The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 3 biggest problems F1 MUST fix (and how)

Episode Date: April 1, 2026

With the 2026 F1 regulations under urgent review this month, the LB boys break down the top 3 issues facing F1 right now and explore potential ways they could be eased. They also take a closer look at Hadjar’s start at Red Bull, before wrapping up with some Back and Forth.     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]   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://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. Well, welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Harry Ead, Sam Sage, and me, Ben Hocking. On this Wednesday episode, not a preview, I'm afraid. We won't have one of those for a little while. But it is April Fool's Day, Sam. It is April Fool's Day. So this is a real episode.

April Falls, bye! Imagine if we pull a fast one. Wow, we've really done ourselves dirty there by not doing an episode. We hate revenue. Yeah. Good joke late breaking. Yeah, well done. We smashed it.

Good. Yes, no preview, unfortunately, because Miami, Ben, how far away is Miami now? We've actually gone into three figures. It's 162 years. Wow. Cricy. At this point, it'd be faster to go to like the moon or Mars or something like that before the race showed up. Our GP might slap, to be fair.

You are quite rocky. But who knows? Let's go. How are you? How are you? How are you? I like your shirt today. Good colour on the shirt today. Thank you. Thank you. It's not even new, but I'll take the compliment. Let's go with yes. I was about to say salmon, but it's not quite there. It's not quite salmon.

No, it's not. Somewhere in between. This might be my favourite intro we've done in a very long time, actually. Well done us. Week one of this forced break, and we're already at the bottom of the barrel. No, we've got a lot of intense stuff to talk about today. we need something lighthearted to kick us off. You are absolutely correct, because whilst we are going to be playing back and forth

a little bit later on, we've got a question of the week coming up as well. We'll be discussing Isaac Hadjar starts to his life at Red Bull, but we are kicking off with new regulations chats, which seems to be dominating at the moment, but understandably so given it's what everyone is talking about. And now that the Miami GP is not taking place until the 3rd of May, not specifying what year exactly, but 3rd of May that one's taking place,

It gives the FIA, F1, the teams, a bit of an opportunity to review the regulations thus far and work through potential solutions to some of the issues. But firstly, what are those issues? I know we've spent some time talking about our things that we like and dislike about the regulations so far. But today we'll have the opportunity to let me discuss some of those challenges, but also what are the solutions that could be implemented at this point in time? We've broken that down broadly into three sections, and you'll notice we go through. Some of them are very interchangeable.

One thing that we might talk about will have a benefit on all three of these things. But we're going to start with qualifying. Now, Sam, at the top of our quality review on Saturday, you mentioned, we'll say falling out of love with F1 so far this year. I think you used the phrase dead inside. Why is it such a downgrade? Before we get into maybe some of the solutions, why is it such a downgrade this year? What's the issue with it? The mad thing about qualifying, folks, is that, I don't know if you haven't heard of this,

qualifying is about setting the fastest time possible. And when it comes to doing that, you tend to need to be on the ragged edge. You've got to push the car, the tyres, everything about the package to its absolute 110%. You're on the lightest fuel possible. Everything is all about one lap, one perfect lap in anger to sit above everyone else. That's the point of qualifying as you start the race in the absolute best place possible, you push the car in the best way to do so. So when these regulations turned up and they essentially diminished the one point of qualifying,

which was going flat out for one full lap to get the best result possible, it takes away the thrill. And each qualifying we've had so far, I think you can excuse Australia because we didn't know what we were getting. We had no idea what we were going into it. So there was some excitement there that carried through of new regulations were working out where this is, ah, what's happening kind of vibe? China happened and it felt a little bit tough. Twice as well. Japan, yeah, yeah, exactly, of course, with spring. And then Japan happened.

And Japan is almost the qualifying of Japan, much like Monaco is sometimes a lot better than the actual race. And I was really looking forward to Japan qualifying. It's a real fun track to watch cars go around in anger at full pelt. And it just lacked any fear, any excitement, any edge of your seat moments. You know, even LeCler, who he had that slight oversteer moment again, as I mentioned, coming out of spoon. I wasn't even that bothered when that happened because you just know that going down 130 yards going to have to be lifting off anyway. He's going to have to have super clipping going on. The phrase super clipping in qualifying, it just makes me feel about well, quite frankly.

It's horrible. So the most exciting part of a weekend where you know you are pushing these best drivers in the world to their best percentage, pushing the cars to the absolute utmost they can do, that sole purpose of that session has been taken away. It's gone. And I don't want that. I love qualifying. I adore qualifying. It's so excited for it.

So when you tell me that new regulations are going to just stop the key part of the whole of Saturday, it ruins the excitement for everyone involved. So, yeah, I really, really struggle with it at the moment. That's one of the things I hate most about these regulations right now is the excitement lost throughout qualifying. It sounds like a bit of a dramatic statement, Harry, but it feels like the problem is the DNA of qualifying has been tampered with. Yeah, I agree.

And we've seen this before when they've tried to tamper with the DNA of qualifying. It's not to work. Elimination qualifying, for example. Yeah, I totally agree with Sam. It's quality sucks this year at the moment. And I hate seeing these cars. I hate seeing these drivers not pushing to the Ragged Edge. The thing, and he's mentioned it himself a lot,

The thing about Charles Leclair that he's so exciting to watch is especially on a qualifying lap because that man is either putting it on pole or it's in the wall most of the time and he's done both during his career. But that's part of the excitement of watching him, watching these drivers, as you said, Sam pushing to the ragged edge. The other thing that I think has really dulled down qualifying

is the field spread, the gap between first to last. is huge. Now, I know the Cadillacs and the Aston Martins of the back might be exaggerating that, but in general, the field spread this year between all the cars is massive. And if you look where we were last year, or by the end of last year, we were, I mean, there were hundreds, you could say, in between cars and the midfield. And I went, and I, when I thought about this, I went back and looked to see where we were at the start of 2022, so the last big regulation change. and in Q1

where all the cars set time Charlotte Claire did a 131.4 and the last place Nicholas Latifi God rest his soul still not dead he did a 133.6 the field spread there was 2.2 seconds

on race one and it just got closer from there. We are miles away from that. We're like four maybe five seconds at some races this year so and like I say I know I know the problems of Aston and Cadillac bin, you maybe exaggerate that. Even so, it's...

I think Williams are still maybe slower than 2.2, right? Like, even if you've ignored the bottom two. Yeah, so it's too much, and these regulations have not help close the field up. I mean, they didn't need closing that much anyway in qualified, but it's made it worse, and I think that is also part of the problem, because you lose the tension when you get to the end of a Q1 or a Q2 as to whether someone might get knocked out, you go, well,

they probably won't because this car's not good enough and they're not going to make it. So I think, yeah, coupled with the fact that these drivers aren't able to even push it to the limit, it's really hurt quality and it's sad. It is because whilst I'm not saying the racing is perfect and we will get onto overtakes and sort of Grand Prix Sundays a bit more in the next section, but at least with racing, like that is at the moment rewarding consistency and management, and that's not radically different from what we've had in the past.

Now, you might say there's too much management that's going on, you don't like the type of management, but it's still very similar. Surely, sure, this year is more focused on energy management. Last year was more on tire management, which doesn't really exist anymore. Years ago, it was fuel management. Like, this sort of a thing has always happened

during Grand Prix racing, but crucially, it's never happened during qualifying. And that's why this hurts particularly on qualifying, Saturdays compared to those race Sundays. Quali should reward bravery. It should reward being at the limit, focus under immense pressure, creativity as well. Like LeCler has raised this as saying, Q3 is supposed to be when you are trying to find that slightly different line in a corner to grab an extra half a tenth of a second. And we're not getting that anymore. And it is a massive frustration. LeClaire himself had a sort of not a spin. He had a

a bit of a moment coming out of spoon curve, didn't he? And that cost him a lot of time, not because of the incident itself, but because it just completely disrupted the entire energy management of the lap. And we shouldn't ever be in a situation where you are faster into a corner, earlier on the throttle, later on the brakes, and that causes you to be slower. That is unacceptable. And that is something that needs to be fixed as soon as possible. I mean, Sam, one of the things that they tried to implement, at least at the Japanese GP, was reducing the energy recharge per lap from 9 megajoules down to 8 megajoules, with the hope that that would reduce the amount of lifting coasts that was required on those fast laps.

Did it work in any way? And if it did work, does that just point to how bad it could have been if they didn't put this change in? I'm not sure it works. Not enough that the average viewer is going to really take any notice about, what was going on. They've still hidden the on borgs going through 1 30 yard and down into the Casino triangle. They're still hiding on boards at top speed, shooter super clipping, even with this reduction in energy saving. And it was so minor in what they actually did and didn't save. You know, they're trying to spread essentially the top speed over a straight rather than

having it climax early and then come back down to a kind of like seventh, sixth gear, depending on where you are on the straight, which we've all voiced that we don't like. I still didn't like this. I've seen one solution bring up. the fact that maybe we should drop it to six megajoules. At what point do you just stop lowering it and realise it isn't working, this battery management system in qualifying, and that whilst battery is relevant to your modern cars on the road now, this is a racing formula.

We're here to go out racing. And I've never subscribed to the idea of, well, my day, we should, I want a bathtub full of petrol and I want the drivers just sitting in it. Oh, jeez. Literally. But that is, you know, that is it. I've not subscribed to that idea, but there is a level here where we're giving up the rawness of the sport.

We're giving up the, I don't want to say danger because I don't want anyone to be in danger, but Formula One is inherently dangerous. It's a risk. You go racing at 200, 220 miles an hour. That's part of the thrill of what we do. When you go down a straight, nearly 70, 80 kilometers an hour slower than the cars last year, how can someone be excited by that? how is that thrilling? And that didn't change with the reduction that they brought in Japan.

One thing I did want to mention is, much like in the last era of Formula One, you brought up the 22 regulations, Harry, we saw that some tracks suddenly revitalized. They got better. For example, Spain. We changed the exit of Spain in the final corner. And actually, it became a better race track over the last three years, both with the cars and the way they fought and with the fact that the car had a changing dynamic. It was a more enjoyable racetrack. So much so that I think the three of us and many others in the racing world have said, don't get rid of it. Don't bring me drinking. We like Catalonia now. It's doing a really good job. I do think that's going to happen with these regulations. I think we've seen three very unique tracks. China was quite fun. And I even said after the

Chinese Grand Prix, oh, do I like this? I don't know. Maybe I do like this. And then we've gone to Japan. And I very quickly realized, no, no, it was China specific. And I liked what happened to China. It was fun. That was the one off. Japan and to a degree, Australia, if you remove the fun and the excitement of it being the first race of a new era, have let me down on the overall excitement in the way the regulations have worked. So the eight megajoules thing, the six megajoules thing, that didn't work in qualifying. I think some races will be better just because of the nature of the track. But Japan, I think, is fully exposed where these regulations are falling short.

I think sadly the reduction from 9 to 8 megajoules probably did, quote-unquote, work in that it would have been even worse if we didn't have it. And we had the likes of Lewis Hamilton speaking after that qualifying session saying on the sim, I was doing more lift and coast than what I had to do because of the drop. And that is utterly terrifying because it wasn't a great spectacle even with this. And I like you have seen that the possibility to drop down to six megajoules. And again, that would be a bit more of a consistent use of your energy throughout the lap rather than getting lifting coast and super clipping.

I saw some estimates say that could make the cars two seconds a lap slower if they did that. I would take five seconds a lap slower right now. If they were at 100%, I don't care. But you've made this point before, Ben, about 2005 F1 cars that will be slower. Even though when you look at them on a video, they look incredibly fast. But that's because they're able to push the entire time. I don't care if the F1 cars go slow. We've got to such a weird point with the 20, you know, 2017 onwards rules where these have a pride thing.

Yeah, but and they've box themselves into a corner where they've had the fastest cars in the world and they're struggling to walk back from that fact. Don't care. Don't care. Look at Indy car. They're slower than F2 cars. That's quite exciting to watch. Exactly. Yeah. You know, it is a pride thing, which is really weird. Like these cars will catch up as well. Like we are at the beginning of a regular. cycle. There are some very clever people in F1 who will find ways to make them faster. I don't care about taking a hit in lap time at the moment if we are just seeing these cars at 100%. This is related. If we lose two seconds a lap, we are still the fastest formula in the world. It won't drop us below anyone else at that point. I think we'll be, I think we'll sleep at night, you know? I, yeah, maybe I'm wrong, but I do not think there is going to be a long list

of people going, oh, that lap was about two seconds slower than I was expecting. I'm out. I I really don't think we'd get that, but it could be wrong. One thing I wanted to bring up because it is related to qualifying and what we had at the Japanese GP, we haven't really gone into this yet, which is some controversy after the qualifying session, where F1 on their social media channels, as they always do, post the poll time. This, of course, went to Kimmy Antonelli.

And you're on board, as you always are, on these videos, for about half of the lap until they cut away to a lot. long range camp because of a technical issue that they later said. They didn't disclose that at the time of the video going out. I don't know if you saw this one, Sam. It seemed to kick up quite a lot of fuss on social media. I didn't know if you had any views on it. I did see it. And if, you know, play devil's advocate, if it genuinely was a technical issue, it might be the most conveniently placed technical issue I maybe ever seen in a sporting situation. They know the criticism they get on board. They know how bad it sounds going down the longer straights when the super clipping and the

recharging kicks in and they've cut it the corner before and gone oh no what shame don't work guess we'll have to go off board and watch the rest of the lap from the outside camps which they've never done before you go back and you look at all the other poll-ups they put out there the whole thing's on board let's stay on board with x the whole way through the lap and it's great good content really fun to watch great to see the lap this never has happened before, ever happened before. What a convenient moment to have happened for the first ever time on social media. I think you're lying. And I think F1 have got themselves into a really tricky spot, especially on social media, where they have been proven to be hiding comments,

ignoring certain criticism, and now essentially tampering with camera angles to make things look better than they really are. And I do not think that's the way to deal with your fans' criticism. criticism can be valid and you can learn from criticism. People aren't being horrible about it. They're allowed to speak their feelings on the sport. You hiding away behind camera angles and hidden comments is just a really uncomfortable place to be where you really damage the trust between your fan that you've just spent years building up to its best ever place and where the sport goes and the longevity of that fandom.

It's a worrying step, I think, from Formula One. Harry, did you have any thoughts on it? yeah real stinky this one real stinky and fine if they had i mean as you said sam this never happens like the onboard cameras always work um but if they did have uh a technical issue and i did see something about the fact that telemetry dropped to the end of the lap as well just say it like this is a a great example on how not to manage this PR in by because they know the problems that we're having.

Say it did genuinely drop out after Spoon Curve and didn't come back until the start of finish rate. Just say that. Because everyone was bound to cool them out on it. And so much so then they had to announce it four hours later. I'm with you. I don't believe it. But even if it is true, poor work on that one.

But yeah, I mean, a lot of the stuff they have done already it obviously doesn't help help us believe that this is genuine. As you say, some of the hiding the comments. A couple of the Speedmaster clips, although the latest one hasn't,

but a couple of the Speedmaster clips have conveniently been muted when we get to a super clipping zone. Yeah, they're doing everything they can. I miss watching a race with onboard cameras too. We don't see any racing. That's cool,

isn't it, when that happens? It's a real rarity. It's like been back in the 90s. Yeah, it's a bit of a shame, which they're obviously doing it on purpose, so they don't want to, they want people to come out.

after them. But the fact that they're not doing it is almost making it worse because we know it's there. So remember we went through that phase where we had the ultra wide gyro cam for a bit on a few of the cars. Like everyone's like, this angle is so cool. We've got so far the other way. You just never get to see the onboard anymore, ever, unless it's on the call down lap after the race where you hear the person who's won the race talk to the camera. Like it suddenly works crystal clear. I believe F1. I actually do think it was, it's incredibly convenient, but I do believe that they had an issue.

And the reason I believe that is, because this is the only lap that's really been affected in terms of the top guys, they did have other telemetry issues and even tracker issues during the Grand Prix as well. Liam Lawson dropped out a couple of times, yeah. I just like, how do they know that's going to be the lap? Because it doesn't happen on his second lap,

which could have very easily gone faster. Like, in theory, the second lap in a Q3 session, track evolution, like, you should be quicker. They didn't do it for either of George Russell's lap so that easily again could have beaten what Antonelli did. I don't know, to believe that they did that intentionally for that Antonelli lap, it's like they must have got seriously lucky that that's the one they picked out, say,

that's going to be the poll. And that's why I don't, I actually do believe them. But I'm with you, Harry. Why on earth would you handle it this way? Why wouldn't you just say outright? Like, we had an issue. his, and then they presented like a ghost footage, wasn't it, of George Russell's lap. Just say that straight away. It took them four hours. How has no one at F1? How have they all been

so dense to look at this clip and go, no one's going to look at this clip and go, something weird's going on here. No, it's fine. Oh, it cuts out conveniently at the time where we know we want to shy away from onboard cameras. They didn't show any on board footage at 130 after out qualifying. No, no one's going to think we've done this intentionally. Yeah, everyone's going to believe us 100%. We're squeaky clean, we are, aren't we? Come on. So I do believe them, but I just think they've handled this stupidly.

Good work, F-1. Well, on F-1. Let's take a quick break on this episode. On the other side, we've got more chat about the regulations. We'll get into some of the overtaking and also safety. Welcome back, everyone. Should we go into the second, category that we sort of outlined, which is yo-yo overtakes.

Lando Norris called it that, didn't he? Or artificial overtaking that we seem to be getting. Certainly more overtakes than we've had in previous years, but some questions as to, I don't know, how they're getting done. Some people are going to go, this isn't an issue whatsoever. So we'll kick off on this one, Sam. Do you think there is an issue here? And if so, what is it?

I don't think there's an issue to the extent that Max Verstappen. is bringing up here. And I do think that some people love a winge. Me famously loves a winge. I love to have. It's fun, in it? It's fun.

But we have asked for years for a situation in Formula One where the car behind has a chance to overtake. And then that car behind that now has a chance to fight back and then go wheel to wheel and repass or they get past again. And we like battles that last more than one start, finish straight, where DRS was often the problem. we do now have that. I do think again, where I brought up the problem earlier with,

I do think some tracks are going to look far worse than others. And again, unfortunately, I think Suzuki has opened that wound. I think because there's only two locations, you could get a reasonable overtake done around Suzuki into the Cassio triangle. It's tricky, but it's possible or turn one. And I think you guys brought it up on the main show that we had on the Japan review. But if you work to get up pretty quick, and let's face it, it wasn't hard to work out.

You don't overtake going to the Cassio triangle, but you get the overtake zone and then you blast past into turn one, you can't be re-overtaking into the S's. And at that point, you're too far ahead. You've got the gap. Unlike tracks such as China, where you can overtake in about six different locations.

You pass once, give it two corners. You can pass again. Monga might be the same. You know, you get passed into parabolica. Okay, well, turn one comes around. You'll pass again. Okay, well, turn three comes along. or I can pass again.

And that works because you can have lap long battles where they can go on. And I want that. I want that in Formula One. And I like that we've got that in Formula One. I just don't love the way it's being created in Formula One. That's my issue at the moment. I do think certain tracks, as I mentioned,

won't work with the current regulations. Again, I think Japan was exploiting that negative situation. What do you think, Harry? We saw, again, we've seen this in the past with DRS passes and repasses. so it's not completely new, but particularly with that section that Sam described there, the Cassio Triangle into term one,

we had a clip that we discussed on Sunday's episode, which was Vastappan and Gassley, Vestappan obviously getting by at the Cassio triangle and then waving Gassie by. He's not at the start-finish line when Gassie goes by. Is that really doing anything for us in terms of an quote-unquote overtake? Not at all.

That is not. And this is what, and I brought this up on, the review on Sunday. This is why I'm struggling with these rules, because like you said, Sam, there are times where we are getting some genuinely fun, enjoyable battles out of these regulations. Lecler's, see, where it did work on Sunday, Lecler's repass on Rosson to term one. Hell yeah.

We'll have that any day of the week. Ghazly getting back past for Stappen, as you said, before the start, finish line. No. Disgusting. I want that no days of the week. So, and the Ferrari guy, you know,

duo in China, that was really enjoyable to watch. But I, something needs to change because even as much as I'm enjoying those battles that are fun to watch, I don't want, because I think that is,

if we're honest, that is maybe 30, 40% of the time at the moment. And the rest of the time we're getting these battles where it's, you either wait, to get back past or we get a, you know, the Stap and Galtese scenario. And that isn't fun to watch.

And I think people will disagree with that. I know they'll definitely will be in that, you know, it's action and, you know, it's exciting to watch. But I just don't think that is. That isn't exciting to watch me. That's not F1. And I'd rather have, as we said in the past, I'd rather have less, less overtakes,

more close battles than just freezing past. because Gadsley breezing pass for staff when on the start-finest rate, but he might as well have had a DRS pass and we might as well be back where we were last year and for the past, you know, 15 years of effort. And so I don't think that overall it works. If they can do more to generate what, you know,

or build on the good stuff that we're getting, then I'll absolutely take it. But I think at the moment, I think we're getting 70%, 60%, artificial bad stuff out of it and I'd rather even if the 30, 40% is good I don't think, I just can't agree with watching the majority of the overtakes

just be a car a car being overtaken because I think Alonzo said this, it's not an overtake it's just like an evasive maneuver which I mean, we'll get into that in a minute but most of the time it is you're like they're not really making an overtake. They're just driving past the car

that's run out of energy. That's not exciting. Yeah, I don't want to be a nostalgia merchant when I say this, but Melbourne had 120 overtakes. The British GP of 2003 that we very recently reviewed on Patreon had 51.

I know which one I'm going back to watch in future years, and it's not in Australia. Nothing against Australia, by the way. I just love Britain me. It's a better race. Yeah. In terms of...

Sorry, I was going to say it. With the one, it goes to my point, with Silverstone O3, there was a battle to get to that overtake, not just one overtake and an overtake back. That isn't what I would class of battle. It's just managing your battery, and I don't think that's right.

What's funny about this is one of the biggest problems that we've had in Formula One for maybe ever, is Dirty Air, Carl's struggling to follow. And actually, inadvertently, Formula One has cured the problem of Dirtyman, where Carl's hang, sit behind at like six, seven, tenth, to lap after lap after lap and that's great. You just need a way to get them now side by side more regularly that isn't I press button go quick, you can't press button no energy.

That's the problem. The annoying thing is I think these cars with an engine that was just kind of normal would actually bang and we are missing out. Just put a massive engine in the back and they will go. It does, I did, again, not to be a nostalgia measure. I don't even care if it's a V10 or V8. That's just how, like even last year's engines, I'll take that back again. in these cars. Boom, off we go.

One of the possible solutions that's being touted at the moment is a reduction in battery power. So at the moment, it's 350 kilowatts. It's largest, possibly being reduced down to 250 or even 200. Again, similar to what we discussed earlier about the megajou harvesting, this would slow the cars down by a few seconds a lap. It would drop sort of the peak speed. But in theory, it would reduce the amounts of lift and coast. would have to, it would reduce as well how much, how quickly you're dropping speed towards the end of straits. Do you think that's a good idea, Sam, even if it takes us further away from this magic

50-50 number that the FIA have been on about for years? I think we're all realizing that this 50-50 number is not going to work long term. It's not the right. Unfortunately, I really admire their hope, they want to create something very different and that's relevant, but we're aware that this 50-50 number isn't already working. I don't like that if we're already reducing, I'd rather we just come up with a complete alternative. I'd rather that they say, we're going to have to use the battery this year and next year. We can't put it

on the manufacturer that quickly. But 2028 season, we're scrapping it. We're going for something else. We're doing a radical change to get rid of it. I'd rather they make that cool, because I don't see how realistically dropping it by 100 kilowatts or whatever they want to give the exact number as, is going to radically

change what we're seeing overall as a sport. Actually, I've heard, room about this, I've seen a couple of reports about this, I would prefer to give total control of the active aero over the drivers across the entire racetrack and allow them to turn it on and off whenever they want. And I think because currently on average, it's speculated that most active aeron points will only be used for about 30% of a lap. I'd like to see that increased.

Essentially, remember when we used to have DRS, anywhere you wanted it in Qualify, you could press the button the moment you were going in a straight line, you're allowed to use DRS. back when it first came into the sport. I want to see that again. I want the drivers to have total control because I think if that allows for reduced drag, we might be able to have more battles

where drivers are clever, they're faster, they're more committed in certain areas to do something a bit risky. You will have some accidents. There will be a car that falls off the racetrack because they've kept their active arrow open going around the corner.

I don't really mind that. We're at a safety level in Formula One now where, you know, 99.99% of the time that driver is going to come over the radio to say, I'm okay. I would rather we have a committed high level of action and excitement where we can push the boundaries a little bit now.

And I do think that's a better way to do it rather than just, let's play around with the killer what or mega jewel again. I'm actually sick of the word megajal. So bored of ear in that word. Nothing mega about it, is there? No, it is the rubbish jewel. At its core, I think it's a really cool word as well, but it's been ripped away.

Just the word megajal. Yeah, like the word megajal, but that's a cool word. Not anymore, it's not. Not anymore. Yeah. Would you focus, Harry, on the active error side of things, or would you look at the battery? The problem is with the active aeroside is that that is there just because they need it

for the straight line, like extra straight line speed. So do it all the time. Well, yeah, but I feel like that. Jack doing is crying in the corner. It's right. He crashed so. Well, it's fine. He tried.

He tried. I think that's like the temporary. Maybe that is a solution needed for now. but I'd rather sort this engine out than have that as the solution. But maybe it's both needed from now. We need active area everywhere. I think they'll have, if they did do that,

if they'd still have to, you know, ban it in certain corners, like A Rouge, for example. I don't think that's going to work because I'm going through there. But they did that with DRS when it first started and it was fine. Everyone obeyed. So, yeah, I think a combination of that, see what happens to see what they can do with the, yeah the kilowatts and the megajoules in the battery

but something I do think something big and needs to change and as you said Sam the 50-50 split between you know internal combustion and battery just is not working and that it just it furriates me that we had a solution Sebastian Vessel provided the solution he's running laps in a car with biofuel that's sustainable it works it sounds bloody great and we've clearly got the aerodyne structure to make race and exciting.

I hate that it's there. I hate that we know the answer. We're not using it. That's what I find annoying. It's not like we're going to the Great Unknown and it's like space travel where we don't know what we might find. We have an answer. The world champion did it on his own for fun.

Why can't you do it, FIA? I just think they were slightly too ambitious with this rule set. Like we obviously, the MGUK isn't brand new. We had that in the previous set of regulations as well. So there was electrical power. I just think there should have been some, and this is hindsight, I will admit that, but some sort of middle ground for a couple of years before we're able, before batteries are maybe powerful enough that 50-50 or close to 50-50 is doable. Because right now it just feels like it's a,

it's a bridge too far. I do think dropping that battery power down is a good idea just because I want to see that speed more consistently put out across the lap. But whether it would actually make a huge impact right now. I don't know. The other things bear in mind is the teams and whether they would agree to it or not. I'm sure at least some would, but would it get unanimous support from all the teams? Bear in mind that the likes of, they all have to an extent, but particularly Audi and Cadillac, like they've signed on to the Concord Agreement. They've signed on to F1 based on a very particular set of regulations. You would be proposing changing those regulations. They've made a lot of investment to get to F1.

They could, in theory, turn around and say, we didn't sign up for this. No, we don't want to go ahead with it. I would hope call-aheads would prevail in that situation. I really would. But there would be at least some entitlement from their side to turn around and say no. So whether it happens or not, they're meeting at the beginning of, or 9th of April, I think it is.

So we'll see if that is one of the possible changes. I feel like Honda will be so mad. Honda just like change everything. I'll just try it at the big. Keep nothing the same. The wrong swan sync computer in the garbage. They got IndyCar engines. Just stick one of those in the back.

Honestly? Yeah. Sure. Why not? Perfect. I love it. What about safety? Sam,

it's good to kick off with you on this one because obviously myself and Harry were able to discuss the bareman crash at length in the race review. But this feels like the first failing of the day. test when it comes to these new regulations when it comes to safety. Obviously brought about by the massive difference in closing speeds between Beerman and Colopinto. So maybe a brief description about what we're talking about when we say closing speeds and why it's an issue.

Yeah, this is something I think a lot of people were worried about when the regulations got brought in. Now, essentially what happened at the race if you missed it, Colapinto was coming out of the hairpin towards the entry into Spoon Curve. And it's not a blind corner, but it's, slightly far-sighted. It's hard to see all the way around it as you're coming around. Behrman coming through at full throttle. He's deploying some battery as well to get around as quick as possible. He's hunting down. Colopinto. And as he comes around the corner,

Colopinto, who, through no visual sign, is suddenly going about 50k pH slower because he is trying to harvest, he's trying to recharge his battery. This immediate closing speed is so much quicker than it normally is lap after lap. And that consistency is something that you get very, you rely on other drivers on the racetrack for consistency to know that you can race them. It creates safe racing, but fun and aggressive racing where you know where the level is. If you suddenly arrive on a seeing as someone is doing 50k pH slower than what you ever expect them to do, that's going to catch you out. And that's what we saw with Aldi Behrman. Off onto the grass. You can't control the car at that speed. He careers into the barrier side on. And we see him unfortunately, really

limping and paying as he gets out of the car. And when you don't get that I'm okay over the radio almost immediately, you do get a little worried. Now, I just brought it up in our previous point that F on safety is at such a high level at this point that I felt good about him hitting that barrier in the sense that I was like, you're going to get out, you're going to be all right, because the cars are now that good, you will be okay, and he is okay. If that happened 15 years ago, might be a different story, who knows, but that's because the safety is good.

What we don't want is situations where the safety of these drivers are putting jeopardy, where they are not choosing to do something risky or out of character. You know, going for an overtake that might be slightly out of hand. That's when you think, all right, it's in your hands. You're going for it. This was not through choice. This was through poor information, poor visuals, and a misunderstanding. There were no flashing lights on the back of Colin Pinto's car.

He was in a funny line coming out of the corner going into Spoon. And the fact that that is a far-sighted corner means that he can't react, timely enough. And the same thing happened almost with Russell and Lecler. Russell went into a slower mode and you got jumped by LeCler going into the same corner. Fortunately, nothing negative happened there, but we saw two similar scenarios take place in one race.

What happens if this happens going into, I don't know, halfway down the straight in Monza and you're not thinking I won't break for another 500 metres? And suddenly this car just stops, goes 50 kilometres slower. It could be awful. We could see a huge accident. So this cannot happen again. It's one of the things that cannot happen again.

It's unacceptable. It puts someone really in danger through no fault of their own. And I was pretty shocked when I saw it. We'll take another quick break at this point, but we might wrap up this conversation on the other side. Maybe we won't. Maybe it'll be another hour.

Before the break, Sam, you went through closing speeds and why that is presenting a bit of a danger right now. Ironically, and you mentioned with Colopinto and how there weren't any lights or anything, and that's because, weirdly, he wasn't super, Super clipping, it was just lifting coast at that point. And I actually think that's the bigger issue right now is lifting coast, because while super clipping is incredibly annoying and it does present some danger,

there isn't at least an element of predictability about it and you have got the lights. Like a bumblebee. Yeah. A bumblebee is slight danger, but it's predictability. You've got to do it. annoying, but you've got to do it. Whereas lifting coasting is the wasp. Like, it's just even more annoying.

But lifting and coasting is like you don't know what the driver in front is going to do, how much lift and coast they're going to do. So I think that actually presents more danger. And it's ironic because I actually think a potential change here is increasing the amount of energy you can save through super clipping. It sounds weird because you'll get more super clipping, but you would then get less lifting coast because you have saved up more. So many of these things do feel quite give and take, Harry. yeah I mean again the fact that this is the scenario we're in where we're trying to debate whether you should be lifting a coasting of super clipping like what the hell man this is garbage on the homeless and stupid clipping that can get out of the dictionary

but yeah if that if that has to be the solution then there short term there might not be much else right but it has to change because as you said sam we said this on the review at another track. I mean, you mentioned Monsa. I think I referenced Monaco in the like coming out the tunnel, that could be an airplane accident

if you get, especially when you come up the tunnel when it goes from dark to light. And imagine you come out of there and there's just a car right in front of you going 50 kilometres an hour slower. So that one, all the things we've talked about over the past 43 minutes,

goodness me, obviously are things that we want to change big for the good of the sport, but this one has to come first because I think we were lucky in that there was a lot of runoff there for Bebham to fly over and then hit hit the barrier. But even so, as you said, Ben, I think on Sunday too, that barrier has probably not been, I mean, it's a safe barrier, obviously, but cars don't fly off there very often, they didn't used to, there are probably other spots around the world and other circuits where we might be testing the barriers that we haven't done before, which is not a great place to be

as a sport because the FIA put emphasis on certain hotspots on a track with, you know, tech pro barriers, etc. This definitely didn't have it. And I saw a camera angle from someone in the crowd, terrifying the speedy hits that barrier. So, yeah, this one needs to be. sorted first and foremost. Last point, promised last point, on these regulations. And this one isn't even really about regulations.

It's more about how they're presented. We saw earlier in the years some attempt at least some battery graphics. And that seems to have just been completely shelved. Now, we're not talking about anything that could change, like, in terms of the technical regulations here. But Sam, is there a way that F1 can present this a little bit better? we've already discussed what they're hiding possibly, but here's something they're not really showing.

Yeah, this one is actually really quite tricky for F1. The first one isn't tricky. Let's get that one out of the way, is who's in the overtake zone, who has crossed the line under one second in front of the car ahead, that has got overtake active. You can see that. That's a green light or a little lightning bolt

as we first mentioned next to their name on the timing tower on the side. Really simple. Turn it from a little yellow outline to green when it's being used. The other issue with tracking battery, which I want them to do. I want to see that. And it's very useful knowledge is if they display that data on the telly, that is usable competitive data that other teams can then go. We know exactly where you're deploying.

And I mean, it works for everyone at the same time. So you can always make the argument of, well, it's not a negative for just one team. It's the same for everyone. So that's kind of on you. And for the viewer, it does make things far more simple, easy to understand. And, you know, it's nice for us to break down the tactical analysis of what's going on if we can see where a resource is being used or not. For example, if I could, I'd love to have a percentage of how much tireware has been used. It will never happen.

You can't really calculate that because every driver does things differently and whatnot. But I'd love to see it, if it was possible. It's the same with this battery. I don't think it will ever happen. I think they're struggling with showing a realistic picture because it isn't actually the real picture because they haven't got the data for the real picture because they can't get a live feed of that right now versus essentially lying to the audience and saying we think 75% of the battery has been burned.

You know, and that's where I think it provokes a difficult position. If you could do it 15 years ago with Kerr's F1, you could do it now. Well, yeah, this is what I think this is what's happened. I think they've looked at Kerr's and we didn't like that X happened. I think that's why the problem has arisen. The teams get to get over it. Like just everyone, you, with Kerr's, it always used to show it on the onboard.

Honestly, that line would solve so many problems. Teams get over it. Get over it. Yeah. But this is the problem. They have too much say, just this is the sport. This is what we're doing.

Get on with it. Way too much power. That's the problem. Way too much say. Because as a viewer, we do need that data. It helps us understand what's going on. I hate that one team can veto it

and no one gets the benefit. I do you think therefore Harry that the more info is better if we can get it here it will just be it will be helpful to see because say for example we saw overtakes into the last chicane last weekend say a driver has used his battery up through more through 130R to get that move done if we can see say you see both these drivers with their batteries you can see that immediately well so-and-so, you know, Pierre Gazley, has saved his battery and he should be able to get back past. Now, I know there's problems in the fact that we don't really like that sort of style.

But at least it's really clear then, you know, well, if Stappen used it tactically back there, we know Gadsley saved it, he can get back past again. That is simple stuff. And I'm confident they can do that. As I said, if you could do it with Kerr's many, many moons ago now, then you can do it now. AWS. I'm looking at you.

you bunch of punks. Whoa. Use the P word. Man. Yeah, the other battle I was thinking of was Russell versus the Ferraris where we were kind of just left with some vague description of Russell had a technical issue

and that's why in terms of energy didn't have any in the end's going. But we're guessing. Like we don't have any of this information. We just have to go on what the teams are saying. And unsurprisingly, the teams aren't going to come out with this 20-minute long explainer as to what happened, they're going to be quite vague about it

because they don't want anyone else to really know. So, yeah, it leaves us all in the dark, which doesn't really help. Now, Isaac Adjar has been very, very patiently waiting his turn, so we should probably break him in now, because through three races, he has four points to his name. That's eight behind his teammate, Max Verstappen, but a very mixed bag for him so far.

He had a reliability DNF in Australia. He had that spin at the beginning of the Chinese GP, but he's also outqualified Max Verstappen on a couple of occasions. Sam, how do you think he's started? It's very early on, I appreciate, but how do you think he's getting on so far? So tricky to analyse, isn't it? When that Red Bull is not the Red Bull we know

over the last few generations, when they're not fighting the likes of the McLarens, the Ferraris, the Mercedes is having to get through midfield teams. It's having bad starts. Max Verstappen is not having it all his, way so we can't see a direct comparison. There's so many variables, which other drivers that have driven for Red Bull, we've been able

to go, right, almost the exact same thing happened last year with Max Verstappen. He won a lot. What did the teammate do? You know, Sergio Perez, he picked up a couple of wins this season. New Kiss and Oda? None. Okay, we can understand how that dynamic works. Here, it's a whole different kettle of fish.

It's really hard to know where he stacks up. But the gap feels smaller to Max Verstappen with his current regulations. he has outqualified him. I think he's been in Q3 every single main qualifying so far this season, which you know what? Qualifying was his strength when he was racing for racing balls. He's done the same thing here. It still feels like it's there.

It does still feel like it's here. Actually, with a lot of the drivers that are being a part of the Red Bull program, qualifying alongside Max Verstappen has often been their biggest weakness, and it's meant they've had to fight through traffic or get themselves back up the field, or they're just too far away from the fight in front to capitalize on anything and they lose points. I do feel like if the Red Bull could get itself into a position

where it is at least properly in the gap between that Ferrari McLaren fight that we've got going on the moment and Alpine Haas, then I think we'll see Hajar and Vestappan actually very comfortably sit inside that gap. And I am confident. I'm very assured that he is good enough and displaying good enough qualities currently that he would be in that gap. It wouldn't be like Bostappan is running around in seventh place and Hajar is 11th. I think Hajar will be eight, sometimes seven. I think he's got that capability. I think he's good enough. I have been more positively reinforced by Hagear's performances than I have been worried. And that says a lot in comparison to the other second drivers that we've seen at Red Bull over the last few years.

Would you agree with that, Harry? Do you think there's more on the positive side of the ledger at the moment? Yeah, I agree. I think it's been a positive start for Hajar. And like you said, Sam, it's a little bit trickier to judge versus what we've had previously for Red Bull, because this has been a tricky start to the year for them. and he's outqualified de Stappan, but obviously if you look at Australia,

Vestappen was off in the gravel with, what was a car issue, we believe. But even so, his pace alone has been, it's been very encouraging. The spin in China wasn't ideal. He got unlucky with a safety car in Japan. And obviously, Australia, he didn't even really do much of the race

because of a technical issue. So overall, I think Red Bull will be happy. As you mentioned, it's qualifying pace is carried over from last year, which is good to see. So, yeah, I don't think they can, I don't think they're going to have any complaints whatsoever. It's just annoying for them that this has come at a time when their car isn't very competitive. And maybe they couldn't done with someone like Hajar a year or two ago. So, yeah, overall, I'm glad that at least so far, we've got a driver from the Red Bull, from the Red Bull Junior program,

make a step up into the full-time, you know, the top team, and it looks to be delivering what he kind of promise. So hopefully that continues. Yeah, I'd agree with you both. It's fairly positive so far. It's definitely an incomplete scorecard at this stage, not only because it's been three races, but it's been far less than three races for him so far based on all of those issues.

But, yeah, I think it's been pretty positive. I'm not saying he's completely happy with everything that's going on because through three races, he has scored 1.3 points per weekend, which ironically is less than he had last year, where he was scoring at a rate of 2.1 points per race. And most of the battles he was having last year, he's kind of just having them again so far this year. He's still battling the racing balls and the Hascars, and that will probably be quite annoying for him personally. But in terms of his performance versus Verstappen, it might not be the way. worst thing in the world, at least for a little while, because we saw with Yuki Sonoda and

Liam Lawson to a very small extent because he only did two races, it is very difficult to go into that car and compete against a competitive, Max Verstappen, straight away. And not being competitive might just take the spotlight a little bit away from him as he's able to get accustomed to the team. There isn't this weekly question of Vastappen won the race. Why is he not on the podium? Is he doing enough as a second driver to win the constructors title? Those questions aren't there right now. All they're focused on is, can we get the car to be in a better position

so these guys can fight for higher up in the points. I don't think that's the worst thing in the world for Hadger, at least right now. Not that he'll want that to extend for too much longer, though. We know that Vestappen, there's been a lot of conversation about, is it going to retire at the end of the year? It's something we've covered off a few times, so we don't want to get too much into that again. but as to where it could possibly leave Hadjar, Sam,

would it be a bit uncomfortable for Red Bull if they were in that spot and they're looking at Hadjar has only done one year at racing balls and would be one year at Red Bull? It's definitely a tricky situation. It will definitely cause them to ask questions of Hadjar, of their hiring program, of their junior program. And I think what happens to Hajar very much depends on who fills that vacancy, who would take this to happen to place.

If they were to bring up, let's say, let's say Limbaugh has a great season, right? Let's say he carries on this form that he's picked up. He regularly scores points. They're very happy with him. Let's say that the 20207 team is Hajjar and Limbaugh. That's a risky team to bring on board because you've got a combined total at that point of three seasons of F1 and they'd be hoping to challenge for wings and titles. You've got a lot of faith in young bloods that haven't really had the chance to prove themselves as top-tier drivers at that point.

And Hachah would have to lead the way. equally, if someone like, I don't know, Charlotte Claire decides that he's had enough at Ferrari. Why would he do that? But in this fantasy world, if he's suddenly decided that he's adding out for Ferrari and goes to Red Bull, I do think that one, it gives Hager a bit more time.

I don't think he'd be expected to lead the team. I don't think he'd be expected to be beating LeCleur straight away, even though he'd be the more experience in the car. And it will also give a few years for LeCleur to have a go, but also for Hadjar to continue to come on, which I think is probably the more sensible and comfortable situation. But I think Hadjar has the raw talent to step up if required. It's just not as comfortable as I think they'd like it to be.

Guaranteed Ferrari rocket ship the year LeCler leaves. Guaranteed. Don't care when it is. Behrman, World Champ immediately. Yeah, it'll happen. Harry, is this the sort of thing that Hadjar just has to kind of not even focus on? like he needs to get on with his own driving and let Red Bull make any decisions about what's going to happen alongside him.

Yeah, exactly that. And I think he is. I think it's just getting on with the job, the job in hand. I was going to say, Red Bull have been in that position before by the end of 2014. They had, and I appreciate Ricardo then had three wins under his belt. But Ricardo was only a couple of years into his, I say, a couple, three. But yeah. He was doing with HRT for a little bit.

That doesn't count. By 2011, yeah, we'll write that one off. So he'd had two years. years. But yeah, so they've done it before and obviously it didn't quite work out with Kofia, but then along came Max Vistappen. So I think they've had newer driver lines before and it's worked out. For Hage, yeah, I think he'd just concentrate on what he needs to do whether Max Vistappen is there next year or not, because as long as he's done a good job, they'll keep his seat. And that's probably the only thing he needs to worry about. Justice for Danny Kavir.

Score more points than Ricardo did in 2015. That does matter. It does matter. Not to Red Bullitt, doesn't. Never mind. Let's take our final break on this episode. And on the other side, we're going to be playing back and forth. Welcome back, everyone.

Before we head into F1 back and forth, a time for an F1 fantasy update. Our last one for a little while, and honestly, looking at where I am, that might not be an awful thing. Sam, you were leading the way. Last time, you're still confident here? I think I have as good a week, so there's a chance I can have been leapfrogged. Well, we do have the more written down, so we can reveal where we are in three, two, one. Okay, you are still leading the way, Sam, 496th. Harry, you're pretty much exactly where you were last week, 741st.

I've now got four numbers to my name, 1,100. and eighth. Not happy with you, George, not happy at all. Kirsty, by the way, 1,4th, making big moves up 11 spots from last time. You're still winning, Sam. Not quite as good as last year. I am.

I am, and I'm quite frustrated because I did a radical change to my team. I brought in Haast and I brought in Bearman. And, of course, Bearman decides to be the only person to put it in the wall. Also, I definitely put a time to see on Antingelli and it stayed on the Clare. I was a bit annoyed because I had at least 50 more points in my score if it saved. And I definitely did that, F1.

Definitely did. Straight after they cut his lap in qualifying, that's what they went to do was to remove your times two. It's all a conspiracy. This guy sucks. Let's just ruin his fantasy. That's a real shame. Yeah, I'm gutted.

Well, there are 10 teams that definitely didn't suck this week. weekend because we have a 10-way tie for the winner, the Japanese GP. People using limitless. So I will read you all out, don't you worry. Double DSQ, runways to races, Kimmy all your money, Oscars pastis, haste le vista, rubbing his racing, wandering Carl, yin master, piastries possums, and Mike five kids don't fit. I don't know. Sure. Okay, why is that the weirdest one?

Well, well done to all of you. Do you think Oswald's pastis are better than Malcolm Barnacres? No, sorry, this is no chance. Better than Piastries Possums, but not better than Malcolm Barnacets. You know, like old school football shirts, sponsors like Newcasts used to have brown ale. If Malcolm Barnacott's offered to sponsor this podcast, we can't, I'm sorry, we can't dedicate this much time to Malcolm Barth. It's a delicacy that I won't ever.

Everyone should try it. Free advertising. Yeah, make a job it. Bell, they don't even know what a podcast is. Top three in the league. Well done, Nick Van Horn, leading the way. Well done to you, sir. We have a tie for second place between Never Lewis Faith and Tort Antonelli.

Sorry, plural. Tort Antonelli's. Oh, a stretch, though. Never Lewis Faith. You know what? They're second in the league. Yeah, well done. Allow it.

You know what? I'll criticise you when I'll beat you. Weng's a stretch. Not in the top three. I did have a look who was in fourth place as well. Warning door Hajjar is back. Making an appearance. Yeah.

That door is hajjar for a possible re-emergence. Well, you've got plenty of time to change your fantasy team, folks. You've got until the Miami. me GP, which isn't taking place in this month. So if you forget, that's kind of on you. But if you do want to join the lead, please do get involved. All of the info is in the description. I've lost count of how many people we've got in there now. 3,450. Madness, absolute madness, which explains why we keep dropping week on week as to where we are. But you are very welcome to join if you haven't already.

And now it's time for Ben to adjust the soundboard so he's on the right one to play back and forth. F1. Back and forth, it's F1. Back and forth, it goes backwards. Then goes forth, it's F1. Back and forth, F1. A jolly old tune. A jolly old tune had by all.

A lovely ditty. A lovely little ditty. Please. From Patriot City. F1 back and forth. Harry and Sam will go back and forth on correct answers to a certain question until one of them can't think of an answer or gives an incorrect answer. It's a bit of a toughie today.

I'll give you a couple of strikes each on this one. Today I am looking for the 16 youngest drivers to lead the F1 World Championship in the last 40 years. years. So I'm not looking for anything before 1986. But the 16 youngest drivers to lead the championship since then, I very much hope one of these is going to be quite easy. We'll see about the other 15. And we'll start with Harry, what one do you like? No, no. No. It's a Kimmy Antonelli. It is a Kimi Antonelli. Obviously, took the championship lead thanks to his win at the Japanese GP at just 19 years of age, breaking the record by a whole three years.

Have a day off. Have a day off. Sam? Max Verstappen. Max Verstappen is on this list. He took the lead for the first time at the 2021 Monaco GP when he was 23 years of age. Harry? Sebastian Vettel. Sebastian Vettel is a correct answer. Can you tell me when he first took the championship lead? some time ago when he

when he won it when he won the title yeah the 2010 Abdubby Grand Prix was the first time he led the championship very succinctly put

by me I thought that yeah you nailed that he was 23 some um well well well well well's already

well I'm more kind of just tying with names at this point. Lewis Hamilton. Lewis Hamilton is a correct answer. He's number two on this list. He took the championship lead for the first time at the 2007 Spanish GP when he was 22 years of age.

Harry. Oscar Piastri. Oscar Piastri is a correct answer. He took the lead at the 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix when he was 24. Sam. Landon Norris? Landon Norris.

also a correct answer. The 2025 Australian GP after he took the victory there, he was 25 at the time. Harry. Fernando Alonzo. Fernando Alonzo is a correct answer. The 2005 Malaysian GP, he was 23.

Sam. They're quite good at all this, aren't they? Yes. I don't know how to do Formula One. Have we got these strikes for this? You did say? Yeah, a couple strikes each. Two? We're hey, I always got paying attention.

Charles Leclair. Charles Leclair is a correct answer. First took the lead at the 22 Bahrain GP when he was 24. Just, oh, man. Never did it again. Oh, boy. Harry. Kimi Rikinen.

Kimi Reikinen is a correct answer, much like Fernando Alonzo, took the championship lead for the first time in Malaysia. That was 2003, though, when he was 23 years old. Sam. I feel like we've started to get rid of the recent ones. How far back to just go, by the way, sorry? 1986, so 40 years. Yeah, really glad that you decided to scan it back that far.

That does imply, in theory, there should be some games back there, though. Yeah, it'd be funny if all the games actually, the longso was the last one. It was just nothing for 305 and 86. It would be slightly evil. Senga. Sena is a correct answer. He took the championship relief for the first time at the age of 26 at the 1986, Spanish GP.

Yes. How far down the list was he, by the way? Third from bottom. Thank you. Yeah, and 26 years of age. Harry. What? Schumacher.

Schumacher's a correct answer, yes. 1994 Brazilian GP when he was 25. Five names left. Jacques Villeneuve. Jacques Villeneuve is a correct answer. 1997 Argentinian GP. He was 26. Harry.

Bobby Kay? Bobby Kay. There he is. Yeah, he was just 23 when he took the championship lead at the 2008 Canadian GP following his one and sadly only race victory. Felipe Massa. Yeah, Felipe Massa is on there.

2008 French GP. He was 208. Oh, he's got to be right down the bottom then. He's not the bottom answer, but he is second from last. There's only two names left. Harry. Hackanen? Damn it, Harry, damn it.

No. Hackan. Yes, Harry, yes. It's not on this list. Jensen Button. Jensen Button is not on this list. He was 29 when he first took the championship lead. Oh, so old.

old man. Who's twanging eye on these days? George Russell. George Russell is the last name on the list. He took the championship lead for the first time, not that long ago at all when he won the Australian GP and it just turned 28 at that time. Which means, Sam, there is one name left.

I don't need this in my life, you know? Boy God's game. Bicke's game. Nico Rosberg. No, Nico Rosberg is not a correct answer. He was also 28 years old, but older than George Russell. So he is actually the first name off this list. Ah, okay.

The guy you're looking for was 25 when he took the championship lead. Harry. Oh, well, that helps. Thank you, Ben. No worries. What can we narrow down a decade? No, I don't want that option. You don't want that option.

You don't want that. I've got one thing left to go, mate. I can't have you working this on the last one. I guess you're getting out of the strike. But what if you get it wrong and then you want to, well, I'll veto it then. Okay, good. You'll vetoed from this podcast.

Montoya? Not Montoya, no. Who was it the segment to the decade thing? You? Oh, damn it. That's a real shame. Damn, you got hands. Cool Tard.

It was Coulthard. Yes! He won the first race in 1997, which meant he took the championship lead at the age of 25. Thank God that was stressful. It was stressful, but you do a very good job with that. Well done to you both. We got them all.

We got them all. Like Pokemon. Like Pokemon. Like Casham all. Like Ash Ketcham, we have all the F-1 drivers. Well, I don't know how that is. Like Pokemon. Come on, we now shift attention to Pekach, you, because we, no, we have asked you as always.

The worst thing is horrible. That is so horrible. That is awful. I get a thousand bad jokes because of that. That was terrible. Yeah, fair. I can't even, I got nothing anymore. We do have the greatest segments, Ian all, of podcasting.

and it's time for the LB question of the week. Beautiful. You people were funny this week, really stepped it up, everyone, because we decided to play on the rumor there's still a rumor going around that Fernando Alonzo has called his newborn child

Fernando Alonzo. So we asked the question, what is the only thing that is more Fernando Alonzo than that? Great answers out there. Yeah, take this one off your hands, folks, from Corbyn Spencer, Fernando Alonso clones, 200,000 new goods are ready, with a million four on the way.

Such a good reference. Yeah, he's building a clone army of himself. I've got a Star Wars reference. How are we becoming a prequel? Yeah, specifically a prequel Star Wars podcast. Debobaova! I just actually love saying it. Wow, I couldn't tell.

I'll go for this one from Merston real life because it mentions me. So thank you for the mention on X on Twitter. Making Harry Ead, Lance Stroll and several other random employees of Aston Martin changed their name to Fernando Jr., which I replied and said I would do. I know you would. If you totally came on here, it was like, we've got to start calling you Fangando Jr. I feel that might actually add a bit of spice to the podcast, you know.

We've got three very boring English names. Like, let's get a Fernando on it. Yeah, we are. I'm dull, aren't we? Okay. I'm Bernard. Very British and boring. Yeah, a little bit, a little bit. I'm going to go to Aaron for this one, having a daughter and gaming her for Daniel Alonso too.

I feel that was answered by a few people as well, and it is absolutely a correct answer. But also a correct answer is from Michaela, literally nothing. You know what, that is the right answer. There is literally nothing more Fernando Alonzo than calling your kid, Fernando Alonzo. Alex, this might be my favourite one of all time, declaring that Interlagos translates to between two Fernando Alonzo's. That's the only version of your back joke I would accept. So good.

That's so good. Rosco Lover, sorry for you, my friend, Hong Kong, said making his middle game GP1. Also known as F1. Exactly. GP1 to go alongside Harry 1, Sam 1 and Benton 1 He knows the game, Fernando

He knows it well But I love those one names so much When we eventually break up Like all good boy bags do I'm going to go solo with Sam 1 That's your podcast Yeah But we all have the same

We all have our own ones Rival shows All right Last one from me from dude Reinbolt by telling the baby if you cry at me before every nap

I will disconnect the baby monitor brilliant reference into parenting yeah the last one from me was from Clayton

and a son Instagram which said harassing an ogre to do the roar I love you daddy

no reference no relevance at all I don't like it do the row final one for me there from amazing, we said staying in F1 for 18 more years just to beat his son on the final race to win his third. Yeah, as I mentioned at the top of that segment, great effort from all of you across

Instagram and Twitter. We'll come back with another question of the week this time. Next week, I appreciate it's been a long one. I always feel apologetic whenever we do a long episode and actually forget that we are so British about it that you probably do like listening to us. Sorry, yeah, sorry. We've gone on a bit here. But a lot of important topics.

A podcast is to talk. Yeah, right. Good one to really hash out those solutions or potential solutions for the regulations. We're back with another episode at the weekend, Sam. But crucially, we will be together in person. We will be together in person. Yes, we're going to be in a little to Kugio doing a couple of episodes, which is always great when we get to be together.

Let's hear your thoughts on the episode. Do you agree with what we've said about the regulations? Is there something we've missed that you want to discuss? Is there a solution that you've thought of that most likely has bypassed our rather small and simple minds? We'd love to hear from you. You can do that on social media, late breaking F1. Comment on our posts. We love to see you get involved in the conversation.

Join the Discord. The links in the description over 4,000 people in Nengau, which is amazing. Or you can comment on the YouTube. We put out videos all the time of our videos, Late Breaking F1. If you want to have even more content, including everything ad-free, video content, historic stuff, extra episodes, birthday shoutouts, beer with breaking, Patreon City is the place for you.

Go in the link, join it from the description. It's a really cheap little sign-up. You can cancel after a month if you go, you know what, these three buffoons are too much. Don't want it anymore. And I would understand that. But thank you for the support for everyone that already does. In the meantime, see you Sunday.

I've been Samuel Sage. I've been Ben Hocking. And I've been Fernando, Jr. I remember keep breaking late. Kahneman. Feels appropriate.