The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2026 Miami GP Sprint Qualifying Review

Episode Date: May 2, 2026

The Miami weekend kicks off with a bang as a new pole sitter joins this season’s list... Ben and Sam break down the session, from the teams surging back into form to those still stuck after the break. Plus, is the qualifying format finally improving or is there work still to be done? Get involved in F1 Fantasy this season! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join the Late Braking league⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and see if you can beat us... LEAGUE CODE: C6Y6R4ZUY02 Want more Late Braking? Support the show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and get:Ad-free listeningFull-length bonus episodesPower Rankings after every raceHistorical race reviews& more exclusive extras!Don't forget! You can also gift a Late Braking Patreon subscription—perfect for loved ones or your own wish list. Choose anything from 1 month up to a full year of top-notch F1 content: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/latebrakingf1/gift⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connect with Late Braking:You can find us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X (Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Come hang out with us and thousands of fellow F1 fans in our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Discord⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ server and get involved in lively everyday & race weekend chats!Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠F1 Fantasy League⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and see if you can beat us!Get in touch any time at [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 F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. Very warm, welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking. For the first time in a very long time, we have Formula One action to be talking about today. Of course, it's been sprint qualifying at the Miami Grand Prix. Sprint qualifying session where Lando Norris has taken the pole position ahead of Kimmy Antonelli in the Mercedes. Sam, all four of the big teams, let's call them, represented in the top five. Yeah, that wasn't in the script, was it?

It looks like we've had a month off. Like, everyone's gone about Mercedes stuff at the top. Pretty boring. Should we actually try now? Should we do it? Yeah, I will do it. And they've done it. And it's actually quite good.

I enjoyed that. It was some good laps coming in. I was expecting Mercedes at every point to step up and take the top spot, and they just didn't. And it looks like in the heat. Mercedes seemed to be struggling a lot because I don't know if you saw in practice, Ben, many a message from Mercedes-powered cars saying that we've got weird noises,

weird power coming through, just doesn't feel comfortable for them at the moment. There we have it. We've got their kryptonite. We melt Mercedes and we've got an entertaining sport. Toto Wolfe's like being blasted at a thousand degrees. Yeah, a lot more competitive in today's session. I could just imagine Domenicali after the last month of touting

how F1 has no problems is just actually doing one big dab around the Miami lap. Hovering a welcome. Yeah. Lying. Woo! Everyone's walking home. Oh, Glatio, Agassi.

F1, yes. Glacis is in the world. Okay, well. It's been too long. Yeah, it's been way too late. It's too late in the day to be recording a podcast. We're already delirious and we're not even two minutes in. Plenty to talk about good and bad.

Don't worry, Aston Martin, we'll get to you a little bit later on. But we are going to start out front. Lando Norris, taking the pole position ahead of Antinelli, just over two attempts for second in the end. We saw that he's been quick all day, Lando Norris. Didn't quite get a lap together in the one and only practice session as a result of being blocked on his attempt at a fast lap. Saw him be pretty quick in the first part of qualifying.

Again, didn't quite hook together the lap in the middle part in Q2. Then Q3, the only person in the one day, 27s, I believe. Very good effort on those soft ties. Yeah, the lap of Norris put together will make it it look like it was playing sailing for the weekend so far. And that really wasn't the case. You know, as you mentioned, practice was a big of a bumpy ride. And then he comes out on SQ1 and he's immediately interrupted by a yellow flag because Lank Strong decided that the car just wanted to implode and the wheels would just get a fall off, which is solid. And then SQ2 goes around. And actually, he said it himself in his post-qualifying interview. The lap wasn't really there.

I think he said woeful at how poor the lap was. He was. was almost a second off the pace at that point. But then Q3 rolls around. The soft tire appears to be a tire that the McLaren is comfortable on. And Lando second himself, he's finally got some rear-based grip. He's able to actually push out of these corners, use all four wheels effectively. And it seems like finally he's able to feel comfortable in that car and hooking up. This is, of course, only maybe the second four weekend.

It seems like that McLaren has had constant running. It's being every session. And they're actually able to put it to good use. So in theory, this McLaren could be a real threat now to Mercedes-Domelons that we've seen so far. Yeah, we knew that this weekend they were going to be pretty, one of the heavy hitters in terms of upgrades, and that's exactly how it went out. It was one of those where the FIA always releases that document before the weekend, like who's bringing upgrades, what do they relate to,

and a brief description about what they're trying to do. And on some weekends, you know that that statement is out there somewhere, but you don't pay as much of attention to it because it's a weekend where most aren't doing anything. But we knew it was going to be really important this time out to see who's going to be basically changing the entire car and who is going to be waiting a little bit. And we've got a contrast between McLaren and Ferrari bringing a lot of upgrades and Mercedes who are holding out for something quite a bit bigger at Montreal. So enjoy, folks. This is your 1F1 race of the year that isn't Mercedes dominance. Hopefully that's not how it actually plays out.

But yeah, Lando Norris has really taken advantage of it. He looked good from the off, even if the Times, as you mentioned really, the Times didn't always reflect it because of one issue or another and being blocked yellow flags. But it always felt like he had enough to compete. But you were just, you were sat there thinking, is there going to be a point where Mercedes turned it on? Is there going to be a point where, you know, Ferrari are able to show up in Q3? and really convert on their pace. And none of them really did.

And Lando Norris, I'm not going to say it was an open goal, but kind of just took advantage of that. And excellent lap from him, really impressed. The thing is, it was an open goal, but he could have just tapped it in the net. He decided to do a little 180 around the world, back flip into the net, because the gap was immense.

Fair play to you, Lando. You've been in love Miami. You've turned up, but you've absolutely spanked the lap in there. I think fair play. You've really delivered, because I think after we left Suzuki, there were some question marks. Maybe Piascri is slightly favouring the regulations.

We turn up here and as it stands at the early part of this weekend, Norris has really put a stamp on it. Really hooked up in the first sector. Not just Norris, to be fair, I'm talking more McLaren and Ferrari. We'll throw them in there too. Both teams really worked well in that first sector. And we saw with the likes of Mercedes, even though Antonelli was able to be competitive and get on the front row, George Russell in particular was losing so much time in that first sector

to the point where he didn't really have much of a chance to make it up for the rest of that lap credit to both teams for what they've done. Yeah, and the progression is huge and you saw, as you mentioned, the list of upgrades, you go through the list that McLaren have brought, I've got it here, and it is really something to behold. You can see that they've found a problem,

they've worked on what that issue is, and they've decided to rectify it as soon as possible. They've brought in a front corner upgrade, an engine cover upgrade, a side-puggingler upgrade, a cooling, a cooling, Uvra upgrade, you know, that's French. We all know if you're a long-knit-town-miscoe of this show, me and French are like best buds.

Oh, we-wee. The floor body upgrade, a rear-coran upgrade and a rear-wing upgrade. So there's a lot of technical performance-based upgrades from McLaren, and it looks like they've all been fully hooked up so far at the early part of the weekend. Just to mention Piastri, just over two times back of his teammate, good enough for third directly behind Lando Norris on tomorrow's sprint grid. It felt like, based on some of the comments we were getting from Zach Brown that he wasn't quite as happy with the way things were going,

didn't hook together the perfect lap, maybe in the same way that Norris did. But equally, with all of that, he's still not too far behind. Not too far behind at all. He's actually only, I think, 1,700s away from beating Anthony Ellie anyway. So not disastrous for Oscar, because someone that he picked up the P2 in Suzuki and looked like he could particularly go on to win that race

if the safety card didn't ruin things for him. It looks like he's in pretty safe hands. And actually, if the worst it's going to be, is third starting from the spring that is, and we've still got main qualifying, of course, to come tomorrow, then there's every chance that he grows on the weekend. This is the qualifying you want to mess up. If you're going to get one wrong,

this is the one you want to get wrong. And if third is getting it wrong, I think he can be quite comfortable that he can step forward and match landing for the rest of the weekend. In the very brief time we've had in the 2026 season so far, we've become accustomed to seeing Antonelli and Russell pretty much permanently lock out the front row of a grid in qualifying, not so today. Antonelli

took for his, he did his part, he's second on this grid, but George Russell all the way down in P6. How are Mercedes reflecting on this? Because this is quite a turnaround from what we saw before this long break. Yeah, I think unfortunately it's a combination of things here.

You've got the big step forward that a lot of rivals have made, right? Ferrari of hag upgrades, McLarenice, we've just listed, I've got mass upgrades. Red Bull have brought a lot as well. And yet, Mercedes have actually, as you mentioned, kept their upgrade package. low. It's that combined with the fact that Miami is arguably the hottest place we've been to

so far this season. Mercedes have had issues with heat in the past. In previous years, we've seen that they struggle in really high temperatures and they do really well at low temps and that's when they found success. So I think it's a combination of those few things. They're struggling in the really low-speed corners to maximize the grip from the car. And yet Antigelli has just managed to get the better of it of the two drivers. And it's Russell who is struggling to pull those lap times out of the out of the bag. So I'm surprised the gap so big and I'm wondering if there's something in the car there that Russell's got too happy with

because whilst I'm not surprised that Antigelli might beat Russell at this point, it seems like they can trade blows quite comfortably. I am surprised it's about four tenths, four or five tenths between the two drivers, especially this early on in the season. Yeah, and that gap is about four tenths between the two of them, but nearly all

of that is in the first sector. So it does feel like for whatever reason Antonelli has worked out and he's not the quickest guy, in the first sector either because again, McLaren and Ferrari seem to be best there.

But Ancinelli's found a way to minimize the damage so that he can recover for the rest of the lap. And Russell just hasn't got there yet. It's a bit concerning if you're George Russell. Again, it's only sprint qualifying.

So the damage will, in theory, have a chance of being minimal, but it's still indicative of what could come for the rest of the weekend. And yeah, it's, if you're not quick in the first sector as well in race conditions, that's tough because that is going to add up lap after lap.

It's also the area where if you're trying to defend from a car, you've maybe just overtaken, or you're trying to just get away from someone, that's the sector that you use to get a gap before a massive overtaking section. And if you cannot pull away from the car behind you, you will just be a sitting duck going on the way down to 10-11. Not on today's evidence. They won't be doing that. So, yeah, we'll see where it goes. And final point, I guess, on this in terms of the Mercedes power unit, you look at the other Mercedes powered teams, McLaren, big step forward this weekend. Alpine, about where they were, I think, in the pecking order before this break.

And Williams, better than they were in Suzuki. So they're looking at the other Mercedes family cars, and they're all making a step forward. So if they're looking towards the power unit, they might not find an answer there as to why they've been struggling. It definitely sounds like chassis improvements having adding up for them. Yes. But again, they've got this big upgrade coming in Canada, which could change everything back in their favour again. And of course, the rest of the weekend still to go.

Ferrari, we spoke about this before we started recording how Ferrari have managed to go from second fastest, have overtaken Mercedes and ended up second fastest. That's so Ferrari. Hazar, we've beaten them. They are defeated. We shall try. this. Why is there an orange person said there?

Oh, right. It's McLaren now. Some hate some for Lumpus. I'm never going to Charlie in the Chocolate Backroom or whatever it's called. But it's so Ferrari. Yeah, we've done it. We've developed something. Good job, everyone. Put on the back.

Oh, we've been overtaking a game just by someone else. And when they beat McLaren, I'm sure Red Bull had taken around to go, yeah, we're here now. Hello. Nice to see you. Ferrari. Permanently second. and place, which must be really difficult because in the early parts of this spring qualifying and in free practice, Charles LeCler, he looks on it. And actually, their long pace, I think, feels quite confident, inspiring. I feel like they've got good ability to see for race base. So if he can get off the line well, if they can challenge McClellan off the line,

if Charlotte could get himself into the top two, I think nice and early, then there's a real chance that an attack for the lead could be very much on. Lewis Hamilton does seem to be about three, four attempts behind Charles LeCler consistently. And he made a big mistake in the heavy breaking zone of turn 17, which I think cost him at least three or four, ten. So I think he would have been slightly further forward, but either way, I don't think he's on the level of Leclair right now. No. And we saw with other drivers from other teams in that sort of mix of the top seven, top eight,

they made a lot of progress from Q2 to Q3, as you would expect, not only with the track evolution, but also because we're switching from the medium compound to the softest compound. And whilst it's tricky to say, because not everyone got a great lap together in Q2, Norris has improved by well over a second. Antonelli has as well between those two sessions. Verstappen by six tenths. Piastri by like four tenths. Lecler is only improved by one tenth of a second from Q2 to Q3. I think he will be gutted to not be on the front row. Because Norris did a great lap in Q3 and maybe P2 was the limit for him

based on that improvement. I don't know. But there was more to it than fourth place based on what we saw earlier. It would also be so Ferrari that they're actually slower on the soft tyre and they're better on the medium tire and that's now why. But in raised conditions, that might really benefit them. It could do, yes.

And plenty to fight for starting fourth. As you say, Lewis Hamilton down in seventh, never felt on it versus his teammate. No, again, I mentioned this point earlier. If you're going to get it wrong in a session, a competitive session this weekend, this is the one to get it wronging. I think if you could get a good start, maybe get himself up a couple of places, and just hunker down, get used to the car again, really readjust. There's a chance he could be on it.

But I said this after Suzuki, there's a real risk that if the other team started to become properly competitive, I was really worried that Lewis Hamilton was going to start qualifying seventh and eighth again. And he would just be too far off the pace in qualifying. It's actually challenged regularly for podiums, for wings, if the Ferrari is good enough to a car. achieve those. And we've had one instance where Max Rostappen's there. Oh, Colapinto is there. Oh, you know, both McLarence, both Mercedes. He's all the way back in seventh. It's not where you want him to be. No. Before we discuss Red Bull and indeed the rest of the grid on the other side of the short break we'll have. I just wanted to ask you about qualifying a bit more generally because it's something we we picked up on, obviously in the first three races that it felt off,

there was something missing versus previous generations of the sport. They've tried to address that. And obviously, whilst we've got a very different pecking order maybe than what we had before the break, do you think that the overall show of qualifying has improved based on what they've done? It's actually really tricky to answer that question. Sprint qualifying actually felt was really poor as an overall format today.

We didn't have cars on track for a long time. we had the whole debacle of the tracks are bit dusty so someone wants to go out first and so there wasn't a car out for ages and then SQ3 rolls around and there's not cars out for almost half the session that's not fun for anyone don't care how fast or slow people are going

no cars is terrible so didn't enjoy that you also have Yadig drama that the FIA couldn't make their decision up about this Alex Albin track infringement that took the entire 45 minutes realistically to see if that was right or wrong and that was a silly distraction that we were never informed of, which is just a joke.

And I'm bored of that happening for such an elite industry now. And then you're right, the pecking order is different. And I do think there's a real risk that we look at the pecking order being different and go, oh, that means qualifying is great. That means we're having a great time. I didn't see a single on board. We saw one driver POV in Landau Norris, where Martin Brundel and the Sky Group just kept talking about how they're looking through a letterbox.

And it's amazing. And yes, it is. But I want to see how a car actually drives. We've got all these new regulations. If it's working, show it off. If it's better, show it off. I want to see these things. And I have not seeing enough properly to know that this is a step forward yet.

Looking forward to qualifying properly tomorrow. Yeah, it's almost a provisional grade, isn't it? Because there were certainly better elements of today than what we've had in the first three races. You know, even seeing, I'm thinking about the last corner most specifically, like, well, penultimate corner, I guess, turned 17, where it seemed to be Audi, lot. It was all teams, but it seemed to be out of every time. That can not go through that breaking zone. But they are struggling through that corner trying to get grip. And that's what you want to

see is like these drivers struggling. And when you see, I think it was Antonelli, who did it perfectly maybe in Q3. And you want that to mean something. And it means something when you don't get it right every time because it's difficult. And I think in that regard, we got closer to something that we need to see from qualifying. But as you say, they're still limited on boards. I want to see the Norris pole lap, as they usually do, like a full onboard to see exactly what it was like, particularly in the first sector on board. Because you're right, there wasn't a great deal of it. I'm worried that they're going through turns two all the way through to eight at foot half throttle.

That's what I'm worried about. And I want to hear them really chucking it into these corners. Then I'll know that we're back. if I can hear that throttle really, you know, going for it. I think the reason we do, they actually take a shortcut to keep up the lap times. They don't even do it. Just straight line the whole thing now. I think that's Charlotte-Cle's favorite trick around here, isn't it?

Him and for Andrew Long as though. Just like to do those corners. Oh, Aston, we'll get to you. Let's take a quick break. On the other side, we've got the rest of the top 10 to look at, and then the teams that didn't fare quite as well. Welcome back, everyone. Red Ball made up quite a big part of our preview show.

midweek, questioning whether they were going to be in a midfield scrap, whether they could get in amongst the top teams. And of course, race pace, we still don't know the answer to that yet. But at least in terms of qualifying, the step-in's there in fifth, six tenths back of the pole time of Norris, which is still far more than what he'd like. But he is ahead of Russell. He is ahead of Hamilton. Is this encouraging? Yeah, it is encouraging. It's one small step for Red Bull. We haven't had the giant leap for rebel kind just yet. But hey, you got, that's quite crusty, that wasn't it? Yeah, you haven't going in the right direction, though. You know, we are taking a small stride forward and that's good,

but I am slightly worried that before these upgrades were brought in, Hagear was right on par with Max Vastappen, you know, they were so close, if not being beating occasionally by Hajar. And you look at the times here, and whilst Wastafin, yes, he's ahead of a slightly flailing Russell, it feels like actually when Russell gets his act together, he might step back ahead. The same with Hamilton. Doesn't make that mistake in the first. final corner, the car itself is able to get itself ahead of Verstappen. It's Verstappen himself doing what Verstappen does, which is just putting in a fantastic lap in a car that isn't worthy of him to grace it. But Hajar is another second back from Max Verstappen, and that's where I'm

worried, because Hager is a great qualifier. He's proving he can hold himself in the first three races in this Red Bull team. Something has changed in this car again, and it now means that we've got a separation between those two drivers. And they need to work it out, The car is going the right way in its development, and both drivers can actually be in really competitive positions to maximize points, not just Max Verstappen fighting for his life in P5 while the teammate is struggling further down the pack. That's why I'm struggling to answer my own question here, because we look at Japan and Red Bull were fighting with Alpine,

and we still have that here for one of the cars. Like he is in between, Isaac Hadjar, in between Franco Colopinto and Pierre Gasly, and one and a half seconds behind a poll time. That doesn't, if you just take that result in isolation, that doesn't scream progress at all. But then you look at what Vastappen has done. He's a full one second up the road, and he's scrapping at least with some of these better drivers,

better teams. But which do you look at, which do you listen to? Is it just, we can't have a situation, or Red Bull won't want a situation where Vestappan's brilliance is covering up some of the underlying issues of the car. Or is it, Vestappan is doing what he should do and how Jars struggling? It's difficult to say, especially from just one qualifying session.

So we'll see how the rest of the weekend goes for them. Max Vastappen will at least have something to fight with in this sprint. But yeah, it's still early to say, I think. Well, the big advantage that Red Bull bring, of course, is the fact that their rear wing gap is going to so large that when they overtake someone, they can just pass the car that they're overtaking through their rear wing. They don't have to go around them anymore. They can just use it like a massive letterbox for Formula One cars.

Fully engulfed, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I've heard that the Panama Canal is actually narrower than the Red Bull Gap. Yeah. I think we should start calling it the Red Bull Gap. Hmm. Like the Dorian Gap. Yes. Is it the Darian Gap?

No, it's Dorian Pan. Oh, yes, Dorian Pang, Darian Gap. Easily confused. There you go. Good stuff. What about Alpine? and 10th. You put Franco.

What about our thing? Well, you put Franco Colopinto under pressure midweek. And he's a big fan of the podcast. He is. Look, there's nothing a little bit of Buenos Aires can't do to you. A little sprinkle of Buenos Aires in your life, and suddenly you're right again. I'm writing that down. You know, if you have, if you're having a little trouble in your life, get a little bit of

Buenos Aires in you. You'll be all right. A little bit of that good air, you know. Yeah, that Buenos Aires. Good wins. Good work from Colopinto though, right? Very good. He was a 10th and a half ahead of Gassley in Q3, but he beat him in Q2 as well.

Indeed. It was the consistency of it that I'm impressed by, and it feels positive. He's turned up for the first time this season, and he is not only on the pace of Gassi, which I asked for in the preview, I said, you haven't got to be beating him. You've just got to be near him. He has beating him. He's a 10th and a half up in Q3. He's in front of a Red Bull as well.

This is almost where I would expect Gassley to be, you know, fighting, around the fact that you've got Hamilton and Russell just in front, you think, oh, Gasoli, he's usually the guy that's in that seventh, eighth spot, pushing the boundaries of the Alpine, it's Franco Colopinto. This is that raw pace that we had seen glimmers of. We've seen those moments where Franco can really turn out, and again, he's turned up, and he has turned it out. So do it again tomorrow in qualifying. Do it again in the sprint race, and do it again in the feature race. I'm not asking for miracles, just be consistent, finish all four sessions competitively between like seventh and tenth because then I get a bold prediction point correct and that's all I want in life.

That's all that matters. Yeah, great work from Colopinto, great work from Malpene. It's still the same situation where that midfield is very distant from those top cars. So in all likelihood, Colopinto is going to need some help to score big points in the sprint, but he could still very well be. Seven tenths between him and Hamilton, right? Right. But even with that in mind, like he's going to have a chance to fight for, probably 7th or 8th in the sprint. But it's not a bad weekend for Alpine to be, you know,

leading the midfield as it appears they are again. Because if that weather forecast holds for Sunday and we are going to have a wet weather race with thunder and lightning about, there could be a lot of DNFs, potentially from some of the big hitters. So, and if that is the case, Alpine might be best positioned to take advantage of that, 2024 Brazil called. I really, really hope it's a wet race. I'm kind of buzzing for a wet race, you know.

Yeah. I want proper drama. No chance, that's. Dry, boring race I've ever seen. Oh, good. What about outside the top 10? Audi got very close again. Good to see they're inseparable as teammates, a gang.

It's what, 100th between them or something like that? Yeah. Yeah, 100th and a half. Bortoletter just Pipping Hulk and Burke. That's where you want them to be, right? If they can't get into Q3, both of them, at least they're right next to each other. They're clearly maximising the car. The car is a handful.

I think they turn 17. They would be in Q3, right? If they could slow the car down in a normal manner, like everyone else, I think they're probably getting a good 10th or two there. And it does look like a handful on the braking. So they can't start the car and they can't stop the car. But all the bits in the middle, it seems like it's pretty solid. Yeah, I would agree with that analysis.

What about Williams? They got both cars through to Q2. talk about inseparable. Albin and Sines, I think, were separated by 1,000th of a second in Q1, and they were then separated by 8,000th of a second in Q2. And I was going to be all praise for Williams because they look far closer to the midfield than what they have done so far. And then we get Carlos Sines' radio message where he is not happy whatsoever. No, he's fuming. And I think he's aware that they are actually a lot closer to getting to Q3, at least here anyway, than they have been at any other point. And I think that's why.

I think that's why he's bothered, because I think they've suddenly dawned on them. If we got that right, this, whatever it is that he's frustrated with, they could probably gain a tenth and a half, two tenths, right? We've seen the mistakes like the Audi going through turn 17. If they get their one term right or their one issue right, surely they can displace gasoline intents. So something has gone right. Yeah, there you go.

So something has got, I mean, at least I think P. 11 is up for grabs, I think realistically for one of those Williams, if they get it perfectly right. I'd love to hear one of those, you know, James Vales used to come out and do it really well, actually, where he would come out and explain what the problems are, what went right and why they were struggling. I'd love to have a proper, upfront, frank conversation about what Carlos Sites is bothered by,

because they are the team that realistically had the most of going in this winter break. Ask Martin too far back. Kagalak 2 knew. Williams were the team we all looked at going, you should be doing more. Are you going to turn up and do more? And they seemingly have taken a step forward. Not enough in my opinion, but a step forward. I'd love to know what that

frustration was. I think it's pretty substantial given like, again, we go back to the last sprint we can, had we had in China. They were knocked out in Q1 and SQ1, double knockout, not even that close to getting out of those sessions either. And here, like, they have been in and around, and to your point really, but like 14 and 15th, that might be an underperformance because they were, I think maybe 10th and 12th in practice. That's maybe where the pace of this Williams is, far better than what we had before. So yeah, it'd be interesting to see why Carlos Seins isn't as happy as

maybe I thought he might be after that session. Anything else from sort of Q2 that grabbed your attention? Glad that I got to see the racing bulls go around again just to look at it. Yeah, well, for a time, it looked like you might see both of them. What a four Liam Lawsings? They're like, oh, do I get to go again?

No, because the stewards can't make a decision to say, imagine asking them what they want for dinner. You would be waiting until breakfast the next day to get an answer. It would take them that long. Yeah, I'm not taking any, yeah, food advice from the students. That's not going to going well. Should we, go to go a coffee? Yeah, went for next week. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're getting seven to ten working days.

That's a joke. I've said it out of it. It's a joke. Lawson did the right thing getting back in the car and waiting to see if the decision came through the right way. felt a bit sorry for him, but, you know, a glimmer of hope for an F-1 driver. And he'll be frustrated because the gap that got him knocked out was actually quite small. So I think him having that chance to kind of have another go would have been quite good for him. But he's been beating again by his younger rookie teammate.

Ockon was probably the real disappointment, I suppose, as we go into SQ3. Yeah, I mean, the lockup he had into term one where he managed to lock up, I think, both wheels, which is impressive in its own right. Very Bwaymi-esque. Yeah, that's going to hurt you for the rest of the lap. But even so, it was like six-tenths between him and Berman, so I'm not even sure without that mistake, whether he would have been up there with his teammate.

But, yeah, has of this tendency to just be better on race trim than they are in qualifying trim. I think that's carried over here. Racing Bulls, I was a bit disappointed by. They seem to have, and not by one driver in particular either, I just mean the car, seems to be a little bit slower. Maybe because of William's making progress, an Audi looking fairly good in this session as well,

and racing balls have kind of just deviated back to trying to make it out of Q1. Remember, Australia, like, Limblud was flying in Q3, so it seems to have rolled back for them. I don't think it's helped that Red Bull of Knicks off their technical department either. How can they do that about gardening leaf?

Well, there's another conversation, isn't there? Yes. Can we laugh at Aston Martin now? Yeah, go on then. because they're 10 seconds away with their closest time. There was one team. You know that upgrades? There's one team that didn't bring an upgrade this week,

and it was the team that didn't need one as to Martin. They knew their car was too good. They cooked. They're playing blackjack, and they've been handed like a three and a four. They've got seven. Stick. Stick.

We're good. I mean, I mean, like, that's got how the game works. To play in 21. Seven, that's five. I'm in. I mean, I don't want to risk it. Andrew new is on the beach. Adrian, we're 21, 22.

He thinks it's 1-2 already. I don't need to do anything. No need for design. On a more serious note with this lack of upgrades on the Astor Martin, it feels to me like they don't understand, they don't understand the car at its most fundamental base level. The upgrades are absolutely pointless at the momentous at the moment. moment because you're not really, you haven't got a base to upgrade from. They just don't

understand the car well enough. It's like building a house when you've never seen the house. Right. It's like, oh, put an extension on the back of the house, but I'm never being in the house to do that. Well, give it a go. There's no point. You're wasting time and resource. It was quite comical, though, that the first competitive lack we see after four and a half weeks of waiting, Lance Stroll immediately has what looks like some kind of energy failure where it locked up so heavily, he then trundles to a hole, stools, can't get it going again, pulls into the garage, gets out the car, walks off, says that he likes F3 Cosmo. It's quite a funny series of events. I didn't expect this weekend to be the, I don't know, the coming out of Lanchdroll as this

beacon of light in terms of having that, being the voice of reason with these regulations. I've seen quite a few people say that his relative security in his, uh, in his role might have helped him in that regard. But yeah, likes F3 cars, doesn't love F1 cars. Isn't that the last time he won a title?

Yeah, yeah. He was great at F3 to be fair with Pramer. Yeah, I was great in primary school as well. Yeah, Stroll didn't set a lap. Alonzo technically did, but it was like 12 seconds slower.

It wasn't a push lap. They will, so I don't even really know why I'm asking this, but I'm going to say anyway, like, they don't have a time that is good enough to race. Like, they will have to get permission from the FIA to say, we haven't made the 107% rule. Can we race? And it's been like, I don't know, 12 years or more than 12 years since the last time the stewards have gone, no, you can't. Is there any evidence from today to suggest they should? Like, it is that bad. The only thing, the only reason they should be given is to

allow them to get better. It's pretty lap time. Pity laps for your pity car that can't do any pity running at any speed because it's pathetically bad. That's it. I want them to be better. So I'm going to say yes,

go on the racetrack so you can test your car. Get them free testing time for all I care right now because this is painful. It's got worse. How has it got worse? It feels so top gear. It feels like they've had to take a car away and go, oh, I'd make some of,

changes for our road trip and it comes out and it's got one of those slogans on the side of it that they used to write on each other's car. They're like, how is it worse than it was? Oh, I mean, I've got all of like the times in front of me on this piece of paper, and I've just got Alonzo and Strong. They've just got a line next to their names because there isn't a lap time. Come on, guys. I really enjoy that Cadillac are now only 100th away from Ocon.

Well, I wanted to... I'm asking a 10 seconds behind them. Yeah, right? I wanted to give some praise to Cadillac. like here because particularly in the case of Sergio Perez, who's, I know they're 19th and 20th, Perez is three temps away from Q2. And at one point it looked like he was getting through to Q2. Like I was thinking, hang on, this is going their way.

This could work well. Botas still like a lap to go. He didn't deliver the lap I was expecting from Valdry Bottas. And Sergio Perez really was the shining light of this session for them. But it isn't as cut and dry as you would think it would be only four races into the season. They are there. I won't put money on it, but they are there. They're in the conversation at the moment.

But they've had like qualifying sessions where they have been seconds off the pace needed to break out of like a Q1 session. Here they are like, and we're now talking a few terms. Maybe it's track specific, maybe, but maybe this upgrade package that they've brought, quite a significant one, is working. And to just be on the back of that fight, even if they're not beating the cars that they'd like to just, yeah, that's something. I was really impressed with what I saw from them. Yeah, it's, again, a small step forward to it on a long road, but if they do this every single Grand Prix, that's good progress.

Who was your driver of the session? I hate this with Spring, because it's really hard to not go for the guy that sits on pole. But Norris was phenomenal. He really did deliver a fantastic lap. He got the most out of the car, can't be resting his teammate and the rest around him. The other contenders for me, I think the Stafford did really well. I don't believe the car is that good.

I think it's sitting somewhere between him and Hager. I also Colopinter was really impressed with what he was able to do. Yeah, very fair shouts. I thought Perez was in the mix as well, honestly. I know it's weird. He's 19th, but I really thought six temps on his teammate as well. Really impressive. I am actually going to go with Max Verstappen.

One second on your teammate is seriously good at this level of motors. It's rare, isn't it? To see that much of a gap. So Norris, obviously, a very fair shout. But I'm going to go with Vastappen this time. round. Well, that's one session reviewed, Sam, but tomorrow we're going to be back, reviewing two. We are indeed, folks. We don't come back straight away after the first session. We will review both the main qualifying and the sprint race in the review tomorrow. So, you know, buckling for a whole

day of Google F1 action. It's good to be back. Good to have a full weekend of racing. Don't forget, you can subscribe to our Patreon if you're going to hear power rankings as well. We break down every single driver's performance from the main Grand Prix. So if you think, oh, is it really talking about my favorite driver. We do in power rankings. We really break it down. And you get your say as well. Join the disco as well. We're in there all we can chatting through the sessions. We love chatting to you guys and getting to know you. Follow us on social media, late breaking F1. It's great to have such a growing community. And subscribe to us on YouTube, late breaking F1 as well. If you want to watch these videos and see our delightful, gorgeous faces because they really are worth watching

for many, many minutes of the day. Thanks for Leski. We'll be back tomorrow. We'll see you then. In the meantime, I've been Sam and Sange. And I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, in like you.