The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Has Albon done enough to keep his seat? | ABU DHABI BONUS PODCAST

Episode Date: December 13, 2020

Technical issues mean just a mini podcast from two of the boys after the 2020 finale in Abu Dhabi - Sam and Harry ask whether Albon has done enough to keep hsi Red Bull seat, and vote for the Driver of the Day.Make 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. Well, hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to the late breaking channel. I'm not Ben Hocking. That's right. The calm, soothing voice of Benjamin Hocking is not filling your ear drums and coming across the wavelengths.

It's me, Samuel Sage. Hello. Ben Zintinger is so bad as he lives in the dark depths of Cornwall in the south-west of England, if you're aware of where that is. He can't actually record, unfortunately. So it's me and my very good pal, Harry. Harry, how are you? Harry, how are you?

This is going to be a disaster, folks. I'm really sorry what you're having to listen to. We won't keep you for long because we can't talk for an hour. I mean, we could talk for an hour, but it wouldn't be broadcastable, should we say. So, yeah, yeah.

This is just ridiculous. Sam, what are we going to talk about? Yeah, we'll try and stay away from the total carnage and provide a fair and balanced opinion on everything we say, but Ben is usually the moderator. There's a lot of stuff that you guys don't hear that Ben Teggs ago, no, no, it's not making it in. So we'll try not to do that. So we're going to talk about generally the Aber Dhabi Grand Prix, but we are going to focus on the fact that Alex Albon has not had his seat solidified for next season.

He is one of, what, two seats now? I think Daniel Kiviat and Alex Albon are the only two now on the grid. I suppose Lewis Hamilton, but we all know that. that's not really up in any kind of risk unless he decides he wants to retire. So is Albon's seat and Kibiat seats available? And Alba had a lot of people saying a very good race. One of his better races of the season. He finished in fourth place.

He was a second and a half behind Lewis Hamilton, who of course is a newly crowned seven-time world champion. But on the flip side, Alex Alvon's teammate, Max Astaffa, did go on to win the race by some margin. There was about a full pit stop between the two Red Bull drivers. Harry, controversial on this. A lot of people think this was enough. to get Alex to keep his seat.

Do you think Alba has done enough? You think he's left it there? You think the Red Bull team are going to go, yeah, you know what? We could build on this? Or is that kind of the straw that breaks the camels back?

I don't think it's all going to be based on today anyway. It's going to be a, you know, they're going to look at what's happened over the course of the year. I think, you know, today his pace still wasn't, you know, he wasn't on Vostapen's pace. He wasn't really on the Mercedes pace. but I think, you know, a positive, if we're going to pick a positive point out of it,

he was, he was, you know, slightly a bit of a pain to the Mercedes in that, you know, if they considered they wanted to put Hamilton on a different strategy, Albon was there in the way, which, you know, is not completely, you know, they want him to be right on the back of them, or in the middle of them, of course, but it was kind of where Red Bull needing to be, to be that rear gunner in a sense, because Mercedes couldn't, you know, do something different, really, because Albon was in the way.

So I think, you know, they'll take that away from it, I'm sure. But, yeah, what's the performance today enough? I don't know, but, yeah, I don't believe it's going to be based on, based on just today's performance. They're going to look at a load of things. I mean, personally, I think he needs a year out. He needs to go somewhere else, get his head straight, do what Gazley did.

I know he can't go back to Alphiare, but yeah, go somewhere else. I don't know, to like Super Formula or something like that. Get Perez in for a year because they don't have anything to lose by doing that. And then, yeah, and then maybe getting back for 2022 when the new rules come in. But, yeah, it was a better performance. I'm not saying it was enough to save his drive. I think we've seen a lot of that on Twitter.

I don't agree with that. But I think it was a better performance for Albonne. whether it's enough, I think we're going to find out. I think it's 50-50 for him at the moment, if we're being honest. Yeah, there are a lot of attributing factors to this. Of course, Max Verstappen this season has driven that car's nuts and bolts off. He has been one of the drivers of the season. And I think arguably you can say that he is outperformed that Red Bull.

He has been above and beyond where that Red Bull theoretically should be. So in our one's defense there, it's like going up against Lewis Hamilton as a seven-time world champion. It is daunting, it's difficult. And to look good against that talent shows how, good you are. So Alba's got a big challenge they got up against, and the likes of Gassley also faced that. Albon's go course started fifth place. The top three, when they

qualified, there was less than one tenth between Bastat and Bottas and Hamilton combined. 0.0.08 separated the top three. And Landon Norris, like a stellar Saturday, managed to stick it in between Hamilton and Albon. Albon got off to a good start. It was not easy to make moves at the Aby-dabby Grand Prix, as we've seen, that Yas, Marina.

Not much to celebrate, unfortunately. But Alba got the job done. He got past Norris and we've seen, if anything, that his qualifying has not been great, these overall race results have not been great, but Alwood does seem to have this wheel-to-wheel capability. He does seem to be able to go side by side with drivers of, you know, credit, drivers that you look at and you go, Norris, strong driving will be a long time. We see it against Hamilton, you know, done well, we see against the Ferraris, those guys are great wheel-to-wheel.

And Albon's held his own. He's done a good job. He's gone around the outside a few times. And here today, he delivered a very strong overtake on Norris. to get himself into fourth place. Unfortunately, the damage is almost done at that point. We know that Abu Dhabi is tough to overtake on. An album was actually not close enough, I think, for a lot of the race.

The safety car brought him back into the action again after he was held up behind McLaren. And he was, as you said, Harry, a bit pesky. It was a bit of a pain in the bum from the Sees. And that is what Red Bull have needed all season long. They've needed their second driver to be a pain for the opposite team, to stop them having free reign on strategy, to stop them playing two verses. one to stop one going, I'm going to jump on the soft, so you keep pressuring on the hards,

and then we'll tag team. Albin's there now. Albin did that in the last race. Unfortunately, he's only done it in the last race. I think Albuong has definitely slowly improved throughout the season. I don't think it's enough that it warrants him having that seat for next season, not just yet. And with the form of Gasly, I'd be interesting to see how he would go, actually, in that Red Ball now after a bit more time. But, yeah, I think you'd be silly to make an overriding decision on someone's future entirely based on one race. I don't think any team does that. And I do wonder if they were already set it in stone.

But no announcement has been made. So again, we're recording this straight after the Abidabie Grand Prix on December 13th. No announcement has been made is to either the Alpha Tauri seat of Daniel Kviyat or Alexander Albon. From a personal point of view, I don't think that he's done enough to secure that seat for next season. but I also can understand if they do keep him what the reasoning is. If he's still having this form, if he's still this lackluster in comparison to maxing a whole season's time, they gave him the 2021 season,

which we all know is a bit of a holding space. You know, it's a write-off essentially before the new regulations come in. Fair enough, I suppose. If you're showing for Sergio Perez, who, again, heartbreak hotel over the Aberdabby Grand Prix. Nice. But he's Czechos of his final race, currently in Formula One, Bloody engine failure.

It's a brand new engine, and the man gets an engine failure. Oh, absolutely doesn't. Sorry, go on. I said, did you say Heartbreak Hotel because he broke down outside of a hotel? Yeah, I mean, that was the joke, yeah. Okay. Sorry. What a reaction.

Look at that. Ben would be screaming in pain at how bad that joke was. But Harry just got laid straight over it. Folks, if you're enjoying this weird rambling without being involved, and you're over on YouTube, drop a, drop a like, hit subscribe. We're coming to all the end of the year. We're growing. It's really helpful. Lovely to see you in the comments. I had some lovely comments recently. And of course, if you're listening on the podcast, if Harry's just getting uploaded to the podcast.

Oh yeah. I think this is a new format that we should embrace. Right. Good. If you are listening on the podcast, one, sorry. Two, share it. Why not? Let everyone know how bad we are, which is the two of us, like how good Ben is at his job. We're going to move on to talk a little bit about kind of the end result. Now, we have had a text from Benjamin. He's able to use a phone. He's not that archaic. And he's given us his driver of the day and worst driver of the day.

For the drive of the day, he's gone for Vestappen. Harry, dispute that. Go for anyone different. What your thoughts on that? I mean, I can't dispute it. Vistappen was in very good form today, evidently. He, you know, the last time we saw him do that wasn't Silverstone, basically. He's never, he's not had a race where he's been so

competitive, I don't think. I would also potentially plonk for Lando Norris. I think he had a very solid entire weekend as well. Great quality allowed to pick O'P4, and I think he got the most out of the race that he could, to be honest. Yeah, Albon should have been in front of him anyway. So, yeah, I don't disagree with Ben, but I'll go for Norris for mine. Yeah, I think that's a great shout.

Norris was on my list, as was the step and understandably. The other name I'm going to chuck in there is Danny Rick. The man starting outside the top 10 on that hard tire compound. And there are certain tracks where you get that advantage, almost starting outside the top 10, especially when you're the midfield team, and you know you're so close in pace to the guys that are just inside the top 10. The Alphatari guys, for example, but just inside.

We know that Lance Stroll was having a bit of a struggling moment with his tyres and it subsequently fell back throughout the race. And I feel like Danny Rick did a great job of taking those hard ties so long, keeping the tire wear so strong. And we've seen and applauded Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton almost all season long for their ability to keep tyres in check over long stints. And I think Danny Rick has been a bit of a dark horse in that kind of area of sport when it comes to Formula One. He did a great job today.

He took those tyres. I think it was, you know, nigh on 40 laps. And he finished in the sidewalk the top seven, I think, which is a really good strategy from Danny Rick in a car that arguably is not as good as the McLaren's, only just. And not as good as the racing points. only just. That's how it's playing out on the Constructors' Championship. So I think that was a really good, really good drive. So for Stafford definitely deserves the award. Norris

definitely deserves it, but for just variety, I'm going to give it to Ricardo. Now, on the flip your side, baby and reverse it, the worst driver of the day, Lank Stroll. I know, sorry. Ben's giving it to Lank Stroll. I can see why he's giving it to Lantzroll. It kind of fell into his hands

to secure third place in the championship. And it was a big of a gnaf race. It was overtaking a lot in comparison to a lot of people. the tie wear wasn't good. It didn't score a longer point. At all, of course, right at the end there. Ocon got past him as well, so I think he finished 10th, got one point. Harry, who's your worst driver of the day?

Yeah, I would potentially go for stroll as well. Also, Ferrari's strategy department, once again, was abysmal. Not sure what that was all about. Yeah, I'll plonk for stroll. He should have done better. I was a bit late to come to this podcast as Sam will voucher. for. And I saw, I wasn't really watching it, but I saw Stroll being interviewed. And Ockham came out to him, tapped him on the shoulder, like to say, like, well done, because Ockon got past him on the last

lab. And Stroll just blanked him. So I don't know what's going on there. Stroll was not happy about something, but he wouldn't say what? Yeah, he was just a bit rubbish today, wouldn't they? But yeah, I'll agree, Ben. I'll go with Stroll. Yeah, he was a bit gnaff, unfortunately. It's hard to look past, Stroll. I mean, Hamilton didn't have a great race, but we've seen how target is to pass and also the man is recovering from one of the most disastrous viruses we've seen in the modern era. So I always feel like he gets a bit of a pass on this one. Let me know if I'm being too lenient, but I do feel like he kind of gets away with it. But that wasn't the Hamilton but is a seven-time world champion, that's for sure. But yeah, Lance stroll definitely

struggled this time out. He had the weight of the team on his shoulders for securing third place in the championship. And unfortunately, it just didn't come together. Both sides and Norris delivered what they need to. Norris definitely had the other. the hand, but stroll like to sit through his fingers, which is a real shame. So that's a triple for stroll. Oh, baby, a triple for last stroll for the worst driver of the day. In the comics, guys on YouTube, let us know your driver's day, worst driver's day of course. We're always interested to hear it.

And the final thing that Ben likes to do, it's going to be really difficult to do this because of, honestly, just how dull that race was. Harry, what was your moment of the race? when Crofty got confused between Thailand and Vietnam. Yeah, I mean, considering how much that man is paid, he leads the entire Sky Sports lying up in presenting, and we race at one of them, and a driver is from another one,

and he's unable to distinguish which one's which. It is a very basic level geography. It's like looking at a cup of tea and a cup of coffee and smelling them and being like, oh, that's, cup of tea is definitely the cup of coffee, right? Everyone going, are you mad? Are you mad? Anyway, so yeah, classic Crofty there. Not only because he get drivers wrong, he gets countries wrong as well. I'm going to plonk for the time where, again, it's a Crofty moment because there wasn't much else going on, where every time that Ricardo was speaking about Plan A or Plan C, or whether we go to Plan 1 or Plan 3,

for some reason, Crofty just kept shouting, Def Kong 3! It's Defong 3! Which is no relevance at all to anything Formula One base and no one was in any trouble whatsoever. You've got a feel for the commentators a little bit on a race that has such little action, but he really was talking out of his bottom for a long of that one. And the continued conversation around Charler-Cler's helmet saying Dunca Seb, and they started doing bad German accents at one point. Again, great commentary work. So, folks, I think we're going to leave it there,

because honestly, without being here, this could turn into an absolute disaster. to let us know down in the comments, all of those things that we spoke about, but mainly what is going on? He turns up half an hour late and now he's got his phone going off. I accidentally hit the dramatic piano sound effect, so I am sorry about that.

There you go. All right, all the sounds coming out of the back end here. Let us know, does Albon deserve his seat? That's what we want to know the real question to. Do you think that this was the tipping point? because it was a solid race for album, it was a disaster. Is this the kind of, yeah,

give him another go, or for you, is it Game Over, Perez or or Gazzley, or something else, go in that car, let us know who you think to replace him as well. We are going to be back later on in the week. We've got a much bigger production coming for you before Christmas.

And then we're going to be taking a two-week break as well because, you know what? Sometimes we like to not talk into microphones of an evening. So we will see you around the holiday season. If you don't catch our next podcast, we wish you all a happy holiday. holidays. In the meantime, I've been Samuel Sage.

And I've been Harry Ead and Ben Hocking. Sorry, Ben. We miss you and we know everybody else does because what a shambles this has turned out to be. In the meantime, I suppose you should keep breaking late. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.