The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2023 Belgian GP Review

Episode Date: July 30, 2023

Another race weekend, and another dominant display from Max Verstappen who secured his 8th win in a row at Spa. The boys discuss his win, McLaren's woes, who is in the fight for P2 in the Constructors', and Williams' struggles. As always they also review their predictions, name their DOTD and hear listener submissions for moments of the race.. FOLLOW us on socials! You can find us on YouTube, Instagram, X (Twitter) and TikTok SUPPORT our Patreon for bonus episodes JOIN our Discord community JOIN our F1 Fantasy League BUY our Merch EMAIL us at [e-mail]   & SUBSCRIBE to our podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Oh, and a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Harry Ead, Sam Sage, and me, Ben Hocking, reviewing today the Belgian Grand Prix, the last race before the summer break. And of course, it was a race won by, say it with me, everyone. Max for Stappen.

That was beautifully synced. Yeah, Max for Stappen. Had to start from P6. Didn't end up mattering a great deal. He still won by about 20 seconds or so with Sergio Perez joining him on the podium in second place, his first runner up since Miami, and Charles Clair for Ferrari ending up on the podium

after two races without one for the scooter rear. Sam, I mean, you didn't join me yesterday. I missed you. Where were you? Yeah, sorry. I really got my timings wrong and I did forget that it was my significant other's birthday and I might have been busy for the whole day. You know, so, oh dear, sorry about that, everyone. And of course, to not be put in the doghouse for life, I did actually have to do stuff on the day. Good call. Yeah. So F1 for the only time took a back step, but I will be here forever more at your service and beck and call Mr. Benjamin. And Harry's here. I was in the harbour, a harbour.

The only harbour. So, yeah, the only harbour in the world. So sorry about that. But Ben did a great job, I'm sure, by having listened to it. I haven't listened to it. I would not listen to it and just assume that I did. That works for me. So yeah, Max Verstappen, pretty dominant victory for him.

We'll be discussing that. William's not having a good day, finishing 14th and 17th for a bit more on those later on. Ferrari, as mentioned, securing a podium, so we'll be discussing their fortunes in the race, and on the flip side of that, McLaren, not having a great day. We'll start with Max Verstappen, winning by 20 seconds, despite starting from P6, ended up needing to overtake Sergio Perez in order to do so, but did that about a third of the way into the Grand Prix and just managed things from there. He's breaking records, left, right and center.

It's very difficult to. keep up with it. I actually, out of curiosity, look back. Episode 237, that was the last time we reviewed a race that wasn't won by a Red Bull. It's going pretty well given we've just gone over 300. That's depressing as heck. Yeah, I was really intrigued to see what that number would end up being. We've done like 65 episodes since someone other than Red Bull won a race. Sam, what did you make of Max Verstappen's performance? Was there any surprise at all, the ease at which he managed to overtake his teammate in order to claim that victory. I mean, I was quite surprised he won.

I did say he wouldn't. And what I say, 10 succumbed true. So, you know, I was shocked to see that happen at the end of the race. Nail biter. What surprised me the most, actually,

was, you know, I expected him to cut through the field. And I was quite impressed with how Sergio managed the first, maybe 10 laps or so. I was like, hang on a minute. For staffing something, a little bit of a struggle,

getting past Hamilton and Lecler. And when I say struggle, it just took about two laps longer than I thought it did. But at that point, the Clara built out maybe a three or four second league. And I thought, he's gaining. You know, Perez is slowly able to pull away here.

By the time that Vestappen comes past, maybe it'll be seven or eight seconds. He's going to have, you know, maybe a good 10-lap period where Vastappers going have to hunk him down, and maybe Pitt stops will come into it or the rain will come into it. And actually, this will be difficult for Vestappen. But I looked at my phone at our Discord chat that we have going on. And at that point, Vestappen was three seconds behind the second place. I looked back up and he had somehow closed the gap to under one second. And I was literally like, have I lost time?

Did I fall asleep? You know, what happened in that moment for two seconds to disappear in that lead? The speed that he caught him was phenomenal. The ease in which he breezed past him was somewhat, you know, normal. Now, it's somewhat expected. You know, it is the standard way of doing things. It is so depressing. I have no issue with the staffing being this brilliant.

He is that good. He deserves all the plaudits that he gets. But I will love just an ounce of fight or difficulty from someone else. You know, put up a big of a battle, please, for our entertainment's sake. Yeah, I mean, it was well-executing a gang, despite the little wobble that he had, despite GP sassing him all over this weekend, left, right and centre, which I must admit is fantastic to listen to. I hope it happens every weekend because I do enjoy it. He breathes for that wing.

It was another easy one. And to be honest, if that race was another 10 laps longer, then I think your bold prediction quite easily could have actually come true because he was well on track for another incredibly dominant victory. It's the norm now, isn't it? I want to give him all the applaud. It's for starting 6th and winning by over 20 seconds. But it's quite literally what he does every single day of his life at the moment.

Harry, you have constantly praised Max Verstappen saying, and I quote, he's quite good at the F1. Were you at all surprised that he managed to get by with such ease? I guess it shouldn't really be surprising anymore, but it's the hope that gets you, isn't it? It really gets you in the end. Starting P6.

I'll tell you what, I didn't realize, or I didn't see this coming, but Maxfussappan's biggest rival this year is GP. Sergio Perez can't put up a fight, but GP can. so he's the hero that we needed. So thanks, GP. Arguably, GP is the only person that cost Max Verstapp and a point today

because if he'd gone ahead like he'd probably wanted to, it'd have had the gap to go and take that pit stop and gain the fastest lap. So only GP has cost him a point. See? It's true. Biggest one. Yeah, it shouldn't be a surprise anymore. And I seem to remember being the same after SPAR last year.

I know it came from way further back. but it was just like inevitability of it all. Like I am inevitable. He is. Yeah, Thanos. Max Thanos. So it,

yeah, it shouldn't really be a surprise anymore. What, I was on Sam's wavelength. What, again, gave me a little bit of hope was that first stint

where, as you say, he didn't breeze past Hamilton and LeCler. And even when he did get past them, he he wasn't really massively closing on Perez and I was like oh hello maybe we do have a race and then they did their pit stops and then he was like nah thought of that not doing that anymore so and I guess for Verstappen's sake he was slightly worried about that incoming rain because if

he's second in the queue behind Perez and then he needs to box for intermediates then he doesn't he's going to be serviced second so I'm assuming that was part of it but yeah for at least I don't know how many lapsed they did in that first stint. You know, I thought maybe we had a race on our hands, but we shouldn't really be surprised that he just flew off onto the distance yet again. I really hope that one of these races, GP, gets bored and just goes over Team Radio and says,

right, Max, we've been given a 40-second time penalty. Not because he's actually got one, but just to say it, that he's got a 40-second penalty because I would love to see the effort Vostappen would put in to actually get that 40 seconds, and I would not bet against him. I would not bet against him getting that gap if he needed to, because to your point, Harry and Sam, it seemed as if as soon as he needed to get into sixth gear, he did, right? As soon as he needed to produce that little bit extra, he did.

So, as you were saying, the first stint on soft tires, as soon as he got past both Hamilton and Leclair, that gap was pretty stable around two and a half, three seconds or so. It didn't really change much from there. Makes the pit stop. I was exactly the same as you, Sam. I was astounded as soon as I looked back at the timing table on the left-hand side to see that suddenly Vestappen was in DRS range after a lap. But what got me even more was the gap after he'd overtaken him.

Because he overtook Perez into Lecom. By the time they got to the start-finish straight, to start their next laps. There was 1.7 seconds between those two drivers. He managed to overtake Perez and gain a 1.7 second advantage on the same lap. That's just insane. So, no, I wasn't surprised. I think there was a question mark in that first stint.

Was Vastappen managing or, you know, waiting for the next stint? Or was that his true pace? And it certainly turned out to be the former. he did seem to be managing. And yeah, he took a 20 second win. Could it have been 40 seconds? Probably. There's just an inevitability, as he mentioned, about this nowadays,

that, yeah, you just know, regardless of where he's coming from, he's going to take victory. The only thing I would say is that Max Verstappen might be quite pleased that he got a five-place-grit penalty and not a four-place group penalty, because if he got a four-place group penalty, which I appreciate isn't really a thing, he would have been in Oscar Piastri's situation. And I think we probably would be talking about a race that wasn't won by Max Verstappen because I don't think he'd have done anything different to how Piastri handled that first corner.

But because he was put back one position more, he had the outside and managed the race from there. Should we, we've already mentioned this a bit. Should we review our bold predictions? Yeah. Right. So, I said that Maxx's, Vastappen was going to win the race by 25 seconds and have

the pit stop for the fastest lap. He did neither. It was a tool order even before the five-place grid penalty, but he gave it a go, so I appreciate that. He really tried just for you. He really did.

Speaking of not trying to get a bold prediction, right? Sam, Vastappan didn't help you out much there. You said that he wasn't going to win the race. Yeah. I mean... If you caught it, he did. not much more I can really say on the matter

it hasn't gone to plan not ideal I enjoy as well the fact that you've like teed it up like during the week beforehand it wasn't like an on the spot bomb edition Sam's between this one off since like Wednesday I went with

the statistics must surely be on my side that now there must something must go wrong there must be a failure a crash something has to happen no sorry statistics don't care about me I'm not the statenang for a reason. Yeah, remind me never to get a lesson off of you on statistics ever.

Because if it led to that conclusion, I don't know. Speaking of bold predictions going well. Harry, you said that Williams was going to be in the top five. Alex Album finished nine positions away from that and he was the lead of the two Williams. So that didn't go particularly well. You, I think you, and I listen back to this yesterday, I think you guys might have misheard me. because when it sounds like Williams,

I actually meant Aston Martin. Oh. Yeah. In which case, that's definitely not bold enough. Yeah. Get in the bit. Okay, everyone. It's time to get your Abacus out,

your Abakai. Because before this weekend, we were on four points to myself, three points to Harry, one point to Sam. But after a pretty frantic weekend, we can now confirm that it, It is four points to me. Three points to Harry.

And Sam has gone from one point to one point. So not a lot of to change, does it? Nice. Moving on. Driver of the day. Have you got, Harry? Four. Max Verstappen was pretty good.

But we seem to give it to him every race now. I'll go for someone else just for the sake of variety and all our sanity. Yuki Sonoda. Little pocket rocket out there today was little Yuki. Four well, didn't he? He did a lovely little race. So go for Yuki. He did finish 10th again, didn't he?

Yeah. He can't go any fire up. It's not allowed. Is he aware that's not first? It's got zero on the end of the UK. I win the second half of the grid. I won the point. No, no, no.

You can win more than one point. It's fine. Who are you going for, Sam? I don't know if I wasn't noticed that we're a bit subdued today. There's four of us here, including Kirstie, and three of us are rather hungover and tired, Ben being the only person who is in a normal state. You can turn up to race reviews, not hung over.

Like, that is a thing you can do. No, no, I am knackered. Driver of the day. So I was, you know, you give this a thought. Do it every single podcast. I was looking, I think about this, you know, on the last few laps before the race. I was thinking,

who's really jumping out at me? And there were literally, I think, three options. The Stapin, obviously. Sengodia was one of them. And I was really wanting to give it to Alex Albon as well, but then all of a sudden,

and we're getting on to this as a topic later. Williams just absolutely, like, screwed the pooch, what was going on there at the end with the strategy call. I'm actually going to give it to Fernando Alonso. I don't think that Ascom Martin was actually good enough

to finish where it finished. I think he had a bit of a tricky Saturday, managed to bring it back well. And I think he had a very solid race weekend for himself on that. You know, picked up a lot of points that they needed, highest finishing position for a little while. So Fernando is my driver of the day. And happy birthday for yesterday. He is a keen listener of the podcast, of course. Good friend of ours. So I'm sure he'll love to hear that. I would agree with the shout out to Yuki Sonoda. I think he had a very good race and a much

needed very good race after Hungary wasn't brilliant. Daniel Ricardo stealing a lot of headlines. I think he put a few things to rest, didn't he out there? Just delivering a really solid performance. I would also give one additional shout out to Chaule-Cla, because I think he pretty much maximised what he could do. So I think he's a contended too. I am going to give it to Max Vastappen. It is a boring choice, but also we shouldn't become numb to his greatness.

He did perform excellently well and deserves all the plaudits that come with it. So I'm going to give it to him. So true. On the other side of things, Sam, who was your worst driver of the day? I mean, Carlos Sykes had managed to absolutely destroy Oscar Piastrian into turn one and then ruined his own car in the process. So, you know, that isn't great. Yeah, I think I go Carlos Sites.

Don't lock up, crash someone out, destroy your own sidepod, ruin your car, retire. Not a good way to run a race, I think. I think you might be on something. Harry, who was your worst driver of the day? Two out two. Carlos signs, what you do, mate? Pick a line, stick to it. Don't just chop across the track again. It's turn one for crying out loud.

Yeah, that was annoying to have both of them taken out by Carlos' indecision there. It's like me driving a car. Oh, not ideal. I had two names on my list. Lance Stroll is one of them because just didn't have much impact. I know he went for a similar strategy to the likes of Russell and Gasly, really sinking like a stone in that second stint, though. So I didn't think he had a great race, but I am going to make it three out of three on Carlos Seines. It was self-inflicted his retirement from the Grand Prix,

and indeed it wasn't the only retirement as a result of that. I do, I don't think sympathy is the right word. I understand why he did, what he did. He locked up, and his choice was, okay, I'm either definitely going into the back of Lewis Hamilton or potentially his teammate. I can't remember how that played out. He was going to go into the back of someone or just veer into the right hand side and hope that someone isn't there. At least in that situation, you have got a hope that you might not make contact with someone. The other situation he definitely is going to. So again, I don't have any sympathy because it was his own fault that he locked up, but I can understand why he tried to get out of it that way. Nonetheless, worse door over it.

today. I couldn't give it to stroll, mainly because he's given us perhaps the best commentator's curse moment of the season in shootout yesterday when Martin Brundle said, Lance has got a chance here, and Lance immediately puts it in the war. No, it wasn't a commentator's curse, he just didn't finish the sentence. It was, he's got a chance here to hit the barrier, and he was actually spot on. He's nailed it. He's crushed it.

big brain strap what have you got harry um i think Ferrari we are unusually quite today like executed a fairly normal race it's quite easy when you know one of your drivers is basically out at term one that's fair yeah they only had to focus on Lecler all their brains all the signs mechanics came over to the class we will help you um I'll go for and I appreciate and again there's Sam mentioned we'll talk about later appreciate they had probably bad tire wear, but the Williams three-stop strap, unusual one.

No one else did that and looked a bit slow to do that. So I guess their justification was they'd end up where they ended up anyway just by falling back. But yeah, not the greatest execution of a race, I'd say, especially when Alex Albon normally just doesn't like stopping. It was the opposite of that today. Yeah, maybe he's like just had to fill up his quota here at one race so he can get him all out of the way. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's how it works now. You have to take a certain number of pit stops per season rather than per race. For half a season. Yeah. It's got to do more now. Exactly. I went with similar to that. I went with Kevin Magnuson and Hass. So to be honest, I could just extend that Haas nomination to the entire weekend because they found new ways to mess up a weekend.

But specifically talking about the race, I don't think he would have held on for points, but he was certainly in the fight in that first stint. And they just left him out too long for a second stop. I think it was only maybe two laps. But after which he was behind about three cars that he was ahead of beforehand, I don't know what they were playing at. They should have just left him out. They should have brought him in a couple laps prior to that. And he might have been in the fight around Yuki Sonoda potentially. It would have been a stretch.

But he would have done better than what he actually did. So I'll go with Hasse, mainly just so I can bash them for the entire weekend, though. Sam. Yeah, I mean, you picked the two that I kind of have had in mind. So the other one that is maybe sounds a little bit harsh. But I love that Formula One is a well built on, you know, the highest level of technology and money and investment. But when it starts to rain, the ultimate strat is. sticking your arm outside of the pit box.

I hope you might feel some water. And I love the camera shot as it panned to all of the race engineers just sat there with their sleeves rolled up and hand out the box. That is like us three seeing if it's raining outside. You know, not these big brain lovely people. So, yeah, that's my big brain strat. See, I'm looking at the mongas and telling if it's raining or talking to your driver.

Just stick your arm in the air. And that's fair enough. We're going to take a short break. We'll be discussing McLaren. on the other side. McLaren have had quite a good few races, which of course meant that, as we asked in the preview, could this be Piastri's first podium?

Of course it was going to end up the way that it did. Piastri ended up making, let's face it, one corner before having to pull off two-thirds of the way through the opening lap. Lando Norris struggled far more than he's done in previous Grand Prix. That's his worst finish in four Grand Prix down in seventh place. and that was the best it looked all day.

There was certainly a possibility they were going to end up with zero points whatsoever. A lot was said and mentioned of their setup, obviously going for downforce in the middle sector. Sam, do you think that they will have any regrets on the way in which they decided to tackle this weekend? I mean, yeah, I think so. I think let's break it into the two sides of the garage.

Piaski seemed to have the beggar of it. You look at qualifying, you look at both episodes of the spring. you know, Piascari almost out-qualifies Max for Stappen in the sprint shootout, which considering, you know, he's only had this equipment for four races, and it's his rookie season, incredible performance on a, we'll call it qualified, because that's what it basically was, out-qualified Lando on the Friday, out-qualifies Lando again on the Saturday, and nearly sticks it on pole, which isn't actually pole, sorry for the confusion, folks. And then, of course, in the sprint race, does a great job, right?

He takes the league for a bit, there's a real actual moment there, and it looks. looks like he could actually potentially win something. Of course, the Red Bull comes back and takes it. And then we get to the main race, and we don't get to see how well Piazori's set up would work over a full race distance. But he was phenomenal through that middle sector in the qualifying periods that we had. I think at one point, he was 1.7 seconds faster than what Lewis Hamilton managed to

go through that second sector, which is absolutely groundbreaking. I do want to know why Carlos Sikes wasn't. giving any form of penalty or it was not even investigated as to why he literally took out a driver on turn one. But when Lewis Hamilton bumped into Perez in the spring, it was an immediate five second penalty and two penalty points on the licence. This one feels worse to me. Maybe that's a conversation for another day. Let's know what you think if you're listening. In terms of Landon Norris, of course, we did get the full race weekend. We got him seeing every session. I believe he was running a bit more down force than Piascri.

and because of that, I think it was really negatively affecting him going down a lot of the key overtaking areas. Plus, Lando was just shrugging with tyres. The tires that he started the race on, I believe it was the mediums. Mediums. Yeah. He tried all three. They did try all three.

You know, give it a go. It doesn't work the first or second time. And, you know, he's been having a bit of a winged recently as Lando. He's not been, if something's going wrong for him, he becomes immediately very vocal about it. And I'm not against that. I'm not against a driver, you know, piping up. over the radio going, this isn't working for me, we've got to change something.

But it just, I'm quite surprised you managed to recover back to P7 because it really looked like one McLaren out, the other McLaren was going to be sitting at the back of the gridding. It was going to be back at Bahrain, basically, with their performance. The setup was so wrong. And I think McLaren maybe are a team that heavily relies on a lot of practice data. And of course, when you come to a race track, which is a sprint weekend, and we have such mixed weather conditions and you don't know how tires are going to perform, they really seem

to lack a level of a level of a week. understanding that a lot of the other teams managed to bring to the race weekend. They didn't seem to understand what compounds worked for them well. The fuel levels maybe weren't quite right there because maybe they're doing a lot of lifting co. And they just weren't able to maximize their car setups, unlike LeCler and Science at Ferrari, for example, who had direct competition with them right now, even the Ascomartings, you know, when they've been struggling, in the race, they seemed very competitive.

They seem to do very, very well. But McLaren didn't really seem to very gather up enough speed anywhere to maximize what they were doing. It felt very confused, very disorganized, and they've really let themselves down, right at the peak when they were really gathering some serious momentum going into that summer break. I just hope it doesn't knock them too much for now we've got a month off without any races. It's a bad time to have a negative performance for both drivers. Harry, what were your thoughts on McLaren? And do you think that their gamble in terms of set up just hasn't paid off here? Yeah, well, it hasn't paid off today, that's for sure.

yesterday, and obviously for the rest of the weekend, when it was wet, they were... Piastri owned that middle sector in the damp condition. Like, he was flying through there. It was ridiculous. Purple Piastri. Purple Piastri because we're calling them now.

Like something Barney now. Yeah. Barney with the pastry. Oscar the dinosaur. Good. Oh, no. Someone present at that. Yeah, so it was paying.

off obviously yesterday, Saturday and Friday. But that, yeah, they were obviously heavily banking on another wet day to day. And even when the rain started to slightly fall, it wasn't a lot. Lando suddenly was flying. So we, you know, if it had been a proper wet race today, we'd have sat and here probably talks about them having a really good result because I think that car would have been perfect in a wet race as it was. It was a dry one.

And they had a barn door on the back of their car. instead of a rear wing. So it was a gamble. And that, I think the other thing as well is, it's clearly that's how that car works. It works better with, it doesn't work well with skinny rear wings. I don't know what I'm going to do in Monza,

but we'll find out when we get there, I guess. But a disappointing one. I think Norris actually recovered fairly well, considering, I thought it was going to, because he seemed like he was just like falling, like a stone through the field. I thought he was going to end up at the back.

So to salvage some points is pretty, pretty solid result. And yeah, we also don't know what Piaastri did, but they, I wouldn't like write them off now for the rest of the season. I think they still have good pace in that car. I just think it was circuit-specific for them this weekend. And they salvaged some good stuff from the sprint race anyway, so. Or something like Zanvort?

So you'd expect them to probably be good there. Underwood Silverstone both exhibit a lot of the same qualities as areas of Zanvort. makes sense that they excel. I think we discussed it, didn't we, in the preview? That if they could get it right here, their car is comfortable everywhere, clearly not. Clearly, they just don't enjoy a lot of straight.

Yeah. It's always been the case. McClaren's slow as balls in a straight line. I'm not convinced that it was circuit-specific. I actually think they just got the setup wrong. And I think they could have been competitive here if they went a different direction to what they actually ended up doing.

I kind of, on the one hand, commend and admire what McLaren did this weekend. On the other hand, I think it was a bit foolish. I kind of can't choose between the two because I feel like they showed up and they went right. There is a chance of rain. We are going to put all of our eggs in one basket

in terms of the middle sector. We are going to do everything we can to be fast in wet conditions. And if it works, maybe we can take a win away. from Red Bull and we're going to look like rock stars, as Gunter Steiner might say. And I feel like they desperately pushed at that. And I kind of admire it that they went all out. Ultimately, it didn't work because they didn't account for one of the sessions being dry.

And ultimately, they just had absolutely no pace out there. And in one respect, maybe Piastri can be somewhat glad that he didn't have to do that entire race because he probably would have struggled in a similar vein to Lando Norris. So, yeah, I know, obviously, it seemed to work in the spring race, obviously, with the wet conditions. And Piastri's seven points for second place deserved a lot of respect. And on yesterday's review, I gave him a lot of respect for that performance. But ultimately, you need to set up your car for Sunday because those seven points, that's fewer than you get if you finish sixth place, right?

you get eight points for sixth place on a Sunday. So you need to predominantly focus on what's going to happen at a Grand Prix. And they didn't. And yeah, I think ultimately I agree with your point, Sam, that I think they were caught out by the lack of practice time. And I think if they had more, they might well have gone in a bit of a different direction. And I think both Norris and Piastri, if he made it past the first lap,

I think they would have been better contenders than what they were. I don't know whether they would have had the full pace of, say, Mercedes or Ferrari. Maybe they still would have been a touch behind that. But I certainly think they would have been one step closer than what they were. And to your point, Harry, as soon as we had even a little bit of rain today, Lando Norris was suddenly faster than Vastappan. So I think they just, they gambled. They gambled, didn't pay off.

I kind of respect it in all honesty. Sam, you brought up an interesting point about lack of practice time that happens on a spring weekend that might well have negatively impacted McLaren and particularly Lando Norris. How do you, you know, putting the actual sprint race part of it to one side and just focusing on limited practice time, which way do you see? Do you think it's good that some teams are punished for not getting it right? Or do you think it's a negative thing because a potential contender hasn't been able to get in the mix? As I see Formula One, it is not just about the driver, it is about talent of all fields, you know, building the car, understanding strategy, you know, working cohesively as a whole unit as a team. As we've always mentioned, Formula One is the only sport in the world where you fight entirely individual as a sportsperson.

And at the same time, you compete as a larger unit and work together to win two separate championships. It's very unique and it's incredibly exciting in that manner. And I think that to prevail, to be considering a championship material, to be considering on the greatest of all time as a team, to be able to understand faster than everyone else, what is needed, to understand what you're going through and what all the elements that you're working through are quicker than everyone else is. And get that right, both strategically, with your tyres, with the weather coming through, how the car needs to be set up.

To do that in one session and nail that, I think is more exciting personally. I think it is better for the sport. I think it's more interesting to watch. And I like that it means that other teams might start to come up and prevail over others. Because you know what? Their engineers can read the data better. Or they know what rungs to go for. They can see something in the tire that works for the better.

I've said this quite a lot on the podcast that I think three practice sessions that we have, which amounts to what? Three and a half, four hours of testing every single race weekend, which is a lot of runging before we even get to qualify. where you've already got historic data for a lot of these tracks as well, it's too much and it removes a lot of variables, it removes a lot of risk. And I think that nailing it right at the, you know,

the snap of a finger when you've got to make a call is what Formula One is all about. And if McClare and Warnobey title contenders, for me, they've got to get it right the same way that everyone else is going to get all right. It's not like they're the only one's going around with one session of practice. Red Ball had to do it. Mercedes had to do it. Ferrari had to do it.

Ashton Martin had to do it. and they were the worst of the top five that were being four out at the moment, they got it wrong. And I do think that I would rather see teams live and die by the sword and make calls and take risks rather than we go, oh, yeah, three and a half hours of running has come along, and it's all being dry or whatever, and we know exactly how each tire is going on the exact lap,

and we know when to execute this strategy, and the race will run perfectly unless our engine blows up, which we can't help right now because these things happen. For me, not as fun. I will always rather have one hour of practice. Don't care what the weather is either. You just got to crack on with it, learn your bit, and hope that you call the right strategy in the race.

Same question for you, Harry. What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, I agree with Sam. I think I'd rather, I'd rather they do this and stick by it rather than, I don't know. I don't know what the alternative is, but it was good to see that McLaren. are going to be bold with it

because as I said, there'd have been rock stars, as you say, if it had gone, if it had gone well. But sadly it didn't. And I think if you looked at the weather forecast out of the weekend,

you'd have said, it's a pretty strong chance of an entirely wet weekend. So it was worth a punt for sure. I think overall, I agree with you as well. Sam, I, yes, it would be,

good to have an extra contender up in that fight, but ultimately, if you can't get it right in practice, you have to deal with those consequences, which is potentially what's happened here with McLaren. And I am absolutely for less practice time. I think three sessions at the moment, to your point, Sam, there's like three and a half hours worth. It's, it's, there's too many, as Sam might say. There's too many. Yeah, I'm in complete agreement with that. So, Yeah, overall, I think McLaren should be back to form, as you mentioned, at Zambor. And I actually think even at the likes of Monza, they might be okay, even though it's another high-speed circuit. I just think they got it wrong on this weekend specifically.

But ultimately, it's good that these teams can get it wrong. It was good to start a Grand Prix, when no one really had an idea on what the right tires were, what the fuel levels were like. That was a question that was said quite a bit in terms of Aston Martin. was a one stop right, was a two stop right, to confirm Williams, a three stop wasn't right. So, yeah, there were a lot of unknowns, which is what we won in a Grand Prix race. I said this just before we started, I actually didn't want a wet race because I was quite excited by the prospect of what we didn't know what's going to happen in a dry race. I reckon that sprinkling of wet rain, wet rain, folks of dry rain, the wet rain that we got. Yeah, we're going with that. It's wet rain now. Okay, that's good. No one laugh at me.

That's what it is now. Cheers, Sam. The sprinkling that we got, I think we had literally maybe another 5% of that, where the track became a little bit greasy, a little bit scary, which was, it was almost there,

but never got to the point where Inters with a faster tire. We were made for the absolute perfect level of water on the track. But, Harry, I think you're right. I think the dry race this weekend after what we've had was by far the more exciting premise, because we've seen with wet weather, it gets called off, it gets red flags. They've some reason can't ever use the wet tires anymore

and actually be competitive. You may as well just put roofs over every racetrack these days, so they don't get wet because for some reason they can't drive in water anymore. Speaking of which, Formula E is about to start, and they're racing in London this weekend in the Excel Centre, but not all inside. And it's absolutely... Sam, you're in London right now.

It's hoofing it down. I was going to look at my window. Quite wet. It's obviously wet outside and then dry inside. So they could do that, F1. Just put everything in the Excel Centre. The Excel is not that. big. Like it's big, but it's not bad big.

And it'll work. Do we really come to a conclusion on this segment that F1 should take place in the Excel Centre? Like, is that our defining point? Yes. You're welcome. Time for a break, I reckon. I think you're right. Time to get your sandwiches, because after this break, we will be discussing something that is as rare as a solar eclipse. A Ferrari on the podium.

What are you going to have in your sandwich, boys? What feeling? BLT, mate. Okay, welcome back. Ferrari managed to find their way to the podium after none in the last couple of Grand Prix. Charles LeClair managed to get himself to P3 behind the two Red Bull drivers. Holding off Lewis Hamilton, there was a couple second gap between those two, pretty much throughout the whole Grand Prix, but it didn't seem as if he was ever under too much threat. I mean, we are not even mentioning the fact that he started from pole. It was just such an inevitability that he wasn't going to keep that.

but Sam, what did you make of Ferrari's performance out there, at least on LeCleur's side of the garage? Yeah, let's remove science from the equation. He kind of sank it on fire and putting it a bit all by himself. But, you know, you mentioned it, Charlotte-Cleur got pole position. That's now two races in a row where Max Verstappen hasn't got pole position, which is, as once again showing that the qualifying segment

of the race weekend is thrilling and fun. Sure. Yeah. You know, wink, wink. Eight times. Yeah, yeah. I'm choosing to ignore the almost second gap that went on, because that was disgusting.

Nonetheless, nonetheless, I think Charlecler drove as good a race as he could. His real competition in Perez and Vastappen, if Perez was up to actual speed where he delivered a good Grand Prix, which he did. No slight on Perez, really. It was fine, it was good. You know, despite losing to 20 seconds to your team, mate. LeCleur was never in real competition to the Red Bull.

Lewis Hamilton, the McLaregs and his teammate, Carlos Sites, arguably were the guys that he had to keep at bay. And he did it without any real issue. Even when Lewis Hamilton was on a bit of a flyer and he looked like he was starting to gaining, the gap never dropped under kind of a couple of seconds, really. Even towards those final sessions where you had Pete Bungington on the radio saying to Lewis Hamilton, don't let the gap drop under two and a half. Don't let the under two half. You need to attack at the end.

The gap just goes up at that point, really. It kind of got to about 2.2 and then three and a half seconds. it comes back to two and a half and goes back up to three. Lecler was managing fantastically well. He was calm. His strategy was well executed from Ferrari, which I know is one of the rarest things you'll ever hear said on a podcast, but it was.

They got everything right. No speeding in the pit laying as well. Pack yourselves on the back, boys. Honestly, I don't know what more they could have done. They earned that podium. They deserve that podium. It was good to see them have a successful weekend for 50% of the garage. What were your thoughts on Leclair's performance, Harry?

very good thanks leclair um it was it was a classic chuckles performance i'd say um didn't really put a foot wrong a bit of shame he couldn't lead at least a lap but that red bulls just a rocket ship on a straight line wasn't it so did everything he could um and as he say hamilton couldn't make any inroads into that podium podium position um despite various attempts to try and you know car, etc. But it just didn't happen. So yeah, I was very impressed with Leclair. It's just a shame that it's so far off the Red Bull, but then everyone is so far off the Red Bull. So given the car he has, I think he did everything, everything he could this weekend. Did you predict this correct, Harry? Did you get your one, two, three right? Got my top three right, yeah, for once.

You got everything right, didn't you? You got Sprint pole, actual pole, if you remove the penalty option that happened. And, you know, you got everything right apart. from your bowl prediction that actually gets your point. Yeah. Also, correct me for wrong of this. I thought you are awarded pole position and then your penalties applied afterwards. So, like, Verstappen got pole position.

Right? Yeah. Sure. Because when they... That's what we're saying. But you get pole position, you win pole position, but you start at the front of the grid. Look like that start at the front, but he didn't get poll.

How does it work? Who gets the pole? pole. Oh. Who gets Kibica? Who keeps him till next race? James Vowse.

He'll give him a good home. Yeah. So in summary, very good. I think you said there, Harry. Yep. Him and Vestappen, both under that same title this weekend. Can't argue with that.

This was exactly what Ferrari needed in the absence of a win, but, you know, that was never really going to happen. So I think this weekend really was their ideal in that they just needed a solid weekend when nothing really went wrong, at least for Leclair. I'm not going to talk about signs for the moment, but from Leclair's side of the garage, it was perfect in that we didn't really hear anything from them all race, which is a good thing

because generally speaking, in fact, not just generally speaking, pretty much every time in a Grand Prix, the less you hear of Ferrari, the better they're doing. If you're hearing team radio constantly for Ferrari, it probably means they're P8 and P9 and struggling on strategy. When you don't hear anything from them, it probably means they had a weekend like they did here, where LeClaire was P3 after Vestappen overtook him and then never lost it from there. I don't think he could have done anything about that first lap in all honesty. I think Perez perfected the first lap. he just needed to be behind LeCler going into O'Rouge and Radion,

and the momentum would see him through from there. He did that, fair play to him. But LeCler, you know, he wasn't really ever under threat from Lewis Hamilton. So respect to him, I think it will be intriguing pace-wise, what will happen with Ferrari and Mercedes from this point onwards because they did seem very evenly matched here. Of course, Mercedes have the advantage at the moment in terms of points. Sam, do you think that Ferrari and Mercedes might,

might well end up being the battle for P2. Yeah, I mean, this is what I said when we have that conversation about whether McLaren could catch up. I do think that the unfairly calling them the copycat teams who are, you know, trying to literally imitate the Red Bull design and will always be behind in that design circle are going to be the ones that struggle across the entire season to maintain momentum and picking up, you know, second and third and third of Perez isn't in the loop, or third and fourth every single race. but those who are the innovators, the Mercedes and the Ferrari of this conversation, will come up with new ideas first.

I develop new ideas before the likes of McLaren and Ashton Martin, which tend to give them the boost. It allows them to have the longevity of car performance. And I do arguably think that both Ferrari and Mercedes driver pairings are currently stronger than Ashton Martin and McLaren's driver pairings. So if the cars were all solidly equal, I do think over an average season, Mercedes and Ferrari would be able to pull out a high-eastern. average result than the other two teams. So I think long term, Ashton Martin are going to slowly

slip away. And I think it came out, doing it at the start of the weekend, that Askin put on an upgrade that actually had negatively impacted their speed and they're trying to work out what's gone wrong with that upgrade. And I'm sure over the summer break, they might understand that and we'll come back maybe with a vengeance. So who knows, maybe I'll be very wrong. But I do think if you're a betting man, which I definitely am not, if you've noticed all my predictions are very wrong, that... Good thing. Yeah, great. So don't listen to me. That, Ferrari and Mercedes are by far the two likely teams to pick up more and more points as we go on throughout this season and their development comes to a more easier and understood direction.

They will be the ones that pick up, you know, the third place is if it's Red Bulls 1-2 is going on, the third and fourths, the fourth and fifths, whatever it might be. And it will be McLaren or Askin Martin, who are the ones going eighth and ninth or whatever because they don't necessarily understand the dynamics of their own car when coming to each different track. Harry, did you have any thoughts on George Russell today? his P6. Obviously he had a couple of positions

that he lost at the start so he was playing catch up a little bit. Do you think he probably maximised his race from there or what your thoughts on him? Yeah, pretty much, I think. I think he had a similar issue as McLaren in that I think his setup wasn't quite right this weekend.

So he went for the slightly higher downforce versus Hamilton did. Hamilton did. Yeah, P6, probably could have had Alonzo. or should have had Alonzo, but around that area, I think was probably the most achievable,

achievable target for him. Not a huge amount of Russell Radio this weekend. He's a bit quiet as well. I don't think I heard a single bit. The only thing was in the sprint before the sprint yesterday when he was talking to Toto. That was very funny. I'm under a tank, mate.

I'm fine. At what point do we have a proper chat about Russell? It's not going too well from at the moment, is it? Bit down on four. That sounds like a good topic for the summer break where we could really use help getting content together. Stay tuned, folks. We'll be discussing Russell's bag form. At least specifically on today's result, I think based on where he was after the start, he probably got back to where he should have done. I don't personally think Alonzo was achievable after the start. I think overall in terms of pace, Russell probably should have had him.

but I think his below par qualifying plus that poor start both added together just to make sure that P6 was all he could get. I think he did a very good job in terms of tire management. Certainly doing the one stop was the right decision. And he could well have bailed out from that in that first stint because everyone around him was deciding to pit. And there were a few, if the rain had come down that was being spoken about, it would have left George Russell in a very, very poor position because he was right at the back

when that discussion was going on. But ultimately, the medium to soft switch was right for him. I agree, Sam, that I think is worth a debate in terms of his actual season-wide form. And I think he'll be disappointed not to claim more than eight points here because obviously his teammate claimed 13. But yeah, I think based on the star, he probably got back to where he should have done. Any closing thoughts on Russell, Sam, on this race specifically? No, I'll save them entirely for our Russell debate on his poor form coming in the summer break near you. It sounds like Sam's made his mind up on his form. It's poor. He's going to want to kick him out. Can't wait for another sweeping statement from Sam. Yeah. Coming up after the

break, Esteban Gutierrez or George Russell, who should get the contract next season. No, we are going to to one more thing before we get to our next break, which is Williams. So as Harry predicted, they did quite well. It of course led to their worst weekend in quite a long time, scoring zero points with Alex Albin finishing 14th place and Logan Sargent finishing 17th place. Sam, given that we make jokes at Harry, but expectations generally were higher for Williams at this weekend versus other races so far this year. Do you think this was a missed opportunity? Yeah, I really do. And I know that, you know, we talk about bold predictions and that's why Harry put the Williams in fifth as a bold prediction it was fair but

I do think that you know the Albon pays especially maybe not fifth but I don't think far off of it at certain points of that Grand Prix he was comfortably cruising around with Yuki Sondha and I do think that with Albon's racecraft understanding and how he's been driving that car recently on a different day could have gone on to beat the likes of Yuki Sanova maybe being up there with the likes of Ocon who were fighting for kind of the eighth place region I think that was perfectly plausible for the Williams team. Same with Logan Sargent. I really do think that maybe got points, but 11th, 12th, could have quite comfortably being on the cards for him. The car, as much as it wasn't fantastic, Williams have done a gang here what they've done so well recently. That is utilised the certain

aspects of their car that are strengths. They've really tuned the strengths. And we saw it here last year. Straight line speak is a phenomenal asset that Williams hold and they used it to their strength again. And I think they did a great job at not losing too much in that middle section. You can see that they were slower, for example, the way that, you know, the Alpings really caught up to them in that middle sector. In that battle, the Okong had, not sorry, Okom, Algonne had with Ghazli was a really fun battle. But the difference of speed between the Alping and the Williams there was so clear in that middle sector. But I do think points from the cars. And that three stop was just a real kicker.

It was such a poor call from Williams. And I don't know who may get it on the team. I don't know if it came directly from, you know, James Vowse himself or if it was a strategy call from the engineers. because both cars went down the same route, which tells me that it was a more team-wide discussion, and they thought that was going to be the fastest overall route. But it took them from being a real points contender team to being back of the Griggs stuff.

They were one of the worst performing teams overall once the finish line was crossed. And I think they've lost out here. I don't think they'll kick themselves too much. It's only a couple of points, but that really could be the difference coming in the season between maybe a seventh place and an eighth place or even a ninth place with other teams starting to regain some form.

For example, Yuki Sinoza finishes in the points and completely outdoes Daniel Ricardo, who has looked good for the most part. So Williams not maximise anything. They've let themselves down, a bit of a disappointment, and I think they'll be hoping for more. To be clear. You let yourself down.

You let us down. Sound like you've just finished fourth on Come Dime with me. I probably would finish fourth and could die with me as well. What a sad little life, Williams. James. frying in the corner. Hang on a minute. You know,

we're thinking of content ideas across the summer break. Late breaking, dine with me. Let me just write that down. That's another rip-off show that we've done.

There's four of us if we'll include Kirstie, that makes four of us. So, you know. Maybe we'll get a guest as the fifth member. Dave Benson Phillips.

These things. Segway, of course, into Williams. Harry, what did you make of their performance? Yeah, it was a disappointing one Williams. I think I'd have been really

interested to see what would have happened had it been a dry weekend because they were struggling in the wet with their lack of downforce I guess but they obviously set up for a straight line speedy setup and that didn't help them in the rain

so qualifying obviously went pretty badly for them on Friday, qualifying for the race that is and it sort of just that compounded it from there because at the start of the race, Albaugh was making moves and I was like, here we go. The top five is coming.

Obviously didn't. But they were rapid, but they all weekend seemed to have had an issue with tire wear. It was the same in Qualifying. I think they were chewing up their intermediates. And obviously today, you just watched a car. It was sliding a lot.

I know Albon was hustling it, but he seemed to be struggling with his tire wear. So I'm assuming that's why they did that third stop. And I still don't think it, well, clearly wasn't the right call, but I think that's why they had to do it. So yeah, they'll be disappointed with this one. I think they definitely would have expected more.

Given where they've been, you know, Albon was he 11th in Hungary? So almost a point in Hungary of all places for them. So they're going to have to try and get on top of that, especially if, because Monza represents one of their best opportunities for a big point score. or perhaps the best option to do for a bit, yeah, one, two of the year. So, but they did,

there's gonna be no good if their tyres keep chewing themselves up. They can be as fast as they want, but, you know, an odd one, because as I said earlier, Albon has been pretty good on his tyres this year. So it's a strange race all round for Williams, but yeah,

they'll be hoping to bounce back for, for Munza. Well, not at Monza next, though we? Was Anvot? Yeah, I don't think they'll bother turning up there. Nah, give that one, I miss, mate. Take me out. Focus on. focus on Wanda Williams.

I was frustrated that they couldn't get more from this Grand Prix because as you mentioned going into it, it looked like something might be achievable. P11 at Hungary was certainly a very encouraging result. I think ultimately they tried to pull off a very similar strategy to what they had in Hungary, but to not to the same effect in that I think at Hungary they had the straight line speed to hold off any other team

down the main straight, much the only straight that actually exists at the circuit. Whereas here, even though they had an advantage in a straight line, I don't think it was still a match for a car behind who had slipstream and DRS. DRS was very, very powerful out there today, particularly down the Kemelstreet. I mean, we had that evidence with Vestappen's overtake where he's practically overtaking Sergio Perez coming out of O'Rourge. He's not even anywhere near Lecon when he's making that overtake happen. And I think what has happened here is just Williams have been caught by those other teams on the straight because the slipstream and the DRS is more powerful than the way in which they set up their car. And that saw them drop positions. And that's generally how they played it. They pit early and then held it out for as long as they could until the other cars caught up and made overtakes happen.

So disappointing. I would agree with the word disappoint. on that weekend. I think they messed up. They actually messed up Logan Sargent's first pit stop, I think. Essentially, they had to wait a lap. They messed him right up. Yeah, Alex Albaugh made his stop and Logan Sargent came in the lap afterwards. And I think Logan Sargent was well in the battle for like P12, P13 at the time. But because he had to wait that extra lap to stop, he was behind, I think they even came out behind Carlos Sines and was stuck behind him for a few laps. So, I think Logan Sargent was pretty unlucky in that respect. But certainly with Alex Albin and the three-stop,

I think ultimately when they'd been overtaken by it must have been the Alpine drivers at the time, I think they had two options. Either they hold on until the end of the race, and at which point they were like P-11, P-12. So you're kind of hoping that either A, there are retirements in front of you, or B, the cars like Russell and Stroll

have to make another pit stop, in which case you might be able to finish in front of them. So that was their one option that they didn't take. The other option is what they did do, which was pit and then hope that, again, the likes of Russell and Stroll need to box, at which point you've undercut them, and then you can finish ahead of them that way. I can understand why they went for the second one. I think they were damned if they did or damned if they didn't, to be honest.

And I think as soon as they had lost the top 10 position, they were never going to get it back, guard us whether they stopped or not. So, um, yeah, Zamvort, I don't know, P1, P2. Yeah. Land abort. Whoa. It's good, it's good. It's summoned. I'm going to have to recover from that one. We'll take a short break. Moment of the race submissions right after this. Yay. And it's live. Oh yeah. We started doing that now. Your business doesn't move in a straight line.

Make sure your team is taken care of through every twist and turn with Canada Life savings, retirement, and benefits plans. Whether you want to grow your team, support your employees at every stage, or build a workplace people want to be a part of. Canada Life has flexible plans for companies of all sizes, so it's easy to find a solution that works for you. Visit canadalif.com slash employee benefits to learn more. Canada Life, insurance, investments, advice. Okay, moment of the race. As we do for all race reviews this season, we are asking you, the people, what was your moment of the race? We're doing this via Discord. So if you want to get involved in the second half of the season when these come back, make sure you're in the Discord. The link is in

the description if you're not already a part of it. Linky in the Descripti. And in the submissions channel, that's where we ask for them straight after a Grand Prix. You need to be quite quick because we record straight away. We love getting this out. We are speedy. We are speedy. We are fast. Very fast.

Got to go fast. So, moment of the race submissions. We'll each give our own and then we'll hand over to Discord. See if they agree with us or go in a different direction. Harry, what was your moment of the race?

A couple. I will go, well, firstly, honorable mention to Belgian John for the start to the chal anthem. as he is now known. Class,

the pretty best anthem of the year. Most sunglasses. Ockons move on Sonoda, around the outside of they come. Pretty filthy. Enjoyed that one a lot. But I'm just going to go with generally over the weekend,

but again today, Sassy GP, we've already mentioned it. He was taking no prisoners with Max Verstappen, and he's quite frankly, he's fed up of him. It's like looking after a child,

like a really annoying child. it really made me laugh all weekend, but again today. So just it's quite a general one, or generic one, but sassy GP. Do you think as soon as Max Verstappen has won the driver's championship, he's just going to be like, right, someone else can do it for the rest of the year. I'll come back next March. I'm out. I'm not doing this anymore.

I'm sick of this guy. Honorable mention as well to Max Verstappen saying it's windy and he has to hold on to the steering wheel really tight. What's that about? screaming or something. Sam, what was your moment of the race? Funny,

if I'm giving an honorable mention to GP because that moment in, it wasn't in the race, but in qualifying, where Max is screaming like a petul of child about not getting through. And GP's going,

look, I can put you out on that track where it's getting two seconds of that fast or without any battery. I think that had gone down. It's almost like, sunshine. We think of that sun.

And Max is just like, Don't care. Let me know your run plans. Yeah. Go on. Like, give me something back, Max. Come on, speak up. I need to hang nothing to come back with at all.

I just think fair play. You're standing up for the biggest personality in the sport and you're making it heard and you're doing a good job. So, yeah, he deserves a lot of praise action this weekend because he's an integral part of that team. I am going to give it to the Ocon move because I think that was genuinely saucy, saucy, saucy. It was filthy.

I loved it. You know an overtake is good. When you winks a little bit that something might go wrong and then it doesn't go wrong and you kind of go, wha, that was scary but cool. And anything that's good is scary but cool. So yeah, I think that move, moment of the race. Before I get to my moment of the race, I'm going off book because I have a worst moment of the race.

Oh, this isn't how it works. No, but this needs mentioning. This is a very UK Sky Sports specific worst moment of the race. No more last lap anything. No, please. Last lap Hamilton, last gas, Gassley, last lap Lando, no more. Stop. God.

Also, last lap Hamilton, Lewis is right there. Las lap Lewis. What are you doing? The amount of times I held abuse at the TV on this. race in particular. When Gassie got the move done, Crofti decided to speak French from it. I was just like,

shut up! Just do your job! Honourable shout out for Crofty as well. On lap four, Hamilton is sticking, you know, within a couple of seconds of LeCleur, lap four of the race, and he goes, well, it looks like the Mercedes

has got good race pace. We've done four laps, Cropty. I had to get that off my chest because I was just, I was fuming. Fuming. Right. My actual moment of the race, I had two overtaking maneuvers. Wow, truth be told, I had three overtaking maneuvers written down.

You've already covered off one of them. Three. You already covered off the Ockon one. The other two overtakes that I thought were great. Number one, Alex Albin pulled off a double overtake down the straight. Yeah. No reaction to it. Again, I'm sorry, this isn't supposed to be a David Croft bashing session in any way,

but he likes to make the most out of nearly every overtake that happens. Here, Alex Albin pulled off a double overtake. He's like, oh, look, the Williams is up to P7. So he just pulled off. I genuinely don't think he realised. I genuinely don't think he noticed. He pulled off what Hackan did like 20 years ago, and it's just like, oh, cool.

So that was one of them. And then the other overtake, Lando Norris, round the outside of... Sargent. Sargent. Yeah, lovely. Also sauce. That was beautiful.

So I'll go with that one. A lot of sauce, a lot of la sauce, a spa today. Nice. Very nice. I am so on it. What did you make of the moves

into Stablo? Good, mate. Loved it. Okay, let's hear what our discords submitters have to say. Go on, Harry. Here we go. We're not on the expensive soundboard today. We're on the old cheap one. So if this goes wrong, apologies.

I'm not touching it, so it's fine. Here we go. First up is Darth Farche noise. Moment of the race for me was when Ristappen was already celebrating out of his car while the points finishes were still crossing the finishing line. I mean, what a metaphor to this year's championship. Yeah.

Yeah. The way that they put into the pit lane at the end of Spa is crazy, isn't it? They're just like, too long, don't do the lap again, just turn right. Yeah. I like that they still do that. They've done that forever, but it's a weird thing to do, isn't it? Yeah. It catches me off guard every time when there's a yellow flag in sector one.

And I'm like, oh, oh, no. How is he there already? You just crossed the lie. How has he already got back to that point? Yeah. Right, next up, Asa. Right, boys, moment of the race to me is just something that I like, it's just how dominant Vastappen's been.

The geezers won the race. He's got to park Fermat. He's got out of his car. He's got a pint in one hand, a cigarette in the other. Meanwhile, Hamilton's only just crossed the finish line for the fastest lap, and the rest of them are coming around sector two. If that ain't dominant, I don't know what is. Great moment.

Cheers, boys. Prime time James Hunt is a. apparently in that Red Bull. Don't remember him smoking, but... Good. Cheers for eye lighting that, Asa. Next up, Norm from Texas. Oh, hello, my late breaking friends from a cross-lay Big Wet.

Guess what time it is? It's time for Norm from Texas' moment of the race. And it's going to be the lover spat between Max Rastappen and his race engineer GP. Juicy, juicy drama. Anyway, keep breaking late, guys. I didn't know what I was going to be. Next up, Kitty Ninja.

My moment of the race has to be the overtake that Esteban had. I mean, that was just crazy. I mean, just so in there and he just went for it. Easily best to overtake of the race. Scary, but really cool. much like this podcast scary but cool uh madelana

hi guys this is madalina it's my fourth submission I believe and max for stopping bickering over the radio was for me as I think it was for many people the highlight of this race bye love that keep numbering those submissions

please do all good always highlight breaking wow that was overtake so many overtakes, so many dramatic moments, so many moments of the race for me. But I think two of them, one of them has got to be GP and Max's conversations over the radio. I mean, GP told Max at one point to use his head a little bit and then straight up told him no when Max offered some pit stop strategy. And the other one has got to be Crofty's comment when Max crossed the finish line and said

that you need a telescope to see where Perez was. Love you guys, love the podcast. Bye. Love the positivity always Next up is the most well-traveled father-son duo in history It's Real Dad and James live from the beach in Croatia So here we go Last week they were at the Hungarian GP now they're in Croatia

What a life This is Real Dad and James live and direct from the beach in Croatia With our moment of the race Our moment of the race is pastry being loud on lap 1 I mean he was a hero yesterday was P2 in the sprint, but it's just completely gone to zero. I'm just a bad race for a clown.

Really sad. Over and out from Croatia, food is much better here. Love the podcast, guys. Bye-bye. Thank God. Oh, I'm so happy that we're eating goods tonight. Okay.

Next up is Rogo. Is it Rogo or whatever? Hey, guys, my moment of the race for this week has to be when Daniel Ricardo overtook his teammate, Landon Norris, and... Oh. Wait, what do you mean?

Lando's not his teammate. You got kicked out of McLaren? Well, who's his teammate? Yuki. Yuki's in six! Where's Daniel? Fifteenth! Gosh, he's crap.

Thanks, guys. The crap man strikes a game. The crap kill is dark. Rogo's going to say crap in every submission, isn't it? Oh man. Right. Rai guy. Not having you for a while, Rai guy. There we go. Hey guys, it's Rai Guy coming to you from Rai Guy's closet. Yes, I'm alive as well. Still searching for a tattoo artist for the LB tattoo, but hopefully after the summer break, I'll have some updates. We're through the summer break, so saving for a wedding's expensive. Anyways, so yeah, my mom of the race is Max Verstappen, lifting an O Rouge. How dare he?

I know it was raining, so there's good. But love you guys, keep on, keep on, and enjoy the Patreon. It's worth it. Love you, bye.

I cannot wait for our wedding invites to come through the mail. Yeah. They better. That's your lot, folks. Well, thanks, Harry. Appreciate that, mate. Um,

that's pretty, pretty bad it now, in it? Sam, do you want to go to guys out there? Yeah, yeah, get to sleep until the summer break is over.

Um, we'll see you at the next. episodes a week for the next few weeks, though. We're not stopping. We have committed to that. And we will deliver. We are here. We are inevitable as a podcast.

We're going to be here every single Wednesday, every single Sunday. And there will also be two Patreon episodes, of course, over the summer break month and the beer with breaking. So if you want to get those extra episodes in that extra content, the link is in the Gascrippy. You can join. There's many tears. Check them out.

We appreciate your support. Everyone that's on there already. We love you dearly. You're so wonderful. We've also got Discord. As has already been mentioned, it's down there. joining it, over 2,000 members in there chatting all things F1 and whatnot. It's great.

We've also got social media, late breaking F1. It's on Twitter. It's on Instagram. And if you're down with the kids, it's on TikTok. You know, we're making all sorts of. Well, we're not. Kerski's making all sorts of videos and we look all right on them. Yeah.

Big appreciate. Thank you for that. Banners. I think that's everything for now. YouTube's available if you want to watch our faces, I guess. YouTube's available in your region love you all

see you in the Wingsday where it'll have been Ben's birthday so we'll be enjoying talking about that as well in the meantime I've been Samuel Sage I've been Ben Hocking and I've been Belgian John It's like a robot

What has happened So slow Let's try again Sam Sam go on I've been Samuel Sage. I've been Ben Hocking. I've been Belgian John.

Remember. Keep breaking late. Oh, God, the show. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.