The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2025 Australian GP Race Review

Episode Date: March 16, 2025

The first race of the season is done and dusted with Norris overcoming Verstappen in testing conditions down under! Ben and Sam are here to review an eventful GP including the fight for the win, Mercedes' strong outing, Ferrari disappointment and multiple crashes throughout the field... Programme Note: We apologise for the slight dip in audio quality this episode as we're not in our usual recording setup. We'll be back to our usual quality next episode! 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 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. Quick programming note before we get going on today's review, you might notice as we go through some of today's episode that not all of the audio is as crystal clear as it usually is. You'll find that this is very much a one-off due to technical difficulties. so we'll be back to normal in our midweek episode.

Hello and a very warm welcome to the Lake Breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking, eventually. We got there. We got there in the end. A slight technical difficulties hitting us here on this very early Sunday morning that we're not complaining about. First review of the season, first race review of the season for the Australian Grand Prix,

a race one from pole by Lando Norris. joined on the podium by Max Verstappen and George Russell, which probably doesn't tell you the whole story, but we got a semi-normal podium on a day that wasn't very normal. It's weird that he's still managing us win it from pole after all the chaos at the start with the crashes, all the going off when the rain came down in about 10-15 laps ago, yet, I know Norris, the constant man.

He did what he didn't really do last year, which just achieve a consistency that meant he was able to hold off the likes of Bostappen, Russell, and the rest of the troop behind. lots to dig into. There is plenty to dig into. Obviously, the return of Discord submissions for the race review. So we're going to be getting into moments of the race much later on.

The old classics are back as well. We'll review our bold predictions from our midweek episode. We'll also give out a driver of the day, worst driver of the day, and get into everything that happened. And again, there's a fair amount to get caught up on here. So let's start out front. Lando Norris had a bit of a job.

like we know that coming out of qualifying McClaren looked pretty good and I think if they had the choice they would have had the conditions today exactly the same as yesterday they were not we pretty much exclusively used

the intermediate tyres and a bit on the dry tyres as well so changing conditions but Landon Norris still able to come out on top I think Land is a very good job there was a lot of pressure on this race you know he had Piazcu right behind him for a long of the race. He had Bostappan right behind him for a long of the race.

And the one person, we saw Lando go off, but that was when the condition suddenly dramatically worsened and he was on the wrong tire. But the people behind him, the chasing pack, you have a staff of DPSCrees, they made the mistakes. Actually, where I have been the kind of person to call out Lando Norris for saying, you need to get these mistakes out of your game, you know, the bad starts, the poor attacking when it comes to the like of the stabbing. He was pretty flawless today, other than that one era that I spoke about where the weather just came down and it was a nightmare for so many drivers. So almost understandable that a mistake was made then.

But for Stapin, who we so readily see crack under pressure, locked up going into the right hand, the start of sector two, end of sector two, sorry, start of sector three, which meant that Piastri got back by. And those who kind of had a bit of a squabble, we heard the kind of interdynamics between McLaren, who were kind of like, well, they can just go and race. But then Piastri got close, it was told to hold,

and then he fell back a bit, so then was told to go race again. And again, it's that silliness that McClaran can bring that they don't seem to have a clear and concise message. But all of this, when the Landon Norris kept his call, kept calm, and he delivered that wing. And he brought home a polter to wing, led every lap other than when the pit lap, that's actually happening, have got passed on crap properly. He dealt with it really, really well.

Yeah, I was very impressed as well, because I think we've seen in the past from Landon Norris that he has phenomenal pace at certain Grand Prix, but isn't then able to take advantage of it, because something happens not relating to his pace. I feel like we had something of the opposite today in that his pace was good, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't outstanding.

We had multiple instances where either Max Verstappen or Oscar Piastri seemed to have a little bit more pace than Lano Nauri. Back in the DRS regularly when it was active, right? Yeah. And which is fine. That happens. You aren't always the fastest guy on track. It's more about what you do with the qualifying,

positions that you put yourself in when you are quick taking advantage of it. And that's kind of what we got from Lando Norris today, which I think to an extent has been missing in the past. So the fact that he was able to soak up the pressure, the fact that he was able to have Bostappen in his DRS very late on, obviously we had, we had Oscar Piazri threatening him earlier on in the race. And in both situations, he was up to the task, which I don't know, for me, that is a good sign for this season.

Yeah, especially the first race of the season that is coming to it. The car is clearly a little bit more dominant than we're expecting it to be, even through practice. Qualifying it was phenomenal. Even in these racing conditions, it looks like it's those two of Vastappen overdriving a car in conditions that suit him. At one point, Vastappen was like, what, 15 seconds back from the Ashton. When they broke out the battle, they were gone. Yeah. And Vastapen wasn't able to follow any further.

So that McLaren is clearly a bit better than the rest of the chasing pack. I think no more, I know what fuel they're running, chit-chat. You've got a good car under, Orlando. You've got to take advantage of it. And to be fair, he did take advantage of it. And he won that Grand Prix. I would be, and I'm sorry, Lando, thanks. I would be very interested to see how Bastapen, Lecler, even Russell,

will have performed that race in that McLaren. I do wonder if the gap would have been bigger earlier on. Yeah, I'm not sure. I don't think this is Lando Norris's greatest race win just based on out and out pace. Like we've seen from him in the past, the likes of Singapore Grand Prix or the Dutch Grand Prix, where he's winning these races by over 20 seconds. I don't think we ever saw that sort of pace from Lando Norris. And he was matched by Oscar Diastri.

And there were times in the race where he was matched by Vastafin as well. But again, I do think that will come in. at certain races, that won't come at certain races, but in the ones where it isn't an immediate advantage, if you're able to defend as well as he did, and that has been a bit of a weakness in the past, then you're on for a good season. This will be the start he wanted.

I think, to be honest, now he's got the faith in the car, now we know the car is good, now he's almost settled those pre-game nerves, so to speak, by getting the pole, getting the wing. I think he can kick on compliment. I can excuse the off that he had in the final sector as well because on a day where it felt like nearly everyone had an incident, if not more, that was one of the lowest key incidents.

Like there were plenty of retirements. Well, you saw what happened to Piastro who made the same mistake. It just kept happening. He ended up last at one point, right? That could have very easily being Landon Norris, if he made one slight further error of going off there or got caught in the grass the wrong way, both of them because I mean stopped reversing trying to get back on track.

And that's a big disaster for McLaren. So he handled the off well. It's a shame he had the off. But like you said, it is somewhat understandable. They were incredibly treacherous conditions. Yeah. And it's not like we can just point at the rookies and say they were the ones that had the issues. I know that they made up a good chunk of them.

We had Bortoletto and Hadjar and Dewan. But, you know, we also had Fernando Alonzo retired today. We had Max Verstaff and make a critical level. Sykes was out. Yes. So we had these experienced names in the sport also making these errors that really hurt their race. So to get away with just that small one going through the gravel, I think he'll be pretty happy with his day's work. What about his teammate?

So qualifying yesterday, less than attempt separated. So even though it was Norris in out front, it wasn't a large gap back to Piastrian second. He didn't get the best start in the world. No. No, he's passed by Max for stuffing in turn one. I think he'll be annoyed at qualified because he even admitted he left something on the table just to get the lap in because he made that mistake the first time round of course. And it meant they didn't have that banker in place so he couldn't push. So the pace was there apparently, according to him that he could have got pole position. So it would be frustrating for him that he wasn't able to get that at his home grand prix.

Start wasn't great. Max Verstappen can have dusted the jupe on him through turn one, gets around the outside, move is done. So he's got to sit behind. But then I think he then recovers really well. and my heart breaks a little bit for Oscar Piascrib because as much as I've said in the other part there that Landon Norris didn't get lucky with his off. He controlled it well and managed to recover. I do think it could have quite easily been the same way for Oscar Piascri where Norris is the one that ends off stuck in the grass having to reverse. And Piascri is the one that's actually able to quickly catch it recover and would have in theory probably gone to win that race. So to see two drivers have almost exactly the same thing on the same corner at the same moment, one week.

the race. One barely makes it back into the points. That's very contrasting and the results in the future when we come back and look at this race will see that they go, oh wow, they were separated by so much. But I think his pace at some point during that Grand Prix, he was the fastest man on track. And I think this is a very positive step for Oscar Piascri. He just needs to have a mistake-free race, whether that be his own fault or not. He just needs one race where he's right at the front for it to just be clean and easy. And that's why it was such a mixed and difficult to, review weekend for Piastri because the encouraging signs were the pace that he had in qualifying. He was very good.

And I've made a point of questioning his record versus Lando Norris in qualifying, particularly last season, where Norris was very comfortable to be the better at the two drivers. And even though he got the advantage here, I've always said like Piastri can perform well in races. And if he trusts that, then if he is one place. behind. He can make that work. The start wasn't great, obviously. But for the rest of the Grand Prix, I do think he had probably the pace to win that. I agree. And it's a weird one. Again, like if you were to say going into this season based on where they were last season,

and you didn't say the results to be, Ashley, you just said, on pure pace, this is what you're going to be versus your teammate. He had gone, yeah, solid. I will take that. That's a really good start of the season. And the fact that he's only coming away with two points versus his teammate getting 25, he's a real, it's a real thing of it. He's immediately got an uphill climb. That's a real, if the car is going to be that dominant, it might end up being a two horse race with the likes of a stab and maybe featuring

in certain races, he's going to do think he was out driving that car still. Then having a 23 gap or point gap already, he's going either Norris mistake or a DNA, you know, bring that back immediately. Yeah. It's difficult to know, again, where to land on optimism versus pessimism, because the optimistic side of it is he was able to display his pace today. And if he's able to do that countless times over during the season, more often than not, it's going to work out for him.

And he might be in a championship fight. The other way to look at it is, if not every race is going to be like this, then you really need to take advantage of the ones that are. And regardless of where you land on whose fault it was. it's a big deficit from a Grand Prix where he had such good pace. What I do commend him on is, one, he didn't get set the car retire,

he didn't get stuck in that grass and just stop. You could tell he was frustrated, understandably, very understandable. But the way he not only got the car out of the grass, he then recovered to the pits, got the right tires on, and fought his way back to at least some point. A lot of drivers will have retired the car to start off with,

or just gone, I've lost my head, I don't really want it, either make another mistake, obviously never got the moves done. We never have made that moves. I mean, we've said before how cut broke, Piuschari is with overtaking. We get the opportunity, and you saw that.

The move on Lewis Hamilton, around the outside. Yeah, that was sensational. You know, naughty move. Good ones leading up to that as well. They were. That was one of the best of the bunch, but he really cut his way through the back of the pack.

And we know that McLaren is the fastest, but he was going through some semi-difical cars. He was on the brink of the points. He had the Alpine there, he had the Ferrari. You know, there was a few others that he had to get past as well. So he did well to recover through the fact he did manage to pick up, you know, a couple of points.

I think it shows his character and that determination to go, I'm getting back on it. I'm doing it. I'm going to make this up. So fair play to him. I think a lot of others would let their head drop. Let's move on to Max Verstappen because there were question marks from himself going into this race about where they would be. It wasn't a smooth test that they had in Bahrain in the preseason.

He wasn't necessarily bigging up where Red Bull would be. qualifying was in terms of position good, but also in terms of pace back to McClara, not so good. And then he's able to somewhat use the wet weather conditions to be a factor in this race and finish second on the podium. How does he reflect on this weekend? I think apart from the lockup that we saw, very uncharacteristic lockup from Max and Stappen that let Piascriy through at the time, I think he could pat himself on the back. And I think he did a pretty solid job in that car because I actually agree with Max

that the car isn't there. The car is not outright on pace terms there to challenge with McLaren. He got the best start out of the front three and I think I commented to you in when we're watching the race. If you go to China or a Spain or, you know, a Vegas or something like that, you know, yeah. I think there's a chance he leads into turn one.

But they got lucky because Australia is such a short run and it's such an awkward, you know, kind of right left for turn one that you can't really do a side-by-side moment or anything you've got to commit. He backed out at the right point. We saw that sensible side to max that went, it's not time to make or break. It's not time to throw it away

for trying to get a wheeling down the inside or something like that. I also think that helped him get P2. I do. The way in which he cut back on Piastri was impressive. Piazsche went, I've got to recover, doving a bit too deep.

And he very cleverly went, right, I'll just come around you're outside. And, you know, it worked out for him. He was always fighting an uphill battle. We always had one hand tied behind his back. It was the classic. We used to see it with Mercedes, where he was the only guy at front. They'd have Hamilton and Bottas.

It'll be Hamilton and Bottas versus Vastappan. He would have to try something. And here we had Norris and Piastrian against Vastappan. And the fact that he still comes out in the second place, I have to give it to him. The guy knows how to pull a result out of a car that I don't think he's currently top dog. I think he's doing a really good job. Yeah, I agree. I wasn't sure what to expect from Vastan and the team going into this week.

end, but I think they've exceeded what I thought they were going to do, particularly in terms of just the result, but also in terms of pace a little bit as well. Yeah, it does somewhat harken back to the days of Mercedes versus Vastappen. We have got to a point at the beginning of this season where it looks like McLaren have a considerable advantage on the field, at which point, if you're Vastappen, the only thing you can do is take advantage of any of the make a mistake in the case of Piastri he did. And then really just beat everyone else. And he did that as well.

He wasn't really challenged by George Russell. He wasn't obviously challenged by his teammate. The Ferrari drivers were a long way back. And that's kind of what you need to do because if things turn around and in the middle of the season or third of the way through the season, maybe even like two thirds through the season, if things turn around and that Red Bull suddenly. suddenly gain, regains the initiative and they're the fastest car, he's going to be so thankful for results like today. The only losing out, only losing out seven points to Lando Norris.

Like, that will be as good as a win when he looked back at it if he, if he does end up in a slightly better car than what he has now. It's what we always used to comment Lewis Hamilton will be doing. If you're going to win in the race, your second play, right? You're doing the absolute best you can. You're having these races where you're suddenly wing, wing, wing, wing, wing, fifth or six. It's always, if I'm not winning, I'm the next best guy. And he's proving it again that he was the next best guy today. The consistency reigns true.

There was some frustration between himself and the team when it came to strategy, what they were to do with the top ears. And that's new for Red Bull. Usually they're very on the front foot, cut throat with their decisions. We're going to do this. We're going to try this. And most of the time it works, it really pays off. You heard Max, I think, a couple of times over the radio,

what ties am I going on to? When am I stopping? We need to make a choice now. I need to know. It felt like there was a little bit of uncertainty from the Red Bull Pitwall. And what they've lost some key personnel recently, and I wonder if that may be reflecting in that cut. But it was also a very tricky condition.

So there could just be they don't want to get it wrong. Yeah. They definitely went a lap late on the last tire switch because he was bleeding a lot of laps time to Lando Norris. on what would have been Norris's outlap. Again, it's easy to say in hindsight, but I felt like McLaren won that particular individual battle. Let's take our first break on this episode.

On the other side, we've got plenty more chat from the Australian Grand Prix. Welcome back, everyone, to the second part of today's review of the Australian Grand Prix. Should we move on to, I'm sure they won't be happy for us to do this, but shall we move on to Ferrari? Oh, Ferrari. What are you doing? So they didn't have a great qualifying session. They were towards the back end of the top 10.

They locked out the fourth row of the grid, seventh and eight. And ultimately, again, it doesn't tell the whole story, but they didn't really make any progress on that. They did momentarily. Yeah. A very, very brief momentarily. It looks like they lucked into it somehow when that weather came down. We'll get on to this in a moment.

But it's hilarious how it. Ferrari can be so low and then so high and then so low almost immediately. Yeah. They managed to take advantage of the safety car and lose out. That's a new one. So Ferrari. Let's rewind then. Let's go back to the start.

So LeCler gets a good start, right? He gets away from the likes of Albon gets past him. Sengolia is behind him as well. And you saw with the difference between. between Leclair and Hamilton. Hamilton definitely had the race pace over Albaugh and Sanooga. If the track was widening off, if the DRS is were bigger, if it's a dry race,

you would think that Hamilton would quite comfortably get through those two and would be sat in that gap behind Russell and Lecler. And you know what, for a first race for Hamilton at Ferrari? Solid, no problem. But Lecler did a great job of getting off that start. And he's kind of in no man's lang for a while. He tried to sit with Russell, couldn't sit with Russell. He's that worrying that Ferrari couldn't keep up with Mercedes.

We know they like the damp, the wet, the cooler conditions, but you think they'd be there and they're just seemingly a not. Yeah, it was an odd one because they were such a disappointment in qualifying in dry conditions and they were a long way off the McLaren duo who were at the front. And I think we were looking at that, asking the question, are they preparing for Sunday? Are they preparing for wet weather conditions? Do they have a specific setup that's going to see them be much more?

competitive on the Sunday versus the Saturday. And ultimately, not really. It's difficult to tell pure pace we're in those conditions. And a lot of it does come down to strategy and being in the right place at the right time. But yet, despite the good start from Charles LeClair, it never looked like either of those two drivers was going to really impact the top of, even like the top four or five, let alone. let alone first or second place. And you're right, they did almost luck into something.

And then ultimately they did whatever the opposite of that is. And, you know, Lewis Hamilton was overtaken for the 10th place on the last lab. Do you remember a few years ago he finished, I think 10th? It might have been the, maybe it was the German Grand Prix 2019. Yeah. And he was like, he genuinely had to ask, Do they even get points for this low down? Yeah.

And he's finished 10th today. Because it's fairly, I don't know. It's fairly standard for him, even in his worst Mercedes days, to be six, seven place. Temp, that's not normal Lewis Hamilton. No, and you can hear his frustration over the team radio where he openly said, I think Ferrari are getting earful more often than not. Because whilst Carlos Sykes is one entity, he did a fantastic job well at Ferrari. And Ferrari rightly loved Carlos.

science. Lewis Hamilton is a different beast. And he's going to tell you if it don't go a plan and he did that numerous times over the radio today. And these are the teething issues that we expected to have with big driver, big team coming together, working together. Are they going to work and jealous one? Yes and no is the answer. Ferrari was still doing Ferrari things. You know, oh my cockpit is leaking. It's full of water. I think it could be water. What do you think is it the water you know like it's really fantastic to have that level of commentary from highly trained engineers good job Ferrari but then you've got lewis hamilton who's like where am i slow turns a level and 12 okay can you stop talking to me because all you're doing is talking to me

please and the and the poor engineer is going just press k1 for practice just give it a go close enough i know how i can press a button on my steering wheel i've done this a long time and those are not going to create an environment that gets the best out of your driver. If you're being annoyed by something in your ear, the whole time yapping away at you while you're trying to, one driving tricky conditions, but do it quickly and execute a lot of pace and catch back up to your team, mate. You want to make a good impression because it's your first time out. That's not going to be helpful.

So they've got to work on that relationship management side of things and that will make a big difference. The way that they got the safety car timed perfectly for them, the leaders have gone round and past the entrance of the safety as in the pit lane. Ferrari, both drivers, well, Hamilton especially, able to get in, somehow doesn't pay off for them because they stay

out when the weather is shocking and then have to come in later. And double stack was good as well. Yeah. They sorted that at the right time. But it's amazing that they called the tyres at the wrong time and then they ended up being in ninth and tenth at one point, Hamilton was leading the Grand Prix.

Yeah, I think they can have easily picked up maybe third or fourth today at worst, maybe fourth and fifth, you look where Albon managed to be, right? Hamilton was fighting with Albon that whole time. And look where he met. Kimmy Antigelli was outside the points, the entire race.

Look where he managed to end up being. If those two drivers are able to do that, Leclair and Hamilton with all their experience with Ferrari behind them, they should have been in that conversation and they have missed out on at least at worst a fifth and sixth, but I think it could have been higher. When we've discussed Lewis Hamilton's early career at Ferrari, A lot of it, a lot of the questions were about his pace and how long he'd need to adjust and get on the pace of Charles LeClerc. But there were also questions about how it would work with these, with the team communications. And it's a different, not only is it a different race engineer, you have to remember how long he's been with Pete Bonington. So to have a new race engineer in itself was going to be a big transition. But it's, it's really wider than that. It's the whole. It's the whole.

whole team the way Ferrari communicates versus how Mercedes would have done it. And there's no way to say, which is the right or wrong way, but it's different. Well, one has won multiple world titles recently and one hasn't. Yeah, I was trying to be fair. But like, that's not say whatever Ferrari are cooking up can't work. It's just there was always going to be a difference between the way in which Mercedes operates and Ferrari operates. And I'm not surprised that in this first race, we did have instances of Hamilton not liking the way in which business was being conducted. And I would hope that Big Freddie Vass, with all that we know about him, he is going to facilitate a conversation after this race and say, okay, first time out, let's discuss what went well and what

didn't, because there inevitably will be a bit of both. But you're right, Lewis Hamilton with the experience that he's got and the race-winning pedigree that he's got, he can't be in a position where he's got someone yapping in his ear unnecessary. Telling him to practice pressing a button. Like, you're having a laugh. Like, so condescending from all F1 drivers, let alone. You better go.

Go on, mate. Press that. Hold it down just for fun. What did you think about the pace difference between Lewis and Leclair on Lewis's first day out? About what I thought it would be. Yeah. Which is excusable for, it's similar to qualifying, really.

I felt it would be something like this just based on how good of a driver, Charles LeClair is. He is very good at the F one. He is. And it wasn't one of his best days. And he had a spin that very nearly cost him his race and nearly collected someone else. And he somewhat recovered from that. But his qualifying pace yesterday, he had a few tempts on Hamilton.

And it kind of felt the same today. What Hamilton needs to work out is, how, whether it takes five races or however many races, he needs to work out what that gap is now and how he ultimately not only gets rid of that, but then develops an advantage himself. That's what he'll be looking to do. Whether he can do it or not is another question.

But I think it was on a par with what I thought it was going to be. Yeah, I think it was one of those races where if luck was on your side, obviously, LeClau had the spin. At that point, Hamilton gets in front of Charles LeClair. if the race at that point was completely steady and we saw no more drama whatsoever I think Lewis Hamilton would have probably kept Charler LeCler behind him for the rest of the Grand Prix

I think it was close enough in gap that the lack of the RS or whatever the type of track that were at means that the overtake probably wasn't going to be on and they were of stadium formation and you saw that right when the safety car restarts happen Lecler and Hamilton very close together Lecler gave him an interesting welcome

when they went side by side and fair play you know you get your shoulders out You've got to remember that Leclair is Mr. Ferrari, but Hamilton is Mr. Formula One. You've got to assert your dominance. Now's the time to do it. And Lecler has already been through this with Sabatian Betel, who, of course, was a big love for Ferrari as well. And he's had to go through that relationship. So he's not going to get kicked off the moment Lewis Hamilton walks in the room.

So I think it was fine. I think they were close enough that Hamilton could go, okay, my first time out, you never tried this before, new experience. It's a good starting platform. It's a good base point to jump from. like you said, he is going to need to find that little bit extra to make sure that if race-winging pace becomes available in that car, he is actually there to compete for race-wings and Accler isn't just ranging off into the distance. But really tricky to show what that true pace probably looks like across the season.

A track like Albert part with the weather conditions that we had. Yeah, indeed. Alex Albin for Williams. He did all right, do you? He did fine. We're not used to seeing Williams that high up. I was trying to think of the last time they were in a position as good as that. Spa, where we digger, have a race.

I was then thinking an actual proper race. It's been a while since we've had Williams as high as fourth, not far off the podium whatsoever. Finished fifth on track, but Antonelli had a five second penalty for an unsafe release. But even if it finished fifth, that is a mighty good day in a lead up to a season where there have been questions about, how would he fair versus a very good experienced driver in Carlos Seines. He shuts people up today. He shut a lot of people up, including us, to be fair. And his little face when he took his crash helmet off at the end of the Grand Prix,

right proper grin on his face. And it was really nice to see because Alex Albaughan is being around a long time. He's stuck with Williams through a lot of the crap, a lot of crap teammates. And he is now finally, if the season, if this carries on as the form of the season, he might start to actually reap some benefit from this. There may be a podium on the cards. You know, it might be regular points fighting. We had two Williams qualifying in Q3 for the first time.

God knows how long. This is a real good step forward for Williams. I hope it doesn't hinder their 2026 progress moving forward. And I hope that actually it's just an additional benefit. The upgrades, they're trialing for 26, applied to the current car, and they're seeing good benefit. That will be great. but he held himself fantastically well

and I think he was pretty much other than Lewis Hamilton in the top 10 the only person to not have a single mistake in terms of going off the track you know run off or into the gravel or you know I'm not saying Hamilton had a good race we've just discussed that whereas album did album held off Hamilton lap after lap after lap

he was right behind Singoda for ages they were relatively keeping up with a clear for a little bit until that started to drop off and it's understandable so but the way that Albon mitigated the crisis that went on science is in the wall at this point the Clare springs in front of Albon he gets round that cleanly

he handles it all brilliantly so much calmness so much composure he has got out of that car and everyone that went including us I think science is going on this come the end of the year it's going to be you know Albin's good we'll see how good it actually

is because Franco Colopinto and make us all think otherwise he's put his stamp on that team and he's taking a really really good job I think he'll be quietly very smart about how that race is unfolded. And he deserves to be. That was an excellent performance.

And there were so many things from this weekend that will give himself and the team reason to be optimistic moving forward. Because yes, we had a wet weather race today and there were things that happened that wouldn't happen in a standard race. But he qualified sick von Merritt. Like he didn't luck in there. I know Ferrari underperform. I know we had Ansonelli out in Q1 and Lawson out in Q1, but Albin, you know, it's not like drivers didn't get their laps in or anything like that. It's not like we had a few drivers in Q3, get done for track limits or anything like that.

He was there on merit. And the fact that he was then able to take advantage of that great starting spot by, again, showing the composure that he needed to in a race like today, it was really impressive. we've already listed off the number of drivers that did have spins and retired and made errors and what Alex Albin needed more than anything was to avoid those and he did that so I was very impressed by him it was the defence for me that stood out Lewis Hamilton is you know that's a tough guy to go up against even if he's using a new environment and having to find out new things and there was one moment where Lewis had a real go at it they

were wheel to wheel going into the heavy braking zone right hand and right after the far chican in the middle sector. And they were wheel to wheel. And Album was going around the outside, I believe, and managed to really hold on, got the traction planted brilliantly, didn't crumble under pressure, didn't lock up or run into the gravel,

let Hamilton through. Because I think the moment he would have let Hamilton through, I do think that overall that would have been game over. You saw how Lecler got down the road. I'm sure Lewis Hamilton would have been able to replicate something of a similar gap over time. But because of his defense, he holds on to that.

And that sets him up brilliantly for the rest of the Grand Prix. means he's in a great place for any pit structures that come up or safety cars that came out, which many did. And then it meant, of course, with the penalty to Kimi Antingelli due to an unsafe release, he picks up fourth place. A sensational result. I'm sure James Vowles, despite having one car in the wall, you saw the poor engine his face when that happened.

Flashbacks, bless him, I'm sure he's ecstatic that they are in with a proper hunt for points. And they're not back there with Haas, who they were fighting with last year, who were on the back row of the grid, and they've got no pace to play with. shall we review our bold predictions from our preview episode midweek? You know, a lot changes season to season.

This doesn't. Yeah, a lot changes, but not this. We each gave our bold predictions. Obviously, Harry can't be here today. So even if he was right, he wouldn't be able to pick up the point because he demands the rules. He made sure he was wrong anyway. So he went with Carlos Sines podium. Yeah, funny how Alex Albon was for.

So even if there was a Williams podium, he still would have been wrong. Ben, what was yours again, though? I'm feeling great. I said Williams would be in the top six. I think you're a bit more specific than Williams in the top six? Atlassian Williams? No, no, no, I think it was driver-specific. Oh. I think I meant Alex Alvin.

I might have said Carlos signs. I meant Alvin. Right. Is that because you've seen him on the social media too much? You've gone there's just one driver. Yeah, I'll be real. I forgot Alex Albin existed based on the social media. It's a joke, everyone.

a joke. Yeah. So I was painfully, apparently some things again, don't change. I'm still managing to get things slightly wrong and not completely wrong. I just picked the wrong driver.

Yeah. I was a little bit smug actually because I thought, oh no, I've had a bad fantasy week. We'll get onto that midweek and we do our fantasy review. I've had a bad bold prediction

because I picked Oscar Piastri to break the Aussie curse into wing. And I thought for a while... I mean, your bold prediction was for any Aussie to win. That's true. Jack doing, make sure

I can put that to be on that two. Yeah, you, you managed to get a DNF and a ninth.

It's good for me, solid, I reckon. Better than a 17th in a DNF. I'm sure. Yeah, I mean,

there's points in. But at least the 17th in the DF and F is funny. Nineth in the DNF, that's just sad. Just sad.

Yeah, Piastri, if you were watching the race, you'll see he didn't wing. And also, boyed my hopes

because I thought he might actually have a chance at one point. No, no, the bowl prediction must be wrong. The bowl prediction must be wrong.

That is the motto of the late-breaking F-1 podcast. Shall we take our second break on this episode? On the other side, we've got some more chat from the Aussie GP. Welcome back, everyone. In very late-breaking style, no surprise whatsoever. We've just recorded, just recorded the segment about Alex Albin and his great run to P-4, apart from it's not P-4 now. Just seen between the two breaks that Kimi Antonelli has had his penalty rescinded that initially

dropped him from fourth down to fifth. So he is now fourth again, meaning Mercedes lead the Constructors Championship. Yeah, ending up somehow with a three, four. How on earth, they manage that? It's so Mercedes. You know how so Ferrari is somehow they'll end up converting like a two four into a 1011 or something like that? Mercedes are really good at converting like a 517.

into a 3-4, you kind of scratch your head at the end and go, how did he end up there? I don't really understand how that's happened. But Georgie Russ with his anguingly chiseled face and fantastic hair despite driving around for two hours. And Kimmy Antigelli, the boy, Wanda.

I'm not convinced he was in the race. No. He looked like he'd gotten out of bed, and that was it. He was so anonymous. Yeah. I don't remember. He barely saw him all day,

which, to be fair, in a race like this is probably a good thing. I think you weren't being. I reckon they went too much. We can't really see what happened. Just give George third. I think that. It's very Austria of last year when...

We had no idea. Yeah, we had no idea what was going to. I forget that he won this race last year. Right, yeah, yeah. Just loves chaos that Australia is good. He did well, though. He did very well. He was just calm.

This is what George Russell does, like how starting to do really... He's got that raw pace. But because of the car, so regularly, he can't really demonstrate it on the top of the playing field. He's always got the Inorris, if he asked me if a staff in front of him, So he has to mop up. But the fact that he was so clear of McLare and everyone else around him and he was

sat in this pocket of fourth place all on his own. And then once again, we saw it in Austria last year. He's just in the right place at the right time to benefit from a bit of a shocker from someone else. And Piaastri, of course, was unfortunate enough to have said shocker at the Australian Grand Prix. And Russell picked up another podium. Good job from him. Yeah.

It was very much a case of not really being able to challenge anyone in front of him. and also not being challenged by anyone behind him. And that's not the worst thing in the world when you're fighting as high as George Russell was for most of this Grand Prix. He's come up with some comments this weekend about McLaren and he's pretty pessimistic about McLaren and saying that they might as well stop 2025 development

because they've got such an advantage and they can fully focus on 2026. And maybe that's too doom and gloom depends on your opinion. But I think at least with George, Russell, even if that is the case, he showed today that he'll want to be battling Vastappen for who can be best of the rest. And things might change.

Again, it's similar to the Vastappan discussion we had earlier. George Russell will be thankful for results like this if it turns out that McLaren fall back a bit or Mercedes pick up some pace or whatever could happen in the championship that hasn't happened yet. So I was impressed by his performance, avoided mistakes. and ultimately kept a calm head. It worked for them. I would consider Albert Park at the moment

to be a bit of an outlier. I don't think many races will be the same way as this. We're going to a lot hotter places. You saw the weather if you were watching that race. It was damp. It was a bit breezy. And what do we say about Mercedes?

They do well in cooler, wetter conditions. We've seen that time and time again that they tend to thrive. So I would be shocked if that Mercedes pace continues when we start to go to the really hotter climates around the season. but George Russell did what he needed to do in that right place and who also did what they needed to do

despite having a bit of a shocker in qualifying was Kimi Antingelling. Yeah, so knocked out in Q1, had a lot of work to do in the race, had more work to do when he had to overtake Holkenberg at least 96 times. But eventually got that done. And all of a sudden,

I don't remember the lap exactly, but I think just after all of the stops, we kind of just looked up at the timing tower We did. How? He's secondly in fifth. Yeah. It felt like he got there. I know he overtook Holgerberg.

And I don't mean this as an insult at all, by the way. It's not like he overtook 15 cars to get there. No, no. He took advantage of everyone else. He massively benefited from the poor weather. We saw all the spings that started to happen. We saw maybe the not right or incorrect tire calls where people going a lap late or the wrong call.

I just think Mercedes got it right. Actually, so often we criticise Mercedes historically for being on the back foot, slow, indecisive and what they want to do. And regularly it costs them. Yet today, they were calm, they were quiet. You barely heard from Mercedes unless it was Kimi Antigelli driving at the speed of light, spinning off when he overtakes someone and having to do it all again. The man only knows speed. He doesn't understand slowness. Doesn't exist.

Doesn't exist in his vocabulary. He doesn't know what the left pedal does. He thinks it's just going to get a footrest for him. but he did a great job at getting through the traffic in the early yes he benefited from people crashing out in front of him but he could have been crashing out right and you saw how easy it was Van de Alonso did it

and that tells you that it was treacherous out there if someone as good as science as good as Alonso were just dropping the car on their own it was tough but he made one mistake after he got past Holkenberg so then he immediately got past Holkenberg again and then he got past Alonso he starts attacking the likes of Gasly

and you think the kick's got some real here. That Mercedes is not the fastest car on trap, but he's really starting to move his way through. And then the safety cars and the weather starts rolling in, is in the right place at the right time. He has a great job right at the end of the race. He moves a couple more positions. And now he's having his penalty rescinding. So he finishes right

behind George Russell, who as much as George Russell can be very happy with what he's done, there's no position separating you and your godchild teammate. A slight correction to what I said earlier, by the way. I said that Mercedes were leading the Constructed Championship. It's a tie for first.

between themselves and McLaren. And I think officially McLaren will be first based on Countback. Yeah, Norris taking the win. But the fact that they are tied at the top on 27 is pretty good going

for a race where one of their drivers was knocked out in Q1. And again, Antonelli, this was his first ever race, let's not forget. I think he became the second youngest point scorer in, or second youngest point score on debut in F1 history.

Of all time, yeah? Yeah, it's only Max for Staffen, who was younger. So the fact that he was able to in very tricky conditions, first time out perform as he did, where many other rookies did not bear as well, he deserves a lot of credit for that. He was compared to the other Kimmy that we know and love,

Kimmy Rykinen, because in his debut, I think he went from P15 to P5, I think it was, all the way back in the Salba a long, long time ago. And of course, Kimmy Antigelli today goes from P17 to P4, an amazing recovery. I genuinely don't think that on most days, the likes of your Lecler's, your Hamilton's will have pulled that off if the car wasn't there for them.

And he really, really made it work. He is a flying in the seat of his pants kind of driver. You look on board all the time. They have that bloody gyro cam, which I love. But they put it on Kimmy Antingelli's car to look like he's in some kind of fighter jet. He might be. He might be.

World's smallest fighter jet pilot. He's great to watch. He's very entourage. entertaining. We have a lot of fun looking at him for the next few years while he's in this sport. Sonoda, he almost did the opposite. So whereas Antonelli was outside the points and had to make his way back in, Sonoda was for a large part of this Grand Prix taking advantage of his fifth place in qualifying yesterday, but ultimately finishes outside of the points seem to follow the Ferrari strategy. Yeah, but worse. The fact that he got a lot of,

off well. I only let Lecler through at the start, which I think is very admirable. I think he's a really good job. The gap between him and Albon was pretty much never inside the DRS zone. So it shows you that to hold his pace in these conditions, very tricky again, as mentioned, was really solid. He was really holding on. He was really up there with the Williams, who I think has got a faster car overall, clearly able to stay in front of the likes of the Alpine, which is a couple of places back and Gassi behind Hamilton. And I think he was punching above his weight. I think he was out driving that car. So when it comes around to being set back to outside the points,

probably for an issue that wasn't really his own doing, swept up again in the drama, unable to take advantage of the tire changes, poor calls from the team. It's a real shame because someone like Yuki, because I've done with a big whack of 10 points at the start of the season, to separate himself from the rest of this midfield pack where he's trying to prove what he's able to do.

And now the record books are going to show he's got no points, and he didn't take anything away despite a brilliant qualifying, actually, for the first 85% of the race, a really solid performance from him. This sucks for him because he deserved points this weekend and you're right, the record books will show nothing. And there will be some and you can argue important people within his career who will remember the context of this race, but there are many that won't. And you'll see 12th place Australian Grand Prix and go, didn't have a great day. Wasn't a good time for him. No.

When in reality, it's not like he was scoring a lot of points last season and a lot of that was down to the car. There was a real opportunity to get into like double figures straight away, which would have been a really welcome result. And in that car that we don't know is going to be particularly quick this season. That remains to be seen. Having like a 10 point advantage on your teammate or eight points, that would have been very difficult to catch that back up.

So I feel bad for Yuki that he's come away with nothing today. Yeah, really sad. And a lot of teams score points ago. So the fact that racing balls haven't, I think it's them. I think it's harsh. And is that it? Oh, and Alpin.

Yeah, Alphe managed to score no points. There is a name that I've missed from that list that's usually in that list. It's that green one that's at the back. No, because that green one's not at the back. Why do they finish, Ben? Do you mean the upper midfield car of Salba? What's going on? What's happening?

Yeah. Sorry, Ferrari. Nico Holkenberg's here. He's the leading Ferrari power unit driver now. It is pretty funny that Holkenberg gets six points on his first race for Salba. I don't know how many races you have to go back for like Alfa Romeo to match that. That's pretty good going. Again, you take advantage of the condition.

because they weren't anywhere near the points for the whole Grand Prix. And, you know, it swings around around. You see what happened to Ferrari, or have the Senoda, but then you also have the Antingellis and your Holkenbergs where if you play your cards right, you put yourself in the right position, you're aware of your surroundings.

You can really make up a lot. And you never know that might be the last point scoring opportunity they have for the whole season. It might be the likes of them and now possibly hars at the back of that grid. And if it's a solid grid for the rest of the other 23 races and we don't get any absolute disasters like we had today, they may never feature that high up again. That six points wherever it was he picked up

could be the points that is done for the rest of the season. So he is proven once again why signing someone like Holgerberg so experienced, so consistent, so good in conditions like this, he's made it work and he's brought home to bacon for the thing. Yeah. Mad respect to you, Nika Holkenberg.

I don't usually pull out a mad respect on the podcast, but you get one for what you were able to do today. We saw quite a few DNFs just to cover off a few of those, particularly amongst the rookies. So Isaac Hadjar on the formation lap, Jack Dewan didn't last much longer. Portoletto did last much longer, but he was... Hang out in style. You know what?

He didn't... He wasn't falling. He wasn't falling in style. It wasn't flying. He was falling in style. Yeah, yeah. Get that the right way around. What did you make of that?

I mean, it was a tricky race for these guys to have their first Grand Prix, I'd do in second Grand Prix ever. Yeah, I mean, I felt sorry for Haja. You know, I was gutted. You know what? I sounds awful because we shouldn't have been watching, but I am glad we saw the emotion

because that tells me how passionate he is for this. And we, I comment on this a lot, especially when drivers win, you don't hear that raw emotion anymore. I cast my mind back to when, ghastly one for the first time, you know,

when McClure one for the first time. What did we just do? You hear that scream over the radio. And I love it. I love nothing more than hearing. and then realize their dream. And Hajar, who's a dream, of course, it is to driving Formula One

and Lewis Hamilton was his hero. You know, the fact that he's now walking off without completing a single competitive lap on his first race, and his hero's father is having to console him, because he's crying his eyes out. I just hope this really motivates him even further to come back in China and

smash it. Be right out there with Yuki, deliver a great performance. He has got something. We comment how good his qualifying is. I'm not worried. I'm not. This was a tricky one. I'm not worried. And the same with doing. I was really gutting for doing because I think he looked promising and qualifying. I think he drove better than I expected. So to see that the car was definitely on that cusp of points area and I think that he could, if he had a good Grand Prix, get back to where Gassley was. It's a real shame that he dropped it. It was on those

white lines. It was where the gears were shifting up. The same thing happened to science. It's not a good error to make. It is on you as the driver. But also it's so tough to save something like that. I will reserve judgment for all of them because because yeah, that's really tough to have that as your first ever race. And I think in all instances, they showed something. More often in qualifying than in the race,

but they showed that they have something about them. And, you know, I will be more judgmental when we get to China and future races with the belief that it's not going to be these conditions every single time. So, yeah, I'm not going to go, I'm not going to go down too hard on these guys

for what they did today. Orsela looked good. Yeah. He seems to have fit in pretty... Very quickly. comfortably, yeah. If you had told me, hang on the formula line

any of those days, you go pick out the rookies, I wouldn't know that he was a rookie. It was really strong. So I think Salba, becoming Audi, got a solid pair in there for a couple years.

Who was your driver of the day? Alex Alba, mate. I only finished fifth. I only finished fifth. Sorry. No mistakes. incredible defence against Lewis Hamilton out of all people. Managed the conditions brilliantly.

The team and him called the timing to get the tyres on at the right point. Initially he picked up fourth due to the fact that he was right behind Kimmy and Dengeli and they got the penalty put in place. Holds off, I know it sounds silly, but holds off the Assymarth of Strohl. Holkerberg can't get near him. He's delivered brilliantly when his teammate was in the wall. I can't really fault him here today. I don't really know what more he could have done.

Yeah, Bobby and paste. I think he was the driver of the day as well. I mean, we've already discussed it in a topic. You've just said that there. I haven't got much to add. He just did everything he needed to do and much, much more on top of that. So he's my driver at the day. Yeah, good.

Worst driver of the day. Liam Lawson. Not a great one. Oh, we just spoke about all those rookies and how positive they were. And yet this guy is obviously class as a rookie and I can agree with that. But he has done the most driving out of all of those kicks. And he was by far the, worst on the track when it comes to this.

He was sandwiched between the Salbers and the hearse, making no progress, spun a number of times, puts it in the wall on his own, lapped by his teammate and everyone else, just couldn't get to grips with the car. This is,

what I said, there were a couple of performances last year where he looked out of place and he was struggling, but his attitude and the way he kind of picks himself back up and delivers another race, I got what he got the opportunity.

This needs to be the one off. This needs to be the one off. This needs to be the outlier. I know it was tough out there, but where all the other rookies, yeah, okay, they made mistakes,

but Porceletto, especially, Kimi Antingelli, and these are the people he should be looking at as competition. They're thriving. He was absolutely diving.

It was a really bad weekend for Liam Lawson. I'm struggling not to agree. I know there were a lot of errors that happened, and maybe you want to pick out Hajar because he's the first one that made an error and didn't even make it to the grid. Along so with his experience, putting it in a wall like that.

Also valid. Sorry, can we also just mention that Lance Stroll was there today? Got P6, you know? Oh, an earthly man, again. I don't remember seeing it. What bizarre race with this had. Yeah, well done, Lars. Yeah, you can give it to Alons.

I do think I have to give it to Lawson as well, though. Like, there were multiple, and I know we're rating on the race and not the weekend, but the whole weekend has been really scrappy. I know it's his first race in the Red Bull. He has had a dozen races, so it's not quite the same situation as the other rookies. And he, it was kind of just one of those where it didn't look like it was going to go well

from first practice. And it never picked up. No. I don't want a hark on about it. I think Red Bull need to look at how these cars are balanced between the two drivers. I know that my own best happens that guy, and rightly so.

But I just think it's a nightmare for everyone else to drive that car. I don't really blame him. how difficult he's struggling with it because we're seeing it time and time again, but they need to try something to make a difference. And big brain shift. It's got to be Ferrari, isn't it? Yeah, they use their big brains, all right. They're big brains that don't exist because, honestly, the way that you lucked into that

strategy, you got the perfect moment to come in, and then you stayed out and they didn't put the right tires on, well, you put the right tires on, but too late, how you threw away what could definitely have been a three, four, or at least a four or five to end up picking up, what, four points of the team, five points as a team, it's not good enough, Ferrari, that's not good enough. So comfortably, Ferrari, big brain, threat. Yes, again, that feels like the obvious answer. Maybe I'll give it to Hass because they were...

Oh, the interns under the safety car. Yeah, I kind of respect it because I think they were at that point in the race where they knew that at least this weekend, maybe more than just this weekend, they didn't have the pace to contend whatsoever. And I think they just got to a point of, we might as well give something a go. And I respect that mentality.

Sure. I'll respect that. And it just didn't work. It almost did. They just didn't commit to belonging up. We've got an idea. We've got an idea. Oh, it's not working.

We'll bail it. And then the rain comes. And they will be on the right bloody tire. Yeah. Never mind, day. Shall we take our final break on this episode? On the other side, we've got Moment of the Race. Welcome back to the final part of today's episode.

And we now head into Moment of the Race. Now, we have got Discord submissions very shortly coming up. But before we get there, we've got our own submissions. So what was your moment of the race? I'd like to give it to Ferrari generally. And it is between two radio messages. Good job, Ferrari. You've brought it back quick and you're already in contention for the...

Ferrari moment of the year. Early. Go getting early. Getting in early. I am torn between the Claire's suit filling up with water, seemingly his drink fails, and then asking, what is it? And him going, well, I'll have it in the water then, which is just sensational comedy. And Lecler winding it off by going, I'll have that into the book of wise words.

But I think actually I'm going to give it to Hamilton and his engineer Adami, who being told as a tutorial to try pressing a button is to a fully grown man who has won seven world titles. He's just exceptional behaviour from anyone. That's like me telling you, Ben, just press record button on the podcast. You can do it. Press record. Record. I'm glad you got the reference.

Yes. It is, oh, it's sensational. That is a real crem della crem moment for Ferrari. So that, for me, that takes it. I think that is very fair. And both Ferrari radio messages were in contention for me as well. And I can assure you the chau-la-cler message, that is going to be a contender from the end of the year. the LV Awards.

But I'm going to go more serious. I'm going to go for something that happened very late on. And I appreciate he shouldn't have needed to make the move. Like you should have been way ahead of it anyway. Something that's already come up, the Astridor's overtake on Hamilton was very nice indeed. Obviously, right of the death and the conditions were still very tough at that point. To have the confidence in yourself, Lewis Hamilton, the conditions, the car,

all at once to pull off that move, that could have gone horribly wrong. Yeah, it could have been a double D&F there and then. Credit to Piastri and also credit to Hamilton, like credit to him for leaving the space. You have to trust your partner, right, when you go wheel to wheel racing. You have to have it fair.

You leave with the space. And that's why we love overtaking round the outside, God forbid. And fair place to Lewis Hamilton. He'll be in a way that he lost that position. But it was great wheel to wheel racing. and goadads on Piastri, they're bloody huge. Gonad Piastri, that's what they call it.

Now that's our submissions, but we do have some from the Discord as well. Who are we starting with? To kick off our 2025 Race Review Discord submissions on the reviews is. What one of this is for the first one. Is old Nick the Quick? Wow, what an absolute banger to Nick the Quick. Man, what a race. So many moments of the races.

Ferrari radios are back. We had a wet, dry, wet race. Just incredible moment of the race. Of course, as a Max fan, they've been in one more lap. I think he's out front and probably wins it. But man, what a finish. What a finish. Loved it.

I really commend Nick for watching several races at once and having moments of the races. We only heard one. Hopefully we get them more soon. Coming up next, thank you, by the way, for all your submissions. We had bloody loads. And it's really difficult to fit all reviewing. When you do submit, remember the rule. 20 seconds and under, please.

We appreciate that. I am also filling for time when I look for the next one because, again, there are so many. All right, coming out next, we've got Breel. Hi, LB boys. Coming to you live from Albert Park,

our moment of the race would have to be when Piastri, we thought it was over. We thought he was done. And here he goes. He gets back on the track. The crowd went absolutely bonkers. That is the Aussie spirit. Look at him go.

Love the podcast. Thanks so much. Thank you so much. Love that. Mua. At the end. Chef's kiss. The Astrid is the Undertaker.

Isn't that what I think? Sitting up, he is McLaren. Ong. The Undertaker meme in this podcast lives on far too strongly. I disagree. It doesn't. It's not stronger. It doesn't get enough love.

It comes back in its own meme for it. The Undertaker meme is the Undertaker. Thank you so much. I've had a great time. We love getting a submission trackside. So if you're ever at one of the races and it happens to be, submission time. Please, you know, saying as a voice. We absolutely love hearing your experiences down there. Coming up next is V-crab. Good morning, everybody. V-crab here, the unofficial fishmonger

of F-1. I mean, that race. Where do we start? Moment of the race, though. Leclerc, to his engineer. My seat is full of water. Must be the water. Fabulous input there. Words of wisdom. I imagine as a fishmonger. Your seat is sometimes often full of water. Let us know, V-grab. I don't want to know.

Let us know what I don't want to know. Yeah. Good stuff. It's halfway through. I don't want to know that. Good thing. Alice is from Ben. You can tell we are tired right now.

Let us know. I think this is the first time, me, but sorry if it's not. But it's Matt Coxie. Wow. What a race. What a start to the season. My moment of the race.

probably goes to Piastri's last lap overtake on Hamilton. It was completely spicy around the outside of what, turn 11, and he gains an extra world championship point, and he never know how crucial that could be. I like the idea that there's a scale of spicy. Yes. And completely spicy, isn't it? They call it the Scoville scale.

And that is how they measure hotness of food, and this spice is completely spicy. Yeah, good submission. Nice crisp audio on that one. We love Chris Bordio. Unfortunately, we've probably not delivering our Christmas audio because of the issues we had off there. We're trying.

We're trying. We're trying. We're not going to have the time. Coming out, I think is a relatively new member of the Discord. So thank you for joining. This is April. Hi, guys. My moment of the race is going to Lewis's dad with Isaac Hadjar.

That really brought here to my eye. Have a good one. Yeah, that's very sweet. We saw a lot of people online actually saying, you know, oh, the game's gone. You know, comfort. We would be like that back in our day, you know, comforting a driver for making a mistake. Yes, it was a silly mistake.

And it was a frustrating one to see him go on the formation up. He's a kid. People who are insulted by that, I'm going to channel my Harry Ead. Here we go. Grow up. Grow up. Touch some grass. Maybe seek some counseling because clearly you can have a good family life.

You don't like compassion. You deserve it. Okay, thanks for that one. We absolutely loved it. Nice to see a bit of that, yeah, off-track compassion. Coming up against, we've got to do one of these things since I was at a track. And to be honest, I don't want to talk about it. But the moment of the race was Fernando Alonzo getting driven behind us on the back of

screwed up after his crash and um getting tired off by the cops have you seen the fanio a long so meme of him in the sun hat um don't know came out this weekend he sat there his legs crossed sunglasses on big straw sun hat the idea of him being on the back on that loppaid you fall like gear at the sun hat on whilst it's raining whilst it's raining whilst raining yes of course um all right and finally rounding off one of us on missions again thank you to everyone that sings i mean we can't play them more We're sorry we can't play them all, but we have to skim through them and get a good mix. We love all of the feedback you give us.

So thank you so much. But ranging off is Ash the silly salmon. You, you silly salmon. Hello, late breakers. Ash here. For my moment of the race, it was the Bat Oriale styled shootout between all the rookies. A lot of great potential there and would love to see Lawson pumping it out for us, Kiwis. Have a good week, everyone.

and thanks for the podcast, boys. Doing what for you, Kiwi? You naughty pumping salmon. You naughty salmon. Very silly. Also, maybe going to audio book reading because that is a soothing boy. Yes. Maybe for a salmon.

Ash, the soothing salmon. Thanks, Ash. That's it. That rounds us off our submissions and I guess for the episode. Yeah, thankfully, I think we've probably reached the point. Oh, God. Thank you so much for tuning in. Of course, we're going to be back for the main episode.

midweek, but there's other content to come if you're on Patreon tomorrow. There is. We've got power rankings. Woo! It's back. If you want to hear how we speak about every single driver, we give a rating of their performance, and then we can pile that across the whole season,

that is on Patreon. The links in the description. And if you break the cost down by weekly, even for the top tier, it's maximum about $2 a week, $2,3 a week. So literally the cheapest cup of coffee you can go out and buy. Promise you it's worth it.

You get hours and hours of ag-free content. All of our videos are on there as well. So that's coming on Monday. We also have, of course, our midweek episode for other patron content coming soon. If you want to hear yourself on the podcast and you think I quite like those, they're interesting or they're a bit of a laugh.

Join the Discord. That's where it happens and you can actually take part in the race previews and reviews and we love to hear from you all the time. There's other things going on. Ben does a quiz occasionally, which is always great fun. We also have loads of league racing and everything in there. So get involved.

We love seeing that community grow. Follow us on social media, late breaking F1, and watch our best clips. on YouTube late breaking F1 as well. We'll get to see you later. I think it's about the time we're going out of it then. 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.