Ted's Podbook | Belgian GP - the wettest Podbook so far!

Ted Kravitz is braving the rain to look ahead to this weekend's Belgian GP.

How will the wet weather affect Qualifying, the Sprint and the Grand Prix in Spa?

Will Mercedes be able to get close to Red Bull and can McLaren keep up their great form?

Ted provides all the latest!

Title: Ted's Belgian GP Preview: Weather Woes and Driver Insights

Synopsis:

In this podcast episode, Ted Kravitz provides an in-depth preview of the upcoming Belgian Grand Prix weekend, amidst challenging weather conditions and the anticipation of a thrilling sprint race format. He engages in conversations with various Formula One drivers and team members to gather their perspectives and insights on the upcoming race.

1. Weather Forecast and Its Impact:

- The podcast begins with Ted Kravitz highlighting the torrential rain and windy conditions at the Spa circuit, making it a wet and challenging weekend for the drivers.
- He emphasizes the impact of the weather on qualifying, the sprint race, and the Grand Prix, raising questions about the strategies teams will adopt to tackle the wet track.

2. Max Verstappen's Optimism:

- Ted interviews Max Verstappen, who expresses his excitement for the Belgian GP, considering it his home race due to his Dutch heritage.
- Verstappen remains positive despite his qualifying struggles in Hungary and aims to perform well at Spa, a track that suits the Red Bull car.

3. Sergio Perez's Resurgence:

- Sergio Perez discusses his improved form after a difficult start to the season. He attributes his resurgence to a setup change that has made him more comfortable with the car.
- Perez emphasizes the importance of securing podium finishes consistently and aims to maintain his momentum throughout the remaining races.

4. Lewis Hamilton's Mood and Safety Concerns:

- Ted notes Lewis Hamilton's subdued mood during the press conference, possibly influenced by the weather or a challenging journey to the track.
- Hamilton remains focused on his job and highlights the importance of driver safety in wet conditions, leaving the decision-making to the FIA.
- Several drivers, including Carlos Sainz and George Russell, express concerns about visibility and safety in the wet and call for the FIA to make strong decisions if necessary.

5. Spa Circuit Safety Discussions:

- Ted addresses the ongoing discussions about the safety of the Spa circuit, particularly the Eau Rouge and Radillon sequence.
- He acknowledges the tragic accidents that have occurred in the past and the need for potential changes to improve safety.
- However, most drivers trust the FIA to make the right decisions regarding safety measures and express confidence in the organization's ability to ensure their well-being.

6. Charles Leclerc and Ferrari's Struggles:

- Charles Leclerc speaks about Ferrari's recent poor performance and the team's efforts to identify the underlying issues.
- He emphasizes the need for a solid performance at Spa to regain momentum before the summer break.

7. Team Personnel Changes:

- Ted reports the confirmed departure of Laurent Mekies, Ferrari's sporting director, who will join AlphaTauri as team boss.
- Diego Ioverno, Ferrari's chief mechanic, is appointed as the new sporting director, a well-respected and experienced figure within the paddock.

8. McLaren and Rookie Excitement:

- Lando Norris apologizes for accidentally breaking the Hungarian Grand Prix trophy during the podium celebrations.
- Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargeant, McLaren's rookie drivers, express confidence in their ability to adapt quickly to the Spa circuit despite limited practice time.

9. Daniel Ricciardo's Optimism with AlphaTauri:

- Daniel Ricciardo discusses his positive outlook on his new team, AlphaTauri, and highlights the car's lack of significant vices.
- He believes that once he becomes more familiar with the car, he can make improvements and deliver better results.

10. Zhou Guanyu's Start-Line Issue:

- Zhou Guanyu explains the rear brake temperature sensor issue that affected his race start in Hungary, resulting in a loss of power and preventing him from capitalizing on his strong qualifying position.

11. Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso's Struggles:

- Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso acknowledge that Aston Martin has taken a wrong direction with their setup and are working to rectify the issue.
- They express frustration over the loss of pace and aim to regain their competitive edge.

12. F1 Academy Expansion:

- Lewis Hamilton praises the expansion of the F1 Academy, a series dedicated to female racing drivers, and its inclusion of liveries from all F1 teams.
- He emphasizes the importance of providing proper coverage and visibility for the series to encourage more female participation in motorsports.

Conclusion:

Ted Kravitz wraps up the podcast by highlighting the upcoming sprint weekend format, with practice on Friday, qualifying on Friday evening, sprint qualifying on Saturday, and the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday. He encourages listeners to join Sky Sports F1 throughout the weekend for comprehensive coverage of the race.

[00:00.000 -> 00:14.300] Hello everybody and welcome back to the Sky Sports F1 podcast feed and to Ted's
[00:14.300 -> 00:20.840] pod book from well do I need to say where I'm coming from can you hear the
[00:20.840 -> 00:25.880] water cascading off the roof of our hotel in the background. Do I need to
[00:25.880 -> 00:33.280] get closer? Hear the sound effects, the water sound effects and this has to be
[00:33.280 -> 00:37.080] the wettest pod book. I know I've only been doing these for half a season so
[00:37.080 -> 00:41.000] far. This has to be the wettest pod book I've ever done. It's chucking it down and
[00:41.000 -> 00:44.560] it's windy, sorry for the wind, I'll try and shield the microphone from the wind.
[00:44.560 -> 00:47.560] It's chucking it down. It's windy. Sorry for the wind. I'll try to shield the microphone from the wind. It's chucking it down. It's Thursday in Spa. We've been
[00:47.560 -> 00:53.160] here well since Wednesday. Yesterday was okay actually. It was not so bad. And the
[00:53.160 -> 00:58.760] whole of Thursday has just been soaking wet. The paddock has been pretty deserted
[00:58.760 -> 01:02.720] as people have been shuttling from motorhome to garage to press conference
[01:02.720 -> 01:05.740] to interview pen haven't
[01:05.740 -> 01:10.860] been many fans out in force the campsites have been slowly filling up
[01:10.860 -> 01:16.380] about half full as I think people can see that the forecast is for it to dry
[01:16.380 -> 01:20.580] out tomorrow so why pitch your tent or your RV or whatever you've got in the
[01:20.580 -> 01:24.620] pouring rain when you can actually do it in the relative dry tomorrow but it's
[01:24.620 -> 01:28.020] still gonna be muddy I think we're some way off sort of
[01:28.020 -> 01:32.640] Quagmire because it does drain quite well around here. It has to and so it's
[01:32.640 -> 01:38.080] been a bit of a weird day really combined with it being a back-to-back
[01:38.080 -> 01:42.320] so everyone's kind of you know making their way from a few days a couple of
[01:42.320 -> 01:47.320] days at home or the ones who've been straight come straight here are kind of taking a bit of a day off but there's
[01:47.320 -> 01:52.400] been plenty going on and that's the point I want to tell you about and I
[01:52.400 -> 01:56.080] probably will keep it ten minutes today I'll try to because well I'm getting
[01:56.080 -> 02:01.040] slowly rained on now the rain first of all the weather it is meant to dry up
[02:01.040 -> 02:05.840] for Friday it's a sprint weekend of course here at the Belgian Grand Prix 2023.
[02:05.840 -> 02:11.920] So we've got first practice tomorrow on Friday, only practice really, then we go into qualifying
[02:11.920 -> 02:18.400] for the Grand Prix on Friday evening. Remember that there's qualifying for the Grand Prix
[02:18.400 -> 02:26.860] on Friday evening European time. And then on Saturday we have sprint qualifying in the morning and then we have
[02:26.860 -> 02:35.080] the sprint race. So Saturday is its own little sprint weekend in one day. And then the Sunday
[02:35.080 -> 02:39.300] is the Grand Prix for which we qualified on a Friday. Get it? Good. Now I know you regular
[02:39.300 -> 02:45.760] listeners will know that. It's just worth reiterating it if anybody's forgotten. So given that Spa and its seven
[02:46.640 -> 02:48.640] kilometer five mile
[02:49.200 -> 02:56.160] Track is the longest one of the hardest to master on the whole calendar the biggest of big daddy tracks
[02:56.440 -> 03:02.920] that's quite an ask to go in with just one practice session straight into a qualifying session for the race and
[03:03.640 -> 03:05.160] Then expect to get it right.
[03:05.160 -> 03:10.320] So who was it who described it as a run what you brung? I think it was Daniel
[03:10.320 -> 03:15.060] Ricardo who was saying this is really just a sort of you know run what you
[03:15.060 -> 03:19.820] have prepared in the simulator and hope that it's somewhere near a good balance
[03:19.820 -> 03:24.000] because you're not really gonna have a chance to change it. So yeah what should
[03:24.000 -> 03:28.880] we go through first? Well should we go through one of the home races for Max Verstappen?
[03:28.880 -> 03:35.080] And I put it to him, given he's half Belgian and actually half Dutch,
[03:35.080 -> 03:39.600] his mum's Belgian, Sophie, and this is the kind of second home race.
[03:39.600 -> 03:40.480] He actually corrected me.
[03:40.480 -> 03:43.280] He said, well, no, this is probably my home race
[03:43.280 -> 03:49.280] because it's closest to where I was born, where I grew up in Holland and my mum's Belgium. So this is a home race and
[03:49.280 -> 03:54.120] make no mistake about it, if Hungary, you know, qualifying was a bit difficult, the
[03:54.120 -> 03:58.280] car wasn't particularly well balanced over one lap given the way the Red Bull heats up
[03:58.280 -> 04:05.200] its tyres, I have no doubt that Max is thinking this is my weekend wet or dry
[04:05.200 -> 04:09.960] preferably dry because there are less random things that can happen this track
[04:09.960 -> 04:13.480] is made for the Red Bull we've seen that over the previous Red Bulls over the
[04:13.480 -> 04:17.440] last couple of years and I think Max has just had the sort of glint in his eye
[04:17.440 -> 04:22.520] here in a way that I didn't really see in Hungary I thought he felt he came
[04:22.520 -> 04:28.400] into the the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend a bit apprehensive, didn't know how the weird qualifying experiment was going to
[04:28.400 -> 04:33.320] go. Then you know it didn't go well for him on Saturday. He was annoyed but then
[04:33.320 -> 04:36.200] of course there was the rocket ship winning by over 30 seconds, half a minute
[04:36.200 -> 04:42.120] on Sunday and he's carried that positivity with him into this weekend. A
[04:42.120 -> 04:49.920] contrast to Lewis Hamilton who I will tell you about in a minute who has not looked like he's carried any kind of joy over the
[04:49.920 -> 04:55.800] Hungarian Grand Prix weekend even though he was Watt P3 into this weekend. But
[04:55.800 -> 04:59.320] what was Max saying? Yeah he was saying look it's it's a pleasure to be here, want
[04:59.320 -> 05:02.560] to put on a good show for the for the for the for the Orange Army, the Dutch
[05:02.560 -> 05:05.680] fans expect to go well well there might be a compromise
[05:05.680 -> 05:10.560] in between whether we set up the car you know for the wet or the dry we'll have to see what
[05:10.560 -> 05:15.520] happens in sprint qualifying there's no reason we can't do well and then i asked him about
[05:15.520 -> 05:22.000] the trophy that lando broke and i suggested that it would be quite cool given that you
[05:22.000 -> 05:29.120] know the breadboard trophy cabinet i'm sure you've seen pictures of it in Norton Keynes is all these you know pristine trophies that look like they get a
[05:29.120 -> 05:39.200] buff up every couple of days um that actually they should put the broken uh porcelain or pottery
[05:39.200 -> 05:46.280] trophy in that cabinet and it would be a sort of almost like, you know, the way they don't clean Le Mans cars after they've won.
[05:46.280 -> 05:52.200] They stay dirty with tire rubber and everything for quite a while, well forever, afterwards.
[05:52.200 -> 05:53.200] I like that.
[05:53.200 -> 05:59.000] I think Red Bull should display the broken trophy in two or three pieces in their trophy
[05:59.000 -> 06:00.000] cabinet.
[06:00.000 -> 06:01.000] I think that was a cool thing to do.
[06:01.000 -> 06:03.080] Unfortunately, it's not going to happen.
[06:03.080 -> 06:06.320] So I suggested this to Max and he said, no, no, the organizers have already said they're
[06:06.320 -> 06:09.320] going to make a new one and anyway we could probably fix that one.
[06:09.320 -> 06:11.300] I was like, no, no, don't.
[06:11.300 -> 06:15.840] So a message to Christian Horner, if you're there, if you're listening, I seriously doubt,
[06:15.840 -> 06:21.160] but you never know, wouldn't it be cool if you just put the broken one in the, because
[06:21.160 -> 06:23.040] that's a, that's a moment of time, isn't it?
[06:23.040 -> 06:29.400] That is a moment of history where Red Bull can put the broken one in and that would be a good sort of talking
[06:29.400 -> 06:34.080] point for anyone who visits the amazing trophy cabinet at
[06:34.080 -> 06:38.920] Tilbrook at their factory in Milton Keynes. But Sergio Perez on the other
[06:38.920 -> 06:42.520] side of the Red Bull Garage was talking about how his improvement has come, how
[06:42.520 -> 06:48.000] it's nice to be on the podium again, he wants to be on the podium every race now to the end of the season. He's talking about how a
[06:48.000 -> 06:53.040] setup change at the Spanish Grand Prix worked against him and it's taken them a while to figure
[06:53.040 -> 06:59.680] that out. Then he had the crash in Monaco that really put him on the back foot and only now has
[06:59.680 -> 07:04.960] he kind of recovered from that he felt. So that kind of explains what happened to Sergio Perez
[07:04.960 -> 07:08.880] but that setup direction that started at Spanish Grand Prix has now been reversed
[07:08.880 -> 07:13.840] and he feels much more comfortable with the car. He looked much more like the old Checo.
[07:13.840 -> 07:18.800] There was a little smile on his lips. There was a little glint in the eye. I tell you,
[07:18.800 -> 07:26.520] it's night and day. Checo this weekend. Amazing what that podium can do never thought it would be like that but you know his shoulders weren't sort of
[07:28.920 -> 07:30.920] Depressed and relaxed and
[07:31.760 -> 07:35.240] Hunched forward like they have been at previous races his shoulders were back
[07:35.240 -> 07:38.040] So it's going about shoulders, and he just looked like the old checker
[07:38.040 -> 07:40.600] So it's nice to have him back was also talking about
[07:41.200 -> 07:48.040] overtaking at the hungaroring where you have to go offline and then you pick up a load of tyre marbles and it just loses you
[07:48.040 -> 07:51.960] significant grip and that's why he couldn't close up on Lando Norris. Sorry
[07:51.960 -> 07:56.160] Lewis wasn't on the podium of course. Sergio was on the podium, sorry, mistake.
[07:56.160 -> 08:04.060] Quickly corrected. So yeah that's why he couldn't close up on Lando for p2 in the
[08:04.060 -> 08:08.080] end and had to settle for P3 because that pickup.
[08:08.080 -> 08:13.320] He'd done so much overtaking he'd got some sort of rubber marbles on his tyres and has
[08:13.320 -> 08:16.160] started to lose grip. So that explains that.
[08:16.160 -> 08:20.000] Going on to Lewis Hamilton. So apparently in the press conference, I didn't see the
[08:20.000 -> 08:23.780] press conference because I was in the pen at the time, he didn't seem full of the joys
[08:23.780 -> 08:26.880] of spring. I think the weather probably might have something to do with
[08:26.880 -> 08:30.360] getting him down or maybe he had an annoying journey where something went
[08:30.360 -> 08:33.680] wrong. I used to see this with Michael Schumacher. Michael Schumacher always
[08:33.680 -> 08:38.000] used to say you take your journeys with you to the track sometimes in Formula One
[08:38.000 -> 08:42.640] and if you have a bad journey and miss your plane or there's a problem then you
[08:42.640 -> 08:47.920] can often take your journeys with you. Think about that for a bit and think of whether it's true in your in your lives
[08:47.920 -> 08:51.760] as well. I truly believe that. I do think you take your journeys with you a lot of
[08:51.760 -> 08:57.480] the time and so it is in F1. So maybe Lewis had a bad journey or something has
[08:57.480 -> 09:02.560] happened because he wasn't in a great mood compared to the good mood we
[09:02.560 -> 09:06.580] normally see him in. Still he was very positive about the track.
[09:06.580 -> 09:07.600] He says he loves this track,
[09:07.600 -> 09:09.380] he's been coming here many, many years,
[09:09.380 -> 09:12.520] and is just looking forward to doing his job around here.
[09:12.520 -> 09:14.640] Didn't want to get drawn into any of the sort of
[09:14.640 -> 09:16.000] safety discussions people were having
[09:16.000 -> 09:18.580] about visibility in these wet conditions,
[09:18.580 -> 09:21.180] and whether the FIA is gonna have to really be,
[09:21.180 -> 09:24.020] make some strong decisions that Carlos Sainz,
[09:24.020 -> 09:34.400] particularly one of, and George Russell were talking about about how the Lewis was like look that's not
[09:34.400 -> 09:38.720] my decision if the green light goes on team want me to run go out on track I go
[09:38.720 -> 09:42.840] out and try it that's my job my job is not to think about the safety of
[09:42.840 -> 09:48.160] everybody involved now of course safety has been high on everyone's list because of the events
[09:48.160 -> 09:52.200] at Eau Rouge and Radillon and the tragic deaths of Antoine Hubert and Delano
[09:52.200 -> 09:55.520] Van't Hoff. So of course everybody is thinking about that. It's the first time
[09:55.520 -> 09:59.160] we've been here since the passing the accident of Delano Van't Hoff and so
[09:59.160 -> 10:02.960] everybody is thinking look you know what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do
[10:02.960 -> 10:08.440] if we have these wet conditions? And Carlos Sainz's answer is that the FIA have to say we will not run.
[10:08.440 -> 10:12.240] And if anybody is tuning in, wanting to see qualifying or sprint qualifying
[10:12.240 -> 10:14.400] or sprint race or whatever, it's not going to happen.
[10:14.480 -> 10:15.080] It won't happen.
[10:15.080 -> 10:17.640] We won't with the, you know, we won't go out George Russell, the same.
[10:18.360 -> 10:18.760] Trust.
[10:19.040 -> 10:20.000] We trust the FIA.
[10:20.000 -> 10:23.240] He said, uh, to make the right decisions, to protect driver's safety.
[10:23.560 -> 10:30.000] Nobody was really saying that they need to change that sequence of corners.
[10:30.000 -> 10:34.400] I kind of half expected coming here that somebody might say, oh well, you know, we could go
[10:34.400 -> 10:38.920] back to what we had in 94 when they put a tyre chicane at the bottom of Eau Rouge, so
[10:38.920 -> 10:46.400] you have to slow down going down from La Source down into Eau Rouge, then take this, you know, silly sort of flick
[10:46.400 -> 10:51.680] flack, well not silly, silly, the slow chicane, and then you're accelerating up Eau Rouge,
[10:51.680 -> 10:55.960] so it just takes away any of the speed. First of all, you couldn't do that, we'd have to
[10:55.960 -> 11:05.160] re-homologate the circuit, and secondly, I just don't think anyone is really going there.
[11:05.160 -> 11:09.720] If it has to change, I don't want to say if we have another fatality, of course, one is
[11:09.720 -> 11:14.800] too many, but if it has to change, it will change in some other big way.
[11:14.800 -> 11:21.240] I don't know, but no one, not one of the drivers was saying, even Lance Stroll, who previously
[11:21.240 -> 11:25.880] had been very, very tough on strongly spoken on on this and how
[11:25.880 -> 11:30.920] you know Belgium had Spa had some questions to be answered about its
[11:30.920 -> 11:35.800] inherent safety he wasn't saying that today they were all saying they trust in
[11:35.800 -> 11:42.000] the FIA so yeah we'll see what happens there moving on to what else was those
[11:42.000 -> 11:45.280] hands oh yeah about about the pole position.
[11:45.280 -> 11:52.040] I asked him just to kind of give us a bit more on how that was last Saturday. Obviously
[11:52.040 -> 12:00.000] the first pole position for quite some time, Saudi 2001, and how it felt. And it's quite
[12:00.000 -> 12:07.680] an interesting answer. He said Saturday was full of emotion. He got back to the motorhome, soaked it all in. His dad called him. He had a nice chat with his
[12:07.680 -> 12:11.640] dad about about how it was and then when he lined up and then he said how's this
[12:11.640 -> 12:15.080] for a buzzkill? Then he said he went into the engineering briefing and his
[12:15.080 -> 12:18.440] Mercedes engineer said well you're not gonna win the race Lewis because Max is
[12:18.440 -> 12:23.840] half a second per lap quicker on race pace. He gave a kind of look about
[12:23.840 -> 12:26.640] you know how's that for a buzzkill and then he said well then I
[12:26.640 -> 12:31.120] had to sit then I had to think overnight on Saturday going in Sunday last week about how I was
[12:31.120 -> 12:35.040] going to prove the engineers wrong. I do like that and it's something we've heard so many times
[12:35.040 -> 12:40.880] isn't it? Come on Mercedes engineers where's James Allison giving it the big we can do this you know
[12:40.880 -> 12:45.920] don't be so boring. You're all boring. Sorry, that's my Kerry condom.
[12:45.920 -> 12:51.400] By the way, impression, they're not filming this weekend. No sign of the as-yet-untitled
[12:51.400 -> 12:55.600] Brad Pitt, Joseph Kaczynski-directed F1 movie. They are not here. Maybe they're still in
[12:55.600 -> 13:01.400] Hungary. I'm not quite sure. But yeah, Lewis had to think about ways that he was going
[13:01.400 -> 13:08.380] to prove the engineers wrong. But in the end, of course, that didn't happen, even though he was happy with the pace and the tyre management
[13:08.380 -> 13:13.280] towards it. But they need a little bit more performance. George Russell was also saying
[13:13.280 -> 13:17.200] that. He said all the effort is there, but they just need a little bit more performance
[13:17.200 -> 13:26.280] to actually get enough closer to Red Bull to pressure Max in some kind of way. Otherwise it's just not really going to happen.
[13:26.280 -> 13:31.280] Charles Leclerc talking about how Ferrari really need
[13:32.540 -> 13:34.520] to get back to a sort of circuit,
[13:34.520 -> 13:37.480] science was saying this, like Austria,
[13:37.480 -> 13:41.160] I suppose like Canada, where eliminate the mistakes,
[13:41.160 -> 13:44.080] solid performance, and they didn't really know why,
[13:44.080 -> 13:46.960] science was saying they didn't really know why they were so poor in Hungary and at
[13:46.960 -> 13:50.960] Silverstone I think this try I know I always say this but this track will tell
[13:50.960 -> 13:56.880] I think kind of will they need to go into the into the summer break with
[13:56.880 -> 14:00.180] something positive because there aren't very many positives at the moment for
[14:00.180 -> 14:05.360] Ferrari we have the confirmed departure of Lauren McKeese.
[14:05.360 -> 14:09.720] So the chap who was their sporting director, you might have seen him on the pit wall or
[14:09.720 -> 14:14.080] seen him in interviews, he's off to AlphaTauri as team boss?
[14:14.080 -> 14:18.180] Peter Beyer, sort of joint team boss, team principal.
[14:18.180 -> 14:20.660] He is the team principal of AlphaTauri.
[14:20.660 -> 14:24.660] And Ferrari and Red Bull have now finally agreed a release for Lauren McKeese, so he
[14:24.660 -> 14:30.380] is gone as of this race from Ferrari not here and I don't know when he'll be
[14:30.380 -> 14:33.940] starting at AlphaTauri but they did name the new sporting director and that is
[14:33.940 -> 14:38.580] Diego Ioverno who has made his way up from I think he's chief mechanic actually
[14:38.580 -> 14:42.380] he's made his way up the Ferrari management ladder and well-deserved
[14:42.380 -> 14:46.200] Ioverno is a good guy, well-known, respected amongst
[14:46.200 -> 14:51.580] the paddock, good relationships with the FIA so I'm kind of, you know, thinking
[14:51.580 -> 14:54.820] Ioverno has been doing the sporting director job for a while
[14:54.820 -> 14:58.940] anyway, it kind of feels like that, but yeah he's the perfect replacement so
[14:58.940 -> 15:06.640] good hire there from Ferrari, a good internal hire. Right, let's move on to McLaren and
[15:07.600 -> 15:13.600] Lando Norris on the trophy. Naughty boy was full of apologies actually today. He just,
[15:13.600 -> 15:16.800] I don't know whether he's been told by his PR people to come out and just,
[15:16.800 -> 15:20.960] Lando just apologized lots, okay, but he said I'm sorry, you know, didn't mean to do it, blah, blah,
[15:20.960 -> 15:30.640] blah. As I say, it's, it wasn't really, you know, he was just doing his podium champagne thing. He didn't know that it was going to tumble off. It's not like he picked
[15:30.640 -> 15:35.920] up the trophy and smashed it. So I'm not sure all the apologies were really needed. But yeah,
[15:37.200 -> 15:42.080] you know, we don't want any of the fun, please, stopping Lando's podium celebrations. But
[15:42.080 -> 15:45.120] otherwise, Oscar Piastri was talking
[15:50.560 -> 15:52.640] about how he thinks McLaren can be fast everywhere and Spa really doesn't hold many
[15:59.360 -> 16:00.240] apprehensions for him. It's the first time Oscar will have raced here for three years since F3,
[16:05.840 -> 16:10.280] three years ago, so he's looking forward to that even though he's only got one run at it same for Logan sergeant He loves this track and even though as an f1 rookie like Oscar piastri
[16:10.780 -> 16:17.720] Going straight in with only one run at practice straight into qualifying didn't seem to really phase them or bother them
[16:17.720 -> 16:19.720] They seem quite confident about it
[16:20.040 -> 16:24.480] So yeah, so hopefully Oscar and Logan can have a good weekend
[16:24.680 -> 16:27.700] Wasn't really anything else from Williams on the Logan sergeant side.
[16:27.700 -> 16:31.900] Oh, yeah, he said it's just his execution that he needs to do.
[16:31.900 -> 16:35.500] Executing like a computer program rather than the other one.
[16:35.500 -> 16:40.200] And the pieces are coming together for him and the Williams.
[16:40.200 -> 16:45.120] He just needs to actually put it all together and deliver it in a bit more of a effective way.
[16:45.120 -> 16:48.340] So his first points surely can't be too far off.
[16:49.420 -> 16:56.900] But Daniel Ricciardo, who also hasn't scored any points this year so far because he's only driven one race, was
[16:57.560 -> 17:01.200] full of optimism for what he can do in the AlphaTauri.
[17:01.200 -> 17:07.140] And what I thought was crucial was that he is saying that the Alfa Tauri doesn't hold
[17:07.140 -> 17:08.640] any big vices.
[17:08.640 -> 17:12.440] I kind of thought, you know, brackets like the McLaren.
[17:12.440 -> 17:17.200] So actually that's quite encouraging, he wanted to say.
[17:17.200 -> 17:21.640] And once he gets to know the car better, he can actually do some things and change it
[17:21.640 -> 17:28.560] and make some improvements there. Zhou Guangyu explained what the problem was off the start line in Hungary that really
[17:28.560 -> 17:37.560] made his great P5 and his great qualifying completely meaningless and that it was a rear
[17:37.560 -> 17:47.340] brake temperature sensor had issued an alert and the engine had shut itself or put itself into a sort of safe mode which had only delivered
[17:47.660 -> 17:49.660] 5,000 revs rather than
[17:50.080 -> 17:54.680] 9,000 revs which is what you need to do the start so that was why no fault of his own which kind of he was
[17:54.680 -> 17:56.120] happy about but
[17:56.120 -> 18:02.360] Still meant that he was absolutely swamped at the start and wasn't able to capitalize on his great qualifying position
[18:02.600 -> 18:05.040] But frustrated nonetheless I did suggest slightly mischievously to capitalize on his great qualifying position, but frustrated nonetheless. I did
[18:05.040 -> 18:10.320] suggest slightly mischievously to Joe that his engineer should chill out a bit. And if
[18:10.320 -> 18:16.320] Joe wants on the team radio, you know, F1 does the, uh, the radio at the end of everybody's race.
[18:16.960 -> 18:24.000] Uh, I think it's on, uh, it's on YouTube. Uh, you can listen to it. And Joe often starts to say,
[18:24.000 -> 18:26.560] you know, to debrief after, as he said, after 70 laps, I wanted say, you know, to debrief after as he said after 70 laps
[18:26.560 -> 18:28.000] I wanted to you know, get off my chest
[18:28.000 -> 18:30.920] Why haven't at the start and the engineer immediately at Salvo?
[18:30.920 -> 18:35.540] No, we won't discuss it after do not say anything nothing and Joe was like no, but I want to know
[18:36.280 -> 18:38.740] I sort of cheekily suggested well the
[18:39.680 -> 18:42.680] Alpha Romeo Salvo press officer kind of looked at me like what are you saying?
[18:43.160 -> 18:48.880] that his engineer might want to chill out a bit and let Joe, you know, let off some steam.
[18:48.880 -> 18:53.200] And Joe kind of said, yeah, yeah, I'd like to let off some steam. But I'm very quickly told
[18:53.200 -> 18:57.360] not to say it at the back of the once we get back to the motel, which I suppose was fair enough.
[18:58.080 -> 19:07.420] Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, finally, Fernando Alonso kind of said the same thing, which was that we think we've gone with a set up direction
[19:07.420 -> 19:10.080] recently that has led us down the wrong path
[19:10.080 -> 19:12.180] and we're going to try and change that.
[19:12.180 -> 19:16.200] But they're still looking for reasons
[19:16.200 -> 19:18.400] as to where their pace has gone.
[19:18.400 -> 19:21.240] They acknowledge it now, I think, which is good.
[19:21.240 -> 19:24.160] That's part of the problem, to actually acknowledge
[19:24.160 -> 19:25.520] that they have a you know, a bit
[19:25.520 -> 19:28.520] of an issue. Whereas before they were just saying, oh, well, you know, we're just the
[19:28.520 -> 19:32.120] same. It's just that everybody else has filled the gap in between us and Red Bull. I think
[19:32.120 -> 19:38.480] that's true, but they have lost some pace and yeah, they, they need it back pretty desperately
[19:38.480 -> 19:43.400] because where has gone the prospect of another Fernando Alonso podium, especially around
[19:43.400 -> 19:45.840] Spa that should, on paper,
[19:45.840 -> 19:50.960] suit their car. Right, that is about it. Lewis Hamilton said something, had some nice words to
[19:50.960 -> 19:57.200] say about the fact that F1 Academy, the F1-backed series for female racing drivers, is going to
[19:57.200 -> 20:05.240] expand not only to follow the F1 season next year, or some of it in Europe and internationally for all I know. I haven't set the calendar yet.
[20:05.240 -> 20:12.440] But that 10 of the 15 cars will be liveried one for each of the F1 teams.
[20:12.440 -> 20:19.040] I did ask Lewis whether he knows who's driving the Mercedes Formula 4 car next year.
[20:19.040 -> 20:23.040] I don't know whether it's Luna Fluxa who's the Mercedes young driver but I think she's
[20:23.040 -> 20:30.720] probably a bit young to get straight into a F4 car. He didn't know. I know Marta Garcia, I think, is Mercedes
[20:30.720 -> 20:38.620] sponsored in F1 Academy, but we'll see. He didn't know, but he was full of support for
[20:38.620 -> 20:41.880] that series, so it's quite interesting. And he was actually saying, look, it's better
[20:41.880 -> 20:48.480] that it's going to be on F1 Bill, and it will be covered and televised properly and I'm sure we will cover it on Sky Sports, I might do it myself,
[20:48.480 -> 20:53.840] next year because at the moment you can't find it and you can't watch it. I don't think that's,
[20:53.840 -> 20:59.920] I think that's true first of all but I'm not sure that's entirely accidental or I think it
[20:59.920 -> 21:03.600] might be by design while they let the series sort of bed in for a year that it's not you know front
[21:03.600 -> 21:06.120] and center in the way that we used to do W Series front and
[21:06.120 -> 21:09.920] center on with with great television coverage I would say that was part of it
[21:09.920 -> 21:14.720] but yeah maybe f1 Academy is just letting themselves bed in for a year
[21:14.720 -> 21:20.160] before they start to show the world what they are all about right having said I
[21:20.160 -> 21:23.920] would see 10 minutes in the rain I think I've done double that so it's about time
[21:23.920 -> 21:25.280] I say
[21:28.240 -> 21:28.580] Goodbye. Thanks for watching and join us for the sprint weekend
[21:35.880 -> 21:36.000] Remember if you're listening to this on Friday, it's practice. It's Friday this it's qualifying this evening or this afternoon
[21:38.000 -> 21:38.680] and then it is
[21:45.200 -> 21:48.660] Tomorrow sprint qualifying and then we've got the sprint race on Saturday and the Belgian Grand Prix wet or dry on Sunday. Thanks for listening hope to have your company throughout the
[21:48.660 -> 21:52.040] weekend on Skyf1. Bye bye.