Ted's Podbook | First Sprint of the season at Azerbaijan GP

Ted Kravitz has been looking ahead to the Azerbaijan GP and what storylines we can expect from the fourth race of the season. He discusses what the new format of the Sprint weekend will look like, Max Verstappen's negative reaction to it, how Ferrari's Laurent Mekies will replace Franz Tost as AlphaTauri team principal, James Alisson's return to Mercedes and the big question surrounding the weekend: whether Fernando Alonso is dating Taylor Swift!

# Ted's PodBook: Unveiling the Azerbaijan GP and Formula One News

Ted Kravitz's podcast, Ted's PodBook, returns after a four-week hiatus, providing insights into the upcoming Azerbaijan Grand Prix and other Formula One developments.

## Sprint Weekend Format

The Azerbaijan GP introduces a new format, a sprint weekend, with six such events scheduled for the 2023 season. The format includes one practice session on Friday, followed by qualifying for the Grand Prix. Saturday features qualifying for the sprint race and the sprint race itself, while Sunday hosts the traditional Grand Prix race.

## Max Verstappen's Perspective

Max Verstappen, the reigning world champion, expressed his reservations about the sprint weekend format, preferring the traditional Saturday qualifying and Sunday Grand Prix format. He also raised concerns about driver and team burnout due to the increased intensity of the sprint weekends.

## Team Principal Changes

Franz Tost, the long-serving team principal of AlphaTauri, will step down by the end of the year, with Laurent Mekies, Ferrari's current Sporting Director, taking over the role. This move has sparked discussions about a potential brain drain at Ferrari, but Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz remain confident in the team's capabilities.

## Mercedes' Leadership Reshuffle

Mercedes has announced a leadership reshuffle, with Mike Elliott moving to the role of Chief Technical Officer and James Allison returning to the position of Technical Director. This change aims to galvanize the team and improve the performance of the W14 car.

## Driver Perspectives

Fernando Alonso remained tight-lipped about the rumored relationship with Taylor Swift, while Carlos Sainz expressed lingering frustration over the penalty that cost him a podium finish in Australia. Yuki Tsunoda emphasized the need for a double espresso to prepare for the intense Saturday schedule, and Oscar Piastri discussed the potential advantage Formula Two graduates might have in the sprint qualifying format.

## Circuit Updates

The Turn One area at Silverstone has undergone resurfacing, replacing gravel with asphalt to enhance safety following Zhou Guanyu's accident last year.

## Broadcast Schedule

Ted Kravitz provided the broadcast schedule for the Azerbaijan GP:

- Friday: Free Practice 1 at 1.30 pm local time
- Friday: Qualifying for the Grand Prix at 5 pm local time
- Saturday: Qualifying for the sprint race at 1.30 pm local time
- Saturday: Sprint race at 5.30 pm local time
- Sunday: Azerbaijan Grand Prix at 3 pm local time

With the new sprint weekend format and various team dynamics in play, the Azerbaijan GP promises excitement and unpredictable racing. Ted's PodBook offers an informative preview of the upcoming event, capturing the atmosphere and providing insights from drivers and team personnel.

[00:00.000 -> 00:10.800] Hello everybody and welcome to Ted's PodBook, the return of Ted's PodBook after four weeks
[00:10.800 -> 00:14.920] away. Yes, how was your four weeks without Formula One? Did you miss it as much as we
[00:14.920 -> 00:20.960] did? Good, yes, I'm sure you did. But we are back in Baku, Azerbaijan and, well, this is
[00:20.960 -> 00:26.080] the little podcast of ten minutes or so. I'll try to keep it 10 minutes, not always successful in that.
[00:26.080 -> 00:29.240] Where I report back to you after the media day,
[00:29.240 -> 00:32.080] the Thursday ahead of the Grand Prix weekend.
[00:32.080 -> 00:33.080] Just giving you some of the stories
[00:33.080 -> 00:34.840] that are around, things people have been saying,
[00:34.840 -> 00:36.560] and give you some of the atmosphere.
[00:36.560 -> 00:39.080] So there is plenty of atmosphere going around.
[00:39.080 -> 00:41.120] We're outside our hotel.
[00:41.120 -> 00:44.160] Opposite me is the Park Boulevard Shopping Center,
[00:44.160 -> 00:49.000] and that's the other side of the start finish line so everything is always all together
[00:49.000 -> 00:54.480] most of the hotels that all the personnel stay at within listening
[00:54.480 -> 00:57.680] distance I say of the paddock because if you listen very carefully in the
[00:57.680 -> 01:03.320] background over the noise of the spring birdsong you may be able to hear a media
[01:03.320 -> 01:06.640] welcome party so it was kind of you know
[01:06.640 -> 01:12.640] popular 90s and 2000s dance hits a little bit earlier. I think there's now an Azeri musician
[01:12.640 -> 01:16.720] doing his own stuff but you might be able to hear that in the background. And they're serving
[01:16.720 -> 01:23.920] some food and drink and welcoming all the teams and the media to the latest running of the
[01:23.920 -> 01:25.640] Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
[01:25.640 -> 01:29.560] Seventh time we've been racing around here. I know, it seems incredible. Well done, Baku.
[01:29.560 -> 01:34.040] But we're looking forward to this weekend because there is a change in format.
[01:34.040 -> 01:41.560] We have the first sprint weekend of the season. Now, there are six of these in 2023.
[01:41.560 -> 01:47.560] There's here in Baku, Austria and Spa and then there are three flyaways
[01:47.560 -> 01:53.380] Austin, Brazil and Qatar. So that is the six sprint weekends and we
[01:53.380 -> 01:58.480] have a different format for those six although they have, the FIA have, reserved
[01:58.480 -> 02:02.160] the right to change it if they feel it's not working but at the moment it starts
[02:02.160 -> 02:05.960] on Friday, that is tomorrow as I'm recording this, with
[02:05.960 -> 02:12.360] Free Practice 1 which is the only practice session of the weekend. So just one hour for
[02:12.360 -> 02:15.880] the drivers to change anything on the cars, get it right or get it wrong, sort themselves
[02:15.880 -> 02:22.480] out or recover from any spins or incidents. That's at 1.30 in the afternoon Azerbaijan
[02:22.480 -> 02:29.440] Baku time so you can work it out from where you are. I think we're British summer time minus three hours
[02:29.440 -> 02:34.800] and we're three hours behind anyway in the UK so
[02:34.800 -> 02:39.360] and then on later on Friday there is qualifying
[02:39.360 -> 02:43.760] for the Grand Prix. Yes you heard it right not qualifying for the sprint race
[02:43.760 -> 02:46.320] 5pm Baku time. On Friday
[02:46.320 -> 02:52.240] there's Grand Prix qualifying. I'll say that again. Qualifying for the Grand Prix.
[02:52.240 -> 02:57.440] Remember this. Write it down. Right, so on Saturday there is no qualifying for Sunday's
[02:57.440 -> 03:03.280] Grand Prix. On sprint weekends, the six of them I already mentioned, it's on a Friday.
[03:03.280 -> 03:05.880] So that's the new format, which means that Saturday
[03:05.880 -> 03:10.640] is its own little sprint race day. So we've got qualifying for the sprint race on what
[03:10.640 -> 03:14.920] would normally be free practice two or free practice three on a non-sprint weekend. So
[03:14.920 -> 03:19.440] that's at 1.30 in the afternoon Baku time on Saturday, qualifying for the sprint race.
[03:19.440 -> 03:25.760] And then the sprint race itself, 5.30 in the afternoon Baku time 17 laps of that and then the
[03:25.760 -> 03:30.500] Sunday is absolutely normal Azerbaijan Grand Prix 51 laps or whatever it is 3
[03:30.500 -> 03:37.520] p.m. Azerbaijan time so that would be midday UK time lights out so given that
[03:37.520 -> 03:42.140] there's this big change what does everybody think about it well you still
[03:42.140 -> 03:46.920] have the critics I mean Max Verstappen was in the pen today, I spoke to him earlier, he said look you know my views
[03:46.920 -> 03:50.880] on sprint weekends are well known, I'm a bit of a traditionalist. He said I used
[03:50.880 -> 03:53.880] to sit down and watch the TV and I knew there was qualifying on a Saturday and
[03:53.880 -> 03:57.620] then I knew there was a Grand Prix on a Sunday and I kind of like that in the
[03:57.620 -> 04:01.840] way it is and I said well look you're just gonna have to live with it for
[04:01.840 -> 04:06.760] six sprint weekends this year. He said yeah, I suppose I do have to live
[04:06.760 -> 04:10.700] with it. But then he went on to say something interesting which was that he thinks with
[04:10.700 -> 04:17.200] 23 races this year, 24 potentially, 25 on the horizon in future years, it's going to
[04:17.200 -> 04:22.360] be too much. It's too much for not only drivers, some drivers he said he'd just like to drive,
[04:22.360 -> 04:29.620] they'd drive all day long if they could. But engineers, mechanics, to have these intense, and they are going to be intense
[04:29.620 -> 04:35.580] few days of all of this action, to do that too many times would risk burnout. And if
[04:35.580 -> 04:40.580] we're going to have so many races, said Max Verstappen, maybe we should think about shortening
[04:40.580 -> 04:48.800] the race weekend to only two days. That's an idea that's been out there a lot. We'll see if it actually comes to anything. But he said that otherwise
[04:48.800 -> 04:54.200] they're all feeling good at Red Bull and he's ready to get the weekend underway.
[04:54.200 -> 04:57.520] You can really understand that. But otherwise a couple of little bits and
[04:57.520 -> 05:01.360] pieces but no big upgrades for Red Bull. They had their upgrades at the previous
[05:01.360 -> 05:05.120] race in Australia. Who was next in the paddock? Well, it was
[05:05.120 -> 05:11.920] Carlos Sainz who, talking about Australia, he's still quite cross about the fact that
[05:11.920 -> 05:17.680] he got the penalty that took away the podium. And I was kind of expecting Carlos to say,
[05:17.680 -> 05:22.400] do you know what, I've let it go now, I'm fine with it. He didn't. He was saying, I'm
[05:22.400 -> 05:25.580] still a bit angry about it. I still don't really accept it,
[05:25.580 -> 05:31.940] it was worth us having a go to challenge it, to get the penalty overturned. We knew we
[05:31.940 -> 05:36.500] weren't going to get it changed because he made a reference to the FIA not wanting to
[05:36.500 -> 05:41.700] change the result after the fact, which I suppose is true. But the reality is that Ferrari
[05:41.700 -> 05:48.240] didn't have any new evidence that hadn't been considered or wasn't able to be considered at the time. But Carlos said, look, we weren't, you know, we did have
[05:48.240 -> 05:51.920] to give it a go. We weren't surprised it didn't amount to anything, but we did have to give it a
[05:51.920 -> 05:59.200] go. But yeah, it was not able, seemingly, to let that go. Still a bit angry, Carlos signs about it.
[05:59.200 -> 06:03.920] Unlike Niko Hülkenberg, who finished seventh and possibly could have been on the podium,
[06:03.920 -> 06:08.560] had the starting order after the third red flag been a bit different. And I said to Hülkenberg who finished seventh and possibly could have been on the podium had the starting order after the third red flag been a bit different and I said
[06:08.560 -> 06:12.500] to Hulkenberg, you know, are you hanging on to the fact that it could have been
[06:12.500 -> 06:16.600] the podium, the podium that could have been the P3? He said, you know what, no I'm
[06:16.600 -> 06:22.440] not that kind of person. I had fun, I enjoyed the race and I'm not thinking
[06:22.440 -> 06:30.640] about you know coulda woulda shoulda type thing. Fernando Alonso was in the media pen as well, the TV pen. He was asked about the
[06:30.640 -> 06:34.720] rumors about his relationship, the rumored relationship with Taylor Swift.
[06:34.720 -> 06:40.200] He shook it off really but had nothing really to say about it. I don't know what
[06:40.200 -> 06:44.040] the truth is behind this. He certainly didn't come out and say no I'm
[06:44.040 -> 06:45.480] not in a relationship with Taylor Swift,
[06:45.480 -> 06:47.320] so maybe he wants to prolong it for a bit.
[06:47.320 -> 06:49.520] I kind of heard that it was just some sort
[06:49.520 -> 06:51.400] of Spanish media outlet that in the four weeks
[06:51.400 -> 06:54.480] without Formula One, didn't have any clicks
[06:54.480 -> 06:56.380] or didn't have as many clicks as they needed
[06:56.380 -> 06:59.360] or that their targets were, and they thought, I know.
[06:59.360 -> 07:02.860] Taylor Swift has broken up with her boyfriend or partner.
[07:02.860 -> 07:06.800] Let's say that she's a mad keen fan of Formula One and
[07:06.800 -> 07:12.560] wrote a song about Fernando Alonso and actually then they're dating. So I think it was no more
[07:12.560 -> 07:18.640] than that and that maybe a media outlet searching for clicks as many of them do in this world that
[07:18.640 -> 07:22.160] we live in, social media world that we live in, but I'm not sure it's much more than that but
[07:22.160 -> 07:29.880] Fernando's having a bit of fun with it at the same time. He is actually thinking more about what Aston Martin are going to
[07:29.880 -> 07:34.760] be able to do around here given that we're seeing slowly upgrades coming from Mercedes,
[07:34.760 -> 07:39.720] Ferrari, getting their act together. Will that mean that the run of podiums comes to
[07:39.720 -> 07:50.120] a close? Maybe, maybe not. Will it mean that Fernando keeps the run of podiums? Lance Stroll was in fine form saying that, hey look, I finished fourth in Melbourne, I want my shot
[07:50.120 -> 07:55.200] of the podium, I want my podium. Clearly he's going to get this year and given that he's
[07:55.200 -> 08:00.360] historically been pretty good around Azerbaijan, get straight into it, even with one hour only
[08:00.360 -> 08:09.540] of practice, Lance was saying that he feels that he's got a decent, more than decent chance of that podium result quite quickly if it's not actually this
[08:09.540 -> 08:15.020] weekend. So watch out for Lance Stroll around here, that's my tip. Who else do
[08:15.020 -> 08:20.940] we hear from? Yuki Tsunoda and Nick de Vries who were being asked about Franz
[08:20.940 -> 08:24.020] Tost. That's the other, one of the other many stories around the paddock this
[08:24.020 -> 08:25.760] weekend. That one of the longest- stories around the paddock this weekend, that one
[08:25.760 -> 08:31.560] of the longest serving team principals in Formula 1, Franz Tost, is going to be not
[08:31.560 -> 08:38.420] doing that position by the end of this year. So, he's handing over the team principal role
[08:38.420 -> 08:44.280] at AlphaTauri to Lauren McKeese, who's currently the Sporting Director at Ferrari. I did ask
[08:44.280 -> 08:48.320] Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, is this somewhat of a brain drain at Ferrari?
[08:48.320 -> 08:52.560] Not only they've got David Sanchez, who's left Ferrari, who's kind of a chassis
[08:52.560 -> 08:56.720] concept guy, to go to McLaren, but now they've lost their sporting director and
[08:56.720 -> 09:00.600] a good engineer in Lauren McKees. Carlos Sainz said no because you don't know who
[09:00.600 -> 09:03.880] we've got to take over from them, which I thought was intriguing. Okay, who are
[09:03.880 -> 09:06.000] Ferrari going to announce? Taking over from their
[09:06.000 -> 09:09.120] sporting director and one of their chief designers that will be interesting to
[09:09.120 -> 09:13.320] see and Charles Leclerc saying no don't worry about it you know McKees is a good
[09:13.320 -> 09:19.340] guy but we have other people who can do that job as well. So yeah but Nick
[09:19.340 -> 09:22.880] DeVries was saying that he only found out about the changes at AlphaTauri when
[09:22.880 -> 09:31.600] everybody else did with a press release so he was sad to see Frans Tost go because he's passionate about racing.
[09:31.600 -> 09:34.320] That is Frans Tost, not Nick de Vries, although Nick de Vries clearly is passionate about
[09:34.320 -> 09:38.400] racing. I wish Nick de Vries and Max Verstappen, actually I did get rants about wishing Max
[09:38.400 -> 09:45.040] Verstappen a happy Dutch King's Day, but yeah, happy happy Kings Day if you're celebrating it in Holland, in the
[09:45.040 -> 09:46.040] Netherlands.
[09:46.040 -> 09:47.040] What else?
[09:47.040 -> 09:52.720] George Russell, he said we have a few bits, Mercedes have a few bits on the car, but not
[09:52.720 -> 10:00.060] the upgrade, not the size of the upgrade that's coming in Imola, but it's really the story
[10:00.060 -> 10:04.040] at Mercedes is the job swap.
[10:04.040 -> 10:07.520] Is the job swap between Mike Elliott, who was the technical
[10:07.520 -> 10:12.640] director, going up to Chief Technical Officer where he can take a more helicopter view,
[10:12.640 -> 10:18.000] if you like, of the company's technical direction and argue, if you want to call it argue, put
[10:18.000 -> 10:23.840] Mercedes' case in the negotiations for how the 2026 Formula One cars are going to look.
[10:23.840 -> 10:25.160] And then James Allison Allison who was doing
[10:25.160 -> 10:31.720] that role will come back to the day-to-day leading of the team in the technical direction
[10:31.720 -> 10:37.320] as the technical director and hopefully galvanise the team to get going. I'm doing a feature
[10:37.320 -> 10:41.640] about this later on in the weekend on Sky Sports F1 coverage so look out for that where
[10:41.640 -> 10:47.580] I explain exactly how it's going and how George and Lewis feel about it but Lewis was effusive in his praise of
[10:47.580 -> 10:51.520] James Allison not making any comment about Mike Elliot he's not throwing
[10:51.520 -> 10:54.520] shade on Mike Elliot by praising James Allison just saying James Allison is a
[10:54.520 -> 10:58.540] real fighter and someone who can galvanize everybody and he's happy to to
[10:58.540 -> 11:02.960] see him in that technical position director position role again not making
[11:02.960 -> 11:08.160] any comment about that he's not happy about Mike Elliott or whatever. It's just saying that he's happy to see James Ellison
[11:08.160 -> 11:14.480] back in harness and George Russell making the point that look, the previous W13, W14,
[11:14.480 -> 11:18.960] they were not Mike Elliott's cars in that he was the only one who designed it. He was
[11:18.960 -> 11:24.700] part of a team who designed it. And it's that same team who will reverse out of that concept
[11:24.700 -> 11:25.600] of car and go to wherever James Ellison wants to lead them. And it's that same team who will reverse out of that concept of car and
[11:25.600 -> 11:29.560] go to wherever James Allison wants to lead them. And George Russell making the point
[11:29.560 -> 11:35.320] that, look, OK, you might see this as Allison replacing Elliott because of, suppose, maybe
[11:35.320 -> 11:41.400] if you want to look at Elliott's, you know, it hasn't exactly delivered in terms of the
[11:41.400 -> 11:52.000] performance they wanted from the car. It's not that, it's the leading of the team. What are they playing now? I feel love. Okay, nice. So, yeah, you
[11:52.000 -> 11:57.800] get the idea of what's going on at Mercedes, but watch out for our feature on that explaining
[11:57.800 -> 12:01.360] how all of that is going. Yuki Tsunoda is also talking about how he's going to need
[12:01.360 -> 12:09.860] a double espresso on Saturday morning to get into it. He can't afford to get up and have a leisurely free practice three preparing
[12:09.860 -> 12:14.400] for qualifying because the first thing on Saturday, as I said, is the qualifying for
[12:14.400 -> 12:21.200] the sprint race and then the sprint race later. So, UQ will be downing the double espressos.
[12:21.200 -> 12:26.360] We had Pierre Gasly saying that the two chassis that were damaged at the end of
[12:26.360 -> 12:30.000] the Australian Grand Prix for Alpine were actually recoverable which is great
[12:30.000 -> 12:33.560] news for Alpine because had that been two chassis they weren't able to save
[12:33.560 -> 12:38.240] that would have been very costly quite literally under the cost cap for the
[12:38.240 -> 12:42.280] the Enstone team but they were able to save them and they've repaired them and
[12:42.280 -> 12:46.400] that's good news from Enstone.
[12:46.400 -> 12:50.600] As for some of the other teams we had Logan Sargent saying he's been kept busy over the
[12:50.600 -> 12:56.280] last four weeks with some marketing and media stuff for Williams, I guess ahead of the Miami
[12:56.280 -> 12:57.280] Grand Prix.
[12:57.280 -> 13:00.280] All the people want to get all their preview stuff in the can for that.
[13:00.280 -> 13:02.800] Didn't speak to Alex Albon, didn't think he was available today.
[13:02.800 -> 13:10.600] Spoke to Zhou Guangyu about their thoughts and where they're going to go with the Alfa Romeo Sauber.
[13:10.600 -> 13:14.720] Didn't ask him about the resurfacing, didn't have time actually. The resurfacing of Turn
[13:14.720 -> 13:19.160] One which is where he had his accident at the British Grand Prix last year. They've
[13:19.160 -> 13:24.220] removed the gravel and replaced it with asphalt so that the cars can't dig in and flip over
[13:24.220 -> 13:25.600] and then end up where his car,
[13:25.600 -> 13:30.640] he ended up last year but I'm sure he'll welcome the safety improvements, that bit,
[13:30.640 -> 13:37.520] or the safety changes I should say, at that bit of the track at Silverstone. So Dunn,
[13:38.240 -> 13:47.880] Williams, Dunn, Haas, Dunn, the other ones, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull, they were all happy. McLaren,
[13:47.880 -> 13:51.240] oh yeah, that was the last one, so let's do McLaren. And didn't speak to Lando Norris
[13:51.240 -> 13:57.400] but did speak to Oscar Piastri. Started by saying, look, out of the tens, hundreds, thousands
[13:57.400 -> 14:01.680] of points that you're inevitably going to score in your Formula 1 career, were the first
[14:01.680 -> 14:05.300] four in Australia last time out, in some ways the
[14:05.300 -> 14:08.840] most important. He said, well, yeah, in terms of, you know, just getting off the mark, it
[14:08.840 -> 14:14.380] was good not to have that hanging over me. And Oscar also made the point that, watch
[14:14.380 -> 14:22.240] out for this in the sprint and the qualifying, that maybe the Formula Two graduates such
[14:22.240 -> 14:26.240] as him, Nick de Vries, well, that was a while ago that he was in Formula 2,
[14:26.240 -> 14:32.640] and Logan Sargent might be at an advantage because they are so used to
[14:32.640 -> 14:36.520] having one practice session and then immediately going into qualifying
[14:36.520 -> 14:43.060] whereas for all the other Grand Prix lifers and old guys, older guys, they
[14:43.060 -> 14:45.820] might be a bit like, oh what's kind of this, what's all
[14:45.820 -> 14:49.780] this schedule all about? Whereas the F2 guys are a bit more used to it. So that
[14:49.780 -> 14:53.080] was an interesting one I thought from Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargent saying
[14:53.080 -> 14:57.420] they might have an advantage in that it's absolutely used, that they're used
[14:57.420 -> 15:02.940] to this kind of thing just going straight in with not much practice.
[15:02.940 -> 15:06.000] Right that is it, I've busted over the 10 minutes that I said I'd do.
[15:06.000 -> 15:11.000] So, yeah, we're looking forward to your company, really.
[15:11.000 -> 15:13.000] So, that's the times again.
[15:13.000 -> 15:15.000] 1.30 local, free practice one.
[15:15.000 -> 15:20.000] Then qualifying for the Grand Prix is on Friday afternoon at 5pm.
[15:20.000 -> 15:24.000] 5, 4, 3, 2. That's 2pm lunchtime on Friday.
[15:24.000 -> 15:26.760] I know you have to work but tape it and
[15:26.760 -> 15:30.960] watch it later. Tape it, put it on the other skybox, you know what I mean. And then there's the
[15:30.960 -> 15:35.760] Saturday sprint qualifying on Friday morning and the sprint race on, sorry, on
[15:35.760 -> 15:38.720] Saturday morning and then the sprint race on Saturday afternoon and the
[15:38.720 -> 15:44.840] Azerbaijan Grand Prix 3 p.m. local. Expect the unexpected. That's what they
[15:44.840 -> 15:46.820] say here at the Baku City Circuit. We've got two races to Expect the unexpected. That's what they say here at the Baku City Circuit. We've
[15:46.820 -> 15:50.740] got two races to see the unexpected. Look forward to having your company for all that.
[15:50.740 -> 15:51.900] Thanks for listening. Bye bye for now.