The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2024 Las Vegas GP Review

Episode Date: November 24, 2024

Ben and Sam review the Las Vegas GP that saw an unexpected 1-2 as well as a title-sealing 5th place for Verstappen who takes his 4th consecutive F1 world title! The boys discuss all the action from Russell's dominant victory and Hamilton's fight through the field, the days of Ferrari versus McLaren, and the continuing saga for 6th place Constructor... Please note: Apologies, you may notice occasional faint disturbance from Ben’s microphone during the beginning section of this episode - this was rectified from minute 30 onwards. FOLLOW us on socials! You can find us on YouTube, Instagram, X (Twitter) and TikTok SUPPORT our Patreon for bonus episodes JOIN our Discord community JOIN our F1 Fantasy League BUY our Merch EMAIL us at [e-mail]   & SUBSCRIBE to our podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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This Black Friday, you've got a whole month to catch all the exclusive offers waiting for you. See your local Nissan dealer or nissan.ca for details. Conditions apply. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. Welcome to the Late Breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking, reviewing today the Las Vegas Grand Prix won by George Russell, a one-two for Mercedes and where Max Vastappen was crowned world champion for a fourth consecutive year.

Sam, was that worth the early morning? wake up. Usually, I'm a real, it's tough for me to get out of bed early, especially on this a lovely Sunday morning. But you know what? Vegas has delivered again, two in a row. That was a really good Grand Prix. Lots happening up and down the field.

Lots to play for. Great overtakes, great battling. Sergio Perez made a double overtake at one point, which he was on no one's bingo card. Yeah. Also, Charles Clarke telling his race engineer that he should maybe try Spanish when he's talking to Carlos Science was not on my bingo card. they're a fantastic moment.

So much can talk about. Harry Ead is still asleep. Bless him. He's at a difficult time. We think so. We hope he's okay. Maybe. Yeah, moment of the race coming up later on.

So I'm sure that Charlele-Cleur team radio and plenty more funny moments will be making that segment. We've got the battle between Holkenberg and Sonoda with Hasfrey taking sixth in the Constructed Championship.

Of course, Max Verstappen taking the World Championship with his fifth place finish here. Ferrari versus McLaren, a good day for Ferrari, not so good for McLaren. But let's start out front with the Mercedes 1-2. Now, we saw George Russell get pole position yesterday, and we've seen Mercedes as the fastest team through the practice sessions. But come race day, George Russell, under a little bit of pressure from the two Ferraris early on,

he sees that off and then takes off from the rest of the field. Lewis Hamilton, with the use of some strategy, manages to get by a number, of cars and goes from his 10th place starting position all the way up to second. I mean, I want to from Mercedes. I know he said midweek that maybe these colder temperatures might benefit them. I'm quite sure we meant that much. Mercedes, do you understand that most Grand Prix rates take place in hotter conditions, usually at least warm, 20 to 25 degree plus on average?

Why have you only made a car that only works when it's like puffer jack? it weather only. It's because you're testing in Northern Germany in the middle of winter and you go, this is the right conditions. I know the reason. What is it, Ben? Tell us the reason. Well, actually, Jay Cartwright knows the reason.

All right, okay. Funny, isn't it? Fucking, yeah. Why? Why? Can't you make a car that operates in just normal racing conditions? And yet when it is Baltically cold, you seem to absolutely excel because it seems you don't know why you're fast, Mercedes. You don't seem to understand.

And George Russell even said it in his post-race interview. We're not really sure while we're fast this weekend. Bizarre. Absolutely bizarre and baffling analysis from the guy that's just dominated the field. And on that, George Russell's best Formula One performance of his career so far, I think. Pole position was immense,

led every single lap under the one where he pitting and Hamilton took over. The pace was immaculate, definitely had the ties to run away from Lewis Hamilton. at the end, despite, you know, Lewis pumping about 473 fastest laps in a row. It was perfection from George Russell. I cannot fault a moment of it. It was a sublime performance.

Now, if I'm saying it's going to turn up for more than one racing every eight, we might actually have an excited couple of last races on our hands. Yeah, I hadn't given much thought to whether it's Russell's best performance of his career to date, but at least not for Tob my head. I can't think of another one,

so you might well be right with that. it was exceptional. Obviously, that carries through from the pole position that he got yesterday. A good start, despite some issues on his practice starts 40 minutes before the race. He had a fine run down to term one, whereas the two Ferraris and Pierre Gasley was squabbling behind him. That gave him a little bit of a gap to work with. He still had DRS to contend with the DRS of the Ferraris behind him, at least in those first few laps. Charles LeClaire, on one occasion going into term one, got very close indeed. George Russell defends that very well

and really doesn't come under any pressure again for whatever reason on those medium tires and we'll get to Ferrari in our next segment Mercedes were far better in the second half of those medium tires than Ferrari were. You know, the gap that George Russell was able to make up over first Charles Clair and then Carlos Seines was exceptional. He was gaping seconds a lap faster at one point

to the point where he had an over 10 second lead on the rest of the field. And at that point, you never really felt like the win was in any jeopardy from Russell's perspective. He was able to, as a result of that gap, go a little bit later on some of those stints because he wasn't under pressure. There was no undercut window for other drivers to work with. Of course, that meant in that final stint, even when Lewis Hamilton was all guns blazing,

and I can understand Hamilton's approach to this, might as well, go. for one more win, right? George Russell, he didn't falter. And even when Hamilton was, I can't remember what the gap got down to at the end. It was 4.8 at one point and then came back up, I think. Yes, yeah. So I think even as it got under five seconds

and Hamilton had pretty much half the deficit that he had, you still felt like George Russell had enough in hand. It's one of those where a couple of years ago, and this goes back to your comment on, maybe this is Russell's best performance ever. A couple of years ago, maybe he takes too much out of his tires and he's starting to struggle at the end.

Instead, he stayed calm and ensured that he had by far enough tire life in those last couple of laps to comfortably see it home. I know it's a different situation, but I was having slight flashbacks of Singapore last year where Hamilton was chasing Russell down

right behind Russell, a lot of the Grand Prix. Of course, Russell was at that point, not in the lead. And we saw Russell collide with the wall and take himself out of the Grand Prix. And there was a little part of me in the back of my mind that thought, I'm waiting for the yellow flag to appear and the camera to cut to George Russell, having locked up and gone straight off into a wall somewhere due to the fact that the pressure

in his mind is built up. But no chance, absolutely no chance. Call us a cucumber. He delivered every single turn. And I think he had it in hand. I think even if Lewis Hamilton got the gap down to a second, I think Russell had the tyres well in hand to make the difference whenever he, eager to. And tireware was really interesting

today around Vegas. It was, I think Brundle brought this up how it isn't actually a tireware problem. It's a tire splitting issue. The way the cars are sliding on this loose surface that hasn't been bedding. It's a very green track, of course, because it isn't a racetrack for the rest of the year.

The tyres aren't actually graying all the way down like they would on say Spar or Silverstone. They are simply splitting. The surface of the tire is splitting because of the way the car is moving on the surface, which is why you saw Lecler fall off so quickly. in that first stint because his tire had split. He'd torn the tires slight,

which meant he no longer got the purchase to chase down George Russell as we saw in the early stages of the Grand Prix. So I was worried that Russell might do that, as you mentioned, you might split his tires, trying to regain the gap, trying to rebuild the difference that he had to Hamilton. And fair play too Hamilton for putting so many fastest slaps

and not really destroying those tires because his pace was phenomenal and we'll get onto him in a moment. But Russell managed this perfectly. I don't think it could have gone any better for him. And I guess as well, to add to the potential concern of Russell out front is that with that tire splitting issue, it's not like regular tire where maybe you lose a couple attempts to your rival per lap because Russell would have known, I've easily got the margin in hand to see that home.

That tire splitting issue, as we saw with Charles LeClerre, it can happen. It's like a cliff, right? It happened immediately. And as soon as it happened, you didn't just, drop a couple of attempts, you drop seconds. Like that could have gone so wrong, so quickly for George Russell. The fact that it didn't, I think, is credit to him. So congratulations to Russell on the victory. Lewis Hamilton had to come from second up to, sorry, from 10th up to second, eight positions up on his starting spot.

He said in the post-raise interview, if he hadn't messed up qualifying, it would have been a breeze. You reckon so? Yeah, I mean, the confidence to having that car, after today, in hindsight, you've got to look at that, the Seagius, I think nothing's stopping it. If they qualified one, two, on the grid, they would have been only each other's problem to deal with.

It would have been a Hamilton versus Russell showdown. And I think Hamilton knows that wheel to wheel George Russell over the course of a Grand Prix in equal machinery that is firing on all cylinders. And you saw how quick he was throughout the Grand Prix. I'm sure Hamilton backs himself more than anyone right now to go, yeah, I'll beat George Russell. If I start right alongside him and I've got to go toe to toe to with him,

you've got to. You've got to. You're a seven-time world champion of 100 Grand Prix victories. You've got to back yourself, I'm sure he would. But I'm going to be intrigued to see how Lewis Hamilton looks at this weekend coming away from things. You know, made the mistakes in Quali, paid the price for it. But his pace was phenomenal. Overtakes were clinical.

He would get past one car. They weren't easy cars to pass. You know, Piastri, Norris, the Stappan, the Ferraris. It's not like he had completely jumbled up grid and maybe he was passing two RBs that were somehow inside the top five. and a hearse or something like that. He had to pass the heavy hitters of the field and dig so relatively with ease. In this one occasion when the Mercedes is firing on all cylinders,

Hamilton's set up allowed him to feel comfortable in that car, we once again saw what Lewis Hamilton is able to do. And now this should maybe quieten a little bit of the doubt around his move to Ferrari or if he's able to kind of put any kind of a performance in and maybe challenge alongside Charles LeCler. It's still very clear that when Hamilton is comfortable, or he trusts the machinery he's in. The guy can absolutely flying.

He was flying. The fact that he was setting fastest laps that were tense faster than everyone else without any DRS assistance at some point. No slipstream tells you, one, how good that car was today and two, how much Lewis Hamilton was able to understand it. But if you see things on the flip side

of I should have had a win, I've lost to Russell here through my own doing. I've made the mistakes and he gets a downer wrong things. And I understand why he might view it like this. he might knock himself back again. I don't want to say that from Hamilton. He's had quite a tumultuous up and down year, despite being quite fortunate with how points have gone his way.

I do think he needs to see this overall result as a net positive for him and try and bounce forward from it rather than letting his head slump like it did between Brazil and Vegas because he makes him quite negative comments about himself between those two Grand Prix. I hope he sees this as a positive

rather than another setback. I think he will. And it's somewhat bizarre actually going, you mentioned next season, it is odd that the biggest concern or the biggest question mark about whether that will be a success is his qualifying pace. It's not his race pace. He demonstrated today, he's still very much got that in hand. But as we've seen multiple times throughout this season, it is George Russell that's been leading the way in that intra-team battle at Mercedes on a Saturday. here on race day.

He did have the pace. And I have no doubt that if he started out front, he would have had pretty comparable pace to Russell at worst. Like he might have had the pace to beat him. I'm not too sure. But as soon as he got clear of all the traffic, he was able to show what he could do in that car. And I respect Hamilton for what he was able to do, actually.

In that first stint, it would have been quite easy to get panicky being a bit worried about, he didn't make too many overtakes very early on in this Grand Prix, which could have been a concern for him. But instead, he was patient and he was able to pick cars off one by one. The fact that he left enough in those medium tires to go two or three laps longer than most other drivers, that really helped him out because I know he was worried when he came out because he thought he was. You were so confused, bless him. Am I doubt in 19? What am I doing?

No, no, it's fine, Lewis. you're actually... I haven't stopped yet. You're good. So, yeah, they haven't stopped, and no one who has stopped is ahead of you that wasn't ahead of you beforehand. So you're all good.

At which point, yeah, he can overtake the likes of Lando Norris. Max Verstappen, obviously, for reasons that should be apparent, didn't make it too difficult for him with the championship in mind. And then obviously the Ferrari's followed on after that. So, yeah, respect for what Lewis Hamilton was able to do,

he'll be gutted that he qualified 10th, but at least he had some fun making some overtakes. What about these last two races? Because we've seen glimpses of form from Mercedes this year. Obviously, this isn't their first victory. We've had Belgium and Silverstone have been won on genuine pace from Lewis Hamilton as well. Does this mean that the last couple of races,

they could be a factor for the win again, or is this going to be a weird outlier based on those conditions in Las Vegas that we don't see elsewhere? Mercedes form is one of the most strange things to come out of the 2024 season, sorry. We've had, you know, teams regularly appearing as the top car, but when those teams do appear as the dominant car,

you know, we had rebel at the start, then we went into a phase where kind of Ferrari pick things up, then McClaren became the dominant car, then Ferrari showing a bit more resurgents, and then, you know, we get to where we are now. Mercedes seems to have kind of jumped up for a race and then unlike the rest of them, who have stayed around the podiums regularly.

You know, Macquar and Red Bull and Ferrari have always been picking up podium almost every single Grand Prix. And if they're not, they're fourth, they're right there with them. But if Mercedes seemingly aren't winging a grand prix, they're like ninth. No man's lines.

And it's literally bizarre how they seem to flip it on and they dominate. And they didn't just wing here. You know, they were, nearly a pit stop. Landon Norris was over a pit stop behind George Russell before he stopped to then set the fastest lap at the end of the Grand Prix. So the difference between the McLaren, if you were to say that, I don't know, in Mexico, for example, or in Qatar, and you were to say, oh yeah, come Las Vegas, Landon Norris will be over a pit stop behind George Russell, who is going

to win the race by over 10 seconds to the next non-Message's car. You go, where's that come from? And I don't understand how it's working. And Mercedes, for the most worrying part, don't understand how that's working. And that's why it makes me think it's an outlier. That's why it makes me think they can't turn this into the string of form because they don't seem to understand how they're good and when they're good and why they're good. For me, the only continuing factor in their positive performances,

as we've mentioned time and time again now, are these colder temperatures. It seems that they get their tyres working well in cold temperatures, which is great to be able to do. But the moment the temperature becomes standardized for a normal Formula One race and tyres are working in their standard window, they can't seem to compete. Now, Qatar, famously, quite a warm place.

Abu Dhabi, similarly in the same geographical region, which I know is the kind of the sunset race, I know the sun goes down on the season and on the track. So it does cool off. It still ain't cold. It's still not the Nevada desert in the middle of the night, cold right there. So I just can't see them being able to do this

for the next two Grand Prix and dominating the field like they have today. I think we'll be back to normal ways. I wouldn't be shocked if both the Seguess drivers qualify outside the top six in Qatar, and it goes back to being a Norris on pole with a LeClerp, 2, and we don't see them guys close to the top five throughout the whole Grand Prix.

Honestly, predicting what Mercedes will or won't do is something of an impossibility this season. So who knows, they might turn up at the next two races and they're one to again. That would probably surprise me as much as if they were 11th and 12th. I've just got no idea with this. team. Qatar is going to be the interesting one because, like you say, it's going to be hot.

I haven't seen the weather forecast for Qatar, but I'm just going to make that assumption based on it's Qatar. And we're likely to see teams have similar tire issues to what we've had here in Las Vegas, but for completely the opposite reason of it being too hot rather than too cold. So Mercedes might well go into that one. with opposite conditions and really struggle, Mercedes might also go into it with maybe an advantage in terms of tire wear over these other teams, and they take advantage of that and are competitive again. I've got no idea, but at least from their perspective, they had something to fight with

for one more race in this 2024 season, which didn't look like that was going to be the case. Should we have a look at Driver of the Day? go on then Ben The verdict is in You're the driver of the day You're the driver of the day You're good at driving Since Harry's not here

You can pick his driver of the day Sam Oh Who would I like to go for? Who would he pick? It would be someone silly He would say Fernando Alonso for at one point appearing in the points for a little bit and then having to, what would he say?

He says something like wrestling that garbage fire of a car around and still being the coolest guy in the world. I think he'd go for Ricardo. Ben, he doesn't race with us anymore. Yeah, but Harry really likes Ricardo. That's true. He just likes hairy men. Moving on.

Would you like to put your driver in the day? Sure. Yeah. some options. There were some options. Good performances up and down the grid. Someone clip that previous part. I'll sing it directly to Harry, please, when he wakes up as well. Ed Shearren and Harry Men. It's two favour things he likes in life. I'm going to give it to George Russell. I think Hamilton's recovery was fantastic.

I do struggle to give him a drive-of-the-day to someone who's put themselves in the position where they need to recover, but I think his recovery was absolutely sublime. But Russell had it in hand the whole way through it. To hold off the Ferrari. is to do what he did, to dominate like that, I do think it's his best performance in Formula One so far. It's an easy wing for me for George Russell. I had three contenders. George Russell will take it for me.

He's driver of the day. But the other two, Nika Holcombberg, I think they had a very good job to finish eighth place in the Grand Prix. And Fernando Alonzo, I know you mentioned it as a joke for Harry. He's actually a contender for me as well, because even though he finished 11th, I do genuinely think that car might have been the slowest car or at best ninth fastest car this weekend.

He went with the strategy of, I'm just going to undercut everyone on both occasions. He came in on lap five after starting on the soft compound tire, which I'm not quite sure what the exact strategy play was intended to be from Aston Martin, but it kind of worked because Fernando Alonzo's excellent tire management skills helped him, you know, get by a number of drivers that I don't think he had the right to beat. So it's not one that many will talk about, but I do think his drive to 11th was genuinely impressive,

but I will go for George Russell. What about worst driver of the day? Get in the bin, bin, bin, bin, bin, bin, worst driver of the day. Ben, bin, bin, been, worse driver of the day. You suck at driving. Who's your worst driver of the day? Okay, so yeah, usually in the top 10, there are someone, someone that drops out that kind of shocks me or has an absolute shocker. And Pierre Gasly, of course, not been able to absolutely cook because he's cut his engine instead, was really, really disappointing.

I do think that points from the cars and he could have finished in front of that kind of slow Holkenberg battle. So real shame that he's not able to convert there. It's a bit of a tricky one, but I'm going to give it to show Guangyu because I, yeah, sorry, I know. I genuinely think that carc who are finished inside the top 12. My ball prediction has been ruined for him. And therefore, I just can't commit. So, sorry, Joe. Valtry Bottas is the goat.

Damn. I had him like nearly in Driver of the Day contender. I'm being horrible. My contenders for worst driver of the day. I think Piastri was poor. He obviously had Norris had a gap to make that pit stop for a fastest lap attempt. which, you know, if you're that far behind your teammate, I think you're in, you're in a contender for this. Yeah, even with the penalty served, that gap was big.

Yes, which, again, I mean, the penalty, I know it's marginal, but the penalty is also on him. So he was a contender. Perez, obviously, his, most of his struggles came on, on the qualifying session. So it was going to be difficult for him to get too much further up than this. But Ocon, he, I mean, man missed his. pit entries. He missed this pit box. I've got that coming up, don't you worry?

Yeah. But that really derailed his Grand Prix in a race where Gasly proved that points probably could have been possible. But my worst driver of the day was Liam Lawson. He was nowhere. And I don't know if he had some sort of issue. So if it comes out that he did, my apologies to him. But he was absolutely nowhere near his teammate coming the end of this race.

So I've got Liam Lawson as worst driver. He was essentially last of the drivers that apparently didn't have a problem. of any kind and voucherbottas. Yes. So, well done. Liam Larson, you are worst driver of the day, I'm afraid. We'll take our first break on this episode. On the other side, we're going to be chatting more about

Ferrari versus McLaren. This Giving Tuesday, Cam H is counting on your support. Together, we can forge a better path for mental health by creating a future where Canadians can get the help they need when they need it, no matter who or where they are.

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which was taken by Carlos Sines, just ahead of his teammate, Charles Leclair, on a day where both Ferraris beat both McLaren's. So third and fourth for the team, and then sixth and seventh for McLaren. It means that in the Constructedist Championship, the gap that was 36 points going into this Grand Prix is now 24 points. Let's start with Ferrari, Sam. What did you make of their Grand Prix? Do you think, again, based on the points margin they've made up to McLaren, they can consider

this one a success? Or based on Mercedes beating their... is it something of a missed opportunity? Now, I can't put Mercedes beating Ferrari on Ferrari. I do think that for this one outlier Grand Prix, that Mercedes was too fast for Ferrari. I don't think, even on their best day today, which they definitely didn't have,

they were to beat in that Mercedes duo. I think even with Hamilton's lasting intent, they had the pace on them. On paper, Ferrari have done a really good job here today. They've got the stapping separating their two drivers and McLaren's two drivers. I kind of worked out before we kicked off this last triple header. 12 points was the minimum of the league from each Grand Prix

to, of course, become a constructors champion. So they've done that for now. They've hit that bare minimum mark. They're not going to topple the two there. And they got a little unlucky, I guess, that Norris stopped in a pit for that fastest lap because it will have been 13 points ganged over them as well, which looks very nice come the end of the Grand Prix.

I think what worries me about Ferrari is that they're Ferrari. Now, once again, we're back to poor strategy call, pit-laying incidents, getting confused over team radios, checking what plan we're on, having to talk to your driver in another language to see if they maybe understand, not being ready. I don't know, but there were so many issues. If you want to do a big brain strat today just on Ferrari, which we'll get to, you have options. There are a lot of options for them. So I think they got a little fortunate.

I think they've got a fortune that science currently hasn't been penalised from that last minute pit lane dive. He cut across the entire pit lane entrance, which one is a huge corner cut and two, a massive safety regulation. You can't cross the thick white line that enters you into the pit lane or exits it. Didn't even take a look at it? What? I thought that's at least a 10 second penalty coming his way. It's a huge safety breach. Lewis Hamilton, who was directly behind him at the time, probably could have rightly been throwing off massively and, I don't know, acted oddly because of that.

got on the blower immediately to tell them off for this. But the fact that they've managed to secure a third and fourth after all of that, I think is so fortunate. I do think they're going to need to be on their absolute A game in Qatar and in Abu Dhabi. Because I think McLaren are going to come back stronger. I think this is going to be the weakest of the three Grand Prix for McLaren.

I think Piastri was not on his A game. I think Norris did all he could really do in that car today. I don't think it had any more in it, really. it was on their side. It was in their court. And they took it to McLaren. They got the points they needed. But I think one thing goes slightly differently for them.

They have a car with a penalty. They can have a car with a wall. They could have hit each other. It really could have gone wrong very quickly. So a little bit of luck went their way. But they're currently doing enough, I think, to steal this off McClaren right at the death. It's a bit of both really for Ferrari because, yes,

they have got both of their cars in front. front of the two McLaren cars, I think third and fourth might fall a little bit short of their expectations. This was a massive opportunity to not cut this by 12. This was an opportunity to get it not far off single digits, just based on how much McLaren struggled versus what we've become accustomed to from them this season. I don't think it would have mattered too much if Charles LeClaire had made that pass on George Russell early on, I think just based on how much he dropped off in the second half of that first stint. He would have got re-overtaken anyway.

I think Carlos Seines did a better job than Charles. Carlos Seines did a better job than Charle-Cla in terms of those medium tires, but equally both cars really struggled compared to some of the others around them. Not only the Mercedes, but the likes of Max Verstappen as well, did a far better job on those medium-tire compounds. I feel like their top pace Ferrari this weekend was good enough to compete with Mercedes. But Mercedes were able to do it lap after lap after lap. Ferrari seemed to have it.

At one point, Charles LeCleur was getting a few fastest laps when he was in fourth place. But that tire wear just wasn't quite as good as it could have been. And we know that they have struggled with cold weather so far. this season and really heating up those tires. I think we somewhat saw that again out here today. So third and fourth is far from a disaster. It could have been a lot, lot worse for them.

But I think there will be a little bit of disappointment that they weren't able to get two cars on the podium and preferably one of them taking the top step. Well, Ferrari, I'm just going to pass you back to an early part of the podcast where we described Qatar as hot. So hopefully you might do all right the next weekend. Exactly. And of course there's a sprint race at Qatar as well. So 24 points in the constructive championship.

That is very easily attainable from Ferrari. This thing is far from over. It's just a little bit of disappointment from their side. Maybe the gap is not as reduced as it could have been. Before we get onto McLaren, I just want to bring up, and maybe, I don't know if you were anything to say on this, they have obviously spoken about the driver's title. The driver's title is very important.

And they made a big hoo-hahar about what can Norris do? What can Norris? Is it in F1 or Ferrari? Yes. Well, F1 one, obviously, yeah, yeah, not for a Formula One. And the marketing behind it still very much went into, you know, can Norris overturn the Stappings lead? And I really felt like they were clinging on some of their fingernails at that point. They're really grasping at straws. Ferrari McLaren is such a historic and, you know, prestigious battle that goes on between these two incredible constructors in motorsport, not just Formula One, but in motorsport. And the fact that I've not heard anything, I've not seeing any hype,

I've not seeing any kind of, you know, battle graphics or head to head or, you know, two Goliath. There's so much that they could have done here, especially with the gladiator thing in going live and the partnership with Ferrari and they were at Vegas. I guess that they're missing a trick. They are like the Mr. Marketing man needs to tap up Liberty and go, there's a story here that you are not making the most of it. I do think it could have been a really good way to make the last three races extra exciting

because the casual viewer, I don't think cares as much about the constructors. But I think that's because a lot of the time, Formula One doesn't give it as much love or as much attention as the drivers, which I get. You root for a driver. But a lot of people root for a team. I just think they're missing a trick a little bit there. So I think what F-1's, I don't know, what their philosophy here is that the driver's battle was still, let's call it alive going into this race, but bare. I think maybe what they were thinking was we're going to pour everything into the driver's battle this weekend

and at the end of the weekend we'll know one way or the other whether it's championship done or maybe coming off a massive Lando Norris win and a Vestappan DNF whether it's still alive and now they know that it's completely done they will focus fully on the constructors with two races to go I think they were maybe just giving it every possible opportunity to still be a thing even though it was unlikely

I'm not sure I agree with that and I think I would have made more of an effort to make the constructors battle a bigger thing going into this weekend but I think that's maybe what they were thinking. Yeah, I think that seems logical.

Obviously, you have always shut off an option. You're right, the championship was still open and it is obviously the most enticing part to most fans. But I don't know, it's a huge part of Formula One. I don't think it gets to love it needs.

They could have done both. They do have that option. Good. I mean, you must have been really, really, really, waiting for that answer, like, anticipating what it might have been. Yeah, those listening at home, you don't realize that we've had like a 15-20-minute break between me finishing my point about the constructors and Ben giving me my answer there because we had

mic problems. Not really what I wanted, obviously, Ben, a bit of a letdown. Actually, it wasn't mic issues. I just wanted to keep him waiting. It's just being horrible to me on a Sunday moment. Absolutely fine. So we've looked at the Ferrari side of things. Let's take a look at McLaren because.

They've been almost a constant on the podium this season, at least after the first couple of Grand Prix where they were struggling a little bit. But coming out of Brazil, not a great race there. We come into Las Vegas. And again, they struggle. They struggle in qualifying. They really failed to make much of an impression in Q3. And by and large, they've finished pretty much where they've qualified. I think Piastri makes up one position.

Lando Norris finishes exactly where he qualified. Are you worried for them and how disappointed were you with their pace or lack of it? I think this performance shows the reliance that McLaren are currently placing on track-specific parts. There was a lot of talk about how they could not bring the rear wing set up from Baku to Las Vegas. Now, we know that Baku and Las Vegas, in theory, are very similar. Both street circuits, huge long straight that requires, you know, the rear wing to be operating fully at top level. DRS is incredibly important as well. and at Baku, look at the result that we got there.

Piastri picks up his first proper full Grand Prix victory. And here, Piusiastri can't get himself near the top six. You know, a Norris who has been on flying form when it comes to your actual race pace, is unable to make an impression while pretty much every other driver from the key teams is able to make an impact inside the top five. I do think that this means that McLaren aren't bulletproof. It means that they're not 100% there and ready to dominate next season. And actually, it puts themselves at massive risk that what do they do,

for something like Qatar? Do they go with a Brazil spec? Do they try and actually implement the Las Vegas spec? I do wonder if this uncertainty means that they won't know what direction to go down and they could allow them to go almost in the middle and not allow them to compete anywhere properly. I think with how well the client have developed, how well Stella is going to that team,

how good a job that Brown has done as the leader of that team as well. I'm sure they're working out. I do think they've got more understanding of how the dynamics of their car work at these tracks over someone like, Mercedes, who publicly have stated they still haven't got a clue. But it does leave them at some risk because Ferrari know their strengths. Ferrari know what it is that works for them. And I think McLaren are under pressure a little bit here.

I do think that Ferrari have got the ball in their court, as I said earlier. I do think McClare need to make sure they know what went wrong here before they get into Qatar. But such a small turnaround, only five days before action restarts, it's going to be a tricky bit of analysis for them to implement. It is because I don't understand it. And to be fair, they've got more brain power and data than I do, but I don't understand where this lack of pace has come from,

particularly because going into practice, the long run pace, absolutely fine from McClaren's perspective. I thought coming out of Friday, there might have been the fastest team in terms of race pace. It was very close between themselves and Ferrari with Mercedes and Red Bull a little bit further back. but come Saturday in qualifying, again, they look pretty good through the early parts of qualifying, no problem at all in Q1. They get to Q2 and they're able to pretty much be in the mix, but only a couple attempts down. And then where everyone else is improving into Q3, they aren't able to show anything else.

It turns out that Q2 was the best they had available to them. I at least thought going into this Grand Prix that their race pace would prove too much for at least a couple of their rivals. Instead, they were thoroughly outclassed by, by Ferrari, by Mercedes, and by, let's face it, Red Bull in the form of Max Verstappen. Like, they have, as a team, pretty much, been the four, I know technically, what, the Red Bull team will finish with fewer points than McLaren, but I think McLaren could probably say they've been the four fastest team on the day, which is a long way from where we've been used to seeing them. And this sort of slump late in the year is a bit concerning. And from their perspective,

it might be a little bit too late for Ferrari to catch them. We'll wait and see on that. But they're a bit lucky this didn't happen with, you know, two or three races before it has actually happened. Otherwise, Ferrari would have probably already caught them by now. So it's odd. It doesn't make a great deal of sense. But they just had, it just appeared like they had nothing to work with. It's like them and the Mercedes have swapped over for this grown, literally like they swap places.

I think McLaren need to be a little bit careful. If it takes one more COTA, one more Ferrari 1-2

through a dominant performance and it could be game over for them. We could go down to Abadabwe with a real showdown

of this Constructors title. And not only a constructors battle, and I know that's going to

be the main focus, as it should be, but the battle between Norris and Lecler and Piastri and signs

in the drivers is quite interesting as well. So now that Lando Norris, it's definitely confirmed he cannot catch Max Verstappen. He's 21 points clear of Charles Lecler. That's catchable. And there's nine points separating Piastri and fourth back to signs in fifth. So both of those driver's championship battles are very much alive going into these last two races.

I know I said it as part of worst driver at the day. I was disappointed with Piastri again out there. I think, and the reason I had him as a contender for worse, driver of the day. I don't think he could have finished worse than what he did outside of a DNF or something really going horribly wrong. Who did he beat? I mean, he beat Sergio Perez, who was coming back through the field and midfield drivers. That's it. And it's not like he was close to Lando Norris. Technically, I guess he was close to Lando Norris based on Norris's late pit stop, but it wouldn't have been close. It would have been 25 seconds separating him from the nearest

person in front of him. That's a long old time in Formula One terms. The last good performance from Piastri at this point, I think, is what we mentioned earlier in Baku. I think that might be the last time I sit there and went Piusc completely outclassed Lando Norris and had a really good performance. I mean, Brazil sprint you can throw in as a non-race. Sure, sure. Yeah, in terms of main race, is okay. Key Gros, yeah. I mean, Cota, not there.

Mexico, not there. Brazil, he was better than Lando in terms of not making mistakes. But, of course, at that point was letting Lando back through because of driving. Piazzi had that 10 second penalty in that race. You're right? No, you're right. He did. So it just seems to be he started the season subpar, but we gave him that letoff because it was only the start of his second season. He had a meteoric rise to probably being the most consistently good driver across all of the

top teams, scoring the most points for a large part of the season. I think it's very quickly slumped straight back down. So he's going to want to end the season on a bit of a high. And for McLaren's sake, they need him to end the season on a bit of a high. Also as well, Sergio Perez obviously gets one point for 10th place. We'll talk a bit more about Red Bull after our next break. McLaren really struggling these last two races.

If Perez is in the mix, they're there with Ferrari chasing them down. There's still only 53 points back, so it's not, even that isn't completely over. But they could well have been closer to 30 points away from McLaren if Perez is in the mix in these last two Grand Prix. I don't want to dunk on Perez,

but I've said it time and time again if they had a driver that was even remotely competent at finishing inside the top 10 on a regular basis Red Bull would be leading this title fight. They would have taken both home this season. The gap between Peres and Verstappen is unacceptable. Look at all the other drivers.

Even Piastri, who's had a bad day as we brought up, is still right there behind his teammate in terms of positions. Every other teammate finished next to their teammate in those top four teams other than Bostappan and Perez. And while your driver is walking around the four-time world champion. The other one is struggling to get inside to one point.

He is the reason that Rebel will not take home the double this season. Seven drivers this season have won multiple races. Sergio Perez hasn't won any. Hasn't won any at all. So that is, I think, quite telling as a statistic. Should we do our big brain strat? He says not loading up big brain. Here we go.

Ah, Bob, we're going to need you to box for wet. What? It's not even raining out. What are you talking about? Yeah, and Bob, if you get a chance, let your teammate. I think there might be a few to choose from. What have you got? There are a few to choose from, aren't there?

For me, I'm going to try and keep it short and board it down to two. One is the Carlos Sikes skipping the pit laying entrance after hearing that they're not ready, despite giving them a couple of laps to work out if they want to box him and then saying, why don't you box me? Guys, box me, hello, commanding the strategy again from the, the pit lane, but I'm going to go with Esteban Okon just missing his pit box entirely. Didn't that's it.

Not the top today, actually. I just want to try this one, see if I like it. Not for me. Maybe, was it hard as he accidentally drove into, or was it the one further down the pit lane? I'm not sure. Maybe he was getting ready for next year. Yeah, just decided, you know what, guys, I'm just going to do some practice now. Nothing out of this race for me. I'm just going to try

out how that one works. Yeah, really, really good, Esteban, because I think points from the car. It was because of you realistically that you mucked that one. up. Yeah, he probably would have been there or thereabouts based on starting 11th. He didn't drop any positions off the start. So he might well have been in that mix. Yeah, I mean, Lewis Hamilton happened to him once, right? He went into the wrong box. But that's definitely a contender. I'll go with the first one you mentioned, which is Carlos Seines. I still don't understand how this

has not been investigated and how he has not got a penalty for this. Like, it's so obvious. It's not like he's, he's grazed the line, he's gone into the lane to go into the pit and then decided last minute not to. But that leading up to that and the team radio, it was old school Ferrari, you know, that was that was proper, you know, Barclays men, that was Benotto Ferrari. Yeah, proper mid-teenies, not a clue what you're doing. Everyone's confused, Ferrari. Oh, I mean, what's frustrating separately about this safety issue is? I actually think the new race director had a very strong race weekend. There were talks about how the drivers made requests.

They were put in place to make sure that safety in the track were okay. Things were noted very, very quickly. But the one glaring problem that actually took place, no mention of it. It's a real shame because I think otherwise he had a pretty flawless Las Vegas Grand Prix. And I appreciate it. It might be too late to penalise this now. But at the very least, they need to look at it and say that,

and admit they've got it wrong because if they don't do that, again, it's all about consistency. Why would you not as a team do this to bluff other teams? Because it would have worked really well as a bluff if in this instance it didn't make sense to and it was genuinely just a mess up from the team.

But you could very easily just keep doing that to bluff your rivals into making pit stops. And you're not going to get penalised for it, apparently. But therein lies that problem, right, about the safety. you're right that you could keep doing that. But if you're on a three-way fight and you think, oh, the guy in Frank's pitied, oh, no, I think, I've stayed out and he's colliding straight with me because he's cut straight across the track again.

This is why it's a safety problem. This sugar business. You get penalties for doing it on the exit of a pit lane. Everyone knows you stay inside the white line on the exit of a pit lane. It's exactly the same for the entrance. This is a slam dunk penalty. And you heard that we were on the sky commentary, of course. You heard Brundle come across and say, that's a given.

There's no argument. I didn't think it was a debate. No, it's obvious. Yeah. Hamilton knew it immediately behind him, the commentary knew it immediately. We all know it as viewers. I can't believe it's not been spoken about. Let's take our second break on this episode.

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Physically present in Ontario. Eligibility restrictions apply. See golden nuggettasino.com for details. Please play responsibly. Welcome back to the third part of today's review of the Las Vegas Grand Prix. We haven't mentioned too much yet that Max Verstappen has won his fourth consecutive world championship. I promise we're not glossing over it. It's just that we're reviewing the race itself today.

We will give plenty of time to look back on the season that was in upcoming episodes. But his fifth place finished today was enough for him to claim the championship with Lando Norris, one position behind him in sixth. His teammate did recover to the points or point, as I should say, he finished 10th. Let's focus on Vastappen first. How impressed were you, by the way, he managed his Grand Prix? He was dealing with quicker cars behind him, didn't massively find. then potentially with this championship in mind? I was really impressed with Max Verstappen.

I think, again, in a car that was not up to scratch, after signs of, and sings rather, of them literally cutting away elements of the rear wing before the weekend got underway because the car wasn't fit for purpose, essentially. The fact that he's managed to bring that home so comfy in front of the McLaren's, I really think was impressive.

The guy is generational. He has had to deal with such a different sense, season, this season is what he had to do last year. And this race was very much a reflection of that, especially the second half of the season, having to manage expectations, manage a car that isn't perfect, finishing front of the one guy that realistically he needs to finish in front of. You heard it when Lewis was passing him. GP comes on the radio and goes, remember your race?

And Max comes back, yep, I'm just doing my race. Max three or four years ago, even, wouldn't have had that attitude. I think I was surprised because I thought Max would have gone, I want to win this. outright. I'm winning this out right. I don't care what happens. I'm winning this outright. He was alongside Landon Norris at the start of the Grand Prix. They were so close and I do think of different Max Verstappen maybe will have acted differently. But he handled

every situation perfectly. No funny business, no risks, no getting tangled up with other people, got moved to done where they needed to be got done. And he brought home the goods. He seals like shamanship in emphatic style. And he does it with races to go, showing you just how consistent he's been throughout this season. Because

I think arguably since space, they haven't had close to being the best car. So the fact that he's brought this home with racist despair is so very impressive. It was a really good Grand Prix. For someone that finished your fifth place, I was very impressed. Yeah, he did what he needed to do, ultimately. So it's hard to, it's hard to criticize him for being, at least by Vastappen standards, easily overtaken for positions because it just made sense for him to give them up rather

than fight them too much. I think the Mercedes, or the pace that Mercedes had was a bit of a blessing in disguise because it was apparent very early on to us and probably Vastappen in the car, he wasn't going to win this one. Like Hamilton and obviously Russell starting from pole easily had the pace on him, at which point he's doing battle with the Ferraris over third, fourth and fifth. And I think he's more okay with giving up those spots for those sorts of positions. If that's a battle for first, second and third, as it could well have been,

I don't know if he keeps it with the same mentality. So it might be probably from GP's side more than anyone's to cure his, the insanity that he has to deal with on a weekly basis. I think it might have been a blessing in disguise that actually Mercedes were so far up the road that they weren't really thinking about them too much. From there, he did what he needed to do. I think people were, I don't know, going a bit overboard with how worried they were about Red Bull on the Friday of practice and the headline times being so much slower and Vastappen was down in 17th. And if you look at the race-paced stats, it was pretty clear that they weren't that slow or weren't going to be that slow on race day.

But even so, I figured they might be the four fastest team, the fact that they were quicker than McLaren. Aaron is credit to them. And yeah, I think he did. It was a professional performance, is probably in summary what I'd say about that. Yeah, agreed. I think with the practice comments, people need to realize that practice is practice for a reason. A lot of things are going on in those Formula One cars and in those teams that they don't communicate to us.

You can't see in the car. Heavy fuel runs, different tire compounds, different engine specs are being used. There's a lot that are being run throughout practice that we have no understanding of because we're not insiders. You've seen it with endless cars. There were times when Mercedes were in their dominant era, well, they would suddenly be 16th place in a practice. And you get around to race day, and they'll win it by 30 seconds.

It's not realistically a direct reflection on how the weekend is going to unfold. You have to take any result, good pace or bad, with a real pinch of salt. What about the other side of the garage? We've mentioned him a couple of times already today. Sergio Perez got knocked out in Q1 yesterday. he started on the hard tire as a result of that. A couple of the drivers who were knocked out in Q1 went with that same strategy.

He's making quite a lot of overtakes early on in the Grand Prix. Of course, everyone on the medium tire stops before he does. By the time he comes back out, he still needs to make a couple more overtakes in order to get back into the points, at which point he finishes 10th behind the likes of Sonoda and Holkenberg. Was this a case of the damage was really done in qualifying?

Or would you still have expected more from him on race day. I would have expected more. I think if you asked me before the race started with where I thought their race pace was, you know,

oh, if he got back to 10th or 9th, what do you think? I go, okay, fine. I think he should have got past the likes of Sangoga

and Holcombberg realistically. The pace was clearly in the car, the fact that Verstappan was able to hang it out with the Ferraris

for a log of the Grand Prix shows that the Red Bull did have relatively decent race pace. They were country faster than the McLarons. I think that Perez across the whole

of that Grand Prix, with Piastri having a penalty, clearly not being on pace as well. I think that was there for the taking. It would have been a tall order. It would have been ambitious. But I think it was very much there to be challenged for. One thing that I want to give credit for with Sergei Perez was the absolute filth of that double overtake.

Dacety. After this podcast, I'm having a shower. It was dirty. He's a naughty, naughty, naughty boy for trying such an audacious move into a corner like that. And well done to Lawson and to, I think it was Magnuson, for being so complicit. Those three in one corner, good Lord, it should have been fireworks, but they were all incredibly respectful.

I'm sure Lawson was absolutely popping himself a little bit, realizing what was going on with the drivers either side of him. But they were all complicit. They're all fantastic. And what an ambitious move from Paris to get that done. So, you know, it takes two or three, in this case, Cetango, then it pulled off brilliantly. And he needed to because otherwise he might have been stuck there even longer,

and there could have been a real risk that he wouldn't have ending up in the points because of it. So it was good that he got. back to a point, I still don't think it's enough. Yeah, I think ultimately 8th was probably the ceiling of what he could have achieved. So he's fallen a little bit short of that, but not massively so. I just think this is based on qualifying. I don't think his race pace was bad here this weekend.

And it's not the first time I've said that where I feel like his qualifying run or his early qualifying knockout, whether that's Q1 or Q2, has really cost him on a weekend, which sounds obvious to say. But if he doesn't have the race pace either, it doesn't really matter if he's getting knocked out in Q1 or Q2. Baku was another example of this, right? Bakuier had sensational pace on race day. And there have been times where I felt like he could,

if not match Vastappen, get fairly close to him in terms of this race pace, but he's so often in a spot where he can't show it because he's behind seven cars that he shouldn't be behind and trying to overtake them, at which point you're obviously focused on making those passes rather than what your overall pace is. You're just doing what you can do to get those positions back. It's been his Achilles heel really. I mean, it's never been his strength. But since he's joined Red Bull, it's really been his Achilles Hill that he hasn't been able to qualify well enough. He hasn't been able to

make regular enough appearances in Q3. And these sorts of disastrous weekends are too commonplace. So the comeback itself from a Q1 elimination to 10th, I think was okay. But the emphasis I put on the being in Q1 in the first place. I think the worry is he never used to qualify this badly in teams that were far worse than his current Red Bull drive. It feels like it's exacerbated the situation. It is bizarre that he so regularly gets knocked out in Q1 in a car that is so regularly good enough for a top four position. This never happened previously. I know style of drive and things like that is a factor,

but he should be doing more. It's not good enough the fact that he's getting knocked out in Q1-1. Usually, he may be outqualified by his teammate, but it's by a position or two, not by 10 to 15 positions on a regular basis. We'll see how he fares in the last two Grand Prix of this season. Two drivers that he lost out to on the day were Nika Holkenberg, who finished in 8th,

and Yuki Sonoda, who finished in 9th. Those results mean that Haas now lead, the battle for sixth in the Constructors' Championship. They reach exactly 50 points with that four points coming from Holcomberg. Then our one point clear of Alpine, who failed to score today. And then R be of four points back on 46. So four points separating those three teams. Start with Hasse.

They went quite long on their first stints, which seemed to have really worked out for Nika Holcomberg in the end. What did you make of his race? I thought Holkenberg did a really good job. One of the class acts again, the class act of the midfield again, he managed to, when we spoke about our qualifying review and he was the lowest of that top three, you know, we spoke about Ghazly had done brilliantly, Sunoda was in front of him, Holkenberg was behind of that kind of trio of teammates.

He had some work to do. So the fact, I think he gets fortunate that Gassi has the engine failure because I do think that might have been a step too far to overcome. And hey, Formula One, you need a little bit of luck sometimes. But to overcome Sonoda, who I think drove very well as well, to make those ties last when others were really struggling to do so shows what Holgerberg is good at. He's so consistently brilliant.

He is able to really get the cast singing. And he pulls a brilliant performance out of it. And because of that, as we've said time and time again, Haas looked to be the favourites for the sixth place finish. And their turn around this season has been nothing short of miraculous considering where they were a couple of years ago. So another good performance, really, really impressed. I think Senoa did a good job.

I still stand by the fact that that R.B is not on the same level as that Haas in terms of pace. I don't think it's as fast as the alpians anymore either I do think it's slipping back through the field so Sanoa completely outclasses Lawson does a great job to beat the likes of Magnuson who I thought did a brilliant job on that one stop it just didn't come off for them properly

but to get those two points and to keep them in the fight in a car that is probably the slowest of the three really really good performance and as Sanoga said he's just going to keep destroying teammates until he gets recognised well a performance like that is the kind of way to do it yeah absolutely

from from hasse's perspective I'm running out of things to say about Nika Holkenberg because it's just the norm how impressive he is on a well I was going to say on a race day really throughout the whole weekend he makes Q3 he scores good points like you say he overtakes Sonoda to get two of those points

and I'm impressed by what Hass did because has this season have been renowned for undercutting everyone and ensuring that they they are not going to get overtaken, you know, in the pits, by strategy. And it's worked out really well for them because for the most part, they've had a really quick car and a straight line.

They've used it to affect a number of times. Today would have been a really obvious route to go down based on how much tire where there was, particularly on the medium tires to start this Grand Prix. They went with the opposite strad. They went longer than everyone else. And I really appreciated the variety from them. and it was a great call because the way in which Holkenberg managed those tyres in the first stint was really well done and they could have panicked because he was dropping understandably

a good chunk of time in that first stint when others had come in for those fresh hard tires. They didn't panic. They stuck to the strategy and by the end and it caused Holkenberg to be really quick towards the end of stints as we saw as he needed to make the pass on Yuki Sanoda. So I think they worked that very well in Holkenberg's case. And ultimately, those two points could be really important in that fight. Because again, there's only four points separating three teams. It's going to come down to something really small and minute like one strategy call.

So Hass being on it today is not only great for the result, but it's encouraging for them going into the last two races of the season. So Noda was very good all weekend. I was impressed by him. And you're right. he's doing what he can do. I think we might well dedicate some time to some of the comments he's made on a future episode because...

Firing. They are fiery. I like Sonoda's approach to being in the Red Bull program. We've seen like the overall program does eat up drivers sometimes. Helmut Marco can be intimidating. The overall program can be intimidating. Sonoda's just so himself. And that's what you need to be in that.

environment. So I'm sure we'll talk about his comments at a future date. But what he was able to do this weekend, even though he's lost out to Holkenberg, he's the one who was fighting in the points, whereas his teammate was nowhere near it. He's the one that very comfortably got through to Q2 and then to Q3. Lawson did neither. He got through to Q2, but only just. He was then knocked out as pretty much the slowest driver in Q2. So yeah, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's proving himself and he will, as he says, continue to destroy teammates. We're lying, by the way. Yeah.

Great stuff from him. Disappointment for Alpine because, as Gassley showed, their base to walk away with no points from that Grand Prix to have Pierre Gass. I'm not sure what happened when Pierre Gassley's pit stopped, by the way, because he lost a lot of time. He did, but he was still very much in contention before it all went wrong for him. He was just a long way back from where I thought he was going to be. So I don't know if it was...

No, I'm not sure if it's like a slow tire change. Because pit stops look pretty flawless for the whole weekend for most teams today. But, you know, I love the guys I have no power. No, it's just a sector problem. Cut. Pierre Gassie's car has literally got plumes of smoke firing out the background. And then they just don't have any tires available for Ocon. So he just has to keep going through the pit lane, as we've already discussed. I assume he's used to no one working for Alpine.

Oh, that's a fair shot. He's gone, I've got to do it myself. And he's like, wait, you're the one with people there. How does that work? That's pretty out what happened. Yeah. So that really derailed his Grand Prix and gave him no shot of points either. So, yeah, a tough day for Alpine after what was such a great weekend at Brazil last time out.

Yeah, real shame. Should we? Oh, yes, we shall. Shall we take a look at some bold predictions? Go on, mate. What was Harry's bold predictions? prediction. We looked it up at the start of the day and I've already forgotten it. He said that there would be a pass for one of the podium positions on the very last lap of the Grand Prix.

Nah, that had been sewn up a few laps before and I'm afraid, Harry. Oh, fortunately, Harry, and you didn't turn up because you're asleep. So you won't have got the point. Oh, very good point. Yes, you would not have a point anyway. But yes, there was no repeat of last year where there was a pass for the lead on or pass for a podium position on the last lap. Sam. Oh, oh, oh, it's so close.

I feel like, I've harnessed the hocking is what I've done here. You know, I've got you on my back here. I've taken over the curse and it's another near miss for me, which is a real shame. So, yeah,

no show in the top 12, no sour in the top 12. But I gave him worse, drive the day as a bit of banter. He had a valling effort. And it probably was his drive of the season, to be fair. I do think that one other mistake from someone

he's right in there. Yeah, I think they were a bit slow to get that second pit stop in there. If they'd been a couple of laps earlier, maybe that happens. He obviously has to make the pass on Colopinto quite late on. I think the next car up the road was Kevin Magnuson,

but it was a close one where it hasn't been a close one a lot of times this season. No, now, Ben, there is a famous expression about London buses where you don't have one for ages and then two come along at once. once. Now, it's similar because what was your bold prediction?

Uh, my bowl prediction was that there would be a Mercedes in the top two. And there were two Mercedes in the top two, which gives me two points, which means I can still win this thing. No, no, no, no, no, no, back. Calm down. Calm down. And that's the end of the podcast. Thank you very much for listening, folks. Disclaim of Ben Hocking will not return to the podcast. Um, yeah, no, uh, one point, I'm afraid, but you finally got there. You got something right after 22 Grand Prix. In the immortal words of Kimmy Reichenen. Finally.

Would you like a Magnum after that as well? Yeah, I could do with a Magnum. I just wanted to get one right for the season. Yeah, a zero would be a poor form. So well done. Hopefully you can spread your luck a little further for the last couple of races of the season. I just can't believe it's Merck that got me the win.

Well done, Merck. They should put that onto their little tally as wings this season. They can account that as a point to the Constructors' Championship. I reckon so. Yeah, yeah. Wing for Russell in Austria,

Hamilton and Silverstone and Spa. Russell in Vegas. Little one, Ben, Vegas. Like the smallest font. Yeah, little LB logo. Size four, Times New Roman. Oh, no, I don't want Times New Roman.

I'd probably get Times New Roman, wouldn't I? Even if I requested, it's a better font. Helvetica. Go on, Helvetica. We'll take our final break. Fon, Shat. On this episode, we've got a moment of the race coming up after this.

Welcome back, everyone. It's time for Moment of the Race, and we have got some Discord submissions coming up very shortly. Before we get there, though, myself and Sam have handpicked a moment of the race. Sam, what have you got? I'm going for a combining moment with the race, which was a lot of Ferrari radio, but I have enjoyed Charles LeCler telling the race engineer to speak to Carlos Sainz in Spanish. They've done a brilliant job recently on their team radio, has had those drivers,

partnered with the end-of-race rant that has come out from Charlotte Claire about being Mr. Nice guy. He's fuming. He's fuming. You've got big Freddie Vass, Jungle is Vassive over the radio going, Charles, shal, shah, shush, shush, shush, shush, shush, no, no, no, not in public. But I just thought Ferrari are smashing it on the radio.

And George Russell gets a lot of credit for his radio. But Ferrari are making a end-of-season push. Finally, one other one that I just want to have a lot of, bring up was Zach Brown in his most unenthusiastic tone ever

going, go, Lewis, go, which is sublime, sublime stuff from Zach.

Speaking of unenthusiastic team radio, I don't mean this is a slight on anyone in particular. There was a bit

of a depressing part of like the Vastappan winning the fourth title. How, how, Helmer Marco.

Christian Horner comes over team radio. GP comes over team radio. Max responds. I mean, Max was a little bit enthusiastic, but there wasn't a lot of, it was, yeah,

we've done the job. Yeah, as someone who really loves to hear the drivers get ecstatic and shout and scream and really deliver that passion. You've just won your fourth titling a row. Only one of the driver ever has done that. It's a Sebastian Betel.

I'm wanting a bit of, you know the meme where the guy's sick on the podium with the participation medal he's got the big like middle finger up to everyone and he's like champagne celebrating but I wanted that for the Stappen as the winner because he's done an amazing job this season so I was a bit disappointed you know I don't want like you know we don't want fake enthusiastic screaming right I hear enough of that so we we want to you know if you're not that enthusiastic about it then fine but yeah Anyway.

It's excited for the X-I racing race instead. True. My moment of the race, I did nearly give this to Lewis Hamilton being really annoyed at what was a good strategy. It just doesn't understand ties at all. But I will give it to, and I've cheated a bit because it's like three moments of the race, but it all happened within 30 seconds of each other, which was Ocon not being able to pit because his team isn't ready. Lance Stroll pitting and his team isn't ready and then Yuki Sonoda going straight through the speed limit board

All of them by themselves are good But it was like 30 seconds they all happen one after the other What is going on? Yeah, everyone hates the pit lane to go Also my nomination for non-moment of the race was David Croft's story about turning up and being recognised at border control. Like, hello, Crofty.

Also, he's lying about booking a room. There's 200,000 rooms in Las Vegas. And he's just booked himself a room in third place. I thought he might make it a call-down room reference. So I was like, oh, that's an all right line, I suppose. And then, no, third place. Good job. Right.

What have we got from our Discord submit? So we're going to kick off with Big Easy. There's a H at the end of that, folks, just so you're clear. That's why I did that. What have you got to say? Hello, my late breaking lads and lasses. This is Big Easy H. This race, there are several little moments like the camera crew focusing on the stripper

poster for about 10 seconds. The Ferrari signs fake out, but my moment of the race is gathering. Asley saying, hey, I'm losing power. They're like, no, you're not. And he's like, well, yes, I am. Kaboom. Keep breaking late. See, that would be a perfect moment for a cablamo.

And the word cablamo does not get enough love on this show. Very true. Up next, we've got speed lapse. My moment of the race is for Stepan being emotional on the team radio after the race. Beautiful to see. Yes, he was crying his eyes out through the helmet. I can hear it in his voice. By the Stappen standards, I guess it was.

Yeah, I think when he, where did he wing? When he won in Brazil, I think his reaction was more ecstatic than it was when he won the title. Yeah, yeah. Coming up next, oh, you must be struggling here. It's Gier Passley. Qualifying. I really liked the qualifying. No particular reason, but I really did like to qualify.

Can't imagine why. Yeah. Fair enough, Gier Paisley. blink twice if that's you, Pia, Gaisley. Up next is V. Crabb, great name. Good morning, late breakers from Dark and Dinger, Yorkshire. V. Crab here, the unofficial fishmonger of Formula One. Here in Dark and Dinger, Yorkshire.

Just making a brew, Yorkshire tea, of course. My moment of the race would have to be Lewis Hamilton in the car on the way to the interviews at the end of the race. He just had no time for it. He was there playing with the windows, grooming his eyebrows in the mirror, then proceeded to ask, where the hell are we going? He just has no time for it. He's checked out of this season, get him in a Ferrari.

Yeah, Lewis Hamilton in that, what was it, a Rolls Royce? He was just like, yeah, whatever, man. Get me out of here. Look out of the window, blowing his nose. The fact that he blew his nose was, I think, was real something. Yeah, of all things that happen in this Grand Prix, that really leads the way. coming up next is Mr. Samman Hey, lay breaking

Samman here, currently 2.45 on the East Coast and I am dead tired and they have these interviews happening with Terry Cruz in front of a fountain and then they're driving back to the podium which is so, so dumb.

Moment of the race. George Russell just screaming, Vegas at the top of his lungs. Because sure. Why not? That interaction on the radio between Russell and Toto, where Tos was like, George, come to Las Vegas will have a drink. He's like, yeah, I was saying, yeah, he's like, no, I'm staying in Vegas. Toos like, okay, I'll come to Vegas too.

Just like sorting plans over team radio. But we're going out to sky, boys. I loved it. I thought it was great. Nick the Quick Let's know if this is Nick The Quick Man, Max Chastapin

4-time champion Incredible drive Incredible, incredible, incredible moment of the race Just seeing them Emotionally the team GP running back there in the back of the Royals, Royce Also, why do we have like 90 minutes

to do the podium? But anyway, four-time champ, Max Verstaffee. I'll tell you the one thing I did like about the podium, Ben. And that was when George Russell was stood up there, finally on the podium after what felt like another day of racing, the clever little spin that looked like the machine, the fruity machine, and it came up with, you know, his team, his name, his face, and the car number.

I thought it was a nice touch. Very Vegas. I liked it, though. That's a nice way to put Vegas on it. I enjoyed that. I'm all for it. Up next is Daniel Sa. Can I box now?

Hello? Can I box now? Hello. Hello. Icky. Hello. I haven't got it ready. Oh, no.

Hello. We're going to wrap it up with, oh God, I can see where this is going already. George Russell's number one, Fang, Joy. If it wasn't for that stunning, tall glass of milk, I would already be in bed right now. But no, he had to win a night. race where it's 2 a.m. my time when the race finishes. But in reality, I love that he won. It's amazing. Same with Max. Good job at the championship. But actual moment of the race, George in the backseat of that limo. He's huge. And he's sitting next to Lewis Hamilton. It looks so dorky. Also, shout

out Susie Wolf. I really want that jacket. Can someone do a challenge, please? One of those on Twitter where it's like, every time someone likes this post, I'll make George Russell bigger. because make him bigger and bigger and bigger inside the car with Carlos Sites on as Hamilton. Make the car smaller. He's so big in comparison to those guys. We've still got some more submissions, of course, with the last two Grand Prix

coming up very shortly. So Qatar and then Abu Dhabi. We're back to under pressure midweek and then, of course, moment of the race for both of those Grand Prix. Power rankings tomorrow, Sam? Oh, yes. It's going to be a spicy one as well

because there were a lot of movers, a lot of shakers, and we have some really good performances. So let's see what power rankings brings if you're a good little boy or girl over on the Patreon channel. You can find that down in the description below, along with so many other perks, such as a historical grand prix which we're doing soon. We have a belter,

doer breaking this time out, as we did a royal rumble made entirely of characters we have come up with ourselves from our own lives and from history and politics. I've watched it back. Did you laugh as much watching it back as you did this? I did. I laughed a lot at some of the descriptions that Kirstie's put in place. Okay, I'm very keen to go back and watch it. I've got it on my list.

Sentient car, send me. Is that prompt? There you go, folks. There's a little taster of the kind of things that are entering into our Royal Rumble for 2024. It was a real hoot. So go check it out. Obviously, it helps the show massively. So thanks for everyone that does. would you mind I'm just doing it anyway all right cool that's good

Discord's already there you get your submissions in as you can and you can talk to 3,000 other very active Formula 1 lovers social media is available late breaking F1 you can watch this it's been recording on YouTube

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I love beef jerky in the comments and we appreciate the engagement that's it talk to laugh this podcast is actually going forever you don't realize it because it's been negative, but we have been here for four days.

And that's it from us in the meantime. I've been Samuel Sage. And I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.