The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Are V8 engines returning to F1?!

Episode Date: May 6, 2026

More BS from MBS, or is a V8 comeback actually on the horizon? Ben and Sam break down the latest engine chatter shaping the sport’s next era, then wrap up the Miami GP with a look at the post-race penalties. 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 F-1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. I want a very warm welcome to the late-breaking F-1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking, back on this mid-week Wednesday. And there's no F-1 this weekend, which is a bit of a shame, Sam, but equally, not that it will come out to you guys in this exact order. We've been recording for five days in a row, so you must be absolutely sick of me. No, no, no, no.

I think actually it's the gift that keeps on giving. I think, you know, we are the one constant in the Formula One world. So we must keep doing the good work and bringing great Formula One concert to the people. What are we going to talk about tomorrow and the next day? We're going to run out things at some point. We'll find something, Ben. We'll find something. Something will come along in a Formula One package.

Yes, that's what we love to see. Good astounding in the first minute of the show. Pretty much. Coming up on today's episode, we've got. a game of F1 overrated and underrated coming up. We've got Miami and a bit of a wrap up there of what happened at the weekend, a few things that we just need to, we need to put a bow on. McLaren and Ferrari, increased competitiveness at Miami. How long can that last for? Who do we like the look of out of the two coming out of that race weekend? But let's start

with the return of V8. Return of V8, Sam. That's interesting. It is interesting. I saw a great meme the other day, which applies perfectly to this, which, you know, Kirstly, maybe you can use on socials, which will be, man you hate most makes great point. Oh, yes. Yes. Yeah. And I was like, damn it, Ben. Damn you.

Not you. No, no. Ben. Mohamed Ben. Um, I hate that you've come up with this idea because it's really good. It is. I'd be here for some V8. You know, I've rang into the comments.

There's a lot of big phrases going on, like 1,200 break horsepower, screaming engines. lack of energy efficiency. And I'm thinking, this guy's ticking some good boxes here. But I think he's got a little plan up his sleeve, which I'm happy to get involved within a minute. Yes, because whilst we have V6 hybrid engines at the moment, they will only stay for a minimum until 2030 or 2013. Mohammed Ben Sulean, the FIA president,

would like to go back to V8 engines. A previous push by Ben Suleum was actually to reintroduce V10 engines. That was shelved last year due to a lack of support from, manufacturers. However, attitudes appear to be shifting amongst the teams. They're now thought to be more open to reducing the level of electric power, reflecting a broader change in the automotive industry. And in his quote, he said, you will hear about it very soon, and it will be with very, very minor electrification. I'm positive they want it to happen, but let's say the manufacturers don't approve it for 2030. The next year, it will happen. In 2013, it's done anyway. Quote,

It will be done, which is very medicine. I really enjoy how blindly assertive he is on this quote, because he's got no thought process behind. If it doesn't work, how much of a fool he's going to look. What do you mean? It will be done. It will. I'll start doing that across my day.

You know, like, I will have a McDonald's for lunch. I will have a double cheeseburger. It will be done. And then I will go and buy one. Members of your team at work are going to be terrified to get any emails from you. It's just going to be those words. it will be done.

Do this for me. It will. When the race winner, wings a Grand Prix, I will drown them with water with a glass bottle. It will be done. That's how,

as I mentioned, that's how he thinks with every choice. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was what was going through his head of the weekend anyway.

I like that Mohammed Ben Suleim has almost taken on a role of, because about, let's say a year ago, Mohammed Ben Sulean was getting a lot of stick.

And honestly, rightfully so, and that should continue to an extent. But Stefano Domenicali has almost taken up the mantle from him more recently. And it feels like Ben Suleum, who's just like set off a fire in the corner, has just seen a fire in the distance that Domenicali's set off. And he's, look, everyone,

look at that one. I'm with all of you guys. Look at that. What are you doing, Stefano? He's trying to be on everyone's side now, it feels like. Yeah, it's that you've painted the picture brilliantly for the wider argument I wanted to make here that the regulations in Formula One right now are at an all-time low. They are in the Bing. People hate these regulations. There's a lot of conversation about how sold as Formula One is, how disappointed people are in the new regs, how people are turning off and not watching the sport. So how do you suddenly run the best PR campaign? How do you get back on everyone's good side after you got a lot of stick last year? You promise them the thing that everyone wants immediately, which is V8 screaming engines with no battery. Like you're selling promises. You're

selling dreams here, Mohammed Ben Silliam. You've got to deliver on them. Because whilst you might be in people's good books for a minute. If it falls through, you've already retracted from V-10, down to V8. You can't really go anywhere else after this. V-6 is what we've already got. So you've got to deliver. I do think he's seized the opportunity

to essentially give himself a better public image. And you know what? If he does deliver it, fair play to you. Because it is something we all want. And I think it would have to involve sustainable fuels and making sure that it is genuinely applicable to the automotive world, hence the comments from Mercedes that they could genuinely find this interest. But I don't think he can just make it so.

I don't think he can just have it done because he wants it done. I do think he's going to need buying from manufacturers, sponsors, drivers, Formula One. It's not as simple as just, I'm going to do it because I want to do it. That's not how it works. But it will be done. But what, it doesn't compute in my head, but what if it's not done? It will be done. It's not done.

Okay. I always take everything that Mohammed Ben-Suliam says with a bucket full of salt. I was going to say a pinch, but it's not really a pinch when it comes to him. It's a large truck of soul. Yes. I always like to think whenever Mohammed bin Salim says something is definitely going to happen, it's probably going to happen. If he says something is probably going to happen, it might happen.

And if he says something might happen, it won't happen. No, no, by the way. I don't waste time thinking about it. There's an adjustment scale that goes on in my head as soon as he says something. Again, three months ago, he was talking about V-10s. Like, we're already on to V-10s. This is what I mean, though. He's already retracted one statement.

Yeah. I'm with you in that I think he's making it sound a lot more simple than it will be in reality. It's not just a case of FIA wants this, F1 wants this, we make it happen. There are far too many stakeholders, including the individual teams, for that to be the case. And we might well get to something close to what Mohammed Ben Sulean wants. That wouldn't surprise me at all. It feels very plausible. But I'm not quite sure it's as simple as, as, as.

he's making it to be. There will be compromises along the way. There will be multiple, probably, engine manufacturers who say, yeah, we like 90% of what you're saying, but we'd actually like this on top of it, or we don't like that bit. And soon enough, like you are negotiating. And again, you might get something very close to what you intended. It's unlikely to be as simple as just, it will be done. Yeah. And you have to consider as well that someone might simply reject the idea entirely. Someone like, let's take Audi, right? brand new to this new regulation, so they came in because they favoured the battery power and the way that the engines were working and it makes sense for them to be involved.

If they see their automotive side going a different direction and they think they might be fully electric, let's say by 2031, they want to have anything to do with their program. They'll go, well, all right, thanks, see you later, we'll be gone again. And they have to contend with the fact they might lose a global name in automotive industry, which will be a real shame for Formula One. Yeah, exactly. And especially if it's a team that holds, to be fair to Audi, they don't hold the most power in the sport at the moment.

But if it's someone like Mercedes or Ferrari who are powering multiple teams on the grid, then it becomes an even bigger problem for Mohammed Ben Silliam and those trying to push through these changes. I can see it happening overall, though, because if you look at the 2026 regulations that we have now, and you mentioned that there isn't universal popularity with them, despite what Mr. Domenicali might be saying. But on top of that, like completely separate to that,

I think the idea, or at least one of the ideas around the 2026 regs, was that they would be less complex and cheaper. And I think at the moment, we're 0 for 2. I don't think either of those things have been achieved. The cost cap has increased this year from $135 million to $215.15, which is a... That's such a gigantic jump as well. It is. And I understand there are...

other things at play such as global inflation and there's always going to be a bit of a lift in a first year of regulations regardless of what they are. And I do also understand that there are more things that are covered under the cost cut than when it was first introduced. But even with all of that, and I don't want to make this like a feel sorry for the teams because they have enough money to go around, but there's an extra amount to feed with Cadillac. So revenue has been not necessarily shrunk, but divided up slightly differently. The cost is on the rise. we need to make sure Ferrari is, I know Mercedes will get onto them and what they said about potential changes to V8 engines. Ferrari were basically just like, we'd like the engines to be a bit

cheaper and that's it. And I can understand it. Yeah, I get it. It is arguing the most expensive thing to engine it if you are an OEM, a manufacturer of the engines themselves, a seller of those engines. So to hear that it's not simple, they're making changes. There's something to do completely different direction to what was originally discussed for years before these regulations came in, that is very frustrating. You know, that's like us doing a podcast for a year, and then Mr. Big Podcasts turns up and goes, actually, can you do all your podcasts in French? And we'll go, we monsieur, and we start doing all of our podcasts in French.

And then two weeks later off, we've just learned French, they go, could you do it in like Spanish with a bit of French? And we'll go, oh, you didn't talk about that. That's a lot of time and a lot of effort to do that. It is frustrating. Technically plausible, but very frustrating. Okay, so a new idea for a podcast character is Mr. Big Podcast, but who it says in an awful French accent,

Who do you think you are? You want me to talk about podcasting? I think it's going to catch on, you know? Let's go. Do you love Monsieur Grande podcast? Do you think the biggest benefit in reintroducing V8 engines would be the weight reduction? Because I think that's right up there.

Definitely up there. That's a big option. as to saving a problem that a lot of manufacturers have gone through so far. You know, you're talking Williams, who have had to buy in their aging still, and they don't have control over the creation of an engine. They get the product that they're given. So being able to strip weight out of it is not really an option for them. So now that they're getting a lighter product, definitely better,

because they can then focus on areas of the car. And we've seen weight be a problem throughout many years of Formula One. You remember when Alpha Romeo rocked up, and they were the only team that actually met the weight reduction. And they should have sued for that. Yeah. They were basically told, nah, we're just going to up it again because no one else could do it. So well done for meeting that now, imagining every line that doesn't exist anymore.

The other thing that I think is becoming more and more of a conversation in the automotive world is the creation of batteries itself. You know, it's a finite resource. And a log of that material comes with very specific places around the globe. It's expensive to mine, expensive to get. It has a real knock on for human reaction. You know, those people are in those minds and they're being treated badly, which is not great. So we need to make sure that we are creating a sustainable model for power in cars. Now, Formula One has always been at the cutting edge of this.

Weirdly, Sebastian and Vettel managed to do it. Now, what feels like 10 years ago, where you run a car on a sustainable, renewable, and recyclable version of fuel. And it makes total sense if the automotive world is trying to pivot in a direction where actually they can recycle and recreate their own fuels in partnership with those fuel companies because it's cheaper, it's more effective, it goes longer, and also it ain't got run out, which is great for everyone. That's a real positive. So it makes total sense that something at the cutting edge of another industry adapts to that first. So I think if Mercedes or a global manufacturer,

you know, the likes of Toyota who are slowly becoming a part of it, Audi, Honda, all these cars that are so integral to the automotive world, are suddenly seeing a shift towards sustainable fuels, go Formula One wants to pining ear that. They go, great. We can run that early in Formula One and see how it works for the cars. It's a genuine scientific impact that makes sense. could provide a real cost saving for marketing, for adaption, everything like that. So I think there's a number of huge benefits from moving back to a V8 standard, essentially motor-based engine rather than being battery powered. Yeah, I would include all of those on my list of things that could improve as a result of

the reintroduction of V8. Certainly, as mentioned, like weight reduction, if you think about the situation we're in now, the weight limit last year was 800 kilograms, and then that was reduced this year to 768. So we have made some form of a move towards light of cars, not a massive move, but down by 32 kilograms. But I give the teams immense credit for what they've been able to achieve because the batteries are much more powerful this year, but they are much heavier.

Like these electric batteries are heavy boys. That's gone up by 30 kilograms. So in effect, these teams haven't cut by 32. They've cut by 62 because of the battery power. increasing. And I just think more nimble, more agile cars is the way to go in the future. And I don't think we get that unless we start to move back towards, you know, the combustion engine being responsible for more of the engine's overall power versus the battery power. So I'm with you on that. The other thing is, I know we're not as big on this as some people are, but noise. Like,

it would be good to get back. I still like big noise. Yeah, exactly. I think for some Some, though, it's right at the top of the priority list, whereas for us, it's maybe like midway through. But it would be very nice indeed. If you gave me a world where I had it or a worker I didn't, I'll pick the worker I had it. But if you didn't give me an option, I wouldn't be gutted, but I don't have it. It's just a nice impact. It just feels cool.

And you know what? Feeling cool is great. I haven't done a lot of that in my life. Feeling cool is great. Yeah, I can probably count on one hand the amount of times I felt cool. Do you think that F1 are in a bit of a tough spot in terms of when they're planning out their regulation cycle. We're already having started this set, already thinking about the next set, and based on the amount that it costs the teams, they have to last like multiple years,

like they don't really have a choice. But trying to predict what the industry is going to be like in four or five years time, it's very difficult. Do you sympathise with F1 in that respect? It's a very difficult task to get right. And we've seen it not be right. And we've seen it be right. Now, take the hybrid era, 2014. That was the last really big engine change that we had in recent memory. And you would argue that Formula One went down a semi-correct path, right? We saw a lot of changes in road cars to be more hybrid-based, whether that be semi-electric, whether that be, you know, kind of you run a battery under a certain speed, or you're fully electric, right?

Electric power was quite important. A smaller engine size is doing more is the norm now for road cars. So that made total sense. And so they got it right. The issue with what they got wrong was ending up having the competitiveness all over the place. And we saw such domination from the sayings, which we never want. So you sympathise in that sense that they need to give manufacturers enough time for the sport to be researched and understood so going in the right direction. Those will be consulted, Mercedes, Ferrari, you know, Honda, they'll all be spoken to and asked, does this make sense with your business model?

Is this something in five years time you can see doing? Is this going in the trend that you think it is? They will take on board with that information. The issue, of course, is once they're going to make them. that decision. They have to make it in such a window that there will be teams that even though you're technically not meant to develop until a certain point, we'll be going away and doing stuff that's off the books, isn't Formula One related, which does have a direct impact. You run a risk there. So they are constantly playing a balancing game of the right information,

the right direction, how much awareness, what's the cost? Is it viable? Is it exciting? Is it something we can actually make a racing product out of? You know, are we going to destroy the racing product by giving them too much time. It's a really difficult thing that they have to work out here. And so I'm not surprised that we're having this conversation in the first year of new regulations, especially with how poor they've turned out at all. I think publicly they need to be had because I think it would actually retain a lot of fans that might be tempted to move away from the sport. But at the same time, you run the risk of causing a lot of dismissal and frustration about what you have got now. Yeah, I mean, the automotive world moves very quickly. It moves far

quicker than the, again, like five years average or so, maybe that a regulation cycle is set for. And it's tough to predict what it's going to do in the next few years. And unfortunately, I say unfortunately, it's the reality of the situation that these engine manufacturers and a lot of these teams, they do need that road relevancy. Like, they do need that. Not all teams are here just for a marketing exercise. You know, for the likes of Red Bull, it very much is. that's great. But the likes of Audi and Mercedes as examples, they are here, at least to some

extent, to be able to take that technology away and use on their road cars. And with respect to some teams that are out there like Hass and Williams, and I do genuinely mean that because from a pure F1 fan perspective, particularly with like Williams, their heritage is so important and I love seeing them do well when they are doing well. But when you're looking at the importance of a team in terms of potential like sponsors and partners and the like Audi and Mercedes means so much more in terms of that global recognition than the likes of a Hass or a Williams will like with respect to those two teams like they they don't care like people don't are like the people that need to care don't care in that regard for

those names they will for Audi they will for Mercedes so they do need to appease these manufacturers, at least to an extent. And that's where you get into this difficult entertainment versus keeping them happy, I don't know, situation that we seem to always be in. Yeah, I fully agree with you. Unlike Williams or Hasse, Audi, Honda, Mercedes, even Ferrari, if you're so lucky to own one, it's a gateway, it's a conversation. And if you sit there and go, I've got a brand new Audi. Oh, amazing. Why did you choose that one? they're in Formula One, actually, and I think they're really cool. And I went in Test Grove One because I support them watching Formula One, and I loved it.

And it's got all these cool features. And you end up talking about the car, but you got the car because you watch Formula One and you trust what they do, and you trust that brand, and you think it's a cool brand to be a part of. That's reliability. And it has great technology. It's efficient. These are all things that subliminally send a message. That's why Mercedes is such an integral part of Formula One now.

That's why they value it so highly because their products have skyrocketed since being successful in Formula One. And that's why Renault put Alpine back in instead of having Renault. Because they wanted a sporty version of a car that is seeing as sporty and competitive, that they sells more cars, because it has technology that's relevant to being sporty and it's efficient, and it's quick. I mean, they haven't shown the quick bit yet. But still, you know, that's what they're trying to achieve with that. So that's why it is really important that we do have genuine manufacturers on board willing to subscribe to the idea of what comes next. And so it'd be interesting to see with the likes of Toyota, Honda, you know, Ford and how they're involved,

maybe further out there, you know, that we've had conversations, BMW, Porsche, and there might be others who have shown interest or been interested previously. Would they want to come back into the sport or be a part of the sport for the first time? Because a combustion engine is being spoken about again. Let's take a quick break. On the other side, we'll wrap up this discussion because Mercedes have an idea of a mega engine. Like Megadest. Toto Wolf, same words? I don't like the phrase Mega Engine.

Meg Engine. Meg Engine. Yeah, no. Welcome back, everyone. Just to finish off this discussion about V8 engines because Mercedes and Toto Wolf were asked about this at the weekend. Mercedes is on board with Ben Suleum's push to bring V8 engines back to F1. Toto Wolf speaking to the race has said,

we love V8s that has only great memories. And from our perspective, it's a pure Mercedes engine. It revs high. And then it's about how do we give it enough energy from the battery side to not lose connection to the real world? If we swing 100% combustion, we might be looking a bit ridiculous in 2031 or 2030. We need to consider that, make it simpler, and make it a mega engine. Maybe we could extract 800 brake horsepower off the ice engine and we put 400 brake horsepower on top of it or more in terms of electric energy. So Toto Wolf just wants the biggest engine of all time.

I can kind of subscribe to the biggest engine of all time. I'm not sure it should be called mega engine. I feel like that should appear in like a PowerPoint with like flames around it. You know, like it's the word. It feels like Shark Nado or something. Sure, yeah, exactly. You know what I mean? It's like, is this happening?

Is this real? Should I laugh at it? If you haven't seen it, by the way, this is so off topic. Go and check out the names and the taglines for each of the five sharp. Shark Nader movies. It is hilarious. And Sharknado 6, Mega Engine. That's the good one to come out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I actually think it should go the other way.

I think we should look at starting the cars with a battery, so they're efficient at low-speeding at the start. You look at electric cars off the line. I had an electric mini a few years ago. I was beating everything off the line. Absolutely everything. Thanks, bring in the electric mingy. Here's my broken leg as proof. We're still going. It was so quick off the night.

And that was a mini Cooper. And it flew. Imagine if the Formula One cars were powered between zero and like 80 kilometers an hour, battery only. And then the ICE kicks in. I do think you get faster starts. You have battery relevance, which is efficient when you're starting a car,

which is the most inefficient time to be driving a car. And they bloody go, like the clappers. And then the rest of it, you get the loud screaming engine for the rest of the race, because they never that slow again. So that could work. I'm okay with a bit of a balance here. But I don't like the idea that we're still using battery to top up the speed.

It hasn't worked. It's still not working. Can we move away from the top up side of things and looking it from a different perspective? Yeah. I called this in my notes a big somewhat vote of confidence from Toto Wolf. In that Mercedes power right now, 36% of the grid. So having them not shoot this down is important at this point. equally, he hasn't committed himself to anything either.

So we'll see how it goes in the next couple of months maybe. I'm maybe a little bit surprised he hasn't played a bit more hard to get with this, but equally, yeah, hasn't really committed to anything. I'm not sure I like the Mega Engine idea. This sounds... I've come around to it. Yeah, I knew you would. Mega Engine.

I knew it would take all of, what, three minutes? I'm surprised it's taking it that long. I'm hooked. Yeah. I don't massively like the idea of it, just based on if we are having a 1,200 brake horsepower engine, and regardless of what the split is, what Toto Wolf has suggested would be like a two-thirds split, which is obviously taking us away from what we have right now, which is about 55, 45, 45, 45, and closer to maybe what we had last year, somewhere in the middle of those two,

I just think the racing would be absolutely dire. like the size that these cars would have to be, we're not, we wouldn't be going to a more nimble, more agile car. These would be like the fattest things you've seen in your life going down Australia. I get the wrong way, man.

It's just going to be an engine with wheels. But it might, it will be. Unless they strip all the downforce out of it, it's going to just be like, there won't be any racing. And you know who's going to be at the front? Fernando a longso.

No. No, he won't. because he'll think, oh, I've got a good idea. Alpine Honda, that's going to be the future. And then they'll be off. Under around. Yeah, right. So that's not going to happen.

But yeah, I just think it would almost be the 1980s again, hopefully without the lack of safety we had. Whoa, there's a lot of people that love the good old those. Back in their day. There were some good things about F1 at that point, but there were some very bad things that if it was played out now, would get a lot of complaints. It's similar to maybe like the 2019-2020 regulations where they were seriously impressive beasts of cars, particularly the Mercedes.

I remember thinking on like a Mercedes Qualilap, like, good Lord, this is impressive. Didn't always create the best racing though. Yeah, yeah, if you were to sell someone, this is prime race car to go quickly round a racetrack. Yeah, yeah, fair enough. Yeah, for sure. The feat of engineering, that is incredible. entertainment going wheel to wheel, no, not quite so much. Let's move on to McLaren and Ferrari coming out of the Miami GP weekend, a very good weekend for McLaren.

Not that they're yet second place in the Constructors' Championship, but they have cut down that gap quite a lot to Ferrari. Let's start with McLaren. Do you think that they are right now Mercedes biggest challenges going forward? It is tough to say. We've had one race. It felt like a very specific style of race. It felt like a very specific style of race. You know, we had very hot temperatures, we had that risk of rain as well, so we don't have set-ups are playing it. There's a lot of upgrades that were still being tested with only a 90-minute test session at the start of the weekend. So maybe it comes out that there's something that we're not sure is working or needs to be adapted differently or actually a different racetrack might be brilliant or not. So that is hard to say without further evidence, further actual

analytics and running. But from the one race we've had and the amount of upgrades they brought that seemingly stepped them forward well, and they've got this, for say, his engine on board, which, as we know, is joint best with Red Bulls for Power Train. It feels like they've got a pretty powerful package. And we all know that the design master, Rob Marshall, was not letting it go for too long. He has been in the kitchen cooking up. Here's a second off our pace.

Yeah, there we go. My man built up an old scaffolding rig at the end of the Japanese Grand Prix. And he scaled to the very, very top of the tower. And he went, I've just found the second of pace up here, lads. I'll bring it on down. for you. That's what Rob Marshall does. We love you, Rob. Big up.

We took the world's biggest hands, by the way. I can attest to that. They are massive. I felt like a child next to him. No wonder he could create carbon fiber. You know, it's just gigantic hands. He's melded it itself. Yeah, like a god of Formula One. The car, it's like pottery.

Like, it's just there molded the car. He's in with an little apron on, just crafting it out of steel and carbon. I'm really glad we haven't got off topic. Yeah, I got a talk. No. Big up, Rob. Anyway, I do think that from the one race we've seen, they looked like they found their consistency.

They've moved away from the issues that they were being caused by the engine, majority ofly, right, where they had an electrical issue, they had an issue with getting the engine starting in one of the cars at one point. Piaastri hasn't crashed on an installation lap so far since race one. That's good. So it feels like their issues have reduced. And now the issues are reduced and they're getting actual running time. We're seeing the Mercedes that in pre-season testing

felt quite threatening. And they were essentially running the same car all the way through from preseason testing all the way to that spring break that we just had. And then they've delivered upgrades. And upgrades look like they've genuinely worked. So whether they are the absolute test from the same is right now, it is tricky to say, but it's definitely going in the right direction. 100%. For the time being, yeah, I think they are the best contenders or the biggest contenders for Mercedes. I think what Miami taught me, and this maybe isn't just a McLaren point, but more of a wider point about the entire grid. It's just how much the order has the potential to change at this point in the season,

like, especially amongst the top four teams. Like, teams can at this point, through upgrades, find some really big gains over competitors if they get things right. Like, you might look at the moment and say, well, Mercedes have a brilliant car. And relatively they do. But we are at the beginning of the cycle. If you put that in that car, two years and to the future, it will be rubbish because even Mercedes have seconds to find right now.

And there's no guarantee that all of these teams are going to find that time sort of in the same timeline. That won't happen. McLaren, I think, needed to take advantage of this weekend, given Mercedes have their own bigger update happening at Canada. And they did. Like, they dropped 10 points all weekend, 48 out of 58 points. So I think well done to McLaren in that regard, because there's no guarantee that this pace will continue for them.

I think it probably will, but there's no guarantee that happens. And I think I was impressed by McLaren, but I'm not overly surprised in that I think we could kind of see this coming from the beginning of the year in that like Lando Norris, for example, even through the really low points that they've had this year, has been quite optimistic to say, I think we'll be challenging for, wins soon. And he's ended up right, at least in terms of one instance. They had a slow start to preseason testing, sure. They had issues with like not knowing the Mercedes power unit as well as the factory team. But these are all quite, I'm going to create a word, rectifiable things, right? They can be fixed. Not super quickly, but they can be fixed. And that's why I'm maybe less surprised that they've made a big jump from one weekend to the next. That might be the biggest jump that they make all year.

That wouldn't surprise me, but that has put them in a much better position going forward. I think rectifyable is already a word, Ben. Is it a word? I think so. Yeah, I mean... I've definitely heard it before. It makes sense. I just didn't know if it was actually...

I've also heard the word yabadabadoo, and that isn't a word. You've been listening to George Russell too much, mate. Always. You never stop listening to him. The one other point I wanted to make about McLaren, I feel like this weekend, I don't know if you'd agree with this or not, we had the likes of Antonelli,

Norris, LeCler, Vestappen, so one representative from the four big teams, all show a lot more pace than their respective teammates. It felt like maybe, and it is only one race, so it is a maybe, maybe these regulation tweaks have helped introduce drivers a little bit more into the mixture again. In which case, if that is true, McLaren with their

line-up, I don't think would be too disappointed about that. Their line-up is very consistent and very relevant to modern Formula One. And I mean that, those words very intentionally, because, you know, you look at Ferrari and you might think, well, Charlotte-Clair and Lewis Hamilton, you know, that is incredible. I agree. If you were to breach line-ups across all time, you'd argue that Charlotte-Clair and Lewis-Hamilton and might be one of the most potent lineups of all time. That's a fair argument. But right now, of these regulations with current formula, Lewis Hamilton is still what it is best.

And Charlotte-Clair is still finding his feet. It would feel like it feels like this race was the first time he'd probably step forward in comparison to Lewis Hamilton. And yet, when it comes to McLaren, they are often right next to each other in the standings, usually with both qualifying and the Grand Prix. They are within a 10th in qualifying

and usually within a place in the Grand Prix. And that shows you that they are in a really good position to take the car forward. Because if they can get the post out of both drivers, every Grand Prix they adapt, that will serve them. Maybe not as a driver's title, because, for example, Antigali might continue to score enough points so it goes well. But if they can score enough points together, second and third on repeat, now win the constructors again. And that's a great place to being for McLaren.

We're not playing F1 fill in the blank today. But if we were, firstly, we'd hear a great jingle. Secondly, if the question was Ferrari should be feeling blank after this weekend, I think I would go with deflated. I'd say worried. Worried. Why? Yeah. We're talking about this. Ferrari were on the up and they spent so long working on this car, right? They were one of the first, probably the first top runner to decide, we're going to move into 2026 regs. That's what we're going to develop. And you can see the deflated, the deflating attitude, as you mentioned, of

Charlotte Claire and Lewis Hamilton last season where they knew they were fighting with a car that wasn't really built to be particularly competitive in 2025, very frustrating for them. So to come into 2026 and not be at the top, not be top game, and then to get three races in, still not have won a Grand Prix, but equally to be so far away from winning a Grand Prix

that the team actually who becomes closest to winning a Grand Prix that isn't the saying isn't them, it's now McLaren, is so frustrating, it's so worrying that all this effort, all this time, the direction that they've gone in, the line up they've crafted, is still not enough to beat Mercedes over one race. I know we're only for Grand Prix. You know, we might see a real shift in two races, time when upgrades start to settle,

or, you know, their regulations with the engine might change slightly. We don't know. But as it stands, McLaren have been closest to a victory when it isn't a Mercedes car, not Ferrari. And I think that is really quite worrying. I think there's a few people senior in Ferrari that might be starting to sweat a little bit. Yeah, if you look at, that's a good point. Like, the three nearest that drivers have come to beating Mercedes so far this year,

you would say number one was Norris actually winning the sprint. Number two is Norris in the main Grand Prix at Miami. And then number three would be Piastri at Japan. Like, you would fill out the podium just of McLaren. You wouldn't include Ferrari in that. So there are positives, I will say. But yeah, given the jump McLaren made and Mercedes not bringing a major update to Miami.

It's, yeah, I said deflating. It's just a bit of a disappointment. Like, they're not going to go away from this weekend. Angry, I don't think. But, hey, disappointed's worse, as we all know. Yeah, you know, everyone will be disappointed. Especially with the amount of upgrades they actually brought to Miami. If they brought, like, two upgrades, I'd be like, all right, you know, it's going to take some time.

They brought as many as McLaren, and it has not worked. I think qualifying was a bit better in the Charler, at least on LeCleur side of the garage. He got within four tenths of pole on both. qualifying sessions, which doesn't sound like a lot, but it is closer than what he's had on average so far this year. And equally, I think he would admit, especially in sprint qualifying, it should have been closer than what he had. I think he should have been on the front row, in all honesty. Yeah. So I think that is maybe a smaller positive. The disappointment is the race pace, though, because it's still not quite there. And there's a reason I say not quite there,

because it's not a million miles off, but it's just enough that he, I say he, because it's LeCler in Miami really, just can't quite hold on. Like when we saw Norris in the lead, when we saw Antonelli in the lead, they were able to manage the gaps. They were able to not go off massively into the distance, but keep it at a safe distance. When LeCleur was in the lead early in Miami, he is hustling that car in order to stay ahead. Because Ferrari just don't, again, don't quite have it. Yeah, it's a small enough gap that you can see that with a lot of effort, he can say in the competition, but it's a big enough gap that come the end of the Grand Prix, he ends up being 20 seconds behind. And that is, you know, half a second, really a lap to create that gap. And

that's too much. That's too much to be a championship winning car. A fun fact that is absolutely not a fun fact for Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have led as many races this year as George Russell has. They've led two each. Wow. And they haven't won any of them. They haven't been close to winning any other. No, at least Russell's got one wing. I also heard, I think, it was from the race, that it is 5005 days today that car number 55 won the last Ferrari race. Carlos Seitz's final win for Ferrari. Just going to let that breathe. Like, LeCleur hasn't won a race since, and Lewis Hamilton has never won a race for Ferrari.

You red clowns! Isn't that atrocious? Oh, boy. I think it's a point we've made before, but Ferrari had got to be hoping as soon as we get to this ADUO review that it reveals that Ferrari's power unit is not very good. Oh, we are the worst. Look at our poor little edge.

It's like mini engine. Mega engine, mini engine. Ours is from Easter egg toy. I got mine in Happy Meal. Made of plastic. I am child of. Mega engine. Let us grow up.

Yeah, they're going to be doing everything. They can't to downplay that engine, honestly. They are still second in the constructors. No engine in there. Yes, they are still second in the constructors. I don't know that last through Canada? No, I don't. I was going to say, give it two races,

but there technically are two races at Canada. I think if it goes exactly the same way, it won't be as bad because Charlotte Clare isn't going to spring it off and pulling it all Lewis Hamilton's going to go. No, he's got a history of that. Canada, he might do. Lewis Hamilton can flip off Colopinto as he crashes into him again. And they might figure sixth and eighth, who knows.

But if it's the same as what we got in Miami, it will be a reduction from second to third for Ferrari. And they look so good in Australia. We're like, there's glimmers, real glimmers. Back to third you go, Ferrari. I find it funny that we were taking the proverbial Mickey out of Ferrari on Sunday for finishing sixth and seventh. and the actual end result was worse than that.

It's so farro that there's a decision after the race to recuse their happiness even further. That leaves us quite neatly on to our second break, because on the other side, we are going to be discussing a couple of penalties that were applied after we reviewed the race on Sunday. Welcome back, everyone. A few things to just to mop up on the Miami GP weekend, a couple of penalties. We briefly spoke about these two in power rankings, as we recorded that after these were announced.

So that's often the first place you get our reaction to these sorts of things when the FIA decide they need hours to make a decision. How can they take so long to make a decision that we can stop, regroup, record a full race review, publish the race review, go to beds and then the decision is being made. Rome wasn't built in a day, I'm being told by Domenicali. I think Rome was built faster. It might be, yeah. Should we start with the 22nd penalty that Charlotte is. LeCleur received for just not doing the last lap. I'm paraphrasing there, but cutting the corners multiple times throughout that lap.

A compilation of that was shown on F1's social media. So if you want to have a look at exactly what he did, you'll be able to there. Fair penalty? Yeah, well, slam dunk. I'm sorry. 20 seconds is a lot. Yeah, well, I don't care. It's essentially a drive-through penalty, but converted into seconds, by the way, I should mention

You know the flag that looks like a meatball? Yes. You've been meatballed, as Stanley Hudson might say. And have your meatball. He would have been shown that flag, realistically. He's driving a car that's too dangerous, too damage to drive around a racetrack. As was demonstrated, he could barely make it over a corner. And he was clearly choosing to short cut the track to make his life easier.

I don't blame him for that decision, but that is the case. Self-inflicted, of course. He also, we mentioned this, run slim, slim, like off the road, completely whilst doing that, which is just unfair or another driver. So I do think that he's also been partially penalised for essentially not leaving racing room for another car. The punishment has to be severe enough that you shouldn't want to do it again. It shouldn't just be equal to what you might have gained had you cut all the corners just to take the time back. It has to be take all the time back and then take some more time as a punishment. So for me, 20 seconds is fair. Yeah, I thought it was fair as well.

I know a lot of people think this is a lot, but I'm fine with this. Just to, give like almost a chronological version of events here. So turns after the spin, obviously. Turn six is sort of the next corner he has to navigate, which is a right-hander. Charle-Cleur is full lock to the right. The car is not going right. It is going straight ahead. So I think at that point, Shao LeCleur knows, all right, this car isn't doing right turns. And that's exactly what you said in the Stewards Room afterwards. That incident by itself, I was okay with because I really don't think he gained anything there. The problem is what he did after that, because he then ends up behind Limblud as a result of this.

I think he was going to the runoff for turn eight to avoid him, knowing that if he tried to turn the car, he would go, like, actually take the corner. He might go into him. So, again, to avoid him, I don't mind him taking the runoff. The problem, what he does for the rest of this lap, he doesn't really slow down when he's doing this. Like if he intentionally cut the corner because he didn't think he could make it, you then at least like, okay, I'm going to almost intentionally go on the brakes

to prove to the FIA, like, I'm not gaining from this. I just can't do it. And then later in the lap, he does the same thing. Turn 11 might be the worst one. It just goes straight over. There's no attempt there. He's like, you know what? There's the exit.

Off I go. And he does it turn 14 and turn 15 as well. I don't mind him trying to bring it home. it is the last lap, but there is just, again, no real attempt to slow this thing down. There's no guarantee, I think I said this on the power rankings recording we did. There's no guarantee he would have actually made the corners if he attempted them, in which case you shouldn't really benefit from that. And LeCler and Ferrari's argument in the stewards room afterwards was,

well, we couldn't do right turns. We established we couldn't do right turns. The problem is he cuts the corner four times. two of them are left turns. Retire the car. I'm sorry, that would be my answer. Well, you're not fit to be on a race track then. If you can't do half the turns on a racetrack,

you should not be driving the car on the racetrack. Yeah, I saw a lot of people say, like, where he lost two positions, what did he possibly, he didn't gain an advantage. He might have lost more than two positions. That's kind of, it's relative. He finished the race. He should have retired.

Yeah, so I was fine with 20 seconds. Verstappen eventually got a five-second penalty for crossing the pit lane exit line once. They managed to get some more evidence. Limited video evidence was the exact quote by the stewards on this one in the document afterwards. And then they were able to get some video evidence in the meantime. There's a million cameras on these racetracks. Like, how don't you have it? I found out that you can watch turn 16 via a traffic can. You can, yes. Which is hilarious. But if I can watch Formula One in a traffic can,

you can see your pit laying exit. It's just one of those where, like, I don't understand how you don't have the information because you have enough video evidence to suspect that he's done it. Like, you clearly have some video evidence, otherwise you wouldn't be able to say, I think you've done that.

But then you don't have enough video evidence to actually say, like, it should be a penalty. And these things are often slam dunk. You don't tend to accuse someone of doing it. It's like speeding in the pit lane. Once an alert is registered, you're typically done for you. You don't really tend to get, oh, our bag, we were wrong.

It's usually a one and done. It's the same argument as, sorry, I'm going to bring up VAR and football. And why I hate it so much is like, I don't mind if you scrapped it and knowing that like 10% of the decisions you make are probably going to be wrong. I don't care. That will balance out. Over time, that will balance out. And every team thinks that they're the unlucky ones. Over time, everyone will get their good and bad luck with those decisions.

but we know that all of the decisions will at least be made quickly. It's insane. Yeah, I agree. I agree. I think we've said it enough times. I'm not going away with a point, but penalties should be given one of the races happen.

Yeah. In terms of the regulation tweaks, do you think they weren't? Well, it was a better race. That's for sure. Now, there's a number of mitigating factors that might explain why it was a better race. So you can argue that the regulations improved that. We had a better weekend overall.

Qualifying was more enjoyable. I'm happy at my hands. I would just say it was better. Why was it better? Well, the cars felt like they were, not flat out, but more actively consistent, you know, at the very top end of their spectrum, I think they were massively benefited

by the fact that it was not a dominant weekend for Mercedes, where when you expect something to happen, and that is not what happens, that's exciting. Actually, that's exciting. So to see McLaren, Ferrari, Vastappan, back at the front, that creates great atmosphere. That creates excitement.

When you've got four drivers from four different teams, all in the potential for politicians, for pole position, that's literally what I want the definitional one to be. I wanted to see a variation of competitiveness across teams. So that helped you. I'd like to see more to see if qualifying maintains that excitement over Canada and against the Grand Prix. But that's a good start.

The race was also better. We still saw mistakes at the start. So I'm glad that this kind of helping hand system that allows them to not drop their revs too much. Sacrifice too much for a poor start. I'd love to know how much Antingelli was helped with his start. for example, when he got a poor start in the sprint race. Equally, how much it helped others.

I'd like to know if that caused proper assistance. If we'd be able to notice it, it would be interesting to hear how much it had an actual effect. Overall, good race, good weekend. I can't say too much about it. I can get a bit more of a case study to understand if it really is an improvement. 100%. Yeah, we can't make too many sweeping generalisations at this point based on one Miami GP where, let's face it from an energy conserving perspective, it was always expected to be fine,

not one of the absolute best on the calendar, but something maybe close to Shanghai that we've already had, which was, I think, better than Suzuki and Melbourne in that regard. I do think it was an improvement. And I think it was maybe a bigger improvement than I thought it was going to be. I'm not saying everything is automatically transformed and fixed,

but it was a bigger improvement than I thought it was going to be. Qualifying to your point, definitely better, largely down to the competitiveness, but also if you went, I went on board for, I think it was Lando Norris, no, it wasn't Lando Norris, it was the, it was the pole lap I went on board with. And it looked pretty good, apart from a few corners through the first sector where it seemed like they were at 80% possibly. The rest of the lap looked okay. I still think there's a bit of work to be done there. Lando Norris in particular commented after the Grand Prix to say, you still get punished for being too early on the throttle, which just, I agree with him when he says,

that should not be a thing, unless you literally spin the car because you're too eager on the throttle. Yeah, how ironic that he's not too early on the throttle, but he spins the car on turn one. Whatever just happened, yeah. Yeah, so I would like, I'd like qualifying still to be tweaked a bit more. And they do have scope to do a little bit more in the mega-jul allowance that we've spoken about before, that they're allowed to recover on these qualifying laps. It was set at eight for Miami, and it's going to be different each, each race weekend.

Eight is the same as it was in Suzuki. Like, they could have dropped this if they wanted to, to maybe seven. And I think on reflection, like, that could have completely eliminated any, like, lifting and coasting during a qualification. I think we got a good amount, though. Like, I didn't notice it to the point where I was frustrated. I remember sitting there thinking going, oh, God, I can hear them halfway down the straight. Yeah. Canada's going to be a real test.

is whilst there are a couple of heavier breaking zones, there are a lot of what are normally fast chicanes at Canada. I think it could be, it will be tougher in Canada than it was in Miami. It's a very fast flowing track. The slowest corner into the hairpin, and even that is quite a steady rhythm for a hairpin to be taken. It's quite a wide angled hairpin.

It doesn't really have a slow corner. No. You know, the slowest corner, other than that hairpin is fourth gear, pretty much. So it's going to be really, that's going to be right up there as one of those tracks where it's tough to harvest energy. Yeah. So I think these potential improvements, they'll get a truer test when we go racing in a couple of weeks' time. Shall we do an F1 fantasy update? Starting with top three in the league.

Doing very well out top on 1,327 points is Never Lewis Faf. Well done to you. At least one of the Lewises are winning. Second place is Torto Antonelli's on 1,270. And in third place, we have Pop Pie. That is awful. But the score isn't third place on 1,258 points. We had a three-way tie for the winner in Miami.

I should say, by the way, these are somewhat provisional. When I checked them earlier, they were still provisional from the weekend. Mine has changed in the last hour. Good. So at least at that point, the three winners, LeCleuze Sweet H, there's an H in that, H, Big Easy's Boys and Team ZH. Nice. Good mix of games this week. But what about us? Sam, you were leading the way. I don't know if I am. Obviously, I didn't play a chip this weekend. I believe you did. I did. And also, oh, stupid. I forgot to check. change my times two from the Claire to Antigelli.

Oh, I didn't forget to do that. I just intentionally did that. Okay, well, at least you're getting negatives from it, because I did. I have dropped. I don't know how much I dropped by. It's not a lot, but I am on 565 now. You are still clearer of me. I'm in three figures at least, but 740th.

I played my no negative this weekend. That gap's coming down, Ben. You want to have to start the brakes. Pump the brakes, mate. I'm still not in a great spot. this year. I started the year really badly in terms of my strategy. It's very hard to get yourself back onto the path when you, you know, you kick off in the thousands. I went unconventionally at the beginning of the year thinking that Red Bull would be better and they haven't been.

Yeah, I have made one change all season. Yeah, I've been like frantically trying to get onto a better build than what I started with. But yeah, 740th so, not doing too badly. No negative help me out a bit because Liam Lawson's retirement didn't cost me any points. Yeah, I mean, I was quite lucky because in that sense, I didn't have any retirements. Even Charlotte Clerk, who picked up his penalty, of course, like that was my worst feature there. So all retirements that I had, including both manufacturing cars, were fine. I got quite lucky there. Now, this is, this is going to sound weird, but despite the fact that you are in the 500s and I'm in the 700s, neither of us have won, because actually, I think Kirstie's won this week,

not because she's got the best ranking, but she's 1,000th exactly, which is just a round number automatically wins. Round numbers are just cool. Yeah. That's why I was born on the 10th. Honestly, it's better that Kirstie's 1,000th, than like 977th, right?

Better than she's 1,000th, then third or something. Yeah, I don't know about that. All right, yeah. So we'll see how we do in Canada. There's over 3,400 of you in the league, by the way. So thank you, everyone who has joined. Still available to join, by the way. All of the necessary info is in the description.

Your points don't get reset either. You don't go to last. So, you know, if you haven't been in the league, yeah, I'd like it if you were. You just knock us back, fair both. But you join, you get all your points at your school already. So it's not too late. Not too late at all.

Let's take our final break on this episode. On the other side, it's F1 overrated, underrated Welcome back everyone It's time for F1 Overrated Underrated Overrated Overrated

What else is do we give What way will they go Overrated Underrated What a week's shoes Come to see the show Overrated Underrated

Oh it's a classic It's a classic man It really is Man that hits That hits different bro I thought your dance moves were really good. Yeah, yeah, in time with the music. Very much so.

Yeah, I'm such a bad dancer. It's putting more in time that I didn't hear it. I love watching you dance. Yeah, thanks, I appreciate that. It's like seeing a new species try and communicate with us. Like a bumblebee trying to talk. It's actually exactly how Mega Engine dances. Stop saying, Mega Engine.

F1 overrated or underrated. We're going to do three different things here. Very simple. We're just going to say if they're overrated, underrated, or just somewhere in the middle, rated. We're going to start with the circuit appropriately. Circuit Jilvil Nerve. I think you like this one, Sam. I do.

I'm a fan of Circuit Jilvil Nerve. I think it's fantastic. I'd love to go. It's one of those tracks that for me is a bit of a bucket list. I'd love to visit. I think it's rated. I know it's really boring to start with. I think it gets a long of love from the people and the drivers.

I think it's got some good history to it. It's got all the champions, of course. It had the famous time where three drivers all set exactly the same lap time and single qualifying, which is a marvelous thing. Just two. Oh, gosh. All right, I'm making stats up now. It also has drama pretty much, you know, every other time we go there.

It doesn't always provide the absolute Delta of the Grand Prix. But like seven out of ten are usually pretty good. And I think we were aware of that. I don't think we go here every year going. This will be the best race of the season. Equally, I think people really like it. So I think rated. Is it top 10?

Yeah, I think top 10. Is it top 5? No, got top 5. Yeah, I think for me it would just about break the top 10, but probably in like 9th or 10th, I think. I've got it like 7th 8th on my list. Yeah. In which case I'm going to go rated,

because I feel like that's where the consensus is. I don't think people view it as a top 5 track, but equally I don't think people view it as a bottom 50% track either. I think it's a good challenge. I like that, I'm not going to say it's completely, unique, but the challenge of those, and I hope it's still a challenge this year, the challenge of those very fast chicanes does often make for an interesting race. The weather is hit or miss sometimes at this place too. It has delivered a few snoozers, but equally it has delivered some

very good races in the last 15 years as well. Yeah. Also, there's walls. You make a mistake. You're hitting the wall. Yeah. And whilst I appreciate like the Wall of Champions, the Wall of Champions might be overrated in this. That is the biggest lying for me. one, quite frankly. It happened once and they just never happened again. One thing happens. Champions have hit many other walls and they don't have a game. Yeah, but the rest of the track, I think's pretty solid.

What about, we'll go team principal on this one. Ayukamatsu. Oh, let him cook. And I think Kamatsu is underrated. I think a lot of the general Formula One populace don't understand just how hard, haze have it in Formula One. Now, I'm not going to spare their blushes here.

I don't believe that, you know, we should start applauding everything that they do. But look at what Harts were doing before Kramatsu became a principal. They were struggling with cash because their funding was so low. They had to bring in the likes of Matterpin, an Oral-Kali, for example, as a sponsor. They were running around in last by seconds, lap after lap after lap. And they were dealing with rookies and old drivers, and they couldn't seemingly get something off the ground. And now it feels like they are a fully-flaged operational Formula One team on the smallest budget, And I think Kamatsu is the driving force behind that.

I really think he's got a grasp on what Haas should be doing in Formula One. Now, I would like to see them step up. I'd like to get a wing. I'd like to have a podium. But I do think, because they're such a plucky young outfit, and they're doing a great job. So I think Kamatsu is a real spearhead of that. I think he's underrated. I've also gone with underrated here.

And I know he gets a lot of praise. I still think he's underrated based on the job that he's done. And I know Warehouse have come from in terms. terms of being like downright awful in the sort of 2020, 2020, 2021 era. But even before Kamatsu became team principal, like they'd improved at that point, at least in terms of their qualifying pace, but they weren't able to sustain it during a grand prix. Kamatsu comes in and immediately goes to fix that.

And he does to the point where in a preseason, like the first preseason test after Kamatsu becomes team principal, they spend all of their time focused on long run pace, sorting out the tire wear issues that they had. And it came to the point where because they hadn't set any fast laps, I remember we were thinking in that preseason, oh God, they're really slow again. And then they showed up and they were, at least by Haas standards, pretty all right because of how, and it was a bold, brave call for them to do that.

And it worked. And since then, he's taken them on further than I think Has have the right to be in terms of the size of the, you know, the size of the organisation. So I'm still going to have underrated here. And lastly, we'll go with a driver. Sergio Perez. Tricky this one. And because it's tricky, I'm going to say he's underrated.

I think he gets a lot of stick, Sergio Perez, for what he went through at Red Bull. Now, some of that is on him. Some of that is because he wasn't able to master the car in the way that Verstappen was. But he's not unique in that problem. You know, many a great driver has tried and failed to master. That Red Bull, where Stappan has succeeded,

You know, you're looking at the mics of Album, I'm not sorry, sorry, Gassley, you know, there are people who have gone on to achieve really good things in Formula One that weren't able to achieve anything more. Perez got race wings, he got regular race podiums, he helped achieve multiple constructors championships. His peak, though, is before he joined Red Bull.

And I think there are so many fans who watched Formula One that if he had forgotten or not experienced what Sergio Perez could do in a midfield car. He had so many people. podium, so many high points scoring moments, a wing, which we recently reviewed as part of our Patreon, the special episode, in Sequeer in a car that just shouldn't have won a Grand Prix. And he was a tire master. He was great at kind of elevating a car. He also was a downright

great guy in helping a team get through a really difficult financial situation. I think that deserves a lot of respect. I just think because of the recent history, he gets a lot of stick. So I think underrated. Yeah, I think as a result of, again, about that secure win very, very recently, it makes me want to go to underrated. I'm actually going to settle at rated instead, because you're right, everything he did at Force India and what became racing point was brilliant. Like, he was, he was for a time, pretty much the only guy getting podiums, even though, you know, Holkenberg was there with him, but it was Perez who was consistently finding these random third place finishes wherever it was available to a team that

never really had the pace to be there. And then that 2020 season, we talk about the Sequea race a lot. He's very good that season outside of that Grand Prix as well. Of course, the end of the Red Bull Stint didn't go well for him. Right now, it's very tough to judge him in the Cadillac. But, yeah, based on an entire career, I think an upper midfield guy is probably about, he's done a very good job of that. So I'm going to go with rated.

So, I agreed on two, not too far off on the third one either. It'd be interesting to hear if you're a complete opposite ends of this one, folks. Let us know. Before we go, a couple more things to do. Firstly, it's time for the greatest segment in all of podcasting. It is the... Elby question of the week. Week.

Right. Our question of the week, a bit of an image-led one this time. So if you saw Isaac Adjah's retirement from the Miami GP, very early on in the race, you'd have seen him not be too pleased about how it went down. He is basically smashing his car for a minute and then you think he's done and he keeps smashing his car for another minute and then you think he's done again and then he gets out the car and he's still throwing his fist around all over the place. Not happy whatsoever about his retirement.

Our question is, what was he actually reacting to? First one that made me laugh Was from Mr. Farrow He was trying to kill a Florida mosquito Now, gnats as we have in the UK are very annoying I can't imagine what a real proper mosquito would be like So I imagine having a proper fisty cuffs With a mosquito flying around you

You got a gigate, hager Imagine waking up and you're a gnat That's the worst life, thing it Yeah What's the point? You're even pretty Exactly I need a butterfly looks nice

And you're a nut Like even if you were a pretty animal Like you're called a gnat It's such a crap name, isn't it? Nats. Yeah, right. Sorry for all the gnats out there in the world. Big lessons.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Our fourth biggest market, I believe. First one from me is from Jordan, who said, George R. Martin's still not releasing the winds of winter yet. He's working on it. It'll get there at some point. Yeah, I'm sure. There's a lot of other dragon fantasy stuff that you can watch, right?

Yeah. And not all of them are appropriate, but there are some out there. We're also not sponsored by any of them, so we won't be saying again. Really enjoyed this one from Roscoe loves Coca. He didn't get invited to Winter with Franco. Oh, that is reason to be angry, to be fair. Best winter ever! I had the worst winter ever because I wasn't with Franco.

Like, okay, after that, Miami performance, I get why it's such a good winter. You've been bummed. My gross If it was it that bad I went to us in it Oh god Next one from me is from

JD He realised that the wall He hit wasn't cake That is the next one on my list That is so funny To be fair to him It looked cakey Remember that last night

Before we had to fly home from Texas All we did I'll watch episode of mate, I don't think I'll forget it in a hurry. Oh, what a bizarre program. Yeah. It looks quite cakey to me. Daddy's got his knives.

What a strange man. What a strange man. This one from Camo, it was earlier reference. He also a reference on power rankings. He found out that he gets waterboarding by MBS if he wings a race. No one deserves that, man. That's the real prize. Danny's gone with

he trapped a ball in a seatbelt Now I've never crapped a ball in my seatbelt But I don't plan on starting Any ball trapping I'm not here for that I'm not here for that I've got my last one here from

Michael who said He was so disappointed He's Shrek 2 Oh He's in the cut No No No

What was disappointed Since watching this film Look. A last one from me is from Drew who just said, failure. Oh, well. Yeah, they kind of make sense. Like, failure. Was Anthony Hamilton about?

Give him a hug, yeah. I mean, Nicholas was there. Nicholas was there? Get a hug off a different Hamilton. I didn't see him. Oh, yeah, he was there. Yeah, lovely. Not that I was there to see him anyway.

Me and Nick are good friends. Honestly, they should have invited us to the F2 because there's no one else there watching it. Wow me up so much. We've had a different seat every sector and we wouldn't have interrupted anyone else's viewing. I know there were a lot of comments about how they don't open the gates

until very late at Miami for some reason. Yeah, some people are on a bus basically as it's starting. But like for those that have intentionally decided to spend a ludicrous amount on an F1 ticket and then not take advantage of that, blows my mind. Lula! Sorry, we're.

you say luda Chris, it's hard got to get to drop that in there. Big up, ludicrous. Well, I would say that's the end of the episode, but we have one final visit, a belated visit for the month of April. Oh, ho, ho. Sorry I'm late, little boys and go.

Where is he? I can hear him. Oh, oh, oh. It's got a beak to it, his little bells. It's the father Christmas and the birthdays. Ben, why does the Father Christmas of birthdays exist? That's a much bigger question, actually.

You know what? We haven't... Do we have another hour of this podcast? That's a Patreon conversation. Well, because, for those of you on Patreon, who are on our top tier, if you send us your birthday and send us... You either go with the name that you've got on Patreon, but if you have a particular nickname that you'd like us to use,

that's absolutely fine. Just send us a message on there. And in your birthday month, or in this case, just after your birthday month, we will wish you, or the Father Christmas of birthdays will wish you, a happy, happy birthday.

Happy, happy birthday. Yes, a happy birthday to many people. Thank you to everyone that has not only subscribed at the top tier, but got in touch to have a birthday shout at. So, happy birthday! To Zach's Cat, Texas Ranger. I love when people don't give us a day

because your birthday is April, and I really love that for you. On Iceland. I don't know how that works, but happy birthday for April 2nd. Scotty Durang, April 3rd. Are you part of Durang, Durang, maybe? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I imagine it's like half somewhere.

Turbulent juice. Great name. Strange but great. April 5th, happy birthday. Happy birthday, Amanda. For April 9th. I'm saying like the X-Factor guy, I think.

Not Father Christmas of birthday. Rachel Adadagey. Literally that. One of the best voices of all time. Happy birthday, Amanda, for April 9th. Shaghani, happy birthday for April 15th. Hannah from Chicago. Thank you for specifying, because that could have gone to the wrong.

Lot of Hanna's. We wouldn't want that to go to a different city, different state. So, happy birthday to you. Josh Emery, April 16th, happy birthday. Ryan B., April 19th, happy birthday. A stranger to Jean Hars. Well, aren't we all? Aren't we all?

Happy birthday for April 21st. Ryan Ziegler, happy birthday for April 23rd. Same birthday as Bleet Lambert. Happy birthday to you. And the same birthday. Oh, it's Philip McGovern. Triple birthday! And then finally, last, of course,

no measles. Happy birthday to you, Andrew! Expect the guys back again. Back again. Thank you so, so much for all your birthday messages. We hope you love the Father Christmas of birthdays. And if you want to be shouting out by the Father Christmas of birthdays, they do drop it to Patreon,

subscribe at the time. top tier and drop us a message and we will be happy to oblige. Oh, ho! In a month, kids! My question is, why wouldn't you want that? Honestly. Give me a reason why you would not want that. There's got many better things in life.

With that, Sam, if you wouldn't mind getting us out of here until Sunday. Until Sunday. Yeah, I think it's going to be 16 days until Formula One returns from when you're listening to this. So not long left. set your calendars, get the countdown ready, and we'll keep your fielding, up to date, on many Formula One news, topics, silly things that go on in the world of racing.

So sit with us, only a couple of weeks to be back on track. If you want a bit more content, Patreon is there, and it's the cost of a cup of coffee. So check it out, see what you think. You can always cancel it after a month, and it supports the show.

You might even get shouting out by the birthday man that comes from the sky. Discord is available. Links in the description. Over 4,000 people in there. It's an amazing community. Please check it out. social media late breaking F1.

You can see us, silly faces, memes, get involved in the crushing in the week. It's a great place to be. And we're so, so close. But do guys subscribe on YouTube, late breaking F1, so close to 10K. So it would be amazing if we hit that milestone

at literally any point in my life. That would be wonderful. Thanks for listening. Make it so, whatever thanks for Lillian was saying. It will be done. It will be done. Yes. All right.

Thanks for Lisk. We'll see you Sunday. In the meantime, I've been Sam Sage. And I've been. Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late.