The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2024 Japanese GP Review

Episode Date: April 7, 2024

Sam and Ben review the Japanese GP where Verstappen cruised to victory and Perez came through to secure a Red Bull 1-2. They break down all of the action of the day from Ferrari's strategy to the Ricciardo and Albon collision, review their predictions, and name their Drivers of the Day. 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 Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking, today reviewing the Japanese Grand Prix, a one-to finish for Red Bull recovering from last time out in Australia. Max Verstappen taking a very comfortable victory by about 12 seconds. over his teammate, Sergio Perez, with Carlos Sines rounding out the podium. All right, mate?

Yeah, yeah, I'm all right. I'll tell you who isn't all right. That's producer Kirstie. You can't see her right now. Living her best life. She's a little worse for ways after having her birthday drinks, Ressa. And so, Harry Eag's not here either because he might literally be running. Yeah, she's got that over Harry, at least.

She's here. I'm impressed. So we're about half the team down at this point. The Japanese Grand Prix weekend has ruined us. as a late-breaking unit, but Ben and I will strive to pull through, and I think Kerski might stagger behind us for a bit until we get to the end of this weekend. Harry, I don't know, running, I believe. Yeah, so apologies if this episode has been recorded back to front.

If you're listening to Moment of the Race first, and then actually this is the last thing on the episode, our apologies. But we've got plenty to talk about Moment of the Race is coming up later on. We've got some chat about the crash between Alex Albin and Daniel Ricardo that kicked off the race and caused the red flag. Lando Norris, McLaren and Mercedes there battling. But we'll start, of course, out front, which was Max Vastappen taking the win over Sergio Perez.

Perez, a good 12 seconds off of Vastappan's pace, but himself very comfortable second over the rest of the field. Of course, that's where he qualified as well. So overall, a good weekend for Perez. In the nicest possible way to Max Vestappen, there's probably not too much to say about his performance out front. That's just how dominant it was. from Perez's perspective, equally fairly comfortable,

how much do you think this helps in his case for wanting to obviously drive for the team next year? Yeah, Max Verstappen displaying once again an effortlessly dominant performance sang in the call-down room when they showed himself crossing the finish line. He couldn't even bother to look at the screen. He was just like, oh, yeah, I've done that 47 times now,

so that's good, didn't it? Cheers, everyone, thanks for coming. Sergio Perez, yeah, I think this was really good from Sergio Perez. and obviously we hold different drivers to different standards. So when you think, well, how come you're calling it

really good when you finish 12 seconds off of his teammate didn't beat him in qualifying? It's a fair point, but you hold different drivers to different standards. Sergio Perez is not a 57-time race winner

and multiple-time world champion. He's a guy that's trying to do his best. And arguably, I think he is doing his best at the moment. You saw the difference in their pure pace between drivers. And Sergio Perez, I think the gap was accentuated between himself and his teammate because he's out.

Outright pace being slightly slower means that he had to continually come back through a little bit of traffic around him to make sure that he could get himself back into second. The key part of that part of the argument is that he got through the traffic to get back to second. Yes, his outright pace meant that he had to do it. But we've seen it with different drivers in the past where their ruthlessness to get the job done to make overtakes when needed has let them down. Valtry Bottas is probably the most prime example that I can think of in recent history where sometimes when they get stuck behind a car that is maybe slower or on a different strategy,

they take too long to get the job done, to get past a competitor. And it actually costs them later on in the race. It might cost them a second place or a podium. Not to Sergio Perez today. That did not happen to the Mexican. He was fully able to execute every overtake. He was risky to the point that it was fun to watch,

but I don't think dangerous at any point. I'm talking there to the moves through 130 R that he displayed brilliantly. He put the car where he needed to. His pit stops were well executed. His pace was consistent. Yeah, a couple of little moments where he went off the tracker at one point or another.

But hey, he was second place, 10 or 11 seconds behind his teammate and he brought home the rest of the points that Max de Stappen could. So in terms of keeping his chances alive for that drive next season, currently, I think if that's what Sergio Perez wants to do if he wants to be at Red Bull next season,

balls firmly in his court. Put pen to paper, get the job. done. It's been a great start to the season before him, bar one blip in Melbourne, where he did score more points on Max R for Staple due to the D&F of reliability that he had. So, one to it every time of asking when Max was finished first, and then he finished the race when Max didn't. It's been pretty good start to the season. Yeah. Congrats to Sergio Perez, because I believe 130 is going to be renamed to Perez Corner after that. 130P. That sounds like a really cheap corner of the contract. Yeah, that's how much she's asking for in his next contract. Yeah,

130p. Can I 130p, please? 1 pound 30. I mean, it was great, though, wasn't it? The back-to-back moves on the Mercedes duo, you're right, it was fairly clinical from him, and it's something that I think he's made a really good step on this season is where he's had to make the moves.

It has just been almost instant in every occasion. It's been clinical. I can't, at least off the top of my head, remember one so far this year where it's gone pear-shaped for him. It's just been, this is what I need to do. do to get back to where I think I deserve to be, and he does it. And today was, today was no exception in that regard. And even though, as you say, he was comfortably off the pace of Max Vastappen, see, qualifying was quite close, but it was pretty apparent early on that, you know,

there was no chance that he was going to be able to get Vostappen long term in the race. But yeah, I think, you know, once it became clear that wasn't going to happen, It was just a case of, right, second place. That's what I can do. And that's what he did. So, yeah, at the moment at least, with, you know, Yuki Sonoda, whilst he's doing a good job, there's always a bit of an underlying lack of confidence there, I think, from senior Red Bull figures. Daniel Ricardo isn't doing anywhere near the job. And I appreciate he didn't really get much of an opportunity today. And we'll discuss that a bit later on. But it's not like anyone else is making much of a case. So not only as Perez is doing a good. job. It's not like anyone else is really doing a similar job unless you count Carlos science in that mix, I guess. Yeah, well, you're the only person that turns up for the job interview. It's hard got to be given the job role. It's a good strategy. Yeah, turn up, be on time, look professional, show that you could do the job. It's hard to say no to that. But you're right, Carlos Science is the other name there that should be thrown into the mix. He's definitely not

being removed from that. And we're discussing this fight out the front. What a drive Carlos Science had today. When he was stuck behind Landon Norris, due to their qualifying performance, when it looked like Charler-Claire was driving an absolutely phenomenal one-stop strategy, Carlos Sites pulls it out the bag again. He's the only other man on the podium. Every single race he's being in this season, he's finished on the podium. And, you know, Saudi, you can't talk about. The man was out with a missing body part. Why wasn't he there? Where was he? She'll put the appendix of the car for him.

So, yeah, I mean, search of prayers maybe shouldn't be looking over his shoulder within the garage, but maybe she should be looking down the pit lane at his rivals, because Carlos Seitz is surely the closest competitor to taking that seat off of him as we speak right now after the Japanese Grand Prix. Before we move on from the Red Bull Duo out front, I know Helmut Marco made comments after qualifying regarding how his contract status or his lack of contract status, I guess, is proven to be a bit of a motivator for Sergio Perez. Do you read anything into that. Do you think that is part of why Perez seems to have upped his game this year? It's definitely possible, but I think that's entirely subjective based on the person.

This is not a consistent factor that you can apply. It's not like we should now be saying that all Formula One driver should be running off one-year contracts because they might drive at their very best. Sertic drivers drive very well under pressure. Sertic drivers drive very well when there is no pressure. Vowardry Bottas, for example, looked like he struggled with that one-year extension every single year that he got on the SIG. And I keep bringing up Vowardry-Botas as a direct comparison to Perez because he does feel the most natural mirror. Right, exactly. Yeah, you've got the dominant world champion and then you've got the B-side driver who is there

to pick up the rest of the points for them to take the Constructors' Championship home. I think it's definitely spurred him on, but I also don't feel like the Red Bull family have made it a particularly known issue publicly at least that his seat is at risk. I do think it's very much a journalistic, pundit-driven storyline. I don't, I think, I think Red Bull have given Perez the chance to keep it firmly in his court. Christian Horner has come out multiple times and said, keeps doing a good job. We've got no issues with what Perez is doing, right?

We have faith in him and he's delivering. So realistically, I don't think he's driving under too much pressure. I'm sure he's aware of the situation. He's not an idiot. But I do not think that he's panicking going, I've got to performing every single Grand Prix to keep my seat. He's doing enough in my books. Carlos Seitz is actually the man that he's got to keep an eye on.

seems that way at the moment. Moving on to Carlos Sines and his Ferrari friend, Charles LeClair, third and fourth in today's race. Obviously, qualifying didn't go to plan. We've seen Ferrari in the past challenge Red Bull on a Saturday. Here, Carlos Sines qualified in fourth place behind the McLaren of Lando Norris. Shawlerclair even further down the grid down in eight, so he had even more work to do. But they do recover to be the second best team on the day, not enough to obviously challenge the top two. What do you make of their strategies? Because they went in very different directions, but in the end, somewhat came back together. Yeah, this is what maximising a weekend looks like when you're not Red Bull. This is the

absolute most that you could get out of it. Both Red Bulls are on form. The car is working well for them, and they're a track that suits them down to the ground, which this Azuka circuit often does. So Ferrari have absolutely maximised this. And you know what? Don't say that very often, but Well done to Ferrari. I called them out in the qualifying review that we did with Charler-Clau qualified in eighth place. And I said, it feels like the only way that they can really get that car back up to where Carlos Science is is by doing something different with the strategy, trying something a bit new, trying something a bit unexpected. And Charle-Cleur was given the tough task of running a one-stop strategy.

I believe he's the only person in the top 10 that executed the one-stop strategy. And whilst the strategy was viable, it definitely was not. easy. It was not a simple strategy to execute. We saw the degradation that those tires went through. We saw just how much longer the hard tire was able to hold on for and maintain the speed around this track. The circuit at Suzuki punishes tires. You know, the S is at the start is absolutely brutal. Spoon curve is savage on the tires. It's a really tough track to maintain tire wear. And we've often given certain drivers a lot of praise for their ability to eke out tire life. Sergei Perez is one of them. Lewis Hamilton is another one. But Charlotte, LeCler, maybe it's just added this

to his locker. To run that long and medium tyres, it only be two-tenths a lap slower than Lando Norris on a new set of tyres was phenomenal pace. And it looked like both strategies were completely viable because the drivers were able to execute them at such a high ability. Carlos Sainz was the best driver outside of the Red Bull duo on that two-stop strategy. And he made it work fantastically well. He outdrove Lando Norris today. I, halfway through the race, I thought, I don't, Lando looks good. I don't know what's going on here. and then Science stepped it up a gear, and he really delivered. But Charlotte Clair does deserve a round of applause,

because he let himself down in qualifying. That was on him, and he had to make up the difference. And usually I don't like to give extra points for just having to make up to the places to where your teammate is. But he should be given some plaudits here. He did deliver a strategy that was unexpectedly difficult, and he made it work, and he brought home brilliant points for Ferrari. So, yeah, two different strategies, both different sides of the garage,

and they come home with the maximum points that I think Ferrari could have taken home today. So hats off to them. They got it 100% bang on. You deserve to be applauding when you get it right, Ferrari. It's a rarity, but you've done it. Yes, indeed. I think if you're Lewis Hamilton, who's obviously joining the team next year,

you'd have been quite infused by the performance that occurred at Australia based on taking the win, taking the one-two finish. And even though Max Verstappen did retire from that Grand Prix, I do genuinely think they would have been a match for Vostappan on that day. Now that would have been, like I say, you'd be infused by that performance. I think you should be equally infused by what happened today, because whilst pace-wise,

they weren't on it in the same way as I think they were in Australia, you're right, strategically they absolutely max this Grand Prix, which isn't something you can ordinarily say about Ferrari. In fact, if we can check all of the previous 390 episodes of this podcast, it might be the first time I've ever said that. But they absolutely did. is Charlerclair, that first stint was mega. That was a mega stint. And, I mean, minus the slight detour off track that he got away with. And he nearly didn't because, of course, he came back into traffic, but just ahead of where he needed to be. And Carlos Sines was great as well. I mean, Charleclair, as you say, had to recover somewhat. And he will get a lot of plaudits. Of course,

he's one driver of the day. And we'll get onto who we think is driver of the day. very soon. So he delivered a great performance. And on the other side of the garage, Carlos Sines, he did absolutely everything he needed to do. And he'll be looking at Charles LeCler, who's claimed driver of the day and go, yeah, that's cool. I'll take the three more points. I'm happy with it. I'll take another podium, thanks. Yeah, exactly. Carlos Seins is in a great position where his teammates won driver of the day, and he's beaten him. And Carlos Sines, as you said, continues to deliver three podiums out of three, essentially, so far this year. So yeah, I thought Ferrari did a phenomenal.

job and I don't think three, four could have been beaten from their perspective based on their pace. Speaking of driver in the day, should we, uh, should we give that out? Um, I think we've got a lovely little jingle that we can glisting our ears with right now. Here it is. The verdict is in. You're the driver of the day. You're the driver of the day. You're good at driving.

Ever soulful from Live Laugh-Laflifie. Yeah. challenge, don't sway to that music, failed every time. Honestly, put it into a 60's heartthrob movie and I'm there. As we say, Charles LeClair got Driver of the Day based on the public vote, but who are you going with? I am actually going to give it to Carla Sikes. I think that I can't really give Driver of the Day claims to a driver that had to dig

out of a hole. And again, like I just said, full credit to Cheryl LeCleur, he dug where he needed to dig, the boy surfaced. He got his spade out. He got that spade out. turned it into a ladder and he climbed, he arose like God, Leclair should. But he did have to rise from Moses, Lecler, and get himself back up to the holy position. So, fourth place, very, very good, and it was a mega-skink, and he deserves a lot of credit for it. You know, the boys still got it.

But Carlos Seitz has been phenomenal. I mean, okay, he missed out slightly against Landon Norris in qualifying, but he was right there when he needed to be. And then during the race, it was just effortless every single time, no mistakes made. The lockups came everywhere else, and he didn't make one that I'm fully aware of. The strategy was brilliantly called. The tire life ran perfectly. It was a really strong weekend from Carlos Sines. And if anyone out there happens to be the owner of a Formula One team

and they also listen to this podcast, maybe considering giving the boy a job because he bloody well needs one and he bloody well deserves one. I imagine they all listen. But there's only so many seats available. So we'll let a few of them off. Sure. The only lockup I can think of from Sines was at the Cassio Triangle

because he needed to jump over that one once. Everyone has to. I think we can let him get away with that. I also had both of the Ferrari drivers listed. I think they were great. Yuki Sonoda basically won Formula 2 again. So, you know, that was a win. It is a bit mad that he finished probably about two pit stops away from the next best car.

He was lapped, of course. But based on the, I don't know, the split between the first five teams and the second five teams, I think he got the most out of this race, which unfortunately for him was just one point. I'm going to get boring and save a snap, and he did win by double figures. I know it's a really dull answer at this point, but it is still great.

So, you know you're doing brilliantly well when you've won a race, won by double figures, got the fastest lap, got pole position, didn't get overtaken the entire time. And I've forgotten to mention him

in the drive of the day because he was so clear, everyone else, that he just doesn't exist. You know, you reach the Gogh playing where you just, is it myth? Does he really, is it really there? I don't think. I think Perez won that race. I think the Ferrari's finished two, three.

You know, the famous UFO poster, I want to believe, but take the UFO out and put Max Verstappen's head in. That's kind of what Formula One is at the moment. Great. We'll leave that to someone to, uh, to make that one up. Um, should we, should we, uh, go to the negative side of the debate? Worst driver of the day. A lot of options, isn't there this weekend?

We've had a few races recently where you kind of go, oh, it feels a bit harsh or all everyone kind of lined up where we expected. But there were quite a few drivers that let themselves down this weekend. I'm going to not give it to this person, but I want to kick off with a few names. Lewis Hamilton is the first one I want to call out. It looked like a positive start to the weekend, goes through practice and calls out that, hey, car feels brilliant,

gets into qualifying, beats George Russell and comfortably. It's the first time he's done it in, well, this was the woman, the sixth race. Gets into the Grand Prix, Russell's complaining of vibrations, steering feels funny, his helmets falling off of his head, which is so bizarre,

but also that's so George Russell. And then not only that, George Russell then closes the gap to him immediately. He brings down a two and a half second gap down to eight tenths. Lewis Hamilton almost seems to, I mean, it's sensible. It makes sense for the team, and I get it,

but where is this cutthroat on a winner attitude where he goes, oh, shall I let George passed? Immediately. It's got like he was there for a long time. Immediately, just goes, shall I, I'll go,

I'll get. It's like when you've turned up to your mate's house and he's sat there with his girlfriend, you're on your own, you go, you go, I'll go. I'll leave you to it.

You know, the scene and the in between us where Will and Simon are stood there with the girl on the trip, and he's going, Feisty, you are. And she's like,

yeah, good night, Will, good night. And that's Lewis Hamilton right now. That's the one. No, you can't call him Will from the in-betweeners. That's ridiculous. George Russell is Simon. And seventh place is the girl.

So, anyway. Carly. Hey. Yeah, so this was not a good weekend. It turns out for Lewis Hamilton. I got to give George Russell some credit because we didn't in the drive of the day. I don't think he deserves that level of credit.

But it turned out to be a pretty good weekend from him. Fourth of mistake from Piastry. Got good. of points where a car that is clearly not very good. I do think he got a lot out of it. Moving back down the grid on Worststrand of the day, you've got drivers like Lance Strull who qualified badly, makes some phenomenal overtakes. I have to give my credit to him for passing around the outside like Marshall Mathers more times than he sings in that sun because he goes around the outside of those essays like Noble is business. But then they

put him on a fresh set of softs to try and get all the way up to Yuki Sanoda to secure that last place, in that last point's place and then ends up getting overtaken by the hearse again before the end of the Grand Prix because the tyres fall off. He can't maintain the pace and he's too far back. So not good from Lance Stroll, but I am going to give a shout to Daniel Ricardo

as the worst driver of the day. We'll get on to talking about the accident that happened later on in the podcast, so I'm not going to give too much detail. But that should tell you where my head's at, where it comes to responsibility and blame. Yeah. my conclusion for worst driver of the day was it wasn't a good day to have LS as your initials

because neither Landstrol or Logan Sargent fared very well. I think Logan Sargent was doing a fairly okay job up to the point where he wasn't and that car ended up dirtier than a dirty thing. That was... At like that 40, I was like, this is really good. And then it looked like he drove through a bakery. Yes, pretty much. And I mean, that we'll get on to maybe Alpine in a bit, but that Alpine was so slow and Logan Sargent was the only one to lose out to, I think both of them in the end. So he's in contention.

Lanchstrol, weirdly, I'm actually going to go the other way with Lanchdoll. So I don't actually lay too much blame for him on that final stint in terms of getting overtaken by that Hasse. I think that was strategy base. We saw how quickly those soft tires went off and they basically asked him to do, I think, way too long on that stint. So, I don't mind that he dropped off because I think nearly anyone would have dropped off towards the end of that stint. But actually on the other side of things in terms of the overtakes, given how big the gap was between the top five teams and the bottom five teams, it was difficult for me to be overly, to be overjoyed, I guess, by some of those overtakes, just based on the advantage that car had as much as he might have fought otherwise, which we might get on to in a little bit. I will I have to give it to

Daniel Ricardo as well though and that should probably tell you where I'm at with it Before we go to our little break I just want to ask what you thought generally with the race because we had a lot of different tyre strategies going on

I know the race out front was kind of done a dusky but did you like it? Did you think it was good? It was good. Yeah, like a seven. Yeah, six and a half seven I'll probably go.

I thought it was good, not great because whilst there was a lot of overtaking and I appreciated all the different strategies. Outside of maybe, I thought the Russell and Piastri battle late on was great, but there were a lot of slam dunk overtakes, which maybe made the race appear. If you look back at it in years' time and see how many overtakes there were,

it might be a little misrepresentative. Yeah, obviously moving on to the start finish trait around Suzuki, it's such a heavy traction zone. So if your tyres have started to go off and you've got fresher tires behind, the ability that you get down that start, finish, straight is so huge. So you're right, a lot of moves from major into that first corner, and they look fantastic on camera. But, yeah, how competitive were they?

I think it's a fair shout. Six and a half out of seven, four or seven. Yeah, I think it's fair. Okay, we'll go to our first break on the other side. We're going to be chatting McLaren and Mercedes. Okay, welcome back. So outside of the top four positions that were entirely occupied by Red Bull and for We had the McLaren of Lando Norris in P5.

Fernando Alonzo doing Fernando Alonzo things in the mix as well. And then George Russell getting by Oscar Piastri on the last lap for P7. Lewis Hamilton, of course, then in P9. What did you make of, we'll start with Lando Norris since he was the lead of this pack. Do you think a podium was missed out on today? Obviously, that's where he started or was P5 behind the Ferraris, realistically, all he was going to get? I don't think P5 is bad. I'm not going to put him down for finishing P5.

I think this is a good result for McLaren. I do think that someone like Landon Norris, though, will go into the debrief and go, we are pretty close to those Ferraris, maybe with a better strategy, better race management. P3 is on the cards. I do think P4 was possible. You saw the way that, Claire, yes, he was managing those tyres,

and he did a brilliant job in doing so. But the tire deficit, we've seen it, was so huge. When you had new tires in. compared to old. The pace difference is ginormous. And Carlos Seitz, I know he's in the same machinery, Charles Lecler, that once he got up to him, made that pass and was off down the road by five or six seconds before the end of the Grand Prix, Lando and Norris never caught up to LeCler. There was never even a battle. So I do think that fourth place was on the cars and maybe should have been attained. Third place, I think Scyt had this one in the bag, and it would have been a

really brilliant performance from Lando if he managed to claim that third. Despite starting there, I think he actually outqualified what the car was capable of on a perfect day. So, yeah, fifth is good. Fourth was definitely attainable. It would have been a really, really strong race for him. Third is not quite dreamland, but I do think that it would have taken some lovely circumstances for him together. Yep, copy and paste.

That's my answer as well. I think P3 and Carlos Seines was probably a bridge too far. But Chaule-Claire, I think, was beat. But given that Charles LeClau and Lando Norris came into the pits on the the same lap. Of course, the difference was that Lando Norris had already had one pit stop at this point and Chau-Laclure was coming in for his first stop. So essentially, they did the same number of laps when they came in for their second and first stop, respectively, which I think at that point, McLaren must have gone, ah, I think Lando Norris was kind of in a similar position when he realized

that he was being called into the pits and then Charles LeCler directly in front of him is also coming into the pits. And it's like, well, hang on, that guy hasn't stopped. And he was way behind me, what's happened here? And whilst we have already given credit for the Charlotte-Clair side of things, that's not an ideal position for McLaren to have put themselves in. So I agree with you. I think fourth place might have been attainable, but not third today. I still think it's fairly positive for McLaren. They still do seem to be a tick behind Ferrari. But I think given the advantage they currently have over Mercedes and Aston Martin, third place in the championship where they are at the moment seems achievable medium to long term.

Yeah, that was a really strange call, wasn't it? I understand they were trying to cover off a few of the cars behind, but it must have been so demoralizing from McLaurin and for Norris, sorry, to see Charlotte Clare's Ferrari coming to that pit lane after not stopping on those medium ties for that long, and they've gone, the hard ties are already starting to lose their ability. We need to cover off cars behind. I think it was maybe Russell, they were looking to. looking to cover off, who, you know, was quite far back at that time.

And they finished quite far in front of him. So maybe it worked in that respect. And maybe actually McClton might say around to go, that call saved us fifth rather than actually attacking fourth or third. Who knows? But for me, it feels like they got themselves in a bit of a muddle strategically. Yeah, a little bit. Further back, George Russell versus Oscar Piastri.

So George Russell, of course, coming back at Oscar Piastri, Pia himself was. stuck behind Fernando Alonzo for a large part of this Grand Prix to the point where both Mercedes really could catch up to Piastri and it was George Russell who was close enough to make that move on the final lap but not before Piastri made a bit of an error to help George Russell get there. Before we get to the move that actually happened, let's talk about the move that nearly did.

So this was George Russell trying a very cheeky move into Cassio Triangle, couldn't quite make it pay. Piastri, of course, had to cut the corner. How did you view that? I loved the ambition from George Russell. I absolutely love that he decided, oh, Fernando Alonkso is doing Fernando Alonkso things and deciding to slow down after the 130R turn

every single lap to ensure that Oscar Pliastri stays in my DRS zone because he is essentially doing the Science and Norris tactic from Singapore where he goes, if I use this car as a buffer, that car behind me can't catch me in the slow section and then, therefore, going down the straight, he keeps the really fast car behind him. Genius from Fernando Alonso. I'd love to know some people's opinions

on why slowing down on that corner is very different to slowing down on turn three, or whatever it was in Melbourne. I can't think of one difference. Is it, was there someone missing a wheel afterwards? That might be it. Anyway, we'll move on. So, of course,

Russell absolutely goes for a dive bomb, but it was well-timed, well-calculated, but I do think that I think he got away with it. Excuse me. I think he'd go away with it a little bit. And I'll tell you why. Max Westappen has executed similar moves in the past where he has chucked the car in. The opposing cars had to take to the runoff zone. And there's been a lot of uproar about that. And I do think that that uproar is fairly given. I do think that criticism is fairly given. And whilst Russell

didn't get the move done immediately after the corner, it had to go round again, it did mean that Piaastri had been disturbed enough that he was no longer close enough to Fernando alongside to pick up the DRS, which then meant that he was incredibly vulnerable, which of course led to the mistake. Now, I think that, and we haven't had the penalty through, I don't think anything's come through yet, it is under investigation from Russell. I do think that he was very much playing with fire. I feel like it was on the line. Some might call it a clever tactic. I don't really know what line I stand on. I think he probably pushing it too far and actually maybe probably should have backed off properly

and then gone at him again just to go, oh, yeah, I was a little bit aggressive there. I'll restore the advantage that Piastri had and then we carry on racing. I think by making Piastri have to run off the track due to the fact he had no room available to him, he ended up essentially giving himself the overtake, which is clever, but equally I don't know if I agree

with that kind of move. I think, firstly, the attempt of the overtake, here, and this was kind of related to my point of how quality of overtake is better than quantity, that overtake that didn't happen for me was like maybe the most entertaining thing of this race. I think it was more entertaining than 10 DRS overtakes added together. Like, it was, I thought, a brilliantly attempted move. Like, it was subtly done by George Russell. Like, it was, I don't know, where Randy Orton style.

The film chair. Yeah, exactly. up the inside of that corner. I didn't see it coming. Obviously, Piastri probably didn't see it coming either. And I thought it was a fair move to attempt. I think it was borderline, but I think it was okay. I was fine with this attempted move

because I don't think it was quite the same as some of the others we've seen in the past where I know Max Verstappen has done it, others have as well, where a driver has taken the other, it's taken the full length of the track in making that move forcing the other driver off the road. I don't think it was quite there

because I still think there was space for Piastri, but it would have been risky. And I think Piastri made the decision, I'm not sure I'm going to play it safe. And I think he was within his rights to play it safe. But I do think at the time he made that decision, there was still room for him to go through the corner. Now, I think the issue would have been,

obviously that narrows quite quickly, unless George Russell then, you know, averts to the right, that gap would have gone quite quickly, at which point, obviously, they ever crash, and George Russell was 100% at fault for that. But I don't think Piastri let that play out, which I can completely understand, which is why I think racing incident,

I don't think there should be any penalty applied for this at all. I thought the move was fair. I thought Piastri's reaction was fair, and let's keep racing. I'm going to disagree with you there, Ben. I think that the move was on, and Russell had got every right to make the move, and I'm okay with him making the move.

But I think the execution halfway through the move, I think Piastri had to make that move off the track. I think if he stays in there for a second further, there's either some kind of contact, something goes wrong with one of the drivers. And so if the driver defending has to make essentially an emergency maneuver to get themselves out of trouble, then the driver behind.

is put the other driver in an unsafe position and taking up too much of the road. And I do think that Russell was maybe overzealous in his attempt in that corner. I love the ambition. I love the sending down the inside. I think Piastri had to get off the track to make sure that both of those drivers safely got through

and the defending driver shouldn't have to make that move. They should be able to use the track wherever they feel necessary and the attacking driver should have to get the move done up to them safely. So see your point, but I think I disagree with it. Yeah. I think our view. on this type of situation is essentially the same.

It's just that you're essentially viewing it as he needed to make that move. And I'm saying it was smarter for him too, but I don't know if he needed to. Which, yeah, that would be the reason for us thinking differently. We'll see what the stewards decide. We will. We will. Should we go on to Big Brain Strat? I suppose we can look at a big brain strat.

on. I've got a jingle for this one as well. Need you to box for wets? What? It's not even raining out. What are you talking about? Honestly, it's so the killers from the early 2000s that if Brendan Flowers rings us up and goes, can you get rid of the Bob comments and just give me the track? Live Lafatee, he's going to make millions. Very true. And of course, Brandon Flowers is a massive fan of this podcast. I'm a massive fan of him.

That is very true. What are you going for? Oh, this is going to be harsh. And I know this is kind of standard procedure, but it also, it's a bit conspiracy theory, so I kind of like it because it's a bit juicy. Oh, here we go. After the Albon Ricardo crash,

it's very evident that Daniel Ricardo hits the underbody extinguisher, which completely destroys all parts under the chassis, means that he has to have a full rebuild of his car for the next Grand Prix. And, hey, if Ricardo is going to turn around and go, Oh, that might not good on me. Oh, that noise is how are you enjoying everyone? Harry?

Harry, are you there, sir? Oh, hey, guys. What's going on? Where are you? Are you in a little ruggers booth halfway around the marathon? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've done half of it already. I've just paused.

You look amazing for running what and going on 10 miles? Yeah, cheers, guys. Sorry, don't interrupt. Just, how's it going? Yeah, we're having a loving time. We're on big brain strat. Your big brain straight is you turned up. Yeah.

Hey, that's probably the best big brain strap now. Yeah, you look like you're actually in a commentary booth. What are you doing? I'm not in a commentary booth, though, I promise. I'm holding my mic like I am, but I'm not. The classic hold the mic stand. It's a pro move. Did you watch the whole race?

I did, yeah, yeah. I have a question based on that because we are a big brain strap. And Sam has just plucked for the conspiracy theory that Daniel Ricardo has intentionally hit the extinguisher button when he crashed. so it would completely destroy the chassis. I'm interested to know what you think about that. Oh, I did see this. I thought I read that that was standard procedure,

but then I thought, no one else has ever done that before, have they? Don't see it that often, do you? You don't see it that often. Who was it who accidentally hit it? Was it Schumacher a few years ago? Yeah, he was in F2, I think. Oh, yeah, it was F2. God, that is a good conspiracy theory.

I like that. It's juicy. It's fun, all right? I don't know how real it is, but it's a big break strap, Ricardo. It seems clever. Yeah, it's not a bad one. one. It's not a bad one at all.

Shall I give a big brainstorm? Yeah, go to me. Fuck on, mate. Special guest. Big Braves draft. I will go for Nika Holkenberg, taking this off tyres off after three laps after the start, or restart, I should say.

Just, you know, nah, not doing that anymore. Don't want to stop, actually. Yeah. Then we'll be the first person to stop, and then we'll still beat Magnuson. Sorry, Mike. Here, here, Holkenberg. You can have.

have a free tire change. Nope. Three laps in. Yeah, okay, I'll take it now. No, it's not free anymore, mate. You're actually really good. We need to give you a handicap. So you have to stop when no one else stops now

because you're too good for the back end of this field. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, we've already done this as well, by the way, Harry, but you can give driver of the day and worse driver than does. Yeah, you're going to run through your usual. Yeah, sure. A drive of the day, I mean, you probably mentioned a bit of a snap.

And I think we should stop counting him at all now from this. drive of the day because he just is all the time, right? So we'll just discount that. I'll go for, I'll go for Carla Sines. Again, I know we're going to sound like a fan boy, but he's being very impressive at the moment.

You and me, like Luigi and whatever his name is in cars. That's just on the side of the racetrack at the moment. Yeah, I don't know. I'm very impressed, especially because the strategy, I'm not saying it didn't work out in its favour versus Lecler, but Lecler was obviously different,

but, I don't know, easily, to get you, let your head drop slightly because he came up behind. He was a fresh tires, but I don't know if it's just his pace was very good today. And again, I've qualified Leclair. And Leclair had a great race, actually,

but was better than him in the race too. So I'll go car signs for driver of the day. Worst drive of the day, Logan, mate, just don't fall off the road. It's not a bad idea. Someone spilled flour all over his car. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was a very flowery car by the time he was done.

He was actually doing a, I thought, and then he did that. So, well done. Good effort. Williams having a great time. Goodness me. It is not a good. Are they, Daniel Ricardo, mate.

Can we have that while you've just covered in fire extinguisher? We're really gig a chassis. I'm pretty sure they're going to just drive James Vow's car next week. Pat Fry turns up in like a VW. Beetle. It's like, get in, gang. This'll do. Still beats the LPs. Oh, yeah, by the way, they're terrible.

They're still free-fallen. They got pushed off a cliff, and they're still going backwards. No, they are actually going backwards. It's not even a turn of phrase. They were actually going backwards. I don't understand. Burner's watch where he freezes the time, and he can then rewind it.

This is a very British reference. Alping has got stuck in the Burners' watch thing, and they're in reverse the entire time. So bad. I don't understand, because at one point, they were last and second last. And they were still being overtaken. I swear.

They managed it. You've got to see another one. Of course you do. Ockon was 11th at one point. He was 11 because he got the best start he possibly could. And then it was, nope, bye-bye. Yeah, that was pretty awful. Yeah, maybe that's my big brain strat, actually.

Alpine, not turning up with an engine. That was a big brain strat. Going the wrong way. Something we've already touched on, really. My one was Lewis Hamilton. letting George Russell buy and then for the rest of the race going we've lost more time

where's all that time gone? You slowed up for George Russell I didn't help did it? Oh God. I've lost only positions. The man tries an alternative strategy every single race and currently his alternative strategy is be behind my teammate

they have to stop behind my teammate and then fall back further behind and then winge about it. Just be better. You're a seven-time champion. Just get good. It was bad. And to be fair, Sam, you you called this spot on yesterday with Mercedes in terms of Russell versus Hamilton because Hamilton, as we know, outqualified Russell for the first time in a long time. But race pace, Russell was there and Hamilton wasn't for large parts of this race. So not good. You'll be glad to know, Harry. We haven't reviewed bold predictions yet so we can do that now. It's a great one for us. It really, really is.

start with you, Harry. What did you predict? I was ambitious. I said that Verstappen wouldn't be in the top three again. What did he do? He wasn't in Australia. He was first.

He got Paul. Fast his lap. Sounds like that might be wrong then. Did you do the full streak? Gonschalam. Okay. That wasn't very good. Sam?

I said that neither have said you to score points. Where did they finish? In the points. Yeah. Yep. That's not good. Hey, it's still better than mine. I said Alex Album would be in the top eight.

That lasted all at one corner. Yeah, the top eight seconds of the Grand Prix, maybe. In fairness, my bold prediction was alive longer than it was in Australia when I said Logan Sargent would score a point. Stop picking Williams related to bold predictions. All of my bold predictions pretty much so far this year have been a team who doesn't score a lot of points is going to score points. So I'm not going with that again.

I'm done. The difference is Albon will now be an eighth at the Chinese Grand Prix. Oh, I know, guaranteed. That's happened on multiple occasions for you, where it's come true, the next race. It's disgusting, really. Right, let's take our second break. On the other side, we'll be talking about the crash

on the opening lap between Alex Albin and Daniel Ricardo. Okay, everyone, welcome back. We'll take advantage of Mr. Eid being here. And I can go to you first. What did you make of that first lap incident between Albin and Ricardo that obviously caused a lengthy red flag that knocked the start of the race back, but about 30 minutes or so,

both drivers obviously out straight away. What did you make of it? I thought, as far as well, there's no further review, right? But I thought it was fairly racing incident. I don't, and they showed multiple replays and they have obviously commentary were all over it, but it's just,

we've got these boats of cars now, and Suzuki's pretty narrow. I don't know, just feels like that sort of thing's inevitable. Ricardo, yeah, he, if you're going to put blame or something, yeah, Ricardo, I just don't, would seem very unfair to say he did that with any intent at all. And as they pointed out in common tree, he was looking left at stroll. And it's so quick up to that first part of the ass is that one looking in your mirror and then you're already there. So he was never going to see Albon. So Albon was probably a bit advantageous because realistically, where was that?

What gap was he actually going for there around the outside of the first part of the ass is? anything going to happen. So, but yeah, it was racing, racing incident in my book, but two people who really could do with not crashing.

Yeah. Of all the people. And actually thought, I know he's Sonora qualified yesterday, but Procada's most encouraging weekend of the year so far.

So I thought maybe today could have been a good day for him, but nope. And obviously William, just live to build new chassis now. Yeah, so for China, it will be Albin racing the backup chassis, and Logan Sargent will now race the backup backup chassis. I think that's how it's going to work out.

Yeah, yeah, that's how it works. So, yeah, I'll be fortunate for both of them. But yeah, definitely racing an incident in my book. This is going to be ridiculous, but I need to go now. So it's been real guys. Good to hear from you. Good luck, mate. Have fun running.

Thanks so much. Hey, there's a photo when you're done. I'll be better this week on the podcast, I promise. That's a promise. Bye, if I don't die, I'll see you on the next one. Follow us around London, Harry Trecker. Yeah. Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye.

Who was that? I've never heard of that guy before. Literally like a streaker on the pitch. You need to make these links private, honestly. Honestly. Yeah, absolute riff-ref. Well, he won't be here to stick around for our opinion on it. He doesn't know that we've given Ricardo worst driver of the day.

That was so interesting that he's turned up. He's such a Ricardo fanboy, ain't he? Well, I think I know where this is going to go, but what did you make of the incident? Yeah, I know. I think this was really bad from Daniel Ricardo. Yeah, the interesting thing was that in the cool-down room, Max Verstappen looked at that clip

and literally within a second when you can see Ricardo's looking left. Okay, that's great. But when you're taught how to drive, you have to check all your mirrors, and you look left and you look right. And it's the start of the Grand Prix, and Harry made a very good point. These cars are big.

the track is narrow. You have to be aware of your surroundings at all times. And Alex Albon was four-fifths of the way alongside him before he decided to get out the way because he saw the gap was suddenly closing on him and elected for the fact that the grass maybe looked like a safer option than driving wheel-to-will Daniel Riccardo at that moment. Looking to the left is not an excuse for me. You need to be aware of everyone around you. And I know he's defending, but Alex Alvon had the space and he was perfectly entitled to put his car alongside him on track. And he drove straight into him.

He just closed the door without even knowing that there was a car there. And whilst I don't think there was any malicious intent, I don't think there needs to be malicious intent to take the blame and a penalty, in fact. This is very damaging for Williams. I mean, the story goes around that obviously they haven't got enough chassis and stuff like that. But for any team, this is an unfair amount of damage that they've had to sustain.

Because someone's being a bit careless when at the start of a Grand Prix. I just, it was rookie from Ricardo. I was not impressed at all. I thought this was really, really poor. You're looking at a car that was nowhere near you, and you've not realised another car, which is right alongside you, and driven into them.

It's not good enough. Yeah, I basically went the same opinion as you did on this, in that, yeah, you can tell that he is looking to his left, but as the police keep telling me, you've got to look at your other mirrors as well. That's not an excuse that. Yeah, I know, they just won't let me get away with that excuse.

But, yeah, there can be cars on both sides. I'm afraid, Daniel. It's racing. They're trying to get past him. Yeah. I don't deny that it was fairly optimistic from Alex Albin. It was to go around the outside there. He was a fair way back going into term one, which obviously, it's the nature of the

S's though, isn't it? It's just they feed into one another. So I think there was ambition there from Alex Albin. But I don't think it was poor from him. I think he was entitled to give that a go. And Daniel Ricardo did have the space. to, you know, unless, if Landstrol was fully alongside Daniel Ricardo and there is going to be a crash and Daniel Ricardo has to essentially choose which of the two drivers do I crash into,

I think that's a different situation. I don't think that was where it was at, though. I think Ricardo could have avoided that quite easily. And it's, it's a shame for him because I know he was 11, so he didn't make Q3, but he had more of an opportunity to get at least a point today than he has done in previous races. Yeah, a lot of people arguing about the Lance Stroll factor. You know, oh, he's had to give space to Lantz Stroll. He was comfortably in front of Lance Stroll. Lance Stroll was not alongside him.

Alex Albon was actually alongside Daniel Ricardo. Lankstrol was a good car length behind at that point. So it's good to be aware of half of your car, but there's another half that you've got to look after. Poor James Vowse has spent his entire race allocation budget on bloody duct tape. They're going to be over the cost cap at this point. Yeah, yeah. You imagine that's the reason.

and been to B&Q too many times. They must have buy out being Q just with the cost cap money. Good idea. Should we move on to the rest of the grid, I'm going to call it, because we focused a lot on the top 10 earlier on. Yuki Sonoda managed to score a point at his home race and in the end fairly comfortably clear of any other driver looking to challenge him.

What did you make of his race? I thought he was brilliant. He had a difficulty with his. his transponder, didn't he at one point, which meant that it was very hard to track where he was. But after the Red Flag restart, he definitely lost some positions from where he started. And then immediately decided, I'm going to make them all up in one go again. Because he was in front of George Russell coming out of turn three, which I thought was a fantastic restart from him and put him in a very advantageous position.

And then that group, that pack of maybe five or six cars were like a little relay race. They just kept swapping each other over time and time again. and we had that brilliant moment in the pit lane where all five of those cars were essentially hustling themselves out of the pit lane at the same time. But the Menardi pit crew and Yuki Snowd, right?

That separated him between him and the rest of the riffraff behind him that he had to get past. That was the defining moment. Yuki Snow did everything on track to make sure he was there, but Menardi, R.B., cash app, whatever, you pay full price for that pit crew

because they executed a fantastic, They got them in and out in front of everyone else. And from that point on, he was able to move ahead in clean air and get the strategy done. Everyone was trying to stop him. It was like a zombie apocalypse movie where you're sprinted down the road. And every zombie trying to get you just full short behind, you know, nipping at your heels. He just kept pushing on further and further ahead. To the point at the end where he was kind of in a race on his own, being five or six seconds clear of the chasing pack.

Brilliantly strong. I think he outdrove the car. And I think he picked up absolutely everything he could. even managed to be an Ascom Martin, which I think, you know, Lance Stroll showed in moments so that car is still comfortably

capable of being in 10th place and probably Sugarbin. But it was Yuki again and he brings home points for the first time at home Grand Prix in Japan since 2012. So brilliant, brilliant stuff from him.

Yeah, I thought Sonoda did a very good job. He, and like I said earlier on in the episode, he essentially won his race. Like, there was nothing more than 10th. He could have got out of it.

So he deserves credit for that. This is going to come across as a little bit negative. I do think, not that he was handed it, but there could and should have been a better challenge from other drivers around him, which we'll get onto in a little bit. But even so, he can only control his own race. He can only do... Can he be what's around Joe? Yeah, exactly. And that's exactly what he did. As we've already said, the pick crew did a wonderful job to get him out of essentially, it was like five cars in there at once, wasn't it? If he's at the back of that pack, maybe this doesn't happen for him.

So, and it won't, it's, in one way, it's great for Sonoda because he got a point in front of his home crowd. In another way, it must be a bit frustrating for him because he has essentially delivered the perfect result and got a point. It's, you know, a few DNFs in front of him and suddenly he might be looking at six points again like he did in Australia, maybe more than that. but instead, again, it's not on him. It's just he got everything he could. It's just a shame for him. It's only one point.

Yeah, I mean, when the car is, they claim that it's a better car and they big it up at the start of the season saying, oh, I see top fives on the horizon. But fair play to Yuki, really. We've given him stick the last couple of seasons, but he's turned up this year and he's delivering and this was another phenomenal performance from him.

And you made that point about, you know, no one really challenged him. Well, I think part of the reason I'm challenged you was because he was just better than everyone else around him as well. You can only beat what's around you. He maximised it, got a point, qualified in Q3, beat an Aston Martin, which should have been better. I thought he was absolutely brilliant. Speaking of those other teams that go away from this race, scoreless, which teams and which drivers do you think will look at this race and go, maybe we should have been in that fight with Sonoda? I think everyone realistically makes a case for it other than probably Alpine and Williams.

But the one that absolutely stands out for me, who really could have had this moment for them, I think are Salba. I think it's kick. So annoyed. I'm sowing away for Valtry Bossass. The guy is turning up week after week. That form is very much in the car and he's running away with it. But the poor lads just can't come together for him.

The car is clearly difficult to drive and I think he's doing a brilliant job in maximising it. His qualifying was very, very strong again. I think it was P-13 that he was starting in. So he was right there alongside the harsh guys, Yuki Sanoda and Daniel Ricardo. And just, again, pit stops weren't perfect. There are a couple of seconds slower than everyone else, which puts you back in the pack.

And when you haven't got a great car that can make overtakes happen, it's really hard to get yourself ahead. This was an occasion where they could have picked up a point. And I do think now maybe this is the second or third time this season, where if it had swung slightly the other way, salver could be on three or four points. They could be in that conversation with Haas, maybe with Menardy, but they're just not. Joe has to retire with a gearbox failure, and that boy's retirement percentage must be

through the roof in comparison to races started because it's not looking good for him. But yeah, I imagine that the Haas guys are also probably kicking themselves a little bit. They were good, their race form looked good. The strategy was a bit bizarre, as we've already mentioned, with Holkerberg not stopping under Red Flag and Magnuson's still getting beat by Holgerberg despite this. I do think that that car was good enough that maybe on a better day they could have caught Nuki Sonoda. And I think Lance Stroll will walk away, annoyed that he was unable to get into the points.

But Bottas is the big one. Salba will be kicking themselves a bit. I'm so annoyed at Salba because they should have been in that. And they were in that fight. Like, Bottas and Sonoda were together for the first part of this race. And it just so happens. Like, whenever they need to make a pit stop, it just all falls apart. and we saw it twice today and we see it every single race,

it is nothing short of an embarrassment. It is an utter embarrassment to the team that they can't do one of the most fundamental parts of this job. And it doesn't sound like a lot because, you know, they might lose, I don't know, two seconds in a pit stop if they're doing like four or five seconds. But that really matters. Like over 10 laps, two tenths of a second,

like that, it all adds up. And when it pertains to track position, and that was the major issue with what that happened today, is that, you know, it's, you get stuck behind the, Bottas basically spent the second half of this race stuck behind Kevin Magnuson. And it just, it just meant that that time multiplied and multiplied lap after lap, they should have absolutely been in that fight for 10th place. Valtry Bottas drove well enough that he should have been in that fight for 10th place. We've got to the point where we're basically clapping and cheering them

for doing a four second pit stop. Four seconds is slow for most of the time. Four seconds is bad. Really bad. You look at, we just praised the pit crew from Nardi. That was the difference maker. That got him out into clean air that made him deliver it.

And you look at, you know, when Charles LeCler and Landon Norris came into the pit lane at the same time, the Ferrari boys here are 2.1, the McLaren guy's either 2.4, that meant the close in front of Norris coming out of the pit lane. It will make or break a season if you keep getting it wrong. They're not just getting it wrong. They've just thrown the entire car off of a cliff and hoped it carried on driving at this point.

It is disastrously bad. It's like saying, well, you could get round the lap without changing gear. Yeah, I can, but it's bloody rubbish and it's far faster and far normal to change gear. That's how fundamental a good pit stop is at this point. Yeah. The other point I wanted to make on Hass is that, Yeah, I think Nika Holkenberg could have been in that fight and probably should have been really his undoing.

I know the strategy was weird, but I think the strategy came as a result of that awful start he had on the second start that we had. If that doesn't happen, and he finished quite well. He came back quite well in this Grand Prix, I thought, but he just left himself too much to do based on that start. So I think he could have been there or thereabouts. Take our final break, because we've got moment of the long,

race on the other side. Okay, welcome back. It's time for moment of the race and we've got some Discord submissions coming up for you. But before we get there, Sam, what was your moment of the race? I'm going to go with a nice, normal, simple one. And I'm just going to say it was Yuki Sonoda, scoring points at his home grand prix. I said it early, we've given him stick for the last couple of seasons. And I think rightly so. I do think he deserves some of the criticism. But this was a really, really good performance. And it was really nice to see him get a reward such as scoring points. his home grand prix. Honestly, the Japanese F1 fans might be the best in the world. They are incredible. And he even said, I saw so many little mini-mees. I can't remember who said it. Maybe it was

Carlos Sevent. You sure you just weren't looking in a mirror, which I thought was quite funny. But yeah, what a weekend he's had? And the moment the race was just him crossing the line, picking out that point, I thought was brilliant. I like to avoid the obvious answer, but on this occasion, I really can't. And this isn't the first, sorry, this isn't the last time that this moment of the race will be said. But Landstrol's team radio to say that they're racing in a different category. It's the campus radio message I've ever heard in Formula One. It's like a meme you hear on Vying and then people put it over the radio message.

I know they went a different way in terms of setup on his car versus Fernando Alonzo's, but honestly, look at the Alpines. Could be worse. Your impression might just be funnier than his. actual message. They're racing in a different category. Oh man. As mentioned, probably not the last time it's going to show up. We do have some Discord submissions. Thank you very much to all of you who have submitted something. We've only got time to get through some of them, I'm afraid. But if you do want to consider being played every time, we do this every single race review. So get in the

Discord. Let's start with, all right, let's start with Beef. Go on, Beef. Hello, I have to say, there was some bloody good driving out there today. Yuki was really good. Perry's had some stellar moves. Leclair almost pulled off a blinder. It's almost like it's the best 20 drivers in the world. Remember the race, though, was Lance Charles Radio. That made me have a little giggle.

I hope you're all well. See you next time. Okay, bye. Hard to deny. I'd like to hear a beef stroll impression, please. Well, maybe not a beef stroll impression, but... Let's hear from Charlie. Hey, all, it's Charlie.

I'm submitting from the beautiful Phoenix, Arizona. And my moment of the race is Lance Stroll's Radio, and the Discord said that someone needs to recreate it. So I'm going to go for it. It's unbelievable how bad our speed is on the straight man. Like, it's a different category. The octave higher that he goes on category is brilliant. It really is.

Let's go to Vartz. Gide, Vartz from Down Under. First time submission, long time listener. My moment of the race would be Logan Sargent. You can't park there, mate. And somehow we got out of it. Cheers, boys. That's great use of a meme.

Well done. Yep, indeed. Let's go to Mark from Chicago Hey guys, it's Mark from Chicago Longtime listener, first time caller My moment of the race was Retro Spice Hucking me up with the race live stream Because I forgot it started

So I missed half of it But I got to see half of it So thanks My moment of the race Since I didn't see all of it Was seeing that the Hosses Kind of looked decent Halkenberg had some really nice overtakes

Towards the end of the race and my Hostelusion syndrome has been activated. So excited to see that. Hope to hear y'all talk about it. See ya. The best part about Haast this race weekend was that gyro camera they had installed on Kevin Manxie. Very true.

I bloody love that thing. Put it on every car. And in fairness to Hasda, they weren't expecting this to be a good race for them. They identified very early on that that high speed first sector was going to... It wasn't suited to their car. so to see them still be quite competitive,

I thought was quite good. Let's go to Cade. Okay, that overtake by Lando on George on that one corner, that was nice, that was smooth. That was wonderful to watch. Smooth. Smooth. Not the smooth operator, but yeah, I mean,

there was some good overtakes into turn one. I do think when the tires were competitive and you got it just into the corner of turn one, That is always good to watch at Suzuki. I am a fan of Turn 1. It's a good fun. It is good fun. Let's go to Kemp Tassel.

Kemp Tazzy here. First time, Submitter, been listening for a while. Love the podcast. Thanks so much. Bold predictions are hilarious. My moment of the race was Carla Sons going past LeClair. Can't believe he doesn't have a race seat for next year. How long till Ferrari want to swap?

Maybe. And sad for Riccado. Sad Cardo. Thanks. Bye. Yeah, I think we're still quite a few steps off for a swap, but yeah. My mother says you've got to give me my cards back. That's what I imagine Ferrari going to do to Mercedes. Yeah, I imagine so.

And lastly, let's hear from OTB. Hey guys, this is OTP from New Zealand, the real down under. My moment of the race was Logie Bear stopping for a quick wee in the kitty litter before reversing out and getting back on the track. Well down, Logie Bear. Keep it up, mate. That's brilliant. OTPB with the rivalry down under and the kitty litter reference. Well done, Logie Bear, keep it up.

Do you think that kitty litter is as good as Whipperslipper. Oh, it's right up there, you know. I think it might be. we'll let you guys decide on the discords we should have asked for Harry's moment of the race really but we'll have to make one up for him instead I don't know who that guy is

I don't go who that guy is my book of the race is Harry watching it Harry's moment of the race was um no I can't think of anything funny this is a usual incident

but he rang faster than the Alpine drove he's got a good shot to be fair to him he's got a very good shot best of like two I mean when you were all listening to this, he'll be either halfway through it or done or dead. So we'll soon find out.

If you find Harry on the streets of London, please help him. Please do. Do you want to get us out of here? Yeah. Okay, sure. It's been a good weekend of racing. We've had some good fun. And if you'd like to carry on the action talking more about the Japanese Grand Prix, then we're going to be doing our power rankings next. Yeah, boy. That's on Patreon. That is the best way to support this show. That really does help us out. You can find a link to that in the description below. There's multiple tiers as well. So if you think, oh, it's a bit spengy on the top tier, it's about £9, £12 on the top tier. You think there are lower tiers with the benefits where you can get more content as well. So check it out. Just have a look. We appreciate the sport massively.

Discours in the bottom as well if you want to have a little look. Social media is at late breaking F1 on all platforms. And this has also been video recorded. So keep that in mind you think, oh, I want to sit down and have a little look at these guys. We're here for all to see our beauty. Not looking tired at all, I promise. Thanks for listening. We appreciate the support. We'll be back midweek to, what we're doing, midweek, Ben? I don't know, just standard episode, I think. Okay, just more F1 chat.

Yeah. It's sounding a big old chick-shut on F1. We'll be there back mid-week as well. And of course, we will also be there on Sunday for a normal episode. What day is the episode day? Sunday, we'll be there. I think that's everything.

Cheers from Harry. He's a plonker, and he's rugged really, really fast. Good luck to him. And I've been Samuel Sage. And I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late. is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.