.800] Subscribe, tell your friends that MissedApex is fine and it's broadly a nice place to hang out.
[01:25:31.360 -> 01:25:38.320] One last thing, if the sprint race on the Saturday is a point scoring race rather than deciding the
[01:25:38.320 -> 01:25:46.240] grid for Sunday, we are going to bring a big crew in to do a short race preview. That's my plan. So to do a sprint
[01:25:46.240 -> 01:25:51.840] race preview and then you can pick that up and you can listen to it or not, it's up to you. But we'll
[01:25:51.840 -> 01:25:57.600] do a proper race review concentrating on the race itself on Sunday. I think that's the plan. I think
[01:25:57.600 -> 01:26:40.000] it's as good a plan as any. And until we see you next, work hard, be kind and have fun. This was Myst Apex Podcast. you.
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