The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2026 Chinese GP Race Review

Episode Date: March 15, 2026

F1 has a new race winner! Ben and Sam run through everything that happened this Sunday in Shanghai, from the multiple non-starters to the emotional podium of firsts, and all the drama in between! 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 listening Full-length bonus episodes Power Rankings after every race Historical 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 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Come 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 [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Packages by Expedia. You were made to occasionally take the hard route to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We were made to easily bundle your trip. Expedia, made to travel. 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, reviewing the second race of the 26 season, that being the,

the Chinese GP and a very special one for Andrea Kimmy Antinelli, taking his first ever race victory, ahead of his teammate, George Russell, on the podium. And Lewis Hamilton, another first, his first podium for Ferrari. A rather cute podium. Cute is the word we use, Sam, before we started recording. It was cute. It was adorable, very wholesome.

Bongo in there like a proud dad to all his many race-witting children that he's got up there. Lewis Hamilton, just happy to see a really nice sofa. which was really cool to see. I loved it. Absolutely loved it. I thought it was a really, really lovely way to top off what's been quite a controversial race weekend when it comes to regulations.

Cars got being able to get around the track. Some cars will start going round the track. So at least we've got a nice little story at the end of it. Yes, Ford did not start in this race overall with three further retirements happening during the Grand Prix, made for some very interesting point scorers. We've got the likes of the Williams scoring points, Franco Colopinto, scoring his first point for Alpine,

all of which we'll get to a little bit later on in the show. We'll start out front with Antonelli picking up his first ever race victory. Of course, did it from pole position. Didn't get the best of start as it's been tradition for the Mercedes versus the Ferraris in behind so far this year. But crucially, Sam, I guess it wasn't the disaster that his sprint start was and gave him something to recover quite quickly. Seemingly, Ferrari are able to get the perfect starts.

And so when you're going up against that, you just need to be good enough. You need to make sure that you're a hell of your teammate, and you're not getting swallowed up by all the cars behind you, which, you know, Max was stopping experienced again today. We saw Kimmy Antigli do that in the sprint race and at Melbourne. And there was a real risk with the pressure of starting on pole that he does do exactly that again. And even with the McLaren's missing from Grigspot's 5 and 6, the likes of Gasly were not far behind for the start of that race.

So there's a real risk that if you do get it wrong, you can end up being 7th, 8th, you know, who knows how far back you might end up going. he gets it right. And yeah, he's passed by both the Ferraris. I almost don't see that as a proper negative at the moment with how good they are off the start line. It's the fact he stayed a head of George Russell for me that shows a real level of growth over the last, over the first three starts that we've had this season, of course, the sprint race in the middle. So really pleased with the fact that he recovered. He was able to hold on to the back of the Ferraris and fight with the Claire early on, keeping him outside on that first kind of chicanne that we go

through, which is really impressive defending. And I think that is basically what sealed the deal. It to this race because it meant that he was able to separate himself from George Russell early on. Yeah, I was impressed by the start because I think if you'd offered Kimi Antonelli at the beginning, you know, you're going to drop a spot on the first lap. He'd have gone, sure. Like, based on some of his start so far this year, that would actually be considered a win. And the fact that he had Lewis Hamilton in front of him going through turn one and turn two, and Charles LeCler on his outside, it could have been really easy for him to to panic. We saw, him in panic on the first lap during the sprint and had a collision, of course, with

Isaac Cadjar. But he didn't panic. Charles LeClair on the outside didn't quite have the grip on those new tires. Obviously, at that point, quite cold tires as well. He was able to hang it around the outside and then put his focus solely on Lewis Hamilton and getting back into the lead. And credit to Antonelli, because whilst George Russell was had a brilliant start to this year, took victory in Australia, took victory yesterday as well.

Antonelli was more clinical with the Ferraris than what we've seen from Russell so far, I think. Yeah, he delivered, I think, two very decisive moments for his race that basically meant that he could go on to win this one. The first was that defence against Charlotte Clare, which I think was right on the line, perfect amount of aggression versus allowing the car to have that room alongside you.

And then you go up against seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who is the most excited he's being in, feels like years. He's like a little puppy running around at the moment. And he's up there in the league of the Grand Prix. You think, I've taken the lead away from Lewis Hamilton, bring his out of a good time because it feels very good. Doesn't matter. Kimi Antigali rocked up, got the job done, Grove off into the distance.

Really, really clinical, well delivered. And you know what? It showed years of experience above his own actual ability, I thought, the way that he handled the first opening few laps of this Grand Prix. Yeah. And I think he would have been quite happy with how he was rewarded for how well he did in the first 10 laps, because as soon as the safety car makes an appearance and you'd think, well, Antonelli's going to have the pressure now

of having that whole field behind him, potentially. Again, the Ferrari is able to get by him. What he was able to do gave him cars in between some of his rivals, crucially, which again then helped him build that gap for the second portion of this race. And even after George Russell was able to get by the two Ferraris, it felt like the pace was pretty even between them. We saw Russell eat into the gap over the course,

of a few laps and then traffic came along and Antonelli seemed to do a better job with that to push the gap back out again. It was really only that that lockup that we had a few laps from the end that was the one blemish on his record. Yeah, apparently he said something in Italian to see Sundays to find him in a call-down room about maybe he needs to change his underwear in the most polite way of writing it. Yeah, I was shocked actually at how long it took George Russell to get past the Ferraris with the fact that Kimi Antigone was able to be so clinical, especially against Lewis Hamilton so early on, on the same tire compound, same amount of tyre wear. You thought that when Russell goes onto the hard tire and he's right there alongside the Clare and Hamilton,

it should be very simple for him to use the extra power, it seems like the Mercedes has to its disposal to dispatch of them quickly. But it took so, so long to get through. Of course, LeClaher started that safety car reached up behind Russell and he fell victim to the Ferrari initially. The clerk gets past the likes of Bairman and Colapinto and he's upside along Hamilton before Russell is able to get back in that fight

and only then as he starts and make inroads on these Ferraris. By the time he gets through, Antingelli is what, seven, eight seconds down the road and it's kind of that's all she wrote at that point. Russell tried to get the gap down and it was amazing the way that about 10 laps between two statements was quite

telling. Russell puts the fastest lap of the racing at one point. I think it's around that 30, Russell does this, but then lap 40, he goes, my rears are absolutely gone, but then he's still four-tenths faster than the Ferrari. So it just shows you that that Mercedes, when it's in clean air and it's not being bothered by anyone, is seemingly still so much quicker than the two Ferraris behind it. But Kimi Antigelli swallowed all that pressure, don't with everything he needs to, makes that one mistake, which doesn't end up costing him, which will be very relieved about, takes his first ever victory. I think whilst there's been a lot of discourse, understandably,

of the winter period and still now about the absence of DRS and the introduction of overtake mode. I actually think that the mechanics of battling are still relatively similar in that I think Antonelli was able to obviously overtake Lewis Hamilton and get that done rather simply. And with DRS, we often found that if you had a one-on-one battle with a car that you're slightly quicker than in front of you, you can get that move done with relative ease. but what we often saw in the old era of F1 was these DRS trains where if you were stuck behind multiple cars, even if you were quicker,

it was sometimes tricky to pick them off one at a time. I think we might have seen that a little bit today with George Russell because he often had both Ferraris directly in front of him who were also battling with each other. And Russell, instead of being able to do what I think he would have liked, which is overtake Lewis Hamilton one lap, and then wait a lap maybe, and then overtake Charles Lecler. He almost had to think about making both moves at the same time, which is, which I think is going to be more tricky with this current era of F1.

But he gets the move done anyway. It's still 18 points for George Russell. But yeah, Antonelli, definitely the better of the two Mercedes drivers today. Got it right for the right half of this sprint weekend as well. And who knows from here? It's not out the question that with how good that Mercedes is and how good Antonelli was today. why can't he make a championship challenge? We're already two races in, right? They've got one main Grand Prix win a piece at this point.

So that's the right way to go about it. I'm going to be fascinated to see how Kimi-Ansegeli approaches Japan, Suzuki. It is arguably one of the most tricky driver-focused circuits. It's so technical, so quick. You make a mistake around there. It's got a lot of features that we like. Walls are close to the track. There's gravel where you can run off into immediately.

You know, you're getting a little bit from a car around you. You could go flying out D&F immediately. it could go so wrong so quickly for any of these drivers. And we saw for how many drivers it did go wrong for in Shanghai. So I'm excited to see if he can channel this, this good energy, the great performance, and take it to Russell, or if this might end up being a one-off.

I think we both thought coming into this weekend that Ferrari were going to get a bit closer to Mercedes. I think we were wrong. I think it went the other way. I think you're right. I think the moment that Russell got past, the Lecler Hamilton, battle that ranged on for what felt like 95% of the day.

He was able to get so fast, so quick, to the point where I was kind of watching the really great battle between the Alpins, the hearth drivers, Holkenberg, who was involved in there, for Stapein who was involved in there. I loved watching that. That was really, really fun. Should have had it on the main screen more. Oh, funny that, in it? Yeah.

I know we had a lot of it in the smaller screen, which I appreciate it's there. I'm glad we have something, but I'd have liked to have seen them reversed a lot more often. just create a bigger split screen alternative. I know we're moving away from the action for a sec here, but there's got to be a better way than showing me an inch wide box where five cars are going at it at one time. At one point, Gassley got past Colopinto and Ocock in the same straight. Yes.

And I was like, how has he got there? Why is he so quick? We have a telescope out at the same time. Literally, you've got the binoculars and looking at my screen on my lounge wall. What was I saying? Yeah, so, sorry, Russell was able to stretch his legs out so quickly. I looked back from that battle that was trying to. or watching the one inch screen on the left-hand side of the television.

And Russell was kind of seven, eight seconds clear. And then it quickly grew to 12. And then 15, you think these Mercedes in Clean Air have just got that bit extra that Ferrari are missing. And I know we've only had one true race to really analyze how this pace might compare team to team. But I did think Ferrari were closer. I was expecting Russell to maybe only get six, seven seconds clear by the end of the

Grand Prix. The fact that he was essentially a pit stop clear, I was pretty baffled by. Yeah. both Ferrari's ending up well over 20 seconds back from the race win in the end but a very entertaining battle between those two Ferraris.

Lewis Hamilton giving Ferrari or giving himself his first Ferrari podium Charles LeCler in fourth one of his tracks that he describes as one of his weakest so it might not be the worst result in the world for him

but he did have P3 for portions of this race made quite a crucial error that let Hamilton back through and then he couldn't whilst he stayed within sort of overtake mode of Hamilton, couldn't get the move done again. So what do you make of their battle, very close on a few occasions?

I loved this battle between the Ferrari drivers. And similarly so did Charlerclair, which is great. Yeah, it's quite a fun battle, actually. Where you want nothing else to play for, you may as well enjoy going toe-to-to-to-to- with someone like Lewis Hamilton. And that is how you race wheel to wheel. That is how two greats of this sport go so close together, lap after lap, after lap, give each other the,

utmost respect right on the line and you get the job done both times. Both the Claire and Hamilton making fantastic passes on each other. And eventually it is the Clure that makes the mistake and the tyres start to get away from him. And Hamilton, this is what I spoke about in the spring where I said out of all the drivers up this front end, I thought Hamilton would be the one that could manage the tyres better. And I do think that on this hard tyre stint, he was just able to understand the tyre a little better. He was understanding the longevity and how to manage this tyre. Now that that's what caused Char LeCler to fall away because raw pace-wise, they were so equally matched. They were right

there with each other. We saw LeCler catch up to Hamilton when they were fighting with Russell, passed him, but never really got further than about a second, second and a half away. Hamilton gets back within the one second window. Leclair makes a mistake. They're very close again. It's only as the tyres die off right in the last 10 laps of the stink towards the end of the Grand Prix, that Hamilton started to actually stretch that gap out to two, three seconds. It shows you how evenly matched they are in these current conditions in the current cars that they're quite, qualifying pace is so close together, right against each other on the grid, and then across a whole race condition,

they're swapping back and forth and finishing within two, three seconds. That team, when everything is actually working, and the car feels good for both drivers, is a very potent package. They just need to be a little bit faster to catch Mercedes. I'd agree with the take that LeClaire seems slightly faster in the earlier stages of stints, whereas Hamilton was a bit quicker towards the end.

There were parts of the first half of the Grand Prix, first stint of the Grand Prix, where it felt like Lewis Hamilton really dropping off the back of Antonelli, where LeCler, you felt, might be able to get by and not catch up, but maybe do a better job of reining him in. But then as the Grand Prix evolved, it looked like Hamilton had the advantage. So I think it is fairly close between the two of them right now.

Fair play to Lewis Hamilton, taking advantage of that Charles LeCler error. He did everything he needed to there. And then did a really good job of just ensuring that whilst he was close, he never really had an out and out great opportunity to re-overtake him. LeClair, probably a bit disappointed because it is an unforced error that's cost him a podium today. Yeah, and you don't see too many of those from Charlerc. The only chance that Charler had was going around the outside of turn one.

And I thought Lewis Hamilton defended that absolutely brilliantly. But they both did on multiple occasions. And it gave us something, I hate to say it, genuinely exciting to watch where there were some real lulls in this Grand Prix. We saw it happen in Melbourne where it looked like drivers suddenly clicked on how to deploy properly, where to deploy, where to manage, and gaps started to appear, overtake, started to become far less frequent. All we had in the latter stages of this race was this Ferrari battle for a long of it, and I'm really glad that we had it because it kept it occupied, kept your brain interested in what was going on. Because otherwise, I think it could become very stagnant for about 10, 15 laps of this Grand Prix. These two teammates, they seem to have a knack of just of racing. And some of it might be racing each other, I mean, obviously.

But like, some of it might feel unnecessary because they are battling over third and fourth. They've got no one close behind them. They've got no one close in front. And you just think it's a recipe for disaster that one of these days they're going to come together and cost themselves a boatload of points. But I think their wheel to wheel really, really showed up today. Like they are both very good, very good wheel to wheel races.

And they kept it clean. I think that most, they had a slight tyre knock at one point. I mean, if that's the worst, it's going to get around those kinds of corners, hats off to both of them. It was really fun to watch. Great skill, great talent. Lots of people can learn a thing or two. Do Ferrari, just a final question on this one?

Do Ferrari just keep needing to, whilst they are slower than Mercedes right now, doesn't necessarily mean it will always be the case throughout this year. Do they just need to keep on mopping up these third and fourth place finishes until such a day comes about that they might be able to do something about the two marks? I almost think they need to go experimental. It feels like the gap from them back to everyone else. You know, McLaren seemingly unable to start a Grand Prix, Oscar Piaschrist, had two DNSes at this point, one caused by himself, of course.

It feels like the points gap is already emerging between them and rivals. You know, Red Ball will get onto their struggles as well. They were nowhere to be seeing when it comes to the front. battle, I think they can start being experimental with bringing upgrades and trying something different to see. Because at worst, what, they might finish further away in third and fourth, maybe if, you know, Landon Norris or Piastri is having a great race, sure, they might sneak in front of it if it doesn't particularly work. But you know, you can go back to that old setup and it will work better for you again. You'll probably stretch your legs. So I do think that I will

see Ferrari being a bit more bold now in their development. Now they know they're a comfy second. Bring back the macaroni wing as soon as possible. You want to talk experimental? Macarena time, come on. Experimental. That's what I want to see from Ferrari. As soon as possible, we start bringing the upgrades in. Let's start pushing the boat out and challenging Mercedes where we can. Let's see if it's possible to have a proper constructors fight.

Mercedes had the early upper hand, but I don't know if it's too ridiculous, especially with this compression ratio change incoming in only a couple of months time. The good news for Ferrari is they no longer have the pressure of being the only ones responsible for the potential playing of the Italian national anthem. Antonelli can do it as well now, so not all of the pressure lies with them. Thank goodness. Hopefully we can get it every single weekend,

in one respect or another. Yes. And not because we are rooting for the drivers or the teams necessarily. We just love the anthem. I'm rooting for the anthem. I think you need to go to that. Maybe they should just play it,

even if no Italian driver or team wins. I've actually been petitioning the British government for us to change our anthem to the Italian national anthem for many years. And I'm with you on that. A great day for Mercedes, a good day for Ferrari, but great and good are two words that you will absolutely not use about Red Bull or McLaren's days. We'll be discussing both teams right after this. At Desjardin, our business is helping yours.

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Welcome back, everyone. I'm Red Bull. Not an easy weekend for them whatsoever. Not like Australia was either in that they had a DNF with Agar and Vastappen recovering from the penultimate row on the grid. This time around, they had a little bit more to work with in terms of qualifying position, but it's ended up in just four points. Isaac Hadjar finishing eighth after a lap one spin.

Vastappen was faring a little bit better than that until a reliability issue saw an early end to his day. Feels like whilst there has been a lot of credit to Red Bull and what they've been able to do with their new power unit, there are still, I don't know, niggling concerns. The cracks are starting to show, aren't they? The foundations aren't as strong as maybe we once thought. And they've been particularly unlucky here that both the times they've had a reliability problem. It's been their league driver. So their points tally looks far worse.

And I think their outright pace actually shows it to be. And whilst they were far slower here in comparison to their pace in Melbourne, I do think that the staffman probably had the pace to, you know, be gassily. He was already in front of him. I think he probably would have just stayed in front of him, although the gap was coming down. Berman, who will get onto is having a sensational Grand Prix, which probably the only thing that maybe could have stopped the staff and picking up at P5 here.

But it is unlucky that it's happened to their league driver. And so I do think where they sit in the constructors tally is worse. It's not a true representation of where they actually are here. I do think they'll rise through the ranks as the races go on. But they won't be bothering about the points all right now. The points are what's to come if they get it right, because right now it's all going very wrong. The car feels horrific to drive. It's unstable.

We're seeing with the fact that Max was staffing every time he goes wheel to wheel. He's having to take five or six, you know, attempts at getting the car turned in. It's underscaring at the wrong moments. It's not responsive where it needs to be. The driveability out of the corner is unstable. Hajar, I think, is doing a really good job adapting to a new car, new team and learning. But if Vastappen's struggling this much,

you can only imagine how difficult it must be for Hajar to also get to grip with everything going on. It's a real uphill battle for them. I think Vestappan was doing a pretty solid job today. This car clearly doesn't suit the Shanghai track as much as it did the Melbourne track, which is particularly annoying. that Vestappan had his Q1 exit at Melbourne

rather than here in Shanghai. I thought he did all right. I think you're right he would have stayed ahead of Gassley. It probably wouldn't have caught Berman. It seemed like that gap had kind of solidified. But yeah, a very unfortunate one to be so close to the end and for that DNF to occur. But even if it hadn't,

it's not like he's in the conversation with the top three, the top four at the moment, which is a real shame for him and the team. For Hadjar, obviously, the first lap incident was a bit of a brutal one, self-inflicted, of course, because at that point he has to, it's not only that he's had the spin, he has to come into the pitch straight away, but he's never going to have, you know, he's got a one-lap tire advantage on the rest of the field, right? The safety car, I think, fortunately for him brought him back into it.

But even he was, like, really struggling to make the overtakes that he needed to happen. And I think Vastappan, understandably, maybe, did a better job of that than Hadjar did, because he was almost permanently stuck to the back of a car, took a while to get by Carlos Sines, couldn't get by Liam Lawson. It feels like that power unit, whilst it's not too bad, it's not yet punchy enough to make the overtakes that this team needs. No, and they're also lacking the trademark Reg Bull Downforce that they were so well known for. And maybe we're seeing the signs of Adrian Newing not being.

present at the Red Bull team. Maybe that's where they're lacking. But what I do find very interesting about the Red Bull situation is actually nothing to do with Red Bulls, but it's racing balls in the sense that they have had no reliability problems. They are scoring points in both Grand Prix. Both their drivers seem competitive. I know Lindblanc had a few problems today, but he had zero FP1 running. He's a rookie. You can't expect these mistakes to happen. He's outright pace, pretty good still. And Lawson brought home really solid points in front of Isaac Hagar. So it's really interesting,

but it's only affecting the top team rather than what we know as the kind of the train E team. Yeah, and Red Bull and Racing Bulls right now, dead level on points. Nothing to choose between them. And both losing to Hasse. Go on Hasse.

And where are Al P, Ben? Somewhere. Hey, if Hasse didn't keep crashing into LP, would be all right. In terms of Red Bull and I guess Hajar here, and Vastappen as well, because you mentioned the downforce, at least at the moment, a lot of the criticism from the drivers seems to be about the car itself rather than the power unit,

which is particularly interesting. It implies that even if they do get their act together in terms of this power unit, there might still be more underlying issues about the car that are going to be far more difficult to solve, at least in the interim. Yeah, I think we're critiquing their reliability on this power unit. The actual outright ability of the power unit, unit is fine. It's not the best on the grid, but it's completely fine. It's competitive. And you can work with that. But if you've only got a competitive power unit, not the best,

you need your car to be as good as humanly possible. And they're missing those extra innovative little moments that someone like Nui does bring to the table. Now, maybe Nui aerodynamic too close to the sun with Aston Martin. We're seeing the problem there. Yes, Adrian Nicarious. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Famously, that's what they call him around there. but they are struggling maybe to see these developments and maybe it's very early in their journey and we're expecting them to struggle for a little bit and they'll come out of this. Now, I critique them at the end of 2025 because they pushed development all the way through to the end of the year and they did that partially to work out internal problems where they thought

mistakes were happening, but clearly that hasn't worked. They haven't come through these difficulties. They're not seeing the strengths from delaying the 2026 build that they had put off so late into the year. And I do think they're paying the price for this. I do think they're behind when it comes to the build of the chassis, the aerodynamic capability. We're not seeing the news stories we're used to of Red Bull coming out with, you know, a different rake, a different floor, a different barge board or something like that that gives them an extra tent here and there. I know we're only two races in, but that's enough for someone like Red Bull to

usually start finding little areas. And so far they haven't. You're concerned about Vastappen starts because that's two very difficult starts for him this weekend where he's dropped lot of positions. And it's something we've discussed already about these regulations that you can qualify seventh, eighth, wherever you like. If you're, if you're constantly dropping five positions off the start, you might as well be knocked out in Q2.

It seems to be really, really costing because it's just giving Vastappen more work to do. If I had to put a list of all 22 drivers together and list from most likely to least likely of who would fluff the start and have a problem with it. For Stapel will maybe be the last name on the list, maybe second or third. And yet, Kimi Antigali worked it out. Isaac Hajar's had no problems. Yet it's Max Verstappen, who is now twice struck over five positions on the start of a race.

And I'm not sure what he's struggling with. Game really bogged down. Yeah. And unfortunately, Max Verstappen has more talent than anyone else, I think, on that crib right now in terms of where he is in his career, his trajectory, his raw talent, you know, it's all aligned perfectly for him. But if your teammate in his second race of the new team is able to get this right, why can't you get it right? What is happening with that car that means that you're struggling, that you're not adapting to it? So something's going on there. We know Vastapping is not happy

in these new regulations. Maybe that plays a part in it. But you still got to make the most of it. You're still choosing to be here racing. And you're letting your car down right now. I do think this is on max more than it is on the car. Well, only four points for Red Bull today, but it could be worse. You could be McLaren. Oscar Piastri has not done a racing lap outside of a sprint so far this year. And Lando Norris not able to start this one either.

I think his first did not start in his F1 career. Pretty horrific day. Well, I'd say a horrific day. It didn't even get started, Sam. I think even get started. No, pretty horrific morning. Made me not to bother getting out of bed. I think the world.

part from McLaren here is two separate issues relating to the wider car, electrical and a battery problem for the other car, they think. But they're still diagnosing them. They still don't fully know what's gone wrong with both cars. And both cars have got something different wrong with them. It almost will have been better if they rocked up to the grid. And the same thing had gone wrong in both cars because you could point to an obvious issue, right? You can go, this went wrong. We can fix it. Won't happen again. Two separate problems is a whole kind of different kind of fish. And I think they're going to be fortunate in the sense that this won't happen again. I don't think. I don't think we'll get to Japan and they'll see another two DNSes. The chances of

that are so small that it feels very, very unlikely. And also, they're not really in a fight with anyone either at the moment. I think again, once their campaign properly gets going, you'll see McLaren comfortably sitting above the rest, but behind Mercedes and Ferrari for a while. So they're under any threat. I don't think there are any risk. If they're going to go wrong now is the time for it to go wrong instead of building this car up and getting it into a title fight and then having a double DNS. But it is all hands to decks at the moment because it is catastrophically bad. No one else has had it. This is worse than what Ashton Martin went through today. That's not good signs. It's rather brutal and it's something that we haven't seen from F1 for quite a number of years,

which is reliability really being an issue for these teams. We've been used to maybe 10 years now, or so where you are expecting nearly every driver to to start and finish the race. And whilst there have still been DNFs, there haven't been many of these races where we are ending with, what was it, seven that either didn't start or didn't finish. On the last time we had four DNSes. I've got no idea, no idea. Can we call up Sean Kelly? You can definitely go back to the 05 Indianapolis GP for that one.

Sure. I'm sure there'll be another one more recent than that. but yeah, it's, and McLaren seem to be hit the hardest here. It feels like outside of maybe Mercedes and Ferrari, nearly every team is being hit by this somewhat. And it's just maybe, I'm going to call it luck as to when it's happening, because if you have an issue at the start of FP1 or during FP1, like Harvard Limbaugh did this weekend, you can deal with that.

It's not ideal, but you can make it work. later on in practice sessions, obviously not this weekend, but FP2s and FP3s, okay, you can still cope with that. Qualifying is then the second worst time you want these to happen, but then just before the race start is the absolute worst time that these reliability issues can occur. And McLaren have had both of them at the same time. Like even if one of them had happened on Friday, they can cope with that and get back into the race and score points. But yeah, two separate issues just before the main Grand Prix. There's a lot of points lost in one day. Yeah, a lot of points lost.

I feel for Oscar Pastry as well, because I'm sure he of wanted to get through this race weekend and go, I've got to put the pacing. I want to show myself. I want to get used to race in these cars. Blokes are 19 competitive laps in now two and a half Grand Prix. You think about like particularly, I know he's not going to want to be driving against these guys,

but you think of the Haas guys in particular, like Behrman and Ocon, who have been in the mix, like in battle, defending and attacking for essentially two consecutive races nearly every lap. And you've got Oscar Piastri there who has 19 laps worth of experience. Like these drivers are learning all the time. And if you're not out there putting in these laps, you are going to be learning far slower than everyone else.

So Piastri is a real disadvantage as he heads to Japan and then later on into the season. Yeah, I agree. Fingers crossed that, you know, he's got buckets of talent. He's so naturally talented. He'll pick it up very quickly. And I'm sure Japan will go much better for them. Well, unfortunately for McLaren, I don't think Iver of their guys are going to be in contention for this one,

but we are going to hand out our first driver of the day. The verdict is in. You're the driver of the day. You're the driver of the day. You're good at driving. So the race winner, first-time race winner, Antonelli, won the public vote. Does he win your vote, Sam? A lot of good options today.

You know, when their grid gets chumbled up like this, you do see some really fun. moments. I thought Conopinto is having a belt of a Grand Prix. I'm not going to go his way, but I want to shout him out. We'll get on to him a little bit properly. But this was great to see. Gasly was fantastic as well. Bairman was electric.

Hamilton, it was great to go against the Clare and actually win that jewel onto the podium. But I am going to agree with the people. The tears really tugged at the heartstring, bless him while he was being interviewed. And I thought it was a, he had one mistake. And I can allow one mistake because it cost him nothing. so I'm going to go Kimmy Antigley You're right, there were a number of good contenders here I had two right at the top,

one of which being Antonelli but I can't excuse him for the error that dramatically over commentary got the lead back to just seven and a half seconds. Yeah, what was that about? Cricy. Seven and a half seconds. He could do that another two times

and it'll be all right. You could get out and have a cup of tea in that time. I'm actually going to go with Berman. I really think he did a great job cutting through the midfield because when he made his stop and I think anyone who started on the medium tire was at an advantage in this race based on the safety car timing because especially in the midfield you had Ocon, Collopinto, Holcomberg to overtake. But the likes of, you know, Vestappen who stopped then and Gasly and Berman, it was Berman who did the best job of all of

those guys, was able to get clear the quickest and was then able to manage the gap from there. So 10 very well-deserved points. And right now in the driver's championship, it is only the two Mercedes and the two Ferraris that are ahead of Olli Berman. I love that. He's like a sensational start to the year. He's really showing what he's made of. And that, Ferrari, you've got a right little talented youngster there. If one of them does decide, if Hampton has a great year and goes, I'll pack it in. He will be a great replacement. Yeah, no doubt whatsoever. But where there is a driver of the day, there has to be a worst driver of the day too. Get in the bin, bin, bin, bin, bin,

worst driver of the day. Ben, bin, bin, worse driver of the day. You suck at driving. Who have you got here? It's a basketball, O'Con. I actually hate giving it to O'Con, but he started this race really well.

And he was fighting strongly amongst the the midfield. He was a heger-bearman at one point, battling nicely against Gasly and Colopinto, holding his own against Hold on. Berk, who was in the mix as well at one point, did a great job against Westappen as well. But then it all just unravels and we'll get onto it, but the incident is entirely on him.

Clumsy, silly move, rash, not thinking it through, cost himself any chance at points, and then he falls all the way back with severe damage. But before that, Behrman was already started to pull away as well, and I thought they've done a good job of getting around him. So, unfortunately, it's not like the worst, worst driver of the day I'm ever giving,

but I've had to pick through some really good performances. I think unfortunately he just wasn't there to go. Yeah, I think when it comes to our Power Rankings episode that it will be on Patreon, of course, tomorrow. I'm not sure at 1 to 10 driver ratings. I'm not sure there's going to be any ones, any twos from me, but there are going to be a few lower ratings. I think for me, the two contenders here are two drivers that made an error,

Ocon and Hatcher. I'm going to give it to O'Con based on his incident. directly went into someone else, whereas Hadjas spun by himself and didn't cost another driver. It's a shame from Ocon's perspective, though, because I think his pace was pretty solid. It was difficult to compare himself and Behrman because they were on different strategies,

and it turns out Behrman was definitely on the right strategy. But he probably would have, you know, you think of Colopinto, he essentially led the alternate strategy runners, the hard to medium guys. O'Con would have been there. either ahead or directly behind as well. So pace was pretty good, but it means very little when you go into the side of a driver

and 100% off his fault. At least he put his hands up as well. I've got a lot of respect for that. Yes, he did. Big brain strat. Made 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 you. What's your big brain strap for this shoney's GP? tricky one because the strategy was very much the same up and down the grid but I don't know if you could even call it a strat. It was a strategy on an attempted move is what I'm going to angle this at to get this one in here and that is Sergio Perez is driving to Valtry Bottas. Oh, I had completely forgotten about that.

I mean, I can't give him worse driving the day because I don't think it costs anything. No, but like I forgot about what are you doing? What are you doing? There is no point. You're going in nothing, the gap is tiny, you're not going to wing anything, no points on the cards, you're just damaging the car again for the sake of driving into your own team, mate. We already know that Cadillac will just break apart at the wind, like, come on. At the end, it's just Perez holding the steering wheel.

That's how it gets to the finish line. Oh, I forgot, but why? It's just no point. I just, I had to get it in there. It's not really a big brain strap, but I want to say it. Yeah, I'll be real. Mine's not massively a big brain. Stratt either, but I just wanted to say

when the race was starting to calm down in the second half of the Grand Prix and all of the battles seemed to have fizzled out, my big brain strat is to Charles LeClerc for essentially saying, I'm a bit bored and would like some battling, so made an error and actually caused something to happen for a few laps.

Yeah, he's doing it for the good of the sport. That's it. It's just keeping us occupied for the content. Yeah, respect that. Right, let's take our next break on this episode. On the other side, we're getting more into the Hasse versus Alpine battle in the midfield. Getting ready for a game means being ready for anything. Like packing a spare stick. I like to be prepared.

That's why I remember 988, Canada's suicide crisis helpline. It's good to know just in case. Anyone can call or text for free confidential support from a train responder anytime. 988 suicide crisis helpline is funded by the government in Canada. Welcome back, everyone. A very interesting day in the midfield, Sam. Eventually, that battle was won, I guess you could say, by Olly Behrman finishing P5,

but Pierre Gasley taking advantage of a very good qualifying spot in P6, so a better weekend for Alpine. It does seem as if these two teams going into the season were the discussion of would they be heading the midfield. Did this race kind of confirm that is still the case? Sort of. Yeah, they gave us a real show. And, you know, fair play to Gasly, Beerman, Ocon, Collopinter.

So Holgerberg, I love that battle. Really, really fun to watch. And a lot of good craftsmanship behind the wheel because it's so easy to crash into someone. And there were four or five cars all packed in there. And I think seasons before, we would have seen some crashes. So well done to you lot for keeping it all together. Typical that the only time they do crash is when one of them comes out of the pit lane. But this was great from Berman and Gasling.

Now, when I said sort of, I mean this because I think they're the two teams in this scenario that have got their act together at the moment. I expect Red Bull to come past them in the point standings. Audi are the interesting one here because in Melbourne, they were right there with these two teams. Holgerberg again dropped off as the race went on, but I'm really encouraged by Allie's initial pace. And I do think that if they can get it together,

find a couple of tents here and there, there will be three teams fighting for this midfield spot. It won't just be Alping and Haas. But I do think Alping are the big winners. The fact that Conopin told his second full race has scored a point, The fact that the car is actually genuinely competitive with these proper points runners. They're a hell of Williams comfortably. Others are struggling further behind them.

You know, you might see racing balls pop up here and there as Lawson did a really good job today. But for me, they're the two. We'll see how long that last. I don't think it will be all season. I think we'll see some other players. Yeah, I mean, we've already given credit to Olly Beerman, of course. But credit two has some what they've done with this car. Because whilst it's not blindingly quick, it does seem as if it's towards the top end of

the midfield. And I'm specifically talking about the car here rather than the driver's actions. We spoke about what Ocon did before the break. But in terms of the car, they seem to have gone with almost a mindset of we will let everyone else around us make the errors and we will just take advantage of that. In terms of like reliability woes, they have been very much towards the bottom of the list as to what's happened to them. If you consider it against versus Audi who had a did not start today. Williams who had it did not start today. McClaren have had many so far this year. Red Bull 2. They've kind of just been there to pick up the scraps. And honestly, that's kind of what you need sometimes at the beginning of a year in F1.

I'm not saying that this will stay and the reliability issues will get better for the other team. So Hasse will need to improve accordingly. But right now, they're in a pretty good spot. And Alpine too. They seem to be doing really well. Gazley has really proven himself this weekend as if he needed to. Just really consistent. across the full weekend. But Colopinto, that's what Alpine have been missing since Ocon left, is that second driver to back up Pierre Gazley.

And in many respects, Colopinto, one point in 10th is very unlucky. Like, the strategy did not go his way whatsoever. And if it had, I think he would have been, maybe Ghazley would have been ahead of him, but I think he could have held off Lawson and Hadger and signs. I think Gasly will be actually a little bit disappointed that Bayman's managed to get in front of that battle.

He qualified better. The initial pace looks. strong. I do think that, you know, it's only two points. So it's really not the end of the world for him. But I think Gassi would like the acclaim that he was able to be pretty much everyone else and was sat behind those front four. But they're having a really good job of getting through everything. So he could be really proud of a trap behind Holkenberg, didn't he very briefly. Yeah, he did. He was stuck at that fight. He was also stuck fighting Vastappen. While they were fighting in front of him, he had to go wheelchair with Vastappen. There were a few complaints from

Gasly especially about the defensive work from Bostappen going round turn one. I thought it was fine. I thought it was absolutely fine. I thought if you're going to be on the line, that's where it gets to. You know, there was no real contact, a little bit of wheel rubbing. That's as far as you could take it. You were still on the crack. So, yeah, you got a little bit unlucky with how that played out. But good recovery. I think it helped the Stappen DNF because that gave you an extra spot. It sure, yes, it did. And it would have been interesting to see if that battle did emerge or not. I know the graphic indicated that in a few laps, it might be a battle, but those graphics aren't always right.

So it would have been interested to see if Gassley could have got P6 anyway without the DNF. But that will never be found out. Yeah, in terms of Alpine, I think they're almost like, they haven't quite put it all together yet, but they're very close. Like the first week in Australia, their qualifying pace was pretty awful, but race pace was better. And here it felt like their qualifying pace was maybe better, but their race pace didn't improve by the same amount.

Like Gazzley did a great job in qualifying. And in the race, he was solid too, but not leading the midfield. I think if they can put it all together for Suzuki, they're probably going to be doing all right. I think they're going to struggle at Suzuki. I think these big field cars are a lot more susceptible to track specific conditions. I do think that as we mention, Bahrain and Shanghai have some very similar track characteristics, I think Suzuki maybe is going to go away.

from what the Alpine feels good at. You might be right, but honestly, I've given up guessing when it comes to F1 now. Unfortunately, we're not going to do a preview for Japan. We're just going to go, I don't know. We're going to do three minutes of guessing random things that will happen. Yeah, actually, that's what we do anyway, isn't it? That's what bold predictions is, and we're wrong at those.

We're going to review those shortly. Just to finish off the Hassan Alpine conversation, I know we very briefly discussed it before the break. Ocon, fairly standard 10-second penalty for that, right? you wouldn't want more or less? No, I think it was the honest mistake. I think he, you know, the classic, you know, if you don't go for a gap that doesn't exist,

then, you know, that you're not a racing driver. And I think he went for a gap that was very rapidly closing after Colopinto went a little wide on cold tires and was just trying to recover. I don't think Conopinto, I got a blin clue that he was there. I don't think he was aware at all, which maybe shows poor communication from race engineers if they weren't telling him that there's a car right behind him on pit exit.

That's quite common. But this is an o'clock for me. I do think he maybe should have just waited until going down into turn 6, which is a much more common opportunity to make an overtake, the tyres that have done him well there. He'll have had the battery to get it done.

It was rash. It was a silly mistake, but it was an honest mistake. So 10 seconds, I think is fair. Yeah, I'd have gone 10 seconds too. I'm not sure whether Colopinto knew he was there or not, and I'm not sure it matters. Like, the way in which he attacked that corner,

I don't think should have changed as a result of Ocon being behind him. Oh, no, I agree. I do agree. He's behind him. And Ockon has been in F1 long enough and done this racetrack, you know, enough to know exactly how turned one, two and three work. You know if you're on the inside and you are behind, whether it's, you know, front wheel alongside rear wheel or just fully behind as maybe he was,

that gap is just going to shrink. Like, that's the way the corner works. If he was a rookie, I'd forgive him a bit more. But he knows this corner. I thought it was, yeah, a rash moment from him. Just silly, wasn't it? Just a silly mistake. Elsewhere in the midfield, Williams finally on the board.

Carlos Synes getting two points for P9, the only Williams driver, of course, that took part in this Grand Prix, but good at least for them to have something at this point. Yeah, this is good from Williams, because I want to critique it by saying, well, you know, it took two McLaren's to do not start, it took Bortoletto to be out.

You know, they were Max Verstappen having a retirement problem. It makes you think, oh, you know, they only got there because of all these problems that happened to cars in front of them. But there are a lot of cars around them. them that also could take advantage of this. And they didn't.

You know, Holkerberg wasn't in the points. Limbler wasn't in the points despite, I think he had his own problems, but still wasn't there. It's not as simple as just saying. They were the last man standing. And that's why Sainz got these points,

because he got two points as well. Good race from Sikes, really quiet. You didn't really see a lot of that car at all. And yet, when Kallupinta was hunting him down, I think he got a little lucky with where the being lapped took place in the last few laps, because it meant the gap kept opening up.

But hey, you play your cards. And sometimes you get a little lucky with them. Got the car over the line. It's two points for Williams. I hope they don't throw too much celebration behind this. I hope it's a good pat on the back. I hope it's good. I don't think it will be.

No, I don't think so either. I just, I don't want to see it. I want to make sure that they say, well done to each other. And they make sure that they understand. The journey is still very much, only just starting for this Williams team. Yeah, I mean, like you say,

you don't want it to be a last man standing scenario because it wasn't quite that. And I think they did get a little bit closer to the cars in front. Signs was able to, at least in the early stages of the sort of after the safety car, he was able to hold on to the group ahead of him, even if he was never in a position to properly challenge or make overtakes. He was there or thereabouts. That gives them something to work with moving forward.

I think that's better than where they were in Australia. But the overall underlying pace of this Williams is still very firmly third worst. It's a comfortable third worst because they're definitely not where Cadillac or Aston Martin are, but equally I wouldn't put them alongside Audi racing balls at the moment in terms of pure pace.

Signs at the right end of the strategy here on the medium to start, was able to take advantage of the safety card to go onto the hard tyres. Probably a good point. Good time to make this point, by the way. Drivers being able to do fastest laps on hard tires after 35 laps, whatever is ridiculous.

I hate it. You can't mind about the tires if you're still doing that quicker lap that far into the race. We shouldn't be in a position where you can put on lap 10 and comfortably go to the end and not slow down towards the end of the race. It's... Do you know what I miss in Formula One?

Punches. I miss the drama of the camera panging around if someone's gone too long on the tyres and it's punctured. It doesn't happen often. Doesn't happen at all anymore. Well, Pirelli used to put out a sort of like, this is your maximum tire length, your maximum tire stint on this tire.

and if you go over that, you are going to be at risk of punctures. And if teams want to go ahead and risk that, that's on them. Like, they've been given instruction from Porelli, but we don't really get that anymore. Sometimes I lie as well, because that's what Porelli are doing. It feels to me as well with, I don't want to keep banging on about battery management and energy, but I think with the way that some of these drivers, particularly through the corners, are not, they're not heavy braking like they were last year.

there's a lot of conservation. Like, I don't think these tyres are being put under the same stress as they have been in previous years. Yeah, if we have these tyres on last year's cars, I think they were falling apart much faster. Yeah, I'd agree with that. Anyway, so yeah, Williams, two points for them. Some points as well for racing balls.

This time, though, courtesy of Liam Lawson, rather than Arvid Limbludd, Liam Lawson finishing in P7, good for six points. Lindblad, a tricky weekend for him. We saw him miss time in practice. We saw him have a spin in the race here. But still in the mix. He's down in 12th.

An expected weekend for a rookie driver? Yeah, it was. And this is almost what I thought Melbourne was going to be like. And I think a lot of people maybe saw his performance in Melbourne. They've kind of gone, ah, this, hang a minute, this has been rubbish. How come you all the way about there? This is what I expected. And this is a very normal set of performances for someone who's now only

his second race weekend in a really difficult and new era of Formula One. These cars are unlike anything we've ever dealt with before. So seeing him do lockups in a heavy braking zone, seeing him make mistakes on his own where he kind of puts his foot down to flip the car around. That is not as easy as it looks, spinning the car like that when they make a mistake. And I think, you know, Harvey's showing us that,

I think it's not that simple. I'm not going to be too harsh. It won't be his finest hour. And I'm sure he'll have many better races. But this isn't disastrous. He's still ending up only a few seconds away from being inside the points. after a really tricky Grand Prix. Yeah, I think as well with the strategy, again,

he was a hard tire starter. I think the maximum he could have got in this race was two points. So I don't think he's actually lost out on a great deal. But it's all learning. And on the other side of the garage, of course, Liam Lawson, I think pretty excellent job this weekend, a year on from what was a very tough Chinese GP, of course, with the senior team at Red Bull.

This has been a really assured weekend, I think, from him. I think Liam Lawson has quietly had one of the, best weekends across the whole grid at the Chinese Grand Prix. Qualifying isn't the star of the show, but he managed to out qualify his teammate in both askings. And he's moved up, I think it was seven places across this Grand Prix. Now, again, those partially were to be because of the McLaren, for example, but someone had to do it. And he did do it. And I do think that that car in terms of race pace is slightly off the beat of the Haas and the Alpine. So the fact that he's stayed in front of Hajar, he's beaten the likes of Colopinto and Okong. I know they have problems, but he's still in front

of them, Limbaugh wasn't. So it shows you that you are able to get points out of it if you drive well. And we didn't see him make silly mistakes. We didn't see him have collisions with people. It was a really assured performance from Liam Lawson. And funny enough, you might need more than a few races to actually be a good driver and to learn how this sport works. Who knew? Who knew? And fair play to him as well, because he had had had sharp right behind him for a good chunk of this Grand Prix. So it would have been very easy for him to make an error. If he has anything like what Charles LeCler did, what his teammate did, what Antinelli did late on. All of these instances would have seen Hadjar come through.

So credit to Liam Lawson at a track where I don't think racing balls were probably at their best. I think there will be better tracks for them. I don't think the car worked here at all. No, so in that case, a very good P7 indeed. Shall we review our bold predictions? Why? It's written in the contract, I'm afraid. Sam, what was your bold prediction?

I said there will be a three-car collision in the heavy braking zone at the penultimate corner of the Grand Prix, and there was not. There might have been the least contact at that corner we've had in years. I know. Usually there's at least one proper crash. I thought, you know what? In this regulation, with a rookie on the grid or something, someone's going to muck up. There'll be a bit of a skittal effect going into there.

No, everyone was really good. I went with, I just remember what Harry's bold predictions. Oh, I can't wait. My bold prediction was that a Cadillac was going to be lapped in the sprint race. We might have been trending towards it. It was looking botass. It was kind of. As soon as I remembered what my bold prediction was and I saw the time,

I was like frantically thinking, hang on, if that, that, and as soon as I started doing that, he retired. So it ended up not mattering at all. And then we had a safety car anyway would have completely ended it. Harry's bold prediction, correct me if I'm wrong, was that the top three in the sprint

would be completely different to the top three in the main race. As far as I'm aware, those are the same three drivers. Arguably the most bold of the three of us and arguably the most wrong of the three of us. Man, that's a knack for this.

You know what? He wouldn't have got points in a way because he's not here, but he's doing it for the entertainment. Five more sprints this year. at least two more he'll try that same bold prediction. I like that he acts like he's never done it before when he says it as well. He probably thinks he hasn't done it before, to be fair.

Yeah, probably I wasn't here when we reviewed that one, so I've not done it. Yeah, so if you are keeping count, it's not overly difficult. I didn't get a point, Harry didn't get a point, Sam didn't get a point, which if you add that together with the points that we didn't get in Australia, means that all three of us have no points. It's good start. very much like Ashton Martin in that respect. Yes, waving as our competitors go on by.

Goodbye, rest of F1 World. Oh dear. Let's take our final break on this episode. On the other side, we're going to get to Moment of the Race. Welcome back to you to the final part of today's episode. It's time for Moment of the Race. We do have some Discord submissions coming up very shortly. But before that, Sam, what was your moment of the race?

I'm going to go with the Ferrari battle. I think it was really fun. It kept me on the edge of my seat. love watching them go back and forth. And I really enjoyed that they both came out of the car or while Charlotte Claire was in the car and both commenting at how good it was, and how fun it was and how much they enjoyed it.

So really wholesome but great battling. I had quite a few contenders for this, but I narrowed it down to two and two very late entries for moments of the race. The first of which that's just missed out is David Croft commentating on a battle between Franco Colopinto and Carlos Sines that was already over because they'd been lapsed,

You know that check of flag bit, mate? That says that they've finished the race. That was really funny. But my moment of the race, I don't know if you saw this. Two laps from the end, we had the guy on camera who was going to wait. Flagwaiver. He didn't get a name. And if he wasn't called Richard.

Well, you got that. But he's just there like, don't, nope, I have the flag waver. Do I have a name? It's a new title. Yeah, we've had first game, sir. name, whatever it was, and now we've got Flagwover. Yeah, that properly made me laugh. At the time, I was actively thinking,

what is my moment of the race? I might well have gone with the Ferrari battle, and then that happened almost instantaneously. There was also one, I don't go, forget a mention. When all the celebrations are happening on the podium, it's really great, really wholesome. You know, you've got Antigali pouring champagne

secretly down by his back and things like that. And then it just cuts to Toto Wolf, who is doing the most menacing smile at the TV screen. going to do it all year, isn't he? It was terrifying. I know he's happy. He's like, my three babies all on the stage together, like a proud dad watching, you know, big brother, middle brother, a little brother altogether. But don't smile like that, Toto.

Please don't. It's scary. Can I just put in a quick contender for worst moments at the race? Always. Pick a number. Six. Okay. Now ask me to pick a number.

Pick a number. Sold out. Yeah, I hate that. so much. Sold out is not a number. Weekend attendance sold out. I also hate weekend attendance. I know you hate that as well.

You can't add that up. That doesn't work like that. Yes, that's worst moment of the race for me. But we have got some best moment of the races from our Discord. Thank you so much to everyone who's submitted. We'll try and get through as many as we can. And we're going to start with DJ Spin to Win. Now, what's the call, Ben?

What's the submission called? The submission is called Ben's Lovemaking Chinese Moment of the Race. Now, I haven't listened to this. I only know the title. Here we go. What's popping, everybody? It is DJ Spin to Win. My moment of the race for the Chinese Grand Prix was the amount of DNSes that we had.

McLaren's race was done quicker than Ben making love to his favorite corner on the calendar. Anyways, keep breaking late. What is happening? You already know. I mean, it's a banger. It is a banger. Why you make a love to a corner, man? I don't know.

Banner in it? Okay, sure. Doing it for banter. Yeah. Thank you very well, sort of thank you. DJ Spinter win. The next one is Willie Astry. All right, my moment of the race.

It's Willie Astry here. Absolutely. High rules on the grin. Lando, not starting the race. Can't have Oscar starting. You couldn't ride it. Cheers. Yeah.

I did kind of shoot themselves in the foot with this thing, Yeah, I'm not sure it counts as a moment of the race. It feels like the opposite of that. Yeah. I think McLaren will have it as their moment of the race. No. I don't know if they can have a moment. Yeah, did not start.

Brutal day for both drivers. Let's go to, should you go to Beef? We haven't heard from her for in a while, have we. Hello, been a while. How are we? I'm good, thanks for asking. I've got a new job.

Woo! Moment the race genuinely, the Hassan Alpine battle. Like, I actually was really entertained. And I like these new regs. I'm not going to lie. Okay, bye! Very subdued beef.

Yeah, very ASMR beef. Maybe someone is still asleep in the house. Maybe so. And didn't even disclose what the new job is, which is very disappointing. She does that intentionally. It's so she can get another submission. Yeah, it's clever, clever beef.

But the Hassan Alpine battle, definitely up there for a contentious moment of the race. Yeah. Yeah. There's split opinion at the moment in terms of what these regs are producing, particularly in terms of racing. There seems to be a, oh my God, these cars can follow and overtakes so easily versus these overtakes are incredibly artificial.

And it feels like everyone's picking aside at the moment. Yeah, we'll get onto it properly outside of kind of race reviews and previews. We will do a bigger deep dive into it once we've understood it. Obviously, if there's some changes coming up, we'll make sure we involve those. but I guess my only point is all racing in Formula One is artificial to some degree. That's what DRS was, it's what Kerr was, you know, it's what

moving era, it does happen. It's just, we'll get onto it. Otherwise, I'm going to end up being in for ages, but I totally understand why people are against it. Great name coming up next. It's the Jaffanator. Oh, yes. Jordan from Detroit here, my

moment of the race is Kimmy waking me up by giving himself a heart attack and running off with what Three laps to go. Pretty wild. Yeah. I love a Jaffa cake. Yeah, big up Jaffa Cakes.

Solid. Sensation. Can't do just one, though. Got me of the old box. You never eat one Jaffa cake. He was eating one Jaffa cake, at least 10. Yeah, come on. But yeah, it was a good thing that he had the lead that he did,

and it wasn't like two seconds, because otherwise that could have been. If it was Hamilton, Lecler, that's lead gone. Yeah. But, hey, it was pretty close. It's seven and a half seconds. The amount of things, because someone do a video, the amount of things you could do

something and a half seconds, please. Please don't. Actually, yeah, I don't want to do it. No, no, no. Right, up next is Graham's staircase. This is Miss Piggy filling in for Graham. My moment of the race is when Kermy won. I'm sorry, no, I'm stopping that there.

That is atrocious. That's awful. Why is that? What is that? Did we say about Miss Piggy last time? Did we say that that's the impression he's got to do next? Go on, you've got five more seconds. Oh, wait.

Kimmy? Who's that? Kimmy the Frog. Is that where this podcast has ended? Kimmy the Frog? My biggest unpopped for opinion is I hate the Muppets. It's terrible. I don't think it's funny.

And you've never told us that. No, never said it ever. That might be the funniest thing the Muppets have ever done. If I had to rate that impression from one to ten, it's a two at most. I'm sorry, man. That's goodness me. I appreciate the effort, though.

Yeah, thanks for, thanks for sending it in. Cheers, Graham's staircase. I've lost my list. Who's next? We've got Chenade next. Nothing compares to you. Hey, Chenade here. My momental race got to be Kimmy Antonelli on the podium for the first time as a winner.

and the fact that he's up there with Lewis and Bono and George honestly it has me crying off a Sunday morning what a lovely scene crying on a Sunday morning it's nice to see I like it when people cry it's a nice, nice wholesome podium it was nice to see emotion from a first time winner as well

it's not something you see all the time I love first time winner reaction it's like a weird niche thing that I have in my mind of when Gassley did it when Okon did it I mean, Gestapo did it. It's the fact that he got out the car and he cried. I think it shows you just how much this means to these people. And it was great.

It was really, really great that he was able to take in the moment. I'm glad David Cortard let him take in the moment as well and stopped to let him have that. Yes, very much agreed. Up next, we've got delicious banana-nana-nana. Not delicious banana. Delicious banana-na-na-na. That's great.

delicious banana nana here. First time, long time. My moment of the race was Lewis and Kimmy hugging on the podium while George drinks his champagne alone because that boy not happy. He did throw his toys out the pram a little bit on the thank you message, didn't he? It was very grumpy and shorts from George.

Yeah. I do wonder what their relationship is going to be like throughout this year, Antonelli and Russell. Depending on what happens with, if Antonelli can keep pace, with Russell and provide an actual challenge. I, not to take this away from George, I hope someone looks after Kimmy Anting Alley, and that's why he's got Bono there, I think, because if it does start becoming more than

just racing on the track and it becomes, you know, mentally important in the, in the garage, he's so young, he's 19 years old. And if he's in a title fight at 19, you know, the culture shifts where the garage splits and half. Someone needs to make sure that he's properly looked after because that's a lot to deal with. And that isn't Russell's job. Russell is going to be brutal and ruthless all year and so he should. It's his dream to win too.

He could be as cutthroat as he wants to be. And Kimmy can be back. George has been through it a bit now. And someone will be looking after George, but Kimmy Antigand is a kid. He needs someone to make sure he's all right. Indeed. Thank you very much to all of those submissions. Really appreciate it.

We tried to get through as many. as we can. Next opportunity will be moment of the race for the Japanese GP in a couple of weeks time. Of course, Sam, this weekend also revealed that there's going to be a slight change in the calendar. It's kind of been rumoured for a week or so now, but fully confirmed there won't be a Bahrain or Saudi Arabian GP quote in April. Read into that what you will. But it does mean there will be a bit of a gap in April, but we'll discuss the cancellations or the postponements, whatever we're going to call them, in the midweek episode. Yeah, in our midweek episode, it's a non-race week episode.

So if you're new to the show, we do a long race week episode where we break down more of the news, the more bigger topics of what goes on in Formula One. We'll probably talk about the regulations again because that's such a hot topic right now. So make sure you're tuning in. We really love the support on the non-race weeks. We know it's everyone loves to come and listen to the reviews of the actual races. But come join us for the non stuff. And if you want to hear a little bit more, jump into Patreon. You know, the link to the description.

Patreon's a lovely town. and the streets are paved with happiness and there's lovely parks and the electricity is free so price of a cup of coffee yes don't stop paying your electricity we will not be sued for legal reasons petrocy is a fake place

join the Gascog in the description below late breaking F1 on all social media follow us on YouTube as well to come to see our gorgeous smiling faces road to 10k we're very slowly walking down that road and I can't wait to get to its destination thanks for listening we'll be up with power rankings on Monday on Patreon and then back with our

midweek episode on Wednesday. We'll see you then. In the meantime, I'll be Samuel Sage. And I've been Ben Hocking and remember, keep breaking late.