The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2022 Emilia Romagna GP Review

Episode Date: April 24, 2022

The boys review Round 4 of the 2022 F1 World Championship from a wet/dry race in Imola as Max Verstappen takes a dominant win, after title-rival Charles Leclerc spins out of a podium spot. 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 E, Sam Sage, and me, Ben Hocking, reviewing the Imola Grand Prix today after a win from Max Verstaff. It was the quote-unquote perfect weekend for Max Verstappen. He took the race win, got the fastest lap, and got the eight points that is given out for the winner of the sprint race on Saturday.

Helps him out a lot in the championship, whereas Charles Clare only able to claim P6 after a late spin. What did you make of that one, Sam? I mean, oh my God, my voice is going already. It's a good start. Welcome, welcome, folks, for the podcast. I hope you enjoyed the Imla Grand Prix. It was definitely one that looked like it was going to deliver more than it promised

when you think of mixed weather conditions, a slippy track, how much drama we saw across the spring in qualifying. You thought, hello, we're in for a bit of a belter here. And it definitely fizzled. But this, it's not disaster for Charlerclair. It's not disaster for Max for Stuffing. It's just the beginning of what we're going to see a lot of across this season, I think. It is going to be drivers having big moments, drivers having mistakes, drivers having possible

race deciding incidents. And I really respect the way Shelner-Cla kind of went, you know, everything to the wall, away we go, I'm going to risk it all right now. And he really didn't need to, but he just thought, I'm doing it, doing it for the viewers, of doing it for the Tofosi watching. You know, I don't need to risk anything at all, actually. I was quite comfortably sat in third. and I thought for one extra fastest lap point, I'll really go for it.

I'll really put my foot down here. And it really, really backfired on him. And I'm not a disasterly worrying about Charlerclair here. He is not the driver on the grid that I think, like, one mistake, we're going to now see a trend of this. We're going to now see him struggling race to race. He won't go get back on the horse or the planting pony, so to speak, to try and get himself to the back, to the front of the grid. But this has been absolutely phenomenal for Red Bull, for Stuppings. for Sergio Perez, the fact they were to secure.

And correct me, stat man, professionally, please. Correct me if I'm wrong. Was this actually their only, only their second one-two since 24? That is mind-blowing. That is genuinely one of those baffling statistics. I think I've heard, at least today, if not the last few weeks. I'm flabbergasted. So this has been fantastic for them.

They cannot have asked for a better comeback. we said in the race preview podcast as well that reliability is definitely helpful. Consistency is great, but you want to have a fast car to do so. And Christian Hall has been quoting saying he'd rather make a fast car reliable, rather make a slow car fast. And it looks like today they were able to do exactly that. They made the fastest car of the weekend, one of the most reliable cars of the weekend, and finished with the perfect point scoring position.

So brilliant for Red Ball. It's great to see we've got a title fight on our hands properly. Constructors, I think, is what, nine or 11 points separating now as well, so that can very quickly flip and change. I'm very happy about it. It was a bit of drama, gutting for shale, but hey-ho, he'll learn, and it's great to see that the

championships have brought back together, only four races in. So, despite it got being the most exciting Grand Prix of all time, in terms of the championship, it's going to spice things up. I'm enjoying that very much. I thought that intro was never going to end, Sam. That was

a little bit. You're excited. It's an hour of just Sam talking. Oh, very valid point, so the main takeaway for me is return of the cool down room. Hell yeah. Just getting more of that, my life. I know it's not been there because of COVID, but yes. Good.

Bantle all around. Potential spoiler there for a moment of the race coming up. But yeah, you're absolutely right about this. one. It felt like that flaky friend who was always late to something where like the clouds were like 30 minutes away and then 15 minutes later, they were still 30 minutes away. And then those dark clouds were just were just there and nothing happened. But yeah, we've got a lot to discuss. We're going to be looking at McLaren versus Mercedes and whether that's a battle that's going to emerge for P3 in the championship. Of course, Mercedes are there at the moment, but McLaren are making

and good progress. Ross Braun had some comments about George Russell's comments about the sprint race. So we'll be discussing that one later on. And also Imler generally, you know, how it performed in this new era of cars. Driver of the day, worst driver of the day coming up. We've got some fan submissions on that one as well. Some genuinely interesting ones coming up. I won't say any more than that for the time being. But we will start out front because Max Verstappen after overtaking Charles Leclair in the sprint race started from pole, got a great getaway and had that Perez buffer all the way throughout the race was never really troubled, let's be honest. Harry, what did you make of Vastappen's performance?

Do you think Charles LeClaire would have challenged him, if not for the poor start? Yeah, I think this was very typical Vostappen, wasn't it? this is sort of the ruthless consistency we came to, you know, we got used to last year. Yeah, it was fairly clinical, apart from the bad start yesterday, i.e. Saturday with the sprint race, I don't think you really put much of a foot wrong this weekend. And in all honesty, I'm not sure Leclair would have actually had the pace, even if you had got past Perez, I think if you look at the pace for Stappen had yesterday in the end in the sprint race, I think he probably had Leclair covered on pace this weekend.

But that's an entirely good thing for the championship, I think. Because I think, you know, we may be slightly worried after Australia that Ferrari might go and run away with this one because it was pretty dominant from Leclair there. So, yeah, it's really nice to see Vestappen take the win here, even if maybe Leclair made that gap slightly smaller than it should be. But yeah, I'm very impressive. with with with with with with step and i think it was after what it's been a slightly troubled start

to his year i know he's taking a win but obviously the two dnfs and you know i think it's slightly fair to say he's not been quite as happy with the cars he'd like to be um yeah today was much more typical typical vastappan um yeah a pretty pretty great performance all around from him and those sorts of conditions they just suit vastappen right down to the ground it's not like he's slow when it's dry. I'm not saying that, not by a long shot, but certainly in those mixed conditions when rain becomes a factor, there's very few drivers on the grid that can compete with him. You know, you'd put Lewis Hamilton in a similar category and the likes of Russell and Norris and, you know, the Astor Martin guys, they're generally pretty good in those wet conditions.

But Vestappen and probably Hamilton are a league above in that respect. And with Hamilton's struggles with, you know, not only his car, but also his own performances recently, this did seem like a bit of a cakewalk for Max Vastappen. Certainly helped by the fact that Perez got a good start to the race, and LeCleur definitely did not get a good start to the race. And I think that was the decider. I think in, you know, Charlotte, Claire would have got much closer if he had stayed ahead of Perez at the start.

I don't actually think he would have challenged him. I think Vestappen would have been able to hold him off quite comfortably. But yeah, it was almost a foregone conclusion because we know that Perez, whilst he's made good gains this year, and I think he had an all right race overall, he hasn't got the pace to contend with Vastappen in most conditions, let alone these conditions. And really he was averaging about a quarter of a second slower per lap, which isn't disastrous from Perez's side, but also fairly comfortable from Vestappen. And Vestappen has that buffer because he knows that Perez isn't going to,

even if he does get close, he's not going to try anything stupid. He might not try anything at all. So, yeah, I think the staff had did fantastically well. Never really in danger. You know someone's had a good race when you don't see him. Because if you don't see a driver for the entire Grand Prix, it's because they've been so dominant to the point where there's been nothing to show. And I think he did very well.

He'd have been glad that there weren't any safety cars towards the end of the Grand Prix because that's something that we saw last year where these, massive gaps that drivers had were completely eroded in the last few laps of the year. I remember, I think it was Lando Norris that had, sorry, Charles LeClaid, a massive advantage over Lando Norris, I think it was, and then it was completely evaporated as a result of a safety car last year. So Vastappen would have enjoyed not having that sort of jeopardy, but he was tremendous. Leclair probably would have got closer than Perez was, but I don't think he was challenging him. And we'll discuss the Leclair spin in a little bit.

Sam, Vastappen's performance from your side? I mean, I discussed three quarters of it in my hour-long intro, so I'll keep it relatively scathing. But, yeah, no, Bastapen was phenomenal. It's what you come to expect from a Formula One world champion when he's giving a car that is capable of winning races. And it looks like he felt comfortable with it. We didn't really hear a single complaint over the whole weekend of a worry

about the reliability, which is exactly what we want with a title challenger. And as you said, it was a cakewalk. He kept the speed up high. Perez isn't ever going to challenge him. But Perez is doing exactly what Red Bull need him to do. He is being employed to run that second spot. He's been employed to be the Minister of Mexican Defence. And he is delivering that job role to the team.

You can't fault what Perez did in that race. He moved up the grid. He got through the traffic that was in front of him. And once he's the second place, he stayed there. and he put up a stout defence keeping Charles LeClerre behind. So, yeah, Vestappling had everything going his way, maximise every single point possible, and I applaud it.

It was great to see, and I hope that LeCler can get back on the horse, as I've already said once already in my four-hour-long intro, and can continue to deliver a title fight between the two because they seem very evenly matched spread across different areas of different circuits. So we might see another repeat of the Hamilton-Vostappen incident last year, as we see with Leclair of Zastappen, this year, if it goes down to the wire again for two years in a row, I'm loving it. Stappen, absolutely dominant. They're a fantastic job. It's what you've come to expect of the Dutchman.

I mean, we're only four races into the season, but this has to go down as Lecler's toughest race must far, given he's won two and finished second at the other one. It's not too difficult to be the worst one. But, you know, he had a sprint race where he was overtaken by Vestappen, had a terrible start where he had to drop down. a couple of positions. Made his way past Norris and onto the back of Perez, but he did have that spin when in P3. Whether he would have got P2 or not is kind of irrelevant. He's lost points regardless of whether he would have made that move because of the pit stop that had to follow. Ended up recovering back to P6 on fresh tires, but naturally this is a bit of a dent. McClure had such a margin that it's still, I think, 27 points between him and Vastappen in the

in the championship fight, but it's still quite a margin. So, Harry, are you concerned at all by Leclair's spin out there today? A little bit. And I don't think, I'm not saying it's going to start happening every race, but I think it's slightly worrying when it was really, he wasn't under pressure, was he? It was very unforthed. I know he was putting pressure on himself because he wanted to try and catch Perez for P2.

but as we've seen with Vastappan last year and the lights of Hamilton in the previous years it's the consistency of scoring good points that wins you a championship and Lechler you know come the end of the season could really rue this because it was such an unforceed mistake so yeah it's a little concerning you know Lechler doesn't need to be told that it was a it was a mess up by him and no one else I'm sure he's fully aware of that but he can't afford to be doing that too often, especially when Vostappen is out front, picking up maximum points from a weekend.

He needs to at least make sure he's picking up a sensible amount, even if that does mean settling for P3 or P2. Sometimes you just got to take the L on weekends like that and pick up the points you need rather than going for a position that maybe the car's not capable of.

So, yeah, I'm not overly concerned, but you know, it shows that this is to look at us first. title fight, isn't it really in F1, I should say. And, you know, he can't afford to make the, can't afford to drop the ball like that too often this year because we know how consistent for Sappan can be. And it's through reliability issues alone, really, that Lecler is probably still holding on to that championship lead. So, yeah, it's, I'm not overly concerned, but he, he needs

to cut that out. Yeah, I don't think we were ever under any illusion that Leclair was going to go through this season without error. We knew that the first three races of the season were spectacular from Lecler. He was brilliant. But ultimately, you can't keep up that level of consistency for 64 races, which is the length of this season. So he had to, you know, something, I can't remember the exact number. But, you know, he, so we knew that there were going to be drops in the performance somewhere

and there were going to be errors here or there. but to your point, Harry, the Stappen so limited in terms of the number of errors that he makes that you can't afford many of them and you are probably relying on unreliability from the other team if you do start to make these errors every four races. Really, he probably can only afford this sort of thing every, I'd say probably every seven or eight races rather than every four races

because of just how consistent Max Verstappen is. Bear in mind that Max Verstappen has, when he's finished a Grand Prix, been in the top two, pretty much consistently for like a year and a half now. It is utterly bonkers his track record. So he's going to have to step up. I'm not overly worried by this. You know, the conditions weren't great. I'm not saying everyone was sliding off the road, of course, but he, it was a poor error, but ultimately he knows it's his fault. And I don't necessarily think this is the start of a pattern. Just needs to make this is a very isolated, limited incident.

I have to make the decision as to whether he is demoted from his status of God Leclair back down to Moses Leclair. And I can't quite decide. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. I'm going to keep him a God LeClair, just because of how good the first three races were. But he's on Finn Ice, is that boy. Finn Ice.

Sam, what did you make a Lecler spin? Hey, look, even written in the history book, God makes mistakes and that man was never taking off his title. So we'll let him have the one-off, I think. I think that's a fair call. He's honing us. So, yeah, I mean, the first point I kind of want to speak to is the point that you guys have raised is how regularly can you make these kind of mistakes? How regularly are you allowed to in a title fight?

And I wouldn't say he got lucky at the start of this season by his closest title challenges. You know, both Red Balls have had at least one DNF, a staple of two. Carlos Sites has now had two D&Fs and you think what a gift what a gift to have the fastest car and for everyone around you to have at least one major issue in your

plane sailing you can afford to be safe you can afford to be calm and I'm quite disappointed in how he conducted himself at the last little bit of the race it was disappointing he's come out in the interviews after the race and said I got greedy and I think that that

shows you that he is in his first title fight. It shows you his inexperience when it comes to bringing home the points and it shows you just how good Bastappen, Hamilton have been previously when it comes to consolidating racetracks that aren't either their best performance or the car isn't up to scratch or they're just having a slightly bad day. The fact that Hamilton and the Stappen will come home in first or second in previous years and they'll go, that was a rubbish day for me. The car wasn't good. Still brought 18 points home. He'll got 15 points home. I only lost five in the overall championship.

That is what is the making of a champion. And the cluel is going to lose, what? 10, 11 points with the fastest lap. That's okay. Well, you've got over a 40 point gap, and the person winning the race isn't even the guy in second. You've got such a buffer there that you can go, I'll get a back off.

This is treacherous. We've got five laps to go. It is not worth me risking another 10, 15, 20 points. You don't know how many you're going to lose when you hit the war. We're going out of that race. What if you're broken his suspension? And he finished with no one. point.

See you're throwing away a huge gift back to Red Bull. So this, I think, was really poor from Charlotte. And I think it will be an isolating instinct. But I think you can only do this once a season. I don't think you can get it every six or seven races. I think if you want to be the league of a championship, you want to have control over the championship, you want to make the most of other people's misfortune, which you need to do in a sport like Formula One, he can't throw it into the barrier in five races

time again, because that will bring the Stappen immediately back into the five. It will gift Red Bull and possible advantage are constructed as well and Ferrari, who we've been giving so much praise to, immediately come under threat

and they panic and they struggle and it's that when we start to see the big mistakes creeping again with strategy with pit crews. You know, these things start to unfold when there's panic.

So this wasn't good enough from Charlotte, Claire, you expect more, I expected better and I was quite disappointed because other than that, I would have been more than happy for Charles to finish you third

and you think, fair, everyone has a great race, got everyone is able to consolidate everything all the time. Third place, you're still digging the championship by an absolute bucket load. Good job, fair enough. But he threw it away.

It was greedy, it was unnecessary and it needed to get that out of his system. Just on the Ferrari panicking, really enjoyed Plan D coming back into the four today. See? They start not leading the race, and here's where Plan D and Plan G plus seven laps starts to come in.

We're back, baby. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Charlotte Clair picked up eight points from the race itself with P6, but that's eight points more than Carlos Seines picked up from the race, whose race lasted even somehow less than his race in Australia that lasted. It was just one corner this time out. He had a crash with Daniel Ricardo that was ultimately put down as a racing incident. Sam, did you agree with that decision from the stewards?

Well, lap one, anything goes right. We could literally set dynamite along half of the track and blow it up and then let them drive around it. And your class is a racing incident, no problem. Get on with it. Get on with it. That's what the skewigs like to do when it comes to get that one. It was tough because Carlos Sykes, I feel, was not at fault at all. And I feel like a racing incident typically is, it's a bit clumsy, it's a bit messy.

And I guess that's what this is. I'm leaning to the blame being mostly put on Daniel Ricardo by quite a bit. Scytes left the door quite nicely open. There was definitely spaced. And everyone else made it through turn one, probably too wide for the most part. So I don't see why Ricardo couldn't it as well. So I probably, if I had to go one way or the other, I'm more a five second time penalty for Daniel Ricardo for this.

And obviously, folks, if you are new to the podcast, typically we will like to give penalties out if we do so based on the inkling itself, not what the, you know, the replications are of the existence. Obviously, science was D and the race. We saw about the instinct, how malicious it was, how silly it was. That's how we tend to give out our penalties here. I would probably have given it a five second time penalty. It was clumsy.

The contact was unneeded. Ricardo was definitely in the wrong for it. But I'm not going to completely disagree with the racing incident. But for me, I probably would have preferred to have seen a time penalty applied to Daniel Ricardo. Harry, I mean, we heard on British commentary that both Paul de Rester and Nico Rosberg agreed with the decision to leave this as a racing incident. Would you have also left this as a racing incident or do you agree with some? Yeah, I think I would leave it as racing incident. I think it's definitely Ricardo's fault, but it's it wasn't, and I think maybe they brought

this up in commentary, it wasn't like Ricardo had gone absolutely steaming into the corner and punted signs off. It was clumsy, but I'm really unfortunate for signs. But yeah, even though I would obviously put the blame on Ricardo, I think racing incident is fair, especially. I don't know we makes fun of the lap one. Anything goes rule, but considering it was lap one in the rain, first corner, heavy cars, etc. Yeah, I think the decision, the Stewart's decision was the right one.

And I know that sucks for signs. And obviously, Ricardo didn't exactly have a great race after that anyway, but he at least was still in it. But yeah, I think I would agree with their decision on this one. But it's unfortunate, because I think signs, I know he had the unforced there. in qualifying on Friday, but he I think recovered well in the sprint.

I could have been right in that mix during the race as well. So, whereas Melbourne was completely his own fault, this one, he didn't really do much wrong. Yeah, a really tough one for Carlos signs, regardless of whether Ricardo got a penalty or not, it doesn't really change the result for him.

And ultimately, he's got some work to do, and you're right, obviously, the Australia one was more self-inflicted, this one is more unfortunate. If we've got Harry Paul de Rester and Nico Rosberg is the ultimate trio on one side, I'm sure everyone is clambering for that to be a trio at some point in their lives. It's myself and Sam on the other side,

and I feel like we can take it. We're outnumbered here, Sam, but, you know, quality over quantity and all that. Come on, Paul, we're all right. And I shout louder than all of them, so don't worry about it. Exactly. And I know Harry's not preparing for the fight, and I will. So, yeah, we're going to be all right. I agree with you that I think this should have been a five second penalty.

I really think it's as simple as Ricardo drove into Carlos Sines, and that is worthy of a penalty. And what you're saying, I feel like what you're saying, and I know you're right in terms of it wasn't malicious from Daniel Ricardo in any way, and it was more down to the conditions of the track rather than the move that Ricardo was making. I'm just worried about what message you're sending by not penalising this. in that Carlos Sines decided to, quite bravely, go around the outside of Daniel Ricardo, try and make it work.

By not penalising Ricardo, what are you then saying to Sines? Are you saying, well, Ricardo doesn't deserve a penalty for that? So I'm Carlos Sines. Should I have backed off and not tried that? Should I have just let him go because he was on the inside? And if you're not penalising that, then I feel, I think it's tough in terms of the messaging. So I know it was first corner. I know it wasn't malicious.

The result was the same regardless, to be honest. But yeah, I would have given, it's not like this should have been a stop go or anything ridiculous like that, but I do think this should have been a five second penalty for Ricardo. I think also, sorry, Ben, just to interrupt with you, something that I think jumps onto what you're saying is a key viewpoint. And Crofty, to be fair, really have at this time. I think he did a good job of hammering it home. Well done, Crofty.

is that with the new rule book that we've got, seriously, an actual serious compliment to Mr. Croftey, well done. It's that when a driver is in front for a corner, which Sykes was at that point, is their corner at that point. It's the other car that has to be the one that is careful, the one that lines where the other team is, you know. So I think Sykes had the corner of his corner, it was at front at the time. So the fact that Ricardo and then just went straight to the sign of him,

it's just, yeah, right. A penalty seems like the fair. And repeatable action, instead of picking and choosing what one is a penalty or what one is it? Because what happens if on lap 30, someone gets bopped in the side, Stauffin gets bopped in the side by Lecler, let's say. Is that now a penalty? Because it's from the race stage. We get to this point of debate again of are certain incents worth more than others,

which I don't think is something we should have. Yeah, I think that's fair. And there's no way to know, but it would be really interesting to find out what the decision would have been if Daniel Ricardo had stayed in P4, P5, and Carlos Sines was still in the race, but down in like P17, would they still have not penalised it? Because by our logic of how penalty should be divided out,

the answer should be yes. You should apply the penalty regardless of what the outcome is. But I don't know. I don't know whether they work in that same way. Me, me, Nika, Rosberg and Puerto Rico are going to start a rival podcast where I just watch them a bit, abuse each other because they don't like each other and that's that's the whole

podcast. The sad thing is that would that would outdo us quite comfortably. Yeah, yeah. I'm also tuning to that one. I don't even listen to our own podcast, so. God, no, I wouldn't listen to this. Jeez. I have to listen. I have to listen to things.

Plenty of better ones out there, folks. God. Good stuff. Sure. Sure you go on to our own driver of the day and worst driver of the day because we've also got some submissions from our Discord to get through as well. So if you want to be on, if you want to be on the podcast, get in touch of us on the Discord after a race. We open up for about 20 minutes or so where you can, there's a window where you can get your audio submissions

in because we do record pretty much straight after the race, letting us know your driver of the day and worst driver of the day. But we'll start with Harry. Driver of the day, please. I'm going to go for Mr. Lando Norris. And obviously, for Staffman fans, don't come after me. he had a fantastic race obviously and is also very worthy of this accolade but i just thought norris had an impressive weekend overall to be honest because i don't think and we're going to come on to maclaren i'm not sure that maclaren is deserving of a podium yet but norris was kind of just in his own little league for the entirety of the race and i know he was gifted the podium by lecler binning it but got to be in it to win it and all that and anyway yeah i think is his

his performance in collie, initial collie, and even the sprint race was really good too. So yeah, going to give it to Lano Norris because I don't think that McLaren deserve to be on a podium yet. Yeah, I was upping and Norris as well. I actually went the other way with it. I said Max Vastappen on this one.

But, I mean, the reasoning is pretty much exactly what you said. Max Vastappen was fantastic, as was Lando Norris. But it would have been interesting to see, as we sort of introed here, what Lecler could have done if he was in a better position after the start, but ultimately he wasn't. And that's not Vastappan's problem.

So, yeah, he dominated this, did not look like losing. I will give a shout out, though, to Yuki Sanoda. I think he did a very good job out there today. And based on what he did last year at Imola, if you remember, he had that, he had a big crash in qualifying.

It feels like he's making progress, put it that way. So a shout out for him. All of Famer, of course. Driver of the day from you, Sam. We regularly say that some races have only one clear option And some races have multiple options And this race was a multiple option race for sure

Max Lando George Russell in P4 Valtrey Bottas Absolute. Uki Sengoda was also brilliant Sebastian Vessel in the points Only on his second race back You know, it was great to see from him I'm going to go with the Staffen When someone is that dominant

With someone is that clear of everyone else It's hard not to But I do think that all those other games deserve a mini shout-out because we had some really phenomenal drives and I think what was quite difficult conditions to make moves to kind of get yourself in your own little spot.

So, well done to a few of those in the top ten. I'm sure they'll appreciate my congratulations. I'm sure they're really pat themselves on the back now but there were some really good drivers this weekend. Absolutely. And if any Vastappan fans don't agree with Harry's suggestion, he has told me just to get in touch with him on Twitter. He enjoys that sort of that banter.

worst driver of the day who have you got who have you got harry no I didn't I didn't drive I wasn't there worst of the day I am and it hurts my soul to do it but I have to give it to Mick Schumacher

because after what was quite an encouraging weekend for him all went to pot on lap one when he spun all by himself into Fernando Alonzo's side pod knocking Alonso out the race and then just proceeded to have the most horrendous afternoon ever well, one of the most horrendous afternoons ever.

Yeah, it wasn't great. I know that Hass race pace is a bit of a weird one, which always seems to happen with Hasp. But yeah, we saw KMAG slightly struggle during the race too, although I guess he was slightly out of position. But yeah, Mick was not anywhere near him, unfortunately. So sorry, Mick. I still love you.

Yeah, I've gone back to Sam's point of driver of the day having multiple options. I feel like worst driver of the day has multiple options as well because Mick Schumack is definitely in there. Lewis Hamilton out of the nightmare of the day, obviously well outside of the points and 10 positions lower than his teammate. Nicholas Latifi, I think I've given it to him every single race weekend so far this season. He was again a long way behind his teammate. But he's been saved.

He's been saved as Nicholas Latifi on this occasion. I'm going to go with Joe Guan Yu, because at least in the case of Latifi, it's not like Album was able to do much in his Williams other than hold off everyone else. He wasn't scoring points. He wasn't up there like Bottas was for Alfa Romeo. Bottas was there in P5, very nearly got P4 at the end.

Joguan Yew was never in contention for any points, let alone big scoring ones. So a tough race for him. Sam, worst driver of the day. Two games to me that really stand out. Daniel Riccardo with an absolute horror show of a first lap and then just considering that Lando Norris is able to being his own little world and finish on the podium

and he made no inroads at all on anyone around him. It was absolutely shocking. But there is a certain driver on the track that I hold to a higher standard than anyone else. And when you come home, 10 places behind your teammate, when you can't find a way past Gassley and Album and the rest of the grid are making overtakes, you are by far the worst try of the day.

Lewis Hamilton has admittedly said himself he is out of the title fight. There is no chance that he's getting back into this one. This was possibly one of the worst outings I've ever seen for Lewis Hamilton. It was an absolute clangor, absolute shocker. So for me, yeah, seven-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton, worst crime of the day.

You can come and join me in me, Nico, and pull the rest of the podcast. I'm all right. I'm all right. Thank you. Cheers. Well, that's more typical classic British bias there from Sam. But he's gone with Lewis, Hamilton.

No, no, it's all right. Well, there we go. Should we do moment of the race before we get into some of the fans of missions on driver of the day and worst driver of the day? Moment of the race from you, Sam. It wasn't a great race across the whole thing, was it? It wasn't thrilling for a lot of the race. might leave the obvious one to one of you two if you want to talk about Charlotte Claire absolutely destroying the barrier.

I'm going to go, a moment of the rest, very British, moment of the race, more British bias here, from a British man. I'm going to talk about Paul de Rester and Crofti discussing how angry they are that the DRS hasn't been activated. Human, absolutely human. They were, oh, never heard them so irate about Shouts at Cloud. Yeah, oh, activate the DRS for the DRS for the DOR. does get

activating. It comes up on the screen, DRS activating and Crofty goes, ha, it should say eventually at the end

of that, all right, lads, you're just commentators? But it was quite amusing, these old angry men shouting at the television screen. Oh, we want a spectacle.

Put on the DRS. Quite enjoyed how annoyed they got over something so small. So for me, yeah, that was actually the moment of the race.

Says a lot about what's happening on track, though. I'm stuck between two here and I might leave one of them because Harry might well have got this for his. So I'm going to go, I'm cheating on mine because it was a moment of the race. It was moment of the, it was moment of the sprint race.

It happened yesterday. But it's also related to David Croft because, as we all know, Ricky Wilson. Oh, my God. Ricky Wilson is the lead singer of the Kaiser Chiefs. Apart from David Croft doesn't. And David Croft is a good friend with him, but doesn't know his surname, apparently. He was just, he named drop someone that wasn't, no disrespect to Ricky Wilson, wasn't the biggest name drop in the world to begin with, but he got his name wrong anyway.

He called him Ricky Martin, living Lovida Loca, apparently. That was, that was great. Oh, the worst humble break in the world. Just terrible. I had to give it. I had to give it for that one. What have you got, Harry? Well, and I had a different one, I'd have up,

but I'm going to have to mention at least the Charlotte-Claire one because that's obviously fairly significant. But the one I was going to go for, and again, this relates to Sky again because they haven't stopped talking about it, I can see from Twitter. But Max Verstappen lapping Lewis Hamilton is a fairly poignant moment. And I'm not saying that's going to happen, you know,

every race from now on in. But it was... Bit of a weird one. I can't imagine if you said that this time last year that Max Stapham would lap Lewis Hamilton. I mean, not once but twice, because he pitied and then came back out and lapped him again, which is pretty sobering for Hamilton.

But yeah, I just thought there's a pretty, pretty poignant moment. And also, cool down room. We've missed you. Here to stay, please. Should we see what driver of the day, worst driver of the day the people have got? Brace yourselves, everyone. Brace yourself for a couple of these.

where shall we start we've had a good number of submissions this week let's start with let's start with the cookie monster himself directly out of sesame street here he is hey guys watching from sunny southern california uh driver of the day to day i have to give to checo for doing a great job on holding off of clare and making them crumble under pressure a little bit although as a Ferrari fan that hurt and worst driver of the day has to go to the honey badger for spinning out signs in turn two thanks guys love the show we love you

very much appreciate the comment I don't know about you guys but I think Perez did his job fantastically well not enough for Driver of the Day for me but certainly understand the point of doing what he needed to do Minister of Defence type stuff yeah you can't give Driver of the Day to someone who missed the chican at one point

Oh yes, we got one. All right. Who have we got next? Let's go for Dan P. Driver of the day has to go to Max for Stephan. It wasn't a particularly interesting race from him, not many battles, but he managed to completely dominate the entire affair. So that's surely worth something.

Worst driver of the day, you have to either give it to Danny Rick or Lewis Hamilton Danny Rick took out science at the start but Hamilton just had a disappointing weekend and finished 10 places below his teammate

which is unacceptable from someone of his calibre I'm going to say complete sorry Ben I was going to say completely matching Sam's verdict there on both

I've got to say our listens have very very soothing voices it's delightful do you think we're in the wrong bit we haven't got soothing voices and we're doing a podcast we're in the wrong sphere? Don't say that. All right. We'll move on to, we'll move on to Beth next.

Driver all the day for me has to be Yuki. He did so much better than Pierre and really recovered after not a very good qualifying. And once driver for the day, unfortunately for me has to be Lewis Hamilton. He could not progress in that car and George showed how much better he is in the current situation. So yeah. Less of the British bias, please, Beth. Goodness me. Oh, Beth, any British bias is what they should call you.

I'm right. Brexit, Beth. I'm sure she'll be delighted about it. Let's move on to, let's move on to Raff. We've heard from Raff previously. Let's see what he has to say. Driver of the day is Checo Perez. And worst driver of the day is Daniel Ava-Karvac.

I got a surname bang on. But not the vote for Paris. These Americans are all got lovely voices. Lovely voices. All right. Who've we got those? We've got a gigawatman. My driver of the day for the MLGGYP

is going to be Sebastian Vidal for surviving and swimming in the green turtle. is the Ashton Martin, my worst driver is going to be the rookie Guang Yu-Zhou for Alfredo. He had not so much a good day against Williams, against Aston Martin, against anyone in his rookie season. He's not finding pace at the moment. front cruel vessel. Come on. The swimming turtle.

The swimming turtle. Oh, I love it. I love it. This is without a doubt my favourite one so far. This is from MLG. I've got no idea if this is for driver of the day,

worst driver than a day. Just trying to get a point across. This is a long one, folks. Strap yourselves in. Check on. We're going to keep that for future uses, by the way. But thank you.

Just check out. I mean, and we listened to all of these before we yet, just to sense check, there's no naughty words in it before we started recording. And that absolutely sent us. We left for a good five minutes about checko. We're on the floor.

And if we weren't on the floor enough after that, we go. We certainly were after this one from Buddy. I've got no idea what to even say about this one. We don't require backing tracks with these predictions, but you've gone the extra step, so thank you very much for this. My twice-upon-A-Ramperee driver of the day submission is Lando Nors. Oh.

And the first driver of the day is Sir Lewis Hamilton, once again finishing behind his new teammate, George Russell. Do you want a jog work in the sound? That is sensational. Yeah. Oh, wow. I don't know what to say after all those. Our respect to the effort.

I love the effort. And a good variety of opinions in that as well. It's interesting to see a couple of votes from Perez. But yeah, elevator music plus the soundboard. That is sensational. Before we move on, we just have to quickly, and we're going to do it quickly because it doesn't reflect very well on all three of us, we do have to review our bold predictions.

I'll start with my own. I predicted that either Leclair or Vestappen would start from P20 or the pit lane. They started from first and second, if you noticed. I was there the last few laps of the sprint race, like, they're going to crash here. It's going to be right. And they were clean. They were good. They were good at the F1, and I just didn't allow for that.

Harry, your bold prediction It was that the three that started the sprint race Top three would not finish top three And you were one third of the way there Because one of them did But again, Leclair and Vastappen just letting you down Too good at the F1 That's annoying

Too good at the F1 And Sam, you're also in the club Of being a third of the way there Because you predicted two safety cars and there was only one. But you also predicted as well that Alex Albin would lose to Nicholas Latifie in the race

and that didn't happen. Latifing not too good at the F1 is he there? Let me down. So all in all, shambolic is the word for that one. Let's move on. We'll get them next time. It was a very good day for Lando Norris.

It probably should have been a good day for both McLaren drivers. If Ricardo had finished where the pace was, at least in terms of his qualifying effort, probably would have been third, fourth, third, fifth, something along those lines. So much more encouraging than what we saw at the first race in Bahrain, seems to be steady progress race after race.

They're now fourth in the championship, trying to close up on Mercedes, who called George Russell had a good effort today, but it doesn't seem like in terms of pace they're really going anywhere at the moment, Mercedes. So, Sam, what did you make of the McLaren progress? and in terms of that fight for third in the championship, do you think McLaren, even though they are at a deficit at the moment,

actually have the advantage? It's staggering. The process, the progress that McLaren have made is absolutely staggering. I remember we went to Bahrain and after preseason testing, we all kind of said, wow, this could be a McLaren Ferrari fight for the championship here. They've really looked like they've made strides. And then we got to Bahrain and it was a disaster. Both cars were comfortably running well into the teams of positions.

I think Daniel Ricard at one point spent the majority of the race 19th or 20th. And we remember saying as well that, you know, Landon Morris, you signed a multi-year deal and you're going to be driving around in 13th, 14th place every single race this season. So the fact that he's picked up himself a podium and it looked like on pure pace alone, even before the Charles Lecler incident, he was going to be fourth place on pace alone and comfortably so. this has been a fantastic and brilliant turnaround from the papaya outfit. Daniel Ricardo with some clumsy mistakes that he used to get together. But I do think that he's got enough in his locker to join Landon Norris

in those regular point scoring positions. I think Landon Morris finishes third, Ricardo, is more than capable of finishing in fourth place. If you look up the other side, though, that we're talking about, Mercedes. This is exactly what Mercedes will have wanted in their growth, in their development. You'd like to think that Mercedes are looking at there and going, we're the eight-time Constructors champions. We've got the seven-time world champion driving for us.

We've got George Russell, who's one of the most excitable young drivers to come through into Formula One for a long time. We are the team that should now be putting the pressure on Ferrari and Red Boy in the development race now that we're catching up. But it looks like their luck rang out a little bit at this race. They've done well with other drivers struggling

and they've picked up positions, whereas this time out, Russell was good. Russell was very good. Hamilton, absolutely in the mud. It was almost a little bit embarrassing for Lewis, Hamilton, who is, I think, what, 20 points behind George Russell now. And they seemingly aren't going anywhere. They're not bringing regular updates to circuits.

They're hoping, I guess, for a big development package. But they'll be looking at McLaren and going, they're coming passes pretty soon. And I think currently, they'd be right to think that. McLaren feel like they are a team on the up. They're a team moving forward. Lionel Norris is on big spirits. Danny Ricardo feels like he's got it together, apart from the little mistake he had today. And they are developing well.

So I actually do think that currently, as it stands, despite McLaren being behind, they are looking like the favourites to reclaim P3 in the championship. And I think for saying he's a big, a bit of a rethink. And I think actually, maybe Natifink asked Toto Wolf in the pre-race chat, when is it time to ditch a model that isn't working? When is it time to accept that the data isn't on your side and it's not going in the right way? Toto's synonymous that he didn't want to give something up. But it looks like every team around them when the team's developing,

Alfa Romeo, Hars are closer this weekend, McLaren were arguably faster this weekend, and Ferrari and Red Bull continue to stretch the gap out front. So McLaren for me are definitely the favour of P3, Mercedes needs a huge rethink. And Lewis Hamilton, don't know what's going on.

You should either get a hold with these cars or accept that maybe it's time to even walk away because it really is not going his way. It's quite surprising how Bagley is going for them. Yeah, it's a really interesting one because Mercedes, as a result of their early season reliability, and really maximising their performances, particularly at Bahrain. We've seen Russell this last race at Imola and indeed at Jeddah as well, similar story.

They are probably ahead of where their true pace actually is. And in terms of true pace, McLaren do probably have the edge on them. And ultimately, I think it will come down to Daniel Ricardo because I trust Norris based on last season and the beginning of this season that he will do the job if the car is there for him. as he's done today. And the question is about whether Daniel Ricardo can do the same. And my instinct is yes, actually, based on the start of this year. I know the points don't quite reflect it.

But I think Ricardo's pace has actually been in a better position versus where it was last year. Bear in mind, Australia, they basically crossed the line, nose to tell, which, you know, they were pretty even there. And here as well, I think they were actually even again. generally I think Norris does better in those sort of intermediate conditions but at least in dry running I think they were pretty even quality quality was actually pretty even again sprint race as well I don't think there was much in it and it was only because of that incident and Ricardo does need to avoid those incidents but there wasn't really that ever that true running of pace from both of

them up against each other but yeah I think it will actually come down to to Daniel Ricardo here I think in terms of line-up, I think Merck do have the advantage. I would probably say Mercedes have the best driver lineup on the grid. Ferrari and Red Bull aren't too far behind, but I would back Russell and Hamilton over anyone else. Russell and Norris this weekend seemed to pretty much match each other. I think Norris had a slight edge. So, you know, and I guess questions are about Lewis Hamilton. You know, Lewis Hamilton is now the established number two driver at the team.

it will be interesting to see how he copes with that new transition into that role. Sorry, let me just put my fishing rod away a second, hang on. People are going to think I'm genuine there. No, but he does need to figure it out, right? Because it's the same sort of thing that happened in Jeddah where Russell is a long way ahead.

It's where Russell has scored points, good points, and Hamilton's been out of the points. So now it's two out of four races. He needs to find a way to maximise this car and deal with the new challenge that he's got. It's a long time since Hamilton has had a car of this calibre to deal with. So you can give him a bit of a grace period in that respect. But he needs to figure it out sooner rather than later. I'd actually still say Mercedes are the minor favourites here.

I think in terms of pace McLaren have got it at the moment. Can Mercedes unlock something? during this season, that remains to be seen. I'm kind of banking on the answer being somewhat yes to that in this prediction. And I do think the line-up still favours Mercedes. So I'll go with them for a slight edge. But it's all about whether Mercedes can unlock that last, can find something versus what they've got right now.

What's your view on this one, Harry? Yeah, I think probably with you, Ben, I think I probably just lean towards Mercedes. But are you right in that I think it depends on Daniel Ricardo. and I agree, I think his pace has been much better this year than it was last year in comparison to Norris. But I think it also, as we've already said, it relies on Hamilton. So it kind of relies on both teams have a driver that it maybe hasn't quite secure the amount of points that they should have done. McLaren probably do look like this slightly quicker car at the moment. But yeah, Mercedes don't win eight championships on the trot by chance.

I trust them to figure out this car at some point this year with the resource they have to overcome it. So yeah, I'd lean towards Mercedes. I think it's about whether McLaren can utilize that pace advantage they seem to have now, which is bizarre to think, or even say, considering where they were in Bahrain, but it's whether they can utilise that pace advantage now with both drivers to get a march on Mercedes.

Because as you say, Mercedes gained a lot of points when they probably didn't necessarily deserve to with that car in the early part of this year. So, yeah, I'll lean towards Mose, but I think it's going to be an interesting one. And we didn't quite get to see it today because Norris had the edge in terms of pace, but Norris versus Russell could be a tasty little,

a nice recreation of F2, 2018, or whenever it was, they were in there together. So, yeah, it should be interesting to watch. Let's move on to the sprint race for a bit. If you're new to the podcast, if you're new to the podcast, hello, my name's Ben. I don't really like spring races. But interestingly, the one thing I want to point out here is George Russell's comments

and then Ross Braun's comments back to George Russell. So Russell wasn't particularly happy with the race. He said it was somewhat processional from his side. And Ross Braun responded by saying something along the lines of, we don't really take the opinions of those drivers in those positions into account because they're probably just annoyed at their own performances, annoyed at their car's performances. And it's the guys in the middle and up front that we're more interested in listening to

when it comes to feedback for these sprint races. Sam, what did you make of Ross Bronz comment? I was quite appalled by them, actually. I don't care where you sit on the grid. You are racing in this sport. You are one of the 20 elite drivers. it gets a grace this grid every single weekend, racing, race out. And funny enough, George Russell found himself in the fourth spot come the main race.

So, Mr. Ross Braun, are you telling me that the car is still relevant, or is it not relevant? Because it finished fourth. It beat Charlotte Clare and Carlos Sites this race. So we got going to listen to them, this race. It was a really disrespectful and disregarding coming. It really kind of just pushed whatever concerns someone might have to one side. I was quite surprised it came from Ross Braun.

I think George Russell is allowed to say if you want to see that something is processional. I think they can all say if something is boring or something is exciting or if they do or don't want something. They take part in it. They get more of an exciting than anyone else does. And George Russell does make a point. Until DRS is activated, especially around Imola, we weren't seeing a lot of action on track. And that's okay. Sometimes that's okay.

Sometimes that can still be exciting. But I think we can all agree that it wasn't ideal. And that sprint race, some races anyway, just allow people who have bad qualifying sessions to make up for them, their own mistakes and rectify it for the race anyway. But we are seeing a little bit of a trend where all the cars can follow really closely, which is fantastic. But until DRS is activated, they don't really seem to be able to make those overtakes in other locations around the track. And that was very evident today. until DRS got activated on what, like, lap 40 or something like that, we suddenly started to see more and more overtakes happen.

So George Russell, even if you finish in 20th place, I think he has every right to make that coming, if that's what he believes, that's the experience he has. And when 19, people disagree with him, that's fine. But I don't think as a managing body, as someone who is seeing as a very influential person, Ross Braun has the right to go, I don't really care about your opinion

if you don't finish in the top half or if you don't finish in the top five because that's I just think that's really dismissive and imagine you speaking like that to someone in the street imagine if you're at the queue here we go back at ASTA folks imagine if you're at the queue at the TILA and

yeah someone seven in the queue goes yeah we'll get onto that we'll get on to McDonald's someone in the seventh in the queue goes excuse me Mr Cashier could you possibly get a colleague to open another till so I can check out fast

and they go, I don't listen to customers who are seventh or back in the queue. You go, well, that's, I don't know what difference is it to you if I'm seventh or ninth or first in the queue? I still have a right to say how I feel and you should respect that. So, I think this is pretty out of order from Ross Braun. I was quite surprised that someone's so high up in the world of Formula One would say something like that to, especially to someone who's quite influential in the sport, is George Russell. So, yeah, not on. Don't enjoy it. Yeah, let's take Russell into perspective, first of all. Russell is a GDPI director alongside Sebastian Vettel representing the drivers.

He's been in a poor car for a long time in F1 now. George Russell's opinion does mean a lot. And everything he said has been reasonable up until this point. And I think it's incredibly dismissive of Ross Braun to say this. I also think it's incredibly contradictory as well. I mean, in the same article, in the same interview that he gave, he said that George Russell's opinion and the opinion of those further down is not who they're listening to, but he also says, we'll listen to his opinion.

Well, one of those two has to be incorrect. And it's also contradictory just in terms of the concept of sprint races. I don't hide the fact that I really don't like sprint races, of course, but the whole point in them, the reason why they set them up is to have battles up and down the grid. It's not like George Russell was 18th, by the way, as well. It's not like George Russell was battling for 19th place. George Russell was on the cusp of the top 10. So if you're saying George Russell's opinion is invalid based on his car and where he is,

you're saying that about 50% of the grid. I don't want to be involved in a sport where 50% of the grid is irrelevant. We once see good racing at the front, in the middle, and at the back. We want to see it up and down the grid. So if you don't care about it from P11 or P12 or wherever it was, backwards, what are you saying? I think it these were really misjudged comments from Ross Bourne. It's slightly worrying comments as well.

And I do actually hope that Ross Braun has had to think about this and possibly contacted Russell after this, because I think they were bang out of order. And overall, if you think about, if you think about Russell, like, his opinion should matter based on the fact that he has been in that Williams for a number of years. He's used to it by now. And yeah, maybe he is frustrated about where Mercedes are. But from his side, it was a processional event. Could you imagine that sprint race if Perez and Science had qualified P3 and P4 on the Friday?

Just trying to imagine what that race would have been like. You'd still have the Vestapp and LeClerthing out front. You would have had Vettel and Magnuson dropping back through the field a bit. But other than that, you wouldn't have had much left. From George Russell's perspective, it was processional. He didn't do anything all race. They were all in the DRS train. Both of the Merks, the Alphataris are in there.

He's not wrong. So I think you should take his opinion on board here. And the fact that what invalidates his comments even more is the fact that Vastappen had choice words about the sprint race, and he won the thing. So what are you going to say to him? Yeah, I thought these were misjudged. What about you, Harry?

Yeah, a bit dumb. A bit of a dumb thing to say there, Ross. You're a clever guy. That was stupid. I don't really understand why I said that. And it feels like they're just trying to defend sprint races. Look, I, on sprint races in general, I'm still against them as for what they're for.

But as a standalone thing, if we had a quality on a Friday night, it decided the grid for the sprint race, and it also decided the grid for today. I think having a standalone race, I'd be fine with that because I think it was more entertaining than, and Ben hates his argument, but more entertaining than a free practice session.

But, yeah, it just feels like they're desperately trying to defend a format that doesn't work at the moment. And, yeah, there's no need to make those sort of comments to a driver because, yeah, what's that saying about any other driver who is below P-11 in a race? Remember Hamilton was following? Exactly. The seven-time champ was also so irrelevant.

So yeah, so I don't know why he's made that comment, and it's not great. And like you say, Ben, I hope he has contacted George afterwards and maybe apologize because, yeah, they just weren't, the comments you'd expect, you know, all the drivers' opinions are valid in F1. You might not listen to all of them, or you might not act on them,

you've got to listen to all of them. so yeah disappointed in Mr Braun and you know it's not a bad thing to admit if something doesn't work and I think there are good things about Supreme races but they don't work

currently I think they need to have a word with themselves and admit that yeah and I think that last point is the most crucial one is that you know some of us including myself live in the hope that they will go away but the reality is they're not going to

they're going to stick around so if if they are going to stick around, let's make them work to the best of their ability. Because as much as they might want to, you know, dress over some of these issues that a lot of fans have, they're there. Regardless of whether you want to paper over the cracks, they are there. And they might as well listen to these drivers and listen to these fans and do their best to actually make sure the system works in the best way for them, rather than just ignoring it and say, yeah, we know what we're doing. Sprint races are great. Listen to the feedback. from everyone. That'd be my advice on this.

Lastly, just a bit of a focus on Imala, because I feel like this was one of those tracks we spoke about in 2020, 2021, where we were looking at these new cars that were supposedly, and I think are following closer, and looking at Imala as potentially a track, it will benefit the most at. We know some of the tracks, it's worked, it's helped so far this year, but Imola based on it's quite narrow, difficult to overtake. This was one of those that we highlighted is let's have a look, see how it goes in 2022 onwards. Only one race, so it is a bit of a limited sample size, Sam.

But what did you make of it? I felt a bit let down. I am a big advocate for close racing. I'm a big advocate for the fact you don't need to have overtakes for it to be an exciting Grand Prix. And there was a little thing in the back of my mind. I think I've been one of the vocal leaders of saying that Monaco is a bit of done and duskid despite the thrill being so close to a wall. And I was hoping that a display here

would fill me with a little bit of hope that a track such as Monaco coming up or the Hungara ring, which is also quite similar, would be reignited with the ability to get so close that we could see some real action on track. And whilst we did see some moves, every move bar maybe one or two, George Russell getting past in the final chicane was a real kind of exception, was the same move. It was heavy breaking down into, you know, the first proper corner, a lot of them with DRS assistants. It wasn't thrilling, was it? And I think you fairly say that this race definitely isn't going to go down in the history books as one to go back and rewatch, one to go back and spectate. And I like Imala as a track.

I think it is a fun track. I think it's a real driver's track. It does test you and you are punished if you make a mistake. And we saw that even with the likes of sites where he got hit by Ricardo. He couldn't just spin the car around on a runoff drive strip on the track. He was in the gravel and that was dang a dusting. Hence why we had so many red flagged in the qualifying session, you make a mistake. You get punished here and I like that a lot.

But I don't think the new regulations made this track more exciting. It got boring watching Lewis Hamilton. trying overtake Gasly. Some say he's still trying to overtake Gasly. It got boring watching Gassi try and get past Albin. I don't think I'm the only person that was boarding, seeing these cars. Oh, oh, oh, no, they're still two tents away at the end of the same straight that I now have to wait another lap for for a possible overtake. And that's not amazing. But I doesn't say that the good regulations aren't working. It just says that maybe we have to reevaluate the kind of circuits that we go to in Formula One and on the calendar because there are plenty of circuits that show brilliant things.

We saw in the first three races, even Australia, Albert Park was better. I enjoyed it. It was better than it has been. So it definitely is making for better racing. But I do feel like Imala let me down a little bit. I was hoping for a bit more and I thought the regulations would bring that and it didn't as much. So yeah, wasn't a perfect result for the new regs for me at Imala. Yeah, I think there's some sort of sweet spot.

that Imola failed to hit, at least this time out. And I don't like too much to put emphasis on one race because the best race track in the world can deliver a snooze fest, just like the worst track in the world can deliver a great race. It's all about the track itself, but it's also about the conditions, what's going on with the drivers, what's going on with the cars, the development.

There's so many factors that go into it that I find it tough to evaluate based on one race. If we did that, we'd have gone from Baku after all, one race and would never have gone back. So I think it's important to have more of a sample size when we get to it. But I was disappointed because, again, I feel like there's a sweet spot where, and I feel like there were too often it was one way or the other. You've got the one instance that you explain there, Sam, where Hamilton cannot get past Gassley. He is a few steps behind, but he never really looked like making it happen. There were a few times where he got a bit closer, but again and again, he was unable to pass. The other end of the scale is the, the,

easy DRS overtakes that particularly signs of Perez were able to make in the sprint race. And I don't know about you, but there's not really much entertainment in that, where they're able to blast past these guys before the breaking zone even happens. And I feel like the sweet spot is somewhere in the middle where the overtake is possible, but it's not really easy because of DRS. the one example really was was russell trying to get past magnuson because russell was able to was trying into multiple different corners he got close at the end of the d rs stretch there wasn't d rs at the time but they were you know close going into tamborello a number of times not quite

there it lasted for a couple of laps that was easily for me the best tussle of the race uh the best tussle of the weekend, actually. And it hit that sweet spot in a way that, for me, all of the other moves didn't get to. They were too far one way in terms of they were too easy or the other way, they just weren't doable. So I'll be interested to see as we go through some of the other races this year. They were able to follow quite well, but it's not like the overtaking opportunities then followed that.

Harry, do you think, what did you make of the race overall in terms of Imala as a racetrack? yeah i think that um sweet spot you're right you're right about that sweet spot and people may and when i say people crofty and poor de rest are going to come after me here i enjoyed the race more when we didn't have dRS when we were pounding around with those laps without dRS because like say i think some of the drivers had to get a bit more creative with it like russle and the other one that comes to mind was sonoda and stroll um and i think botas well also had a little move into the Ravatsa when there's still no DERAS.

So I don't know if that's just coincidence or it's a direct result of not being able to just blast past on a straight, but you're right. I think there was a sweet spot that it didn't quite hit, but there are a couple of moments when it did. And maybe there just needs to be some tweaks. I don't know what they are. But yeah, overall, a bit disappointing.

But yeah, like I said, I was quite intrigued to, I wasn't like Crosdy and DeResta. shouting at the TV every 30 seconds demanding DRS to be enabled because it's kind of enjoying it felt like a bit more of a challenge for them having to think of other ways of getting passed and you know maybe it didn't result in a in in more overtaking but don't know if that's a good thing or not felt very early naughty's f1 for a while there um which you know purest full love didn't sound like it obviously but uh yeah i i don't know We'll have to see.

I think the sample size needs to be bigger, as you say, Ben. But yeah, it wasn't blown away by it, but I wasn't majorly disappointed. Sitting on the fence again, classic. Classic Harry Yead. Can't think of a better way to wrap up a podcast, to be honest. It's Miami next, isn't it? We are in the process of trying to get Pitbull on the podcast.

It's not looking likely at this point, but we are doing everything we can. So I would expect three of us. Go on. Don't we get to moan about timings again? Because isn't Miami at like ridiculously late in the night for us here in the UK? I am sick and tired of being a European F1. It is so difficult.

Hang on. My fishing rods got out. Hang on a minute. Let me put that away again. Masked of fish at Ben Hocking. Yeah, so we've got a new racetrack to contend with, as do the drivers. We'll be back on Wednesday for a regular episode, but then we'll be back for a preview a week after that.

The LB doesn't stop. And as I said, pit bull will probably not be on the podcast. Sam, would you mind getting us out of here? Yeah, I mean, party in the city where the heat is on. That is where we're going next time around. But of course, we've got a two-week break, but we are going to be here in the midweek. That was a Will Smith lyric, by the way.

If no one understood the rest of us. It felt slapped. to the Ouch. Oh, keep my podcast name out, out by host's mouth, please. We're going to be back midweek.

Let us know what you thought of the Imola Grand Prix. Let us know what you think of the likes of the new regulations, the track. Was it a good race? You know,

should we keep coming back to the classic that is Imola? We'd love to know your thoughts, of course. And you can share those thoughts with us on Twitter at El Breaking,

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we've got merch we have got a Patreon if you want to joining and we appreciate all the love because every single week the downloads on these podcast episodes are ridiculously large for no understandable reason. And we love that. So thank you so much. And we'll see you midweek for another late-breaking extravaganza in the meantime.

I've been Samuel Singh. I've been Ben Hocking. And I've been Harry Eames. And remember, keep breaking late. Sounds so miserable about that. Jek-Go! Past is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.