Business of Speed Podcast - F1 Needed a Software Update at Sepang | Bahrain GP in Malaysia

Episode Date: October 6, 2026

The 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix took place at Sepang, where a downpour and a software fault delayed the start before Max Verstappen gave Red Bull Ford Powertrains its first win. Vincenzo and Lali break down the formation lap failure, the FIA’s update to all 22 cars, and Ferrari’s tire call that left Lewis Hamilton fighting back to third.They also discuss Kimi Antonelli’s championship lead, George Russell’s retirement, Liam Lawson’s drive, and whether this one-off race could bring F1 back to Malaysia. Sepang delivered on the track. A permanent return will come down to the money.

Hello, Vincenzo. Bonjour, no, Ali. Look at us. We rarely both wear a hat. I rarely wear a hat on the show, but today we're both wearing hats. It is very rare that I, I always say it's very rare because then, of course, if people go to my Instagram and they see some of my videos, I do have a cap on once in a while, but it just depends on when the moment strikes me. But other than that, I try not to wear a cap. I am actually trying to wear a Yankees cap more. Okay.

Like for a look. You know why? Because you have good hair, so you don't want to hide it. You know, my mother, my mother used to say to me all the time, you know, you have good hair, why are you hiding? Because I used to wear hats a little more often when I was younger. Oh, you have such nice hair. Why are you hiding it? Why are you hiding? You're going to lose your hair by wearing a hat. That was what she used to say. I said, okay, I won't wear a hat. So I just kind of don't like to wear hats. If anyone encounters me in the wild, like Monday to Friday, I will 90% have a hat on for sure. like in my real life just like out shopping and running errands always have a whole always I don't know I'm more of the let me do if I leave the house I have to look halfway decent because you never know who you're going to run into again these are all things that I used to be told as a kid this is a very Latino thing yes the Italians are also Latinos and it's very Latino yes my I'll never I'll never forget my no no coming out of the garden like covered in dirt and everything and would

Instead of like coming in and relaxing, eating something, whatever, if he had to go out, if he had to go to the bank or whatever it was, he would go quickly clean up, put on a night, you know, button up shirt, slacks, the whole bit, just to go to the bank. Oh. I don't know, where you going? I have to go to the bank. I have to go right back and go right back in the garden. It doesn't matter.

I have to go, like, I have to go the bank. I can't, I have to dress up. Well, I'll tell you something worse in Colombia. And Colombia, they taught the girls that we always have to have like fresh, fresh clean underwear. Like, first of all, who wears dirty underwear? Because you never know if you're going to get into an accident. And I'm like, that would be like the least of my worries if a car hits me. Like, oh my God, thank God I have the clean underwear.

Like, yeah, so there you go. You see Italians and Colombians. I got that. I used to get that all the time, all the time. You have to put on clean underwear because. In case a car hits you. Because that's such a problem to have, right? Okay.

So let's talk, Sipang. And she bangs and Sipang. and Sipang. The Bahrain. Baby. I have another story about that now, but we'll save that for another day. She bangs.

The Bahrain Grand Prix at or in Malaysia. I think it was the official name, right? Yes. Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. Yeah, it was good. But, I mean, listen, we haven't raced at this track since 2017. In which Max won.

Yep. Which is cool. And before that, Sipang was on the calendar. I believe from 1999. I can't remember it was 99 was the exact year. But whatever. It was very, very excited going into it, personally. Same.

So excited. That track has brought monsoons, has brought, you know, just crazy weather. The tarmac itself is notoriously rough. So very, very grading on tires. So you have to have, there's more of a tire strategy. that goes into races in in Sepang. I also like that mistakes are punished because there's the gravel everywhere.

It's not like some of these Middle East tracks that you go off and you can do skate around the skating rink and come back on. I'm a sucker for an old school track that you make a mistake and you get punished for that mistake. I am a big fan of gravel. I'm a big fan of gravel. If you can figure out how to get out of the gravel,

you deserve to be able to get out. But if you can't, that's it. I do, I really, I'm a big fan of the gravel traps. really big fan of them. We never talked about that, but yeah, we're both fans of that. That's cool. It's just like you said, there's a reason

for them to exist. And if you go off that far of the track, you don't deserve to just pop back on and keep going, right? It should be tedious to get out of if you can even get out of it, or it should end your race,

and that should be the end of it. Yeah, I agree. But, yeah, it's a great track. It is a TILCA design track for many of those that were asking me because there's so many people

you kind of forget there's a lot of people that have never seen a race in Sipang No, exactly. Especially the newer F1 fan. They've never seen this track before.

A lot of them didn't even know it existed. So it was cool for that to happen. Also, I don't know about you and I think I know the answer, but I loved having to get up early. I loved it.

It sucked in the moment, but I was like, oh, this is it. This is it. 3 a.m. We're doing it. I'm like, but of course, the race didn't start till like five. So it's interesting because it was for sure like a flashback to the old, because we haven't had to get up at 3M for a long time, right? So it was, it was. I mean, Australia, I think we still it's late in Japan, China, but. But this one was felt particularly tough, to be honest, to get up at that time. It was particularly terrible. But something about it just, when you're, I'm sitting there on my couch and everything's dark and you're quiet and something

about it's like, yes, we're going racing. Like I feel like I'm part of the show. Like it was very exciting. I loved it. Of course, like you, I didn't like having to wait an hour and a half for whatever to actually go. That I, all I kept thinking was, I could have been sleeping right now. I could have kept thinking like, oh, I could have gotten every, every 20 minutes that went by. I'm like, oh, I could have gotten an extra 20 minutes. Oh, I could have got an extra 40 minutes. Oh, I could got an extra hour. I was doing the same math. And I was like, oh, my God, what are we doing here?

But anyway, we did get off eventually. So here's where obviously let's, why don't we start with the start of the race? How about that? Let's start with the start. Well, let's talk about that for a second because found out before the race, there was an article, it was a Malaysian or Indonesian newspaper that had interviewed or talked to the CEO of the circuit. Yeah.

You said they actually did cloud seeding in the area to help reduce the haze. Okay. Cloud seeding for this. Yeah, yeah, look it up. Cloud seeding for those unfamiliar is in areas, especially where they don't get a lot of rain or they do get a lot of rain. It depends. You, I don't know, I don't know all the details.

So don't, don't quote me on it. I'm reading it right now. So planes or ground generators release substances like silver iodide, potassium iodide, or salt crystals into existing clouds. These particles act as seeds, water vapor, and super cool droplets gather around them freeze and become heavy enough

to fall as precipitation. But however, it has some limitations. It cannot create clouds out of clear skies. It only helps squeeze extra moisture out of clouds that are already capable of producing weather. I don't know if that's how

that cloud seeding work because this looked like it was a lot of clouds and a lot of system over the track. And again, don't know if it would the cloud seating worked, but if they were trying to squeeze extra precipitation out of the clouds, they surely did do that. There was a lot of precipitation. Right.

So the cloud seat, in my opinion, the cloud seating worked with absolute downpour, right? Like we got absolute monsoon. It was monsoon. It was monsoonish, which again brings back so many memories of just like rain race. Now we don't race really in the rain anymore. the joke of the Pirelli blue tires, the full wets are like the most useless things. Useless.

Because no one ever used them. I would love to see, I would have loved to see the racing in full wets, to be quite frank with you. Like a full wets race? Why not? Like some of the older drivers were saying they had us driving in these conditions. Where are these coddled children that aren't racing? Like all the old school guys are like, what the hell? This is like a normal Sunday for us back in the day.

I know you had a take a little bit of a take So we finally got out to racing Or sorry We finally got cars on track They go and take a little formation lap Reconnais's lap Whatever it was I think it was the formation lap

And then Max's car had an issue I'm sorry First was Lewis's car And at least from the broadcast The broadcast I was watching It kept They kept talking about Well Lewis is he's falling way behind

he's more than 10 lengths behind, which is you can't do. He's more than 10 lengths behind Max. And then Max had an issue getting towards the start finish. Then Lewis's car pretty much stopped. And all of, I don't remember if it was every single one, but Ferrari powered cars all just kind of quit running. And the Audi's quit running. The Haas has quit running.

One of the Alpins, Hadger, I think, also had an issue. Yeah. So it was kind of mixed bag, mix of everybody, kind of an issue. But basically half the grid had an issue during the formation lap, right? And you're so right, I have a lot of opinions about it. I know you have an opinion. He knows me so well. He's known me so well.

So half the grid has an issue, right? So then turns out we have now found out that there was a software update was needed for the cars. Well, yes. That the combination of low engine speed, low grip, wet weather energy management settings, and the Sapang sector configurations created this, like, perfect storm of disaster for these, like, for the electric part of the power units that we have today. So guess what? In 20 minutes, they recoded the thing. They sent out and they pushed out a software update to all 22 cars, okay? Uh-huh. So now, first of all, there's some drivers really upset that this is even a thing that's happening to these cars, Lando, Carlos, George, very upset that this is the state of the union.

And then Fernando Alonso is upset because he thinks like, oh, well, I've had problems on the grid. Nobody ever stopped the race for me before. And I disagree with Fernando. I'm wearing his hat in respect of how much I disagree with him because he's lovely, but I wore his hat really because I'm so categorically opposed to what he's saying. If 10 of the 22 cars have a software glitch from software that is provided by Formula 1, it is unconscionable that the cars are just going to get pulled off and they cannot start the race. If we have 22 kids in a classroom taking a test, and we give them school-issued pens. And 10, 11 of those kids, the pen doesn't work.

It doesn't write. And they have an hour to sit the exam. We're not going to make them take the exam. I'm sorry. We're going to stop the clock. Every kid gets a new pen, and we're going to do the test. It's not fair. So I understand that under other circumstances,

it would have been unfair if the Ferrari just crapped out on its own, of course. That's not a problem. If it's happened. We've had that happen on formation laps and whatnot where cars, someone's car stops for a technical, technical error and they're out of the race. Because it's, it is isolated to that one car. They pull it off the track. But in this case, Nando is a little bit off the mark because it was, it would have been

very, very unfair. But also it raises a question that we are in a, in a world, Vien, shall let you speak to it now, where we are doing software updates on cars. which really scares me because that means it's only a matter of time until some evil genius hacks into these cars mid-race. That's my concern. And it really is taking away from the ethos of racing if we're doing software updates.

There you. Fair. Yeah. So I'm actually going to read something here because I don't have all of the, I'm under the weather. So my brain's not functioning. So I don't want to miss speak anything. I don't disagree with you.

I think anytime you're talking about software, and things that we already know how much data these sensors are sending back and wirelessly through the car and to the, you know, back to the factory and back to the pit wall. We know all that kind of stuff happens, right? Obviously.

And you're right. In theory, someone could pack in, change a sensor setting. I'm reading full break or I'm not reading full break or I'm reading full throw, whatever it is. Anyway, here's, the crux of the matter is that every ECU,

the electronic control unit, the central unit that controls the entire car, is provided by a company called Motion Applied. And I actually wrote about Motion Applied, maybe a year and a half, a little over a year ago, maybe even two years ago. They used to be called McLaren applied. It is not related to the Formula One team,

but Motion Applied provides these ECUs. there are two settings on the ECUs. There's the team settings and then the FIA settings. Everything's housed inside this ECU. The team modes are all the racing modes. Those are set by the teams. The FIA modes are the safety modes, which obviously we need.

Like you said, there's the VSC mode. So when you see a driver put his car in safety car mode, that's that mode, the ECU is essentially taking from what the software the FIA is providing. FIA is developing that with teams so that obviously they have to work together, right? The modes have to work together. What it seems like happened, and I'll go a little bit deeper into this too, what it seems like happened is the exact right, perfect conditions to where you said, wet running,

low speed. The one thing we have to worry about now is the power output from the hybrid component of the engine, like that has to come down from the 350 to 250 kilowatt hour. All of that. Electro deployment, that's the word I should use. So all of those factors, you know, those coincidences,

all came together and it looked like the thing went to like a shutdown of sorts. However, the only way to get those onto the computer is via an umbilical, a physical transfer of the file. because it's not a wireless update like our phones. Our phones get a wireless update.

We update it all day. This is a physical and billical transfer. There's no over-the-air type stuff. So that's why it took all this time. That was one annoyance to the issue where you had to be physically connected to the computer. So that's why it took time. The other thing I thought was interesting,

and I read a little bit more about this, is that the, like, you know, when a driver has to change a setting or he does something, the teams are telling the driver exactly what order to push buttons in to activate that mode. So it's not exactly like you just push a button and it activates the mode. There's a set of like instructions essentially you have to give. Which is so complicated and crazy that they can do it at 300 kilometers an hour. 100%.

But that's why there are, you know, there's, okay, we're going to run this setting or mode. Six sub menu 22. And you're pushing the, correct. Yeah. And you're doing this at 200 miles an hour or taking turns. But it's, yeah, I don't. To say all that, that's just to push back on your like, oh, we can get over the air, people hacking in. Like, I would hope now, I would hope these things.

I would hope they're a sealed environment where, you know, you can't do that. But who the hell knows, right? That's my fear that evil, evil going to evil. But yeah, I don't want to even think about that too much. Let's let's know. Let's worry about that when we have to worry about that. And maybe talk about the positive things of the race. Because there were a lot.

I think it does come down to it would be great to see us with, I want V8s back. V8's coming back doesn't mean we can get rid of the electronic control units, right? Like ECUs have been in cars for decades. The V12s of the 80s, there was an electronic control unit. Exactly. much less software dependent, right? You still need an electronic control unit to control electronics that are firing in the car. It's, but listen, who knows?

So I'm not going to sit here and be like, it's the V6's fault. That would be irresponsible and that would be wrong. It's the fact that there are so many now of these like non-engine related things, right? It's the power unit. It's not just an engine that affect driving. Now again, this is probably a one-off situation. and it is not something that... Let's hope.

Could happen again if you tried to all these cars. But it does, it does, you know, Oscar made comments earlier this year. I think James Vals had made comments about, you know, like this artificial intelligence or whatnot. Valtrey Bottas had that issue in Baku, where his car basically was reading a different... Because he had gone off on the lap before, the AI gave him more power than what he needed. when he ran on the racing line. It also happened in China. I can't remember to who.

That was a big problem in China that the AI was getting tricked because something happened on one part of the circuit. So then it messed up the calculation for another part of the circuit. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, listen, so this has nothing to do V8s, V6, is V12, V10. It's nothing to do with the ice piece of the power unit. Exactly. It's not about the combustion engine. It has to do with the software and the type of software that's running

and maybe they are leveraging AI more. it's not AI is evil, it's just AI is doing what it knows. It's a pattern recognition. AI is just pattern recognition is truly what it is at speed and scale to which humans can't, you know, do. So to me, I'm thinking, like, do we really need all this stuff? If we want to go motor racing, which is what this is, do we need all these extra electronic software-related things? Is there a way to scale it back? I don't know.

That's for another episode, but. That's for another episode. My hope would be no, that yes, we can't scale it back, but it's for another episode. But I want to move on. We are going to talk about the moment we knew Ferrari had screwed up the tire strategy. As soon as we saw Max was on the interns. Yeah. As soon as we saw Max on the inches, we're like, well, Ferrari just mucked that up.

You know, I will say, I think what, it was only Lando, Oscar, both Ferraris. There might have been some other back marker runners. At the bottom there was a few. Yeah, yeah. That started on slicks. And Lewis is the only one that stuck on them. Lewis did not pit until lap 31, I believe it was.

I went back and watched the race a second time with my kids once they got up. And it was like 31, I believe. Lewis ended up pitting. He went 31 laps on softs, which in and of itself is kind of wild. Yeah. But he went 31 laps on softs. Yeah. It was crazy because at that point, you've heard the radio.

We've all heard the radio. He's like, when they wanted to switch him to enter, he's like, no, I wanted the inters before the race. You got me on the slicks. Now I'm going to stick with dance with the one who brung me because now I have to stick this out. There's no other point. And then obviously he got totally royally screwed by their first safety car when everyone

got a cheap pit stop. So he would have made up 26, 28. seconds, he didn't, but he still stuck through it, man, with, a lot of people are saying the best drive of the season for him. I think it ranks up there on one of his best drives because not only because of what he, of the changing position from P17 to finishing P3 in the end, but just the attitude, the mental to not give up, he stayed positive. And we know that sometimes. He looked exhausted after that race too. Like, knackered, like really knackered. But I just think that that was a really, really good race for him mentally. Another thing I didn't like was obviously the doubting

the strategy, even when they said, hey, come in and get inter. He's like, no, I want to stay on the slicks. I've already picked the slicks. Like I was trying to explain to someone, ideally the driver just has to focus on driving a spectacular race and keeping it on track. They're not also running strategy in their brain because they have so much to focus on. But I feel like Charles and Lewis, inevitably Charles has been doing it for your second-guessing the pit wall. They're also having to think about strategy while they're in the car. So I'm just wondering, when will they be able to actually trust what they're getting fed in the radio?

I don't know. Well, that's probably also an episode for another day because it's been far too long that that's been happening. Yeah. Schumacher notably did a lot of his, he just pushed back. He pushed back a lot more. And I think that's something Charles has never done. We see Lewis is kind of doing it more, which is really good.

Yeah, anyway, it's definitely an issue there. I didn't like that they ran both cars on what seemed like the same strategy. Charles, they ended up breaking off on that when he switched to inters. Charles also had a great race. He switched off to inters. He fell back over a minute. He was in last place. He ends up P4 right behind Lewis.

Like, I got to get, like, that was a race that they could have won two. 100%. Especially even the bad start. Max had such a bad start. Yeah, it was. Lewis on inters would have been incredible to see at that start with the max. I mean, how about Kimmy start? Andrea Kimmy-Antonelli.

Let's talk about your boy, yeah. The start was incredible. There is probably a situation where he deserves to win that race as well, but. I love that Max got a win. Ford's first win in F1 since 2003. Love that. Love that. And also Red Bull Power Trains.

This is their first engine that they've built, obviously in conjunction with Ford, their first win, which is also very good. Yeah, I like little historical things like that. I love that. Yeah, yeah. I love that.

And especially because I was just watching last night, the Schumacher 94, we're not going to talk about that, but Ford was a partner with Venetton. So I did like the Red Bull Power Trains with Ford winning with Max. But I want to talk a second about your boy, Andrea Kimi, because man was he quietly enormous, man. That was such a good race for him. I think he's locked into more championship mode for sure.

I think he's being like just very grown up, very mature in his driving. Obviously, it's a really lucky break for him and a terrible. break for George Russell. I did feel really bad for George Russell because this man cannot catch a break this year. And it really helped Kimmy's championship. He's 84 points clear of Russell after that. Russell's DNF. But really just a very consistent, mature drive. This kid is so mature, Vinci. He's, he's, he's in such, you know what? Like in general, I find that the elite do this. They, they mature quickly. Like you have a Max for Stoppin who maybe the, you know, they make a, you know, they make a, a little mistake sometimes in the first year or something, but by the second year, man, they're locked in. And I think that that's what we're seeing with Antonelli. He's just locked in so mature. He's driving like a 30-year-old man,

certainly not like a 20-year-old. Spectacular drive from him. Spectacular. He looked great. I mean, yeah, obviously that was a tough break for, my gut was, I mean, when George, when Dan down said George was one that stopped, I mean, even that made me,

and I'm not the biggest George fan. I will, I cannot say that I am. People know it, so I'm not going to try and fake it on the show. Like, I'm not the biggest George Russell fan. I think he's a talented driver. I think he will probably end up at Ferrari, to be quite honest with you. I was gutted for him. I mean, that sucked.

That sucked, especially because that's what, the second or maybe third time this season? Third, I think, do you know? Yes. That's completely unrelated to his drive. And usually it happens at races where he's actually. doing well. Not races where he falls into a podium. Like a race where he was actually driving well.

And so, super tough break. But yeah, you're right. Listen, Kimi Antonelli, it looks, we look like we're going to have the youngest champion ever. The first Italian in a long, long time. This is cool. This is, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm

right there. I want to see this. He could wrap it up. I want to run the numbers. I got to, I got to see what the actual numbers are. But I think he can wrap this up pretty pretty soon. I know that Piazzi is now mathematically eliminated after Sepang. It's Piastri's

eliminated from contention mathematically. I don't know I don't know exactly when Kimi could win it because doesn't it also depend on let's say he stops winning from now on and then Lewis or George keep winning I'm not quite sure. The other guy Vinci that I wanted to bring up that

and I, this guy this year has grown on me you're going to be surprised with the name I'm going to throw out here. I wasn't a big fan. I never quite connected with this driver. He's grown on me this year. He had a great drive yesterday, none other than Liam Lawson. He had a fantastic opening lap.

I think he's definitely one of the highlights of the race. He was at P11. He went up to P4. He finished P7, but, man, he scored points for racing bull. Considering that he's been in another car back in this car, You know, like really, really, I just wanted to shout him out because I'm usually tough on him. I want to just give flowers where flowers are do. Liam Lawson had a really, really good race.

Good for him. Yeah, Liam looked good. He was, he was, he was, his wheel to wheel was nice. You know, I think that's something, we talk about Kimmy. That's something I think Kimmy still struggles with between wheel to wheel racing and staying on the track. Kimmy, you know, I'll say he struggles with that openly. Liam, Liam looked good. Liam looked really good.

I mean, he was so good. He was fighting with Max at one point. I thought he looked good there. He was. And not like crashy, like actually like fighting. Yeah, it was, it felt like proper wheel to wheel racing. Yes. When Liam was around, which is great.

I mean, he's been, he has been so under the microscope because of, you know, promoting him up to Red Bull was never going to be. We knew that was never going to be a good situation for any. driver, but a young kid, and I love that he has been excelling at racing bowls. He looks good. The car actually looks really good, too. That racing bowls is a solid. They're really developing pretty well right alongside, you know, the senior team. 100%.

They look good. Everything seems to be working out pretty well for them. Liam, very impressive, very impressive. He was, I'll tell you, who else is impressive in that? Hadjar, another very, very impressive driver. Talk about maturity. He's a young kid. But there are times when I'm like,

he looks better than Max in the same car. Hmm. He's not saying he's better than Max Percippin. Well, that's fine. But I think I'll put him. I definitely think there are times right. Maybe better is the wrong word. It's more comfortable is the word I'm looking for.

Like more in sync with a car? You mean? Like more? I mean, there was a stretch of races where Max was just miserable every race and Isaac doesn't necessarily have the a four-time world champion can say whatever he wants somebody who knows that every day in that seat is a gift

may not complain as much but I thought there were moments during this long stretch of the season where Isaac looked comfortable in the car or at least didn't say as much where Max was like complaining about everything Again, you're a four-time champion. You understand what you want in a car. You have the right to complain and whatnot.

But Isaac has impressed me all year. That drive in Malaysia was great. He obviously couldn't hold off two Ferraris at the end, but I'm sure tires and whatnot were faulting himself. I like the future. I think the future of F1 and the future is here. We've got some great drivers, great young drivers. I think Linblad is great.

Gabby is Bortoletto there's a lot of drivers that look really good and comfortable in their situations I don't know will there be a little more

stability amongst the driver seats right now that seems like that's where we're at so this could be aside from the Ocon thing like really there's not much movement coming up so we will in 26 to 27

we might have like a direct comparison of how bad the regulations are this year and then as they change because these drivers are mostly going to be the same so that'll be fun to watch, but I love the youth movement we have in the actual seats. Like, that's, we need that. You know what I like about Isak, too, is that he's super humble. Like, I heard an interview with him

and he was saying something along the lines of, how lucky am I that my teammate is a four-time champion? Like, how much I can learn the benchmark he sets, right? Because he's benchmarking himself every time he's out against Max for Stoppin. And rather than take it as like, holy bananas, now I have to go race against Max first stop and it's more like wow how lucky am I that in the same car I get to benchmark myself against him just as like such a humble lovely attitude to have and I and I do think that about all our rookies like we're all crushing on on Kimi Antonelli because he's so fun so positive so jovial I suck the same uh Ali Berman is delightful that Gabby we just don't know him well enough because he seems more shy and reserved that's not because he's not a great person he just

Which is funny because he's the Brazilian one. We think he'd be a little more rambunctious. He's certainly not. But it's this crop of rookies. And I'll include Liam and that Liam is delightful on social media. It seems like a great crop of like humble, fast dudes. So we're lucky. Yeah, it's great.

To go back to Kimi's scenario, Kimi Antonelli could clinch in Austin if he were to win the Singapore sprint, Singapore GP and the US GP. Ooh, no matter, okay. So if he were to win those, that would give him 58 points and put him up to 378, if Russell scored 17 or fewer points across those events, and Hamilton scores 39 or fewer points across those three events, then Kimi Antoninately would win in Austin. So that is the earliest mathematical model.

So now we're getting to a point in the season where points are dropping. Every race, there's less and less points available. Obviously, the more you win, the bigger your chances are to... And now people see why the sprints matter because those little points, people think it's not a wax ton of points. Those points start mattering quite a bit when we get laid into the season and you're actually in contention for a championship. Those points matter. So now you know, guys, we could have a champion in Austin if the stars align for André Kimi. Andrea Kimi.

Let's do some final thoughts. I know that we've got a few more minutes. So final thoughts. Your final thoughts on the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. Go ahead. You have the four. I'm going to say I was a little bit skeptical maybe because I was a little bit, I thought it was so ironic and sarcastic and they flew in the furniture all the way.

So I was skeptical to say the least. I'm going to say it was a great event. I think there's room for improvement. I already saw some attendance numbers. They are double what we had nine years ago, guys. So it's already amazing. naturally, but still that bodes very well. Obviously, Bahrain covered all of the fees and the money, but hopefully this puts Malaysia once again on everyone's radar to come back as a permanent race,

because I think the track deserves it. I think we saw some really good racing. We saw a more old school-type track. It's not pure, pure, pure old school, but it's more old-school type. So overall, great event. And I do think that the big elephant in the room, the pink elephant in the room, is going to be that sort of software situation that I'm sure, as you said, will likely not happen again. They'll figure out a way that that doesn't happen again. All in all, a very enjoyable and delightful race,

and I am very much looking forward to Singapore and getting on track again real soon. The Sipang weekend attracted 261,000 for the weekend. Huge number. CEO of the circuit met with Domenicali, Stefan Domenicali yesterday, and they talked about Malaysia getting a permanent C. back or a permanent spot back, obviously they're going to have to talk about it and they're

going to want to make sure that it all comes together. And Muhammad Ben Suleim, the FIA president, wants to see a five-year plan. So if we could see a business plan over five years, you know, we could be back in Malaysia. Could be? The economic boost for Malaysia was somewhere estimated around 240 million. So very big boost to the economy there. Do you think they call it The Economy Boost brought to you by Bahrain? Economy Boost brought to it. You know what?

A lot of people, a lot of people like yourself, made comments about Bahrain and kind of criticize why can we just, and not you necessarily, all of these things, but a lot of people did criticize.

Why can't we just call it the Malaysian Grand Prix? It's not the Malaysian Grand Prix. It is the Bahrain Group. They bought it. They paid for it. And you know what? I do give Bahrain a lot of credit

for saying, cool, we're not going to take our, or, you know, take our ball and run home, we're going to say, fine, we'll make, we'll turn lemonade, we'll turn lemons into lemonade here and we'll do something with it. We're going to give Malaysia all that economic impact. Yes. 240 million dollars, you know, potentially, if not more. As someone who comes from a developing country, somebody said, come put a Grand Prix in Colombia and the economic boost for my, for my country. So I agree, yeah, the, the upside from Malaysia.

It's huge upside. Bahrain. I do give, like I said, I, I do give, like I said, I give Bahrain a lot of credit. We know that the Bahrain Grand Prix paid for a majority by the government itself. So the government's saying, hey, we're going to basically give this. So yeah, you know what? Let them have their Gulf Air. Let them have their flyover. That doesn't bother me as someone who cares about the racing.

There seems to be people that care about all these things that don't necessarily matter. Kudos to them. I love the business side of this, the business case of this. As was completely expected, and I think we talked about this at other points, fully expected Malaysia to be back in the conversation of wanting a GP because who doesn't want a Grand Prix now? Formula One right now has captured the zeitgeist globally. It is making money for all of the areas that it touches that hosts race at. And you would be dumb as a promoter to not at least explore options of coming, you know, of bringing Formula One back to.

back or to your country, to your area. So I would love to see us racing in Malaysia again regularly, as I would love to see us in Africa, South Africa, whatever, Kailami, would love to see us at Hakenheim again. There's probably a lot of other tracks would be really cool for us to be at. But, you know, this is the step. This is how it happens. We'll give you a situation occurs, political thing.

We give you a little taste of what it's like. Oh, now you want to buy in. because you know the racing fees are going to be 50, 60, 70 million a year just to host it. So Formula One is looking at locking in $300 to $400 million from the promoter over the next five years. So the money's work, can they get the money out of the audience? And you know what? I heard a lot of Australians talking because there seems like the Australian Grand Prix is getting more and more expensive. they're talking about, yeah, it's cheaper for me to fly to Malaysia.

I heard that too. Yeah, yeah. So. Malaysia, honestly, like, it's like kind of when the main driver has appendicitis or breaks a wrist and the reserve driver gets a shot. This was Malaysia getting a shot out of nowhere unexpected. They got the shot. And what is it we like from Alexander Hamilton? I'm not going to.

Not going to throw away my shot. Not going to throw away my shot. And they didn't. And they didn't. And honestly, let's see what happened. It was so much time. That was the first rain race of the year. I know on top of everything else.

16 rounds in. It was the first race where we got rain, which everybody, we do want to see. We're going to start doing cloud seating everywhere, people. Brought to you by business of speed. Cloud seating brought you by business of speed. Vintech, it was a delight. We will speak after Singapore. We'll do a little recap after Singapore.

We'll speak after Singapore. It should be fun. Night time. Night race. Night race. It'll be fun. Thank you. for listening.

Cha-cha. Cha-cha.