The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2025 Chinese GP Race Review

Episode Date: March 23, 2025

Ben and Sam break down the Chinese GP, where McLaren made a significant leap in the Constructors' Championship with a dominant 1-2 finish, and Piastri bounced back in style after a tough season opener. Though not a race for the history books, there's still plenty to unpack from the Ferrari drivers colliding to Haas' comeback and RB's strategy blunder... 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 note before we start. This was recorded before the news that both Ferrari drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Charles LeClaire, as well as the Alpine of Pierre Gasly, have been disqualified from this race.

So if you hear anything throughout that alludes to them finishing either in the points or 11th place in the case of Gasly, you can safely ignore that. Hello and a very warm welcome to the late-breaking F-1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking, reviewing today the second race of the 2025 season, the Chinese Grand Prix won by Oscar Piastri, much like in Australia and McLaren takes victory.

This time, though, it's Oscar Piastri. Lando Norris in second place with George Russell, once again, in third. Sam, how was that for you, mate? Um, let's just say I'm glad I didn't wake up at 3am for it. It wasn't an absolute belter, but we have got some very interesting talking points coming out there. There were some fascinating moments, such as all of the drivers acting like Petcher and Children,

UK-Snow his front wing, deciding to self-destruct on its own, and Ollie Berman deciding to say, chow to everyone as he drives past them. So plenty to discuss. There's also some racing involved as well. Enjoy it, Ben. Have fun. Yeah, I mean, that was just basically moment of the race. So that's one segment ticked off.

We only need to do for. We are sorted. I mean, it's F1 and cars around a track. It can never be that bad. But will this one be remembered for years to come? Maybe not. Apart from the birth of chow, obviously. The birth of chow.

It's having never said it before now. The birth of Behrman Chow. It sounds like a great dish that I must try. Yeah, it sounds like I was going more like a novel. The birth of Behram and Chow probably. You get Chal Main. Oh, okay, that makes sense. Behrman Chow.

Should we move on? Yeah. We are going to be discussing the likes of the racing ball strategy has double scoring after what we saw from them in Australia, quite the turnaround. Ferrari, not quite able to emulate what they were able to do in the sprint race. Let's start with McLaren, though. They were potentially on course for a one-two finish in Australia before weather happened, and Oscar Piaastri finished far lower than the second. second place he was on course to do. Here, though, they are able to convert that one too.

Lando Norris does need to make that move on George Russell early on, but he's then able to cement his position in second. Oscar Piastro, though, fairly unchallenged out front from his pole position. How impressed were you by him? Yeah, it was a real, I want to say champion's drive, because it feels premature, but this is a great way to properly announce yourself as someone who is ready to compete for that title. This isn't going to be always. Landon Norris's way. He's not going to waltz his way to the top, despite trying to quote all of the dramatic moments that we've heard between rival teammates in that calldown room in about 30 seconds flat, which I quite appreciated. Landon Norris was massively affected by Tyaware after a really

good start. And I want to commend Landon Norris early on getting past Russell, who starts P2, after he got pinched by Piastri, gone away well, got himself into second place, and was able to hold on even with those break issues that came at the end. But Piastri ran a big of a masterclass. He held onto his tires really comfortably. Didn't have to deal with any of the dirty air that was coming from the wake of the car in front of him because there wasn't anyone in front of him. And it just meant he was able to run the race his own pace. And this is what I've expected from Piastri once he finally gets the chance to just lead out front. No whether to throw him off. No weird reg flag or safety car or jeopardy to cause him to have to, you know, trouble himself up front.

He was able to build that gap slowly. He was able to manage his tires effectively. And everything went to plan. This is exactly what someone like Piastri needs to kick start himself into the championship. Two races in, they've got a race with a piece. I think it can be very close throughout the season. Yeah, it was very impressive for a Musco Piastri, and I think it was that, plus what we saw from Hamilton in the sprint race, kind of proved how important track position was this weekend. And it's important on any given weekend, but particularly at a track like Shanghai, where Piaastri was just able to control the race and never really looked like he was in any danger whatsoever. There were times where Norris got a little bit closer and then the gap extended out again. And it just seemed to follow this sort of cyclical pattern for a large part of this Grand Prix. But at no point did you think that Piastri was going to lose this unless something untoward happened to him. And fair play to not only Piastri for what he was able to do, it was a very measured drive, fair play to McLaren as well, because we've seen from them in the past that they have, I don't know,

to rip away victory and manage to secure something far worse than that when they just shouldn't. But the silliness wasn't really there today. They pit Piastri when they should have pit him. They didn't wait. They didn't try anything silly like pitting Norris first. They just, they played it with a straight bat. They did not worry at all about what the others were doing. They knew they had the pace to win this.

And they executed the strategy perfectly. So from Oscar Piastri's perspective, certainly, I mean, he's not had many wins in his career to this point, but this is right up there with one of his most impressive just based on how comfortable it was. Not to take away from something like Baku last year where he's excellently attacking and defending against Charles Leclair, but in many respects, it's even more impressive to not have to do something like that because you're just too quick for anyone to even get close to you. Yeah, never really challenged by Russell or Norris. The tieware was a real issue this weekend. And I do think it unfortunately disrupted a lot of the fun that could have been had with those battles, especially towards the point he ended the grid. It meant that LeCler, Hamilton and Verstappen were never really able to get close to the likes of Russell

or to Norris when they were starting to struggle. And the gap was small for a large part of the race, especially before that first pit stop, where the gap was kind of sitting between one and three seconds, respectively depending on what drivers you're looking at. But Inever was able to get closer to up. The dirty air was so strong and the wear on that outside front left tire was so heavy that the moment you've got anywhere near, unless you had a significant pace advantage, or you're on much fresher tires, which of course, someone like Lewis Hamilton tried to,

you know, not really any positive effect. It just meant that the action was unfortunately really subdued by such heavy tyreware. So Piazre did great job at capitalising on this and scampering away at the front, But it was a shame that we couldn't have any more of a challenge with those drivers fighting around the podium. Yeah, so many like four second gaps up and down the field. It did seem as if as soon as you got within sort of three or four seconds, at that point, it became very difficult to make any progress. And obviously we're talking here predominantly about the front end of the grid and the sort of top six positions.

But really, that was the case all the way throughout the field at certain points in this Grand Prix. Landon Norris finishing second, a bit of a scrappy weekend from him, certainly not a slow weekend, but the results haven't necessarily been what he was looking for in, you would say, both qualifying sessions, the sprint race didn't go to plan. This might have been his best session of the weekend and the most important one, of course, where he's come home to finish second. Is he content with the result? I think Landon Norris will ever be content with that result.

You can hear the frustration over the radio when that brake pedal was. starting to run long when he was really struggling. I think he dropped eight seconds on the last two laps to both Piastri and to Russell. Fortunately, it built up that gap significantly to George Russell. That meant that Russell could not catch him despite it only being a pretty much a second as they cross the line. But he'll know that because of the results that happen in Albert Park, he's got a little cushion. I think he sits eight points in front of Vastappan, and I think then it's Russell.

And then Piastri is about 10 points back to him as well in the driver's championship. he'll get away with this and you heard Landon Norris's engineer come over the radio and state we've spoken about this I would much rather finish second than not finish at all

and this is how champions win championships is how Max Verstappen beat Landon Norris last year because when he wasn't in the most dominant car he was always finishing second third and if he couldn't be there

he was the next best place you rarely see Verstappen now have an absolute stinker where he puts it into a wall or crashes straight into another car or out of desperation, throws it into a spilling, it costs him 10, 15 points. And that can be the difference in a championship. So whilst this was not a great weekend for Andrew Norris, he walks away with a second place.

He walks away the leader of the driver's championship. His best result was in the one that scores the most points. His starts, which so regularly have been criticized by me as well, were actually pretty decent in the main race, which is good that he took that step forward. overall, whilst it's not the ideal result for Landon Norris in comparison to Oscar Piastri, because of how the sprint race went and how the rest of the weekend unfolded, he's done a pretty good job of balancing those points. And I think he'll come out of here going, okay, not perfect from me,

but I've still got that cushion. Now I go into Japan, where I think McLaren again, I'm being mighty. And that's a place to go again where he can maybe topple or extend the gap that's maybe been created so far. Yeah, it was, like I said, I think he did the weekend the right way round. and he saved his second place finish for the right session. It wasn't plain sailing, but certainly the start was more impressive than the average Lando Norris start from last season,

needed to overtake George Russell again a little bit later on and was able to do that fairly comfortably. At times it looked like he had fairly similar pace to Oscar Piastri, but never again, particularly in the second half of the race, really threatened to get close to him. I still think it was pretty solid. The stuff about over team radio, him being told, like, think of the championship, like we don't need to, I'd rather have you finish second and not finish at all.

This might sound a bit harsh. I don't think he should need to be told that. He should probably know that already. I feel like the last season should have been the learning point. And this season is the one where he's aware. After winning the first race of the season, yes, the championship should be in the back of my mind at all time. and if I am seriously risking not finishing this race by chasing down a gap that, let's face it,

probably wasn't going to be there for the taking anyway, I'm not saying it's wrong to be reaffirmed that, but equally I feel like Norris should be the one who already knows that without being told. But even so... Do you think there's a mindset issue with Lando Norris right now? I don't know. I just think that, I don't know.

It's tough to say that he said earlier on maybe this weekend or last weekend that he's not going to be thinking about the championship until like midway through the season. And whilst I appreciate there is a race by race mentality to a championship and you don't know what the pace of your car is going to be 10 races from now, like I completely get that. based on the talent he has and the position McLaren are in right now, it should be a factor. And if he was like, let's just say he was a second away from Piastri, I get it more. Like the win is right there and you want to do everything you can to take the win and you're willing to risk a bit more in terms of a DNF to try and take that win.

He must have known at the point in the Grand Prix where he was talking about this, where he was like three, four seconds back, he's not taking that win. Like, it's not happening. Piastri has managed that race very effectively from the start. So I just think he should be more, I don't know. Mature is not the right word, but have the wherewithal to know that this race isn't the be all and end all.

Yeah, a few things stood out to me this weekend. The first one was over that team radio where Norris is having to almost be coaxed down from the leg of wanting to take the wing a little bit. You know, step back, realize where you are, let's go for the longer approach and try and win this championship on consistency. We don't have to win every single race. I was a little bit worried by that approach from the team that when you've got a failing

brake pedal, you're moaning that you haven't got the ability to stop the car, you're losing seconds a lap. He is immediately going into panic mode there. I'm losing points. I need to win this race. I'm losing points. And that's got the mindset of someone who's going to win a champion. And then I know I said it comically at the start of the show, but to then walk into the

cool down room and go, oh, I'm going to chuck my. my hat at you, multi-21, Seb, oh, it's like Barakello and Schumacher at Hungary. And in all of those instances, he phrased himself as the losing driver. And I know that is tiny. That is really my new detail. But you've never see Hamilton coming and do that. You can never see LeCler coming and do that. Russell will never come in and say, oh, you know, multi-21 Lewis is like a joke or

something like that. Okay, maybe he's having a laugh, sure. But to me, there is an anxious, you know, laughter there. There's a, I just got beating handedly by my teammate there. That didn't go to plan. And the other thing that stuck out to me, which I'm a little bit late to this, but I think it's relevant right now is, you know at the start of the season, all of the drivers hogged up those blackboards

and they're like, my name is whatever, Samuel Sage, whatever it might be. And at the bottom, they have a, this year, I will, and they get to write something down, whatever they want to do. Yeah, exactly. But Charlotte Claire wrote this year, I will be Formula One world champion. That Ferrari currently is not a place to, do that. His car last year was not at the end of the season, really,

and the place could do that, despite it being closer than we thought. And yet his initial thought from the start of the season is, I'm going to win the world title. I'm just not getting that from Lando at the moment, and I'm slightly apprehensive that his mindset is not in the place it needs to be to become a world champion. I'm hoping with a few more races,

a bit more security around him, that maybe he can feel like he's in a place where every race matters for the championship and not just because it's a Formula One race. Rounding out the podium was George Russell. Now, he did the same thing. Last week, he finished third in Australia. He's third here in China. Started on the front row of the grid,

but obviously wasn't staying on the front row for very long with Lando Norris making that move early on. Will he be fairly content with third? Is that pretty much all he could have taken from this Grand Prix? Yeah, I think second was possible, but very ambitious. And I think it's only possible because you look at the way that Lando's started to fail, that if he was just able to stay a couple of seconds closer throughout that final instinct of the race, then there was a real chance that he could have

got him on that final map. They were so close over the line. I think a second, as I said, split the two of them. So I think knowing that there's an issue with the McLaren, he will be kicking himself a little bit to think that he could have picked up second place. But with his overall performance, if that McLaren was healthy the whole way through, I think he managed this race really, really well. George Russell is, again, just doing what George Russell seems to be able to do now, which is separate himself from those around him, have a bit of a, not an anonymous drive this time, because he was around the action, but he's just consistent, he's just getting in the lapsing, there's no drama going on with George

Russell. He's trying to call the shots from the cockpit, and he called that one stop really, really well early on. We heard it over the team radio. I think he'll be, I think he'll be happy with a third, not overly content after the issue, but I think he'll be happy with his pace and knowing that McLaren is clearly the dominant car on pace overall. I think he'll feel good that he's beaten for Stappen, both Ferraris, comfortable in front of his teammate, that he was challenging those McLarence for a good portion of the race. So a good performance from George Russell, who currently sits third in the title fighting, only one point behind Max Verstappen. Yeah, I mean, I think George Russell did everything he needed to do. I don't think a second

was on the cards, in all honesty. And I appreciate that that last lap, Landon Norris was managing very heavily to ensure he finished that Grand Prix and did so just over a second ahead of George Russell. I think if George Russell is closer, he manages it's like, differently and still finds a way to, I just think Lando Norris, going into the last lap of the Grand Prix, knew the gap that he had to play with and worked to that delta. And if that gap was different, he just would have updated the deltas to still ensure he beat George Russell. But yeah, in terms of Russell's Grand Prix, not many notes.

I mean, he did a good job defending against the Ferraris, or at least the Ferrari of Shao LeClaire earlier on in the Grand Prix. There was a bit of pressure there that he was able to soak up. passed it with flying colors. And then from there, it was a fairly dull race. George Russell might be the first driver in history to claim back-to-back podiums and receive fewer than two minutes of screen time across the two Grand Prix. But he did what he needed to do.

And to not be pressured by Vastappen, not to be pressured really by the Ferraris in the second half of the Grand Prix, just shows how well he managed that race. And you're right. He was on the ball with the strategy early on, as he quite often. is. Shall we agonisingly review our bold predictions? Oh, yeah, go on then. Let's just enjoy another week of misery.

Okay, so your bold prediction was that Mercedes would walk away with fewer than 20 points. Yeah, 20 points or less for the whole weekend. Which they just about did in the main race. They came away with 19 from the main race. Yeah. If you then add on however many they scored in the sprint. I think it was seven. Enough to tip it over 20.

So a valiant's effort, but not quite there. Yeah, mine went great. So fortunately, it was dead by the time we came into today anyway, but I said that Fernando Alonso would be top eight in both the sprint race and the main race. He gave it a fairly good go in the sprint race. It wasn't close. It wasn't far off. And then the main race breaks went, no.

And Harry said that there would be no McLaren on the podium. So they promptly went one to. Yeah, that is. Oh, Harriud. It could got me more opposite to what he said. Yeah. I haven't got my abacus with me. Can you update the numbers? Yeah, hold on. Let me just do it. I'll do it mentally. We're fantastic at that mental arithmetic. So we had zero. Yeah, zero going into Australia. We didn't score any of that. That's zero.

Yeah. And then we've come into China. We still had zero from Australia. And we've scored zero. So if I add zero to zero from zero, I think we're all on zero. Let me just update the league table. So one, me, zero, you zero. Harry Zero. So we're all first. We're winning, baby. Sounds good to me. What a great start to the season. More bold predictions or wrong predictions, as we might rename them, for the Japanese Grand Prix. Let's take our first break on this episode. On the other side, we'll talk Ferrari.

Welcome back, everyone. We appreciate it's been a fairly busy weekend of podcasting action from us. We did an episode on Friday, did an episode yesterday, and we did an episode today. But that's not all. We've still got power rankings to go. We're going to be recording those tomorrow, as we do after every single Grand Prix. And where can I find that? Oh, Linky and the discreppy, scroll on down, folks. Whether the phone you're on, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, whatever you might be listening to, just scroll down the link to Patreon is down there. And those of you that already started supporting us means the world, let me tell you how much you think it's very small, right? It's a couple of coffees a month that you might be spending

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So thank you so much for everyone that really does. Ferrari. Oh dear Ferrari. It was looking... It was looking good after the sprint. Lewis Hamilton got pole position and indeed won the sprint race for eight points. It wasn't as good in the main race.

They finish fifth and sixth. Charles LeClaire from Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton seemingly struggling for most of the day. There was a question around team orders that we'll get to in a little bit. Hamilton then deciding to go on to the two-stop as a bit of a Hail Mary, we haven't got anything to lose. Doesn't really work out.

Charlotte-Clau is overtaken by Vastappen late on to end up in that fifth and sixth place positions. Why did they struggle so much here? This is the classic case, I think, where because of a sprint race, we only have one practice session at the start of a sprint weekend. And I think Ferrari, but Hamilton specifically, really got to grips with how the car in the track felt very early on, which meant that they set up well for sprint qualifying and for the sprint qualifying and for sprint race. Now, under the new regulations that came in last year, of course, you can lift

Park Fermé between the Sprint section of the weekend and the main Grand Prix section of the weekend. So going into the main qualifying, people are allowed to have a tinker. They're allowed to, you know, change some wing set up. They're allowed to, you know, alter how the car might ride, which are all things you can't do when you are under Park Fermat. So because of that, I think McLaren, I think Mercedes, I think the Stauffin, we're all able to make some minor tweaks. And that includes Charlotte Claire, who came out and said, actually, that he learned a little bit from Hamilton's set up between the sessions. And it improved his rideability of his car. It meant that everyone essentially not only caught up to Ferrari who had a very minor advantage with the weather, the way the tire pressures were mandated by Pirelli.

All of those things were against Ferrari's favor, kind of session to session. And that meant they went from being maybe equal on pace, maybe a tenth ahead on the longer runs to being. just under equal on pace to a couple of tents behind on the longer rungs. And unfortunately, over a multiple lap race, you know, well into your 50s, that ends up being quite a lot of seconds different. And Ferrari fell away from that lead pack. Yeah, I'd like to give you folks an in-depth explanation as to why they dropped off compared to the sprint.

But honestly, I don't know. Very weird. It might be tire-related. It seemed as if, obviously, the medium-tire. was the compound that was used in the sprint race. It was also used in the first in here in the main race, where Ferrari did look a little bit stronger. But as soon as we got onto the hard tire in the second half of this Grand Prix,

their pace seemed to fall away. So that could be part of it as well as some of the other things you've mentioned there, Sam. But this will be frustrating because there was a lot of talk about Australia did not go to plan whatsoever. And Big Freddie Vass during the week said, look, China is where you start to see the real Ferrari. I don't think I like the real Ferrari. It's still not quick enough.

Fifth and sixth is not what they're looking for. And you're right, it's not like they are miles behind. And if this was a track that didn't suit them or if they've got one or two upgrades that can help them, that could easily transform what they've got going on here. But I mean, Charlotte-Clau's fifth place finish here, at least in main races, that's the best they've done so far this year.

It's not been the start to the season they have, expected or wanted, given where they finished last season. They won races in, in Mexico and in Austin, and they were generally competitive throughout the second half of last season. It seems as if McLaren have absolutely lapped them, and Mercedes and Red Bull, they're still in the ballpark with them. Whereas with other drivers, I'd say, Vastappen, Russell, the McLaren's, the pace from the sprint race seemed to mostly follow over to the main race. It seems. seemed like Ferrari either didn't take a step forward where others did, or they actually took a step back. So yeah, that would be real disappointing, a bit of a head scratcher and something to

think of before we get to Japan. What did you make of the strategy within the team? So we had Hamilton ahead of LeCler as they qualified quite early on. Actually, before we get to that, first corner, Charles LeClair, front wing, go straight into Hamilton. Hamilton says, someone hit me. Yeah, was your teammate, mate. Side die from Lecler. Please don't tell him it was me. A bit clumsy, wouldn't it? It was clumsy.

I mean, Hamilton was following that racing line, and Lecler has tried to take that much faster, technically in terms of distance covered, but actually it's not faster in terms of the flow of the corner in the sideline. He kind of bounces off of the curbie because he really gets on top of that curb, which chucks him out as Hamilton's coming through the corner

and the natural way of the racing line. I think it's on LeCler, if I'm personally honest. I don't think it's a penalty worthy. I actually weirdly think that not having an M-plate, apparently on the Ferrari makes it a faster car. Ferrari, do you want to look into that? How much weight was in that M-plate? That car must have been like twice as light.

I mean, I get that LeCleur might have just had better pace over the race than Hamilton, but with a damaged car, you think those two are close enough that realistically Hamilton should still have had the overall edge or a damaged version of his own car. So I'm worried, Ferrari. If it breaks and it works better, how does that work? Can we talk about, like, the front wing for a second?

Just like, at least the commentary we got in the UK was solely based around, they'll have to switch it when they go into the... Why? He's not slow. He is quicker than Hamilton. Why would they waste five seconds changing it? And then they didn't change it. And it was, oh, my, well, it was only three seconds to pit.

But they must not have changed the way. The comedy of errors in commentary over this front wing. So LeCleur hits Hamilton. We've all seen it. Everyone's seeing it happen. Oh, contact between teammates there. First thing they noticed, halfway round the racetrack. Max Verstappen radios.

Lecler's wing is broken. Oh, LeCleur has hit. Max for Stappen. That's for Stappen. Oh, no. No, that's not what's happened. What happened at all? We go away.

We'll move on from it. Oh, and Brundle finally goes, oh, I think actually Lecler might have hit Hamilton. And then Crofty's reaction. Oh, Hamilton and Squehler is squeezed Lecler. off the track, there's damage there between. No, no. You didn't see it.

Don't pretend you saw it. Yeah. You're having a replay yet, lad. You're not seeing it yet. Okay, we finally understand that Lecler and Hamilton have come together. It's probably a bit more on the Clare, but it's a racing incident.

These things happen. Okay. And then, Ben, we get to the point where the pit stop starts to happen. And then the Clare comes out about a second behind Lewis Hamilton. You'd argue that's the gap that they had before they pitched. Sounds about right.

Pretty standard pit stop because Hamilton, you know, have some kind of 11 second pit stop. we didn't see. So, Clare must have had a normal one. And they're all going, oh, God, new front wing, new front wing. How's he only had a three second pitstop? Incredible from Ferrari.

No, no, no. They haven't changed it. And they haven't changed it because Lecler is on the pace of all the leaders. There's no problem at all. How have you got it wrong so many times? Why would you think they were going to change that pace? Anyway, obviously a bit later on, we have this discussion with Charles Leclair, seemingly having more pace than Lewis Hamilton's tucked up behind it.

will there be team orders, discussions over the team radios? What did you make of how all that went down? I don't want to sound like some kind of Hamilton kiss-ass here, but I have a lot of respect for any driver that comes over the radio and says, I'm holding up my teammate here. Let us know when we can switch. Now, that wasn't properly broadcast over Sky, at least, but that is the wider conversation that happens on team radio.

And then we hang a bit of a kerfuffle where Albon, who had stayed out on his one-stop, started to back up those podium runners. So Norris got a little bit stuck, got past, Russell got a little bit stuck, and then album Pits. And at that moment, Hamilton has closed the gap a little bit. So he's kind of thinking, hang on a minute, I've got a big of pace. The Clers got to catch up to me again before we make this swap.

And then I actually think that the swap that happens in turn one, whilst I think it was the right decision to swap those cars, it was a bit clumsy. It was a bit messy. It was the wrong point of the racetracks. Sky were very complimentary about having it go through turn one. And they thought, oh, that's a good place to swap the car. cars, I really don't understand how that is a good place to swap any race car. One of the longest,

most difficult right turns going where you wash out with understeer and running side by side is proven to be incredibly slow. And that's apparently a good place to do it. So, whilst I think right that the clerk goes through, I think Hamilton very sensible, I mean, whether he was just saving face and realised that he was the slower of the two at the time anyway, it went, I'll let him pass without having to actually be overtaken. Fine. But not the best place to do it. Do feel the conversation was a little bit clumsy. And I thought they be a little bit more efficient with it. Yeah, a bit clumsy. That's how I went with it as well. The right thing happened in the end. They just took a while to get there and took a confusing route,

but it's Ferrari. So maybe we shouldn't be overly surprised at this point. Yeah, the album factor confused things a little bit more because you're right, Hamilton was very okay with the move happening. and then Charles LeClaire was close but not quite close enough, at which point Hamilton was like, well, I'm happy to let him by, but equally I don't want to slow down for two seconds to make that happen, which I think is fair enough. But as we know with the dirty air around China, it would have been very difficult for LeClau to get closer.

And as soon as LeClaire went by, he clearly had more pace than Hamilton. It's not like Hamilton stuck within the DRS of LeClaire after that. He was gone. So it was the right thing to do. And I think Ferrari are at the stage of their. season where, again, clearly they're not on the pace of McLaren. They just need to maximize the constructors' points regardless of who they come from and what way they get there.

So to have Hamilton, at least initially, like, be very open to this is encouraging. But yeah, I think Ferrari probably just, they didn't fumble it, but it could have been smoother. Yeah, and because of this, they sit, I believe, fourth in the Constructors' Championship. you know, they're losing to Max Verstappen, who's all on his own up there in the points. And Russell and Antenelli, who sits equal with Leclair, I think on 18 points in total, despite not really featuring in this race,

shows you that Ferrari's season is not off to a flyer. Yeah, they've got ground to make up for sure. Max Verstappen, not on the podium like he was in Australia. Instead, he'll have to be content with fourth. Downplayed his chances a lot throughout the weekend, despite having some good finishes, some good qualifiers as well, said after qualifying what would it take for him to win the Grand Prix, and he said something along the lines of everyone retiring in front of me,

which is unusual to hear from Max Verstappen, but I guess on the pace that he had here, it was somewhat fair. I respect it. I'm not going to lie. We finally heard someone, it sounds like they're downplaying it, but it's been entirely backed up by that result. And that tells me that he was just being realistic and try not to, you know, either blow smoke up his own backside

or go down the classic Toto Wolf PR way of saying, we're the worst thing ever all gone with terror warning, claiming a one-two, you know, it simply was. He understands how quick that McLaren is. He realizes that actually that Masege is in pace is quite close to where the Red Bullies. I think he did a good job of getting past the Ferraris and ensuring that he yelled onto his tires coming into the race.

We got an interesting message over the team radio as he starts to pick up the pace. Once Hamilton had boxed and he basically got that overtake, for free. The Stafford started to come into his own a little bit. The hard tie started to work as the fuel low came right down. He held onto the tie wear really well. And the team radio comes over and goes, that's good pace, Max.

Good to finally see it or something along those lines. And you kind of think, well, hang on a minute. You're telling me that Max Verstaffel has been slacking for the last 40 laps of this Grand Prix because that isn't Max Verstappen. I think that came across a little bit harsh. So unless they were both joking about the car being rubbish, and finally it's come to life a little bit. It's definitely possible, but felt slightly uncalled for.

I think Max maximised the points that he could have out of this race. I don't think he was ever really getting himself onto that podium unless a spying happened or a safety car went his way. In hindsight, he ran a very well-measured race. I think fourth place. Again, in terms of trying with a championship is not the worst thing. Yeah, that car don't have it. It just doesn't have it.

And I think he made the most of it. I don't think a podium was on the cards today. I think he was a bit unfortunate with what happened at the first couple of corners. I don't think he could have played that any differently, really. He loses the spot to both Ferraris. But we obviously got a replay of Vestappen start on board Vestappen. I don't think he played that incorrectly. And later on in the Grand Prix,

I think it was fairly evident on that first stint that he wasn't going to have to pace the challenge, at least the top couple of guys in this Grand Prix. I think what he did in the second stint was absolutely spot on, because as we've discussed already on this episode, it was really tricky for anyone to make a move inside that sort of top six or seven positions. You were stuck two or three seconds behind the car in front. And I think the Stappan realized that very early on and went, okay, I am going to nurse these tires massively, these hard tires for the first section of this stint.

And then the second section of this stint, I'm going to attack Charlerc. and I think it was a bit of a case of you are going to have one opportunity to battle through that dirty air and use up your tires and make that move. And he did. Like he was spot on with that. Lovely move as well. Really lovely move into T1. So yeah, I think he probably got what he could out of it. Shall we move on to driver of the day?

Go on then, mate. The verdict is in. You're the driver of the day. You're the driver of the day. You're good at driving. We forgot to play those last time, so it's good to hear them. It was more of a technical issue, I think, last time. We were on the struggle bus.

Yes. Le Plans back, Esteban Ocock. Come on. Is it your pick, mate? Yeah, he's my pick. Great effort. And not only from him, both hash drivers, I think, did really well. And we'll speak about Hass a bit more in our next segment

because their recovery from what we saw from them in Australia was pretty startling. But yeah, he did a really good job of managing that race. Obviously, had a good qualifying position anyway, made up, I think, one position at the start and really effectively managed those hard tires to keep some quick cars behind him. Albin had a different strategy than Ockon did. I know Antonelli had damage, but he was directly behind. We had Olli Behrman as well, Pierre Gasly starting to come through. And he looked fairly unfuss. That gap stayed a couple of, a couple of seconds towards the end of that race. And yeah, I was, I was very impressed.

And that could be an important six points come the end of this season. Who was your driver of the day? Yeah, both harsh drivers really, really impressed me. And then they made me cry when I realized I took them out my fantasy team. So thank you for that. Hasse. Good job. Yeah, Ben shrugging with arrogance over there, smug face engaged. Double Hasse face right now.

Yeah, good, good, good. I am going to go with Piastri. It's starting immediately how it should go. he put the squeeze on George Russell going into turn one right up against the grass, but left exactly one car's width. And that's what I want to see from drivers, absolute on the limit, got the job done, made sure that he was pinks inside. And that means that, you know, Lorris got a run around.

But you think, oh, well, actually Norris has got a faster car. So maybe actually is making his life harder by letting his teammate come through. No bother. No bother for Mr. Oscar Pastery, who absolutely led that field. Easy, pizy, tires managed. Pace was excellent. First wing from pole, sensational stuff from Oscar Piastri, he was really, really impressed by how we drove this race. He's not here, but Harry has voted for Nick Heidfeld. Oh, has he? Yes. Is that where he is? Under the tree with him? Yes, I think so.

But just for you, wanted to know that Harry has picked Nick Heidfeld. Should we go on to Worst Driver of the Day? Yeah, go on him. Get in the bin, bin, bin, bin, been, worst driver of the day. Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, you suck at driving. What have you got for this one? Sorry, Jack Devin. It's a tough one for you, my mate. But there are a few that are contending. I'm not going to go through the list.

But when you take someone off the track, because you defend from so far back that you lock up and then run them all the way off the road and then you get a penalty for it, it's not great. It's not great. You're going in matching your teammate. You know, you're mucking around with Hajjar

for a long, long time when that car... I mean, the things was good once you got to get down, but the move so late on the brakes afterwards as well, that's just not on. It's not on. It's very dangerous to reactively move in the break zone, which I'm not happy with. I just don't think this is good enough from doing at all.

This whole weekend has been a bit of a mess. Contact or mucking us in both races across the weekend. So, yeah, for me, Dewan takes it. I had two names written down. Jack Dewan was one. I'll go with the other, Liam Lawson. We'll discuss him a little bit. later on and I think in weeks to come as well because it's it's not going well whatsoever.

This is one where the result I think tells the entire story. Of course, started in the pit lane, but eventually only comes home to finish. 16th on track, 15th overall with Duhin's penalty, but never really threatened getting anywhere near the points. So Liam Lawson is my worst driver of the day. Quick question on that, Ben. We saw Duhin, obviously lock up, run agile wide, picks up a 10 second penalty. But in the sprint race before, we saw Liam Lawson hit Jack Dewan and essentially

rang him wide. No investigation at all. Well, they had any investigation, but Lawson deemed completely fair to do so. How does one work and one not? Hang on a minute. Let me just have a look under my mind. Just have a little bit of the soundboard. So I'm just searching for some answers and I can't find any.

It doesn't make any sense to me. I was really quite baffled by the decision making. Yeah. The worst driver of the day for Harry was Adrian Soutil. Oh, he blakey hates Sottyl. Paul Sutter, always catching strange. In the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix. Oh, God.

We've also got time for Big Brainstrap. Oh, Bob, we're going to need you to box for wets. What? It's not even raining out. What are you talking about? Yeah, and Bob, if you get a chance, let your teammate pass you. I'm going to go for an understated one. Maybe one that isn't getting a lot of attention.

but I found it's quite funny. Obviously, we get a lot of chatter about plan A, plan B, plan C, plan X minus 7, if you're Ferrari. But I love Oscar Piastri's a press. So Oscar Piastri was asked, do you think plan A is still possible? And the reason they say plan A rather than one stop, two stop, is because they want to keep it hidden. They don't want the other teams to know exactly what they're thinking. Oscar, do you think you can make plan A work? And he just responds, yeah, one stops.

fine. Like, no, it's supposed to be secret. It meant to be subtle, Oscar. So I just appreciated the lack of subtlety from Oscar Piastri to keep those strategies hidden from the other teams. What was your big brain strap? There are a few drivers that attempted the two-stop. And whilst Lewis Hamilton, I think effectively only lost one place where Bostappen

maybe you've had them both anyway on track, so maybe no places. Unfortunately, the racing ball seems to not be able to put together any actual strategy that works. You know, we sat here going, everyone's doing a one-stop. Everyone's very clearly back there doing a one-stop. So you've decided to do a two-stop. Now, it's unfortunate that Yuki's so his front wing again, just deciding to, nope, out of this race.

So it meant me out to have a three-stop race. Yeah, chow. For the front-wing. I loved his reaction over the radio. Front-wing damage from what? Yeah, nothing, unfortunately. Just cave-ying upon itself like me when I feel any kind of pressure. So, yeah, they were pretty much.

much the only runners to try a two-stop other than Norse, who in theory had the car to get through those midfield runners. They end up with no points again. So two races in a row where they've arguably being the fifth fastest car on track, but walked away with absolutely nothing. And because of this, they sit, I believe, last in the Constructors' Championship, which is really, really poor. Some questions need to be asked of that team because this is a big blunder. I think Ted actually did a good job of giving an analogy of this. When you're get up first on the dance floor, you're ready to shake your booty, and you're expecting, oh, big song, come on everyone.

And everyone is still going to sit at the buffet and you're there on your own. You go, no, no one want to dance? I'll go sit back down again then. You just feel like a bit of a Muppet. Well, that happened to them. Not good. Yeah, I've got more to say on that. Let's take our second break on this episode.

On the other side, we are going to get into the racing ball strategy as well as has. Welcome back, everyone. The team that struggled the most with our dad, out in Australia was HASS. They could not do high-speed corners whatsoever. They were frequently the last two cars in nearly all the sessions that took place throughout the weekend. One of our questions in the preview was, what are we going to see from them in China? Is it going to be a similar story? Are they going to recover? There were a couple of Q1 eliminations, but equally, a couple of instances where Ocon makes it through Q1 in the main qualifying and Bayman does it in sprint qualifying.

and in the race itself, different strategies, but both of them work out to score points. Ockham walks away with seventh and six points, and Oliver Berman, despite not a great starting position, makes it all the way back to 10th for one point. What did you make of their race? Really, really impressed. The fact they split those strategies and it both paid off

tells me that one, you've got two good drivers in your team. You've got, excuse me, you've got two guys that can actually put together a solid race performance and get a lot out of the car. We're not seeing a, the Stap and Norton situation where it doesn't work for one but works brilliantly for another.

They're going to maximize that car. Ocon did what Ocon should be doing. This is why you sign a Sivan Okon. The guy, you know, Leplang, he knows exactly what he's doing when it comes to Eni-Mingfield kind of race these days. And he's showing his experience here. So manage those tyres so effectively,

was fantastic. But I loved how long Behrman went. Even fights with Lance on that first set of tires to the hard to swap to the medium and use that fresh rubber effectively on the lighter fuel to get so many overtakes done and they were good overtakes you know heavy braking switchbacks around the outside chowing off all day long the guy had a fantastic time cut out through the field two point scorers this is what i was not worry about i was worried in albert park when we saw them so far back i was suspicious that they may turn it around completely and end up actually

understanding the car better parts might work better that we set up in a more efficient way and they'll be back into that midfield fight. So let's see if Hars can maintain it. Suzuki, Japan is a whole different ballgame. You know, no big long straits to capitalize on no heavy braking zones in the same way. It's very much a flowing circuit. So maybe the car won't operate as well. We'll have to see.

But they're doing what they need to do where others are letting themselves down, such as the racing balls and Williams. They've done a really good job here. Fair play, Hass. And I think they would have collectively, huge sigh of relief because it's not like this will happen at every single Grand Prix. It's not like all of their issues have been solved. We don't know what it's going to look like when we get to Suzuki.

But equally, it's not as disastrous as it looked last time out. And that is going to be a relief for the team. And the fact that they did it via two different methods, two different strategies, that's pretty encouraging as well. Esteban Ock, on you're right, he's made a career out of doing this sort of thing in the midfield. And this is just another one of those examples. He picked the pocket of Antonelli when they were trying to overtake. I forget who it was.

I think it was Holkenberg maybe that was on old tires where everyone else was on new tires. And Antonelli couldn't immediately get by. Ocon managed to seize on that advantage and also then make the overtake happen. And obviously that has resulted in two more points, seventh rather than eighth. He was on the grass trying to make an overtake at one point. Full commitment. Absolutely love that. So he did a great job.

And then Bearman, who obviously didn't get a lot of track time in Australia, has really recovered this weekend. Some of those moves were absolutely brilliant on the medium tire. And there was one that went slightly wrong, which was the Carlos Sines one. But other than that, it was it was clinical. And I will admit to Hass and indeed everyone listening along. I was wrong because I wasn't sure on their strategy here. They paid for those medium tires far earlier than I thought they were going to. I thought they were going to do Lance Stroll strategy, where they just went longer into the race

on those hard tires and then bailed out for like the last 15 laps or so. They went on those medium tires really early on in this Grand Prix, despite being like, Stroll and Berman were both starting the hard tires. They were separated by like half a second at one point late in their stint. I thought this was going to go pear-shaped for Hasse and that Berman was going to lose out late on in this race when those medium tires started to wear because we saw like those that started on the mediums. They didn't go 20 laps, apart from Albin, they didn't go 20 laps. They weren't very long into the race.

I was worried for Berman the last 10 laps of this race, and those tires did not fall off whatsoever. So good tire strategy from the team, good tire management from Berman, and a fully deserved double points finish. You've already alluded to racing balls and how it has not gone their way whatsoever. Of course, they have converted a double Q3 appearance into no points whatsoever. appreciate Yuki Sonoda had the front wing issue. Equally, he wasn't going to score points because of the strategy. And Isaac Hadjar has finished this race in 14th.

How have they got this so wrong? Yes. Questions need to be asked internally here because this isn't on the drivers at all. Unless they had to do a double stop because both of these drivers were wearing their tires down at such an extensive rate that no other team was struggling with. And I don't think that's the case. Yuki's pace was very strong. did a great job at getting in front of Antingelli early on and kind of sitting again and that kind of best of the rest jumped his teammate as well.

Hachar looked, you know, strong, a good pace. He was fighting inside the points. He was inging around that battle with Antingelli and Albon and his teammate. And coming up to the first pit set, you think, okay, they're kind of with the game. This is going to be a good result for raising balls. But they just jumped the gun far too quickly. They didn't wait to play out and see what their others were around them. And we do criticise teams sometimes

for being on the back foot, but there is also something that could be punishing very, very quickly if you read the room too quickly and you jump to a conclusion too fast. And if you assume, folks, it makes an ass out of you and me is the old expression. And I think racing balls definitely assumed that the rest of the grid were going to a two-stop

rather than their one stop. And that massively backfired. They didn't have the outright pace in the dirty air to get past the cars around them. They didn't have the same tire deficit that the likes of their, was able to utilize. We saw that Lance Stroll wasn't able to get back through a few more cars to try and fight for points either. So that didn't pay off properly. Massive, massive undercoe.

I really thought that they would be able to read the room a little bit better. And it's costing again, two races in a row without any points, not really good enough. This issue goes back a long way. And it's affected them here. It affected them in Australia. But for too long, this racing bulls, Alpha Tauri strategy team has just let down their side. I think because of where they are in this fight and where they are usually on the grid, they get away with it somewhat and Ferrari, for example, get a lot more attention for the strategy blunders that they managed to pull out. Racing Bulls are the Ferrari of the midfield.

They constantly find ways to lose out on point scoring finishes. And again, this extends back to last season. Sonoda and Ricardo were in good positions at times last year and strategy was their undoing and not related to the car performance or their own performance. And this season, it seems to have just carried on again. Sonoda was really hurt by the strategy in Australia and ended up scoring no points. Here, and I know Sonoda DNF, but again, he wasn't going to score points anyway

because of the strategy that they deployed. They did a good job, ironically, on the first stint, because they were on it and made sure that they weren't undercut, at least from Sonoda's perspective, I think Agile lost the position, but they were fairly on it with the first stint. But I think that then caused them to go, right, we are going to be on it for the second stint as well.

We are going to get in their first and ensure we are undercutting all of our rivals. How have you become the only team not to realize that that wasn't the way to go? Because everyone else has worked out that a one stop was not only doable, it was fairly comfortable. it's not as if like half of those on one stops made it work and half didn't.

Everyone who was on a one stop managed their tires effectively enough in this race and they just weren't clued into the fact that this was a strategy option. That has cost them, I don't know how many points, but you're right. They are sat on three points through two races and a sprint race this season. When that is a car that is capable of scoring, they should have double digits by now for sure. And the worst thing is Red Bull probably don't even care because it's their junior team and they're just there for development purposes. But how they are last and with three points is utterly beyond me. They've been let down again today.

Should move on to Jack Duhin? Obviously, you already got a mention in Worst Driver of the day. He got a penalty for what happened with Olly Behrman forcing him wide. but we also had we also had him moving late under brakes as well what did you make of him? Yeah, really tricky one for Jack doing

this race. He seemingly didn't have the same pace as a teammate Gasly who was able to work its rate through the field and the competition really, really well and I didn't really amount to anything, but again, it shows what Gas is able to do in that car. And the Alping is clearly not as strong as we maybe initially thought it was going to be. They haven't bounced back as well as we thought

they would do out of the previous season. But the mistake, with Hajjar, I don't mind the mistake. I don't mind the fact he's tried to defend the position and he's locked up and he's run off wide and you know what, he has essentially blocked Hadger. So therefore I think a penalty is appropriate. I don't mind the fact that he's been penalised

for that despite their being, as we've already mentioned, confusion around why Lawson wasn't penalised, but doing was penalised for a century, exactly the same thing. The thing I'm not happy with is moving under the breaking zone. It's pretty late. Very, very late. Very, very

late and I actually think Hajar kept himself very calm in his response you know which is rare. That man likes to have a shout on the radio. Him and Singha together. They love a scream over the radio. But this was really desperate. It wreaked of some desperation of wanting to hold onto a position. And his defense afterwards was really solid.

I just think it's a real shame that you're going to put someone in danger like that by moving so late in one of the heaviest breaking zones, not just in the track, but on the whole F1 calendar. And we've seen these kinds of questions. crashes before. It could be an absolute state. So really disappointed with that. This was a really bad performance from doing. I thought he'd be able to execute more with that penalty that he gets. The only team behind him in Salbury is so far off everyone else because of it. Unfortunately, it's not really good enough. This is this is not where he's wanted to be.

And unfortunately, Australia, while it looks so positive and so strong for him, resulting in a lap of racing. And whilst Charterner could have been much better because at the time he had on track, it actually is hampered and maybe put a bit of a downer on the opinion of a round doing of what he might be able to achieve. So he'll walk up bounce back quickly when we get to Suzuki. Yeah, I can accept errors from rookies. We've seen quite a lot of them through two races. We've had Antonelli getting knocked out in Q1 in Australia,

in a car that shouldn't be knocked out in Q1. We've had Hadjar on the formation lap in Australia. We've had Bortoletto spin in China and crash out in Australia. Like we've had plenty of rookie errors so far. But they were really racking up this weekend for Jack Dew. And we had the qualifying incident. We had the sprint race incident where he crashes into Bortoleto. We have multiple incidents here in the main race.

We've got the move underbreaking and we've got the one where he runs Hajar wide. I thought in between all of the messiness, some of the defense was actually pretty good. The problem is it needs to all be good. And it wasn't. and I thought the penalty was justified. I won't talk about the inconsistencies anymore because that will probably see me off this earth. But I didn't understand that whatsoever.

But the move under braking was probably more, you're right, I think it was maybe even more problematic because I haven't seen a replay on board doing or on board Hajar for that matter, but it did seem very late, which is going into, they were doing fast speeds at that point. When cars go in a straight line and you're in F1, they'd be going quite quickly.

So, yeah, I don't know if they'll throw the rulebook in for that or not, but we will see. He needs to improve for Japan, for sure. Liam Lawson, obviously, they decided to start him from the pit lane, makes up a couple of positions early on. There were a few overtakes sprinkled in there, but he still only comes back 15th overall. It didn't really look like it was going to be any better than that.

Oh, Liam. I feel quite sorry for Liam Lansing at the moment. And we've gone through the same process with Sergio Perez. And because we've gone through the same process with Sergio Perez, you start to think, well, if it's just one driver, okay, the driver's got to be the problem, especially when that car is fighting for podiums or fighting for fourth and fifths in respect to Max Verstappan.

But when it becomes multiple drivers, and this isn't just multiple drivers now. This is every single second driver since Daniel Ricardo is in that seat. you have to start to think Liam Rawson is not the fastest man on the planet we get that he's probably not going to be winning championships okay we get that but the car

is clearly incredibly hard to drive for anyone that is not Max for Stappen and he's not doing a good job he's not driving brilliantly it is a little bit embarrassing for him that he's tootling around at the back of the track and he's barely able to be soured as he can't get past the racing balls that's not good enough

but equally if the machinery you've got doesn't allow you to do the best to your own ability and you're fighting with one hand behind your back, much like we did see with Sergei Perris, who was a formidable mid-table runner for most of his career, who was highly praised by many, you start to have to question whether Red Bull are the problem properly, not just Lawson, who I don't think he's driving his best, but it's coming to such a high-pressure scenario in a car that just doesn't suit his situation. And Alex Albon recently had an interview where he said how it's so sharp at the front that it's like setting your mouse on your

computer 100% sensitivity and trying to then click on the programs that you need. Max Stauffin could control that 100% sensitivity. Everyone else is clicking all over the screen and can't get to where they need to be. And this is becoming an intrinsic issue to Red Bull's overall team mentality to how they might be successful moving forward. Liam Rawson is not driving good enough, but equally, he's also driving with a car that simply is unable to do what he needs it to do because it's so uniquely specifically built. Yeah, I've got, got more thoughts on this that I'll probably share midweek, but in terms of this race, I don't know why we're surprised. When you stick a driver in a car that has done 12 races across two seasons

and predecessors have also struggled in that same car and he has given one wet weekend in Australia and then one sprint weekend, which obviously comes with fewer practice sessions in China and he's disappointing and he's underperforming, why should we be surprised? Of course he's underperforming. Like, he's, yeah, that's what happened. Perez had over 200 races worth of experience in his career. He had so many podiums and race experience before he got to Red Bull.

Lawson has had 12 races before he got to Australia. He then has a disrupted weekend there, a disrupted weekend here, and he's struggling. Yeah. What do you want me to say? It was too slow. There's not really, it's not great analysis, but equally that's it. Like, it's not like he has the pace and isn't able to show it in qualifying.

It's not like he's qualifying well, but then his tire wearing the races is letting him down. It's not like he's unable to make overtakes, but clearly has the pace to get past some of these cars. He's just slow. Like if you, let's just say exercise here, all of the 20 cars, you just put them in blank liveries and you had no idea who was in what car. The performance remained the same, but they're all blank liveries. Would anyone watch that race and think, oh, Lawson was in a top car but just couldn't get the most out of it? You would assume he was driving a third salber. And that's where he is right now. That's where he is right now. The reasons why we can get into, but he's just slow. Yeah, I suppose in Formula One, when the season is this close, so it is literally almost a second that separates maybe finishing sixth or 16th when it comes to something like qualifying. It's so easy when you're not comfortable,

when you're unable to feel good and at one with the car to understand the tyre, where you haven't hang enough running to drop something like eight or nine tenths. This is tenths of the second we're talking about, remember? He is too slow, but the margin of being too slow in the current season is so minute that it's incredibly punishing the moment you are not on your Absolutely how you get. Let's take our final break on this episode. On the other side, it's Moment of the Race.

Welcome back, everyone, to the final part of today's episode. It's time for Moment of the Race, where myself and Sam will give our moments of the Chinese Grand Prix and then we'll hand over to some of our Discord submitters that we've selected. Thank you to everyone who's put a submission in. As always, really appreciate it. We'll get some of those very shortly. Sam, what was your moment of the race?

Keep it super simple. One word. Chal absolutely love. I love the one-off, chow, as he's just passing everyone. He's having a good time. He's 18 years old. He's driving a Formula One car. Feel good about making some overtakes.

He's having its first proper race. Excuse me. It's actually able to thrive and show off the car and have some speed. And why not have a bit of fun with it as he gets past a few of these other competitors? So love it. Love it. It reminds me of the office scene when they're all saying, chow to Gabe. I have a great time listening to it.

Ciao. I'd like that to become his personal. Now. You're just Gabe? No, no, just chow. Like that chow is his personality. Okay, that makes more sense. There were, look, there weren't many great on-track moments.

There were a few good overtakes that would be in contention here. I've already mentioned the Ockon overtake where he's got a couple of wheels on the grass. I thought that was very impressive. A lot of, as you put it at the start of this episode, Sam, petulant team radio that could be a contender. I think I might go for a combination of the Ferrari team radios, which was we had the Charles LeClaire one where he was saying, yeah, you've told me 10 or 15 times, mate, I know. But it followed Lewis Hamilton basically saying the same thing

earlier on in the Grand Prix where he was asking, give me some feedback, what can I do? And the response is you can be quicker in this turn. And he's like, well, yeah, you've already told me that one, mate. Like he did the best customer service voice at that point. like, yes, I'm aware of that. Have you got anything else for me? So just those two combined Ferrari Team Radio winning again.

Well done, Ferrari. You're winging at something. Let's move on to our Discord submitters. Who have we got up first, Sam? Oh, we've had many a submission and many a great name. We're kicking off. I can't believe he's here. It's Yon Rink's Ghost.

Morning all. Yon Rins ghost here. And my moment of the race was when my Mac delivery turned up at my breakfast. not loving this race I didn't know where that was going No that was such a good roundoff there How can a ghost order at delivery How is he doing a submission on a podcast mate

That's I know that makes sense That's perfect sense I would like a bit delivery now I love McDonald's if you're asking Feel free your sponsor the show Yucca Ring Let's hear what your order is Or Yoko Riggs or Yoko Riggs

Orricks ghost rather Let's go what your order is Can I have one 1970 World Championship Please Yes, serve it to me post-mortem. Thank you. Our friends, the uncommon hoodlum. Everybody laughed at me.

All my friends made fun of me for keeping Hasse in my fantasy lineup, but I said, no, you gotta believe in the Hasts are playing. You know what? I was right. Lock on and Berman came home in the points for Hasse. Let's go. Yeah, I don't need to hear any more of it. Thank you very much.

Cleverman. Sick to death of it. Yeah, well done, Hasse. They really did bounce back well. And Kamatsu, also, I really enjoyed him giving the shortest answers possible to the Sky Comic Tree team as they had him as the team boss on call today. He was like that throughout the whole weekend. It was.

They also didn't hide anything, though, when they were like, is this the one stop now? Is this what you're doing? And he's like, yep. Do you think the tires will hold on? Yes, we do. No, I don't think they'll hold on. That's why we're doing the one stop. Good question.

Yeah. Well, done Kamatsu. Coming up next is Skugori. Donkey. Hi guys. My moment of the race was at lap one when Charlotte Claire crashes into the side of Lewis Hamilton and loses front end play and seemingly being faster. Great Italian logic as always.

Yeah, as we've already mentioned, what was in that end plate to make it so bad? Yeah, just wait. That's all it was. That's definitely going to be the new question of the week, which is what was in Ferrari's end plate to make it so bad. Hopium. Spaghetti. From Spaghetti dinner lady.

Served up real nice. Right. Coming up next, we've got Big Easy in brackets, Yukistan. Oh. Hello, my late breaking lads and lasses. It's Big Easy. Man, I got to tell you,

moment of the race is probably when V-Carb decided to go from Hero to Zero all in one moment. It's ridiculous at this point. Warren Mechia, is really taking the Ferrari strategy to the extreme. Yes, I agree with all that. That doesn't seem like a moment of the race for a Yuki Stan. That feels like whatever the opposite moment of the races. Yes, maybe he's just so hurt by what was going on.

It's all he can think about. Very valid point. We've only got time for one more. So sorry everyone that did submit, but again, thank you to everyone that does sang Wang. We do listen to them all. So they get heard by us. So thank you to everyone that does submit.

it means the world that you always show that support. We're going to round off with Matt Coxie. Audi, my fellow late breakers, moment of the race from China. I don't think there's a great deal to choose from, but maybe Yuki Sunoda's front wing just spontaneously exploding. Kind of reminded me of what happened to Sebastian Buemi

in 2010 when his two front tires also just randomly exploded off the car. Very strange. Yeah, when he got radio, when Yuki got radio about the front wing, the first thing that came out of his mouth was. Don't blame me. I didn't catch that.

Did you not? No, no, I must have not been paying attention for those three seconds. Oh, that is so you as well. Yeah. Well, yeah, maybe it's just second teams of Red Bull and the Chinese Grand Prix. Don't mix for some reason. You don't see that happen a lot, though. The way that was a lot battered the one side of that front wing was really unusual.

I don't know if it's because you've been following a car for so long, and it just weakened that front wing or maybe in the pit stop, they must have been something. I don't know. But, yeah, really unusual. True. At least V-Cab managed to destroy his race before that happened, because that would have been really devastating if he was in the point. So, you know, maybe V-Cab was saving him. Good job, V-cab. Thank you again to everyone who's submitted. We'll be back with submissions in about a week and a half's time for the Japanese preview, where we'll be asking you for who is under pressure. I think that's going to do it for this review episode, Sam. We've already mentioned power rankings will be recording the that one tomorrow and of course we'll be back with the standard episode midweek.

We will and I'm off to the garden centre after this so it's going to be a really great time. You know, everyone loves a garden centre. Looking for a little flower to go in a pot apparently so that's going to be just delightful. Garden centre is a good place to start for that, you know. Yeah, logical. If I was looking to get my car repaired, maybe don't go to the garden centre. No, just look for scrap bits on the, yeah, before. They got to find them for everyone to watch an update.

Thanks for listening, folks. Please do join us on Patreon as we mention if you're going to hear our power rankings and supports the show massively. You get loads of other stuff in there as well. Ag free episodes, birthday shoutouts, Bill of Breaking, historic reviews, loads of stuff. So get on joining him. If you want to get involved in the conversation,

Discord, the links in the description below. You can hear your voice on the podcast. Or if you're going to follow us on social media, late breaking F on everywhere and on YouTube. It's been a great time talking to you, of course, about another great race. Make sure you join this for the rest of the season. In the meantime, I'm being Samuel Sage.

And I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late. Ciao. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.