The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Brazilian GP Review: 17/11/19

Episode Date: November 17, 2019

Absolute carnage ensued at Interlagos as Max Verstappen won a crazy penultimate race of the 2019 season. With Gasly and Sainz on the podium, the guys react to an entertaining afternoon of racing Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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IKEA, bring home to life. Thank you for listening to the late-breaking F-1 podcast. Make sure to look out for new episodes every Thursday and Grand Prix Sundays. Hello and a very warm welcome. This is the late-breaking Formula One podcast. Coming to you straight after the Brazilian Grand Prix, an indescribable Brazilian Grand Prix. So much seemed to happen after the safety car late.

I'm with Samuel Sage and Harry Yidd. You've got me back this week, guys. I'm terribly sorry. your week of freedom is over. Don't do it again though Ben. Never have I thought about hearing your voice as being such a wonderful thing. Yeah, I think that's a first

and probably the only line of that nature ever to come out of your mouth. Yeah, we've just had the Brazilian Grand Prix and whilst it was shaping up to be a pretty good race, it all descended into chaos in the last 20 laps or so. Pierre Gasly getting his first podium, P2, drag race,

Lewis Hamilton to the line. Full disclosure, we don't know about Lewis Hamilton and the fate of him, whether he's going to get a penalty at this point in time. So apologies if we say something that turns out to be incorrect. But of course, Max Verstappen winning the race, and we'll start with him. Harry, what did you think of Max Verstappen's performance? Converting pole position whilst everything seemed to go to absolute chaos around him? Yeah, Max has got a habit of winning races when all hell is breaking loose.

like you know the meme or the gif where that person is just sat and everything is on fire around him he's like this is fine that is max because everything is still fine despite everything else going wrong um yeah he didn't look like anyone was going to be able to stop him today and hamilton and mercedes threw everything that they could at vastappen but they were quick rebel were mighty in the pit stops vastappen was ridiculously quick out on track and brave i mean that restart move was Ballsie at best. Yeah, I don't think anyone's going to stop him winning today.

And it was great. It was great to see Hamilton and Vestappen actually have a proper... We've not really had it. I know Hungary was close, but Hamilton kind of cruised up and then just passed him there. This was...

Yeah, they got the airblers out a bit and it was great to see, but Vostappen this time round wins out. Great stuff from him. Sam, what did you make of Vestappen today? He's performed. was unmissable. Not often do I say this about the Stappan. Usually he is, you know, 90%. He's

always incredible. But this weekend, he has been absolutely flawless. What a drive. What an incredible drive. To keep a six-time world champion at bay, the difference between the pace of those two drivers was incredible in comparison to everyone else on the grid. No one else could touch them once they got going. The every time the A&Ls got close was due to the safety car. But Max was Stappan and the Red Bull team. Two, one. point nine second pit stops, which kept them comfortably in front, even with the release of Kibitsa right in front of Max Verstappen. He was still calm. He still got the job done. And the pass on Lewis Hamilton after the safety car was just absolutely incredible. I mean, we actually

hang a drive of the day that deserves your driver of the day today on the screen. And Max Stappen definitely was one of those people. Formidable drive. That'll go down in the history books. They always go around so well there. And the Stapham brought it home. It was a fantastic driving. You can't fault Hamilton Mercedes. They threw everything. they could at the team and they conquered today. He was utterly sublime. On a weekend where Ferrari, Redboard, Mercedes were relatively well matched through qualifying through free practice as well.

Vastappen took the ball by his horse, went out there, led from the front, and even when he came under intense pressure, he was able to see off the challenge of Lewis Hamilton, which is no mean feat, that's for sure. We've criticised Vestappen a few times after the summer break. He's had a few dodgy races here. there. But he was incredible out there today. It might be his best performance ever. It's definitely up there because whilst everything was going on around him, you know, the conditions that he had to race under, he had, you had the Ferraris battling away and taking each other off. You had Lewis

Hamilton putting pressure on him the whole time. You had Albin who nearly lucked his way into a podium and then throughout all of the mess that happened, all of the incidents that will be spoken about and rightfully so they were entertaining. It was Max Vastappen who stayed just, he kept his head above the water. He didn't get involved in anything that was going on behind him. He was just too quick. And Vastappen we saw in qualifying yesterday

when he was able to mess up his qualifying lap and still get provisional pole. He just had, there was just something about him this weekend. And Vastappen, like Hamilton, like the very best in the sport, when they are on form, they are, you have to watch. watch them. Like they are just absolutely box office TV and we'll probably get on to box office Madison in a bit. So don't worry about that. Yeah, he was he was absolutely insane. Looking a bit at the strategy because of course he and Hamilton were involved in a battle for a lot

of that race. Harry, first of all, what did you think about Red Bull strategy? Do you think they nailed it? And do you think Mercedes could have done anything slightly different? I don't know what Mercedes-Kinelah done different I think just think Red Bull, Red Bull have always been really good at reacting they're just so instinctive when it comes to reacting to their situations on track whether it's a safety car or when Hamilton came in both those times they brought Vestappan in

and I know they lost out the first time round but it was only just and I think the Kibitsa leaving the pit lane didn't help either yeah Red Bull are just so quick out of the bottom that they could react to whatever Mercedes threw at them. And then with the safety car, I think it was the right, I know

Mercedes were always going to do opposite, but I think it was a right call to bring Verstappen in because they had the gap to Vettel and third, so they were only going to drop behind Hamilton, and I think it was almost inevitable that Verstappen was going to make his way back past Hamilton at that safety car restart. So yeah, for me,

Redboard input a wrong. Mercedes gave it a, gave it a, well, but I don't think they could have done anything different. Do you think there was room for improvement on a strategic front for Mercedes, Sam? Well, yeah, I mean, I think you guys would differ against me. That last call to bring Hamilton in under that final safety car with what was going to be, what, a lap to two laps ago. He was never going to drop off the top three.

And I think actually if he hadn't had come in during that safety car, he maybe wouldn't have got caught up in the scrap with gazing out. he wouldn't have had to pass him on track. They have had to have passed him. Those ties were good enough still to go through that middle sector comfortably to maybe get the gap going. His car is the same speed, if not usually faster than those Honda endings. Obviously, that was slightly differed against when we saw an incredible drag race

between Gassling Hamilton. I'd love to see more of those in the future. And then the other safety car call, when the Staffing was brought into the pits, I know that they said, you know, Hamilton do the opposite of what the Staffing's doing. Why didn't you look at his tire life at that point and go, there's no way that we're going to be out. keep up with Verstappen who's right behind us

because that cars will go through on brand new soft ties I don't know they felt like they were missing the toto factor this weekend Hamilton was dictating the strategy from inside the car which is tough to do on a race

as hectic as the one that we just saw and I just think Red Bull always had the up at even when Hamilton took the lead back I think Red Bull always had the ability to immediately snatch it back and Bostappan did exactly that with the help of a brilliant call

from his team So Red Bull could not have been better this weekend. Yeah, Red Bull absolutely nailed it. I posted on Twitter that they had three pit stops for Vestappen, and they totaled 6.0 seconds, which is just insanely good, as you say, two 1.9 second stops, and the other one was 2.2. You know you're having a pretty good day when you have three pit stops, and 2.2 is your slowest.

And from a strategic standpoint, they nailed it. You know, they were the lead car. understood the advantage they held in that respect. They made sure that whenever Hamilton made a strategic call, they responded straight away. There was no dilly dallying with it. There was no waiting around to see, should we stay out for five more laps? Should we go to a different strategy entirely? They responded straight away. Vestappen maintained enough of a gap over Lewis Hamilton for much of the Grand Prix, that when it came to pit stop time, he knew that just having that one lap, even though Lewis Hamilton would get a slight undercut, he would eventually.

have the advantage on him. So yeah, Red Bull nailed their strategy. And I would not have been surprised if Ferrari were in the same situation. They would have overfought it and done something stupid. But Red Bull didn't do that fortunately. In terms of Mercedes strategic decisions, the first one, I disagree with it. I understand the logic of doing the opposite of Vestappen. They want to give themselves the best chance of victory. The thinking is, well, if you do the same, you're not going to win so you might as well go different. The issue was if Verstappen was going to come back out and say P6 or P7 and have to overtake cars to get back up to Lewis Hamilton, then that strategic call to stay out makes sense. But Vastappen just slotted back into P2. So apart from a few

back markers, he doesn't have to do any work whatsoever to get on the back of Lewis Hamilton. Yeah, like I say, if he was going to drop a few places because of that pit stop, yeah, fine, it makes sense, but he didn't lose enough trap position. So, yeah, pitting was the right call there. I didn't mind the decision late on. I think it was a bit of a gamble. But at that point in the race, I didn't necessarily mind it. He was never going to get P1 if he didn't pit. Okay, he did, he did threaten his position on the podium, but with no championships to fight for, and just race wins to go for. I didn't mind the decision for Hamilton to go into the pits, see if he can get Vastappen on the restart with slightly fresher tires because he wasn't going to get there

on the medium tires he had. So I don't mind the second call. The first call, though, I think it was a rare blunder. Hamilton gets off to see the stewards. Oh, I saw that. Yeah, this story is developing, which leaves us in an interesting situation when analyzing this race. Of course, Hamilton finishes P3. We don't know at the moment whether he keeps P3. And of course, Carlos Sines has a very good chance getting on the podium if he does get a penalty, which... First ever. Yeah. Can you imagine two new podium finishes? It'd be sad, though, because he wouldn't actually be on the podium, but anyway.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I mean, there are a lot of strong performances out there today. Sam, who would you say was driver of the day? I think collectively the world can sigh a breath of relief and go, Maxwell Stappling is understanding the driver of the day. I'm going to go slightly outside of this because I think that is going to be the real consensus, and we all know he, as we've just said, almost like a perfect drive. And so we're all going to do exactly the same thing.

So last to fourth challenge completed. Last to third, maybe, who knows? Carlos Sikes, with the absolute capitalisation on strategy, on other people's mistakes, on keeping the car consistent, beats his teammate by a few places. He's becoming almost the driver of the season at the moment, Carlos Sites. He's showing why he's leading that developing the current team. And why maybe if a big team has a real issue and they will want to, spend big money, car lost science, is still comfortably young enough to invest a lot of your time and money into.

Drive the day for me, absolutely sublime drive. Maxiscappen, he's probably, yeah, is equal to him, if not realistically better, but I just want to give him the recognition he deserves, because Mr. Science does a brilliant job. So for me, science and just happen, drive the day. 20th to four for smooth operator indeed. Smooth operator. Nice. Harry, are you going to offer up a different name, or do you agree with Sam? Well, I want to offer up about five different names, so this is really difficult. Rule the law.

I think we don't understate Vastappen's drive today, and he's well-deserving of the official, not unofficial driver today. Yeah, he's definitely on there. Gassley, another one. A bit of luck, but he's been really quick all weekend. And, you know, he only called off one place behind Albon in his old car. basically. Another one is signs, obviously, and then Kimster as well. He drove that alpha was tasty all weekend. So all of them, but I'll go for, let's go for P. Gazal, because that was

beautiful to see. There were some lovely scenes after he finished in P2 from the Torossa mechanics, and then he went next door to the Red Bull mechanics. Obviously, he worked with him for the first half of the year, and just pleased to see him on the podium. So yeah, I'm going to give it to Ghazly, but that's a really difficult choice because there are some great performances out there. Yeah, absolutely. And I don't disagree with either of those choices. I think this is a really tricky one, such a tricky one. And I'm sort of 50-50 on Ghazli and Vastappen here. They were both sublime. I'll give it to Ghazley. I mean, you can give it to either of them. They were both incredible. Pierre Ghazley, and we'll speak more about this, how he has recovered.

since being dropped by Red Bull has been miraculous. He has done such a good job in that tour or so. I think this weekend marks his fourth consecutive Q3 appearance. And a lot of luck came into it, especially on the sides of signs. Signs did luck in a little bit. And the likes of Albon, of course, that didn't work out very well for him. But he did luck into a potential podium finish because he was obviously nowhere before the safety car.

But Gassley, in my view, didn't luck it. Gassley was there in P6, the entire race. He kept a lead over the rest of the midfield, the entire go-round. And of course, yes, he needed some fortune to finish P2, but he was already in a great position and was already set to take eight points or so from the Grand Prix. So for me, yeah, Pierre Gassley, what a performance. Pierre Gassly is my driver of the day. Worst driver of the day?

Sam, who are you going for? Now, it's so lovely when we have five, six, seven names to discuss for driving the day. Sometimes there is one obvious winner. You know, not often do we have races where we all come away scratching my head because of who was the best person on track. It shows the real creme de la creme of racing. Unfortunately, there are some real shockers that come around as well where you have races like these. Oh, I don't want to give it to him again.

I give it to him so often, but I mean, when you look at one teammate, fighting away for the lead, and you end up being a whole pit stop behind and you can't get past a Ferrari that your engine blown up, it's hard for Valtry Bottas to not be. But Ben holding up a sign

that just says, Bossa. I just, yeah, I predicted that. I mean, when you come out publicly, before a race, after the title has been deciding and you're well off with two races left to go, and you say, I have a plan I have a plan to beat Lewis Hamilton, the sixth time world champion, who has only been defeated by Niko Rosberg,

pretty much in his entire career. And then you have a performance as bad as that. It is planning to not overtake a Ferrari, be really slow, be a whole pit stop behind, and then DNF. For the first time, I think, since Austria last year, we had a proper Mercedes engine failure. It's just not good enough. It's not good enough for the man who was fighting for the champion.

for a man who wants to win the championship next year and for a man who realistically needs to keep George Russell off of his back over the next 12 months. Sorry, Bautry, I love you. I really do. You're such a decent bloke, but you need to step up. Your performances, you need to be more consistent and you need to take more risks. And we'll be on to that later on. But he's not risky enough on attacking.

He's not good enough on the attack. Good defensively, not good enough for going forward. And he needs to improve it. So for me, Bostas just needs to be better. He's had enough time. He should be there now. Well, after that shock of the season, I'm picking Bautary Bottas for worst driver of the day.

Harry, who are you going for? Is Bottas going to be giving Doge Russell piggybacks? Is that the deal? He said he's going to be on his back. Yeah, that's what's going to happen. Fine. Worst driver of the day. Before I do this, I wanted to say,

can we appreciate Daniel Ricardo completely fluffing up the move with Magnuson? ending up at the back and then still finishing P7 because just, just Daniel Ricardo things. Classic. A lot of luck came into match. Yeah, I know, I know. I'm not deserving. It just meant how does that happen?

Anyway, worst driver of the day would be, I don't know, I don't want to agree with Sam, but Botta should have got LeClaire earlier on. And I'm not saying he was his fault, the engine exploded. but he was stuck behind the feather for too long. Yeah, okay, I'm going to give it to Bottas as well. And that's harsh, because he won the last race. Who cares? He's trying for the day. Yeah, I know, I know, I know.

Yeah, he was just a bit underwhelming again, which is we've noted it time and time again. It's the consistency that counts. So, sorry, Walter. I do like you a lot, but you weren't very... Not off porridge today, okay? Yeah, maybe Brazilian porrish just isn't the one. To whom it may concern, I'm not going for Valtrey Bottas.

So Valtry, you let off the clean sweep at least. I'm going to give it to, despite the fact that I don't think it was his fault, I'm going to give it to Kevin Magnuson. Sorry, box office. He qualified fairly well, as did Grojean. Again, Hasse deciding that they can only work on Saturdays. and Sundays is the day of the gods and they don't want to try and compete on a race day.

Both drivers to a degree started to sink down the field, but Grojean managed to at least stop that. He got overtaken by one or two cars, but then remained in the points. He was very unlucky. They messed up the strategy big time, and he should have been in the points at the end of this race. But Kevin Magnuson, even before the incident with Daniel Ricardo,

he was sinking like a stone. did he not have a reporting engine issue? Not until much. That was at Grosjev. Apologies, sorry. That was at the end of the race, yeah. But yeah, I think he was already down to maybe P-13 or so at the time, whereas Grosjean was still fighting in the points.

Obviously, you know, the incident, I don't think it was actually his fault, and clearly the steward's agreed with that. But, yeah, I feel like Kevin Magnuson should have been higher up in the first place. His recovery whilst it was not terrible, Ricardo finished P7. Magneson didn't. So, I'm going to go watching the video. For more LB content, make sure to hit the subscribe button. And you can keep up the conversation with us.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram and Twitter. Until next time, can keep me fair. Rating late. They were not quick this weekend. They were nowhere. My other contender, which I hate to say it, actually, was Albon. Well, your teammate is. giving yourself 25 seconds ahead of third place and you're streaking a hang of Lewis Hamilton

and you can't get any higher than fifth place. This is what happened with Gasley who was too far off the pace and that can't happen again with Albon otherwise we'll fall into a pattern of not being close enough to support your team mate. So that was a close call for me. Now obviously there was a lot going on in this race, almost too much to dissect. But we're going at least give it a go. There were quite a few incidents. We'll go through them one by one in a segment we like to call Incident Watch. How do I just coin that on the spot? We'll start with the one that happened just a few laps from the end. Lewis Hamilton, Alex Albin, fighting over a podium position, Hamilton making contact with Albin, Albin spinning around, Hamilton losing the spot to Gasly.

Sam, who do you think was at fault? Do you think it was a racing incident? I mean, there's so many factors to look at with this incident. There is the fact that Albon quite clearly leaves the door open for a car right behind. There's someone who is as aggressive as Lewis Hamilton can be. That is an obvious entry into an overtake. Lewis Hamilton is really quite far back. We finally got to see his on board just before we entered into the recording. And he really does come all the way back from Ecuador to have a go, Alexander Albon.

The third thing you need to look at is the fact that the corner angle is quite odd for that kind of move. It's a long sweeping corner. It's a late apex. You run it out wide. Hamilton's angle the way he goes for the overtake suggests that he wouldn't be able to comfortably make that corner and seal the deal. He's desperately trying to force a position where he can get alongside maybe for the next corner. I don't think Alba will have seen him coming. Actually, I've seen me on board.

I think it's close. I'm going to say racing against him because I think it's close. but this is Hamilton's fault. Hamilton has caused the touch. Hamilton has gone for a bit of a cheeky dive, maybe when it wasn't on. Maybe she could just buy his time for one more call on, and he clearly had the pace.

So for me, it is just Hamilton's fault. I'm going to say no penalty, although I am gutted for album because it would have been nice to see a one, two, three, Honda podium. Harry, anyone to blame? God. People were just going to go,

mad over this, aren't they? I was Sam, I think from where he where Hamilton, we've seen it on board, we refused to record this before we saw an onboard and then we were desperately searching Twitter slash Reddit. The onboard,

he seems pretty far back and as Sam says, it's quite a weird corner, quite an acute angled corner. I don't know, it sense a bit of frustration for Hamilton, which is unusual for this spec Hamilton. We might have seen that a few years ago, but the race didn't quite go his way, some strategy causes didn't go right for him.

And he was desperate to make those new tyres work. And I know he didn't have long to wait. He only had like two laps to play with. But yeah, he thought he saw a gap and he went for it. Normally I think he might have waited a bit. He would have waited until the main straightened because he would have nailed him there anyway. Yes, I'm going to say Hamilton.

But Albonne needs to recognize that that was a gaping hole that a London bus could have got into. So, yeah, blaming Hamilton. Penalty-wise, I don't know, because I don't like just handing out penalties here and there for all the crashes we have, but they did it for Ricardo Magnuson. So I might have to say, on that basis,

they have to give one to Hamilton as well, but I'm not that comfortable with either of those. But, yeah, I think it probably deserve the same five-second penalty as Ricardo got. but yeah clumsy one from Hamilton but Albon needs to recognise he's a bit bit at fault too yeah and you allude to us having to search literally everything in existence to find an on board of this incident and for good reason because it's changed my opinion completely I was ready to come on here blaming Album for this incident I thought from the angle that

we saw on TV that this was an opportunity for Hamilton to go up the inside he took that opportunity and Albon shut the door on him. But fortunately, we were able to see an on board because my opinion has completely changed on it and it was Lewis Hamilton's fault. I don't have a problem with him going for that move. The problem is he's coming from about two car lengths back. I think he's closer to two car lengths back than he is alongside. And if you're that far back, whilst Albon maybe could have telegraphed that move coming, it's not his responsibility. It's Hamilton's responsibility as the driver making the overtake to not make contact. Albon being so far in front, he had the right to that racing line. Now, if it was someone

a bit more experienced, maybe someone like, like Vestapp and maybe someone like Vettel, I don't think they'd have gotten so far over to the left-down side of the track in the first place. Or even if they did, they'd have taken a wider, they wouldn't have gone for the apex knowing that Hamilton was going there. But it is uncharacteristic for Hamilton. So it's not a completely, So, you know, it's not like he could have absolutely expected him to be there. It's quite uncharacteristic. So that's fair enough. Yeah, I just feel like he needed to be closer.

I think the move, he did leave the door open. And I think he'll learn from that. And I don't think he'll do the same thing next time. But I think this is on Lewis Hamilton. Does he get a penalty for it? I'm going to say yes. if you drive into another car and it is deemed to be your fault, I think it should be a penalty.

I won't be completely mad if they don't give them a penalty, but based on what they did with the Ricardo Magnuson incident and you want this real consistency with analysis, you want this real consistency with the stewarding decisions. So going on that, I think he has to get a five-second penalty. And of course, he could already have a five-second penalty. We don't know. Can we just say before anyone jokes?

done our throats for giving or apportioning most of the blame to Hamilton. He has, he said on the TV that it was his fault, okay? Can I also say something that Botas needs to actually, I know it resulting in a crash, but look at this and go, that's the aggression I need to start implementing in my moves. Yes, perhaps. Crash into more people. Yes. Is it either make an overtake or crash doing it and get off the track? I mean, I would have used an example of say Leclair getting past Vettel the first time or maybe a different example where there wasn't a collision, but all right, the point's good. Of course, that wasn't the only incident that happened. Vettel and Leclair, the Ferrari guys, both going out of the race in dramatic fashion. Vettel and Leclair, Leclair diving up the inside of Vettel

into term one, Vettel trying to get back at him. And there was an incident just going down the straight, not even into the corner. Sam, I think I know the answer to this, but who do you blame for it? It's quite clearly, Sebastian Bessel's fault. It was like the Ferraris were both made of glass. They seem to touch a whisker of each other and both simultaneously imploded. We've seen cars hit each other much higher than that and comfortably drive away from the accident.

But you quite clearly see on board from all angles that once Bettele gets that car leg past, well, he thinks it's a car leg, he starts to edge back over to defend again. and it clips the um i think it's i think what happens is the rear tire of bettel catches the inside the inside front right of the tire slash front wing causes many punches many suspension failures Ferrari have many issues to talk about here but i think that is uh i think that one is much easier to dissect i think bettel is at fault for that incident let's face it they only crashed because that could give them a reason to give land strolls some debris so he wouldn't get a podium because he was going to get it.

All right. Landstrol lives for these races. So I'll flip the question slightly rather as to who was to blame because I think it is fairly obvious that Vettel was the one who moved over even though the contact was very minimal. If you're Bonotto right now, Harry, what are you saying to Vettel and what are you saying to Leclair? Prepare for some stupid advice that know what will ever need, everyone.

you make sure that they have to sit two people away from each other when they're on the plane at home. There you go. That's it. Do you think it's damaging to their relationship with them for a lot? I don't know. I think it can help. It definitely can't help them crashing into each other. And we've seen it a couple times this year. They've been close. But, you know, for Vettel, he's had this young gun. He's been so quick. impressive again this year and is beating him. I'm not saying Vetter needs to take people out, but he still needs to stamp his authority. And that for me was kind of a, yeah, okay, you might be

quicker now, but I'm not going to let you go past. It's not great for their relationship, but I think they'll be fine. It was a recent incident. I think both are sensible people. LeClau's got a very mature head for a young guy. Vetter. is a wise old owl in this in this sport now so he knows what's what the deal is um it's not i know it looked like the better weather incident but there's not that kind of championship permutation that that tension underlying things um it was clumsy they're both going to apologize to the team obviously for ruining the entire weekend but i think they'll be they'll be fine i think i think the clers already come out and said to the press that they are both mature

enough to shake hands and move on from this already, which is nice to see. Exactly, yeah. So not great, but I think they'll get over it. Yeah, I think it does, after the US Grand Prix and this one as well, for I need to take a look at their car and see how it's designed, because it seems to be so frail. There really wasn't much contact between them. But as we see sometimes, it can be minimal contact that leads to these big time punctures. And they've paid the ultimate price for it. who knows how many points they would have taken home.

Yes, the championships might be sorted, but Ferrari need to build towards a championship effort next year, and they're not putting themselves in the right position to do so by finishing this year in such a way. From Vettel's perspective, I just think it was amateurish. I don't understand why he was moving across, on his teammate, no less, way before the corner. It seems if it was some sort of,

perception error. He just didn't understand that... Science has a podium. As Hamilton got a penalty, how much it got a penalty? How much it gets a five second penalty? Science promoted to third place. Sorry, Ben. That's an understandable interruption. So, yeah, it's confirmed. So yeah, sign's got a podium. Oh, poor Carlos.

They should just redo the podium. Do it again. It'll be dark and there'll be no one there, but they need to re-redu it. We will be there. They need to do what they did with Reichen and Fizzichella handing over the trophy, but just the third place trophy from Hamilton to Sines. Oh, sorry. There you go. Yeah, so there you have it.

Carlos Sines on the podium for a first time. Two first time podium getters on the same day. Hold on, McLaren, got a podium. When was the last time that happened? 2014. Bloody L. Damn, it's been a long, long time. I think one of the second it would happen this year

that they get a podium. Wasn't Harry, but pretty much insane scenes there. I'm sorry, just a slight detour. Imagine saying to Renaud that five teams will be on the podium in 2019 and you're not going to be one of them. That is brutal.

And also, Toro, Rost, I've got two now. So, yeah. Good one. running. Slightly off topic. Sorry, Ben. Yeah. I think with Vettel, he just needs to improve his perception because it's not the first

time it's happened. It's happened quite a few times where he thinks he's passed the driver and he just hasn't. He's still there and yeah, it's cost both for them today. So they'll need to manage that. They need to limit these mistakes that they're making and they need to limit the amount of incidence and high pressure situations the two drivers are getting. into because whilst it won't matter at this point of the year, there will come a time where

it will matter. Hopefully they can stand that test when they get to it. Finishing off with Pierre Gazley here, of course Carlos Seines, we just know has got P3, but Gazzley went one better. P2, Toro's best result in 11 years. After not finishing on the podium at all for Red Bull, he's gone and finished on the podium for Toro Rosso. He's he seems like a new driver when he gets in that tour or so compared to the Red Bull. Maybe it's the pressure. Maybe it's something we don't know. But Sam,

what was your reaction to his last second drag race against Hamilton's, the line? My reaction was jumping up and down in my lounge with my cat fleeing in fear while I was shouting. They're drag racing to the line! They're drag racing to the line! And then when Gazley crossed that line, Nort's point, Nort's point, Norton. five, six seconds ahead of Hamilton. We, I mean, our text group, audibly I was screaming,

he's done it, Gaz, he's done it! I was elated. I was so happy for him. He's had a really tough year and three quarters in Formula One. He's been demoted. He always went through the Kiviat Road, and he's come along and somehow clinched his best result ever in Formula One in a car that realistically shouldn't be there,

but he's driving the absolute socks off of it. And I am so impressed. I'm so happy for him. And it's so deserved. And maybe this might open the door for another team instead of Red Bull that actually want to take a look at in because there isn't going to be a seat available for Red Bull at him now for quite some time, I don't think.

So you're going to know. Maybe he'll get the move to, maybe we'll do what Science did. Maybe it would end up going to Renho and they go to McClarum and then maybe somewhere else. Who knows. But he deserves a good bit of fortune and now he's got it. So I'm really, really happy for him. He deserved it. Great race.

Yeah, a real feel-good moment. Harry, what did you make of Gassley's performance out there and his overall turnaround since being sat by Red Bull? Well, Ben, you summed it up. As Sam said, we have a text group, group chat, and you said, Gassley, you effing chicken legend, I think was the best term. Well, yeah, he,

Brondor says, mentioned it in his commentary, since he's had this remarkable turnaround. Then he's not gone the same route as Kaffia in a sense that he gets dumped, but he's turned it around straight away. He's not just continued to slide down the order. Yeah, and today just, yeah, was so well deserved. And a big moment for what's been a pretty tough year, actually, for him, considering where it started off.

Yeah, very happy, very happy for old Pierre. And obviously, signs as well who gets podium but doesn't get a podium. Harsh. Yeah. a shame he wasn't able to celebrate that. Yeah, I mean, Gassley's turnaround has been brilliant to watch, and I feel really great for the guy.

He absolutely deserves it. Like you say, the parallels with Kaviat's career were fairly evident up until this point. They have good junior careers. They go into the Torosso seat. They both do pretty well at Toro also. Ghazli probably more so than Kaviat. They go up to Red Bull.

They get dropped for someone else. And then at that point in Kaviat's career, he tumbles. He can't perform for the rest of the year at all. He gets dropped from Toros. So he can't score any points against Carlos signs whatsoever. And he has to take a year out. And they obviously took another chance on him. And good that they did.

But he just crumbled after getting that demotion. And Ghazley's response to this, Gassley's resolve and his ability to turn a bad situation into something positive, it's been brilliant. It's been really great to watch. He's made Q3 the last four races, which in Atoroso is a really good achievement. He has just, he's progressed with every single race that he's been in that car. I don't know whether it's when he gets to Red Bull, the pressure becomes too much. Maybe he's just not designed to be one of those elite drivers.

They are very, very limited. Arguably everyone in F1 is an elite driver, and it's only the very, very top. that get to win races and be championship contenders. There's no shame in not being that. And Gassley can form a career as a solid midfield driver, and who knows, maybe he'll capture some confidence and go higher than that. But at least for the time being,

Gassley has had a great second half of this season, and he deserved 18 points going his way. Absolutely deserved it. What a bloody feel-good races has been. I've enjoyed myself. I have to say, at the time this, safety car came out for the first time, I was like, why on earth has that come on? Because I don't understand for a second why it was a safety car. But thanks goodness it was. It's because there's a

crane on the track. There becomes a crane on the track. It has to be a safety car. It was the inside of the track and Bottas had parked it by the fence. He couldn't have parked more considerably. Yeah, it's so weird. But crating on the track is a safety car and safety cars often bring out the most exciting of races. So bring them on. well pretty good segue Valtrey Bottas of course retired from the race but not after a fairly entertaining battle between him and Chau LeClercottes doing everything

he can to get past Charles LeClerc not letting it happen Sam I have no doubt you have strong opinions on this and you alluded to them already so I'll just let you fire away on this so if you have got the categorically the fastest car across a track for most weekends

and your teammate is 20 to 25 seconds up the road, comfortably ahead of you, and you cruise up to a driver who is struggling for pace, is on a harder compound of tire, is struggling to make it work, is leaving gaping doors open for the easiest overtaking corner you can find on the whole circuit,

and you're still not making a move, you're still not pushing a move, you're still not getting side by side, you need to be doing better. And he needs to learn to either call off, get out the way and at that engine call off and go again or get the move done there and then. Valtrey Boss has time after time has not been strong enough when attacking opportunities. It doesn't take the necessary risks that you need.

And it's come off once again. He's ended up D&Fing. He's lost way more points to Lewis even with this penalty that we're now aware of. He needs to step it up. If his plan is to, like I said earlier, and not make any moves and sit behind cars that technically are slower than him, then congratulations, Valkyrie. You'll end up even further down than you were this. year. I don't want to be too harsh if I haven't been already, but he needs to be doing more.

And when you've got a gaping holder, Max and Staffing is able to fly past Lewis Hamilton, Bottas should be able to be the same to Charlotte Clare. So it wasn't good enough. It needs to improve it again. I hope we see him come back fighting for stronger. Botas 3.0 with porridge and a bit of fruit and barley on top for next season, because I think he needs it. Harry, do you feel as if Bottas needs to be slightly more aggressive? I do. I thought LeClau was defending pretty well slash a little harshly on occasion. So there's a couple of on the line, maybe slightly latent moves when they're going into T1. But yeah, Bottas probably should have tried and he had the advantage on the tires

and he should have tried to send it earlier on when he cruised up to the back. Because then his car started overheating and then obviously in the end he dropped out. I think a couple of factors, the Mercedes engine obviously wasn't working well dragging up the hill to the start-finished line. It was clearly the slowest out of the Ferrari Mercedes and Honda. Honders. And then, yeah, a couple of occasions, like LeCler picked up DRS and a laps car, I think. So, yeah, I don't want to be too harsh on Bottas. And obviously, in a race where risks were taken by other drivers and it didn't work out.

then you might argue that you might not want to be quite so risk-taking. But sometimes you do just need to just send one up the inside and not worry about it. There were a couple of times when I thought maybe he could have just launched one. And if it didn't work out, especially into Turban, there's so much space to run off there now, I think it would have been fine. But yeah, I don't know. I don't want to feel like we're Botass bashing, which that sounds wrong. but yeah he does need to take more risks but perhaps not all the time i can see the logic he has in

not trying to just dive up the inside of every car he comes up to but um sometimes sometimes you just got to do it like nikey would say that's it just got to do it then go get a new catchphrase wow that's one i haven't heard of before um i've i've i understand understand that Botas probably does need to take a few more risks. I just don't think it's in his style. I think his style is not that of the likes of Leclair and Vestappen, where he would rather stick behind and wait for the driver ahead to make the mistake and make a safe pass rather than a slightly risky one. And I was going to make pretty much the same point you made, Harry, that, okay, his engine obviously overheated and he retired from the race. Let's say that doesn't happen.

he probably finishes P2 or P3 based on other cars making the risks that we're telling Bottas he should have made. So I understand it from both sides where, yes, Hamilton is more aggressive. It probably pays off for him a lot more than Bottas. But that's his style. He's consistent. His DNF record in Formula One is ridiculously good. I think it's the best on the F1 grid, even including Lewis Hamilton. He doesn't get himself, for the most part, caught up in these incidents, and that's why he's able to take so many points from races.

And, okay, he's not there with Lewis Hamilton. He's not quite there in terms of points, but he is a great wingman because of his consistency. He is great as a number two driver at Mercedes because he doesn't do anything stupid and reckless. So should he have gone for the move on, LeClaire? You could argue, yes. But for every one time that does work, probably doesn't work another time. If we were to add up all of the points that say Vastafan has lost, or LeClaire has lost because of a reckless move,

how many points has Bottas lost because he hasn't made that move? It's probably less. So, Bottas, that's his style for better or for worse. Nice. That was, Baner of the style wasn't all Bottas bashing. Yeah. I'm going to say, we are generally fans of Bottas. He just needs to just lick it a little more.

That's all. That sounds wrong as well. I mean, how many times has Bottas retired this season? I mean, Hampt has had zero retirements. So Bottas has had, well, I think none through actual collisions with cars. So, I mean, consistently, they're both there for, you just got to put it in the right place. Just a bit more. Bottas did bin it in Germany, by the way.

Oh, yeah, it did. To be fair, pretty much half the grid bended it that day. That's true, that's true. But, yeah. Oh, well. I think we've covered maybe 10% of the Grand Prix in the last 45 minutes, which says a lot about how entertaining that race was. But I think we've covered the main point.

So we'll finish up here. Sam, get us out of here. Well, if you enjoyed the Brazilian Grand Prix, and you even thought to stop by and listen to us rant about such an exciting Brazilian Grand Prix, then we thank you. And we'd love you to hit the like button and subscribe for more content. We always bring some out after the races and across the whole winter period will be making silly, wonderful and interesting content.

hopefully you to listen to. But until that next time, I've been Samuel Sage. I've been Ben Hocking. And I've been Harry Ead. And remember, keep breaking late. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.