The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2023 Brazilian GP Sprint Review

Episode Date: November 4, 2023

Ben's been left by himself to discuss a sprint race. This can only go well! Join him as he reacts to all the action from Brazil including a win for Max Verstappen, a tough day for Mercedes and Ferrari, and his verdict on the Alonso/Ocon crash from the Sprint Shootout (yeehaw). 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

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Spring race happens just about 15 minutes ago as I've started recording this. Max Verstappen taking victory despite the pole position of Lando Norris. Norris himself holding on to second place. Sergio Perez rounding out the sprint podium in third place. And he had to do a bit of work to get that third place back from George Russell. It feels a bit scary to be left to my own devices reviewing a sprint Grand Prix. This could go off the rails very, very quickly. It almost certainly will. And now I'm thinking about it, that shouldn't matter at all, because every episode we do, no matter how many of us are here, goes off the rails. So I'll crack on. Plenty to discuss. I

I'm actually going to talk about the Ocon Alonzo incident a little bit later on, even though they didn't happen in the sprint race as it's just happened a few minutes ago. Aston Martin, their performance after a tough qualifying, but again, one of them couldn't make it into SQ2 as a result of the crash. A little bit on Alpha Tauri, Ferrari, Mercedes. I'm going to cover most of the top teams. I would like to start, though, by talking about the race out front or I guess the lack of race out front because it was settled very, very quickly. I think there were a lot of questions as to where the Landau Norris could hold off Max Verstappen. We've seen him have considerable pace throughout the weekend so far. And the answer was no.

And very quickly no. Max Verstappen managed to get the lead into the first corner, which I don't know if anyone's noticed, but this Red Bull that seemed to have a little bit of a problem starting Grand Prix earlier in the season, has really turned that around because, hey, they were full of weaknesses. at least they've solved one. Yeah, they are now amazing at everything, including race starts. Max Verstappen, Mexican Grand Prix was brilliant on both race restarts, which with the Mexican Grand Prix, it's a difficult start,

especially if you're on pole because of the long distance down into turn one. Here, there would have been quite a bit of optimism from Lando Norris and any McLaren fan that the really short run into term one might have at least given Lando Norris a chance to hold the lead throughout the first lap and then go from there. Maybe Max Verstappen has the pace advantage as the race unfolds. Maybe he doesn't. There was a lot of degradation at play. But ultimately, that was, oh, didn't matter.

It was obsolete very quickly because that was, even though it was a good reaction time from Lando Norris, Max Verstappen into the first corner, relatively comfortably, it has to be said, got the lead. And there wasn't too much of a fight after that. For the most part, Lando Norris was able to keep in touch with Max Verstappen. I think it was a bit more of a struggle towards the later lapse. I think Vestappen did a better job in terms of tired degradation. But Vastappen was, as per usual, not really challenged here.

I think in terms of Vestappan and Norris, because they were first and second, and even though Vestappen did have a comfortable margin on Norris, the gap back from Norris to anyone else was even more comfortable. I think these two drivers today really prove themselves as the class of the field. And I know that's not saying much when it comes to Max Verstappen because he's been doing that all of this year and all of last year as well. But I think Lando Norris, it was something of a statement, even though it was a P2, he couldn't convert it into a sprint win. Of course, he hasn't had one to this point.

I think it was still an act of these two showing that right now, at least, I think, they are clear of the rest of the field. I'm sure there would be some that would disagree with that notion. You know, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonzo, Charles LeClaire would probably all fancy themselves in a battle against these drivers. But I think when everything goes right, and in Vastappan's case, it almost always does, in Lando Norris's case, maybe not all the time. But when everything goes right for these two drivers, I think pure pace, they do have a slight edge on everyone else. I was curious to see, and I'll get on to Perez in a moment properly, I was curious to see as soon as Perez got past George Russell, whether there was a third driver

that could keep in touch with the top two. And the answer was very definitively no. You have to remember this sprint race, only 24 laps around, I think the second quickest lap time of the year. It's not a very long race. But the gap that these two made up on the rest of the field, was remarkable. I could be wrong on this, but I believe the gap between Perez and Vestappan, as soon as Perez had passed Russell, was about five seconds. That quickly became six, seven, eight. And I think eventually we got up to about, um, it might be about 12, 13 seconds separating Vastappan and Perez at the flag. It was, it was substantial anyway, um, which across that shorter, a shorter race is really impressive. And, I,

I don't want to bash Perez, really, because of the two second drivers, if we're talking about Vastapin and Norris, he did substantially better than Oscar Piastri. But I think Vastapna and Norris here, for me at least, really prove their worth versus everyone else. That leads me quite nicely into Sergio Perez, to be honest, because he did round out the podium in third place. In terms of his qualifying pace, I think Perez will be equal parts encouraged and annoyed about his performance this weekend. Encouraged because I think his qualifying pace, and if we're including Friday in that as well, I think his qualifying pace has been better relative to Vestappen than it has been in a very long time. I know Sergio Perez will start the

race in ninth place, if I remember correctly, tomorrow. But in terms of pure pace, he was on it throughout the first couple of, throughout Q1 and Q2. Similarly, if we go back to earlier today in the Sprint Shoot-At, he showed good pace and he was on those used tyres to end the session and he was still only a tenth or a tenth and a half away from Lando Norris and even closer to Max Verstappen in second place. I think in that respect, he will be encouraged that he got so close to those two drivers. I think he'll be equal parts annoyed because he probably had the opportunity to take a pole position today. If he's on new tires, I think that's, it's an option. We did see some

drivers fare pretty well on the used tires, but give him a fresh set of new tires. Maybe he makes that happen. Of course, the race pace wasn't there compared to his qualifying pace, which I don't know whether that's set up related. Who knows? But Perez certainly, he had to do a bit more work to establish the third place. I think he did a very good job of disposing George Russell as quickly as he did. You could argue that he shouldn't have been overtaken in the first place, and I'll listen to that. But I think the way in which he fought back against George Russell was very good. He had one attempt, which didn't go to plan. I believe then the next lap after that, he was too far away to make an overtake. But then the third time of trying, or the second time of

trying the third lap in the battle, he made it stick. And he made it stick quite comprehensively. and we saw many other battles that didn't want to die. They kept on going lap after lap. With Perez, I think he put George Russell away pretty quickly, so he can be happy with that. By the time he had past George Russell, I don't think it would have mattered even if he did have a slight pace advantage on the two drivers ahead.

I don't think he'd have been able to catch up anyway. But even so, as I mentioned, that gap quickly doubled in about 10, 15,000. laps, which is slightly discouraging for the race tomorrow. I still think Perez has a good chance to make progress throughout the field, and I don't think a podium is off the cards for him, and I think he'll be very happy if he manages to get back to there. But I think he can be fairly content with this third place. And again, I think he'll be annoyed.

He wasn't starting further up the field, and he couldn't hold third position off from George Russell at the start because then he's on a bit more of an even playing field to show what he can do. Maybe it would have been a very similar result, but at least he'd have been able to give it more of a go and give himself a bit less work to do to get back to where he started. I think I just want to talk about the sprint as a whole because I'm not quite sure what the overall reaction is going to be to this sprint, but I think for the most part, it has been, it was an enjoyable one. It was a good session and I think there are a number of reasons why. And without going too negatively on sprints, I don't think it being a sprint race is at the top of that list.

Hey, guess what? Interligos is great. Like, what can I say? Interligos almost always delivers, whether it's a sprint race, whether it's a full race, whether it's a support race. It doesn't really matter. You could stick myself, Harry and Sam, around there in Renault Clios and I'm pretty sure we'd have a good day and people would be entertained. it's just a great track. And my fear, it's not really even really a fear at this point because I've kind of resigned myself to the point where sprints are going to stick around.

But you just know that F1, much like previous years, are going to parade this sprint around as a reason why they are brilliant. And I don't necessarily think sprint races is the reason it's so brilliant. I think quite honestly the reason is interlagos delivers. good racing. Even though we saw nearly every driver on the same compound of tyre, the only exceptions being the two hash drivers and the Williams of Logan Sargent, who all three, I'm sure, are absolutely delighted they made that call. But the other 17 drivers are all on soft tires. And what we got was essentially what sprints are supposed to be, which is flat out racing

and also managing your tyres at the same time. We had a lot of flat-out racing to the point where, come the end of the Grand Prix, even though it was same compound versus same compound, same amount of laps on the tire versus same amount of laps on the tire, some drivers opted for more flat-out approaches early on, some opted for saving the tire for later on. And that actually created something of a strategic battle,

which we don't usually get in these sprints. So I thought it was a very good race. And I do think F1 are going to parade this around as if, well, sprints are great. Look at what happened into Lagos. There's a reason that the Brazilian Grand Prix is the only one that returns every single year as a sprint. We've had so much shake-up in terms of the Grand Prix

that have actually been featured in these sprints, apart from Brazil, because Brazil keeps on delivering, makes you think that it might actually be about the track rather than the format. Of course, as well, I mean, your enjoyment of that Grand Prix is going to be solely dependent, almost, on if you, on how much you value a battle for the lead, because that was settled very quickly. And even after the Russell Perez battles subsided, the top four were very, very set from then on out. So I think your enjoyment of a Grand Prix generally, not just this one. Yeah, it's, it is dependent on how much you want to, a, battle out front. I was very content with seeing great battles further down, but equally, if you need to see a battle for the lead, you probably didn't enjoy that one quite as much. Overall, I think it was, it was a good race. It is a bit of a shame as, and that's not just this spring race, but it is a bit

of a shame that tomorrow is slightly spoiled in that I think we can now look at the front of that field and say, Vestappen versus Lecler, first and second on the grid, I don't think Lecler stands much of a chance. And that might have been the instinct anyway, even if this sprint race didn't happen. But I think this has very much confirmed it. And it's not just Leclair as well. I don't think anyone outside of Lando Norris even has a sniff of a chance to compete with Max Verstappen. And we know that Lando Norris is starting a bit further down the grid than he was today. So kind of makes you think that unless something goes horribly wrong for Max Verstappen, he might well have an easy after of it, which would be an unknown if we didn't have today. So that is the, that is always the

flip side with sprint races. But again, I had a good time watching this one. There is one thing that I think really contributed to how great this race was. And again, it's track specific. And I can't for the life of me work out why this isn't applied at more circuits where it's relevant. Having DRS down the back straight for one, obviously the, the car within one second behind. Works really well. And I think they probably just about got DRS powerfulness right today. I think it was it was probably spot on in that most of the overtakes were into turn one rather than way before that at like the start finish line. But then if you do make the overtake into term one, it reverses itself and the other driver then claims DRS

down the second straight. And we saw it multiple times. We saw Russell get back ahead of Perez. We had this whole thing with signs and Ricardo, and I won't say too much on that now, because I'd like to get into that, probably the other side of the one and only break. But I don't understand why it's not applied at more circuits. The prime example is the one that we've just come from, the Mexican Grand Prix, where it works, where it's just one DRS activation zone. So you claim DRS for the start, finish rate, that very long start, finish straight in Mexico, that automatically means you also get the DRS on the next straight after the chican. Why? It just cements the position because even though the other driver might have claimed your slipstream, now it's the leading driver that has DRS and they can

just use it to full effect and scamper off into the distance. The other one I can think of, off the top of my head, where that's also the case is the Australian Grand Prix. You've got the rundown into term one, got the chican. But if you've got the DRS for the first, for the first straight. You've also got the DRS for the second straight. I think it's just counterintuitive to keep to close battling. We saw it to great effect today. I just can't quite understand why it's not applied elsewhere. There's still some more I want to discuss on the other side. Mercedes, their pace, Ferrari, their pace, the Daniel Ricardo, Carlos signs battling as mentioned before. I'll take a, I'll take a briever. I'll take a sip of water. How on earth do people talk for so long?

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Ready? set Ford. Okay, welcome back. Firstly, good news for anyone who doesn't like listening to me for 30 minutes straight. We'll be as a trio tomorrow. So a full race review with three LB guys, but I will power on on this Saturday evening with Ferrari, because we have seen a concerning trend. I was going to say recently, but it's probably just seasons long now, which is their qualifying pace is pretty good, and then their race pace is less good. Charles LeClaude, we know, is going to start on the front row of the grid tomorrow. The Ferrari duo didn't have such a great starting position today, which made you worry,

because when they start out front, they generally fall back a bit. So if they're not starting out front, how many points are they realistically going to claim? And in all honesty, it's more than I thought it was going to be. It still wasn't great in terms of race pace, but halfway through that Grand Prix, I thought particularly Carlos Sines, was in position to lose a lot more positions than he did. In fact, he held where he was from the early goings in this Grand Prix, when that wasn't always looking like it was going to be the case. Similar to what we saw in Austin, which was, of course, the last spring race that we went to,

it was worrying to see how much they struggled on their tires in that. sprint race, and then roughly speaking, that translated into the Grand Prix. We might well be seeing a very similar thing here in Brazil, in that Charles LeClair could not escape the clutches of Yuki Sonoda. Now, yes, he did finish ahead of him, and he did finish ahead of Lewis Hamilton, and I'll get on to Mercedes in just the moment's time. But still, there was, I don't remember a point in that Grand Prix where Charles LeClair was able to break the DRS of Yuckees Sonoda. Now, no disrespect to Yuki Sinoda and no disrespect to Alfa Tauri because I know in both instances, they've improved quite a lot significantly. But it's still an Alpha Tauri and you're still in a Ferrari.

The fact that those two were so close throughout, kind of shows me that Shao LeClaire is in for a long afternoon tomorrow. I don't know whether, if Lando Norris and Sergio Perez can get through unscathed, I think both of those drivers likely have the pace to get past Shellaclair. I don't know, the Aston Martins, I'll get onto them in a bit. They look pretty good out there. I know they didn't have good starting positions, but race pace, they looked all right. And you look down the field, obviously Alphatari aren't probably going to be in the equation tomorrow based on their double Q1 elimination. But you start to look down the field and you get a little bit worried about all of these cars that might well usurp Charle-Claire when we get into race conditions. It's even more concerning for Carlos Sines because he struggled out there today really from halfway through the race onwards. And he's starting in a very similar position tomorrow that he did today.

So to see him make a lot of progress, it feels unlikely. I don't have too much more to say on Ferrari at this point because it is somewhat just a case of the same story as always when it comes to them. But realistically, they need to sort this out going into next season. They know they've got pretty good one lap pace. It's a reason why they've generally done all right on sprint races throughout the year so far, in that they've got good pace in the one shot, not in the one shot, in the sprint shootout. And then because it's only one third of a Grand Prix,

they survive a sprint race. And then we get to a full race condition and tire wear becomes more of a factor and they can't hold on. They need to solve that. going into next season. What it will produce tomorrow? I don't know. If Charles Leclair can hold on to a podium, I would be surprised at this point.

And I think he'd probably, if he loses one spot and finishes P3, that's probably a good race. Assuming conditions are relatively similar to what we saw today. The other team that it's a bit less common that they are featured in the better qualifying pace then they do have race-paced conversation.

But it was a weirdly disappointing race for Mercedes, particularly for Lewis Hamilton. Now, we know George Russell, at least temporarily, got up into P2 ahead of Lando Norris on that first lap. That did not last long whatsoever, and realistically, neither did him keeping P3. So despite making two pretty good moves, he got a good start and then a good move on Lando Norris on lap one,

despite both of those things, George Russell quickly fell back to where he started. Now, he wasn't really under threat from anyone at that point. Equally, he wasn't really threatening the top three drivers. We heard him over team radio say something along the lines of, damn, these guys quick. That is definitely paraphrasing. But that is essentially what he said. And he was right. They were very, very quick in comparison to Russell. I can't quite remember the gap between Perez and Russell come the end of the Grand Prix, but I believe it was double digits. which given it's only a third of a Grand Prix and Perez did not make that move on lap one, that is, that's a lot per lap around a lap that isn't very long. So we'll see, we'll see how that works. And we know George Russell's not similar to a couple of others. He's not starting in the same position that he was for this sprint race. He started P4 in this one.

I believe he starts P8 tomorrow. So he might well have had the pace to stay ahead of some drivers. like the Ferrari duo and his teammate. But starting P8, now the question really isn't can he hold position? The question from P8 is can he make positions? On today's evidence, I'm inclined to say no. And with Lewis Hamilton,

who has been pretty great when it comes to tire wear throughout his career, he struggled immensely late on and in many respects can be fortunate that this race wasn't five laps longer, because if this race was five laps longer, I don't think he stays ahead of a couple of drivers that are behind him. We saw how close both signs and Daniel Ricardo were come the end of that race. I think another lap or two, and both of those guys would have been passed,

and then you're getting into the conversation of where the likes of Piastri and Alonzo might have got versus Lewis Hamilton. So when you see Lewis Hamilton struggle from tire degradation, something's probably up. But again, he was disappointed. He was confused, I think is another word you would use here, as to why that pace just vanished. You know, we've seen in Mexico where the qualifying pace has been okay but not great. But then you see how the race pace comes together and you start to get a picture of, okay, so they've probably sacrificed something in qualifying to get something out of the race. And we saw that with

Hamilton claiming P2 and the fastest lap in Mexico. Here, that doesn't seem to be the case. They didn't have a great deal of qualifying pace, but they had even less, even less race pace. Maybe they've been spending too much time with Ferrari, because if you paint them in red, I'd have been convinced that that's what they were going out there today. So might be a tricky one. And fair play to Sergio Perez, he got up to P3. He claims six pretty valuable points in that battle against Hamilton for second place in the championship. He took no risks and he got the job done. And even though Perez is starting below Hamilton tomorrow,

I wouldn't be surprised at all if by the end of that Grand Prix, they are the other way around. I'd like to talk about Aston Martin as well. So enough negativity on a Ferrari and Mercedes. not displaying the race pace I would have liked to see from them today. Aston Martin were, we're always going to be hampered based on their starting position. We know, obviously, Fernando Alonzo wasn't able to qualify where he might well have expected to qualify. I don't think Aston Martin quite at the same pace today in qualifying that they did yesterday

in qualifying anyway, but he would have felt that he could have gained a few more positions versus the P15 starting position if he was able to make SQ2. And Landstrol was knocked out in SQ1. So I have to always remember what way the letters go round. So you've got two drivers who, in terms of pure pace and qualifying yesterday, they're going to start third and fourth tomorrow. So they've probably done it the right way round. They're third and fourth for the race,

which delivers a lot more points. It was interesting to see, I always thought it was going to be interesting to see how much progress they could make and what their race pace would be like once they got in any clean air. The reality is, I don't think I either driver really did get in clean air because there was always this DRS train

that they were trying to make their way through. Overall, though, encouraging. You know, Fernando Alonzo made good progress. He would seem to always be on the front foot in that race. I don't think there were many moments where it felt like there was someone quicker behind him making trying to make the attempt. It was always him making an attempt on someone else.

And Lance Stroll as well. He made his way through the field. Now, it wasn't enough for points in both instances, but again, I don't think that's overly important at this point. Really, realistically, Aston Martin are kind of set when it comes to championship position. And at this point, I think it is they are looking towards next year. McLaren, I think it's a done deal.

I think McLaren is a done deal for P4 in the championship, and Aston Martin will therefore finish P5. And we've already discussed on the podcast, whether that's a success, not a success, and it's somewhere in the middle, and we've differing opinions on that. But realistically now, it's about what can we learn going into next year.

And this is, it's encouraging, versus where they were in Mexico. Bear in mind that I genuinely believe that they had the slowest car in Mexico, they definitely don't hear. Even with the poor, even with the less than perfect qualifying positions that they got today, I think third and fourth on the grid tomorrow, they might keep it. And if they don't keep it, I don't think they'll be far off keeping it. Point being, I don't think they're going to drop through the field. I don't think we're going to see a situation where they both fall out of the points. Now, at this point, I should probably

timestamp where I've said this so I can easily hand that over to Kirstie to be able to edit that into a reel when they inevitably both retire tomorrow. But I will say, I don't think it's going to happen. I think they are in a good spot. Now, are they going to challenge Max Verstappen? No. Are they going to be able to stop Lando Norris or Sergio Perez if they come through the field? Yeah, probably not. But can they finish ahead of Shao LeCler? Yeah, I think so. Can they finish ahead of the two Mercedes and Carlos signs? Yeah, I could buy that. In which case, you're suddenly, maybe you're looking at P4, maybe you're looking at P5, but versus the last couple of Grand Prix, I think it's progress. And I think Aston Martin should probably take that.

Alpha Tauri aren't going to be much of a feature tomorrow, just based on their poor qualifying attempts. So I think where Aston Martin and Alphi Tauri have almost completely switched in terms of their performance this weekend, in that Alphi Tauri had a double Q1 elimination on Friday. but look pretty competitive today. Equally, Aston Martin looked very good yesterday in qualifying and weren't able to claim any points today. Aster Martin have got it the right way around, I'm afraid to say Alfa Tauri,

because even though Yuki Sunoda did claim a couple of valuable points today, and he did a very good job out there, it's difficult to see what sort of a race they're going to be able to put together tomorrow. Maybe with a bit more time they can make progress, maybe they can fight in the lower ends of the, points, but they are going to have to make a significant progress in order to do so. I have to say, Yuki Sanoda, I think, did a perfect job out there today.

I think he was, pace-wise, he was great. He was always within touching distance of Shao LaClair. I think his overtake on Lewis Hamilton was, I think he got that right in that he didn't want to risk too much, if you remember. I think he had the opportunity to get past and seeing what happened to him in Mexico, I can understand why he was more cautious here. So I think Yuki-Snow did his job.

Daniel Ricardo, I have to say I was a little bit disappointed, not in his overall pace. I think he had good pace. The problem is how he played it incorrectly, trying to overtake Carlos Sines. I just think he should have learned early on how to how to get the job done. It was becoming quite evident from not just his battle, but other battles that the right play was to get yourself appropriately positioned coming out of the

SnerS and then down the straight to then make your overtake at the next breaking zone. That was the right play. And Daniel Ricardo didn't go that way. He tried ambitious moves around the outside of turn one, which I just felt was the wrong move the first time he tried it. but then there was a second attempt at him doing it and it was exactly the same result. Ultimately, that then cost him the position to Oscar Piastri, which he did eventually get back, but again, that's wasted time because Oscar Piastri could not stay in the DRS of Carlos Sines. And I think Daniel Ricardo wasted too much time in doing that. And I think if he is more authoritative in getting that move done on signs,

I don't know where he finishes up. he might well have the better of Lewis Hamilton as well. He might well be up there alongside his teammate, which I think is probably where he should have been. So I was a little bit disappointed. He couldn't make a bit more progress than what he did. And, you know, he, it's in his nature to try these late breaking overtakes. I don't think into turn one. That was the right place for him to try it. Before I go, one last point, I do have to touch on the Ocon Alonzo incident. As the de facto alpine team principle, it has been a tricky weekend, which is par for the course at this point. But Fernando Alonso, obviously offline, not on a fast lap going through the CENRS, on the right-hand side of the track.

Esteban Ocon is on a flying lap. At that point in time, he is in the drop zone in SQ1, needs to improve or to even stand a chance of making it through to the top 15. He's on the inside of the corner, on the racing line. Suddenly, he's not on the racing line, and he's into the side of Fernando Alonzo. Took a couple of minutes to piece this together because we weren't on board for this incident. And all we saw was Ocon in the Barriers, Alonzo with a puncture, and then it all came together after that. There's been a lot of discussion on this one today as to whose fault it was, whether there should have been action by the stewards in either direction. Ultimately, the steward's decision was nothing.

They didn't feel there was any cause to punish Estabana Ocourt or Fernando Walonzo. And in a weird turn of events, a very weird turn of events, I agree with them. I've seen a lot of people try to apportion blame on this one and I think it's a bit more difficult than that. So from Esteban Ockon's perspective, he's on the inside, he's on the racing line, takes a bit too much curb, loses the car temporarily, and that word's quite important for what I'm about to say in a moment, loses the car, goes into the side of Fernando Alonzo. So of course, Ocon here, Ocon is the one, I don't want to say causing the crash, but it's his mistake that sees him go

into the side of Fernando Alonzo. If he does not make a mistake there, there is no crash. And the question that people are trying to answer is, if Fernando Alonzo, if, he does not make a mistake, wasn't there, would Ocon have, you know, would he have stayed on the track? Would he have not made a mistake at all because he wasn't going to be distracted? And it's very difficult to say. It's all hypothetical. We don't know how that corner would have gone if Alonzo wasn't there. I think ultimately he was, I think if you're anywhere in that corner, even if Alonzo was as far offline as you can possibly be through that corner. And I think he wasn't far off that. You're still going to be a distraction, just the way that that corner works.

And it's a bit of a complex one to know what to do about it because I actually think that Ocon, and I could be wrong with it. I thought Ocon saved it before he went into the side of Alonzo in I don't think Ocon was going to keep going into the barriers, definitely. I don't think he would have gone off track. I think he corrected it just. By that point, it's too late and Alonzo's there. But I think he does correct it. So if Alonzo, if you take him out the equation, I think Ocon gets through the corner. Not very quickly, mind you, but he does get through the corner. What could Fernando Alonzo have feasibly done there? I know there was quite a heavy lock to the left when they were crashing. I think Alonzo did about as well as he could have done

there in leaving space. Again, I don't think it's easy to leave space in that. corner. And what are we supposed to do? Are we supposed to, because we see that all the time. We see that all the time where drivers are overtaking cars on their fast laps. Are we supposed to just completely switch to a one-shot situation so that we can say all drivers on fast laps are now okay to make as many mistakes as they like in a lap because they know there's no one else there to crash into. You could argue that Ocon is within his right, is what is he, is as it sounds, he's within his rights to make a mistake in that corner and to go about his business unpunished. I actually think no action was right here. If Alonzo wasn't there,

I don't think Ocon crashes. If Ocon doesn't make a mistake, there isn't a crash. I think it's unfortunate more than anything. I don't quite agree with Ocon's assessment that he was set to set to gain a lot of lap time there on that lap, given that he was only two corners into it, and it'd messed one of them up. So I don't quite agree with that. But I do agree with what he said, that he hadn't, he said that he hadn't lost the car. I don't quite agree with that phrasing, but I don't believe he'd lost it to the point where it wasn't salvageable. And in fact, I do think he saved it. But by that point, it was too late. But Alonzo can't disappear. I think it was fine. I think it was fine. I wouldn't have done anything. So I agree with the stewards in a weird, weird turn of events.

Well, I think that is everything I've got on today's sessions. As mentioned, I'll be back tomorrow. But fortunately, Sam and Harry will be back as well. And Kirstie will. I'm editing this. So apologies, if anything's horribly wrong. Usually there's, usually something is. And I promise anyone on Patreon, I am going to, I'm definitely going to remember to post this straight away. I might not have done that last time I was editing. But I'll get it right this time. Make sure you subscribe. We are late breaking F1 across all of our social channels.

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