The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Is F1's 2027 engine change an admission of failure?

Episode Date: May 10, 2026

Join Ben and Sam for a Sunday F1 catch-up, covering the breaking news of F1's 2027 engine shift, the growing Mercedes driver battle amid Antonelli's strong start, and Sky Sports' huge new F1 deal. Plus, their Top 5 Drivers of the Season so far.  Get involved in F1 Fantasy this season! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join the Late Braking league⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and see if you can beat us... LEAGUE CODE: C6Y6R4ZUY02 Want more Late Braking? Support the show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and get:Ad-free listeningFull-length bonus episodesPower Rankings after every raceHistorical race reviews& more exclusive extras!Don't forget! You can also gift a Late Braking Patreon subscription—perfect for loved ones or your own wish list. Choose anything from 1 month up to a full year of top-notch F1 content: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/latebrakingf1/gift⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connect with Late Braking:You can find us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X (Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Come hang out with us and thousands of fellow F1 fans in our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Discord⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ server and get involved in lively everyday & race weekend chats!Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠F1 Fantasy League⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and see if you can beat us!Get in touch any time at [e-mail]  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Thank you for listening to the late-breaking F-1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. And a very well welcome to the late-breaking F-1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking, on what is sadly a non-race Sunday. But happily, we're here. Yay, we are here, even though I am an hour later because I ever slept. Sorry, everyone. You know what, it's all right.

They'll get at the same time. I think that delays every part of the podcast, every single person. gets it in our late. So I'm humbly apologising to all of you. I hope you understand. You well, Ben. Very well. Thank you very much.

The sun is shining, which I always say is a positive, but then we just block out all of the light via curtains and blinds. The thickest curtain ever to stop any light interfering with the recording of the show. And it's like, oh, no sunshine for you. The sun is shining.

In other words, the lights that we have in here are shining. So great. Yeah, we've got some interesting topics to talk about today. Foot would kick off with a very important one. Good timing on this news, by the way, F1, well done to you, because Formula One teams and championship bosses have agreed in principle to fast-track power unit changes for 2027 in a bid to solve issues with the current regulations.

The plan is to move away from the notional 50-50 split between the internal combustion engine and electrical systems, shifting closer to 6040 towards the combustion engine instead. The hope is that more engine power and reduced reliance on the battery will allow the cars to run flat out a little bit more and avoid becoming energy-starved in certain situations. It should also make the cars more intuitive for drivers, with the current lack of battery power having created some unintended compromises and complications throughout the season so far. It feels like a fairly notable change, Sam. What are your thoughts on it? Yeah, I was quite surprised that it came out to be such an early change,

you know, 27 is the start of this. I was thinking 28 maybe might be more realistic. You think we've been building up to these regulations for, what, three years realistically off the track? That's where we started to see the prototypes come out, the new shaped cars, conversations with manufacturers and ancient manufacturers as to how this might work, what are the benefits, how it might work in terms of real-life cars. So to get four Grand Prix into any regulation and then to suddenly say,

within a year we're changing it by the start of the benefit. next season it will be different again. I was very shocked to see such a dramatic change. I'm not saying it's a negative thing. I am just surprised that they're so happy to be so blase with the amount of work that's going into the building of these regulations. It's actually very anti-FIA, anti-F Formula One. They are usually quite stubborn about changes that they've made and they back to the point where it can be detrimental to the sport. So they seem to be quite flexible on how this might work. It must have had a really big impact on their viewing numbers on the criticism they are seeing online,

criticism from the drivers themselves, of course. I wonder if they've had issues with sponsors maybe. It seems to have really resonated on every level of Formula One that the new regulations are not delivering the type of racing that they wanted it to when they were, in theory, a couple of years ago, when they were going through the realities of what was going into Formula One. So 2017 is a dramatic change.

And to see a whole 10% potential reduction in battery power, a 10% increase in combustion engine. I think it's a good step. I think it's positive. I think they're showing that they are listening to fans, drivers and sponsors alike. I just hope that we really do take some time to implement it properly. And this isn't a rush change against some PR momentum

and some positive build in the Formula One world. And actually, it will have proper impact. It will deliver the results that we want to see on the racetrack. What do you think, Ben? I think this is an admission from the FIA and F1 that they have got things wrong. And I don't think in terms of any more notable changes, that was realistic within the timeframe that we're looking at here.

And like you, I think initially they probably were thinking towards 2028 for some of these bigger changes rather than 27. But I think then bringing it forward, you could argue as a case of FIA and F1 proving that they're agile, that they're listening and they want to be quick with this. In reality, I think it's just we've got things really wrong and we need to change. it as quickly as possible. And I think it's quite shameful from the FIA and F1, how they've handled it to this point in the year.

If you remember back to many years, to the gap between Miami and Japan, which lasted many years ago. If you remember back to that point, Stefano de Manacali did a number of interviews during those few weeks, essentially saying, there are no problems with F1.

All of the fans love this. there's nothing to fix. And whilst I'm not here to suggest that all of the fans hated what's going on right now, that's definitely not true. There is more nuance to this than what Domenicali ever let on to. There are some fans that are enjoying what's going on right now. There are some that are not. And there are many in the middle saying that there is potential, but we're not there yet.

And they were trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the media and of fans. and I think insulting the intelligence of many fans by suggesting we don't need to change anything. Because since then, we have had changes at Miami with the potential for more changes this year and changes for the beginning of 2027. That's not something you do to something that doesn't need fixing. So I think the way they've handled this is quite poor. I'm glad we've finally got to this. Again, these are solutions that were talked about last year.

they were solutions that were talked about pre-season. So I'm not even going to say here that F1 and FIA have been really quick on this. They haven't. They could have made these changes already. I am glad that they're happening, but the way in which we've got here, I'm not particularly pleased with. Last time we saw a big engine regulation shift, the hybrid era, 2014. We saw domination from Mercedes for five, six years before cars properly were regularly challenging.

why do you think we're seeing a change so swiftly now and we weren't back then? Because we saw poor racing, we saw uncompetitive racing. Was it because the drivers weren't complaining? Or do you think it's because that's so the difference between the two? Or is it because the engines were working exactly as they were intended and they weren't battery powered? It's a good question. And it's difficult to know exactly why. And there are others in the media that have asked sort of this same question.

Where is this coming from? Like is this coming from displeasure from the fans? Is it coming from displeasure from stakeholders? Is it drivers? Is it organisers? Because is it a combination of all of those things? There is displeasure somewhere in the F1 community that has driven the FIA and F1 to do this. And I know these changes are maybe not as big as some people are making them out to be.

And that's maybe a point we'll get to in a moment. But it's still quite notable in that they have tied themselves to this idea of 50-50 split. And that's been part of their explainer videos, part of their marketing. Like, their whole idea about these regulations is the battery power is as powerful as the combustion engine. And they have voluntarily decided to move away from that. You don't do that unless you have a real reason to. And I'm not sure which stakeholders the most important here in making this happen. It could be the drivers. It wouldn't surprise me if the drivers are, because I don't remember going back to 2014,

there being a lot of discussion from the drivers that we don't like this formula. I could be, you know, forgetting because it was a number of years ago. But I don't remember the drivers, at least many of the drivers, coming out and saying, this isn't the F-1 we like.

Yeah, I think there was a unified enemy last time, and it was Mercedes. Mercedes got the blame. The drivers themselves didn't dislike the cars or the way they drove. they disliked how competitive Mercedes have become, how dominant Mercedes have become. Here you are seeing drivers in the Mercedes. You're seeing drivers in McLaren, Ferrari, Reg Bull, all the way down to Cadillac.

We have Sergei Perez has come out and said comments about this, saying, I don't like how to drive these cars. It doesn't feel correct to drive these cars. So the FIA, the F1, their regulations are the targeted enemy here, whereas last time the Fang, the driver, the stakeholder, the broadcaster, they had the crutch of going when the sages are the problem. They were too competitive

and that's damaging the sport. That's frustrating fans. Whereas here it's, this is in Formula One and I do think the comments are fair of if we're going to have battery in the car which is fine, entirely fine. The driver does need to be the one to control it.

Much like Kerr's that we had 15, 16 years ago now we had the Kerr's system which was a really effective and boost central version where you could deploy curs. We saw how the Curz was tracked in deployment and actually delivered meaningful, interesting racing

where overtakes would swap. And we had that solution, you know, in a decade and a half ago. Here, you've heard so many complaints, especially from the one at Lank from Randing Orris, in Suzuki stuck out to me, where he came out and said, I wasn't planning to go for an overtake,

but the battery said that I should go for an overtake and activated. So suddenly I was going for an overtake and I wasn't ready for it, wasn't preparing for it, and didn't want to make it at that moment. The fact that a driver is not making a key decision in a race car throughout Formula One race

is terrifying to me, and I fully understand why they're frustrated by that. Well, I think a great example of that as well came from Miami, where we had Charles LeClerc against Oscar Piastri. Charles LeCler makes an error into the last corner before the back straight. He goes off the track. Piastri goes by him because LeClaire's slowed right down. Piaastri is probably not intending to overtake there

because as soon as he overtakes, LeCler, with no momentum whatsoever from the previous corner, is then able to pass again. And with the greatest respect to Lecler, he's made a massive error. and he hasn't and it hasn't cost him at all. You should be punished, right. He's saved.

And he's re-overtaken Piastri. And you don't look at that and say, wow, what great skill from Leclerc. It's just he had battery and Piastri didn't. And yeah, I wanted to ask you as well in terms of the split because I know they keep attaching themselves to this 50-50 idea for this year. And that's what they intended on doing for 2026. The reality is we're not quite actually.

quite there. We're at about 55, 45, and now we're moving to about 60, 40. A lot of people saying these are meaningful changes. I'm not saying they're not, but I'm more doubtful in that it's not that big of a shift. It's marketing talk to me. This is marketing talk. And someone who has spent their entire career working in marketing, this is a way to jazz up something so that the standard viewer, us, you guys listening, go, ah, I can see that, you know, 5% either way, which is a 10% shift is a really meaningful adjustment. 10% in anything in your life would be a meaningful adjustment. Imagine you earn 10% more money.

Imagine your fuel costs for that 10%. These are things that really will impact you in life. It's something that you can understand. And this is the same for the regulations that we're going through. 5% less battery. 5% more engine power. 10% shift in total. Big change.

Is it a big change? We're not at the percentage that you mentioned already, which is a lie, realistically. Yeah, that's not the case. They've sold you 50-50 for years. They sold us 50-50 through the first three Grand Prix. Isn't actually happening. So when we go to another 5% change either way, a 10% total,

is it actually happening? Is it going to actually shift that way? Would it be 2%? Will it be 3%? Will we see a change? I don't think we will see a massive change. I do not think we get to Australia next year. And suddenly, the engine reliance is so massively different with this 10% total shift

that we go, wow, the way the Formula 1 works is back. For me, the change needs to be bring the control in car to the driver, and they have total control over harvesting, delivery, execution of overtakes. That is when you will then get driver skill coming out above battery power assist care overtakes. Bear in mind as well, like the previous regulations, that percentage split was about 85-15. Yeah. So even though we're getting back closer to that, the shift is nowhere near like what we had from 25, of, yeah, from 25 to 26. So, like I say, it might make meaningful changes. I'm not saying it won't,

but I'm not as convinced as a lot of people are when they say it will definitely have these big intended changes. Something else that's been talked about for 2027 is that the F1 teams will discuss plans to reduce downforce as part of efforts to, again, improve the energy management. That's the race reporting that. Early analysis of 2026 races suggest, high cornering performance is limiting energy recovery, as faster cornering reduces the opportunity to harvest energy. And Nicholas Tombas is one of our favorites on this show. As previously said, that some of the issues stem from teams building cars performing beyond what the FIA expected, and it's believed that there are three options under consideration here, which will either reduce downforce by 20, 30 or 50 points, depending on how aggressive they want to go with that.

That was announced before these changes came into effect, but it doesn't necessarily shelve these talks as well. This could work in tandem, maybe. Yeah, they go hand in hand. The part of the big issue with the regulations, as we've said so many times already, only five Grand Prix, four Grand Prix into the season, sorry, is recharge rate.

And we spoke about Grand Prix's where we turn up and the recharge rate is going to be tough here. Australia, we've now learned how difficult it was, Suzuki, it was really tough. But China, Miami, they are assisting pretty in the middle of the spectrum of how to recharge the battery. We got maybe better racing at those Grand Prix. This reduced downforce would allow cars to be recharging a little bit,

but a little bit more than they already are through high-speed corg. So you imagine recharging actually through 130R or through the S's at Suzuki becomes more viable. Is this good for Formula One, though? Do we need to be stripping downforce off cars for the ability to have better battery power? I don't like that justification. Now, what I do like is cars with less downforce. I think that can be fun.

We've seen that previously throughout the history of Formula One, that actually cars are a bit harder to drive, cars that aren't as cemented in the corner, on rails, is the phrase that regularly gets used, can create more fun. Twitchy cars, better driver control, better driver ability. Those are all good things that can come from less downforce. Also, you get a lot of brilliant minds in the background of teams

who are creating solutions to overcome this. You've already seen Macarena wing, the exhaust pipe rear wing that we've got on a lot of cars now, the way that the inglets in the sidepogs are being used to, utilize airflow. These are all things that are genuinely brilliant ideas that are creating a really unique and divisive Formula One. The issue is less downforce means less overall speed, which means lower lap times. And there are a lot of people in the world of Formula One who think that slower cars means worse formula. That is a direct correlation in terms of how they think.

So this will produce slower cars. You saw Lewis Hamilton in Miami have 50 to 20 points of downforce knocked off after the collision with Colapinto. He was significantly slower than his teammate, then everyone else in front of him, he was in no man's land for the entire Grand Prix. That will be the case for everyone in terms of how slow they'll be going. So it really is a compromise. This isn't a one solution, fix every problem. This will be a, what problem do you want to tackle the most and will it end up inadvertently causing a bigger problem later on down the road? So it's a bit of this, bit of that. What do you think, Ben? I've tried not to start this episode off with negative energy, but I've got two massive problems

with this. Do it. Come up. Firstly, why are you surprised at the fact that these really clever individuals within the paddock have been able to create more downforce than you thought? That is a hilarious. It's every regulation cycle. It's the same thing. It's like, wow, they actually did a better job than we thought they were going to. We didn't think they'd be this quick.

Like the smartest aerodynamic brains in the world. What are you realistically expecting? So we do this dance every time. So that's one annoyance. The other annoyance as well is that Tombas's argument here, here is, okay, we thought they would be, and slightly visual reference, we thought they would be here in terms of downforce, but they're actually here. My question is, you were expecting them to get to here at some point. Okay, you didn't think it would be now. Let's say you thought it would be

six months time. So what, you're still stuck with the same issue in six months time, that these cars have enough downforce that energy management isn't efficient enough. And what was the plan then to, I don't know, make changes in 2020? rather than 2027, I don't understand this fixation with lap times because whilst you're right, like Lewis Hamilton had downforce knocked off his car in Miami and therefore was considerably slower than his teammate and other people in that fight. Correct. It's all relative. Like if everyone is at Hamilton speed or slower, it doesn't stand out. And I don't understand why we can't have these lower downforce cars that are trickier to drive and we just have a slightly, slightly slower

a formula. And again, because of how intelligent these engineers are, intelligent, intelligence across the whole paddock, they will find a way to find that speed within a year or two. It's always, it always seems to be the case with these regulation cycles that the, the organizers and the people who are creating the regs, always think about the first year. What is that first year going to look like? Think about what the last year is going to look like. Think about what your vision is for the end of these regulations and work backwards so you can get there because we keep getting stuck in this situation where, okay, initially there might be some good things. Teams get smart. They get better. They create dirty air. Racing gets worse.

And then just these plasters, these fixes need to be happening over time. And it's not as efficient as it could be. No, two points I want to make on that. The first is how do they actually plan to reduce these points of downforce as well? Is it just, hey, can you take off all the upgrades that you brought again because we don't want to shape the cars any differently? Like, what do you actually remove to make this more difficult for someone? The three areas that they're particularly looking at are the front wing, the floor, and side pod design. But the specifics of what they're looking at, I'm not sure.

But those are the three areas that they're targeting. Which are three areas that are heavily upgrading already by Formula One team. So you are literally just saying, all that hard work and money that you spent, can you just now remove it? Because we don't like you being better. And I think, secondly, a good visualization of what you're speaking about. out is a Grand Prix right now. At the start of the weekend, start of a Grand Prix, drivers are a bit better understanding. Some drivers are better on the same of the regs,

they're better at making overtakes, they're better at extracting lap time. Come lap like 45 of a Grand Prix. Every driver is fully up to speed and they are basically no mistakes, no problems, executing lap time deployment is great, time management is easy, and we go back to having a very standard looking Formula 1 product. But like 1 to 10 is chaos because some drivers haven't worked it out yet. And I do think that is what's going to happen with every set of regulations across the years. The first 12 months, chaos. Some drivers are great, some along.

By race five, year five, everyone's got to get understood. Well, we've seen with these four races so far, they've been different, but they've followed a very similar pattern of first 10 laps are great. Last 10 laps, usually great. The middle section, nothing's happening. Miami was a good race, and people came away from thinking it was a good race. Rewatch the middle 20 laps.

Not a lot happened. The thing is, it is a problem that Formula One has always had. Yes, you are right, yeah. That's not new. It's not new. And that is because strategy takes place. And they need to almost find a way to jazz up how, to a viewer, a strategy looks on the telly, to make it enjoyable and understand it.

Tires that wear down. Exactly that, right? And you need to be able to visualize it properly. Having a little timing tower on the left and side, which I stare at religiously on the Formula One weekend and going, oh, Colopinto has just lost one second to Liam Lorsing between 13th and 14th place because he's being on his medium tyres for 15 laps. That could be juicy in three laps time.

And you never get shown, you'll see it, you'll see the position swap over on the timing tower. It stops the middle of the race being fully enjoyable. Indeed. Love to hear your thoughts on this, by the way, as well, because this is, again, going to be something that splits opinion. So do let us know what you think. We're going to take a break on the other side. We're going to be talking Antonelli and Russell,

maybe the fight for the title. Welcome back, everyone. I wanted to chat a bit about Kimmy Antonelli and George Russell. Antonelli, the first person to three figures in terms of the driver's championship on exactly 100 points leaving Miami. Not sure we thought that was going to be the case, particularly after Australia,

but here we are. He's got a 20-point lead over George Russell, and I think, as we mentioned, during that Miami race review, for a time, it looked like it was going to be worse than 20 points. But he's not far off what I'm going to call DNF insurance in that I know it's a sprint weekend, so it's a bit different for Canada, but in a regular race weekend, even if Antonelli were to retire and George Russell were to win the race, Russell's only leading the championship by five points.

That's a healthy margin at this point. There's got much more you could have asked for as a driver after 404 Grand Prix. D&F insurance for those that aren't aware is, like you said, Ben, 25 points get gained if your opponent wins and you aren't in the points, essentially. And even if that happens in both Grand Prix and Russell Wings, both Grand Prix, then it's only a 13 point lead, which is still less than what Antigali has over Russell now. And that's with a double DNF over a weekend. So it is sizable. I don't think Kimmy Antigliangling is wildest dreams ever sat there in thought by four Grand Prix

into a new set of regulations down in my second season in Formula One before the age of 20 years old, I would be leading the title. That's disgusting, man. With 100 points, 20 points clear of my very senior, very experienced teammate that everyone back to beat me. So fair play to you, lad. You're an absolute superstar. And he is delivered on the promise that we all thought he had about 18 months ago.

But we're unsure if it could really come to life. He's bringing it to life. You are 19 years old. Go and play Fortnite. Stop embarrassing people that are slightly older than you, like me, that are questioning what they've done with their lives, all right? Stop it. I wish I was as good at Fortnite.

as he is a Formula One. I am actually. I'm a Fortnite legend. A Fortnite fiend. Yes. You see Hocken come over on the user game. You think I'll go to game over. Man, that's never played Fortnite in his life.

You just live through Fortnite's. Yeah, yeah. I don't go by weeks or days. I don't go by Fortnite. That's Fortnite 7 of the year, right? Are you available to do something next half Fortnite? Everyone's like, what are you all about, mate? Oh, you call that weeks.

Sorry. That's woke. Where do you think George Russell goes from here? Because it felt to me like Miami, whilst China and Japan ended in Antonelli victories and Russell being frustrated, Russell could at least that those two Grand Prix point to something. China, he could point to the fact that he had issues with his car and qualifying.

Suzuki, he can point to the safety car, which helped out. Antonelli did not help himself out. Miami, and Russell has admitted this himself, I think, There is nothing to point that. He was just slower than his teammate. So where does he go from here? I think the scary part for Russell was he wasn't just slower than his teammate.

He was slower than several competitors around him as well. It wasn't like it was Mercedes versus Mercedes. And the gap was five seconds on lap 40 and come lap 51. The gap was nine seconds. You know, that isn't the case here. The issue for George Russell is he's no longer beating the cars that are, the first Grand Prix, they were a nuisance. You know, they were kind of in the way a little bit.

The Ferraris, the McLarrings. they were kind of there for the first half of the Grand Prix. And then as time goes on, Kimi Antingelli found a way, sometimes through luck, sometimes through skill, to work his way through them. Shaiiangangor, he gets past Lewis Hamilton nice and easy. He's able to drive up into the distance, makes one mistake. But the gap never really comes down to a threatening level. In Japan, of course, he is saved a little bit by the safety car.

And I would like to have seen how Kimi Antingelli would have handled the rest of that Grand Prix without safety car interference, because it would have been interesting to see if the Astrid could have held on to that wing, if Lecler might have been a bit more competitive, but closer. But nonetheless, it was still clear that out of those two drivers that were saying is, it was Antingelli, who was finding his way through the traffic and the competitors around him, faster, cleaner, more efficiently. Russell was unable to break through the cars around him. And even with safety car, bringing the field back together, he could not make moves stick.

The same thing has happened in Miami. Kimmy Antigelli has had a competitor in Landon Norris. He's been hurried all the way to the finish line. someone is pressurizing him. The whole way earlier on, it was Declure and Norris, and it just became Norris, but nonetheless, strategy had to come into play. Clever racing, great outlap.

He had to make sure that he delivered on every turn. And he did. We're a couple of track limits warnings, but if that's all your racing gets, you know, in terms of negatives, really solid. Russell could not find pace to save his life. Tires weren't working. No rear grip.

Got stuck in traffic. Couldn't make overtakes. It was being overtaken by cars that are in theory slower than him. Up until absolute chaos. ensued around him where, you know, LeCler spins and Max Verstappers' ties fall off a cliff, it looked like he was going to be finishing sixth, not fourth. So he's absolutely saved by a bold strategy in a slower car and an error that is very unusual. You can't rely on Charles LeCler swinging into a wall every single Grand Prix to save you.

So where he goes from here is, it can't work out where the pace is going at the sales and how to deliver it. Now, the positives, Canada. He's good at Canada. He won here last time. He did. he also has got a team bringing a whole set of upgrades to that car. And the last time that a team brought a whole set of upgrades to Canada,

Kimi Antigali had his best race, and they had a really, really long series of his worst races, where the car just did not work. So I think George Russell is going to be sat there praying that history repeats itself. It won. But I think that's what he's hoping for. Yeah, I, it's crazy to think. Antonelli now has half of the wins that George Russell has.

George Russell's got six career wins. Antonelli's now got three. Well, I think the stat that came out was that Kimmy Antigali has more successive wings than George Russell has successive podiums. Yeah, that would make sense. Yeah, I mean, Russell's never put two race wins together in a row. And Antonelli here has done three. It is always tough to know when a driver has struggled so much versus a teammate at a particular race weekend, whether you really dig into it and work out why or you just completely let it go.

and move on to the next one. And I'm not sure what Russell's approach is going to be here, because as mentioned, whilst Suzuki and Shanghai, I think you could point to something, you can't really point to anything here outside of he was slower. I know he said over the race weekend, it's a bit of a bogey track for him,

but I've made this point before. It didn't really stop him last year. He was strong everywhere. So whether he digs into it or not, I'm uncertain. I think Russell is, and this might sound silly because it sounds obvious as you say it, but I think George Russell now knows this is going to be a season-long

fight. And I think before Miami, he could have convinced himself that that still might not be the case. So I know, again, he lost two of the first three to Antonelli. But I think with two results, maybe he could be convinced that it's a blip. I'll get back on it in Miami and Canada, and then I'll sail off into the distance, and this isn't going to be a season-long battle. I think he now knows that it will be. It's almost similar. I don't know if you agree with this. Similar to Oscar Piastri last year. Yeah.

I know Piastri wasn't as young as Antonelli was last year, but equally we went to the season based on Lando Norris finishing runner-up in 2024. If McLaren were going to feature, he'd be the most likely to win the driver's championship. Of course, he did. But early on in the season, Piastri wins races two, races two, four, five, and six.

And now we've got Antonelli, maybe in a similar spot, having won races two, three and four? I think, weirdly, Russell would take confidence in that if he were to pose it to that way too. You know, it shows that it can be turned around. After Melbourne,

Russell would have sat there and gone good. This is going exactly the way I wanted it to go. That's the reason why you got Borac coming over the radio when he won the race. You know, he thought, excellent. I could be excited because it's all going my way. Mercedes had built the monster car that they said they were going to deliver.

The regulations have again gone Mercedes way, which, you know, two out of three times when Mercedes of being new regulation changes, they've managed to lead the first few Grand Prix and the championship. And Russell, who rightfully backs himself, as you sure, as a Formula One driver, goes, well, I back myself to win it.

And out of Melbourne, he was. He was comfortably better. And then it is all very quickly tumble downhill. But I think he will look at taking reassurance in the fact that a younger teammate and more experienced teammate did lead the championship for a suitable amount of time, realistically, throughout the 2025 season.

And yes, it came down to the wire, which Russell, I'm sure, would not want to be the case when it comes to this championship. But there's enough time. It's not like we're racing a 15 race season anymore or a 16 race season. You've got another 7-8 Grand Prix after that. You know, it can be on to the game. It can very easily have a four-race streak where it doesn't go to plan. It gets taken out. He has a DNF.

Maybe the start he can't make up from if he has a poor one. It can very easily go the other way. And Formula One is a game of some days it goes your way. some days it doesn't. There's a long of days left in Formula One. So I think Russell shouldn't panic. That's the main thing. Don't go through three Grand Prix going, I haven't beating him. That's it. Game over. Don't panic. Remember, you are a very, very good qualified Formula One driver. You can deliver, get back in your groove and do the things that you do well. I want to see a season long fight. So having Russell on his A game up against the brilliant young Kimi Antingelli is vital for keeping this season alive in terms of excitement, I think.

Yeah, I do wonder as well, and I think it's still too early in the season to say this, but if you'd said to George Russell, beginning of the year, before any racing, you're going to be tied with Kimmy Ansonelli for points going into Abu Dhabi. Hidda said, what? No, I'm not taking that. I'm going to be 100 points ahead. No, I do not accept that deal. He offered that to him now.

I still think he says no, but he goes, no, I think I'm okay. Let me have a think first before I just sign that bit of paper. Because there's a version of events where it's worse than that, and he's not. But I agree. I think for now it is so early in the year that he will back himself to have a run himself of a few race wins in a row. And he's been an F1 a long time. He's had some great teammates. He is a great driver.

He will still back himself for now. But it'll be interesting to see how that tracks throughout the year. I did see some theories as well, speculating Russell, maybe not as home on these low-grip tracks. which Miami obviously being one of those and there might be some truth in that

as well in that Mexico and Austin you'd probably say a low grip as well he's never had a podium at either of those races so there might be some truth in and typically

early and late in the season that's where you'll find these lower grip tracks to your point earlier if we get into this European season where Antonelli really struggled last year somewhat related to the fact that Mercedes brought upgrades at Canada

and they worked for one race and then didn't work really after that. Russell was able to adapt to those much better than Antonelli. You said earlier, it's not going to go the same way. It sounds like you're not concerned that we could get a repeat of this. Well, George Russell came out an interview and said, I'll look forward to Canada and the European leg of the season. I think he knows that is where he's good.

I'm sure he's done his research against him around him. I've said something very similar to what I said last year. in that Kimi Antigali struggled in the European season, the European leg. The issue are, there's a lot of mitigating factors that aren't just copy and pace from one year to another. You know, it's not repeating the season, because if we were, George Russell would be leading the title anyway. So the upgrades that are being brought will be different. The way the car reacts will be different. The way the cars are anyway are different.

Kimi Antigali himself is different. He is growing. He is matured. He's developed hugely year to year. If you are facing your championship hopes and dreams on the, fact that the exact same reactions will occur year after year, you're a fool and it won't, it won't happen. So George Russell has to step up. He has to find something different. He has to make sure that, yes, in theory, he could be better in Europe. That theory has to

become reality. And he has to deliver on that, not just hope that Kimmy Antigelli is worse for the sake of being worse. And it really was a sizable difference between the two drivers during that European season last year. I look back to sort of 10 races in the middle of the year. And during those 10 races, George Russell scored 101 points. Antonelli scored 18. And of those 18, 15 of them came at Canada. So he essentially scored three points in nine races. And a few of those reliability reasons.

But even some of those, I remember he retired from Imala, for example, I don't think he was set to score many points in that when he retired. So he really did struggle as soon as those upgrades were installed. And I think you're right. There's no reason why it will work exactly the same way this year. I think from Antinelli's perspective, there will be maybe, it may be a bit apprehensive at this point. But as soon as those upgrades are on the car, they're working and he delivers,

I think just one good result. Like if he wins another race, I think that will be put to bed. I think you'll just need that one confidence booster and then it'll be good to go. Yeah, I think so. I think you're right. Interesting. in terms of George Russell at Canada, we'll discuss this a little bit more in the preview, obviously.

What does he need to do? With that being a sprint weekend, of course, does he need a win in the main race? Does he need a win in the sprint race? Does he need to beat Antonelli and both of them? What would he be happy with leaving the weekend? Yeah, two sides to this question, isn't there? There's the championship side,

and there's George Russell's own mentality. From a championship point of view, I think he could comfortably get away with not winging the spring. If Antenali wins the spring, it's a point. If he's second-handing on his first, it's a point. You can deal with that being a 21-point gap rather than a 20-gap. He needs to win the feature race here. And that's because it will cement so much in his mind

that he can still overcome this challenge, overcome this hurdle. And that's where the mental side of things comes in for a Formula One driver. Realistically, he will want to rock up to Canada, feel the upgrades, feel that they're working. I think we've got an extended practice there again in Canada to make sure that... Oh, do we? I think so.

I might be wrong. No, no, I hadn't seen it confirmed. Yes. And then I think he'll want to essentially do what he was doing in China, which was dominate every single session up until he didn't, but actually we will. Yeah. I think he'll want to lead practice. I think he'll want to leave spring qualifying.

I think he'll want to win the race. I think he'll want to get a pole position. And then I think he'll want to go on and take the race wing. And if George Russell can do that, which is definitely possible, it has happened before. I do think that realistically, that will be the booster that he and he's going right. back to Europe, back to where I had that significant point swing last year, I now know we're on my turf and I can deliver the results I need. So this could very much be the moment the pendulum swings if George Russell can actually get it right.

Well, not too long until we find out the answers to at least some of those questions. We'll take a quick break. On the other side, an extended partnership between F1 and Sky Sports. Welcome back, everyone. Formula One has agreed a new long-term partnership with Sky Sports. Sports, which will remain the exclusive live broadcast rights holder in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Italy. Under the new agreement, Sky Sports will continue airing the championship for at least 2034 in the UK and Ireland, while its coverage in Italy is now secured until

the end of the 2032 season. The extension builds on the previous deal, signed in 2022, which had originally kept Sky in place through the 29 campaign. So we're looking essentially at a five-year extension here, Sam. Your reaction to the news? mixed, mixed bag. Like a bag of Revels. I don't have Revels in years, man. I actually think they might be discontinued. Don't do this to me.

But you know you put your hand in a bag of Revels. Folks, if you go to what Revels are, Rebels was a bag of chocolate where every single chocolate looked the same but every single one could be different. I can't wait. I want to know which ones you're going with the positive ones here. Well, this is the things.

You might put your ending, you might get something like a Maltesea. Yeah, oh, solid, nice, crunchy Maltese. Everyone loves a Maltese. It can't go wrong. But you put your ad thing, you put out the coffee. You think, there's nothing wrong with a coffee one, man, that's fine. And that's why a Revels works, because the one that someone doesn't like,

which is funny is a coffee drinker. I don't really enjoy coffee chocolate. It might work for something else because, Ben, you don't drink coffee. I don't share coffee, yeah. But you like a coffee chocolate. And that tells you everything you need to know. Yeah. My point is, it's a mixed bag.

You're not really sure what you're going to get when it comes to this renewal. Sky has had some real ups and they've had some real downs. And a lot of their product, to be fair to them, especially when it comes through the actual race, it's not dictated by Sky themselves. The graphics are universal that you get given. So the timing tower will be the same timing tower you see on F1CV, on Apple.

It'll be the same as what you see on Sky Sports. You know, it doesn't really get old and it's delivered to everyone. So there's things in that scenario that you can't blame or praise Sky4 if it works or doesn't work. But it's the pre-show, the post-show, it's the build-up, the commentators, it's what happens not on a race day, what content are they delivering? that I actually think a long of the time let sky down.

It's, you know, the pre-show has been the same for a very long time. They'll have some kind of cinematic feature where one of the presenters goes and has a conversation with a driver doing something benign, like they'll be playing a paddle game, or they'll sit in Lewis Hamilton's Secret Cinema, or, you know, I love Lewis Hamilton Cinema, man. How many times have you seen it, mate? I've lost count at this point.

they don't utilize historic Grand Prix. The conversations are very surface level. They very rarely dig into the technical analysis and have programs created that are separate to just racing. And these features that are separate to racing are just the ones that they play in a 10-minute segment between an outbreak during the build-up to the Grand Prix. They have a whole channel, Sky, in the UK,

which is Sky Sports F1. But I would argue 90% of that coverage is replays of very regular races, text talk again for the 1000th time or Lewis Hamilton cinema and they don't ever seem to invest wider in the ecosystem to create a regular show,

regular viewing platform. You know, it's very much two dimensional. We put the race on, we do an hour buildup, we have a half an hour post show and then we just kind of let the other stuff repeat and hope it's enjoyable because they know the viewing figures aren't the same as a race day, fair enough, but you've ever made any effort to build up the viewing figures

off of a race day. And that's why they, it's almost like a catchphrase two, chicken and egg. Don't make the effort, people don't come, but people won't come if you don't make the effort. So I do think that's why I struggle with the Sky product a little bit. I do wonder whether there's any connection at all. And I haven't really been able to put two and two together. And there might not be anything to put together here, but you've got the news on the one hand of Sky being extended for five years. And then on the other side, you've also got the news, the F1 posted their best ever Q1 financially speaking.

And I just wonder if there's any link at all in terms of the timing of this announcement at all. I don't know because this wasn't a deal that needed to be made. Again, they had this until 2029. So there was no rush that they could have waited until next year. They could have waited a couple of years. I don't know whether Sky maybe timing-wise were looking at these new regulations and seeing, you know, what might that do to viewing figures?

are we going towards impending disaster? And then I think upon answering the question, no, we're not. Maybe that's what's caused them to pull the trigger here. Do you think they could get a better deal because of the fact that it's a bit shaky on the ground of Formula One right now? I don't know.

I mean, reports are that this deal is worth up to a billion pounds or dollars or pounds. Ridiculous amount of money. I guess also there might be fear that a competitor coming. We've just seen what happened in the US. with...

Well, yeah. It's believed that they did out bid others in order to get this. I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised that there were other beers. I imagine someone like Netflix or Amazon will be very much involved or interested in the product. You know, we've seen documentaries be featured on the likes of Disney, who are now very much involved in Formula One. Amazon have done some kind of documentary series around Formula One, of course.

Netflix, of course, have Drive to Survive, so it would make full sense if you brought the product in house and then they'd like a highlight series, which was allowed new viewers to come in. And live sport is very much a thing on Netflix now. You can watch boxing and other such things on Netflix. So I wouldn't be shocked if that was the case. Equally, with Apple TV and F1 TV, kind of coming together and now being a streamable feature in the US, taking it away from, what was it, ESPN previously. You know, I would not be shocked if there were conversations in Apple to go,

hey, the demographics of the US market and the UK market are quite similar, you know, in terms of language, spoken, understanding, presenters having a resonance across markets, it is an easy fit to realistically pick up a US product or a UK product and merge them. I wouldn't be shocked if Apple were curious about how much it would cost to take it off their hands. And that's where most of my surprise comes via this news, because while Sky, regardless of our thoughts about the content, which have their own merits, Sky have been a reliable partner for F1 for like 15 years. So I understand them wanting to continue that relationship based on that. But equally there is the whole Apple TV, F1 TV sort of thing going on with the US.

And as soon as that was signed, as soon as it was reported even, we were thinking regardless whether it would be them or Amazon or Netflix or whatever streaming service it would be, there would at some point possibly be the intention to bring this all under one roof. And in some regards, that makes a lot of sense. you know, there are potentially, you know, you do have the potential to, I don't know, make it more efficient in terms of customer data specifically if you do have one broadcaster rather than multiple dotted around throughout the world. And so in that respect, I was surprised because again, there's no rush to make this decision. I thought they might see how Apple TV went for a couple of years to see if that was a viable option to make this a more global product rather than a US-centric product. But yeah, I'm trying to figure out why they would keep the individual markets.

Maybe they can gain a better price from the individual countries rather than one broadcaster that's doing everything. I also wonder if they eliminate competitors by making it truly global. You know, there will be some companies. Apple, for example, they might not sell their subscription servicing every country around the world. It might only hear, let's say, 50% of nations can get Apple TV, just as a random number. Well, does that then eliminate a lot of broadcast opportunities from countries that go, oh, you've got the global rights?

Well, how do I buy my local rights for, let's say, let's say Thailand. Thailand want to watch Formula One. Apple TV isn't there. Are we allowed to? Is there some legality? Can we get cameras on the grid? How does it work?

If they've got total rights of filming, do you have to buy a subsidiary package? It becomes very confusing. So there aren't negatives to having one global provider. And we do sit in a very privileged side of things where, as a UK customer, we do tend to get access to pretty much anything you want to watch is typically available to you in one way or another, unless you've got a VPN, which, you know, then you could get F1 TV, which I do miss quite a lot.

Yeah, I mean, the archive is still great that we get in the UK, by the way, but yes, it would be, it would be good to have that full time. Like, Sky, you proved you can use the archive. We hang a gap. You're finally playing a race that was older than this year. They play three more on Wednesday. Just really random United States Grand Prix this time. let people know what's happening. Like set up like you're replaying a whole season one week after another or something like that. I don't get it, man. Who's doing your programming outside of Formula One? The other benefit to maybe keeping these deals regional rather than one global broadcaster is

you do have the benefit of tailoring your broadcasting. So in terms of, I can't speak to this too much because I don't watch it unsurprisingly, but DeZone in Spain, for example, can tailor their content to. Alonzo. Italy. We know that Sky in Italy are doing very well at the moment, probably related to Antinelli doing very well at the moment, in which case you can focus a lot more on him

in terms of these pre-and-post-race shows versus a global broadcaster's got the responsibility to be very across the board. So that is another benefit, I guess, to keeping these slightly regionalised. But yeah, I was still surprised that they made a decision at this point. there's also about like broadcast innovation as well that could be good under

under one global broadcast. Like you have the potential to, I don't know, make quicker, better changes to battery, for example, something that we've been complaining about all year. We don't think it's represented well enough in terms of the graphics. I think you have the potential to move quicker with that if you've got one global broadcaster. Including the money to invest in changing it as well. Is there anything you want to see Sky do differently in the next few years? Um, you know what, I do have some sympathy for them in terms of, in terms of like the pre-race stuff, because it does get repetitive, but I appreciate that they are somewhat limited and they do have hours to fill. So, um, I, like you said with, in terms of the classic races, I would like to see a more considered effort there. If indeed they do have full flexibility over what they can do, um, I, I assume they would. But yeah, I'd like to see, I'd like to see, I'd like to see. I'd like to see.

that for sure. In terms of the line, no, I'm not going to... No, we're going to talk about the line up. That's got that's not going. I know that maybe this comes across as self-intitled or self-interested. There's a world, there's a plethora, plethora, sorry, of fantastic creators out there who, you really good content.

There's enough hours to feel. I am surprised that Sky, having ever picked up a YouTuber or something in Gong, we're going to go and make a series with you across the season that would air on like the Thursday, each weekend, before a weekend, and then before the race weekend, where it's actually a bit of a different angle, like a community take or something like that. I do think they're missing a bit of an untapped ability there to create something quite community-focused from a fan level. Yeah, and as creators ourselves of incredibly bad content, we know what good content looks like,

anything that doesn't look like us. That's hilarious that we know what it looks like and we still don't choose to do it. Oh, yeah. Boren. I find a question on this one. In terms of the free-to-air stuff, that doesn't change as a result of these deals. So in the UK, at least, the British Grand Prix would still be displayed on free-to-air, as will extended highlights as well.

But in terms of the actual live race, nothing changes there. Any disappointment? It's really tricky, isn't it? Yeah, it's disappointing that, in an old-school way of thinking, free-to-air brings in new viewers. But we have really moved on from the world of free to air TV being particularly popular. You don't sit down and watch the telly in the same way that you used to. You wouldn't, or you'd get home from work at 6pm and, you know, and then you go, right, I'm going to make dinner.

And then from 7 till 10, I'm going to have three programs I always watch. It doesn't work like that anymore. You've got stuff recording. You go on Netflix. If you're starting at 7, you've missed flog it. Right, well, there you go. Right. I've got homes under the hammer back to back on I player.

So it's really tricky to keep up. But this is my point. I watch it and I play. I got a live because I'm not at home. So my point here is that having it available, not free to air, now makes sense because almost nothing is free to air. Everything is part of a subscription package. Even if you were to have it on the BBC in the UK, you've got to have a TV license,

realistically, to watch it live. And that is in a way a subscription package. So not ideal in most scenarios. It's either adverts, which you actually get with Sky anyway, or it's paid for it and get on Netflix. or you pay for it on Amazon and you get adverts anyway, it's not good. Either way, it's not good. Either way, adverts.

Adverts or money, or both. I'm not surprising if I went to free to wear a gang. I don't think we'll ever see it on free to wear a gang. I think Formula One is just way, way too popular now. It's such a behemoth of a sporting product that it wants the cash injection. I don't think a Channel 4, for example, or a BBC in the UK could really rival an Amazon or a sky or whatever. So I'm more shocked. And equally, I've kind of moved past the time of disappointment for it now. Because everything is, I've got every streaming service I've got to the sun. I have to

keep up with what's going on. Because otherwise, my sad, little short term brain that can't remember anything will fall behind. You can't be overly disappointed at something you had zero expectations for. And that's the case for free to wear TV, really. I was having a look through some of the bigger markets to see. Basically, are there any free-to-wear contracts left with F-1? Not really. Like, you look at, and apologies of any of this information is out-to-date, by the way, but I was looking at Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Mexico, Spain, the United States, obviously the UK, all of these, and Italy as well, we can include with Sky Sports. All of those are subscription services or in premium products in the case of, like Sky. The only two I could find, and again,

could be outdated. Austria have half of the races that are free to wear, and Brazil is 15 out of the 24. But outside of that, I couldn't find any, at least any, what I would call, somewhere near major market that is still free to wear. What did you... What did you watch it on?

I think Sky as well. Oh, really? I do remember them regularly going on, the Sky Sports Germany are in the way, actually, how that rings a bell. Yes, yeah, yeah. I think Martin often gets to the way of their interview. So, yeah, I think you're right in terms of F1

is being pushed as a premium product. I don't think that's going to go away anytime soon. And it's not just an F1 thing, by the way, free to where TV is in terms of life sport, struggling across the board. But yeah, no surprise here. People want it on demand? They want it when they want it.

Yes. Right, let's take our final break of this episode. On the other side, we're doing a top five best drivers of the season so far. Lovely. Might be a final list. Welcome back, everyone, to the final part of today.

episode. We're going to do a top five of our drivers of the season so far. We've had four, four races. We've had two sprints as well. So we've had a good amount of action to review. And who's going to make that upper echelon on our list? Top five, number five from you, Sam. I've got Carlos Sites in number five, which has been really tricky to evaluate. Actually, I'm sure if you go look at our power rankings, which you can find on Patreon. I do think that I probably haven't given him his flowers where he deserves them. But he's driving being a real, you know, dumper of a car. That's a real big, big wagon.

He's got to pull around there. It's heavy. A real dumper. Oh, boy, it's heavy. And yet he's had two points finishes in four races. And yes, okay, there's been some development, especially after the 84-year gap between Japan and Miami. But I do think he's been really strong.

And he's regularly overcoming his teammate as well, even with some difficulties in qualifying. So I'm excited to be a bit of a dark course and how well he's been driving. Number five on my list. I have Charles LeCler. He's third in the championship. He's the closest driver in terms of points to the Mercedes duo.

He's had a good year so far in terms of qualifying, even though he hates qualifying the way that it is right now. He is 3-1-up on Lewis Hamilton in that regard. And he fought very well in the likes of Australia. He was fighting for the lead early on. Same in Miami. Japan is probably his best race so far. He was on the podium there,

but he was able to keep George Russell behind him for a good chunk of that Grand Prix too. The reason I don't have him higher than number five is that there have been errors throughout the year from him as well. If you think about, he made a big error chasing Lewis Hamilton in China that might have cost him that position. And then, of course, Miami's probably the most notable one

where everything went south on that final lap and he cost himself at least a few positions with that. So he's not actually that far ahead of Lewis Hamilton right now in the driver's championship. So very good season so far from him, but not error three. So that's why I've got number five. Who's at number four, Sam?

And number four, I have Charlotte Clare. For the exact same reasons. He has had electric pace outright. He has done a brilliant job at challenging Mercedes. He has dominated Lewis Hamilton realistically in two of the four Grand Prix. But there have been some genuine mistakes that have come out from his pace now. And the biggest one, of course, in Miami, where he threw away a lot of points through a mistake entirely brought on upon himself. But his starts to be great.

He lost out to him. Hamilton and China, as you mentioned, but I thought his Suzuki performance was excellent, and I thought he really delivered a really strong result in a car that at the Japanese Grand Prix was struggling a bit in comparison to what we expected, especially with the resurgence of McLaren at that point. So I think he's having a really strong start of the year, just going to wiggle out a few things, which I do think are regulation-related. Number four, I've got Lando Norris. Tough to judge the McLaren's based on the three did not start between them so far this year. and I feel bad for Piastri, who's not on my list,

but Piastri has had one more of those, so we've had less to judge him on. But Lando Norris has had a very good year so far. I know Miami's doing a lot of the heavy lifting here in terms of both the sprint and the main race, but equally, P5 in Australia, I think, was pretty solid based on some disrupted running earlier in the weekend. Same can be said for Japan.

I know he didn't have a great race there, but not everything went smoothly for him in the practice sessions. And then he was fourth in the Chinese sprint, whilst he didn't start the main race, he did have a pretty good sprint Grand Prix. So I think it's been pretty solid where he's had the opportunity to show what he can do.

Who's number three, Sam? Oh, this is going to get a little bit boring if it keeps following this pattern, but that is going to be Mando Norris. He was circulating probably slightly further back on my list, actually, and then the Miami GP happened. Obviously, tricky when you don't get to start a Grand Prix,

when the car is being having some problems, but I thought, and his performance in Nebraska, Japan was worse. But Australia, of course, we've got a whole race there where Piyaski was unable to take part. And he did really well. China again, they don't emerge. Japan off and nowhere near as far as realistically is bad for a teammate. And then you get to Miami, and he's absolutely dominating the rest of the field. Yvantelli's got in that Grand Prix.

He's winning that thing by over 20 seconds, which is really quite impressive. Obviously, a great job in the sprint qualifying as well. It was really getting in the front, great recovery from a poor qualifying. but still beat his teammate, even in that qualifying session. He had a tricky start to the year, but I really think he's starting to step up, honestly. We're now back at Ground Zero, because I've got Carlos Sines at number three. So we've got all of the same three drivers so far in a slightly different order.

I know Carlos Sines at third is going to seem slightly mad to some people listening because the guy has four points right now. But can anyone actually tell me he should have more than four points? I'm certain that is the maximum he could have got from this year so far. he is unbeaten against, you know what, with an asterisk, he's unbeaten against Alex Albin in qualifying. Technically, Alex Albin beat him in Australia qualifying. Signs didn't compete in the session. But other than that, Carlos Sines, including both sprints as well, has been the better at the two Williams drivers in terms of qualifying, excellent defence against Colopinto in both

China and Japan. And he was nine seconds out of Albin in Miami. So I can't really fault anything he's done to this point in the year. It's just that the car isn't very good at the moment. Okay, I'm interested. I feel like maybe we do have the same top two, but we'll see. Who second? Pierre Gasly. Sausage is out? Sausage is out for the big Pierre, the big Gazile. He's been superb. He's been absolutely superb. And I know he's going up against a slightly inexperienced teammate, but Colopinto doesn't count as a rookie anymore. He's done more than a full season of races. And

Colopinto has got a lot of raw speed. I backed him in Miami and he delivered, you know. The guy's got the ability to have those results. I'm not marking that against Gassie, though, because Gassie was, you know, un-Sermostling as Spatched from the Miami GP after Liam Norses' gearbox apparently shut down and he rolled straight into him.

Can't put that one on him. But he was beaten in the sprint race for a long of the race anyway, and it was a very close affair between them, which shows a collarpinter was growing. But Gassi before that, the three Grand Prix that started this, he made P7 his own.

He was truly, exceptional in comparison to the midfield. And that's when the Alpine hasn't taken that step away from the likes of Haas, from, from Audi, from the racing balls. He was able to make great overtakes and set himself apart, picking up extra points, which are doing Alping very well in the constructive standings right now. So I think Gassi's being electric. I still think he's the most underrated driver on the grid. I think he is showing how good he is at the start of this season. Yeah, I've got Gassi second as well. Very unlucky in Miami. But other than that, he has been great so far this year. And you say, like, he's locked down PC.

as his position, it almost like, without context, sounds like an insult. That is a massive compliment in that P7 for Alpine is P1. Yeah,

he's been brilliant, fighting backs for Stappen, obviously, in a couple of races, even with the issues that Red Bull have had. He has been great in that midfield.

Going to guess number one is the same here. No, no, no, no. It's a me. Not there is Hamwitting, obviously. That would have been a real curveball. I'd have a,

appreciated if it was Lewis Hamilton. Would you have appreciating it, or did you just thought that I was slightly delusioned? I'm always thinking of content, my man. Anything for the clicks? Ben is going as the biggest clipbait going in the world. Which is why I've got Ockon at number one. Honestly, the fact that that would get no clicks anyway, it's quite... No, no, it would get negative clicks.

People would be like, okay, weird, I'll move on. Yeah, it's Kimi Antonelli, isn't it? Yeah, it's Antonelli. I will say, though, it's not been perfect, even though I've got him number one here. Like those starts are an issue. And something else I've worked out across the two sprints we've had so far this year. If there was a sprint championship,

and I probably shouldn't say that because that's going to give F1 ideas, don't do that. If there was a sprint championship, he'd be sixth. Really? He's got the time to work his way back through the field. Well, he's had seven points

from the two sprint races we've had. Hamilton has eight, Piaastri has 10, and then Russell, LeCler, and Norris all have 13. Wow. Yeah, I guess the starts have been that poor with the limited laps, he just cannot get himself back

through to lead. And he got the penalty as well, of course, in Miami for, yeah. But yeah, it's interesting. That is interesting. You're right, it hasn't been perfect. There have been mistakes. There has been a penalty for track limits. There's been poor starts.

He got saved by a safety car. He got beaten by George Russell in the first race. And yet still, he is 20 points clear over his experienced teammate. And yeah, the car is dominant. But Killing is not as dominant as you would think when your teammate is being beaten regularly by other teams around him. The way he held off Norris recently, and McClure was phenomenal.

The recovery was great. He shouldn't have had to recover because that is partial in the car and partially on him, but he did, and that's the point. He got to the front. I have just been really amazed

with how good this kid is at driving a race car. It's quite mind-blowing. Go and play Fortnite. We've got sponsors by Fortnite, Ben, please stop bringing up Fortnite. Brought you by Fortnite there. Yeah, he's been excellent.

So I've got another really to add outside of what you've said, yes, there have been a couple of issues, but he has been far and away. I think the best driver of the season so far. Behrman was close to making my list. He was probably sixth. I had him sixth or seventh, yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to think who else might have been close to making it. Well, I have Piastri. Yes, yeah, Piazzi as well.

Just outside that top five. Hamilton has recently dropped back from after Miami, but it was hard to judge him, so I wasn't putting too much jogging, but I had a couple of great races. Yeah, Russell as well. It's not too far away despite the letdowns. Pastery's tough as well because with him we have literally only seen two main races outside of the sprints. He's podium in both. Yes, he has podiumed in both, although one of them, he was a long way from his teammates. So the P2 in Japan a lot more impressive than the P3 in Miami. But yeah, he was close for me as well.

But I'm sure you've got slightly different lists to what we have. We're interested to hear them. So let us know wherever you can find us. in real life, don't stalk us, please. But anywhere online is absolutely fine. Sam, if you wouldn't mind until Wednesday, getting us out of here. Thanks for listening to folks. Can't wait for you to join us again on Wednesday's episode,

where we've got a whole different set of news, topics, chit-chats, like a little game as well to play. So make sure you come on down and check us out. If you want to follow along on social media, Late Breaking F1, subscribe on YouTube, like Breaking F1, you'll chat to us at Discord and over 4,000 other wonderful people, which is the link is in the description.

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Thank you for your support. In the meantime, I've been Sam Sage. And I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late.