The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2026 Japanese GP Race Review

Episode Date: March 29, 2026

We have a new championship leader! Ben and Harry break down an eventful F1 Sunday that saw Antonelli secure a back-to-back victory, and Piastri claim a bittersweet podium finish. They also unpack Bearman’s dramatic high-speed crash and assess how the new regulations held up at Suzuka... 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

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A very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Harry Ead. And me, Ben Hocking, today reviewing the Japanese Grand Prix won by Kimmy Antonelli, back-to-back victories for him, joined on the podium not by his teammate, instead by the McLaren of Oscar Piastri, not only finishing a race, not only starting a race, actually on the podium at the end of it all, and Charles LeClaire in the Ferrari as well. So three different constructors on the podium, Harry. Some are saying this is the greatest season since 2012. Some, they're very silent if they are.

Speak up. shout louder please. Yeah, look, an interesting podium, and I'll leave it at that. End review. You don't say it anymore. How are you, Ben, more importantly, because you're a bit achy. You've been, you know, you're a high performance athlete. That is arguable.

Yeah. Yes. Not after today, I'm not. Yeah, I had a badminton tournament, which is why we're recording a bit later. Sam's still there. He's still there, yeah. Hustling away as Sam. But yeah, I've come home early because I didn't win enough matches.

So, yeah. Never mind. You're the winner in our eyes. Who's our in this scenario? Me and me. Thanks, man. The number one fan club out here. You're welcome.

Japanese GP review. As mentioned, we've got three different constructors on the podium. A very scary crash involving Olly Behrman. We'll be discussing all of that. Moment of the race. Reviewing, I say our bold predictions. Harry didn't have one, which means he'll pick up the same number of points as I will. We'll review in the midfield as well.

But let's start out front with Kimmy Antonelli taking that victory and the championship lead with it. Didn't go all his own way, so not quite like China. But once he got clear after that safety car, we'll discuss how we got to the safety car in a bit. But the pace that he was able to unleash when he had clean air at the front, pretty terrifying, I thought. Yeah, we are fortunate that Mercedes have not been very good at starts this year. Yes. Because if they had been good at starts,

as I tell you, they led away one, two. We'd never see them again. We'd see them at that one and the end of the race. Because, yeah, once they do, there is something about when they're not in Clean Air, as we saw with this teammate, and indeed Antonelli in the first part of the race, when they're not, they can't unleash.

what they have underneath them. But when they do get into clear, as Antonelli did after their safety car, it is a bit frightening how quickly they can pull away for the rest of the pack. I mean, they weren't even, you know, Piastri behind wasn't directly fighting,

to be honest, not like he was caught up in a scrap that slowed him down. It was just pure pace. So that was very impressive from Antonelli. Tough to know. We haven't really seen so far between the two of them, like a straight battle between both Mercedes.

So tough to know whether that was just him or Russell had more pace in him. We won't know the answer to that one. But yeah, it was impressive how well he pulled away after that safety car restart, very measured. Whereas his teammate, you know, didn't have a good safety car restart. He absolutely nailed it out of that final chican. So impressive for Antonelli, quite a statement win, more so, I think, than China, to be honest. And he does it.

He's the first back-to-back Italian winner since, I don't know, the 50s or something. I can remember Croftie. Okay. Crofty said something about that at the end. But more importantly, he's done back-to-backs before his teammate has. Yes, yeah, which is not something that George Russell would have been hoping to say at the beginning of this year. No doubt about that whatsoever. Very impressive.

As soon as that safety car peeled in and we were, what, like 50% race distance when that happened, he just went off. We didn't see him again. And he's won this Grand Prix by just under 14 seconds back to Oscar Piastri, which if you'd have just said that margin, let's say the beginning of the race, before we knew what was about to unfold, you'd say, okay, that's pretty solid. He's managed to work over the course of 50 laps to get that out to 14 seconds.

No, he did that in like 50% of the Grand Prix, like half a second advantage or so per lap. Seriously impressive. And yet again, we are denied the opportunity of seeing Russell versus Antonelli in clean air, because it seems whenever we're racing this, And we either have an Antonelli poor start, a Russell poor start, or in this instance, both, but one is worse than the other. We only really had, after Antonelli cleared some traffic, we had a few laps where he was two or three seconds behind Russell, who was kind of parked up behind Piastri.

So even then, we didn't get a true read on their relative performance. But Antonelli looked quick throughout practice. He looked quick and qualifying. And it's not too much of a surprise to see that he was very quick in the Grand Prix as well. And now he has the championship lead. And that's going to hold it for at least another month. Yeah, well, that's very true. What has become almost like an enforced spring break, let's call it,

rather than summer break. And there's only been three races. But it's a good little momentum to take into that break. It's going to give Russell a lot of thinking time until we get to Miami. And it's not like Miami went brilliantly well for, I mean, Mercedes as a whole, but Antonelli. but he did have his first sprint poll at Miami last year. So he's got happy memories of that place.

And now he gets to return there with the championship lead. Pretty daunting. But the safety car did help him out a great deal today. To be fair to the guy, he admitted that over Team Radio as soon as he crossed the line. And Bono agreed with that sentiment. Is there a chance he could have won this one anyway? I mean, yes, with the pace of that car, I think yes, he could have done. But as I said earlier on, the Mercedes certainly, when it, and in Russell's hands, in traffic,

looks like it struggled more to be able to unleash it. So I think if the status quo had remained and he didn't jump those cars through the pit stops, then I think he probably found it tricky. And once again, we're seeing in 2026 that tyres, they're just round things, aren't they, on the car at this point. They don't really make any difference to the strategy whatsoever. So whilst he was going longer,

I'm not massively sure that would have made a difference in terms of, you know, pace later on the race that we might have seen in previous years. So, yeah, every chance he could have won it without the safety guard, but I think it would have been much tougher.

And quite frankly, I think Piastri might have been in with the shower, wouldn't it, if the safety car hadn't come out. So it would have been interesting because, yeah, in those final stages if we had Russell and Antonelli trying to chase down Piastri. It would have been maybe a much more exciting finish that we had.

But, yeah, he was slightly gifted that one. And as you say, he admitted it. But sometimes that's just the way it goes. Yeah, I was intrigued to see whether Antonelli was going to come out ahead of either Piastri or Russell. Because as you say, tire-wise, you would assume that he wasn't going to be able to build much of an advantage even with a bit of an offset on those tires. but equally we know that Russell was probably held up by Piastri in terms of overall pace in that first stint.

And that's how it was looking like it was going to play out in the second stint as well. If Antonelli had saved enough of his tyres, if he just had a bit of clean air for five laps, before that safety car obviously made an appearance, maybe he could have got the rarely spotted overcut. I don't think it would have been impossible. It was only a couple of seconds at the time that they decided to make their respective pit stops but we'll never know. I do feel like the safety card took a little bit of the sting out of this Grand Prix

because Antonelli and Russell chasing Piastri, that could have been fun. And just exactly the wrong time for a safety car too, like right in the pit stop window. But the worst, I mean, come on, Ollie, but I'm, mate. I've just had a realisation and it's not a good one. Oh, no. Three races so far this year. And in all three of them, I think you can say the same thing. They've all been ruined by a safety car.

No. Well, maybe also true, but like the first half of each race has been much better than the second half. Mm. Yes. That leans into an argument about sprints. Oh, no.

And I don't like that. Oh, no. This entire Grand Prix was excellent, guys. I liked the second half in particular. Yeah, particularly. I mean, I didn't even go the last third. It was, yeah, very good. George Russell wasn't particularly happy with how things went,

cursing his luck about pitting just before the safety car made an appearance. But even outside of that, we saw him struggle a little bit in traffic, especially in the second half of the group, giving up a position to both Ferraris. He got one of them back again, obviously, but not the other, to mean he wasn't even on the podium here. So it's odd seeing a Mercedes in first, and the other Mercedes, not even in the top three? Yeah, a frustrated one.

Have you seen the video of him? I think I just saw it on TikTok, but of him walking through the pallet with just his helmet on after the race. No. Is it annoyed Russell or sad Russell? Bit of both. Just his helmet on, visor down.

I don't talk to anyone. Yeah, he was unlucky because he obviously made the better start of the two of them in terms of Mercedes. Obviously, Piastri got the better at both of them. But he was certainly in the more promising position, I'd say, versus his

teammate before that safety car came out. Again, it's just pure luck. He was the one pushing to come in, right? He was pushing, he didn't want to be left out there. Yeah, yeah. Too long. That's just the way it goes. He was obviously pushing for that cool. He was the lead

Mercedes on track, so obviously he did get preference on and when he could pit and it backfired on him, but it's not really much he could have done about it. What's pretty more concerning for him, but is the it was the struggles he had after the safety car. And the safety car restart, he had a bit of an issue.

I think I read that he didn't get the right deployment mode or something when he was coming out that final chican. So obviously Hamilton got him. So he had to spend a bit of time getting back past Hamilton. And then he was just in a bit of a race-long battle with remaining race-long battle

with Charles LeClair, which as you say, he didn't win out on, which considering the Pace's team, it had is odd because you'd expect if that car is as good as it seems you'd expect him to be able to get past the Ferrari which to be honest this weekend was I don't

think as quick as the McLaren so yeah a frustrating one for Russell he'll be maybe he'll be grateful for a reset and the force break or maybe he won't I don't know on that one but after Australia and the China

sprint was looking like quite a nice little championship shaping up for him it's got a bit more frustrating because, yeah, his teammate is posing a big challenge to him, not just through luck in the race, but in qualifying as well. So a bit of thinking to do for Russell. I just don't think he was ever comfortable this weekend. Like from the off, it always felt like Antonelli was the more comfortable of the two

and the quicker of the two. And whilst when we got into the Grand Prix itself, it felt like the recurring issues that Russell's had over the last few Grand Prix, kind of just reared their ugly head again. Like we had him stuck in traffic, which it seems to be Antonelli is a little bit better at dicing through some of those Ferraris and McLaren's than what Russell has been able to over the last couple of Grand Prix.

And whilst Antonelli seems to be suffering more on race starts versus Russell, safety car restarts. Russell has struggled a couple of times now versus his teammate. And that's something that he'll need to, certainly something he'll need to address because even with overtaking becoming slightly easier than what we've seen in the last few years, it's still very important. We saw today with this track, whilst you could make moves, it was tougher than what we had at China and I'd probably say Australia as well, you still had, based on the energy management,

you wanted to get the move done into turn one, as George Russell found out, if you try to make a move into the Cassio triangle, odds are the guy you've just passed is going to re-overtake you for turn one. So in a track where overtaking opportunities are pretty sparse, getting stuck in traffic, even in a beast like the Mercedes, isn't easy to cope with. And Antonelli's doing a better job with that right now. You mentioned before, Oscar Piastri might have been able to win this one. Who knew all he needed to do was start a Grand Prix and he might be quite good? Yeah, I mean, he's like, let me start a race and then I'll show you. And then he did.

I was quite annoyed because whilst he was winning this Grand Prix, I was like, if he can do the unexpected and just go like lights the flag victory, we can say that the only position he's raced in so far this year is first, if you exclude spread, obviously. But like, at least for a while, that was true. Yeah, I'm just quite impressed by Pierre. I knew the McLaren looked stronger this weekend that it has, well, his strongest weekend.

but he looked way more comfortable than Norris did all weekend. But yeah, like so, I think he could, I don't know, it would have been tough, but I think he could well have kept the two Mercedes behind potentially towards the end of that race and taken away, which would have been unexpected. I know they were higher up and on better pace, but that start was sublime. It was great, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I know Antonellis was pretty terrible, but yeah, he absolutely nailed it. So fair play to him on that one.

Still needed to beat LeCler down to term one as well. Yeah, because, again, Ferrari's start is just ridiculous. Yeah, so it was very impressive in that sense. And I thought he led pretty well in the early stages. You know, he had a bit of pressure from Russell, but didn't succumb to that. Yeah, could well have gone on to win it, but he'll be thankful for, I know it's not, you know,

it's not championship back on for Piastri, but it's at least got his campaign going and got it going. in some style after two no, well, two no races for the first part of the year. So I think he'll be happy about that one. Yeah, I think he could have held on to it. He held onto it for the first half of the race. So in theory, why couldn't he have done for the second half of the Grand Prix as well? And you might bring into the equation Antonelli getting quicker and getting on the back of that fight.

But Antonelli, even if he arrived on the scene, would have had to have a pay. advantage over Russell to overtake him. And maybe he was quicker, but it's still very tricky to overtake your teammate. So I think we could have ended up maybe in a situation very similar to last year's Japanese GP, where you had Vastappen in that Red Bull defending against Norris and, ironically, Piastri. I think we could have seen a very similar situation unfold. So overall, even though the result is still a second place, I think this is massively

encouraging for McLaren because we've seen them get close in a few qualifying. sessions, I say close, closer than race performance. But this, it translated through. In terms of the ground, they were, at least versus Ferrari, competitive.

This gives them a real boost, I think, going into this four-week break. Yeah, I agree. I think this is probably where they wanted to be in Australia and it's, they've not been able to show it, obviously only one car doing that race, but it was the pace of Norris wasn't amazing

and no race for them in China. So certainly, like I said, not saying they're going to be back in the championship, but it's suddenly, it feels like their season started, like two races late. Yeah, might well have been, and we'll see how they get on when we get to Miami in a month's time. We're going to take our first break, and on the other side, we're going to be chatting Ferrari.

Great news. The federal EV rebate is back. Eligible customers get up to $5,000 with the federal EVAP rebate on select 2027 Volt and 26 Equinox EVM models. your local Chevrolet dealer today for more details. Welcome back, everyone. Ferrari, P3 and P6. For them, Charles LeClerc finding his way onto the podium. Lewis Hamilton, tough day for him, down in sixth place.

What did you make of their day? It felt like maybe they made a step closer to Mercedes, but at the same time, McLaren made a bigger step. Yeah, they're tough weekend to judge for Ferrari. I think they're probably leave disappointed. because McLaren looked, I know Norris didn't necessarily, but certainly in Piastrian sounds, McLaren looked quicker than them both this weekend.

But like you say, they were also in the mix, and obviously Leclair could hold off Russell rather than just be eventually overtaken by him. So a mixed bag. I think I thought I saw Fred Fassar say something about that the championship could be very different from Miami onwards, which I think is referring to McLaren brings up grades potentially. I thought it was referring to Alpine being quickest from Miami.

Sorry, of course. That's obviously what he meant. I mean, shut out, Gasly did well today. Big up, just permanent, big up Gasly. Big up Gasly. Just doing bits in P7. But, yeah, so for Ferrari, I think it's, they'll be pleased but also disappointed.

I think they'll be pleased versus where they started the weekend because I think they didn't look great at all on Friday. So from that point of view, yes, but if you look where they were in the past couple of the Grand Prix, maybe they'll be a bit disappointed. The problem is, well, we said this before, Ferrari was sort of operating in this, you know, second best team sphere,

but we said it was still quite a gap to Mercedes. And if other teams like McLaren, we obviously mentioned Red Bull, but McLaren stepped up and, they could easily fill that gap and that's kind of happened here. So yeah, it'd be interesting, interesting to see where we go from here. But yeah, a mixed bag overall for Ferrari, even though they did still get a podium out of it. Yeah, as you allude to, a tough one to judge for them.

It's, yeah, it's almost like if you said to Charles LeClau before the Grand Prix that you're going to beat a Mercedes this time, you're like, yes, thank goodness for that. P3. Wait, P3 again. How have I've done that? without taking into account that McLaren are there as well. But I thought it was good of Lecler to be able to hold off Russell the way he did. I don't think their pace was brilliant this week.

It always felt like they were on the back foot almost and having to defend rather than attack in front of them. I know there was that time where they managed to get past George Russell, but that was more issue related than pace related. So it felt like they were defending after what we're expected from them in terms of that start. So not great pace, but equally they were in the mix. And they haven't been able to hold off for Mercedes in the first two Grand Prix. They've just got another challenger to deal with now. So another headache for Ferrari, which always goes well.

I thought, like I say, I don't think pace of either of them was great. but it was a bit of an anonymous, oh my God, can't speak. Here we go. One from Hamilton this weekend. A track that he loves. Yes. Even with the advantage of the safety car, he still fell back, which was odd.

Yeah, this is going to be harsh, but first two races, much better for Hamilton. This looked like you could put it in 2025 and it wouldn't be out of place. I had the exact same thought. Yeah, interesting. But it's one out of three. Oh, yeah, yeah.

There's no indication that this will continue for him, but Anonymous is a good word for it. He was, unless I'm wrong on this, of the top six, so top three teams, Antonelli obviously benefited from the safety car, and Hamilton did two. The other four all pit beforehand, right? So in theory, he was in a good spot

to be able to take. take advantage of that, maybe claim a surprise podium. If he had the pace, I think based on that safety car, he could have done. But he just fell back. He very clearly didn't have the pace of his teammate. Yeah, a strange one. And he obviously gained on Russell as well at the restart, but I didn't know. I was short-lived too.

So an intriguing one, but yeah, we'll see where he is in Miami. But, yeah, like I say, it felt a bit more 2025 than 2026, that one. I think I mentioned it as well in terms of the qualifying review that we've just come from two races that Charles LeClaire has admitted is amongst his least favorite or least competitive on the calendar. He typically doesn't go well in Melbourne, although he has got a win there. And he doesn't typically go well at Shanghai either. This is a track that suits Charles LeClaire quite a bit more, and he was able to take advantage of that in both qualifying and the race. I still think Hamilton maybe needs a win over his teammate at a track that LeCleur admittedly likes.

Yeah, I think that's fair. Do you say that about Leclair? He still hated it, though, qualifying. He really enjoyed it. I like how he clarified his remarks afterwards as well because he obviously wasn't very happy at the fact that he's having to do a lot of management on a qualifying lap, which honestly valid.

But even his refined remarks were still pretty frustrated, you could tell. It's not how he wants to drive, I don't think. No, not so much. But it'll claim another podium. He'll take it, yeah. There'll be a win there some of my shoulder, I'm sure. I wasn't going to say that. I just don't know about that, Chief.

I can't work out whether my driver's championship prediction are yours is worse. No, mine's worse. God's sake, Red Bull. Solidly worse. Lawrence, sort it out. Goodnessly. You know what? It'd be really funny if Antonelli wins the championship now,

and we are for a second year in a row all wrong with our driver's champion. Likely. Very likely. Feels likely. You mentioned Red Bull. Let's discuss them because they have come away with an almighty four points. Max Verstappen finishing in P8, Isaac Adja, one of those that pit before the safety car.

He's down in 12th. Is this what we're going to get from Red Bull this season in the midfield rather than in the front view? Oh, I don't know. This was real poopy though. But it was very similar to Shanghai. Yeah. It's, I don't know. This one felt tougher.

I mean, Hajar really dropped down. Obviously, Vistappen did manage to make some places up, but he was battling an alpine. and didn't win it. And losing. Have you seen the video of him? He obviously got past him at the Casio Triaglshkane and then Ghazdi Blast straight back past him and Vastap and waves as he goes away.

Oh, I haven't seen that. I like this new trend of driving. Weirdly, it's the ones that are quite unhappy with the sport at the moment that are doing that. It's real weird that, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, not a good state at all for Red Bull. Yeah.

I don't know whether it was actually pure pace or he was just stuck in the battle because I'm not really sure we ever saw him properly in clean air but even so I mean it was it was harmed by qualifying he made a good effort on the first lap to jump a few places

after a tough weekend of starts at China as well yeah we should mention he got off the line this time so what's your complaining about Max life's great come on but yeah then obviously I just think the having to try and battle an alpine

and as you say not winning that battle was that's going to be a tough one to swallow I've seen some comments from him after the race and there's been a couple of well reports but they're very much rumours that from Dutch media that he's having a real consideration about what he's going to do post 2026

but he and what he's saying is he doesn't he's not complaining because he is fighting for P7 at the moment because he said you know I've done this before. And I know that I can't always have the dominant car, but he's just not enjoying how F1 is at the moment. And I just wonder how long,

how long it'll be for the year, I'm sure, but how much longer he'll carry on with it, if that's the case. And that's a serious one for F1 to have a think about because I'm not sure he's an asset they want to lose. So, yeah, tough day in the office of Red Bull. Hadjar, was he, he was, negatively affected by the safety car?

He was indeed, yes. So that's obviously unfortunate, but when you've got a car that doesn't have great pace, it's hard to then make up that. So I can't blame him too much for that because he was ahead of a staff, but I believe, until that point. So yeah, tough day of the Office of Red Bull,

they'll be glad over the four-week break. They will, and I thought it was going to be a bit better for them this week, because we kind of came from Melbourne where I know it's tough to judge Melbourne because Hachar basically didn't do any of the race and also Vestappen had to come all the way from 20th or 21st, wherever it was on the grid.

But he seemed to have pretty good pace because he needed to make a lot of overtakes that day, and he did, and he nearly got by Lando Norris. And I thought based on the characteristics of Melbourne, we might see a similar performance here at Suzuki. We didn't. That was far closer to what we had in China instead. and I'm not sure there was much more in that car, quite honestly.

If you look at the practice results, you look at qualifying results, it's all fairly consistent. It all points to being in the midfield, like somewhere towards the top of the midfield, but in the midfield nonetheless. And as soon as the real telling point for me was when I think he got a move done on Limblud, and he kind of had a bit of space to work with after that, really and it was the gap to Gasley in front of him. And he did make that gap up, but it was slow.

Like it didn't, it wasn't the Red Bull of last year where you have a four second deficit and Vestappen's with you in like five corners. This was like, it took multiple laps to even get close to Gasley. And even when he got there, Gasly won the day. So I'm sure Gasly's chuckling to himself. His former teammates, obviously made the wrong call staying with Red Bull one should have gone to Alpine instead. Sure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The four championships that sat behind him. He's definitely been the right to call. What have you done for me lately? That's how I like to approach things. And yeah, Hachar, I think. Hachar's had a tough season so far in that he had the spin, obviously, in Shanghai. He had the retirement in Australia.

He's been negatively affected by the safety car here. I'd like to see him just have a sort of clean race. Yeah. It's hard to know how he's doing against Fistappen because they're not really starting near each other either at the moment. No. They were sort of near each other this time, but they've just been like a straight run,

straight run through a race. So I think he's doing an all right job, but it's just been unlucky. Yeah, yeah, I would agree with that. I mean, what do they go for here? Is this a case of, we know McLaren have upgraded of the car, maybe got upgrades coming in Miami. Lauren Mekke said, I remember in the launch at the beginning of the year,

bear with us in the first few races. He was very keen to make that point. Does that imply that they think things could get better at some unspecified moment in the future? I mean, they must do. They must have some faith in the upgrades and the developments they got coming. I'd still, I'm not going to say they're going to be championship contenders, either, but I would still

just be patient with Red Bull a little bit. I still think they could spring a surprise later on down the line. It might be a bit later on down the line this year, but even so, I think it could happen. We've seen before, they've not done well at a certain track. I mean, last year, I know

this is not a good direct comparison, because obviously it's completely different, but, you know, Bahrain last year, for example, was terrible. They had bad races, obviously these are a bit more consistently bad, but even so, they did still bounce back from that. And I think, you know, we'd say this time last year, I wouldn't say they were in a championship fight. It would better Max taking it to the final race at this time last year, for example. So whilst I don't think that's going to happen again, sorry for Staff and Fans,

I wouldn't count them out because if you do that, is that your peril. Oh, there it is. Teat it up. I feel like there's going to be issues to solve for Red Bull across the board, and that will include the power unit. But if you think of that power unit, and it might not be as good as the Mercedes one right now, it's also not terrible in that racing balls are pretty much where they were last year. There's not really much of a difference in their pace. It's Red Bull that have come back to them rather than racing balls going forward. So that would imply that the first newie-less car, if we're going to call it that, in many a years. Maybe there's something there, downforce-wise, that they're not able to get the most out of it. I mean, it's doing better than the newie car on the grid. That is true. Yeah, hasn't been going well for them, is it? Yeah.

A, race finish, guys. There was a race finish. Alonso is still here with his nerves. that's good. Have we got that confirmed? Well, that's fair point. No, I don't know. He might just have fought through the pain. And I have to ask you the question. Which Fernando Alonzo are you talking about?

Obviously, Junior. Please be true, please be true, please be true. If you haven't been caught up on this, rumors are at the moment that Fernando Alonzo and his newborn child, he is called his newborn child, Fernando Alonzo.

Please, Fernando, please. Oh, he just, he, because if Fernando and Lanzer Jr. becomes an F1 driver and wins a championship, Fernando will just claim it as his third. Oh, I wouldn't know which way it would go. He'd even disown him or he'd claim it as a, is the third. Oh, no, so it is, that's mine. Thank you. Yeah.

Three for Fernando. Oh, man. We'll review bold predictions very quickly because that, that goes into the Red Bull conversation, quite easily. I don't know what these are, so I'm excited to hear what you said. Both myself and Sam's predictions were quite similar in that they were both wrong.

Sam made the bold prediction that both racing balls would beat both Red Bulls in the Grand Prix. But Max Verstappen was the lead of the four. And whilst Liam Lawson did beat Isaac Adchar, it was Limblud that was fourth of those four. So not right. My bold prediction was that all four of those cars would be inside the top 10. Stappen and Lawson, obviously, inside the top 10,

but Hajar in 12th and Limbladen 14th. I'm not, I don't think it was going to happen, but without the safety car, it might have been close. You never know. Both Limbludan Hadjar were the next two drivers to be, to be impacted by that safety car. So maybe I hit the post there, but most importantly, no points handed out. I think Sam might be feeling smug after collie on that one. Yeah, and as usual with late-breaking bold predictions, any hope and smugness is wiped away from us almost instantly. Right, you so. Yeah. Right, let's take our next break on this episode. On the other side, we're getting into Behrman's Crash. At Desjardin, our business is helping yours. We are here to support your business through every stage of growth,

from your first pitch to your first acquisition. Whether it's improving cash flow, or We're exploring investment banking solutions. With Desjardin Business, it's all under one roof. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us. And contact Desjardin today. We'd love to talk. Business. You don't need AI agents, which may sound weird coming from Service Now, the leader in AI agents.

The truth is, AI agents need you. Sure, they'll process, predict, even get work done autonomously. But they don't dream. read a room, rally a team, and they certainly don't have shower thoughts, pivotal hallway chats, or big ideas. People do. And people, when given the best AI platform, they're freed up to do the fulfilling work they want to do. To see how ServiceNow puts AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com. Welcome back, everyone. One of the pivotal moments of today's Grand Prix, of course, was Olly Berman's high-speed crash going into the Spoon Curve. Firstly, and most importantly, glad to

hear that Olly Beerman is okay. The report back after he visited the medical center was that no fractures at least. And of course, we've got a one month break now. So whilst I'm sure he's not come away unscathed, he does have some time to recover before Needens go racing again. But a scary crash nonetheless, it's never good when F1 doesn't put the I'm okay message straight away. Yeah, that had me worried for a second. And you could tell in the voices of the commentators, they were also a bit concerned because, as you say,

normally they just say, I'm okay, or it cuts to the driver and getting out the car, and it didn't for a bit. Frightening, frightening crash and concerning, to say the least, this one. It's something that I feel like we've been almost not waiting for, not in anticipation, but just worried about it. It was the drive. Yeah, the drivers have warned about this.

And whilst we got away with it in Australia and China, this one on a narrower track, but also quite a high speed track, maybe we should have seen this one coming. But it was something like, I haven't seen the official one, but they reckon maybe 45, 50 kilometres an hour closing speed between Berman and Colopinto, which is, that's frightening. And as Bairman said after in the interview, he said his lot, like, Colopinto's lights weren't even flashing to say it was super clipping,

which is, that's more worrying, because if he wasn't, it was just pure speed difference that we can't be in a place like this in F1. In any motorsport, it's terrible, but F1 can't be like this, because that's an aeroplane accident waiting to happen. The crash itself was terrible for Berman, obviously, but that's because he took avoiding action. Imagine if he hadn't been able to and just piled into the back of Colopinso. That would have been enormous.

So something needs to be done. I know the FIA put a statement out already, about this, but something needs to be done to address that because Suzuki's high speed, imagine we go to places like Monza or Vegas, that's going to be terrifying for drivers there. So not acceptable for F1 to operate like this. At the moment, we need some action because

even, you know, whilst I still have concerns about the entertainment part of F1, this is way more important. have a scenario where a car I've watched the onboard several times now he's so far back at the start of that clip

right miles away you almost think it's the wrong clip to start yeah it's you think that can be right and it's within like three seconds

that Berman is on the grass alongside Colapinto so yeah and I'm not blaming Colapinto here but it was a little bit in the middle of the road son what are you

I know it's tricky one that corner because of the line but I was like, you look a little bit to the left. But anyway, I'm not blaming for this. I'm blaming the rules. I'll be careful with how I say this, but like there are corners and circuits in F1

where based on accidents over the years, there have been a lot of changes and modifications to tracks to address this. I'm thinking like, oh, Rouge, as an example, a lot of incidents there over the years have caused that corner to be, reprofiled and I'm not saying there's a lack of safety elsewhere, but there are particular hotspots where I'm sure the tracks are paying a lot of attention to what's happening at those corners. We are going to have, I'm trying to remember anyone going into that barrier at Spoon Curve. Like, it's not something you see. And I am, I'm worried about this anyway, generally,

but I'm especially worried because I feel like this could lead to incidents at parts of the track where we're not expecting them. And fortunately, he was, I say slowed down. He was slowed down enough to avoid anything catastrophic happening here. But there might be some other corners coming up where we just don't see cars go off. And because of these crazy differences in closing speeds of when you get to the apex, like you said, an airplane crash. Like, it feels like it's waiting to happen if it hasn't already happened today. And you're right, it needs to be the number one priority of F1 when they go away and review the whole set of regulations in the next couple of weeks.

This needs to be bumped up the priority order if it wasn't already. I agree. And I obviously referenced like high speed circuits. Even if we go to Monaco, for example, say you're going out of the tunnel there and you've got a driver that you get a closing speed of 50 kilometers an hour. I don't even imagine it. It's awful because that's almost worse because it's such a built-up part of the track

or built-up track in general. Yeah, there needs to be some swift action on this one. I don't know, I mean, there's a lot of discourse going, flying about about F1 and the new regs of the moment, but I am in struggle town somewhat because there is,

it's undoubtedly, there are some excitement battles that are generated. I just feel like this race today has it left these regs a little bit exposed, more so than the first two races have done. Because overtaking was, I mean, Suzuki's always been tough, so that's fair. But overtaking was you get it done to the Casio triangle, but then you get overtaken again immediately because you didn't have the boost,

the overtake mode detection. And that was about it. A bit, right? Exactly. There were drivers definitely who could, have sent one into the into the into the lash again and didn't because they wanted a wait to get the overtake mode which in case you can make the argument the same for DRS which is fair um but I don't know I feel like this what this race struggled more versus the first two and obviously

then coupled with the bearman crash has just it's left it looking a little bit uglier today than it did perhaps after the first two and hence the FIA statement I think there's already a few rumors flying about some action being made before Miami. There was a moment and I forget which battle it was going into the Cassio Triangle and an overtake was done. And when an overtake happens, because it's not like a massively popular overtaking spot, but when an overtake happens into that corner, it should elicit a response of excitement. Just like, what a late breaking maneuver into that corner, that's excellent. And I remember watching it going, he's stuffed.

You're just going to get past again. That shouldn't be the reaction to an overtake. That shouldn't happen. No, I agree. Also, I know they obviously paid to do this, but I'm struggling with the Sky commentary and trying to make... Wowie!

Very over-exited. And the same things like, you know, the Mercedes drivers have been quicker through 1.30 R this weekend. And I'm like, no, no, no, no. That would indicate that they've, like, their better skill through the 130 are. Just the car doesn't run out of energy as quickly. I'm like, oh, I see what you're doing here,

but it gives me the ick a little bit, I'll be real. Yeah. I did have one closing thought, actually, on the, just going back to the Bearman crash and the... Sorry, I've derailed this. No, no, I just had one random thought, which is, do you remember a couple of years ago and it was at Melbourne?

and it was Russell versus Alonzo and Alonzo got a penalty because they judged that he was ever so slightly earlier on the brakes going into a corner and Russell crashed as a result of he crashed and it was deemed that it was a result of that and Alonzo was penalised for it. I think we were all in disagreement of that penalty

and still am because it was very marginal. We aren't talking margins anymore. Like there is a real lack of predictability about what a driver is going to do into a corner. Like most of these teams and drivers will come to a sort of consensus of where to save the battery and where not to, where to deploy. But you can have an incident like today where someone is going all out into a corner and the other driver isn't.

A few years ago, the FIA would have been all over that to say, that can't happen. I mean, again, conspiracy theorists to get your two full hats on. And they obviously they noted the incident, very quickly said no investigation. I just wonder whether they didn't want to highlight the fact that this is a bit of an issue. So we're just going to let that one. Franco, we're going to let that one go, son. Again, I'm not blaming him in this scenario because I think it's the rules. Worth a look, though, I think.

Of course we'll have a look. Of course we'll have a look. But they didn't. Of course we won't have a look. The FIA student. Cool. So in answer to what was going to be, be my next question. How do you think the regs

coped with Suzuki? Not well. Poorly. Yeah, I just yeah, like I said, I just think I was sat there. We still got a few good battles, and I'll hold my hands up. I enjoy it. When the

battles happen that are good, I enjoy them. It's the rest of the time I don't enjoy, which tough to watch. Yeah, I just would like to say, and I do enjoy some strategy with overtakes.

I would just like to see it slightly different where it became so obvious today that you should make a move into the first corner because the other driver can't get you back because for the next half a lap you are just going through high-speed corners and there's no overtaking opportunities. Therefore, it made very little sense to try overtakes anywhere else. And I think that might be a feature of the season. Like there will be some circuits where it makes, I don't know, there are multiple places you could go overtaking because there's equal opportunity to get that back.

Like, I'm thinking Austria, for example. I think you can probably make overtakes at Austria pretty much anywhere because you've always got a next opportunity just around the corner. That's not the case with Suzuki. Very fair. Yeah. I agree. In terms of the midfield, so we've already highlighted Pierre Gasley's brilliant day for Alpine. Some points as well for Liam Lawson. Felt like he was maybe slightly behind Limblin. this weekend, but he got the better end of the strategy. Yeah, I think obviously, Limbaugh was pretty impressive in qualifying and out-qualified Lawson.

But, yeah, as you say, Lawson was the one who got lucky with the strategy. So made the most of that one. Yeah, I think they're relatively, have been relatively evenly matched this weekend. So the fact that Lawson just lucked out mentally was probably unlikely to then fall back behind Limblad. so yeah all right racing bulls well you've already touched on this but racing balls and red bull pretty evenly match this weekend which in itself was a bit of a shocker but um yeah that lorson did made the most of the lucky goal to score is it eight point two points uh two points yeah it feels like a lot of this midfield is very close you mentioned red bull and racing balls there's not much in that

has you could probably put alongside that as well ocon's finished 10th for a point today even with being disadvantaged by the safety car. And you can throw Audi in there as well. If Audi can work out how to do lap ones, they might actually be all right. Yeah, that's fair. I mean, both finished. The first time that's happened this year?

Very true. First time, they've both started, I think. Yeah. Yeah, valid. They've finished, no points for them, but 11th and 13th. So they're in the mix. I just think they're giving themselves so much work to do based on where they are after the first lap.

Hulkenberg was down basically last, but a few. And Bortoletto lost like three or four spots as well. Basically the salber from last year is what they've got again. Yes. In fairness, that salber got better as the year went on, so maybe the same thing happens here. Maybe. Jonathan Wheatley's at the wheel.

What could go wrong? Oh, ooh. Should I check the news. Anything else in the midfield catch your eye? we had Carlos Seines not able to and Williams not able to compete for points in the same way they could

at China to the point where Alex Alvin was out there for pit stop practice. This is one we discussed on the preview actually that they're not really targeting this weekend and they're looking at Miami as the starting point of their recovery. I feel like everything that happened proved that. Just a practice session for them,

wasn't it really? Yeah, tough weekend for Williams. Yeah, despite the points in China, Sorry, it's been a difficult start to the year for them, that's for sure. Maybe it's Carlos Sonsi's haircut, which is terrible, by the way, guys. Oh, I was wondering what your verdict would be on Carlos Sines's haircut. I know the people were waiting. I'm only teasing.

It's not terrible. But yeah, tough one, tough one for Williams. Yeah, they'll be hoping for more from Miami for sure. Yes, not much that Williams could do about their performance today, which likely means they're not in the running. for this next award, but we will soon find out. It's time for 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. Now, if you check the late-breaking bylaws, you will find that if you're not present on a race review, it means the other people on the review can choose your driver of the day for you. It's in his old print. So Sam has actually messaged in to say it's Lancher.

wrong. Yeah, I thought it would actually. That's very fair. Yeah. Who knows whether he was in this race. Could have been? Cannot have been. Sure. I'll choose to believe you, F1. Who's your driver of the day? I'm going to go for Pierre Gazley

because that's ridiculous. I know the Alpine has definitely improved, certainly versus race one. But yeah, holding off for Stappen, again, caveat in a a Red Bull that's not necessarily on the pace of the moment, but still, he's just killing it out there in the midfield, not really getting a huge amount of recognition for it.

But yeah, I go Gasly. Piastri and Antonelli, my other two choices in that, but I'll settle for Pierre. Fair, you know what? Fair play, Pierre Gazley. Again, you get two on this episode. He seems to have locked down P7 at this point in the season. I haven't got a noted down where he qualified in both China,

the sprint and the main race, but I'm pretty sure it might have been P7 in both of those. That's where he finished as well. And now we've got another finish here where he's saying. He just is permanently occupying that spot. He was in contention for me as well, as was Esteban Okon, which is going to sound like a strange one given. He only finished 10th, which in a Hass isn't that impressive.

But he was outside of the leading cars, he was the only person to be disadvantaged by the safety car who scored points. Hadjar, Limblad, Colopinto all had the same situation as him. None of them were scoring points are really close to. Ocon probably would have beaten Lawson at least and would have been in contention

with Vastappen as well, if not for that safety cast. So a very good performance, but I'm going to give it to Oscar Piastri because he wasn't overtaken on track. I know Antonelli might have had a chance either putting off an overcut or getting the move done on track,

but we didn't see it. Piastri, bear in my mind, this was his first full Grand Prix this year was very, very good. And on to Worst Driver of the Day. Get in the bin, bin, bin, bin, bin, worst driver of the day. Ben, bin, bin, worst driver of the day. You suck at driving. I don't know if it's the same for you, but when it comes to Worst Driver of the Day,

I'm almost just permanently saying it can't be an Astermarton or a Cadillac because there's just no way to know if they are having a good race or not. really tough yeah you rule them out I'm finally worse drive the days of them quite tough to judge

because it's hard to know whether someone's having a generational stinker or they're just running out of energy I'm not sure do you know what I'll go for Russell

on this one and I know he was disadvantaged by the safety card but I'm just a bit disappointed as I'm sure he is too just a bit disappointed

he couldn't fight back past those other cars. So probably a bit harsh, but I'll go for Georgie Russ. I do agree that the number of candidates is limited on this one because I also had Russell noted down as a possible here.

I also had had Hamilton noted down as a possible as well, which I don't think he had a bad race. It was just, and I don't use this word a lot, nath. Bit naff, won't it? but not necessarily bad. I'm going to go with Colopinto just based on what Gassley was able to do in the Alpine

versus him. I don't think Colopinto ever had the pace compared to his teammate all weekend. They finished nine positions apart. That's probably somewhat influenced by the safety car, but not by that much. And he couldn't get by Carlos Sines in the last part of the Grand Prix, despite the Alpine having more pace behind it. Maybe that debris he went over as a result of the bareline. and crash negatively impacted his car, in which case I apologize, but I'm going to go with Colopinto.

And big brain strat. Feed 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, later... It's a bit unfair because it's not really on them this one, but when the safety car came out, the Sky Commentary team at least were very confident that Hamilton was going to jump to P2.

They said it multiple times. then he came out in before. Narrator, he did not. The gap was obviously too big, and I know whether he didn't have a bad stuff or anything, but it just made me chuckled because they were so confident he was like, oh, Hamilton's about to P2, Anthony P1, Hamilton P, P,

oh no, he's P4. Never mind, Sky's commentary team. I'm sure that's the only thing you got wrong today. I went with something that we mentioned just a few minutes ago. Williams realizing that there are much going on for them in this Grand Prix, I know. Let's bring in Alex Albin a few times for some pit stop practice. Sure. Fair enough. Don't see anything wrong with it. Why not? That's our big brain strat. Let us know obviously who you think was driver of the day. Quite a few contenders that we ran through there and worst driver of the day. And we're going to take our final break on this episode. On the other side, it's moment of the race. This episode is brought to you by FedEx. These days, the power move is.

isn't having a big metallic credit card to drop on the check at a corporate launch. The real power move is leveling up your business with FedEx intelligence and accessing one of the biggest data networks powered by one of the biggest delivery networks. Level up your business with FedEx, the new power move. In communities across Canada, hourly Amazon employees earn an average of over $24.50 an hour. employees also have the opportunity to grow their skills and their paycheck by enrolling in free skills training programs for in-demand fields like software development and information technology learn more at about amazon dot cae welcome back everyone the moment of the race we have some discord submissions coming up very shortly but before we do that harry what was your moment of the race my moment of the race quite late on but it was show LeClair

getting back past George Russell into turn one absolute felt and I've got a shout out Hamilton further back and good very similar thing to Norris but we were watching that in a box in the corner so I can't really coming on it but the Leclair one so good so naughty

no further comments that was mine as well and I know we like to avoid having the same moment of the race but that was too damn good. I'm not going to ignore it. Round the outside of turn one, just felt, you know, Suzuki turn one overtakes

when they're done right in the breaking zone, and I'm not talking about on the start, finish line. They'd be good. Yeah, it gave real Kimmy Reikinen 2005 vibes, didn't it, that one? Oh, no, that's a massive insult on George Russell.

Oh, sorry, yeah, sorry, Jankala Russell. Oh, no. Is Antonelli Alonzo? And Russell's physicala. No. I'm not saying that. You said that. I think you might just said that.

Yeah, I'm just going to go the same as yours. That was an absolutely brilliant overtake. But we'll get some variety, of course, from our Discord. Thank you, everyone, for submitting. We'll get through as many as we can, but very much appreciate the many, many submissions we got for this, including very early on. We're going to start with the Bungalorian.

First, it was the 100 years war, the seven years war, the Napoleonic wars, and now the newest rendition of a Brit and a Frenchman trying to kill each other, Isaac Hadjar versus Harvard Limblad, spicy, yeah. I mean, between the two of them, they're basically representing like eight countries. Yeah, it's fair. I really didn't know where that was going. No. But I'm glad you recovered that, which is, bugglers.

We have far too few 100 years wars references on this podcast. Let's make that more of a thing going forward in 2026, the year we referenced the 100 years war more. Wow. Kirsty's just nodding her head in appreciation for that idea. You can't see the face. She's cheering. She's clapping, cheering, whooping and hollering.

And she's actually got a British flag that she's waving around. It's very patriotic. Yeah, love it. Next up. fry up the sausages, Barry. It's a me, a Kimi Antonelli. No, no, it's not. Sprite up the sausages, Barry.

Waited three weeks to see Oscar get out there. Moment of the race. What a start. What a star. That's it. Just happy to see the boy race. Australians don't want much. They just want to see their driver race.

And that's fair. Also, the Kimmy Antonelli Jumpscarer. I thought we'd finally got him on the podcast. Yeah. No, no, it's not. No, it's a battery, frying up the sausages. Up next, we have when I can find him, Blazy. Okay, my moment of the race, because I feel like overtakes this year,

do not get enough credit. Charlotte Lur's overtake on, I think it was the second to last lap to get back past George Russell into turn one. That was beautiful, like so clean. Honestly, it deserves some respect. Well done, Charles. Yeah. Manor's taste.

It does. I've always liked him. Good. Good work, Blazy. Up next, we have Techardood 3. My moment of the race was Gasoline

and this happened, very underrated performances. They only finished about seven seconds behind Hamilton on the same strategy. And I think that's really impressive

because there's Alpine and Red Bull are definitely not as good as Ferrari. Although that also says something about Hamilton. I think very fair

on all points. I think that's a great submission. We haven't spoken, we've said about Vestappen and Gassley's performances, but there's been a big gap between the front cars and the midfield cars in the first two races. They did a good job of keeping pace, I thought, as well. Yeah, very fair. And obviously there was a safety car, but, you know, we saw what Antonelli did out of the front after the safety car and Gassley didn't let that happen, or Gassley and Vestappen, as you say, it didn't have that happen versus Hamilton. Up next, it's English Duck.

Quack quack, quake. English duck here. My moment of the race was the start, the middle, and the end. Because under these new regs, starting, restarting, overtaking and re-overtaking has been electric. Boys, it's good to be back. Quack, duck out. Ironically, actually electric, because it's basically your battery. English duck, big fan of the regs?

Big fan. I'll agree to disagree with you there. Mr. Duck. Oh, we don't need a fight between you and English Duck. It's what everyone wants to see. It's the day of God, man. It's Sunday. We can't be doing that.

No, no duck fighting today. Up next, it's Top Toffee 32. Hi, my moment at the race was when Gassley repassed for Stappen because of his depleted battery and Max produced the most sarcastically enthusiastic wave as he was going through. Pure gold. Anyway.

Viva Massimo. me. Cheerio. Like that. Good work. A lot going on at the end of that. Yeah. And a good moment of the race as well.

Yeah. Who's going to be next after Alonzo and Vestappen? I reckon it could be Lando, you know. He's teetering on the edge. He's almost cracked about this and these new regs.

Lando's like three to one on. I feel like that could be the right answer. Up next, we have just a mum. It's never just a mum. Never just a mum. My mum of the race has to be the start. The Ferraris and McLaren's wamping the Merckes

was just, they were just swallowed up. I know we've discussed the start, but Norris ran the outside. That was nice. Was very good. Starts have been interesting this year. Whereas once they were pretty standard and not much happened,

I'll give this to the new. re-ricks. Starts have been interesting. It's pretty varied as to who's going to get a good one and who doesn't. Ferrari good, Mercedes bad. Can we just do Mexico next? Because I feel like by the time we get to Mexico, things might have evened out. Right now, LeCler and Hamilton might be 10 seconds clear when you get to turn one. Yeah, the thing is Mexico is so long that they could jump. Yeah. Superclip and then be back behind and get to turn one. Imagine just saying that sentence like a year ago. What are you talking about super clipping and Ferrari's being good at starts? Shut up, man.

Yeah. We have time for one more, and that is Scuderia donkey. Hi, guys. My moment at the race is Queen Russell getting sassy on the radio. Oh, it's always me. It's always me. Get a grit, man. Scuderia donkey out.

Nihaha. What is this podcast obsession with animals, man? people know if they do an animal oppression, they get on. Yeah. That's why they're doing it. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like with Russell, the luck will balance out over the course of the season. He's got a bit unlucky today, no doubt.

But we saw it with last year with the McLaren's. I'm sure both camps would disagree about this. But it felt like throughout the course of the year, you win some, you lose some. Yeah. It'll come back to him. It's fine. This just reminded me actually, which we've mentioned, Russell, asking on the team radio whether Kimmy was going to go where they trained.

Did you, did you remember that? I don't remember this. This was at the restart and he said something about, is Kimmy going to go where we trained to go? I, he's going to restart the race at a certain point. And they're like, not sure what's that about? No, no. Safety car restart training.

That's LinkedIn nonsense. What? What utter waffle? I changed my worst driver of the day. It's Russell. Just for that. Yeah, fair enough. Oh, God.

Right, that was the last one. Thank you again to everyone who submitted. It is much appreciated. And we'll be back in a month for some submissions at the Miami Grand Prix. But we have plenty of episodes between now and then. And Harry, you specifically asked to do this outro. See you later, folks. you walked into that, son.

All right then. I really do appreciate when Sam's here to be able to do this, but thank you very much for listening today. We'll be back midweek, not with a preview, but with one of our standard episodes. But if you want more late breaking,

Patreon is available. The link is in the description. Quite a lot of content has gone out in the last week as well. We've had a beer with breaking. We didn't... It's an interesting one. We've gone back down memory lane.

In terms of our old content. And when I'm talking old content, we're talking the first year of content that we did. Content that is not actually available on the internet, although now is if you're going to Patreon. So we react to that and how young we were and how full of promise our lives were. So we really enjoyed it,

but we've already had a few comments saying that it's very much appreciated from the listeners. So check that out. Bonus episodes, of course, to a month. Power rankings, we're going to be recording that one tomorrow for the Japanese GP. And of course, if you are new to Patreon, or the back catalogue is all there as well.

So you can go back and listen to Power Rankings for the first couple of races as well. Discord is available. Of course, the submissions that you heard today on the show come from Discord. So if you want to, you've got a month. You've got a lot of time before the next set of submissions. But there are other channels in there as well, of course.

So get chatting with 4,000 now, I think, fellow F1 fans, believe it or not. Surely that's enough, in it. Facebook's if you want it, yeah? Yeah, good innings, good innings. Yeah, good stuff. Well, until Wednesday, I've been Ben Hocking. And I've been Harry Ead.

And remember, keep breaking late. Getting ready for a game means being ready for anything. Like packing a spare stick. I like to be prepared. That's why 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.