The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2024 Brazilian GP Review

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

Umm... where do we even begin?! Let's just say, in this slightly longer than usual episode, the LB boys chat through as much of the action as possible from that spectacularly chaotic and crazy Sunday in Brazil... FOLLOW us on socials! You can find us on YouTube, Instagram, X (Twitter) and TikTok SUPPORT our Patreon for bonus episodes JOIN our Discord community JOIN our F1 Fantasy League BUY our Merch EMAIL us at [e-mail]   & SUBSCRIBE to our podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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We'd love to talk, business. Thank you for listening to the late-breaking F-1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. Well, welcome to the late-breaking F-1 podcast presented by Harry Eid, Sam Sage, and me, Ben Hocking. Today, reviewing whatever the hell that was. They're calling it the Brazilian Grand Prix. Apparently, a Brazilian Grand Prix won from 17th on the grid by Max Vastappen, and as expected, joined on the podium by both Alpine drivers.

Um, sure. Where do we start with that, Sam? I mean, it certainly was a Grand Prix. We certainly did the Formula One today, didn't we? That happened. Cars went round a track, and we got 69 laps. Nice. Thanks.

I'm not saying it again. I just had to get in there early. I mean, Lance Stroud did try to not make us have a race. He gave it a good go. We'll get on to that, because what on mind with that one? He gave it a good go. I've just realized there was a, Qualifying session this morning. That was today.

Oh, this has been the longest day of all time. I feel like I've been in Brazil for the entirety of my life. I am now Brazilian. Naturally, we have quite a lot to get through on this podcast. So apologies in advance if we don't get to your favorite driver, favorite team, a particular moment that happened because there is so much, we are bound to at least miss something. But we'll do our absolute best to at least keep some structure to this.

review, but that does remain to be seen. We've got all the favourites, of course, moment of the race is coming up. We're going to review our bold predictions. We've got driver of the day, worst driver of the day. We're going to be looking at some of the incidents that cause penalties out there. Russell versus Norris, which was a battle for a long part in this Grand Prix, but we should, of course, start with Max Verstappen, who was on the back foot coming out of qualifying. It was already known that he was going to drop five places due to needing to take an extra component. But of course, if you're starting somewhere near the front, the impact of that isn't too large, but he doesn't make it through to Q3. We'll talk a bit more on

qualifying later on, but he starts this Grand Prix in 17th place. Expectations, unexpected, but he manages to get all the way to first place, obviously using the conditions to his advantage. Sam, how impressed were you with what Vastappen was able to do? You know, how long you react to so many things in such a short space of time? You kind of just don't have the ability to form facial expressions or make the correct sounds anymore. But inside, I was so impressed with what he was able to do. It was mind-blowingly good. And a lot of people while I was live stream were kind of, oh, he was helped by the safety car. He was helped by the red flag. Yeah, he was. But on a race weekend as calamitous and disastrous and chaotic as what

we've just seen, you'd be stupid not to try and cause your strategy to have a safety car or red flag or something play into your hands. To bear that in mind, on a normal race weekend, you might think, and maybe there's a 30% chance a safety car comes out. In this Brazilian Grand Prix, there is maybe a 95% chance that we saw either a safety car or a reg flag. We got five in qualifying alone. We were getting at least one at some point throughout this Grand Prix.

But it wasn't just the reg flag that kind of saved him, if I'm going to use, you know, the others' words. He got himself in the right place where it, when it, when it, counted. Up four places on lap one, a phenomenal start to his Grand Prix, past the likes of Hamilton with ease, gets himself back into the points. And kind of the onslaught of positions only really comes to a stop. But he finally meets a car that seemingly has real pace. And that is the sister car of Sonoda, who is causing a cue back where he has to kind of sit behind the likes of Senoda, he has to sit around with the likes of Ocon, and he has to be there with LeCler as well.

And he buys his time, Lecler pits, he gets through. And he plays every condition, every decision, every moment to perfection. Not like something that Norris and Russell did. You heard the outburst from Russell when he didn't pit over the radio. I told you we should have stayed out on the VSC.

It's fuming over the radio, was George Russell. Max Verstaffin called it brilliantly. And it shows you the level of expertise, the critical forward thinking that he can have and that team can have. And why making these difficult decisions in such cutthroat, conditions pays off for you. He played himself perfectly into having the opportunity where he could go on

to lead the race and of course, go on to win it by 20 seconds. Firmidable. It was an absolutely brilliant performance throughout and I think he conquered every condition as it came at him in a brilliant manner. Harry, it's not the first time we've seen Vestapp and excel in these sorts of conditions, but we know that that Red Bull hasn't been operating on the level that it was earlier this season. Of course, this is his first victory since the Spanish Grand Prix. How impressed were you by his performance? I know we sometimes are in danger on this podcast of being a bit hyperbolic with what we say.

No. No. But his start alone is outrageous. Just his start. Just his lap one is I've had seven showers since I watched it and I'm still dirty. That curve at the soul move. Filth. The sun shone's out.

of his backside Curved Soul, backside to Soul, because obviously that was sublime the way we're around the outside. Backside DeSole is not

a phase for makeup. No. No, no, no. But that alone, and, and I mean,

he makes, he makes a mockery of the, like three people were immediately in front of him off the start. It's like he's in a different lead.

They're an F2 cars. But as you say, he was so calm into turn one. And then, as you said it, through turn three, Cover de Sol, just did his 2016 line.

Like, no one's remembered that's the thing he's like you know i've done this but i've shown you this works and no one's paying attention um that alone i was impressed with but he's he's he's just so good in the wet isn't he i know he's speak about hamilton and vastappen they're very good and hamilton his his skills are clear in the wet but vostappen is maybe it's particularly just around this circuit but he's just so confident like he's just way more confident than anyone else um in finding the grip. So yeah, on a day where it, you know, the points gap could have swung the other way for him. It would have been in a day very easy for first happen to get tangled up, get frustrated

and not score any points. But he didn't. And he just caught. He was quick, but but did it with, with a calmness that the befits a three times, almost four times world champion. And I've got to say as well, a shout out to GP, who never really gets enough love. But GP, I think might be the best race engineer in F1 because he's just so methodical and so calm with Vostappan. It's the partnership as well like

exactly. In the opposite of Vastappen. Exactly. Without GP, I'm not taking away anything from Vastappen for today, but without GP, I think Vastappan is a lesser driver.

And we saw it in the sprint yesterday talking about his game plan. We saw it again today when he's behind Ockon for a chunk when the race resumes. And GPs like, look signs has just gone off it can go wrong so easily restart the restart happens and the step in p1 landers off the the track and he's in p7 i mean that alone proves the point of of gp and the

worth of gp so and a rebel have lost a lot of people but they're not losing gp and i think that's a worthy worthy uh worthy signing or resigning there so no but yeah just happen that's that's up there with his best other drive if not maybe it is his best ever drive you know i i i love lot of words, a lot of phrases will be said about this performance, about this Grand Prix, and rightfully so. But if I can summarize what I viewed the race as in one line, it was the best driver in F1, proving he's the best driver in F1. Simply put, he doesn't have, there isn't someone on his level. As great as there are drivers in F1, Lano Norris, Charlotte, Claude, there are so many brilliant drivers in this sport. Vestappen, in these conditions,

just shows that he's that one level higher. You're right, the first lap was flawless. You couldn't have painted a better first lap than what was delivered. The approach into term one was spot on. He gets a great start in the first instance. The approach to term one is brilliant because he could very easily have lost his race at that point. He's tentative. And then he used his turn two and turn three to his advantage to then make the overtakes.

You're right, the move around the outside of that. those, I don't know, 37 cars it felt like, phenomenal. It's still going. Utterly phenomenal. And the fact that Norris and Russell, obviously with these conditions, they're able to pull a gap on the rest of the field. But Vastappen is still picking up fastest laps whenever he's overtaken a car and he has a little bit of room to work with.

He's making an overtake, at least for the first 10 laps, pretty much at an average pace of one per lap, until the point, as you say, he gets stuck behind the likes of Sonoda, O'Connor LeCler. But until then, he really was, into turn one, it felt like there was a breaking zone and a Vastappan breaking zone. Like there were two different things.

Every driver would have to hit the brakes at a certain point, and Vastappen can say, right, I can go an extra 20 metres than that because of the confidence that he had in those conditions. That was phenomenal. I agree with your read Sam on the safety car because, yes, it makes sense to build a safety car into your strategy here

because conditions, it makes sense. But the point is, Vostappen still benefited anyway, even if that safety car didn't come out. We know that a few drivers, including Vestappen's teammate Perez, went onto the wet compound. I'm pretty convinced that that advantage

would have dried up within a couple of laps. We knew that better conditions were coming. And the likes of Chalekla, they were struggling to make their way through the field. So actually, I think they were absolutely right to stay out, and that includes the Alpine drivers, obviously. The Stappen was right to stay out. And then the overtake on the likes of Ocon later,

I know it was on an Alpine, but it was clinical. It was, it was, it was what it was, you never felt like he was in danger with any of the overtakes. It's a pressurized move, right? He still had to make a move for the lead on a wet track we've seen enough crashes. And a mistake was easy for many drivers to make there absolutely flawless from him. As mentioned, I think this was simply a case of the best driver in F1.

Proving he's the best driver in F1, I apologise for my British bias there leaking out. Yeah, Max Verstappen famously born in... Sunderland. Yeah, Sunderland. Yeah, Sond, sure, is a Macon now. It's also something that was pointing out is that with this wing,

Max Verstappan is broken. Fernando on Longso's record for the most wings from different group positions. He's now hit 10 different group positions. First, obviously, second, third, fourth, sixth, seventh, 9th, 10th, 14th, and now 17th, where he is won a race from,

and that topples and longso's previous record. So that is, you know, Max Verstappen is inevitable at the moment. We'll keep two fairly short answers on this one, as I think it might be a discussion that we have midweek anyway, but Harry, Chamberschamber, 62 points. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was not, it was tough before we came to the weekend,

and we'd said this before. Norris needed some luck he was chipping away in it with some of these results again with a sprint yesterday but chipping away at two points of time or you got three points

in the end or something like that but it was never going to be enough what you need to not do is chip the other way unchip which he did today and actually lost points unless first happened

has a disastrous final couple of races then it's not happening yeah it's done. I agree with you. Going into this race, obviously, Norris on pole,

and you've got Vestappen in 17th. And to say at that point, yeah, Vestappen's not only going to win the race, but he's going to claim an 18-point advantage on the day over his rival, Lando Norris. I think this is it done.

And in a way, if this is very conclusive, I'm almost glad that this is the type of race where it becomes conclusive because it was, based on the excellence of one driver, not a collision, not some controversy with the FIA. If this is what we would deem the decider, it's happened because of the brilliance of Vestappen rather than anything else, which I'm quite pleased about in a way. Sam, over?

Yeah, I think so. I did state on the live stream that if Vastappen managed to get to about 8th or 7th, maybe, and Norris Wing to the fastest lap, it really is actually young at that point because the gap has come to under 30 points. So within three races, It's definitely closable. But, you know, the fact that we've now got over 60 points is the gap. We've got a spring involved in it, but I just can't see it changing around. He'd have to have one of the worst three races of a driver, I think I've ever seen in a championship fight for this hit topple.

Fair play to Vestappen, got my job done so long in the season. That he might actually wing it before the last race of the season now is very impressive. So I think that's, I think it's game over for Morris. Alpine, coming into this weekend, had a grand total of 16 points. I can't believe it. And they were ninth in the Constructedist Championship. They walk away from this weekend in sixth place in the Constructors Championship

with 49 points. To put that in the terms of percentages, over two thirds of Alpine's points this season happened today. Ockon in second, Ghazley in third. We know Ockon had a fairly good qualifying. He was on the second row of the grid. Ghazley, similar to Vestappan, all the way from Vastepen, all the way from 15th up to the podium.

Sam, how important is this result for Alpine and how impressed were you by both of them? I mean, forget sausages, forget bacon. Oli Oli Oaks's going to the kitchen. He's cooking a full fryer. The man is feeding the 5,000 at the moment. That won't a performance from Alpine. And on both ends of the spectrum,

because they had to move Gassi forward. And at the same time, they had to solidify the brilliant word that Ocon did in qualifying earlier on in the day. And we've said quite a few times in recent races that Gassi's been driving out of his skin. Qualified performances have allowed him to make the difference when it comes to the race results. It's not like Ocon's being slow in the races, but because his Saturday, in this case, Sunday performances have not being up to the same standard, he's missing out on points.

But this time, it's almost like they got the perfect balance there. O'Con qualified well, maintained his pace. Gassley got caught out by that unfortunate reg flag that happened and meant that actually he had to come forward. But the strategy got played in so brilliantly, they absolutely changed the game with how they thought through this race. Alping have done something so well so the only natural next step

is of course you fire Honey Oaks and give the position to someone else because that's just what Alping do. I imagine there'll be a mass firing and they'll do something else. They won't know how to react to this or fight everyone. Driver's gone.

Honey Oaks is gone. Niko Rosberg, 2016-esque. They'll just leave. Nico Rosberg F1 because he'll buy it probably. But they were sublime and it is amazing how quickly, down that end of the Formula One championship.

Things can change. We've been talking. The last three or four Grand Prix, since Singapore, Haas or Arby, Haas or Arby, Haas or Arby. We've been saying,

how Haas has been chipping away. They look like the favourites. Rby coming back into form. And they looked okay today. You know, they had Senoga and Lorsi in the points. They were doing well, scoring well. Hello, Al Pina here. Knock, knock.

Come in. It's our house now. You can leave. We're in six. We are the sixth place team now. And they've snatched it away from them. Now, the point this is still close, but it's a three-horse race. And if Gassi and Ocon can keep doing what essentially Gassi has been doing

in previous more standard normal Grand Prix, I'm amazed that Alpine could genuinely take sixth place and are not the favourites for it, but they're also not the underdogs. There's a fighting chance that they are well in with a chance of holding on to six from the last three Grand Prix. A brilliant turnaround. We'll never have called it.

But as bold predictions ago, I don't think we have ever have called this. so yeah mine was blown well done to alping you know that meme where it's the um that person's like reaching out to something like a sphere on the sphere it says p6 and the person is is has in this case and then they look behind them and it's just alpine like following them away from it at the last minute a sweat drop on their forehead see i had a different meme in mind you know the one where they're sat in like a church or something and they've each got a gun on each other and it's actually Hass at the front thinking they've got P6 but then R.B is going to take it from them

but then Williams is going to take it from them and there's a sniper Alpine just like I've got you all covered by my maths five points separate those three teams now so that could be a very interesting conclusion to the season I tell you what Harry the Alpine car let's face it hasn't been there for most

of this season but you've got to be encouraged by this line up going into next year after week's four favourite joke got a it's not a joke it's a serious point you can't get rid of this quality lineup with a double podium. Why would you? I can't think of one good reason. Yeah, especially as you, you wouldn't send one of them off to the team you've just

beat into P6 now, would you? That would be stupid. I'm sorry, I've got some news for you. Oh, breaking news? Ocon's not going to be driving for the next year. He's out of a drive. They fired him. So Ocon decided to leave to draw. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, Alping have fired Ocom. Yeah. Sure. Yeah.

Okay. I don't believe that. Can't be, can be right. What do you think, Gary? I don't, how have they done that? Mackey. No, look, Alpine in the wet, they're good again, apparently. So we must have only have white races for Alpine's sake.

It's a look, they, Ockon was brilliant and qualifying. I know Gassi's like, had a trickier time, but Gassi was then great in the race. He, like Vestappen benefited slightly more from the, I think, safety card. but you've got to be in it to win it. And they both were and they kept out to trouble in a way that I don't, there are many drivers out there today who didn't fall off the road at least once. Vastappan, Ocon, Gassley. That might be it.

The top three might be it. Yeah. I genuinely, I think we might have had a replay, but at least one other, every driver have one incident today. So I deserve top three because they were the ones that kept their, kept themselves out of trouble. So I can't believe they've managed it. I actually was looking at the podium.

I was like, I was stopping on there. And I was like, it just looks weird. All their flags are the same too. That's very, I've really enjoyed that. I liked that.

Really pleasing that. Yeah. Especially there was... Horizontal in the middle and the two verse. It was like a little house. It was great. Yeah, that really satisfied something in me.

But yeah, it just, fair play to both drivers. who made them... Look, the Alpins is suddenly not a great car. They've just made the difference in tricky conditions and kept their noses clean. As you say, Ben, both of them proving how good they are for a lineup.

So don't do anything to change that Alpine. That would be silly. Honestly, I have been banging the drum for years on Esteban Ocon is a good driver. And apparently Alpine haven't listened to that. But hey, when things are somewhat equalized and we're in these conditions and car performance isn't as important, both himself and Pierre Gasly demonstrate the quality of that team, that lineup.

It's a great lineup. You're absolutely right, Harry, to identify that not only did they have good pace, they just didn't make any errors on a weekend where pretty much everyone else did. We've had multiple drivers crash multiple cars on the street. Same day. And yet these two have avoided really any errors whatsoever in terms of small lockups and detours that were the norm for other guys. Esteban Ockon was phenomenal.

Of course, his qualifying effort was brilliant in the first instance. He's then able to, how he was able to extend an advantage on Max Verstappen when he was on intermediate tires when, let's face it, for a couple of laps, that was not the right tire to be on. Again, made no error whatsoever, built a gap. The only thing you can say is could he have defended the inside line from Vastappen into turn one? Maybe, but I'm not convinced it would have made much difference. Gassley does a phenomenal job.

It's not his fault that he's eliminated in Q2. He gets unlucky with the timing of the flag. So he has some work to do. Again, he does a brilliant job. This is a great lineup. They've done a wonderful job today. and for Alpine, this is why we say, when it comes to midfield and bat-market teams, you've got to be on it every weekend because you never know when this sort of race is just around the corner.

Like you can do, as Hasse have done, as RB have done, pick up points here and there, just wherever you can. And that's what you have to do. But there is inevitably, once a season, maybe twice a season, going to be this type of race where more points become available to you, whether it's 10 points or in this instance, as much as 33 points for a control. You never know when it's coming. That's why you've always got to be ready for it. And Alpine were today and they deserve full respect because if they are not finishing sixth,

they can do so knowing that they haven't had the sick fastest car this season. Valkyriotas is literally crying inside his helmet right now. Did he at least get 11th? No. Didn't Perrers get 11th? No, yeah, he did, yeah, you're right.

I think Bam is in front of him as well. So it's 13th. So if both the Mercedes do get DSQ, he still only finish 11th place. He's trying so hard. That's how he gets back to Mercedes as a reserve driver. He convinces the stewards not to disqualify them. Oh, that'll be it.

That's the contract negotiation sorted. Okay, let's take a break on this episode. On the other side, we've got more chat about George Russell, Lando Norris, plenty, plenty more. Welcome back, everyone. Front row of the grid was Lando Norris and George Russell. But they were the other way round as we went into turn one. eventually. Again, we'll get to the start procedure shortly.

Russell and Norris, as Sonoda dropped back, quickly became the battle for the lead. It looked like first and second was going to be the duel between those two until the end. Safety car comes out. Both of them take advantage of the safety car going on to more intermediate tires, which of course was then followed by a red flag, which means they missed out on the opportunity for a cheap stop in the same way that the Stappan and the two Alpines. did. Russell at least, again, we don't know exactly what's going to happen in terms of those decisions to be made by the stewards, finishes fourth on track. Landon Norris makes an error on the restart and eventually finishes in sixth when Oscar Piastri lets him by. A lot to unpack, Sam,

but those two drivers, how did you view their race? Yeah, we'll talk about them separately. Russell, I think, at the start especially, really impressed me. The way he got off the line, that second phase of the start procedure was crazy. He kind of almost looked like he, he, he, had the jump put on in by Norris. And then out of nowhere, he seems to hit a grippy spot or the tires start to kick in for him. And he just excels past Landon and Norris. And not only does he excel past Landon Norris, he holds on comfortably to that race lead.

It looked like for a good few laps, he was at least two seconds plus clear of Landon Norris. And it did start to come down as kind of Norris found his footing and began to feel more comfortable in the race. But even then, Norris felt like he was never really getting past George Russell all the way up to that BSC moment. it was a brilliant defense, strong drive. But then if you're going to paint almost like a graph of Norris's race

in terms of how good he was, he started right at the top and it was kind of flat lines, which is good. And then all of a sudden, at the moment that VSC reg flag moment hit, it dropped. And we started to see pressure, we started seeing mistakes, we started to see issues with George Russell. He made a couple of mistakes. He's run wide a couple of times.

I would argue he rejoined the track unsafely, at least once throughout this Grand Prix, but no penalties were given throughout the entire Grand Prix, for unsafe rejoining to a single driver, although only LeCler was investigating for this. But his racing was always clean, and then he gets back to kind of that front fight, and he's fighting with Gassley.

But I think he does well to recover to fourth. It's a shame he can't get past Gassley, but we say how well Gassi is driven, defends like a brilliant job defending, comes to him in fourth place. For that Mercedes, I think a fourth place, if you were to say to Russell, without any other context,

you're qualified seconds, you're going to finish fourth, how you feel that way. I'm sure he'd go, yeah, okay, without the car's been. Not perfect, but not the end of the world. Landon Norris, on the other hand, you start first, you lose the lead again immediately before the end of lap one. You fall off the track at key moments throughout the Grand Prix.

You are no idea what's going on with the strategy. Pit me, pit me, pit me, pit me. The team are going to go, no, no, we're not going to pit you. No, we're seeing evidence. It's not worth pitting. We're not going to pit you. Coming under VSC because they follow rustling, screws them over again. And then restart happens.

He runs wide off the track. Has to have Piaastri let him come through again. Can't get back through at all after that either. It's just a big sliding downhill moment for Lando Norris. And this has almost been the season itself. You know, every chance is a moment where Norris could assert himself in this championship fight. Every chance he would have to take a step towards battling with Verstappen,

he has proven that he just hasn't got it right now. He just isn't at that level yet to grab hold of an opportunity. and go on to potentially wing or at least challenge for a championship. This was in his hands. This is the perfect opportunity for any racing driver who is wanting a fight in a championship to go, I'm first, my rival is 17th. Surely I've got a bestening points. And I feel like it shows again a real level of not being there

to make this many mistakes and fall this far down the order. He should have at least been second. If a staff was winning that race, Norris should have been second. Everything should have gone in his way. And yet through his own doing, I feel, it didn't. So, yeah, a really gutting weekend for Norris. And it's on him that it hasn't gone its way for the championship. Harry, what did you make of the two drivers that started on the front row?

Yeah, I thought Russell, I think Russell did everything he could. Because I don't think that Mercedes, we saw it in the hands of Louis Hamilton. I didn't think that Mercedes was actually very good around here. And the fact that he was P2 was pretty impressive from qualifying this morning. And then his start, as you say, Sam, was equal. is impressive and then yeah he he was on he was unlucky as was norris in terms of their they're cool and whether safety car came out um with that now i i'm torn because they're doing they're doing what you would deem to be the default strategy right sure yeah but you'd like

what you would deem to be the right call there's more rain coming you want the fresher fresher tires but now it happens so often now in modern Formula One that if there's a heavy rain shower coming more often than not

we're going to get at least a safety car or a red flag and so a lot of drivers are hedging their bets on that and I'm not I'm not criticizing those that did

like Vistappen et cetera for staying out because it was the right call obviously but I just don't know if it doesn't quite sit well with me that you get reward the likes of Yuki Sunoda

who came in and put the wet tires on because that's the appropriate tire for the conditions. You get you get a punished for it. Anyway, separate top for a separate time. It's like it's 2020 in that situation, right? It is, but what I mean is those that have come in are doing it because they're putting on the right tires for the right conditions, but those that are staying out are just banking on the fact that in modern F1 we can't actually ever run with a wet tire because

it gets too. It's a fair point. Anyway, yeah, so Russell was unlucky, but I think where he ended up was probably about where that car was it probably was quicker than the Alpines and they're an exception but yeah I thought he was pretty impressive and versus his teammate

very good um Norris yeah the start was again an issue for him which has been pretty much I know it's been better as of late but been the story of his season and he obviously

it was tough to overtake unless he name was Max Verstappen apparently there's quite tough to overtake out there today and that was proved by Norris but on that restart he just he just I think it

got slight everything got slightly too much because he fell off a couple of times and that is that is the pressure of a championship fight getting getting to his to his head a little bit

I think and that's not even I'm not even saying that as a criticism because it's it's natural you look at Lewis Hamilton in 2007 or eight I'm not saying they're quite the same

journey in their career. But when you're fighting for your first championship, mistakes like that happen. So yeah, it just went downhill from there. And I think it got to him. And then the second restart where he went straight on. He didn't get good restart. And he was caught out by Russell,

who was being passed by the clone, all went wrong from there. And then that was it. It was afternoon done. So it's a disappointing one. And on paper, turning a P1 to a P6 is, that's not good. a stats like Ferrari, Charlotte-Clair territory.

That's how bad it was. From George Russell's perspective, I want to start with him, and I'm not quite sure what the best way to phrase this is, but it was, I think, the best, fourth best race of the season so far. Obviously, the attention is going to go to Vastappan and to the Alpine drivers.

I thought George Russell was phenomenal. I think he did a really good job. Of course, he's up against, He's up against Lando Norris. He does a good job of holding him off for a long time. We know that Mercedes, whilst it's not slow, it also isn't quick. So the fact that he's able to lead this Grand Prix is impressive. And then, of course, the only drivers that he's beaten by today are based on strategy.

Now, there's a chance that Vastappen beats him anyway. I'm not sure about the Alpine drivers. And as you say, Harry, late on, it was really only Vastappen that was able to make any overtakes. the last part of this Grand Prix, unless the driver was making an unforced error, they were mostly staying in position. And I don't really hold it against Russell that he couldn't make any progress up from fourth. I think he did a phenomenal job.

Lando Norris, I think, Sam, you hit the nail on the head when you said that this kind of encapsulates his season in that he had very good pace yet again. But in those few critical moments, it's not quite there. obviously the start is a critical element he didn't get either of them right for different reasons but for the second one at least it's not a long run to term one it's one of the shortest runs on the grid

and yet he gives up that position and then of course on the restart again there's pressure there as well so really good pace but in this sort of Grand Prix is going to be those few critical mistakes that are going to cost you and that's what's happened with Norris today

but yeah I wanted to give Russell some credit because I think he did a very good job. And it was an entertaining battle for the lead. That start. Let's just focus on that for a moment. We don't yet know what the outcome of it is going to be. We know that Lando Norris is under investigation for it. That was announced first.

And then George Russell and two R.B drivers were also pulled into that. Essentially, Landstrol, after crashing on the formation lap, the start was aborted. Lano Norris and McLaren, one or the other, maybe both of them misunderstood exactly what that meant. He goes off to do another formation lap, a few other cars follow. Everyone eventually follows, but some of them go after they're instructed to, which isn't exactly what was meant by the Aborted Start.

The intention was that they were going to stay on the grid for another 10 minutes before they clean that up. Did you have a read on this, Sam, in terms of what should happen, what did happen? Oh, gosh, it feels like a really... confusing scenario of events. The phrase aborting start is a tricky one, and I understand how the language in a very high pressure environment

needs to be very much understood by the teams. It is on the teams on the radios, I think, to make sure that they're communicating really clearly with their drivers what a certain phrase in the rulebook means. If you say abortive start, you need to come straight over that radio and goes, abortive start, we stay there,

we're coming out to pick up the tires, and we're going to redo the car. You need to be used to straight on that radio letting your team know. But obviously, there was poor communication. The lights were flashing orange, and when the lights flash orange, it's the same as a double wave yellow.

Landon Norris sets off, and then the rest of the front four or five kick off very quickly right behind him. Now, for me, Landon ors has broken the rules, as has Sonoda, as has Ocon, as has Lawson in that scenario,

who I think it was. I don't think Ockon, was Russell, sorry, it was Russell. Yes, yeah, yeah. You might be getting DSQed anyway, we answer that as well. So they've all pulled off under their own steam. And I don't, I'm not buying this argument of, oh, they're playing follow the leader.

They are their own people, they're intelligent, they know the rules in their own separate way. It's up to them. As we heard with Max Verstappen's radio go, why are we driving off? This is not the rule set. It's an aborting start. We have to wait here.

And obviously over the radio you hear GP goes, yeah, it's a real mess. we understand, but you're going to have to go. And I think he fairly had to go. Because Andrews was starting to come around the back of the track. And if he's just standing still on a wet track in the middle of the race track, he's becoming more of a hazard than going at that point. So fair play to the back end of the grid,

who were really sat there. You saw Botasker sitting there, both the horses were sat there, the staff was as well. So each driver has their own free will. I don't think, I'm not buying any story of they follow Norris. You make your own choice. But clearly, the wording needs to be clearer.

It needs to be more understandable. And I do think, unfortunately, that at least those first three or four cars are going to pick up some kind of penalty. And I can't really argue against that because it's not like this is brand new. It's not like this is they've never heard the words before. The teams will understand this regulation. So I think it might be a team fine. I think because of multiple teams breaking the rules, I think they're all going to get fine for a safety breach. But I think a penalty is coming their way regardless.

Harry, what do you think? It's a classic case of Formula One being overly complicated for no reason. A good book, guys. I, I, there are so many, not that I've ever read the rule book, but I am aware of it. There are quite a few things in it for teams to remember these days. I, look, it's still,

it's still on them to know these rules, but it's slightly ambiguous because often when there's an aborted start, you do an extra formation lap, but there was obviously no, there was no communication that it was an extra form. LAP, it just said a bought it to start, but there's no, there's nothing to say what, what comes next. I think one of the main issues, uh, I have is that other motorsports, forms of motorsport, Formula E, WEC, they have like direct lines from the, from the race

control that goes to all the teams and says, we're doing this now. That would solve literally everything in this scenario. It would solve things around issues we have around VSC and red flags and crap like that, which I'm sure we'll get onto at some point. Oh, we will. But that was, all it would take is, and I know the teams have, they can, they can radio the stewards of the radio race control, but just a one public, at least for the teams at least, but a public radio line that is just teams, all teams, be aware, we're aborting this start.

Please stay on the grid. Boom. Done, tick box. We're not going to have any confusion because that's just ridiculous. And aside from the fact that, you know, it was some drivers not real realizing what the rule was when it were particular lights. Obviously, some did. The Staples clued up on it as were a few others. But aside from that, it's just dangerous because those cars that were confused and went off again.

I know they weren't flying off down the circuit. It was still, it was another formation lap and they were under, you know, double wave yellows. But Lance Strull, for some unbeknownst reason, which just stood on the edge of the gravel trap. Why? I was literally like, what? Walk off. Move away. Walk to the wall.

No. Go away. Why is he there to begin? Why is he getting the gravel to begin with? We'll just talk about the fact that obviously, firstly, he hits the wall, which is terrible as it is. And then I love the cut. I'll allow the wall.

Yeah. I'll allow it. Right. And then the hilarious cut away, a few seconds past, you cut back. How is he 60 feet away now in the gravel on his own? I'd have forgiven. I've seen the replay? No.

Have you not? No, I haven't seen it. Ah, he just tries to do a donut. flips around, just drives into the gravel. Oh, for God's sake, man. I would forgive that if it was a whole gravel trap, and he was like, you know, you get a gravel trap with verges of grass on the edge,

and he's just stuck on the edge, and he tries to flip around, and it just doesn't happen. I'd forgive it, but just reverse. You've got all the tarmac behind you, just reverse. Yeah, just wait until it's clear, go backwards. Honestly, I know this is, we're not having a luncheon topic here, but Felipe Drogovich, of course, his home Grand Prix,

he's there that weekend. He has to watch that. That's the reason I'm not racing. That scene where Larks has walked back in and qualifying after putting the car in the wall and he's looking at the data on the wall, and Drogovic is just arms crossed behind him. Like, what do I have to do?

What do I have to do? I don't be, I was derailed. No, I was just say one last thing of that. We obviously don't condone violence here, but I think after that, each mechanic that had to rebuild his car, are allowed to give him one dead arm each. Wherever they choose.

Yeah. Just one, one smack on the arm. That's for Brazil. Anyway, but my point was there, for some unbeknownst reason, Lance was still on the edge of the gravel trap. There was also a digger in the, in the area, and we still have cars going past. And again, they were slowly,

but it wasn't under like a safety car delta, so they could be going faster, and some could be even slower. So that in itself, the confusion has led to what could be a potentially dangerous situation. It's just, I just think they could make things so much clearer and easier for all the teams and drivers and not and it's also just farcical imagine you tuning into f1 for the first time.

It's an exciting weekend. This looks fun. And you'd be like, what the hell is going on? Carlos Sykes just sat at the end of the pit lane going, I've got no idea what's going on. Why am I here? Someone make the meme, the community meme where you're walking, everything's on fire and there's all the things happening. There's a new fan.

Yeah, I just, I thought it was ridiculous the whole thing and could be easily solved. Yeah. It's just unnecessary. It's not what we tune in. It's not what we tune in for. It's not what anyone tunes in for. And we are somewhat lucky here in that, Steve, Vastappans won this Grand Prix

and the two Alpine drivers are on the podium, we could have very easily, in an alternate version of this Grand Prix, sat here not knowing the winner, which after such an exciting Grand Prix, different, so many safety cars, overtakes, incredible moments, to be able to not really know the end result,

There was such like elation from all three members of the podium today, which is rare. Like we don't always get that. That would have been somewhat subdued if all three of those were under investigation for this very thing that we're discussing. We're somewhat lucky that that's not how it's actually turned out to be. I agree with what you said in the first instance, Sam, of how Norris going and making his decision, the fact that others have followed should have no bearing on whether they get a penalty or not.

like he's not a safety car like he they are able to make their own decisions they interpret the rules themselves and of course many did and decided not to go until they were told you'd have to go now because it's going to be unsafe otherwise and very simply put like

there was no green light that the light was what color yellow yellow which means you don't go but apparently some teams and drivers didn't understand that but I agree with all you said, Harry. Just simple message, okay, we're aborting the start. No additional formation lap. Done. Like, there's no confusion at that point. Everyone knows they have to stay where they are. But instead, it's language that can be misconstrued and clearly you can have different

interpretations of. It's just not necessary. What baffles me about with this as well is in Formula E, as I mentioned, they do this. They go to all teams and drivers. This is going to happen now. And you'd be like, oh, well, that's a different series. The FIA are the stewards in that series as well. The same people. But they were so late to abort it anyway. I don't understand why they wait. Because I remember like two thirds of the way through the lap, you could say it's aborted

because he's not going anywhere in that time. But they waited until like they were all on the grid before aborting it pretty much. It was just unnecessary. Well, I think that set up the full theme for the whole week. that so many safety decisions were made at awful timings and took too long. You know, you had the complaints in the sprint race between the VSC being brought out for the McLaren pass. And I don't think there is a conspiracy against Max Verstappen for Landon and Norris,

but I totally understand how if you're a fan of one and not of the other, you might misconstrue this as how come that was a VSA the moment this past happened conveniently and it took forever. And then a reg flag for Max Verstappen, 40 seconds, though, after. every car should finish their lap, stupid rule. And then a safety car, which comes out 30, 40 seconds after a crash has happened in the race. Terrible timing. Honestly, the amount of time it took to make so many key and importing the safety decisions,

no driver's lap, form, whatever should take priority over safety. You pull the ping immediately. I'd always rather you over-escalate. I'd always rather you over-do the safety to make sure everyone's okay. They go, oh, we'll just wait a minute, see if everyone's okay. See if I keep going. No, Holgerberg was walking down the bloody side of the track at one point. And this has been a weekend of bad calls and near misses, I think.

And I think in these conditions, I think we got quite lucky. Before we go to our second break, obviously we've got a lot to cover today. But of all the things that we need to cover, this is the thing I'm most excited about. Listeners of the podcast will know that in midweek before a race, in our preview episodes, we have bold predictions that typically we don't get many of them right. Let's wrestle through two of these.

I need to go. Can I go? No, no. Be quiet, please. Wait to the end. Thank you. I think Beng mine was an exaggeration of yours, essentially, that for Stappan and Norris in both racing events, so the sprint race and the full race would come together at D&F.

Obviously, it didn't happen. It was bold. It didn't happen. But I can be wrong because it was, you know, these collisions. happens all the time. It's fine. Most weeks I would choose to focus on that more, but we've got more pressing things to attend to. My one is that Lando Norris and Max Verstappen

would cause each other to DNF in the main race today, which impressively, Max Verstappen got by Lando Norris to win this Grand Prix, yet never met him on track. I don't understand. Come on. Anyway, I can move past that because, Harry, you predicted that there would be a black flag for Max Vastappen in the Grand Prix. Now, we have not had a black flag in a Grand Prix since 2007. 17 years ago.

I was 11 years old. The last time a black flag appeared in F1, Kimmy Antonelli was not one year old. I think we get a black flag for, Beck. there was a black flag for the first time in 17 years for Nika Holgerbergh. If you had just predicted there would be a black flag, that would have been more than bold enough.

Yeah, but then there wouldn't have been one, would there? Bad point, but come on. That, the charts of that are so slim. Yeah, it's statistically unlikely, isn't it? Yeah. I was on stream when that text came through, and I just was just in tears laughing at how hilarious that is. I was losing it.

Am I still willing bold predictions, by the way? You are? I think it's like 4-2-0. Isn't that a shock to literally everyone listening right now? How is that thing? That is a shock. I've got no idea. I can't really bad I haven't got one right yet.

Talk about the misses. I've got like 14 half right. That's true. Which if you add all those together, I've basically got seven. If we allowed a like a race either way subsidy, You would be on like seven, correct. I am going to deploy last goal wins for Abu Dhabi, by the way. All right, fine, fair.

It's going to be worth 10 points. Right, good. That's goal wins. Anyway, for the sake of everyone's abacus, Abakai that they've got all around the world, keeping track of these scores, you don't need to move anything today. Three wrong out of three.

We're going to take our next break. On the other side, we've still got plenty of incidents to run through and also a qualifying session. This is already three quarters of an hour long. I'm exhausted. Welcome back, everyone. There were more than enough incidents to keep us occupied today

that we're not going to be able to talk about anywhere near all of them. But there were a few that brought out 10-second time penalties. And we'll have a look at those. Firstly, Oscar Piastri, he picked up a 10-second penalty that ultimately cost him a position at the end. He finished 7th on track, but finished 8th after this penalty behind Yuki Sonoda. It was actually Yuki Sonoda's teammate that he collided with Liam Lawson. earlier in the Grand Prix.

Sam, a fair penalty this time round? I think this one is fair, yes. Completely misjudged it, runs into kind of the lower third of the car, spings him off. And you know what? Fair played to Piastri during the red flag. He walks down the pit lane

and apologises to Liam Lawson. And I think Lawson was best pleased, but he made the effort. He claimed you made a mistake and he kind of dealt with his mistake personally. I respect that. But this one, yep, Sam's done. 10 second penalty.

Harry, would you agree? yeah a rare L from Oscar Piastri he's you've commented and complimented how clean he is this a racer this was just a bit scrappy you could tell I think you just got it was breaking wrong and was like I might have to make this into a move I don't know I haven't and it's just it just went wrong for him the gap closed so yeah like I say so I'm fine play

from holding up his hands but yeah very very fair penalty yeah I haven't really got anything else to add on that it was not a good move the contact was fairly definitive and I agree with a 10 second time penalty. By the way, we're talking through incidents here just while I remember, we're going to have to try to tomorrow put all of these drivers

into power rankings. I've got no idea how we're going to do this based on everything that happened. But if you're enjoying today's review, absolutely make sure you're part of our Patreon because that power rankings episode will come out tomorrow. And there could be some real disagreements in terms of this scoring. Can we just give them

all five and I'd be done with it? Is that what? No. No. Okay, fine. You should really subscribe, folks. We're going to give them all five. Well, you know what wine's going to be. It's a great use of money.

Harry, we're going to give Phenano. Oh, five. Yeah, yeah, yeah, nice. No analysis on his race, I mean. It was a real five of a race, wasn't it? It's a great guy. Five. The other incident I definitely wanted to pick up on was

Beerman and Colopinto. Behrman got a 10 second time penalty for this. He ran into the back of him in the middle sector. Sam, penalty, no penalty? too harsh, what do you think? Is this a joke? Serious question.

Is this a joke? It might be... It might be one of... Max Mustafa getting murdered Land of Norris in Mexico just kept driving, just kept on going. He was determined.

Ollie Bearman nibbled. I've had smaller bites of foods I don't like as a little taste test. You know, and I was fine. No penalty over here.

Ollie Bearman is big, sent to the gulag, apparently, for slightly misjudging an entry zone. Comic Pinda's like, oh, must be a bump in the road. Anyway, see you later. Off I go. Bearman's like a bayblade down the back of the hill here. 10 seconds. And he comes over the radio and goes, nothing happened. I barely touched him.

He lost no time. Ten seconds. Are you mad? No. It's a joke. It's a joke of a penalty. It should have been a racing incident. And the fact that, you know, they'd have investigated Liam Lawson for bumping ties with Lewis Hamilton later on, which is I would argue the same level of contact, and that wasn't a penalty, is just hilarious. The inconsistencies in penalties need to be sorting out once again.

This was terrible, a joke of a penalty. Harry? Yeah, odd one. I'm fine for them to have a look at it, but it was not even like he wasn't, he wasn't even attempting to overtake him. He just caught mid-corner speed for Berman was way more than clearly Colopinta had

where the colopinto just made a slight error, a bit of understood, I don't know. And he's just misjudged it. But he's the one who spun. Like, colipinter just, as you said, I just drove off of the road. Like, oh, what was that?

I don't know. Yeah. So a penalty in itself is harsh, giving a 10 second penalty, which is equivalent to it. And maybe this speaks to whether the penalties in Mexico for Rastappen were harsh enough, but that's the equivalent to that.

And the equivalent, to Piaastrian Lawson, which, again, that was an attempted move. And obviously, it costs Lawson dearly versus Colopinto here, who again was fine. So I had very strange decision. Not sure, not sure why that's warranted a 10 second penalty. Fine to look at it, but a 10 second is, that's harsh. Very, very harsh. I thought it was a 5 second penalty.

I'm fine with them penalising it, but 10 seconds was too harsh for me. And you refer to the Vastappan and Norris incident from Mexico, and my view on that is that what we saw today between Piastrian Lawson was a 10 second penalty. The Behrman one was five seconds, and then whatever happened, the murder that happened last week is more than 10 seconds, whatever drive-through, stop go, whatever you want to give it.

But that's kind of the ladder, I guess, of penalties that I viewed. I think, again, I always preach that I don't think you should penalize based on what the outcome is, that there could have been a scenario there where Colapinto does pick up minor damage. We've seen it before where minor damage happens from a real limited amount of contact. The one that immediately springs to mind is term one at Monaco earlier this year, where Carlos Sines picks up damage, in which case does he deserve a penalty then? And my answer is that you should get a penalty or not get a penalty regardless of what that

outcome is. So I'm fine with 10 seconds was too much for me. But I think five seconds is okay because it was, I still. it was an error from bearman to go into the back of him they're not racing side by side as as was the case with lawson and hamilton a little bit later on this is just an error of going into the back of another car so uh five seconds would have been fine for me 10 i thought was was harsh um should we should we have at least have a chat through what happened in qualifying earlier today um it's been a disjointed weekend in terms of session times we did a review on friday we did a review yesterday but

only talking about the sprint uh of course we have haven't done a review of qualifying today because there was only a couple of hours between the qualifying session and the Grand Prix itself. Did you have, Harry, any main takeaways from that session? I actually, I can't remember what happened. Amazing that it is today. I know. So long ago. So long ago. Any main takeaways from this, obviously Norris was was good in Q3. He sort of fumbled his way through the session and got away with it. and Russell too, as I already mentioned, was impressive in qualifying. Vastappen, a rare error in terms of he didn't get the lap time in

and then with that red flag questionable timing of the red flag couldn't get another one in afterwards but others could get that across the line. So yeah, I think the amount of mistakes from drivers out there. I mean, proved how treacherous it was. as you said, was it five red flags in the end for that session, which is, even qualifying can even run on time, even though it had been moved already. It just went on forever.

And then we had to do the race as well. But yeah, it was an expensive afternoon for some teams, Williams and Aston Martin in particular. James Fowles looking at his entirety of his driver line up in the wall. Sorry, are they the biggest losers from this weekend? because yeah they had some momentum from the last few Grand Prix right and now they've just seen their closest rivals get 33 points they've had a combined what like four crash it's just an awful weekend for that engineer's face poor poor guy um yeah and and i saw out and again i won't until they actually say what it was but album's saying they're still looking into the cause of that crash i'm like i just think you you're locked up my guy you're the cause yeah i I just think that was on you. But it was an expensive mistake,

especially considering he was got into Q3 and was going so damn well. If he had started the race, he had B two at the time? He was B2 at the time. Williams had good pace in the wet. And Colapinto, until he paced it against the barrier again this afternoon,

had pretty good pace as well during the race. And I'll look quicker than him for the majority. of the weekend. So had our one actually had a car to race with this afternoon, this could have been a big day for them. And yeah, it all unraveled in quality. So yeah, they were the big losers. Aston Martin obviously didn't do well,

but they did manage to get both cars into the race, which Lance didn't care about. And signs as well, which off the back of what was a great win in Mexico, didn't have a great afternoon. Sorry, didn't have a great day out there. Yeah, he too. backed into the barriers twice. So yeah, it's quite weird to the ones

that, mainly the ones that crashed in quality, the ones that crashed again during the race. Alonzo being the only exception, he only just about made it through. Yeah, he tried his best. You gave it a good go. Yeah, he gave it a good go. What did you make of qualifying earlier today, Sam?

chaotic, long, painful, bizarre. I agree with all the points that Harry's, mate. I'll try and pull out of something different. Lewis Hamilton, mate. I don't know what you're doing at the moment, but you are pants. the fact that your teammate has managed to stick it on the front row. And I get that setups are different,

but I've said this about Perez and I've said it. I think that feedback is fair. Perez also not doing a great job, of course, but at least he was right behind his teammate at this time. The fact that Hamilton is out in Q1 and Russell with the same machinery is on the front row. And it wasn't even close. Like Bottas got into Q2,

Hamilton was out qualified by Valkyri Bottas. And remember, they're not teammates anymore. No, no, no. He's in a toaster. And whilst there was Hamilton is, the biggest wing bag going at the moment, the fact that nothing works, the car is horrible,

it bounces and my back hurts, man. He's still not able to extract any performance that George Russell is able to. He's making himself look a bit of a fool at the moment. I think Russell now takes the lead in the driver's championship. I think he's finally moved ahead of him, which is, you know, Russell deserves it this season. Hamilton has been very down with a couple of peaks,

whereas Russell has been consistent with some bad luck. And this qualifying, I think, showed it again. I don't really want to see Hamilton do the last three Grand Prix because it just feels like a real shadow of his former self. It's really, really poor. He was by far my biggest disappointment. He didn't being it, but I bet he wishes he had, because then he has some kind of excuse because being that bad.

Yeah, it's been terrible. It's qualifying, usually his biggest strength. Awful. I'm going to ask this question rhetorically now, but I might well ask it non-ritorically in a future episode. At what point do we become slightly worried about Hamilton next year going up against the Claire because if it's right now I'm worried for him. Yeah, yeah.

If it's if it's very Mercedes this car specific then okay. But it's been a really, really tough run for him. And today was was no better than it has been over the last few Grand Prix for him. As you say, qualifying was incredibly chaotic. It's difficult to assign too many verdicts because otherwise we'd be here for four hours. but, you know, I think, and I guess this applies to the weekend as a whole. McLaren, of course, so many breaks this weekend, and they haven't taken advantage of it. Lano Norris really struggled to get through that first Q1 session.

He could have been out with the likes of Hamilton and Vestappen would have been near him on the starting grid. He really does escape Q1, and he does a good job from there on. Don't get me wrong, but that plus how they manage the sprint. I just think they've had some luck this weekend and not, taking advantage of it, which of course is not what you like to do. Of course, we had five drivers go off during qualifying. It would be easy to point blame. I think when a quarter of the best grid in the world make errors in a one-hour session,

you can probably point to the conditions and say they were pretty tough. A lot of the experienced drivers were really struggling. So I'm not going to be too critical on any of those crashes in particular. but yeah in terms of the FIA you've already referenced it Sam I thought they handled the session horrendously

and look I know Vostappen and his camp aren't very happy about when one of those red flags came out and how it led to their Q2 elimination it didn't it was pretty much instantaneous

that as soon as the crash happened as soon as the flags appeared that's when Vestappan was demoted to 11th. That's just bad luck. But I do, even if he's saying it for his reasons, I agree with what he's saying in that it should have been almost instantly called and it wasn't. I don't agree with finishing the laps and when you're making a safety call, you're making a safety call. You're not thinking about anything else. You are just prioritizing the safety of drivers. And all of these other factors should not make an appearance in your decision making.

we saw countless times a long time between actually making a decision. And I know you'd like to see if a car has the potential to get out of a barrier. And Lansdrol thumped that wall, man. He wasn't going anywhere. Rear wing and front wing were dead. Call it. You can call that. And I think that wasn't the only incident.

Later on with Alonso, they were right on it. but they should have been far quicker with some of the calls they've made. On the, that Reg Flaggingson that Vostappen was very angry about his little hang, Jeschke, by the way,

and his post interview was fantastic. It was the classic, stop it. Leave me alone. Don't talk about that anymore. I'm sick of it. Friend of the podcast, Crun Chandok,

if you haven't got the Sky TV feed, he was so adamant about, oh, it's right to let drivers finish their lap. If they weren't affected by the yellow flakes, right, they're not in the zone. Changa stand, well, there are other cars going around.

track that are in the zone or about to enter that zone or currently going through that zone where a driver might be getting out of the car or hit debris. I was really disappointed by his analysis that the session should carry on for what? 30 seconds a minute. Where's the cutoff? As we said on the podcast, as Ben rightly pointed out, the safety issue is a safety issue. You've got a red flag for a reason. There's a driver out on the track, throw the red flag. I was really disappointed both with the handling and actually with the fact that some of the broadcast team seemed quite happy that that was the way the process had been run. I don't buy that either because

like you said, there are still cars in the zone and Jeal Bianchi fell off the road under a safety car at Suzuki. So it doesn't matter if you're not on a hot lap, you can still fall off the road. As Lance Stroll proved this afternoon, is on a formation lap he fell off the road.

And what stopped someone falling off the road while Lance stroll just stood there? That's what someone else doing? That's my point. Yeah, it was part of my point earlier. I think that was just silly. So, yeah, yep. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. Yep, bad, bad, bad.

Great summary there from Mr. Harry Ead. This might be the latest we've ever got to these segments in a race review, but it is time for Driver of the Day. The verdict is in. You're the driver of the days. You're the driver of the day. You're good at driving. Sam, who was Driver of the Day?

well after a combined I think it's seven hours of F1 if you include the recording of this podcast today so it's a long time I've come to the conclusion that Max for Stapling is the driver of the day and it's as simple as that so thank you Max for making it just so easy at the end because

it's very tough day but there's plenty of great drivers so if you guys happen to pivot fair because there are some great contenders on this one Harry just going to say can we clarify it's actually technically driver of the race isn't it because of the day we're in caps a very good point people will come for us.

They will. Harry loves a technicality. Thank you. Awful legend who recommended you. George Russell's a great shout for earlier on.

Ocon, Ghazly, yes, but no, I can't look past this happen today. He was outrageous. I'm going to give it to O'Con.

Oh, the bacon always gets you, don't it? He, and I've got this written down so I don't forget it. He finished second in an alpine. Fair play.

yeah, yeah. He led in an Alpine for quite a while. Man led in an Alpine. We have roasted that car, that team all season long. It would be wrong of me to not at least consider him the driver of the day. Vestapp and Gazley, Russell were all phenomenal, and I wouldn't really take it away from you if you picked any of them. But I'll give it to Ockon.

Do Alping have the same amount of double podiums as Mercedes this year now? I think Silverton. the Stone might be the only double they had. They had, they had spa, but then obviously Russell got DQ. Well, yes, I can't count that. So yeah, I think so. Let's go with yes. Yeah.

So I've just realized as well, they made a point about how it's Team Endstone's first double podium for 11 years. And that's still a shorter amount of time since we've had a black flag. We'll be less bold to predict that. Oh, no. Right. There might be a lot of contenders for this one. Worst driver of the day. Get in the bin, bin, bin, bin, bin, bin, worst driver of the day.

Ben, bin, bin, bin, worst driver of the day. You stuck at driving. And to be clear, this isn't worst driver of the day. This is worst driver of the race. But Harry, what are you going with? Goodness me. I'm going first. Thank God for that.

Look, there are a few contenders here. Joe Guan Yu. and only because Fernando Alonzo fell off the road about 15 laps ago spun around on the grass and still caught him up again and overtook. That shot of Behrman being off

and in the background the Salber is also off is hilarious. That's excellent as well. Was he driving? I can't say this non-horrably. Was he driving? I don't know, Jay.

I think he was walking. There may have been a cat driving the car, to be honest. Yeah, so he's a contender. Hamilton, I know he's still finished 10th, but Hamilton felt like he just had an afternoon of it. He was off the road many times. And I feel harsh giving this.

And it's not really a criticism of the guy at all because he was brought in last minute. But Ollie Berman, oh, it was tough, but wasn't your day. Just wasn't your day. And I feel tough. I feel bad because he was brought in, you know, last minute. I know he's had a couple of races,

but still it's pretty tough. And it was a tough weekend to drive. But he just, from the Colopinto spin onwards, He didn't cover himself in glory, to be honest. It just seemed to be a bit too much for him. But he'll learn from this, I'm sure. But yeah, he wasn't, you wasn't great out there. Another power rankings plug here.

But looking at the list of drivers, I can see quite a few drivers that aren't going to get above maybe three or four tomorrow. Sam, who was the worst driver of the day? We are first ever zero a week ago. So, you know, there might be something that get there. The fact that you've said Hamilton and not Perez, absolutely blows my mind. The fact that Perez finished behind Hamilton,

Spang on his over the first lap. At this point, it's just like, that's just what happens. Just don't even ignore him now. He's just got there. Hamilton deserves a shout, but at least he got back to points. I think Norris deserves a shout. You went from pole to sixth place. Oh, no.

Yeah. Really? Yes. You felt worse the driver. Hold on. I'm not giving it to him. I'm just saying he's up there, all right? the guy fell off the track twice in key key areas he missed the start again

everything was bad from him he barely he can overtake a soul on the race track that's a lot he either took piastri that was pretty good scintillating move actually you know what maybe put me drive in the day um zoguang used a fair shout

olig badman's terrible um I'm gonna give it to long scroll we can't even make it to the start like I actually I genuinely forgot well he wasn't in the race wasn't he but that's a valid point yeah I've also got Lanchol

I can't ever get around once there were some there were some pretty awful performances out there I think the likes of Behrman Joe Guan Yu Carlos Sines oh the signs

can probably thank that Lanchol did what he did because he made it somewhat automatic before the race even started so Landstrol for me. Big brain strap. What have you got, Harry?

You're asking, though? Yeah. Ferrari, it's good to be back. So pleased you here. After two great races, they're back with a bang with their Charlotte Claire early pit stop. That's a good one.

That is a good one. They literally said, Karoon Chandok said this in commentary. They've got a guinea pig and car signs back there. who can do you, testing for you. He's not scoring points unless something ridiculous happens. Use him. And they immediately, Pitt LeCler has said, why?

Am I going to give them fairness here? A little bit of fairness to Ferrari. If they'd done that for Carlos Sines and discovered Sines had pretty good pace and then Pitt LeCler and it was just the traffic was the issue, they would have still been in the same spot. True. That could have happened.

True. We have seen a few times previously that fresh interns can absolutely dominate this kind of inter-slick tire that appears sometimes. Yeah, I mean, it's fair, but I just thought, why are you, why are you the ones to go first here? Why do you watch? There's no need. There's just no, no one was forcing your hand on this, apart from yourselves. I've kind of got two that I'll mention.

My honourable mention firstly is that Liam Lawson's strategy for letting Verstappen by versus his strategy for letting Perez by. The man knows who not to annoy within the Red Bull system. Let's put it that way. The one I will give it to, though. The big brain strat comes from the ever-giving team radio of one McLaren,

which was when Norris gets by Piastri, they're very aware that Piastri has a 10-second penalty. So they advised Lando Norris, who was behind Charles LeClaire, to make sure that he pushes up to Charles Leclair, which Lando Norris very rightly asks at that point,

what do you think I'm doing? They are the kings of unnecessary radio calls. Like, what else is he going to be doing? What was the other one? Which was the, got some really tough things to say here over the room. Why have you made it so dramatic, man? I forgot how much that's sending me. Tire message about rain.

Get on with it. Got some bad news to pray to you. Probably thinks like something awful's happening back. I know we're not. I know this is big brain, but just honorable shout out for radio messages. Louis Samuelson this morning with this damn car man. It's going to work, man. Did you see his radio message about Estevan Okon? No.

Oh, no. What did he say? He asked Pete Bonington, is that Okon in first? And Pete Bonington, he goes, yep. And he says something along the lines of, damn, that's good for him. For him? Good job. That's like not meant to be but savage.

Well done chap. Good job for him or something along those lines. But yeah. Big brain strap from you, Sam. I'm going with the... And in theory, should have worked at the call to go on to the wet tires for the likes of Perez

for its immediately not work and then have to be so far back in the pecking order. Sonoda holding onto the third and then puts on wet tires. That's the right thing. The weather gets worse. He's put on the right thing.

tire, it's worse for him. Yeah. No, no, no. Right, we will take our final break on this episode. Just one more segment and that is Moment of the Race. Welcome back to the final part of today's review of the Brazilian Grand Prix. We now have Moment of the Race. We do have, of course, Discord submissions coming up very shortly before we get there.

We each have to try and find just one, maybe, moment of the race. Sam, what have you got? Oh, this really made me laugh. And I really put it as my big brain strap. I wanted to save it from over the race. So Carlos Sykes is on intermediate tires. And over the radio, you suddenly hear, Ricky, because aren't the new into it.

The tires are these. And then he ends it probably with, hello. And we don't hear a response. No response. Just ignoring him. Oh, I just got me. Hello. Hello.

Five laps later, crashes a car. Yeah, well, I'll show you, Ricky. I'll not do this anymore. He just did it because he was annoyed. He's tied to rubbish in the wall. Hello. You say, hello, the sempt. Hello.

Remind me to get that on the sandwich. That's so good. So good. Harry, you're somewhat known for having like five of these moments of the races anyway. On a day like today, I assume you've got like 50. Here we go. No, it's not that many. I said this to see before we start.

but the first on my list is what set the tone for the race, which is the grid animation or grid order animation, just not working. Got this P-17 and went, do you know what? I don't know. I don't understand. I'm having a day off too. I'm out.

I've just written stroll. We've covered that, but yeah. Nice. Verstappen start with flame emojis because, yep. Filthy. Put the 10 second penalty thing with Bermen, but we covered that already. Frank, I know he'd Hamilton had just been off the road,

but Frank and Colopinto, one on Lewis Hamilton into the Sner S, which was actually pretty filthy. I also enjoyed the crowd going wild for Franco Colopinto. Now I know they're very close by, but he is Argentinian, not Brazilian. And it just made me laugh because I know the Brazilian fans love Lewis Hamilton.

He's an honorary citizen. But when it's still one of their own South American pludge, we'll cheer for him. It doesn't matter who you are, Lewis. We will cheer for Colopinto. So that one got me, panning to the Williams Mechanic after Collar Pinto then crashed, which was...

Oh. Yeah. That poor team. Oh, he just, it was just him rubbing his forehead like, I can't, I can't do this anymore. I can't put that car together. I can't do again. Fair play to the women's drivers, by the way, because they didn't have small crashes. They did it properly.

They did it properly this weekend. They wiped those cars along the wall, didn't they? Yeah. They could have not. They could have not. But at least they... I would argue they did. They were committed.

He definitely did. You know what, this is why we don't have qualified on a Sunday because with that we lost our one, we could have lost more. Shows you that it probably doesn't work very well. Then I had, hello, from Carlos. But the one I've settled for, which was late on in the race, and I just feel sorry for the guy, but Fernando Alonzo. Oh, my God.

The radio message is so good. I mean, bleak, but so good. And I respect him, like, I'm finishing this race for the mechanic. but it was the way, because his back was in pain from the bounce. I've seen on boards, actually. That car was bouncing a lot. Like, no wonder.

His surface, it was terrible. Yeah. But it was the way he said, but my, and as he said the word back, he obviously went over a bump in it jarred. He went by my back. He said my back. Him and Louis Hamilton.

Exactly. And I've seen a great meme of, it's of Arnold Schwarzenegger and oh god who's the other person but I'll send it to you guys but they're just like two old men lying in the hospital beds and that's Hamilton and one yes yes

um yeah I'll stroll just crashed on the first lap because he wants to protect his back yeah I'm valid there's something really wrong with that ride of that car around that circuit but yeah a lot of contenders but I'll settle with poor Fernando and his ballback I have decided to go for on a day that there were so many brilliant

comedic moments and ridiculous moments, I felt it was necessary to go for something driving related that was just genuinely brilliant. It's one of the ones that Harry mentioned. That start by Vastappen was beautiful. Around the outside of those cars, sometimes the very best in the sport just show us who they truly are. And that was one of those moments. That was, that was brilliant. But what have we got from our discord? I'm expecting we we could get some variety, maybe some of the ones that we've already mentioned.

Harry, who we start with? Yeah, thank you everyone for submitting. The first one is from Thick Broncos, and it was submitted at 333, UK time, 333 PM, which is approximately three minutes after the race start. So I can only imagine what this might be. Thick Broncos here, stroll.

It will have to be stroll. Nothing will be funnier. in this race than stroll. It was that cut back to him in the gravel man. It really got me. I'm not sure he's going. He'll get out of the go. It's a great comedic timing moment.

I mean, it was a strong shout, to be fair. But I do think, hello, it's funnier than the straw one. Sorry, that is scared me every time. Hello. Thank you for that, I think, Broncos. Next up is steel wall. Hey, all, steel wool here. Moment of the race was just getting.

to watch Max for Staffan Drive. I'm a certified for Staffan Hader, so I was very excited to see his misfortune. And I was really happy the past couple races seeing people go after him, but today he showed a lot of composure and, I mean, just an incredible drive. So, you know, congratulations to him.

Love you guys. Keep breaking late. Listen up F1 fans. That's how you should be. of you, be like that. Be like Steelwall. You can not like a driver with respect on them when they do well. Goodness me. Be civil.

Nah, British boss. Good stuff. F-onex. Next up is Mojo-Dojo Casa House. Congrats Ben Hawking on that double podium. That's for a moment of the race. Mojo-Dosho-Casa House out. Love you guys. I love that. Keep breaking late.

His sign-off is actually longer than a submission. It's been a long journey to get to this point. All four of us are going to celebrate this evening. It's going to be great. Do you just take your glasses off on the pit wall? Because is that how you change your identity? Yeah, that's when I become hen balking.

I've become Oli Oaks. Next is Big Easy, who is a first-time submitter. Oh, in brackets, their name is Big Easy, Yukistan. Hello, my late breaking lads and last. this is Big Easy, first time, long time. My moment of the race, Alpine. It's the only thing after this whole race that won't be decided two hours from now.

Fair. Sorry, can you imagine if you both got disqualified? Oh, I imagine. That'd be the most Alpine thing of all the time, wouldn't it? I just want to take a little moment for Big Easy on the live stream. Every single live stream, Bigzie comes in and he donates five subscriptions to other people. That's $25 a go.

every single time. Oh yeah. A true hero. And so much love to you because that support is amazing. So thank you. Next is Bristol, Liam. That, lads.

What a day for cars not powered by a Mercedes engine. No one of the race. Probably the thought of Otmar sat in his basement with his nine kids, just crying, watching Alpina the race of their season. Cheers

Why is he in the basement Please get the kids out of the basement Not Mark Oh my God Moving on Thank you very Liam The one car guy is next What up guys

Is the one car guy First a mission in a while So I'm like all I've been driving all night Okay I've had too many Dregals More in the day

More of the race It's one Ted Kravitz And all the Skycomment of the team knew that Nico Hokeover got black flag and they were all telling him Ted Crowley, tell him, tell him, tell him, tell him, tell him, tell him, tell him, tell him, tell him, no, no, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. That was funny thing to me.

Bye, bye. Good shout. I forgot about that. That was, it's almost like, you know, when you had like a crush on someone at school, tell him, tell him you like them. No, no, I'm about it. I can't, I can't. Hocker was over the big grin on his face.

He's cute, mate. You're only thing worse than getting a black flag in a race. It's been told by Ted Cravits. Like, like it. Live on air. I'm like, you're out of the race.

I think that's funny the way I would be what to be told. It'd be like being cuddled by a bear. Only if Teg was in his shorts, though. He's always in shorts,

so there's no risk of that. Perfect. I'm athlete. Next up is Christy. Christy from Georgia, first time submission reporting from Trachside here in San Paulo.

Oh, wow. Moment of the race today is going to have to be Colopento doing a pulson right into the wall completely changing the nature of the race. Honorary mention will go to, after the restart and Fairman went off into the grass and the camera cut to him and you could just see the green sobber of Joe trundling along in the grass

behind it. What an amazing race. Thanks guys. Keep breaking late. Amazing. Thanks for submitting live from trackside. We love that. Ferret 500 is next.

Great name. My moment of the race, without a doubt, has to be the contrast in defense. between Lawson and Destapin and Lawton and Perez. I thought it was a very interesting, very interesting difference and an amazing overtake by Mags. Yep. Lovely. Thank you for that, Ferret.

Hey, full name him. Sorry, thank you with that, Ferret 500. There's another 499 of the behind. You got to know which one we're talking to. Best of luck in advancing in the rankings to you. How do you get promoted? That does sound like one of those like rogue NASCAR indie car races you got back in the day, the Ferrette 500.

Yes, 100%. Somewhere deep in Ohio. Yeah. Next up is Tommy K-20. What's going on, light breakers, Tommy K-20 here. Moment of the race. Forget all the crashes. Forget the double podium by Alpine.

Forget the max comeback. Lance Stroll binning it on the formation lap. I was peeing my pants laughing for the rest of the entirety of that race. Yeah, good. Good. Question, Tommy K, do you love tomato ketchup? Is that where your name comes from? Is that a British thing?

Do you only we call it Tommy K? Does anyone in the UK call it Tommy K? I think have you heard that before? Could I have some Tommy K, please? Yeah, that's the Tommy K. I have heard of it before. So there's a song that has Tommy K in it. Culture shock for Harry.

I have to send this to you. Good. Good. And last but very much not least is just call me Rico. Okay. Hello, Rico. My name is Alexander. I go by Ryan, but you can just call me Rico.

With my moment of the race. And for me, it's got to be a triple header three for three for Birdmilander. Safety car making that strong comeback, giving us probably the most action of the year in this race. We got two DNSs, two DNFs and one disqualification. So quite the array of things. Keep breaking late. Yeah, good to see Burt out about.

I'll tell you what, he's after not having to do anything for a long time. It's just they were saving it all for this weekend. Yeah, I'm busy. Busy boy. He went, I'm not going to be tired in a few races. So, could he just raining it in for a bit, please? Yeah. That was the last one.

That was. Thank you, everyone. mine a miracle. I think we've managed to do this review in under 90 minutes. I wasn't sure we were going to. We have. We're just there. Well,

yeah, adverts might make this at a 90 minute, but true, very true. We have plenty more to come, obviously, on the podcast. We've got no race for the next couple of Grand Prix,

but we're going to be about midweek. We've got Patreon episodes. We've already plugged power rankings today. But, of course, start in November, which means we've got a lot of Patreon content still to record throughout the month. Sam, if you wouldn't mind getting us out of ahead. Folks, all those links that you want to find are going down in the description. You can join our Discord as well. That's got going to be 3,000 members talking every single day about Formula One

and lovely many other things. For us on social, if you want to see great reactions, memes, silly extra figures that we cut both from Patreon and from this content, then you can. That's like breaking F1 everywhere. We also saw YouTube. This has been videoed. So if you want to come to see what we really look like, the biggest reaction we always get, I never thought you'd look like that. We just look like human beings. So come and see what we look like. I see if you've division the right people. I'm not actually a thousand years old.

And we will see you for power rankings, if you're a Patreon subscriber, you can find that down below, or in the midweek where we do our next set of F1 Chikshad. Thanks for listening. In the meantime, I've been Samuel Sage. I've been Ben Hocking. And I've been Harry Ead.

And remember, keep breaking like, Hello. Hello. This podcast is part of the Sport Social Post, podcast network.