The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Did Red Bull throw away a win? | 2021 Spanish GP Review | Episode 118

Episode Date: May 9, 2021

Catalunya actually delivered a decent race?! The LB trio break down all the talking points after Lewis Hamilton extended his championship lead over Max Verstappen with another race win.Tweet us @LBrakingMake sure to SUBSCRIBE! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to look out for new episodes every Thursday and Grand Prix Sundays. Hello and a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast. Spanish Grand Prix review time with three of us. My name's Ben Hocking. Of course, Harry Ead and Sam Sage are alongside. The streak of Vestappan and Hamilton finishing first and second is continued.

for the third time this season, it was Lewis Hamilton who won the race for Max Verstappen being beaten into second place. So after taking pole position, Hamilton lost the lead into turn one, but a second pit stop later on in the Grand Prix proved decisive, causing Hamilton to hunt Vastappen down and make that overtake. Valtrey Bottas, of course, then rounding out the podium in third. So in terms of the race as a whole, Sam, did our preview positivity pay off here? It was the positivity for heaters. You know, when you're raised. wrap up your fajitas, sprinkle a little bit of positivity in there, and you get a good Grand Prix. I can't believe it was actually decent.

When Max got past Hamilton off the start line, I sighed and went, here we go then. That's it. Race decided. One, two, three, all done. And then, no, the fact that Hamilton, at the end of the race, in the interview said, we were always going to do this two-stop. That's why we had the other set of medium tires available. I don't like doing a one-stop round here.

I was like, you are literal genie-eye in the Mercedes Garrig that you planned that far ahead. It was great. I can't remember saying this. It was a really good Grand Prix. You had tension. We had a move on track for the lead. You had strategy coming to play. There was good midfield fights.

There were multiple stops. It was actually a good Grand Prix weekend at Catalonia. I enjoyed it. I actually enjoyed it. So, well done. Well done Spain. Like Baku, but now Spain. giving the well-done treatment.

Yeah. I mean, we'll get on to, actually, whether we thought it was a good race or a bad race later on in the show. But coming up as well as that, Valtrey Bottas wasn't necessarily playing ball when it comes to Lewis Hamilton overtaking him. Lewis Hamilton did get past, but not without a little bit of a fight from Valtry Bottas.

So our thoughts on that display from him. Sergio Perez, not in the top four, P5 after today's race. any cause for concern there. But we're going to start out front. We're going to start with Vastappan and Hamilton, of course. Hamilton taking the win. Harry, do you think that Red Bull kind of threw this one away? This is a tricky one because I think, you know,

if there was potentially an opportunity on that second stop, and as soon as Hamilton came in, they could have potentially got Vastappen in and back out ahead. but it was at such a risk at the time to cool that so yeah they were they were boxed in by they were boxed in by Checo not being there to be honest and it was like hungry all over again so I don't think they could have without Checo being there

I don't think they could have done much more to to stop that and this is a problem the Red Bull have in the past yeah I think there wasn't much more they could have done to stop that attack and you know You know, Max said it after the race. He knew it was starting to go away even as, you know, as soon as the end of the first stint,

because the pace, Hamilton clearly had the pace and was right on the back of him again during the second stint and could just kind of sit there. Yeah, I'm not sure what more, with the circumstances that they had, with both drivers, I'm not sure what more Red Bull could have done. I think if they had reacted, there was a risk. He comes back out behind Hamilton anyway, and his game over, you know, on lap 30,

rather than lap 62, whatever lap Hamilton got passed. So, yeah, it's a hard one for Red Bull, especially to be beaten by the same strategy again as they did in Hungary 2019. It's got to hurt, but yeah, I don't think they can, I don't think you say they threw away the win. I think they did as much as they could, given the circumstances, I think.

Sam, would you put this more down to Mercedes and Hamilton's sort of brilliant, or do you think the Red Bull could have done a bit more here? It's definitely a tailor to sides, I think. And this race, out of the first four that we've seen, definitely felt like the most equal playing field out of the lot. It feels like Hamilton and Bastappen on completely fresh ties with nothing in front of them. If you were to put them side by side the whole way round,

I don't really think you'd be able to split them too much. Whereas the other tracks, I think one track has linked each way for each team a little bit. Barre and more for Mesegis, it felt like. Imola more for Red Ball, Portaamau, again a little bit more Mercedes and now Spain I think is actually probably the closest we've had, especially with the layout of the track as well. It really complements having to have a huge pace advantage to make that overtake. We've always known that about Spain. It's very difficult to pass

around here. When Max got off that line in front of Lewis Hamilton, you've got instant control. The amount of times the person that gets in front on the first lap wings of the race in Spain is huge. And when you've got that upper card, you know, you kind of think, right, we've got to do what we can, I'll just because soligify this. But the absolute sheer brilliics, firstly of them are saying his strategists. My hat's off to you. It was fantastic all weekend.

They have planned that well in advance, and it worked with, what a treat that was for the strategic eyes. But Lewis Hamilton, just like in Hungary, Haska deliver that pace on track. Not only that, he's got to make an actual overtake on his teammate

for his botasca sides of this is the race out of the other, what, 80, that they've been teammates, 100 that he's going to actually stick up for himself on track. Bizarre, interesting. We discussed it a little bit more later, but Hamilton had a lot to do. It was not as easy as it looked at the end of the race. It wasn't as clean cut as people think, I don't think. But Hamilton delivered it brilliantly, got drive the day, I think deservingly. I do think that if Rebel reacted that a little bit faster, at the moment Hamilton came in, we might have had a closer front,

but they didn't have any medium tyres. They had to have extended soft tires a ridiculous amount of time. The same is called Red Bulls Bluff here and I think it was the strategy that tipped it over the age but you still got to live with Hamilton and actually dig just that. So, the same is playing a blinder here. Yeah, I think what you said is right,

Sam, in the most of the time, if you're making that move into term one and you've got the lead, of course, at that point in the race, they're on the same tire, it's the same strategy. You would expect to win that race because the onus is immediately shifted to

to the other team in this situation. That was Mercedes. You're asking, Mercedes to come up with something different in order to get past. And I don't think Red Bull played this fantastically in that Mercedes were given two opportunities, essentially, to make it happen. The first instance, which I actually think Mercedes probably got this wrong, was when Vastappen came in the first time.

Now, I think Red Bull were cautious of the undercut here. They knew that Hamilton was, I think, at that time, within six tenths or so. So they knew that if Hamilton was to pit first, there is every chance that Vastappen is going to have to go long, which essentially the reverse happened here. So protecting against that, they went in first, and they messed up a pit stop, which is very, very rare. You don't usually see Red Bull pit stops go beyond 2.2 seconds

or something ridiculous like that. The max Vastappan pitstop was 4.2 seconds, which for any team is a slow stop. For Red Bull, it's an abnormally slow stop. which essentially then gave Hamilton the opportunity. So Hamilton's pit stop, which came about five laps later, was 2.7 seconds. So it was a 1.5 second advantage that Hamilton had on that first stop. And it was about half a second or so that Hamilton was behind when Vastappan made his spot.

So essentially that lap after Vestappen pit, Hamilton's got one second to play with. If he can have that lap within one second of Vestappen, he's going to come out ahead. if he pits the next lap. You know, the overcut isn't usually all that powerful, but when you make a mistake at a pit stop and it's that close before you come in, there is the opportunity to get it done. And whilst I won't always advocate for AWS stats,

I think their percentage chance of an overtake is actually one of their more accurate ones that they have. And I don't, you know, if people want to give examples, fair enough, but I can't think of any example where it's been very wrong when it's come to, you know, whether it has been an overtake or not. So that was reading out 75, 80% chance of Hamilton overtaking. And they declined the opportunity to make that pass at that point, which I thought was an

oversight from Mercedes. Red Bull, you could argue then, got away with it. But then they found themselves second bite of the cherry for Mercedes. That was the one that they made stick in bringing Hamilton in for that second pit stop. And as the race was going on, every lap that passed, I was like, this is because coming more and more like Hungary 2019. They're going to pit him and he's going to make up that ground. And, you know, with the medium tyres at their disposal,

I felt pretty confident that that's what they were going to do. I think the real first indication that that was possible was actually the Williams guys. So, you know, the Williams guys obviously pit both of them under the safety car. The question at that point was, how long are they going to go into the race on those medium tires? How long can they actually last? The answer wasn't very long at all because they didn't come in much longer. they didn't come in much after the guys who made their first stops did.

You know, I was asking at that time, can they go to, can they go 40 laps? Is that something that they can do? They went nowhere near 40 laps. So that should have been the real first sign of indication for Red Bull and Mercedes. Hang on a minute. The two stops are going to be faster here. Even with it being a difficult track to overtake, the tyres are going to be at such an advantage that if one goes for it and the other doesn't, they've got a real chance of making this work.

Mercedes executed as they always do. And it was just a real sign of driver and team strategist in complete harmony. Hamilton trusts the team to know what they're doing. He was right behind Vestappen. The driver's instinct at that moment is he's going to make a mistake. Come on, keep on the back of him. We're going to get past him. He has to trust that the team know what they're doing to send him 25 seconds back down the order.

And at the same time, the team strategists have to trust. that Lewis Hamilton has got the pace to make up one second per lap, every lap, get through traffic, get past any other cars. So there needs to be complete trust from both sides, there was, and they executed it perfectly. A really good job from Mercedes here today. I mean, in terms of in terms of Estappan's performance itself, you know, do you think that there was anything that he could have done differently, Harry, considering he did what he needed to do on that first corner?

I don't think Again, this goes back to my first part I don't think there's anything else He could have done there I mean he made the good start It was a bullsey moving to turn one I think if Hamilton hadn't turned out of that That could have been

You know we talked about it You know in the preview podcast When's it going to get ugly We're getting closer, aren't we? We're so nearly there Yeah it was Anyway so it was a good start for him Obviously he did what he needed to do then

But I don't think there's you know, much else he could have done at that point. He was, when they realized that Hamilton was going to do the two-stop, he was then just trying to nurse the tyres. But I just don't think it was going to be quick enough. I don't think the Red Bull was quick enough. And even, you know, it was even less quick on the used tyres. So, yeah, I don't think, I mean,

maybe try and call the shots from the cop pick more, but you've got to be, you know, you've got to trust what your team are doing. Like, again, like Hamilton did. So you can't expect Max to be calling. the strategy at the same time as trying to keep a seven-time world champ behind him. So, yeah, for me, I don't think Max could have done much else. He is, he is, you know, it's a really quick car, but he is still dragging it around, isn't he, to go as quick as it can.

And it just still wasn't quite enough. What are your thoughts on this one, Sam? Because, of course, Vastappen didn't quite see out that second still. He did end up hitting for the fastest lap. But if he had done, he would have had to have gone six laps longer than Ken. Kevin Magnuson did last year's race on the same tyre, which was the longest stint on the medium. So what do you think, Sam?

Do you think that Vastappen was just stuck by what the strategy was here? Well, no long out drives Kevin Magnuson in terms of length around Catalonia on medium tie. It's simply, isn't that? Very true. You just simply, and you'd be foolish to even think it's possible. So I'm surprised they came to so close. It's very rare that I say this, especially in this current season, Max Vestappen pretty much grove a flawless race.

He got off the line better. He did exactly what you need to do. If you look at the trends over all the past races that we've had really in Spain, you can assume that if you get in front at the start of the race, you've done enough. You can hold on, especially when the cars are this close. You can do it. The dirty air around Catalonia is horrible when you're stuck behind someone. And Max Verstappenka has to continue getting good traction off the final corner,

down the back straight, he'd be safe for another lap. Max did everything he needed to do. It was just the brilliance of the Mercedes strategist at Hamilton's pace combined. the trust that they have together is amazing that meant that they were defeated. I think Max against anyone else on that whole grid. Bottas, you know, Perez,

you go and stick any other one of those legends in those cars. I think they probably get away with it. It's just grew up against Lewis Hamilton, a seven-time World Championship against Versaegis, who are the fastly becoming the most successful Formula One team of all time

in all aspects of point scoring. That's a pretty tough combination to defeat. So I can't stand the Max in any way. He did everything he needed to do. it was a really good race for him. He just got beat by the better team on the day. Yeah, I find it interesting what you said, Harry, and one of the things that we previewed in our preview podcast on Thursday

was when is this fight going to get ugly between Bostappan and Hamilton? Is it going to get ugly between the two of them? And it's almost like every step of the way it's been like nearly there, but for whatever reason it hasn't quite gotten ugly yet. Today's reason was, you know, Hamilton had caused to be, a bit annoyed that he was pushed wide into turn one, but ultimately he ended up winning the race. So I don't think he's going to lose too much sleep over it. If he finished his second place, maybe that's caused for it getting a bit uglier again.

But it does seem as if for every step of the way, there's just one little reason that's causing the niggle to not quite be there. But, you know, as I said on that preview podcast, I think it will happen at some point. I think Max Verstappen did, I think he did as good a job as he could have done. ultimately it's not as if Hamilton overtaking Vestappen was out of line with what was happening with the drivers in the midfield as well. Bear in mind that that situation was essentially replicated up and down the field where Alonzo and Ocon in the Alpines were trying this one-stop strategy and they were going up. Let's take Alonzo versus Stroll as the example.

They were very close on track. Stroll goes for the two-stop in the same way that Hamilton does. Alonzo goes for the one stop in the same way that Vestappen does, it was stroll that ended up winning on that two-stop strategy. So it's not as if that wasn't replicated down the grid, that same strategy. So I don't actually think Mastappan could have done much more. A bit of a hypothetical question, but a tough one. Sam, if Vastappan pits when Hamilton does, and Hamilton doesn't pit, so essentially rolls reversed, does Vestappan get the win?

No, he doesn't. Mercedes again I've said it already twice I think Paul applied with the tyre strategy they had that set of mediums ready to go that was the difference maker Max doesn't have the durability in the tyre from that lap if it was exactly the same race

just rolls reversed and Max has to complete the same amount of laps that Hamilton had to do I don't think the soft tie goes that far I think it wears off just as much as Hamilton's medium would the gap will come down but I don't think it'll be enough I think they end up dragging their tyres around the end

I don't think it would happen The fact that Mercedes had that extra set of mediums ready to go that had the ability to get them to the end at that pace was the difference maker. The soft tire simply wouldn't have done it. So Max would need that same strategy, that same tire availability that Mercedes had to make it worse, to make it work, rather. If you're going to tell what the hypothetical situation is that Max has the mediums,

then yes, I do think that theoretically Max has the pace and his own raw ability to close the gap down because Hamilton's tyres will eventually warm out. They will have less age on them, of course, Hamilton stopped later in the first stint, but I do think that the move will have still been on had Max had a fresh set of mediums and been the one to pit.

But no, unfortunately, I think the Sague is over with the team, had one of the best weekends we've seen them have, and that says a lot, considering what they achieved over the last five or six years. Harry, I mean, let's just say that Red Bull did have a fresh set of mediums to play with here and the roles were reversed. Do you think that Stappen catches Hamilton

in the same vein that Hamilton was able to catch for Stappen? Yeah, Camel. the same way with Sam here. I think definitely he could have caught him. Whether he would have caught him as quickly as Hamilton caught for Snap and I don't know because I think, I just think on the day, on the medium tyres,

Hamilton and the Mercedes was just a better combo. But yeah, I definitely think it's potential. I also think potentially they could have, and this would have been a risk and I can understand why, but when it got to about lap 50, they could have then brought him in and put it the softs on, but obviously he then has to get past more than one car to catch back up but by the end of the race when he was on those soft he was absolutely

he took i don't know i know hamilton would have been cruising by them but he took several seconds out of hamilton and those few laps towards the end on the soft so if redba wanted to be balsy about it they could have tried that but you know they wanted to secure a second so what's the point in that um but yeah it's you know all about it's nice it's like the early pirelli days i like this you know it's about being on the right on the freshest rubber at the right time and Hamilton Mercedes were. But yeah, ifs, buts and maybes. Quick petition.

It is indeed. To get Red Bull to be changed to hashtag Red Bullsy, please. Bulls to the wool. Come on, Christian. Red balls to the wall. Come on. Sold it out. I agree with you, Harry, that it was a tough one.

And to your point, It is brilliant that we can even have these conversations about a Spanish Grand Prix where there are discussions of maybe he could have put it at this time, maybe they could have gone on to this strategy. Because in most instances with the Spanish Grand Prix, we can't even have these discussions because it's so obvious that it's a one-stop race, soft, mediums, medium-soft, whatever. So, you know, even the existence of these sorts of discussions is great.

I agree with you. I think Vastappen, if they had a fresh set of mediums available, would have actually done the same thing that Hamilton did in reverse because it's not as if Hamilton got there on the last lap and made the move into turn one on lap 66. He had quite a bit to spare. It was actually fairly comfortably better strategy in the end. So even if Verstappen did take another two or three laps on top of what Hamilton was able to do,

even if that was the case, I think he still would have sword past him. So yeah, I think Mercedes played the blinder here. Let's move on to Driver of the Day. Who have you got for this one, Sam? easy this one goes to lewis it's between lewis and max they ran the show they were by far the cream of the crop of the whole race and there are some one will mention chau leclair doing another fantastic job today danier ricardo great to see him bounce back up through the grid great to him get kind of both hands on the maca and deliver a good performance out with dang his teammate which is nice but those two were faring away the best guys here so for me louis takes it who for you harry I'm going to give it to God Leclair because he was far and away

clear of the midfield and the absolute audacity to overtake Valtrey Bottas around turn three on the opening lap as well cements that position so I'm going to give it to Leclair I agree with Sam Hamilton and Max were just so far ahead of anyone else

also shout out to Kim Reikinen he jumped quite a few places on his strategy of just not pitting for more than half the race. The Lance stroll. Yeah, otherwise known as the Lance stroll. Yeah, he had a good race considering I know Giavanazzi was unfortunate,

but it was probably the first time this weekend that Kimmy's looked any good compared to his teammate. But yeah, LeClair for me. I am going to agree with you, Harry. God Leclair was the driver of the day for me. He completely outclassed the rest of the midfield. It really wasn't close. and of course he was able to beat Sergio Perez,

got the overtake done on Valtry Bottas, you know, and was then able to hold the spot as well quite impressively. So I know he ended up pitting late on. He did a very good job considering the discussion coming into the race was the Ferraris aren't very good on their tyres. He ended up going for a second stop quite late on in the Grand Prix and probably wouldn't have done unless he was absolutely safe to do so. So, you know, he was brilliant.

Lewis Hamilton was sensational and he gets very high marks from me. The only reason that I don't give it to him was going back to that point of he wasn't the only two-stopper that ended up catching a one-stopper that they were up against. But nonetheless, it was impressive. And it's only because Leclair's performance was so good that I'm going to give it to him. Worst driver of the day, Sam. This was actually really difficult because I don't think anyone had an absolute stinker. There were no absolute kind of misery businesses driving around the track, really.

this weekend and you have to take into consideration Catalonia as a circuit until strategy comes into play the doorbell's going folks so who knows what drama might be kicking off again. It's your worst driver of the day arrived with the door. What ass has come up with a night?

Marjorie, if you could just check our hit tweet account at El Braykin, you'll see there's a viral tweet going off about you. Honestly, I've lost a train of thought there. Right, you have to take into account Catalonia. it's very difficult to make a move anywhere.

If you have a poor start, it's very difficult to resurrect that start, so to really get on top of it. So it's between Checo and Bottas, simply because they got mugged off the start. Checo put himself in a poor place, but at least he did move forward after qualifying. So for two, for two, it's Voucher Bottas again. Sorry, Macon.

Oh, we're back on that again. Here we go. Sorry. Harry, who have you got? My argument, I've got Checo because my argument is that Botas at least recovered enough to allow Mercedes to do the strategy that did, the won them in the race. And we'll get onto his, we'll onto Bottas' defending. But, yeah, I mean, Checo, I know he's only race four in. Again, we'll talk about this in a minute.

But he's like sealed his fate for today on. Saturday in Kuali. I know there were reasons he wasn't 100% etc but as I already said Red Ball need him up there because they max can't fight two Mercedes alone especially when one of them is driven by Lewis Hamilton so yeah I'm going to give it to Checoe I know he made up places in the race but it wasn't enough for the car he's in now overall your selection of course was valetri Botas Sam and he ended up 25 seconds behind Lewis Hamilton which is is not good. I raise you 50 seconds, which separated Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazapin at the end of the day. Goodness me, this is not going well. That average is out not far off a second a lap, probably something

around eight tenths or so, per lap separated those two. Again, they're both rookies. You know, there's no there's no reason that Schumacher should be beating Mazepin by this much, yet he is time in and time out. Even, I don't expect a lot from the Hask guys because their car is quite literally a lawnmower. I understand that. But having said that, after the safety car came to an end,

of course the Williams had their pit stop onto medium tires, both Williams drivers passed Nikita Mazepin before one lap was done after the safety car restart. Now, I think Russell, got, Russell got past Schumacher after about two and then Latifie got past Schumacher after about five or six,

which is respectable, but it wasn't the same lap. Again, I'm not expecting a lot, but it's 50 seconds. 5-0. I don't even know if he's finished the race yet. He's still going.

I made the bold prediction that the entire field were going to lap him. It was a bit of a silly bowl prediction, but it is becoming, worryingly close. The fact that your teammate, who is the man in, what, 19th place,

or 18th place, because obviously Seno didn't finish, was only about 20-odd seconds away from you again for the second racing a row. If we did have a safety car, again,

it could have happened. There's every chance that again, everyone could have lapped him. I just exclude him from my mind now when it comes to races. I just see it

as we only have 19 drivers because he's not there, is he? What's the point? And he incurred the wrath of Toto. He did. Oh, I love that. yeah so what was a new feature where we got a direct radio in from toto wolf into michael massy

which was interesting but um yeah i'm sure mazapin struggles is something that we'll discuss a bit more at some point but the guy finished p4 in in f2 last year he's not untalented so why it's not working for him is something that we'll need to unwrap a later day but moment of the race what have you got sam uh well we've just We've just spoken about it. The moment of the race for me was the conversation, actually, between Toto and Massey. I absolutely love that feature. I want more of that.

I enjoyed seeing team bosses, people on the wall, having to go at some skewergs and going, come on. I want to sort this out. I want to get involved. If it wasn't going to be that, it would be the moment they brought Hamilton in for the second pit stop. Because that's when Spain got spicy. Hashtag Spain got spicy. You know, those are the two of the most brilliant moments of, of the moment. the race and I can't believe

for saying it in Spain, brilliant moments like a race. But I love that radio call. I was enthralled by that reggae call. I want more of it. So loved it. Yeah, absolutely. And to your point about the Hamilton pit stop,

I think the nation collectively, or the Formula One world collectively, just all sat up, like, even if they don't have glasses, they kind of just put them down like, oh, hello, oh, hello, what do we have here? Very intriguing.

Sorry, hold on. What is this on, is this a race on my hands? Oh, everyone, we've got a race on our hands. On our hands. Quite literally. Harry, what was your moment on the race? Oh, my God. I'll go for, I'll go for the start.

I'll go for Vestappen versus Hamilton into turn one. Because I think that, in that moment encapsulates what this title battle is going to be. It's going to be the, I mean, it's not, I mean, it's not, I mean, it's not, I mean, still young but he's pretty experienced now max but he's still the young the young charger absolutely sending one into turn one on the on lap one against the uh the vet seven time world champ who you know looks at the bigger picture turns out of the corner and still wins the race so uh i think that's a nice sort of snapshot of what this this championship's about so i'll go for that one yeah i think i think that moment into turn one the overtake that he pulled off not

this one and the Imala one actually. It's very Sena Schumacher-esque where you're essentially asking the question of the other driver. Do you want to crash? If the answer is yes, okay, we'll crash. If the answer is no, get out of my way. And those are the only two options.

So yeah, he's very much taking on the mantra of ex-champions there. If our moment of the race covered not only the race itself but the entire weekend, I would probably have to go for Paul de la Roe on Saturday. Goodness me.

Who on Earth was given... Who was given control of the graphics on that one? I bet it was Sam. It probably was. I reckon they've just actually used the... Also, I love that Hamilton. Hamilton's like, we're not live, are we? You don't look too bad for your age.

And it's like, everyone heard it. Yeah. Sensation. I reckon they actually just used a template of the pool de Rester one, and they just forgot to delete the pool fit. I can only assume. But my actual moment of the race, it wasn't a good one for Sergio Perez, but that move that he made on Danny Rick, that was something. He came from a mile back around the outside.

Very impressive move indeed. So, you know, not a good race overall, but if we're looking for a moment, than he certainly decided. Let's move on to the race itself. The circuit to Catalonia is not one that we often give a lot of praise to. We often say that it should maybe disappear

from the calendar. Sam, has this race changed your mind at all in that respect? Do you think it was a good one? No. I mean, the race was good, but it was a one-off good race. We've had to have the closest championship fight between two teams that we've had what feels like in a decade almost.

So it still wasn't that. I bet you over the course of the season, it still won't be considered in the top 10 Grand Prix. I'm sorry. Also, the reshaping of turn 10, it did nothing. It provided less overtakes for people because the breaking zone was so much reduced. There are so many great tracks out there. It upsets me that we've had to replace Canada with Turkey due to COVID

regulations understandably. But why can't I have Canada and Turkey on the track on the Canada at the same time? Because they're both better than Catalonia. It's not an excuse. Why do we maybe have to get rid of Porta Mao next season? But Catalan you would have to stay. When Porta Mao has provided two great races out of two great races and Catalania's providing one in the last 15 years. I'm sorry, it's just one good race does not make a brilliant track. As they say. As I say, it's a Bill Shakespeare. Spree, is that you? Yeah.

You know, it was good. It was enjoyable to watch. I think this whole season would be enjoyable to watch. I'd be surprised if Monaco turns out to be exciting, because that often isn't. So you never know.

But no, sorry, Catalonia, because still, see you later, make some changes, sort something out, extend your start, finish trait.

We might get some more overtakes. There are better tracks out there that we are not using regularly that I'd like to see on the calendar. You know it's a good point from Sam when he brings out the doff. Like, at that point,

it's going to be a good one. Interestingly, you brought up Portemau because Harry, you declared on our chat that you preferred this race to the race we had in Portemau last week. Do you stand by that? I think I do. I did.

I did enjoy it more than Port-a-Mau. And Port-Mau was fine as well. And this, again, is not going up in the top-10 list of greatest races, but it was definitely enjoyable. And even before Hounsen pulled the pin, on that stop. I was quite enjoying the two leaders just being a second apart for most of the race. I know we are, you know, platinum members of the We Hate Catalonia Club and this hasn't

really changed my mind about the track at all. But I think if you look, I think it's the formula we have. I'm thinking because I watched the Formula E race yesterday around Monaco, around the same circuit we're going to go to in two weeks. or same layout. And they had an absolutely belting race there. And, you know, I guarantee F1 won't have that same race.

So, you know, this is not me saying Spain is the best track on the world and it's Formula One's problem. But I think there's definitely a contribution by the formula we have. And, you know, even an added bit of spice of having two stops made the race much

better. So be interesting to see, because inevitably we'll be back in next year how the new cars, you know, perform around that track. Yeah, look, Spain needed at least a decent race, and it was nice to have that, you know, compared to the usual snore fest. But again, it's not my favourite track in the world. It definitely doesn't deliver an amazing race, and it was only because you had the alternate strategies that it made a good race.

But, you know, go easy on Spain. I know we all hate it, but we don't have to see it again for the year now. so move on. Just for clarity. I don't hate Spain. I just don't like the circuit. Yes, sorry. Sorry, Spain.

We mean the track. You have a terrible track, Barcelona. But lovely city, I'm sure. We can't go one podcast without annoying some nation. Like, we just can't do it. Sorry. I don't think I would personally go quite as far as it was a better race than Port-A-Mau.

But I do think the two were comparable. I don't think there was much in it, which says a lot, actually, because I'm a big fan of Port-Mau. So I think it was one of the best Spanish Grand Prix that we have had. I'm quite big on sample size. I think that's really important

when it comes to, is this a good track? It doesn't even specific to tracks, but just anything in general. So, for example, with Baku, when we had that awful first race in Azerbaijan, it was one race, so I was willing to give it another few chances, and what do you know, it's provided a couple of belters since then. We have sample size when it comes to the search of Catalonia. We've been going there since 1991, so I agree with you, Sam, that one good race

doff make a good track or however the hell you put it. Yeah, funny way to say it, but I agree with your point. We've had 30 years there. And if it can only deliver one or two good races per decade, then it's not worth it when there are so many great tracks around the world. I do agree with what you say, Harry, in that we've had F2 and F3 races there in the last couple of years that have been absolutely fine. So I do think some of this is attached to the formula. And you're right in what you say with Monaco, of course. It was almost just a completely different racetrack. when you have FE cars going around versus F1 cars. So I do think this is a lot about how the cars are constructed

the way, you know, the size of them, the downforce. I think it all plays a part. I wouldn't be overly disappointed because I don't think we're going to get rid of the circuit to Catalonia as much as we might want it to go. Considering Fernando Alonzo is still around, considering Carlos Sines is going to be around for quite a while, we imagine it's potentially a big market for F1.

I don't think we're going to get rid of it fully. And quite honestly, we could, you know, it could move to a different venue in Spain, but I don't actually think any of them would be a massive upgrade on the circuit to Catalonia. So I wouldn't mind at all some sort of sharing agreement between that one and the Portuguese Grand Prix. If it happened to be a one year we go to Catalonia,

the next year we go to Porta Mal. You know, would I prefer us to have a permanent fixture in Portaumau? Yeah, probably. But I don't think variety is a bad thing on the calendar. So I could get behind that as an idea. But yeah, it was a good race, but it's in isolation. Folks, before we move on to that next point, I just want to point you all towards.

You will never find another podcast where one, you hear the word Doth in a sentence, followed by our resident stat man saying, quote, I'm big on the sample side. You won't ever hear it anywhere else. Just remember that. If you want to subscribe, if you're first time around, just hit that follow button on the podcast.

You'll get more of this and we appreciate it. Unfortunately, the podcast is going to have to come to an end because we are getting sued by the William Shakespeare podcast because Sam incorrectly said, we are the only podcast that uses the word off. I'm actually going to double check. It's got to be one out there somewhere, surely. We'll get them on the show.

We will move on to Valtry Bottas. He was on the podium. He did finish exactly where he started P3, but it was a considerable distance behind both his teammate who won the race and also Max Verstapp and it was about 10 seconds separating P2 and P3. But one way in which the race went was that Bottas was overtaken by Hamilton with different strategies. And where, as we have seen in previous races, Bottas get out of the way very quickly, he did get overtaken. but it was something more of a forceful overtake from Lewis Hamilton, as Bottas wasn't as compliant as he usually is. Sam, what did you make of this additional fight that we saw from Bottas? I mean, Bottas came into the season declaring now is the time that he would be more selfish. You're going to see a whole move out for Bottas, and he's doing it for himself. I think Bottas, big picture, needs to be clever with this.

Bottas was not in the hunt for the victory in this race. I know his engineer kept, you know, saying, you can catch for staff. It's going your way. You can catch the Stappan. It wasn't really catching him, despite the tire difference. Even after the pit stop, it didn't look like Valtrey Botas was going to be able to achieve too much. Third seemed like all Valtry was really able to do. And this is where Valtry decides to put his foot down, go against the team, and try to hold up Lewis Hamilton, which is bizarre.

I know that obviously Lewis is the head of the championship fight, and Valtry wants to be involved in that championship fight. So theoretically, gaining points on Lewis is a... positive, but one of the things that goes for Valtry Bottas that keeps him in that seat is not his burning pace. It's not the fact that he can win race after race after race. It's the fact that him and Lewis gel brilliantly, they get good results time after time, they are coherent and they're able to work together well without any frustrations. Valtry Bottas picks now of all races to decide that this is when he's going to ignore Toto Wolf's instructions, hold up the seven-time world champion,

who still regardless gets past you with ease and then goes on to win a race. It was a bizarre time for Bottas to make this move in my opinion. I don't know why he felt like this was the point where he had to become selfish botas instead of good team player Bottas. It was odd.

We've said many times that a world champion is selfish. A world champion knows when to be cut through. A world champion knows when to put himself in front of someone else. Hamilton has done that many times, as had many other champions. This was not one of those times. It was bizarre. honestly more of that from Bottas, just maybe learn when it's appropriate, because it just felt a bit silly. It just felt a bit null and boy. So I don't know why he did it now. It was fun to

watch for a viewer, but I don't think it was great for careers objective of maybe being a world champion or a long-term Mercedes player. And do you think that this will be the start of him being in this? Or do you think he'll sit himself down after this and think, oh, there wasn't much point in that. I'll go back to normal Bottas. I think it all depends. I think it all depends on what Toto Wolf says to Valtry Botas after that race. I think if they walk into that race debrief and Toto comes down hard on Valtrow and says, what were you doing? You have no chance of winning that race. Sorry, you did great for the team, but what are you doing, possibly holding up the team from winning a race, that Valtry might reconsider things. If he doesn't get spoken to

to you by anyone and they go, okay, you're racing. I think Valtry will want to carry on with this. Valtry needs to find his way back into this championship fight if at all. That's the way to do it. I'll be selfish, not just against Verstappen, but also against Hamilton. And we could see more of it. It all depends on what that conversation is. I'd love to be in that room, the fly on the wall. But alas, I haven't got those connections just yet.

What are your thoughts on this one, Harry? Did you like what you saw from Bottas? Out of context, loved it. Like, this is what, you know, Botta should be doing if he wants to win a world championship. But, why? has he waited? Why has he waited three years? Wait, four years to do this and he's waited until

two thirds of the way through the 2021 Spanish GP when he is not a win with a shout of winning a race to do it. I don't quite understand. And it says I'm agreeing with Sam. It's just a weird time. And he didn't even really defend it that hard. Like he didn't jump out the way, but he didn't defend the inside when Hamilton came down. He kind of turned it a bit, but it wasn't a hard defense so it was almost half-hearted in that sense but um yeah very strange time there's so many other times when he's been fighting for a race win with with lewis where he could have been way more you know way more uh defensive and he hasn't been and now and now he decides to not be the team player very strange but i think that's a good i know he you know they keep him in they've kept him around

because he has been that good number too as much as he doesn't want to have admit that, you know, and maybe long-term this isn't the best for him, but I think if he ever wanted to win a championship or a race, or multiple races, he has to have that attitude, because it was the same attitude that got Rosberg, you know, that made Rosberg a viable foe for Hamilton. So, yeah, strange timing. I hope it does, you know, he uses that attitude in a situation where it's, you know, viable. not when, you know, you don't have a chance of winning, but your teammate does. So strange timing, but overall I would like to see more of that, it's not then.

Yeah, I really don't want to complain at Bottas because you're right, for years, this is what we've been looking for from Bottas to show more fight. And I feel like I'm being incredibly ungrateful that we've actually got what we want here, and I'm going to complain about it anyway because it was completely irrelevant and I don't know why he did it. Pick your moment, man. Come on. And what's the point? First of all, if you're going to defend or you're not, you know, you've got that decision to make, do one or the other. If you're going to defend properly, defend the inside into turn 10. If you want to make a statement, fine. Make it properly. Otherwise, get out of the way as soon as you can and don't half-heartedly try. something because you're not making a statement and you're also not going to be looked at favorably

by the team. So you're not really hitting either mark there. So there's no real point in that respect. Also, whenever I've complained about Bottas not having enough fight in a race scenario, it's always been in a situation where him and Hamilton are either on the same strategy or on a very similar strategy where he doesn't have a reason to get out of the way. Hamilton was on much fresh attires with a long way to go. You know, if Bottas was seriously going to try and keep him behind, he would have to have done so for, what was it, like 15 laps, maybe more. I'm not sure how many it was in the end.

There was no way it was going to happen. And the objective for Hamilton was to actually catch a guy that was 10 seconds up the road from him. So if they've got that objective in their mind, surely that should resonate with you like, okay, If that's their realistic objective, I probably can't keep him behind me, regardless of whether I want to or not. I should just pick your moments. Just play the team game in this scenario. If, for example, Bottas had pit, let's say Bottas had five laps before Hamilton,

and Hamilton was chasing Bottas and he had five lap fresher tires, defend for all you might, because you are on very similar strategies at that point, and you have a realistic chance to keep him behind. In this scenario, though, Bottas had only once, Hamilton had pit twice, just play the team game. And it's not not showing fight by playing the team game because everyone else does it.

We've seen it with Ricardo and Norris in Imola. We've seen it up and down the grid and all these teams where they're on different strategies. Generally speaking, the slower guy will get out of the way because it just makes sense to. And he should have done the same thing here. So, and to your point, Sam, about him getting radio messages about how he's going to catch for stopping by the end of this race.

I swear every time they said that over the radio, he was a further second behind him. They made that point and he was about eight seconds behind. So I'm like, okay, maybe he can get a bit closer. And then a few laps later, they come over the radio and say the same thing. And I'm like, he's nine seconds behind now. What are you what about? So, yeah. It was truly bizarre.

It was truly bizarre. It was like having a lovely chili for three years in a row every once a month. And bringing up your Aunt June and being like, Arch June, you bring the quack. And she's forgotten the quack for three years. And then comes the fourth year, you know, you don't bring Aunt June. You're having a roast dinner now. Aunt June turns up the door, half an hour late into the meal.

She's got a bowl of quack in her hand. And you're like, why? Why bring it now, Aunt June? Pointless. That is exactly what it's like To the team Yes it is exactly To like that

You not know the importance of the Gwack June In the sake Ridiculous Anyway We're on to our final topic Which is Sergio Perez Who finished P5 in the race

After a tough qualifying session Reports of shoulder injury on Saturday Seems to be fully recovered for Sunday So started P8 Made a few positions up at the start Made a move on Daniel Ricardo and eventually finished P5.

So behind Charles Lecler and perhaps most importantly behind the two Mercedes and his teammate. Sam, what do you make of his performance? See, I want to talk about his injury because I don't want to put someone down for a physical injury, but it's a very odd thing to complain about. I've got a shoulder injury where on the day of less driving, on the day that I don't have to be as endurance-based,

oh, it really hurts. Less than 24 hours later, he's literally scot free of any problem. That's a weird thing. I don't think I've ever had some kind of physical injury where I've done some endurance-based thing and it's felt better. So that was weird for a starter. Secondly, it's not good enough from Perez, is it? A track like Catalonia for Sergio Perez is like his bread and butter.

He's so used to driving here. He's had good performances here in the past. He knows how to get the best out of tyres, which is a major factor here. If anyone was going to be able to cut through the field in a top car and maybe find themselves back into the top four, you think Sergio Perez would have the ability to do that, maybe apart from Hamilton and Verstappen. You think he's the guy that can make it work.

He just didn't really have it. I know Catalonia doesn't lend itself to that increased ability. I know Catalonia doesn't lend itself to be able to cut through a field. But you just think if anyone's going to be able to pull a trigger, change the strategy up, make tires work a little better, Sergio Perez is the guy. He's letting Max Verstappen battle against two Mercedes guys who are really trying to take him down here

and Mercedes are doing a number on him and Perez is just struggling. I'm not going to be too critical, we've got to give it time, it does take time to settle, but I do expect more. I expect more. I thought Perez has really started to find his feet

and this was a step backwards in my opinion. I did think he'd be at least back into fourth place by the end of the race and it just didn't happen for him. LeClaire did a brilliant job. Perez not getting enough out of that Red Bull or his own ability, I think. I was disappointed.

What did you make of me? it, Harry. Well, you know, I've already spoken about Checo's race, but yeah, it's, I've already said that, you know, rebel need Checo up there to help fight these two Mercedes cars. I think it's, he is seeming his fake really on a Saturday. I know he had very good qualifying at Imola, but Portemarle was kind of the same story. or not even the same story, but he had a bad start. That was it, Portemau.

So he's just putting himself in these positions where he's having to make up from a mistake or, you know, a poor performance. And it's, you know, we're not, it's not far off what Alex Album was doing, to be honest. But I think for Red Bull, I'm still willing to give Peres the benefit of the doubt. I don't think they need to be too worried yet

because he has shown, you know, glimpses of being able to deliver. he was you know he beat max to the front row in imola his pace in portemarle once he did get past the cars that he got stuck behind was really good and on a pace with vastappen um i mean today he didn't get up to fourth but he still had a fairly good race pace he got past ricardo so i think it's there he just needs to he needs to you know put together a whole weekend that's good i don't think he's been able to yet um yeah i needs to do it soon if they want to try and win this chance which is, you know, why they brought him in, I think that's the only thing they would be

concerned about is it maybe taking him a slightly longer than they'd hoped, but I think Checo's experienced enough, I think it'll be okay. He just can't afford to have too many more weekends like the past two, really. Yeah, qualifying was, you know, putting the injury to one side. In terms of the presentation, it was slightly embarrassing. It's not even on, completely on Perez's performance, but the way in which the commentary team, at least for us in the UK, David Croft and Martin Brundall were talking about it. Perez was the last of the big four, so to speak,

to cross the line and he didn't set a lap in his first instance. And Croftey mentioned a couple of times, Perez looking pretty good here in sector what? Perez looking pretty good here in sector two. And he really ramped up his voice for when he crossed the line to make us think he might stand. And then it was like,

a second behind. And it was like, if you hadn't built it up in that way, it might not have been such a disappointment, but because of the way in which they framed it, it's like, oh, okay, not quite. Good effort. They got, I mean, got to the race. You don't want to start PA anywhere if you're in a Red Bull, but it's particularly not when it comes to the circuit to Catalonia because he just gets stuck in traffic. And he had a pretty good first-law. He had a pretty good first that, you know, he made up a couple of spots, which is what he needed to do. Then got, obviously, you've got that move done on Daniel Ricardo. It's as I really referenced last time, I just want to see Perez versus Vastappen with no other

cars around to see what his overall race pace is like, because each and every weekend, because of his qualifying performances, because of the formation lap incident in Bahrain, because of everything that's happened, the spin at Imola, he's never been able to actually just demonstrate pure performance on the same strategy as Vestappen, and I just love to see what that's like. Probably the most concerning thing for me about the weekend, and I'm going to disagree with what Harry said here in terms of the late pace that he had. When he was able to get past Daniel Ricardo, there were 16 seconds between him and Charles LeClair in front of him, and that was lap 47.

At the end of the race, there was nine seconds between them. So essentially, Perez got seven seconds closer to Charles LeClair in 20 laps, which averages out about three tenths per lap faster than LeCler on same tires. I think that's great. I would have expected that to be double that, quite frankly. Three times faster in a Red Bull than LeClaire, who did a great job in the Ferrari on the same strategy. I didn't expect Perez to get up to LeClair and pass him, but I was at least looking for him to be a couple of seconds behind,

given that he had 20 seconds to eat into that lead. And he wasn't able to cover half of it in the end. So, yeah, Christian Hornet did say before the race, Perez's race pace looked pretty good on Friday. The only chance we really got to see it when he wasn't stuck in a DRS train or something like that, I don't think he really showed enough. So I don't think it's reason to be concerned just yet.

He is a quality driver. It's not as if he had one good season and was thrown in the Red Bull as a result of that. He has been a great driver for a decade. So I'm pretty sure he's going to pull it together. But yeah, it's not there yet. It's not there yet. And I think that will do it for this podcast.

We'll be back, of course, a little bit later on. And the next preview would be for Monaco. But Sam, if you wouldn't mind getting us out of here. Well, folks, did you enjoy the Spanish on Prie. Dear your auntie, bring the quack to the roast dinner. We would love to know all of your thoughts relating to what's happened this weekend. Of course, as Ben said, we're going to be back later on the week talking general F1 stuff. Lots of videos coming out as well over on YouTube. Follow us over on Twitter at El Bray and I'll have a chat with you as well, or just create some

Geno F1 slack because it's just fun. In the meantime, I've been Samuel safe. I've been Ben Hawking. I've been Paul Delorosa. And remember, keep breaking late. Oh, Spanish Paul. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.