The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2023 Qatar GP Review

Episode Date: October 8, 2023

The LB boys review all the action from the Qatar GP where mandatory 18 lap max stints were brought in amid safety concerns and added drama (and some confusion) to the field. They discuss the intense conditions of the race and Logan's illness struggle, McLaren's double podium, and THAT Mercedes collision. As always, they review their predictions, share their DOTDs and hear your 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

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. Welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Harry Eid, Sam Sage, and me, Ben Hocking, today reviewing the Qatar Grand Prix. Won by Max Verstappen, joined on the podium by both McLaren drivers, Oscar Piastrian 2nd, Lando Norris in 3rd. plenty of pit stops, plenty of penalties, a lot going on.

I've actually just been informed Sam that we are limited to 18 minutes per segment on today's episode, as said by the FIA. Much like Ferrari, I think I should withdraw because we are incapable of understanding how that's going to work. So one of us should be just don't start. Just don't bother. That's why Carlos Sonsing can take part. Of course they have a problem just because they went, that's too many pit stops. Six.

We can't deal with that. We could only do three. But yeah, I mean, that was crazy. I don't know whether driver of the day counts as a used segment or a new segment, so we might be only able to do 14 minutes on that. But I'm trying to keep up. It's great. The joke was really good at the start.

No, no, I like it still. You keep going, Ben. Make more references to it. Do a segment in four minutes like bot asking at the start as well. Yeah, that's good shot. He's efficient, if nothing else. Good. I still am very confused

There's three of us here today though We'll tell if he four I feel like it's not Oh yeah we've actually We've we've built up during the weekend One then two Now three Hello everyone

Three As a family we are together again The band is back together None of us can perform any music Yeah guarantee this won't be three times better Like that's not gonna happen folks Three times worse probably Three times worse

Yeah Yeah Good Highly probable. But what are we talking about today? Moment of the race coming up later on. We're going to be discussing George Russell and Lewis Hamilton's crash on the opening lap. Both McLaren's very close at the end of the Grand Prix, both on the podium. Driver of the day, worst driver of the day. That's all to come. But let's start with the news that came earlier today. It was rumoured yesterday,

but confirmed today that no driver was allowed to do more than 18 laps on a set of tires. This obviously added to the confusion of the day, given there were new and used sets about, but essentially the total number of laps was 18, meaning that everyone was forced into a minimum of three stops, some even taking one or two more than that. We always say that, you know, the variety of strategy is something that we like to see. We like to see more pit stops. We don't like to see a standard one stopper. Sam, what do you make of the decision by the FIA and how it,

played out. I mean, to quote Kevin Maglinson, as we've already done several times this evening, it makes no sense because it was incredibly confusing and hard to follow along with. And we'd said this when we were recording our little bit when we watched the race. We did not know what the actual order of the Grand Prix was, maybe until the last five or six laps once we got past the kind of last pit stop lap that everyone had to make. I absolutely love that it varied differently to a one stop, which is great because now at times we as a group have gone, make it so the tyres have to do three. But it was really confusing the way that the softs, the mediums and the hards all had to only do a maximum of 18 laps, had been like you said in the intro to the topic

that new tyres and old tyres were also involved in that, but there was no real discernible difference on track as to if you had to coming earlier or not to understand if that rule was broken or not. It was Pirelli finding an issue and they very, very good. quickly going, uh, we think this is a solution, but we're not actually certain with how that works. So we'll run with that. Um, it was a bit all over the place. It made for some very interesting racing. We saw the drivers absolutely exhausted, overheated, um, pedestrian commenting in the post-race review that it was basically 57 qualifying laps over and over and over again because the tires were always fresh. So you always had to push. Um, and some of the poor drivers are absolutely

exhausted. George Russell was trying to do no hands, driving. down the start, finger straight, just to call himself off. His little gloves that were one of those wavy car things. You know,

when you're like, my new car now. So it was very confusing. It was a lot to take on, a bit overwhelming, but it's made for an interesting race weekend. What were your thoughts on it, Harry? As I said to you, Ben,

before we started, this was like F1, 2012, but from Wish. Right, yeah, okay. Like, we, as you've mentioned, we all want more pit stops and strategy variation. We definitely

got more pit stops. We did. But not for the right reasons. Three times as many pit stops. Yeah, exactly. Some, if, you know, four times. McClaren broke a record. This is true.

There's too many. There's too many. So, yeah, it was interesting. But what I don't want this, I don't want people to, by people, I mean the FIA or F1 to think this was better because I don't necessarily think it was. Because it wasn't due to like,

tire management that they were having to make the stops, they just had to make the stop. So some probably could have gone longer on those tires. Yeah, the tires weren't completely dying off. No, so a bit of me likes it. Bit of me doesn't want that to be a thing. Make the ties wear out rather than make them do the stops because it doesn't make any difference.

The bit about doing 57 quality laps quite like that because I think a lot of the time in F1 now, during the races at least, they are operating at. 70% for most of the race. And I like the idea that actually they've got to push 100% for most of it. That's, I like that idea. So maybe do something about that.

But for the most part, I don't want this to continue. Shout out, and this is a, to end this with a bit of a compliment, to F1 and the FIA to be in a position that wasn't 2005 Indianapolis again, because could you imagine? And he spoke, Teg was there. And he spoke about that a lot. He did, yeah.

And my point is, I mean, that's a lot of a while ago now, but at least we, they acted on it. There was an issue. They acted on it and were like, no, we're going to have to do these stops,

but to make the Grand Prix still go ahead. Now, correct me if I'm wrong. This was, it happened due to the potential tearing of the tyrewall, right, because of the curbing. Today?

Yes. Yes. Yes. And what's talking about 105. Obviously, that's why we had to the safety reason. So I get all the compounds regardless of how enduring they are.

of the media more hard, was suffering the same lateral ripping rather than the overall wearing of the tyre. I guess what we want, rather than having to force mandatory three stops, is a soft tire that in theory can go three or four seconds a lap faster, but wears out three times faster

and a hard tire that's five seconds a lap slower, but could go on until infinity. And we kind of almost had it, but we didn't necessarily get to see. We only sort of really in the sprint yesterday because the soft tire was quick, quicker to get you off the line, but it wouldn't last the length of the sprint.

Yeah, William Beg spoke about exactly that, about the crossover between the two. But no, please weigh in. But it was almost like the ideal crossover. The safety car actually prolonged it a little bit longer than we thought we'd get to see. And we thought the soft runners would fall out of the points. But that is the crossover I want. You know, I want a soft tire that can only go eight laps, but you are the fastest thing in the world. Or the hard tire that could do 57 laps, but you literally are the snail from Montcazinck's Inc.

University. Also, just to say, for people who think the refueling would be better, this is what it would be like. It's not. It's not better. It's just really confusing. until the end of the race. Also, especially if you involve qualifying loads. Yeah. Just imagine all of those overtakes,

but they happen in the pits instead. That's refueling. You don't know if someone needs to be in there for 45 seconds or 6 seconds because you've got no idea how many kilograms of fuel they have. It's an awful world to living. Avoid it. This will probably surprise no one at all. Good.

This was a farce. Like, come on. Regardless of the, whether it made it more entertaining or less entertaining, The whole fact that it even needed to exist in the first place for safety reasons is a farce. We should never have got to this point. We had no Qatar Grand Prix in 2022 because of the World Cup. We raced here two years ago. The whole track has been redone since that point.

We really should not be in a position where the decision on maximum tire life or tire stints needs to be made on the day of the Grand Prix. This is, I mean, this is Formula One shooting itself in the foot, really. The whole case behind it was, well, we don't really know how long these tires are going to last because we haven't had any representative times on them. Well, yeah, if you don't have practice or you have one session of practice, that's going to happen. And I'm not even saying, like, I want less practice. But if you've got a questionable track and you don't know how it's going to play out, and suddenly you're massively reducing the amount of tire,

the amount of running you can do in practice, and because of that, you need to implement this, that's just not acceptable. And you're right, Sam, in that regardless of what compound this was, a lot of people are saying they could have brought harder compounds and they were already at the harder end of the set anyway, it wouldn't have made any difference. And the issue wasn't affecting one tire more than others.

It was affecting all of them because of the curbing. Well, in that case, you can't really land this at the feet of Pirelli and say, well, they should have done something different ahead of this weekend. They have, and we have criticized Pirelli about the tires quite a bit in the past. They have brought tyres to Grand Prix that work, regardless of whether they don't wear fast enough or, you know, there's too much graining issues. Put that to one side. The tires work at every single Grand Prix that we've had. So if there are issues very specifically at the Qatar Grand Prix that haven't rid their head in any other race this season,

that's probably not an issue with Pirelli and not an issue with the tyres. It's an issue with the track. And again, we shouldn't be having to make the decisions on the day. And the fact that the limit was set at 18 laps, I mean, let's just put to one side for the moment that they did 19 laps yesterday. And if it was that much of a safety risk,

surely that should have been cancelled. If they were really unsure about these tyres going back, beyond 18 laps? Why on earth did they let them do that? Literally that yesterday. I thought this was, I thought this was a bit of a joke. The actual result of having more pit stops and having, I don't like it being mandated in any way, but certainly having more pit stops in a race, I think is good, fundamentally a good thing. But the way in which they've had to mandate it for safety reasons, I think they got lucky. Nothing happened out there to. today could have gone a lot worse,

could have been a lot more, it was already a bit confusing, could have been a lot more confusing if we had late safety cars and the like. I think they somewhat got away with it. They made up a rule on the fly. Very easily could have hit a situation where, I don't know,

what happens if the pit lane is closed? This is starting to get to the old, again, refueling days. What happens if the pit lane is closed because of an incident and you need to make, make that stop on 18 laps. Did they think of that? Again, I think they were lucky that they didn't reach that sort of situation out there.

You think we're talking about the safety element of the tyres here. But because of a result of this new rule set that they brought in, as we mentioned in the intro point of this, the drivers were essentially having to do 57 qualifying laps. We saw Alonso talking about how overwhelmed he was, Piastri was struggling, you know, they were sat down for the Stapham. Alon's bottom. Long as his bottom was on fire. Now, Logan's sergeant became unwell throughout the Grand Prix.

A long of George Russell was trying to cool himself down through every corner. You know, he's lifting his hands out the cockpit. He was driving his hands off the wheel with his visor open. That was a bad change of word timing. My point here is they're having to drive 57 qualifying laps flat out to make sure they maximising the tire life they do have. Are they at risk of fainting, collapsing, overheating, you know, where they can't keep the car on the tracking and staying in condition because they are being demanding 100% of their time

and effort for 57 laps to make the most out of the Grand Prix at 40 degree temperatures. That is something they haven't trained for. They have at no point gone. Unlike Singapore, which they do train for, you know, understand what the risk and, you know, preparation needs to be. This is a whole challenge that not a single driver was prepared for. And it, in theory, would take Logan Sargent halfway around that lap where he said, I feel unwell, I need to, I need to come in.

What if something happening his helmet at that point? What if he was sick or he passed out and he careers straight into the side of another car? You know, is it another safety risk that actually has come up through result of them coming out with this new rule that they probably haven't thought of the long-term repercussions of? Yeah, and it's one of those where the majority of European races and the majority of nearly every other race, it probably wouldn't have been as much of an issue. But certainly, even beside the mandated pit stop, and the like.

Driving in those conditions in Qatar, I don't even know if that should really be happening at that temperature. Because even if, like you say, they might have been going at 70% and managing more if they didn't have to do three, three pit stops, I still think there should be some questions about,

is this right? Yeah, we all saw what they looked like afterwards. It was, we don't want this to be, we don't want this to be easy for the drivers. don't get me wrong, but we also don't want anything risky going the other way either. So, yeah, it's an interesting point, you raise. Any thoughts, sorry, on what Sam just said? No.

That's great, mate. It's good to have you back. God, nothing. You bragged a lot on Wednesday about how you know, or you're smashing it in October. Probably missed the sprint review and the qualifying, but you can't even make a point now. The sprint review on Friday, that's not even a thing. The qualifying review was. But you just made it up.

I didn't make it up. We do a qualifier review every single way. No, but Friday. Yep. Qualifying. Making up podcasts. I am. No,

it's a, it's a very valid point. And I was surprised how difficult they were funny. Are there? And yes, I know they, they haven't necessarily trained to be fat out.

But it's, they're very, very fit, these drivers. Yeah, but it's 42. No, no. I'm not, I'm not criticizing them.

I'm just saying it's quite surprising because Singapore is as hot and as humid. And, you know, maybe a tougher circuit to drive. I know when they first went to Singapore, they struggled, but now you don't really see it so much. But I was surprised today how much they were.

But I guess maybe that does come down to the fact they were having to do basically call elapse. I think Singapore is a very more technical circuit, but I think Qatar is a far more intense physical circuit on the Gs and the speed they're going through every quarter. They drop below fourth gear once for the entire lap. It's a high intensity circuit. You get one break on the guitar lap,

which is the start-finish straight. If you think about Singapore, I appreciate it's not a straight-heavy circuit, but you do have the start-finished straight for a little bit, and then you do have two nearsh straights that happen on the lap, at least this year after the track was reconfigured. But yeah, Qatar, you are pretty much at 100% brain capacity

from turn one through to the last corner, aren't you? There's just not much in the way of let up at all. It's a fair point, but it was just a surprise, I think, just given the standard of fitness of their phone drivers these days, but I guess not like criticism of them. And it needs to be noted that maybe we can't have these flat-out races because the physical, physicality of it is too much for the human body to cope with. Make them fit ice packs into the cars mandatory next year.

Just chuck water at them. Every time they go past the start, finish, great, just have a bucket ready to throw over them. 100%. Fair. I do also think as well, the safety car at the start of this Grand Prix, it helped the race in one respect and didn't help it in another. I would have actually been really interested to see the McLaren and the

Mercedes due and how close they could have got to Vostappen if we had a clean start. So that was the negative part of the safety car. But I think the positive part of it was that we did have a few go into the pits after lap three, which I don't think anyone is doing in green flag conditions. and a lot of the action did come about from those drivers essentially being overtaken and then undercutting by a number of laps. So without that, would it have been, would we have had that much action?

I don't know. Probably not as much. Can't comment because we didn't really see it. Exactly, mate. We had some Wi-Fi issues at the start of folks. Sorry. Didn't really see much. How much turn laps?

The race actually started on lap. 12. Yeah, yeah. It was only, it was only a 35-lac race. I've got, because obviously, Hamilton was walking across the track, like a lonely man after his interesting. I have a photo, Ben, of the quality. I'm going to send you it now. I'm going to show you just how clear the camera quality was that we were watching it on. There you go. You should, you should have it. You should just be coming through for you. It's just a ghostly figure. It's so bad. How do you know that's Hamilton?

I can go over watching the BBC. That could be a new story. I don't know. You know, it is... That could have been a race steward. Literally. That could be a leopard. That could be anything. It could be quite literally. It's almost like, I'm seeing an alien.

It's the shakiest camera in the world. It was a struggle. It was tough. We're going to take our first break. We'll let Sam and Harry catch up from 1962, which they're currently in. And we'll be discussing McLaren on the other side. 18 minutes, mate.

Hang on. BFIA loves us. It was another good day for McLaren in their pursuit of Aston Martin in the Constructed 's Championship with another double podium. It was this time Oscar Piastri finishing second, Lando Norris finishing third. Lando Norris starting the race a bit further back from Oscar Piastri, ultimately catching up to him and they were separated by about a second or so at the flag. And there was an ongoing discussion with a few lapses.

to go about whether Lando Norris could attack Oscar Piastri or not. McLaren very early on saying, hold position, let's take the points. Lando Norris, at least questioning the decision, but not outright attacking Piastri for that second place. What did you make some of that call from McLaren? Do you think Lando Norris had the pace to catch Piastri? I mean, it's a rather sarky response from Lando Norris, was like it? What are we doing that for then?

Why? I'm definitely faster. You're being a bit cheeky here, you know, I can do it. I'm a little bit quicker. I quite enjoyed that. It was a bit sarcastic. What will I make of the call? I think from a team point of view, from a points point of view,

from a constructor's championship point of view, it makes total sense that you hold the line and you go, was it 33? The staff I got the fastest slap in the end? Yeah, it was 33 in the end. At the time of the message, I think, they were on track for 34 because I think maybe Landon Norris had the fastest lap but yes

ended up with 33 yeah which is a huge points gain over Aston Martin who's obviously the team that they're in direct competition with at the moment I think well alongside picks up eight points and that is it so they haven't maybe yeah if who knows with this penalty system we'll have to see but that's a 25 point swing and the gap

is massively reducing every single Grand Prix we go to so in terms of that prize money the standings this is a no-brainer makes total sense don't risk battling don't risk taking each other. We've already seen what teammates can do to each other on the first corner of the Grand Prix. And funny enough, their result can have a massive thanks to Mercedes for absolutely mucking that one up on turn one as well. Piazegro even said it in his speech afterwards.

He said, thanks for everyone bowling wide on turn one and letting me through, because I do think it would have been a very different day from McLaren. I think they had the pace definitely to get back up to two and three, but whether it actually happened with the battling and getting through and if both Mercedes were in the race, there's a lot of other hypothetical options that get thrown their way that they have had to have come up against. So the call to me made total, total sense. As a spectator, I would have loved to have watched it. And I do think that Piazcri chilled out. I think he kind of had a little internal battle with himself of, shall I ignore the team? I could do this anyway. Shall I just give it a go? And I think he got to about 1.4, 1.5 behind

and went, no, okay, I realize this really isn't the end all, you know, I'm far ahead of Piascar and the points tally overall anyway. The chance to me winning the race, aren't huge, although I do think that Norris can make a bigger dent into Vastappen's Lee than Piazcri was doing. Ben, as we said in the spring review yesterday, Norris has been the faster of the two drivers for the whole weekend. He's just mucked it up for himself in the final moments multiple times where he hasn't been able to deliver.

But I do think he could court Piasri. I do think he can go finish second place. But overall, I think it's a very logical call here from a Clarenty. You can settle it all early, not wait to the last three or four laps where they might be wheel to wheel and just go, we're putting it. to beg now. Early night for you, McLaren, tuck yourself in and we'll see you in the next race weekend. Alpin.

Alpin got a lot of, yeah, Gassi gets an old track limit, sir. Doesn't know what the track is. Overtakes people only off the track. Give it a go on the track, mate. See how that works. I like it. Just to clarify on the Astor Martin McLaren competition, if the results stand as they are right now, 11 points, McLaren will be behind Astoran. so they are knocking on the door.

And actually, McLaren to Ferrari and third, 79 points, which maybe just take a peek over your shoulder, Ferrari. For clarity as well, Alpine are then a further 129 points back. So it's all in hand. You're hot on their hills, Ben. It could swing either way. You could burn your baguette in that time. Burn a few baguettes in that time, mate.

to where's going. I don't know. Bought your foot, sorry, do you think that they played it right? McLaren. Yeah, I think they do.

And I, from a spectator point of view, I'd love to see those two go properly wheel to will, but given where McLaren were at the start of the year,

I think you tweet, Sam, you tweeted something about where they were. 17th for DNF and Barrein. And to where they are now,

like, there's no point to risk this. Because as you're saying, they're now only 11 points behind Aston Martin. and they picked up a chunk of points this weekend. A big old chunk.

Yeah. It was a five pack of chunky cookies from Tesco. Kit Kat Chunky. Oh, I love a Kit Kat Chunky. So, yeah, if they jeopardise this or risked it in any way, we'd have been screaming at them for being absolute morons. Screamed up the Saga for being morons. Well, Lewis Hamilton.

One of them. So this is, this is, this is, entirely the right cool. I think, yes, Lando probably had the pace over Pistri all weekend, but the only reason Lando was behind Piaastry all weekend was because he kept mucking up. So I feel like this isn't even, Lando can't have many gripes with not being allowed to battle here because, yeah, he should have been in front anyway. And he hasn't been in either races this weekend. So it was his own downfall, wasn't it? All starting in the qualifying sessions of both, um, both races we've had this week.

I do wonder where, I know they finished second or third, but how far they could have pushed for Stappen today if they'd started where they qualified in qualifying on Friday? Because given they started sixth and tenth. So many sessions. And they were only what, four or five seconds off for Stapin at the end. Where could they have been if they were, you know, started second and third? So anyway, besides the point, I still think this is 100% the right call for Macca.

Yeah, I guess with the, to add to your point on the four, five seconds difference between Vastappen and the McLarence at the flag, a lot of five second penalties about as well. And they were, I know Vestappen wasn't one of the ones who was really in danger of guessing it. But yeah, that's with the amount of track limit penalties at this circuit, that's not a comfortable margin. Now, I do think that Vestappen, because of the way the start panned out, was on a sub, almost an intentionally suboptimal strategy. in that Vestappen, as far as I'm aware, did 17 laps on the first stint, 17 on the second stint, 17 or 18 on the third stint, and then did like five laps right at the end, which is you could probably work out, that's not optimal. He didn't get the most out of that last stint. But the reason he went ahead with that was to, because he could. It didn't matter. He could just stay out as long as he possibly wanted to, stay out of any traffic. And ultimately, know that even though the undercut was quite powerful, it wasn't going to happen because he had that gap. So I think he was on a, it had been interesting to see Vastappen-Art like pushed enough

to go on to a different strategy. I still think he would have won, but like you say, it would have been fascinating to see. From a McLaren perspective, yeah, this was obviously the right call. Like, what on earth would they have had to risk here? That's 33 points is a lot of points when you're chasing down. It is, you could say, a big chunk. If you put enough of those chunks together, you can call it a cookie, put five of them together, sell it at Tesco. One pound, cup cup cup. Good.

Good content. I love a food analogy. Obviously, this was the right call. Was Lando Norris faster? Yes. But as McLaren told him, it doesn't matter. They knew that he was faster. lost the point.

Yeah, Lando Norris is going to pick up three more points. Piastri is going to lose three. For the sake of McLaren, they don't care what order they finish in. Lando Norris is clear of Piastri in the championship by about 50 points or so. Piastri is not going to beat him this year. Although maybe I shouldn't make predictions about Piastri because they don't go particularly well. Reviewing bold predictions very shortly.

But, yeah, this was obviously the right call. So there's not too much to say. It would have been interesting. I would have loved to see. Lando Norris right at the front from the start to see if he could have challenged for this happen but as you rightly say Harry it was on him that he wasn't there to begin with

so right cool bit of an easy one Oh review poll predictions God this is painful I'm really enjoying this because I was wrong but it doesn't matter because he was so badly wrong but it makes it so much better for me let's get Sam's out of the way of very quick

Please Sam essentially predicted utter dominance for Vastappan, and this, apart from Singapore, might have been the closest weekend that Vostappen's had so far. I think I've learned that I am cursed on my prediction. Can I say after Friday afternoon or Friday evening, so qualifying, I was thinking, oh no, no. I'd dusted my hands of it.

Oh, no, no, no, I've got this one wrapped up, I'll see on Monday. Out-qualified everyone by, or was it half a second? Sixthence. But didn't even do his second lap? Could he be bothered? I was like, oh, no. He had the cool down towel on while everyone else is still going around. That's very Sebastian Vettel vibe that.

And there's me thinking, I know, I might get, and I woke up on Saturday to heartbreak. Heartbreak Hotel. That's me. Me and Lance Strroller in the embarrassment lane. We are depressed.

Good. Someone who isn't depressed, though, is Mr. Harry Yead. I can't believe you've done this. I can't believe you've done this. I can't believe you've done this to me. Harry Ead predicted that either the sprint race or the main race would be won by A. McLaren and if my eyes did not deceit,

me, Oscar Piestri won the race on Saturday. Absolute scenes. I just can't believe it. What a run. What a run. Internally, I'm so angry. Has four correct bold predictions this year. That's more than I've had in my life.

Four. I've had one. I got it out the first race weekend. I've like a single one for 15 Grombride. Fifteen. Fifteen. That's insane, Jeremy. I...

Yes, I was pretty shook. And to be honest, even after call off, sorry, sprint, shoot it. It's a shoot it. I wasn't, well, I guess it didn't matter because both were on the front row, but I wasn't that confident that. When Russell got in front of him, a little bit of me celebrated. Yeah, I was like, oh no. I thought, Oscar made.

And a little bit of you died. And then he got that pass. I went, put the arms back down, Sam. Save it for another day. Good move by George, by the way, as he said to himself. He loved it. He loved it. Ben, sorry, we've just gone through R2.

What was yours, Ben? I don't remember. I think social media remembers. The clips out there have you, of you, explicitly explicitly saying it will be Piastri now. I've said that. Yeah. I don't know us, mate.

Yeah, down there. This is, I can't complain about this at all, because if you remember the Dutch Grand Prix and my bold prediction from there, I said that Esteban Ockon was going to be the top four, which was a pretty bold prediction. And I could have just said an Alpine. And of course, Pierre Gasley then got a top four finish.

And I said at that point, right, from now on, I'm going to stop myself going too bold. And I'm just going to limit it to a team. So of course, I went and said that Lando Norris specifically would get a race win. And then his teammate did. I deserve everything that I'm getting here, which is a non-movement on the abacus. Do you ever look at other things that happen in the race and think that would have been a great bold prediction because, you know, a double point score

for Alfa Romeo. Yeah, fair. I looked, I watched that happen. I went, I could have said that and it would be brilliant. They've not looked like they could have scored double points all year if you smacked them with it. Yeah, they've actually bush, tell that, Sam, you moron. You'll never get anything right. Oh, dear. So if my abacus is correct, Sam's got a bit of word to do. I have myself and Harry are now tied on four.

might just pass over the password at this point. It's still technically doable, but it's going to, it would be a historic Michael Jordan-esque, right? I feel like it will happen. I feel like I've understood how Sergio Perez feels when they were talking about him having to score points against Vastappen to stay in the title fight. Stop going off track, Sam. Five second penalty for Sam.

Another one. It's really hurting us, Sam. Really hurting our race, Sam. Another one. All right, I'll do again. Sadistic at this point. Oh, gosh. Driver of the day.

Should we do that? Yeah. The verdict is in. You're the driver of the days. Oh, you're the driver of the days. Mom, Mom. You're good at driving.

Have you got, Sam? I can't believe I'm saying this. It's no hands George Ross. Woo. Does mom. It looked like, yeah, no hands in those gloves. They look so flimbing.

Are you going out of that straight? Just driving with his wrist. I do that down the motorway. Put shriked up, Boris. It's more fun, you know. He was not a fault for the Hamilton crash. He was last. He had damage to his car.

And he still was fighting for a podium. After all that chaos, he still brought it back for a brilliant result. So, Tcha Russ, the burglar, is my cry for the day. A burglar. Apart from he got burgled this time. Well, he didn't get burglary.

We got fully assaulted. KBH, mate. Grievous, boggling Hamilton coming in there. I think of him at ASBO. Stay away from George Russell at turn one. That's lead topic for Wednesday, sorted. Lewis Hamilton and court. Harry, who did you have driver of the day?

Oh, I don't tend to like doing this, but I'll go with the popular vote and go for Oscar Piastri. He was rapidly becoming a favourite of mine. He is my favourite person on the track. Man's so calm. So sassy about the FIA and giving him five second penalties. I love that. I thought you were going to say I've got another penalty.

Yeah, I think Piastri this week, obviously this weekend, but again today, just, just excellent. And so key, and very good, and this is a great sign for him, very good at soaking up pressure from, I know yesterday was Vestapp and today's Norris, which, you know, a bit different. But, but still, that's still quite a bit of pressure. And man didn't crack. THS. THS. The human sponge. Soaks it up.

Ben was yours. Both McLaren drivers were great. I mean, Vastappen won the race, so I guess he deserves a shout-out as well, even though it wasn't by the same margin. I do need to give a shout-out to a certain Valtry Bottas. Oh, what a point.

Finally! He's woken up. Great run. He's the boat. Hey, I mean, he wasn't the only driver to stop at the end of lap three. Liam Lawson did. Kevin Magnuson did.

And Landstrol did. but he's the only one who made it work of those four. So I think he deserves a shout-out. But I am going to agree with Mr. Sage, George Russell. He, I mean, when they said P-4 was on the cards, I was like, all right, maybe P-5, and then Fernando Alonzo decided he doesn't like the track anymore. So P-4 did become an option. Yeah, he was great.

And he recovered as well as someone should have done in that position. I was fair. Sorry, Sergio. I'm afraid more's coming. Is that a subliminal hit on Sergio? Oh, no. Worst driver of the day, Sam. Going to get a reputation, Nick.

Ah, people, I'm so, on Friday, I did, I did the quality review, which does exist on my own. And I said that Botas is fantastic at low-grip circuits. And I went into previous results that you went to.

I was so, I was so clinical with my information. Should have made that a bold prediction, mate. I know, and I'm a fool. I'm a fool. Anyway, Sergio Perez, on the other hand, yeah, I also apologise to his fans

because we have been harsh on him, but he's not exactly making it easy to be kind at the moment, is he? Stay on the track. Do you want to play the jingle? You got bothered? Oh, we didn't. You looks like you were king for a jingle.

The bin, bin, bin, bin, been, worst driver of the day. Best driver of the day. You suck at driving. Thank you, Liv Laf Latifie, as always. The Triple L. I am going to go Lewis Hamilton, though, because you go just career into the sign of your teammate and then go, I've got to take off my teammate, man.

I mean, don't get me wrong. In the interviews afterwards, he did say, I've watched all the footage back. I'm entirely at fault and I respect that. But, you know, lap one, man, you're a seven-time, 104 race winner here. You know that races are not won on corner one of a race, and you can take your time and get the job done. And he was slower than Russell in every single session. in this race weekend, including, clearly, going down to turn won't.

We're excitedly... I arguably wasn't slower on that way. Too quick. Hamilton was too quick. If anything, that's the one time we deployed too much speed. So, yeah, this was just bad. This was a real uncharacteristic error from Hamilton. And, you know, I don't know what really got into him, but it was, it was bad.

There are some big candy that's for the worst driver of the day. And I'm sure the boys would go into and so I won't see any names just yet. But we've got some names to talk about, that's for sure. What dear? Yeah, this is a, you're right, Sam. This is a bit of a weird one in that I think Pierre Gasly might have had the worst, third worst driver of the day performance in F1 history. The fact that he's not in the top two tells you everything you need to know.

I think it's Hamilton or Perez, one or the other. I'm going to side with you, Sam, and say it was Hamilton because Perez did lap one and some other laps after that as well. Not all of them. He spends a lot of the time off the track. but he made it past turn one, which Lewis Hamilton didn't. And it was his own doing.

We'll discuss that a little bit more after the next break. But I'll go for Lewis Hamilton, but equally, Sergio Perez might have had one of the worst, second worst driver than they performances of all time. Oh, no.

Sorry, bad. Yeah, I've shout out as well to Nico Holkenberg. That's not, you can't part of that, mate. Hey, you know, it's difficult. Yeah. Yeah, I, sorry, I do need to say something on this. If signs had been out on this formation lap or just before the start, I would have sympathy.

But not that. They knew hours that he was not going to be there. His car wasn't even in the warm-up on the track bit. You drill back into him. Yeah. It was actually that the Ferrari wasn't on the grid when they were setting the cars on. They also have like on the side of the pit,

well, they put little numbers out. Yeah. That you line up with your number. Like, come on. You've been around a long enough for me. He was texting. He was like, oh, Because you can't see his helmet, he realised, damn, can I reverse?

Can I reverse back? No. So shout out to him. Gassley also, stay on the track, mate. Perez wasn't great, but sorry, Lewis, mate. It's a triple. Oh, baby, there's free! I just, like you say, he's a seven-time world champion.

And Mercedes, I think, today could have been right in there with McLaren, given the pace they had in the sprint. Hamilton especially, because he was pretty rapid towards the end. What are you trying to win it on that term one for, son? Just why? I don't know, just a bit of a... Very rookie. Yeah, I wouldn't say it was reckless, and I guess, you know, he saw an opportunity, but...

But yeah, anyway, so sorry, Lewis. That was not great from you today, but also quite a few bad ones out there. I did get another F-1 drivers walking in weird places photo, though, so I'm really happy with I'm barely. I've got like, well, arguable. There's three pixels on the screen.

Someone's walking. But you might have been at home. It's even edge. I'm going to be on a new Netflix documentary of, you know, UFOs. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Big brain strat.

Uh, Bob, we're going to meet you to box for wets. What? Jenny was a friend of mine vibes every time. Thank you, Brandon Flowers. Oh, I can't wait to see them live in two weeks time. Oh, dear.

Who have you got, Sam? Or what have you got? It was really hard to follow. I'm not going to lie. Any of them. Literally didn't know what was going on for most of it. I think I'm going to go with Pierre Gazley, actually, if he was trying to make all of his overtakes

off the track and believing that that is a legitimate strategy that will work. And then not giving them back when he's quite clearly been off the track every time he went past. So Pete Gazell, I think he was that bad. I have to give him something that's a bit embarrassing. You know, I need to give him a put down. So, yeah, Gasly, for big brain.

strategy. Yeah, that's fair. The BBS. I also went with Gazley. I went for the specific moment of you need to let Lansstrol back through and then waiting until also getting overtaken by Perez to do it. That's not optimal, mate. You don't want to do that. And he tried to do it earlier on in the previous lap as well. And did you notice, it was kind of a bit of a somewhat slowing down. Do you want to go past? and Lance was kind of like, no. And then, Lance is like, hey, I can over take it?

I'm going to make a move. Maybe. I was really annoyed at him because obviously, teammate wars is coming up and currently he's in front, but that gap's got a lot smaller. Oh, a bit of points for Ocon.

Kicky bite of the old point cake for O'Con there. Oh, 46, 44 in the favour of Gassley. Come on, Pete Gazzle, don't let me down your saucing kit. That's a kid. Good.

And there's the title of this episode. Harry, what was your big brain? I will go for, and by the way, shout out to, we've already mentioned with Botass's strategy. It worked out very well. That's a serious one. It's a serious actual one. But I'm going to go for a GP,

come on the radio to Max for Staffen. We didn't see much of Max, but come on the radio saying, can you, was it, increase your pace in a manageable way? and I said to Sam, it's like work office speak. And Max's reaction was why I'm giving this, because he just went, what, what is that? What is that?

What does that mean? You'll be able to go quicker or not? Basically, a GP had to come back. Yeah, just go quicker. Bit faster. A bit faster, please. So I'll go for that. Just a little bit.

The married couple, GP, and Max Verstappen continues. I love them. They're just amazing together. Love that. Can't wait for us to get a post-Fourn one, kind of Kardashian-type documentary of them, the Lambiasis. Yeah.

I think that would be fantastic. The Lambiasis. At home with a Lambiasis. At home with a Lambiasis. Just Max and G.P. just shouting at each other of radios. They're not again in practice as well on Friday.

Yeah. Yeah. Long stop bickering. Yeah. It's not qualified Max. Yeah. It's good, isn't it? My apologies, FIA.

We have not stuck to the 18-minute limit on this segment, but we will go to our next break. We'll be discussing Mercedes on the other side. I'd like to request a familiarised. session so I can understand the rules better. Sure. That's good, sick.

I knew you'd get into the joke in the wall. I'm part of it now. It's a old thigh slap of that was. Oh, we. God, the banter is so bad. Okay, we're set to be a good day for Mercedes, starting second and third on the grid. I mean, if they stuck to that, that's 33 points.

That's not too bad at all. Instead, it was McLaren who claimed 30. 33 points. George Russell was fourth and Lewis Hamilton did not make it past the first corner. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton having contact into turn one. George Russell started in front of Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton got the better at the start. Three into one didn't go into the first corner. No points for Hamilton. What did you make of it, Sam? Did you see it as a Hamilton era because we know now that he has owned up to it on social media? Yeah, I mean, again, I'm not going to keep barking up the same trade, but it was very different.

for me and Harry to fully understand what was going on live. Because again, as maybe what we'll post on social media, the view that me and Harry had of pixels to screen ratio was not good, one to one, one pixel on the screen. It was really hard to go. I don't know who's hit who. There's just a cut, there's a square going off the track. Did you know it was a Mercedes?

No, not really, I guess, because of where they started. Yeah, we heard it was, we heard the audio. It was confusing, to say the least. And we still haven't taken out, Must happen. Could it actually be a big, what? It could be a big. It could be a bird.

It could have flown to the side of a car. I don't know. But I haven't seen it from George Russell's point of view. But Russell comes on, bless him. And he is, this is classic Russell immediately over the radio of, oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't look behind me. I've murdered my hero's race. I've looked up to forever.

It's going to be angry at me. You know, it's almost like when you do something to your dad's coming home later. You're going to be told off because dad's coming home and Lewis is walking down the track like a sad, lonely man. Just you went into your old man. Just you wait until your father here. Just you wait until dad gets home. You walk up the stairs with your bum against the wall

because you don't want to smack bottom. No, no, that's very specifically you. Sorry, Dad. I know you're listening. Yeah, guy, this is 100% on Lewis. We've already spoken about it anyway. He had so much time. He had so much ability in the car.

The car was clearly fast in race pace. It wasn't the best in qualifying despite them being second and third. But along of that, again, due to laps being deleted that they found themselves on that second to the third position in the front row. It just felt really, really amiciere from Lewis Hamilton. It was arguably his worst moment of the whole season so far this was. The race weekend is his worst race weekend of the season, I think. And this incident really, you know, put a full stop to the end of it because it was genuinely bad, really, really rookie mistake.

It's the kind of thing I would expect someone like Larkstrol to do or, or, or, a Tee fee to do, you know, just to drive straight to the side of their teammate and go, whoopsie? Oh no. I crashed again. Ah, mamma me. I crashed again. I'm not sure who that's meant to me.

You just gave two Canadians. Oh, no. That's not. I'm fucking Italian. Big shout out to Lewis Hamilton, by the way, for moaning about his tires on the formation lap. I hate his ties, man. I hate them already.

He knew he wasn't going to get much chance in the actual race. so we had to get it in. He went there coming off corner one. I am so, the tire rolling away from him. Get off my car. Tire's dead bono. Next time, Bogo,

just put me on some bricks on the start, finish line, please. That makes me happy, yeah. Yeah, he was a bit of a Muppet. This is a really poor move. You clearly didn't learn either from the Ocon incident during the spring, which is three into one corner

really don't go round here. Just bides your time a little bit, man. Like, we know Vastape's got the pacing. I know you think, oh, I'm on the softs. I better jump everyone else as soon as I can. But it just got the better of him, I think. And yeah, the silly mistake, all his fault. And it's cost the team massively because they could have walked away with 33.

Instead, they walk away with 12 points. Which is a smaller number than 33. If you're not good at maths, that is a smaller number, yes. Less than. Correct. Lower. Not quite as much. One point.

Well done. Next one higher or lower. What number do you want? Yeah, what did you make of it, Harry? And I echo Sam's points and... And the Italian bit? Sorry, I echo most of Sam's points. Not all of them.

Nor that bit. It's... Do you know what? This feels like it's been brewing a little while. I'm not saying we're at the levels of, you know, Nika Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, but they, more often than not this year, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have shared the same bit of race

track, like quite a few. Yeah, some moments. They're having some moments. And, you know, as we've already said, Russell through misfortune, his own doing, and also just some bad luck, you know, bad luck. It's ended up quite a few points behind Hamilton this year. Hampton's been very good.

But it just feels like this was going to happen at some point. Do you remember Spain and qualifying when they hit each other? Yeah, that was good. Yeah, see? That was, wow. I forgot that happened. It seemed to real that, wasn't it? they were both on lat. It was just stupid, wasn't it? And Russell had to get out of the way

going down to the start, finish straight, and Hamilton's lap was ruined. Yeah, it was, I don't know. Anyway, so, and, you know, we had it in Suzuki, where they were scrapping away, and it was, you know, it was all fair, but it's a bit dicey,

and it just feels like it was going to happen at some point. But it's a costly, it's a costly thing. I'm not, I understand by what I said, this is Hamilton's fault, but, going out of their system now, though. Okay, I'll lose and go again. Everybody got out of the system.

But it is a cost a mistake because he's trying to chase down Perez in the championship. Again, not anymore. Well, he might. Perez didn't do that well today. Somehow still got points despite such a terrible Grand Prix. But, yeah, it's just, it's just a costly, costly error from Hamilton. And, and again, this is, I'm not trying to slag Hamilton off at all because I think he's still on it 95% of the time. We saw it in Singapore.

It was pretty exhilarating. But it happens and not that it happens very often, but a few times now, Hamilton sort of

just misjudges where cars are. I'm thinking back to Belgium last year with Alonzo. And he sort of just closed the door

on Alonso. Albon in Brazil. I mean, yeah, that's this year. Monza dis It started to rack up a little bit.

Yeah, exactly. Piaastio, I forgot about that one. Just those sort of clumsy incidents that you, you know,

We've become so unaccustomed to with Lewis Hamilton, just not getting involved with those. These eyesight's getting bad. His glasses. Close. Bordeaux, you Strav. Oh, God. Hoax, Erickson.

Yeah, Erickson, yeah, true. 500 champ. No, we're not saying Lewis Hamilton's blind. But it just seems odd in that respect. Just that we're happening a bit more often than they used to. And, you know, it's not great that it's happening against his own teammate and cost them a chunk of points

that McClaren picked up with the chunks again. Yeah. I like that analogy. We're not getting back on to chunk chat. It's just a phrase. Chunk.

You know that bit of chocolate at the end of Kikak chunk? It hasn't got any way for it. Yes. So good. It's good. So good.

Again, similar to what Harry did to Sam, I agree with nearly everything that Harry said there apart from the last bit, we'll ignore that. You're right. These sorts of

of errors are creeping in a little bit more frequently the last year or two. And I know we discussed this on the podcast not that long ago that is Lewis Hamilton the best driver at owning up to errors and apologising for mistakes? And I think our consensus was yes. But the fact is he's having to do quite a bit of it now versus what he used to, which I think is one of the reasons why we can identify that, yeah, he probably is the best at that. Yeah, the incident itself, I won't add too much to it because I agree. I thought it was Hamilton's era. I think he was just overzealous for lap one.

It was ambitious trying to go around the outside there. George Russell had nowhere to go. He couldn't do much. And I think Lewis Hamilton, I don't hold it against Lewis Hamilton at all for immediately saying my teammates taken me out because it's adrenaline, it's raw, it's just happened. I don't mind that at all because as soon as he's reflected on it,

he's gone back and said, actually, no, this was, this was my error, not George Russell's error. So I don't mind the heat at the moment making that sort of comment. But overall, I would like to say, even though I do put the blame on Lewis Hamilton here, I kind of look at what Mercedes have done strategically and question it a little bit to say, we know how the soft tires started versus medium tires started, right? Looking at the sprint race, all of the safety car restarts, the soft tires had a huge advantage on the medium tires at the start of races or at the start of safety car restarts.

The way in which it panned out was entirely predictable. It was entirely predictable that George Russell on medium tires in second and Lewis Hamilton on the outside on soft tires in third, that they were going to be in those exact positions going into turn one. In fact, that might have been the most likely scenario what happened out there that Lewis Hamilton was going to get a long side. George Russell, based on that tire difference. I feel like Mercedes should have, and maybe they did, and it just didn't go, nothing happened

on it, but should they have not accounted for this a little bit more? Should they have not, I don't know, gone with the reverse strategy, with actually George Russell starting on the softs instead? Should they have said to their drivers, look, based on the tire difference, there is a good chance you are going to be side by side going to turn one. Don't take each other out. Maybe they did say that and it happened anyway. but I just feel like they could have avoided it a little bit more, the team themselves.

Maybe I'm being too harsh on them. Russell didn't have any new softs because of the sprint race. That's, I mean, he still could have taken a use set as some others did. Because I think he still had tyres that were good for, be a fool, for 16 laps. But I think your point about judging the speed difference from new softs to mediums is a very fair one. and one that these are clever people. Think about it. Big fan of Papatoto

directing from the sofa. Yeah, literally, I've got to call up. So good. Yeah. That's, I mean, disclosure, that's one moment of the race. I absolutely love it. It's like, telly shopping, hang.

He's gone, that's bit of meat. Stop it. It's going to be a discussion for another time with Mercedes. But it does feel like, if you look at the battle for second, third, fourth, fifth in the championship, It's like McLaren are really good now, but started the year terribly.

Astor Martin started brilliantly and aren't great now. Ferrari are Ferrari. And Mercedes have kind of just gone, all right, by default, we're second? It feels like a lot of the time this year, it's like they've, I don't know, found themselves in the spot of second rather than got there by their own. They shouldn't be second. Their car, I don't think their car at any point actually I think about it is 100% being the second fastest car rather

at any point in this season. I think they've just done well to be consistent. Let's move on. Logan Sargent retired from the Grand Prix. He was fairly close to Alex Albon for the majority of the race before he retired. Towards the end

he was in last challenging Niko Holcomberg. We heard over team radio that he was having issues with his health and with obviously incredibly humid, incredibly hot as we we've already identified. Didn't hear too much on it for a few laps.

It then came back around again and he retired the car by his own volition. The decision was left with him, decided to retire the car. We saw him having to be helped out of the car. I think firstly from the three of us hoping everything's okay with him. What did you make of the situation? Sam, it's very rare that we see a situation where a driver retires through a decision of their own rather than something that's forced upon them. Yeah, firstly, echo what you said there.

We obviously hope that Logan is completely fine. It just shows you, as I spoke about earlier, that the outright manner of this Grand Prix at the temperature that they're racing out, the intensity of the track, and the fact these tyres have to be pushed to their limits for the 17, 18 laps, takes its toll, especially on someone like Logan Sargent, who, you know, first season in Formula One, maybe he's as physically prepared as maybe he thought he was,

to ensure something like this. Now, I think what was really interesting to Logan Sargent pulling out of the Grand Prix to health, which I think was the right call, I think it would have been a health risk had he kept on going. And you saw him try to delay it.

He came over the radio and went, I think I have to retire, I don't feel very well. And James Vowl's very kindly said, coming, we'll look after you. You know, Papa Vals, which is... He will look after you,

put a blanket round, he'd give him a little cup of cocoa and, you know... That's probably the last thing you wanted was a cup of cup of day. I'm sure it really was in that heat, Yes, you're right. Maybe you can see like an ice coffee or something.

Cold brew, mate. Delightful. I love a cold brew. That's why. I really do love a cold brew. Starbucks wants something. But here we hear Sarkin saying, you know, a couple of laps later again, I'm going to have to come in. You know, it's not getting any better.

I'm struggling. What I feel sorry for, but also I'm encouraged by, is Logan Sargant's reaction to having to retire himself. Because this was arguably other things, Zanvort, his strongest race weekend of the sea. I don't think he would have outright beat Albon anyway, but he was right there with him. And that's all we've asked of for Logan Sargent. The entire season so far is to always be right with Albon, and he was in qualifying. Other than maybe a couple of little mistakes that he made, the pace was good. Obviously, got his lap time deleted, which meant he was out, and he was going to be album

before that, but the lap time was deleted. And I think he realized the severity of another race not being finished. He knows he's under pressure. He knows he needs to get his performances in. And if Album finishes what? 13th or 14th, and he finishes either 14th or 50, they can't remember which all, they're exactly in. And there's only a few seconds between them.

We all look at that and go, that's all right from Sergeant. He's exactly where we want him to be. This has been a good weekend for Sergeant. And he, on paper, doesn't get to prove that again because of an issue that he hasn't crashed the car. He hasn't been crashed into. Something hasn't failed.

He's just not well. And that is mentally pretty gutting to go through when you think, I'm doing really well here, and I need a solid result. and you heard it kind of being like, oh, like over the radio. He was really frustrated with himself because he knew that this was the weekend where he could have started to turn things around. So I hope going to Texas in a couple of weeks' time,

he can take this mentality that he, you know, was doing well and he was gutted to have to pull out and reapply it to next race and hopefully get something similar. Because if he could knock out five or six Grand Prix right at the end of the season where he is right on the tail of Albon, he might be able to save that seat. I think James Vow has probably had a slightly more rosy approach to how he looks at Sargent than what most of the Formula One Fangs do.

So I do think it's savable internally. And this was the weekend that it might have started. So I can imagine he's really quite gutting. He's had to put himself out. Yeah, I would say to anyone who is questioning Logan Sargent's commitment or his drive or, you know, wanting to get that result under his belt, just stop. like he in his position with the pressure that he's under he would have given 120% before retiring from that Grand Prix would have been his absolute last resort of I have to do this like

there's no other choice we saw that and I agree with all your points like competitively I think he was far better this weekend versus others we saw that with the limited track time in practice and it being a track that we haven't gone to in two years. It's a new track for many. There were some teammates out there that there was a significant gap between the two teammates. I mean, to point out a few, obviously Stroll and Alonzo, you had Vastappan and Perez. I mean, the strategy worked out today somewhat for Joe Guan Yu, but Bottas and Joe were quite far apart, Holkenberg and Magnuson.

So actually up and down the grid, there were a lot of teammates where one, driver did have a comfortable advantage over their teammate. And that wasn't really the case with William. Sargent was, for the most part, pretty much there. And I just think that, yeah, like you say, the frustration he had to have to retire from this Grand Prix, rest assured, he did everything he could have done before getting to that decision. He's not, he's not retiring unless he knows he absolutely has to. So I'd just say that. to anyone who's maybe questioning him doing that. Harry?

Yeah, I mean, I don't have much more to add from your points there. I think the most important part is that he was there with Albon this weekend. And I think I guess only due to him not feeling well. It was the reason that he'd sort of dropped down to the back end of the field when he retired. I think that's encouraging because I think otherwise he was up there with Albon. as you say for most of the weekend. So, yeah, you can, and to go back to your commitment point,

you can hear in his voice and, you know, Papa Val saying, come on, come on in. And he's like, no, no,

I'm going to stay out. I'm going to stay out. And then it comes on again, like, you know, five laps later, he's saying, I still don't feel well

and they're saying, it's up to you. There's no shame in it. Yeah, just, just come on in, which he obviously doesn't yet. But like you say,

Ben, that's not a, that's not a person who doesn't care about this, about this, about this drive, which is, you know, that's Aberborn and what you want from your Formula One, Trevor. So commend, Komen, commend Logan on that. And yes, he'll be feeling like that's a missed opportunity today, but, you know, Albon didn't pick up any points in the end. I'm not saying

it was a lost opportunity in that sense. And they have the data and they can see from this weekend that he was there with him. So if he can carry that on into Texas and into the remainder of the year, then, you know, that's a good thing for him. him. So he shouldn't be too, I don't know what the word is, sad, embarrassed. Downbeat about it? Downbeat, yeah. He shouldn't be because, you know, it could have happened to any of those drivers on the grid that they got over, they overheated or got heat stroke or whatever. Just happened to be him. One comment I was going to make about him, though, was I didn't love the way he was slowing down for cars to come through right on like the apex of corners. There was a couple of,

I saw a tweet for Martin Brundall, who was obviously not with Guy this again, but saying he's, you know, he's been there in Daytona, Le Mans, etc., where you've been so hot that you start to become slightly delirious? Yeah, which I get. And I'm sure he was struggling with his, you know, capability of seeing properly and keeping his head straight. But, you know, if he was able to slow the car down there, I feel like he was able to make the decision to slow the car down two seconds later on that big straight. He was almost stationary, but like, why don't you just go around the corner? Yeah, right?

You slowed down too much at this point. So that was the only thing, but again, he was very unwell. So, you know, no one was hurt. We're okay. I know what you mean. And there's no non-meat way of saying this, but he's had a lot of practice of cars lapping him this season, right? And it, but my point is it hasn't been an ongoing issue throughout the year where, like with Mazapin, as an example, it hasn't been an issue where he hasn't got out of the way well enough. So I'm almost willing to give him the benefit of the doubt here.

based on that. But I agree with your point. Right, let's take our last break. Moment of the Race is on the other side. Okay, as usual, we've got Moment of the Race submissions from Discord. So if you'd like to get involved in the next one, well, maybe the next one. Who knows what we're doing for the US review.

But normally at least, you can get your Moment of the Race submissions in Discord. The link to join is in the description. But let's start with our own. Sam, what was your moment of the race? I feel like it was almost a greatest hits of George Russell this weekend. This year's been a greatest hits of George Russell. Great Ray M.S. He is having an LB Award.

He's getting his own one. The Russell Appreciation Award. I was going to give it to the, look, no hands. Put your hands up, Maurice, it's more fun. You know, because I thought that was really funny, and then him coming to the pits. And the look on his face, he's like he aged 30 years. He was so tired.

So, what? So, please, raising his visor. But I'm actually going to give it to Russell, but for the move he pulled on Sergio Perez. all the way around the outside on a redboard like that when he is a damage and had to say that.

What? Slim Russell. Slim Russell is what we called him. We saw, you know, and then again, round the outside. Slim Russell is his new nickname.

Well, Sam said George Shady first and I thought, Slim Russell. How are they equally as bad? Because you're with dumb and dumber, mate. That's how. I don't need to tell me that.

So, yeah, Russell ran the outside. So Russell takes my vote. Moment of the Russell. Good. That's the award. The moment of the Russell. Moment of the Russell. Oh, Lord.

It works with the acronym, so who am I to turn that down? My moment of the race, I kind of have two, because I've already disclosed what mine was in the last segment, which was envisaging like what he's got set up at his home. It's like a mini Brackley. Anyway, so that was one. The other one is Oscar Piastri thinking that he'd got a five second time penalty in his post for his interview. That was, that was great.

Just to let you know, we have been informed. You've won driver of the day. He looked, I'm impressed by that. Why are you done that to me? After what, I've just been through this weekend. Why have you done that to me? Oh, dear. So I'll use that one as a backup option.

What have you got, Harry? I will go, it's already been mentioned, but I will go for Kevin Magnuson. just screaming. It makes no sense. Still don't know what he was talking about. No idea. Note to Kirstie. Keep that one.

That will be good to use at some point. Yeah. It makes no sense. It'll come back. Yeah. Yeah, so that's the one I go for. I also shout out to Alonzo whose ass was on fire.

Oh, my bottom's hot. But he was so calm. Throw me some water in the cockpit. He just chuck some water on me. Grench me. Ice bucket challenge being thrown out there. Right, we're 14. it. Yeah. I'm surprised

you didn't say he had a Hottom. A Hottom. That is honestly awful. That's awful, Ben. Hey, don't lie. Learn for the best. Speaking of Piastri. Hotums. No. Speaking of Piazri, being told about the

Dr. Ryan of the day, thinking it was a five second penalty. It reminded me of the look on thingy's face in Peep Show where he goes, I could tell you that, that's all ancient history now. And then he goes, that's all like your history now. Mark turns to me. He's just like,

why have you said that to me? Like, that joke's terrible. Oh, man. Great. We've gone from our Discord. Right. Honestly, so many of you this week. So thank you.

We can't play all of you out because we would be here all evening. But first up. 50% of you? Yeah. First up is, Oh, it's Hazar. Right, boys, I'm going to let my wife do a moment of the race this week. Just apology in advance.

This one is a bit technical, so you're going to have to follow along. I'm really glad that my fellow American sergeant did not bomb on camera. That's my moment. Cheers, boys. I love that Hazer, the most cockney London man of all time, has managed to charm an American lady into being his wife. for everyone out there. Do you think they understand anything the other one says?

No, not at all. Good. Well, thank you for that, Hazer and Hazer's wife. Next up is... Lady Hazer. Huh? Lady Hamler. Laza.

Semblazers is next. He loves milfs. Jello. My moment of the race for Quittar was watching Checo Perez hand in his final notice, I guess. I guess he's got 14 days before he's got to leave. the Rebel Garage

because obviously silent quitting there's not other options is there silent quitting there's a lot of business for a lot of business

also the jello intro Jello you're on thing ice there Seb quater that's terrible oh gosh

next up is Bristol Liam hello my moment of the race was when Fernando declared to the world

of F1 they had a very hot Um, cheers, lads. Cheers, Liam. Thanks, Bristol, Liam. Very op. Sure and sweet. Yeah.

The West Country does a crowd. Very up. Great game. Next is a new person, I think. Maybe. Thick Broncos. Thick. Hello, boys.

Thick bronchus here. First time, long time. Fantastic podcast. Thank you. At the race when Logan Sargent kind of thought he was going to just poop. himself on camera. I also love

that Thick Broncos there abbreviating first time to meet a long time long time, long time. First time long time. First time long time. FTLT.

Oh Lord. Okay. Next up is Real Dad. It's been away for a while. James. Here we go. Hey, I'll be boys. James here with Real Dad.

And we're going to present our mayor of the race. Was our Murph's the Race? Am I went the race. is basically Russell and Hamilton going to Clacton Pier once again

Cacton Pier makes an appearance again and it's the Jodham's again this time with Mercedes spinning off Lewis My childhood corner Oh my God Clackton Pier

It's not no Michael no it's no Russell no Lewis no over now have a good evening stay away from Placton Pier everyone please it's quickly become my favourite recurring joke

Maybe we should do a live show from Clackettipier. Just us and real dad. James. Oh, Lord. Okay, fine. Next up is three seconds worth of a big ham. Alonzo's butt got too hot. Skyla.

This is a Chief Wiggum reference here. That's good because next up is just going to be chief. Which is great. A big ham always reminds me of the lying of Chief Wiggan where he just goes, a really big shoe I'm talking why he said that what's the way

got to learn and listen Lou a really big shoe back him away toys right next up is it just go be chief my guitar moment of the race has to be Landon Norris making an absolute

climb through the field a man on a mission had a job to do I don't know if he was told at the end of the race to hold position to stay behind Piastri but I mean he was on a tear

the McLarence I think they're going to be something to be reckoned with next year I hope so I would love that guaranteed 17th when we get to Bahrain that's how they roll that's how they roll and then they'll be first by

Abidabie my favourite name next up is a new submission a new submitter sorry lady hot dog seven The sequel's a Lady Mamalad. The six other Lady Hot Dogs? What are the first six? I don't know.

Here we go. Lady Hot Dog 7. Hey, LB boys. Lady Hot Dog here with my first submission. My moment of the race and what was an absolutely banana pants race for many reasons was Lewis Hamilton's Marshall

on the motorcycle getting lost trying to get him back to the Mercedes garage. It was the Formula One equivalent of pushing a pole door. Just pulled up to a digger, didn't it? It's kind of like, oh, I can't go this way. Oh, no.

Thank you for that, lady. My writing down banana pants. Banana pants, yeah, I like that. Do you remember Bangorang by Scrillex? Yeah, tune. Banga Pair! Base. I love it when people have stupid names,

say their stupid name in their recording. Yeah. It's a niche level of comedy. It's great stuff. I enjoy all the names we have. Speaking of, All Good Always. My Cup of Sunshine.

Highly breaking. Wow, it's 2.30 a.m. in Singapore right now on a Monday. I have to go to work after this. So let's just get this moment of the race. Submission going. Hamilton driving like me playing Mario Kart and don't even get me started on George Russell. Albano leading the race at one point and I totally got Red Bull flashbacks. Fernando choosing to drive the rally way by going wide twice. Checo collecting time penalties and getting lap by Max. Lando no longer the favor of McLarenchild and Kevin. It doesn't make sense. was so iconic. Love you guys of the podcast. Bye. A real highlights package. That was real. I feel like there was more than one in that. Might have more than one. That has made me think of Pierre Gasley attempting Rainbow Road on Mario Kart. That wouldn't last very long. How have we not brought up a long-so? Literally skipping five corgars and pulling up all the dusk in the world? Yeah.

It's so on. So, he loves a corgascip. Yeah. He's fine, mate. Just bored. Next up, Norm from Texas. Oh, hello, my late breaking friends from across Leabwe. Big Wet. It is I. Norm from Texas. And now a permanent part of the McLaren CEO, boys. Yeah. Anyway, my moment of the race, George Russell talking on the radio like he was

talking to his lawyer after having a bad accident. And just a couple words of encouragement for Logan, Sergeant, keep racing, man. Anyway, keep breaking late. Can't wait to see y'all in Austin. He's out. Bye. Can't wait for Russell at next race with dash cams. So he's got Dash cam footage is evidence. Peace out. Eat town.

Thank you for that, Norm from Texas. And thank you for... Aosha reference. Yeah. Thank you for... Product. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Good. Okay. And then finally, last but not least... Little John. That's for not at least

is beef. Hello. A moment of the race was me completely blaming in George Russell for that lap one incident. And then I had some character development. And I grew up a little bit and I concede yesterday it was Lewis's fault.

And I apologise for my actions in the Discord. Okay, bye. She declared war on the Discord for about four seconds. Oh, character development. Carrots development. I thought she said, I don't know what. Anyway, something about carrots. Cheers beef.

Was there even a moment of the race in that? Well, I guess. Ben, by the way, mate, we're doing hungie roast. of carrots for our roast next week, if that's okay with you. Oh, yes, mate. That's good. Okay, very excited. I'm cooking back on roast.

Yeah. I am buzzed. Ben's staying at Sam's for a night because do you know we're going to also? Have you heard? And now we're going to roast. Can't wait. There you go. I'm more excited for the roast, darling.

Understandably. Good stuff. Well, thank you, everyone. Right. That's going to do it, I think, for this episode. Sam, get us out of here. Folks, I'm still confused as to what happened, really. Who won?

I don't know anymore. All right. But we haven't got a race next weekend because, of course, next one is going to be Texas where we have our live show. But we'll have our first Patreon episode being recorded this week. We've also got our usual midweek episode coming out.

We will also do have a Sunday release. English is hard when you've spoken for two. We also do having a Sunday. Do you have a Sunday? True it is. I've become Yoda. So make sure you're choosing. If you want to listen Ag free,

Patreon, you get every single episode and the extras and beer with breaking all ag free. You also get your birthday shout-out, you get discount on merchandise, you get lots of lovely things, and a gaming night as well, every single month. Some of us don't turn up to those, though.

That's not, you know, unusual. Anyway, you can follow us on late breaking F1 all social media. Also, if you want to be a Yubtubtub, then you can go on to Yubtub, and you can watch us. We are here. Hello!

Someone sent us photos of what they think we look like on Discord and I was gravely insulted. I don't have seen this. You're both fine. Thanks like the most handsome guy in the world.

You're like the most Joe Blogs normal dude and I am a very overweight bald man. I was really quite... Also, someone keeps calling me the thumb and I don't like to say why that's happening? That's happened for so long.

Why am I a thumb? David Kear on Twitter. I was howling. David Kier. I absolutely I hate you. Anyway, we can be back as always.

Thanks for tuning in. I will see you later. I've been the crazy thumb. I've been Ben Hocking. I've been hurried. Oh God. I remember. Keep breaking late.

Ding, ding. The crazy thumbs. Doesn't make any sads. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.