The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2023 Spanish GP Review

Episode Date: June 4, 2023

Time to review the Spanish GP where Verstappen took a dominant victory but so did Harry & Ben as their bold prediction of a double podium finish for Mercedes became a reality! As well as celebrating, they breakdown the race from Perez's comeback to P4 to the struggles of Leclerc and Aston Martin, share their DOTDs and listen to your moments of the race.. SUPPORT our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/latebraking JOIN our Discord: https://discord.gg/dQJdu2SbAm JOIN our F1 Fantasy League: https://fantasy.formula1.com/en/leagues/join/C3CCEW8P704 TWEET us @LBraking BUY our merch: https://late-braking-f1-podcast.creator-spring.com/ EMAIL us at [e-mail] SUBSCRIBE to our podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. Very warm, welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Harry Ead and me, Ben Hocking, reviewing today the Spanish Grand Prix shock horror. A win for Red Bull, a win for Max Verstappen as he extends his championship lead to over two race wins now 52 points by my calculations. He leads the championship after he won and his nearest challenger, of course, his teammate Sergio Perez, unable to get on the podium because of course

two Mercedes-Amilton second and George Russell third. Harry, that real nail-biter there. Couldn't call it until the end. But ultimately Max Verstappen squeaks by, gets another one. By the skin of his teeth, I would say. Yeah, it was a, it was a tough one for Max. just was having a bit of a Sunday drive out there. He didn't... The most difficult moment he had was probably into turn one and then after that, we didn't see him again until that's 66. Sorry, we didn't see him a couple times

because he decided to make it spicy by not having track limits in his run plan. But apart from that, we didn't see him for the entire race. It was pretty dominant stuff. But hey-ho, we move onto the next one. sure things will be a lot different in two weeks time you can guarantee that um we're going to be obviously talking about the race out front we'll also be giving our moments of the race a little bit later on we're going to be talking about yuki sonoda and his five second penalty that ultimately

saw him outside of the points even though he finished on track inside the top 10 uh Mercedes double podium we'll be seeing if they if we think that they are the best challenges now to red bull after a tough day for us the martin uh and charler la clair probably didn't enjoy this weekend too much. But we'll start with the race out front because Max Verstappen won the race by over 20 seconds, nearly 25 seconds, also had the fastest lap.

I think he completed the full Grand Slam, didn't he? Let every lap. Let everything, led the whole weekend. Literally didn't lose anything the entire weekend. You know, in a season full of great wins by the Red Bull team and by Vastappen himself, do you think this was his most dominant, most impressive

victory yet. It's definitely his most dominant, I'd say. His most impressive, I still think last weekend was probably more impressive. But that was very good last weekend in Monaco. This was still equally impressive. But it was one of those ones

where you just, we all came into this weekend in the back of our mind thinking he's probably going to win this one. Like it was just one of those races where you think this is a, unless something untoward happens, like a, you know, a reliability issue or there's some rain, which didn't happen in the end,

at least in the race, then this is, this is Vestappen and the Red Bulls to lose, because that car is, that car is suited for that. Completely suited. It's suited for the F1. Well, for the F1, but just for Spain, like, for the, all the corners we have in Spain now, which are all very, very high speed, or high speed or medium speed, but mainly high speed.

That's just where the Red Bulls quite good. So I don't want to say it was never in doubt because you can't always say that, but it was pretty much never in doubt, I don't think, at least in my view, for Vestappen. He was impressive. As I said, he had one challenge at turn one from Carlos Sines, which he fended off pretty,

pretty brutally and then and then went on from there and then we didn't see him again. So it was, it was an impressive, impressive one. I like I said, I don't think it was quite as impressive as Monaco just because I think there was slightly more car on show here than there was for Stappen, whereas I think Monaco was just mainly all for Stappen. So I'll say that's more impressive, but still pretty good at the F1 again from Max. There were so many points throughout the entire three days. where you could just look at it and say,

oh, he had such a dominant weekend because of that, that and that. I mean, take a few examples. FP1. FP1. He was miles clear of everyone else. Qualifying. He was at 90%, I think. He had time in hand.

He didn't finish his final lap. It was definitely going to be a 111, but he didn't do it. It would have been a 111, I reckon. Didn't need it. he abandoned his fastest lap in qualifying. That's another sign of how dominant he was. The fact that even in qualifying to focus on that a little bit more, was it Q2 where he went out on his new tires at the beginning of the session

and just chucked on an old pair at the end because no danger whatsoever to get into Q3. And then in the race itself, you can look at the gap and say, okay, that in its own right is a pretty big indication of how dominant he was. But even so, usually you see that at the front of the grid, Max Verstappen or Sergio Perez will still need to play their first tire choice based on the cars around them to make sure that they have a good start and they don't lose the lead. They were willing to risk that today.

Vestappen was on the medium tires. And apart from Logan Sargent, who probably doesn't really count in this conversation, and his teammate Sergio Perez, everyone else is on the softs. I think LeClaire was on the hards. but everyone else is on the soft tire. They did not fear the fact that someone like Carlos Sines could get a better start because even if, and it didn't quite end up this way,

even if Sines had gone into turn one ahead, he nearly did. It happens passing him in two or three laps, isn't he? It's not a competition at that point. So when you can get to the point where you don't need to worry about how quickly you can get down to turn one, one of the longest runs to turn one on the calendar, you're probably in a very dominant spot.

But another point where you can just see how dominant this weekend was, if there was any close competition behind, Max Verstappen is probably shut down a little bit more when he tries to go for a fastest lap with no warnings left in terms of cutting corners and going over track limits. He didn't care. You know, he could have done it four times. He could have gone over, he could have gone over track limits four times.

And it is still taking a three second win. Just not done. not on turn two and he'd been fine still. I mean, yes, he could have picked up a five second penalty. It doesn't matter too much when you're winning by 23. Yeah, there were just so many moments throughout the entire weekend. He was complaining about overheating on one of his stints. Didn't matter.

Did not matter in the slightest. This was, to your point, Harry, I don't know whether you can call it the most impressive. You can definitely call it the most dominant weekend of the season so far for Vestappen, is saying a lot, given how good he's been to this point. I always like to think with these front runners, the better your weekend is, the less we see of you, we didn't see Vastappen for long stretches of that race. And it's not because he was bad.

It was because he was good. It's because he's so far out in front that there's not really too much to see. We had it so much with the Mercedes a few years ago, where they just didn't get any coverage because they were so far ahead of everyone else. and the battling was going on behind them. This was a great weekend, most dominant for sure, most impressive, hard to say. The one main takeaway I had from this Grand Prix,

and I'll pose a question to you as well, Harry, is that if there was some sort of rule where for every one second you are ahead of second place, you get an extra bonus point in the championship standings, let's say that rule exists. I think Vestappen wins that by 50 seconds. I don't, Max Verstappen might have won that race by a minute. I don't think there was any point in that Grand Prix,

apart from his fastest lap attempts, where he's going at more than 80%. It just, I think he could have doubled his advantage if he needed to. He just didn't need to. Yeah. I agree. Sorry for a bike there. The did youry do?

The did he's back? I agree. He was, he's just, you know, when a driver is completely comfortable in their, in their race. car is just there by their team radios and the confidence on there. And when GP, his engineer is basically telling him off about track limits, he's like, yeah, I'm going to do a fastest lap. And then he does a fastest lap. And then GP's like, Max, please, stop. I love the SaaS. Stop it. I love GP's SaaS. And Matt's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. See, I told you. Yeah, yeah. Whatever.

Yeah. There are times where you win by 20 seconds or 25 seconds and that's everything you've got in the car. I don't think that was close to what everything they had in the car. No, I agree. And also, for, again, look, that car, as I said, is completely suited to Barcelona, but a lot of what Max did today was still Max Verstappen because look where his teammate was. I know that was a qualifying, qualifying thing. But if the car is that dominant, Paris should be second. Even, even starting, when he start, 12? 11. Was it him 11th and Russell 12th?

I can't remember which way around they started. It was with Russell, wasn't he anyway? So he should have, if the car is such a, you know, a massive factor in this, then Peres should be second. So it proves the point that it is still a lot of it is down to Max. I mean, you look at Saudi Arabia from this season, Vastappan starts, what was it, four, three or four positions lower than Perez started this Grand Prix, and he gets back to second. Yeah.

Perez here. I know he didn't necessarily have any safety cars or virtual safety cars to help him along the way, but he doesn't get back to P2. So, yeah, you're right. It's not his car plus drive. It's always car plus driver. And people always try and argue it's only car or it's only driver. Every dominant spell in the history of F1 is the same.

It is a combination of both. And they're just working so well together. It's to Martin Brunnell's point towards the end of the race, or even after the race, come in, but exactly when he said it. It's just, you have to admire the domit.

You have to admire the greatness to an extent. We might not be getting these races for the win like we want to see every weekend, but in the absence of that, you've got to appreciate the greatness that we're witnessing. And also from P2 down, mega spicy. Don't worry about P1.

P2.1 is all good. Yeah, exactly. Focus on that a little bit more. To your point about Sergio Perez, what did you make of this comeback? Because we know Q2 didn't go his way, but he did manage to make up seven positions in the Grand Prix. Was it enough?

What do you think? It was fine. Yeah, I think he should have finished in front of both Merck's. I know there, at least Russell. Because did he start in front of Russell? I can't remember what all of those two were. Yeah, I think he did. Yeah. Obviously, Russell had a much better start because, you know,

turn one. He clearly doesn't share my opinion of turn one and doesn't fancy doing it. So I think by the end of lap one, there were maybe four positions or so between them. But yeah, they started alongside each other. But I still think he should be beating Russell there and, you know, potentially being in P2. It was fine. It was an all right comeback, but it's, you know, less so than it was in Monaco. But he's ruining his weekends with qualifying. It's the same in Australia, same in Monaco. he's done it again here in Spain.

So he's never going to be able to challenge for Stappen on a consistent basis because Max doesn't make those sort of mistakes. As we said, it was fastest weekend. And then Peres, even if Perez had been second, he probably still won't have won the one. But it doesn't matter. You ought to be second on the days that you can't win it.

And Perrits isn't doing that. So, yeah, it was a fine comeback. But I agree. I know, as you say, there were no, safety cars or anything like that to help him out along the way. But it was, I still think he should have been, should have been P2, P3 at least. Yeah, I certainly think P3.

Lewis Hamilton had good pace all day. So that was, that would have been another step. But I do think that Russell was getable. And that's the sort of three points that he won't be able to get back. And if we say that the championship lead is now over two races, is worth. Vastappen could effectively retire from the next two Grand Prix. He will still hold the championship

lead regardless of what happens in either of those two races. He's already built a very good buffer. And now we're looking at Sergio Perez. We've been asking the same question pretty much all year when it pertains to a Perez championship battle or how close can Perez get to Vastappan. The question's

always been, okay, yes, he can do it at Saudi Arabia. He can get the pole and the win there. Yes, he can do it on he can do it at Baku, he can do it at Monarchy, he can do it on these street circuits, but can he do it in the bulk of the European season when it is pretty much all specific race tracks,

racing circuits? That was his issue last year, and this is really the first evidence we've got of a standard European track that we're now getting into a large stretch of, and the first test, he's failed quite dramatically. The only way Perez can get close to Vastappen is if he can get closer to him at these sorts of Grand Prix.

We've got Silverstone. We've got Austria. We've got Spar and Monza and Zambor. All of these races are to come. If Vestappan holds even half of the advantage that he had here at Spain, Perez isn't going to get close to him. So the pressure is, I think the pressure really is on for the next race, I'd say, if we're going to, it's Austria next, isn't it? if I've got my... Canada?

Oh no, Canada. Sorry, we've got Canada, then Austria. So I guess, yeah, sorry. It makes complete sense that we're going to North America again. Obviously, we're going to North America again. But yeah, I think the next couple of races, Paris has got to assert some sort of dominance. Good luck. Good luck, sir.

Hey, Harry. Oh, here we go. Do you want to review some bold predictions? Oh, yes, I do. Hang on. Yeah, we do. What a day to be alive. Oh, man.

I love reviewing bold predictions. It's my favorite part of the show. Well, shame Sam isn't here. He'd love to do this. I'm sorry, Sam. So he just, Sam, his ball prediction wasn't right on this occasion. Unlucky, Sam. He said that a Red Bull wouldn't win the race.

So, of course, they went and had the most dominant run in the history of F1, I think. So, well done. Fortunately, his prediction for pole position went much better. He went for Charlotte Claire. In terms of our bold prediction, and I say our, because normally we would have unique bold predictions, but of course, we perchance managed to land on the exact same bold prediction and pole one, two, three. Can I just say as well for people that have said that I've copied Ben.

Me and Ben didn't, I wasn't even here. I did mine stood in Heathrow Airport. I was not here to know what Ben's was. So I don't know how this happened, but we had a little bit with exactly the same. And it's a good thing we did. Because we predicted that Vastappan would be on pole. Harry, was Vastappen on pole? He was.

And then we predicted that Vastappen will be first, Lewis Hamilton would be second, and Georgia Russell would be third. I think we predicted that. Yeah. That happened, didn't it? That did happen. So, Jaya, Perris, gave it a good go to not make it happen,

but it happened. Yeah, cheers, Checo. And our bold prediction was that both Mercedes would be on the podium Harry, did you watch the podium after? I did. Yeah. How many Mercedes did you see on there?

There was one, Lizampton, and then the other side. Oh, another one. George Russell was there. It's two. Which means that, okay, first of all, I'm quite happy about me getting a bold prediction right. Harry has not only got two bold predictions right in a season, he's got two in back-to-back races.

Two in a row, baby. Which means standings-wise, I am breathing a little easier because I am now on three for the season. Harry, by virtue of getting two, back-to-back is on two. Sam's in the danger zone with one. I mean, this will not last, obviously.

I'll balls this up somewhere later on in the season. But I'll revel in it now. What a day to be alive. I don't think I've ever been not last in the season of bold predictions. I know it will be by the end, but... It's just huge. Amazing. Hey, I mean, there's a good chance.

It ends three, two, one. Like, it could. That's very, very fair point. We've done two weekends on the trot now. We've been pretty good as a trio. I know Sam's was a bit off today, but as you said before we start recording, it only took, would only take a, you know,

a breakdown for the staff button and Sam's in there as well. It's a good start to the LB year for Bell predictions. How about that? Who saw that come in? Not me. Not even close. Driver of the day, who've you got? Vestappen, an obvious contender, but I think I went for him last week.

But, you know, it was pretty good, wasn't he out there? I'll go for, I'll go for Lewis Hamilton. I thought he was on great form today. He was not going to get near Vestappen. but I think he got as close as he could do. And, you know, I know Russell was coming back from 12th, so I guess in that sense, the gap makes sense. But he was comfortably ahead of Russell.

There was nothing. They seemed to be at the same sort of gap all race, basically. So, yeah, Lewis Hamilton for me. I thought Russell was actually really good as well, considering how far he was down the grid and to come back to third. But yeah, I'll land for Hamilton. Oh, another shout out. Sorry.

Joe Guan Yu. What a saint. What a little star he was today. Actually, I probably should have gone for him. But I'll big him up now. Joe Guan Yu had a great race out there. Yeah, he did. Joe Guan Yu definitely deserves credit for what he was able to do.

I know from qualifying, Bottas was shocked that Joe had the pace to make Q2. But then it turns out that Alpha Romeo had more hiding away in terms of race pace compared to qualifying pace, because I, you know, Joe had to make his way from, was it, P-13 that he qualified in? So, you know, you made progress during the Grand Prix. As did Yuki Sonoda, and we'll discuss their incident a little bit later on, realistically, I was going to land on the two names that you mentioned,

Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen. I will go with Max Verstappen. I've given it to him a lot this year. But he keeps being really good. Yeah, it's quite annoying, isn't it? Yeah, I'll give it to Bastappan. He won the race by quite a margin. That he did.

That he did. Worst driver of the day. What have you got? I just for us, we've not done the jingle. Should I do the worst one? We're so bad at this. Yeah, go on them. What number is that?

Sound four. Get in the bin, bin, bin, bin, been, worst driver of the day. Ben, Ben, Ben, worst driver of the day. You stuck at driving. Who've you got? Al Jibottas. What are you doing, son?

Where were you today? Oof. I mean, wasn't great overall, but when Joe Gwannu, your younger teammate, is up in P9, having a great race,

as we've already said, you can't do that. And you mentioned that you were shocked about his, the show got into Q2. I think he should be shocked shocked at how slow he's been. What you do?

doing Valtry? It's becoming a bit concerning. It keeps happening. Like once every two or three races, Bottas will just be nowhere. Yeah. And I know Joe's not always in the points, but I don't think Joe has these disastrous weekends

in the same way that Bottas does. It's a little bit. I'm a bit worried to having us Kimmy Rikin and phase out. It's a phase out of F1. Doesn't care anymore. Anyway, we'll see. But today, it was no good. Yeah, I would put him as a contender for sure.

Kevin Magnuson, I know we're not looking at the weekend as a whole, but certainly qualifying-wise, it's never great when you're getting knocked out in Q1 and your teammates making it's Q3. In the race, I think the pace was a little bit closer, but even so, Holkberg still had a pretty large advantage, even as he was falling down the grid in that first stint. So I think he's a contender.

and no, I'd probably say it's between those two. Lano Norris, I guess you'd have to throw in there as well because he did cause his own downfall. It was a tough racing incident. I will give him that, but I will go with the same as you. Oh, go to bosses. Why were the McLaren so slow in the race? I know Norris had his own incident.

They were so slow. Yeah, they really were. I don't think they were quicker. So let's just name the teams. They weren't quicker than. So they weren't quicker than Red Bull. They weren't quicker than Mercedes. Nope.

I don't think they were as quick as Alpine. They weren't as quick as Aston Martin. They weren't quicker than the one Ferrari that worked. They weren't quicker than Alfa Tauri. They weren't quicker than Alfa Romeo. That lands in P8 at the moment and only Williams and Hass behind you. Yeah. Not great.

No. Great. Weird. I know they said about, they recognize it it's going to be a one lap one doing, you know, fair play for Norris for being that far up the grid. But you'd have thought maybe. I don't even with that, even with the incident, he might crawled his way back up further than he ended up. But yeah, anyway. We do have big brain strategy to give out. We'll do that a little bit later on the show because I've realized that we've blabber on way too long for this first segment. So we'll take our first ad break. Bloody out. 24 minutes. Okay, Ferrari. Here we go. Oh, no.

I feel like I managed to be quite nice to them in Monaco. They're not going to get the same leeway again here, I'm afraid. So it wasn't a great weekend for Ferrari. Carlos Sines did manage to get on the front row at his home race, which is pretty good. The race wasn't quite as productive as he fell behind the Mercedes and Sergio Perez, but still managed to claim, P5 and 10 valuable points.

Charlotte Claire had a nightmare of a weekend. Knocked out in Q1 for the first time in four years, I think. And I can't quite remember what happened four years ago. Monaco, 2019, I think. But it wasn't pace, was it? Ferrari builds it up. Yeah. So he was outside of the top 15 on pace.

They decided to completely change the car overnight, had a pit lane start. it amounted to absolutely nothing as Charles LeClair still finished, although he got close, he still finished outside of the point. So it was P-11 he settled on after Yuki Sanoda's penalty. They went for an interesting strategy. What was your thoughts on that and indeed the whole weekend, Harry? What are you doing?

There it is. Oh, Ferrari, come on. You were doing, I mean, you weren't doing so well. But in terms of us having a go, you. You'd avoided it quite well, really, for most of this year. But what, look,

I think it's pretty clear there's something potentially wrong with Lecler's car because he hasn't forgotten how to drive. And I don't think he's suddenly just doesn't have pace anymore to not be up with his own teammates. So I'm sure they obviously couldn't, they change everything

in the car that they could overnight, but they've sent all the bits he had on Saturday back off to Marinello to inspect. So I wouldn't be surprised if there's, you know, a cracked chassis or something like that. It's often the case. But, yeah, so I don't believe LeCler

is suddenly forgotten how to be an F1 driver, but at least give him a chance to try and make some. Why have you started, you start him on the hard tyres, get that, get that choice. You go long into the race here. He's at the back anyway. Just keep going, plodding along,

see what happens. Maybe in a safety car. It might fall your way. Maybe, maybe some rain. Lap 17, we got to. Lap 17. They're like, that's enough of that for you, Charles.

Have some soft tires. Because that's going to get you to the end of the race. I mean, fine. I don't, if it's not working out, then I get, you try and try something different.

But, just why did you bother with, why did you bother starting with hards? You're given the slowest tire to do, 17 laps. It's just like a quarter of the race.

I struggle with that one. I'm not entirely sure why. And he, I don't know how many stops he did in the end, but I think he went hard, soft, soft. I probably went hard, soft, hard. But I wasn't, okay, someone might be able to confirm whether this graphic was wrong. So I thought that he went,

he started on the hards, went to the softs, and then went back on the, same hard tire. I don't know whether that happened, but the tire graphic didn't look right. I mean, if that's true, what are you doing? I hope I'm,

I hope that wasn't actually the case. There was a bit of chatter about the tire graphics being wrong, but they were saying about Alonzo and the Aston Martin, but I'm pretty sure that they had it right because Alonzo went soft, soft, hard. Again, I think they just got, I think they just fought Lance Stroll's pit stop was Alonzo. Yeah.

again, another slightly weird choice to have hard ties for, they did it for like the last 20 laps. Yeah. And whatever. Yeah, for, I mean, I don't, I just don't, I don't understand that cool.

Don't understand that cool at all. And, and with signs on the other side, what's the like Ford Sierra action plan for? What's that about? What does that mean? I don't know, man. be patient. But yeah, and then

besides the same, be patient, and then they turned to box and he's like, okay, why? There's just, there's just no, and I think I saw another message later on whenever Charles had his second stop and they wanted to put one hards and he was like, no, I want softs, I don't know what he ended up on in the end.

I think it was hards. But it's, it's just, there's no trust between, and we had this when Vettel was there, the same problem, where Vettel was, you just didn't trust his strategy, team to make the right cool and he'd be making suggestion from the pit stop. Well, but Vettel

had the experience to override in certain situations and it ended up okay for him. I don't think Charles LeCla is there yet. No, and Science is trying his best. But again, I don't, not sure they're being listened to or they're not, they're not pushing hard enough to to be listened to by their own team.

So, oh man. I mean, today was an, their race pace today was crap. it was awful. What was... It was, but it's kind of been that way for... I know Azerbaijan was all right, but... Saudi Arabia was...

They finished, what, P7, P8 there, possibly, on pure pace. They were nowhere last week. I mean, it just... Yeah. I don't know. It seemed like another weekend pace. Why is you right? It was awful, but it seems like awful is the norm.

Yeah. But I mean, they can qualify it and that's about it. But that's... That's... yeah, I can't say like 2021 standards, potentially maybe 2020, but yeah, anyway, pace of the car is rubbish.

I definitely think there's something wrong with LeCler's car, but in general, bad, all round bad. Yeah, bad. That's a good word for it. Yeah, in, let's start with Carlos Sines. So, Carlos Sines did, in fairness to Carla Sines, he could have done that race weekend.

500 different ways, and it would not have got any better than how it actually ended up. I think he qualified second, which, let's face it, that was his pole position based on Max Verstappen was not catchable. And in the race itself, as I say, I think they could have gone with 10 different strategies, and I think they all end up with him in fifth place. He wasn't beating Verstappen, obviously. I don't think he ever was going to have the pace to beat the Mercedes or Perez either. the only way, if Perez

have been held up a little bit more, maybe that becomes a race, but actually I think P5 was the optimum. So from Carlos I just side of the garage, I think he can probably walk away from this weekend, not happy, but at least content in his own ability that he got everything he could out of the weekend. It was 10 points this weekend.

And if he keeps doing that, and let's say another Azerbaijan happens, there might be podiums on the cars. If you can keep getting the most out of the car that's available to him. Charlerler, yeah, obviously something was wrong. Because throughout practice, it seemed fine. He seemed happy with the car in FP3 on Saturday morning.

So I think either something has happened at the very beginning of qualifying or something has happened at the end of FP3 because it just didn't add up. Usually when you have a horrifically bad, unusually bad weekend, it carries on throughout the weekend. Like it starts in FP1 and it never gets better. or you can identify it quite early. Here, it was still a shock. It was a shock in qualifying

when he could not get it together. And in the race, it was, again, it didn't really improve. Like, it was obviously better than qualifying was, but still, you would expect that he could have got back into the points and he didn't. I am at the point now where I am actually going to start some sort of fundraising page for people to help me out

in terms of numbers of people and resources to get my man out of that team because they are crushing his career race after race. What does the guy after do? He is no longer God Leclair and it's not because of his obvious godly ability. He is trapped Leclair

because he is trapped. I know that we've had some rumours recently of Leclair to Mercedes. I don't know if Charles Leclair started them himself but if he didn't, it would have been a good idea. what more does the guy have to do? Yeah, I think they've, I think something went wrong with that car this weekend.

And maybe it will get better in Canada in two weeks time. But it's these are, he's heading into his prime years. And he hasn't got a car that is capable of, I'd say winning championship. He's not got a car that's capable of winning races at the moment. It's sad to see. Sad to clear.

Yeah, maybe that's more accurate. He looked, I mean, he looked very sad after qualifying. DC is interviewing the pen afterwards. He didn't look happy. Didn't look like a happy boy. Happy bunny. Can't blame him. Well, since we've got more time on this segment versus the last segment,

should we give out our big brain award? Yeah, well, I think it's an appropriate one. I'll do the jingle again. Hang on. Please hold. beautiful what was your big brain moment I've already said it yeah

Charlotte Cleve been put on soft ties after running hard eyes for 17 laps I know we've said it before this award was was made this year for just Ferrari basically and others have made it in but Ferrari are like no we want we want this award every race so

yeah it was I just I don't as I said I don't understand. Don't understand. I don't know. I get in the race situation, it's tough for the strategy team to sometimes

make the calls under pressure. They were under no pressure for this one. There was a lot riding on it. And if we can see from the outside, me and Ben and everyone I was watching, and we're idiots, if we can see that that's a bad call,

I don't get how they didn't see it. So easily. just look at the top drivers, like the Mercedes and the, well, as you know, it would be Mercedes. And they're still going around on soft tires. And you're like, do you not see the same thing that we see? Do you not see what you've done here? Yeah, I know. Yeah, so anyway, that one for me.

I probably would go for that. But in the interest of variety, I will offer up something else, which is Alpha Tauri just trying to talk strategy to Yuki Sonoda. It just never goes well. He just tells you to shut up every time. Shut up. And yet they still persist. Do you want this or do you want this? Let me rise.

Yeah, don't give Yuki the option. Just tell him what he needs. You're coming in now, Yuki. Drivers, drivers like snowflakes, aren't they? They're all unique. I don't mean snowflakes in the sort of 21st century meaning of the term. I mean actual snowflakes. They're all unique.

they're all brilliant in their own individual way. You don't talk strategy where Yuki Sonoda. Might work for other drivers, not Yuki. Can I just make an honorary mention for this award, but it happened on Saturday. It's the menace of F1, Fernando Alonzo. Fernando Alonzo, having witnessed Ghazli impede Vastappen into turn four on his flying lap,

immediately on the radio. And I guess Aston Martin thought Al-Pie might be challenging them this weekend and they were kind of right. I know they ended up in front of the end of Ockon, but immediately he's on the radio going blatant and peeing there, to look at that, blah, blah, blah, blah.

The man doesn't switch off ever. You're right, but there's more to it than that. And it proper railed me in the... He said on the spot, three places. Yeah, I don't know. And it ended up being three places. Fernando Alonzo was able to see, while driving in a qualifying session,

what the penalty should have been, if there's no excuse for the stewards to take two hours to say the same thing that Alonzo said after two seconds. Come on. His brain is too big for his helmet. He's too big for the sport. He needs to be a steward after he finishes. If he's willing to hand out penalties that quickly,

he's got the job in my eyes. Jeez. Oh. We'll take it. It's been an emotional segment, folks. We'll take a short break. We'll be discussing Mercedes right after this. Well, who would have fought it?

Two Mercedes on the podium. We. Ah, yeah. We fought that, didn't we? Mercedes double podium. Lewis Hamilton managed to make progress in the early parts of the race, getting to P2 and looking fairly solid. there for the rest of the Grand Prix, not really under too much fret. And George Russell,

despite starting outside the top 10, decided turn 1 wasn't to his liking, made up about 12 positions on the first lap. And then he was set from there. And he managed to make a few overtakes on track to get to P3, a little bit of pressure from Sergio Perez towards the end of the Grand Prix, but ultimately a few seconds in hand as they crossed the line. What do you think about this one? we know that they had upgrades brought at Monaco and this might have been the first real trial of them here in Spain on first inspection. Seemed to work?

Yes, they did seem to work. But my worry is that they're baiting us. Because they're baiting us bad on them. Because yes, they worked. And today they were easily second quickest team out there. And it was an impressive race in both of them. I think, as I say, Hamilton was in. was impressive with his P2,

but I think Russell's pace to just get through the rest of the fit or the rest of the top 10 to get up to P3. That was impressive. So yes, I think they've worked so far. My worry is, oh, I just, I just, if you think back to Spain last year, they were quite good at Spain last year as well, which is my only concern here that maybe this,

and I hope not. I hope it is actually genuine, and that's genuine pace now. But my worry my worry is that that car works at Spain. It seems to work at Spain. It seems to work at Spain.

And if you look back at Friday, again, impressive work for them to get to the point where they were both on the podium. But look at Friday. They were nowhere. That, their pace on Friday was rubbish. And again, I appreciate they've worked on it

and got it to that pace. But I just, my worry is, And I don't want to take this away from the, the hardworking people at Mercedes. My worry is that they just kind of luckily got into a sweet spot and it's not actually the upgrades. I really hope it is the upgrades and improve wrong next race in Canada, which is an entirely different track. But that's 90% I think it is the upgrades have worked.

A little 10% of my brain is thinking, yeah, but maybe they just can do Spain. and that's and that's it. So I'll be, I'll yet to be convinced 100%. Juries outly. Yeah, jury's out. But for this race and this race alone, hell yeah, they worked.

Those upgrades definitely worked. If you want to take away any conclusion from this. And they were good. And they beat, you know, Aston Martin comfortably out there. So for now, yes, they've worked. but just, I think, remain calm, everyone. We'll see what happens in the next one.

And as I say, I hope it does work. Yeah, I think probably the most encouraging thing for Mercedes is not the fact that they were the second quickest team. It's how comfortably they were the second quickest team. I'm thinking about this on the spot, so I don't actually know my own answer to my own question here. Nice. But classic.

I'm trying to think, were they closer to Red Bull and front than they were to Ferrari behind? I don't know. It felt like there was obviously a substantial gap between Red Bull and Mercedes. But it felt like the gap between Mercedes and everyone else was pretty substantial too. I don't know. It's a fair point. And maybe it's a contributing factor to the fact that Peras couldn't actually get on the podium

because they're actually closer to Red Bull. Yes, fair show. But to your point, is it a one-track wonder? because, well, let's have a look at the history books. Oh, wait, no, let's get rid of the history books and just look at last year season review and we'll see the same thing happened. We made this point on the preview

that George Russell was on the podium and obviously Perez had a much better starting position last year. Otherwise, it was kind of the same rate. I know Russell was a bit more involved with the race for the lead in the first third of the Grand Prix in 2022 versus this year. year. But certainly Red Bull and Mercedes being better than everyone else was exactly what we had at Spain last year, which flew in the face of everything we had before that point in the year,

but ultimately kind of flew in the face of everything that followed it too. And I hope we're not going to get in the same situation similar to your brain saying, I don't know if it's going to continue. My brain is doing very much the same thing because, well, we saw it last year. You know, Lewis Hamilton last year, I know he finished. P4 or P5, I can remember exactly where he finished, but he had to make that incredible comeback after first lap contact with Kevin Magnuson. It was a point we made on the preview. Otherwise, he probably would have been in the fight as well.

So I don't think the race that we saw last year was vastly different to the race that we had this year. Canada is, sorry, go on. I was just going to say, sorry to interrupt, am I making this up? But you know we had not preseason testing shakedown for the first test in 2020, that was at Spain. Yes.

And didn't we all leave that test thinking Mercedes had nailed it or I'm making that up? Didn't we leave that test thinking McLaren had nailed it? Oh, maybe. All right. It might have been Mercedes and McLaren, to be fair. But anyway, I'd just add to that point. Maybe they just couldn't do Spain, that car concept. But anyway, carry on.

Yeah. And Canada's going to be an interesting one because Canada is, to your point, vastly different to Spain. Yeah, it's characteristics are just vastly different from what we had. So, yeah, I'd be encouraged, but my encouragement would certainly stop at a certain point. And it wouldn't go any further than that until we see this at two races or three races or even maybe a couple more than that. Because in a season that has something like 63 races, I can't remember exactly what we've landed on this year. One race doesn't mean everything. It's a very valid point, Ben.

what about what about Aston Martin so we saw Mercedes overtook Aster mine in the Constructors Championship today thanks to the

double podium both Aston Martins also finished alongside each other but that was for P6 and P7 oddly off the ball weren't they

they were oddly off the ball and I feel quite bad for Lance Stroh because I know we've given them a bit of a hard

time lately but he's actually quite a good weekend but it's a shame because the car's not where it's been all year of all the weekends

to have a good race. This was not the one potentially. But oddly of the ball, but having said that, I, we didn't really talk about much in the preview, but I kind of expected them to be

this circuit's just not where that car excels. If you look at all, and it's not really like any of the circuits we've had so far. It's quite good at like the low speed, medium speedy corners

like we've had for most of them. It's kind of don't have any of them at Spain anymore, do we? None. Not even, That last sector is all pretty quick now. So, yeah, in the back of my mind, I thought maybe this was going to be a tough one. Obviously, Alonso was slightly out of position in qualifying,

but I think where they ended up was probably where I thought they were going to be. I think Alonzo, had he started further up, would have ended up further up the road than Lance. Also, Fernando Alonzo just not overtaking someone by choice. What's that about? That is a long-term play if I ever saw one. That's a man who wants an extension on his contract. Yep. Tell Lance not to panic.

Okay, sure. But yeah, so I think Olozom might be further at the road in a normal race for him. But yeah, they just weren't that quick here. And again, I do think it's track-specific. I would expect them to be back near where they were before this in Canada. mean, it was a week ago, along the second. I know it's Monaco, but it was a week ago. There's not suddenly forgotten that car can't drive fast anymore.

So, yeah, I think it was off the ball weekend, but I think it was, I guess, not expected, but maybe not unexpected. That makes sense. Yeah, I see what you mean. And I, yeah, Canada will be interesting because whilst Canada does have a few high-speed corners, it's a lot more stop-start. versus Spain. Spain flows quite well, particularly now they've got rid of the chican to the point where I think I asked this question on the preview. It's like what's actually

the slowest corner at Spain now outside of the hair pin coming out of the first sector. There are that many slow, truly slow corners. But we know Canada has, you know, most of the first, you know, the first couple of corners are all slow, got the hairpin leading onto the main straight, the back straight. So I think Canada might be a bit of a revival for them. But this felt, I don't know, this felt Mercedes-esque in a way,

they kind of limited the damage. They did what Mercedes often do and Ferrari often don't, which is when you're not having a good weekend, at least get as many points out of it as you can. And they'll walk away with 14 points or so. They could have gone worse than that. so yeah, I don't think they ever had. I think Alonzo was probably on the optimum strategy as well.

I don't think they could have done much more there. Stroll, I think they left Stroll with too much to do in the final. I think they left Stroll with about 30 laps or so on those hard tires at the end, which was probably five more than you'd ideally want if you're splitting the strategy equally three ways. But yeah, I think they took what they could out of the weekend. to your point, just not, not their race. Not their race. But yeah, it's a fair point on bringing back as much they could from it. And I think the trait of that car, which is it looks after its tyres really well,

still came into fruition a bit. Because, I mean, at the start of the race, they were sort of sinking like stones through the field a little bit, the pair of them. But they could go longer on those, on that first thing compared to those around them. Like, I'm thinking like, Ockon, who else was around them? Sonoda. Yeah, exactly. So that helped them.

And as you say, I think, I do think maybe had Alonso started further up, maybe could he have challenged signs, potentially, I don't know, but. Yeah, that's the point. I think that probably could have been quite close, actually, yeah. But as you say, I think it's probably the maximum for them.

And I think they'll be further up, further up to where they were in Canada. So a little bit behind Fernando Alonzo was Yuki Sonoda. Now, Yuki Sonoda was having a very good race for himself. He started P-15, if I remember correctly. So not a great starting position. Both Alfa Tauri's knocked out in Q2.

But Yuki Sanoda made great progress, particularly early on in the Grand Prix, fighting for points, and then an incident happened with Zhou Guan Yu. Joe goes to turn into turn one. He's on the outside of the corner. Not a lot of space there. Yuki Sanoda given a five second time penalty for not leaving him enough room. Now, of course, the five second time penalty proved pretty detrimental because Yuki Sanoda finished inside the points, but that five second time penalty knocked him down about three positions

and meant he scored absolutely nothing. So what were your thoughts on the five second penalty? We had a lot of moves go into turn one today. That was the only one that caused any controversy, though. Do you think it was right decision? not I've really got back back and forth on this one

shock I don't think I think it's harsh I don't know because I feel like it was I think Joe Guan Yu slightly exaggerated his move off track

which you know he's playing playing to the He made the most of it in it exactly It was one of those where it wasn't a dive, but he let the referee know that it'd gone over. Exactly. So I think that's why I've gone back and forth on it. I think it was tight.

But I think they, in my book, I think they probably still could have made it around. But my point being is that there was no contact. Had Jogne, I think Jogon, you still would have had to turn out of it slightly. But my point being is that he turned out of it quite dramatically and flew off down the runoff. so I think that's why I'm thinking this is this is a harsh one. I think it still would have been tight, but I do think they probably both could have got around that corner, which is why I feel as unfair for Yuki.

There was no contact. To get a five-second penalty for, it's not actually pushed him off. A harsh one, in my view. But I've seen people comparing it to the Vestappen signs one at the start of the race, but signs wasn't that, wasn't in the same. position that Joe was, from what I remember. Joe was slightly further ahead.

So there's that. But anyway, dodgy, dodgy one. I would have left this one alone, if I'm being honest. I reserve the right to change my opinion because we are recording this very soon after the race has finished. So I might look at a few different angles of this. But at least first impressions here, I didn't think it was a penalty. that's a rare one for Ben

you normally get some out yeah yeah usually I'm a bit a bit more heavy-handed on the penalties compared to you I guess but here I don't think it was the right decision I don't think Joe was far enough into the corner

to say that he didn't have the room it was almost like it was shaping up to the point where he probably wasn't going to have enough but I don't think he stuck it in there long enough to prove that he didn't. Like, if he had stayed on that same trajectory for an extra half a second, I think Sonoda would have, if Sonoda still hadn't left the room, at that point I would have

changed my opinion and said, yes, Sonoda didn't leave the space. You had to go out wide to avoid that. Instead, I don't think that happened. I think one step down from that happened in that it looked like Sonoda wasn't going to leave the space. Therefore, Joe preempted it and decided to use the runoff. So I wouldn't have given a penalty for this. It was close.

You're absolutely right. It was close. But I just don't think, I don't think he left it in there long enough to prove his point, if that makes sense. Yeah, I think that's fair. That's why I'm saying he just, the first sign of danger,

he just jumped off the road, which is fair enough. Yeah, and I get it. You want to preserve your race, but then I don't know whether you can. can scream for a penalty. Exactly. Yeah. And I don't know. Obviously, worked down in Joe's favour, so he might well go ahead and do that again. And look, Joe is fighting for himself and himself only, which all other drivers are. So when he claims that Sonoda should get a penalty, every other driver would do exactly the same things.

So fair enough. But yeah, I'm on your side on this. I wouldn't give him, wouldn't give him a penalty for that. Another P-11 for you. UK as well. Did it end up P11? I think he might be P11. I might be wrong. Maybe he's P12 actually. It was 11 or 12, but yeah.

Oh, God. If points went to P12 rather than P10, it'd be all right, wouldn't he? A quick one. Before we get on to moment of the race, we'll have one last outbreak of this show. What would you rate the race out of 10? Oof.

Six and a half or a seven? Six and a half. Fair enough. Yeah, I was between six and six and a half, but I landed on six and a half as well. It was not an all-time classic, but it was interesting till the end, I would say. I'm going to call six and a half

just about in the good category. Yeah. In which case, I'm going to say, last three Spanish Grand Prix. Oh, come on. Hey, you'll roll your eyes. The boring Spanish Grand Prix has delivered three good races. in a row. Also, I've got to say that

getting rid of the chican was, thank the Lord, we've done that. Good Lord, thank you. I mean, Asthma might try and get it put back in. Oh, it was great. Yeah. And it was great to watch but also during the race, it just made it so much easier for them to I would say maybe next year they'll shorten the DRS, but fine.

I think that's a good, that's a good thing. Because they could, they could overtake Spain. we'll end this segment positively and we'll be back for Moment of the Race right after this Okay we've got some Discord submissions for Moment of the Race but as usual we'll start with our own submissions What stood out in the Grand Prix for you Harry Look there's probably one that's going to win a lot of

Or we know it's won a lot of discord submissions But I'll start with a couple of others The Quite early on the Holcomb I'm just going to list a few here the Holkenberg-Joe Sonoda battle. Oh, that was fun, wouldn't it? Pretty spicy.

When we actually got on board with it, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We missed a lot of it, but that was spicy. Ghazley's overtake on DeFries, where DeFries tried to overtake and then Gassie went right around him, absolutely mugged him blind. Another moment for me was everyone starting on soft tires. Why?

What are you doing? What? I appreciate they are in other races that would have been the medium but it's odd to see, isn't it? Yeah, mix it up, guys, come on. I know the Red Bulls start in the mediums and then as you say, Sergeant Hartz.

Estabanoch and still trying to kill Fernando Alonzo doesn't like that. Does not like that man. I mean, that was borderline. What did you, do you think that was just about okay? It was just okay, but it was I'm shocked and maybe we didn't hear it, but I'm shocked there was no message from Alonzo after that.

If he said something, we'd have heard it. We'd have heard it, yeah. So maybe he didn't think it was borderline, but it was, he just saw all the other Uber takes he had. He obviously had the fresher tires. He was just blasting past people. And then this one, Occo tries to take him off onto the grass.

So yeah, that was a good one. Another Alonzo one, but Alonzo waving to the crowd on the last couple of corners. But the one that's going to get a lot of, votes, so spoiler alert, but George Sweety North, uh, Sweaty, George Sweety Russell. Oh, my lord. Um, yeah, it was, I thought it was trying to do with some clever bluff, uh, to get red, maybe he was, but the, the call for it's raining at turn five, to which no one

else had called. And I even looked on Twitter to see if there was like rain happening. We didn't know about it, then it turned out he was just a sweaty, sweaty man working hard in his F-1 car as comedy gold. And I've got to say again, this weekend, George, some more comedy gold from him. I love George Russell. I love that of him in him F-1. He's great. He said, he said Bloody Nora, which was the UK thing ever. Bloody Nora. As soon as it started raining him, call a fight. Who was the first? It's Spitting straight away. Loves to say it's spitting.

But yeah, honestly, bloody Nora had me cackling yesterday. That was solid work. Only solid. Yeah. Oh, God. Yes, anyway, there was quite a few there, but the one I've settled on

is indeed George Russell, the sweatiest man. Honorary shout out for George Russell, the sweatiest man ever. Honestly, top tip, if it's sweat, it's happening in,

Inside your helmet. If it's not sweat, it'll be happening outside the helmet. That proper got me. George Russell nearly going on intermediate tires because of his own sweat would have definitely been moment of the race. But instead, I'm going to say something that's already been mentioned is related to Alonzo waving. Alonzo telling Landstrel, don't worry.

Don't panic. I'm not going to overtake you. I'm just opening up a gap. I don't care what he says. That is terrifying if you're anyone in front. Jeez. That proper made me laugh. It also made me a little bit upset

because if Alonzo isn't bothered about those two points, it probably means he thinks there's absolutely no chance that those two points are going to matter at the end of the season, which I appreciate it was the long-term play. to keep the strolls happy. But if he really needed those two points, he'd had taken them and he didn't feel he had to. I've got to say,

it's a new Fernando Alonso. I just don't, I couldn't quite believe he'd said it. I don't remember a time of Fernando Alonso. I know he played the long game with Oconn in Hungary in 2021, but they were, you know, very different positions. I just, yeah, it was a shock.

I can't imagine a time when he's not, if he's able to, why he wouldn't overtake someone. So he's, yeah, playing a different game there. But you're right, that is, he obviously doesn't maybe think this year's the championship year, but, well, it's not the championship year, is it? Come on. But he, maybe, maybe he knows that next race the car is going to be good again.

So he doesn't, I don't need those two points. It'd be fine. Yeah. Yeah, anyway. Maybe he's just trying to boost Joel's confidence. Maybe. I mean, if they want to finish P2, then maybe this is the way to do it.

Maybe so. As you've already alluded to, there's probably going to be a lot of Russell submissions here, but what have the people got to say? Brace yourselves, folks. And sorry to people that haven't made it on, but there were so many, so many votes for Russell,

that it got repetitive. So sorry about that. Right. First up, Joyce that kill. George probably saying, oh, is it raining? Oh, it's actually my sweat. I absolutely love you, George.

I also am recording this on lap like 60. So I'm assuming you have a podium. am. So I am, I'm screaming on the inside right now. Strategist Joy, knew what was going to happen, six laps from the end. Had no faith in Perez there. None at all. The next one is from sad Ferrari fan. Oh, no.

Oh, no. Ferrari having bad strategies, tears, crying, sobbing. What a sad day. Yeah. Sad. Sad, sad day for Ferrari fans out there. My condolences. My condolences.

Right, next up, Normie boy. Norm from Texas. Norm from Texas here. Figured I'd give my moment of the race, and that has to go to the future British milk councilman, George Russell, confusing sweat for rain in his visor. Yeah, that actually happened. Anyway, keep breaking late, guys.

Milk councilman? I think he's saying milk councilman. I don't know. Maybe it's something, maybe it's, I don't know. He's hotter on British politics than I am because I have not come up across a milk councilman before. Have you not heard of the milk party? Right. Next up is Groovy Tea, who I believe is a first time submitter. This is Tyler from the States. First time submitter. And my moment of the race was Annie George Russell radio conversation.

The first being basically a lap long of him trying to change his tire strategy. the second claiming it was raining and then finally I'm saying oh no just sweat gotta love it yeah I love George Russell doing the one stop like oh indeed trying to do the one stop

just don't pit me guys doing me pit right next is Woody hey hey Woody here from the homojas here in North Kakalaka USA I wanted to give my moment of the race to any time George Erest gets on the mic but we have to address the

worst man on the mic today. Good Bradley Lord, get off of my broadcast. He might be a lovely fellow over there at Mercedes, but he's more boring than math class and duller than a burnout light bulb. Bring back James Vows every week. I don't care how bad Williams is. Brutal. Yeah, unpopular opinion. I thought he was, he was, there was a breath of fresh air. I actually enjoyed having someone that wasn't a team principal being on there for being honest. It's quite nice. Yeah, Toto was like, I'm not doing it. Go on, brach. Yeah, I'm not doing it, but Toto's sat next to him.

Just trying to distract him. Hearding him notes. Yeah, anyway. Right, this one, I'm sorry if I say this wrong. But on Discord, I think it says, Jiri Pavlinka. Please, let's know. Yeah, write and incorrect me if I'm wrong there, but apologies.

My moment of the race has to be the end of it because it means I can go back to what I was doing before the Grand Prix. Nothing happened. Not a fan of the Spanish GP. probably wouldn't give it a 6.5. No, no, it doesn't sound like it would be quite as highly rated as what we've gone for. And then finally, we've got All Good. No, sorry, All Good Always. Not playing yours last for the sandwich.

Oh, God, the bluff. Sorry. If we're not going to play them, you can't say that name, Harry. All Good, always, I'm very sorry, but yours is whatever else is said. So anyway, what I was going to say is Dorito dust. What's going on, boys? It's your late breaking friend, Dorito. dust, aka potato beverage.

I'm working in the hospital, so I'm working every weekend, so I miss the race once again. So I'll watch it tonight, but I'll do my moment of the weekend is Fernando Alonzo instantly recognizing Gasly's three-place penalty. If only he could replace the real FIA during the race. Bridge. Yep, it's a fair call if you haven't seen the race. That's pretty much of Saturday. And that's what we've got time for.

and this is not a bluff. No beef this week. She's at Mottofest in Coventry. She can't do a submission. So, sorry, no life update. But, you know, I'm sure there'll be another one in the couple of each time. I mean, you're just kind of giving it for her, I guess. Oh, yeah, sorry, life update for beef.

She's in Coventry. Great. Thank you. Well, I mean, we've survived another episode without Sam. I mean, this is the first of three that we have to do with us. Yeah. I know. we just one episode in but we miss you sam and we are very excited to have you back for the canada preview

but we've got another two as you mentioned between then so we'll we'll have a couple of non-race weekend episodes i've just thinking that we've done three previews in a row obviously one didn't actually end up happening but we still did the preview didn't we so yeah we'll be back midweek before then though you can catch us on all of our social channels so we're at L breaking on Twitter, with a late breaking F1 podcast on Instagram and on TikTok, because we're down with the kids, apparently. Proper down. Proper down.

We've got, we've got Patreon. So every single month, if you're on the Patreon, you'll get two exclusive episodes or extras, as I'm sure Sam will be begging me to call them. So there'll be two of those for June that we're looking to record a little bit later in the month. So you can catch us there as well. if you'd like some late-breaking merchandise, you can get some of those.

You can look hunkerlicious, I believe, is the correct term. Yep. All of these links are in the description, by the way, and you can join our Discord as well. So you can get involved in general chat. You can get involved in submissions that we've had today, and we do that on the preview as well. There are probably a few other things that I haven't plugged

that I could do. Five-star reviews. I'll throw that one in there. If I've forgotten anything else, though, I do apologize. And as mentioned, Sam will be back to do these very, soon to the relief of literally everyone. I think most of all myself.

It's been good there. That's one of your better ones. That was smoother. I'm getting there. Smooth da-braida. Smooth outroa. Oh, we've ruined it. No mind.

Yeah, sorry. That was all. Hard work. I'm done. Anyway, we'll see you soon. I've been Ben Hocking. I've been Harry Ead. And remember, keep breaking late.

Do it a row, baby. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.