The Late Braking F1 Podcast - How Mercedes’ new upgrade plans could affect the championship

Episode Date: September 16, 2026

Ben and Sam unpack Mercedes’ change of plan to introduce an ADUO-assisted upgrade this season, what it means for their rivals, and whether there’s a strategy behind it. They also tackle the prospect of a Monaco sprint (vomit), MBS’ latest nonsense, Lando Norris’ new junior racing team, and some Mount Rushmores to finish. Want more Late Braking? Support the show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and get:Ad-free listeningFull-length bonus episodesPower Rankings after every raceHistorical race reviews& more exclusive extras!Don't forget! You can also gift a Late Braking Patreon subscription—perfect for loved ones or your own wish list. Choose anything from 1 month up to a full year of top-notch F1 content: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/latebrakingf1/gift⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connect with Late Braking:You can find us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X (Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Come hang out with us and thousands of fellow F1 fans in our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Discord⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ server and get involved in lively everyday & race weekend chats!Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠F1 Fantasy League⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and see if you can beat us! LEAGUE CODE: C6Y6R4ZUY02Get in touch any time at [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. And welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking. It's the first, oh, it's the last time, I guess Sam will be doing a week's worth of podcasting without it being a preview or review until 2035, because I think we've got a, however many header that is coming up after this. Yeah, it does feel like I'm going to be a million years old. when the races eventually stop.

But folks, what you don't know is this is taking us literally forever to get started. We've been talking for about an hour and I am going to go mad. So hopefully this is a fantastic episode of late breaking. I can't wait. Hey, important business operations have been taking place in the last hour.

Late breaking is taking the world by storm. We haven't worked out how yet, but it will. We just called Apple Pie, Apple Crumbling. Yeah. Well, that's a peek behind the curtain. So that's our version of tech. taking over the world is calling Apple Crumbull, Apple Crumbly. Okay, should we move on to some Formula One, actually, instead?

We've got some Mount Rushmore's coming up later on in the show. Our thoughts on LNFusion, Lando Norris's new junior team. Mohammed Ben-Suliam has some comments about Honda and Fernando Alonzo. I'm very excited to get into that. But before we get into all of that, we have got Mercedes working on and a duo-assisted engine upgrade with its introduction imminent. Mercedes has earned the right to bring an engine upgrade this year and one next year, based on its ICE,

being judged as at least 2% behind Red Bull. Mercedes had declared earlier this season that while it would be making use of the extra test bench hours and development spending, that has been opened up to it obviously through a duo. It did not plan to introduce any hardware changes, but in what could be a knockout punch of this, this 2026 season, they have now decided to bring that a duo upgrade before the end of the year,

potentially as soon as the next triple header. When exactly in that triple header? Unsure. Are you surprised about the change in approach? Why do you think they've gone about this this way? Oh, I don't know. It's a bit tricky when it comes to Mercedes, because as we know with Toto Wolf with the school of PR conversations over the microphone, it does feel like he'll kind of utter something, or we actually know it's going somewhere else. Earlier, they have absolutely no money at all to spend. Nothing available in the bank account. And now, of course, the Euro funding is seemingly immediately readily available to spend on all energy upgrades. Poor little Mercedes. No money. Please, just giving for Mercedes.

We didn't set that up. It's our fault that they've gone bankrupt. I reckon that's why they've got to use the Adjuro money. They've got this all we've got left. So we've all we've got left. I think this is a bit of a case of playing the bluff a little bit here. I think they were playing the game until the second round of the dual upgrades were discussed, amissured, supplied, whatever you're going to call it here. And they were found to, of course, still be behind that percentage difference to Red Bull. Overall, that's why they get one coming up for this year and one next year, of course, as just mentioned.

I think they're essentially going on about, oh, we're not going to bring anything, we're fine, blah, blah, blah, blah, to just get the results over the line. And now that they can, and then also know that the regulations are staying relatively the same for next year, they're getting a strike while the iron is hot, I think, because it does give them maximum benefit. That's where I think they've gone with this. I think they've tried to play the game a little bit. And currently, they are playing it very, very well.

So that's the direction. I think they've gone now. Mercedes playing a game. I never thought I would hear the like of it. I just don't think Mercedes have ever been like that in the past. Hey, look, everyone turns over and a relief, mate. Especially Mercedes in this instance. Famously.

I was a little bit surprised to learn about this because unlike Ferrari and Honda and Outer, an Audi, Mercedes at this point, again, just to clarify, have not deployed there a duo upgrade that they have been allowed to. So I think that's been relatively sensible because it has kept them behind Red Bull. And that's what you were alluding to when you said that there was one a duo update earlier in the season and then a second update not that long ago. I think that was just before Zamvort, just to see if anything had changed. Because Mercedes were deemed to be essentially second best in terms of ICE after the first update.

The fact that they didn't do anything to improve it also meant they were in that same spot the second time around. And it just made sense that there is benefit to them not being the leader in this when they can still win by other means, aka their car and also the battery that isn't included. So I felt that they would kind of stick with their original plan. and that was a full-on sort of assault for 2027 rather than just looking at 2026, because let's face it, everything should be over for 2026.

Not to say there isn't a reason to keep listening and watching, folks, that definitely is, but in terms of the championships, it should be over at this point. Like, Antonelli is 101 points clear of Lewis Hamilton in the driver's championship. Mercedes are 145 points clear of Ferrari in the Constructors' Championship, midship and we have a maximum of nine races to go, could end up being eight. So they could have afforded not to upgrade and very much still won both titles. I mean, they've just won the last two races, for goodness sake. It's not that they're desperately falling behind, despite them probably trying to make us believe that they are with their zero money. Also, with those last two races just won.

And the ones that they lost, they were going to lose the Spanish Grand Prix, if it wasn't for a BSC. The reason wasn't the engine that they were going to lose that. No. It was because McLaren have actually developed a car where aerodynamically, it's really efficient. And with McLaren, if you provide an upgrade to your own engine, you're providing upgrade to McLaren's engine as well, because, of course, we know, McClarin are having their engines provided by Mercedes. So the Ex-Juo Benefit goes straight to the customer teams as well. It's not like they get the old engine and Mercedes gets a walk around on the brand new upgrading engine and no one knows about. That's contraction, not how it works. So this isn't going to stop them losing races to McLaren here. The only thing it actually allows them to get away from, from is Ferrari who, you know, they'll work that on their own. Everyone gets away from Ferrari by doing Ferrari things.

But they keep claiming the maximum points every weekend, Ferrari. They're fine. John Elking is so delighted. Every weekend is like, oh, their social media posting. We've got the most points again. We must wing everything all the time. I feel like it's a bit like North Korea with John Elkin, where he doesn't watch the races,

but he's just given a report after every Grand Prix of... Record-breaking Olympic gold medals for North Korea. How old again? He won by seven laps this time. I knew we should sign that guy. great job me, said John Elkin to John Elkin. Everything's all fire around him. What's the meme of Biden giving himself a gold medal? That's John Elkin.

Pick up John Elkin. No. No. No. I was going to refer to the McLaren sort of side of this because you're right. Anything that Mercedes do, McLaren are in theory going to take advantage of as well. And if you look at recent form, well, Ferrari don't have any podiums in the last four races. McLaren have won two races.

of those last four, and probably, as you said, should have been three with Lando Norris at the weekend in Madrid. Is there, this might be reading too much into this and might be giving Mercedes, even Mercedes, too much credit for this. Are they playing 4D chess here where they would rather McLaren finish second in the Constructors' Championship? Because we know there's a disadvantage for essentially finishing higher in the championship. You get fewer hours, for example, in the wind tunnel for the next year. Do they see McLaren more as a threat? want them to get less than Ferrari? If they have genuinely worked it out that there are two benefits here.

Ferrari are currently the closest team, but by sacrificing points for Ferrari by improving McLaring, it means that the challenge should go to first is actually more difficult, of course, because McLaren have to come from further back. As you mentioned, the gap back to Ferrari is currently smaller than it is to McLaren. That's one way of also allowing them to definitely win the championship. But you're right, the bigger threat currently is McLaren across the evolution of the car. They've taken big steps forward. the Grey Estella's team

are doing a brilliant job at this side of things. Rob Marshall leading the way brilliantly. Come on, Rob, good job. And you're right. The way to sit them further back and go, oh, no, no, no,

Mr. Papaya, you aren't capturing us up any time soon. You get less development time by being second place. If someone has internally said that, if they have sat down and gone, you know what, lads,

shall we win this for another year? Make McLaren good now. Brilliant. I think it's unlikely, but I would be lying if I said it didn't cross my mind earlier. of like... This is classic Formula One content creators

just over-analysis because we're on a podcast. Most probably. You know what? The most ridiculous thing about all this is. Like they are set to, again, introduce and upgrade. Maybe it's a pang. Maybe it's next time I'm back who we don't really know.

And this whole thing is obviously the internal combustion engine of Mercedes is not as good as that of Red Bull and it doesn't matter at all because everything else is good enough for them to keep winning. The duo token doesn't need to be spent on the ICE. Now, it does need to be spent on something engine related, but the reports are they're just going to upgrade the turbo.

In which case, the ICE is still as far back as it will, it will be as far back as it is now, but they'll have upgraded other parts of the engine that don't make any difference to deciding who gets the tokens. We've gone on about the battery not being a part of it for a long time. Are you telling me that the turbo also isn't including it? Is anything actually including a duo process? The, the small,

is little bit, just the internal combustion edge. What are you measuring? What are you actually measuring? Yeah, I just, it's insane. Like, they could improve the car and it not to be there, not be to their detriment whatsoever in the system. So, um, McLaren versus Ferrari, just briefly. Because as mentioned, this could very well have an,

that age old fight. That age old fight that McLaren usually win. Um, it, it could well have an. impact? Because at the moment there's what, 52 points separating McLaren and Ferrari in Ferrari's favour, but we know McLaren are catching them. If they get a better engine, like, could this be the deciding factor in that fight? There are some racetracks. We're having a bit more, um, figure straight line are going to benefit you and those are coming out. Backer you just mentioned is a key.

When we know that that start, finish straight goes on, the length of Azerbaijan. It feels like you're in that straight for that long before. It just keeps going and going. Just a pan. Fuck into Armenia and then... Yeah, I assume so. Yeah, you get around the Black Sea, you know, you just keep going. You know, then you've got Sapanh afterwards

and if folks, if you're new to Formula One and you don't know the Lout of Sopang too well. To absolutely ginormous straits at that racetrack, they are moose. So you get a lot of power to get up and down those. Of course, we assume Red Bull will absolutely dominate both of these races because they're... Like they did at MIRPA.

Exactly. It all adds up. And a duo is correct every single time. So unlucky Red Bull. fangs, more victories coming your way. Forward slash S for anyone wondering. Bit of sarcasm. Yeah, very good.

Thank you for that. Reddit mention there, I think it was. God, so this is lame. What's going on? This is awful. Topic one of a main episode as well. This is awful. Yeah, I just think that actually,

with some tracks coming up that we've got further down the line here, it does make sense to give that Mercedes engine a little bit of boost. And we know that Ferrari are struggling with outright power. It is less than the Mercedes output. They're in the same category as kind of the, weirdly, Audi, I think it is. They're sitting around that level, which is quite hilarious that they've made the same power output anyway. They're in that group. So, yeah, McLaren already have the chassis.

We've seen that now at racetracks that are chassis aerodynamically first, you know, hungry, Zambl, Magrring. You know, these are tracks that are downforce heavy, lots of mixed speed calls, it's tough to overtake. They have thrived there, Ferrari not so much. But the problem is, even when we went to Monza, it's not like Ferrari, were outright incredible there. It's all like they were absolutely top of their game.

And that's the problem. Can we have to get any one that one? And that's the same is power unit. So a little bit more, I can see McLaren closing that gap. And the form that Landon Norris is on right now, there's a weird part of me that wonders, is there still a title fight? Hamilton's conceding it, we'll get onto it later.

But is there still a title fight for Landau Norris to maybe push onto? I don't know. I don't know. No, no. Do you know what? McLaren's biggest problem is in all of this, is that the duo upgrade, as soon as Mercedes introduced that, on the first weekend that it's introduced for Mercedes, obviously would assume both of their drivers will take that upgrade at the same time.

But on the first weekend, they only need to give that upgrade to all of their customers, but only to one of their, only one unit. So McLaren would have to make a decision as to which of their drivers would take this. and we know what McLaren are like with their papaya decision-making rules. They just wouldn't ever make a decision. They wouldn't make it to the race track. They would have just be stood there talking about it for so long. Both the drivers are stood on the grid.

Oskie, you seem like, can't, mate. Landau, I think of all what's going on. They're in there just checking away. I think I was heading. I'm playing ridiculous. Could well happen. The less spotted Oscar Piastri impression as well. Well, that was just a recording.

Ah, yes, I thought it might have been. Did. Lando Norris, you mentioned his form as of late. To illustrate that, in the last four Grand Prix, Lando Norris has 83 points, and it probably should have been more if he'd won that race in Spain last weekend.

Ferrari has 73. It's good that. Yeah, Lando Norris by himself, is outscoring Ferrari by 10 points in the last four Grand Prix. So if we're talking about whether McLaren can chase down 52 points with a potentially upgraded engine,

yeah, they could. and you're right, Baku, Malaysia, Vegas, Abu Dhabi, they are all tracks that would really benefit from an engine upgrade. We know based on what McLaren have done so far this year that they should be strong at the likes of Mexico and Singapore, probably. Qatar again, if we know to Qatar, yes, definitely. And suddenly, we've got, what, nine races left. We've just listed like seven of them.

South Paulo is another one they'll thrive at. There's an argument to say that McLaren might be the favourite to do the most in this last eight, maybe nine Grand Prix anyway. Yeah, McLaur, even if they can't go further than Ferrari and maybe second place in the driver's championship, being able to outscore Ferrari by five or six points per race from now until the end of the year, yeah, that's pretty doable. You also have to bring up the former Oscar Piacry right now. I've got a lot of respect for him.

I think he's a great driver, but we know he's struggling with the current rule set. There are some low traction circuits coming up. Baku is going to be one of those low trash. I struggled around these circuits last year. He did indeed. It does not suit his driving style. And where, you know, Ferrari do have a benefit is that when Hammese and they're finishing Grand Prix, which, you know, it's not as consistent as it. And it used to be hurt each other.

Or hurting each other. Good job, lads. Then actually, they do tend to be sitting fifth or better. Rarely do they finish a race these days where they're not inside the top five where everything goes hunky-dory. The lucky thing from McLaurang is, not many things go hunky dory at Ferrari right now. Very true.

You mentioned earlier about Lewis Hamilton, maybe effectively conceding the championship after that DNF in Madrid. Now, maybe there's the caveat here that he had just retired from the Grand Prix and probably isn't in the best state of mind to answer that question. But given we are now looking at three figures, are we at a point where we're diagnosing what went wrong for Ferrari rather than this is still alive? I mean, yeah, let's say we've got eight Grand Prix left, right. Let's play it safe.

We'll say we've got eight Grand Prix left. If he wings all eight of those Grand Prix and Kimi Antigli even finishes, what is it? Third in every single one of those, that's a 10 point game per race. He only makes up 80 points. There's still another 20 points to go. It's just not going to happen. There is not enough bad luck in this world right now for Kimi Antingelli, with the streak he's been on, with the fortune he's had,

with the talent he has shown that I think Lewis Hamilton, is able to overcome that. And I do think that Lewis Hamilton has arrived into third place in this championship. Talent, yes, and pace has been much stronger than it has been for the last few years. He really isn't the best of seeing him, but also good fortune. He's just tag is only D&F in the season. It's first retirement, first reliability problem. In a new set of eras that we're seeing in Formula One, that's rare. That's really lucky to get this far without a problem. And now it's happening to him. So I just can't see that gap being close. Yeah, after Silverstone, Lewis Hamilton, was 32 points behind Antonelli and Ferrari was 78 behind Mercedes. And at that point, it was still

alive. It's now 101 points and 145 points respectively. And that's only five races. It's taken for that gap to extend out that far. And I think, properly thinking about this, the last five Grand Prix, it was a real test for Ferrari and they've utterly failed it. Like, it was a really important stretch of the season because I think they needed to prove two things. Number one is, is that their chassis and their car more generally is as good as it was suspected to be earlier in the year. And certainly Zambort and Hungary were the tests of that. They failed because it was McLaren that succeeded in that test.

And the other thing I think they needed to prove was not necessarily that they had the best engine, but they had an engine that was enough to get by at tracks like Monza and Spa. They didn't. So I don't think even one of those two things would have been enough to fight for this championship properly. The fact that they had neither, I think, has just sunk them.

There was a lot of optimism after Barcelona. I remember it well. When we were reviewing it and maybe speaking the Wednesday after that race, the enthusiasm of what Hamilton had and the way in which he won comprehensively. And we were asking, like, if they can win at such an all-round circuit like Catalonia, maybe form but would indicate they can win elsewhere. The issue is the car is so all-round. It just isn't particularly good at anything else.

It's just all right everywhere. But you're right. We had a bit of a glimmer in our Ferrari eye at that point. And then they go on to Wing Silverstone, of course, with Charlotte Clare. You think, hello, two wings in three races. This is looking quite positive. Can Ferrari do something? Ha! ha!

Oh, fools you laugh, because, no, it's always the aunt. So when it comes to Ferrari doing something positive. It is, bless them. And I know we complain a lot of the time about Ferrari strategy and the way in which they've dealt with intra-team issues so far this year. And I think all of those comments are very valid and something they need to fix.

The issue, the biggest issue this year, their car isn't fast enough. Just build a fast car for once, Ferrari. I want to rock up to a season and want the car to be electric. Everything else can be wrong then. We can talk about strategy being rubbish, communication being poor,

how much going to occur getting in the way of each other if they're one to every race. Yeah. If you don't, If you don't solve those issues and don't solve the strategy issue, like if you do solve those things this year, they still don't win the title. That isn't the difference between them winning or not winning this year.

No. So, yeah. Well done, Ferrari. Let's take our first break on this episode. On the other side, we've got comments from our old favorite, Mohammed Ben Suleim. Yeah, Domenicali won't get that Stop Talking award

and he's come back with a big old belter. Nah, so Dementa Carly's got that sewn up this year. There's time. You can make a late comeback. There's time, my friend. Long of talking to be done. It's got a couple of months to turn this around. I can't wait.

That's the championship fight we're all interested in. Welcome back, everyone. Some potential news that's just come through. A rumor right now and we'll see if it's actually confirmed. But the Monaco Grand Prix set for a sprint in 27. Sam, the possibility of a sprint race in Monaco next year. I'd rather let

Mohamed Ben Silliam ruffle my hair for a week while Crofty shouts the word robust into my ear at full volume endlessly. There is arguably nothing worse than a sprint race at Monaco.

It sounds like actual purgatory. I definitely think that's one of the seven levels of hell that you have to watch on repeat that was being written about like my chaucer so long ago. Honestly,

actual, actual eternal hell. My apologies, because I've got two questions on this, all right? Question number one, who in the royal f*** has come up with this idea? And question number two, who in the royal f*** to sign this off? Two for two there.

I'm going to imagine the same person that came up with the idea has signed it off. They've got full autonomy on this. Yeah, we know who that is. It's coming up in the next segment. Oh, good. Good. It's a podcast. He's not saying anything. I haven't got any words for this. Like, it's Monaco. Who's going to be really happy?

No one. Harry Ead is going to be really happy. No, even Harry won't be happy about this. Even Harry's got to admit this is a bad idea. Well, at least it isn't Madrid, right? Four overtakes there. At least we got eight overtakes at Monaco last year. I'll take a sprint race at Madrid over Monaco because at least at Madrid like, I don't massively care. about qualifying, at least more than the average weekend. I love qualifying at Monaco to the point where it should be a centrepiece on a Saturday afternoon leading into the Grand Prix on Sunday. Yes, we know the Grand Prix is going to be a load of rubbish because it's Monaco,

but at least we know that qualifying is going to be great on Saturday. And now we've decided let's just obliterate the one good thing about the Monaco weekend. At what point has money in Formula One just got a little bit too far, right? This is obviously financial base. No, no, this is for the content. It's for the love of the game. They absolutely just love racing at Monaco and someone who's more of it. We had the incidences with Coca-Cola and Landon Norris and PepsiCo happening in the call-down room,

which has sparked mass debate over the internet about sponsorships and casks and positioning. Mass-debate, yes. Sorry. Jeez. B'am-a-me-Meo! Only way I'm getting that on the show before. Good. That's done. And then Monaco times two.

season is all for the cash, isn't it? It's got to be for the cash. You remember when we had the horrible instance of the mandatory two pit stops? I do remember that, yes, unfortunately. And we were maybe like afterwards, well, they'll go back to the drawing board and think as something else. How did they come up with something worse? There's a lot of tracks that you could do a spring at that I can accept. I don't want them, but I can accept it. You know, things like Sao Paulo, Monsa Spring is interesting. You know, there's loads of race tracks that you could do it at.

Monaco must be the bottom of the list in terms of actual entertainment. I do not understand who this brings joy to. Again, other than citing himself. Yes. Speaking of, we're talking about him next. We've been waiting a week to talk about this one. With Fernando Alonzo, not yet sure, on his F1 future, FIA President, Mohamed Ben Sulean is working on a plan to help accelerate Honda's progress.

Following a tough Italian Grand Prix, Ben Sulea met with Aston Martin Owen and Lawrence Stroll to discuss a potential action plan that can help both his squad's competitiveness and secure a fresh contract with Alonzo. Speaking last Friday morning, Ben Sulean mentioned how a chat he had with Alonzo at the Italian GP had sparked a call to action.

I saw him very sad, said Ben Suleum. I said, Fernando, I understand that it's not acceptable that you are coming to your own country and then now, after two times being the world champion, you are in the last place. We did something earlier in May legally for the team towards the engine to go and improve.

I said to him, I'm not going to tell you what we are going to do. Please tell me what you want, because you are the driver. Come and tell me what do you want us to do to help improve these results. Ben-Sulium indicated that he will do what he can to ensure that this is not Alonzo's final year in F1. There's no way we can allow Fernando to leave. He has to be successful. And then he leaves whenever he wants,

not because he was forced to leave because of the performance. I read this and laughed. Why is he talking to him like he's a small child? That is like the first note I've got is that he just loves playing the role of Papasuliam. It does. The matter is in his mid-40s. Why are we talking to Fernando also?

Like he's a little baby that has no power ability in his own life. I understand. Fernando. Yeah, more hair rubbing. I'm sure carried on with that instance as well. Is nothing sacred anymore? No.

Is nothing allowed to just be pure and accepting of competition and whose best wings? Why are you meddling? Why have you got a medal with everything in existence, Ben Suleim? Just off and leaving alone.

Stop manipulating the results. Stop getting involved with things. You've done it already with Fernando. Remembering Saudi Arabia a couple of years ago with the way the penalty was written off, right? I know you love him. We all love him. He's a great guy.

Fernando is a great guy. Big fan. I'm not going to change it. I'm not going to bribe people. I'm not going to manipulate results, just because I like someone. Just stick to the rules and accept that Honda are crap. They've made a crop engine.

That's no one's fault but Honda. Adrian knew he has a bit to part in it because he can't make the car to fit around it. Sorry, Alonso. You've made your bed lying it or leave. End of. Stop getting involved. It's a bit cringe-worthy from him, really, isn't it? It's... Which is unbecoming of Ben Silliam.

He doesn't do cringe-worthy often. He just... He likes this feeling of power and control. I think that's all this is. Like, he just views, like, these 22 drivers, they are all his F-1 children, and he wants to assert his power and control over the situation. And I was thinking about this.

He doesn't want Alonzo and Honda and Aston Martin to be successful. What he wants is to be the person responsible for them being successful, which is two very different things. I guarantee you if, let's say a genie pops up in Mohammed Ben-Suliam's room and goes, Muhammad, I've got a perfect solution for you. I'm going to make Honda competitive again. I'm going to get Alonzo to be world champion for a third time. Lance Stroll is going to win a race.

Astor Martin are going to be brilliant. Honda are going to be brilliant. Do you accept the deal? The only one term of this deal, I've only got one, you can't take any credit for this. He's saying no. He's saying no.

It's no in an instant. He's basically a Middle East and David Brent. My favourite type of paper Brent. Secretly, like, oh, I want the best for everyone. Yeah, they're paying me a lot of money. That's not what I'm doing it for. I'm not doing it for the money. It's just, you know, I want everyone to have a good time, whatever.

But you can pay me some money, I suppose, but it's not what I'm doing it for. It bloody well is, you want money and power. Isn't that what president is indemnity now forever? It might change his name to Papa for him. Papa Palpatine. It might as well be, Emperor. Might as well be.

I don't know about it. Like, it's obviously cringeworthy for Mohammed Ben Sulean, but we can't have expected from him by that. I think it's scary. Oh, sure. It's that as well, yes. Yeah. Don't get me wrong. I was thinking like from Honda and Aston Martin's side,

whilst they haven't actually done anything at this point, apart from speak to him, is it a worse look for them? It's embarrassing. I have pity if they accept this. I will look at them. I will look at them with pity if they accept the help outside of being able to create something. Adrienne Newey, this will be a, this will tarnish him. I think it will it will tarnish him with a very, very sad brush. this is accepted. Because there's one thing like he said about earlier in the year, the rules were changed.

And, you know, it's one thing to change the rules based on maybe public opinion or based on it could benefit any driver or any team like that. Changing rules last minute is one thing. But openly, just saying like, we want to change rules to help this one team and not even being coy about it, that's another level. Like, that's insane. It's awful. It's genuinely awful. It's so unsportsman.

Like, I absolutely hate it. I think this might top the worst thing he's come out with. Maybe when it comes to Formula One. This is a crocious. Now, Honda have already got more help this year than was initially anticipated. Because when that first, the duo process was going on, whilst they have been given two upgrades in the same way that Audi and Ferrari have, they were also allowed additional test bench hours.

They were sort of allowed a 19 million pound spend because... Sort of allowed a 19 million pounds spent. It's such a funny sentence. They were allowed it, but it's taking away from their future budget. So it's not just like a complete freebie. Yes. What could this look like if Ben Suleim isn't just spouting nonsense? Like, is it more upgrades?

It'll be unlimited development. time it'll be, you know, yeah, it'll be extra budget on top of the cost cap without having to pay it back, essentially. You know, there'll be up to a certain percentage gain. You'll be allowed to do whatever you want in that sense. It sounds audacious. I never thought he'd say this. So maybe it isn't audacious.

Maybe he'll ask for information from other manufacturers at this point to start being like, how is your engine work? And were you getting that much energy, that much power out of it? Can you tell me, please? Because obviously the FIA will have information about these engines. That's how they test them. So they go over it to make the dual process work. I don't know.

But it will be audacious and it will be rule breaking. So it will be something that you'll look at and you'll go, surely not. Surely Honda and Agnesa Martin, who want to go on to wing in a legitimate and well-earned way, won't accept this proposition. Yeah. Because this, based on what Ben Suleim said, it almost sounds like, and this is what he was talking about with Alonzo coming to him rather than the other way around. It's almost like they're asking Honda. what's wrong at the moment? Like what specifically about your engine is not right?

And that is the specific thing we will target with whatever this might be, which feels like a really dodgy way to do things, like to almost... What happens if someone breaks the rules in the future that's the same, though? Like, let's say they do get given extra time to look at the engine, right? Or they get double the budget to look at the engine. The Audi turned around and say, well, yeah, we spent 10 million on the upgrade for ours and take a five. but it was fine for them, why has it got fine for us? At what point the rules don't matter anymore?

And then you've just ruined it. Well, I wonder if that's how they try to tie it into like a duo where we know that, again, Honda, Audi, Ferrari, they're all at least 4% away, but we assume Honda are a lot, lot more than 4% away. Do they change the rules to say, well, anyone over 10% gets all of this? And oh, would you look at that,

Honda fit in that bracket and you know what? They shot themselves in the foot. Because if that's what they set out at the very start of the year, I'd look at that and go, yeah, fair enough. If you're 10% away or more, and actually you need a 20 million pound upgrade, quite pitiful again, isn't it? You can't come up with something that's even that close to your competitors

and you're that bad that you need that big a hand out to become competitive. Fine, but at least it's in the rulebook from day one. But manipulating the rule books to just accommodate from people being rubbish at what they're meant to be great at, I can say that's sad. Well, and that's the important distinction and probably an important point to make here is that, we're not so, I'm certainly not said, I don't think you are either, that we don't want to see Aston Martin succeed or Fernando Alonzo succeed or Honda succeed.

Like we're happy for them too. It's the way in which you get it done. And whilst I appreciate the Adieu system and other mechanisms that kind of help parity in the sport, I get some of it and I'm okay with some of it. But there does reach a point where you're trying to argue this is for the sake of the sport. Like you want Honda to be successful because you want another manufacturer that is good, and can be looked at alongside Ferrari and Mercedes and Red Bull. I understand.

But this almost goes back to like the late 80s and early 90s where the system was essentially, if you're good enough, try and qualify. And if you can't qualify, you go home. I'm not saying we return to that, but there was a good element to it. And when I asked myself the question, like, is Honda not being successful bad for the sport?

kind of, but are they really worth all this time and effort if they can't get themselves sorted out? There's always a last place team. There's always going to be a last place team. So when do you stop helping the last place team to the point where it just becomes unfair and detrimental to the overall sport? And if it is manipulated,

I'm talking to you now on this, because how many of you are going to look at that success and legitimately go, you're well-earned, well-earned, it's good job. Let me know, maybe I'm out of attorney, maybe I am speaking out of turn. I'd love to know, would you be happy? with it, really, because I personally wouldn't,

but I'd love to know what you think. Maybe I'm reading it wrong. I think most people would be very happy to see, and I very much included in this, would like to see a successful Fernando Alonso again before he retires. But I just don't think, regardless of whether

we're talking team or driver or which driver it is, I don't care if it's Alonzo, Hamilton Vostappan, you can't let sentimentality get in the way of your rulemaking. You can't, you mentioned Audi. earlier, are we supposed to turn around and say, well, Audi aren't deserving of the additional help from Mohammed Ben Sulean

because neither of their drivers have been successful enough in their F1 careers. That shouldn't be a factor. Right. Oh, Sergio Perez and Valtre Bortas for race winners and they're at Cadillac. Do they get more of a handout? America's a big market. North America's a huge market for Formula One. Why wouldn't they get any assistance?

It just doesn't make – you can't make it make sense in a way that is fair across the system. Before we just exit this topic, there's something sort of sideways adjacent to this, which is that the Honda sort of F1 project leadership has very recently changed. Maybe not a massive surprise given the failure has been this year. They called it a planned changing sort of planned, yeah, a planned thing that they'd announced last year. But is there anything to that? Has Andy Cowell made it back yet? No, he's still...

Is he lost? Is he all right? He's not seeing Andy Cowell for a while. He's creating his own TV show at this point. It's called Cowl in Tokyo. I like that. It's his adventures in Tokyo in this prison that we've made up. I'm hoping that he can find the Honda headquarters. That's the end goal.

Like Takeshi's Castle, he's not to get through all the challenges. That's why no one visited the factory until November. No one could find it. They're all getting through those doors and falling straight into the paddles every time. Love to Keshe's Castle, man. Bring back Craig Charles and Takeshi's Castle immediately. This is a plan?

This is a plan? It should be it's planned. This is politically a very nice way of saying, oh, we're really quite rubbish here, and we're going to do something about it because we're being looked at. Across the world of competitive motorsport in a really negative way,

there's no way you randomly plan to change your essential leadership of the entire project halfway through a season. They don't like any sense. In the development window, it's poor. You've had to make different changes. A cure process. know how that was going to work.

There's too many variables going on that you have planned to make this much to a big change or in the middle of September. No, random. It hasn't happened. You've just been polite in your press conference. To ask you this question, if, and I'm going to be intentionally vague on this, if you didn't like, if you hated a government, and I'm going to say a government, not a particular government, hated a government, and the prime minister or president stepped to one side,

and the vice president or the deputy prime minister stepped in their place, would you be incredibly confident that you would love the next government? No. No, because the person who's taking over has been incredibly involved in the first government. Sure. Same logic here. The person taking over is essentially the assistant to the person who's left. So why should we be incredibly confident that this person's going to take over and do a much better job?

The only time I believe that is when you leave and I take over. That's fair. I think it's great. I hate to pray the news. It's actually Harry take over. No way. He used to choose vibes officer. That hasn't got a way up.

Yeah, but he's hoping by that point it will get a promotion, you see. He won't. This is careerism from Harry E. That's all he's doing. He's on that ladder. Yeah, yeah. Oh, man.

That was a segment. It was a shouty segment, wasn't it? There's a lot going on there. Should we take a break? And what should be on the other side is a bit of a karma segment about Lando Norris and his new racing team. I'm looking forward to this.

second. Welcome back, everyone. News that I appreciate this was, this was out a couple of weeks ago, but we've only just had the opportunity to speak about this. Before it was an important one, that Lando Norris has co-founded a new racing team, LN4 Fusion, and launched a driver development program as part of a two-prongda for effort to help young driving talent on the way towards Formula 1. The team is set to compete in Italian F4, Formula Regional European Championship, Formula 3 and has also got sights on British F4 and Formula 2. Landon Norris said, I've been really lucky to have some amazing people around me throughout my career and I know that getting to Formula 1 takes so much more than just talent.

You need the right people around you, the right support and the right opportunities at the right time. That's what these two projects are all about. LN4 Fusion is about building a race team that can compete with the best in junior motorsport with great people and a great environment for drivers to develop. The LN4 Legacy Program is about helping talented young drivers get opportunities they might not otherwise have. I don't obviously a little while to think about this, Sam, but what was your reaction to the news? And as you reflect on it, what do you make of this? I love this.

Landon Norris has gone through the roof in my expectations. This is what I love to see from someone like him. He is a world champion. He is well established. She's one of the most marketable people in Formula One right now. in motorsport, in sport maybe right now, with the ability that he has to influence and talk to a very young audience. He's very appealing to Kigs, to teenagers.

You see it all over the place now. They're huge fans of his. And he's giving back. He's giving back to something that is intrinsically almost impossible for people to get involved with. 22 seats in Formula One. It is arguably the hardest sport to get involved in worldwide. It has almost no access.

and you, for the most part, you need to be a millionaire to get involved, at the least. Helps if you've got someone with a bit more money than that as well. So by realizing that he's finally got enough cashing his own pocket, he's got enough success in his own pocket, he's deciding to look down the order and go, what can I do? And sure, it's a clever business venture, sure, it will probably make him some money in the long term. I don't care because he's opening doors for people to help and to get them involved and to give opportunities and to provide something that others are not doing. And we have seen similar things from other drivers.

Fernando Ongso has a casting program, I believe, and obviously manages some drivers, Bortoleto being one of them. Lewis Hamilton has Mission 44, and that's very much more like STEM-based at school, where he's teaching Kiggs out of, got him literally, but he's helping people get into the technology around Formula One and motorsport.

Fantastic. But this is the first time we're seeing an active driver invest and influence up-and-coming drivers in our younger formulas. And I think this is an absolutely brilliant thing. And you know what? I guess I'm really, really cringy and lame, genuinely quite proud of him for doing this. I really think this is a fantastic initiative from him. It's not cringy at all.

I think exactly the same way. Very, very happy about this. And ensuring drivers make their way up to the ladder, make their way up the ladder to F1 based on talent rather than just finance. That is something I pay a lot of attention to personally. Like I spend quite a bit of time in terms of who's on the road to F1. And I'm very happy to see a current driver step forward in a way like this, because I'm sure that many drivers that are on the grid right now would agree with the sentiment,

but agreeing with an idea and actually going ahead and do something about it, two very different things. And Lando Norris has decided he is going to do something about it. And well done for him. Like, Norris was privy, as nearly every driver is on the way up to F1, they all have an element of privilege. And that's okay. Lando Norris is at least here to say, like,

I've been very fortunate in my career. His dad's obviously very rich, and that's helped him out. But he has the, I don't know, the wherewithal, like the ability to see past that. It's not his fault he was born into a wealthy family. He didn't choose it, digging. He in shoes it.

But he's actually acting for, and he'd have seen as well, like many drivers he was racing alongside and think, well, that guy's pretty talented. And that guy maybe isn't as talented. And seeing next year when he moves up a category, he's still racing against the guy that wasn't very good.

And actually the guy who he thought was very good has gone off to do something else because they don't have the funds to continue. So I'm not just encouraged, by the way, about this happening. It's also, based on the press release and a lot of the moves made, he's taken this seriously. But a lot of thought into the personnel around this project. Yeah, just to list off a couple.

So you've got Reni Rosen, who very recently left Pramer, the family sort of left Pramer earlier this year. I've been wondering what he might do next. He brings bags of experience at this level. Julian Rouse, so he's the former Alpine sporting director. He'll head up the development program side of things. They're going to have a base in northern Italy and in the UK. They're obviously competing across multiple championship.

We'll see how many exact. But there's going to be what, F4, F3 and he's aiming for F2 as well? Yeah. So they're taking over from AIX racing in Formula 3 and they're applying for a license to Formula 2 as well. In theory, AIS racing is also in F2. So if they can take over their operation in F3, I imagine they'll look to do the same thing in F2. I'd be surprised if it doesn't happen at this point. But yes, Italian F4 as well, could be British F4.

This isn't just a one championship, like half-hearted effort. to see, is it worth it? Like, he is going all out. Both programs, got the development program as well as the team. This feels big. It feels huge. Absolutely huge. I wouldn't be surprised if we see maybe a link up with McLaren at some point as well.

And this also is legacy defining for Landon Norris. Well, he does decide to step away from Formula One. This is the kind of project where we see Landing Orest around for the next 40, 50 years, because he's still working with drivers coming through the ranks. we might see him be a manager, a development officer, a team principal, because he clearly has a longer term best interest in what happens to the sport when he's done with it. And I think that is a wonderful, wonderful thing to have. I don't know if you saw as well the announcement that he made,

they had a sort of demo car, a demo livery. I saw the car, yeah. You see like Monster. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That sponsor is all over that livery. Like he's going to bring sponsors to this team in a way that. some other junior teams aren't going to be able to get. It tells you what being a Formula One World Champion does for you.

It opens a lot of doors. It sure does. And in many respects, like Landon Norris is almost doing what F1, the FIA, more generally, are maybe failing at, which is, again, that plan of getting the best drivers through the formula in order to give themselves the opportunity to advance. I don't think that's happening anywhere near as good as it could do at the moment.

Same can be said for the teams. If I'm honest, you know, like you do see some teams having a proper development program, but regularly it's kind of like they'll sponsor a car for a bit and it'll actually be owned by a different team. If you're new to it, you'll go and watch F2 and you might go, oh, it's a Red Ball livery there. It's not a Red Bull car. That's just a Red Bull driver and that livery is on and other teams car. And that is regularly the occasion. You don't see McLaren having two McLaren cars, and F2 and F3 and F4.

That isn't how it works a lot of the time. So I would like to see more from the teams and the FIA, but like them not. he's opening those doors and he is just doing it. I mean, as always with these sort of things, the proof will be in the pudding and just to see how it actually pans out. Do you think he can keep up that commitment of giving these drivers an opportunity, even if they don't bring the finance of some other, maybe less talented? Like, can he and they stick to their words, basically?

The operation's going to be good. He's obviously very busy, right? The man is currently a Formula One driver. He is the reigning world champion, as we've mentioned. His focus is still going to be on winning races and world championships. That's his dream. That's his one. That's his desire.

That takes up all of his time. So you mention a few of the brilliant people he's brought in. It's people like that. And I imagine he's a really great commercial director coming in as well to make sure that funding and operation. It's a tight ship. It's financially transparent and easy to run. It's got to be efficient. And that is the way they'll maximize this.

Talent scouting needs to be absolutely bang on. and they need to bring the money in from outside, if it's going to prove the point of, we're here to back talent, we don't expect talent to pay for drives. So that's why he's got someone like Monster on the car, because they'll be willing to put funding in to actually allow this to happen. But that is longevity.

It can't just be a one-off thing. The talent is out there to do this. Like, I've been hoping for a team like this for a number of years because the talent is there. Like, we're wrapping up a lot of the junior series at the moment. Obviously, F2 kind of carries on for a little bit longer. 3 just finished. F3 just finished.

You absolutely right. As an example, like Tuka Tappanan who finished third place in Formula 3 this year, he's part of the Ferrari Driver Academy, but even like being part of a Ferrari driver academy, I think that only pays for about 30% of a race seat

or something like that. The first finished driver to winning F3, isn't it? He won the last race of the season. Yeah. But he's been very good for a number of years. He should be in Formula 2 next year, but there's a real doubt as to whether he will be. The third place finisher in F3 should be in F2, but he might not have the finance to get

it done. And he's not the only one. Like Emmanuel Olivierieri, he won the Formula Regional European Championship this past weekend as a rookie. The guy has, again, limited funds to the point where he wasn't, he wasn't sure, they weren't sure he was going to compete in the championship this year. And in the end, he gets the finance to do it, and he goes and wins the whole thing. He should move up to F3, will he? It's the kind of thing that if you're, if you are Mercedes, you go, I'll pay for you. You're clearly good enough and we've got the money. We're worth billions of dollars.

We'll pay for your out of drive as long as you put the commitment in to go and wing. Yeah, it will be, it'll be interesting to see, I'll keep a keen eye on this, like which drivers they start to pick up and whether they stick to this or not. But I am 100% with you could be a really important thing in the career of land. And O'Norris and in the career of many young drivers coming through. It's so cool. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Shall we do our F-1 Fantasy Update?

Yeah, go on, hey. So at the top of the championship, Czechos sombreros continue to lead the way. Fan Amp Fantasy HQ has moved into second place with Lumley Speed Syndicate. Still in the top three, but having dropped to third. Congratulations to the winner for the week in Madrid, which was Beewee at 309 points, which I had to look, that's 21st in the world. So welcome to you. Incredible. But what about the four of us? I'm continuing to lead, but a devastating week for me this week, as I'm now 127th, a drop of one place.

Say it, at that level, you can't make a mistake, you drop more than one place. You're have to laugh. I dropped one place. Ah, I've improved as well. I thought I'd be closer than that. Well, whilst I've dropped one position, I am the only one of us that has dropped this week because, Sam, you have moved up 36 spots to be 260th. I'm happy with that. Very happy with that, yep. Nicely placed. Kirstie's made some progress as well, up 17 spots to 379th.

But... No way. I think you might need to look over your shoulder very soon. No way. Because after gaining, I think it was 250 spots last week, Harry Ead. has managed to gain another 50 spots, and he's 415th. I don't believe it. What has he done to this?

Has he hacked the system? It was a wedding present from someone at F1. Yeah, Ben Sillium. Yes, they know each other well. I can't have you at the back. Hurry, he wants. He asked his hair of. We get wrong with his hair.

We will change the rules for you. You tell me what you want. Unlimited money. It still wouldn't win. But maybe. He says this a lot. Maybe we are exactly where he wants us. I can't wait for him to lose hungry places next week.

I'm going to do the search in the top 500. He's not going to be there. Good. Yeah, we've got plenty of, plenty already playing in this, by the way, about three and a half thousand or so. So if you're not already involved, there's still time to do so unless you are well organized and have the opportunity to beat us, in which case we're not interested.

We don't want you. Yeah. We'll take a final break on this episode. On the other side, we've got some Mount Rushmore's for you. you. That's right. In the late breaking world, there's more than one Mount Rushmore. Damn right. More than merrier. Welcome back, everyone. We did this about a month ago, some Mount Rushmore categories. We thought we'd bring this back. So we've got four unique ones today. And me and Sam will discuss who we would put on these separate Mount Rushmore to see what similarities and

differences we have. And get in touch and let us know if you think we've forgotten some names you think should be on there, someone we have, we've included that absolutely shouldn't be on there. We're interested to hear your views. Oh, we're going to get some hate for this. Someone is going to be upset on this. We've got some lists here, folks. We've got some lists here, folks. We've got some lists. We'll start with Best Strategic Thinking Drivers is the way we've summed this up. Who appears on your Mount Rushmore for this category? You're all four at once? Yeah, go on then. All right, all four at once. I've got Michael Schumacher, Nick Gilaude, Alan Prost, and Juan Manuel Fangio.

Fanjo, come on! Yes, bring it the history for once, folks, that's right. I love that. So I've got two similarities to you and two differences. I also have Alam Prost. I also have Nicky Lauder. I've got two more recent drivers, actually, to complement those two. So I've got Sebastian Vettel as well.

And I've got a current driver, believe it or not. That being George Russell. Whoa. Wow. the only time George Russell was down when I was giants. Oh, yeah. George Russell,

I appreciate it might be a controversial admission here. I just look back to some of like, I know he didn't technically win this race. Belgium 2024, when he's calling the strategy sort of as it goes. Even this past weekend, he was contemplating like, could the medium tire hang on versus Lando Norris?

I think of the current lot, he's the best strategic thinker in the car giving options. He's the best at talking about it. Who would you say the best? There are too many, he doesn't deliver too many times on it as well. He's, his brain is always there,

but I don't know how often it genuinely works out as a winging strategy that he's come up with, if you know what I mean. But he is great to listen to over the radio, very vocal. I would put him, him and Carlos Sines maybe is the best on the grid right now in that way. Maybe Alonso. Yeah, sure Alonzo, yeah.

That would probably be my top three. Yeah, I think Alon's her in size are better than Russell. But I don't hate Russell. I guess it's a bold pick-cutting. We'll see how it plays out. Well, I've gone very, very current, and you've gone very, very not current with Fangio. Yes.

Fangio did a number of things very well. One, he survived. So that's a good start. That sounds like a joke. That is genuine for that time. that was tough to do and you're going to be technically how you drive to make that happen.

He was able to, you know, make the most of ridiculous, length races that were very different to the modernity that we see now, different conditions all over the place, but also his career strategically, he was able to pick the right moves at the right time to become a five-time world champion.

We only had 10 years of Formula One at that point and I just think his way of analysing where the formula was going and strategically thinking in that sense, gives him a spot on my big hill. So he, yes, because these can't just be about, they are big hills. Big hills. Yeah, he won a championship with Alfa Romeo, with Ferrari, with Maserati,

Mercedes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, two with Mercedes. Yeah, yeah. So that's four, four teams, not bad for five championships. Right. That's back from back then as well, when you don't know where these cars are going. And you've got to remember that a lot of these guys who are farmers or soldiers or whatever

it might be, for him to work that out and come across that successful is impressive. Alan Prost speaks for itself. He is nicknamed the Professor. I love that, by the way. Right, yeah. It's so cool. I think the stat that stands out to me the most about Alan Prost and why I've got him on this list.

He was out qualified by Etton Center 284 in their two years together as teammates, and on points he won 186-554. Where can you score your points, Ben? In the race. On the Sunday, that's right. He had the wondrous ability of winning races at the slowest pace,

doing Alan Prost. And the way that he were just, the aim is to get across the line first. He doesn't matter if the gap is a 10th or 10 seconds or whatever it might be, the aim is to win. And he did that quite a lot. I think Alan Pross might still be,

and I've said this a lot, one of the most underrated drivers of all time. He comes across Senga, against Sanger, of course. Sanger is so admired and adored by the world when it comes to racing for his raw talent, understandably. But Pross was almost like

the thinker to, to Sena's raw ability. And together, they were a formidable partnership, a formidable match. But Prost doesn't get the love that Sena gets. So I think he really does deserve a lot of the credit because the man knew how to drive around anything. And then just to quickly finish off the ones on my list, so Sebastian Betel, I kind of said him

because he basically called his own strategies at Ferrari. Yeah, I mean, it's a shaming ever amounted to more, I suppose, because the way he had to use his brain as much as his actual body to drive that car, it should have delivered more. I also, I just defer to Bernie Collins whenever it comes to the strategy, and she speaks incredibly highly

of Sebastian Vetter when it comes to that. So I'll listen to Bernie any day. He's a smart boy, is Sebastian Vettel. Loudie gets a spot easily. I mean, even if you want a parody version to watch Rush, right, it breaks it down very quickly, but the whole, you know,

you can't say that, it's a Ferrari. And then you all go to famous line afterwards. He knows how to analyze his cars. He knows aerodynamics. He understands. the way that the strengths and their weaknesses worked together and what to overcome. He was such a tactical driver,

and it was fantastic to watch. Okay, let's move on to the next one, which is most overrated drivers. I've done this Mount Flushmore, by the way. Oh, nice. Big fan of that. We've got a choice here, Sam. Are we going to like meekly say these

and just hope no one hears, or are we going to have to say these with chest? I hope that everything I say for the next four minutes is beeped. Okay, cool. Who are you for? Some of these, some of them, very specifically some of them, are still very good drivers, but maybe get a bit more love than I've did no shoes.

There is a couple on here who I think maybe are just overrated, but there are someone here that I think are spectacular drivers still. My four, Jacques Villeneuve, Hunt, Reikingen, sorry, Kudson, and Phil Hill. No, not Phil Hill. Sorry, Phil. It's really funny.

Like, we've got the entirety of F1 to look at here, and we've come up with two of the same names. No way. So, like you, I also have Jacques Villeneuve. Yep. Sorry, Kirsty. I've also got Kimmy Reikeren, which I will explain in a moment.

The other two I've got, which, I mean, sorry, Sam. I've got David Kulthard. I've had to have David Kulthar. on it. And Alex Albon. So, Vilnove, I mean, rocket ship of a Williams

then doesn't beat Massa or Heidfeld or Button or a lot of the... He beat Ricardo Zonter. Great, yeah, big Zonks, you know, the walking meme. I want to clarify Rikinen, because I actually think his peak is ungraded. The point of that,

they're finishing at the start of my point here, was pretty much about Kimmy Riking. There are some incredible moments in Rikings' career. Like 2003 to 2006, his peak, like, he's as good as Alonzo in those years. And then after he wins the World Championship, it's not very good. His second sinking Ferrari is so bad. He wings one Romperee. And he's a long way from Vettel in a lot of them.

And he's a long way from Alonzo when they were. teammates and Massa competed for the title in 2008 and Reichen and wasn't quite there. I don't even rate Massa that highly and he was better than him in that year, you know? Yeah.

Why has my bag got Phil Hill? I mean, there's a lot of great drivers in the 60s, right? A lot of them, Sertes, Clark, of course, all incredible drivers. Phil Hill was in this incredible Ferrari and his teammate who was his rival died before the end of the season.

That's the only way he goes on to win this title. I just think he's a world champion that fell into being a world champion. I'm not going to want to about it because it was blinging, what, 65 years ago now. But don't look it up. I don't know how he ends up actually being a world champion, but he's on the list. He's there. Just big up Wolfgang Von Trips. That's what I'm going to say.

Big up Wolfgang Von Trips who might well have won that title. I figured that was the reason you had him on the list. David Coulthard, I promise this isn't just for an agenda. Like, he could have, if he was better, he could have won, like, four titles. Because he was at Williams at the right time. He'd probably sure if I won, yeah, at least one. Like, 99. That would be, he should have been his.

Like, yeah, to be clear as well, Coolthard was a very good driver and had some very good years. 2001, very good year. But I look at, like, again, he had some really, good cars that he've sought other his teammates did very well against him put it that way. There are a lot of drivers that I think would have killed to have had one

year in one of the cars that Coulthard had and probably would have gone to win a title but never got that opportunity. Like you mentioned he had at least three, probably four opportunities and none of them come to fruition. I love D.C., but being real he probably should have achieved a bit more than he did. Who's

the last one on your list, sorry? James Hunt. James Hunt, yeah. I love James Hunt, right? But he's more aura than he is driving ability. You know, he's acting after the one title. He also won that title after Nicky Lager has the most famous accidentally all of Formula One, maybe other things, Senna's passing, and also Sena Bales on the final race of the season because of conditions. And fair play to hunt.

He keeps it on the road and he finishes and he does win. I just think there's a lot of circumstances around it that allow him to claim that glory. Love him. Absolutely lead. Absolutely top. you know, he's like your skiing and then drink all your beer and probably shaggy your missis and you all laugh about it in the evening. He's the guy who is has the misses.

That's the point. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's all banter because it's James Hunt. But, loud to smash you, lad. I was there anyone brave or foolish enough to go over the current driver? I very much stayed away from that crop. Yeah. I went with Alex album because I think a lot.

of his teammates were very bad at Williams in his early part there. And to be fair to him, he does a good job against Carlos Sines in the first half of last year. And since then, Carlos Sines has been quite a bit better. He got promoted to Red Bull after not beating Danny Kaviat. He obviously, I mean, his time at Red Bull was tough, but so was Ghazleys and Perez's and whatever. I get that.

But I don't know. I kind of want to see him. Do a bit more. I wouldn't have had him on my list, but I don't disagree with your reasoning. That's for sure. Most marketable personalities. Yeah, this is an interesting one. I have gone with Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricardo, Erton Senner, and Landon Norris.

I went with Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricardo, Erton Senner. And I went with James Hunt as the last one, which... You actually? Yeah. Oh, okay. think it's a very like particular marketability in that it's like from a broad sense he's not but like if you find the right sort of brand for James Hunt it really really works he's probably going to break into your house so you have a beer in your bathtub now or something

like that yeah probably i mean you'll pretty just moving for like a week and then he'll ride around your house like a bike without his shoes on and then you'll leave again um outside of that obviously we've got the same top three I don't know about you. I know Senna's cultural value carries a lot. Hamilton is maybe up here. He's a long way clear of the others. Astronomically high than everyone else.

He is ascended above Formula One comfortably. He is considered a global superstar. He walks into any sporting area and all the other athletes recognize him and appreciate him and respect him. You know, and it could be basketball. It could be football, soccer. It can be NFL.

We're talking any sport that he's recognized in, they will stand there and respect him. And he is not just in sport, fashion, music, you know, food even now. He is considered a global entrepreneur. It could not be better for him. He is on shoulders above. Yeah. I didn't have any doubts about putting Lewis Hamilton on this list. Daniel Ricardo, I think the drive to survive Netflix appeal, the charisma kind of speaks for itself,

like when the opportunity to be that marketable face of Netflix. If I had to say most charismatic driver of all time, he is clear. He is such a charmer. He's so fun. I would want to spend all my time with Daniel Ricardo. And it's no surprise at all that the likes of Ford and Red Bull or whatever are like desperate to hang on to his services, even well after he's left the sport now because people adore him.

We adore him. He's great. And then just last year, Norris already part of this list? I really think so. It helps that he's part of the modern era, right? you can do a lot more very quickly in the modern era, but he's captured the streaming sensation. He's captured the young hearts of Formula One's drive to survive audience.

I kind of think he took the mantle off Ricardo, when Ricardo maybe stepped to one side to help them maybe beat him at the same team as well, of course. But the way he seems to be so in touch with the younger audience of Formula One, I wouldn't be surprised if after Hamilton, Norris at the end of his career is maybe that guy. Interesting. It'd be a tough one to reach that heights, but I understand him being on this list. Like, he's already there. And last one for today.

Best non-drivers. So essentially, team principals, anyone who's run the sport, strategists, commentators, anything that involves Formula One that isn't behind a wheel. Yeah, I've got Adrian Nui, which I feel like is a bit of a given. I've got Ross Braun. I've got Colin Chapman. and I've got Murray Walker. I love that list.

We've only got one name the same here, but pretty much everyone on your list I wanted to include. I also, Adrian Ngui, is the shared one. The other ones I have on my list are Sid Watkins, Enzo Ferrari, and Bernie Eccleston. I just couldn't include Bernie. He was the last one I included. My man just been arrested for carrying a shotgun on a plane.

I can't include Bernie Eccleston. on this list. I really struggled. He tried and carry a shotgun onto the list for crying out loud. I really struggled with it. Because like,

if you want to talk about influence, not just best influence, you just talk about influence, good or bad, I think he's number one and quite comfortably.

Yeah, and that's a fair statement. But it's difficult to differentiate between the good and the bad. The thing I was worried about before we started this, technically,

he might not actually be valid for this list because he did take part in one qualifying session back in the 1950s. It was so cool. And he was awful. Adrian Nui's across both of our lists, what, 26 championships at three different teams.

That'll get it done. It's the most decorated individual in Formula One history. It's the one that I don't think can actually be debated, especially masturbated. You don't want to make, you know, he's on everyone's list. Yes, very true. Ross Brawn made your list. Yeah, Ross Braun, you know, the impact that he has most prominently at Ferrari, of course,

is pretty astounding the way that he's a key part of that group. We're on top with Michael Schumacher, of course. He brings that team back from 20 years of mediocrisy and unable to take any kind of victory. And he's there as one of the crowning features of what is Ferrari. The Ferrari we all look at now and go, gosh, imagine if we have that Ferrari now. But not only that, of course, he goes on to found Braun, Brawn Gp, buying Honda for a pound, famously, and Jenston Button wins the title. And folks, if you're a fan of late breaking, there's a reason we have back green.

It's because of Braun. And so I think he has a real part to play in the modern era of Formula One. I didn't know what to do with both Ross Braun and Jean Tott because, like, I feel like they both have similar cases. And of course, both had a big say at Ferrari at that time. And then, of course, as you just said, Ross Braun goes on. to do Braun GP. Well,

Tot goes on to be the FIA president. So both of them after Ferrari did very well too. I instead went earlier and went

for Enzo Ferrari, of course, the founder of the team, 17 championships while he's at the helm. I just, he's almost like, and I know it's because

it's partly because he was around before our time. He's almost a myth. Like, he's elevated to like God's status almost.

He is like, he's part of like Mount Olympus. Yeah. He's not like Mount Rushmore. He's like on Mount Olympus. Yeah, yeah. We'll put him on his own set.

He's there in ex-Kazoo singing like a Ferrari red outfit, just doing donuts around him. And then the other one. So you had Murray Walker. I did. Murray Walker is very special to me anyway. He is the kind of that voice of my early childhood, seeing Formula One and hearing Formula One for the first time.

To me, he will always be the voice of Formula One. And I think that's why it's special because Colin Chapman, who I've got, Raw, Newey. They all achieved something in Formula One. And their achievements are spectacular, what they did. But Murray Walker brought something different. He brought an emotion.

He brought a memory, a moment. You know, I can hear Murray Walker's voice, and it was suddenly throwing me back to something. It's F1. He's Formula One. And I have a lot of games that I wanted to put on this list. For example, Charlie White, in that, for example. He's an honorable mention for me.

And he deserves a mention because he's an incredible man. But Murray Walker just has a lot of. a place in my heart and whenever I get a chance to honour that man, he deserves me on that list because he's a real hero and I loved what he did for Formula One. He made a million mistakes, but hey, folks, you know me, I'll make a million mistakes. And if I could be 1% of Murray Walker, that's a dream because he's a wonderful man. The last one on my list was Sid Watkins, who might be the, I don't want to say it's a surprise inclusion, but maybe the less known. He's pretty the least no name, yes. But he was the safety and medical delinquents. He was the safety and medical

for the FIA from 1978 through to 2004. He's a neurosurgeon by trade but comes into F1 in the late 70s and he has such a pivotal role in the way in which Formula One safety is improved. And it was against a lot

of opposition in his early days because a lot of the circuits around that point who had their own sort of localized system for safety kind of felt like, oh, this is the FIA or wouldn't be the FIA at this. time. But this is Bernie Ecclestone and Sid Watkins sticking their nose in and we can do our job absolutely fine. And Sid Watkins had to come up against that and say, no, this needs to be

centralized. This needs to be done far better. And he had a big part to play in the medical car now where it follows on after the sort of formation. Like that's that's because Sid Watkins introduced that. So many things we take for granted. August look at as normal. Pelot. Because of him. It's because of him. It's because of him. Yeah. he is a real landmark in the safety of Formula One. Yeah. He had to witness the death of Bronny Peterson very early in his stint. And at that point,

it was completely substandard the way in which he was treated. And he comes along and says, right, we need this, this, this and this. And there are a number of drivers who credit their lives being saved to Sid Wilkins. So that's why he's on my list. Understandable. A great show. It was nice to end on that one, actually,

because we've got to speak about some characters that we don't always get to talk about. Indeed. Well, if you would mind, Sam, getting us out of it until Sunday. Sunday episode coming up, folks. If you think you're going on, a bit quiet, no Formula One. Check out Patreon. We've got some good episodes over there. A few bonus episodes.

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