The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2025 Saudi Arabian GP Race Review

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

Ben and Sam break down the Saudi Arabian GP where Piastri charged to victory and took the lead of the Drivers' Championship! They discuss all the action, from his first corner incident with Verstappen, Norris' recovery drive, the contrasting performances of the Ferrari drivers, and a double points finish for Williams... 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! Save more, earn more—up to 4.48% AER (variable). Interest rates are tiered, with the top rate for balances over £1M. Each tiered rate applies to the portion within that range. New Tide members get these rates free for 6 months; after that, your Tide plan’s rates apply. For full offer T&Cs visit tide.co/savings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. And welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking, today reviewing the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix won by Oscar Piastri, taking his third race win of the season and the first win this season that hasn't been won from Paul. Max Verstappen in second place and Charles LeCler rounding out the podium. Ferrari's first podium of the season, excluding any sprint races. How would you find that one, mate?

A bit of a mixed bag, actually, you know. There were some thrilling battles, some thrilling chases. We did also have some lulls in the race where there was some kind of two second gap, two second gap, two second gap. Sounds like the start of a rap song that does. And then we had some quite clever strategy where some people were running very long, where some decided to pick very early in the vanquish was safety car. There's a lot to talk about here. Some of it not positive. Some of it very positive. And also we get a little chance to rip apart the, the stewarder gang for their

ruling on penalty. So it's going to be a mixed bag in this podcast. Indeed. I'll be real. I'm going to be extremely positive. I didn't love that one. I, so there were a lot of overtakes. And I think when we'll go back on this race in a few years time and we'll see the number

of overtakes, we'll go. Oh, that must have been an all right race. So many of them were slam dunk strategy versus strategy over. There was very little two drivers on track on the same strategy going for the same bit of circuit. So I can't say this one was one of my favorites. But you're right. We have got plenty to discuss. Imagine watching your favorite film, right?

But you're not actually watching it. You stood outside the door and you can hear it playing through the wall. Now, you know that you're kind of enjoying it. And you're like, oh, this is all right. I know this bit. Really wish I could watch it, though, because that'll make it really. really good. That's what this F-Bong race was like. It's like, it's all my bits of it that you're like, kind of enjoying it, but it's not as good as sitting there and actually watching it be fully

decent. So yeah, some ups, some downs. An interesting battle in the midfield that we'll get to a little bit later on with Williams versus the Racing Bulls team. We've got Mercedes to discuss who finished this race in fifth and sixth. Ferrari, as mentioned, getting their first podium in an actual race so far this season. But we'll start with Oscar Piastri out front. We'll get the to the first corner incident in a moment, but just to reflect on his race performance, obviously took the lead as part of the pit stops where Vastappan took that five second penalty, looked fairly comfortable from there, didn't necessarily extend his advantage very much on the rest of the field, but never seemed to be in much problems either. What did you make

of his win and consequently him taking the championship lead? First half of the Grand Prix for Piastri, I was really unsure if he was playing the long game with tyres and just trying to stick around that kind of one-and-half second mark to one-second mark from Bastappen. And I hope that Verstappen is pushing to try and get that gap out after he picked up that five-second time penalty and going, it's all right, I'll just sit here, I'll let my tyres do the work.

And the moment you push too hard, I'll capitalize, I'll push forward again, and I'll start to reel the gaping very quickly. But he came out after the race. And he's quite honest, actually, which is quite refreshing, where he said, yeah, I just destroyed my tyres in the slit one. I had no tyres left. And Max looked like he had the upper hand.

I thought that's not great from Oscar Piascri. We've had a few races, especially last season, where tyreware was not to his benefit. He was struggling in a few races last year on tyres, where others around him were able to make the most of what the Pirelli Rubble was able to do. Piaastri not so much previously. And that's kind of bit him here again.

And he's gotten away with it. He's got away with it because Max Verstaffing had to take a five-second time penalty. because if he didn't, there's every chance that made pit around the same time. The undercut isn't enough. And Max is right there with Piastri from the moment that pit happened. So a big of a blessing in terms of there being a five second time penalty. But his start was electric. He kept the pressure wrong.

Once the pit stop did happen and he was on that hard and more durable tire, he cruised it. He had total control, exactly what he was doing. A few great moment of comms from Piastri as well, such as there's an individual with a red flag up on a balcony. I mean, please get it removed. I keep thinking the race is about to be red flagged. And can Landon Norris basically get out of my way now

because I mean it's dirty air and it's killing my tires? Wings the race, takes the championship lead. And this is where I think it's a big plus of Piastri, but it's a major slap in the face for Landon-Norris. After race one, Landon-Norris, 25 points. Oscar Piastri, two points, right? That's a 23-point difference there in favour of Land-O-Norris. We leave Race 5, and now Oscar Piastri is on 99 points.

And I think Landon Norris is on 87 points. I think 29, I think. 89 points. So there's a 10 point gap there. So that's a 33 point swing over five races. And Landon Norris's performances have been first, second, second, third, fourth. Whereas Piastri is now one his third race already in this season. And the only time he's basically not being near the podium or off it, sorry, was when he had that

acting in Australia, which could have happened to anyone. He got the worst end of a deal. So his turnaround, his performance is going into this break, sensational. This is the mindset of someone who might go on to the championship, and he did what he needed to do to close it out. It was not his best performance, but a really solid drive from Priyastri, you could take the win. Rounds out an excellent triple header. I mean, that's two wins, one podium on top of that as well.

And you're right, he's obviously turned around the points deficit he had to Lando Norris and indeed claim the championship lead as a result of this Grand Prix. he's been excellent these last three weeks. And in terms of qualifying, he's been on it, in terms of the races, he's been on it. And he claims back-to-back wins for the first time in his career. He's the only driver to have multiple wins so far this season. That was true going into this race. And he's just extended that further.

The Grand Prix itself, I think he did a very good job. I know he wasn't particularly happy with that first stint. But in all honesty, I think he needed to do what he needed. to do. He was staying within a couple of seconds of Max Verstappen, which we know the five second penalty was in effect. So that was always going to be enough, even with Verstappen trying an ambitious overcut. I know he got a little bit closer earlier in the stint where he would sort of get into DRS range, occasionally get to maybe six temps and then sort of fall back a bit. That wasn't sustainable for any driver in any team in this sort of Grand Prix. We saw that even though, even though,

So tire wear was a little bit more difficult to manage, it was still far more effective to go about that strategy than it was to add in a second stop, which was a shame, I think, for the Grand Prix as a whole. But I think Piastri did what he needed to do on that first stint. Second stint, I don't know what margin he could have won this race by, but I'm pretty confident it was more seconds than what he won it by, given that he had done a considerable amount of the race on that hard tire and then on the last lap was still able to set the fastest lap of the race. Yeah, I mean, he had some all right pace. And if he needed to pull out more, he would have been able to.

So I thought he was excellent. And like I said, that just it caps off what has been a great three weeks. It has. Let's talk about the instinct in turn one, Ben. Firstly, right call, do you think, from the stewards? I'm against the majority on this. I thought this was the wrong call. I don't think a penalty should have been applied here.

You think that they were closing off alongside and Piastri didn't leave the space and that meant that Vestappen had to take off the road? Yeah, this is where, like, my interpretation of what racing should be doesn't coincide with what the rules say. Within the letter of the law, yes, it should have been a penalty. But based on what I think racing should be, no, I don't think it should have been.

I thought they were side by side going into the corner. It didn't look that way because Piastri had the ape. whereas Vastappen was taking the wider line, but I think they were side by side. And my belief as to what should and shouldn't be penalised has always been the same. If Piastri leaves that space and Vastappen cannot make the corner, as Piastri 40 wouldn't be able to, at that point, Vestappen gets a penalty, 100%. No doubt about it. But because Piastri doesn't leave him the space, we'd never find out the answer to whether

Vastappen could have made that corner or not, in which case, I think it's completely fair that he was keeping the position because he was forced out there. I know that some people think, and the rules say that if you are on the inside and you claim the apex and it doesn't matter how far you come back from, that means you can do whatever the hell you want into the corner and the guy on the outside can, I can't say what I want to say. Make himself a cup of tea. Make himself a cup of tea. That's a far better phrase than what I was going to use. But that's just not the way I like to go racing. So in terms of my interpretation, what I want racing to be, no, I don't think they got it right within, in terms of consistency of what they have

applied over the last year or so, yes, it should have been. Yeah, it's a really interesting way to look at it. And I think you're right that you have to distinguish between what do you want racing to be as A and what do the laws of Formula One as B say to the letter. They applied the letter of the law. They saw that one driver who was technically behind at the apex ran wide and gaining advantage and therefore it's a time penalty. I am very much in your category as well, Ben, I believe that actually Piastri overshot the corner. He shut the door on Max Verstappen, and there was actually nowhere for Stappen could go anyway. And like you, I would prefer to have wheel to wheel racing where they both stay on the racetrack and spaces left for both drive.

We see how long that battle goes on for until one of them has to sloshing behind the other. You never know how that might say out. We could get half a lap of iconic racing of these who drivers will to will, but we're not allowed it because you're allowed to let the other car run off the racetrack. Do you think the race was altered slightly by Max Verstappen being giving an immediate five-second time penalty rather than being instructed to hand a place back to Oscar Piastro? I don't think so. Maybe the gap is bigger, but I think we were heading to this result anyway.

For reference as well, I know he got a five-second penalty. here and I don't think a penalty should have applied at all. But if there is any penalty, I would much rather the stewards just say give the place back rather than a time penalty because you just lose complete control over how much of a penalty that is going to be. As it happened, we essentially did get the place swap in that Vastappen didn't lose any other positions as a result of the five second penalty. But we've seen in the past, these time penalties can be, can widely vary in terms of how much of a penalty actually, ends up being. I remember quite vividly, like a couple of years ago when Carlos

Signs got a five-second penalty in the Australian Grand Prix, safety car comes out at the end. He drops out of the points because all of the cars are within, you know, tempts of each other. Here, because he had the lead and he had clean air, he was just able to dictate the pace of the race and ultimately get enough of a gap on Russell that it didn't end up mattering. But I honestly don't think it would have changed much. I think we were heading for this result anyway. Yeah, I agree. I don't think it changed the result of the race. I wonder if it will have spiced up how the race sort of played out. I actually do think genuinely that Max Verstappen had the legs of Oscar Piastri a little bit at the start of this Grand Prix.

And I would like to hear a clear warning from stewards to driver before a penalties immediately applied. And maybe we didn't hear it. Maybe there was some kind of radio conversation that we weren't shown. It does happen, of course, if you're new to Formula One, only certain radios are played out to the public. We get a selection of what the TV director essentially wants to play. So maybe there was. But from a public point of view, we didn't hear anything back. And I would much rather hear a max.

We have been told by stewards to hand the place back. We have one warning. If you fail to do this by X, we will receive a five second time penalty. X condition has not met. Five second time penalty is applied. To me, that is a much more logical and sensible way to do it. Okay, fine. Let's then look at the comparison.

I'm jumping around a bit here between the Fasap and penalty. And I go back into the race thing over here and the Liam Lawson penalty. What do you make of the difference between the two of those? I think there should be the same penalty. If you think, I don't think Vestappan should have been penalised, but if you think both are penalty worthy, it should be the same penalty. But the reason why I'm fine with Liam Lawson getting a penalty, even if I think it should have been five rather than 10 seconds, or ideally, again, you just switch the positions back,

is that Lawson could have made the corner. They were racing hard, but Lawson was, you know, he was very close to making the corner. In fact, the commentary team on Sky thought that he did. I was fairly clear that he didn't, but it was close. And the point is Lawson had the racing room to make the corner and he couldn't. So that's why I was fine with that penalty and not the Vastappan one. But if you think both should be penalties, then I've got no reason to believe they should be different. Yeah, I think that's fair analysis.

They are different in their maneuvers. You're right that racing room was left for Liam Lawson. And he chose to take the shorter line across the corner and gaining a by a vote. advantage in that sense. My issue sits with the skewerg wording, the leaving the track to gaining advantage. It's exactly the same wording applied to both incidents here, implying that it's the same incident. And to me, then, you should be applying the same penalty. Whether you agree that it should be a penalty or not, when you break the same rule, the

punishment should be the same. There's no need to have a kind of a, yeah, you broke it at 50%, and you broke it at 80%, and therefore 80% gets a bigger penalty than 50%. you broke the rule, you get the punishment. That's my point of view on whether you agree that this should have been a penalty or not, to regards of where we stand. There's once again inconsistencies around the stewardship. There's once again no clarity as to what the penalty service should be when you do something wrong like this.

And it's just a bit of a picker mix of what they decide they want to actually apply to who. Is a lap one penalty still less than a full race penalty? Why is that the case? Is someone overtaking any difference to someone being overtaken? Why is that the case? again, such a lack of clarity, not really going up from the stewards. Really interested to hear you as listening as your thoughts. You can get it down in the comments on the likes of Spotify from Patreon, let's know.

Be curious to know what you think of all the penalties and how that should play down. Yeah, and I appreciate it as well. I think we are in the minority with the Vastappan penalty or non-penalties as we think it should have been. We put a poll out on Twitter, for example, and that came back with more yeses. he should be forced to give the position back rather than no, he shouldn't. So it will be interesting to hear people's opinions on that. The other McLaren of Lando Norris,

obviously we discussed at length in yesterday's qualifying review, his crash that saw him start P10. A few questions about whether he would go with an alternate strategy for this Grand Prix. The answer to that was yes. He started on the hard tire, whereas all the other nine drivers in front of him started on the mediums.

He naturally went longer into the Grand Prix. than pretty much everyone else, went to the medium tires late on, made up some positions, didn't quite get back onto the podium, but does finish six positions higher up than where he started for 12 points. What did you make of his recovery? It's not a bad recovery. Fourth place is solid, all right? I'm not going to be too critical on him. I think he should have got Charlotte Clare. I'm going to come out and basically be blunt about that. I think a podium was on the car. He should have attained it. When they stopped pretty much in the same lap, went on to opposing time.

and that medium was clear that when it was fresh, it was a fast tire. I think Landon Gorence should have got the job done on Charlotte Clare. Despite it being really rapid, that McLaur is a better car, and Landon Norris is a very, very good racing driver. He should have what it takes to get past Charlotte Clare. Before that, there were a few issues that I had. He was helped by the crash at the start, which moved him up two places. That's okay.

My bigger issue was the fight with Lewis Hamilton. When you get that silly, like the RS chicken, that phrase comes out, again, battle into the final corner turn 27. And the DRS detection zone is on the exit of turn 27. So the start, finish straight is where you hit the DRS Cection Zone. The first time, Lewis Hamilton is savvying enough to realize, yeah, I don't mind you ever taking me to this last corner because I'll have it straight back again. Land on or something that needs to learn.

Right there and then, I can't let that happen again. You need to make sure that I'm the car behind going into the start, finish straight, and I'll get my DRS. Second time around, Lewis Hamilton is a little bit on the line. lying a little bit naughty with how he so is that car. I've got a question on this. Yeah, far away. Australian Grand Prix last year,

Fernando Alonso versus George Russell. George Russell, if you remember, crashes directly behind Fernando Alonzo. Alonzo is given a penalty. I didn't think it was fair, but Alonzo was given a penalty because he broke earlier than he had done in previous laps.

What's the difference between that and this? Other than Norris doesn't crash, because the action... That's your answer. That's your answer. But it shouldn't be. No, you're right. It shouldn't be.

But the FIA will only investigate it if something has gone wrong. They won't look into it. The telemetry will be there. Because Lewis Hamilton did lay off that throttle. He may not have a break, but you leg off that throttle certainly early than he has done. And Norris had to take a base in maneuver. He had to pull out quickly and get down the inside there. And it could have been a monumental crash.

And Lewis Hamilton's got previous on this bigger the track. You remember 2021? You remember Max Verstapp and Lewis Hamilton going down that bit before. And I'm not going to blame you the driver at that point, because it's a long time ago, but there was naughtiness and there was contact. And the same thing could have been said here, but Landon Norris essentially had to be almost told by his race engineer,

how to get the job done. And I kind of think, actually, you should have backed off a bit more going to that last call, and let Lewis Hamilton drive through at one more racing speed. Again, Hamilton, I'm blaming for the slight break check there, which is very naughty. And Landon Morris should have had that job down. Fresh attires in terms of the hard,

becoming better at that point of the race. The car is significantly better. Hamilton has been struggling all race long, continues to struggle all race long. That for me was his biggest weak point in that comeback through the field. Again, like I said at the start, I do think he's sharing got Charlotte Clare. I think Charlotte Clare did a brilliant, brilliant job of holding on to the podium. Get past Russell and hold on to that podium to beat Landon Norris.

I think that was fantastic. So a good comeback, but not the best it could have been. I was overall pretty happy with the recovery from Landau Norris. I think you're right that the third place finish is probably the ultimate. I don't think he was getting further than. that. But on the whole, I think he was pretty clinical throughout the field. Yes, he did gain two positions as a result of that first lap crash between Sonoda and

Ghazley, but the way it crumbles sometimes. And I think for the most part, he was pretty clinical getting those overtakes done. The one that took him a little bit longer was the Lewis Hamilton one. I think if it lasted one more lap, I would be more critical of the way Norris handled it. But I think he got by just about in time. it cost him maybe a couple of seconds overall, which you could argue might have been the difference between him and LeClaire at the end of the Grand Prix.

But overall, I was pretty content with what Norris was able to do from 10th. Again, the issue was he was starting from 10th. And that will be even more frustrating for Norris is that his pace was good here. And if he had started out front, if he had started second, he would have been at the very least in the mix for the Grand Prix win. I didn't see this weekend any reason why Norris couldn't win this race more or less than Piastri. They looked fairly similarly paced all the way throughout the weekend and that qualifying crash has already hurt him. All right, let's take our first break on this episode.

On the other side, we're going to chat Ferrari. Oh, good. Ah, here we go. Welcome back, everyone. I would not like to be in a position if I'm Freddie Vass leading Ferrari and someone would have told him the beginning of the season, your first podium of 2025, excluding sprints, will be round five at Saudi Arabia. Not great, but they finally got there.

They finally got to the top three. Three exactly, Charles Lecler, finishing this race behind for Stappan and Piastri. Lewis Hamilton further down in seventh behind the two Mercedes. Should we start with Charles Lecler? First podium of 2025, finally got there. Thoughts on his race? Yeah, I thought Lecler. was brilliant. He was excellent. And we sing Charlotte Clur's praises it feels like every single

race weekend. The guy is pushing that Ferrari, is maximizing it. I don't think he could got anything else out of that Ferrari. The way he pulled up to the back of George Russell, got the job done and so quickly that gap was opening out, you know, three, four, five seconds, so quickly. Russell's ties, he went through with them so fast. The clerk had done exactly the same thing. He didn't. His pace in the first thing, once he got into that clean air, he sent it into the call-down room. Once I was leading in the race, I just had so much more front end, I could just keep pushing and pushing. And he held into those medium ties so much longer than everyone around him at the front end of that race.

And that's the difference maker. That's what allowed him to kind of get the jump on everyone at the second half of the race. He was excellent. Also, married along brilliantly by the wonderful radio after ever taking George Russell. You know, great move, Shao. Thank you, Brian. An excellent bit of radio again from Charlotte, Clair in another race. He is, again, pretty much a young son here.

of Formula One for another season, where the Ferrari can't deliver, they've once again created a car that won't win a championship, they've already let too many points slip to the point where you have to start asking, when do they start moving on to 2026? He is driving out of his skin.

I cannot ask for more. What can Charlotte Clair do more than this? I don't know. The fact that he's beaten Lewis Hamilton by over 30 seconds here today, over half a minute, more than a pit stop, that's a demolishing. That is a demolishing.

There's only so much she could do. I thought LeClau was superb. I said in qualifying, I don't think he could have got much more out of that car. And I'm going to say the same thing about the Grand Prix itself. The way in which he, the end of the medium stint was the best part of this Grand Prix for LeClau. We saw nearly everyone duck into the pits for hard ties around the same point in the Grand Prix. Ferrari were ambitious going as long as they did on the, on the medium tie, which is apparently the only strat they can do now, so appreciate that, Ferrari.

But it was the right one. And the way in which you had Lando Norris in second, three and a half seconds back. And as soon as everyone else had kind of cleared off and done their pit stop, I was like, okay, three and a half seconds, that will come down in five laps. It didn't. Like, it came down a little bit. But for the most part, LeCler on what should have been the worst tire at that point in the Grand Prix, he held on to the pace that he needed to really effectively

to the point where he was, what was it, he was clear of Antonelli when he comes out of the pits into fifth and he got the overtake done that he needed to on George Russell. I couldn't have asked for anything more from Charles LeClaire here at this race. I think he's always done pretty well at this Grand Prix. So yeah, full credit. And it's a shame that such a good performance is still only good for third in that Ferrari.

fair play fair play i mean he was what less than 10 seconds away from the fight for the lead after being caught around george russell for a while being stuck they're having to run a different strategy it's a brilliant turnaround for charlerclair he will be inside very very disappointed that third is all this ferrari's good for it's such a it's Ferrari all over but it's so annoying that you've got charler lecler who has been there for years as this loyal soldier and he is an excellent driver. And operationally, they've let him down so often.

But they've sorted that out. Their pit stops were phenomenal all day. Two seconds. Two seconds from Ferrari. Yep. And Lewis Hamilton's one, the slower one, was 2.1. What do you want? What do you want?

They are on Red Bull pace from a couple of years ago in terms of these pit stops. And it's still not enough because the car's not quick. And the strategy is actually. actually okay. The strategy calls are good at the moment. Even with their weird Delta, Bravo, Oscar, Papa, you know, Quebec calls that they might be making over that radio, the car is just not fast enough. There's something in it, but I don't think they know how to unlock it. It's just this ongoing puzzle of like you've got all of these different things that you need, strategy, pit stops, a fast car, fast drivers. And as soon as you like move one to like in the yes

position, one of the others just falls back down. And it's just this ongoing. going game that they're playing that they can never win? You know that riddle of you've got a fox, a chicken and some grain on one side of the river? You've only got one boat and you have to get them all to the other side of the river without the other eating the other. That's Ferrari. They're just stuck permanently with the grain and the fox on one side. And yeah, you do like 40 different steps and then you realize that you're actually where you're

starting. Like at the start at the Ferrari. God damn it! You mentioned Lewis Hamilton as part of that. He finished seventh here behind the two Mercedes. drivers. Look to be closing in on Antonelli in the second stint, but as soon as he got to within about two,

two and a half seconds, that gap seemed to not change at all. Your thoughts on Hamilton, who seemed to have another struggling weekend. This is his worst weekend of the season. Qualifying not good enough. Race pace, really poor.

He had a good start and that helped him. He got out in front of science. And that meant the accent of cleaning air because I think he could have him even further back if he got stuck behind that Ferrari. that William, sorry. He could not touch the Mercedes where the clerk could beat both of them comfortably.

He had better tyres than the cars all in front of him, couldn't get the gap down. Took him ages to close the gap down to Hajjar while Antingelli caught up and passing very quickly. 30 plus seconds away from your teammate who's picking up a podium in your P7. If that was for Stauffin and Perez,

I'll be laying into Perez, and I've got to do the same for Hamilton here. I get that the car isn't clicking with you perfectly. I get that you're in a new team. but you're a seven-time world champion. You have 105 race wings. This is not good enough now. It's not good enough.

You've had leeway, you've had time, you've had adjustment. Lewis Hamilton, right now, you are not good enough for what's going on at the moment. And that is not a big enough support of what Ferrari need. They haven't got a race-winging car. But if they're going to start progressing and develop him, he's not delivering. He needs to start finding that pace that he's got. It's another instance where qualifying is really dictating what happens on race day, saw it somewhat in Bahrain where even though overtaking was far easier than what we had here at

Saudi Arabia, as soon as Hamilton had got all of the overtakes done that he needed to, because he'd been outqualified by cars that he probably should have been ahead of, he was 10 seconds behind Lecler. And at that point, you're not going to make up that 10 second gap on a driver as good as Lecler. It's a similar story here, except the overtakes were even more difficult to come by. And, you know, if he starts fourth, if he starts fifth and alongside LaClair, there is a reasonable chance that he keeps pace with him. But he's not. And that's that's the problem that he's facing. Like, as mentioned as part of the preview, this race was always going to come down to whether that increased tyreware was going to lead to some more frequent overtaking,

some different strategy plays, or would it just lead to more management from all the drivers? ultimately we got the second of those two situations. There was just a lot of tire management going on. And even though Hamilton did look pretty good in that second stint, it doesn't matter when you're so far away from your teammate by that point. We've had it twice in two weeks where there seems to be a part of the Grand Prix where Hamilton, it starts to click for him. And it's just coming too late and it's coming too infrequently.

and he needs to find a way that from start to finish on a race weekend, he's on it versus his teammate because it's just not happening at the moment. Yeah, I actually have to disagree with you a little bit about the qualifier being the difference maker. He got right behind Kimi Antingelli, pretty much from the second corner of the race, and he couldn't keep pace with him. Where Charlotte Clare was able to stick right with Russell and then pass Russell and pull away from Russell, and Kimmy Antigley was nothing. It wasn't part of the story.

Lewis Hamilton couldn't even match Kimi Antingelli's pace. of a track that Kimmy Antigelli has not been to, has the understanding of properly, in terms of a Formula One race weekend. Lewis Hamilton was within two seconds after about five laps, and the gap grew, and it grew, and it grew. And even when he put on the new refresher tyres, it took him so long to start getting to that point

where he was matching Antingelli, and he was a second a lap slower in race pace and LeCler. A second! That's not good enough from Lewis Hamilton's point of view. I don't think even if he started in front of Lecler, it was a matted. I think he can finish behind Lecler comfortably, probably behind Russell, and there's a real chance he finishes behind Antingelli.

This is his worst performance at the season. He came into the weekend saying he needs a brain transplant to fix this. Lewis Hamilton is a sports psychologist. He needs to get him to put it together and start seeing what Hamilton can do. Because if this goes on for the whole season, it's pretty damning. My point about qualifying is mainly LeCleur was able to pull off the strategy that he was able to because of where he qualified. and as soon as they knew that they were going to have a fairly big gap to get him back into the race ahead of Antonelli,

they could have probably gone on another five laps and he still would have had enough time to get ahead of Antonelli. I think my point is that Hamilton could never do that strategy because if he does that exact same strategy, he's coming out behind the Williams guys, behind all of them, and he's going to have to work his way all through the traffic. And at that point, he's going to be in the same situation that if he does all of that, is a big if, he'd have used up his tires anyway just to get back to the same point. Lecler is driving well enough in qualifying that he's at least giving Ferrari some options about what to do in the race. Hamilton isn't doing that at the moment. No, he once again, another whole race in Nomang's land, essentially for Lewis Hamilton,

just sat in this weird gap between the front guys who can all keep pace with each other and the teams who simply aren't fasting after race them. It sounds like Hamilton might not be a contender for driver. of the day. But we're about to find out who is. The verdict is in. You're the driver

of the day. You're the driver of the day. You're good at driving. Have you got? I'm going easy. It's Charlotte Clair. He shouldn't be in third place. I think whilst the race place

of that throw was really really good, he shouldn't be that close to Bastapung and to Piastri. He shouldn't have held off Landon and Norris and he should not have demolished them a saying to that easily. And his team might be in that. far back, it tells you everything you need to know. He was sensational this race day.

Easy dubs for Charlotte. Yeah, I essentially bought it down to Leclair or Piastri. I didn't think there was a third contender. I went with Leclair as well. Both of them did their jobs excellently well. In terms of the midfield and further back, I didn't really think there was a contender that was quite on the level of those two. Carlos Sines, obviously, I think, has got the most out of this Grand Prix that he possibly could have done. So he had a, he had a great one. Also, great teamwork from him. Yeah, we'll discuss that a little bit later on because, yes, teamwork certainly played

into Williams getting both of their drivers into the points. Fernando Alonzo in 11th, I know he didn't score any points, but I think he's, well, we'll get on to that. He's probably got the most out of that Aston Martin, to be honest. Yeah, yeah, that car is not good. All right, from best driver of the day to worst driver of the day. Get in the bin, bin, bin, been, best driver of the day You're stuck at driving.

Have you got on this one? Yeah, trickier, I think actually, then best driver of the day. There's a couple that boils down to for me. I think Lewis Hamilton is genuinely a contender. To me that far off, he's just simply, it's not okay. Yuki Singoda, we'll get onto it later, but the crash is his fault.

some people I think might shout Liam Lorsing out but I don't think he deserved that 10 second time penalty and therefore that set him back further than it was he was relatively close to Hager as well for most of the weekend Hager was just a little bit better so I'm going to go to Lewis Hamilton I am going to go with Jack Duhan I do have some sympathy for the drivers

that qualified quite low down the grid because there was very little they could do that strategy call for the safety car was a bad idea. I, yeah, I don't know how much difference it would have made either way on this one, because Esteban Ockon, for example, took the same strategies, finished one position behind Bermann. I think ultimately we're doing, because doing and Bortoletto ended up like a tenth separating

them at the end, and I think they maybe had the worst races between them. but I think that Alpine in their hands of Gasly could have scored points. I don't think that Salber would have scored points in the hands of God. So I'm going to go with Dewin as a result of that. Also, again, just playing to this whole strategy, didn't end up mattering for Dewan or Bortoleto. They went different ways. Like, Dewan made that second stop for a new set of hard tires.

Bortoletto didn't. And they end up separated by a 10th, proving that I don't think anyone outside of the top six or seven teams could have done much about this race. He did beat Gassie, though. He did beat Gassley. That is very true. Can't argue with that. No.

And what about big brain strap? 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 team make. Anything to consider here? Yeah, I'll go for a serious one.

and it is the one I just mentioned with Carlos Sites. I thought the teamwork to keep Albon in the DRS was a really clever play. I think there's every risk there that Carlos Sites were to drive off into the sunset. Alba would be left vulnerable. And I think Hager was on a bit of a stormer at the end of that Grand Prix. And without the kind of the protection of the two drivers together, they may have risked losing both those positions to Hagell, let alone one of them.

So great call. Well done to Williams for actually working as a team. It took Crofty on the Sky F1 a moment to really understand what was going on. but shock but at least Martin Branden was there to kind of help him and guide him through to the understanding

that we all got the first time I thought that was a great call I agree and I've almost got the same thing the only difference is you've gone for the good part of it I've gone I've just remembered what you're saying

I've gone for the what the hell happened on the last lap you got really lucky Williams because Carlos signs I don't even I don't know why whether it was Carlos Sines decided, Alex has got enough left to deal with Isaac now, I'm going off, or whether it was something to do, I don't know what the reason would be. But for whatever reason, that DRS strategy

wasn't in effect in the final lap. Carlos Seins was like two seconds up the road, and Alex Albin still has Isaac Hadjar behind him to the point where Hadjar was close to a cheeky dive bomb into the final corner. And if he pulled that off, There would be question marks because, again, the strategy was brilliant. Yeah. You just, you were one lap short. Yeah, it's like Albuquer suddenly started to drown and Carlos Sykes swam off with the life preserver. It looks that.

I assume there's some sort of explanation for it. I wouldn't be surprised if traffic of a lapped car maybe came into play. Because there was a cut of cars back then that were very far back. I don't know. I mean, Piastri wasn't lapping Bortoletto and doing that. That's true. That's true. It was fairly late in the race.

Oh, I think that group was a long way behind as well. I'd be quite keen to see the onboard of Alex Albon for the last like five laps. Yes, yeah, same. All right, let's take a second break on this episode. On the other side, we're going to be chatting Mercedes. Welcome back, everyone. Sam, before we get into this, I do have a quick question. Yes, mate.

I'm getting kicked out my house and I need to take up residence somewhere. Do you know anywhere that does a good power rankings? Honestly, mate, there's this new town that's just, let alone it's a city, it's just opened up. It's comfortable placing here you. In fact, it's come to a place near all listeners. That's improbable, but sure. The rent's cheap.

Held down to Patreon City, where you can move on in. Semi-detached, fully detached, a flat perhaps. It's all the same price. Come on in. What are the electricity bills like? Free, honestly. What? No, it's so cheap in Patreon City, and there's so many benefits to living there.

A great community of people around you. Much content for you to absorb while you sit there in your luxury home at a maximum of nine pounds per month. That's about $11, $12, depending on where you're sitting there. You get your power rankings, we'll be doing that tomorrow. You get two extra episodes a month. You get your history where we go through a classic race, which you get to pick and we review it. You also get fewer breaking, which is essentially the three of us, a little bit drunk and a little bit silly. and you support the show massively, and it means we can buy better equipment, upgrade the show.

We could go on trips to come and see you in your local Patreon city. Has been asking GP for the last couple of years. But, you know, we might be coming to an actual town near you. Check it out. You can always cancel it after a month and pack your bags and move out if you really fancy it. But the support is huge. And thank you to everyone that does some. I'm getting my stuff together.

Move on in, mate. Come on down. That sounds brilliant. Free electricity. Can't honestly, can't compete. with that nowadays. And free parking. I'm there. I was already sold, but I'm there. Mercedes, let's move on to them. Fifth and sixth place in the Grand Prix, after George Russell started on the second row of the grid, both Mercedes falling back slightly on where they qualified,

and George Russell in particular, really struggling in his second stint, did you expect more from them? I don't know if I expect more from them. practice kind of came true, right? FP2, you look at the longer runs, you look at how those race runs were running out. Mercedes weren't as good as Ferrari in those longer runs. And Max Rustaping is the exception. Landon Norris, of course,

in Qualifying had to start further back. So that didn't help them. They don't expect you to finish behind both McLaren's and de Stappen, I imagine maybe Russell will be closer. LeCler beating them that comfortably is the only thing that I think may give them slight cause for concern. They may look at this and go, if there were two LeCleurs in this race,

there's a real chance we lose another place to that Ferrari and we're in trouble. I think Ancinelli had as a solid race again. I think he's taking small baby Kimi Antingelli's steps towards progress to every single Grand Prix that we get to now, which is good. It's the tireware that will concern them. And it does seem to be the weakness that they have in comparison to the likes of Red Bull and McLaren. The outright pace is looking pretty close. You know, they seem to be like a challenge.

A McLaren, a Red Bull, the Ferraris, when it comes to qualifying, and that puts them in a good stead for the races. But when we get to a track that's got higher tireware or you need to do some conservation and management and they're being pressured, as George Russell was by Charles LeCler, and Landon Norris, of course, towards the end of the Grand Prix,

they can't seem to hang on the same way that the others can. And that could be the difference maker between podiums, between good points. That might cost them a little bit by little bit across the entire season, meaning they fall behind the likes of Red Bull properly, McLaurang even further.

And maybe Ferrari do get the jump. upon them. But I think them two being together again shows that the drivers are performing well and it's more the car that just needs a little bit of work. Yeah, I was disappointed and I'm a bit worried. I thought that they would be more competitive than this and I thought George Russell would be in the battle to remain on the podium. If Fassappen could do it, if the Ferraris could do it. I thought Russell could do it as well. And indeed in the first stint, it looked fine. The problem is when we got to that second stint. Maybe there was a specific issue that really was a one-off, and we aren't going to see that again from George Russell, but he was losing a lot of time

on pretty much everyone inside that top seven to the point where he was worried. He might not even make it to the end. And even though Lewis Hamilton wasn't able to get the move done on Antonelli, we saw Hamilton seemed to be better on the hard tire than what Antonelli was. So it's a bit worrying. And I don't really understand why they struggled so much, because unless I've got my tyre compounds wrong, the hard tire this week was the soft tire last week, which they were very good on. So answers on a postcard, because I don't understand that whatsoever. It is the first time that we've gone, or we've generally used the harder sort of sets in the Porelli range to this point. This is the first time I think we've gone to the softer range.

Maybe Australia also had the softer range, but we were on the wet and intermediates on that anyway. I just expected a lot more from them. They didn't seem to have enough compared to Ferrari, particularly late on. With it being hot in Miami, typically, do you, are you concerned that this form might continue rather than see them improve? Similar to what you said about, um, about Red Bull after Bahrain. And it wasn't as disastrous as this. But I'm looking for Miami for Mercedes to prove this was an outlier. Because they have been pretty consistently good.

And they weren't bad today. Let me make that clear. But it just never seemed like they had the pace of even the Ferrari drivers, definitely not Max Verstappen and definitely not the McLaren's, which puts them roughly where they were last season. So even though they maintain second place in the championship for now, it's not great. Be interesting to see how they're going against timeout. What were your thoughts on Antonelli?

Because as you mentioned, this was the first time he had gone racing here in an F1 car at least. Okay, enough? Yeah, quite literally. Okay. Yeah, fine. And fine is not bad, but fine is also not good. as the definition of fine goes, it's just fine. He wasn't closing up to George Russell again.

Now, whilst George Russell, I think he's having a stellar season, maybe his best ever season so far in Formula One. Kimi Antingelli needs to start closing that gap up just a little bit more. And we do see glimpses of it. We see moments where he, you know, sets the world a light with that pace. And then there are moments where he seems to end up nine, ten seconds behind George Russell. And that's quite a big gap. You know, if Lewis Hamilton sat there at 30 seconds,

is still not good enough at 10. You need to be closer than that, I think. He couldn't really close up even when George Russell was really complaining about those ties right there in the Grand Prix. They came over the commentary saying, oh, Antigone's a second faster a lap than George Russell. It didn't really display too much of that in the timing tower. You know, the gap never really came down under 10 seconds by too much.

I mean, late on, it was, he was quite a bit quicker because that gap was closer to 20 seconds at one point, I think. Which is just not good enough to be nearly a pitch. stop apart from your teammate. He does need to work on that, but nonetheless, he's finishing the position behind his teammate. So as long as he continues to do that, the gap between them is something that could be worked on. So yeah, fine. There were some good moments. There are some things that need to be improved. Yeah. And that sounds awfully like what a rookie season often is. And I think it was, it was fine. And he avoided any big mistake. But the pace just wasn't there with George Russell from the

on this weekend. Ironically, what Antonelli is delivering so far this season, because there have been some good bits, some okay bits to this point, what Antonelli is for Mercedes is exactly what Red Bull would really hope for right now. Yeah. Because that's, Antonelli's second driver performances are essentially putting Mercedes second in the Constructed Championship. We've obviously, Ferrari have had their issues with the double disqualification,

but Red Bull are, you know, struggling versus Mercedes right now because of what two drivers can do versus one. Antonelli is finding a way just to be there. Even if he's not got the outright pace, he's five-nill down in qualifying to George Russell. He's regularly not in that fight for pole where Russell is. And even today, like we've mentioned, there are a number of seconds separating the two drivers. Antonelli is still finding a way to often be a place, two places off his teammate, and just routinely picking up those points. So I think as far as given his age, given his experience, he's doing all right.

Yeah, I think you give it till the end of this season, the difference between him in the likes of Abu Dhabi compared to now will be day and night. I really think he's got a very high ceiling. There's a lot to work on. And that's okay because he's a rookie. Williams versus the Racing Bulls team. We'll move on to that next. So we've already discussed this somewhat as part of Big Brain Strat

where Carlos Seins and Alex Albin essentially worked with each other to finish eighth and ninth in this Grand Prix, which is good for six points. Racing Bulls walking away with just one with Isaac Cadjar in 10th, on the medium tires late in this Grand Prix, seemingly quicker than both of the cars in front of him. But with Alex Albin having DRS off of his teammate, Carlos Sines. He wasn't able to make an overtake happen. I guess the discussion going into this

race was probably closer to Williams versus Gasley than it was Williams versus the racing Bulls. Pierre Gasley and Yuki Sonoda made that a very short story. But have Williams took advantage like they should have done? I think so. In terms of actual race positions, Williams can't get any higher than this. I don't think they're going to beat Lewis Hamilton. I don't think they're going to challenge the Mercedes. Eighth and ninth is where they want to be. I think, weirdly, the thing that's concerning for Williams is they had to deploy a very unusual,

not often seen tactic where these drivers are essentially dragging one another along to stay in front of a racing bulls car, which actually consistently shouldn't be as fast as that Williams, that Williams should be better than the racing balls car. And whilst Hager, I think, had a very interesting strategy, he basically ran one of the longest on that hard tire, went onto the fresh mediums, did a good job to catch back up.

The only reason they stayed in front was because they had to help each other. And if they didn't, there is a real risk that he could have been one, if not both of them. So I think that may give Williams a little bit of course for concern that the racing balls here were closer than they ought to be.

But overall, I think Williams walk away and go, yep, we've extending our gap over half. We're now the fifth place team in the championship by five points. Other teams are going to start cannibalizing. The others went to coming to picking up. the odd one or two. This is where William should now kick on for the rest of the season. They should start to solidify being 8th, 9th to 10th.

One of those, every single time, both drivers, 8th, 9 to 10th. They have the pace, they have that driver line up. This was well worked by them. And as you mentioned, Ben, they so nearly managed to throw it away right at the end. And maybe we can look into why that happened. But they had to play games to make sure it worked out for them. And I was surprised that Hajar was able to be so close to them for the final scene on that race. I think Williams have done brilliantly well here.

And I appreciate that the whole Gassley incident might have made life a bit easier for them in terms of that particular fight. But I think they've nailed this. So strategically, both starting on the medium tire, obviously, we saw that Oliver Bearman essentially triggered the round of pit stops that we had. I think he was the first driver that came in for the hard tire. And Alburn and Sines, in terms of the strategy, they got it spot on because Lawson, I think, paid a little bit earlier than both of them, but they got both of their drivers in at the exact right time that they both cleared Lawson. And that was crucial for their Grand Prix.

And at that point, as soon as they'd covered off all the undercuts, which is, of course, what they had to do on that strategy, I think they did a good job getting through some of the traffic because they had to make a lot of overtakes to get their eighth and ninth place in a way that Hadjar didn't. Whilst Hadjar, I think, had a good Grand Prix. And his start was brilliant. And that's ultimately, I think what caused his race to be so good was his start, you know, making his way past Fernando Alonzo quite early on. I think he made maybe four positions early on in the race to be 10th. That way, Hadjar was able to, as soon as everyone else came in, he had a lot of clean air to work with where nearly every driver on the grid didn't have more than a lap or two

all day of clean air. And he used it effectively. But again, it kind of fell in his favor in a way that, say, Lance Stroll, who was on the same strategy as Hadjar, it didn't work out for him at all because Stroll kept on being behind drivers that he didn't want to be behind. Hadjar was able to use the clean air really effectively to the point where he comes out just behind Albin and Sines on better tires. But the way in which Williams, I think, used the worst end of the strategy to then use their two drivers together to see off Hadjar. I thought it was very cleverly done. If they didn't play that game, I'm pretty certain Hadjar gets past Alban with relative ease. Signs would have been a few seconds up the road, so I think that one would have been closer.

Ultimately, they've definitely gained a point. They might have gained more than a point by deploying what they did. So I think they nailed it. Do what you've got to do, right? Got to be in it to win it. And they scored points. I did want to say as well with Liam Lawson, I think he, outside of the penalty, I think he got a bit unfortunate again strategically because I think he was

marginally the better at the two this weekend. I actually agree with you. His qualifying pace was really strong. He was right there with Hajer the whole time. His race pace was really consistent. The penalty, the strategy call is bad. He gets caught up, and a bit of traffic, and a bit of issue going through that megal stink.

If I think, you know, that spings the other way, right on that kind of a knife stage. If that falls the other way, Lawson genuinely could have been the car that sits in 10th place and he gets his first point. Yeah. And ironically, I think we've almost had the same situation happen to two weeks in a row where one of the V-Carb drivers has got a good start

and one of them's got a bad start and it flipped for this race. And Hadjar's got the better one, get the best start on. So Hadjar didn't get a good start at all in Bahrain. Liam Lawson, I think, did. Yeah. And Liam Lawson, even though he had the penalties late on, he was able to use that. But they weren't very quick last weekend.

And it still would have only got him like 13th or 14th place, even though he would have been the lead of that sort of slowest three teams. This week, V-Cab were a little bit quicker again. We had a couple of DNFs. And suddenly the good start of Hadjar was able to be fired. for a point rather than four positions back in 13 for 14. So, Austin's got to be careful.

We start to pick up a few penalties here and there now. We've had a few rates. I think he's had more races where he's had a penalty than he hasn't this season. Yeah, I mean, we saw last year as well. He was in the wars quite a bit with the likes of abrasive. Perez, Colapinto, Alonzo, not all of them necessarily his fault,

but he has been, yeah, involved in quite a lot of incidents to this point. and his relatively short F1 career. Yeah, I wonder how those penalty points are starting to look. Indeed. I think you gave it away earlier, but just a quick mention on Sonoda Gasly. Yeah, for me, this is on Sonoda.

They'll boil it down to a lap one crash, but those two cars were side by side, and actually the flowing line, Gasly, I think, had the racing line. He was slightly ahead. You saw that Sanoga's, when he exits the corner, he doesn't leave any room for Gasly.

His front wheel hits Gasly's rear wheel. Spings are both into the wall. For me, this isn't a racing incident. Gassily had clear to a decent degree, deserved the racing room, wasn't given. And that resulted in an incident, which were in both their rated. So I generally think this one's on Sonoda.

I'll keep it short. I agree. I thought that was on Sonoda as well. Cool. Bold predictions. That went well. So your bold prediction was that the winner of this Grand Prix

would win by at least 25 seconds. Yeah, I realized how that was. quite a large gap to have predicted. It didn't come true. I think we got maybe two and a half. Yeah. And even though I think Piastri could have won by more if he needed to, it won't gone to be 25.

No, no. Harry agonizingly close. He said that Fernando Alonzo would score points. He's going to be hoping, refreshing the FIA documents to see if a disqualification comes through in 11th. I was in glee when that came through. I love Fernando. I wanted to get his first points of the season, but not this weekend.

I was... Two-parter, right? Yeah, I had a two-partner, and neither of them were that far away. Oh, remind us. I said that the V-carb drivers would both get into Q3. They weren't quite 12th and 14th. They were fighting, but ultimately the wrong side of that top 10. And obviously, my prediction was dead at that point anyway,

but I also said that Isaac Hadjar would finish inside the top eight. if they didn't play the games, he might well have got there. Yeah, you just can't scale it back. You did that last week as well with Al P. Yeah, I didn't think I've a prediction was enough by itself. No, to be fair, yeah, I probably would have... It would have been borderline, I think. Yeah, yeah.

So in terms of moving the abacus, you don't need two. Sam, you're still on one. Myself and Harry are yet to get off the mark. Can't wait to win this season, 1-0-0. Honestly, wouldn't surprise me at all. It happens. Let's take our final break on the... this episode. On the other side, it's moment of the race.

At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak startup funding and comprehensive game plans. We've mastered made-to-measure growth and expansion advice, and we can talk your ear off about transferring your business when the time comes. Because at Desjardin business, we speak the same language you do, business. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us, and contact Desjardin today. We'd love to talk. Business. business. Welcome back to the final part of today's review of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, which of course means it's time for moment of the race. So we'll give our own moment of the race and then we'll hand over to some of our Discord submissions. Sam, what was yours?

Yeah, a couple to call out for me, that Ferrari radio saying thank you to Brian, I thought was good fun. You know what, I'm going to say it, Alex Alborg hates his pit bull. He's the angriest man in the world. He has a point. I agree. I genuinely agree. But like, the attitude coming back at him of like, I literally have a car right behind me, what do you want me to do?

I'm with Albin on this one. I think he's, whatever the last one was was a bit more of a, what are you saying? This one was like, you are going so fast between walls that are that close to you. And you'll be told by your race engineer that you're getting to. too close to the car in front when you've got a car one second behind you. Yeah. Like, do you want me just to give up race places just to call the car down?

What's what we can do? You know, but my moment of the race was Oscar Piastri's outside move on Lewis Hamilton going into turn 22, took him by surprise, used the tie grip. And this is what, this is classic Piastri. We've said this before. His overtaking ability is so clinical. Rocks up, job done.

See you later. I'm off down the road. There's no batting around. There is no mucking about. He's got having a chick-chat. He's got the job done. That was a great move. That is such a risk in that corner.

You can run wide. You can lock up. The other car can't see you and might come over. He nailed it. And that might have been the difference in terms of making sure that that wing was comfortably secure. Runner up from me was Gabriel Bortoletto nearly killing his manager. That was good, wasn't it? I can understand.

I'm not saying it's excusable. I understand how it happened because he's in combat with whatever the other car was. at that point and I don't think he was expecting another car to be there. But goodness me, that was close. That was terrifying. Yeah, that got like, I properly went, ah. We refer to that as squeaky bum time here in the UK. Yes.

And it's completely valid for that situation. But my moment of the race, if I was to tell you, let's just say, Sam, you didn't watch this race. Okay. You haven't watched this race at all. And I was to tell you, something happened in the Grand pre, there was a radio message and someone said their tires were toast. Can you guess who it was? It's so George Russell, isn't it? You know it's George Russell. He is so quintessentially

George Russell, it hurts. Of course, I had to go with that. We've already had someone like this called mocking up the toast on the tires. Yeah, right, this is fantastic. We might have to have an an LB's radio award and Albi's George Russell radio award just so other people get a chance. You don't even need to ask who said it. Don't even bother putting George Russell, like the graphic for George Russell on there. We know it's him. Let's head to our Discord submissions because, as always, we've had a lot of submissions come through. So appreciate everybody trying to get on the show.

We'll only be able to play some as we have to rattle through them. But thank you. If you didn't get played today, just keep trying because we have plenty of opportunities throughout this season with reviews and race previews as well, where we ask for under pressure submissions. But who have we got today? Yes, thank you to everyone who submits and thank you, Trevor, who follows the rules of being under 20 seconds

and tries to be original with some good quality content. We do appreciate. I mean, much under 20 seconds. Only three seconds is Lou Kane. Thank you, Brian. Yeah, to the point, we love a bit of Brian. Thank you, Brian. Thanks, Brian.

coming up next, we've got our first timey. And I hope you don't always race this way, race angry. What's the late breaking for my first ever submission? I had to say my moment of the race is just the Williams. Again, first season ever watching. So this is my first ever double points experience as a fan. So this is pretty awesome. So it's got to be up there.

Oh, welcome to Formula One and the show. Thank you so much for joining us so early on. I hope you're enjoying it. They'll be hoping that there'll be plenty more double points finishes in races and seasons to come. And if their ambition ends up coming true, there will be a lot better days than this. That's true. Stick with it. It can be confusing sometimes.

It can be some weird results. But we love that you've joined. So welcome. Up next is Cronenberg. What's up, y'all? A quick moment of the race. I've got to give it to that overtake by Piastri on Hamilton. That was crispy.

What do you get the move done? Look like a champion out there. I'm like some other McLaren driver. Describing an overtake as crispy is sensational. And somehow true. I love it. It's like crispy duck. Delicious.

Come about next. Maybe he does need some revenge. This is Lecler's revenge. I'm sure he would absolutely love to get some of those guys in front of him because that Ferrari. Oh, no. Leclair's revenge after the first lapodium of the season. Charles can not feed up till third.

one of the race, Oscar taking the lead of the championship. He got that dog, or should I say, dingo in him? Cool kids join the Patreon. Keep breaking light. Cool kids do join the Patreon. They live in Patreon, and they play in the Cool Kid Playground. He got that dingo in him. He got that dingo in him.

I absolutely love that. Sorry to everyone down under who I've just offended. I'm using that. I've got that thing going. Coming out next, we've got Rath 21. Moment of the race was whatever red. balcony thing was bothering Oscar and actually made him like somewhat raise his voice a little bit kind of. But overall, decent race. Seen better, seen worse. Yeah. It's amazing how observant they are

at that speak. You hear it from the likes of Max Verstappen reading out the rules and regulations that came up before the Grand Prix. Their brain power is phenomenal. Yeah, it's, it's insane. It's insane. Coming up next is Bushy. Fun fact about the word Bushy. I used to living I played school, Bushie, and it was opposite a pub, and it was the worst burger I've ever had, but they played free football on the telly. So we spent many a night there. That could have gone way worse, so I'm glad that was the story. It's a very normal story about a place called Bushie.

Thank you very much. Anyway, up next, it's Bushie. Gahy fellas, Bushman here. Moment of the race would have to be Oscar's filthy overtake on Lewis. Unreal. Kids are monster. Take it easy. keep breaking light.

The Bushman. Didn't know what that F word was going to be. I like that Bushman could join the late-breaking superhero line-up. Yeah, definitely got an invitation. Another superhero that could come your way, Kobe Chicken. I hope not. My moment of the race has to come from the very start of the race where Max Verstappen got very mad about Oscar

using his own move against him to the point where GP had to tell him no comments. Oh, yeah, I think that might have been because of the swearing, right? Yeah, I think he would have been worried. I should also mention, because I know we discussed this at the beginning of the episode, I'm fully aware as well that there's a lot of hypocrisy in what Max Verstappen is saying. I would say exactly the same if the robs were reversed, and they have been quite a lot of times. Yeah, yeah, I agreed. I know what this name is trying to say, but as a Newcastle Fang, I can't read it out that way.

So I'm going to change it to say, man, you fanatic. birth time submission here. My moment of the race has to be Gabriel Borlau almost taken out his manager. Anyway, love the pods, subscribe to the Patreon. Have a good day. I really enjoy Fernando and also quoting Kimi-Riking in that radio message. Oh, yeah, we're like three bois. Yeah, we don't hear that a lot, do you? No, I respect that.

And our final one for the night again, thank you to everyone. We wish we could play them all, but this would go on for literally ever because there's so many of you. It's Pittsburgh to Fosy. Hello, late breakers. This is Pittsburgh to Fossey. My moment of a race is Oscar Telling Max for Stepping. No, no, no.

There's a new sheriff in town. We won't off roll over and play dead for you. Way to go. Oscar P. S. He loves it. He absolutely loves it. Thank you again to everyone. If you want to get involved,

you'll hear yourself on the podcast. Join the Discord, get in the submissions time. You'll see us ask for submissions. And you can submit right there. You might hear your. gorgeous tones playing upon this very podcast. Indeed. Thank you very much to you all.

That's going to do it for this review episode of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, round five of this 2025 F1 championship. We've got a couple of weeks until the next race, which is the Miami Grand Prix. But does that mean we're going anywhere, Sam? God damn doesn't. We're back every single midweek, every single Sunday. And we've got also Patreon content coming your way.

So if you all get here loads of F1 chik-chat, all about the news, the gossip, our thoughts. Just stay tuned. Sign up. Leave a review. Get involved in the comments. Be a part of the LB family.

Become a lady breakie. Absolutely. Anything else you want to say before we get out of here? No, links for everything's in the description. Patreon's there. Discourse is there. If you're doing F on fantasy,

if you're going to join the league. Oh, yeah, Gazzley. God, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. But Pete is in my heart. He is not in my fantasy team. Damn. So, yeah, although I have got Red Bulls,

one on my teams. Damn it! That doesn't help me. Yeah, folks, join it. There's a lot of fun going on there. Maybe you can still beat me and Kirsty, who are languishing quite far back. Follow us on social media, late breaking F1. Watch it on YouTube, late breaking F1.

And we'll see you for Power Rankings tomorrow and midweek for the usual episodes to continue. In the meantime, I'll be Samuel Sage. And I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late. This podcast is part of the Sport Social Podcast. broadcast network.