The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2026 Dutch GP Race Review

Episode Date: August 24, 2026

Join the LB trio from the Netherlands as they break down an eventful final Dutch GP at Zandvoort! From home heartbreak, to questionable team orders and some much-needed points for Aston Martin, they run through the lot. 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! LEAGUE CODE: C6Y6R4ZUY02Get in touch any time at [e-mail]  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Thank you for listening to the late-breaking F-1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. Welcome to the late-breaking F-1 podcast presented by Harry Ead, Sam Sage, and me, Ben Hocking, reviewing today the Dutch Grand Prix, which we appreciate is a day late. But hopefully, if you are watching this in a studio, beautiful studio. Sam, you've got Max Verstappen's old helmet right behind you? It's life size as well. Yeah, he just has a really small head.

Yeah, they like not a dollar short, to quote Martin Brundle. To not quote Martin Brunnell. Yeah, what bouncer of a weekend we've had here in the Netherlands? Unreal experience. Forget the crowd. We're having a great time with the party. The people were fantastic. The race was really good.

We've got a lot to talk about. Harry, you are feeling good. I'm feeling tip-top. I enjoy that we are now just going to different lounges around the world. This is my favourite part of like breaking. The Dutch lounge. We'll call this one. Yeah.

We'll find another. It's a gorgeous lounge. It's really well decorated. Fortunately. It's a Steppen's lounge. It is, yes. Thanks, Max. It will be out in a minute.

Max is fine. Unfortunately, it was easy to get here as well. There was no complications at all. Really simple journey. I didn't feel sick. It was all fine. We're all happy. Let's do a show.

Let's do a show. Let's talk about that Dutch Grand Prix that took place yesterday. Coming up, we'll give out our moments of the race. We'll go through our driver of the day. Worst driver of the day. Big brain strap. We'll get into all of the points

scorers. But let's start with Lando Norris, who managed to convert pole position into a race win, making it back-to-back race wins, which I think Carrie pointed out yesterday, only driver other than Kimmy Antonelli to do that this season. So pretty impressive from Lando Norris. He said afterwards, Sam, in his post-race interview, that he made it harder for himself than it needed to be based on losing the lead to Antonelli. But it all came good in the end.

I fully agree with him. That was probably his only... error on the entire Grand Prix, I think. He could have run away with this. He had such supreme pace, I thought. And whilst there was a big of a strategic battle going on for the lead throughout the Grand Prix, it always felt like the moment Landon Norris got a big, a clean air, a bit of things going to run away with it and run away with it.

He did. I believe the victory was, you know, a good few seconds as the gap goes. Yeah, I think it was double figures, wasn't it? Not the biggest we've seen, but the man was confident. But losing the lead at a track like Zandvore, it's not something you're going to do. We saw, literally saw how difficult it is to make an overtake here. So many dive bombs that were trying to take place in turn 11 that didn't come off. So many wheel to will moments that didn't quite happen. You saw it the way Hamilton was chasing down Russell later on in the

lapids or the race, sorry. Couldn't get the move done. It's tricky, really difficult to get the job done here. So losing the league when you've already got pole position, massive mistake. But he was fantastic. You really got the job done. I really think he stepped up. I do think this is now the best I've seeing Maddo Ngueris since he's being a Formula One driver. I know he's a world champion, but this is the best I've seen him. I don't necessarily think his performance was quite as dominant as what we saw at Hungary, but I feel like this displayed a few of his other qualities that it was necessary to claim a race win. Yeah, he was very decisive and clinical wasn't he when it came to getting those moves done. Because whilst, I agree, I think he, yeah, he was

definitely the fastest guy out there yesterday, but you still got to get those moves. done and he obviously lost the lead of the restart and then the strategy meant he had to make some moves to to do it but two cars and one lap around zanvort pretty good it's it's really cool to see a driver actually like you can see him planning it and you see it after the race where he was like i saw lewis defend so i'm going to i had to go a certain direction and the way he orchestrated the two in one it's very smart overtake and we praised pedastrian for his decisiveness with overtaking. Actually, Lander, we've come up and almost said as a criticism, it's not his strength getting

moved done clinically. That was brilliant from him. Yeah, I was really impressed. And I think when it comes to Zambort, that's probably the easiest way to get an overtake done is to use the opportunity around you to, you know, factor in another car, whether that's a backmarker. I think we saw that at one point as well, where Holkenberg was able to get by Gassley, sort of using slower traffic around them to get that move done.

And I think we've seen it here with Landau Norris. It's not to say Lewis Hamilton was especially slow, but he was at the end of a stint. So his tires were very worn down. And Norris, again, said it himself after the race in that interview where every lap that goes by, you get those diminishing returns. As soon as you don't make an overtake happen on one lap, the next lap it becomes more difficult and more difficult thereafter. And soon enough, you're in a position where Louis,

as Hamilton can't get by George Russell. So whilst we can say, Lano Norris won by 10 seconds, he had the fastest car, maybe he was the fastest driver, he still needed to be clinical with that move because there's no guarantee he would have had that other opportunity.

And then finally, just when it comes to his pace, I think it's evidence that as soon as Antonelli, who was on fresher tires at that point, got by George Russell, I didn't think at any point he was going to have enough to catch Lando Norris. but I was thinking that gap might come down to five seconds, six seconds.

It didn't. Like Lando Norris, as soon as he was in clean air, I think proved that there's a reason why he got poll yesterday and there's a reason why he won this race. We saw a bit of a gap. When I say a bit of a gap, I mean quite a large gap between Norris and Piastrian. Do you think that McLaren now have the fastest car with the latest upgrades? Or do you think that Norris was just doing a spectacular job? It might be one of those where it's a bit circuit.

at dependent because as we mentioned in the preview for Zambor, it shares a lot of characteristics with Hungary. And if you're good at one, you're probably going to be good at the other. And lo and behold, we've had the same winner at both events. So I think the true test for McLaren will be when we go to Monza and when we go to some other race tracks that aren't necessarily like the two we've just done. But it wouldn't surprise me at all. If McLaren do now have the fastest car out there, Mercedes apparently worried they might not have. And then, it wouldn't the resources to keep up with McLaren's fast development, which... I saw this, we haven't got the money.

What have you done with it, mate? Where's it gone? Where's it all gone? Where's it all gone? Yeah, interesting. Yeah. How much was George Russell's engagement room? That's the big question.

Came out of the budget. Yeah, I think so. How much ink have they been using on Mick Schumack's apology letters? They've run out. They have run out. Yeah, very impressed by Lando Norris's performance. Let's head to Kimmy Antonelli, who finished this, second place.

This is another one where it hasn't completely gone his way and we're still talking about a fine result in the context of the championship. Yeah. And, you know, we said the same thing in last race as well. I think as long as he can just keep doing that. I'm not saying he shouldn't win a race again this season. But for his championship, it's not really done him any harm. The only person who's outscored him is a guy who's, what, my fifth.

Yeah, like 90 points back or something. still a pretty good day, good day of the office and they, they did as much they could really to try and win this one. I don't think Mercedes, yesterday, I think I agree with people who are saying, Sam. I think McLaren were the fastest, or at least with Norris were, where it was. But Mercedes did, with Anthony, I think they did everything right. I just don't think they had the quickest car, and he did,

he did everything he could as well with getting the lead of the restart, because I think without doing that, Norris probably would have run off and hit. So yeah, pretty good day all round. Yeah, I kind of felt that he was holding on a bit when he had the lead. It was a case of Lando Norris was able to keep in touch and distance. And then he was really putting him under pressure before Antonelli took that second stop. And you kind of felt that Mercedes, maybe playing it correctly,

that they were making sure Norris had to get the move done on track rather than via an undercut. But it almost came back to bite them later in the end. the race. Yeah, they put up a good fight, did Mercedes. And it was nice to see they've been proactive. We've criticised them so regularly for having a delay in their decision making, for almost being thought before, you know, other teams are going into the pit lane, making a choice and it's costing.

And they've got, oh, well, we've got a faster car, so I guess we can make up for it. You can't always think like that. And they didn't. Anthony only was coming second was still heading shoulders above George Russell, which physically very difficult to do. He's quite a tall man. But in the race car, very, very good. I'm just, I said this in our legal Instagram post.

I say it to you guys. I'm going to say it here. I cannot believe, I don't care what the chances to overtake were. I cannot believe a championship rival in the same car has accepted a position switch. And Antigelli was so much faster that he is embarrassed Russell by doing that, I think. I think that is such a morale blow. That's such a mental blow towards Russell for Kimmy Antingley. to basically say, I'm that much faster, get out the way.

And he's second in the championship. He's equal to Lewis Hamilton right now. I think that's what's been most impressive about Antigone this weekend. It didn't start the right way. Russell got sprint pole. Ross got the sprint win. That was great. He gained what three points.

Antigali all of that, barely anything. Here, the team have told them to move because one, the strategy hasn't worked for Russell. The tires are dying. He's not as quick. He spent so much of the race seconds and seconds behind. Anthony was the only person on that roadstract today that could have been to land, though, Boris.

Well, I think we maybe said this after the sprint. If you want to time your best performances, you want to time them for the Grand Prix itself, because whilst there were three positions between Antonelli and Russell on Saturday, and there was one position between them on Sunday, they do walk away with the same number of points from the weekend, because it's three points separating second and third on a Sunday. There's also three points separating first and fourth on a Saturday. So as far as I understood it with the way that Russell conversation played out,

as soon as Antonelli was coming up to the back of Russell, Russell's a few conversations over Team Radio to say, he's not going to fight for the win. So, you know, maybe he doesn't make this move. And maybe it was a case that he just realized that Antonoli was going to get by one way or another. Yeah, I think this is what I was saying to Sam and, you know, argument to his point. And I don't disagree.

I think it is still a morale. You just wouldn't hear Rosberg. You wouldn't hear a longso. You wouldn't hear people. They would still fight for. I don't care if they might lose a position. They would fight for it. But I think for Russell,

Russell thinks about his races a lot in terms of like how it plays out. I think he was probably thinking bigger picture in terms of finishing third. By that point, I think it was, Antonetti was going to get past anyway. so why bother wasting time fighting it? Because then that could have meant that later on, Hamilton gets past him. He basically bought themselves on time to defend from Hamilton.

So I get both arguments. I think, yeah, you're absolutely right. It's a morale blow for him, but he's probably walked away with more points than he potentially would have done. I think the issue was the first thing for Russell It was very slow. He's very behind.

He was really struggling, having to basically look in his mirrors at the Ferraris and defending. And that opened up enough of a gap that suddenly Russell and Ancinelli's strategies are just not quite the same. And of course, by the end of that race, you've got Russell on older tyres trying to defend against both Antonelli and Hamilton at one point, who were on much newer tyres. And I appreciate they took advantage of a virtual safety car, but it was certainly heading that way anyway. way. So I think that's maybe where Russell's biggest frustration will be. In terms of Antonelli being allowed past, I think it would have been very different if Hamilton wasn't there, because I am almost certain the conversation then is if Antonelli can't catch up to Lando Norris,

we switch back over. Because George Russell probably thinking that Antonelli could get the move done without that order would have actually encouraged that because then that's almost gifting him a reason to be allowed back by again. But Hamilton being in the mix made things a lot more complicated. Do they play it where, and Russell was talking about make sure we play the team game, I don't know whether he was referring to the fact that if Russell could keep Antonelli behind, Antonelli could definitely keep Hamilton behind and they could finish in that order. But if Antonelli gets by and goes off into the distance and Russell doesn't have straight line mode, he's going to be a sitting duck to Hamilton. It was pretty good defense, I thought,

from Russell that he didn't let him by. I also think he's saving grace with Charlotte Claire, who decided on the running last lap of the race to put a move on Lewis, which actually disrupts the flow of Hamilton, who was very close running up to the last overtaking opportunity, only to be disrupted by having to defend from his teammate. So whilst Russell defending actually really well, I think on very old hard tires,

Hamilton's attack was a little soft. He had that one lunge down into turn one, that he got kind of semi-alonged. I expect it a little more. It was actually the Claire who wanted to disrupt things, who came along right at the last moment. And actually, I think, threw Lewis off of his ability. He had to burn battery to defend rather than burn battery to attack. I did just want to ask one question on Kimmy Antonelli,

because when he came over team radio after the race was done, and obviously Bono is saying, good job, P2, not the best result, but pretty good job from the team. Obviously, paraphrasing. Antonelli's response was, good job. I think that was too risky in total. terms of the stop under the virtual safety car and then needing to get back by into a position he was holding any way of second place.

It's a video game strategy, isn't it? Like, that's the kind of thing that you play when you're like, yeah, I'm raising it. It's a computer. It doesn't matter what goes on. This is his championship. He has a lot to lose. And he might, if it had gone wrong, he might have ended up being behind Hamilton. He might have, you know, something might have happened where he's behind someone else.

That's a risk. He didn't need to take that risk. not actually going to be able to beat Landon Norris with this strategy. What's the point in doing the strategy? Because he already had everything around him. I don't think Russell behind him anyway at that point had the pace to catch and pass him anyway. So I do think it was a risk. I understand his point of view.

And I think that maybe Mesega's got away with it a little bit. Yeah, I'm not sure I would have done the same. I will say I thought they played it correctly because as soon as the virtual safety cart was out and we saw some come into the pits, I was like they need to pit Antonelli to cover this off just in case with Hamilton having fresh tires, whether he could catch up. So I, given I've fought that in the moment, I'm not going to second guess what Mercedes did, but clearly Antonelli might have felt that staying out was the better call. Yeah, but it's one of those where if they had left him out and then he was vulnerable, like I say, to a Hamilton attack and say that, that had come to fruition, then

Antonoli would be the first to say, why didn't you pit me under the VSC? So it was a risky one, but I think the pace he had on those fresh tires was worth the gamble. So yeah, it's one of those where I think either way he might have still felt a bit, a bit like it was too much of a risk

to either stay there or or pit for fresh tires, but I think they made it. Okay, let's take our first quick break. on the other side, we'll turn our attention to the podium and see that there are no Ferraris there. Welcome back, everyone. The two Ferraris, very close at the end, and not in a sense of a one-two or a two-three, they are off the podium again. Yeah, new flaw, big upgrade, a track thing in theory, something like a floor upgrade should thrive at. It hasn't. And this was my fear. This was my one with Ferrarian. I brought this up a few times now where instead of targeting and then

beating Mercedes, they've actually fallen behind another team. And yet they bring bucket loads of upgrades. And we do see progress from them. And yet it's just never enough. And Ferrari do this when they just never seem to get the extra little bit, that extra little thing that someone like McLaren have clearly found or Mercedes start the year with. And we're seeing these interteam battles between Lewis and Charles almost every race now

where they're just trying to overtake each other. They're just battling with each other. and you can hear that they're frustrated. They're both frustrated. You've got the clerk coming over with the radio. He's swearing. He's frustrated at the strategy. You know, the tires are getting older.

Hamilton's coming over with the radio going, you know, great way to lose time, man. You know, stuck behind each other. And the end of the race, they're fighting with each other again over fourth. It's just not what Ferrari want, what they need. It's just poor. And they've now lost second place in the Drivers' Championship. McLaren will start to catch in the car. constructors as well.

This is a disappointing second half of the season so far. One racing, I know, but it's not looking promising. I don't want to be too influenced by where we were on the track and obviously hearing the odd radio message here and there being broadcast out, obviously not quite having the same TV experience at home. I was a bit caught off guard by Hamilton's reaction. Not that he's not questioned these things before, but it was... He was mad.

Yeah. I feel like he's usually at least somewhat. reserved rather than just straight out anger. It felt T-break style coming. Yeah, yeah. I think that's the only one I would put on the same level. Yeah, it was, it was an odd, like that out of character, but you know, I'm not unusual to hear Hamilton be that mad over the team radio.

So he clearly had some frustrations about what Ferrari were, what Ferrari were doing strategy-wise. I don't know, I thought he was actually pretty good yesterday, just the car. thought his pace was great. Yeah, just the car's not terrible. It's there or thereabouts. It's just not quite, you know, it's not quite a Mercedes and a McLaren level, at least Norris on McLaren level.

So, yeah, they'll be scratching their heads. I guess the fact that Hungren Zand fought relatively similar, so maybe they're just saying that that's not their sort of track and, you know, they won in Barcelona and Silverston. But it's a challenge for a championship you need to be with everywhere. You do. Write it down. There it is.

I'm writing that down as we speak. I think Hamilton was completely understand why he responded that way. And it's classic Ferrari in that this isn't the only time this has ever happened. I was thinking about as this was unfolding, another race we were at not that long ago. A couple of years ago, we had Hamilton and LeClaire fighting each other at Cota and until they finally pit. I think it was LeCleur they pit because Hamilton. They were side by side for multiple laps. And they can't seem to wrap their heads around that it is costing them in terms of the Constructors' Championship.

It's one thing when they are fighting for first and second, or even second and third. They're not on the podium. They're not where they should be. And it just feels like, and the Hamilton might have reached a bit of a breaking point with this, saying that there's frustration in that we can look at Mercedes doing it correctly, whilst we're not doing it correctly. to in the championship doing it correctly. Yeah. He got every right. If you were Russell or

answering it to go, bug her off. I want to fight for this title. I don't care what my team mate's doing. They could do that. Why would you at Ferrari? It makes sense you play the team game and they just so dumb. It's so dumb. It's annoying in that it's dumb, but also, like, they started it

off correctly because I think they got Hamilton's strategy bang on correct. Like, their idea was, with the other five-ish cars in the lead fight, let them pit when they want a pit, Hamilton is just going to go until he loses the lead in each of the two stints. And as soon as you can take advantage of a safety car or a virtual safety car, that's great. But just make sure that until you lose the lead, we're going to keep you out there and

just give you fresher tires for the end of this Grand Prix. It worked really well. And then they spoiled it by just having him fight with his teammate far too often. Yeah, they have, I don't think a strategy is Ferrari's problem. I think it's inter-team communication is the problem. And I think they've got two drivers with understandably very big egos who want to be leader of the team, they want a wing for the team, they want a championship with the team. So they don't want to upset either of these drivers.

I think I think unfair in saying that they're both quite sensitive people as well. You know, Lewis and Charlotte both quite upfront with their emotions. We hear them over the radio quite a lot. They're very transparent how they feel if something hasn't gone well or has gone well. I don't know they want to disrupt that. You know, they don't want to bump the apple cart. So I think they don't want to cause interteam problems, but they need to kind of lay down the law a little bit.

They need to make sure they go, right, if we say switch, you've got to switch, and it's because it's for the better of the team. We won't do it if it's for a race wing, for example. They don't have that set of guidelines between these two drivers. There was a bit of a change in the way teams went at the start of this Grand Prix because we had the red flag, which means anyone could change their tire. Ferrari were going for soft tires, and we asked this yesterday, like what they might do to do something a bit different. They were on soft tires to begin this thing, the four in front of them all on mediums.

I appreciate Piastri then went to the hards, but that was evidence of them doing something a little bit different. Is it a case of just the starts and qualifying didn't put them in the optimal position to go and win this thing, or at least get on the podium? Well, yeah, I think so, because if you look at Lechler's sprint performance, he qualifies. better and then managed to hold on to that position. And overtook the guy that went on to win the race the next day. Exactly. So I think, yeah, qualifying, let them down. And yeah, they try something different with the start and the soft tires.

But at Sanford, it's relatively difficult, I think, to try and take advantage of that. But yeah, I think it's quality that's let them down. To be honest, it was the same for Hamilton on the sprint on Saturday as well. because he started further down, his race wasn't as good. So there's something to be, something to be worked on, I think, because, you know, whilst it's not quite as important, the quality still really important, I think. They might have the two best qualifiers going,

and yet neither of them can seem to break through this top four at the moment. Yeah, I think race-pace-wise, they could have had P2, P3 here. I think they could have beat both Mercedes. They definitely should have got one of them. Yeah, and I kind of get the sense that, and it's to do a qualifying as well, but we saw Antonelli. He essentially climbed one position on each of the starts that we had that allowed him to go and at least lead the race for a good portion of the Grand Prix. Ferrari weren't able to do that. It was Piastri who got a great start the second time around, and Ferrari are kind of stuck.

It always felt like they were the ones attacking. They didn't do a lot of defending, apart from when Hamilton again was at the end of his. stints, they just weren't in a position to go ahead and claim these podiums, but I think they're the pace to. I really do. Disappointment for them then, never mind. Once again. Here we are once again.

Odd race for Oscar Piastri, because... Odd or slow? Well, both. Both, because he was a long way off his teammate by the end of this thing. Strategically an interesting one, and that he was on the hard tire on the restart. he was the one who got the great restart on that hardest compound which is unusual to see but then just not a lot there i'm still maybe because we're the track i missed this why did they bring him in to put another set of hards on i don't i don't know because you might as well not

have started him on hards yeah i really don't know um that was yeah i mean overall his pace wasn't great anyway so maybe that's why they they did it but you just like left him out there and see what happens because I don't know what else. He didn't have, he clearly didn't have the pace to do anything else. So yeah, why not just leave him on the hard eyes

and just see how far he could get into the, and look at Alonzo. Yeah. So he managed it. So, yeah, a bit confused of that call from, from a client because they've done, they've done the hard work. I remember I said to you, like,

just after the restart, I was like, I think Piazsche's an actually quite good spot here. Again, pacewise, but you didn't work out. but given where he was at the restart with the hard ties and everyone else around him was on mediums or softs. I was thinking, yeah, it was pretty good. And it obviously turned out to be a two-stop rather than a one,

but even so, I thought he was in a good place. But yeah, weird, cool, disappointing day for Piazzi. He quickly felt like the cork in the bottle. And it felt like the other team's picked up on that really quickly because it helped Hamilton, right, by staying out in the lead until he was overtaking. And then he drops back, he drops back behind Piaastri, and the other cars are all stacked up behind him.

And he's slowly just closing that gap down until Piastri basically comes in a pizza gang. And he's like, right, cool. I've caught back up to all my competitors and I haven't burnt out my tires. Excellent. He was so far off, Landon Norris, that I turned to you guys in the race. I was like, have I missed? Has he got an issue with the car? There's something wrong with the car.

He was really off the pace. And he has been off the pace now for the last couple of GPs. I know that he was there in Hungary, of course, fighting. And sure, he might go and say, oh, the science issue or whatever, cost men. I think Nando Norris wins that hungry GP anyway. I think Landowners is comfortably better here. Two in a row now where Lando is, I think, ruined Oscar Piastri in terms of outright pace. I'm really, I'm a little bit nervous why he's falling so far back.

I don't understand it in that it's not really reflecting in qualifying. I know Norris got pole and piastri was fourth, but it was a tenth and a half between them. It's not a huge. It's a very normal gap. Yeah. If he was being outqualified by six tenths and then losing by 40 seconds in the Grand Prix, be like, okay, well, that correlates. It's not correlating at the moment.

I think the one lap pace isn't too far off, but there's something when it comes to race trim, like, it's just not clicking. And I don't know what it is. What Hamilton did strategically is what I thought Piastri was going to do, which is stay out long ago. Yeah, and you're right. He was kind of this cork in the bottle,

but that can work. Like if tire-wise, you're doing the right thing. If you defend well enough, it does work. Yeah, and he was on the hard tire. In theory, he could have gone a long way. I think tyre-deg was high enough that one-stops weren't possible in the end, which I'm glad about overall. But yeah, I felt he could have done a much more or a much different two-stop. And instead, as soon as he lost touch with the group ahead of him, he wasn't really ever looking like he'd get back in it.

Hard tie was a bad tire either. We saw quite a few drive was able to really put their foot down and create some good lap time on that hard tire. And yet I thought he was going to go super long into this race. and just kind of lead from the front after everyone made that stop. You just think I have to pace ignore the track position. It was a really weird middle ground for him. No, it's a shame. Dooney's a shout out of his restart, by the way, though.

That was sublime. Really good. How are we going to evaluate Liam Lawson at Red Bull? Because his teammate, which we will get to, didn't do much of this race. So Liam Lawson, a sub-driver and a Red Bull, finish his seventh, must have had the most most boring race out there. Do you see anyone ever? I don't think he did.

I mean, I guess you could, if you're Red Bull, you probably go, job done. Like, fine. Yeah, to be honest, I think, and tough for them to judge it, given that Verstappen wasn't in the race at all. But I don't think you could, to be honest, ask that much more of Lawson, given he's been parachuted into that car at the last minute and, you know, it's his first time driving that car this year. So I think overall, it, yeah, pretty, pretty, pretty.

The Red Bull, I don't think, was very good this weekend anyway. So whilst for stuff on, had he been in the race, may well have been a bit further up the road. To be honest, they could have well just might as well have finished next to each other. I think at most, he beats Piascrii. At most, yeah. And that's me to say he has a perfect race, you know. He's not in the wall. Don't do that.

No, do that. Well, yeah, who's the real goat? Well, that's what I've been saying. I wish you would. Oh, yes. I mean, qualifying next to him, good improvement from the spring side. And time-wise, not far off the further. Very close, about a tenth between them as well.

In the start of the Grand Prix, they're wheel to wheel. They're side by side for a long of the lap, actually, because Lansing has a better start off the line than Max, and they're right by each other. Max eventually gets back ahead two laps later, he's in the wall. And then Lorsing, like you said, Duller's Dishwater, but he's a, not the man.

The race, not the man. Not the man, the drive. But he brings home pretty much the most I would have expected. from a second Red Bull seat. Was I actually, I have done any better? Well, yeah, exactly. That's kind of where Hadjar's been all year has been just a little bit off the rest of that front pack.

And the car wasn't good anyway. I think in terms of lack of damage sustained, in terms of points one, I think. Obviously, the sprint wasn't great, but equally you would expect less from the sprint in that it was earlier in the weekend and also there's just fewer points available. So I think Red Bull will come away from this weekend going,

that's absolutely fine. You did the job of what he's going to do, thanks. Yeah, and also just the him and limb blood just deserves all the love in the world. I love that. Always next to you. It's great. Shall we do

Driver of the Day? Go on, then. You're the driver of the day. You're the driver of the day. You're good at driving. Who is your driver of the day, Harry? Shock, I'm going to go for Fernando Alonzo. Come on.

Come on. Come on. Two points. Yeah, I mean, actual pain and depression that we're having to celebrate two points quite so much. But I think it was a really good drive. And was he the only, well, I don't know whether he actually changed ties under the red flag, but probably didn't make a difference because they did a lap anyway. So he's only one to do a one-stop successfully.

and just half the race on soft tires. I'm not shocked. But if I want to go to it, I'm not shocked. Yeah. But it was. And he had, he did it because he had good pace to do it. And then obviously he made his way back through it.

I've watched the battle between him and Albon. Have you seen it? That's so funny. When it gets to decide. Just chassis versus engines. Oh, my God. He just powers off into the distance. But he does eventually get past him.

But north was, I thought it was very good. He did a water hog off gasoline as well. Yes, right the end, yeah, good shout. My chat, Fernando Alon's a little bit more later on. Sam, your driver of the day? Easy one for me. I got Landon Norris. The guy hanged fantastic before.

But that double overtake was immense around Zandvo. You don't see that very often. Pace was electric. Hanging shoulders above the rest. Great double overtake from Lando Norris. I'll give you someone who also had a great double overtake. And we've got three different answers. I've got Nika Halkenberg.

Nice. Who led the midfield, pulled off two really impressive overtakes and was a long way clear of Alonzo and the rest of the midfield strategically made it work but those overtakes were so important to his Grand Prix that he just had an easy coast to what was P8. Get in the bin, bin, bin, bin, been, worst driver of the day. And bin bin, been, worst driver of the day. You suck at driving.

Worst driver of the day. Who've you got? That is the gingling, yes. Well done. Color signs. I almost went frankly color pinto, but color signs. to your teammate, mate. It's not good.

Fighting over, what, P-16 at the time? I think they were 15 to 16th, yeah. Don't do that. That's fine. It's not great. Knocked out one out. Gain nothing, so that's good.

Yeah. All the three games. Sykes is one. Colapinto's the other. And then Max Verstappen is the last one. Bringing it on the wet, which you know what else did. They're not going to let us out of the studio if you say,

Stapham. I'm sure Max would hold himself accountable for that. He's probably the one driver that goes. That wasn't very good. His team radio seemed to indicate that. It's his fault. He made a mistake. It happens.

Yeah, crap. Oh, crap. By bad. It's going to happen to any driver at any point. unlucky they happened at that racetrack on that day to that driver. I'm actually enjoying there for science. He was also not very quick at the same time. Quite slow, wasn't it?

Yeah, he was also quite slow. I'm actually surprised that an overtake was even on because Albin did feel like the better driver for a long of the race. But yeah, don't just plow into the side of your team, mate, and knock him out. Was he? He was defending, yeah. Oh, was he? Yeah, we did even worse.

Wow, Carlos. My guy sucked. I am apparently not getting out of this city because I'm going to go with Max Verstappen. Oh, Lord. It's fair. It's just a self-inflicted error. And I appreciate conditions were not easy, and that we'd had that downpour, 20 minutes,

before the start of the race, but it was still dry enough for dry tires, and the seven in front of him or six in front of him all went through there without doing that. And I think Vestappen sort of explained that he saw the track and thought, eh, it doesn't look too bad. It seems like this year he might just be taking risks

where he hasn't done in previous years because he's not obviously fighting for a title. Why not? Yeah, but I'm going to go over for Stappen. Bob, we're going to need you to box for wets. What? It's not even raining out. What are you talking about?

Yeah, and Bob, if you get it. And then big brain strap. What have you got, Harry? My big brain strut, I was about to say Alonzo again. I can't do twice in the race. You know what? You can.

You can. It's been a hard year for you, mate. I'll go, I'll go, I'll go the Alonzo Astor Martin Strat just because he was the only one to pull that off successfully. So I thought it was great cool. I'm going to join your Askin Marston. I'm going to for Lance Strull's four-stop. And then quietly retiring.

And then quietly retiring for no reason, seemingly. No reason other than to destroy my fantasy team. And my bold prediction. Yes, true. Because it was definitely young before that. I am going to go with Ocon's strategy at haste because he was actually, he was next to Alonzo. Yeah.

Like what Alonzo did, theory. Ocon could have done pretty much the same thing. Yeah, right. And instead, they decide to cover off Bortoletto's pit stop, apart from they don't because he comes out behind him. But he does cover off Lance Stroll's pit stop, which means absolutely. So Ockon was just dealt a bad hand because he just had traffic in front of him from there. I think Alonzo's strategy was a lot better actually. Yeah, five second penalty talk on. He was about the only one that was investigated who didn't get a five second penalty. So you decided to pull off the race track and stop anyway.

Yeah, they're just trying to stop the meme. That's the end of reason they didn't give them a penalty. Right, let's take a quick break. On the other side, we're going to continue the chat on Vastappen's crash and get into some of the midfield points. Welcome back, everyone. Naturally, we have a pretty good idea of what happened here in terms of Vestappen's crash, in terms of the crowd and how it was interpreted, shall we say. I mean, can you write this?

Like, I mean, out of all the people to put it in the wall. And just you might not see it on the broadcast. The buildup to this start of this grand prix with this opening ceremony. You know, the last lap or something, the final lap. The driver's parade where he gets out. Right. You know, he got out and spoke to everyone. They were screaming his name every time he comes on the TV.

They've got this woman in this black gown, walking up to the national anthem. She's pulling all this achievement of Maxwell Stapham, are winging at the home GP multiple times all the way down the start, finish, straight. And then he crashes on that three. One time DNF just didn't really small font at the bottom. Apostrophe. Yeah, start at the bottom.

The woman in front of us was sobbing. She was sobbing. She was so sad that he had crashed. And I understand because he is their hero. And to only see him essentially go past three times properly on race day is rough. but they took it really well actually they kind of brought their spirits back they started having a laugh

they supported the race people did not flood out the race chat they weren't going home super early it was still a really fun and enjoyable place to be and it very easily could have not being it could of being bitter, annoyed going home going to be an ass about things because I'm annoyed that my driver's gone none of it at all. They're all lovely

they're all cheering and they're all having fun so props to the Dutch fans and the fans still so much fun after a really difficult lap for them. Yeah, credit to the crowd for the way they rallied back around, but also credit to the MC who was given like of the arena, who was given the most difficult job. I hope he got well paid for this because he's essentially been given the job of, okay, you now have to try and get the spirits up of thousands of Dutch fans who've just seen Vestapp and retire before one lap is complete.

know what his reaction was he's Wonderwall he did stick on Monter War to be there literally goes UK fans here's Wonderwall and in the biggest

surprise it worked it did work yeah we're all singing a full one yeah I echo what you

what you guys said I was very impressed by the Dutch fans in terms of I because it went it did go like

silent after it was crashed but yeah obviously the whole the MC, the DJ, they got the spirits back up, but they didn't, they didn't leave, they weren't gonna go,

they just wanted to go more beers and carried on. And yeah, so it was respect to them, but yeah, and as for Vastappen, that's one of his worst mistakes he's ever made, but for a career that's not filled with many. It's a glittering career, that's a very, very small. It's a rare one, but yeah, just what, just the irony of it being,

any other race. Any other race. But like you said, early one. I think he is trying to take a few more risks just to try and out drive this car. There was a proper rookie era though. It bit him. I thought the same at Miami earlier in the year where he spun on the first lap. I think maybe in a previous year he just, he gets out of that.

He backs out of it. Yeah. Or, but he's keeping his foot in and spinning. I kind of sense that that's where he's at this year. Yeah. He's just got this shrug off the shoulder action. He's like, well, I don't know. What's it matter?

Yeah. I'm not winning the championship this year. I'm just going to risk it until maybe get a win. He's fine. He got out. It was all right, which is great to see. And yeah, should have the shoulders move on to the next one. He's also the best person, actually, to crash at his own Grand Prix, because he's so like, yeah, all right, whatever. I think someone like Lewis Hamilton might be like,

oh, I'm so sorry to the fans, man. I did enjoy someone right behind us shout. There wasn't expletive, but as soon as it happened, he was like the bleep car. And I was like, I'm not sure that's a guy. I did see someone tweet this morning. reports are that straight line mode has caused this crash. It's obviously a range mate, but yeah.

Yeah, I think as well, just to add to the comments about the enthusiasm of the Grand Prix, even after Vastappen had retired, I loved seeing the enthusiasm not, in 99% of instances, come at the expense of others who aren't Vastappen. Like, they were cheering Vastappen, massive. and it was great to be a part of that and to be sort of, yeah, involved in that arena. It didn't, like,

there wasn't an equal negative reaction to drivers. I was expecting booze for Lewis Hamilton, I'm not going to like. Did it happen? Yeah, honestly, I thought the same thing, but nada, so respect to him. I saw one man put his middle finger up to George Russell. Was it you?

And it was you. I was looking in the mirror. God, that disrespectful guy. Oh, look at my house. I've got hands, literally. I might as well just cover off what else happened on the first lap or the first racing lap, I guess we can call it,

where Vastappen crashed, because he wasn't the only one who spun, Bortoletto spun, and I still do not understand how Nika Holkenberg has not gone into the back of it. For a smoke screen, that is incredible the way he's got around that. Bortoletto has also managed to basically get away with doing the same thing as Max Vastepen, but just not using the water. Toledo loves Max for Stamberth.

Sympathy, yeah, yeah. My hero! There goes my hero. She's their role. Spinks. Holgerberg, cat-like reactions. Still going against me. I mean, it's cat-like reactions,

but also it's just like pure. Go one way or the other. And he committed one way, how he didn't hit him. Also, the fact that a car coming around the corner behind him also didn't hit Holgerberg going straight across the track. You know, it could have been a massive pile-up,

incredible from Hulk. It reminded me of spa for many years ago when Kimmy Rike and then goes through some smoke. And he's just kind of hoping, I hope there's not a car on the other side of this. Yeah, fortunately for Holcomberg, he doesn't collect his teammate, which to be honest,

if he had would just be the perfect embodiment of like what has happened with Audi first laps this year. I mean, the fact that Borselletto was even that far back to begin with is because he lost like five positions on the opening lap. So it's perfect, Alvi. I'm really sick of how anything you're about to do first laps? Like, they could be so good.

Just following on from Stakes Alba, because they couldn't do first lap. Yeah, that is very true. Oh, dear. We spoke a bit earlier on about Lawson in his substitute appearance of Red Bull, but we haven't really spoken yet about Yuki Sonoda in his substitute appearance at racing balls. One that very nearly resulted in points. And for some of this race, he was in the top 10. But comes away having beaten his team.

teammate, his teammate did receive the drive-through penalties, so may be tough to judge. But it's not like Sonoda was off the pace. He's not embarrassed himself. I haven't got too much to say on Yuki. I think that being at the same with Lawson dropped into a seat that you weren't prepared to drive normally is a really tricky thing. I don't think he impressed. I also don't think he disappointed.

I think he just did a job. And that's fine. Because actually, it's far easy, I think, to disappoint. I think it is to impress. He does beat Limblud. had the penalty. So on paper it looks good. I think they'll know that maybe Limblad still have the overall pace.

Does he impress enough here that another team comes and picks him up? I don't know. I don't know. This race would have done enough to sway anyone. And it's tough to judge. But Limblud after the race was asked about the drive-through penalty, but also his pace during the Grand Prix, he was really positive about the pace that he had

and felt that he would have had P8, if not for the drive-through penalty. penalty. I think he was going to go points. Yeah. And Sonoda, I think if it had a bit more experience than that car, might well have beaten Pierre Gasley and not been far off Alonzo in P10. But I think Sonoda has done a fine job. The other thing to say about Yuki Sanoda is how popular he is there. They love Yuki Sonoda. They loved it. Yeah, that was really unexpected. But yeah, big fans. I was quite impressed by Yuki, to be honest, because I know what he's saying about Lawson, But given Lawson has had experience of these 2026 cars, Yuki's had none and just had to jump in and get on with it with one practice session.

So to be where it was, yeah, I think with a bit more experience, he may well have been in, he could well have snuck a point and unlucky to get overtaken by Gassley. But Gassley had, I think, had fresher tires anyway. Also had the awkward model being elapsed by Charlotte Gle at the same time. So they had to do the whole slowdown thing. I think that's how the overtakings I'm coming about. So that is always tricky. Yeah, and his overtake on Gassley earlier on in the race was a sublime one.

Really good. Where does that leave us? Aston Martin, let's discuss them because I know we've discussed maybe Alonzo a bit more specifically and how he scored two points. This is a really interesting one as to how Aston Martin will review this weekend because they had Q1 eliminations in both the sprint and the main race, but they've walked away with two points. which is, you know, they only had one coming into this weekend.

They've doubled. Yeah, right? We say this all the time about driving performances. It's the same with the team. Like, rather than you start bagley and you finish well, rather than you start wanting you finish badly. And they, especially in the case of Alonso, started terribly. You know, he had everything wrong with that car under the sun.

It was brake problems. It was straight line moment working properly. It was, you know, throttle open with brakes. It was terrible. And yet he comes away after executing a really well-thought-out strategy. the car actually looked competitive. It was able to fight alongside the likes of Alping and racing balls and an Audi, which is what they wanted, and they get two points.

On the flip side, on the other side of the garage, I don't know what was going on with Lance Roll. I don't know what was going on with the car. There must have been a problem the whole way through. They are stopping that many times because it doesn't make sense to actually stop four times and think you're going to do well on the Grand Prix. So something must be wrong. Something must be wrong.

But that shows that these uprope. grace, whilst they're taking half a year to get on the car, and they are kind of working, there's still problems coming in with them, which is not great. You want them to fit on the car and just work after that much time. So some positives, some negatives, which feels like the most basic hand-the-finks opportunity to be hurry either. Yeah, I don't know how to review this one for us to. Again, qualifying was a real struggle across the board. And then we get to the race. And Alonso, I think had genuinely pretty good pace, even though the strategy did help him. I just worry that if Alonzo had done the same strategy as Bortletto or O'Con or someone else that he was around and he finishes 14th, then we go, what have they been doing?

That's a terrible weekend. Yeah, that's fair. I think I saw, I think Alonzo had some quotes about this, that the chassis-wise, they're very happy now in terms of the car, but the engine, whilst it has some more power. Monza! I think they just shouldn't bother with Monza. Whilst there is more power, a little bit more power, I think there's like driveability. The cook was saying handling,

but I think he was being drivability. So, and that clip of him versus, I know he gets it done, but like, yeah, but that, but that's, you know, not to be like, it's all the engine, but I think now they are definitely in a better, much better place with that car, with all the upgrades, and the engines what's holding them back.

So when you get a look at maybe the qualifying is tough because they can't get the engine in the right place. But in a race situation, actually, it's less painful for them. So, yeah, right. I mean, it's still going to be rough for most of the year, but at least they can, Alonzo has a car. He can maybe grab a couple of points with now. Yeah, and it's at least good to see him in the points and fighting other drivers.

Now we can sort of fight. I'm sure this is exactly what he was thinking of when the season started. I'm a bit worried from the Honda side of things because this was supposed to be quite a notable upgrade. And we'll see once it's embedded whether things get better or not. This wasn't a great first out. That clip by itself should be like the first thing that is being sent to whoever at Honda. If I was a long song, what is that? I would get my social media around and just click that and send it to the Honda headquarters.

What are you doing? You're like, no, not again. No. No. You have to get the better engine. Cheers, gal. Shall we, so I can just get this out of the way, review bold predictions. Yes, I was 50% correct, so I'll take half a point.

That's not how this works. I mean, you were seven, seven, eight is correct. Actually, yes, it is how it works. You have no point eight of a point where it is. Well, let's be clear what it was. So you said that. Austin Martin, double points finish in the main Grand Prix, Alonso scored, lungs, pitted.

And stayed there at the end. And then yourself? Yeah, I said that there would be eight different teams that scored points this weekend. Didn't get off to a brilliant start in the sprint because there wasn't a lot of carnage and it was only Alpine of the midfield teams that was able to score. But then things were looking a lot better in the race because at one point, Holcomberg was 8th,

Alonzo was ninth and Sunoda was 10th, who obviously represent Audi, Aston Martin and Racing Bulls respectively. Five plus three. That's your eight teams. So all I needed to happen to be, to finally get a point, is for Sonoda to have held off Gasly. Commentator, he did not. There was this moment where Ocom retired and Bing slumped

and then Gassley got past Segoda and then Bing just slumped. I can't believe my bossed. I can't believe my boss. boy Ocon retired. It was really funny. Sorry, O'Con. It was really funny. Also, the commentator on the track kept calling it Ocon.

Yeah, stop. Yeah. I forgot about that. So, no points to be added to those abacuses or abacai. Abbeki. Abacusis. Abacusis. You have known what the abacus.

I don't like that one. On the rest of the prime. Yeah, yeah. Let's take our final break. On the other side, we'll finish off chat about the rest of the midfield and moment of the race. Welcome back, everyone. I know we've touched on this throughout the episode a few times.

The signs an album crash. I don't want to say it's hilarious, but it's kind of funny given they both re-signed, like last week. Happy resigning week. Let's crash into each other. Yeah, Albon, as I've now just learned, doing the overtaking, Carlos Sykes just locks up down the inside

straight to the side of his team. mate wipes him out, gets a rightful pregnancy for it, just a comedy of errors from that team. Not ideal. No, Williams. I mean, yeah, science completely owns up to it. It obviously wasn't on purpose, nothing malicious about it, but just why are you fighting that so hard?

I mean, maybe they're just because he was like, bored. I'm here for another 5,000 years, so I might as well go something to entertain myself. Yeah, bleak for really. to be in that situation where they, you know, one car gets, one car, sorry, gets wiped out by another one that's all over P15 and their pace is terrible. Not a good situation. Yeah, it's a, it's a shame for Carlos Sines because I know they wouldn't be fighting for points anyway, but he, he started the

year really strong and there have been some, let's call them unenforced errors, really, in the last few races. And certainly there were mitigating circumstances here. Those tires were very old on Carlos Sides's car. And I think Alex Albin hasn't responded too negatively about this because of that. But they were battling before this. And it's a similar situation to Ferrari, whereas why? What are we're doing? They are on a completely different strategies. And Alex Albin, again, he wouldn't have fought for points, but he was close to the Alonzo strategy. Like, that's what he was working towards. And there was a point where he was catching cars ahead of him on these fresh tires that I'm pretty sure he would have been a position or two outside of the points,

in which case you're only need one weird thing to happen inside the top 10 and you can grab a point here or there. But instead they have him, you know, fight Carlos Sines who, again, is on dead tires and signs, the problem with his pace is that they had to put him on that kind of a strategy to get anything out of this Grand Prix. It's really harsh, but William just feel like a proper waste at the moment. Like it feels like they're, Asthmartica are doing something, kind of like the new team so you can forgive it. How would you are making good progress?

Williams just feel like a real letdown, such a disappointment, a waste of a spot right now. Half the only other team that I'm thinking I'm looking at and going, what are we doing? What are we actually doing at the moment? It's so disappointing that even on the track that they're going to be bad at, They make it worse by crashing into each other and having a bad strategy. So hopefully Monza is better.

Oh, they're winning at all, mate. A Monza. Yeah, yeah, that's straight line speed. They will have no real win. If they're not getting points there. Yeah. Oh, well, they do have this Baku upgrade coming, so everything will be solved. Which we have been told was not like the Asthm Martin upgrade.

James Val's playing poker here. Like, it's actually the best upgrade of all time. It's a Mercedes. He either be the worst poker player or the best poker player of all time. Yeah. I'm going to go with worst. The only other thing I wanted to mention on the Williams duo is that caught my eye was Carlos Sines' apology on Twitter, where he says, sorry to Albin and the team for the contact.

It's weird. Sorry Albon. Weird. Sorry Albon. Yeah. Tell what you call him around the factory? Hey Albon. I just thought second naming it was weird.

That is weird. Also, a Twitter apology is weird anyway. Like, it's a sport. I think it was more of his like race debrief tweet that he does. And it seems wise to start there. Sorry to Alba. But yeah, he said, I forgot his first game. I had very worn hard tires,

breaked over the bump and locked up. You locked up, boy, no doubt about that. He's still looking up now. So we'll see if they come back any stronger for Monza. Anything else from those midfield teams that we haven't discussed? Obviously, Berman didn't get very far in this race. No, he's having a bit of a tricky time in the moment, actually. He's not big on top four.

It wasn't great in Hungary either. And I don't know if he's just not comfortable with the car or if it just doesn't suit his tracks. I think he'll upgrade a proper one. That'll be great. But yeah, I can't judge him too much because he already threw anything. Good day for Hasse.

A great day for Hasse. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was also annoyed that there wasn't much Hass support in the stands. I really thought there was the... You were the support. It was me. Yeah. The guy was shouting out Hass fans and just used...

You're the only one who yelled. Yeah. I really thought, everyone's going to join him. Yeah. Weird. Shall we do moments of the race? So, too, no submissions this week just based on the setup that we have,

but we'll have Moment of the Race submissions back for Monza in a couple of weeks' time. Sam, what was your moment of the race? For me, it was that Landong or a double overtake. I thought it was really well set up, well executed, and great to see it attract, but it's famously really difficult to pass that. So got him the win, basically. Good job. Harry?

Mine's a bit of a personal one, but it was, as a lot of the first of, the lights were coming on for the start of the race the man behind me in the grandstand tap me on the shoulder and then showed me a picture of him with someone who worked for Aston Martin that he thought was Fernando Alonso And he had a picture with him And then I was like

That's not, that's not, no But also he wanted to have this conversation I was like, the race is starting and what's the little ones going on? It wasn't Fernando Alonzo It was Fernando Alonzo He tapped on the shoulder at one red light you had this whole conversation

with him. Like, like, like slow. They got the start sequence takes a bit longer this year

because I missed otherwise. Yeah, just that really made me chuckle. It's time to look at your picture. He was,

he was very chuffed. I'm going to go with a double overtake but I'll go with Holkenberg's one because we saw the first of which was kind of completed

in front of us. I think that was on the Alpine yeah. And then I can't remember it was the racing balls with the Williams in front of him but Holkberg

then gets a move done around the outside into term one, just thought it was brilliant, and it was critical to his Grand Prix. Before we go, one final question when it comes to Zambor and the experience we had there. Could be wrong, Harry. I think you said this yesterday. Best Dutch GP? I think so.

The only one that would probably challenge it would be 23. The rain, yeah. With the rain. But just for an outright race, I think that's the most interesting. when we've ever had there. I'm fascinated to hear what the listeners think, because we've got a very different point of view of it. It looks great.

It is harder to follow what goes on the track. I always say this, that if you want to understand the race, watch it from home. The atmosphere is amazing. That elevates things as well. But really good race, it seemed like. But again, we haven't watched it back on the telly.

Let us know if you think, actually, I was bored as anything, nothing going on. It didn't look like that. But I enjoyed it. Can't work for next year. Yeah. Bring it on. Who knew?

Who knew that when you include, strategy. Interesting things can happen. Because I know we had the crash at the start, but like if you just had the first third of that race, it wouldn't have been a good race. It would have been a sprint race. When you start to include the two stops and the varying laps that drivers are pitting, that's where you get Lando Norris making two overtakes for the win and you see drivers using the virtual safety car, but others not. Like this is this is everything that I'm not saying it was the perfect Grand Prix but what we saw was

a Grand Prix like it had the component parts and that's why they are so much better than sprints. Yeah. So bring back Zandvo the final lap, return of the final lap. The not quite final lap. Big up mental Theo by the way.

Oh, big up mental Theo. DJ mental Theo was crazy. He was mental. And with that we'll get out of his. Two final two lap next year. Please get us out of it. I'm doing another way. Thanks for listening, folks. Sorry, we're a bit late.

We've been having a wonderfully jolly time here at the Dutch GP meeting many of you. And thank you for everyone that came out and saw us, whether it be at the meet and greet at the track. Blows our minds and it means the world. And thank you for supporting the way you do on Patreon. We can do the links in the description because Power Rankings will be coming out tomorrow. So, again, another day late for that. But again, if you want to get involved with Power Rankings,

you need to join Patreon, lots of perks on there. And that support goes straight back into the show, making the show better. So thank you again. Should we get scored where we will have your moment at the race at the next Grand Prix?

Follow us on social media if you want to see me and not wearing any shorts apparently around the Dutch GP that's great fun as well late breaking on all channels and we'll see you for the next episode

which is the midweek in the meantime I've been Samuel Sage I've been Ben Hocking and I've been Harry Eid and remember keep breaking late