The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2023 Bahrain GP Review

Episode Date: March 5, 2023

The LB Boys are back with the first review episode of the year as Max Verstappen takes victory in Bahrain ahead of his teammate Sergio Perez and a debut Aston Martin podium for Fernando Alonso! The boys break down all the talking point from Race 1, and give their verdict on driver of the day... 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 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 Ead, Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking. We're back reviewing races the first time in 2023. The Bahrain Grand Prix is in the books. and Max Vastappen starts the year the same way he ended last year with a pretty dominant victory ahead of his teammate, Sergio Perez.

But joined on the podium by Fernando Alonzo in the Aston Martin. Great start for Red Bull. Great start for Aston Martin. And Sam, we're about reviewing races, so it's great for us too. Oh my goodness. I got that little excited tummy feeling. You're like where you're on like the top of a roller coaster and you're about to go down the big dipper on the roller coaster.

That's how it felt watching the fire. of red lights build when we started watching the Bahrain Grand Prix. It was like, here we go. The roller coaster starts. We are back. I'm so excited to be doing a race review for the first time in the season. Only a few more of these to carry on out through the year. You know, we're going to be here every single time.

But, you know, what a good start. Max Verstappen and Red Bull looking on theously good, slightly scary. And also being that little menace, Harry, you're back. You're feeling good. How's it going? Oh, man. Elplan. L plan

Also How's Laplan going Ben You know In the same way Rome wasn't built In a day I never said

Leplan was going to work In one race Estabana Akon's got this In the bag He just needs to I don't know Read the rule book But after he's done that

It'll be fine The only thing I can think of With Elplan is It starts with the same letter As loser Loser Lopan is the

go, Leplan is nothing, mate. You're nothing. Savage. Well, I'm glad you've used your opening monologue to go all straight to Laplan. I thought we'd at least take like 15 minutes until we'd get there. But it'll happen, folks. Just you wait and see. Plenty to chat about today.

We're going to be discussing our moment of the race. Driver of the day, worst driver of the day. Toto Wolf making comments about Mercedes concept. Have they gone the wrong way? again. But we're going to start with the Alonzo podium. So coming into the weekend, there was a lot of optimism that Astor Martin might well have got things right heading into the season. They were proven correct after a pretty encouraging practice and qualifying Fernando Alonzo getting third place in the Grand Prix and an injured Lance stroll scoring strong points as well. So with Red Bull seemingly a long way

in front, but the battle for second seemingly much closer, Sam, based on what you saw today, do Aston Martin have a chance to be the closest competitors to Red Bull. Well, testing shows us one thing. Testing shows that they have got what looks like great race pace, and lo and behold, we get to a proper race day, and testing for once appears to have run true. Red Bull up the front, Aston Martin, over the race distance, they started a little, I wouldn't even say mediocre, is probably harsh, but they started gently. They eased their way into, it. Mercedes looks like they actually had the upper hand.

I was thinking, where's this coming from? At one point, Lewis Hamilton was going on Carlos Sikes before Alonkso was even in the picture and then slowly, but surely, alongside the strategy and stroll, to be fair, start eking their way up the grid. Now, do I think that they are the absolute closest challenges to Red Bull? I'm not sure. I think if LeCleur were to carry on in the field and not have the failure, then there's every chance that the Clare walks away quite comfortably with that P3 and we don't have

have the absolute hullabaloo that's going on across social media right now, which is, of course, celebrating Fernando Alonso on his podium, his 99th podium, his first one in, what, a decade, which is ridiculous. We have one a couple of years back. Just ignore that one that I'm talking about. Just ignore it. Didn't happen. Anyway, we're all about the facts.

Apart from that, though. Apart from that one that I'm going to ignore, for my own point, first one for a decade. honestly, I think if LeCler stays, then it's a slightly different story. But reliability is a key factor across the whole season. I think, Ben, when you ask the question, you use the word Challenger to Red Ball. Challenger feels generous, feels nice. It's more like Red Bullabair, and then Ashton Martin might actually be the champions of the rest of the film, which considering that they gained two seconds overall in their qualifying time from the last time we're at Bahrain is mega impressive.

So, you know, lots of who played out, lots of happen. I think the Clare stayed in that field gives you whatever chance of beating both the Askin Martins relatively comfortably. But it was impressive stuff. And I was quite surprised at how easily I also cut through both Hamilton and Sites in the latter stage. So very, very promising. I'm very excited to see what's to come. Harry, do you think Aston Martin could prove to be the biggest challenges, whether that's actually much of a challenge or not, as Sam says, is a question in its own right?

But do you think they can be the closest one of that group of three, Ferrari and Mercedes? Yes, it's an interesting one because, as Sam said, it seemed to like seesaw throughout the weekend. In practice, Alonzo looks pretty impressive, but we were trying not to believe the hype too much. And Kuali, maybe they weren't quite as high up as everyone thought they were going to be. And as I mentioned, Mercedes were in the mix. I know Alonzo did out qualify them. But, and maybe that's something in the kiddies'

heel of that car. But they're, I think on race pace, I think if Alonso had started, I'm not saying he beats the Red Bulls. If Alonzo started slightly further up and had a good start, or just one of those two options, and hadn't got stuck behind the two Merck for a bit, I'd been really intrigued to see what the gap

would have been to the Red Bulls, come the end of the race. I don't think you would have caught them, but I think it would have been much closer than it was, which was 37 seconds, I think, to have this happened by the end of the race. So, yeah, I think they're in the fight with, at the moment with Ferrari. I think Mercedes is slightly further back, again, on race pace, not necessarily on one lap.

But they could be, they could be in the fight for second with Ferrari based on today. Yeah, Sam mentioned as well, LeCler going out, did, I'm not saying gifted him on the way to a podium, but helped him on his way to a podium. But he was quicker than signs, and maybe he could have caught LeCler. Ferrari were falling off the cliff that badly with Tyre. So yeah, it's going to be an interesting one. It's obviously only race one, but the pace in that car is evident, and it wasn't just hype from testing. It wasn't necessarily the World Championship winning car,

and I think Alonzo was keen. In every interview we've seen with him, he's very keen to sort of temper everyone's enthusiasm, and he's correct to do that, because I don't think it's quite the level of the Red Bull, but it's a solid car. When that in that first stint, when he was sort of hanging, well, we now know hanging back,

but it looked like he couldn't hang on to the Mercedes Ferrari Red Bull, and I was like, oh, no, it's, it's too much hype. It's not, it's not all we thought. You're smarter than that, Harry. You've seen Alonzo do stuff like this, plenty of times. I know, I know, but I was like, oh, man, never mind. But then by the end, he was, like, I mean, considering that after that, um, second round of stops, where he tried to do the overcut,

and it almost worked. I mean, he was not far behind Hamilton when he came out. Now, I think that suggests the pace they've got in that car. So, yeah, interesting to see if he'd started further up or hadn't had a bad start where they would have been. But I think, yeah, they could well be in that fight for second with Ferrari. I think maybe just qualifying me to work on their pace slightly. But it's, how has it happened?

How has this happened? That is a great question. And if we have the answer to that, then I'm sure five other teams that wish had done the same would also have the answer to that. But we don't. I think for me, the biggest indicator of that pace was not necessarily the overtake on signs, but just how quickly he left him for dead.

Like that, that gap was like five seconds, almost instantly. That was the most impressive thing for me that made me go, oh, okay, yeah, yeah, they are, they're in business this year. And trust me, as someone who has got Aston Martin fifth in Constructors' predictions, I'm a bit nervous. But here we go. But I will say this. testing wise. You're right, Sam. Testing was spot on for the first time ever. Everything that

kind of looked like would be the case in testing pretty much came true at the top. So I think expectation management is quite important when it comes to Formula One because a lot of people after practice were like, okay, well, Alonzo Polo Alonzo win, Astor Martin Championship contenders, here we go. And of course it didn't materialize into that. But actually, if you'd base your expectations purely on testing, it was pretty much spot on because we came out of testing and said, OK, Red Bull looked very ominously good, but the battle for second should be interesting, which is exactly what happened today. Red Bull were miles in the distance, Ferrari, Mercedes, Aston Martin, it was a good battle for second. So it seemed to be very much in line with what we

saw a week ago. And honestly, I don't know if Aston Martin's car was best suited for this circuit, which could be a very encouraging sign, we saw that Aston Martin were very good in the low speed and medium speed corners. That bodes well for Imola, that bodes well for Monaco, there are some circuits coming up where Aster Martin might be even stronger than what they were here. Now, I do want to see those circuits before saying something such as Aster Martin will be the clear number two team this year, because at the moment we've seen testing and one race, and they happen to be exactly the same circuit. So I do want to see something else before,

you know, a bit more of a sample size before saying something like they will be the second best team, but it's a really encouraging start. The kicker is going to be Lance Strull, even after he's recovered from his injury, because let's face it, if we're talking six drivers in competition for second,

and you've got Hamilton, Russell, Sines, LeClaire, Alonzo and Stroll, doesn't take a genius to work out who the weakling, is in that six. So he could be, unfortunately, who lets the side down. But we'll have to see how it goes. We'll have to see if they do hold a key advantage over the other two teams. I agree with what you said in terms of qualifying. They probably need to up their pace on a Saturday, because Sunday they seem to be very much on it. But what a start and what a transformation from last year. Remember where they were 12 months ago. Something that really run true to me as well was in their

post-race interviews, Fernando Alonso made a bit of a cheeky comment where Nika Rosberg asked him about testing time and how much more testing time they've got this year over the likes of Red Bull and Ferrari. I think where they finished last season, they technically get 100% of the allowed allocated testing time, someone like Williams, for example, I think gets 115% whereas Red Bull at the top with their penalty everything, only at 60% of that included testing time. So Ascent Martin need to not just perform well on track. They need to capitalize on this. momentum off track. Alonso was very crafty in the way he said,

we need to make the most of it this year, because next year we won't have as much testing time. I thought, one, showed the confidence he has in that team, that they are going to maintain this form. But two, it shows that he's aware that they need to do as much as they can now, while they have that advantage before it all goes back to the status quo next season and push on. They could, in theory, take a big step away from the sayings after the comments

that Toto Wolf made. They could take a big step away from Ferrari if Ferrari have got it wrong, under Fred. And in theory, with Red Bull having this hindrance now, of course, of the penalty, the 6% development time, they're going to have to focus on their new car at some point. Aston Martin could be the one team that really becomes a threat. Out of absolutely nowhere, and also knows this, he's a savvy, savvy man. They have to make sure they're taking that step forward while they have the opportunity to do so. You mentioned Ferrari within that. If you were putting together a plus minus from 2022, one of the biggest pluses would be how well

their season started. This time last year, Charles LeCler was 26 points clear of Max Verstappen. Today he sits 25 points behind Max Verstappen thanks to a DNF when he looked on course for P3. Harry, based on that again being the one plus they had last year, which apparently they don't have this year,

how worrying is it for the team in red? Oh, no, no, no, no. Oh, no already. Yeah, look, look, I don't want to start hating on Ferrari this early. But do you remember when they were the only team in Q1 that went on medium ties? And then the cars started falling apart.

That was good. That's a good start. Oh, yeah. That happened. What are you doing on on median ties anyway? But anyway, yeah, look, their pace, that aside, their pace today wasn't enough. I think they were closer than they expected

and perhaps we expected in qualifying. They certainly had some sandbags on their car for the entirety of practice. and testing potentially. But when it came down to, when it came down to race pace, I mean, the Red Bulls just took off. It was only Perez getting stuck behind LeClaire at the start, really,

and I think that sort of hindered him, had he not. I think he'd have been well away anyway, more than he was by the time LeClaire retired. And then Leclair retires, which is bad news considering that they changed the energy store and the ECU this morning, and it still broke down. Well, you get two changes per year.

They might have already used two by the time we get to race two. How many races are left? Can you go 21 races on the same control electronics? That's a challenge. Yeah, look, I know we rag on Ferrari a bit, but to be honest them, I don't think they did anything particularly wrong. They were just slow, which it's not a lot they can do, which is bad because I guess the one thing they had in their locker last year

was they were at least quick, but now they're just slow. So that's good. Look, both Red Bulls had a double D&F in the first race last time, and look what happened to them. I'm not saying that miracles happen, but you never know. I'm trying to be optimistic for them here. The chances of them doing a Max de Stappen's comeback and absolutely destroying the opposition by the midpoint of the season.

Feels unlikely, but it has happened in the past. So, you know, for you Ferrari fans, our fingers are crossed that you can come back with a challenge. Oh, Ferrari. So, firstly, there were some encouraging signs. I will give it to Ferrari because the first strategy radio we got on Sunday was to confirm to Charlotte-Clau, that they were still on Plan A. We're early in the alphabet.

It's a good start. They also did a double pit stop, double stack, worked fine. Good stuff. And I will give it to them, despite the medium tire not really working on the start. Saturday. I did think overnight that, oh, they're in a bit of trouble. They're the only team that doesn't have any fresh mediums. No one ended up using them. So actually, that didn't really cost them at all. So again, fair play, I guess. They seem to have got over their drinks of not knowing whether to use the hard tire or not. The problem is this. Number one, they DNFed. That's a

big problem in its own right. Secondly, early on in the race, we saw that Charlecler abandoned a second running Q3 in qualifying on the Saturday to give him an extra set of new soft tires going into the race. Okay, fine. That's your strategy. Is it right? Is it wrong? Don't know. You've gone for it. Fine. I'll let that be. Surely, the only reason you put on fresh softs at the beginning of the race versus you softs around you is to go a little bit longer than everyone else. LeClaire was the first front run at a box. What are they doing? That's like the opposite strap. Come on, man.

They really make it too easy. And yeah, if you think it's like a 51 point net difference, Vestappen versus Leclair, given Vestappen's 25 clear, but LeClaire was 26 clear by this point last year, oh, no, no, that ain't good. Oh, no, no, good luck to you, Ferrari. Let's move on. We'll take a short break

and our ire can go towards Mercedes rather than Ferrari right after this. So we heard pretty early on in the weekend that Mercedes, despite going with the same concept as last year that didn't work very well, oh yeah, might also not be working very well this year either. The pole gap to Red Bull was pretty much identical to what it was last year.

And Toto Wolf essentially coming out and saying that, yeah, this concept isn't going to do it for us. We might just need to turn back and go for something else, which in a cost cap era isn't an ideal solution. Sam, what are your thoughts on his comments and Mercedes overall progress or lack of progress? I mean, it's like me starting the year 2022 and thinking, right, every Sunday this year for dinner, I'm going to have a roast dinner. Lovely roastinger.

And for my meat option in my roasting, I'm going to order, oh, I'll go a bit rogue because I want to be different for everybody else. I'll have kangaroo as my, my protein on my roasting. And then, you know,

every single time I eat it, I kind of go, you know, it's all right. Definitely, there are better options out there. I can see other people are enjoying their meat options far more than my kangaroo. And then, you know,

we get through to 20203 after a whole year of not really enjoying the kangaroo. And I think, you know what, though, I'm going to double down on the kangaroo and buy another year's supply. of kangaroo.

It'll be better this year. And I've taken my first bite of kangaroo gone, this is it. Why have I done this? This is the worst moment of my entire career of eating roastings. Get rid of the kangaroo.

Get me chicken like everyone else. Obviously, Toto, what are you doing, man? You've had the whole of testing. You've had all your winter break. And now, in qualifying, you go, ah, this hasn't worked, does it?

This isn't the one for me. This is ridiculous. You are an eight-time Constructed Championship winning team. And it's taking you up to now to go, this isn't going to be the way forward. What have the engineers gone through in the last, I don't know, 48 hours that has told you anything different or new to what you were being told for the whole season last year? It's a waste of money. It's a waste of time. You're hugely on the back foot now. Seems like Ashton Martin are close to jumping you, if not have already surpassed you.

You're falling down the order. And I would argue they're closer now to becoming a midfield team, rather than being a front run at this very point in time. You know, they can in theory scrap the whole of this season and use it as one massive long testing program, a multi-million dollar testing program and come back fighting for 2024. Because we know Mercedes could probably lock down T4 in the championship without any real major threat and still make a new car work. If you want to come back fighting, that seems to be the way to do it. Scrap it immediately because you ain't going to be fighting for a championship.

So don't bother. You may as well start looking at a new program. So it's all we've said, I could fire myself. That's how severe it must be inside that Mercedes garage with a mistake that's been made. It's a shocker. Get rid of the kangaroo. There you go. They're a pest. Right. Good stuff. Very deep into the analogy bank. I love that. Harry, what are your thoughts on Mercedes fifth and seventh today?

Do you think there were some false horizons? I don't know if that's the right phrase, late last year that has caused them to stick to this concept. What are you doing? Yeah, to be fair, I think there's a fair comment because towards the end of last year, although Abbey still was a bit garbage, wasn't it? But I guess Brazil, things were looking good. They obviously won a race finally last year. But if, I don't know, it's quite,

Quite a gamble for Toto to take, or for the team to take out, I guess, but it lands with Toto in the end. Quite a gamble to stick with this concept. And he said last year, yeah, we're going to stick with it. And they must have seen, they must have seen something with the numbers. They're not just, unlike me, they're not just doing this based on vibes. But, yeah, so they must have seen something. But it was clear last year it wasn't great. what made them think they could change it to make it better this year?

I don't know. And I don't think it's just a no side pods thing. But there's something there that just doesn't work. It doesn't work with that concept. And I'm really surprised that they've carried on with it. Considering you look at all the other teams and the direction they've gone, especially with side pods, they've all gone. even Williams and McLaren

who had more less side pods when they first started they've all gone the other way to the Red Bull versions so why have Mercedes decided to stick with this it's a questionable decision

and on the gridwalk Martin Brunda was asking about wanting to re-sign Hamilton and you know would he re-sign and Toto said yeah we've got to give him a competitive car but we both have the mentality of that

I was like well is that enough Lewis Hamilton to re-sign? I don't know. At the moment, wouldn't be looking that encouraging, but who knows what they can tell. And I'm sure Mercedes will claw it back, but they're in for,

they could be in for another year of clawing the gap back, which is the exact same position they were in this time last year. It's a question of whether that's a good thing. Well, exactly. They should have, do you think they'd come out of the blocks fighting?

So, I mean, the gap in qualifying, in the end was what, they, they shaved off a couple of hundreds off the gap they had last year. And so congratulations, guys. Well, then, guys. That's worth of a hundred of forty million. We move. But arguably, I think their race pace was worse here than it was this time last year. I know they kind of lucked out with the two red bulls falling out the race.

But I think they were more in the fight this time last year than they were this year, which, considering the year they had last year, it's not looking, it's not looking good. Hamilton was a mingit behind? Yeah, he was, I mean, he couldn't get past signs. I thought he was going to fly past signs, because signs was slower than a slow thing at the end of that race, but he couldn't get past him. I was like, oh, that's not a good sign. Anyway.

Do you know what the worst sign of all was on this? Mercedes essentially had four competitors out there today. A man with no wrists, a 40-year-old who racing for a team for, the first time, a DNF and Carlos Sines, who Harry just said, was slower than a slow thing. Those were four competitors and you didn't beat many of them. So that's not very encouraging for the year ahead. They had those four drivers as their main competitors and they came away with P5 and P7. That ain't great. I'm a bit worried for Mercedes. And I do think that they were

hampered by the progress that they made last year. Because you can't convince me that if they had a repeat of the first half of the season, in the second half of the season, they would have changed concept. They would have gone a different direction. I'm almost certain of that. But they had some encouraging results at the end of the last year. Brazil was good. They had a few others where, you know, Netherlands and Hungary, where they started to compete for higher-end podiums. But I think all that led to was staying with the same concept that is fundamentally wrong. And they've, you know, we said actually in our under pressure segment in the preview of this, where Sam went for Mercedes, I went for Toto Wolf.

And I think we both said that you'll be able to tell pretty early on whether they've got it right or they've got it wrong. Well, they've got it wrong. And it's going to be another long season for them, I think. It's going to be really difficult for them. Again, it's only one race. So we want to see how they look at other circuits, but it doesn't look as if. they've made much progress or indeed any progress at all. And we know the line-ups great. We know Hamilton's great. We know Russell's great.

So the questions aren't going to be asked there. It's just fundamentally with the car. And potentially the biggest indicator that they've got this wrong is the performance of Aston Martin because last year, it was Red Bull and Ferrari very clear at the top. But obviously, both of those cars fundamentally different to the Mercedes, parts-wise, there's nothing connecting them. I can't remember if it was Toto Wolfe or it was someone else that said this this weekend, but Aston Martin is fundamentally like 40% of a Mercedes.

Like concept-wise, in terms of it's the same engine, there's some other parts that are the same, they share a lot of reasons, you know, they share a lot. So if you've got a team that's made up seconds on last year with a fundamentally different concept to you, and it shares a lot of the parts that you have, surely the concept's wrong. Otherwise, Aston Martin

aren't making the progress that they have. It's going to be tough. It's going to be tough. I reckon by Australia, we'll almost see a different car. I reckon they'll have to keep things the same for Saudi Arabia. In the budget cap.

I reckon so. I reckon they'll start to do it immediately and they need to give Lewis and especially George, right? Other teams will look at George if people start to get old a little bit of teammates and go, it could be a sensational talent.

you never go. You look at someone like Ashton Martin if they keep stepping up and also eventually will have to retire unfortunately for all of us. Why would you not give George Russell? Why would you not give George Russell a go? Why would Perez not get replaced by George Russell a few years' time? You know, there are options

that these guys can look at. They're good enough to look at. You have to hold onto your assets. They need to make changes sooner rather than later or they will fall backwards. Let's have a look at Driver of the Day. First Driver of the Days for 2023. Harry, who have you got? Tough one here. Go on. All right, fine.

I'll go into Fernando Alonzo. Look, I don't want to... Max Verstappen was so good. We didn't see him for the majority of the race. Like, he just wasn't there on TV. And then they cut to him on the last lap. And it was like, oh, hello, Max. That was going, son.

But just for the sheer nostalgia factor, I'll give it to... I'll give it to Fernando Alonzo because he was... We've said it before. I know we mentioned this with Kevin Magnuson being box office and maybe less so these days, but Alonso is just box office. Nothing he did was like boring every overtake. It looks like it was going to have a crash.

It just didn't overtake someone simply. Ben is always a good radio message to go with it. But yeah, it was so good to see Alonzo in a car that's actually competitive. He's had a few instances in the Alpine, I guess, the past couple of years where he's been in the mix, but not necessarily on performance. But this was genuinely a car that was working for him. And it was a pleasure to watch. So I'll go with Alonso, but I don't want anyone to come after me because I totally appreciate

the Max Steppen was, he was quite good to be F1 today, wouldn't he? Again. It was all right, were he? He was all right, yeah. To your point about him being box office, would that have been a bad race if Alonzo wasn't in it? Yes, I think it would have been average at best. He spiced it up

a lot towards the end. Cheers, Fernando. Yeah, sincerely. So, for your driving and for your content. Driver of the day from you, Sam. I'm getting up, so we don't all go for the same thing because if Harry Haddon, I would have probably picked Fernando a long time. I do just forget to say, that man's will-to-will combat in racing.

He never stops driving on the absolute ragged edge, if you watch all the way through alongside's career, that man is literally like gripping the scruff. of the neck of anything he's underneath. It was phenomenal to watch, so entertaining. But I will go in a different direction for variation. I'm actually not also going to go for the number one man who, this is how good Max Verstappen is now.

He wings a race over his teammate by, what, 12 seconds and beats the next closest car by 37 seconds. And I look at that and just go, well, that's just Max Verstappan. That's just what he does every single time. So, you know, I'm going to save that for another time when he does something even more incredible. I'll actually go Pierre Gasly.

The man went from the back of the grid. to P9 while his teammate and the rest of the team, clearly need to be bought a stopwatch and a measuring tape for their Christmas presents, because they don't know where the track limits are or where to bloody, you know, it's eyes. Le Plang clearly translates to hilarious morons.

Pierre Gazzier, on the hand, absolutely ran riot on that Alpine team, and he did a great job clawing through a lot of cars that are very, very equally paced, including the Williams all of a sudden. Anyway, yeah, so for me, it's Gasoline gets trouble the day. It was a great turn of events for his first driving Alpine. Sam reminded me, I had another shout-out, and it was Alex Albon.

What you're doing up there? You're going to get noseble to son. What you're doing? Love that. Man, it's so good. And I was going to give a shout-out to his team, mate, because that was a pretty good debut drive from Logo and Sergeant. I was impressed right with him.

And also Valtry Bottas. I want to give him a shout out as well. Solid race. Before we go into your thing, Botas, in that first. stink, just randomly appears in sixth place. And I'm like, that undercut Valtrey was just, where did you come from? It was, you know, Hamilton, alongside Russell, who's going to get there? Wait, how is Valtry ahead of all of them?

Where did that come from? Brilliant stuff from the bodies. Love that. But my driver of the day, yeah, Max Verstappen, he was quite good, wouldn't he? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It wasn't the fact that he won by 11 seconds or whatever it ended up being. It was the fact that he had that 11 second gap about five laps in and then just didn't bother extending it anymore.

If he'd like had to work to get that up to 11 seconds all throughout the race, that's one thing. It felt like he could have won it by 30 if he wanted to. I could be wrong on that, but it felt like he could have won it by way more, just based on how quickly he actually managed to make up

that gap and then not really extend it anymore. He was the only chance to get Max Verstappen today was turn one. That was it. There was never another opening. I'll go with Max for Stappen. I absolutely loved hearing Max go.

Oh, I've got a real issue. My back wheels when they break it caused me to lock up and I'm losing the diff. And then cut to one lap later, the gap is extended by another second. Like the man is driving around with serious problems with the car that most people will go,

you're making me nervous. Max is there like, just go jacking another second onto the league. Don't worry about it, lads. I had to... Don't you worry. I imagined, actually, when he said that, I imagined a cut to the McLaren garage

where they... like, Andrea Stella and Zach Brown just stared at each other like, yeah, we have those issues. Help us, please. More on McLaren a little bit later on. So, well, we don't have a unanimous driver in the day, so I guess Alonzo Gassley and Max Verstappen will win. The verdict is in. You're the driver of the day. You're the driver of the day.

You're good at travel And the worst driver in the day Who we got, Harry? I mean, it wasn't all his fault, but mainly Esteban Ockle, mate, what are you doing? What are you doing? What are you playing at that, son? Park in the right grid.

I mean, he was in the right grid spot, but do it properly, firstly. That's part of the plan. Yeah, well, it's not part of the plan. I don't think any of that was part of the plan. Doing the job properly. The second bit, yeah, it wasn't really his fault. They'd started working on the car too early.

But then he sped in the pit lane. So, yeah, good stuff all round. Just, just, I don't know. And then he said that weird radio message about, I've done all of this in testing all my years. I'm like, done what? What have you been spending the pit lane? Exactly.

Thank you for bringing it up. It was driving me mad. stuck my neck out for you, Esteban. It's better be Lapland. I want the day from you, Sam. Harry's exactly right. I'd like to give it variety, but I'm going to have to go off. What do you mean you've done it all your career?

You haven't? You haven't jumped the start. You haven't sped in the pit lane. The team haven't worked on the car and they shouldn't. You, sir, this race, were a moron. You're the worst driver day by a long shot. And there were some bad performances. You've had front wing damage at one point.

So you've crashed the car as well at some point. Honestly, when your teammate is that far behind you at the start and then by the end of the race, you've completely swapped grid positions. You deserve an absolute dunking on it by the late-breaking podcast. You are the worst driving day by a long shot. The only positive is that fortunately, Othmar Safnau actually bought the late-breaking Abacus over the winter

so he could add up the number of seconds that Ocon had in terms of penalties. You've got a... 15 seconds worth of penalties, Esteban. I am going to add a bit of variety because what these two don't know is that was all part of Laplace, so they'll look very silly

in a few races' time. But I will go to Carlos Sines. I was really disappointed by him. I really thought that, based on the end of last year, he'd actually made a few strides with the car, even before LeCleur's retirement, he wasn't really there.

Pace-wise, he seemed to really struggle. So I'll go with him. But I think it's a very valid shout. And I said in the Discord, actually, I said that Perez and Sikes, they already need to step it up. The gaps are too big to their teammates, and they seem like they're floundering.

So I think it's a very good show. At least in the case of Perez, like you've got the max second points. Yeah, at least he got second place. So, unanimous. selection is Esteban Ockon. Get in the

bin, bin, bin, worst driver of the day Ben, Ben, Ben, worst driver of the day you suck at driving.

Oh, live laugh at Tifa, you always deliver. And lastly for our award section here, a new award for

2023, the late breaking Big Brain Award. Harry, what was your big brain moment of the race? I mean, I don't want to pick on the guy

but probably a span awkward again, wasn't it? Fair. Yeah, just don't make your day worse, mate. It wasn't, it wasn't. And we actually explain what the concept of the big brain would is. Oh yeah, we should probably do that. It's just the, we say big brain. In reality, it's just whatever the worst strategic call was.

if you're just being an idiot basically what Sam said yeah just being stupid I mean Ben's already mentioned the Ferrari one which is pretty good shout when you go for your nice fresh soft and then you pit first that's not the greatest call

but yeah I'll make this an Ocon Fest and say parking in your great spot wrong and then speeding the pit lane whilst you're doing your penalty bad strategy it's not great how you're with a race it's not Write that one down.

Forget the book. This whole segment essentially came about as a result of Ferrari last year, so it would be rude of me not to pick on something Ferrari to kick off the illustrious history of this award.

So I am going to go with a different moment to the one that I've already mentioned, which was Carlos Sines and Team Radio. He came under threat from Lewis Hamilton. He came under threat from Fernando Alonzo. quickly closing in, quickly closing in.

And over-team radio, what do the Ferrari strategies say? Protect your position. Geez, hadn't thought about that one. God, good shout. Yeah, I might do that. State the obvious way, don't you? Sam, yours? I'm going to go a little bit rogue,

and I've actually got to pick on Georgie Russ, the Russ man for Big Brain Award, because at the start of the race, Hamilton was quite clearly tire managing, and Russell complained over radio, and he went, is Lewis just really slow, or is he managing? And Russell's engineering came back away and struggling, he's struggling. And then literally about three corners later, Hamilton had doubled the gap, and we get a replay showing George Russell literally falling off of the track and struggling.

And then he got passed by Lance Strong. So, you know, for me, not the best way to broadcast over the radio that, you know, Things aren't going well by moaning at the person that they want to beat you quite comfortably throughout the race. Well, well done to George Russell, Esteban Okon and Ferrari. Big Brain Award winners first time out in Bahrain. Oh, hang on, I've got a jingle for this one. Sorry, come up, Fentifi. Play the jingle.

There we go. Bob, we're going to need you to box for wets. What? It's not even raining out. What are you talking about? Yeah, and Bob, if you get a chance, later. He makes such a slapping beat, doesn't he? Man of many talents.

We're going to take a short break. We'll be discussing McLaren on the other side. So, McLaren, leave Bahrain with exactly zero points. One car made the checkered flag, sort of, albeit a lap behind, after having to pit multiple times. Oscar Piazsche on his race debut, not getting to the end, thanks to electronic issues. Harry, it's fair to say that McLaren might not have had the ideal starts of the season.

Are they in big, big trouble? Daniel Ricardo is sat on his pile of 18 million. Just laughing. Yeah, it's not ideal, I think, as Sam would probably say, on that one for McLaren. Not only is the cut... I mean, it wasn't as slow as I think we first feared. I mean, Piastri was out in Q1, I guess, but Norris almost... got it into Q3.

But it's not that fast. It's probably about where they were last year. And it's also unreliable. Two things that aren't good for your F1 car. Have that one for free. So... Put it in the book. Yeah.

Look, we said they just don't like doing Bahrain. And maybe that's the thing. Next race, they might be back with it again. Who knows. But it was not a great start for them. Obviously, Piazsche didn't make it to the end of the race with an issue, electrical issue. and Norris with his, was that pneumatic pressure issue?

Yeah, Norris with his pneumatic pressure issue, which I enjoyed because they were just being little menaces by kept sending him out. And then they were like, fight Ocon. He's got like 53 seconds worth of penalties. And Ocon's like, just leave me alone. I'm having a really bad day. Land is like, I'll just go home. Yeah, and then like he's behind the Hamilton-A-Lonzo fight.

He's just being a menace there. And then they have to pit him again. But yeah, it was not a great day in the office for the papaya boys and girls. Well, I mean, they're like Mercedes. Where do they go from here? Because they're almost in the same position they were last year. And especially for McLaren, I guess, when they're looking at the midfield battle and the green machine has come zipping past them and straight onto the podium.

It's got to be painful. It's got to be painful. And I guess Otmar is laughing slightly at Piastri, but also not laughing that much. Kind of half and half laugh, half cry. Sure. Yeah, this wasn't good. And it's going to be a long road to Baku when the big upgrade is set to come in for McLaren. And if that doesn't work, yeah, it's going to be a tough season for you.

They're just going backwards, right? two years ago, they were competing with Ferrari as the third best team, and it was pretty much a dead heat. And don't want to rail on Ricardo too hard, given that he's not F1 anymore. But also, that battle for third might well have gone McLaren's way if Ricardo was a bit closer to Norris. And they went back a little bit last season,

and they seem to have gone back even more this season. And you're right, Harry, that they weren't very good at Bahrain last year. So maybe this is just a one-off. But I don't know. were very underprepared going into Bahrain last year. They shouldn't have been this year. There was no reason to be. And it just doesn't look like they've got it.

Lando Norris effectively towed that car to 11th place on Saturday. I'm pretty sure he ran the track with the car dragging it behind him. I don't think that was going under its own power, put it that way. How we managed to get that 11th based on what we saw in the actual race, it's almost a minor miracle. And Oscar Piastri, yeah, he's got to be delighted. with this decision that's going very well. We'll see how it goes because we, as we mentioned, I think, in the preview that a few races

after their disaster at Bahrain last year, they got a podium at Imola. Maybe the same thing happens here, but I think it's going to be all based on that upgrade that's set to come in Baku. If it works, maybe they're back in the fight. But even if they are back in the fight, what's it a fight for? Fifth, still no improvement on where they were last year. You've fought some McLaren's son? You know that gift, that moment in Parks and Recreations

where I think his wrong walks out with the computer in his hand, straight in the bitch. That's what I imagine Zach Brown is doing after this race. I reckon he's ripped the computer off the wall in the little team garage and he's just throwing it straight into the computer. The difference is I imagine he's then sprayed it with gasoline and set it on fire and hopes it will never come back to haunt him. If McLaren don't get improvements and don't get improvements fast,

I actually think a lot of eyes turn to Zach Brown, and I don't think they turn to him in a positive. manner, I think he's going to start having some stakeholder eyes looking at him with a lot of scrutiny. That car, with the amount of money, investment, sponsorship and opportunity that's got, the amount of money they spent on driver replacement cannot be sat finishing in what 18th and DNF'd. It is an abhorrent result to have, especially considering that, as you have both said, this time last year, they were in exactly the same spot, having an absolute nightmare happen to them. Again, I think they hope that it turns around and turns around fast,

but they clearly needs to be a series of philosophy changes that go on within that unit. Because, again, what's the point? McLaren are one of the biggest names in motorsport. They bring in so much money, and yet they're going to be fighting maybe Williams at the end of this season for what looks like sixth in the constructors. It's not good enough with the amount of money they spend the amount of money they have. It simply isn't good enough. I'd be very worried if I was stellar, and I'd be very worried if I was at Brown. You know, they should probably consider being better at Bahrain,

given that's where all their money comes from. Just an idea. It's a good shout. Yeah, good show. Let's see if they take it on board. I don't want to do this segment. What is it, Ben? What's the segment?

Reviewing bold predictions. So we introduced... I actually need to go for like five minutes, and then I'll come back. You can both go if you want. I'll go with you. Yeah. Bold predictions. We actually introduced a new forfeit element to bold predictions this year.

So whoever gets the least number of bold predictions correct this year will have to forfeit their Twitter account for a day to the other two people, which if you know the three of us is a very dangerous game to play. But that's the forfeit. So let's review if we have to how we got on this weekend. So I'll kick off with myself. I said two of the four rookies taking. part would score points. It got off to a bad start when it was confirmed that Lance Stroll could race, so already my two out of four became two out of three. So Drugovich didn't make the start. It also wasn't great when Piastri retired pretty early on, leaving me with two

rookies left in the field and both of them needing to score points. Given I fought, Logan Sargent, I had the least confidence into score points this weekend. He actually ended up the highest place rookie of the entire race, but he didn't score any points. So, Rather than get two out of four, I got none out of four, and I was very, very wrong. Harry, you found a new way to be wrong this week. Good, good, good. I didn't go for what was my original one because Sam already said it. Sorry.

And so I went for Nico Holcomb... Sorry, I said the Hass would be in the top five as they were last year, would be fifth, sorry, as they were last year. Do I have to Q1? I mean, Holkenberg, if he hadn't had the lap deleted, could have been ninth, I guess, in Kuali. And then I was like, you know, it could happen. And then they just forgot how to do F-1 after that.

So, cheers, ass. Thanks for coming. And I could have had a right one. No, it's not great. I mean, HACC is usually only good at the first two races. So that's one of you. It's already taken up. All right.

Good stuff. So if you've got your avocuses out, everyone, zero plus zero equals zero. Right, so far. But that is set to change. because we now go to Sam's bold prediction. Yeah, I actually feel really bad about this because, as Harry said, he was also going to make it his.

It just so happens that Ben went to me first on choosing a bold prediction. So I do feel a little bit guilty, yeah. Everyone blame Ben for this, a hashtag blame Ben. But I did say that Fernando Alon also would pick up a podium and you go out, for a lot of the race, it wasn't looking too likely. And all of a sudden, kindly,

Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sykes moved out the way and Charlotte Leclair retired, meaning that Fadol also, the absolute goat that he is, picked up a podium and I get to have one point on the bold predictions scoreline, meaning that currently my Twitter account is safe, which is good, because I can't remember the password right now to let these two in anyway. It's a very fair point.

Yeah. Oh, good. I mean, the worst part of all of this is that Sam is really smug because he's got literally every single thing right he predicted. He got his poll one to three right as well. So it's been a good week for me It's good stuff So when we give out our predictions for Jeddah

Make sure to listen to Mr Sage Because he's on a role Don't know Don't say I'm on a roll It'll never be right every day This is my one moment Oh man We'll take our final short break

Of today's episode And we'll go up on the other side Before we get going on our final segment Just a shout But we do have Patreon If you would consider subscribing We've got a number and different tiers, and we've got revamped benefits for March onwards. So you now get two

exclusive bonus episodes every single month. If you can do the maths, it's 24 episodes a year. And given we usually yam around for about an hour, it's a lot of time. You've got a days worth of late breaking if you want it, available at your fingertips. If you just go to Patreon, the link will be in the description, a number of different tiers. And if you've got any questions, just ask us. Happy to answer. We're recording the first one soon, aren't we? We are. Very soon indeed for March. A quick shout just for Lance Stroll and the incident that he had with Fernando Alonzo on lap one. No investigation necessary was the Steward's decision.

Sam, did you agree with that? I mean, they've done a classic, it's lap one and everyone's okay and we're skilled racing. They've once again based it on the aftermath of the accident. But Lance, mate, you do have to apply the brake. I know your toe hurts, so I know your risks don't exist anymore, but you do have to. have to slow down and negotiate the call. The worst bit was, he did all right for the rest of the race. It wasn't brilliant.

It wasn't, you know, mind-blowing. But he was okay, beat George Russell, you know, so he was all right. But that was a bit worrying. And when we saw Lansk driving around in practice and parts of qualifying having to take his hands off the wheel, having to steer with one hand, and you're driving at 200 miles an hour, the safety risk that's there is just absolutely appalling. At any point, his risk could have failed on him. because he doesn't know the limitations of the surgery he's had

or the pain that he might be in. So the fact that that could cause a crash for himself, it could have hit a secured, he could hit another driver. Honestly, the safety element needs to step in there, and I think the FAA probably should have said, no, you're not allowed to race. You're going to have to come back in Jeddah at the earliest. Because whilst, yeah, he had a good race and he scored points,

that first lap incident with a longso could have been assigned to come for many other problems. It was a bit worrying. So I was not pleased at all that he was allowed in that. car at the start of the race. This is going to sound quite on the nose, but I do think it, so I'm going to come out and say this. Lance Stroll should not have race this weekend, and particularly at Bahrain and its most vivid here, if he's involved in that Lap 1 incident that Roman Grosian was involved in, he's probably dead. He could not get out of his car

unaided on the Saturday, on the Friday, sorry. And if that's the case, you know, already with the halos, it's difficult to get out of the car anyway. If you can't do that without the struggle that he had, I don't think you should be racing. I'm sure many people will say he was in the points, his pace was pretty good, he improved throughout the weekend. Yes, my opinion and my opinion only, he shouldn't have been in that car. I think the Grosional things are very fair point to bring up, and I actually haven't thought about that at all. You know, the car flips a fire, you're right, how does he get out of their life? That is a scary thought. Yeah, the things you've got to think about. In terms of the incident itself, I mean, he did use his brakes. He just used a very interpretive

meaning of the word brakes. He just used a different car. I mean, it was the same coloured car, to be fair, so there is that. Look, that should have been a penalty, I think. And again, I'm with you, Sam, 100% that it shouldn't just be based on the aftermath of the incident. It should be based on the action of the driver, which was a shove up the inside that didn't come often he managed to hit a cut. And how Alonzo managed to escape without any damage, I don't know. But if he didn't escape with damage, he would have got a penalty, I think. So I think you need to apply it nonetheless. I will say this to Aston Martin. Why didn't they just say it was Lance Stroll? He's going to find out.

It's so funny. Anger fuels a long. So that's why. It's like, are they under investigation? No, no, they're not under investigation, Fernando. Like, I think so. He will get out of the car. He has access to the internet. He will find out. I've played it to him the moment he got out the car, so he's already seen it.

I mean, that's some good poker face from him, just sat in the corner and watching it going. Okay. Good stuff. First singing is interview. I'd like to congratulate my teammate Lark Strong for doing a brilliant job, sits down. Oh, okay. It was Lark's like it and he destroyed me on the fourth corner of the race. Seriously, if it was Mitz.

over team radio, I would have said, it was Lance that hit you. He's not under investigation. We're not going to push this any further because it's going to hurt the team if he is penalised. Fernando Alonso, he might be quite an individual in the car, but he wants the team to win. He wants the best for the team.

I really think he would understand that. And he would, okay, yeah, it's best for the team that we don't pursue this any further. I don't understand why they didn't just go with the honest approach there. but maybe that's why I'm not a strategist. Harry, what's your thoughts on Landstrol this weekend? Yeah, use your brakes, Lance. I mean, that's a good, that's a good tactic.

That's another one you can take to the back in the book. Absolute Zing is today. Yeah, look, I, I, an impressive effort considering what we believe to be, believed to be his condition with his wrist and his broken toe. but you're right on the could he get out the car I think that's the biggest issue here

I don't think it's about driving the car he can do that and drivers have often done that and fought through the pain they love their job too much not to do it but it is that element of what if he got in a car I mean we saw I was wincing watching the replay of him when he almost took out Alonzo

because he has to like wrestle the car and you're thinking it's poor wrist man he's got pins in them so yeah, I get why they wanted to put him in, given their performance that they had. But yeah, maybe they could have given him a race to rest. You do if a driver has COVID, so why not if they've got risks that are broken?

I don't know. It's an odd one. So I think actually his performance was actually fairly impressive given what state he was in, but whether he should have been there, I don't think so. And don't take out your teammate. Good rule.

So many great lines. Yeah, you're full of it today. I'm on fire. Don't you worry, guys. I mean, if it weren't for Sam saying, get rid of the kangaroo, that'd absolutely be the phrase of the podcast so far. Lastly, moment of the race.

We'll give each of ours, and we've got a few Discord submissions that we'll play as well. So if you want to get involved in our Moment of the Race Discord submissions, we'll do them as part of all the review episodes that we do this year. Make sure you get in the Discord. The link will be in the description.

There is a specific submissions channel. We will remind you on the day of the race. And we record pretty much straight after the Grand Prix, so you do need to be quick. We'll start with ourselves, though. Harry, moment of the race. That's good. Hello.

Yeah, I mean, just, I've already mentioned it, but Alonzo, for me, moment of the race. I think his radio messages were amazing. Yes, bye-bye is quote of the year already. To be more specific for a member of the race, I've got to, the battle with Hamilton,

but specifically the move on Hamilton was proper naughty. Norty, naughty, naughty. Getting that Ferrari Cypog for a bath, mate. Yeah, it was absolute. Who overtakes a turn 10? A lot of them. it does.

I mean, yeah, but that entire battle was just a joy to watch because that first move you thought he had it done, then he got a swapper on and Hamilton had him back. And it was just, I want more of that this year. I think that would be great to watch for an entire year. But yeah, I'll go for the move on Hamilton because it was filth. Moment of the race for you, Sam. Well, yeah, that was mine.

And I can't really think of one that I think. stands out as well. So I'm actually going to agree. It was that good. And I was that shocked at it when it happened that I thought, blinking hell, Fernando. You know, Lord Farkarckhardt turned up. And he's taken full control.

You know, pick number three, me, Lord. Honestly, he's so good. He's a right little menace. And it's so nice to see him back on the podium. I know this is a little bit about the Fernando show at the moment, but he deserves the praise. And I'm not going to go around. So it was my moment at the race.

an immense battle and the pass at turn 10 against a seven-time world champion and a man that's won over a hundred grand prix was absolutely filthy. You just don't, you know, how dare you, Fernando? How simply dare. The audacity of it. Can I just say as well,

the radio message where he was obviously, you know, he was sort of just stroking at home, but he said, I'm at level seven and I'm like, how many levels of driving just this man have? Of course it's Alonzo. But what? Like, what are?

the levels? Because if seven is cruising it, there must be six other ones before. One is scary. I don't want to think about one. What is asleep when it's driving at one? I like to think that he actually does the levels based on his opponents. Like, I'm at George Russell right now. Oh, level eight. Yeah, level eight. Yeah. I'll go to a max for Stappan if I need to. A level 10. Yeah, yeah. My moment of the race goes to, to be fair, it probably was going to be the move from Alonzo on Hamilton.

Yuki Sonoda, he pulled off a double overtake quite late on, didn't he? That was nice, was it? Proving the point that he can only race at the first and last race of the season but against quite any points. Never mind. I thought that was pretty neat. Should we listen to some other moment of the races,

see if people agree with us or not? Call them, then. Well, given we haven't heard from her in a while, should we let Skyler have the floor for a couple of minutes? Alonzo saying this car is lovely. Cheers, Skylar. She's not wrong. Okay.

Early contender for best name of the year. Let's go. It takes a lot to put me off the game when I'm saying a name, but this is Darth fart noise. My moment of the race was when Crofty decided to advertise the red button to go on board with the drivers by saying that Esteban Okun will give you a great tour around the pit lane since he had so many penalties today. All right, Dartfordnois out.

Why? Absolutely juvenile, but I love it. Oh, God. We don't give Crofty props all that often on this show. It was a fair plate. That was a good line. Chinot, though, on the flip side, and Fair Plate of Crofti, that was a good line.

Martin Brundel, I swear he called the Mercedes cars, the Williams cars, about three times in this Grand Prix. Like, multiple times he was like, the Ascomatars are fighting the Williams right now, and I'm like, no, they're not, Martin. They're definitely not. Oh, dear. Okay, let's go to Tom Hanks next.

Let's go to Woody. How do you? from the home of Haas here. Howdy, howdy, howdy, howdy? Calacca, US of A. Moment of the race had to be Magic Alonzo on the team radio

saying 60's the new 40. I mean, if this is the kind of content, he's rolling out for GP1, we are in for one hell of a season, boys. Oh, yeah, he did a happy birthday message. Yeah. That is brilliant. 60s and new 40s.

Horrible Mando. The only reason he's saying that is he's going to be using that. line in 20 years time, isn't he? When he's still there? Yeah. I said it 20 years ago,

and I still mean it now. Like, yeah, all right, Fernando. James and Real Dad up next, the most wholesome content you'll ever get on the late breaking podcast. This is Jim Jamel and Real Dad back for 2023 in full effect with our moment of the race.

Our moment of the race is Fernando Alonzo getting the podium. I mean, a special. spectacular drive. I love it. Fernando, you are back and LB's. This is going to be a great season. Over now. James and Real Dad. Bye!

Oh, it's so wholesome. It's the one wholesome thing we do. And a beef impression at the end. Great. Let's go to Rai Guy that time you're having Rai Gai. Hey guys, it's Rai Guy. This is my moment of the race for Bahrain GP. My moment of the race is Checo.

and Alonzo speaking Spanish in the cool down room. And Max is like, yeah, an overtake. Like not understanding a single word that they're saying. That's my mother race. Love you guys. Join the Patreon. Bye. You just imagine Max walking just going,

C, Ola. And that's, watch his thing goes. Just watch Adora the Explorer in the background. I mean, right guy, I do need to go back to you as well, because we had a bet where he would get a tattoo that was decided by us if he lost in our NFL fantasy league, which he did.

So I do need to go back to you on that. Oh, that's all right, go. We have ideas. Yes. Let's go to Joy. Sam, how dare you send me for a bag of chips? Same thing with you, Estabon. I picked you for my fantasy

and you did everything possible to absolutely ruin it. I despise both of you. Good to go nothing's changed. Also, Joy, bringing up fantasy. We have an F1 Fantasy League. The links in the description are you can join it.

We'll give an update on Wednesday's episode as to where we are after the first week. We promise to remember. For anyone looking through the leaderboard, my team is the Statman Squad. Harry's is the Onion Splitters. What was your Sam? We go backwards. We go backwards, is Sam's team. I don't want to spoil anything because we don't know the scores yet.

But I've got a fairly good lineup. but there's one person in there who's absolutely dumbly dirty, and it's the man I've picked on all episode, bloody Esteban, on Con. I traded him out about an hour before the time limit. God damn it, man. I'm feeling rather

happy I went for his team, mate. Also, just to say, she did mention bag of chips in that. Just realized I've asked the soundboard to do a heck of a lot today. Don't ill hear you. Stop talking. I purposely not mentioned it. All right. Here's the real test.

Mattie Cox. Hey guys, first time submission, and I'm new to the Discord for this year. So I thought I'd give you my moment at the race. It's got to be Fernando Alonzo saying bye-bye as he passes Carlos signs over the team radio. I mean, just the sheer nerve of the guy, but it was absolutely brilliant. Absolutely agree. And thank you for joining the Discord for the new season. Much appreciated and great to have you on board.

and that will well actually we have had something in from beef we did hear from the middle of the week do we need to hear from her again I don't know she was a criminal last time we had from her maybe she can redeem herself she might be prison so we better hear for yeah

this might be live from prison hello update on my lie um forgot to tax my car so that's still a criminal By the moment of the race was, yes. Bye-bye. Okay, bye.

Brilliant. Thanks, beef. Criminal beef lives on. And on that joyous note, I think that'll do it for the first review episode of the year. But despite they're not being a race next week, we'll be back midweek, weren't you, Sam? Of course. Back midweek and back the Sunday after, because you're getting two episodes every single week regardless of if there's a race on.

And if you join that Patreon, as we mentioned, you'll get an extra too. And if you're top tier, Hall of Fame tier, then you might just get a cheeky video of the three of us having a few beers and chatting life in Formula One as well. Many other perks on that Patreon as well.

Do check them out, including ad-free podcasts. Did you enjoy the race? We're back. We're back, baby, for the full season. Let us know your thoughts. Come and talk to us on social media, or El Breaking on Twitter, or the Late Breaking F-1 podcast on Instagram and TikTok.

Or you can join the Discord. And you can chat to us all we, week long, us and 1,600 odd other brilliant F1 fans all in their chatting FYL things. We'd love to hear from you. Also, check out the merch store. If you're all about 100 delicious for the year, you can ever know. Might be something that takes your fancy. But until that midweek period, thanks for joining us.

I'd be Samuel Sage. I've been Ben Hocking. And I've been Harry Ead. And remember, keep breaking late. Yes. Bye-bye. Believe in the plan. the Sports Social Podcast Network.