The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2024 Chinese GP Review

Episode Date: April 21, 2024

The LB boys review the action-packed Chinese GP where Verstappen charged to victory beating Norris and teammate Perez. They run through the various incidents, safety cars, and penalties from the race, as well as naming their drivers of the day, and hearing your moments of the race... FOLLOW us on socials! You can find us on YouTube, Instagram, X (Twitter) and TikTok SUPPORT our Patreon for bonus episodes, historic race reviews & more! JOIN our Discord community JOIN our F1 Fantasy League: SIGN UP & create your team, and JOIN our league (join code: C3PHEQHPU04) BUY our Merch SEND us something! We have a brand new PO box - address: Late Braking Podcast, PO Box 821, TRURO TR1 9PE EMAIL us at [e-mail] & SUBSCRIBE to our podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. And a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Harry Eid, Sam Sage and me Ben Hocking today reviewing the Chinese Grand Prix won by Max Verstappen, his teammate Sergio Perez in third and the McLaren of Lando Norris, splitting those two drivers in second. place.

All right. Yeah, yeah, you're right, mate. I mean, it's nice to have, actually, quite enjoy at the 8 o'clock start, got the rest of the day ahead of us. Enjoyable. Harry, good to see you, mate. You're back. Hello. Hi, everyone.

Yep, I'm back again. I actually think I'm going to be here for a while now. Don't put any money on more. This is on air. This is on air. You're promising the people at this point. I mean, folks, at one point, I wasn't even going to be here today. Okay.

I've made it. Right. Kirsty, clip that. When he doesn't turn up next week, clip that. He's fired. He's fired if he's not here next week. Oh dear. Okay. Okay, so Chinese Grand Prix, as mentioned, Vestappen, Norris Perez, top three.

Vastappen, pretty comfortable win. I think it was about 14 seconds in the end. Given there was a safety car period, well, a virtual safety car, a safety car, and then another safety car bang on in the middle of this race, Sam. and the fact that he's still won this by 14 seconds, might this be Vastappen's most dominant victory of the season so far? Yeah, I think you'd be quite naive not to see that the breakage going on in the middle of the Grand Prix kind of put a shroud over just how dominant Max Vastappen was.

I think the sprint race alluded to that with just how far away he was in the same amount of laps. It's basically a second a lap faster at this point. And when the safety car, the first full safety car came out, I think Vastan at that point had somewhat of a 20-second advantage back to Pute. And that was the midway point through the Grand Prix. So I do think that come the end of this Grand Prix, if we had a completely green flag running, no incidents, no stoppigs. Stoppits?

Stoppages. Stop it. Hey, still go up early, folks. Okay, talking is that. Many stoppits, much break. Good. Like our slogan. Yes.

We are. Any stoppits, much break. It's if Yoda did our marketing for us. My point here is that. it would have been, I reckon, over 40 seconds. I think that's how dominant he was. Perez, no any of the same level playing field as Max Verstappen here at the Shalang's Grand Prix. Yes, brings him third again just like he did in that sprint race.

But we'll get onto this. I do think that much more shiven on the cast for Sergio Perez, and this is the first time I've actively thought. He's let himself down a little bit this weekend. You start on the front row and to end up that far back from your teammate with a car in between you. Wow, Max Verstappen once again showing us. So Niko Rosberg said it in the commentary, and maybe we'll get on to that as a little juicy topic at another point.

But, you know, Rika Rosberg said that Max Verstappen was in his top five of all time at this point. That performance definitely showed why he's a contender for your list, if you've all got your own individual one. But yeah, mind-blowingly dominant today. I reckon it kill up in 40 to 50 seconds. Harry, most dominant win of the season? Yeah.

Yeah. It's, when it was early on when they said it in commentary, Nika Rosberg said this on the Sky commentary, when Harris was, was, got back in the second. as for Alonzo at that point, but it was lapping six-tenths a lap slower than the snap and. Six-tenths? In the same car.

Six! That's insane! Yeah, that was ridiculous out there today. Like I say, that advantage could have been mighty, had we not had those two, well, three safety car periods. Goodness me. You remember the other day when Ferrari or Carlos Sines was like, got some upgrades coming?

and they're going to challenge the Red Bull. Oh, please. I hope they won't. Excited for Ferrari to be seven-tenths a lapse lower rather than nine tenths. Wiped it away. Wipes the slate clean, that is? Yes, absolutely mad how quick. And it's not just that you can't just say that's the car.

Because as I just mentioned, Perez was so much slower than him today. That was just for Stappen in a league hot of his own. The start when, I know Alonzo was being Yarno Trilly, but the start when Max was like 1.6 seconds ahead at the end of lap 1. It gave me Sebastian Vettel vibes, 2011. It was pretty, pretty frightening. I like to think that sometimes when Max Verstappen starts and he gets a lead like that, he becomes Forrest Gump in his mind.

And he's like, I am runging. And he's just going non-stop. You know, he's like, I will never slow down, even though he's reached the touchdown at the end of the, the pitch. He's just through the tunnel. I will not stop. You know, that is. He's still going. He's like, I'll go again. I'll just keep going because I'm better than you. Yeah. Yeah. Boy's quite good at F1, didn't he? Yeah. Yeah. Weirdly, I was also going to bring up Sebastian Vettel and the way that Spastien Vettel used to essentially bridge a one second gap in about

two laps or so. Here, it was the safety car restart when he was over a second clear after like two corners. It's like, okay, yeah, this one's over. And like you say, Sam, I wouldn't have been surprised at all if this was, if this was a non-safety card race, I think this would have been something close to something close to 35 seconds, 40 seconds, maybe. You know what Red Bulls should have done? And maybe they did do this. And this is why he was so dominant. They should say, okay, you get a one million pound bonus for every second you are clear of the rest of the field and see how far in the lead he would end up being. Because we don't even know if this was Max Verstappen, like, at full pelt of what he could

have achieved. I mean, if you gave him that, or you said, like, you get one point for every one second you are clear of everyone else. I feel like he can probably win by a minute. But, yeah, it was utterly dominant. I wanted to make sure it was mentioned because we're running out of things to say about Max Verstappen and how good he is, but we also just don't want to move on as if it didn't happen. They smash the strategy as well though. They tip full of Arkinchat safety car and we've seen

with Mercedes resting there, laurels when they were in front. Red ball, straight in, box, smooth set of tyres, they were on it and it was good to see. That is how you solidify a dominant wing. Sam, you've already brought up Sergio Perez. Naturally, he was, he worked his way back up to the top, but whereas Norris and Lecler took advantage of the safety car period, Perez, even though he did pit, it wasn't necessarily taking advantage in the same way that those two drivers did. Despite that Do you still have disappointment towards what he was able to achieve today? Yeah, I do. When you start on the front row and you've got the ability,

I know that obviously Alonkso had that stormer of a start and fair play, we'll talk about that later, but Alonkso is just loves overtaking people around China. He's like, you know, another set of ties. I'll just do it again. Sergei Perez should have been the second place today. We kind of gave him, I think, a little bit of a pass in the spring race for finishing third because he didn't start on the front row.

He had to make some overtakes. We saw that it was difficult to make some passes. but with a full race session going on, the rebel is so much better, well, so much better in the hands of Max Verstappen, but I do think that the golf that we saw between Verstappen and Perez is actually more damning to Perez

than it should be. I don't think the gap in their abilities is that big. I do not think that Max Verstappen is essentially a second and that faster than Perez. I think half a second, sure, but the speed in which Gestaping is able to dispatch of anyone at any point in a Grand Prix. And Perez,

I complimented him highly on his ruthlessness and his ability to kind of get an overtake down and dusted. And here today in the Grand Prix, that didn't happen. He got the move down to LeClerc, but that took a little bit of a while. And the gap just never came down to Norris. It was a little bit of a theme throughout the Grand Prix, but I did think, you know, that Red Bulls got such legs on it. It should be able to make the strides towards the car in front. I think he let himself down a little bit. I think second place should have been on the cars.

I think he'll be disappointed with it. Do you agree with that, Harry? Yeah, it wasn't, wasn't Sergio's greatest. greatest day today, was it? Because given that car, what that car can do in the hands of Max Stappen, he should be, he should be P2. There's just no.

And we said this before many times when Max is winning Parrish, if the car's that good, Peres should be P2. I don't know Max was making the difference here, but still, it was strange how Perez struggled to get past LeClaude, to be honest, after that safety car.

I just expected him to whiz past and then rock up to the back of Norris and they'd get past him as well. So yeah, it wasn't ideal. He's still on the podium, so I don't think it's the end of the world for Sergio, but he's turned a P2 into a P3, which on the face of it isn't ideal,

given what that rebel is. So, yeah, I don't think it's like massively concerning, but it's also not great. You can't keep doing that. if that car advantage is going to last for the year. Yeah. I think with the irony is, even if this wasn't his greatest race,

which it definitely wasn't, again, it comes down to maybe the lack of challenges to his seat. I know Carlos Sines is heavily in that picture as well, but he didn't have the best of days today. Yeah, I think Australia was a tough one to judge. I'm trying to decide whether this was a worse race for Perez

than Australia was. clearly finishing position-wise Australia was worse. He was fifth place but we'll never really know what Vastappen's true pace would have been at that circuit but I don't think it would have been anywhere close to what we saw today. In which case I am

I do tend to lean towards this being his worst race of the season because he was never close. Admittedly yes I think second place was on the cards without that safety cast coming out as a result of Valtrey Bottas's engine going nope, but I still think that he should have made his way back to, back to P2.

And that's something we often say about that type of strategy from the likes of Norris and LeCler is that you do sometimes, not even get lucky, it's just part of the strategy is that you stay out longer, you give yourself the opportunity for when a safety car or a VSC makes an appearance. And it just so happened today that it did. And on another day it won't. But it tends to luck wise, I guess you could say, it all swings aroundabouts, isn't it? It all comes back around. I was, I was a little bit disappointed. He's still on the podium, which is, you know, that he'll still take that forward, but certainly he hasn't improved his stock as a result of today's race, I don't think.

That's the one thing I wanted to mention that previously in seasons have gone by, when Sergio Perez has had a bad Grand Prix, that's usually resulting in him being 7th, 8th, 9th, of Stauffin's still gone to win the Grand Prix. If a bad race for Sergio Perez while Vastappan wins is now third, that is okay. I still think this is disappointing. He still should have picked up second. But if third is the worst it's going to get,

I still think Red Bull look at that and go, yeah, okay, that's not the end of the world for us. We're still bringing home pretty great points overall. And I guess there's also a case to say that he was fairly close to Lando Norris at one point, couldn't get by. is there a great deal of value in Perez and the team pushing that hard to get by Landau Norris at that point? Obviously, Red Bull are in a great position constructors championship-wise.

They're going to claim 40 points as a result of a win in the third place. Is there a great deal of point in massively risking it for second place, Harry? I guess, I guess no. But would it have been that, I guess Norris would have fought it pretty hard, not to lose P2. I don't know that doesn't feel like an attitude that they would have but I understand I understand your logic there

because yeah they're in such a great place what's the point risking a move that might not come off when you know out of that battle Norris is going to be the one that will fight that harder than Peres will because he wants to pee too badly so yeah I understand that

but again I'm not sure I just don't think he was he was quick enough really was he I don't think that was really the issue here. I think if he had been quick enough, they wouldn't have said, don't worry about it. I think with Lando Norris, just to move on to him very quickly as well, a graphic showed up towards the end of this race that said that it was his best finishing position since the 2023 Brazilian Grand Prix, of course, finishing in second. And he said over team radio afterwards that he thought he would be battling and eventually losing out to the Ferraris, which of course wasn't the case. I mean, it's a very good day for London Norris, Sam.

Yeah, I think we've seen throughout the full season, haven't we? Ferrari had been the second fastest car. They have, you know, made it quite clear that they are the closest challenges to Red Bull. They got that victory, of course, in Australia when Verstappen had that failure. Science has been flying. He's picked up a podium in every single Grand Prix up until now. But I was quite surprised to see how much slower Lecler and science were in comparison to Norris. Obviously, Piazzi, the pace wasn't good in the sprint race,

and then he was behind that pair of gang in the full Grand Prix, but then picked up the damage after the full stroll, Ricardo, kerfuffle that went on in that safety car. So he was never really able to challenge once again. And when you've got the Masegis who are just floundering, I guess there's no challenges there. But I did think that, especially with Ferrari getting a better race start than the McLaren's, that they'll be more of a challenge throughout the Grand Prix,

and they were so confused whether they were running Strat D, Plan D, plan don't do it. it just didn't really pay off for them. They never really got anywhere. So I think Norris was excellent. Equally, I think Landon Norris was the only car outside of the Red Bulls that rang a completely well-executed, strong race from start to finish. I think every single other challenger either didn't have the car or they didn't have the strategy.

I guess, Harry, in many respects, it shows what Lando Norris probably missed out on in the sprint race. Yeah. That's what's going to bring up. this is what Norris should have done yesterday. But it was, like, not to take that way from it, it was, yeah, as I say Sam, I think it wasn't, well, we'll go to Strava the day and stuff, but it was an excellent race from Norris. If you just ignore this to happen, he's, you know, he's the next best today. So, yeah, it's, it's interesting.

That McLaren pace, at least in the hands of Norris, did surprise me, because I thought it would be, he was clear, wasn't it? He was the clear next best. So yeah, but I think it was, again, like Vistap, and I think it was Norris that was making a difference. Should we review some bold predictions? Oh, I'm actually fuming about this, so sure, we can. But I'm well grumpy at a certain Canadian.

What are you grumpy about? But of course, my bold prediction was that Ricardo was going to score points. And up until Lance Stroll deciding, you know what, don't like you, Dania Riccardo, just go drive into the back of you. it was, I reckon he might have been on for 10th place. No chance. His tyres were, his tyres were, it had lost those positions anyway, I think. He stopped under the second safety car.

It's fine. He can stop again anyway. Yeah. But I think with the way that Alonso saw the tire deficit come through, I think we saw that, I think there's a chance. And I can get to see it play out. So, stroll, you're in another category of idiot with that incident. So, I mean, that doubles up because we now know who Sam's worst driver of the day is.

Equally, yeah, sorry, no points for me. Yeah, my weekend was over pretty quickly because if you remember the sprint race, Lewis Hamilton led, Lando Norris had pole, Fernando Alonzo was in second for a good amount of time. Vastappen won it, but nowhere featured was Cheryl, who I said was going to win it. Yeah, not even close to the main race either. Unlike a certain other person's prediction where, if you just changed the words, in my right? If I just stopped speaking in that preview episode

and just said Lewis Hamilton podium and then didn't say in the main race, I'd have been claiming this, but obviously I'm an idiot. You would have had an argument for it, for sure. What, if I said Lewis Hamilton podium, that counts. I think you've had a proper argument to stand up and say, hey, I didn't specify, but you mug yourself. Your man managed to make up 10 positions in the race

and he was still five positions of being right for you. Hello, is that the Met Police? Harry smugged himself. Yeah, here's Lewis for going out in Q1. So, you know, that hairpin? Blake for it next time. He doesn't like that hairpin much, does he? Didn't serve him well.

If everyone gets their abacus out, please. You'll see that the current scores are Sam has won, and myself and Harry have none. But of course, we have to take into consideration today's results. So, Sam is now on one, and myself and Harry have moved up to none. Right, that'll do it for our first segment. On the other side, we've got more chat about the Ferrari duo. I'm like Max Verstappen in his bold predictions.

Dominant. Sure, believe, infinity percent ahead of us. I'm never being caught. Okay, everyone, welcome back. Ferrari finished fourth and fifth, so they made progress on their qualifying position, but of course no podium for them, which is a disappointment versus previous races.

Harry, what did you make of their race? Quite frankly, I'm furious at them because I made some big changes to my... Oh, no. Oh, he's done something. Oh, no. I've used up a chip so I can make all these changes.

I thought, fine, I'm not being rinsed anymore. So I've got Carlos signs. He's my two times chip. And then I've also got Ferrari in there. So cheers for nothing. You bunch of Italian Muppets. Anyway. I've just got Italian Kermit in my head.

Excellent. Mr. Beattie. Italian accent. Miss Piggy, it's Italian. It's hilarious. It's a mean, Miss Piggy. Oh, no, Karamid. What we're talking about, Ferrari?

Yeah, they were quite slow today, weren't they? They just weren't they? They just didn't, I know they kept saying about planned it. At times I heard Plan D. Is everyone else on Plan D? Well, no. know you're not technically, but now we know what plan D is, you morons.

Why are you saying that? Stop using code if you're just going to give away the code. But yeah, even with these various plans that they were on, I don't think it really mattered. They just didn't have the pace. And it was kind of surprising. It's probably the least convincing Ferrari have looked all year during a race, I think. Yeah, it wasn't their greatest share,

but I don't think either of them, it was down to either driver. I just don't think the car was there with them today. So for the love of God, Ferrari, bring those upgrades and they better be good. Because, yeah, hopefully that's, today was a one-off and they get back. Resumed normal service next race. Was this their worst race of the season so far, sir? Yeah, I think it probably was.

The fact that they'd managed to pick up a podium pretty much every single other time, even with Olibeam and driving, of course, in Saudi Arabia, and science had to step away with the appendix issue. that he picked up. It is, you know, a disappointing turn of form. I would have thought out of all the Grand Prix that we've seen so far, that actually this track would suit Ferrari's characteristics, quite cool in condition.

It's quite strong in the straight-line abilities, which Ferrari are at the moment. I was surprised to see them struggling. I think fourth and fifth is actually okay with the events that went on around them. Fernando Alonkso arguably should have been in front of them. Oscar Pliascri has the car to arguably be in front of them. George Russell wasn't too far behind. So I think walking away with the fourth and fifth,

the only person they were properly beaten by, which I think they shouldn't have been, was Landon Norris, who was on it like a car, on it today. It was sensational. So, yeah, this was not great, but equally, it's not disastrous. I do think that they can live and learn. Now, come away from this and unscathed a little bit, I think. Yeah, that's kind of how I concluded

is that it was a good result, given how slow they were, in that, yes, whilst Lando Norris might, have beaten them. That could have also meant Oscar Piastri beat them. If Lewis Hamilton didn't start 18th, could he or the other Mercedes have beaten them? Fernando Alonzo, if the strategy was different, maybe he could have. So actually, to come away with 22 points from the weekend, not too bad, and they'll just be hoping that pace-wise, this was something of a one-off. Because I think in terms of pure pace, yes, this was definitely their worst weekend so far. And given LeCler and Norris's was essentially exactly the same. I appreciate Lando Norris had to come into the pits one lap later

because he missed the VSC window, or at least the first VSC window. But even with that, it didn't really cost Norris any time. So yeah, you essentially had almost identical conditions for two cars. One of them is able to stay ahead of Perez quite comfortably. The other is overtaking very, very quickly and doesn't really factor in much. I know LeClaire was quite a long way, clear a car lost signs, but there just wasn't much going on for both of them towards the end of this race.

I thought actually in particular, they were slow on the hard tires. I thought they weren't, weren't too bad in the opening stint, but there was the hard tires, they just didn't work with at all. I think for me, the most worrying thing for Ferrari

is what this weekend is throwing up for them as a team. There seems to have developed, a little bit of an attitude between the two drivers where civil war feels like it's starting to brew. You heard Carlos Sites, you know, after what happened in the spring session come out and say what they're going to do, fire me. And you're going to think, oh, oh, that's spicy from the chili man. Olly Berman is announced as racing for Ferrari.

Well, maybe for the rest of the season. And then, of course, we go down into the hairpin after that heavy braking session. And again, no love lost after Scyntz used LeCler to break. It kind of went the other way. LeCler very much happy to kind of run Carlos Sikes out a little bit wide and giving her room. Those two who have always got along quite nicely,

seemingly pulling at the tethers a little bit and maybe not the best of Pals anymore. So if that's in the last all season, that could be a little bit worrying for team cohesion. I guess, yeah, the question was more directed at the pace, but actually do you think, Carrie, like Sam, that maybe the most worrying from this weekend wasn't necessarily on track for Ferrari?

Yeah, it's a bit spicy. Sorry, I was laughing because Team Cohesion sounds like a great name for a new F-1 team. Every single episode that Harry is on, we get either a band name or an album name. I know this is for a, this is, I could be a name for a band to be fair. Anyway, yeah, it was pretty spicy from them yesterday. Obviously, today they weren't really near each other, so it didn't happen again. But I kind of enjoy Carlos Sines. Carlos Sines, I don't give a monkey's attitude, which is fair enough,

because why should he? He's just driving for himself. And I get it because what he's basically he's just advertising himself for this year now to get a seat somewhere else. So yeah, I'm enjoying that. But yeah, it's interesting.

It's just starting to, I think they'll be okay, but just starting to tear at the seams a little bit their relationship. I don't think it's going to be a Rosberg-Haldon scenario. know, but yeah, it was always, it was never an issue before because I think, while Science always did a great job, I think LeClaire probably has had a bit of an edge in general over their partnership, but Sines has been given LeClaher a headache this year.

So, yeah, I'm here for it. I love it. I'm also, I love when those two, every time they're battling, I just want to, I have to watch through my fingers because it's just terrifying to watch. I think in Monza last year as well, terrifying. Maybe we should start selling merch at like Ferrari branded fingers

that you kind of hold over your eyes like this just so you can peek through every time a battle goes on. Ferrari fingers will call them. I don't think we should. I do find it funny how we've got like, we've got this intra-ferrari battle and they aren't seemingly best of friends. And you've got O'Conn and Gasly

who aren't the best of friends. And then you've got Yuki Sonoda and Daniel Ricardo, who've already had to come in together this year. Russell and Hamilton have never really been best friends. And then you look up and down the grid and it's like, which teammates work well together? Oh, I know. Holcomb Berger Magnuson.

They're the cohesive pair. Just two old boys having a good time out there. Weird. Really weird. What was my initial question? Oh, yes, about Ferrari. Yeah, I'm not, I think they'll get this back. But it's difficult for Carlos Sines not to feel animosity towards the situation and by proxy LeClerre.

Because, yeah, Signs has been overlooked in favour of LeClair. They had, you know, they were both available. They could only take one. They've gone against Carlos Sines. And Sines has on a few occasions, not today, but a few occasions this year, been better than Chauleclair. So it's kind of tricky to, and LeCler at the beginning of this week was like, yeah. Science has done a better job than I have. So it's difficult for Carlos Sines to beat anything other than, yeah, I am.

Why am I getting kicked out? Yeah, so I don't like you, I don't think. Maybe it comes back once every couple of races, but I don't think this will be an ongoing, as you put at Sam, a Rosberg and Hamilton situation. Medi because Ferrari aren't good enough to win titles. Oh, oh dear. Very harsh. Very, very harsh.

Fernando Alonzo. you had a bit of a different strategy, didn't he, Harry? Oh, goodness me. David Croft loved it. Can we talk about this? Yeah, we can. Right, let's do Nico Crosby. Come on.

Crofti would not let it go that this was, and he was kept trying to defend that this was a good strategy. And Nika Rosberg, quite rightly, because it was a terrible strategy, was like, no, no, no, no, it was terrible. It's like, yeah, yeah, but he's making the, you know, best, was it? Best of a terrible situation.

Man was in fifth. Yeah. On top five on the cards here. But would not let it go. Those two in the commentary box. I love Martin Brundel, obviously, but I just love that Nico Rosberg is just not prepared to go on.

Whereas Martin Brunth has been worn down. Yes, exactly that. Nico Rosberg is like, no, you're being an idiot. Stop it. It's like the two of them. Weird and allergy. I've gone clay pigeon shooting, right?

And Croft is throwing his ideas up into the skull. all hopeful. Bang, no, not allowed that one. Bang, that's crap. Every single time, I loved it. You go, oh, what about points for the top 20? No, top 10 only. It should be hard.

He's getting him back for not being able to talk about the spring race. He is. Oh my God. I didn't watch it, but I heard about him stopped mentioning the sprint race and it was literally a result on Maxis for Stap for one sprint race. Yeah, obviously, those two all race. I love the sass. I'm not sure he's a great

commentator on Geico, but I loved the SaaS that he brought this weekend. He's excellent. I've just got an image now of those two going, going claim pigeon shooting together. Got their outfits on. It's me. Anyway, what was you need? Oh, Fernando

strategy, yes. Yeah, that was interesting. I know he had the fresh softs to use, but you don't have to use them, guys. I know they're there, but you don't just put them one for no reason. It was,

I could see what they were going for. And yes, two Crofty's slightly ridiculous point, he was hampered by the fact that then we had a second safety car,

but even so, to Nika Rosberg's point, that strategy was never going to work. He was never going to see out the race on softs, and he was never going to, it was never,

because the field were now all bunched up, he was never going to be able to make up the gap. So if it had been a VFC situation where he'd made that stop, I would understand slightly more, but he did it under the safety

car, so yeah, not, not, they've given away a good result there slightly, so not the best afternoon on the pit wall. Bernie Collins must be watching that and going, do you want me back, guys?

Please. Sure, you want me back? Yeah. It was, it just wasn't a great strategy whatsoever and gave away some good points because their race pace, Astrid Martin, isn't fantastic, but Fernando Alonzo is just being Fernando Alonzo and putting that car in positions

it shouldn't be... I mean, I say positions in terms of places on the track, but also positions of being on the road. I mean, that save out of the last corner might be... Oh my word. Goodness me. Man is like limitless. His reflexes are in the future. How do he save that?

He's in his early 40s. No, he's got... He's in his early fours is what we're saying. He's essentially still a child in that car. Yeah. So it's a shame because I think Alonzo actually is driving as well as he ever has, but the car just can't. The car can't keep up with him. He's too fast for the car. You want what from me, Fernando? More. I thought Alonzo was brilliant this weekend. I think that the car was bad. I really don't think that car worked at all this weekend.

So the fact that he's managed to finish, what, seventh place with the fastest lap. The fact that that's strategy is only essentially cost him three points, I believe, is pretty good going. It was a terrible idea. I don't know why they did it, because it was always going to be the case where unless they got very lucky and got another safety car or another VSE, they were always going to have to take a green flag stop, which is always going to cost you. Everyone else went on the same strategy for a reason, apart from you, Fernando Alonzo. So, yeah, I mean, it made him slightly more competitive for about three or four laps, but I mean, what good's at when there's so many laps still to go? It's not as if there was five laps left or even 10 laps left. There was

half the race to go. So yeah, I thought it was an awful decision. Sam. We saw continuously this trend at the moment the ties started to decay. Inroog's major cars in front were minimal, if not not at all. Perez was a prime example trying to catch Landon Norris, Lewis Hamilton, trying to catch Oscar Piacke. We saw so many occasions where cars who are on very similar strategies, or even ties were a bit newer for the attacking cars, started to fall off. They couldn't get going near them. So, yes, Alonkso picked up that early kind of second wind

where he was able to cut through the slower traffic of poor O'Kong back there, Holcombberg, whatever, you know, and they caught up to Hamilton and Piastro. Great. That's kind of the bare minimum of what you expect to get back from him. But I don't think that Russell, especially when you've ever got passed alongside, I think 10 points, 5th, 5th place was pretty much always guaranteed. to be on the car. That most, you could finish sixth, which would be in the position in front of where he finished anyway. So this feels like a bit of a poor call. Yeah, he got the fastest

lap point. And we got to have some fun, which if I'd also cut back through the field and that race needed it. But poor choice from Askin Martin. Okay, everyone, it's time for driver of the day. The verdict is then. You're the driver of the day. You're the driver of the day. You're the driver of the day. That was almost a really funny situation because I also set up to play the Driver of the Day jingle which just about avoided it played twice. It's all you, man. It's all you, man. Driver of the day, who have you got, Harry?

I'll go for Lando Norris. There are a few in there. Max Lestappen, obviously. Alonzo we've already mentioned as well. But yeah, I just think Norris was excellent. just very excellent. To finish P2, to beat a Red Bull, that is, that's a great, great result.

So, yeah, Landonois for me. Sam. I sent mine at the start of the recording because I'm just like Max Verstappen that I'm so dominant, I do things faster than everyone else now. But I did say Max Verstappen, for those that didn't quite catch it,

the man was sublime. Even when he did fall back into the traffic or had to execute a stress jet of the safety car, it was effortless, it was easy. So, yep. Big Vestap, drive of the day. I'm going to give Lando Norris

best non-driver of the day this season because I thought he was exceptional, but Vestappen would have won that race by about 35 seconds, I think, if they weren't for the safety cars. So it's difficult not to give it to him. So I'll give it to Vestappam, but Norris was very, very good as well. A few contenders for the next one.

Worst driver of the day. Get in the bin, bin, bin, bin, bin, bin, worst driver of the day. Worst driver of the day You suck at driving Who have you got, Harry? This is good. Worst driver of the day.

I'll go for Lance troll. The realization of your face of like, there is nobody else. I was trying to think, to anyone else have a worse race? No. It was,

yeah, don't drive into people onto the safety car, my guy. It was not, it's not ideal. Look forward in the car. Why is he looking over here? What's going on over there? You know, hot dog stands. You know, forwards.

Drive the car. It was so clumsy. And I know they were like backing up and stuff in front of him, but everyone else had managed not to hit each other. The other one I was almost going to go for was Kevin Magnuson because he hates Yuki Snowder, apparently. Box office is back Friday night. Tickets are on sale.

Honestly, that was because it wasn't even the movie. It wasn't like he died on. and hit him. They were through the corner and it was just like, no, you keep, out you go. It's just bad.

It's like intrusive thoughts. What if I just drove into it? Bang, off you go. Oh, got him. Got him. Anyway, but no, I'll go for Lance. Ben are you back with us? Yes.

Well, I think I am anyway. I am here. Audio, you are good. Well, that is good news. My laptop is cooking and not in a good way. Sam, worst driver of the day. I'm going to join Harry Ede on the Larkstrol disgusting train because I also, again,

another brilliant radio message from Lansdrell coming over there. What is this thing he ain't doing? He's just brain check me. And then obviously gets talking about the penalty. This is a joke. The guy is just constantly angry in his own little world that he's got going on over there. But they just don't drive into someone. It's as simple as that.

It was so poor. It's such a lapsing concentration. K-Mad does deserve a shout-out for, I don't know. terrorism because he has just attacked him. Poor Yuki's just trying to drive in a straight line. And Kibak just gone, nah, your gun, mate. See you later, Sunshine. It was terrible.

10 out of 10 for execution from K. Mark, it was, it was clinical. If that was his attempt, yes, get a puncture and in the race of someone else. 10 out of 10. I just think he's gone, I haven't had any car age in my life for a moment. I'm a dad.

I need to be sensible all the time. I hate to. the calmness must hit someone else anyway neither of them will get a score point so it was a bit of drama for us but the irony being there then he gave us

probably the best battle of the race those two I know both very angry in their cars at that side but yeah no stroll is the worst driver of the day

he can get in the bin ah I am you know what I'm going to go with Kevin Magnuson I think Lance Stroll and Kevin Magnuson

are the top two I think Logan Sargent also deserves a shout out because he was really slow today. Even by, this sounds horrible, even by Logan Sargent standards, I thought he was bad today. But he didn't kill anyone, so he's done better than the other two. The only reason I've gone for Kevin Magnuson is I think the Landstrol incident, whilst I do lay the blame on him, I can forgive it more than I can the Kevin Magnuson one, because

I think at least one driver was going to go into another driver in what happened in that it happened to be Landstrol. I do think it was his error, but I can understand why he made the error. Kevin Magnuson murdered someone, and that is grounds for worst driver of the day. Murder. That's fair. Big brain strap.

What have you got, Sam? Mine's here come after the Grand Prix, which I'm going to defeat to the purpose entirely, but watching Landon Norris realize he's gone the wrong way to get to the park up spot where he's meant to go into the third place and then he's gone

I need to put my car in reverse there's cars behind me I'm stuck in neutral and rolling backwards down the pit lane screw it I'm just going to have to go forward and park somewhere else it's almost like

we've all been in that situation in a car park where you've missed the space and you go oh I can get him no there's out of eight cars behind me I'm not I'll just go forward

I'll find somewhere else and I've been there and I can relate to this millionaire superstar but that was just so good to watch it's brilliant driving and he'd go, ah, man, yeah, I'm in the wrong space. Also, Joe Guangyu get his own parking spot on the grid. Pizhou is hilarious.

That is fair. That is completely fair. Harry? Obviously, the Alonzo strategy probably deserves a shout at here, but I'm going for Pierre Gasly, because that Alpine actually wasn't as bad this weekend, I don't think, but they're so desperate to gain positions that Hamilton was coming out of the pit lane under the VSC. And Gazzley was just racing him. I will get in front of him. Around turn one and two. I was like, you're not supposed to do that, guys.

And Gazzes like, no, no, I will. I will get in this place. I will fall everyone. You're not going to see anything. I'm getting this place. So I thought it was an admirable attempt from Peter. I'm not sure if this is a compliment for Alpine or a dis on Mercedes. I don't think that Alpine was that much slower than the Mercedes.

I mean, when when Hamilton was behind Ocon, he couldn't get close to him. And then obviously he ended up ahead due to the safety car period. but there wasn't that much of a difference between them, which was baffling. I'm going to go with Salba working out how they can avoid having pit stops, making their engines go kaput after half the race. That was a really good strategy. Oh, Valtrey. Also, I don't know if this quite goes into strategy territory,

but the fact that Red Bull pulled off their first four, might be there only four stops of this race, between Perez and Vostappen, a combined total of eight seconds between, those four pit stops. They're at a 1.9, two, two second pit stops, and their slowest was 2.1 seconds.

That is ridiculous. One of them was a double stack. You can't be good at everything. The footage just got put up on a certain adult site, actually. It was that dirty. Oh, come on. But Salma actually did do a pit stop

and it was on time. It's okay. What, 5.3 seconds. Hey, they did it a 3 second. Well, well done. Well done. Three seconds. Only one second behind Red Bull.

Can we talk about as well? When the early pit, we didn't see any of it. Ted Kravitz was in the pit lane like falling over, collapsing because it was so exciting. But like four cars, or five cars came to the pits at the same time.

They all tried to run into each other. Yeah. Yeah. Guys, come on. I love a bit of pit stock drama these days. Yeah. All right. Let's take our second break of this episode.

On the other side, we've got moment of the race. Okay, everyone. Welcome back. We have an. earlier moment of the race than what we would usually have to make sure that Mr. Harry Ead can be here for it as I appreciate you have to get off in a couple of minutes time

but as usual we'll give our own ones first before we say anything from Discord. What was your moment of the race, Harry? My moment of the race, sorry, I've just lost my notes. I'm going to name a couple here. Have we pointed out, yeah, this is really a moment of the race. Have we pointed out that the anting, anting, anting, anting on it is no longer anton?

Oh, I'm morning. Was it called now? It was, it's close, it was it? Geard ding, which I also love that. It's a very similar sounding word with two silly syllables

and it's now the Gia Ding corner. But Rip Banting, who was a part of my life for as long as I can remember. As long as for my entire life. May it as well be. I was like four when I first saw it. Yeah.

Yeah, I did. Anyway, and that was just a shout-out. The Magnuson's Stroh battle was excellent. I know it didn't last very long, but I thought it was a great part of the race. But I'm just going to go to the shot of the 17 Marshalls trying to move Vowardrie Pott, this is sour. Oh, my God.

Heave! Oh, you're back into it. It was kind of like an office style cut. We're just watching the action, and we'll get on to why there was no save to get on. just to cut to there's like a million people around this car and it will not go anywhere it's the most stubborn F1 car

ever known to Man I'd maybe laugh a lot oh dear one that you mentioned my moment of the race was the Kevin Magnuson and Landstrol battle because there is nothing more entertaining

I'm convinced of this there's nothing more entertaining in F1 than Kevin Magnuson outside the top 10 with a 10 second time penalty like it's just the go He doesn't care. He gets to a point where he's like, it doesn't matter, does it? I'm just going to needlessly battle this P-17 far harder than I need to and fair play to him for it. It creates a half a lap of

great drama. He just would not give that up. See, walk out the track dusting his hands. All like a good day's work. I also love the Wendstrol finally got past that turn one. Kevin Magnuson's like, I'm going to go around the eyes. No, I can't do that. No. I tried. I'll give it a good go. Give it a good go. For you, Sam, moment of the race? Yeah, far less serious than yours. There was one moment where, you know,

Landon Norris is doing brilliantly, and sometimes they have family members that come to the pit lane to watch along, and I believe Landau's dad had turned up, which is fantastic. Adam had turned up, Adam Norris. And there's a cut where it cuts to him and he's just finished off his water bottle.

And you can see him walking around the pit garage going, well, I put in the being, is there a being? and a pet engine is having to go, recycling's over there. And you think, why are we watching this? Why am I watching a man

look for a bin for his water bottle during a Grand Prix? Equally, I loved it. Yeah, I was going to ask, why not? That's great. I was all for it. I want more water bottle chat, please. Water bottle cam.

Yeah. Goodness me. But of course, we have some Discord submissions that have come in. Thank you very much to everyone who's put some submissions in. We'll play as many as we can.

Take it away, Harry. Okay. First up, we have Opal. Hey, guys. It is 3.45 in the morning. I have ruined my sleep schedule again to watch the race. But I'm here to give my moment. My moment was when the race commentators said that RB stands for really bad.

And also, I'm happy to see that Holcomberg got into the points again because Haas doesn't suck. I mean, they do a bit. not as much as we were thinking they would. Less sucky than anticipated. I like that. Award. I think that R.B. Sangerve really bad is one of the most late-breaking lines of commentary I could ever imagine. Yeah, it's like you said it.

I think I probably have. It definitely sounds fair. Next up is Real Dad and James. Hello, boys. Good morning. James and Real Dad, he'll have a man of the race. Dad's a bit annoyed because something might have happened, so I will just pass it on to him. Lance Stro, what are you doing?

The guy needs glasses and probably needs to leave F1. Oh, I need to make a coffee. Right, that's it. Over and out. Yeah. I hope you're not too tired like yesterday, boys. See you. Bye.

Bye-bye. I thought you like tea. I thought you like tea. Absolutely done, ma'am there. another great submission. This next one is from Ruth, although the way it's... Ruth.

I can't play this, but I'm not sure it's going to work. It's downloaded it. Oh, folks, I'm really sorry. Harry's going to go. I'm obviously all the way from South Africa. My moment of the race is actually the whole race when Rosberg is beating crafty in commentary and explaining things way better.

And calling winners a bad strategy. I really like his commentary this week. I mean, Salber, under pit stop, doing a 5.3, and then Max getting a 1.9 pit stop. I mean, come on. I'm having a good week. Bye. Good.

The roasting of roof. The roasting of roof. Next up, we have flamingo hot Cheetos. If that's your name, sensational. I thought it was flaming hot chicos. I've got chikos. It's Chico time. That's it.

Flaming hot chico time. That's a throwback. Oh, boy. Anyway, Flamingo Hot Cheetos. Hi, guys. It's Flamingo Hot Cheetos here. My moment of the race was when Lewis Hamilton was stuck behind Nico Hukenberg for like five entire minutes. It was just crazy to see him not being able to pass a Haas.

And it was kind of like Lewis first Nico, 2024. Or, you know, that was funny. Okay. Okay. Can I just comment on Lewis Hamilton for a minute? That man is a mood vacuum. Honestly, shut up. Seriously, winging around like a little baby over the radio.

Beat George Russell and then you can moan about the car not being very good. I'm sick of it, mate. I love too. I hate these tires. Yeah, it was very early on. These are the wrong tires, man. You don't have to beat his rack. Ford for how early he hates ties.

I'm two lapsing, I hate him. I hate him. Race me on marshmallows or something next time. Bono's like, any few, how many more races left? He's got a countdown clock, right? Anyway, next up is on the button.

Gidea, chaps. It's on the button here from little old New Zealand. My moment of the race, apart from Lance Stroll for getting how to drive and rear-ending everyone like a trolley going back into the trolley bay. was actually I saw the Salba pull into the pits for a pit stop

so I thought I'd dash to the fridge and get a beer and see if I could beat them. That's true my surprise. Three second pit stop. Hold on. Keep breaking late. I love it. It's like I can break.

You're like, I can pop to do there. That's excellent. That's the sort of thing we would do. We used to make content like that back in the day. Anyway, next up is Bristol, Liam, or maybe it's Hazard. Morning, lads.

My moment at the race was probably Lance, absolutely cannon strolling it into the back of Ricardo that ruined all of Australia's racing for about the only race I have in any year

that's a reasonable time for them. Cheers. Poor Australia. Poor Australia. next up is wrath Don't you just love waking up 2 a.m. for a race so do I.

Moment of the race definitely when Lance Stroll violated Danny Rick's rear end and also I think Eco Rosberg should be in charge of the FIA what do you think good morning, good night

wherever you are audios ex-drivers helping out with the rulemaking surely not no no no no no Don't be ridiculous. And finally, we've got our friend, Norm from Texas. Hey, everyone.

It's Norm from Texas, and I'm here to get my moment of the race. And my moment of the race was those few precious laughs that we got with Lando Norris in the lead. But no, Lando Norris is my moment of the race. He had a great race. Anyway, keep breaking late. I love that one man can be the moment of the race, just his existence. He's managed to, he's actually a driver of the day, Stan, is norm. And he's just trying to find a creative way to give his driver of the day.

Just loves that segment. It's all he listens for. Yeah, it's true. That was the last one, right, Harry? That was the last one. Good. Oh, thank you very much to everyone who's submitted. We'll be back for more submissions at the next race, when we'll be looking for who's under pressure in the preview. A couple of incidents that we've already referred to today.

Three 10 second penalties given out by the stewards. So they were quite busy. Sam, did you agree with all of their decisions? Can you run myself and the listeners through, Ben, what those were for? So we had the 10 second penalty for Lance Stroll going into the back of Daniel Ricardo on the safety car restart. We had 10 seconds for Kevin Magnuson murdering Yuki Sonoda. And then we had 10 seconds for Logan Sargent and a 6.5.

safety car infringement for coming out just behind Nika Holcomberg, but thinking he was ahead. Yes. So, thank you for the reminder. Now, the first two were physical incidents, obviously, crashing into one another. And I do think that, you know, you've taken out another driver. Essentially, you've hitting other car. A classic 10 second penalty feels fitting for that. Totally fine with it. I've got no issues at all. The one that I'm a little bit unsure of with the safety car infringement, when I've seen that the image of them, They are quite literally nose to nose across the line. You're almost seeing a photo finish, you know,

which drive was actually crossing that line in front of the other one. I'm not sure how much time Logan Sargent had been communicated for, because we never heard any radio messages from William saying, oh, you know, give the position back, or you shouldn't have come out ahead or whatever. And that might have happened, but from a viewer's point of view, we're watching this, we're not hearing that information. It's very hard to know how much notice Logan Sargent was given. Now, if like the sergeant has simply chosen,

nah, I was one millimeter behind and I've decided to stay ahead. Sure, 10 seconds feels totally fine. If he wasn't given the communications, then I do think that this was quite a harsh penalty overall. But at least they're trying to be consistent with, you go ahead of a car under a yellow flag or by leaving the track, you get 10 seconds. At least there is some consistency there.

We'll get onto it maybe, but there was a lot of running cars off the road and no penalties or warnings given this Grand Prix, and it does feel like we've just gone back to, I don't know, corner specific, you're allowed to not leave any space and that's fine. And I don't really understand where that ruling's gone. Do you think the steward's got most things right today, Harry? Some of it. The Logan's Sergeant one seems pretty harsh to me,

but again, we didn't really see much of it. The Lance Stroll, I think the penalty, itself is fair for Lance, but he's been given two penalty points, which is less than what Alonzo got for his incident with Carlos signs, and that seems ridiculous. How does that work? You have crashed under a safety car.

Yes. How is that worth it? How's that worthy of a less of a penalty point on your licence? I don't understand. So in that sense, no, that's a terrible call, but in race penalty, yes. and I think the same for KMAG, I think that was a 10 second penalty was justified on that one

for literal terrorism. So I know there are two different incidents, but I think the same penalty applying works in this instance. And that's why the Logan Sargent one, I think, seems quite harsh because I don't know a huge amount about it or heard much more about it, but it was an error that could that not have been resolved like under the safety car if you think that the safety car was out for so damn long anyway.

Could they not have just said, Logan, you weren't ahead of the line. You need to give that back. So yeah, that one seems harsh, but the other two, I think on track penalties, fine. Penalty points, stupid. Yeah, I agree with the stroll of Magnuson ones, particularly the Magnuson one. The stroll one, like I said, I do think he was a little bit unlucky that the car. And I can't remember which two were very close to coming together before Stroll. but even so he's the he's the one that went into the back of ricardo therefore he gets the penalty um the

the logan sergeant one is is so unlucky i think on the driver but is a correct penalty in my opinion if holcomberg was ahead at the line he was ahead at the line therefore he deserves the position regardless of whether it was logan sergeant's decision to stay in front which i have to be honest i would be very surprised if that was the case um or if it was miscommunication or williams didn't look at it close enough to see if he was. Whatever the reason was, the infringement still happened. Therefore, it should be the same penalty regardless. So I did agree with that being a penalty,

but I don't think it's on the driver whatsoever. I was surprised with the, I think it was Stroll and Holcomberg at the beginning, how that one didn't get a penalty. That one seemed, and I only saw it once, so maybe I need to look at it again, but that one seemed like a penalty to me as well. There's so many instances of cars being completely run off track,

and drivers moaning about it, drivers complaining about where they clearly think it was penalty-worthy through following previous rules. And Fernando Alonso obviously got a penalty for running a driver off the track and penalty points. Yes, I know there was a bit of contact, but the concept's happening off the track. And then Carlos Sites, of course,

hits Charler in the sprint race beforehand and runs him off the track, different rulings again. I just don't really understand where the consistency is of what you could do with a driver on the track limits at the moment. And for a new viewer watching this season, it must be really hard to understand. Yes, indeed. Myself and Sam will be back after the break with a little bit more chat. But this is where Mr. Harry Yead takes his leave of absence. Do you want to say goodbye to the people?

Yeah. Cheers and gone, folks. It's been real. Okay, welcome back. We are a man down, but we still do have one more segment to go on today's episode. A bit of chat on Mercedes, because George Russell essentially stayed where he was for the most part in this Grand Prix, but Lewis Hamilton had a lot more to make up based on his qualifying effort. Of course, qualifying 18th. We mentioned on yesterday's review, it might be difficult for him to get back through the field. Eventually ended up 10 positions higher up than where he started.

Good effort, bad effort. What do you think? Was it 9 or 10? He finished P9. Nine, sorry. Yeah. I forgot about a long time. So my bad.

Of course, yeah. So I think Hamilton's mentality is in a really bad way at the moment. I think, you know, morally he knows that he's got a service to this Mesaigese team. But emotionally, I think he's checked out. I think he's going, this car isn't good. This is my last season here. And I'm not going to wing anything. So I've got to kill time before I can start my next journey.

And you can hear it in his voice the whole way through the Grand Prix. Every single issue he was coming out over. Now, I know it's up to the race director, what radios they play and what radio is they don't play. And of course, he might have said 50 really nice things over the radio. We might not have heard them. And that's just, you know, but I have to go on what I've heard. And it came across so negative. But besides that, he managed to do what a world champion should do and they're starting that far back.

And essentially what is now a midfield car. Stay out of trouble. Pick your way through the field. Be decisive when a strategy decision comes along. And he was when it came under the VSC. They stopped again. Their tyres were only two laps old when the full safety car came out. So it kind of worked out for them there.

And you've just got to make sure that you pick your way through all the mess. You know, you had the Stroll Ricardo incident. You had the, uh, a long-so-strasca failure, which it looked like he was maybe going to benefit from at the start. And of course, he then gets overtaken. You had the issue of Magnuson and Sonoda. These are all incidents that's going on around him. And he's managed to steer clear of all the trouble.

He's got a few Evertakes move dig as well. He ends up beating Holgerberg, who was quite good today. Bottas, of course, has a failure. That's another position picked up. He actually made up three or four places on track, but he was able to benefit from so many problems going on that it moved him all the way up to P9. So I think, yeah, it was fine.

I think the points gained looks more beneficial than what he actually managed. I think if it was full green running for every single car, I don't think he could finish higher than maybe 11th or 12th today. But, hey, you've got to race against what you've got, and he picked up points. But I just found it funny that,

George Russell will be finishing 6th. picking up eight points. And of course, Lewis Hamilton who finished second in the sprint race and then finish ninth. He actually only walks away with nine points. So by Russell,

what even bothering for the sprint race? He's only a point worse off for the entire weekend anyway. Russell was good. Russell benefited from a long-so poor strategy more than anyone else, I think. You'd probably want to finish seventh otherwise.

And I did say at the start of the weekend, I imagine it'll be a long-so Piazastri and Russell fighting for that set of points. And there they were. Russell ends up being a victor of the day. To remind everyone before I give my opinion on Lewis Hamilton. Every single driver will be rated by the three of us in our power rankings episode

that will be up on Patreon in the next couple of days. In terms of Lewis Hamilton, I think it was okay and nothing more than that, in all honesty. And I think the VSC helped him out a lot in the same way that it helped out, LeC and Norris, who ended up ahead of Perez who pit under the safety car rather than the VSC. I think Lewis Hamilton was helped by pitting under the VSC. As mentioned in the first part of this Grand Prix, after overtaking the cars that realistically he should have overtaken, he didn't make a lot of progress.

He was consistently stuck a couple of seconds behind Estaban Ocon. We know how bad that Alpine has been, and he was just there, and nothing he could really do about it. I think he was a little bit better in the second half of this race, in that he started to make some of the, overtakes happen, obviously the Holkenberg one that you referenced. I think he did the right thing in that he didn't make any unnecessary risk. You know, he didn't fight, he didn't fight Fernando

Alonzo too hard. He didn't go for broke on the first lap and try and make five positions up in one corner. He didn't actually make up any positions, I don't think, on the first lap. Yeah, yeah. So, which I don't think is the worst thing in the world. You bide your time to make sure that your race doesn't come unstuck on the first lap. And yeah, I feel like there wasn't anything he did out there that I was like, I didn't expect him to do that. Everything he did, I was like, yeah, I figured that should have been done. And some of those positions, like you say, happened not by him making overtakes,

which is fine. I mean, you can't have a go at him for not overtaking on track, a broken down Valtrey Bottas, but even so, I think that has maybe, like you say, inflated his position by a couple of positions. I'm not sure to get got back to the points if it unfolded a little bit differently. Yeah, if it wasn't for Fernando alongside his poor strategy, the same, he would have wound up in a famous seven-nine.

You know, that's... And I... It's the car any better. Is it any better? That's the worst thing. We say seventh and ninth, and it is starting to be like a consistent joke, but it's... That's where they are.

Like it's not, it's not like they are strategically letting themselves down. It's not like they are, you know, qualifying very high and then losing positions. They are just seventh and ninth. But that is where the car is and has been pretty much all year, which is pretty depressing from Mercedes perspective that it's got to that point. But it's the reality. I actually think, again, it's the quality of driver pairing that is keeping them in seventh and ninth as well. Because if you look at Lance Stroll, if he was another Fernand,

along so. I think both Mercedes would be behind both Fasten Martins. Piaastri, he's not had a good start to this season for race pace. And I think if he was racing better, he would have been higher up than both than Mosegis. So arguably, their ninth and tenth, on a standard day, if everyone else performs to their absolute maximum, which that's just, that is literally what the Sengies are now. They are the fifth fastest team. Final thing to look at today before we go, and it has already been mentioned on today's episode in moment of the race, no longer. when Valtry Bottas retired halfway through the Grand Prix, before I go on, actually, can we please give him some luck?

Like, goodness me. What has he done? He's done some into someone because what does he have to do to score a point? Again, I think he put himself in a great position, and it was undone by nothing that he could have done anything about. But that's beside the point. The actual VSC and then safety car period that unfolded as a result of this, how do you feel that was managed?

It's one of the most farcical moments that we've seen so far this season from the skewers. Well done. You've got another one in the books every single year. Why is it taking so long to get the Vs out for a start? We've got multiple skewers around that car. And in the shot where we're watching the stewards attending to the car, you can see an actual battle taking place behind them. I know they're under yellow flags, but they have to slow down for it and they do. But what if someone locks up?

What if someone's brakes fail right there and then? And you're going to... The car is parked in a straight line off of a braking. though, into a very crucial part of a racetrack, and you've just gone, well, I'll give it three to five working days before the VSE comes out. And then when you've got every Marshall in China trying to move that car off the racetrack,

only after another couple of laps, you go, ah, full cost safety car, I suppose so. Well, someone off for a tea break? Did they forget where the bus it was because we've not been in Shanghai for so long to push safety car? It was farcical. It was unsafe, and safety is paramount,

and they've let themselves down. Again, have the stewards, because they have not acted quick enough to make sure that everyone around them is safe. I tend to go with something of a theory, and this is not an insult towards David Croft at all. But David Croft, because he's the lead commentator for like the global feed,

I always tend to think like if he's mentioning something bad, even mentioning it, it's probably very bad. I almost say like, if David Croft has said something's questionable, it's bad. If he's saying something's bad, it's very bad. And if he's saying something's very bad, it's awful. It's like he has to reel it in a little bit, if that makes sense, based on his position. It's the cognitive, isn't it?

Yes, exactly. The fact that he mentioned, I think the VSC maybe should have come out earlier. That makes me think, it definitely should have come out earlier. It was ridiculous. The fact that Valtrey Bottas is stood outside of the car, and all you've got is double-wave yellows. I appreciate it's not necessarily like a blind corner. You can see everything ahead of you.

So that lessens the risk, but why not throw a VSC in that situation? It was clear that car was not going anywhere, despite the fact that David Croft asked the question. I wonder if he could put that in reverse. No, I think the smoke from the back of the car might indicate that he can't do that. But it clearly wasn't going anywhere. The VSC should have gone out straight away. I agree with you that they should have gone to a full-course safety car earlier as well. But I can, you know, that doesn't matter as much.

because when you're under VSC, you're under safe driving conditions, right? So even though I think it should have happened earlier, it's more of a, it should happen rather than it has to happen for safety reasons. But bringing out the VSC in the first place was the one that really got me. That should have happened so much earlier than what it did. I thought it happened straight away. My brain went, that's a VSE. Literally, I thought, oh, that's helped out landing or I was Charlercler,

a treat the moment I saw Botas literally coming to a stop. I thought that is a heavy breaking zone. People are battling into that corner time and time again and it runs onto the biggest overtaking area of the racetrack. They are going to be jewelling for that space. That's a VSC. That is a risk to safety. Nah, just can't be bothered. Yeah. I mean, you bring out the double yellow straight away. You can see from the smoke of the car, right, it's pretty likely this is going to be VSC. Let's give it a few seconds. No, very clearly. Right, VSC. It doesn't need to be more of a laboured process than that? I don't know if they're nervous about calling things too early

and making the wrong choice. But I would rather you call a safety requirement too early and go, look, okay, it was too early, but we were being safe. We'll make sure that everyone was okay. And we apologise, but we'd rather be someone to be safe and they must be sorry. That, to me, would be fine. That's the whole point of the VSC, though, is that that's why it was introduced.

It neutralises any race. Yeah, because if you're bringing out the full-course safety car, then you have at least a minimum of, like, a three-lap, like, in-lap, one-lap, outlap situation. And if you do pull that out too early, then, you know, you do affect the Grand Prix quite a lot. VSE, you can bring it out and bring it back in again within 30 seconds. That's the whole point it's there is to be a bit more agile about these situations and they just declined to use it for a good three hours. So yeah, I was flabbergasted is the word I'm going to go with. Great, great use of words around off the podcast. Indeed it is. We're going to be

back midweek. No race next weekend, but we still got an episode on Wednesday. Sam, if you wouldn't mind getting us out of here. Yeah, loads of news coming out at the moment in the world of Formula One. So we will be discussing all of the latest talking points midweek. If you want more content, loads on our Patreon, not just the power rankings that are we going to be recording tomorrow. We've done loads of stuff previously. We went and reviewed the 2005 Imola Grand Prix. That was a really, really good race. If you've not seen it, if you're new to F1, that's where Fernando Alon said basically earned his stripes up against multiple-time World Champion. and Michael Schumacher, one of the best defensive performances you'll ever watch.

Go and check it out. Give it a little go. Think about subscribing. It massively helps out the podcast. Discord. The link is in the description. Thank you to so many people that are in there talking, get your submissions in. We love that community. We love that support. Follow us on social media, late breaking F1. You can go and challenge our red flagged talking point, which apparently the world is an uproar about on Instagram and TikTok. That's hilarious. We love that. Someone call us Americans. You tell us if we are. Yeha. Yeha. Very clearly American. YouTube. This has been video recorded.

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