The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2024 Abu Dhabi GP Review

Episode Date: December 8, 2024

The curtains close on an incredible 2024 season with a historic win for McLaren, but it wasn't without a fight! Ben and Sam cover all the action from Ferrari's valiant fight, the first lap collision between Verstappen and Piastri, and Hamilton's recovery drive that concludes his Mercedes chapter... 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. Welcome to the Late Breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage. And me, Ben Hocking, the final race review of the season, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. A race won by Lando Norris, helping McLaren win their first Constructors Championship. In over 25 years, it's been a fair. while Sam, it will be the last race for a fair while for us,

but it's been a bit a long old season, to be fair. Yeah, we made it. 24 race is done, six sprint Grand Prix is done, and we've got about a 90-day break until it all begins again, which is pretty crazy that it's going to come around that fast. What a season it's been. Never thought at the start of this year, especially after the first three or four Grand Prix,

that we had such a wild ride. So many race winners, so many poll sitters, so many point scorers, every single team and they do pick up points. And it wouldn't be as simple as for Stappan and Red Ball running away with it again, you know, finishing third in the constructors after that performance today. So it's been a big one. And we've got many review episodes to come of the year.

But right now we're talking about all the action that happened from Abu Dhabi. And there's a fair bit for us to talk about. Part of today's schedule is just lap one because there's like 12 incidents to review on that alone. We've got chat on Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton's last Grand Prix for the team. Pierre Gasley and Alpine versus Hass. That came to its conclusion in the Constructed Championship today as well. We'll start out front, though. Lando Norris had the pole position from yesterday.

He was able to convert that into a race win. Oscar Piastri, of course, started on the front row alongside him. He had far from an ideal day, finishing down in 10th, but ultimately the Ferrari duo of Sines and LeClaire, both finishing on the podium, not enough for them to claim their first championship in a long time, 14 points at the end, separating McLaren in first and Ferrari and second.

Start with Lando Norris's win. It's fairly comfortable, it seemed, that gap between himself and signs up and down a little bit, but never really within DRS threat or anything like that. How impressed were you by Lando Norris' performance? Very much so. I do think he was initially aided by the chaos that ensued on turn 1, of course,

with Piastri flying off to the right, the stabping off to the left, and here is Carlos Sines right in the middle of you. It meant that he was already a good two or three seconds back from the McLaren drive at the time he got going again. But fair play to Landon Morris. It looked like once that gap was established, it was never going away again.

He was very comfortable out front. The lap times were very consistent. He never showed any pressure, any worry, any upset. And the moment the pit phases started to run through as well, the fact that they delivered that two-second exact pit stop under the pressure of, you know, they could have a forwarding an extra half a second if they wanted to, but they didn't. They delivered one of the best pit stops we've seen. It really wasn't all-round fantastic team effort from the Lando's side of the garage. And a nice way to cap off the championship as well. It meant that there was no permutations,

meant there was no weird maths going on where we had to try and work out. What does X mean? Or if they get maybe X fastest slap, or it was simply a one and done, landing RS wings the race, takes end of the championship for McLaren. And they get to celebrate for the first time in a quarter of a century almost. third play to him. If you're going to do it, that was the right way to do it. And a cheeky little message over the radio there, next year, I ain't coming second. So we'll be interesting to see if McLaren can return and do it two years on the bounce. Yeah, appreciate that fighting spirit from Lando Norris at the end. This was a very assured performance.

It was unknown as to exactly what the strategy elements of this race were going to be beforehand. I think both a one-stop and a two-stop were viable. And there were drivers that did both. sorry, there were both options available for these drivers. And Lando Norris, he did exactly what he needed to do. Yes, Carlos Sines was a couple of seconds behind at one stage, but I think McLaren played it strategically perfect. And it could have unraveled quite quickly for McLaren based on how that start went.

Of course, qualifying was perfect from their side, getting both cars on the front row. And whilst Carlos Sines was in that mix to begin with, Charles LeCleur certainly wasn't. So McLaren were the favourites coming into this race anyway. They really extended how much they were favourites by what went on in qualifying. And the first lap was definitely a win for Ferrari because you had Charlecler making up 11 positions, which is quite frankly ridiculous.

And of course, Oscar Piastri involved in an incident that saw him go to the back. And at that point, there's a lot of pressure on Lando Norris's shoulders because Chalekle makes a couple more overtakes. Carlos Seind is in the mix. Suddenly you have, Ferrari could get themselves in a position where they've got options against the lone wolf of Lando Norris. And he managed it perfectly. I don't remember any particular errors.

Obviously, track limits was an issue for some drivers. I don't remember it being a factor for Norris. When he was asked about the tires in the first stint, his response was calm. There was no threat at all. and from there he did exactly what he needed to do. As soon as signs came into the pits, Lando Norris followed him. McLaren under pressure, need a good pit stop, two seconds.

They saved one of their best pit stops for the most important time of year. So in a season where Lando Norris has not been, he hasn't necessarily avoided some poor performances here and there. There have been some errors from Lando Norris, particularly in relationship in relationship, when he needed his best to secure the constructors today, that's what we got. It's one of his best performances of the year.

Yeah, on a season where we've critiqued Lando, and I think rightly so for his starting, which is usually being his biggest weaknesses, many results have been lost, due to the fact that on the first lap, Lander has gone backwards and not turned a pole or a front road start into a victory,

that could have equally gone wrong today. You saw the launch that the Stappan got off the line for, science he'll have done something quite equally as similar, and there could have been more chaos, for Lando himself and not just for Piaschari. So to be so calm, to be so assured right from the moment the lights going out, it's exactly what someone like Zach Brown, who I think was having a mini heart attack for 58 laps,

really, really needed. And he's brought at home for those in Woking. I really enjoyed looking back on the Sky Feed, actually, at those sitting at the Woking factory to look at what was going on. And their celebration, it really brought kind of a personal element to it. So nice touch, and good to see it brought home. it made me realize I'm a terrible person, the woking thing. Did you hate it?

No, because as soon as they did that, and I know obviously they want to get that crowning achievement of McLaren winning at the end, I really wanted them to lose and see all the disappointed faces. I mean, it will make for spectacular telly, that's for sure. Yeah, yeah, I'm half joking about that. But yeah, I know what you mean. It was great to see, like, Zach Brown was incredibly enthusiastic at the end.

I've never seen a man more enthusiastic about Woking. Nothing comes close. So American as well. Like it's not even a British person saying it. You know, I love everyone in Woking. Big up Woking! So I appreciate it.

It's a mascot. Yeah, but the enthusiasm from Zach Brown and obviously the people back at the technology center was what's great to see. And yeah, in a season where, you know, Norris and Piastri, we, I think it's easy to forget how inexperienced of a lineup it is. You know, Piastri is only in his second season.

Lando Norris, whilst he's been around a few more years, this is his first championship contending season. Lecler and signs between them had the experience advantage in this sort of situation, even though they haven't won championships either. It would have, again, it would have been easy for what happened on that first lap with Piastri for it to go wrong from that point onwards. That could have been the thing that spire and everything out of control. And the fact that Lando Norris just didn't seem phased and knew that

as long as he took the race win, it didn't really matter what Piastri was doing. And that's also credit to McLaren for the buffer that they have managed to obtain from previous races to the point where it only becomes an issue if they aren't winning the Grand Prix. And in the last few races, it hasn't been easygoing for McLaren at all. It's been a while since they've had a dominant car. You'd have to go back to Singapore and maybe Budapest for that. And despite that, they still did exactly what they needed to do. I was quite impressed in a season where I haven't always been impressed by how they've managed

things. Agreed. Could Ferrari have done anything? When Landon Morris has won it with that much ease, it feels like all of the, what could they have done were very unrealistic. They could have put a car on pole. I don't know if they necessarily had the car to do that. They could have employed some ridiculous strategy that meant that one of them dropped

back almost very much in the method of Nico Rosberg blocking Lewis Hamilton in 2016 in Abu Dhabi, where he was almost driving at the, other way around, sorry, was driving at the pace of the snail to try and get him overtaken. Could that have happened? It was very unlikely that was ever going to realistically be feasible. So realistically, no, Ferrari could have had LeClearn not have that 10 place penalty. He could have not got his lap time invalidated. It went on that both cars probably still have only finished second and third.

Carlos Solix could have beaten Mando Norris. Maybe. I don't think the car was really there for them. I think Mando had the machinery and the drive today to get the job done. Actually, they were helped by Max Verstappen throwing himself into the side of Oscar Piaschre at the start anyway, because that's two huge competitors that LeCler had to get past initially, essentially pushed out the way for him. He clears those immediately, moving him up the grid.

So, no, is my simple answer? I really don't think there's too much more that Ferrari could have done there. You saw the disappointment, especially in Lecler's face after he was asked about Lewis Hamilton coming to the team next year. I want a silly question that was, by the way. I don't think there's anything else that Ferrari could have done. They'd lost it before today, mathematically still involved, but they were very much not going to win it today. I think we all said that coming into this race,

that there's about a 10% chance that they were ever going to walk away with that title. So unfortunately, no, it's races like Canada that have costing this season, got races like this one. Yeah, just that whole stretch. Like when they brought in the Imala upgrade that wasn't really an upgrade,

I know we're not reviewing the season today and that will come in a future episode, but it's that kind of stretch of race that has really cost Ferrari here, rather than one race where they recovered pretty well. I think in terms of like the pace that they had versus McLaren, fairly level. I don't think there was much in it.

But ultimately, even like the 10 place group penalty for Leclair that we were expecting to really hamper them, he basically nullified that after the first lap. Of course, he made up 11 positions. Like if he had started 9th and made up one spot to 8th, that would have been the same result as him. him making up the 10 spots anyway. And I think whilst he needed to use up more of his tires

and more of his energy to get by some of the other drivers to the point where he was a full pit stop behind Carlos Sines in third, I just don't think they were ever going to get Leclair in a position to do that pince and movement that was quite commonly spoken about on commentary because whilst they were second and third for a good chunk of that second half of the race, it was kind of irrelevant because Lecler just wasn't in, that fight, even though Signs was within a four or five second gap to do something, Norris always had the ability to just pit and be ahead of LeCler anyway. So I think the only way this maybe could

have gone slightly differently is if Charlotte Clare had made an overtake on George Russell in that first stint because he got held up a bit behind Russell. And if he makes that move, maybe they can get into that second and third position a bit quicker. And then they can start to look at different strategy options, but even when Sines was four or five seconds back in that second stint and commentary are asking, what can they do? They need to try something different. Do they go onto a fresh set of tyres and try to make up that gap? You're asking them to make like three seconds a lap at that point. It's not going to happen. I don't really hold it against Ferrari. They probably did everything they could. Yeah, the only thing I could maybe suggest is we saw how

well it worked for Lewis Hamilton was starting one of their cars, maybe Sanks on that hard tire, hoping he sticks out in the top three, which we know that he would have done due to the events that unfolded. And then if he stayed within kind of a six or seven second window to Norris, swapping late onto the mediums might have given him enough late race grip to mount an attack on Norris for the last 15, 20 laps, much like Hamilton did end up overtaking Russell, of course,

at the end of the race. I feel like that still even then will have been coming right down to the wire and wouldn't have been enough for them to take home the title, even land and finishing second, would have allowed them to take them to take the, that wing. So the permutations of their championship relied on much more the just beating Lando to this race when they needed a bit of an act of God to really cause McLaren to have a proper issue. And I'm sure that their hope soared when they saw Piafri flying off to the right of the

crack. Unfortunately, McLaren had done enough previously to this. Yeah. And you, like you say with Lewis Hamilton starting on the hard tires, maybe they'd go the same way with Charles LeClaire. And it's easy to say in hindsight, based on how well Lewis Hamilton did towards the end of the Grand Prix that LeClaire could have done the same thing and been closer to signs as an example. But then you have to ask the question of if he starts on those hard tires that are more difficult to warm up, does he make 11 positions on that first lap or does he only make up four? In which case, his whole race looks way more, way more challenging because he's having to overtake cars on a regular lap rather than the first lap.

He made way more progress on one lap than he did on all of the other 50 odd combined, which isn't, you know, that's not a comment that's meant to be hateful towards anything or anyone. It's just you can make overtakes far more easy on the first lap. And of course, having the medium tyre, that's an advantage versus the hard tire early on. So maybe they could have gone something slightly different, but I think you could run that race a number of times and Ferrari don't get anywhere. Yeah, it feels like a one in a hundred times Ferrari win the title, the other 99 McClain have got it. 19th to third for Charlotte Claire. Fantastic drive.

I mean, you saw the way he orchestrated lapwing. I say orchestrated intentionally because it does feel like it was a scripted scenario. It feels like he set up the pieces and got them down how he wanted them to be moved. The way he navigated the chaos, the move especially down into turn nine, the heavy breaking zone with the chican, where they're all fighting heavily on the inside of the corner. You've got the salber, the hearse of Magnuson. Perez is in that group as well. Joe's in that group as well. It's crazy.

Crazy. Just don't feel up. It was like a video game. It was like he was playing the Formula One video game and he went right around the outside. I think he made up five positions on that one corner alone. So half of what he made up in this one lap was done on that corner. Of course, he picks up another two from Bastapin and Piastri facing the wrong way. And then I think he ends up picking up another two or three just by the fact that other people were fighting each other and not really paying attention to him coming through.

So brilliant composure in what is an incredibly high-pressure scenario. The hopes of Ferrari are on his shoulder is science had done everything he needed to do realistically. But he delivered. And the fact they did finish two and three, for the most part, is down to just how well Lecler managed that lap one. Yeah, I would agree with that. And it's not something we often have to see Lecler do, really, fight back from the very rear of the field, just based on the fact that he usually has a car that's capable. and he did have a car that was capable of being much higher up here.

But look, it made it more difficult for himself because even though he did have that 10 place penalty, he still could have been qualifying 12th, 13th or so. And he wasn't. He was qualifying right at the back because of what happened in Q2. So he's cost himself or he could have cost himself more than what he actually has. But yeah, I think his recovery was everything you need from that spot. And ultimately, his race was always going to be. be with the Mercedes duo. I don't think it was ever going to be with Lando Norris or indeed his

teammate if everything went to plan. And you can throw Piastri in there as well if his race had gone different. So yeah, I think LeClaire did a very solid job. He did everything he needed to do. And you could tell you've already mentioned it. He was gutted. He was absolutely. I know we talk about this when it comes to his contract extensions and the light. He bleeds Ferrari. He loves that team. And maybe it's to his detriment. That's something we've discussed before. But yeah, I think above anyone else,

like he seems to be most gutted about how it went down. I think Charlotte Claire is a very compassionate and empathetic person. I think he, when he loves, he loves. I know that sounds odd, but the love he's shown for Carlos Sites, just this race, I think shows you just how much he cares about the relationship between forms

and Ferrari being a key part of that. You saw the Grafias Carlos on his helmet, the chili pepper to signify that. When they were walking out together, before the podium, a lot of hugs, a lot of, I love you,

like, best of luck to you. Like, you could tell that there's a real bond there. And I think the same, as you've just said, it's very much true with Ferrari, that it was almost slightly,

as the kids say, Delulu, bit delusional of Charlotte to maybe go into this race we came thinking, there's a chance they could win it, sure. Is it realistic? No. And he should have gone into that,

Grand Prix going, I guess he'll run my race, score as many points as I can get. If it happens to have unfolded that's a bad like I see another team, then we've got a chance to win it. But I think he drove that race going, we're doing enough, we're going to keep doing enough. We can take this off them right until the death, right until you heard that

radio message come over, which bleeped his response, because it was quite simple, the disappointment he had in his voice. The man will do anything he can for that team. I know we say free LeCler, but I don't think he'll ever want to go anywhere else other than drive for that team. So he'll be gutted, but it should spur him on to bounce back so much

strong against year. The key to winner, he'll find a way they do it. Yeah, I can't blame him for the way that he approached this Grand Prix. He's been there since 2019. He's obviously been part of that Driver Academy even longer. And this was his first opportunity to actually win a full on season trophy in the Constructors' Championship. So I understand his desperation and how much he wanted to use this opportunity and the fact that they couldn't quite get there, the frustration is more than understandable. Let's take our first break on this Abbey-Dabby review episode on the other side. We're going to try and get through some of the incidents that we saw on lap one. Sam, we had a lot of early race action. I think we've already discussed this maybe on last

week's review, but we get to this point of the season, some of the positions, some of the championships end up being decided. And the drivers decide they can be a bit more. liberal with their potential overtakes. Proper end of school vibes, isn't it? Proper, I don't care about the rules anymore. It's summer holidays in a week. I'm going to be naughty if I want to be. Exactly.

And that has caused us to have a few things to discuss. So Piastri and Vestappen will start there chronologically, of course, into the first corner. Piastri had second place. Vastappen fancied it, went up the inside and they have contact with them spinning, almost synchro style, wasn't it? A lovely pirouette from both. Yes. Ten second penalty for Vastappen, though.

Did you agree with that one? Yeah, I do agree with the penalty. Vastappen is at fault. Yes, the door was technically open, but, you know, Vostappan put his foot in it right as it was about to slam close anyway and understeered into Piazsche's path,

who was more than half a car's length ahead. This is very much just a school of thinking of, I was ahead at the apex, or I was alongside at the apex, if you agree that Vastappen had a right to be there. Come on. Is that the rules we want, people? Is this what we want?

That's what we'll get. And like, don't get me wrong, it meant for a spicy race. It meant that the entirety of the Grand Prix, there was always that little bit of tension that it could go wrong for McLaren. Sure, great. But I don't want things decided by people driving into each other. I want it to sign by good, hard racing, great results,

wheel to election, keeping one track. I agree with you as well. In terms of the championship, this became more entertaining as a result of that crash. But, like, from a pure race perspective, it was worsened because two of the, Potential contenders were knocked out after the first corner. And particularly Piastri, of course, driving the same car as Lando Norris that was capable of winning.

They weren't separated by all that much in qualifying. No one was able to handle Lando Norris today. Maybe Piastri or maybe Vastappan could have done, but because of this incident, we weren't able to see it. Yeah, weirdly, Ferrari might have actually felt that Vastappen might have been the trouble they wanted later on in the Grand Prix. Maybe he kind of did half a job for them and wanted the whole thing. I very much agree about this 10 second penalty. Something I'm not going to have a moan about, but I do want to raise is this new race director and the drivers have, it's been discussed that penalties should be more severe for contact between cars.

And I'm all for that. I think that's right. I think it should mean that we get more wheel to a racing that avoids contact rather than has contact, which is good, I think. But my frustration here is, again, lack of communication between these governing parts. parties, you know, the GEPA, sorry, the GPDA, so hard to get that the right way around, the stewards themselves and of course, liberty. And I feel like if we're suddenly three races from the end, having this change in kind of the race director, how the stewards are operating and how the drivers want to be heard,

something needs to be announced. Three races from the end. And now, of course, the last race is an odd time to start enforcing a different variation of a rule set. I just need an announcement, put out a press statement or something that just says, we've been in contact, we've all had a conversation, penalties will now be seeing as more severe. And I'm okay with that, but as a newcomer,

if you're watching this for the first time, where you think, oh, just getting into the sport, very hard to follow. Like a couple of races ago, this would have been a five, and now it's a 10. But I am in agreement that there should have been a 10, and I do think the right call was made.

Yeah, agreed. 10 second time penalty. He shoved up the inside and was hoping for the best, then it didn't work. And I don't mind him trying it. But the execution has to be there. otherwise you deserve a penalty. He goes into the side of Piastri. And this is why I just don't agree with the way that some of these drivers clearly want the regulations to be in the future, where if you

are ahead at the apex and you are on the inside, you can do whatever the hell you want. Because if that sort of move becomes legal, what are we doing? He wasn't alongside. He threw it up the inside, about as late breaking. And I know I'm going against late breaking, which doesn't seem right or fair. I just don't think that was ever on. And 10 second penalty was all okay by me. He'll also probably get in a lot of trouble for what he said regarding. I was about to ask you, what do you make of the comments that he came out with? You know, why don't they just give us 20 seconds or whatever he called idiots?

I think he called them. Yeah, I mean, the 20 seconds thing, you can say that. That's absolutely fine. But you cannot, as Martin Brundle on our commentary very succinctly put, like you cannot say that sort of thing about the stewarding of a race. because there's, and I've always said this, there's a difference between taking umbrage with a situation or a penalty and taking umbrage with the people that are giving you the penalty.

I don't mind a driver saying that is an idiotic decision. No problem. As soon as you call the people who are giving it idiots, that's where you get in trouble. We had this instance with Perez this time last year, where they didn't like a similarish comment. I think he'll be in a bit of trouble for that one. Yeah, I think it shows a lack of good sportsmanship as well.

It shows you can have a lack of respect for those who are, whether you like how they dictate a race or not. As I've just mentioned, I don't think the communication was clear on exchanging the decisions. I still think that should be enforced. But someone is respected and it's followed as Max Verstappen, hurling even a minor insult as idiots out like that. I do feel like that's going to cause a lot of people

to maybe start going down that route where you can just start insulting people whose decisions you don't agree with. So, yeah, I agreed that maybe you got the right choice of words. That wasn't the end of Piastri's in the war's moments, yes, because he had an incident with Franco Colopinto who, I mean, Franco Colopinto, an incident regardless of whether he's the one causing it or someone is crashing into him.

He hasn't been able to avoid them in this second half of the season. But Piastri goes into the back of Colopinto. And then Piastri gets his own 10 second time penalty. agree with that one? Yeah, I did. Again, if we're moving towards this more harsher set of penalties, it clearly caused some ramifications for Colopinto. And on this podcast, we don't judge based on the outcome,

but rather the impact of the crash. So, you know, he did crash into him, therefore a penalty should be giving. I do agree with this. Why I bring up the ramifications for Colopinto is because a lot of people I've seen online stated, I don't know what the problem is. You know, it's not like with Piastri and Verstappen, they spang off onto the size of the track.

They lost a lot of places. At that point, Colopinto was still going, no issue. It's important to know that even the minus of touches between cars, especially with the power unit involved, can really destroy someone's rates. A puncture, right? Yeah, right? Immediately picked up a puncture. And to be honest, with the way he hit the car,

there's a chance that he may have hit a certain component of the exhaust area or the function of the engine failure later on in the Grand Prix, and that's why they retired the cars. So, yeah, perfectly justified. Piaastri completely misses his breaking zone, double lock up, straight into the back of another driver. I don't know what you expect, really. If there's an argument for Piastri not getting a penalty here, I'd like to hear it because I don't see it.

This was fairly blatant for me. You can't go into the back of another car. Yeah, do it on the motorway. I'm not quite sure what the counter argument to it is. I thought they were going to completely ignore this as well because they were looking at a couple of the other incidents and no mention of this, even by commentary really, until a few laps later when suddenly it's announced that it's being. investigated. I thought they were just going to brush this one under the carpet. And I couldn't quite believe it because, again, you can't drive into the back of another car. It shouldn't need saying, but maybe it does. Again, if you don't think it should have been a penalty and you can

explain why, I'd like to know your reasoning, because I don't see it personally. I think a lot of people view a link and go, well, someone hasn't spun out the racetrack, so therefore it's not as implosive. It's not as obvious that something has happened because of this crash. But it would have been better for Colopinto if that had happened. Because a puncture means he has to go back and do a pit stop. If he just does a spin and the car's fine, five seconds later. You literally saw the staping, who pit the spinning up and carried on. And he also even got the back of the race back.

Exactly. So, yeah, there it is. Valtrey Bottas and Sergio Perez. Bottas went into the side of Perez on the very first lap. Perez, I mean, there will be other discussions to have, I'm sure, both on the podcast and at Red Bulls. headquarters about what's going to happen with that seat going into next season. But what did you make of that incident?

For me, this is a racing incident. They are wheel to wheel in the corner. Clumsy, messy. I do think that there's a lot going on in that corner. We've seen incidents with those callers before. Most famously, Holkenberg, when he was at Renault, landing on his roof and saying, you know, I'm hanging like a, was it hanging like a cow here or something like, yeah. You know, and that corner does provoke a lot of awkward car positioning because the way you swing

round and you can have, as we saw with Bottas looking up and hitting Magnuson later wrong in the race, some angles very quickly change. But for me, this was a mucky clumsy. They were right next to each other through a very tight corn with the heavy braking zone. They've come together, unfortunately. I do think the blame lies slightly more on Bottas, the way he kind of came over the curb. But it's a wheel to a racing accent for me. I'm going to call it a racing incident. It's the end of the season. I don't care anymore. I have another penalty. BOTAS penalty for that one, I think is fair.

You think full 10? Full 10? I think it was less egregious than the other two, so I might have gone five seconds, but I don't mind a 10 second penalty for it. I think Bottas had an opportunity to get out of it, and he chose not to, and given it's his last race,

maybe now, maybe forever. I kind of don't blame him, but yeah, I don't think Perez did anything wrong. I think Bottas had the opportunity to just file him behind. He didn't. Anyway, if you don't think Bottas should have got a penalty, I think that's fair enough because Bottas made sure of it later on in the Grand Prix when he was Oh, he did.

And next to Kevin Magnuson, which I don't think he's intending to do anything rash there, but that lockup where he goes into the side of Magnuson might be the most obvious one of the lot. It's going to be like Jensen Button, isn't it? If he does ever come back, that man's got a penalty to serve. Him, Jensen Button and Robert Schwarzman. Well, a trio. You put them on any other team. They could be winning things.

That's a quiz question for me to write down to using like three years time, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. three to five years time, you're going to bring that one up. So basically, loads of penalties. Oscar Piastri, just to go back to him, because, as we know, he started on the front row, involved in two incidents, one of which was deemed to be his fault, one of which was deemed not to be his fault. What did you make of his recovery?

He eventually gets back to P10 with an overtake on Alex Albin, couldn't quite chase down Alonzo for P9. I think it was really interesting to see how the McLaren up front, much very much like Mercedes dominant days, was so strong. strong in that clean air where it wasn't surrounded by anyone else. But the moment it gets stuck behind another car, Piastri seemingly cannot make any progress. They were clearly happy with how the car's shape was after the pit stop, no front wing change or anything. So the damage was absolutely minimal from both interactions he had with other cars, Colopinto and Verstappen of course. So that tells me

that the car was pre-operating at a good 98%. And in theory, that means that McClare should be a pass the likes of Fernando Alonso, who was stuck in front of Piastri for, they're still going at this point. It feels like they're constantly stuck together. Then a long stroll came along and did exactly the same thing afterwards, which I thought was quite comedically timed from Aston Martin. He had good pace in open air, but unfortunately, he spent 95% of his race not in open air and was stuck behind another car in his dirty air, can't make the progress through the field, was unable to really make any impact because of this in the championship fight and he could count these lucky stars that Nanando Norris was up front

for the entire Royal Prix because otherwise it would have been a very different story I imagine for that McLaren team. Yeah, I think McLaren had a plan going into this weekend that worked exceptionally for Lando Norris and worked whatever the opposite of that is for Oscar Piastri. They went with this high downforce setup and I understand that because despite the fact that you do have those two long straights, if you can be very quick in that final sector and do what McLaren did on Saturday and claim a front row lockout, as long as you can break that DRS, you're probably going to have the pace on everyone else. Exhibit A, what Lando Norris did. The problem with it, the downfall of that strategy is if the first lap doesn't go very well,

which of course is exactly what happened with Oscar P Astry. And suddenly, you're right, he's stuck behind a number of cars. And I just don't think that McLaren was set up in a way where they could make easy overtakes on these midfield cars in a way that someone like LeClaire for Ferrari could do. I just think it was a difference in the way they set up versus some of their rivals, which works very well when you're out front, but not very well in traffic. And that's why, despite the fact that he did get some of them back, he didn't make more progress than the P10 he got to. So some of it is car set up. Piastri himself might be disappointed that he couldn't feature a little bit more because it could have come down to the fact

that him being 10th, 9th, 9th or 8th could have sealed or lost them the championship. But hey, Landon Norris has done enough on the day that that one point for Piastri doesn't end up mattering. Shall we do? Driver of the day. Yeah.

The verdict is in. You're the driver of the day. You're the driver of the day. You're good at driving. For the final time this year, Sam, who was driver of the day? A number of contenders, for me, I'm going to give it to Lewis Hamilton. A little bit biased. But last time I'm going to say he's to go from essentially just in front of Charlotte,

Clair and an inferior car, and to make that final move on George Russell, and there will be people that go, oh, you know, if it wasn't their final race together, George might have closed that door. There might have been a bit of a... I don't know. It was a great move. It was a great move, but Russell didn't give it to him. He defended it all the way up straight, you know.

But there is a part of me that thinks, you know, George is quite sensible, their teammates. It's their last race together. At that point, he goes, I'm backing out of this, no worries. And if that's the case, fair play to you, George, it's a sensible thing to do. If not, Hamilton's still absolutely belting it around the outside to finish in fourth place. So, sensational recovery. I think he can walk away from this one, feeling proud. You have a big smile on his face.

It's pretty what he needed to go into the summer break. I guess what Ferrari will have wanted him to have, so that he goes into Marangelo a bit more positive. Yeah, I've got two contenders, Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris. Ghazley, and we'll get onto this in the next segment, but Ghazley did exactly what he needed to do in that Alpine versus Hasbattle.

And he was, yeah, he was legitimately fighting in the podium positions early on in this Grand Prix. And Lando Norris, he won the race and it never really looked like he wasn't going to win the race. I'll go with Lando Norris. I don't mind either of those. There are other shouts as well, Hamilton that you've said. Both Ferraris did a good job too, but I'll go with Norris. Can we just speak about Gassi's defence against Russell? The car positioning was sublime. He really was fighting well above his station. And the way he was making that Alpine work. Alpine just do,

why can't you do this all the time? You're actually good, actually quick. Gassi was phenomenal. He's ended this season, the last kind of six or seven Grand Prix. He's been up there with one of the drivers of the season. We saw it when he went back to that year. And Al-Fatari, when he went back in there, how good he was. He's just playing that level of form again. So hopefully, they give him a car that's worth something next year. It's not bad given what, the last four races or so. He's either qualified or finished inside the top six, I think.

Yeah. Like, that's pretty immense. That's better than what Hamilton was doing at one point in that Mercedes. Not bad at all. But we'll take the knot out for this next segment. It's worst driver of the day. Nice. Ben, Ben, Ben,

worst driver of the day. Ben, Ben, Ben, worst driver of the day. You suck at driving. Who's worst driver of the day? Always harsh to do this, especially when a few people aren't ever going to be coming back, but I probably am going to give it to Valtry Bottas.

Despite me, it was racing incident. I do think he was more on the blaming side for that Perez crash. He also then completely missed his breakings over. So, Count Kevin Magnusel. his last race as well. It just went backwards.

From the moment they set off, it just went backwards from such a fantastic Saturday where he was my drive for the session to end up being that bad on his final Grand Prix. It's a real shame to see him end up like that with even a chance of scoring points. So yeah, I'm going to tip my hat to Bottas. Sorry, Botte.

He's not the way I wanted to end our time together. Why are you got to do this, Valtrey? Why? I don't want to do this. It's our podcast. We don't have to, but in the interest of fairness, I feel like I do. For the people.

For the people. The love of the game. I love this game. Quote, Patrice Evere. I wasn't expecting that. I love this game. Yeah, Valtrey Bottas was the worst driver of the day. I blame him for the first incident as well.

So obviously, I think there have been two separate incidents that he's caused one DNF and one, let's face it, should be DNF and Kevin Magnuson. So yeah, I have to give it to him, even though it might be his last race ever, or at least his last race for a while. Don't crash into others. I will. And this might be even harsher because it's his first race, but Jack Dewan was my other potential one because I get that he just needed to stay out the wars and do a full race and get used to an F1 car.

But he was slow. He was really slow compared to. But lacked by his teammates. Yeah. which I accept and understand, but obviously we don't like grade things based on, well, he's only done this many races, therefore we bump up his,

I don't grade it that way. So he was the other contender, but I am, my only saving grace for doing, and I said this in the qualifying review, is that he might have the same car as Ocon was driving, which have none of the improved bits. That's also true, yeah.

Which I think is a fair nod, but yes, it also wasn't great. Okay, we're going to take our second. break. On the other side, we're going to get more into the battle between Hass and Alpine. Welcome back, everyone. Going into this last race of the season, obviously, most of the attention going to the Constructors battle out front between McLaren and Ferrari. There were other battles up and down the grid, notably Alpine versus Hass and maybe RB if they had a miracle for P6 in the championship. Ultimately, Gassley's seventh place finish, Halkenberg, 8th place, that was enough

for Alpine to secure P6 in the championship, finishing seven points ahead of Hasse in the end. Gazley obviously was a mention as part of a driver of the day, but how impressed were you by his performance? He was fantastic all weekend. The way he navigated the carnage at the start after a really solid qualifying, which saw him in third place at the end of lap one,

shows you just how well he's driving, because I don't think in a month of Sundays, which, funny enough, is how Formula One works, our people would have expected Gasley realistically to have ended that one up in P3 this was a real kind of oh, cricky, we're really going for this and Gassie was the man they put all their hopes on

he really was carrying that team on his back this weekend because let's face it even with a equal car I don't think doing was going to realistically be helping them too much at this point and Hars looked like they were really firing all cylinders Hulk did a great job in qualifying that P4 of course lost three places

due to the penalty of overtaking under the bridge in the pit lane and Magnuson was almost there And the fact that he got wiped out, of course, by Bottas doesn't help. And his race was tough as well. But it looked like Haas had the pace to fight with Gasly. And because they were two versus one, as we stated so many times, Alpine, you have two drivers. You have the ability to put both of them where Gasly was.

And they were pretty equal in ability. It could have been much easier for you. And that's how it works. But Gasly did get the job done. And he got it done solo. So fair play to him. One of the pretty unsung drivers of the season really is going to pretty go under the radio, just how good this last half a year has been for him.

Well done. He's essentially got them in the end that sixth place because again, Alpin shot themselves in the other foot by not bothering with a second driver. Yeah, great work from Gadsley. And it has been a theme of saying that in this second half of the season because more often than not, he's been delivering in terms of qualifying sessions,

routinely finding his way into Q3. I mean, even here, what did he qualify, sixth? and that was his worst qualifying performance of the last three Grand Prix, which is pretty remarkable for someone in an Alpine. Do you have to give some credit to the team Alpine in that they have developed this car quite well in the second half of the season. Do have to mention that they really started very far down,

so it was only up that they could go. But they have recovered quite well, really since, you know, maybe it was down to us. I think since we saw them in Austin, they've been far better. They're late-breaking magic sprinkled on the garage. I can't prove it, but equally, can I disprove it? Probably yes, but we're going to move on.

They've done very well here. And Ghazli essentially matched Nikolk-Hulkenberg's strategy. That three-place penalty for Holkenberg, it's difficult to narrow it down to one thing that's really cost us in this championship battle. That could be something, because Ghazley was able to match what Holkenberg did. as soon as Holgerberg comes in, Gassley follows him.

And that gap between the two of them was just two seconds, the entire race. Occasionally it got to like one and a half seconds and maybe it extended out to three seconds. But Gisley was able to keep him in check. What he did early on, that you've already mentioned, the defensive work against Russell, Gasly is legitimately one of the better defenders on this grid. Like, he is up there. What he did at Qatar was great as well. Yeah.

He is very good at defending. and ultimately Hasse couldn't put two, well, Hasse couldn't get two drivers in the fight, partly out of their control with what happened with the Magnuson and Bottas incident, although Magnuson was already a few positions behind Holcomberg at the time.

And you could argue Alpine, and I would argue that they have got away with it a little bit, essentially sacrificing one of their drivers in this battle. You couldn't really expect more from doing this week. weekend just based on it's his first race. But even so, Gassley has by himself done enough. And it caps off a really good season for him from an individual perspective. Yeah, agreed. Feels bad for Magnuson. I'm not going to lie. He's acting's ups and downs this season. But the fact that he's been taken out essentially through something, it was nothing

really to do with him. A bit of a shame. Bit of a shame. This was a weird race for Kevin Magnuson because up until the point where Votas, let's face it, took him out, it was a very typical Kevin Magnuson Grand Prix. Like if you had to put money on who was going to be steaming down the inside on that first corner, on that first lap to try and overtake like three cars, you'd have gone, hmm, probably Kevin Magnuson. And it was Kevin Magnuson. Although the end of the race, you'd have assumed that it was Magnuson being too aggressive and taking out another car in himself. And instead it was the other way around. It was something that wasn't his fault whatsoever. So he's thought he hasn't been as good as Holcomburg this season, obviously.

But there have been times where he's been able to match Holkenberg and be in the fight. It was disappointing to see him taken out in that fashion. Agreed. Anything else Has could have done realistically? Or was this? Because it looked like they had a quick car. And I think they did have a quick car. In practice, they were putting up some impressive times.

But was this just the case of Gazley's done a very good. job. Magneson's been taken out by something that wasn't in his control and you move on to the next season. I think the damage was done in qualifying and I think it was both driver led. Unfortunately, Magnuson didn't do enough to get himself into Q3 and the car was so clearly there. Really was clearly there. Hulk would do a brilliant job and then mucked it up for himself anyway by doing a silly thing like that. So that's frustrating. It's frustrating that on the day if Hulk had kept P4 and Magison had got himself into the Q3 and even if you qualify something like 9th, you know, that difference would have been enough.

They might have won this by one or two points at the end of it, because Alpine are quite literally fighting one-handed, and you've essentially handing it to them with silly errors on this final day. So they're going to have to gather themselves and go again next year. I think they could take pride by just how far forward they've stepped since, since we were in disgrace last season, because last year, they didn't understand tyres. This year, they're one race away from finishing sixth.

and they cap off this season having scored their second most points in a season ever which you know they've been an f1 for like a decade now so that is definitely an achievement and as we will demonstrate in a future episode far better than what we fought at the beginning of the season in terms of our predictions oh no I didn't know Kamatsu could do it like that yeah I thought I thought Kamatsu was a sous chef but man is leading the kitchen man's got Michelin Star Michelin Star Kamatsu new nickname for you I-O

let's move on to Mercedes they finished fourth and fifth here Lewis Hamilton after being knocked out in Q1 yesterday the only driver to start on the hard compound manages to go from 16th on the grid all the way up to fourth and only a few seconds off Shao LeClaire

who finished third overtaking George Russell on the last lap George Russell finishing in fifth place You see no podium, no win to cap off a season. There have been a few bright sparks for Mercedes to end this year. This race wasn't necessarily one of them. But if we focus on Lewis Hamilton's last race for this team, a team he's won multiple championships with,

how did you view that? I'm sure in a dream scenario, this is not the way he saw it going. I'm sure he didn't envision starting right down on the kind of the back two roads of the grid. I'm sure he didn't expect to have a bollar stuck under his car. and I'm sure he wasn't expecting Toto Wolfe to have to come out with a statement saying how badly they mucked up the execution of the qualifying run. It's a very amateur hour, that qualifying session for Hamilton's side of the garage. The pace looked good in the car. So the fact that they fumbled the bag so many ways and then got hit with the bad luck of a bollard being stuck under your car as well.

Sometimes you can't write it. Sometimes it really doesn't. The cars don't fall your way. but Hamilton executed the race brilliantly. He was starting on the hard tire, the only person to do so, as you mentioned. And that was such a fantastic strategic call. And he kept those ties alive.

He didn't start chucking it down the inside of cars. He didn't put his car in danger where there was so much chaos. He managed his drive-through the grid really effectively, behind Lawson, for example, for three or four laps. Or he had a lot of pace. Gets the tires warmed up, gets the move done, drives off into the distance.

next car, next car. And then he got into this flow of every time I catch up to the car in front of me, they pit more clean air for me. Next car. They pit more clean air for me. Eventually, he finds himself in this top five fight. And because of the way the tyres were wearing off and some teams don't know whether it's a one stop or a two stop, he's managed to once again be the tire whisperer. And we've seen this from Lewis Hamilton time and time again. The fact that he's only got to do about 20 laps on those medium tires, which are by far the better race tire, means that he was able to close that gap down. And the very much like Vegas, you know, where he had that final stink where every lap, a second gone, a second gone, a second gone, relentless the way he was taking

chunks and chunks of time out of the cars in front of him. And it wasn't like he just had to catch Russell that passed him. He had to pass the hearse again. He had to pass the Alpine again. You have the staff and breathing down his neck at one point. He was on his way back through as well, catches up to Russell. And what a sublime move. I don't want to take away just how good a move that was between teammates on the final lap to make that happen to get himself into fourth place. It really was a brilliant drive from Lewis Hamilton in a car that on the day maybe was, third, fourth best equal with maybe Redboard at that point. A sublime drive and something like I said earlier, I think he could be proud of and I think

will allow him to go into the winter break going, this old man's still got something in the locker. He can still do something on a race day. I think going into this race, it was just one of those where this wasn't Mercedes track. We've had a few tracks this year that Mercedes have been very good at. A few of those have been recently. Ferrari and McLaren had a clear advantage on Mercedes today, in which case, fourth and fifth is probably the best they could have accomplished, given Piastri was obviously out of the equation.

Lewis Hamilton, there aren't many things in this sport that are as good to watch as are charging Lewis Hamilton through the field. There is something special about it. when he's got the bit between his teeth, when he needs to make up ground, whether it's because of his own doing or the team's doing, it doesn't really matter.

When he needs to go hammer time, as we heard and also didn't hear, from Pete Bonington, when he needs to be that driver, it's a sight to behold. And you're right, seeing it a couple of times in the second half of the season,

even if the qualifying side of things is letting him down, it does at least provide some encouragement when he goes to Ferrari that he still got this electric race pace when he needs to display it. I didn't think he was going to catch George Russell. And when I say I didn't think he was going to catch him, there's a difference between catching and passing, as Murray Walker famously said.

I didn't think he was going to catch on the back of Russell, let alone overtake him. We were about 13 laps from the end and he needed to go at a second a lap pretty much. And I was like, he might be able to do that for five, six laps. I don't know if he could do it for 13. Because those tires will wear off as well, the medium compound will. And he just maintained a brilliant pace to get that fourth place finish. We heard earlier in the race that apparently P3 wasn't off the cards when Pete Bonington said that over team radio.

And I was like, nah, come on. I understand giving him encouragement. That's not on. It was on. It wasn't that far off happening at all. So Lewis Hamilton, you're right. This isn't the way he'd have wanted it to end, but it was one of his better performances of the season for sure.

Shall we do Big Brain Strat? I need you to box for wets. What? It's not even raining out. What are you talking about? Yeah, and Bob, if you get a chance, let your teammate. What have you got for Big Brain Strat, Sam? Yeah, tricky one, because you could go serious

and say something like Lewis Hamilton's strategy was absolutely fantastic. I'm going to go with R.B. Simply not putting the tire on the car properly. For me, that is one of those things. Do you know the book? Yes. We write down in. It's a rather full book at this point, but yes.

It is. Yeah, we can publish it now. Attach four ties to car. Feels like one of the first things that should be in the book. That wasn't great. There's a couple of as I mentioned, but I'll let you pick yours out first because I don't want to start picking ideas out for you. I just wanted to quickly go and spend some time on the Lawson thing

and how she got hit with that 10 second stop and go penalty, which is a big old penalty for that sort of thing. You're right, obviously, they didn't attach the front left wheel correctly, but it didn't seem to impact his pace on the one lap that he did. And even the commentators, I was certainly the same way, looking at that tire like, is it?

I think it is. I can slightly see it rubbing on the arch. Yeah. It wasn't one of the obvious ones. ones is what I'm trying. It's not like one of those where you go to the end of the pit lane and it's falling off. You know when Lawson's message came out, you have put the tyres on, mate. I always expect us to cut and see the tire bouncing down the road in front of Liam Lawson, who is now trailing on three wheels. That's what I thought was going to happen. Yeah. I think for that sort of thing as well,

you need to be extra safe about it. So I don't mind a hefty penalty, even if you are penalised by the fact that you are going slower than you would do on a lap. And I'm not convinced he was actually that much slower even with that tire being a bit loose. But yeah, it's not one that comes up all the time. So is it a fair one? I don't think that car should have been allowed to finish that lap. If there's risk of a tire, and we've seen the damage that tires can do, not just in Formula One, but in many different motorsports,

brands hatch, there was an unfortunate incident only a few years ago where a loose tire bounce, clean over the catch fence and killed a steward horribly. This is the kind of thing that the car is just down. safe. It should not be driving around the race track. And you mentioned it, essentially full race pace. He barely lost time through the sector splits. If the FIA and the stewards are that unhappy with this, that a 10 second stop there, Benitez should be applied. That car should just be black flagged. The moment that it's come out that that tire's got on, you drive to a steward's post slowly, and you part the car. I do not believe that you should be allowed to drive around that race track at full

speed because what if they went, what if he turned around and went, actually, I could do a few laps. Let's see how it goes. Who's pulling them in? How long will we get taken them? I just don't think that it was the, that that is enough. I don't think that's enough. Yeah. It's a complex one because like I say, it's, if the team can detect straight away that there's

something wrong with it. And I then agree with you exactly. Like they should take all the precautions. But if there is some doubt about whether it is, obviously, you don't. want to force them to retire the car and then see actually, no, it was all fine. So it's, it's difficult to. Sure. I mean, in most instances, as we've already mentioned, it is more obvious. Yes, absolutely. And it might be, it might have been really obvious to the people in the garage as well. Like, they might have just seen all it like, oh yeah, it's it's not on

properly. And you can make a call about it straight away if you're the team. But if there was some doubt about it from everyone's side, then it becomes a little more complicated. But Yeah, I think they were told him to stay out if they were really kind of, you know, oh, we think we're okay, actually. They knew. They've got a censor on that tie. They know if it's not on. I'm going with a serious big brain strat to end the year.

And it's something we just spoke about a little bit, which is the strategy of Alpine with Pierre Gasly. And the reason I say this, because Alpine and Pierre Gasly were fighting in the podium positions early on in this race. And he was holding off George Russell, not like comfortably, but he was holding him off. And I think at that point, Alpine could have been distracted by that fight.

And what they needed to do was race Nico Holcomberg, because that was their only real competition, like in terms of the championship. And as soon as Holcomburg comes into the pits, they pick Ghazly the next lap. Now, all of the other drivers around Ghazley waited longer, which was the quote unquote right idea. but Alpine were very clever in that they knew who they were racing and they knew who they needed to cover off. I think Ghazdi could have maybe finished a position or two higher.

Certainly, I think he could have beaten Max Verstappen if he goes longer on that first stint. I don't think he did the optimal strategy, but he did the optimal strategy for what he and the team needed, which is covering off the Hass. So I almost want to just compliment them for not looking to one side. Oh, podium battle. Okay, let's focus on that.

focused on the right thing. It's something we confident Fernando Alonso for a lot of the time. It's racing your own race, really like, thinking who your fight is with and not getting led down the garden path to try and have a crack at something that realistically isn't ever fully attainable unless things really go your way.

So fully agree that Alpin did a great job focusing their battle on securing that P6. Should we have a look at these bold predictions, the last ones of the year? Oh, fine. Do you remember what Harry's was? No, I never remember what Harry's was and he's not here anyway, so no point regardless.

What did Harry say? Oh, yes, of course. That was it. Man, that's wrong. That's very wrong. Say it for the people, please, Ben. Harry predicted that Sergio Perez would win this Grand Prix. Oh, yes. Behind the scenes, they'll break in here, folks. Kerski is mouthing the bold prediction at us through her muted screen. So thank you, Purdue.

Yeah, Perez to win, well, like Perez, DNF. Yeah, if he changed it slightly and said first to DNF, he'd have been right, but first to finish the Grand Prix, not quite, which might be the nicest way of putting it. Isn't that funny that every time he predicts a wing, Perez doesn't finish a race? Yeah. Sam, what was your bowl prediction? I said that Lewis Hamilton in some way would disrupt the McLaren approach to the title, allowing Ferrari to take the title. It was a long shot and they never really came across each other. Max Verstappen may be sure being who I picked from that, not Lewis Hamilton.

But yeah, still wrong. You know when sometimes at the end of the season, like one performance or one race can really cap off what the whole season has been? That was my bold prediction. My bold prediction has just summarized what my year of bold predictions has been. I said that Valtry boss would finish in the points. He qualified, he got through the Q3. like the amount of bold predictions this year that have just had promise and gone nowhere has been off the charts.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you were an Oggsman, you'd be always picking the second place guy. Yeah, that's what it feels like this year. Yeah. Oh, well, there's always next year. Is there? Do we have to do it again?

He's got one out of 24, but I mean, Harry's only got four out of 24 and he's won the whole thing. He's not here. He can't win. That's true. So I win, because I've got two. Yep, well done.

Harry's disqualified, you win. Shall we take our final break? I suppose. On the other side. Shutting away, what we're doing, mate? Moment of the race. Welcome back, everyone, to the final part of today's review

of the Abouabie Grand Prix. That of course means moment of the race. Should we give our own moment of the race, Sam, and then we'll go to some Discord submissions. What have you got? I'm just going to steal your one. I know what your one is, so I won't steal it. I've got quite a few.

you written down so you go for it yeah okay good because it really made me laugh and that was yuki senoga's reaction to not being told that he could pitch being told he could say out it's just be there like what's like you're having a laugh like why why do you make this decision for me um really got me note to myself to put that on the soundboard yes please do we need that um it was a real i don't know if this red bull seat decision has played any part i've played any part in his frustration, but he seemed very irritated for a lot this weekend. So yeah, that's it for me. It's as simple as it can be sometimes. Yeah, that was definitely a contender for me as well. I think overall, there were two other ones that really caught my eye that haven't had a mention

on today's episode so far. Firstly, this will be runner up for me. Fernando Alonzo, as soon as Lewis Hamilton comes into the pits and comes back out, of course he's just ahead of Fernando Alonzo. who is on ancient tires and yet still fakes the overtake to the inside like one last. Oh, we almost got them. But my moment of the race was some team radio again, but a different one from the Sonoda one. Are we really going to lose the constructors like this? Yes, Charles, like this. I just love the fact that, like, are we really going to lose the Constructors' Championship like this?

they come back, yeah, yeah, we're going to use it like this, but we'll give it a go. Yeah, but I mean, there was another one for Ferrari that came up with me, which was the whole, we're going to try playing see if that's feasible. It's like, I don't really think that's very feasible. Optimistic. Yeah, yeah, try a bit too much. What have our Discord submitters got for the moment of the race? Well, we're going to kick things off with dumb electrician, but before we do, thank you to

everyone this season that has submitted. Thank you to everyone that takes time out of your day to do a little message on the Discord. We're going to continue doing these into next year. Always remember, keep it super snappy, great quality and bring your best banter because we absolutely love it. So thank you again. You really do like a little bit of lovely community to our show. So thank you. Dom electrician, what have you got to say? Dun electrician here. Moment of the race was Piaastry getting booted into the Shadow Realm by Max with a world class comment about a world championship drive. and then proceeds to boot Roy Colopinto

and picks up his own 10 second penalty. Have a great day, everybody. Yeah, that one came back to bite him a little bit. Yeah, you can't be saying things like that if you're then going to get a 10 second penalty yourself. Sorry. Driving straight into the back of someone, you know, not your finest hour.

Although that was a funny line. And him going good to the 10 second penalty coming his way was great. Up next, one of our favorite East Day. vendors, it's a hazard. Right, boys, my moment of the race wasn't having to build a bloody spreadsheet during the middle of it because the commentary team was so poor in keeping us up to date with the permutations.

It was Kevin Magnuson pitting like 20 times for fastest lap on softs. And as we know, the fastest lap point goes away next year. So that'll be a pub quiz question for eternity. Cheers, boys. That's true. That's another one you can ask about five years time. Yeah, I can't believe we haven't given more attention to Kevin Magnuson just going on soft tires at the end for no reason whatsoever.

Like, what was it like 20 laps from the end? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure, why not? Um, it feels very Sao Bigeo from about 15 races ago. Yeah. Just do it for the sake of it. Uh, I reckon we've got quite a happy man coming up here because it is the CEO of McLaren, uh, the bungalorian.

Uh, the Bungalorian. My moment of the race, McLaren crossing the line as world constructors champions, an absolute beautiful thing. We've done it. Papaya on top. Yeah. Also, it was really funny to hear all of the hope drained from Charles Leclair when he realized that Carlos Sines was no match for little Lando Norris.

Yeah. Little Lando. You can only be so annoyed when you'll start all the back in 18th place. You know, get the job down yourself. I need to declare something right now. What's that, mate? If I hear papaya on top again, I am stripping them of the championship. It seems very fair. Very fair.

You've won a title. Just don't be cringy for one day. Yeah. Just say. Piper on top. Get out of here. Just give the love to Woken, like Zapp Brown did. Yeah, exactly.

That's the way to celebrate it is. It's Papa on top now. Up next is Nick the Quentin. So, Blake Breakers, this is Nick, the quick moment of the race. I got to go to Charles Clare, the rhythm. I'm not sure what that was. For some reason, it got rhythm on the night stuck in my head the rest of the race. KMAG, going sauce for the fastest slap.

Shout out KMAG, enjoy your post-F-1 career. Yeah, interesting season. I guess congrats to Papa rules. And we'll see you next year. Keep breaking light. That was a hilarious comment as well. Okay, back into the rhythm. I don't what rhythm you're wrong about, but this is it.

Yep. This is all I got, buddy. Up next, it's our favourite. Are they crustaceans, crabs? They are, but yeah, but this is a V-crab, so it's a different type. Ah, okay, let us know in the comments what kind of animal a V-crab would be. Hello, late breakers. V-crab here, the unofficial fishmonger of F-1.

Moment of the race. I mean, where do I begin? honorable mention for Charlotte Clerk, the overtaking about 10 cars at the end of the straight, but it has to be Lewis Hamilton, overtaking George Russell around the outside on the final lap to get fourth place in its final race in a Mercedes, even though the race direction was appalling.

And we still haven't seen a replay. But anyway, yeah. I mean, it was a sublime move. We would be shouting about that from anyone making that kind of a move on the last lap for a position. So well done, Lewis. I'm glad it only took up one tenth of my TV. I really like that we finally worked out split screen,

but for them, split screen is 1% of your screen and 99% of your screen. They don't seem to... We had one moment where we were talking to Zach Brown. We had Lando Norris coming to the pit lane, and we had what was happening on track. And all of it was incredibly clear. Just do that more often. Ah, dear he mate.

Up next, it's the... Oh, sorry, it's Lucky the Lepricorn. Hi, everyone, it's Lucky the Lepricon here. I would just like to say that my moment of the race is McLaren finally winning after 26 years, the Constructors, and I'm very happy about it. Subscribe to the Patreon. I mean, good for you.

McLaren been in the pot of gold. Yeah, we'll talk about it properly. in our fuel season review episode. But if you are a McLaren fan, soak it out. You know, really enjoy it. It's been a long time,

a long time. Got last couple now. Finally, Mr. Spaghetti Dinner Lady is up next. What's going on? Late Breakers. Mr. Spaghetti Dinner Lady here. Moment of the race was turn one.

Max or Sappen, just being overly optimistic and going for it on the inside of Oscar Piaastry. Doing my board dirty. but classic radio message from Oscar Happy McLaren took it See you love the pod

Thank you Mr. Spaghetti Dinner Lady Coming in late with one of my favorite Discord names Finally to round off the The moment of the races For this season We've got the bearded rugger What's going on late breakers

Bearded Rugger A.k.a. Tommy K20 My moment of the race It's got to be Lecler's charge All the way through the pack P19 to P3 Definitely made the Constructors Championship

interesting all the way to the end as a McLaren and Ferrari fan I was a bit conflicted but glad to see both guys on the podium it's a hell of an end to 2024. Can't wait to see everybody come back for 2025. Cheers lots. We can't wait either. Is it sacrilege

to support both McLaren and Ferrari? No, do what you want. You've got damn right. That's the right message going to the new year with. Do what your bloody want. Yeah. That's it, mate. That's it. Thank you ever so much. for everyone who's submitted for moment of the race here and also for all of the other 23 races throughout the year.

And of course, we've had under pressure as well. Between the two of them, that's like 48 is lots of submissions. So thank you very much to all of you. And as Sam mentioned, we'll be back in some capacity next year, I'm sure. If you're newer to the podcast and you're thinking, wow, end of the season, can't wait to listen to these guys in three months time. You can stop thinking that because we have got plenty of episodes

still to come the end of this season and the beginning of 2025 as well. Just to give you a quick rundown of what it's looking like the next couple of weeks. So our Wednesday episode, alongside some regular topics, we are going to be looking at our championship predictions. How did we do in teammate wars? How did we predict the constructors and the driver's titles would go? We'll be reviewing everything there. And then one week from today, we'll be doing our full championship review.

So we'll go through the entire calendar, pick out some key talking points. and then the following Wednesday is the big one. It's the late breaking awards where Clives Pigglesworth. And if you're thinking, who on earth is that? Don't worry, you and many others will be asking the same question. We'll be looking at some classic awards that we give out at the end of every single season. And there's plenty more, Sam, on Patreon as well. There is.

There's going to be a question either of this week or next week where we do the LB Hall of Fame. And as a big part of that, the community get to decide and induct a lot of into the Hall of Fame. So cast your mind back through the whole season. I promise you now when you see the current inductees, it does not need to be a simple, obvious and serious solution. There's a fire alarm in there as an example. That's one of the normal ones.

Big Shaq is still trying to change the batteries. So if you want to see it as a funny thing, get your nomination and get commenting and you can vote for each other's as well. So do get involved. You've got lots to come. Patreon, oh, we're recording so much. Honestly, we still got a whole month of December, January getting out a whole month. So February, we're not going anywhere. So checking all out,

Formula One content does not go away just because it's the winter break. Thanks for listening throughout the year. We appreciate your support. It has been our biggest year ever and we're still going. So we love you and we'll leave you for this episode. In the meantime, I've been Samuel Sage. And I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late.