The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2026 Canadian GP Race Review

Episode Date: May 25, 2026

Montreal madness! Ben and Sam break down the thriller packed with penalties, retirements, epic wheel-to-wheel battles, and of course a shock DNF that could prove costly for one side of the Mercedes ga...rage in the championship fight... Get involved in F1 Fantasy this season! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join the Late Braking league⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and see if you can beat us... LEAGUE CODE: C6Y6R4ZUY02 Want more Late Braking? Support the show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and get:Ad-free listeningFull-length bonus episodesPower Rankings after every raceHistorical race reviews& more exclusive extras!Don't forget! You can also gift a Late Braking Patreon subscription—perfect for loved ones or your own wish list. Choose anything from 1 month up to a full year of top-notch F1 content: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/latebrakingf1/gift⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connect with Late Braking:You can find us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X (Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Come hang out with us and thousands of fellow F1 fans in our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Discord⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ server and get involved in lively everyday & race weekend chats!Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠F1 Fantasy League⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and see if you can beat us!Get in touch any time at podcast@latebraking.co.uk  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. Very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking, here today to review the Canadian Grand Prix. One, very familiar tale at the moment, by Kimmy Antonelli. That in itself, though, definitely not telling the whole story. George Russell retiring from the Grand Prix, meaning a massive 25 point swing in the championship.
Starting point is 00:00:46 Sam, it is 10 minutes past 11 at night here, which means for the next hour or so, we are going to be the biggest enemies of our respective neighbours. Yeah, they love us where it comes to any time past about 9pm because we get very excited and shout about F1 in pure enthusiasm. So sorry out there, the windows are open, it's very hot in the UK, but that is going to stop my excitement.
Starting point is 00:01:10 for what was an absolute, I think, a belter of a Grand Prix. It felt like we had some proper F1 back, proper wheel to wheel. It felt like there was drama and many different occasions. There were collisions. There was risk. There was overtakes. Threats of overtakes the whole way through. Got a lot to talk about.
Starting point is 00:01:25 But I've just clocked as well. For those of you watching on YouTube, you're wearing your Austin T-shirt. I've got my Canadian GP T-shirt. We're in respective racetrack tops today. We'll meet somewhere in the middle in Nebraska or something, shall we? Obviously. I would love that. That would be delightful.
Starting point is 00:01:40 Why not? Yeah, thank you, Canada, for giving us plenty to talk about on today's episode. Moment of the race coming up later on, as we always do on these race reviews. We're going to be reviewing our bold predictions. Let's see if either of us are able to either extend our lead or finally get one right. We've got McLaren there, very difficult day, Max Verstappan and Lewis Hamilton, and their great battle over second place. But let's start with Kimmy Antonelli, who took this race victory,
Starting point is 00:02:08 a very comfortable sort of second two-thirds of this race, but only after George Russell, who was ahead, then second, then ahead again, then second, then ahead again, then retired due to a power unit issue. I mean, we were treated, Sam, to about 25 laps of back and forth action.
Starting point is 00:02:29 It is everything I'd ever wanted in a lead battle in Formula One, where cars not only can stick so close to each other that the threat of an overtake is truly a promise. But the actual overtake happens multiple times. You have mistakes, under pressure moments, you have missing braking zones where cars are almost hitting each other. We had contact between the leaders and they got away with it as well. It was truly edge of your seat racing stuff.
Starting point is 00:02:55 And I thought both of them pushed it right to the limit, right to that very limit. And I was happy with it. I was happy to let it run at that point. I actually didn't want team to get involved at all. I have sat and watched that for another 25 laps happily. gutted, and I am serious gutted, that George Russell retire from this Grand Prix because it genuinely caused us to lose what was one of the most thrilling fights for the league that we've
Starting point is 00:03:16 had in a Grand Prix for a very long time. I absolutely loved it. Yeah, and it's one of those where, I think, based on this track and the way the regulations are at the moment, that it could have just kept going because it was very difficult for a driver to actually, whilst you, like you said, it was easy enough to get the overtake done. It was far more difficult once you'd got that overtake done to then fully extend away from the driver behind. We saw both Antonelli and Russell essentially have turns in the lead and see if they could extend beyond that one second or not, and neither really could.
Starting point is 00:03:49 And that's not the only battle we saw that with as well up and down the field. So I have, I really think that could have gone on for the near 70 laps that we had out there. I didn't see an end to this unless something like a crash happened, which, who knows, maybe that's how it would have ended instead, or a power unit issue, as was the case today. Yeah, I think one of the most telling factors for me, and we haven't discussed the star yet. It was such a mega battle.
Starting point is 00:04:14 It's nice to jump into it. Was when Antingelli made the mistake, locked up in the final chican and Russell ended up picking up maybe a two and a half, three second advantage over Antingelli. It was amazing within three or four laps. Antingale had closed that gap up again to one second. There was again straight back in his wake, so to speak. I thought that at that point, that would have been the moment that Russell was able to kick on, and lead to that Grand Prix
Starting point is 00:04:38 because you think, right, the overtake advantage is gone, you're not getting inside that one second window to get the battery advantage anymore, now's your moment to run off. And he couldn't. And yet he still had the pace to hold Antigelli off, fight with Antigali comfortably, and re-attack Antingelli on the odd times that he got through.
Starting point is 00:04:52 So I was really surprised that after the mistake, Antigali was back in the fight so quickly. Yeah, I think a lot of it comes down too. If you were to put together some sort of ranking of the most important corners at Circuit Jill Vilnav, number one would be the hairpin, which George Russell in particular, both Mercedes to an extent, but George Russell in particular, really struggled at.
Starting point is 00:05:16 And the reason why that's such an important corner, because whilst there aren't that many overtakes to happen into it, it does lead to a lot of overtakes either into the final chican or then turn one, if you get a good exit out of that chican. And George Russell was struggling so much on the brakes going into the hairpin in that it was giving Antonelli the impetus to then go and get directly in the slipstream of George Russell and give himself the opportunity at making these passes. And that's something that definitely kept this fight alive for as long as it did.
Starting point is 00:05:47 I really enjoyed it. Not often I comment on saying how I appreciate mistakes from drivers, but I do think it made it incredibly exciting to see both Russell and Antonelli have these lockups or Miss Corners or running over the grass and suddenly you think, oh gosh, just when the battle seems like it might be coming to a, big of a lapse, big of a close, suddenly it's alive again. So it's clearly a lot to master. You heard Lewis Hamilton in the call-down room saying just how volatile these cars are and how tricky they can't be to get a handle of. We saw that through so many different drivers today. It really is a mastery of making sure that you can handle what is a very lively set of
Starting point is 00:06:21 regulations. I think as well with the battling that we have between teammates, it's so critical at this stage in a regulation cycle. And I liken this to, 2014-2015-style racing where it wasn't always perfect or it wasn't even always good. But one thing that I think separated those good from bad races at that point is how much Rosberg and Hamilton were able to battle with one another. And if that was alive and well, if that rivalry was playing out, it became decent. And as soon as that went away, it becomes a much more difficult prospect because all of these teams are strung out. quite a lot at the moment in terms of competitiveness.
Starting point is 00:07:06 So whilst the battle between Antonelli and Russell in isolation in a vacuum was brilliant to watch, I think it was really critical to the enjoyment of this race because those first 25 laps just absolutely flew by. Yeah, I mean, to the point where you said they flew by, I remember then looking up at the lap counter after Russell's retirement and going, wait, we've still got half the Grand Prix to go. It felt like in a snap, half had gone, yet only half had gone. you are right though about the gaps.
Starting point is 00:07:33 We'll get on to the conversation more deeply later on in the show. But for the example, let's take Hajar having to serve a time penalty and then a stop-go penalty. And he's still like 10, 15 seconds clear of Colopinto, the car behind him. That's never what we want to see. And that is a real flaw at the moment of where the cars sit in these new regulations. Antonelli was able to set the fastest lap of the race on the last lap of the race. Having done, I will check my notes. we're going to call it just under 40 laps on those medium tires.
Starting point is 00:08:05 Does that prove, I mean, first of all, I think it proves these tires can just go and go at the moment. But secondly, does it prove that he likely had far and away enough to see off any competition that wasn't Russell? Yeah, two separate conversations there. The ties are a dire part of Formula One right now. I mean, I guess you could say the compliment there is that the battles that were happening, for Stapp and Hamilton, for example, Lawson Gassley, they were raging on because the tyres weren't falling off of a cliff. So we didn't have the management of the tyre, which is great.
Starting point is 00:08:38 That is a good part of this. But the negative side, of course, is that drivers are able to just run a single-stop strategy the entire way through the race. You know any jeopardy, any risk, and there's no variation in that. So we're lacking a big part of what Formula One is right now. When it comes to Kimmy Antingelli out front with a 10-second gap clear of this for Stap and Hamilton battle, it felt like at any point he wanted to he could kick on for five or six laps
Starting point is 00:09:02 and put three, four, tenths on lap quite comfortably over any car behind them. The upgrades were a little shaky at the start of the weekend. We saw that with the way the qualifying was playing out. It was close. The sprint race, of course, it was quite close. And then even at the start of this Grand Prix,
Starting point is 00:09:16 when the start didn't go perfectly to plan for Mesaigues and Landon Norris gets your front on the intermediate tyres, it again felt like for a minute, oh, maybe it hasn't clicked the way we thought. but once they cleared Landon Norris, once he went into the pit lane to put on those slick tires, it just felt like something was awoken in that car
Starting point is 00:09:33 and able to just pull away so comfortably from the rest of the field. And that's what makes the DNF for Russell so critical is that they wouldn't have wanted a DNF, obviously, at any point in this year, but you don't want to pick a point in time where there are 25 points up for offer and there isn't another team in contention.
Starting point is 00:09:52 There might be times later in the year. let's say Antonelli, this luck for Russell kind of plays out the other way, this bad luck for Russell kind of goes on Antonelli's shoulders instead. It swings back, yeah. Right. And let's say he retires from a race two-thirds of the way through the season. But at that point, Ferrari or Red Bull or McLaren have properly caught up, and he retires from third or fourth place.
Starting point is 00:10:14 Like that could happen. This is a really critical DNF for George Russell. 25 points were there. And you only have to think about if the reverse had happened. Antonelli came into this, I think, with an 18 points advantage after the sprint race, meaning that George Russell would have been leading the championship if he won this race and Antonelli retired. Instead, Russell goes into Monaco, 43 points behind his young Italian teammate. As we saw from his reaction after he retired, that's going to be a tough one to overcome even this early in the year.
Starting point is 00:10:50 Yeah, very rightly infuriated by what happens. fault of his own. He had the weekend sewn up. It was a little shaky, but he had it sewn up. Fastest in sprint quality. Fastest in the sprint race, taking the victory there. Fastest in qualifying again yesterday. Leading the Grand Prix, yes, a little bit tumultuously perhaps, but leading nonetheless.
Starting point is 00:11:09 And you think this was the mental battle he was overcoming. Sure, he might have only gained seven points over and had they finished one two again. And that gap will have gone down again, right? It gone down to what about 11 points at that point? Which is really solid, really, really good. I have great to set forward for what Russell needing
Starting point is 00:11:26 after basically being demolished the last three Grand Prix. And yet the mental battle had swung entirely the other way again, back to Kimmy Antigley, who wins four Grand Prix in a row from his maiden victory through to the fourth. The first time it's ever happened in Formula One as someone won their first ever Grand Prix, four Grand Prix back to back to back to back to back. It must be soul-destroying for George Russell
Starting point is 00:11:48 to look at this and go, what do I do? What can I actually do? The car's broken. Even when I'm better, I can't get a leg up in this competition. The only saving grace, I think, is that Charlotte Clare at this point last, when the battle he was having with Max Verstaffing in 2022, I think it was. He was 43 points clear. Max Verstappen was beating him.
Starting point is 00:12:08 He was driving a Ferrari. That's the only thing. He was driving a Ferrari. It's a slightly different tale. Yeah, it is tough for Russell to take. I think there are two perspectives, and he'll need to force himself to think one way rather than the other, because you're right.
Starting point is 00:12:22 He could very easily come out of this weekend saying, I have done everything right. I've got two pole positions. I've taken the sprint race win. I was leading the way in the main Grand Prix. And despite all of that, I have lost significant ground to my teammate. Really negative frame of mind.
Starting point is 00:12:38 He can also view it the other way, which is I turned up at a race track and I was the better driver across the weekend. I don't actually think he was significantly or at all faster than Antonelli, but he was the one that was getting the results in the qualifying sessions and in the sprint race. One thousand faster is enough.
Starting point is 00:12:56 Exactly, yeah. And I think he can view that relatively positively going into Monaco and saying, well, if I keep doing this, that bad luck isn't going to happen every single week. And at some point, it's going to turn around and I'm going to be in this championship fight again. And I think he really needs to frame it that way. And I think he will, based on some of his comments, even quarter of an hour after the crash happened back in the media pen. What about ever so slightly further back? Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
Starting point is 00:13:27 We've seen a few duels between them in the past. This one over second place, with Lewis Hamilton, eventually getting the better of his long-time rival. Hamilton, we've commented throughout the weekend, has seemed relatively comfortable in comparison to at least some of the race weekends we've had from him at Ferrari to this point. This is kind of not, it wasn't the win to cap it all off, but a very strong result.
Starting point is 00:13:50 and he seemed quite happy afterwards. This was Lewis Hamilton's best race weekend in a Ferrari since he joined that team. I think it is by far the most consistently he has been equal to, if got better than LeCler, in every single session that we've seen. He has been able to be the difference maker, which, you know, it shows you that for the first time, I think he's felt truly comfortable in a Formula One car. And we saw he made that mistake where he went over the runoff area in turn seven and eight on the chicanne. and that cost him that place to Max Verstappan.
Starting point is 00:14:21 He ended up dropping about four or five seconds behind at that point. The gap also extended slightly towards the end of the soft tire running. But something about that Ferrari on the medium tire, it just comes alive. And we saw that actually, very early on in sprint qualifying, when they're mandated to run the medium tire, how quick they were on the medium tires. Something about that compound works really well for that Ferrari car.
Starting point is 00:14:43 And the moment they got fitting on after the pit stops during the BSC, Hamilton was just taking four, five tenths out of Max Verstappen every single lap, setting the fastest lap along the way, until Kimiantanganii took it right at the death at the end of the Grand Prix. And then he rocks up to the back of him, and Bruniel makes the great point that Murray Walker always used to make, which was catching is one thing, passing as another. And we have seen it time and time again where Lewis Hamilton has been in the vicinity of another car, but maybe the talent is slightly winged and we don't get what we're used to,
Starting point is 00:15:12 where he isn't able to pass him anymore. And yet he's working so well with that Ferrari today that with the ties he on the way, the car was operating and how good it's being for Lewis Hamilton so far this weekend, he's able to close up to the back and make a really fabulous overtake around the outside of Max Verstappling and Turn 1, which is not easy to doing any way, shape or form. I thought those two battled brilliantly, really enjoyed watching it. I thought they both held themselves up a hand to be very, very well. I loved it.
Starting point is 00:15:38 Thoughts great. Outside of this being a very good performance from Lewis Hamilton, I think it was especially good based on it answering some questions that maybe we've had at his Ferrari career so far. The first of which is what you touched on, where he is very, very good wheel to wheel racer, right? I maintain that. But we have seen over the last few years a real lack of clinical overtaking from Lewis Hamilton. He's not one of the best on the grid at it anymore, quite frankly. And we were in a position going into term one where Lewis Hamilton needed to show that again. And the move that he put on Max Verstappen was a brilliant one. And we saw with a lot of
Starting point is 00:16:18 overtaking attempts at Canada this weekend. There were some attempted moves from drivers that perhaps just came a little bit too early in that they weren't patient enough to wait for the opportunity to be one where they can just strike. Antonelli's maybe guilty of that throughout the weekend, maybe a few other instances as well. Hamilton made sure that he made his move when he knew he was going to get it done and it wasn't going to result in an incident, a great overtake. The other thing that I think he answered, maybe even from the sprint race,
Starting point is 00:16:52 was getting this done over a longer stint, because in the sprint race, he looked very good early on, and then Leighton started to struggle a little bit versus his teammate, he still finished ahead, but started to struggle a bit more. And as soon as he made that error that you referenced, I was worried we were getting back into the same thing again. I had exactly the same thought. I thought two seconds here. uh-oh, he's going to close up, and you think he could get pulled back into that
Starting point is 00:17:18 and away from the battle in front of him. And then he kicks on. And he does a brilliant job from there to close in on Max Verstappen and then obviously get the overtake done as well. You said this was his best weekend at Ferrari, so in a Ferrari so far. I 100% agree.
Starting point is 00:17:32 It's not to say it will carry on, but I think he can feel pretty happy about that at a track that he mentioned afterwards is quite power sensitive, power hungry, not necessarily Ferrari strength at the moment. So at some maybe friendlier tracks going forward, maybe Hamilton can make this more of a habit. I'm fascinated.
Starting point is 00:17:50 You can see how the Ferrari goes around Monaco. I'm fascinated. I'm fascinated to see what happens at Monaco full stop. I do not know. Hopefully something exciting, maybe. Hopefully something exciting. Are we still doing the two-stop thing, or is that gone? I think that's thankfully gone.
Starting point is 00:18:10 It was going to come back, and then I think they got rid of it. Thank God news for that. All right, well, should we take a quick break? On the other side, we might wrap up some Ferrari chat, but then also get into Max Verstappen and Red Bulls Day. Support for today's episode comes from Square, the all-in-one system that makes running a business simpler.
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Starting point is 00:20:07 Charlerclair, I think earlier on in this weekend, quoted this as one of his worst weekends at Ferrari. I don't think the race would have changed his opinion. No, earlier on in the weekend, there's a quite distinct radio message that came out where he said, I don't know what's going on. It's going to be P.8 or the Wall, I think it was. I can't work out if that was sprint race. saw if that was qualifying, but it wasn't going well for him. Yeah, it didn't feel good for him. He never felt, he's never felt comfortable in the car. It felt like all weekend. I think coming out
Starting point is 00:20:35 of the sprint race, he would have probably looked at the result and gone, all right, I'm not happy at the moment, but I've qualified right behind my teammate. I'm in the battle with my teammate and other cars. It's okay. It's all right. Yeah, it could be worse here. And then actual qualifying roles around. He's a couple of places behind. There's a couple of cars in between, which is not ideal. And then the race happens. He's just not a part of the conversation that you, we are so used to him, not just being a part of the conversation, but leading the conversation. Charlotte Clare is usually the guy that the others who aren't the race league is trying to catch, are trying to beat. He's usually so good at extracting performance out of the car. It feels
Starting point is 00:21:10 quite alien to see Charlotte Clair be the guy further back struggling for pacing. It might be beneficial for him that the likes of Hajar had so many penalties coming his way that he wasn't really challenged at the end of the Grand Prix, walks away with a respectable position, but it wasn't that simple for him to get there in the end. Yeah, as far as P4s go, it wasn't a great one. In which case, I think Charler-Claude might just go, after he's been frustrated at this weekend, might just go, sure.
Starting point is 00:21:39 I'll take that. Yeah, I've dropped six points to my teammate. Could have been a lot more than that based on how I've raced, because we had the spin, obviously. We had just a distinct lack of pace, which is very unusual from Charles LeClaire's perspective. I wonder whether, and it's not just at Ferrari, whether this being a sprint weekend has impacted this.
Starting point is 00:21:58 I feel like based on the pace that LeClaire did or didn't have in free practice on Friday, whether actually across three free practice sessions, he might have been able to claw at least some of that back. But that's these things with the sprint weekends. Like you can get yourself stuck in a bit of a hole and unable to get out of it. And Charles LeClaire has had to salvage something
Starting point is 00:22:22 and P4 is the best he could manage. Like you say, just fortune, I guess, that McLaren did what they did and Hadjar is still, I think, serving penalties for what he's done out there today. So Charleclair by default and no other midfield team being close has managed to claim fourth place.
Starting point is 00:22:40 Yeah, McLaren, I think, cost us what could have been an even more exciting fight for those podium places. I don't think we have got exactly the same result with just McLaren plonked in the middle, for example. I really think it would have been more cars down to the wire. What about Red Bull? So Vestappen, first podium of the year for both himself and the team.
Starting point is 00:23:00 I'm sure he wouldn't have wanted to wait all the way until Canada for that to be the case. But a third place finish here, still definitely not on the pace of the Mercedes, but at least competitive here with Ferrari. I don't really know what it would have been like versus McLaren, of course. he seemed relatively content after the race. Yeah, I think you can be happy when you pick up a podium, right? It's never going to be a bad day if you're on the podium, realistically. It could be far worse for you.
Starting point is 00:23:30 The Red Bull journey is very odd, confusing to come at. And Brundle and Crung Chandott made some great points on the Sky Broadcast, where they spoke about how, in these tricky conditions, the Ferrari is probably the most favourable car to look at because the way the chassis and the suspension sits, they seem to fire up their tyres really well. And we saw that. We saw that Hamilton on those meetings,
Starting point is 00:23:51 was able to really get the tyres running, but the complaints coming from Max Verstappen, but that again, which had in the sprint race as well, and qualifying, he could not get the tyres in the right window where he was able to actually maximise the performance of the car. Now, I think in a perfect day,
Starting point is 00:24:07 that Red Bull probably could have beaten that Ferrari and actually could have finished in second place. But with the real world conditions, it seems like it isn't able to, fire up the rubber in the cooler temperatures that we saw on the race day and actually get the most out of the race car. They're fastering a straight line quite comfortably. I think it was clear that they were able to really get the most out of the straight line parts of the racetrack. But in the grippiest sections, in the actual cornering, the chassis and the wheel performance on the Ferrari
Starting point is 00:24:32 really outshone the Red Bull. And it left the aspect a bit of an awkward juxtaposition where you stuck between performance and Hamilton coming at him. Yeah, it led to a very balanced fight and one that was definitely there for the taking for both drivers. And even though Vestappen has ended the wrong side of that, I think he's put in a very good performance here on a weekend, maybe similar to Chal LeClaire, where early on it wasn't looking particularly comfortable for him, but unlike Chau LeClau, he has been able to mostly salvage this. Yes, I don't think Vestappen was ever going to keep pace with the Mercedes duo as soon as he got past Lewis Hamilton early on. I think we were thinking, can he pull off a bit of a miracle
Starting point is 00:25:17 and start to eat into this gap that the Mercedes have? We knew the Mercedes were very much scrapping away at that point and probably costing themselves time, which is pretty terrifying, that Vastappen still didn't get anywhere near both of them. But it was for the most part, enough to keep the Ferrari and his teammate behind, enough so that we got this battle. We got this battle late on. I don't think he'll mind too much that he's ended on the wrong side of this one. It is good for him and for the team that they found their way to the podium, even if it is slightly later than they would have wanted. And it does give them something to work with going forward. I think they'll be relatively content with this one. I think he might be the only driver
Starting point is 00:26:00 in the top six who had almost a flawless drive. He got beaten by Lewis Hamilton, but by a very fantastic overtaking, a car that was better suited to the conditions. He didn't make a mistake, though, all weekend, unless I'm missing something. Like that race day, he did not put a foot wrong. No, I don't think he did. He seemed like, yeah, there were errors here, there and everywhere. And I don't remember any of them coming from Max Verstappen, which shouldn't be a massive surprise at this point.
Starting point is 00:26:29 No, but again, you say that about the likes of Hamilton or Lecler, and we saw that, right? So he didn't get the result, but he had a very good drive. One driver that probably doesn't fulfill the same category of not making an error out there was his teammate, Isaac Adjar, who has managed to secure P5 for 10 points, which I think makes that his best finish in a Red Bull so far. It is. And I'm sure Isaac Adja will just want the sentence to end there. It's the first time two Red Bulls have been signed the top five, I think, for 43 Grand Prix.
Starting point is 00:27:04 Isaac's like, focus on that. That's a great start. Hey, guys, look at what I did. He could not be more lucky that the rest of the grid and the McLaren's were absolutely poo-poo in outright pace today because any other, any other race day, I think he maybe falls well outside the points. I mean, at worst, nine or ten, but I think he falls well outside the points. I thought the pace was not good, but I think it was okay enough. It wasn't, he was, it's not like he was on the back of the battle in front, but equally he wasn't disappearing into the distance either. Pace-wise, I thought it was okay.
Starting point is 00:27:42 The problem I had was the conduct and the way in which he moved across on Charler-Claire. I mean, he picks up a penalty for it. Rightly so, that was not good. That was a big, it's a big no-no. Big no-no. That's one of the fastest moments of the race track that we have. And to come across double like that and push the Clare insensually into the grass, to take a base of action, just not okay, outright unsafe.
Starting point is 00:28:07 Could have really hurt someone. One of them, too, someone else, really dangerous. Do not want to see that again. And I don't often praise the stewards, but I'm going to here because they gave a penalty for it. I think in the past we've seen them lean on the black and white flag too much for this sort of thing, where they've gone, naughty, naughty, one more, and you do that again, we're going to punish you.
Starting point is 00:28:27 You're a very naughty boy. But the problem when you do that every single time is that all of these drivers know, I could do that once and get away with it. And I don't think we want that attitude at all. Like that sort of a move should be discouraged. And what they did today has discouraged it in the future. So yeah, I'm with the stewards on this one. And Hachari, we've had a lot of praise for.
Starting point is 00:28:50 Yeah, it doesn't get my praise with that move. No, no, I mean, I'm all for aggressive, hardcore racing, wheel to wheel racing, bit of rubbing off the tires. I'm okay with that. But that is just downright unsafing. I like you. Praise them in our Discord chat, actually, the stewards, for how often they were making decisions relatively close to the incident taking place. We saw the same thing with Piascary, of course, happened. Valtry Bottas picked up a penalty. Hulkeberg picked up up, there was a lot of penalties
Starting point is 00:29:16 that got given during the Grand Prix, which is what we want to see. Penalties actually taking place while the race is going on and it actually affects what's going on track. So, well done for that. Was there any disappointment from your side that Hadjar based on his qualifying pace where he routinely was either quicker than Vastappen, or just behind him, as we saw in Q3, by about a tenth of a second, then when it comes to race pace, that can't be converted over.
Starting point is 00:29:42 Again, he wasn't miles off, but he was never close to contending with his teammate. I think he was spared his blushes a little bit today with what was going on around him. The fact that as we, if we remove the penalties from the situation, we spoke about how he was there with the club because there was a poor pit stop for Lewis.
Starting point is 00:30:01 that meant that LeClau had to be backed up a little bit. Hadger was saying introduce him to the battle because the Red Bull garage is open because he is so far behind his teammate at that point. I do think if the midfiger are a bit closer, I do think if McLaren are having a normal day, not even a good day, a normal day, Hajar is well off of it. And I think he's comfortably sitting in eighth or nine, the best.
Starting point is 00:30:22 He has been really good at the start of this Red Bull season, and he's had some bad luck with a mixture of failures, the car not working as we've seen demonstrating, of course, he put himself in the wall in Miami. This felt like a real chance this weekend for him to step forwards. And I think for the first three parts of the race weekend, he did step forward. Everything that he was asked of, he gave happily and did a really good job of. And yet the big moment, on the big stage, where it actually makes a difference. He's quite lucky to have picked up P5.
Starting point is 00:30:50 And I do think that he doesn't really deserve the points that he actually attained. So, yeah, I guess he's got away with one. I don't want to see that happen again. I do not know what is going to happen at Monaco. I know we've already said that in reference to other teams, but particularly with Red Bull, who have been very strong there in previous years, whether they've still got the strengths that they previously had at the Monaco
Starting point is 00:31:13 track. I just don't know. I can't wait to see what Red Bull are going to be like there. They could be really competitive, but equally it would not shock me if they are really struggling versus the top teams. Yeah, it'll be fascinating. It poses a very different challenge. I least that's one good thing about the next race track we're going to.
Starting point is 00:31:30 It will be maybe a big shakeup of the order. It might be the most dull thing you ever watching your entire life. Well, of course, the Monaco GP takes place in two weeks' time. We'll be here across that weekend, qualifying review and race review, as we always are, and we'll be previewing it in the midweek beforehand. Shall we go to Driver of the Day? The verdict is in. You're the driver of the day.
Starting point is 00:31:55 You're the driver of the day. You're good at driving. So driver of the day on the vote done by F1, won by Lewis Hamilton. Does he win it for you as well, Sam? It's tricky because, as I mentioned, there was a mistake. It ran over the grass, of course, I think, for return seven and eight, but fully rectified as well. It ended up costing him nothing.
Starting point is 00:32:18 And usually I would take away a driver of the day for a mistake. For example, Colopinto, I think, very much deserves me in the conversation. kind of drove into the side of the pit lane, which I still actually haven't seen. Honestly, like, I think he was bored. Like, he had nothing going on in this race. Guys, I am that good. Am I going to have to, like, hamper myself,
Starting point is 00:32:35 just so you can catch up. Equally, I thought the defence from Lawson with the Gassley fight was really fascinating. But there were mistakes there as well. Gassily catching up really good. But I am going to give it to Lewis Hamilton. I just think that the combination of that mine mistake compared to what he was actually able to achieve outshone everything else.
Starting point is 00:32:53 So I was really pleased with that. The staff also deserves a shout, but he was brilliant today. Yeah, so for me, Hamilton gets it. Folks, we go through every single driver in our Power Rankings review on our Patreon, which you can join if you haven't already by clicking on the link in the description.
Starting point is 00:33:09 Our top tier has access to all of those Power Rankings episodes, including all the ones that we've already done so far this year. And as I look down from 1 to 22 on my notes here, slight spoiler. I don't think there's going to be any tens about. I'm not. That's a very, that's a fair point. I'm not sure there'll be any nines.
Starting point is 00:33:32 Because nearly everyone did make some sort of an error or has some reason why they're not the driver of the day. Lewis Hamilton did make a nearly critical error midway through this Grand Prix. Max Verstappen couldn't keep that position ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Antonelli, whilst he won the race, might not have won that race of his teammate. My guy left the racetrack about nine times.
Starting point is 00:33:56 And also didn't want to do the racetrack. Franco Colopinto had a great race other than the fact that he hit the wall on the pit exit. It's very difficult to say. I hate how I keep doing this. But every time I look at like this whole grid and who didn't make an error, it always comes down to Carlos Sines.
Starting point is 00:34:16 I was about to say, is Carlos Sipes about to come out? Your mouth. He started on the intermediate tires, which was obviously the worst strategy, and he salvaged two points from it. Yeah. Also, he just kept his head down. He just had no drama, no fuss. It's why he's done all year.
Starting point is 00:34:34 Yeah, yeah. And again, it's another two points picked up for him. I'm going to go with him. Yeah. Fair. No blame here. What about worst driver of the day? Get in the bin, bin, bin, bin, been, worst driver of the day.
Starting point is 00:34:49 A large driver of the day You suck at driving A large number of retirements in this one So I'm not all of them self-inflicted, of course I feel like there are a few contenders about here What do you say? When the fact that maybe the driver of the day isn't even close to a nine
Starting point is 00:35:09 It does mean that some other scores might be quite low Firstly, the bat markers Do they know how to get out of the way Of a vehicle coming towards them? for sympathy. They have got anything going on at the moment. I've been lapped 80 three times. That's more laps than there are actually the Grand Prix. I was going to breathe this up later, but like, you've got Fernando Alonzo, who has managed to make an unbelievable start and then get overtaken by Lando Norris twice in the space of like 20 laps before retiring because his seats
Starting point is 00:35:40 messed up. Yeah, yeah. It's not a good day. It's not a good day to be an Aston Martin driver. Oh, lots to pick from. Lots of. Lots of. Lots of. to pick from. You know, I think both Algey's having a bit of a tough day, Nikolkbergh, most notably having
Starting point is 00:35:54 that spingle to himself. Sergio Perez was having a bit of a rambunctious time and we might hear about moment of the race for a certain thing that happened to him later on. But I am going to actually give it
Starting point is 00:36:05 to Isaac Hager, I think, for my worst drive of the day. Two penalties picked up, both safety related. There was a yellow flag infringement and the moving twice when being,
Starting point is 00:36:15 when defending from another driver. Pace was well off of his teammate. incredibly lucky to get away with the fact that he has managed to stay in the position that essentially he was fighting for, only because everyone else was so rubbish. So, yeah, for me it's Hager. There might be a few drivers that are fortunate not to get worse driver of the day because they were a long, long way off the pace, but didn't do anything strictly wrong.
Starting point is 00:36:40 Ockon, but... Oh, my boy's just slow. I'm going to go of Oscar Piastri for the incident with Alex Albin. That's very fair. It was a 10 second time penalty, and it could not have been less than 10 seconds. And I don't... It's actually terrorism. It might have been.
Starting point is 00:36:59 I don't think it was intentional in that he was trying to get that move done. I think he's just completely missed his breaking and realized there's nothing I can do at this point. The difference between the way Norris got through the sum of the traffic and the way that Piasprey got through, it just shows you. We're so used to Piascrib being so clinical with his moves that you think this is. where he's going to come alive. This is his forte. He was terrible. He was really rubbish. And look, McLaren's strategy kind of, they made their own bed with that in that he was never going to be on the podium or battling the Ferraris. But based on how quick that McLaren was, there was still sixth place, maybe even fifth place, with what Hadjar was up to in the offing.
Starting point is 00:37:41 And instead, Piastri has finished just outside the points. So that was my vote. Yeah, there might have been some damage from that crash, but that was. entirely caused by him anyway. Yeah. Big brain strat. I need you to box for wets. What? It's not even raining out.
Starting point is 00:37:59 What are you talking about? Yeah, and Bob, if you get a chance... I just gave three minutes of that sync. It's good, isn't it? It's very good. A big brain strategy that we give out on every race to review for something that either strategically went very right or sometimes very wrong.
Starting point is 00:38:25 What have you gone for? Well, McLaren starting on the intermediate. it feels like an obvious one. Yeah, well, very, very well. They may as one of being a well, so I'd be honest, it probably couldn't have got worse for them if they were. Yeah, and then the way they felt like they handled the mistake was also shocking.
Starting point is 00:38:44 It felt like communication was bad. As in like that one, like the formation. Yeah, yeah. They get the drivers are going, this is wrong. We're doing the wrong thing. If I coming now, I'm on warm tires at least. Like, you know, and they're going, the soft ties around you are going to be really cold.
Starting point is 00:38:56 Okay, we're literally on the wrong tire. And they don't split the strategy anyway. It just felt like a massive, massive, kind of, you know, kicking their own teeth a little bit. They really tripped themselves up there. It costs them anything. It just ruined the whole race. It just went from bad to worse. A very good shout.
Starting point is 00:39:14 And I knew you were going with that, which is swaying on the negative side of big brain strats. So I was like, I'm going to find something that was positive instead. And I've gone with the decision from Alpine to pick Colopinto and Gasly onto the hard tire, which actually was quite bold based on what we'd seen from every other team, where they were all leaning towards the medium and the soft tire. And we knew both of those tires could go quite a long way. And the hard tire, because it's the hardest of the three available, probably the most difficult to heat up. There was a point where I saw that no one else used the hard tire, as far as I'm aware, this whole race. And as soon as they went on to it, I was like, oh, I hope you haven't just
Starting point is 00:39:58 made a really bad error and you can't get those tires working with how cold it is. They did. And it was a fine strategy. So I'll go with that. Yeah, it worked really well. Good to see a difference. It was also nice to see them fighting with Lorsing who at the time was on that soft tire still. That made that work a really long time. So nice to see a bit of a difference. I mean, a minor one, but a bit of a difference in tire cool. Let's head to our next break. On the other side, we're going to get into how, I think it was about three years ago at this point, but Lando Norris was leading this race at some point and then very quickly lost it.
Starting point is 00:40:46 Welcome back, everyone. Let's chat McLaren because they decided to make the start of this race a lot more spicy going for the intermediate tyre where most of the other runners, particularly the front runners, went for dries. It worked very well, Sam, for four corners. To be honest, if you had said to me, put £100 on Landon Norris reading out of turn one, okay, you're having a laugh. No chance.
Starting point is 00:41:13 that happening and then it happens. So, you know, that's why I'm not a gambling man, because I am famously terrible at 50-50 calls. It's because the amount of gamblers either. They lost out big time. They took it all on green. Yeah, I'm quite surprised. Were you a bit surprised at that? You know, and if we just talk about it in layman Serbs right now, I was quite shocked to see the intermediate fired up the grip that quickly in comparison to the soft tire. It was still a relatively dry track. Yeah, I guess, yeah, I was surprised by it as well. I didn't know, I didn't think they'd get a better start than those on the softs,
Starting point is 00:41:49 but there must have been something around that corner where they can just get that grip immediately versus those soft tires because they both would have been incredibly cold to start this race. But yeah, Lando Norris, it's not a long run down to term one. I know George Russell didn't get a good start to this race, but, Antonelli did, and he still got there ahead of Antonelli. But equally, Piastrian got a pretty poor start, and of course was behind Lewis Hamilton, at least, going into turn one and two. I really was surprised to see him get such a jump, and it's a shame that the rain never actually came.
Starting point is 00:42:23 I mean, I think we had a great race. I really enjoyed it. But it would be very interesting to have seen if we had got just a sprinkle to see how that might have spiced up that race. I do think it would have created a whole different journey. McLaren, of course, we're absolutely hoping and praying we would get it. I do wonder if there might be a conversation with their weatherton that they made that call so badly and no one else did. Yeah, because in the end, and I know it's easy to say this in hindsight,
Starting point is 00:42:46 it wasn't close. And to defend McLaren here, it wasn't just them that made the call. You know, the Audi guys did, Cadillac guys did as well, one of the Williams did in Carlos Sines. So it wasn't just McLaren going for this, but it was quite an error when you're having to put your drive in after one and two laps respectively. It's not like they could hang it out for 10 laps or so and try and make it work. Remember, Haas did this a couple of years ago and I'm forgetting
Starting point is 00:43:19 exactly what the situation was, but it might have been the hash drivers were on intermediates versus everyone else on wets or maybe the other way round, but they went against the strategy. And whilst I don't think it worked massively, it was still enough for them to stay out there on that tyre for a full stint or very close to a full stint. This was just one lap in, put him in a bin. Like, it just wasn't worth it in any way. Yeah. The other thing I found fascinating was that they kept Manda Norris out of the situation. We didn't pit him first out of the situation. Usually the lead drivers on against the call to going first, even to the point where he pitted and came out about four places in front of Oscar Piasri, who I thought having a lap on warm, slick tires would be able to
Starting point is 00:44:03 make the difference, but clearly the traffic or something was causing him to be backed up. Well, we saw the traffic really hurt McLaren because as soon as they were in that traffic, regardless how quick they were or weren't, they were just stuck. And you saw that gap. Yeah, you saw the gap to the front guys in particular just increasing and increasing. And you knew that they were out of, certainly of contention for the win at that point. Little did we know how badly their race would go from there on out. One thing I wasn't sure about, And there was a lot made of the communication between, particularly Piastri and the McLaren pit wall beforehand about whether they had essentially made the wrong choice. And I cannot for the life of me remember if this rule was changed or not.
Starting point is 00:44:49 But certainly a few years ago, it used to be the case that teams could not give strategic advice to their drivers on the formation lap. And they had to make that call by themselves. So I remember the Hungarian GP, I think it was a few. years ago where some drivers came in after the formation lap and some of them were maybe penalised because their teams were essentially telling them you have to come into the piss because you're not allowed to do that. And I thought maybe it's still the case now because you didn't have McLaren outright saying come in a box. You kind of have McLaren on those formation lap saying this is the situation which they could get away with. I mean, if the rules are still in place,
Starting point is 00:45:32 I feel like they rang a very fine line because it felt very clear to me what was being discussed. You know, whether, but it was clearly talking about tire wear, tire choice, sorry, it was clearly talking about the difference between a slick tire and an intermediate tire. You know, it was very obvious. So if that rule is in place, for me, they were in theory of broken that rule because that conversation was very clear.
Starting point is 00:45:52 But I would maybe then err on the side of maybe the rule isn't in place anymore. And to a degree, is there much benefit in not being able to discuss tactics on a formation lap or strap? Yeah. Or is it really that? No, I mean, I agree with you on that. I do understand the intermediate call in that, I think with how cold it was,
Starting point is 00:46:12 if they did have a bit of rain, I think that track would have just pretty much remain damp for the entire Grand Prix. I know we had wins as well. But yeah, I think we could have had that. It's not the same situation as maybe Miami where we've had rain before, but it's so hot that as soon as that rain
Starting point is 00:46:30 stops, like you're not going to be that far away from dries again. This is one of those lingering rains that they could have just been on intermediates for the rest of the race. So I do get it, but it didn't work out at all. Lewis Hamilton was very, very close to putting on the intermediate ties. He had them on the car and swapped them out last minute. Max Verstappen commenting on that as well, which I thought was quite fascinating. It does mean that McLaren lose a bit of ground to Ferrari in the Constructed's
Starting point is 00:46:56 championship without scoring any points whatsoever, of course. by my very quick maths down 41 points to Ferrari now Ferrari 72 behind Mercedes but they managed to make some headway into that advantage today by five points Ferrari are coming we've got a title fight on someone's hangs that's the eight times out the last 10 McLaren haven't scored points at Canada really weird I mean some tracks we see the cars have like a better time at. We used to comment Red Bull at Monaco and Mexico, but that's, you know, a better time. Not often do you see a team so comfortably struggling more often than not at this one race track. Indeed. What did you make of the midfield fights then? So it was Alpine that eventually won that
Starting point is 00:47:47 midfield fight with Franco Colopinto ahead of Liam Lawson, ahead of Pierre Ghazli. So double points for Alpine Ghazli having a bit more work to do, maybe to get back into that position. but Alpine similarly to Miami, seemingly still Kings in the midfield right now. Yeah, I think actually it's a real shame that Libelag was unable to run the race. We saw that issue on the starting grid that meant he was unable to get going. I do think with the pace that Lawson had shown that there was a real chance that we could have had a really good four-way car fight between the racing balls and Alpine. Because seemingly, their upgrades have worked a real treat coming to the Canadian GP. And they are back in that midfield mix, whereas in Miami, they were quite comfortably out of it.
Starting point is 00:48:27 So it's a shame. Olga gives a praise to Colin up into, though. I know we had the incident with the pit wall. I do think those hard ties might have been so cold that he was unable to just keep the car in line, and mistakes and mistake. But regardless of that, he has been phenomenal. Really brilliant. The last kind of four or five competitive settings, and I include Miami in that as well,
Starting point is 00:48:45 he has been better than Pierre Gasly. And Gasly had some work to do. He had to work through a lot of cars, and there were some pitters going on, of course, the intermediate tires that made his life a little bit easier. But it's not easy out there. really made it work. I think it's a real shame he wasn't actually able to get past loss. Because I've really put the cherry on the top of a really good race weekend for him.
Starting point is 00:49:04 But Alpink would be very happy, I think, to walk away with the sixth and eighth place. After a really difficult and tumultuous weekend for a lot of different teams. I think we maybe mentioned this after qualifying possibly when we were talking about Colopinto essentially doing what he could do to get into the top 10. In the end, he didn't even need to make his way past Limbblob because of what happened before the race start. But we kind of felt that Alpine had the race pace advantage, even if racing balls had the qualifying advantage.
Starting point is 00:49:34 And being so close to Limblud would mean that if he could get by quite quickly, he could then settle into ninth place and then just see where the race takes him in terms of DNFs and weird things that happen. Today is one of those days where they were rewarded for their patience in that both McLaren's didn't score. And we had that Russell retirement too.
Starting point is 00:49:56 So ninth place becomes sixth place, two points becomes eight points, and Colopinto's tally for the season suddenly looks a lot healthier. But he was great. As soon as he got through the start phase, he was just able to kick on into the distance and didn't see another car for the rest of the day. Yeah, we've said this with a few drivers before as well, that qualifying is often the moniker of if they can have a good or a bad weekend. And Colopinto is one of these drivers.
Starting point is 00:50:22 If he qualifies well, it gets away for a lot of the midfield rubbing. that goes on between 15th to 10th. He's typically able to then kick on and have a very competitive weekend. And he's proven that here again in the main Grand Prix. By qualifying right next to those top 10 runners, he's got past the trouble, is able to have a settling into a lovely, consistent Grand Prix.
Starting point is 00:50:41 No battles going around him that he needs to concern himself with, scores a heap lower points for the team. So great weekend. Elsewhere in the midfield, Olly Berman and Hass managed to score one point for 10th place. But he is behind Carlos Sines, who was one of those ill-fated drivers that started on the intermediate compound. Behrman did not start on that, and he's still lost out to him. And Behrman is very comfortably the faster of the two hash drivers on the day.
Starting point is 00:51:11 Hasn't been a good weekend for them whatsoever. Hasn't been a good weekend at all. Very good. We are five races into this season, and Williams were one of the laughing stocks of this new regulation set five races ago. and now Carlos Sites looks like he might be faster than both of those hars cars around at least three
Starting point is 00:51:31 the last two races Yeah I was going to say is he ninth in three of the last four races He was ninth from China's ninth of Miami He scored in three of five now More times than Ockong has scored So far this season Which is not a good statistic for Ockong
Starting point is 00:51:47 Or for Hars And Bairman had to have an almighty start To this Grand Prix To even become competitive For that point's finish He absolutely sent a good statistic it at the start, a brilliant set of overtake to get him into the points-paying positions. But Carlos Science does what Carlos Science does. He's quick to start with, qualifies well,
Starting point is 00:52:03 gets past the chaos and just consistent, so reliable is Carlos Science. So does the job again for Williams. And they'll appreciate him for that, especially after what happened to Alba, which no fault of his own, of course, but starting slightly further back means he gets a bigger of the chaos throwing at him. Sometimes that doesn't go your way. So that'll appreciate a couple of points on the board. Ask though, a bit of turmoil. Last point on the midfield just with Audi, they finally solved what to do on lap ones. Start on the intermediate tyre. The problem is that strategy doesn't go very well after lap one.
Starting point is 00:52:35 Yeah. Yeah, yeah. How does that work, Ben? How does that work? It doesn't. Yeah, they actually, I think Holkenberg actually, I can't believe I'm saying this, made up one spot at the start today. And Bortoletto, I think, held position, which is a miracle for Audi. and then the intermediate tire needed to be replaced after two laps
Starting point is 00:52:55 and it was completely meaningless. One day they'll get right. The irony is if they're starting on the soft tire, they would have gone backwards, but they've got overtaking all the intermediate ruggers anyways. They'll be further ahead. Oh, Aldi. Before we go to a final break,
Starting point is 00:53:11 shall we review our bold predictions? Because, Sam, you are coming off a win at Miami by saying that the Colopinto would essentially have a very good weekend, managing to sweep top tens and in Q3s. So a lot of pressure on you this time out. Remind us what your bold prediction was. I said at least up to eighth place in the main Grand Prix would be lapped by the leader.
Starting point is 00:53:35 You've essentially managed to predict something and then like five times that thing has happened. Honestly, it's so rare that you get this many people get lapped. And then of course the day that I predict it is a bold prediction. It almost feels not that bold in comparison to what. genuinely happened. Well, I think maybe the boldest element of it is that we have like an 80% chance here of a safety car. And whilst we had a lot of yellow flags, we had a lot of VSCs, we didn't get a safety car. I was waiting for that safety car to come out and then all to go back through. And I thought,
Starting point is 00:54:08 I was going to be on it. If it wasn't at the line, at the finish line, I wasn't going to count it. That's how we do these bold predictions. I feel like I got lucky because especially with Russell, I feel like it could have been a safety car. Yeah, yeah. I figured that might be. but they kept it away and gives you a second point of the year. My bold prediction was that Max Vastappen would win a race this weekend, sprint or the main race. I was essentially looking for one of two things, a much improved Red Bull or rain, and I didn't get either.
Starting point is 00:54:39 Or a Masegi's crash. Yes, it wasn't far off in that Vastappen was P2 as soon as Russell's power unit went boom, and I thought, well, that could be a Mercedes. issue rather than a rough solution. If the second one happens again, yeah, there's a I did think there's a real chance you could be on for this, but unfortunately
Starting point is 00:54:59 hitting the goalpost again. Yeah, never mind, and I'll remain on zero points. Let's take our final break on this episode. On the other side, Moment of the Race. Welcome back, everyone. Moment of the Race. We've got some
Starting point is 00:55:31 discourse submissions coming up in just a moment's time. Before we do that, Sam, what was your moment of the race? historically I am known for enjoying a tire or two spontaneously combusting on the side of the car flashback to Sebastian Boyme in the Chinese Grand Prix. Today, we got a little taster of that once again as Sergio Perez was cruising into the pit lane and his right tire just said, bye-bye, I just fell off the car. The thing is, if it happened to any other team, I'd have been like, oh my God, it was Cadillac
Starting point is 00:56:03 and I was like, oh, it took a miss long, did it? It's about time that that fell off the car. Everything else has. Yeah, that was odd. Funging, funny. Harmless. Yes, fortunately, absolutely harmless. I'm glad that maybe Perez's experience really paid off there and he was able to,
Starting point is 00:56:19 he knew he had an issue, was going into the pits. Because if that happens at 200 miles an hour, like 500 years back. Yeah. At my moment of the race, I have a few here, and I don't know which one to go for. I'm going to go with No, I want to pick one just in case we get some of these
Starting point is 00:56:39 pop up from the submissions. I'm going to go with a new character that I'm calling Prison Russell which, behind the fence. It looks like he's in Fox Penitentiary
Starting point is 00:56:52 with Michael and link the sink. But yeah, I absolutely love that. I'm really enjoying the Angican Skywalker a Sith comparisons to George Russell. I was so out and turned on to the dark side.
Starting point is 00:57:09 I used the force to absolutely yeat that headrest out of there, right? Oh, God, yeah, I'd be fair play. If you're going to do it, do it grammatically. Yeah, so I went with, I know it was unfortunate. I do genuinely feel sorry for him, but Prison Russell wins. Funny. What about our Discord submissions, though? Thank you so much to everyone who's put a submission in.
Starting point is 00:57:29 We've got a lot of you that have submitted. so we'll try and get through as many as we can. And we're going to start with a favourite of ours, Norm from Texas. Oh, hello, my late-breaking friends. Norm from Texas here, trying something new. When did the Canadian GP decide to have hands? Also, shout out to the Marshall who dove through that on-track window like he was trying to audition for a Wachowski movie.
Starting point is 00:57:53 Anyway, keep breaking late. Great shout on the Marshall, absolutely like tumble rolling through the tiny little window like he's like a Michigan Postal movie. Yes, yes. Yeah, some slick work. Thank you very much, Norm. Let's go on to Obey John Canobey. My moment of the race is when Charlotte Clare says
Starting point is 00:58:11 was engineer. Can we please just stop talking till the last lap? Please. That was one of my contenders, and not only for the team radio aspect of it, but also for the when he spins aspect, I just imagine him just going, I'm not going to say anything, now you spun.
Starting point is 00:58:27 Yeah, look, the Angiore goes sat there like, mm-hmm, you can deal with that by yourself. Yeah. This is where actually Adami is the new engine here for LeClaire. We haven't realised. Oh, return of the Adami. In cinema soon. Thank you very much.
Starting point is 00:58:42 Obie John Canobi. Let's go to Kate Durante. Hi, guys. This is Kate Trachside in Montreal. Hope everyone enjoyed the race. We loved a good masterclass between Max and Lewis. Keep breaking leaps. It's always great to hear of Trackside.
Starting point is 00:59:00 We love a trackside. side submission and yeah, very jealous of you managing to get front row seats to that Vestapp and Hamilton battle. So soon after the Antonelli and Russell battle, you were absolutely spoiled. Thank you so much for taking time out of your post-race data to get the submission in. Let's go to Game More next. First time submission here. I feel like I have to call out the journalistic integrity of this podcast. In the pre-race show, a groundhog in Canada was told that he might be able to survive an encounter with a Williams.
Starting point is 00:59:35 And that was a lie. And he has perished. Do better, guys. I, Game Moore, I'd like to applaud you on your non-bias, attitude towards this show. I applaud you for holding us. That's everything else. Holding bang.
Starting point is 00:59:49 Accountable. Any words? That ground dog had it coming for it. Oh, no. Oh, no. The whole of Canada is now angry. So long as it's got me. Thanks, Game Moore.
Starting point is 00:59:59 I just really appreciated the way he went, and he perished. I can't. Matter of fact, yeah. My apologies to the groundhog that I have inadvertently sent to the grave. Bless up. Yeah. Let's go to Raff next.
Starting point is 01:00:21 The race definitely shout out to the Indy 500. Might have been the best race I've ever seen in my life. But that's not F1. So another race from the Canadian Grand Prix was definitely,
Starting point is 01:00:33 Louis's move on Max, pure filth. I think I need to take a shower. Great race, though. Yeah, fantastic move. Good to see those two big boys in F1 go at it, will to will. Yeah, I often say this about Vestappen and Hamilton battles
Starting point is 01:00:47 where there is so much attention to the ones that didn't go well. There are many that did go well in that they are really entertaining and this is one of those. So, yeah, great shout from Raz. Did you watch the 500? I didn't watch the 500.
Starting point is 01:01:03 now, annoyingly. Yeah, I was the same. And then I was really annoyed that I probably could have got it in before the race starting as well. Yeah, I was too busy watching Formula 2 be Formula 2. I was just really sweaty from a boat trip that I went on. Sweaty boatman. I was a swamp. Cheers, Shrek.
Starting point is 01:01:29 Let's move on to Hazer. Right, boys, my own with the race for me and Northern George, we've had a beer. My moment of the race was McLaren starting on Inter's for some reason, even though the track was dry. George? Franco Colpinter, P6. So the winter of all winters, and it's proving it now.
Starting point is 01:01:48 Can't argue with that. Cheers, boys. What a great winter. The best winter. He might be the winter soldier at this point. He might just be. I do have to ask Hazer and George a question, though, because they're very specifically said there, they've had a beer.
Starting point is 01:02:06 I don't believe you've had a beer in the singular form. No, no, no. That's not how it has a northern Georgia roll. Where are we? Let's go to Jaffanator next. Hey, guys, it's Jaffanator. My moment of the race was definitely the contrast between Georgia's tantrum and Lando Norris, looking like Paul Atreides,
Starting point is 01:02:31 walking through a big crowd of people. pretty wild to see the difference between the way these two guys have handled going out of races. I mean, a Paula Trady's reference on the show is unusual, but pick up to do.
Starting point is 01:02:45 Like that. I would argue that one is in a championship fight just against dreams dashed and the other one's like, I'm already a world champ, so I just wave at the crowd. Norris has just lost an 11th place finish, yeah. I think you'll probably be all right after that one.
Starting point is 01:03:00 Yeah, it was an interesting scene, though. wasn't it, where you had sort of all of the crowd, almost on top of Lando Norris. It was kind of scary, actually, how much access they had to someone that, you know, I really respect that people are good people. It takes one person to not be good people, and we have a problem on our hands.
Starting point is 01:03:18 I guess a bit of a distance, I wouldn't mind it. Yes. Penultimate one for the day, we've got stocks and albonds. Paylay breakers, my moment of the race is David Croft, completely unsure about why. Lance Stroll and Nico Hokenberg were in the same spot. Even he is so confused that that Justin Martin is so slow
Starting point is 01:03:39 that he didn't realize they got lap twice. It's great. What was that? You, sir, you sir, you sir, thing. What was it on about? What was it going on about? He had a real hunker at some point to this one. You, sir, you sir.
Starting point is 01:03:57 You sir. Bang is, bang his, he's your side. There's a timing tower right there. It's not hidden. What you can mean, that's very confusing. Yeah, very confusing.
Starting point is 01:04:12 Yes, I'm sorry, folks. It's quarter past midnight. I can't be dealing with this. I can't be dealing with us. Right, let's finish. Let's finish off with Tim. All right, boys, moment of the race. Comes after the race.
Starting point is 01:04:24 It's Heikekova-Lynin. Where have you been, mate? Brazilian Grand Prix, 2013, was the last time anyone saw you. In my bestie and right impression, someone told me you were dead. Welcome back to the paddock, mate. He's got such a baby face, that boy, but it was good to see him back. I thought he was dead.
Starting point is 01:04:47 I thought he was dead. It was nice to see Heikeke-Cover-Lygin, wasn't it? It was very nice to see Hekikova-Ly-Ly-Kover-Iner. I can't believe we're ending the review on this. Why was Hakey-Cover-Ly-Ly-N there, really? I don't really understand it, but I'm here for it. Yeah, just fancied it, didn't he? Thank you so much for all of those submissions very much.
Starting point is 01:05:08 Appreciate it. Your next opportunity for those will be two weeks time when we do moment of the race for the Monaco GP. We have got plenty of episodes between now and then though, Sam. We do indeed. Thank you so much for your support. We'll be on Patreon tomorrow doing our power rankings. We'll review every single performance of every single driver throughout that race as well. So get in there.
Starting point is 01:05:27 Get involved. We love to see you over there. Thanks for listening. Thanks for sticking around with this. And we're back fully into F1 content timing out, great stuff. We'll see you then. In the meantime, I'll be Samuel Sage. And I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late.

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