The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2024 Abu Dhabi GP Qualifying Review

Episode Date: December 7, 2024

Please note: Recorded prior to Hulkenberg's 3-position grid drop. Sam and Harry review the LAST qualifying of the season at Abu Dhabi! They delve into the action of a mixed up session from McLaren closing in on the Constructors' crown by securing a front-row lock out, a bad day for one half of the Ferrari garage, some surprising Q3 appearances, and a troublesome bollard... Get your friends or family the gift that they truly deserve... gift an LB Patreon membership HERE

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. A very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast. Hosted by Harry Ead and me, Samuel Sage. Yeah, there's an individual missing. He's trapped on a train in Plymouth. But we are here to...

Punishment. Poor, poor lad. He'll come back tomorrow, we promise. We're reviewing the last qualifying session of the 2024 season. Abidabie. That's exciting. Harry,

did you have a lovely time? You got home quite late last night. I did, yeah, from our LB Christmas party. And I also had issues with trains. So not having luck with trains today. But never mind. I did enjoy that.

My only, I've got like this feeling now of a little bit of sadness because I just know tomorrow is going to be hella disappointing because it's Abu. Yeah. Whereas that was really good. About pole position, winning almost constantly.

It has now got the longest streak of any track where Pohl has won is horrendous. Yay. It's going to be great. We have a great time. Positive thoughts. Loads happen. We've got lots to run through.

We're going to talk about Jack Duhin, his first run. We're going to talk about that battle between Yuki and Liam Lawson. Of course, challenging maybe for the Red Bulls seat next season. We're going to look at Mercedes, how Hamilton was trapped by a ballard, and Russell seemingly couldn't get into the top six. So where's Mercedes-Paceous pace gone?

Perez, into Q3. but out qualified by Bottas still, Holgerberg having a sensational, sensational session. But we're going to kick off with McLaren, who picked up a 1-2, Norris was too-tenth to clear of his teammate. Ferrari, Sikes only having the one car in the top 10,

he was in P3, while a Clure. With that 10-place penalty that he's received, he's going to start all the way at the back of the grid. Harry, is it title over? Oh, it's going to be tricky for Ferrari tomorrow, isn't it? I mean, it was going to be tricky anyway, with Lecler's 10 place penalty. The fact that he's starting Stone Dead last

makes it very tricky. Just a couple of future teammates hanging out of the back of the rib with Leclair and Hamilton tomorrow. I love a nice time. Oh, a lovely time. But yeah, this is, this is going to, I mean, signs is obviously up there.

So I think their main hope Ferrari is if signs at the start can get in amongst the McLaren's. The McLaren's are running a lot of downforce. So it could be quite vulnerable, especially on the opening lap. So I think for, for Ferrari's hopes. I think it lies in signs

being a menace if he can tomorrow, but that McLara looks quite good, doesn't it? Quite quick around here. Yes. We'll see how that translates into the race tomorrow.

But yeah, it's going to be a struggle for Ferrari, I think. But there's still a race to go. McLaren look fast, but as we've mentioned many times, have a tendency to be very silly. And it's all gone very well so far.

so I'm just I would I'm apprehensive as to what they can do to be silly but if they can just run off at the front McLaren I think are going to seal it and what a way to seal it if they can nail a one to that would be quite an impressive way to seal the deal you but you couldn't question it at all could you be like yeah fair enough you did that you got the job done um yeah Zach Brown seemed pretty emphatically happy when the um the clock ticked down to zero and the two drivers were there especially with piastries like being reinstating as well that looked like it could a little bit touch and go in that last session. McClan are doing everything they can right up to this last point.

They had a little bit of a bumpy moment going through the season, of course, where you had, you have Costa, you have a few moments around Brazil, where it didn't look like it was really going their way. And they've done a great job at kind of re-emerging themselves as that top team. I worry a little bit for their race pace. As you said there, Harry, they are running a lot of downforce. Now, if they can, scamper on away and maybe put some time between themselves and the Ferrari, Holkenberg, which was weird with throwing his name in there so regularly now,

before they get onto lap two where DRS is activated, they might stand a chance. But it's one thing to be fast over a single lap where you haven't got any pressure from behind, you've got to defend. But it's another thing maintaining the plus one second gap, ensuring that you're not getting past so easily down those two, Goliath DRS straights. And we know that Ferrari's a monster in a straight line.

It is by far its biggest complementary part of its buildup is that Ferrari's engine, the speed. it can put into a straight line is crazy. So having two of them in Holgerberg in the house, and of course, Sainz who starts P3, and I argue that Sikes has got nothing to lose. I know he wants that Constructors, but it's probably his last shot at a race wing

for a very, very long time. So even if the contractors isn't on the cards, there's every chance that science just absolutely sends it anyway. And try to tell you that off of his old Palando Norris in front of him. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens there right at the end. With Lecler, it was never good that he got knocked out. you know he had that 10-place grip penalty and then gets the crack validation in validation he drops him all the way down to p-13 at that point

he's got to be hoping for our safety car or something some kind of severe strategy change to allow him to get back into this one yeah I think it's going to have to be a chaotic day for look like to get back into it I would have been really interested to see where he would I know wouldn't have made the difference because he had the penalty anyway but where he would have ended up because totally the friday did have some good pace signs was third and I think the clerk you'd say generally

is the better qualified so if he had been had been in the mix where he would have got that got that Ferrari on the grid but yeah tomorrow's going to be tomorrow's going to be a long day and it's typically pretty difficult to overtake at Abu Dhabi

it's got better with the changes to the track in recent years but it's not it's not the greatest for over overtaking opportunities so we'll see I don't bet against Nicclair if the car is good, then he can get back into it.

But in terms of outscoring McLaren, that's going to be a tough thing. Tough, yeah. Final note from you on, Piastri, looked like he's had a bit of a bounce back. This was better qualifying from him, much closer to Sonaris. Feel good about his chances tomorrow?

Yeah, I think, either of them need to win the race tomorrow in terms of, it doesn't matter which one does, they can be one too. I think they, again, it goes back to not being silly. They just need to secure this one. so yeah good for him

these are right up there with Norris he clearly had good pace I really enjoyed his second running Q3 where he gave the turn one curb the widest but known to man it was so far away from it but I'm not just saying that made much of a difference but

yeah like I said it was good that he had that one reinstated for his sake but yeah it's gonna be gonna be an interesting one I really hope it's not boring I want some spice for the final I just need a bit of spice please yeah we've got one left There's a little...

A bit of paprika. A little bit... We've got the Spice Man in third place. Surely he's going to spring for something. As he's known? Cardinals signs the Spice Man. Oh, they love him in the June movies, I believe. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's a nerdy reference. Moving back, only one row next to said Spice Man. It was an unfamiliar German face that appears to be there in a weird white and grey car. Mate, Holgerberg's in P4. What's that about? Oh, my God. I jumped off the sofa when he went P1. I was like, oh my God, it's happening.

Yeah, look, that house had a lot of pace. And actually, Kevin Bangson will be looking at that disappointed because his final running Q2 was, we were on board with it. Terrible. It was not good. Yeah, Cardinal looked good. But it's clear the house has pace. But once again, Nico Huckinbur just doing what he's done all year

and been excellent. Sorry, what he's done over the past two years. Last year we couldn't see what that would result in because the car couldn't do five laps without burning. tires but yeah a terrific terrific performance from him in what is a hat like last year we were mocking hats and rightly so because they were not good um but yeah it's it's why he's going off our why he's going off to how he's going off to how it's driving so well at the moment and it's not even a k-mack is driving badly i mean he'll think they'll look back at that lap and

see it's a missed opportunity but yeah Holkimos is driving driving excellently so so I'm just choking on the brunch bar I had but Benelby live it the goat If you were to compare a brunch bar to a racing driver What are you thinking?

Nika Hulkenberg Correct, the goat But yeah it was a this is a bit like a big statement from Nika Hulgenberg Not that we didn't already know this but final race of the season

for his current team. I think if you're looking at, if you're material not so looking at that, you're going, okay. Solid. Good signing for next year. Yeah. Of course,

it's imperative that Hulk has a great performance here if Magnetons can start outside the points. Because Gassley, with essentially no teammate, we know we'll get on to doing later, but O'Kong, gone, that car has got, may as well be,

you know, as a testing session for him. Gassley P6, you know, directly behind Hulk at the start, who's had another fantastic qualifying, Gass has been on such an incredible run of performances. I wonder if Gass is just doing enough to make sure that Alpine pick up this P6 off of Hars, who are currently, I think, about seven or eight points behind overall. So it's very, very close.

My worry for the Hars car, they look fantastic on light fuel. They look great when there isn't a lot of weight in the car, when the tyres are fresh. But when they did their longer rungs in practice and they had a lot of heavy fuel on board, they did seem to be really quite slow. And you saw the car washing out on a few of their laps. That happened a lot during their race-paced run. So it would be really intriguing to know if once the race gets underway and they settle into a rhythm,

if Hulk is able to hold on to maybe a top five, top six. We might see the likes of Russell. We might see the likes of Perez, who knows, for stabbing, of course, right in between those two coming through. But points are very much on the cards. R.B, look like they're fully out of that fight for P-6. now. I think a miracle

pull this off. We'll get on to them in a little bit of time. But thoughts on Gassily as well? I think he can turn it around. I think you can do a good job tomorrow. I mean, another great performance from Pierre Gansley.

He, that Alp. has clearly made improvements over the sort of last third of the season. But I think he's driving excellently well because I still don't think it deserves to be that high up or indeed even in the top 10.

So there are a couple of standouts and we'll cover them, but a couple of standouts from this session. Holkenberg and Gassley are certainly two of them because I think they drove superbly. And like you say, yeah, that's going to be an interesting one to watch tomorrow. You'd say KMAG probably has a better chance of helping out that situation for Hasse versus Jack Dewan. But yeah, we'll see what happens.

But as it stands, they're going to need Hulk to stay where he is subject to his investigation as it currently stands. And they're going to need Gaisley to drop back a bit because at the moment I think Alpy might just do enough. They might just do enough. Doing enough. Very good. Oh, we've got a whole year of this at least. Oh, thank you.

Thank you, Liz from Discord. You've opened a can of worms. Your little gem. Yeah, right in between these protagonists for sixth place, we've got current world champion, Max Verstappen. Couldn't it improve on his last run at all. We nearly pull it into the bloody boonies at the end of his first run, and yet still went fastest at that point,

ends up sliding down to fifth. What did you make of his same? session. Firstly, the save is outrageous. That is, honestly, you know, when you see the things on like on Twitter or X, and it's like defined aura, that is, that is basically aura. I, again, Red Bull, tricky to know where that actually is that car. It looked really good during most of the session.

but that final lap, it just didn't come together together for him. The irony being that he was sideways about to head towards a wall on his first run and then the second run he just did a normal last corner

and it wasn't quicker. But had he got that last corner right on the first run, who knows where he would have actually ended up because he definitely lost at least a couple of tents going sideways. But yeah,

Verstappen was pretty impressive. I love the fact that we've got Vastap and Ghazdi then Russell and Gassi's going to be like the mediator between the two of them. He will do the Russell pose itself to hold them apart. You stay away from each other, please.

Pierre could not care less. He is going to be like, I'm out. I've got a P6 to get. But yeah, I think Vestappen will be disappointed where he's ended up there because he at least clearly had some pace in the car to challenge with Paul because for most of the session he looked like

he might be the favourite. So yeah, probably a bit disappointed. It'd be interesting to see what his race pace is like as well. I would imagine he'll get past Holkenberg. And then he's in the fight with the two McLarence and the Ferrari signs. So be interested to see what that one pans out tomorrow. Yeah, Stappen and the Red Ball team.

Interesting one. On the Friday, they looked like they were struggling. The car didn't not look comfortable around this racetrack. Their pace, I think on two of the three practice sessions, both cars were outside the top 15. It was not looking positive for them. And they really worked their magic. So much so that weirdly, I think that Max Verstappan, as you've said,

is going to end up being disappointed to be P5. I think there was enough pace in there to at least be where science is right now, maybe where Piastri was. The gap between Norris and Piastri implies that another car could slot into that gap quite comfortably. And we know how good for Stappan is. For Stappan could pull time out of absolutely anywhere. And if I was going to do it, it would have been him.

So the fact he went slower without the mistake, very, very intriguing. You've got a hope, though, that for the spice of the race, to make sure we get a good one, Verstappen's car is at least on par with the McLaren's and Ferrari, and we can ensure that we get another good three-way tussle for that race win. I think Stappen will clear Holgerberg.

That's no disrespect to Holgerberg or a Haas, but it's a Haas and he's driving a Red Bull. I'm sure that Holgerberg is where we're not want to jeopardize his chances of scoring that P-6 for the Haas team by getting to a tangle with Max Verstappen as well. I'm sure that's not a... An issue he would like. Final point before we go to our break at this first bit here.

Sergio Perrits has got himself into Q3. It's only his second time since Singapore that he's managed to get into Q3. He starts P-Teng. I'm sure when he looked forward with the car he wasn't expecting to see, was Valtry Botas and a salber? Pretty phenomenal stuff from the bosses, Harry. Oh, Walter. Goodness me.

Another one I cheered for when he got into Q3. Well, I was very happy for him. please get hit with some points tomorrow. Just a point. A point we'll do. Very impressive from Bottas. There's clearly been some approvals with that car, but he's Sean because I don't believe that car is a Q3 car.

Another one to add to the list of superb qualifying efforts today. So yeah, out qualifying a Red Bull is, I mean, it's a great compliment to what Valtry Bottas was doing out there. it's also a bitch damning to Sergio Perez and like I say I'm not convinced the rebel was actually as good as Vastappen was making it look so

you know I'll give some benefit of the doubt to Sergio on that one but it's a salba we've called it a toaster all year that's not a great look to be out qualified by by that so it's not over

he's you know he's still in the top term for tomorrow. But yeah, he's going to want to make up. He's going to want to finish in front of Bottas, at least. Yeah, Sergio, press the off switch, my guy, because just like that, toast, you are done. It's one thing. It's one thing being outqualified by a salvo

when you've put your car in, say, 17th place. As we've seen Sergio Perez do multiple times, but Valtry Bottas, what a boy! What a boy! Putting this inside the top 10, beating Sergio Perez in a car that, okay, Max made it look good, but it's also better than a salba, quite comfortably better than a salver. And the fact that Valtry Bottas has delivered some sensational laps, that one where he jumped up to provisional poll at one point during Q2.

I quite literally whooped and hollered on my sofa. It was a fantastic experience to see Valtry do so well. Please get that man some points. He deserves something. What's next Valkyry? Points score in 2024. Yes, yes, yes. We're going to move on after the break to discuss a little bit of Mercedes and RB, because

this might be maybe the final nail in the coffin for Sergio Perez. There's been a lot of talk about how he might become an ambassador role. And either Lawson or Yuki Sonoda might fill that seat with Isaac Hajar moving up to that R.B. Jr. role. You see this happening, Harry? How much do you think this is going to put the confidence in the minds of the Red Bull family that he probably isn't meant to be there next year? I'm not sure being outqualified by Sal was going to give him any confidence. it's a shame because I think for most of the session

he looked there or thereabouts with Vestappen. I don't mean like he was quicker at any time but he was only a few and look we're talking about this is a general comment about F1 I'm really looking forward to next year because there's going to be no development from where we are now to 2025

in terms of in terms of the cars because everyone's going to start looking at 2026 so we could have a really exciting year and based on this quality alone where we've got a Salber and a Hasse and an Alpine in amongst the top guys.

Next year could be really exciting and the gaps between them have been very close so you're not talking much here but it just didn't come together right at the end for Sergio even if he had been like it's just being behind the Bottas

isn't it basically even if he'd be he had been eighth you know Vestappens only in in fifth so that's only a few places behind but it's just it just doesn't quite, hasn't quite come together for him right to their death. Because I think for the most part,

his session was actually all right. And obviously he made it all the way through to Q3, which has been a struggle somewhat in a lot of races this year. So that alone is good. But I just don't think then qualifying 10th is, is enough to convince the people of Red Bull that he's the right man to go for. I'll be real,

I don't think he could do much tomorrow that would dissuade them from not letting him go. I don't think even winning the race would do it. I would love to agree with you, but he's done so many Pank's things and they've still just kept him exactly where he is. The man has a contract for next year, right? In theory, he can kind of do whatever he wants

and technically he has still got a drive. Unless they want to pay out the big bucks. And I'm not sure Red Bull will be spending their money on that kind of thing. So it's definitely going to be a tricky situation for them to negotiate. They definitely will have some kind of contract. obligations for performative standards.

So if he hasn't hit X amount of points or the gap of the stapping is X, it's, there'll be some clever contractual moments in there. They can wiggle through. I saw a damning stat that if the Staping outscores Perez by seven points, I think is, it will be, he'll have scored double the points of Perez for the entire time they've been together,

which is pretty shocking statistic. Yeah, so there's going to be some conversations. We might see some movements and some changes over that winter break, break, there's been a lot of murmurings about a stakeholders meeting going on after the season ends to determine what should happen with that secondary seat. It's going to be interesting. Is Lawson and Snowgirl, they really at the place where they should step into there? Again, we don't know. We'll get on to that, I suppose, after the break when we talk about them.

So let's hear your thoughts on that kind of top 10 roundup. Let's know what you think. Who might take that wing? Is Holgerberg the great civil time? Yes, is the only answer I want to hear. Thank you. And after the break, we're going to be talking Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton and getting trapped by a bollard. Oh, no. Okay, welcome back to the second half of the Abu Dhabi qualifying review episode. Thank you for joining us.

Harry Samuel Say, Joe Ben Hocking, he's very much trapped in a train in the southwest. We're still here, though, don't worry, guys. We're still here. Imagine your game, when you came up from a break with us, one of us that disappeared.

He's gonna have a train. We've lost one, we're down to two. No, and we're down to one. And it's just one. One person playing a game. It's just the bollard. Speaking of, so. ballard. Lewis Hamilton's final qualifying with Mercedes after an ever long time. He looked very

boys going into qualifying. The car felt comfortable. He said how quick he was in practice, always in the top five in every session. Regularly outperforming Russell in those laps as well, for it's all come tumbling down with a certain Kevin Magnuson decided to pop off the ballard in the final sector. And I don't know how often we've seen this in Formula One, but it found itself directly under the floor of Lewis Hamilton's saying he's destroying any chance of an improvement in the final art. And he's not a lot of in the third sector. What are your thoughts on it, mate? Pretty unlucky.

Yeah, that is brutal luck. I think a lot of being made about the bollard. I think also, and Hamilton mentions this in his interview of Sky in between sessions, but the positioning they went out on track was terrible. Because you saw when he started his lap, he was behind, he's right behind Gazley, I think. Yeah. So not fine. This was also analysed on Sky that, you know, he's getting a load of turbulent air from

from that alpine or alpine, as he called it. Sorry. They've been around for ages. Come on, man. Is it a lodge? Are we going skiing? The alpines. But yeah, so that, you know, that in itself, I think this is the bigger problem here.

The bollard at the end of that. But yes, obviously, that's not good because he's going to take away a load of downforce. But he did only have to do like two more corners at that point. So I think the damage might have already been done. The bollard was a, I mean, that is just unlucky. there's, I mean, Martin Brundle made this point in commentary. Why do we have bollards there? Because they're there for like GT cars, as he mentions,

to stop them and cutting curbs. F1 cars aren't going to do that. So they don't need the bollards. But anyway, a debate for another day, whether we need bollards and F1. That's a real. Yes, ballard, no. Yeah, Ben making it into a game.

But, yeah, just unlucky. And I don't blame Kevin Manston. He was just trying to get out the way. I mean, he literally drove off the circuit. to get out the way, but inadvertently knocked that bollard right into the path of Hamilton. And it was day done. And it's unfortunate because, as he said, he looked really good in P3. I think even he was feeling like it could have been a good day.

And he's now back in it. Well, 18th, it will be 17th when the Claire goes back there. But, you know, we've seen that car has got some pace. Not as much pace as I think it, we thought it did, judging by Russell's performance. but I think he's got a chance of getting back into the top 10. Yeah, Hamilton is already making big moves as any World Champion Award.

He's passed the Clare. He's passed both the Williams cars now as well who are taking new gearboxes. I don't know where they found those down the back of the sofa, apparently. So he's moved up from 18th to 15th. I think he might have to start. Oh, he's further up.

Okay, fine. I think so, 16th or 15th now, yeah, because of these penalties that are being applied. But, yeah, so unlucky. He called out over the team radio. I think Toto Wolf came back over the team regular back to him, and they all knew what a state that was. You looked at the traffic.

I mean, Russell having to get out of Lawson for a start, you know, and before he started his lap, and he kind of came out and said, I got out as much otherwise I could without deleting my next lap. Because, of course, if you start your lap, the previous corner, off the track, you've gained advantage, and therefore your lap time is also deleted. So Mercedes popped themselves, both their drivers,

in a really difficult position, no space into work with, no clean air. And you saw in Hamilton's sector, time started to pop up. The first sector was yellow. He hadn't improved only by a marginal amount, so he could still have gained that back, of course. And he was doing so in the middle sector. He had a great middle sector really improved. But he was stuck behind. I don't think it was just ghastly. I think there was a couple of cars in front of them down the road that he had to essentially get past during that DRS zone. That's hampered him already. That's already a bad start.

And on his final ever qualify, you just had to simply put him in a, plop him in some clean air, get the job done. You've done it literally hundreds of times together. This wasn't going be that difficult. And he ends up all the way back there. The Bullard is just bad luck. And I think Brundle quoting Murray Walker and says, you know, if you didn't have bad luck, you would have any luck at all.

And that is how Hamilton must be feeling right now because it really just didn't go his way today. I can't blame him for it. I think he probably would have gotten through how to he crossed the line without any other issues. Hopefully, he has a jolly good time cutting through the pack. And we get to see him in the points one last time. And I'm saying, is Russell, on the other hand,

out qualified by Hulk, out qualified by Gasly, out qualified by Fernando Alonso, not feeling too good about their pace overall for the race. Real like beginning of the year vibes where it's the Aston Martins and the Mercedes, or in this case, is only one of them. But yeah, that was not quite where I think they thought they were going to be. And like I said, again, it was a very tight qualifying,

but I think Russell will be disappointed that he's ended up behind. well yeah and Aston Martin and Alpine and Haas when when you know the likes of Hamilton and LeClew

were already out so to be down there is not the greatest position in the world maybe their race pace which has tended to be better than the qualifying pace this year will mean he can go up

he can improve but yeah not quite the strong finish to the year that I think certainly after FB3 that maybe most people thought that Mercedes were going to have but yeah we'll see. He's only one place away from Vastappans,

so who knows what could happen. Oh, Vastafans is just going to pull to the side at the start of the Grand Prix. Yeah. Or hell Cabrales. Yeah, we are going to have. I mean, if we expires,

those two have got it covered. Thank goodness for that. Thank goodness for that. We move on down the grid a little further from Russell. Now, both RBs, who were at one point in contention for this P6 battle

are now a good, I think 15 to 18 points away from that kind of alpine hard fights or alpine that harsh fight, should we now start saying? Sure. Yuki Sonoda got knocked out by Valtrey Bottas at that time going from Q2 to Q3. It does mean he's out qualified Liam Lawson in every single qualifying appearance that they had come into together this season.

Has he done enough to get himself into that RBC or Red Bulls see, should I say, for next season? Or are they just going to overlook him again? They give it to Lawson because reasons. I wouldn't be surprised if they give it to Lawson. I know he's not qualified him every time. it was only by two one uh two thousandths of a second it was close a lot but that alone is you know yuki sonoda's been in affronts is the beginning of 2021 leon lincoln did a couple of races last year and he's on like race what is it six now i would suggest maybe they think lawson has a bit of a potential

but it's a red bull who knows what they think we could they could keep serjea perris this right so i'm not saying either of them have bad performances i think they both qualified that car about where that car should be. And it was only the great performances of people like Bottas. As you mentioned, that meant that they were, at least one of them was not in the top 10. But they're both doing about the same job. And it was the same in Qatar as well where that car was terrible.

So at least I've improved from that. But they both seem to be doing a pretty equal job. And that, you know, on that basis, I think makes me think they'll go for Lawson. Because if they're doing the same job now in a year or two time, a year or two, then Lawson could be doing a better job than Sonoda is doing now. But who knows, we'll see. But yeah, on that P6 battle, they're certainly not going to be involved in it, I don't think.

Yeah, it's a really tricky one for Yuki Sonoda. He's been a very loyal servant to this Red Bull family and it's the longest serving driver for the junior team now. Surely he's going to start looking at other options immediately if he gets passed over again for someone like Lawson. That's no slate on Lawson. He's a very quick driver, very talented young driver. But you've got to be thinking, I've done my time here.

I've put the working. I've continually beat everyone I've come up against, even if it is by such a small margin. He is still the guy that's on top. But I do understand what you're saying. We played that game the other day, as ridiculous as it was, with being the collar pink no, collopink, yes. You know, do you take colopinto or do you take X, Y, and Z?

And a lot of the time we chose Colopinto simply because of his age and what he might go on to achieve, rather than someone who we've seen for four or five years. Yuki-Sinoda was one of those options. And I think both you and I picked Colopinto, whereas Ben, I think, picked Nuki Senoda at the time. And that shows you that... We're idiots.

We're idiots and don't trust our opinion whatsoever. But maybe that's how they're viewing the situation. Maybe they go, Lawson's coming. And while he's only, I don't know, 2% behind Senoda right now, give it two years time. He might be 10% in front of Senoda. That might be how they're viewing the situation. Do let us know.

This has been a big conversation the whole way through the year. You can comment down below in the, if you're on Spotify in the comments or come and speak to some Discord, the links in the description below as well or follow the socials like breaking off on and get involved any of the conversations we're always up for hearing your opinions

and remember on the race tomorrow you can do your submission throwing at the race so have your voice heard one final little point that I'd like to bring up is we had a little debut from Jack Deum

is he doing all right in your opinion Harry? I think he's doing as well as I thought he was going to do and this is what baffles me about this bloody decision because what Alpine is the point in this

you could have had Okun up there potentially around the position where Ghazley qualified in a great position for tomorrow's race now you're fighting with one hand tie behind your back because and this is no disrespect to Jack Dewan this is exactly what I thought he's going to do because he's this is his first F1 race at the tail end of an F1 year of an F1 season and why wouldn't he qualify that far down

And I don't think there should be any criticism laid in front of him because I don't think it's his fault at all. Yeah. I was watching it going, well, obviously this has happened because they're Alpine. But yeah, no, doing, you know, fine. I think he just keeps it clean today and tomorrow, what he has today, keep it clean tomorrow. And that'll see him out for the year. But it just again emphasizes Alpine being Alpine. Ah, yeah, Alpine.

come on. You know, you got two drivers for a reason, you know, and both of them need to be doing pretty well for you to be successful. And Hars have got one guy currently in P4, obviously he's under investigation, but we're going to take that as a result for now. Magister, who was disappointing in his final run, is not far away from those points. It would take one DNF, one great overtake,

which you've seen him do recently, to pick up one or two points. If Gassley has a DNF, which their reliability hasn't been fantastic in the last couple of Grand Prix, we can see that happen again. that's harsh getting past them. That's them taking that sixth place off of them. If you had Ocon in the mix, who was a season driver,

who was right up there were Gassie regularly when the car was equal. I think their qualifying record for this season was 12, 11 in favor of Gassley, shows you how good they were together, how close they were. And we saw that last year. This is the only one in teammate wars

that we've chopped or changed it because we just weren't sure which one's going to be best. And do, no disrespect to him. He's having his first ever session. He's learning. He's trying to grow. He's not the man you want to be

relying on to me the difference maker in any kind of championship deciding results. So, oh, Alping, it's so Alpine that right now you might have thrown it away because Gassie's carrying the entirety of, you know, the French hopes on his back. Engstone are preying to a giant gasoline statue back there at the base, I imagine. But he did all right. He doesn't embarrass himself. He's got crashed the car and the pacing look absolutely awful. And I don't know how many of the old parts he's running in comparison to Gassi who might

have, of course, got the upgraded parts. that they put on his car the last couple of Grand Prix. I assume he's still running Ockong spec of the car essentially. So I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt that he's doing an all right job in a car that isn't actually very good.

But I think even if he'd had the most upgraded Alpin in human history and he'd qualified last, I still wouldn't have been mad at him for that. I just think that's what was going to happen. It was inevitable. So yeah, we'll get to next year before we start, you know,

so you know criticizing him at all if we need to but I think for now he's done a fine job and that's as much as he can do because this is race one so yeah yeah yeah I love that Martin Brothers was already

calling him his dad's name repeatedly yeah big up Mick okay before we go then Harry driver of the session who have you got real tricky one because as I mentioned a lot of standouts

Alonzo Gazzley botas I'm gonna go with Holkenberg subject to whether he actually gets that stripped away but even if he does

I'd still say Horchberg because that was a tremendous lap but yeah quite a few quite a few

standouts in there but I will settle for the Hulk a fantastic shout and if you hadn't gone for the Hulk is who I'll go

for but literally to mix it up to make sure we get a couple of different games on the board I can't give it to Potties

unreal qualifying beats a Red Bowl come on the toaster maybe not let's see what happens tomorrow. We will be back for a full

and our final of the season, Race Review, and then we'll also have power rankings for the final time when we also reveal who is our driver of the season, who is our worst driver of the season, how we've ranked things individually. So if you want to hear all that, you need to join the Patreon, the links in the description below and you could gift Patreon to someone. So if you think, oh, they love F1, I'll give them a go. Or they, you know,

get them involved in something. Do it. Go on, do it. It supports the show massively. We're really proud of the content we make over there. I think that's everything. I think we're ourselves out of it now it's been weird without being here not sure how in the show but we didn't reference 1917 once either that's bang's fault that's beng's fault entirely oh no i bet 1917 is the time he gets home god just poor boy i hope not because what time did he leave you he left my house at five past 10 oh god bed go home safe please please anyway in the meantime i've been samuel sage and i've been harry ead and remember keep

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