The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Are F1's 2027 rule changes under threat?

Episode Date: May 27, 2026

Ben and Sam explore the pushback from select teams against F1's proposed 2027 engine rules, and whether the teams leading the resistance could ultimately shape Verstappen's future in the sport.  They also cover Hamilton insisting he's "here to stay", the Ocon-Haas exit rumours, and wrap up with some Fill in the Blank. 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. Hello and a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking, here for another midweek episode in this little mini-gap, or at least it feels like a mini-gap between Canada and Monaco. It's very weird just having one week between races, Sam. I'm used to three months. Yeah, it does feel like we have to wait until the next millennia before Formula One. now to roll back onto the telly.

Actually, the only time I happily take like a triple header, just throw it at me, drench me in Formula One action. Drench me in F1 action. What a quote that is. Hey, I'm soon enough, they'll be hitting us. It's coming. Especially if they decided to do a tinker with the calendar later in the year in October, November.

We won't sleep in those two months, I don't think. No, no, no, no. Let us sleep. No, no, no, F1 for you. You ask for it. And you're going to take it and you'll like it. Goodness me, moving on. Coming up on today's episode,

we're going to be playing F1, fill in the blank. The people on the streets, Sam, have been like, bring back fill in the blank. It's my favourite game. I've heard this. I actually hear people having conversations and they'll leave out pivotal words of normal chats and then, mate, we'll have to guess what the word was

because I'm so desperate for it. They're just playing it on the streets. Yeah, F1, fill in the blank coming up later on. We've probably overhyped that. some fiery comments this weekend at the Canadian GP from both Esteban Okon and Ayukamatsu about a rumour that they aren't getting along. Needless to say, they disagree with that. Lewis Hamilton, his future was discussed as part of the Canadian GP press conference as well and after a very good weekend from Hamilton, we'll be discussing his future a little bit more.

But we're going to be starting with the 27 changes that have been touted. And we've already spoken about this a little bit because following a meeting between F1, the FIA, teams and manufacturers after Miami, there was an agreement in principle to move away from the current 50-50 electrical and combustion power split for 2027. The proposal, as a reminder, would shift the balance closer to 6040 in favor of the combustion engine by increasing ICE power and reducing battery output. However, some teams and manufacturers remain unconvinced, as is being reported by the race. Aldi is understood to be among those hesitant, having already invested heavily in the current regulations and facing a potential $10 million plus development bill to make the changes

in time for 2027. While Audi is not opposed to changes entirely, sources suggest it would favour smaller tweaks rather than a full move to the proposed 60-40 split so soon. Now, there's actually another team and another way of thinking that is against this as well. But we're going to leave that for now and just focus on what maybe Audi are talking about here. What are your thoughts on their perspective? Is it a fair one? I mean, firstly, from the F1-FIA's point of view, they've really screwed the pooch on this one. They've come out with promises galore for the viewer of how to make things better. That was subtle, Ben.

I was like, oh, no. I was going to advertise what I'm drinking, but then realize they weren't paying us, so that's probably not a good idea. No, put it down. We actually have host for a eggs now. Put it down. Yeah, yes, yeah, yeah. you enjoy that and gone to script fruity drink. Or unspecified carbonated drink. This is good.

Take it away from my whole statement. Yeah, I mean, it's terrible for the viewer because we've essentially been sold something that hasn't actually been delivered behind the scenes. It's like saying, oh, we'll have a roast dinner on Sunday. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll do a roasting on Sunday. You get to Sunday and no one's going out and bought the chicken. You know, it's like, well...

And that's a disgrace. That is an absolute disgrace. Obviously, the worst thing that can happen to anyone in this world. No hyperbole here. I'm technically serious. You know what I mean? It's the kind of case of, yeah, tell the kids I can have a roast on Sunday. No problem.

Get to Sunday. No one has actually bought the agreements for a roast. And the shops were shut. And they'll go, well, you need to discuss it with us first. Being nice to go, you want to buy the agreements for a roast dinner. The same thing exactly here with these regulations in the sense that they've come out and said, we're making changes. It's going to be way better next year.

What do you mean you don't like that? You can't need the changes. What do you mean it costs you much money? What do you mean you've got the time or the planning or the ability? to do such a thing and we maybe should have a conversation first and Audi have every right to stand there and go we've just spent so much money

going into this sport. We've developed our own engine. We've come into the sport year one with our power unit. They could have bought off another supplier and waiting some years to kind of really get it right and they haven't. They've come in fully committed and I applaud them for it. I love what Audi have done with this sport. They've really come in with an innovative

design. They're experimental. They're trying something new. They want to be very competitive. You can't just turn around go five races in. Yeah, I know you lost your team principle. I know you're brand new. But you mind developing that whole new engine again? Just because we don't like it after five races.

It is a farce and it is comedic. And I'm not shocked that Audi have gone probably not going to do that actually after everything we've just been through. Do you think this might be a way in which F1 and the FIA are putting pressure on Audi to almost announce these changes that have got, I'd like to say, not maybe universal approval, but quite a large approval from most F1 fans and gone, okay, here you go. And now Audi, if they are publicly against this, they're not going to have as strong of a

bargaining position because they're going against something that people already think they're getting. I see the point you're making, but the people, we don't get a say. So I think Audi have been quite clever here, and they know that within the industry, there will be other teams who are going, well, I don't know. like this. I'm not sure about this. And now someone has stood up and said, we don't want to do this. We can't afford it. Within the cost cap, we can't deal with those changes. We've got the time. We put a lot of time into what we've got already. I actually think it'll encourage other

manufacturers to come out and go. Actually, we're with them. What they're saying is fair. We disagree with it. It's only Mercedes and Red Bull that we kind of know are in favor of this. And I use Audi as an example here, as it seems to be the most... They're the most vocal. Yeah, it seems to be the example to cite and is the most accurate one. But like, you're right. There are many others out there that might well take up the same position as them. Yeah, and I think they'd be very fair to do so, because five races into a new set of regulations, which are meant to last us for at least four years, most likely five or six. You can't just throw this at these poor people who have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on ancient development over years. So they say, scrap that,

change it again, 10 to 20 million quid, within six months, they've got to have that It is a ridiculous turnaround. Yeah, I completely get where they're coming from because they are in a tougher spot than most of the other teams they're fighting with. Especially if you look like Mercedes, they have been making V6 hybrid engines since 2014 or just before 2014 when these regulations came into effect.

I know that there have been changes and tweaks to the regulations since then, but as a fundamental power unit, it has been that way for quite a long time. Ferrari is in exactly the same position. Honda, sure it's been slightly disrupted, but they have experience going back over a decade. And even Red Bull,

Honda announced that they were leaving quite a few years ago. So whilst Red Bull can say, and rightly so, that their power unit right now is brand new, and they've still had more time and maybe have more expertise than what Audi do. So they are in a tough spot. They've committed a lot of time and resource to this power unit all.

ready after maybe starting later the nearly everyone else on the grid. They have so much to still learn about these engines and the cars. And you can say, well, if it's going to cost 10 million, these cost caps are 215 million or whatever it is right now, find space in there. And sure, you can. But 10 million is not an insignificant amount. Like, all of these teams will already have like a very clear, um, development strategy, like their upgrade plan,

they will have that for the whole year already. And they'll be looking to spend as many cents and dimes and dollars as they can off that plan. Exactly. It's not like they go, we've got 20 million spare. Maybe we'll buy a new canteen for the staff. No, that's spent. It's allocated.

It's ready to go. And you spoke about the experience of the other teams developing these engines. They develop those first engines outside of the cost cap. Yes. Well, they spend as much money as they want on making it as good as they can. And now it's an evolution. How old he doesn't get that privilege? They can absolutely argue that it is wasteful, and they would be correct in that.

And even if you want to look at some of the other midfield teams they're currently scrapping with, so let's say Hasse, Williams, Alpine and Racing Bulls, for example. Sure. It's not those four teams, whilst it's sort of their problem, it's not really their problem in that neither of those four teams are the ones developing their power units. That's all for the factory teams to work out. for them to implement, it's sure, it's still something they have to take into account. Audi can turn around and say, well, that's 10 million that we have to spend on the engine

that they don't have to think about. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Equally, someone like Mercedes in Toronto, they go, we'll go up the cost of how much more engine's there can be. Because there's a whole changing engine, I imagine there'll be a renegotiation in how much this cost because of development, time and money spent. So someone like Mercedes and go, well, actually, can I make a profit off of it? And it might have a different kickback to other teams.

It really is a bit of a nightmare to turn this around so, so quickly, which is a shame because from an entertainment point of view, if I could snap my fingers, I'm here for it. I like the changes, but it's not really realistic. And I think it's worth saying as well, because there will be some out there maybe saying that we're in what end of May now, we're looking at March when these engines would need to properly go into effect in a competitive scenario.

That's a lot of time. It isn't. Like for these, for these F1 teams and the way, in which they work and these regulation cycles that go on multiple years, that is not a lot of time. So a team like Audi can very rightly come out and say that this isn't quite right. I do at least to an extent understand the argument of if you're a factory team like Audi are, you get benefits and drawbacks with that. And this is one of those drawbacks that you are just going to have to kind of suck it up.

It's a pretty unprecedented drawback, though. It's not like this comes up every set of regulations. This is the first time we've seen a regulation five races in go, we're going to change a fundamentally core element and the most expensive part of the whole set of regulations. It's not just Audi that seem to be against these changes coming in for 2027. Another sticking point is F1's catch-up mechanism, which is the additional development and upgrade opportunities, ADUO, as we have called it a lot on this podcast.

It's got a lot of air time over the last month for so. Big up, I do-o. Yeah. Ferrari in particular is believed to be particularly concerned because if the power unit rules are changed for 2027 to allow increased fuel flow, some will argue that the current plans, the ADUO plans, would need to be scrapped to avoid giving certain manufacturers an unfair advantage with extra spending and development freedom. So Ferrari in particular sees ADO as a bit of an opportunity to catch up to Mercedes. We'll see how that goes after the review. It should be ongoing very shortly.

So they could lose out in terms of major competitive consequence. Can you understand Ferrari's point of view? 100%. There's a system in place to balance the books, essentially, to make sure that we as viewers get a genuinely competitive, interesting formula where a team doesn't fall too far. back and they're able to catch back up. So of course, Ferrari, who have gone, our chassis is really good. Our drivers are certainly doing quite well. One thing's missing. Our power unit isn't as good.

And remember, this ADUO system isn't a, yeah, we're giving you a handout. You'll suddenly be equal. It's giving you the opportunity to find a way to become equal. You might flush that whatever million quid, 10 million quill or so down the toilet and never getting a tent. You might get it completely wrong. You might go backwards. It's feasible. But the point of the system is it opens the door for these slower engines to catch back up if they can make it work. Ferrari here are going, well, we've done everything else right. We need to catch up now. We're going to spend the money and try and get it right.

Of course, the likes of Mercedes and Red Bull, who are about to go under possibly new changes, they're about to see changes to the existing power unit, are going, well, we'll accept the new regulations, actually. Don't give Ferrari the chance to catch back up this year. We'll just all focus on the new year because it stops further competition. So I totally get why Ferrari are quite frustrated that they have a golden opportunity to make themselves a level playing field and it could be taking away from them at the last moment. Every team is doing the same thing. And whilst they might be making different decisions, they are all doing the same thing, which is looking out for themselves. They are all looking to, if the show improves as a result of the changes as well, that's an added bonus.

but they are all looking to competitively gain an advantage on their rivals. There is no difference across the board in that regard. So if you think Mercedes, for example, are in favour of these changes because they just want the sport to be that little bit better. I have many things I'd like to sell you because that is not the case. If Mercedes are in favour of this, it's because there is something competitively that is going to help them out. And it's exactly the same with Ferrari.

Ferrari being against these changes doesn't mean they blanket do not care about the sport and want to see it struggle for the next five years. That's not the case either. They are just looking at this as an opportunity to,

or they are looking at this as an opportunity for Mercedes to get even further in front and they don't want that. So it's both teams. They might be coming to completely different conclusions, but they are both sort of thinking

the same thing of how we can get ahead. Yeah. This is 101, right? I think of me and only me, and how can I get ahead? This is taking that away from Ferrari on the flip side. Mercedes and Redwater going, well, hey, this gives us another step forward. They can't get ahead. So you understand the arguments from both sides.

It must be very frustrating when you're one of these teams that is trying to play the rules, essentially, and they haven't been caught out with this ratio that's going to be change compression ratio, that's going to be changed or anything like that. Secondly, it's almost a bit of a saving grace for those two teams that might have to change their engines anyway, over the next month or so. I feel like with ADUO as well, like it's a bit of a gift to those who will benefit from it. And it is something that hasn't been available in previous eras.

I think there are positives and negatives for it. The positive is that it doesn't, as you say, doesn't necessarily mean you catch up. It just gives you the opportunity to. There is the possibility that we will get closer racing action and less dominance from one team and more entertaining races as a result of this being in place. I don't mind it being here as a result of that.

Equally, I won't have a lot of sympathy if it goes because as much as Ferrari wants to catch up now, they had the same resources Mercedes going into this season and Mercedes did more with what they had available to them than what Ferrari did. And now the logic, at least part of me think, should be, well, now you have the same resource to catch back up and let's see if you can do basically what Mercedes did pre-season during the season.

And that should be the challenge. And I do understand that sort of way of thinking. The one thing I'm not clear on, though, is why this wouldn't even necessarily need to go. Because it's still the same logic of Ferrari are starting from a sort of... A further back spot in theory, yes. So even if it is going towards next season and they get an advantage in that regard, it's kind of why the system's in place. It's just you're not looking at this season, you're looking at two seasons instead.

Yeah, I agree. I do think they're being a little bit finicky with their wording to try and prove a point. The only thing I will agree with, which I think you just brought up there, is this is new for Formula One. And we're very much for the sport of smartest person comes up with smartest idea, and you are rewarded by having smartest idea by winning races and winning championships. And it's up to everyone else to work out something different to catch back up. We don't tend to do handouts, really, in Formula One. You tend to have to make your own way.

And whilst I don't think this is the definition of a handout, it might be the next closest thing. So I can see why there are some complaints on the likes of social media from a lot of spectators that they don't love this and they wouldn't be bothered if it got scrapped and all teams focused on the new regulations anyway. So that's what a couple of teams are thinking about these 2027 changes. We're going to take a quick break.

And on the other side, we'll get into what one point is. particular driver, Max Verstappen thinks of this. Welcome back, everyone, as T's before the break. Max Verstappen has said he'll not be staying in F1 if the rule changes proposed for 2027 are blocked. So we've heard on the other side of the break some of the potential arguments from the likes of Avaldi and Ferrari as to maybe why they wouldn't go through in 2027. Here's Vastappen saying, if it doesn't go through, I'm not sticking around.

Do you believe him? Yeah, I believe him. He's not a man that minks his words. He typically says what he thinks, and he's typically very open and honest about what he is thinking. It's not someone that you often hear will come out with a statement, and then a week later, two weeks later, you see a social media post or something where he goes, sex something in the moment, regret that.

You know, there's been a couple of those where he might have said something that's got a little bit too far. But realistically, when he's got an opinion on something about the racing, about an overtake, about a rule set, he's been very much heart of his sleeve, he's thought it through and he just come out with his opinion. He stagged by that opinion. And with the likes of Juan Pablo Montoya's comments recently that criticized Max Verstappen for his approach to the problems around the regulations, Max has come out and said, I see people in a good way or a bag way.

I very quickly recognize if they are around me for good intentions and they look to benefit me with them. And if they don't, if they're trying to be negative, I have no time for them and I will cut them out my life very quickly. I think he's willing to do that with Formula One. I think if it doesn't compliment him anymore, I think if he isn't happy and enjoying himself, well, that's winning races or just driving the cars. I think he's very happy to turn around and go, all right, I've had my fun, don't need it anymore. I'll go do something else that's more fun. I really don't think he's going to muck around with this. I agree. I tend to believe for Stappen when he says this, because one of the main reasons why, because he had comments about sort of the current racing and also

what the racing could look like next year all throughout the Canadian GP weekend. And he had some comments after, I think it was main qualifying, where he was a little bit negative. He was asked about, you know, would he ever take a sabbatical from F1? It was quite a direct. No, I wouldn't. There's a lot of fun things, a lot of fun things to do out there, you know. I'm not going to do something like that.

And you think, well, he's just come off the back of a tricky qualifying session. He wasn't very happy with the car all throughout that day. maybe there's something in that. Where that falls down is a lot of the comments he made were after the race on Sunday, where he has picked up his best result of the season so far. He has been, at least from a viewer's perspective, in an entertaining battle with one of his rivals, Louis Hamilton,

and yet after that, and it's not like he was going full negative, but he was still saying at that point things like, we can put on a show, it's the best drivers in the world, but it's not as pure as a GT3 car, or I think he said, it's difficult to race a Gt3 car and then come back to this. And it takes away from just the, he's had a bad day, he's saying that. It's very consistent, the messaging that's coming from Vestappen makes me think that, yeah, very simply put, if these rule changes go through, he'll be here.

And if they don't, he won't be here. The other thing he's been quite clear on as well is this is the minimum threshold required for him to stick around. So if, as maybe Audi was suggesting, they want things. things, maybe not fully to 60, 40 and want it, I don't know, 55, 45, 45 or 57, 43, whatever that ratio looks like. That's worse than the minimum of what Vastappen was accepting. So it might be, if these terms, as they are right now, don't go through, that is Vastappen out of there. Do you think there's a little part of some rival teams that will maybe look to delay the

regulations coming in to remove Max Vastappen from the equation? Do you think, I think it's an interesting point of view, I would be surprised, but equally, someone like Ferrari, and they go, well, we get with a Max Wastappen out of the picture, Red Bullough are a much easier team to beat. I'm going to go with no on that, just because I think team performance, Trump's driver performance, regardless of who that driver is. So Vastappan, I think both of us agree, is the best driver in the sport. And right now, I don't think it's particularly close. I would have him as the best driver in F1. But even with that being the case, he has a hasn't won any Grand Prix this year or been in contention for any wins this year,

because that car is quite simply not good enough to fight for wins. So I don't think a team like Ferrari would think about doing something that wasn't 100% in their favor to do something that was against Red Bull just for the sake of getting a driver out of there. Because if they still don't have a competitive car because of that decision, they're still screwed. So I don't think it will be a factor. it might be if you're, I don't know, Mercedes or Macquarie or someone, a nice benefit possibly, but I don't think it's deciding things for them.

No, I agree. I would err on no as well. I also think that you get some soft benefits from the likes of Max for Staff and being in the sport. So the advertising rights will be higher, right? The viewership is higher, having someone of his capability. So you do gain, even if it's a loss, maybe sometimes on the track, financially a lot of the time, you will gain out of it. that. And that's soft like marketing benefit that you've just mentioned as well. The only way is up in that

regard because Alonso and Hamilton, we don't know how many years they're going to remain in the sport, particularly Alonzo. If they do both leave the sport, and that's kind of the next topic that we'll be going on to in terms of Lewis Hamilton, Vastappen, he becomes a bigger piece of the pie in terms of that marketability, that reputation, that recognition for more casual fans. Well, let's move on to Lewis Hamilton because there were quite a few comments about his future towards going into the Canadian GP weekend. He was asked about it in the press conference on Thursday. This is what he said. He said, I will be here for quite some time, so get used to it. There's a lot of people that are trying to retire me, and that's not

even in my thoughts. I'm already thinking of what will be next and planning for the next five years, but I still plan to be here for some time. Do you think this is Lewis Hamilton's soft launching that he'd like an extension at the team. There were a lot of comments on social media over the last couple of weeks that Lewis Hamilton was going to be announcing his retirement come, probably the summer break. A surprising amount, actually. And it's one of those rumours that suddenly gained a lot of traction on social without any real basis to it, any real concrete evidence.

More of that coming up later in the show. And I understand why he's come out and basically said, I'm not going anywhere. You know, this is just crap online. It's just rubbish. What I actually appreciate from Lewis Hamilton, which is the opposite of what I think we've seen in the past. And very different actually to how we just spoke about with Max Verstappen, is if he had said these comments after the Canadian Grand Prix,

after he'd finished second, after he'd just beat Max for Stappen to the line, I would put it down to him going. He's at his best result. The car felt good. He's riding on a positive. We know that Lewis speaks with a heart in his sleeve, and he really likes to just say how he's feeling.

Sometimes those good feelings can overwhelm him a little bit, I think, and maybe he comes out a little too positively. And this is the kind of contract talk that I think would go through Lewis Hamilton's head after having a really good result. But he's said before the Canadian GP. And that tells me that he is still focused on the sport. He is still in it for the long call.

And his performance against Charlotte Clare of the last couple of races before that were pretty poor. Arguably he's worse too so far this season in Miami and in Japan. So the fact that he's still so dedicated to at least another two or three years, I wouldn't be shocked if he's pushing for at least a one-year extension on the deal. I agree with that. As much as I would love to see Lewis Hamilton in an Alpine, because the mean potential is off the charts.

I can't see him leaving Ferrari for a different team in F1. I think he's committed to Ferrari rather than just the sport, in which case I do think this is him maybe starting to publicly indicate he would like an extension on his current deal. And the thing, I mean, Hamilton and Ferrari, they've worked together now, obviously, for like not far off 18 months. They have worked very, very hard to get to where they are right now. And it's not an end product. It's still very much a work in progress from both sides. But they have gone through engineer change in terms of, you know, Lewis Hamilton working for a team outside of the UK for the first time in his career. There's been a lot of adjustment from both sides. to try and get this to work, it would be a bit insane if Hamilton was to not at least try to take advantage of all of the changes that have been made in the hope that everyone around

him, including himself, is going to benefit from those changes. But we're only starting to get into the theoretical time space where you would be able to take advantage of that. It's almost like laying the groundwork to then go, I'm off, bye-bye. It wouldn't make a lot of sense. So I do see Hamilton trying to try to get an extension here. It is interesting that he mentions the next five years. Could be a bit of a line that he's just thrown out there. Could speak to his mindset and maybe looking at his old friend Fernando Alonzo and seeing what he's continuing to do, albeit in a terrible car, an F1.

And it could just be, like I said, it could just be a message to Ferrari. It's almost a bit of a public way in which you can say, I'm committed to this. I'm committed to the cause. Are you? Yeah, it would be interesting because they've got other interests going on in the world,

have a Ferrari. You know, with Behrman waiting in the wings, of course, I think they're fortunate that Berman isn't going to be going anywhere. I think Bermann is very much got his sights set on a Ferrari seat and whether he has to wait 12 months, 24 months,

five years. It will frustrate him. But I can't see a Mercedes or a Red Bull or someone like that going and taking Berman away and not allowing Ferrari to have him whatever he is ready to move up. So I think they are fortunate in the sense that Bermont is probably a loyal servant, one that's going around for a while. I think if it was a bit more touch and go, they might look to make a more rash and urgent decision.

Well, where does that leave Ferrari then? Because you say it doesn't necessarily require a rash decision, but are they internally, Fred Ferser, like, are they starting to consider this? Are they just sort of sitting on their hands for now? Like, where are they at in this process? If I was Ferrari, I would at least give it to the summer break to see how Lewis fully adapts to this new car. If we get more races that are like Canada, then we don't, you know you're in a good spot. If Lewis is able to keep putting in great podium performances, he's able to regularly beat Charler LeClaire. If that's a 50-50 split by the time we get to Zanvall, for example, you go, we've got two great drivers that are both performing well.

again, is to be the thing that steps up. So why would you move it, especially with the marketing ability that Lewis Hamilton gives you, the social interest, the stocks and shares that go up around him, it doesn't make sense to move him along. If we see the flip of that, and we actually see Sherlock Claire regularly between, I don't know, first and fourth on every race basis, and Hamilton is back to being in that sixth to eighth window and miles off the pace. It might be a question of, Lewis, maybe we're going to run down that contract now.

Bermann's been doing a great job and Hars will step forward. I do not think they need to make a call in the next two or three Grand Prix. I think time is on their side. I agree with that. I think they are right now likely in the position of starting to consider it. It doesn't mean it's going to go one way or the other, but they're at least considering it right now. Because I think with the exception of F1's worst three teams,

which at the moment are Audi, Cadillac and Aston Martin, the closest teammate battle right now is the Ferrari one, in that Charles LeCler is leading the way in terms of points by three whole points, 75 to 72 in LeCleur's favour. Qualifying, much more encouraging, again, Lewis Hamilton versus Charles LeClaire than it has been in the past. And that's no mean feat, because whilst we look at Lewis Hamilton and say he's one of the greatest qualifiers of all time,

he definitely is, Charles LeCler in a more modern sense has been a wonderful qualifier who is really difficult to beat over one lap. I'd like to go back to 2019, his first year at Ferrari when he went up against Sebastian Vettel, four-time champion who had somewhat been in contention for the driver's title in the last two years. Lecler out-qualified him in that debut year for Ferrari, 12-9. That is the worst year LeCler has ever had versus a teammate in qualifying. Yeah, that's mad, isn't it? He's so good.

And so the fact that Hamilton is making progress in that specific department is pretty encouraging. And of course, the second place finish that he had at the Canadian GP at the weekend. It's only, and this maybe speaks more to Ferrari than it does to Lewis Hamilton, but it's only Ferrari's third second place finish since the start of last year. They haven't... It's so poor. Right. So poor.

And I agree with the point that you made as. well in that I think Ferrari are in a pretty privileged position, not only with Bairman, but maybe the wider grid as well, because these drivers, including the two that they've got racing for them right now, are just desperate to race for the scuderia. They're desperate to race for, it sounds so basic, the red car. It's nostalgic. It hits something in the heart. And because of that, this isn't a situation like, I don't know, like a hash, for example,

where you maybe want to make this decision quite early in the year to ensure the drivers you want aren't snapped up. If a driver wants to race for Ferrari and then they're in the midfield right now, they'll find a way to race for Ferrari. They'll make it happen. Yeah, you get a call in December from Ferrari and there you go, go on, we've got a seat for you.

Go on, see you later, tear that contract up. Yeah, imagine Kabatsi just being like, nah, you're right, actually. Yeah, I don't want it. Sorry, Ollie, you're not racing for Ferrari next year. Back in the Sim, lad. But Lewis Shingy doesn't use the SIM anymore. Get back at the SIM, Olly.

Yeah, I'd like to see that happen. So yeah, right now I wouldn't make a call. I think consistency is the key word for Hamilton going forward. Like, if he can show, because he was very good at China. He was very good, obviously, in Canada. And then the two in between, he was very comfortably the second best Ferrari, even if the result didn't look that way in Miami. If he can repeat Canada five times, four or five times,

I think that's probably enough. I agree. I agree. Like I said, if I say 50-50, I think that's actually a really good situation. If LeClaire is 60 and he's 40% of those results, I still think it's very solid for Ferrari. And I agree with what you said as well about sort of the marketing effect as well of Lewis Hamilton and how much he means to the wider business. It does mean that Ferrari are almost looking for reasons to keep him rather than looking for reasons to get rid of.

of him. Like, there are certain situations where a driver under pressure, it's almost like they have to prove why they need to stick around because the team is looking for the excuse to go in a different direction. Ferrari will, if they need to, really find a reason to keep Hamilton. It's not in their interest to get rid of him. Yeah. And that does help Hamilton's position right now.

Massively. I do wonder as well whether, um, do you remember when Perez won Monaco a few years back and he use that to get his contract extension. Oh, yeah, cheeky-bagger. Really tied them up quick, didn't he? I wonder if Hamilton might go, now's a good time to start properly talking about this. Let's sit down.

Let's hash some things out, guys. Just lastly on the Hamilton chat, what did you make of, I know a lot was made of Lewis Hamilton not using the simulator between Miami and Canada. And I'm not sure what percentage of his good performance at Canada can be attributed to that. do you think this is something that will continue just based on that result?

It's really hard to make a decision off of one use case, one moment. But if it is genuinely true that he using the simulator has caused him to go the wrong way with the setup and lose fear in the car, it makes me wonder how many other parts of Ferrari's setup, Ferrari's development, are based on that simulator work and is just wrong. And it wouldn't shock me if their simulator just sucks. and they haven't realised it. And actually, every upgrade that's come through, every engine development, LeCleur, they're all using this sim.

And actually, it's just holding them back. If Hamilton goes into Monaco, for example, a place where actually he's not had buckets of success in comparison to some of Canada that we just went to, but some of the other racetracks, things won there twice in his whole career. Yeah, I think you're right. You know, if he goes there now, he's a gang better than LeClaid. If he's fighting maybe for a race win, because obviously the engine is it as crucial

there. And he's gone, no sim again, I've just got in the car. You do have to start to look at the facility and go, they've got to look at something else because that's quite worrying for Ferrari. If I was Hamilton, I would just keep an open mind because it might be the case that him avoiding the simulator for now is a good thing. In theory, the more these teams and these drivers learn about the tracks and learn about these regulations, the sims should get better, in which case maybe you don't want to completely avoid this for the rest of the year. I think it's just something that he should keep in mind possibly,

but for now, go with what works, I guess. Before we go to our second break, just to note, Patreon is available if you aren't already subscribed on there. Three different tiers available with varying sort of benefits, depending on what tier you're on. I mentioned this, I mean, we mentioned it enough anyway, but one reason to mention it now, now that we've kind of got these really long breaks out of the way, we're going to start to get into an extended period of double headers, maybe some triple headers coming up as well. And one of the benefits of the top tier on Patreon is power rankings, where we go through all of the drivers and rate them from 1 to 10. A really good opportunity for us to talk about every single team,

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Let's take our next break. On the other side, we've got comments from Esteban Okon and his team boss, Iocomatsu. This will be good. Oh, this will be good. Welcome back, everyone. Following rumours midweek around a souring relationship between Hasbos, Iokomatsu, and Hash Driver, Esteban Okon, both had similarly punchy answers ahead of the Canadian GP refuting these claims. O'Con was first up, calling the rumor... I should probably have this ready to go because it's... Oh, yes. It's explicit heavy. So Ockon was first up, calling the rumor,

complete bull-b-h-to-be-honest. It's unbelievable. This is complete nonsense. I came to this team for the reason that I know I owe since so long. I've got a great relationship with him. That's always been the case, and there's nothing like what people have been saying going on. It's completely not true.

I'm fully focused on what I have to do. the job I have to do with the team. I'm fully on board with the team for the whole year. Kamatsu went with even more expletives in his response, many of which I have cut out. But the sentiment was the same. He called it just bull-b-b-bock gossip and asking, how is that journalism? Wow. Wow. At least they've come back at the same side. Oh yes, it's United Front. No doubt.

It would have been really awkward if they were like, yeah, no, we have not been getting along. What are you wrong about? Yeah, O'Conn's like, that's nonsense. I was like, hold on a second. I do hate the guy. He makes a few valid points. Who was that journalist, by the way? No, this must have come from some weird leak or something like that within the team.

Yeah, I believe, and it's some weird chain to get there. but I think it was a Brazilian journalist that has sort of poorly translated a Japanese article and kind of, and it's kind of just gone from there. Well, there you go. I've looked at a cookbook, mate, and Brazil into Japanese is a recipe for disaster.

You just don't want it. Kamatsu's got cooking from that one. Yeah, this is a little bit embarrassing for a start, but actually, I suppose for Ocon's point of view, quite comforting. He's not had a great start for the season. He's picked up one point in total, which was at the Japans' Grand Prix, Behrman, his teammate, on 18 points right now,

after scoring multiple times throughout the season. I think he's like a fifth place as well, which really cementing him having a really good start to this year. Picked up again another point in Canada, of course. Ocon could have come out looking really bad here. And Kamatsu almost will have a leg to stand on to go. No, we're not falling out or anything like that, but there are conversations about the fact that he's not performing to their level expecting.

We need him to pick it up. Kamatsu has come out guns blazing fully defending him and I really actually respect that from Kamatsu and I think Okong has done well to have such a big ally within the team it shows that they have a great relationship it could have gone quite bad before him and it hasn't yeah no ambiguity whatsoever from either team principal or driver

I think both were quite hurt by this and slightly bewildered by it as well O'Con and Kamatsu were talking about how they got to the track on the Thursday and they met and they were kind of had the same reaction of what on earth is this? What is going on? And yeah, when they were both asked about this in the press conference, they gave very similar answers. I think this is proof of how powerful the media can be

and why it is important for the media to routinely check itself and ensure that it is, I know in today's society facts are somewhat optional, and I'll leave my commentary there, But you know what? They're really important in journalism. And when they're not there, it can lead to situations like this. And whilst I think both have kind of, I don't want to say they've shrugged it off because they were quite, again, punchy in their responses, it could have been worse.

Like, Ocon has said, Ocon said as part of his response, it's not far off bullying. Like, there are things to consider when it comes to the accuracy of reports. And it's something that I feel very passionately about. and I think we as a podcast do as well. And it sort of extends onto what we choose to discuss on this show. There are times where I've had comments before about the topics we choose to discuss from people who say, like, this is out there. Why wasn't that on the show?

And three days later, it will come out. It was complete nonsense. It's really important that it's, I don't think I'd ever call us the media because that sounds weird. But when you have something of a voice in the, I don't know, in the space, it's important you use it wisely. And I'm glad that both Komatsu and Ocon have gone and really, they've really gone out this report,

like that they haven't held back whatsoever in their annoyance at this. Yeah, I think credibility is incredibly important when it comes to reporting. And we might not take ourselves seriously all the time. And we're using this as an option to pat ourselves on the back, which is easy to talk about ourselves in this scenario. you know who's listening, you know who's reading your pieces, you never go who subscribes to what you're putting out there. And you can so easily mislead something and create a chain of events that has a drastic event or repercussion on someone that is suddenly blindsided by what you're reporting. You know, this happens in sport, it happens in media, entertainment all the time where someone will say something nasty or unprovoked or downright wrong, just a lie.

And you don't know that that person is sat there at home and thinking, oh, how's that happened? That's rubbish. I feel absolutely terrible for that, and you don't know what could go on from that point onwards. So there's a reason why places like the BBC have a two-source rule, right? They won't break a story unless they've had two confirmed sources about an option that comes out there. And the same should be almost a guarantee across the industry that if you're hearing that Okonga Komatsu are falling out and they don't get along very well, check who you've heard it from first. And then go out there and try and find your own source to make sure that actually that makes sense. And being like you, I'd rather be late to a bit of news and actually report on it. it factually, then ensure that we are not just spouting absolute crap.

Yeah. I would say in terms of the responses of the two, Ockon was maybe the marginally least annoyed about this. I think because of their position, they have to be. Well, that's what I think is true as well, because, you know, Kamatsu, he really went at this, and I understand why, because Hass can't really afford drama in their position. We talk about, I always liken HAST to maybe a slightly more modern version of what Force India used to be, where they are trying to deploy a limited budget and beat teams that have a marginally bigger budget than what they have.

But when you're running with that kind of model, you have to be incredibly careful about what you are spending time on and what you're not spending time on. And here you have, and we know with HASS as well, and Khamatsu has been at Hasse for a long time, the driver lineup has in the past, somewhat hurt them in that you remember the Grosjean and Magnuson and Gunter Steiner era where plenty of memes came out of that but it wasn't massively productive a lot of the time because they were too busy taking each other out and it was a bit of a what is going to be shown on Netflix Drive to survive next season and then they had a lineup of Mazapin and McSumacher which two rookies in the car appreciate the car was terrible that year as well even outside of the drama surrounding Mazapin's seat again it was the lineup that was kind of

are holding them back. And they've got themselves in a more fortunate position here where Kamatsu has been able to take a very highly rated young Ferrari driver in Oli Behrman. They've taken a very experienced driver who has multiple years in the sport in Esteban Okon. And I think Kamatsu is probably coming at this like, I don't want the driver line up to be something that holds us back or becomes a big thing in the media here. I've got too much to work on outside of that. Let's just knit this in the bud and just stop things here. because it doesn't make sense for these rumours to carry on. I'm all for it. I think he, I think, yeah, there are a few expletives,

but hey, I think you're handing it the right way. Blunt to the point, cleared it up, total clarity. There's no room for a conversation you can decide. Just in terms of Esteban Ockon, because I think these comments very directly answer the question about whether his seat is in immediate jeopardy. The answer to that is no. But as you say, he is still trailing Olly Behrman quite significantly in points at the

moment. Bearman seems to be the more comfortable of the two early in the season. What does Ocon need to do throughout the rest of the year? I mean, beat Beirman more regularly will be a start. But if he can't beat Beer Beer Berman, it's okay to finish runner-up, but he just needs to be a close runner-up. And we've had this conversation with many different teams. Yet Red Ball included, Hager, for example, has come into this team after teammate after team, cannot finish remotely close to Max for Stappen. And yet he actually did that, I can get there with one of his worst performances we've seen for a while.

And yet that's what Red Bull need. Hars require the same thing. If Bairman's going to be ninth place, Ockling needs to be fighting for 10th. It really needs to be that simple. And I think the harsh performance is tricky because it's not guaranteed that a race day, they will be fighting for points. On the day that the car is good enough that they might actually be fighting for points, it cannot just be Beerman who is the one in those points paying positions.

Ockle has to be there with him. He needs a total step up at the moment. I do think he's dropped off so far this season. I would agree with that. I think what helps Ocon right now, and maybe what has slightly contributed to the annoyance from both of them here is, from Kamatsu at least, is that Behrman's future is uncertain whilst Hamilton's future is uncertain at Ferrari. And I think keeping O'Con on side as much as possible is in Hasse's best interest right now. I don't think they want to go through a double line-up change again. They've done that a few times in the past. It's very rarely been effective. So I think keeping an eye on what Lewis Hamilton does might be in Hass's best interest right now. Ocon is definitely struggling to start this year. I know in Canada he didn't have the same upgrade package

that the Bearman had, which could at least partly explain the gap in performance between the two of them. But the gap was still very, very large between the two of them. And I appreciate there were strategic differences at play as well. But maybe more worrying for Ocon. maybe there's a way that has a planning to deal with this with upgrades later in the year, is why Behrman got the upgrade first overall. Obviously, Ocon is the far more experienced driver, probably came into the team,

not with a written contract, but maybe in his mind, like, I'm going to be the senior number one driver here. And now it's his younger teammate that's picking up the upgrade first. Like I say, it might just be that the next upgrade package, it's Ocon that will get it first instead. But yeah, 181 down in points right now, 4-1 in qualifying. He needs to figure out what's missing because whilst it was close last year, there wasn't much in it. It started to stretch though, isn't it? But that's my point. It's like it was close enough last year.

Can Ocon get back to that? That's got to be his first step. And as you mentioned with the upgrades, hopefully they do come and they are affected. But we've seen time and time again that heart is best opportunity for points scoring is the first five to seven Grand Prix of a season and that may have already come and gone. He does love Monaco though, Esteban, Ocon. He does. He does very well at Monaco.

He might score one point. Oh, come on. I'm also excluding the one year where him and Gassley made contact on the first lap, of course. But he typically does go very well around here. I still maybe haven't been as excited as that time he nearly got pole position in an LP a couple years ago.

Yeah. Oh, Escher back. Do that again. That was good. 2023 with a minute to go in the session. Ock on our poll. Anyway, plenty more Monaco chat to come over the next week, of course. But before we get there, F1 Fantasy, our first F1 Fantasy update in a little while. Let's start, not with us. Let's start with the big guns.

The top three in the league. It's currently leading the way. The first to 1,700 points, 1,720 points. Never Lewis Faith. A good weekend for it as well, I guess. Done well. The Hamilton's done well. Do you see that Nicholas got a win as well?

We got a top step. It did. It did. Everyone was crying. Oh, I haven't seen that. Very lovely video. Go check it out. Love that.

Second place at the moment in the league is Feisty Pancake. Great name. Great name. And third place is Lumley Speed Syndicate. So that's the top three in the league for the season so far. But we do have a winner for Canada itself. A tough weekend because, usually it's anyone using the limitless chip

that will find their way to the top on any given weekend because you've got, you can basically use anyone you want, you can go full, all out on Mercedes, all out on McLaren, whatever. But of course, we know that there was a DNF for Russell. So that will hurt both Russell as the driver and Mercedes as the constructor. We know that both McLaren's struggled in the race. So it's not actually someone who used Limitless, who leads the way. It's someone who used the three times boost instead.

and it's Ferrari. I'm not sure if I love it or if I absolutely despise it. Scoring three, six nine points. Congratulations to you. How do I score? I didn't look at how much I actually scored is where I am. Less than that. Yep.

I can help you out in that regard. What about us, though? So should we start with Kirsty? Because Kirsty was on a very nice round 1,000th last time out, and she decided that that's too easy for number for the guys to read out. So she's actually decided to improve. And she's gone up by 225 places to sit 775th in the league. So I've got a good number for her as well.

775 is nice. Still pretty round. We like that. Sam, you were leading the way after Miami? I was. How did you do in Canada? I improved. I'm about 80 places higher than I was.

I'm up to 486 now. Okay. So you've improved. I've improved as well. You're saying how close have you got to be, Ben? I don't like this. I'm getting there. All right.

I moved up 161 places, meaning I'm now 579th. All right, you can stay there. Yeah, I'm happy with that. Part the car, mate. Did you make any changes for this week? Absolutely done. I actually forgot. That's all right.

I'll give you an extra transfer to use for Monaco. You'll get three free transfers now rather than two. I again, I've struggled to start the year. So I'm trying to salvage the season somewhat by just building budget as much as I could. So I actually made a move to get racing bulls as one of my teams in that kind of worked a little bit. The Lindblad DNF obviously hurt me a lot. Yeah, I have the same issue. But anyone who had Mercedes, of course, also had a DNF.

So it was maybe not as impactful as it could have been. I also transferred in Alex Albin. That's got a bag shot. until it was. Until it didn't go very well at all. So yeah, if you haven't already joined the league, make sure you do. Over 3,400 teams in the league right now.

And you've got a couple of weeks before you need to make some decisions for Monaco. I'm really wanting to just sing the Will Young song but change the lyrics to, You think you better join the league right now before it gags any fuller. Terrible. No, no, anything from Will Young cannot be terrible. That's true.

I love that man. Let's take our final break on this episode on the other side. It's fill in the blank. Welcome back, everyone, to close out the show. We're going to be playing fill in the blank. F1, fill in the... Oh, the quality systems.

I forget that I said that every time. Every time I forget that, crappy ends on it. Because the rest is great. It is the worst jingle ever. It might be the worst jingle ever. But the people love it. And I'm saying people, there might be two of them out there.

Fill in the blank. So quick game to end this one. I'll say a sentence that will have a blank somewhere in that sentence. We'll need to fill that out to complete the sentence with our opinions. So the first one, fill in the blank. Flavio Briatore and Alpine will be feeling blank about their lineup at the moment. Encouraged is what I work for. I think it's definitely a better scene than it will.

was at the start of the year. I went with motivated, which might be another way to say, encouraged. It means of change. We're in the phosaurus. Similar sentiment. Because there were questions about this lineup going into the year in that I know Gasly's got a bit of a longer term extension, but we still haven't seen Gasly maybe in a great, not that Alpine have one yet, but we haven't seen Gasly in a great

car since it didn't go very well for him back in 2019. And of course, Colopinto, there were probably more questions about him at the beginning of the year than any other driver, despite his miraculous winter that he had, which I'm actually started to believe might have actually happened now. But yeah, you look at it, like, Gazzley, he's locked in, he's got a better car than what he's had. He's going to be more motivated than he was. Colopinto's had two excellent races back to back, and his points dally is looking pretty respectable now. The other thing that I guess we could talk about here as well is that Gabri, Rieelli Mini, who is an Alpine junior driver, is leading the way in Formula 2. So maybe they've got a bit of an insurance policy there as well.

They're doing better than they have done in the past, that's for sure. And fair play to Colopinto for finding whatever it was throughout the winter that has allowed him to turn into this super soldier, because he's certainly driving brilliantly. If they could keep this up for the rest of the season, regular double points finishes, maybe they sell the team properly this guy. Who knows? Maybe they do it properly. Next one. Fill in the blank. Outside of Mercedes, the happiest team on the grid right now should be blank.

I struggled with this one when you sent it over. Really struggled because I think there's a real case for everyone else. But actually, I'm going to say, Al Ping should be the happiest on the grid. I think the rise they've had and they'll jump that they've taken. I didn't peg them to be the leagues of the midfield. They're comfortably so only after five races. I struggle with this one as well, which to be fair, I just punched myself in the face here because I was, the one who sent it over. Well done me for giving myself a headache. And I've probably come with a terrible answer. Outside of Mercedes, the happiest team on the grid right now should be Ferrari. Okay. So I struggled to give it to a midfield team just because of how bad the midfield is versus the front cars at the moment.

I feel like all of them, even Alpine to an extent, will be disappointed that they have got seconds to find before they can even think about competing with Red Bull and McLaren or Ferrari, let alone Mercedes. So I looked into the other top teams outside of Mercedes. I've gone with Ferrari partly because they are right now best positioned as second in the championship. And after the tough result for McLaren at Canada, they are now 41 points clear of them. I just think that I know we've referenced this before, Ferrari might have an easier path to victory than McLaren or Red Bull do in that.

McLaren are going to have to find something over Mercedes that isn't power unit related. They are going to have to find something within the car to get that advantage. And I think that will be tough. If Ferrari can prove that they are slower in terms of their power unit, they might be able to catch up faster and actually compete for victories at some point in the not too distant future. And again, they've got two close drivers in the championship. There's only a few points separating the two drivers. No, I think it's fair.

I think it's a little bit more of a one you've got to dig into. I can see why you pick them. Yeah. I think honestly, the correct answer is no one can be massively happy other than Mercedes. Cadillac, maybe. I think they can be content. Cadillac. Cadillac.

Cadillac. I think they could be happy that they've had a semi-all-right start and that they're finishing races. Okay, next up, fill in the blank. The one thing F-1 is yet to find a solution for is blank. Inorganic racing. Okay. you know, if I'm going to be a lot more granular, I suppose.

I think it is creating a formula that is actually constantly competitive up and down the grid. We regularly have these extremes. And we have done every single era of Formula One. There is a team that does seem to be well ahead. And there's a group that trail behind. We don't get, we don't ever get a formula where suddenly it will be harsh one year and then it'll be out of the next year. And they'll be Mercedes.

And it doesn't happen. It doesn't happen. The theory I'm starting to develop for F1 at the moment is when it's good, it's really good. And when it's bad, it's really bad. I don't think we've had a lot of OK in that when you have Ansonelli versus Russell and you've got two teammates sort of fighting away and they're reversing position. It can be really good. The problem is as soon as something like that ends and you are looking up and down the timing

tower to see 15 seconds, 25 seconds, 6 seconds, 12ths. and there's just nothing else close on track, it can, there can be spells of races that are really bad. Yeah, yeah. So I understand, I understand where you're coming from there. For me, the one thing F1 is yet to find a solution for is tires. The issue is, I think there is the solution. I can't think that they'll take it.

Yeah, yeah, it may be reframing it ever so slightly. It's, there are some who will argue, like the first third of the Canadian GP that was infrauling. We don't need tyres to be this variable. It doesn't matter. I still think it does. I think strategy can create really exciting racing, particularly when it comes to tire wear.

And at the moment, we just don't really have it. Again, Antonelli being able to set the fastest lap after doing 35, 40 laps on a set of medium tires, it shouldn't be... I was about to say, It shouldn't be allowed. It can be allowed. It just shouldn't happen.

And yet it does. It shouldn't be feasible. Yeah, right. Competitive. It's wrong in that. That's the case. Yeah. I also think it's a skill for the drivers as well.

There's maybe one of my issues with F1 at the moment is it still kind of feels like as long as as you can hold on to the driver in front via the way in which battery is deployed. Like you can kind of get away with it. I do want to see these drivers separated by skill. And tireware is one way you get. that. There's a reason why you get tire whisper and nicknames going around for a certain set of drivers. Indeed. I'm fascinated by this last one. Okay. Fill in the blank. Antonelli's chances of winning the championship are blank percent.

75 percent. Okay, so you think there's a three and four chance that Antonelli wins the title from here. Yeah, I think if he is even nine-tenths as good as what he has been in the first five Grand Prix for the rest of the season, I think he wins. I think he wins. I think he's. comfortably wings. I think luck will swing George Russell's way at some point in this season, but is it enough luck to take it away from the raw capability of what Antingale's achieved? I don't think so now. So yeah, I think it's very much in his court. It's really interesting in the, I know we will have more sprint races as well, but if George Russell wins the next six races in a row and Antonelli finishes second in all of those races, Antonelli still has the championship lead.

Right. When you break it down like that, it is quite difficult to see how Russell might overcome this. Well, it's going to need errors, retirements, bad luck or something to hit Antonelli, no doubt about that. I've gone with Antonelli's chances of winning the championship. I've gone for 45%. Okay. Do you still think it's what Russell's caught predominantly or something else? Well, I think if Antonelli's making up, say, 45% at the moment and then maybe Russell's making up, I think, 35%.

And then something weird like Ferrari or Red Bull, massively improving, that's maybe 20%. Of course, Vastappen's completely out of the championship right now. Right. We fought the same thing last year. And you just never know. So I still think he is the favourite right now, just based on the lead he's got and how quick he's already shown himself to be. I still want to see a bit of that pace in some of these European grounds.

where he didn't show pace last year, of course. So I am going with overall just about more unlikely than likely. But if we're talking just individual drivers, I do have him as the favourite. Speaking of the favourite, just something else I wanted to throw in here. Antonelli or Russell, who do you think is the favourite to win the Monaco GP with bookmakers right now? Russell. It was a cruel question.

The answer is neither of them. Oh, come on. Can't give you a trick. Right now, Charles LeCler is the favourite to win the Monaco, GP. I'll let you in here. I've been already thinking about bold predictions. One of them was that there will be a Ferrari victory at Monaco.

At the moment, and obviously we've got a bit of time to go, bookmakers are suggesting LeCleur is the favourite to win in Monaco, And Hamilton and Antonelli are sort of tied for second. I think the Ferrari car could be quite brilliant at Monaco. There is a part of me that thinks put your money on it, folks. Yeah.

Don't come back to me if you lose. That was not a tip. Yeah, we don't do better tips here, fortunately. Yeah, I just thought I'd give that a look earlier on today. And I kind of felt that maybe Ferrari would be on a similar-ish level to Mercedes, but I didn't know if they'd have them outright as the favorite. So clearly, someone knows something and thinks that. that chassis might well see them to victory.

It's fascinating. Yes. It's been a while since Ferrari took a race victory. We'll see in about 10 days' time. 10 times. 10 times? We're seeing about 10 days' time as to whether that happens or not. We've got another episode before we preview that, though.

We've got Sunday's episode, Sam. If you wouldn't mind getting us out of it, until then. I've got a much more respectful. Would you rather? Oh, thank goodness. It's not toilet humor, folks. You haven't seen it. Check the Discord if you want to see what actually went on.

before it's editing out. Right. Would you rather be able to pause time for 30 seconds once a day, or would you rather be able to rewind time by 30 seconds once a day? Ooh. Tough one. Let me go in the comments in the Discord. I'm curious to know what your thoughts are,

because with all happening in a conversation, you think, why do I say that? Because say something different. What are you going to get done when you pause for 30 seconds? Unless you're going to rob a bank in 30 seconds. I'd like to go what you're getting done. But maybe you could come up with things I haven't thought of,

but I'd be fascinated to go. Like, great, I can pause everything, but I can sprint from here to out of my house, but, like, what have I gained? Well, if you're about to miss your train or something. But, you know, if you're missing a train, you're very rarely missing it by 30 seconds. That's happened to me.

I mean, it does happen, but, like, you might miss a train by five minutes, in which case you can't do anything. No, that's true. So, there you go. I would take rewind. Okay, let's go, folks. Is it unanimously rewind?

Be interested in your thoughts. Thank you for listening so much. Make sure you do give Patreon a try. Again, if you don't like it, you can always bring it off again. Follow some social media, Late Breaking F1. Subscribe on YouTube, like Breaking F1. So, it's so close to that 10K now, which is amazing to see.

And also that 15K on Instagram. So thank you so much. It's really great to see such a support from so many of you just outside of the show as well. We've got birthday shoutouts coming up very soon as well, which of course hugely exciting when the Father Christmas of birthday arrives. And we'll be back for one more. non-F-1 relating, well we're saying non-race-related.

We ain't talking F-1, folks. We're going to talk about Wookie Rathers for one hour straight. See you there, folks. In the meantime, I'll be Samuel Sage. And I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late.