The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2023 Azerbaijan GP Review

Episode Date: April 30, 2023

Ben & Sam review the Azerbaijan GP where Sergio Perez solidified his reputation as Street Circuit Specialist after securing his second victory of the season. Though not a banger of a race, there's still plenty to talk about as the boys discuss the unfortunate last lap pit lane incident, their moments of the race and best/worst drivers, as well as reviewing the weekend format change, and hearing what you listeners thought too... SUPPORT our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/latebraking JOIN our Discord: https://discord.gg/dQJdu2SbAm JOIN our F1 Fantasy League: https://fantasy.formula1.com/en/leagues/join/C3CCEW8P704 TWEET us @LBraking BUY our merch: https://late-braking-f1-podcast.creator-spring.com/ EMAIL us at [e-mail] 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 check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. And a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking. Azerbaijan Grand Prix review time. A good one for Sergio Perez taking his second race win of the season, and clear of his teammate, Max Verstappen in second, and Charles Leclair on the podium for the first time this year in third.

A bit of a double win, because, of course, it was a sprint race weekend too, and Perez cleaned up in that as well. So not a bad weekend whatsoever for the Mexican driver. Sam, pretty good all in all right. I mean, the man is a street circuit specialist. The guy just, I know what he's doing. Only goes hang on wing when there's a lot of walls really close to his head which is a strange and niche way to be successful.

Good for Sergio, bad for viewers in terms of entertainment, because core blimey governing, a strike a light and no mistake, was that dull? Well, I would like to get George onto the podcast because he's been a sassy boy this weekend, so I think it would be quite fun. What did you think, Ben, of the show overall? That's quote George Russell. Oh, sugar.

Yeah, not the best that Baku's ever produced. is it? Especially after a month break as well, we could have really used a banger. I'm going to say bangor here and we didn't get one. So hopefully Miami delivers next week. Only got a few days until we're off to the US because as we know, Baku and Miami is a very logical back to back, but said enough on that topic already. Coming up on today's episode, oh, by the way, Harry's not here. We didn't even reference that. Oops. Yeah, sorry, Harry. It'll be light, as usual, performing for us. We're going to be discussing the change in the sprint race weekend, how that fared a little bit later on.

Charles LeCler getting his first podium of the season, so a bit of Ferrari chat coming up. Sergio Perez, of course, winning the Grand Prix, clear of Max Verstappen, and no real troubles in doing so, particularly late on in the Grand Prix. But we're going to start off with a topic that until five minutes to go in the race was not going to appear whatsoever. but we did get some unfortunate action. We didn't get much action at all, but there was some unfortunate action that happened on the very last lap of the Grand Prix. Esteban Ockon going for the no-stop strat.

Absolutely no stops until the 50th out of the 51st lap needed to come in. It's been on hard tires since the start of the Grand Prix. Unfortunately, when he came into the pits, there were already preparations underway for the end of the Grand Prix because Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen had already started their 51st lap. Photographers everywhere, you already had Park Fermé pretty much set up for the end of the Grand Prix as it normally is.

But of course, O'Conn still needed to come into the pits, almost had an incident there with some photographers very quickly getting out of the way as soon as they saw an Alpine coming towards them. Sam, this was utterly ridiculous, right? I mean, to quote Mr. Harry, you'd like breaking light, why are you? Doing! Absolutely. He would. He would be the first thing out of his mouth. Absolutely ridiculous. And, you know, this is no fault to Al Pina or Espan, Ocon. They have every right to pit on lap 50 or 51 if they want to, just like you can pit on lap 1 of 51 if you want to. They're allowed to come into that pit lane during race conditions at any given time to service that car. And funny enough, they actually executing a really brilliant pit stop. I think it was only like 2.4 seconds, despite the carnage of nearly running over 7.5. 53 photographers on your way into the pit lane.

On the other hand, FIA and your track safety regulations, where's the communication, where's the understanding of what's going on in the Grand Prix, you're setting up and allowing members of essentially the public because they're not part of a team to just wander off into the pit lane, you're fully aware as part of the track controllers, race controls, race stewards, that a car is still left to coming and service their pit stop that they have to do otherwise they'll be disqualified. The rule is if you don't serve for at least one pit

stop and change the ties before the end of the Grand Prix, you'll be disqualified. You know full well that has to happen. The commentary team are talking about it. It's coming up on every graphic. Yet to pit, yet to pit, yet to pit, yet to pit multiple times it's appearing.

And you're controlling that. You're displaying that information. You have direct correlation with the teams, with the overview of what's going on with the broadcast system. You know that's part of it. So the absolute shambles. It is a shambles that you have let so many people without safety gear, about precautions being taken place,

just wandering around on the entrance to a pit lane of a live race circuit. Good Lord, we are so lucky that we are not still watching the TV and there are ambulances pouring into the track because we are, I would say, less than 10 seconds away from multiple people being severely hurt. And someone like poor wrestling Ockong will be sat there with PTSD for the rest of his life, going every time he pulls into a pit lane, he might end up with some awful flashbacks that he might run someone over. It is atrocious how that happened in the modern day of Formula One.

Okay, maybe in like the 70s where the TV coverage and the comms work, it's clear. This kind of thing was a bit more regular where people would just run across the pit lane. But now, absolutely diabolical, atrocious and awful. You should never see something like this happen in Formula One. I can't believe it happened. Ben, what did you think about it? Very similar, right? It's ridiculous. And we don't know enough about the incident specifically yet to, properly assigned blame on this, but you're right that the jurisdiction is from the FIA here.

So not only was it photographers out and about, but also, you know, the carpet or the matter, whatever you want to call it, that was already laid out. You've already got the second and third place. You can see from a screenshot. You've got the second and third place, whatever you'd call them, the markers for the drivers to eventually come into. So it's not just on the individuals here coming out and being ready photographers-wise. It's also about the FIA having set up a lot of things ready for the end of the Grand Prix,

which was not at an end yet. It's utterly ridiculous. And quite honestly, it's going to sound very odd. I think it's completely irrelevant that Esteban Ockon still had to pit because this shouldn't happen regardless of whether that was the situation. This is just an incident where it's not unlucky,

but it's almost, it's highlighted because of Esteban Ockon having to come into the pits with a lap to go. we almost saw the same thing last year at the Australian Grand Prix with Alex Albin too. The likelihood is this happens every single Grand Prix, but because we have been lucky enough to this point not really to have seen drivers come in on that lap that is not really impacted anyone, because we know that with one lap to go, if you're going for a fastest lap, you're not coming in because your last lap would be slow coming out of the pit lane. So no one's picking for fastest lap at that point.

So of all the laps in the Grand Prix, it's probably the one you're least expected. a pit stop on, but every single driver, not just Esteban Okon, every single driver is entitled to go into the pits. Okay, Ocon had to make his mandatory stop. But what if, you know, what if one of the drivers who hadn't started their 51st lap yet had to come in for a retirement? That was equally as possible. We saw with, let's say, Joe Guan Yu, let's say that incident happens later on in the Grand Prix, and that happens on lap 50. He had come into the pits the same way that Esteban Okon did, and there would have been, that there's no reason that no driver can come in on that lap. This seems really basic. I know they want to keep the show going and they want to be

ready for when the drivers come in, but if there are still drivers out there going through any lap, this sort of thing should not be set up. I would very blanket term, until every single driver has seen the checkered flag, do not set up anything. I feel like that's the easiest way to mandate this, because otherwise you'll get situations like this where, yes, Vestappen and Perez might be halfway around lap 51, but, you know, Ocon was still on lap 50. And if Ocon pit from, was it P9 at the time, that means you know there are another nine drivers or so behind him who are also still on lap 50 and can still come into the pits too. It's really poor management. Again, I don't want to, I don't want to throw blame too much an individual

or a group until more is known about this. But it wouldn't surprise me to learn that actually this happens on a very regular basis. It's just that it's been highlighted this time because someone did actually take the opportunity. They're all entitled to. I'm talking hypothetically now as well. And you might think, well, what's the point? And I'm saying what's the point? Because it could happen because we saw it happen in the race today.

What if we saw an instant happen like George Russell trying to overtake Lance Strull going straight into the entrance of the pit lane and we're two cars wide? that barrier was right next to the side of the road with people overhanging it. There's every chance. If there are two cars, either the two drivers have to crash into each other to avoid hitting a car which could throw debris or car parts across the road at people, or they're going to have to drive straight into the setup that has been put up in the entrance of the pit lane.

The safety regulations, this is one of those cases in Formula One of, you know, F around and you're going to find out. And we've effed around for too long at this point. And we almost found out today. As Ben said, I'm sure this is. happens all the time where they're set up and ready to go on, I don't know, the final lap or the second to final lap. And we just don't often see it. But realistically, anyone could come in on any lap and you should be safe at all times. These are fast moving, very dangerous vehicles.

It's a miracle that no one's ever been hurt by this. Yeah, and I think there's probably a perception. I think most people are taking this seriously, but for anyone who isn't, I think there's probably a perception of, if you see like 20 cars constantly go around at fire, miles an hour and then you see them go a little bit faster. I can remember what the exact pit lane speed limit is at back hoover like 50 kilometres an hour or something along those lines. It's going to appear fast. I think the danger is because you see these cars going at 200, 250, 300 kilometers an hour, because they slow down, you immediately think they're not going very fast. They are still going very fast in that pit lane, enough to cause damage. And we weren't far away from seeing that. It's,

again, I think it's just your point to the Russell and Stroll incident. It should just be a case of, look, this zone, this zone being all of the pit area, that is the danger zone. This is what you can't do and when you can't do it in that danger zone. And it shouldn't just be, you know, you can't say because the Park Fermi area is right at the top of the pits that it's a safe area, it's not. Just blanket term it and make this really straightforward. Do you want to see, I mean, what do you want to see happen?

about this? Do you want to see regulatory change? What's the best way to avoid this again? Because you're right in a sense that we were lucky? Yeah, I mean, this is the classic case of will we see the FIA that we're used to where they're slow to respond? We'll see messages come out maybe from teams or leading personalities from the F1 Paddock, you know, the likes of Toto Wolf or Christian Horner or maybe some drivers like the likes of Lewis Hamilton or someone might say something and go, that's not okay. The FIA need to get ahead of this. They need to be the first people to speak out. Once the ceremonies are done, someone should already be drafting a statement to go, that was not acceptable. We haven't got an answer for it right this very second, but where it's

now a team together working on something, change, I don't know what that might be. And, you know, there needs to be some kind of change that says, members of essentially the public who are not officially part of a Formula One team that have a license to be walking around a live pit lane cannot enter the pit lane until every single car has crossed the check of flag. Like, you could surely have some kind of rolling Park Fermé set up

that could be pushed out at the last moment. All it is is some barrier fencing and a one, two, three billboard sign. It's not like it's a state-of-the-art building that you have to assemble under one lap. It's a corded-off area. So it might make it a little tricky

to get, you know, the winning car in the second and third place putting into their spots if you're limiting that time. But surely there's going to be a safe way than introducing 50 to 100 photographers piling into the pit lane within a lap to go. I don't know what the exact solution is. And I'm not going to out like I've got all the information at hand. I can provide a resolution to this immediately.

But we nearly saw someone get hurt. And that's enough for me in Formula One to go, something has to be altered for this. We do not want to see someone hurt properly again. Precisely. The safety triumphs three minutes. of time saved, right? I mean, easily as well.

So, fingers crossed, something happens about this. Let's go on to Driver of the Day. Sam, I don't know how many contenders there are because not a lot of positions actually changed for the majority of this Grand Prix, but do you have a driver of the day? Yeah, I was, you know, when we come to the end of the Grand Prix, I often like to run through the final order in my mind to go, right,

who's ending up where, how have they got there as well? Because that's a big thing as well. You might look at someone like, I don't know, Pierre Gazley, for example, and you might go, well, he shouldn't be driving the day because of how safety cars affecting him, or he shouldn't be worse driving the day because of, you know, he was awful, for example, I don't know. Anyway, I have three that I board it down to. And for me, it comes down to Sergio Perez, who I think Christian Horner was a little bit rude to over the team radio saying, oh, you've got lucky under, oh, he said to Max, you got lucky under the safety car and that's how

he won the race. That safety car did come out with still more than half of the Grand Prix to go, so that feels slightly unfair. The other person is Fernando Alonso, who once again is just running the whole race from inside of his cockpit, big brain energy, telling Lank Strow how to drive his own car while still simultaneously beating out Ferrari

and chasing down another. And the third option for me is Lewis Hamilton, who got a brilliant start. You know, he got a little caught up, and then he was very unlucky with the safety car, brilliant restart, managed to get George Russell so cleanly. I was really surprised, actually.

how quickly he absolutely caught George Russell and got the move done. And then, you know, I think it was more than the Sages rather than George, that meant that he just couldn't, rather than Hamilton, sorry, that meant that he couldn't pass Carlos Sites going down that DRS straight. It's just a bit of a dog in a straight line. So I'm a little bit, so on, I'm actually going to give this one to Sergio. I think that he had Max for Stapping's number for pretty much three quarters of the Grand Prix. And he was there anyway all the way up until when the safety car happened.

It's not like he fell apart. And remember, he was in third. He had to get past the Claire as well properly. Verstappen did that a few laps earlier. Perez was rapid today. He had for Stafford's number. And something I feel like I've noticed this Grand Prix, obviously this might be the outlier.

Perez may be more comfortable with less practice time, able to just jump in the car as it is, get the setup dialed in and get on with it. Might help that it's this track. He's clearly comfortable around this track. It might help that maybe street circuits are just his thing. But he seemed to be more comfortable in that car with the limited running time than Max was.

We saw when Max got out of the car at the end of the race. Oh, in the final 10 laps, I kind of found the balance. I found the bias of my brakes. You know, it meant that it was a bit better. Perez was pulling away comfortably, lap after lap.

I think the gap ending up being three or four seconds. And then Perez was able to just manage. And I was really quite surprised. So for me, this is a big statement from Sergio. This was a real proper, like, Winger's wing, took grass with the lead and just led. And, you know, Max Mustafa is no small opponent. He's a big dog in a race car.

So Perez, driver the day. A bit more on Perez versus Vostappen in our next segment as well. I think Lewis Hamilton is a fair shout. Certainly he wasn't benefited from the safety car. Having said that, actually, it would have been interesting to see he was stuck behind a lot of cars as a result of coming in that early. It would have been interesting to see if he had cleared them. So it might have been that it was a lose-lose situation, but yes, he definitely had a good race.

Fernando Alonso is another good shout. I think actually with Aston Martin, this wasn't their track. And I think getting P4 out of it was about as good as he could possibly have done. Same can be said for Charles LeCler, in all honesty. I don't think any version of that race could have got him any better than third. And then, of course, Perez taking the win, really comfortable job out front. The only reason I'm going to give it to LeClaire over Perez is because it was impacted. the safety car and I would have liked to have seen if Perez could have stuck with

for Stappen in that first stint if that wasn't needed. So that's the only thing that's going to stop me from giving it for Perez. It still gets P2, I think, in my list. I'm going to give it to LeClerre though, because realistically maxed, not only the race, I think he maxed the weekend. Yeah, really good weekend from Lecler actually, considering how bad the season was being for him previously and the way he, I'm going to use a big word. Some people might think it's bit harsh, but he decimated science this weekend. It was, you know, there was no competition in it at all. So yeah, really good to see the club back on form. And more on that in a later segment as well. Worst driver of the day. Who have you got? Oh, now this is actually, because it was a boring

race, it's very hard to pick a worse driver because there were a lot of drivers just kind of floundering around towards the back. So the reason why you might pick a worse driver of the day is because maybe a small incident. I mean, what was Bottas doing? Just not bothering anymore. But the man that keeps loading the ammunition up for me, Nick Debris, what you're doing? What you're doing? Can you finish a race without hitting someone or something?

Can you get round the track? It is possibly the worst rookie debut I've ever seen. Consuming the amount of experience that that man has. Mazapine? Oh, well, I don't count him as a racing driver. So, I mean, you know, Nick has a lot of promise. He's won Formula E. Maybe this says a lot about Formula E.

He won Formula 2. Well, you know, we're an F1 podcast, not an FE podcast. And this is appalling. And even Yuki is turning on him, you know, it's bad. So for me, Nick, thank you for backing up my point once again. you are the worst driver of the day. Yeah, not great. And actually, if it was for the weekend as a whole,

DeVries would probably not just be the winner. It would be quite a clear winner, if you can call it that, of this award. Just you could sense the frustration, not particularly in the Sunday crash. It was more resignation, I think, in the Sunday one. But the crash he had on Saturday was very much like a frustration when he did it. Just he'd known he'd done something really, really silly.

So, yeah, there were two contenders for me. He was one of them. I'm actually going to give it to the other contender, which was Lance Stroll, because I think Lance Stroll, in all honesty, got very lucky the same thing that happened to DeVries didn't also happen to him. I think realistically, the crash they had at the same corner at pretty much the exact same spot, they went in at seemingly the same speed. In fact, if anything, the Lance Stroll crash might have seemed a touch harder, but Lance Stroll managed to carry. on, Nick DeVries couldn't. And then of course, Lance Stroll, in a day where overtaking was really difficult, basically handed a position on a plate by going wide. At the worst corner, you can go wide as well, because obviously that sort of penultimate corner just leads on to the massive one kilometer straight. And he lost the position to him up there. So, Lance Stroll, as well as being lucky not to retire for that incident early, he also lost that place. So I'm going to give it to him. Oh, I don't know, man. That feels, that feels harsh.

That feels, I mean, yes. It's the same thing as to Breeze. Yeah, he did. But yeah, okay, and he went wide on what is. According to Karin Chandok, friend of the podcast, the most important corner in Formula One. And yeah, don't know wrong. Okay, he threw that position away to Lewis.

But he also did some good stuff. He hang on to the back of Lewis for a while. He got the move done on Russell. His restart and start were really, really good. I'm not saying that, you know, he had a great race because you look where Alonso was, you look where he was. But I think for every bad thing Stroll did, he did a good thing, whereas DeVries was just bad. I think my point is that Lance Stroll wouldn't have had the chance to do those good things if he hadn't been so lucky to

avoid the retirement. And I don't think there's any skill element involved in him getting away with that. I think it was just pure luck that it broke DeVries steering and it didn't break strolls. I, but obviously, DeVries was, yeah, I mean, it was two contenders for me,

so it could have been over them. Big brain strat. Do you have a big brain strategy play other day? I mean, this one's difficult because there wasn't much strategy to play with.

And again, we've already mentioned it, but Bottas going in three times before anyone else that even really big in twice was quite an inventive one. But my favourite one was, it's back to Ferrari.

I want to applaud them because I don't think they've been involved in a big brain strat. this season. It's been so good. But they came on the radio to Carlos Sykes, I think it was, and they went, do you want plan A or do you want to move to Plan C? And I just thought, where's B? What's happened to B, lads? You've just missed that part of the alphabet out now, have we? We're just skipping. I just thought that is harking back to an absolute classic day of Ferrari.

They're not really going on what they're doing with themselves. And that combined with the likes of Carlos Sykes being heller slow. Slow as balls. was not good. Was not good. Yeah, I think given they've not gone further, I don't think, than Plan C in the book this year so far, I'll give them a pass here. My big brain strategy play of the day was Fernando Alonzo.

And quite honestly, you could have given it to about five different things that Alonzo did during the race. But I'm going to specifically choose something that happened quite late in the Grand Prix, where he asked, how many laps are left? There are 14 laps left. Well, that sounds like a good number. Let's attack the clerk. As in like, if there were 13 or 15,

it'd have turned around and said, oh, nah, don't like that number. I'm going to stick here. It's like, it's like he got bored in the car and he was like, I'm just going to come up with an excuse to go faster. Hello, engineer. How many laps are left?

407. Right off we go then. That's my lucky number. Yeah, woohoo. We're in for a fight. Honestly, Farado also is the kind of guy would get like a whiff.

of a scrap three blocks away and he'd go, I fancy a scrap. Off I go, regardless of what's going on. He just absolutely loves it. He really does. We'll take our first short break and on the other side we'll be discussing Sergio Perez and his win over Vastappen. Before we get into this topic, I do have to quickly say it is a massive relief to be able to do the ad breaks myself now rather than having to witness Harry Yee do them in

what was the worst episode of all time midweek. Thank goodness for that. I genuinely feel like I've had low-level heart palpitation since Wednesday because that episode caused me so much stress. There's so many of you. It's such a juxtaposition and reaction. Some of you were like, this is hilarious. Thanks for doing it.

And again, you voted for us for that award. So we owed it to you. But we also got some messages like, I've loved every episode. I hated that. Never ever do it again. We hated it too. It's never happening. Yeah.

If you're worried about it happening again, Don't. Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen. Let's get on to that because Perez has closed up to just six points behind Max for Stappen in the driver's championship now. At least at this early juncture of the season, it appears to be a battle between the two Red Bull drivers. Sergio Perez, of course, taking the win on Saturday and then on Sunday,

matching his feet again. Didn't have the perfect starts. The race, obviously, was behind Max Verstappen, pre-safety car, but whereas Max Verstappen pitted under green flag condition, Sergio Perez, the lap after capitalizing on the safety car caused by Nick DeVries's retirement, and as a result, going on to win the Grand Prix, and Sam, in pretty comfortable fashion. I mean, Sergio Perez, hey, big cat, me, how, what are you doing? This was a big boy drive.

Oh, Ian. This was a big boy drive. This was Sergio Perez. He's like a good season. Obviously, look at me, six points off the top in the points tally. But after Australia a month ago, I do wonder when you have a bad performance with such a long gap after it, it might play on your mind. It might cause you to worry a little bit.

You might think, oh, God, I really wasn't up to standard there and look what my teammate manor should do. And obviously, when you haven't got a race the next weekend to rectify that, that might really knock your confidence. And when you're up against someone as good as Max Verstappen, it is so hard to kind of be like, Like, yeah, I can get back on this proverbial horse and I'm going to take it to him and I can do it. Sergei Perez, give yourself a pat on the back because this weekend, you did it. I mean, the sprint race was spectacular in terms of his performance, not the actual race itself. But, you know, then the main, we'll get onto it.

We're going to discuss it later, folks. And then the actual main Grand Prix, now a lot of people will obviously be at the point where they think, well, he got the position because of the safety car. And you're right. He got the position because of the safety car. But I think if that's where your analysis of the situation stops, then you're not paying enough attention and you're not giving Sergio Perez the due diligence that he really deserves,

the credit that he really deserves, because there was a real difference in what both drivers at Red Bull brought out today. Sergio Perez was behind Max Verstappen and Charler, to some degree, for quite a period before the safety car came out. He absolutely nailed the overtake on Charlerclair. It was a bit of a do-or-die-dime moment, and he really called it at the last moment. And it was a great late-breaking maneuver.

And funny enough, folks, We like those here. And he absolutely sent it. You know, lick the stamp, sent it, got it done. It was clean. Both cars had space. Got the move done. Well done.

And then he set off behind Max Verstappen, two-time champion, one of the greatest drivers we've seen, Max Verstappen. And that gap didn't grow. No, no, folks. That gap came down lap after lap after lap. And when the safety car came,

when Max Verstappen came into pit rather, and then, of course, we saw the safety car came out. I believe there was about 1.1, less than 1.1 between them at that point. Sergio Perez had brought that gap down under real pace alone. There was no DRS training. There was no, you know, for Stappen being held up or problems. It was one car's pace versus another. And Perez was the faster driver. Then yes, he got helped out with the safety car. Nails the restart. I just keeps pulling away. Now, you might be thinking, oh, well, it was, you know, it's easy when you're

the lead car. Sergio Perez, I think, would have caught up to Max Verstappen had he not been the lead car even without the safety car. He was gaining and he then proved the pace again afterwards. and pulled away from Max Verstappen. I do not think that Verstappen had an answer for Sergei Perez this race weekend. It's almost the first time I've ever thought that Max Verstappen does not have an answer for his teammate across a whole race weekend. I know he could beat me one of the qualifying sessions. It feels minor. It feels pointless after this.

You know, neither pole position. Lecler digging there. Forstappen just didn't have it. It's the first time I felt that. I want to say props to Perez. He's put his name down and throwing his name down in the gauntlet for a world championship. it fight. He could challenge. Yeah, it was a mightily impressive performance from Sergio Perez.

And I agree with you in terms of performance because Perez was closer to overtaking Vestappen, and Vestappen ever was to overtaking Perez when the roles were reversed. We saw that that gap grew. And every time Vastappan put in a fastest lap, Perez matched it, there was never, there was never any doubt. We've seen incidents before where I think early, doors. When Perez had the lead after the safety car, there was a little bit of a question mark in terms of is Perez managing, sorry, is Vestappan managing? Is he going to be able to come through in the second half of the Grand Prix and really attack? Because quite often when Vastappan is the car in

the lead, we've seen in Bahrain being an example, he just extends that gap seconds after second until it becomes like 10 or 15 seconds. Perez obviously never got to that. So there was a question mark early on, at least, is there going to be a second win from Max Vastappan? And the answer was no. Nothing that Perez couldn't handle. Every time Vastappan up the pace, Perez up the pace. And there was a real confidence. There was an air of inevitability, which is what we usually say about Max Vastappan. Instead, this time we're talking about it from Sergio Perez's perspective. Part of me is a little bit frustrated in the sense that I would have loved to have seen how that race panned out if there wasn't a safety car because I don't know whether Perez would have had the

pace to, I think he had the pace to stay with the step and the question would have been, does he have the pace to overtake him? It would have been really intriguing because whilst this race was definitely a statement from Sergio Perez, it would have been a further statement to have done it without any mitigating circumstances whatsoever. I still think in terms of Perez versus his other race wins, there's fewer mitigating circumstances. here than there have been in others. We've often said Perez's wins come about from picking up the pieces when Vostappan isn't there. So Saudi Arabia this year, Monaco, Singapore, these are all examples where Perez has won when something has gone quite badly for Vastappan.

Here, something went badly for Vastappan, but not that badly. So I think in terms of his race wins that he's had at Red Bull, this might be his most encouraging one so far. I, I, I I'd love to have seen how it would have panned out if that safety car didn't come out. Because at that point, I mean, you're referring to the team radio earlier on that happened at the end of the Grand Prix. There's no turning around and saying got unlucky with the safety car. What do they say at that point? Because that would have been as cleaner win as you can possibly have. I'm really not a fan of comments like this from a team boss to one specific driver.

You know, keep that behind closed doors. You don't need to air that publicly. if that's how you feel and you want to tell your driver that, you know, after the race, fine. I can't control that. But you have two drivers. Both your drivers have a fair shot at the championship. That's what Formula One is. You're a team with two individual competitors trying to game the same title.

That is so disheartening and so unfair to Sergei Perez, who did drive a great race. And just going, oh, you got unlucky there. It feels like it delivers the message home of if there wasn't a safety car, you've absolutely mullered him. You've had him easy. No problem. Would they have said it if it was the other way around? no no they wouldn't have and that's the vibe that you get from red ball and you know what fair play to red ball they've created a fantastic car max vastappan is a racing prodigy he's incredible but sergeo preys is

absolutely earning his own plaudits and you should be happy for the driver that's taking the victory there and you know what you could have turned around to max vastappen and said he was catching you before the safety car you didn't really catch him after the safety car so you know i get that maybe they're trying and nurse a little bit of an ego there or something. Max Rastappen doesn't need his ego nursed. Max Rastapen knows just how good he is. Sergio Perez. To your point, they'll be able to talk to him in like 10 minutes time after team radio without Perez there. If they feel like it's a necessary step, okay, you don't need to do it over team radio straight after the Grand Prix is finished.

Sergio Perez out of both your drivers is the kind of driver that needs just a little confidence boosts over to that radio. And if you want two drivers to take it all the way, so you win every race, you take home the title early, you have a real dominant year, Max Verstappen isn't the driver that needs a pick me up. Sergio Perez is the kind of person that needs a, cheers boss. I appreciate that. It felt good to win that one. Max is still digging the championship, and there's every chance that we go to Miami, and Max absolutely romps away with it.

But this was Sergio Perez's day, and he deserves the credit. So I was a bit gutted to hear that kind of coming. It's not how I would run a team, but hey, Maybe Horns are a genius and he goes that that will motivate Perez more. I don't know. But to me, he didn't love it. I will say in terms of the championship question about whether this is a battle now, for me, I'm unconvinced until the point that we get into the European leg of the season

because that's where it all fell apart for Perez last year, right? We've seen him win on the street circuits regularly. We've seen him win at Monaco. We've seen him win at Singapore, Saudi Arabia. He's won here at Baku twice now in the last three years, first two times. winner at the circuit. And that's great. I mean, he performs really well under those sorts of conditions where tire management

is key. We know it. That's his key strength. But we kind of saw a similar thing last year. It might be a bit better this year, but similar-ish to last year. And then when it got to the European season, when you remember the stretch, which was Hungary, Belgium, you know, that's Zandvort, where it just felt like, it doesn't matter where Vestappen starts.

He's going to obliterate everyone. going to win. It's that point of the season that will be the deciding factor for me as to whether this is a championship battle or not, because if he changes his fortunes there, and it's a continuation of what we've had early on in the year, then I'm convinced we might have a fight. But until I see what I didn't see last year, I'm not there yet. Yeah, I think you're completely right. We're on round four right now. So if we get all the way to, I don't know, round 12, and we've seen a trading of victories between Verstappling and Perez. all the way up to that point, then I've got the confidence that Perez could do it on a multitude of

circuits. But I mean, you don't have to look past this own season to see that Perez has chinks in his armour. You know, Australia, not good. And that is technically a street circuit. Bahrain, he was nowhere near the level of Maxwell Stappen at that point either. And that is a classic race circuit. So he does need to go and deliver some of these absolute classic tracks, not not street circuits, race tracks. You know, Silverstone, can he outdo Perez? Monson. can he outdo Perez? Zanvort, Belgium, you already mentioned them. Can he go and out do Max Verstappen, rather, who is so consistent. And we saw it with Lewis Hamilton. You know, they have little dips, little moments when Hamilton was up against Bottas or Rosberg. But, you know, across the whole season,

they've got your number. They know how to deliver timing, time in, time out, timing, time out. And it would not surprise me now if Verstappen uses this as a little bit of a kick to go and deliver, I know, three out of the three next wings. I wouldn't be shocked. would not surprise me one bit if that's what the result is. Before we go into our second outbreak, just a quick discussion on bold predictions, because a very good point was raised earlier in the week. I think it was by Ellie on Instagram,

saying what happens if, with us doing the body swap episode, if any bold predictions are right? So Sam as Harry managed to get a bold predictions right by saying Red Bull would be on the podium, naturally, that ain't going to be a point. We're not doing. Regardless of who it's going to, that ain't a point.

And if you've got your abacus out, folks, I think we're going to end up with zero points between us anyway because I did a three-parter in the spirit of Sam. And also in the spirit of Sam, I got none of them right. And Harry says something ridiculous like he normally does, like four cars have finished. So basically, nothing's changed. Harry's still losing is 1-1-0.

He can't protest it because he's not here, and he'll be living with that, because he'll think that he's managed to get away with the easiest point of his life. He's not having it. And you know what? He can't even edit anything in anymore because he doesn't do that. Thank you, Kirstie. You're lovely. He's not even here.

He's on holiday. He just makes money off of us, Ben. He's sent us for a bag of chips, honestly. We'll take our second ad break, and we'll be talking about Ferrari on the other side. So we've made a bit of a deal of, uh, Shal LeCle, not exactly having too many points on the board coming into this Grand Prix weekend. He sorted that out. He sorted that out on Saturday because he managed to score more points from a sprint race at Baku

than he did in the first three Grand Prix combined. He then went and followed up his P3 in that race with another P3 on Sunday behind the Red Bull drivers. Wasn't ever really in doubt both from a he wasn't going to beat the Red Bulls, but also not really in doubt from he wasn't getting caught from anyone behind. I know it was close between him and Alonzo at the flag, but you felt like he always had that in hand. It's a step in the right direction, Sam. And do you think this makes Charles LeClerc the favourite

to be behind the Red Bull drivers in P3 in the championship? This feels like the first time the Ferrari as being properly competitive since Bahrain. And obviously, LeCleur was absolutely on it in Bahrain until we had some serious issues. This also feels like LeCleur's best drive across this whole weekend. And I know he absolutely loves it around there, right? He's being successful here before. he's been on poll. And I saw a flurry of messages on social media after both qualifying

sessions had taken place that Cheryl LeCler is by far and no doubt the best driver over a one lap kind of, you know, attempt now, which, you know, could be an interesting debate for another time. The point is, it feels like he's found his mojo. It feels like he's got his confidence back. And whether he's going to be the driver behind the two Red Bulls for the rest of the season or not, it's good to see that someone like Charles LeCler who we love to reference as Gogh LeCler for many, many reasons, can be on his A game because Ferrari need him.

They need him to be at his absolute peak of his powers every single race weekend because that car isn't good enough. It isn't going to challenge for race wings unless Red Bull have a double DNF. It will barely challenge for podiums unless for some reason the Ascom Martin or Masegi's absolutely struggling. It looks like both Ascomarting and the Sageghis

can't go in a straight line. very well. So, you know, they need to maximize that. Maybe they'll have a good time at Monser, who knows, but Rebel again, in the way. Um, Charlotte Claude had a great recovery job. He got the points back that he needed. It was a dire start, a dire first three races for him. Ferrari was struggling. He's recovered that well. Was very, very impressed. And I think if this had gone badly, we might be a nervy territory of what a Ferrari doing. Can they pull this together? Unfortunately, for Carlos Sainz, who I would say is looked pretty on par with Charlotte, the Claire for the whole of this season and as being, you know, quite well respected, he's been put in the mud.

He's been absolutely sent for a bag of chips for this performance because it was atrocious. It's made the Claire look even better than I think he probably was. Because I actually don't think that Ferrari in pure pace is the next best car after Red Bull. I think Askin Martin do still have that across the current season with the different dynamic of tracks that we've looked at. But the Claire pulled something out of the bag today. He absolutely loves it here and fair play to him. Picks up a lot more points and they are deserved. If you were to put like a check mark against the four sessions, he gets four out of four, right?

Like he couldn't have done any more in every single competitive session that he had this weekend. He had qualifying on the Friday, got poll, did everything he could. In terms of the sprint shootout, oh, God. He gets a tick there as well. Again, pole position. Couldn't do any more. And third place in both Grand Prix, again, the Red Bulls too quick. He alluded to it.

So again, he's maximised this performance there. So I don't think there's anything else he could have done realistically this weekend. And rather than, it sounds awful and it is awful to an extent. But him lying down and letting the Red Bulls pass without too much of a fight was absolutely his best strategic play because he knew his fight was with the drivers behind. He knew his fight was with his teammate and with Alonzo with the Mercedes drivers and just making sure that he had enough tire life left at the end of both. races to be able to hold them off, which he was able to do on both instances, in part,

because he didn't fight the positions more than he had to. Certainly with the Vestappan pass, I mean, Vestappen was overtaking him before the breaking zone, so there was literally nothing he could do there? But even with Perez, could he have potentially stuck the car in there, gone to the inside, maybe. But it just wasn't worth it from his side, because he knows just it's going to be the next lap or the lap after that. There was no point fighting. So I think Lecler maximised his weekend. It was the weekend he needed. Not only from a points perspective,

I don't actually think the points matter at this point too much. I think it's more of a confidence thing and knowing that Ferrari have still got it in them to potentially finish P2 in the constructors and Leclair P3 and the drivers. I think him and Alonzo could be a battle that goes a long way into the season over that spot. I have to wait and see. As you say, Sam, I don't think Aston Martin's car was at its best here.

So we'll have to see Miami, which is a bit more balanced. Certainly Monaco, which top speed, no real concern there. Once we get into those sorts of races, then I think we'll have an idea where Ferrari is versus its competitors. In terms of signs, though, it was a long way back. Part of me feels a bit sorry for signs here because you don't want your worst weekends to happen when there are more than two opportunities for it to be showcased. So I'm not saying that the spotlight wouldn't have been on him

if this had happened, let's say, next week instead of this week. But certainly, his lack of performance versus LeClaire would have been highlighted once in qualifying, once in the race, we move on, and he might do a good job at the next Grand Prix. Here, it had to be displayed two times in qualifying, two times in the race. It's just like hitting a nail with a hammer over and over, like putting the point home because of how much competitive running there was. And to your point earlier on about Vastapani, it might be the same instance here with Carlos Sines, that if your car isn't set after FP1, the one and only free practice session, that's it. Unless you want to go and break parke-firmary conditions

and start in the pit lane like Ockon and Holcomberg did, you don't have many options. So if he wasn't happy with where the car was after the first session, and we saw in qualifying, at best, it was about six, seven temps between himself and Lecler. Quite often it was closer to a second. There's very little you can do. So part of me feels a bit sorry for him. I understand why you feel sorry for him. But at the same time, he's got all the same machinery as Charles Lecler.

He rates himself as highly as Charles Lecler. He has to be making those moves stick. And when the car clearly has got that ability to be on pole twice in one weekend. And Carlos Sykes is neither of those options. He's not even on the front row. it's not good enough. He wants to be the future of that team. He wants to be a world champion.

And I must admit, before the weekend started, Big Fred Bull, Big Freddy Vass, said that, you know, every team has their driver, you know, Red Bull build around Max, Mercedes had built around Lewis for years, and now we're building around Charl. And I thought, oh, that's a little bit harsh on Carlos.

You know, they're only in their, what, third year as their partnership. And it's not, it's got to be bad from Carlos. And then this weekend has come along. And I've thought, yeah, actually, I can see exactly why Charles LeClaire is the guy that they keep putting their attention behind because it's just not there for Carlos.

He's a fantastic driver. He is just not the top tier of driver that's going to go and take world titles, I don't think. Well, you think about it was about a pit stop difference between the two drivers at the end of the Grand Prix, take away a few safety car laps. That pretty much works out at half a second per lap average. That's not good enough.

Over 45, nearly 50 laps of Green Flag Racing, that is pretty severe. So, hasn't got much time to, maybe it'll end up being a good thing, but he doesn't have much time to think about it because he's got to go racing again in one week's time. I almost feel like it's probably a good thing

that he's not got like a three or four week break if it happened in Australia. But yeah, first of all, congratulations are in order because we managed to go, well, about 45 minutes into this without having complained about sprint races yet.

Here we're going to be very, very quickly. We knew that going into the weekend it would be a revised sprint format. So rather than qualifying, leading into the sprint, leading into the race, it was essentially going to be two separated Grand Prix. So you have qualifying on the Friday that led to the race on Sunday, and then Saturday exclusively you have the shootout in the morning, which set the grid for the spring race in the afternoon. So points wise, nothing changed, but how you set the grids for the two races was different. See, we've only got one race as a sample size, Sam, but what did you make of the change? So, I think it's good that I'm going first because I'm probably, as usual, going to be

a little bit more balanced and complementary of the sprint race overall. Now, don't think that because I've started off that way, that this is going to be an overall good message for sprint races, folks, don't get it twisted. There are two positives in my mind that came from the sprint race, two. And when you're doing a whole thing properly and you've only got two positives, great. The first positive, I actually liked the shortened qualifying session times in the spring shootout. I think that it was a bit fun. It put a bit of pressure on drivers to get out there and get it right first time. And especially around a track that can have red flags thrown, there's risk there. That's fine. I think that's okay. It doesn't necessarily need to be implemented straight away into

real qualifying or anything, but I liked it. Secondly, the thing that I liked about the sprint races, I've completely forgotten. So that's good fun, isn't it? That's how irrelevant. it was. In the point of me making it about the first one, I forgot on the second. Oh, I've remembered. That's good. I like that I got rid of a practice session because, like I was saying, with the whole car setups and whatnot, I've always thought that less practice is good for these drivers. They're the best in the world. They should be able to sort their car out, not use too much historical data. Go racing. Get the job done. So for that matter, I liked it. Now the bad. Firstly, let's talk about the scheduling of the overall event. It was so boring having a

qualifying on Friday, which I love, right? Qualifying is qualifying. Qualifying is great. It's always amazing to watch. But it's amazing how quickly qualifying became dull by waking up the next day and immediately having to wait, hold on. Oh, it's just more qualifying. I'm just going to watch another qualifying hour.

Also, the timing of it was so bad because so many people were either at work in Europe, struggling to watch anything live, which is regularly one of the most exciting sessions of the whole weekend. or if you're not privileged to be a European viewer, that's right, folks, we are privileged. I mean, we take the Mickey. But if you're in Asia, if you're in the Australasia region, if you're in America, you're either having to get up in the middle of the night

on a workday or you're already in the middle of the night when you're trying to sort yourself out, not fun, not a good thing at all. So yeah, we had two qualifying sessions in a row. So boring. And then, you know, change that around, right? So have sprint shoots out Friday, if you're going to have something on Friday. the sprint race on the Saturday morning. Good. Sprink's done. Package it up, send it off.

Qualifying for the race on Saturday afternoon as normal, race on Sunday. See, one was got a back-to-back race weekend almost going through. But because the race on Saturday, the sprint race, was so mediocre. And we said this time after time, it made Sunday's race even more boring because it's just extended.

It's the same thing, copying and paste game, just longer on Sunday. If you're going to have a separate event, that is a sprint race, it has to provide something different. There has to be something different that sets that race apart to the main race. And I like that it doesn't set the grid for the main race, but at the same time, at least the sprint race had a purpose when it did that. So you've got to do something different with this gimmick.

I know Ben hates the idea of reverse griggs or doing it like F2, where you bring like 10th place to pole and pole to 10th place and, you know, you sort out the positions in between. At least it would provide some kind of different entertainment or different basis for it to happen. during that sprint race. Otherwise, you're just get an extra 100 kilometre dash, whatever they want to call it, that is just extending the main race on Sunday.

It was boring. The race weekend itself wasn't too exciting. The sprint race was dull, and that then made the Sunday race even more dull. The whole thing is stupid. It isn't working. Stop trying to manufacture entertainment when, honestly, a Formula One race weekend,

end away is pretty good most of the time. When are they going to get rid of this rubbish? honestly. It was atrocious. And I feel like, fortunately, the weekend kind of made my points for me. But yeah, it didn't work. And why are we surprised? We have a race weekend that just works. I keep saying just a more compact race weekend without this sprint race rubbish would be great. I think we've reached the point now. This is what our seventh sprint race combined. I think we've had two good ones. And they've both been at the same track, which was interlagos, makes you think that maybe it's not the format that's any good, if it's only two out of seven that are good. Maybe it's just interlagos is brilliant for racing. Because I don't think we've had a good sprint race that hasn't been in Brazil. And we know that Baku's delivered good races before and Silverstone has and other venues where this sprint races have gone to, but it's not working. And why would we expect it to? It's still

fundamentally an added stint without any strategy. People might think it's nerdy to say, but strategy is fun. There's a reason why the race wasn't very good today. It's because all of the strategy was stripped out of the Grand Prix. Because as soon as the safety car came out, everyone was on the same tire. No one needed to stop again, and everyone managed until the end of the Grand Prix. Strategy is a lot of fun when it comes to Formula One. And when it stripped out, as it was today and as it is always in sprint races,

because you don't need to make pit stops. why are we expecting it to be any more entertaining than what it was? There is a very good reason that no one could shut up about the Russell and Vastappan incident that happened after the Grand Prix. It's because nothing exciting happened in it. If we had a great sprint race where there was loads of entertainment, people probably wouldn't be as focused on that incident that happened. The only reason everyone was talking about it because there was nothing else to talk about.

And there was intrigue lost from the Sunday Grand Prix because we had a driver. starting from poll that we knew had absolutely no chance of holding on to it because we'd seen it happen the day before. I agree with your point, by the way, on the qualifying side of things, you know, reducing the amount of time. I do want to see how it works where, well, we had it with Baku this weekend where you'd have multiple laps done on the same set of tyres and it was fine. I do want to see it at a circuit where it's very much won and done

because would the timing interrupt the potential to get more than one lap in? I don't know. So I do want to see it in that circumstance. But overall, I agree with, you know, reduce time. That worked absolutely fine. And I would just say in terms of it replacing a practice session, I was no fan of having FP2 after the Friday qualifying. But I don't think it needs to be a this or that scenario. I think neither is an acceptable answer. I think it's okay to have a two-day race weekend and have a shorter amount of time and potentially get another race or two in the season. I've got no problem with that. I don't think it needs to be a situation where a lot of people get stuck in the trap of, I don't like practice, therefore sprint races are good.

You can dislike the amount of practice time and also say we don't need to replace it with this session. That's okay. Two things can be true at the same time. It was a mess. And there was just nothing, nothing entertaining that happened. Two things also really jumped out of me across the sprint weekend. The first one is that obviously, because of the new qualifying format, you had to run mandatory tire, but you had the same tire allotment that we normally have. So there were drivers that got into Q3, Landon Norris being one specifically,

just couldn't come out, literally not allowed to go out for a run, which is hilarious. What's the point? You've deprived a driver of it. And there were conversations of, oh, they should have, let Piascari go in front of Norris because at least then we'd have 10 cars in the session. hilarious that you're having that conversation. And the second point, which hammers home, what we've said so many times about sprint races, which Karun Chandop made on the commentary on Sky.

So if you don't get it, I'll try and quote it as close as I can. But he said, one was looking to make a move on another. And he said, why would this driver try and put their nose up the inside and try and take a risk? There's no need to take a risk when you've got another Grand Prix that you've got a race in tomorrow. It's just not worth the reward. Now, that to me, screams shouldn't be doing this anymore. If a driver not making a bit of a risky move to try and get points, to try and provide some action and some entertainment is not worth it,

because, oh, I've just got another chance to sort get out another day. That's not fun. That's not conducive to a fun race. I want drivers to go, Perez's move on LeClerc was a great move, and it was a bit risky and he got it done. And that was a good opportunity to showcase how DRS, late break and getting the move done last minute worked. you wouldn't have ever seen it properly done in the spring race

because no one wanted to risk it in the barrier. It was just, everything bad happened. Not atrocious. It was just dull. And Formula One in my eyes, she'd always try to avoid being dull. That is the big,

I'd rather it be... That's a Harry Ead, but... Yeah. You know, don't be dull because, you know, the expression is always, you know, you'd rather be bad than forgotten. And I would rather something, you know, actually, I'd rather something happening in the race

or in a qualifying session that I go, right-werely to talk about that because it's interesting, rather than just to find it fun, it was just boring. Before my blood pressure goes to levels that are way too high for a podcast recording, we're going to take our final break. On the other side, our final segment of the day, we're going to be talking about our moment of the race, plus some Discord submissions.

It feels like in a lot of instances there will be a large number to select from here. Probably not today, but Moment of the Race. from you, Sam? I'm actually giving this one to George Russell, despite all the chaos that went on across the race. You know, so much chaos, endless chaos, lap 50.

For me, George Russell gets moment with the race and it's for his absolute brutal honesty over the radio after that safety car restart. He was like, well, lads, that restart was absolutely beep, because I fully respect it. And he was like, sorry, that was rubbish. and I really enjoy that attitude from a driver of just putting the hands up going,

I was crap. Really bad. I agree. It's just he's secure it in himself enough to be able to admit when things go. Like he knows he's good enough that that's not going to happen very often. And it's just the confidence to stay.

He'll make the most of it. He would turn it around. And I respected it. So there were lots that went on. Obviously, we could have brought up maybe the Ockong in the pit lane thing or the no stop strategies. I'm sure Ben's got a great one to bring up. But for me,

it went a little bit under the radio. but I thoroughly enjoy the fact that he just went, I was crap. Anyway, off we go. I have two moments of the race and I couldn't decide between them. Firstly, I'm not going to give it to this one, but I did have to bring it up at least. I completely forgot about it until a few laps from the end, which should probably tell you how exciting this Grand Prix was. But at least for Sky Sports viewers, you'll understand what this was.

Ted Kravich trying to explain starting in the pit lane as an opportunity? I'm okay? Yeah. What? That was, I was, I was just started laughing at that. I'm sure he had a point in there somewhere. He didn't make it very well, though. So I didn't have to mention that. But my moment of the race is the photographer who turned up or the, you know, FIA person who turned up on the day, was like, okay, what do you need me to do today, boss? What have you got me doing? And he's like, you see that castle? See those two holes there? To go from one to the other and then back. again. All right? I just thought that was great. I just had images of someone going, I would love a bird's eye view shot of this man across the entire race weekend.

Oh God, get to the other window. But let's hear from you guys, what you had as your moment of the race. We've got some Discord submissions. We'll start off with Inspector Seb. Hey guys, Inspector Seb here. Moment of the race was going to be Alonzo's sneaky overtake on signs in the middle of nowhere, but then a lot of Lonzo decided to do nothing all race, and Esther Ben Ocon decided to almost go people bowling. So I guess that Esty Besty or the FIA is moment of the race. Yeah, I'm not sure we'd have got like the Wii Sports Strike animation come up if that had happened. That would have been...

Wow! Nice. That's really niche, but I really love that. I love that game. Yeah. Let's go to Norm from Texas. Oh, hello, my late breaking friends from across the world. It's me, Norm from Texas.

And I figured I might as well hand out the Azerbaijan, the overtake belt buckle award to Fernando. My gigat-chat level is over 9,000 Alonzo for that overtake on Carlos Sines at turn six because that was the only action in the snoozer of a race. Anyway, keep breaking late. Right. Norm has actually, the big boy from Texas, has actually rattled me there in a really good way. because I've just remembered something about the sprint race

that had me absolutely fuming, you know, sorry, why is the prize a baseball cap with paint on it? Why is that the prize that is given to drivers for pole position and the sprint shootout now? I don't know, because it's different, Sam, because it's not qualifying, it's radically different from it. The prizes are different, the music's different. Oh, the music was terrible.

that honestly give him a belt buckle. I'd rather get a fancy belt buckle to wear. Also, I petition again. If you're going to have spring races, bring back the Reeves. Please. They were great. Do it.

Do it. Anyway, that's a really good one from Norm because that was a really great move from Fernando Alonzo that we haven't referenced yet. Let's go to Cali for the next one. Hello. Shout out to Brexit beef.

My moment of the race is going to be Nick DeVries, but honestly, I can't do that because everyone knows you shouldn't be an F1. Moment of the race is these idiot protesters. How does this keep happening? In honor of Harry Eid, what are you doing?

Get these guys out of this weekend. This is annoying how it happens every other weekend now. Someone's going to get hurt. Okay. I love that Callie's impression of Harry Ead sounds a bit like like Jean Neck.

or someone from the Beatles. Like, oh, how are you doing? It's me, Ringo Star. I was going to do... Do you remember that Ringo Star video about not getting any more mail, fan mail? No. Oh, what in The Simpsons? No, no, this is separate.

Definitely go and YouTube this after you're done today. Ringo Star, no more fan letters or fan mail. Really great. That's my homework. Yeah. let's go to James for the next one. It will be boys, James Hill from a moor of the race. My moor of the race is Lance Straw literally giving himself a mortar not to attack.

I mean, he probably thinks he's as race engineer now. They're going to squat rolled for next race. Anyways, real dad isn't here, sadly. He's somewhere on a business trip in Dubai, but he'll be there for next race. Love the podcast, boys. Until the next one. Bye. James absolutely.

down the fort while Real Dag swunging at our thing in, you know, the Middle East. But I love how excited he is. He's so excited. He almost trips up over everything he's saying. And it is amazing. We love you, James. Thanks, James. And I hope you having a good business trip, Real Dad. Has us up next. Right, boys, moment of the race was, there's not many to pick from. But I'd probably say Karim Chandok,

describing the battle for first, if you can call it a battle, as exhilarate him. Giza, that was not exhilarating. that was about as exhilarating as listening to Damon Hill read the phone book. Cheers, boys. I'm going for getting a tire to Hazer going, Giza. You know it's getting real. Yeah, I love it.

Pulls out the geyser. We know as well, Hazer's actually pretty good at the F1 game. We did our first gaming night as part of the Patreon, and Hazel was involved there, and he's pretty quick. Plug! I know, right? Let's go to Marine. Hi guys, this is Maureen and I'm submitting my movement of the race.

And it's those photographers being in the pit lane while O'Conn was still doing his pit stop. What the hell was that? Super, super dangerous. And the FIA is just unbelievable. You think there's one day when there's no controversy and then you see this bull peep. Yeah, and that was it. And Nick Debris shouldn't be an F1. That's my final thought.

Goodbye. Bye, bye. You can't just casually angry. They just should be an F1. Like it's a passing statement. Oh, by the way, it should be an F1. Okay, bye.

It's, before that, it's a really good point that the FIA did almost manage to avoid anything happening for a Grand Prix for once, and then they just couldn't help themselves,

like two laps from the end. Let's go to all good, always. Highly breaking. Oh my gosh. What a long race. 51 laps felt like forever. I don't even know what to say because all the drama was in the last lap.

and it's all in the Discord chat. So yeah, no comment on that. But anyway, I think my moment of the race has got to be Fernando reacting to Lance's radio message where he said, I will not be attacking you. And Fernando was, he can't if he wants to. I mean, cue Taylor Swift's anti-hero,

Taylor Swift reference, ha-ha. Anyway, love the podcast, love you guys. Bye! Bloody Taylor Swift. I've never heard about Taylor Swift. More in my life than the last week. Yeah, true. Also, yeah, Fernando Alonzo just being like, yeah, come at me, bro.

See what happens. See if you like what happens. Yeah. How you like me now? Yeah, that was a real disrespectful line whilst also being respectful. Very good. Lastly, we'll hear what Beef's moment of the race was. I'm sure the first 20 seconds of this will be nothing to do with the race whatsoever.

But we need an update on Beef's life. What's happening, Beef? Hello, I've actually thought about this update. So yesterday, I danced too hard to Taylor Swift, and I've absolutely done my shoulder in. So I couldn't get out in the gardens, lad. I wanted to do my garden this weekend, and I'm on the struggle bus, so I can't.

Moment of the race, it was quite dull, wasn't it? But I will go for everyone losing in their minds when Lando finally got past. Hulk. Loved to wait in a month for that one. See you all next week. Okay, bye. I mean, it says a lot about the Grand Prix that we forgot about that move entirely,

but the entire world were excited when landing or not going to have been a very normal overtake. For what, a point, two points. Yeah. Good job, back. Okay, that's it for a moment of the race. And indeed, that is it for this episode. episode of the podcast. I'd say we'd be back as a trio for the Miami preview, but we won't because

you're not here for this one, Sam. So it'll be myself and Harry trying to hold down the fort and putting an analogy or two. I got a bit of practice with the analogies last week, so I'll build on that for this preview as well. Yes, folks, I am swunging it up in the sun in another country. Maybe you'll see me incognito hiding away around the swimming pool with a, my sex on the beach and a little umbrella. If you can play, we can play it. late breaking spotted. If you see Sam, sage on holiday,

we'll send you a cap. Folks, I guess we'll leave it there, right? Thank you so much for listening. It's been a painful weekend in terms of Formula One content. We wait a month,

everyone, a month for this. It was hard. Well done for slogging it out. We've got Miami next week. I'm going to hope and pray that Miami's actually a good one and we don't get another scoose fest

because a month break of two weeks would hurt. Yeah, please. So join us, of course, the big week. I won't be here, but the boys will, of course, do a fantastic job. We'll make sure that they do something, I don't know, stupid, say Sunshine or not. They'll do something, I'm sure, just for me. Make sure you check out our social media.

It's at all breaking on Twitter, the late breaking up on podcasts or Instagram and on TikTok because we were down with the kids. And regularly producing content. Like actual, almost daily content is now out on TikTok and on Instagram. Please go and check it out. We appreciate all your support. We're trying to grow those platforms.

yeah, thank you to producer Kerski, you rock. Also, YouTube videos are regularly going out. We've got a new video going out tomorrow evening about the quote of Fernando Alonkso, saying that you could potentially wing seven world titles. So, you know, go have a little watch. Give us a subscribe on YouTube, late breaking off on podcast. It really, really helps us. Also, if you want to help us that a little bit more,

because you're just so wonderful. We do have Patreon. And with Patreon, you get a little something back. Of course, there are three tiers that you can subscribe to. You can get Ag-free podcast, which is always nice. could get a little bit of beer with breaking, which is, I think, is it out then? Am I right? Is it out? Yes, out on Friday. Beer with breaking is out for April. So if you want to see the three of us having a little

tipple and talking life, it's more about just us being silly and talking about who we are and what's going on. It's kind of behind the scenes. A lot of our origin story on this last one. Yeah, that's true. We discussed how we met as a trio, which is all very nice. And you get a birthday shout-out as well, which that leaves. me very nicely on to April's birthday shoutouts. So here we go, folks. You know, we've got three of them. We've got Ryan Ziegler, April 23rd, happy birthday. You share your birthday with Catherine Walker. No, that's wrong. That's March. I've read the wrong column there. I'm so sorry, Catherine,

but you've been giving a double shoutout. I actually meant to say it's been Bleet Lambert. Happy birthday to you. And then Caleb for the 27th. That was three days ago. So happy birthday shoutouts for April. Right at the end, then we're going in there at the end of the month. Ben, I bet you thought that I've forgotten that. Yes. Also, don't forget, you've got to do a fantasy update at the start of the next episode. I will remember this time, okay?

It won't come in the form of an Instagram post. I will remember to say it on the podcast unless, oh, no, I had Gasley and Holcomberg. Maybe I won't do an update. Never mind. I've even checked my team. Anyway, folks, that's it. That was a very long outro.

Thanks for sticking with us in the meantime. I've been Samuel Sage. And I've been Ben Hocking And remember Keep breaking late Death to Sprint Races Never slower Ashton's become my brand new crew

When my mechanics Work the graveyard shift On all the reasons That used to cause this team to lose Lewis and Russell It's gonna be a tussle To race that team out To racing moines and son

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