The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2022 Abu Dhabi GP Review

Episode Date: November 20, 2022

So that's it, the 2022 season is over! Sam, Ben and Harry are here with their final race review of 2022, as they discuss the Abu Dhabi GP. The boys look at the first lap incident with Hamilton and Sainz, discuss Vettel's last race and review their Bold Predictions... JOIN our Discord: https://discord.gg/dQJdu2SbAm SUPPORT our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/latebraking TWEET us @LBraking BUY our merch: https://late-braking-f1-podcast.creator-spring.com/ SUBSCRIBE to our podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to tune in for new episodes every Wednesday and Grand Prix Sunday. Hello and a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Harry Eid, Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking. Reviewing the last race of the season, the Abu Dhabi Grawfrey. We did have a discussion we might just consider. Brazil the end of the season and forget this one actually existed, which is why we're going to spend the next hour and 15 minutes or so talking about it. Max Verstappen storming to yet another

victory. That's 15 on the year. Leclair finishing P2 for the race and also for the season as a result of holding off Sergio Perez. Other things happened. Vettel retired and now everything is looking ahead to 2023. Any tears from your side? Vettel, obviously. leaving the sport after a long time. I don't do this, but first. It's always you that goes first. We're in the same place so we can look at each other awkwardly. We haven't got this ever, so, you know, glad to see this is nailed down.

I did not cry, mostly because I was sat next to Harry, and it would be embarrassing to sob. But when I get home later, I will. I don't know what you said. I can't hear him. He said, what do you mean? I mean, when I go home, I'm going to cry. What else would I mean? What do you mean you can't cry in front of Harry?

We can all cry in front of each other. No, this is a stereotypical man's world. We're not allowed to show emotion. Motion? What's that? Yeah, exactly. Sorry, I've already gone off to action. It was very sad, and I'm glad he got to do his donuts. And he gave a great little speech, and I think he's leaving for all the right reasons.

I think when you retire, you can either go out because you slowly wind down your career, and it becomes a little bit like, you know, like Kimmy Ryking, where I was a bit like, we love you, Kimmy, but why are you still here? You know, that kind of thing. Or Sebastian, who kind of goes, look, it was disappointing at the end, and I'm leaving now because there's more important things in life, they drive around in circles.

And I respect that wholeheartedly. So sad to see him go, because he is basically like the dad of Formula One these days. And I think I miss him being a right sassy little monster over the radio to people. But these things have to move on. All good things come to an end, as a famous musician once said. And Seb's time to leave.

Harry, what did you think of the departure? Well, not related. I'm obviously sad. Sad that Seb's gone. But side note that I've taken away from this race, even though it was a better race, Abidabie still sucks. Doesn't matter what you say.

So boring. It's just rubbish. Oh, God. Well, I think it's like it's too, and I mean this in a difference as the word, but it's too perfect a track. There's nothing like it's got no edge to it. No character.

No character. And it's shown by that everyone was two by two and qualified. Well, not everyone, but like the top three teams are two by two. So still sucks. It was definitely a better race there than we've had for a long time, I'd argue. But a good race at Abu Dhabi is still a bad race everywhere else. So that made me sad. I love that.

I tried to start positively enough. about Vettel and going off into the sunset and we've still managed to come back round to just burning Abu Dhabi and, you know, ripping on it. For clarity, just the racetrack. We don't condone it, yes, and late breaking. No, no, certainly not five minutes into the podcast. It's half hour. Plenty to go through, even with it being a boring race.

Signs and Hamilton's lap one coming together. We're going to be discussing that one later on. Vettel, we will speak about. Aston Martin overall and them coming very, very close to Alpha Romeo and the Constructors Championship, but just about finishing up short-last. Discord submissions for the year in terms of driver of the day and worst driver of the day. We'll give our options as well. But we'll start with the race out front.

Well, not quite out-front, out-front. Max Verstappen was very good. There's probably not too much more to say on that. But certainly the battle for P2, there was a bit more to say on that. Leclair, one stop, Perez, two stop. Leclair on the one, ultimately just about winning out another lap or two, and that was probably going in Red Bull's direction. So, Sam, what did you make of the strategic decisions made by both teams

that resulted in Leclair second and Perez third? Well, I can't believe it, but Ferrari actually pulled a blinder on the strategy. Actually, well done, Ferrari. Hopefully, this is a... I just find the clapping thing. Oh, yeah, get the clap for Ferrari. They do deserve it. yeah well done

you know like when people get applauded or congratulated for like doing just the normal thing you're like like like you weren't racist today you don't really deserve a round of applause for that right it's the bare minimum you expect from any normal person two very different things is it yeah you're going I'm getting to a point

so you know like yeah okay oh I wasn't sexist today I don't pat myself on the back every day I go, yeah, that's the absolute bare minimum. Ferrari strategist calling a semi-acceptable strategy really should be the absolute bare minimum, but the fact we're clapping them shows how much of an exception to that is. But they said Perez a rebel for a bag of chips on that two-stop. They're like, oh, we have to stop again.

They have to stop again. Tires are very good. And then their radio in Carlos Sikes like, Pace is good, Deg is good, and Carlos is like, I don't agree. And then Perez comes in for his two-stop, and you think, all right, they've got that undercut. well done red ball and they said, lo,

joke, we're standing out, see it later, and they just carried on. It was a really, really sensible move. It won them that second place and fair play to them

for doing it. And I think the science split as well with how they worked that maybe helped sell the dummy a little bit. The Ferrari team worked well. So hats off to them. I think Perez put a lot of effort in.

It was a galleering effort and he was a little bit unlucky to be less than two seconds away right at the very end. It was a great charge. And I think they tried. to emulate, you know, the whole, when we had back at Hungary, where Hamilton hunted down the Stapin or back at Spain, where the other way around happened, that whole kind of,

the two-stop dig could be so much faster, and the one stop you get that overtaking the last cut of the lap. So, unfortunately, for Abu Dab, it doesn't have that tire deck, like some of the old European circuits. So it just never came to them. But I appreciate they tried something different, but Ferrari actually pulled it off. And well done to Lecler as well from maintaining that pace, the tyres. It was good. It was a really good choice from Ferrari. It's a nice way to win the season. Harry, we heard prior to the race that the gap between the one stop and the two stop, it was a lot of uncertainty as to which way drivers and teams would go.

And it kind of unfolded exactly like that because you've got a situation where a one-stopping Ferrari and a two-stopping Red Bull are separated by a second on the final lap of the race. Do you think that Red Bull could have done anything more in order to get them ahead of LeClau? I don't think they could have, to be honest. they like say the difference is so so well they didn't really know what the difference was but it's clear the difference between the two strategies were so close that i'm not sure what else fred bull could have done apart from getting the race extended by maybe two more laps which is hard to do um then i don't know what what they could have done it would have been interesting if peris hadn't hit that traffic right at the end because that definitely hampered him and he was clearly annoyed at i don't know if it was sonoda or ghastly but one of the alphataris yeah waving outside the car it would have been interesting to see that but yeah I'm not I'm not sure they could have done anything different here I think maybe they underestimated God Leclair slightly because I think a lot of that strategy

going well for Ferrari was Leclair driving like he like he's a god because not many drivers I don't think we saw we saw how badly well signs signs fell off the pace but we also saw how badly Howlton was struggling as well when signs was hunting me down after his second stop So, yeah, I think Red Bull maybe slightly misjudged that one.

But it was so close. I don't think you can really criticize them for going for that two-stop. But I guess when you look at it on paper, they did have a second place. And then they gave it and they, you know, put a bit stop in and then they came third. So, you know, the blame does sit with them slightly. But it was a really, really tough call. And not to be too harsh on, you know, Red Bull. but Max Verstappen clearly show what that Red Bull was capable of doing, right?

He swanned off into the sunset. He dominated every single part of that racetrack, and yet Sergio Perez is still there, unable to really get away from LeCler, I'm able to close that gap. It shows you the golfing skill, I think, between Verstappen, who is driving in a class on his own at the moment,

and Sergei Perez, if you had two Sergio Perez's in that Red Bull team, just going to be max for slapping in a Sergio Perez, maybe this season will be a hell of a lot closer across both fronts, because realistically that Red Bull was capable of absolutely destroying the Ferrari today and he didn't do it, which is an interesting one to take away. Yeah, I think you're being a little bit harsh with the initial point, Sam,

in terms of Ferrari getting clapped for not being sexist or discriminatory. So if LeClaire was P2 before the pit stops, I'd perhaps be of the same line of thinking. But Ferrari strategy, it didn't hold them position. It did actually get them ahead of Sergio Perez. And, you know, we saw with, you know, the one stop wasn't a guaranteed success. We saw, you know, Vettel, it definitely didn't work out. And he probably lost out on a position or two that was ultimately very costly to the team at the end of the day. I can't believe it. Ferrari nailed it.

They absolutely nailed it. I'm so glad they've done this so early in the season that we've got the whole season ahead of us now to look forward to where they can take wins off of Red Bull. Oh wait, no, they waited until the last week of November to get a strategic call right. Come on, Ferrari. But they nailed it out there.

They nailed it. Sergio Perez pitted so early on that first pit stop they played it wonderfully from there on out because you knew as soon as Sergio Perez took that first pit stop after, I can't even remember how many laps it was, it wasn't many at all, maybe a dozen laps. You knew from that point onwards, Perez isn't going to one stop this. It's too far for him to one stop. So what did Ferrari do?

They left Charleclair out there for however many more laps it was, six or seven more laps, which ultimately opened up both strategic options. to him. He could have gone onto a two-stop if he wanted to and just pitted five or six laps later than Perez did on his second stop or, as he did, go to the end of the race. But the point is, Ferrari weren't baited into doing the same thing as Perez early on, and they left him out long enough on that first did that they were both options. And ultimately, I can understand Red Bull's thinking here, Red Bull was so good in the middle sector, their line of thinking is, don't get undercut. Don't get undercut because if we're on the same part of the track in the middle sector,

they haven't got the straight line speed to overtake us. So their strategic goal number one, don't allow Ferrari to undercut us. But they took it too far. They took it too far to the point where Perez was absolutely sold it on a two-stop strategy. And LeCler had the option to do either. And actually, even if Perez did get by Leclair, I still think Ferrari would have, I would still come away from that saying Ferrari got the strategy right because ultimately it was Perez by a comfortable-ish distance prior to the pit stop. So massive respect to Ferrari, they've managed to get themselves P2 in the championship, LeCler P2 in the Drivers' Championship. Does it feel, as Sam mentioned, a little bit like clapping someone who never gets it right? Sure, but I really think they nailed this

out there. Well done. Well, then Ferrari. Nice one. We've never said that all season. We'll forget now, going into the new season. It's 105 days. We will forget it as well. Guys, can anyone remember what we did in Abu Dhabi?

No. There'll be on plan V plus seven laps when we're in Bahrain next year. Guarantee it. I'll go, I'm sure we did a bad job, so let's just not do that again. Before we wrap up the discussion, I just wanted to pick up on something you said a little while ago, Sam. in terms of Perez not being able to secure P2, do you place that more on the driver? Do you place it more on Sergio Perez for not being able to chase him down? Or do you place it more on Red Bull for strategically not getting it right?

Well, yeah, you work as a team and it's not all down to this one race. Sergio Perez has had the same car as Max Verstappen for the whole season. And Max Verstaffin managed to wrap up that World Championship. What, five races ago now, something like that? It's been a while. So even if they diverted all their attention to Sergio, which I don't think he wanted. I think he wanted to earn this P2 on merit,

which is totally understand why I want to do the same, I think. He had the machinery under him to get this done. And Rebel have proven time and time again that nine times out of ten, their strategy, their pit stop process, their ability to get cars off the track and back on it again, where they need to be as soon as possible, is second to none for the most part. So he's got all the tools in the,

the Arsenal that you need to beat another team, especially a team that we've seen who make so many strategic blunders across the season that they managed to sell themselves out of a championship before it was even really done halfway through the year. So, Sergei Perez, I think realistically, over the season, maybe has let himself down a little bit. You see just how dominant the stapping's being, how dominant that Red Bull has been. They've, you know, they've won that Constructed's championship and the driver's championship. Sergio should be doing more. It should not be coming down to the last lap of the last race of the season for him to pick up P2, when your teammate is a hundred or what, 40 points clear of you fighting for this second place, in that time,

you should have been able to pick up enough points over the struggling second place team to make the difference, I think. Feels a little bit Weber-esque, I guess. Yeah, I think that's a great comparison. And you can look at, say, the first eight races of the season and argue Red Bull definitely skewed development in Vastappen's favour based. on Perez being really not that far off in the first third of this season, but it's still the same car. And I agree with your points there. In terms of what they could have done in this race,

Harry, Vastappen backing Leclair up, do you think that was ever an option? I mean, based on last weekend, probably not. Yeah, look, that's, you could say yes, maybe they could have tried that, putting aside whether Vestappen would have been willing to. But there's so many, many ways that that can go that can go wrong it's not a it's not a full proof plan so um why risk a win uh for the sake of of peros you know getting a shot of p2 it doesn't imagine if they had done that and it had gone wrong leclerden you know absolutely does for stop and wins the race then we'd have all been sat here going what a bunch of idiots so silly buggers yeah if it had gone right imagine the backclash as well like it doesn't go brilliantly well either way yeah so um

Yeah, I'm not sure there's much more. They could have done that. It was funny, well, we both said it. When Perez came on the radio said, Max needs to go quicker. Some Bostappen did go quicker and Perez just didn't go with him. It's like, oh, right. Okay, okay, Cheko.

Yeah, so I don't think there's much more they could have done from a team point of view. Bustappen, as you said, Sam just went off into the sunset, and that was the last we saw of him. Yeah, I don't think there's much more they could have done on that, apart from not being sold down the two-stop as they were, as they were. I would agree with that.

And ultimately, going back to the point of Perez wanting to achieve this by himself in its own right, if Vestappen was to back him up and it was to work, how much does it really mean? Because there's no money at stake here. This is all about personal pride. It's not really anything else on the line. And surely, you don't actually gain that pride if you know that the only way you've managed to get it done is as a result of a teammate backing up. by 10 seconds in order to hold up another driver.

So I don't think you would have benefited anyone for them to do that. You know, only getting past Leclair, I think that was the only solution. We're going to take a short break. We'll be discussing whether DRS was a bit too powerful out there today right after this. Harry, as you mentioned, for an Abu Dhabi race, this wasn't all that bad. By normal race conditions, possibly not. But by Abu Dhabi standards, there were a good number of overtakes. but a lot of the overtakes, it seemed, happened as a result of DRS,

with not as many taking place in the breaking zones and indeed in places where DRS doesn't exist. Do you think it was too powerful out there today? Yeah, I think, look, we've needed it in the past, but I think maybe with this generation of cars, maybe they don't need it on that first long straight. Maybe there's a nut that you can just have it on the second straight because we saw that people were flying past and then the,

and it made for some good battling, I guess, but it got to the point where cars were not overtaking after the first long straight because they wanted to keep DRS for the second one, which again is interesting because it's tactical, but it kind of means what's the point in having it.

So it was very powerful. I think it's a trend we've seen this year, I'd argue, a lot of races. Some, we still definitely need it at some tracks, but I think they should definitely look at re-evaluating where it's needed, because I think it's clear that these generation of cars, yes, we're not 100% there, but it's made overtaking

easier, not easier, but the cars can follow more closely. So DRS is probably less needed at places like we saw in SPAR. You don't need it along the Kammel straight, basically, because they can just blast past. So yeah, it'd be interesting to see if they do anything about that, because I think we're still working to 2021 and before rules with DRS when I think we should be looking to minimize the usage. And even if, like, you don't have it at some tracks, I wouldn't be mad at that. That makes sense to me. Why have it at the tracks where you don't need it?

So, yeah, it can only be a good thing. But, yeah, today I think it was a bit too much. Do you think it was too much today, sir? Too much is an interesting turn of phrase. I definitely think this race needed DRS, because if you look at it, and it's the tracks fault. It's not the drivers, it's not the car, the rest of the track is almost impenetrable when it comes to making an actual overtaking move

stick anywhere else on that whole circuit other than those two breaking zones at the end of the long two straits that we have in sector two. If you don't utilise those straits, you sit behind for another hole lap and you might have to have another go again when you come off onto the long two straits again in sector two. And this track proves that not only are DRS passes

when you only have DRS passes, incredibly boring. There was no risk, there's no spectacle, there's no, will it happen? Will they pull it off? A lot of the time it was a, oh, and they've squeezed it in front and off they go. Or it was a, oh, not a good enough exit this time, wait for DRS next time. And I don't think this is the fault of DRS because I think with DRS, we saw more action than we would have seen without it. I think a lot of cars who have just sat slightly further back and wouldn't have got the toe they need to maybe even have a chance at making a move into breaking zones. So whilst there are issues with DRS,

across multiple different tracks. I think the issue with Abu Dhabi lies at the fact that the whole track is not conducive to Formula One cars being able to run side by side, get moves down elsewhere, you know, chuck it down the inside on a random call you might not expect.

The track is just difficult to make anything exciting happen. For me, the DRS actually provided the most exciting parts of the Grand Prix because it allowed for us to come into the braking zones relatively close together. But that doesn't mean I thought this wasn't good by any means

of the word. I still think this is probably bottom three races of the whole season so far. It was shoddy, really, really boring. Oh, good word. Shoddy, underused, very much underutilized. I would say in terms of DRS, and I don't think it was just this race and this was picked up at least by UK comms,

there have been a few races this year where even if you think it's necessary, it has probably just been too powerful, whether the activation zone, it's too long. I don't know, but I feel like it was probably a little bit too much out there today. And I think we're all in the same boat, we're all in the same mindset here that it would be brilliant to have a world where DRS is not necessary, but at least in terms of current F1, it is a necessary evil, particularly at races like this. So I'm not saying that we should absolutely get rid of it at the moment. I'll tell you what, I am.

warming to the idea more and more by the day that DRS should only be available if you're within, let's say, half a second and 1.5 seconds of the car in front, and then DRS turns off as soon as you get within half a second. Just throw that one out there. I'm not sure what the exact one would. Maybe so. Sounds doesn't want to talk about that now. Probably best for another time.

But yeah, I'm getting warmer and warmer to that idea by the... the day because I think we don't love overtakes that happen. It's not the quantity of the overtakes, it's the quality of them. And there are too many occasions, I think, where overtakes are being done on the straits where, let's face it, the skill required in order to get it done is not massive. And we want to see overtakes being performed by the driver in the breaking zone. So anything that can help us get more towards that I'm in favour of. I think it was probably a little bit too powerful, but you're right, Sam, if you didn't have it out there today, I don't know what we would have seen in terms of a race. So, at least for the now necessary evil. I reckon they should

have trial pushed to pass, so Adam. Debbie, give that a go, because I reckon that will work well at a track like this. Yeah. I was going to say, do you remember, I was just thinking back earlier in the year, do you remember before we went to Australia? They were like, yeah, we're going to have four DRS zones. Yeah, as many as four. I mean, they ended up getting, rid of one of them, didn't they? But yes, that nearly happened. For the RS James, James, Jeremy. That's insane. Four, no. Let's review our bold predictions from the preview episode. Everyone, get your abacus is out because we're going to count along to see how many we got right. I'll start with myself, because I said that Charles LeClair would be involved in some

sort of crash in his pursuit for P2. Congratulations on P2, Char, well done. Harry, what was your bold prediction? I said that all of the F1 levers, so that means Daniel Ricardo, Sebastian Betel, Nick Schumacher and Nicholas Latifie would score points. That was the bolt bit. 50% right.

I was about saying, that sounded very good until you got halfway through that sentence. Yeah, I mean, not bad. It's, you know, Ricardo's been allergic to scoring points this year, so at least I got halfway there. And I love how Mick Schumacher and Latifie actually conspired against me. Against me. To make sure that wasn't right.

We will actually crash into each other to make sure Harry isn't right. Sam, can you save the group? No. The first part of mine was it was going to be an entertaining race, which, you know, from the feedback we've had so far on the podcast, you categorize it as not entertaining. Then I also think about safety cars and that land that Norris would win, which did not happen if you did watch the race,

although he looked very, very close for a long portion of the Grand Prix. It could have happened at any moment, but he really let me down. So, yeah, no. You know how you've done a few multi-parters in the past, and you've got close, you've got maybe a couple of them right, and you've got close on a few. That was a long way out on all of those.

This is the worst multi-parter I've ever done. If you're going to be wrong, be wrong properly, I guess, right? So just get the abacus out. Me, zero. Abakai. Is it Abacar? I don't know. Get your Abakai out, everyone.

I scored zero. Harry scored zero. And if you add that to Sam zero, you get zero. Successful weekend. Quick maps. Who wins the Bob? I mean, it's made for a different podcast. Do Sam win?

Yes. If it keeps him happy, should we just say yes? Oh, I've won some. thing. Unbelievable. So, right, because he gets to win the, we won't spoil one. Oh, God.

But we all know that obviously, Ben is one other thing. This could be Harry's ear for teammate wars, all right? It won't be. It won't be. Thanks for being here, Harry.

Cheers. I'm not in here. Let's have a look at driver of the day, worst driver of the day, a moment of the race. Who was your driver of the day, Harry?

Do you know what? I'll give it. to chuckles Lecloxels. I was going to say for Stappen, but he's had loadsies. Boring that, isn't it? Boring. Boring being good.

Don't care about Fangis. It's boring. Yeah, I'll give it to Niclau. There are a few good drives out there. But as I already mentioned, I think Rebore misunderstood Lecler being God Lecler

out there, which I think he was today. So, yeah, I'll give it to Chuckles, Lickricles, whatever it call them. Yeah, I don't know, but who cares anymore, but done. Anything of the season. To driver of the day,

the driver of the day. Yeah, exactly. Good stuff. Who are you going for, Sam? Well, I wanted to give it to Seb as an honorary last one, but I kind of have to now give it to his teammate, Lance Strull, who actually did really well all of a sudden, which is kind of annoying.

Where do he start? 14th, 15th, something like that? and Vettel started, what, eighth, or ninth. So, yeah, Lank's was really good. So I'm actually going to give Lantz strolled driver there, which I never saw coming, personally. No. No, I didn't see that coming either.

I would also give a shout out to Alex Albon because that Williams was, again, pretty awful, and he still managed to beat everyone that he should have beat, and arguably a few people he shouldn't have beat, in terms of the Alpha Romeo's. So I think you did a pretty good job. I would say there are two contenders, the boring option, which is Max Verstappen,

and Lando Norris. Lando Norris kind of did exactly the same thing as Max Verstappen, just in the Formula 1.5 version. I know you say it's a boring choice, but I am a boring person, so fundamentally is being true to myself. I have to go for Max Verstappen there. Okay.

Worst driver of the day, Harry. Look, we've already listened to our submissions and quite a few spoiler alert, giving it to Mick. But I'm going to get for his teammate here, because despite the fact that Mick tried to, well, didn't try, he and Latifie conspired against my bold prediction and got a penalty.

He was still clear of Magnerson. I don't know where Magnuson was till they. Did anything happen to him? Did I miss that? He's still in Brazil. He's still there. She's celebrating. I'm over.

Yeah, he just wasn't anywhere today, was he? It was bad. If there is an excuse to have a one-week hangover, I guess that was probably it. Fair do, fair doves. A few options. Valtry Bottas just finished in Brazil as well, like just didn't bother with Abu Dhabi,

which I can't say blame him, but well done. I would put both house drivers in contention because you're right, Magnuson was absolutely nowhere. And Mick Schumacher, I'm going to have to go back through the archives throughout the whole year. That might be the worst move of the season. That was awful.

It was bad. There's on and then there's not really on and then there's that. That was nowhere near on. Come on. And Latifie was still somehow so far behind everyone and everything even before that happened.

So, uh, what are we going to do next year without Latifi? I genuinely don't know who to go for out of those options. I might agree with you, actually, Harry, because as bad as the Schumacher incident was, Magnuson was still about two years behind him, so we'll go with Magnuson. Sam, worst driver of the day for you?

I'm going to go for a different option. I'm going for Big Pete Gasly. What was he doing today? The man was literally already in the Alpine garage getting himself ready for the next season. He could not be asked today. He jumped in Alonzo's car after he had enough. We may as well, Danny.

We're moving just as fast, the DNF car. Yuki, little Yuki, was almost given the points, of course having his stellar final race of the season, which he always does. And Gazzley was literally at the barbecue cooking up some sausages. What a waste of an evening in that had been. So, yeah, big Pete for worst round the day.

Moment of the race, Harry. I'm going to go, I know it's not the rules, but I'm going to go for a moment of the weekend. Thank you, Your Own Rules. Why not? I'm going to go for Sebastian Vettel's Q1 lap, mainly for Sector 3, when there was the entire F1 field lined up

doing two miles an hour, and the man just kept it pinned. He's like, I don't care. Get out of my way, like. I'm finishing this lap. Also coupled with a Red Bull being in the way at the last corner every time we got on there. Every single time.

So I'm going to go for that, because obviously we haven't given anything to Seb so far, and I thought that was pretty bawlsy stuff from him. In terms of other moments of the race, the Big Shaq appearance of the way. Big Shaq! He looks sloppy! Big Beasel, Shaquillo O'Neal. Hall of Famer for life.

I love the pan to him. He's a little gleed face. I'm like, oh, my car! Yeah, anyway, but my official one, I'll go for the Seb, Seb, Q on lap. I really enjoyed the Shaquille O'Neill mentioned, because he's been at a... couple of US Grand Prix.

And it's been so hype that he's there. He's DJing. He's on the podium. He's entering in this long-hung car. Abu Dhabi, no one has a clue he's there until halfway through. And he's like, you're right? The jack fit. I just love out understates it.

Moved of the race for you, Sam. It's got to be the call-down room where you're sitting there looking. I'm searching at Sergio and Max and they just chatting and we were watching it together and we're like, where is Charles? Is it still taking his time to get there? And this camera goes pans round. So this weird little deck chair in the corner

which is really low and Charles is just there with a carton of apple juice. It's not only in the corner and I'm just like, that was hilarious. So that is not even part of the race but it is my moment of the race. There's two members of the race so far, none of them which happened in the race.

Tell you a lot. Carry on. I'm going to save it. I'm going to include something that actually happened in the race. I have like a guilty conscience when it comes to this that I feel like even though it's already been mentioned, I have to mention it again. I've ripped on Ferrari so often this year

to the point where I don't think I do anything else in my life more frequently than rip on Ferrari. So it's only right that when they do nail a strategic call, I have to highlight it. moment of the race was Ferrari being good at strategy. Well done. Another round of applause. Can we also give an honorable shout out to George Russell's team radio messages?

Yes. They are the longest, most polite thing of all time. You know, I wouldn't mind if you'd like to box in first. I have no problem with that. No problem with that at all. Like, man, drive the freaking car at 200 miles an hour. It's a good point. Yellow flags, George.

Yeah, they're for me, but thank you for letting me know anyway. That's great. So polite. Yeah. We're going to take a short break, but we're going to be back with some Discord submissions for Driver of the Day and Worst Driver of the Day. Will the people agree with us? Find out after this. Loll.

Let's start our Driver of the Day selections. Last one, of course, of 2020. Let's start with Heavy Harve. Moshi-Moshi, late breakers? Heavy hards in Japan for work. It's currently 1145 PM, so I'm just going to record this one quickly. That was definitely the most exciting race of the season, right? I loved how it was exclusively DRS overtakes.

Worst driver of the day, I think I've got to give it to Mick. He literally went out with a bang. Shouted to Latifie for being over two minutes behind Magnuson before he retired. Not sure if he had mechanical issues or not, but whatever. Best drive of the day, got to give it to Chuckie Son, LeClucky Son. It held off just at the end, but realistically, if Perez did, didn't do a two-stop, he probably would have secured P2. Oh well. Cheers, guys.

Love that. Absolutely love that. Let's go to Real Dad and James. This is James. And Real Dad. With the last drive of the day. For the F1, 22 season. My best friend of that is Sir Pasty and Fail, Seb. I'm sorry you didn't win today, mate, but you drove a great race.

Excellent quality yesterday. You showed you still have it. Right now, Gazley is probably firing up the barbecue with some goodbye sausages. My best driver, the show some love for the last time, is Go Tifi. He might be a terrible driver, but everyone in F1 speaks highly of you. See you, mate, and please don't crash as much on the road. And the worst drive of the day. For the season is, of course...

Wait for it. Ferrari! Over net from Real Dad. And James. Guys, you really are the best F1 pork guys there is. Thank you so much. I feel a drive to survive appearance coming up. See you guys.

Bye. Dear real dad. They're so lovely. You're Doug & James. Without a doubt, it's the most wholesome content we put out, and it's not even us. We don't do wholesome. No, no, we don't. Look at us.

We all have the opportunity to give Vettel Driver of the Day or Ricardo. Nah. We're going to analyze the race like boring old men. Boo. Yeah. Let's go to Joy next. Hi, it's Joy. Driver of the day has to go to Sebastian Vettel just because I have a big heart.

And worst drive the day is probably Mick just because of the Latifia move. But out of everyone he hit, it was Latifi, so I guess that's okay. And shout out to the LB boys for making my favorite long-sleeved pink shirt. It's amazing and you made it in my favorite color. Everyone should buy their merch. Oh, and the coffee mug. Oh, late-breaking merch. Tell me more some.

Well, we have a link in the description. There's lots of new designs, including a pink shirt. So, thanks, Joy. Thanks for the plug. Appreciate that. seamless content as usual. Let's go to Raff. Driver of the day, Max first happened.

Worst driver of the day of Valtry-Bautest. Both fair. I didn't know that Skylar did online training courses, but here we are, apparently. The school of audio submissions. Cheers, Skylar. So short and snappy. Speaking of Skyler.

May I ask why you voted Latifie? Was there three? So, he doesn't deserve a participation trophy yeah Vettel deserves to be the driver of the day let's see if he does not thanks Skydad Skydad that's the first time she's not giving it to Landong Orange

yeah is she okay that's very true maybe it's not Skyler after all let's go to Norm from Texas next hey everyone it's Norm from Texas here figured I'd give my driver the day and worst driver the day on this the last race of the season. My driver of the day goes to

Sebastian Vettel, who even got screwed out on strategy but still came in the points. My worst driver of the day is Valtrey. I'm pulling up the rear belt ass. Anyway, I'd just like to say, hey man, thanks for a great season. It was awesome hanging out with y'all

and keep breaking late. Love you, Noel. Cheers, no. Thanks, Tom. Appreciate all. submissions that you put in all year long. Let's go to, let's go to Ross. Okay, it's Ross. Very happy Ferrari fan today. My driver of the day is obviously going to be Charles. He practically made his own strategy call, did a fantastic job holding off Checo. Checo was great too, and so was Seb, honestly, if Seb had been in a different strategy.

And my worst drive of the day has got to be Mick. That was just kind of brutal. Kind of brutal. Come on. I guess he's that slow that people literally forgot he was in the race apparently. It's came out there, not sure. He's in Brazil. Very true. A few more that we can get through. Let's go to the most positive name and a first-time submission from All Good Always.

Highly breaking. My best driver of the day has to go to the man, the legend, Sebastian Vetter. What a race. So many exciting fights. And even though he didn't get on the podium like I would have loved, but that's okay. And even though he didn't get that $12 million overtake over Ricardo, that's okay too. He's not driving for Aston Martin next year, so it doesn't matter. And the worst drive of the day for me has to be his teammate Lance Stroll.

I hope over the break he has some serious reflections, gets a couple of crash courses on how to drive not recklessly, and he doesn't piss off his new teammate Fernando Alonso next year. Love you guys. Love the podcast. Bye. The $12 million overtake sounds like such. a good movie title. That's a great shout. Also, putting a bleep in your first submission.

Respect to that. Yeah, come on. What are you doing? You've come out swinging. Now Harry's got to pay the price. Do you reckon Alonzo was sat in the garage willing Sebastian on? Please give you that 12 mil, Seb.

I need those dollar bills. Yeah, no doubt. Just like hoping Ocon gets overtaken or something. I can't believe I mean. introducing this next, but here we are. It's a wild world. Fool fighters. Lake breaking, you've earned yourself a new subscriber. It's your boy, Mr. Warkin.

So the driver of the day is Sebastian. The man deserves to go out on a bang, and he earns some points. Unfortunately, you know, with Ricardo, he didn't pass, but that's okay. The man's a legend. The worst driver of the day Goes out to Alpine They did my boy, Lonzo,

Oh, wrong I can't wait to see him In a new car next year Shout out Louis Hamilton He deserved to finish that race Can't wait to see him in a new car too Yeah, all right

Let's go You guys, you rock I'll keep listening For now But don't forget it's the foo fighters he started I never thought

doing a Christopher walking impression and talking about the foo fighters with resulting something like that Look at what you started beef Beef Beef Let's play some beef Shall we

I almost forgot Hello Didn't watch the race So lads I'm about to cry over Like all the interviews And stuff With Seb and daddy

Best driver Let's take a guess Seb. Seb. No, Sebb and Daddy got points. They can be joined. Worst driver.

I saw Mick punted to Latifi, so we'll go for that. Hope that there'll be many more submissions available over the winter break so I can keep you all updated. Kisses and cuddles for you all. Bye. Cuddly beef.

Also on that, we will be here all winter break. Just in case you're wondering, we'll be here every single week over the winter. That is a very, very good point. one that I was going to bring up later in the episode as well. But yes, we aren't going anywhere throughout this entire winter break. I'm sure you'll be delighted about that, folks.

That's it for Driver of the Day submissions for 2022. Unbelievable. We'll miss you over the winter, but we won't because we're skill here. Yeah, and also we'll find ways of getting you to submit stuff. Also, if we can actually get Christopher walking on the show, are we very happy? I mean, Dave Benson Phillips turn us down, Sam. I feel like we need to aim lower, not higher. No.

Going for Chris. That's a 23 goal. I've not given up on DBP anyway. Do you reckon we can get home? I'm still going for Keith. Andy man, Keith. Oh, yes. And so lovely.

Andy Keith. I mean, his guy's shirts all right. Oh, he's ripped in, mate. What I'm there. Anyway. Let's move on to. to Sebastian Vettel. We're likely going to spend more time on Sebastian Vettel in the midweek episode because the man's been an F1 for a long time. He deserves a bit of time on this podcast. But

in a race review, we're not abundant in time. So we will at least discuss the Aston Martin situation. We know that Sebastian Vettel was hunting down Daniel Ricardo with a few laps to go in the race. If he makes the overtake happen, Aston Martin beat Alfa Romeo. As it happens, he couldn't quite get it done. and Aster Martin and Alpha Romeo finish level on points, but thanks to a random P5 from Valtrey Botas, Imola, way back in the season, it's Alpha Romeo who finished ahead on countback. Sam, was there anything that Aston Martin could have done here

is it a missed opportunity that they couldn't get one more position in the championship? I mean, we've already discussed the strategy element, haven't we? They were so close together, the different options you could have taken, whether you do the two-stop or the one-stop. And I know that Seb was very disappointing and very confused as to why they had taken the strategy that they had. I think he believes that they really were the only team doing such a two-stop,

such a one-stop rather, and everyone else was two-stopping around them. And you heard them on the radio, what we're doing, we're just, you know, we're a sitting duck. Everyone's just, you know, eating us up going straight past us. Obviously, they were waiting for their window to open. And maybe they could have executed that strategy a little better. You saw how far-Lanked stroll managed to come along in the standings. He'd managed to pick up some good places. He got in front of Ricardo and a few of the others that were around him.

they're also benefited from both the Hamilton and the Monceau, DNF that took place as well. So, yeah, I do think there was room for improvement, but I'm not going to berate them for it, because we saw that the one stop worked. We saw that it was a possible strategy in the way LeClerc executed it. Vessel did a really good job.

He was able to skip with the fights. He was able to defend well from the Alpins. That asked Martin, okay, it wasn't, I'm not going to call it absolutely rapid, but it had pace. It had good ability. seeing both drivers demonstrated that well. I think I'm going to chalk this one up a little bit down to a bit of,

it's just unfortunate. It's just one of those things that it didn't come together for you at the right time. I think they got a little bit lucky. You're Lewis Hamilton D&Fing, actually. They managed to put them in the points as it is. So it was just a bit unlucky. They couldn't get that a little bit closer. And it cost them 12 million smackeroonies.

It's an expensive one to miss out of, but this Formula One, it happens. I think the core issue is they didn't wake up until, August, right? I mean, if they're anywhere in the first half of this season, they've got this position sewn up. And in all honesty, they're probably fighting with McLaren and Alpine. I don't think they would have been far behind if they just got a better start to the year. Remember, early in the year, it was only Williams that were worse than them for a fair few races. At least in relation to this race, Harry, is there anything more Aston Martin could have done to just get heard of Alpha Romeo?

I mean, yeah, but I guess put several on the two stop as well. I was kind of surprised they did it that way around, given the positions of their two drivers. And obviously, it worked well for Stroll. But I'm surprised they didn't try and put Stroll on the one-stop, given that he was 14th or something like that, 13th. And Seb was up in P-8 or P-7 at the time.

So slightly confused on that one. They were the only team that really, really committed to the one-stop. you know they left him out on the mediums there was a great graphic at one point when it was everyone was on hard tires and just Seb left on the mediums he hadn't stopped so they obviously they didn't like half-heartedly commit to this but yeah I think you know hindsight wonderful is a wonderful thing but clearly the two stop

at least in the midfield was the quicker option the racier option you know and Seb was saying I'm just a sitting duck and it must feel horrible when you're just being eaten up up. And they did still stick to the plan. They didn't opt him out of that one stop. But yeah, I'd say looking back, they probably would have said, look, we should have done a two-stop with both here because it was clearly the quicker option in the end. Again, not a lot in it, but because, you know, Vetter wasn't that far behind Stroll. But given, as I said, given where Stroll was for Seb to fall behind him, it's quite painful. It happened last race as well,

didn't it? So, yeah, I think that's probably all they could have done there. And I, and And it was a shame to it because Seb's pace this weekend was pretty. He was on it. He was on it. As I said, in qualifying yesterday, and he was miles ahead of Lance. So that's got to be a painful one. So yeah, they'll look back and say that was a mistake probably. But there's not a huge amount more.

I don't think they could have done. Yeah, I think the core strategy was okay. It was just wrong team, wrong person, wrong situation. It felt like the one-stop was definitely doable, but possibly not in the shoes of Sebastian Bessel. That's not a slight on him. That's more of a slight on the position of the Aston-Martin. So if you look at the frontrunners and you look at Vastappen, you can say, well, the winner of the race was on a one-stop. It's viable.

Vestappen also doesn't need to overtake 10 cars in order to make that happen. Sebastian Vettel basically did. When Vettel came into the pits and he came back out, he was P-19. Now, some of those in front ended up needing to pit themselves, so he didn't need to make the overtake happen, but with a lot of them, he needed to waste tire life in order to get that position. And we saw in the first stint that when he was battling with the Alpins, straight-line speed was the issue. He was able to stay with Ocon and very nearly got past Ocon on one occasion. He was able to stay with him the whole way, but even with DRS, he just, he was powerless to actually

get past Ocon, which was odd, given anyone else who had DRS, it was basically a done deal. So it felt like, just based on what you saw there, okay, the Astomiron looks very quick, but not necessarily in a straight line versus some of the other cars, we've got to prioritize track position. Because if we get trapped position, right, it's likely no one's going to be able to overtake us like in that group. And they went the other way with the strategy. They went completely the different other direction.

where they ask Seb, okay, make these overtakes in order to get back. And I think leaving him out there long enough on the medium tires was fine. They committed to it. They switch over to the hard tires. But by the time he's got up to the back of the top 10 and competing with the likes of Ricardo, he's got a pace advantage, but just not enough to get past. Like he had a tire life advantage on Ricardo, but not enough in order to make the overtake done, which I think was, that was the flaw.

If it was a different car, I think the one stop would have worked in his spot, but I agree with you, Harry. It felt like they did this the wrong way around. Vettel had track position somewhat, okay, not over Ocon, but he had good track position early in this race. He showed in qualifying what he can do. I just think he was probably better served from pitting earlier rather than pitting later. But they had to try something different. They didn't know that Hamilton was going to retire. They didn't know how many points were going to be available to midfield.

drivers. So I can understand them wanting to take a risk. And whilst this probably didn't factor in at all to their decision making, I know Vettel struggled like a sitting duck in the first stint, but giving him some sort of strategic option in his last race where he can make overtakes on those back markers, that's cool. Like he could have had, he could have had a similar race to say Ocon where he finishes pretty well, but doesn't actually do anything in his last race. Again, not going to factor into their strategic decisions at all, but for someone who's driven in F1 for 15 years, I guess it's good that he was able to flex his muscles a bit in his last race. See you, Seb. Oh, Dunker. They've all been saying. Dunkin donuts. Dunkin donuts.

Dunkin' Donuts, yeah, that's definitely what we've just said. Yeah, correct. So what we can conclude is Valtry Bottas is the king. Baldry Bottas. It's all really known. He's done it for Alf Ramayor. Oh, yeah. Well, like early in the season, then just checked out. Yeah.

Well, he did all he needed to do early in the year, and then just, you know, he's resting up for the beginning of next year. He calculated the exact amount of points that he needed. I know he hit that. He went, and I'm done. See, I go. I enjoyed. So he did it work as well for the Constructors' Championship. Yeah.

I enjoyed it at one point today when he was being lapped, and he literally just drove off the circuit to get out of the way. Like, guys, I don't want to be here. I'll get out of the way. Just leave me alone. Who was he trying to battle with at one point where, was it maybe Perez? He was battling with someone and he was absolutely conceiving the position. It was better, wasn't it? It might be, yeah, it might be better.

Where you know it's inevitable that he's getting past. And he still tries to go up the inside and it just goes so hard. Yeah. I appreciate that effort at least. You just kept going, didn't he? He just kept on going. Oh, dear. Yeah, I mean, it's going to hurt Astamine, though, right?

That's a lot of money, it's a lot of dollar to lose out on when, yeah, if they do want to take on Alpine and McLaren next year, which you'd say is feasible, I don't know, maybe that, I know there's a cost cap, but maybe that money hurts them later down the line. Probably they had owners that could pump it full of their own cash. Yeah. Poor old racing pointed administration. Hopefully they get out of it sometimes soon. RIP for S India. RIP Jordan. Enough nostalgia for one topic, I think.

We'll take a short break. We're going to discuss Sines and Hamilton on lap one after this. Final topic for today. We actually thought we were seeing the 2021 race on the first lap because the same thing happened that happened last year. Okay, it wasn't Verstappan and Hamilton this time, but it was signs at Hamilton. Apart from that, carbon copy of their incident going into the chican. Sam, how did you view it? Oh, we were so confused with what was going on when it all happened. We were sat there debating.

So, yeah, obviously, Hamilton seems to be doing this thing where he isn't closing the door. I don't know what that is about is defending these. I don't mean, just can't be bothered. And I can understand entirely why he can't be bothered. But, it does seem to be that he just leaves the door wide open down the inside now. And that's what he did. He left the door wide open and Carlos Signingx comes steaming down the inside. And did he leave Lewis Hamilton a whole car's width of room? I would argue no, although it was very marginal.

And Lewis Hamilton obviously has to rather abruptly bounce over a sausage curb, which looked like if it was a big of backbreaker coming back down on that one, and it was really quite painful. Anyway, so at that point, the FIA bring up one alert that goes, Carlos Sikes noted for forcing a car off the track, no action taken. Lewis Hamilton give the place back. And you're thinking,

what? I'm so confused. So they decided that Carlos Sites wasn't wrong, and Lewis Hamilton was wrong, and they changed their mind. It was all very confusing. I actually think they left it exactly as it was. That was the ruling they gave last year.

They gave it Lewis Hamilton giving any places back or give any advice or giving places back, whereas this year they kind of left it to the teams and Mercedes said give the place back. for me, Carlos Sainzky got really leaving off racing room at that point, and I think that Hamilton rejoining back in front of science was completely fine, and they could live both live on to battle another day on the next corner or whatever it might be. But they gave the place back, and if that's what Mercedes wanted to do, then all right. But it was a very confusing series of

events. Harry, I don't know what you thought about it, but for me, it was a really, the alerts coming up. It was very difficult to follow accurately what was the right procedure and who was doing the right thing? Yeah, I guess they did sort of follow it in the right order because the first thing they noted, as you say, was that forcing another driver off the track. And I guess once they made that decision that that hadn't happened or no action needed, then they've got to look at the other thing, which is did Hamilton get an advantage by leaving the track?

Now, I'm not saying that's right, but I guess in that sense, they did follow the right order of events. But yeah, like you say, it was an odd one. I just think Hamilton doesn't like doing that corner. He didn't like doing many corners today. How many track limits things did he get? It's like, oh, whatever, I don't care. You've got a black and white flag.

Exactly. Yeah, it was a messy one. It was less marginal than it was with Verstappen last year, as in I think science gave him slightly more room, but then... It was still minimal. The Stappan gave him no room last year. So, yeah, Hamilton could have maybe hung it around the outside,

but didn't. I don't know. It was messy. It wasn't, the FIA didn't even ask him to give the place back. That was a Merck call. But then right after that, there's a note that came up saying the FBI didn't investigate it any further.

And now I don't know if that's because they gave the place up. I don't know if that's related. But it was a messy. It was a messy. And that just says everything, isn't it? The fact that it was this messy from everyone involved, when there's no authority and there's no understandable direction to going,

just says everything you need to know about the state we're in. with these will to all races and battles and gaining advantage using how the FIA sanction who's right or wrong. And the fact that we had exactly the same incident, basically, like I said, it's maybe slightly less marginal, but the same thing happened last year, and we had none of this. Yeah. So what, which ones, where are we?

Which one's right? What's the right way to do it? Because I don't think we know. I would argue, I agree with you that it was more marginal this year versus last year, I would say that regardless whether it's a tenth of a car or an eight-tenth of a car gap that you're leaving, if you stay in the throttle and if Hamilton stays in the throttle, there's a crash. It doesn't matter. It could be marginal, but the end result would still be the same. There would be contact if Hamilton doesn't take evasive action. So I think if it's

less than a car's width, that's the issue. It can be nine-tenths, one-tenths, anything. anything in between. I think you get the same result. I wasn't going to mention this at all, mainly because I'd completely forgotten about it until you said something, Harry, about him, just not liking that chican? Do you remember Alonzo's first retirement race at Abu Dhabi, where he just didn't do that chican? Like, about three times in the closing laps. I can't remember who was chasing down. He just didn't bother. I almost respect it. Every year we turn out, we know he's not going to do it. I just love that.

I have to say, I mean, this proper winds me up, actually. Oh, no. It proper does wind me up because I'm sick of it. I'm sick of it. I was sick of it last year and I'm sick of it this year. If you want to throw a move up the inside of a corner, leave racing room for the other driver who's defending. Because if you don't, if you do go with what the FIA have said here,

it doesn't send off the right message. It's just basically saying, throw your car up the inside, don't leave any space for the other driver, force him off track, and that's fine. You can keep the position. That's not racing. Racing is where you leave both cars enough room to operate, and you get it done on pure pace.

I don't know what mess. You are basically saying with this ruling, FIA, Frederigian Anderson, that at any point you want to make a move, chuck it up the inside, don't care about the other driver, don't care about leaving any room because you're in the right, because you've thrown it up the inside. I don't like that.

I don't think that's the way it should be. I agree with you, Sam. I think it should have been left the way that it is. If you force a driver wide, I'm trying to think of a PG way to say this. Just tough poop. Like, that's tough poop. Get that on one of our social quotes.

They're walking. It's in context. Just tough food. That's the way it is. Like, if you don't want them to keep the position, don't force them off the track. And we had the same thing last year. And of course, Frederic Ian Anderson, FIA, coming along with great consistency, last year it was determined that Hamilton didn't have to give the place back,

but not because he was in the right, but because he had given up enough of the time that he had lost, or some really rubbish answer like that. Here it was determined that no, that time isn't enough, you also have to give the place back. So that's great. That makes sense. Carlos Sites also had an absolute earful for the radio, didn't he? He's done it again.

He's done what he did to Vestappen, like Carlos Sites was the man who was literally on board the cars watching while it happened last year. I'll tell you what, I would agree with what you said, Sam, in terms of Lewis Hamilton's defence, because I don't understand as well why he just wouldn't cover off the inside here, because there are some corners where it actually might make sense to try and hang it around the outside. Here, you know that that chicane is just

a springboard down the next straight, right? You want to position your car perfectly to make sure that you're not getting overtaken into that corner, but more importantly, you're not getting overtaken into the next corner, the long sweeping left hander. So if you're on the inside there, you can stay on the inside and then have the best exit possible as you go out of the shaghan. came. If you're on the outside there, even if Hamilton made the corner, right, he's still tucked up on the inside of that corner horribly to the point where he hasn't got any momentum to go down that straight. So I don't understand why he didn't cover up the inside either. But also, FIA saying that they'll just let teams decide it and won't get involved.

And then... That is the worst ruling ever. That's like when two kids get annoyed at each other in the playground, just let him fight out, now work it out between them. No, parents, you need to step in and do your job now. At least if you're going to put that rule in, though, stick by it. And I agree with you, Sam, but if you're going to put the rule in, at least like, I don't know, go by the rule. Yeah.

And they were just, no, okay. You want consistency from the FIA, Ben. Yeah. You, man. You know what they are consistent at being inconsistent, though. They nail that every single race. I gave him a compliment about something on the last race review, didn't I? So this felt destined to happen.

I've spited us. Oh, I've burps now while talking that's unfortunate. Good. I think that's the best way to end the podcast. In the 20-23 season with a belch. Sorry, I tried to keep it in, but when you're talking, you really, it was hard.

Before I hand over to Sam to sign us off, as Sam has already mentioned, we're not going anywhere throughout the whole of the off-season, so keep a lookout. We'll still be here every single Wednesday, There'll be some Sunday episodes as well. And also we're doing a quiz in our Discord. So that's as good a plug as any for the Discord.

There's a link in the description. When is it happening? Saturday the 9th of December, I think. Yeah, that's it. 10th of December, 8pm GMT, so British time. It's a good hour of fun. We've done a few of them before to get involved in that one. But Sam, if you wouldn't mind getting us out of here.

For one final time, folks, thank you so much for joining in with the content. this season, your support has meant the world to the three of us. And the growth we've seen over the year. It's been spectacular. And that is all down to you, sharing it, listening in, being very loyal. We really, really, really appreciate that. As Ben said, sit around for the whole winter.

We'll have lots of different content. It'll be a lot more loosey-goosey. You know, we have some quizzes. We've got some game stuff. We have some debate stuff going on. And then we've got some really fun stuff after New Year's as well, all about the new season. What we like to call Pimp by F1, which isn't the official name. where we rate all the liveries that are coming out,

teammate wars, we've got both the review and the new year, teammate wars are come. The LB's Clives is going to be coming out for those one-time appearing, special guest drives. And of course,

you get to vote on your late-breaking Hall of Fame entry as well. So, lots to do over the winter. Don't go anywhere. Stick around. Thank you so much again for your support. Loads of links in the description.

Patreon with benefits. You get Agri Podcast, extra special topics, which are coming out very soon because November is starting to be. run out. Merch is there as well and, of course, the Discord. And then follow us on social.

Twitter as they were breaking, Instagram's late breaking up on podcast. And so is TikTok, because we're down with the kids. In the meantime, I've been Samuel Sade. I've been Ben Hocking. And I've been Harry Ead. And remember, keep breaking late. Tough poop.

Cast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.