The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Is it Ferrari’s year?! Our reactions to every team after 2026 F1 testing

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

Too soon for hopium? With pre-season testing wrapped up, the LB boys share their thoughts on every F1 team with three-word summaries, and finish with some Higher or Lower... Want more Late Braking? Support the show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and get: Ad-free listening Full-length bonus episodes Power Rankings after every race Historical 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 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Come hang out with us and thousands of fellow F1 fans in our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Discord⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ server and get involved in lively everyday & race weekend chats! Get in touch any time at [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. Welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Harry Eid, Sam Sage, and me, Ben Hocking. On this penultimate Sunday before we get to F1 action, Spain, whatever we're calling that, is done and dusted. The two Bahrain tests also done. and now the next time we'll see cars on track will be for competitive action in Melbourne, Australia

Sam, we are almost there. Oh, the long dark winter is over. You can see the light at the end of the tunnel and Formula One will be back. Obviously, the only thing worth living for, quite frankly. That's the only reason I'm here. Wow. Honestly, the sun has like come out today

almost in preparation for the FAF, well, at least where I have. It's come out today. Yeah, sorry, mate. You're in Coolmore. It's got to hear either, mate. Oh, fine. We'll pick up the middle. It's just on Harry.

The only time that's ever been said, Big Up the Midlings. It's going to shout out of the Midlands today. So there you go. Not a love for the... Forget my point. Forget my point. The sunshiny, but F-1's back so cool.

Metaphorically, the sun is shining on us all. I mean, we laugh at Big Up the Midlands, but Wednesday's intro had a big-up to Ash Wednesday. So it might be the least weird of the introses that we've done this week. It's impressive. Look, if you're in the US, just don't forget, it is National Cooker Sweet Potato Day. So get it.

Because the hard. All the rest of the world is aware of that. We're all waiting and see him. Everyone knows. Please, Americans acknowledge the nationals Cookersweep a day. The world is waiting. Right. Let's do F1. Let's do F1.

We're going to bring out a game we like to do a couple of times a year or so, which is three-word summaries. So this is our way of wrapping up the second Bahrain test. We're going to take each and every team, all 11 teams, give them a three-word summary of how they'll be feeling coming out of those. two tests and going into that first race, as we say in Melbourne in a couple of weeks time.

Let's start with Ferrari, the team that was fastest in preseason testing, setting, setting a few very impressive laps on Friday. Oh, I love that squeak. Sorry. Right for an audio-based show. Yeah, we should consider doing that. We're writing these on whiteboards. I don't know, did we actually say that part?

Oh, yeah, yeah. whiteboards, we have them. Okay, let's reveal our three words in three, two, one. We've got want to believe from Sam, we've got hopium off charts from Harry, and we go again from me. Oh, no. Oh, Harry, the hopium, it's just reached new levels, apparently. It's off the scale, lads.

It's the wings upside down. The start is like Yarno Trulli from 2004. And then Charlotte-Clair goes to half a second quicker than anyone on the final day of testing. Like, if you're a Ferrari fan, you're going to be sat there thinking, this is it. Every year. Every year. But this is it. Come on.

This is got to be it. They've gone absolutely mental, a Maranella. What is that car? What it, like, it's unbelievable. I don't know. But also, it could just be. rubbish and we don't know. It's not even just that he set the fastest

lap. He set the five fastest laps. And you know it'll be practicing Australia, P1, P2. Q1, P2. Q2, P2, Q2, P1, P2, Q3, 9th and 10th. The list it goes for the rest of the race.

Honestly. They are going to find a way to be 1-2 after the first lap just based on how incredible their starts are. And then there'll be real backing by everyone after that, you feel. Yeah, the starts are kind of ridiculous. We saw one from Lewis Hamilton where he was at P-11 on the grid, and I appreciate he's not overtaking 10 cars to get to first,

but by the time you get to term one, he is in first. And then on the final day, we had one from Shao LeClair, slightly better for the other teams, but he starts in P-5 on the grid spot on this practice start. and he is alongside George Russell driving the Mercedes from pole going into that first corner. There are going to be some tracks that that's going to be really effective if the other teams can't catch up. Yeah, I can only assume that Ferrari have employed NASA to help them with lift-off this season, which, you know what, fair play, good partnership, solid.

But we get to the likes of Monsa or we get to Mexico. I'm slightly nervous that they won't be slow down again at this straight. They've just it, Mac, whatever it is, and they're just gone. Mexico will be all right. We know from last year you can just skip as many corners as you like. It's an optional one. Yeah. That's pretty scary, I think, for the other teams.

Australia's not like a massively long run down to term one, although still not insignificant. It's that weirdly worse, shorter runs means that they can get going much quicker than everyone else. So by the time they do get up to speak, fries like, yeah, we're on that four. You have to catch up. if they are and we don't know whether Bahrain and the form there will carry over to Australia or any of the early races, Harry, but is there a chance that if they are strong to start this year and not knowing how this order is going to vary throughout the year,

they almost need to take advantage if they do have a good car to start this year? 100%. Because the other teams are going to catch up to this, even if their biggest advantage is this start thing with the supposedly smaller turbo, the teams will work it out eventually. So if you have that ridiculous advantage, use it Ferrari and especially as well, combine it with whether we don't know

whether they're going to use this upside down, twisty wing thing. I mean, I love it. I love that. I didn't watch much of testing because I was at work, but I watched it before I went to work this week. and that's when it happened and it was Alex

Alex Jackson I think Jonah in the country but so they were just like what? What has happened? Because you immediately think it's Ferrari

and they've done something wrong Yeah We definitely thought it was broken Yeah Well it was Sam Collins again The obviously nemesis of Ferrari now who pointed this out First yeah

It's just mad It's asking to rip itself off Like there's no maximum velocity at Monza at the end of the straight and it flips down. See you there. It's gone. You can just imagine like the team meetings as well where they're like, okay, after testing, we think we've got a half a second advantage on the rest of the field. If we run this rear wing, there's a 99% chance it doesn't work.

But if it does work, we'll gain an extra 10th. Let's go for it. Yeah. They'll use it. Yeah. Yeah. ridiculous. According to, I can't remember who it was.

My bit James Vowse, who was talking about this, saying that they also looked into it and decided and maybe other teams looked into it and decided it wasn't worth it. I'm not sure if that's other teams trying to say face or if that's real. It's Ferrari. There's a real chance that isn't worth it. Sorry, and other teams thought about it. Yeah, like, nah, that's okay.

As can not work. Sam, your three words were want to believe. Now, you wanted to believe last year as well. Is there a difference this year? I've been telling myself all winter break. Come on. It's not going to happen. It's a scam.

Whoa. Just chill out. Whoa. Hold your horses. You're of the horse, by the way. So, you know, could be something in it. Could be something in it. And I was thinking it's all going to be.

Mesegis power. Red Bull might be in with a shout here. But the staffing's got the angst. Mesey's going through this. crushing stuff. Ferrari still running that same engine the whole way through. Got a silly, flippy little rear wing that's just a bit kooky. It's just a bit funny. Just a bit of cocky.

I just like it. It's just a bit of flair. And that engine is literally ridiculous. So, yep, we're back on the hope. We're back on the hope train. And we're winging all, baby. We're back. And the yin to the yang, I've gone with, we go again because this is very typical Ferrari.

It's almost comical how good they've been in preseason because it will just make the demise all the more hilarious. From the moment they stepped on track in Barcelona, really. You remember they arrived on the second day of Barcelona testing, the only bad weather day, and they still managed to get in like over 100 laps on that day, which was a really encouraging start. And it's been brilliant from there.

They've looked bulletproof. They've had really no reliability issues. mileage has been very impressive. Pace has been very impressive. Lewis Hamilton looks a lot more comfortable. I think particularly with his late breaking trademark style. It kind of suits these cars a little bit more. At least that's how it looks like early on.

He's able to gain a lot versus other cars in those braking zones. And they are so confident to the point where they're experimenting with this rear wing. It's going to go horribly wrong. And I can't wait to find out why. It's the break-in that's going out for me. I watched one of those visualisations where they have, you know, a graphic of five cars all at the same time going around the track. And the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton is behind going into the hairpin by quite a bit,

two or three car links. And then they all break. And it's like the Ferrari goes, don't get a break, until like 10 metres before the corner. Suddenly Lewis Hamilton is in front. That's terrifying for anyone. Alex Almond came out and went, I think Lewis is very good at breaks again.

A bit nervous about this. So, yeah, it could be a lot of fun this season for Ferrari. Good news for Albuyers. He's not going to have to worry about Lewis Hamilton. Yeah, valid. Again, breaking was a thing they had quite an issue with last year, so it just feels like Ferrari have gone all in on braking. Yes.

Maybe nothing else. I mean, you need good breaks. That's not a bad thing to focus on. But given that they are behind every point, there is a breaking zone. It's just going to be madness. They're going to be behind every breaking point, but be in front again and then be behind. Coming through. Sorry.

It's a valid point. There are no hide speed corners of Bahrain whatsoever. The first time we get to one of those, they might just come to a stop. What do we do? This is our brakes. Well, that's Ferrari. Let's move on to team number two.

We're going with Mercedes next. Another team that will be very much hoping to be in that championship fight. It's a proof that men can't do two things at once. Speak and write. I mean, we can't do one thing at once. I forget what half the show is about. So to be fair, this writing part is. big challenge for them given his handwriting that's true uh also i've just decided to use the three

longest words in the english dictionary for this one for whatever reason you're a scribe three two one uh sam has gone with on thin ice uh harry's gone with big sandbags uh and i've gone with sandbagging questions remain big bloody sandbags for harry to be back. So one of my leading questions, Harry, was going to be, do we think Mercedes are sandbagging? You've already answered that with your three words. I'm not hoping, but I refuse to believe that after all this hype about Mercedes

and all the chatter about compression ratios, Total Wolf getting so annoyed, he made a very bad comment. And the president of his life, Mercedes Bradley Lord. Ford, Mercedes PR person's like, oh, why did you do that? But I just refuse to believe that after all of this, that they don't still have some sort of advantage here. They've looked good.

They've looked very good in testing. But I mean, as you've re-referenced, LeClaude did the five fastest laps at the end of the test. And I just think Mercedes are hiding, especially with all this chatter. I think they're hiding something here. I don't think we've seen the full potential of that Mercedes car yet. So big batty sandblowers. Trade mark.

We don't want to trade bar that. Yes, we do. Yeah, so I've got sandbagging questions remain without any big batty's in there. It's a real shame. Yeah. I think Mercedes are in the mix. It's tough to know the situation after Bahrain

because they were definitely, as he's kind of referenced, Harry, They were definitely favourites going into Bahrain and coming out of it, we're like, they still might be favourites, but there's probably more questions rather than fewer questions after these Bahrain tests. I have to say,

going into the regulation cycle as a whole, we've been talking about how Mercedes might well have a power unit advantage over the rest of the field. That still might be the case because, again, we don't know how much they're hiding. But they look really good on traction. They look really good through the corner.

particularly coming out of the corners, actually, which is maybe one of the advantages we thought Mercedes wouldn't have on the rest of the field. That's something you might assign to Red Bull more than you would to Mercedes. So if they've got an advantage on traction and then it also turns out they still have an advantage on a power unit we haven't seen the best of yet,

uh-oh, worry rest of the grid. I'm not quite sure. There is reason as well for them to be sandbagging based on this compression ratio thing. It looks like Sam that the F1 teams are going to vote on whether the FIA accept that the running test will come in from the summer break. Would that be a win for Mercedes? If they can maximise all the points possible up until that summer break,

this is why I've written on thing ice, it feels like their campaign is very much started to feel a little bit treacherous. They came into that winter break and they've gone on a little expedition and the ice is thick. You know, they've got the whole camp set up on. that frozen lake and it all feels good. Because that summer sun just starts to come over the mountaintop, starts to feel a little bit sitting underfoot. And I think this is what's happened to their campaign.

I just think that all these advantages, all this early hype that the saying is received, was valid at the time. But it was all valid built on things that maybe aren't actually going to survive an entire season. And now they've got a lot of work to do because they need to maximize the advantage. If they do truly have one, of course.

We're asking, are they sandbagging? But these are all what ifs anyway. It's all theoretical. they might get to the first racing. It might be, yeah, okay, what we saw was what we get. That's the Mercedes, and they're just there with the other teams. And then that's even more worrying because they'll have to change their engines, most likely to ensure that they are in line with this 16 to 1 regulation

rather than the 18 to 1 compression regulation. And that's an even bigger blow for them and their customer team. So I'm a little bit worried for Mercedes that whilst it's starting off really well, and we saw some good things in testing, either they are sandbagging to high heaven, or I think they're secretly at panic sessions. Oh, interesting stuff. Interesting stuff.

Let's go with one more team before we hit our first break. We'll go with another Mercedes-powered team, at least newly for this year. Alpine. Pre-written mine this time. Oh, clever, man. You clever.

Yeah, I know. Yarno. He's got there anymore. Yeah, I know. Yarno. Boo. It's just what I said. people, Yano.

Yarno. They go crulling. Pop me. Oh, that makes sense. Okay. Three, two, one. Harry's gone with Top of Midfield, question mark. Sam's gone with good steps forward,

and I've gone with Flavio not smiling. Uh-oh, bang. Why is Flavio got smiling, mate? Because he wants wins this year, and he ain't going to get any. You know what? It amazes me that he's being surprised by this. I mean, I don't disagree with what you've gone with here.

Like on the surface, this seems like a solid preseason test for Alpine. Like they've been fairly reliable. They've got some good mileage under their belt. They might well be at the top of that midfield. And if they're not, they're close. Last year, they were 10th. They don't look 10th at the moment. So in theory, a normal team boss should be able to look at that and say,

that's pretty good progress. But as we know, apart from not being an Alpine employer, Flavio Briatore is not a normal team boss. This solid progress isn't going to cut it with him. He wants wins. And I don't know if you disagree with this. I haven't seen anything yet that indicates they will win a race this year. So I've gone with he's not going to be smiling.

He's going to actually be pretty angry. He's going to be so angry. He's going to need to take some time away, decompress on some random remote island somewhere, and just make sure that he can go through this season. Sure. Yeah. Okay, all right. It's maybe the most Alpine thing in the world that they sacrificed so much.

It was so painful last year. They've got rid of their own engine. And all they appear to have done is got back to where they were in the first place. There they are. We're back. P5. You went some with good steps forward, which I would agree with based on what we've seen. is there any concern at all that last year alpine did not look good pretty much anywhere

apart from two places the Bahrain pre-season test and the Bahrain Grand Prix? Yeah, the Bahrain Grand Prix up until maybe Gassiz late, little rug in the season was by far their best race and it worries me that we've gone testing in the one place. They are very, very good. It's like me doing an eating challenging McDonald's chicken nuggets. It's always going to look good there, you know, it's going to be solid. But you give me broccoli. We might be struggling, you know.

Big up broccoli. Who does broccoli in challenges? Kevin Malone. Anyway, so I'm quite excited to see what Alpine can bring. I do think they've like weirdly fluked themselves into being as part of this midfield with the way that the rungings gone through testing. They seem to almost out-down Williams a little bit, which I'm surprised about. I don't know if that's because Williams have been too bold going forward.

I asked as well, seems to be in the conversation, which is great to see. But I do think this swapped them are saying, he's whilst ridiculed and I will continue to ridicule them for it, is probably looking like quite a good decision at the moment. But Flav, mate, you've just set your expectations way too high. You've got to be aiming for, you know, regular Q3 appearances, points in more races than not points in races. That's a solid step forward for you.

Don't then jeopardise it by going Colapinto's had the winter of the gods. And he's going to wing every Grand Prix. That's fact. You can't blame it for that. I've got to make sure that's fact. No, no, that is fact. Colapinto has had the best winter. Of all time?

Yes. Okay. King of Winter Colopons. We promise. Yeah, we promise. And Harry, you've gone with top of midfield question mark. I think there's a fair shout to say that they are. But like I said, that's like fifth.

That's like right in the middle. They could well be as we go. At least we're going to the start of this year. But again, as we said, or if you would have pointed out, Bahrain is their specialist strike, apparently. So when we get to Australia, who knows where we are. But, I mean, it's been a solid, very solid preseason. So they can't have complaints in that sense.

But you're right. I'm not sure the race wins. Flavio's expecting her along the way soon. We'll see, Flav. We'll see. Right, there's three teams that have their three-word summaries, but there's eight still to go right after this short break. Come back, everyone to the second part of today's episode.

Let's go with our next three-word summary, which is for McLaren. And we'll reveal in three, two, one. We've got, they're still here. Sorry, they're still there from Sam. Harry's gone with in the mix, and I've gone with Norris feeling relieved question. You go to the toilet. Yes, that's exactly what I was going for. Oh, weirdo.

Go on, Sam, your three words. Yeah, they're still there. There was another conversations, I think, especially coming out of the Barcelona, a shakedown. Of course, if you listen to the show, Shakedown, translated from Latin does mean, means everything. So that is important to take note that when they came out about... Oh, the Latin word means everything, I remember.

The rarely spotted Latin translation on the late breaking show. Yeah. Look, we are all fluent. So, yeah, they came out of that looking arguably more shaken down than happy for that situation. And I think we all thought, oh, McLaren have not prepared for this too well. They came out 2025, of course, wanting to win that title.

it might have caused negative effects on their 2026 plans. But actually, I do think the fact that they've done what the most collapse across anyone throughout the whole of testing, they put a couple of fastest lapsing throughout sessions as well. Norris especially looks very comfortable in the car. I think Piastri is getting a little bit more time to just get that to how it's going. But I do think this will calm a lot of McLaren fans. I think it will equally calm a lot of McLaren personnel because they definitely are, as Harry has phrasing nicely, back in the mix.

They very much are a top right. and I do think they could go into the season feeling optimistic. I don't know if they've got a proper race winner on the regular right now yet to be seen. But they're still there. They're still in the heart. They don't count them out just yet. Even in the worst case scenario that they're fourth, there is such a gap between fourth and fifth. It feels like they will be, as Harry's put it, in the mix.

Why have you gone with that? Yeah, I think, yeah, there was maybe a worry that McLaren obviously pushed towards in the last year. and would they be on the back from going to this one? I think that isn't the case. They are just in the mix of those top four. I think it's hard to know where. It could well be fourth, as you said. But they are there.

And we touched on this already, Ben, but they brought that, the car they brought basically to testing is the car they're going to have in Australia. So we kind of know where they are. So I think the assumption that they'll be fourth is probably correct. but again, caveat on everything with testing, we just don't quite know yet.

But yeah, a relief I think is good to, is a good thing to say as well because I think maybe there would have been so worried that they might have fallen back a bit. But whilst they're not where they were at the start of 2025, they're still there, as Sam said. Well, I think as well with these four teams that we're expecting to see out front, there was probably more reason to expect

if any of them were going to drop back, McLaren was probably the most likely. I think even though they are the most recent champions, they're probably the least established of those top teams right now. They were the, at least in this sort of era of F1, they were the latest to the party. Like Red Bull have been consistently good since the early 2010s. Mercedes pretty much the same.

And even with a lot of jokes about Ferrari, they have quite often been the second or third best team in a season since that point as well, whereas McLaren really needed to get themselves off the back. of the grid really about five years ago. So I think there was more reason for them to drop back. And the fact that it looks like they haven't, I think that is overall pretty good news for that team.

I've gone with Norris feeling relieved because whilst they do look to be in the mix, yep, highest mileage of anyone, paces there with the other three teams, Norris might be relieved because I think it's going to be more difficult for him to win a championship this year than it was last year. And it's very possible for him

to still win a title this year. That is very much a possibility. But I don't think it's going to be easier. You know, last year, McLaren had such a good car that he was able to take advantage of and he did brilliantly well to secure that title. It seems unlikely that at least, you know, whether it's Mercedes or whether it's Red Bull,

whether it's Ferrari, whether it's all of them, there's going to be a tougher competition for that. So I think he might just be relieved that he's got that sort of monkey of his back. Like that is done and dusted. He's got a title. He'd love to go and win a second, obviously. But he's already ticked that off his list, whereas his teammate hasn't.

And Piastri might be looking at this thinking, maybe my better chance was last year. So yeah, I think Norris might be relieved. Shall we do HASS next? Okay, Hasse three word summaries in three, two, one. We've got sexy and fast from Sam. intermediate tires, lull from Harry. I've gone with quietly well-prepared. So we've given three very different answers.

Harry, let's start with yours because I had completely forgotten that, yes, they ran the intermediate tyres in Bahrain. Yeah, big up the reference to our Naldesley's late breaking air for a recently. Yeah, look, that's obviously funny. They were doing it, I think, to test the straight line mode, is it? and I guess they just didn't want to waste the set of tyres.

So they set, it's awkward, it's just the fact that they sent O'Con on Intermediate, man. Like, they hate him. Yeah, 70 more laps, O'Cod, keep going. Is it going to rain soon, guys? Is the weather coming? But in all seriousness, obviously that was quite funny to watch. It's almost like an air of quiet confidence from Hasse. They've had a good preseason.

And like you've already said, they could well be in this. top of the midfield fight, which for them is a good place to be. So going out on intermediates in the blazing sunshine of Bahrain aside, I think they've been a very, very sort of preseason. Sam, you have gone with a very straightforward one here, sexy and fast.

Yeah, I put the emphasis on and, because a lot of the time, and I said this when they did the livery reveal, prime sexy bat market livery, that livery. It's like, you know, trailing around the 17th place, but it looks really good. We've got a lot of those in Formula One, but they're not actually just sexy. They look really solid around the track. The Ferrari engine is being used well.

We saw with those rapid starts with both Hamilton and LeCler, that actually Ocon at the same time was right there with them. Whilst he didn't get exactly the same level of launch, it was still really promising. They look good through the very minimal high-speed corvice at barring. That's pretty much the long right hander in sector three is the only main high. high-speed call you've got around the race track, but they look solid. And it looks like they could be up there with that proper top of the midfield fight. I wouldn't be shocked if we see them floating around 8 to 10th in the points for the first few races while other teams maybe try and catch up. I think they've kicked off really, really well. Yeah, I agree with that, which, given they

are still the smallest team on the grid, like, that's an impressive feat to be seemingly ahead of some of their midfield rivals. That's why I've gone with quietly well prepared. They haven't been making a lot of noise in preseason, but they've just been getting on with it and looking pretty solid whilst doing that. They've been the head of the midfield on multiple occasions, including on mileage. And it's particularly encouraging because, as we know from Hass, they typically don't, over the last few years in the Kamatsu era, they don't typically focus on these headline times. Now, they were doing some quali-sims on the final day, but they have been far more used to going for these long runs to get that race pace sorted. So the fact

that they are looking good over one lap as well, really good this early in the season. They're in a better position than they were a year ago, I'd say. We'll remember when they turned up to Australia. I can't remember how many cars finished the Australian GP, but we had multiple retirements. We had Holkenberg and the Salber scoring points. We had stroll in the Astor Martin scoring points. Both Haskars managed to finish a race that a lot of cars didn't, and yet they still scored no points because of how slow they were.

They were awful. and we don't know, maybe that will happen when we get to Australia again, but it doesn't look like that will be the case. And as you say some, with those fast starts, given it's only them Cadillac and Ferrari that will take advantage of that, and let's face it with Cadillac, they're probably going to be starting a bit further back than Haswell. If they can take advantage on that versus their midfield rivals,

and we don't yet know how easy or difficult overtaking will be in these cars, that could be a really great advantage to be, you know, to get head into turn one on a certain race and then just play Yarno Trilly for the rest of the Grand Prix. Backing up, baby. I just realized, I was like a Monaco. Oh, God. No, heroics seems like to send them on.

But all the heroics. All right, we need to take a bet now. How many cars will go through that runoff, the pit exit runoff? I'll go at least six. Take the pen. Yeah. Just immediately. I'm going 19.

And one of them is Fernando Alonso. He's the leader of the packs, mate. Yeah. I think you'll make it that far. Oh, God. Yeah. Sorry, optimistic of me to think that they'll make it to turn one at Monaco. Racing Bulls up next.

Three, two, one. We've got sexy, not fast from Harry. Don't remember anything from Sam. That's not a racing bulls. is it? It's just, where am I? Who am I? And maybe along the same line of thinking,

I've gone with no intrigue here. That's a far nice way to write it. Yeah. Don't remember anything. They were literally not there in my opinion. Tell me one thing about racing balls from testing, Sam. I don't, I got a clue. It doesn't look that bad, but also not that good either.

Well, yeah, I do you know what? This isn't a negative thing for a team like racing balls. Let's remember that their objective if in Formula One is not to win ratings, not to win titles. Famously, I'm being against this for a long time, very frustrating, but their job is to provide expertise for young drivers, experience, and to be semi-competitive to allow them will-to-will combat and to also use it as a testing ground for potentially part

for the wider Red Bull team. The fact that I don't remember anything tells me that it didn't go disastrously bad. They're not the slowest team on the grid, and actually both their drivers were fine. And that's all right. That's all right, especially for Lindblard, who is coming to his first proper time driving an F-1-Cub. and I don't think he embarrassed himself. You know what?

He's got the second best record in F1 Limblud after fastest race of all time at the Italian GP last year. He managed to set the record for most number of laps completed in a day of testing at Bahrain on the final day. Yeah. God.

Did he get a trophy for that? If he hasn't, I'm complaining. Yeah. Hopefully Gingis turn up with the record. I'll go next because it kind of leads on nicely from what you said, Sam, where I went with no intrigue here, because I'm going to be very honest, I don't care.

I don't care about racing bulls. And it's particularly annoying. That model that you said, Sam, and how they're not going for wins and championships because they are a feeder team to Red Bull. It's annoying at the best times. It is particularly annoying when we're going into a new era of, you know, a new regulation era where there is a lot of excitement and intrigue around particular teams. Even if like some teams aren't going to follow through with that and,

maybe other teams, it will take a while. There's still ambition there. There's still ambition from the likes of Cadillac and Aston Martin and Audi. These teams are trying to become top teams at some point in the not too distant future. Racing balls are just there. And that is even more annoying now than it has been over the last few years. So they look fine. Mileage is okay.

Pace is okay. They'll likely be around where they were last year. but there's less reason to care about them than the rest of the grid. And that's no disrespect to either driver. I'm interested in both drivers. I'm interested, like fair play to the hardworking team members as well. It's not a shot at them. It's just the makeup of why they're there.

It's a bit annoying. Harry, you went with sexy, but not fast. Yeah, that cast all looks great to me out on track, but it's not, I think they might have dropped back a little bit from where they were. I almost put continuing from 2025, but actually I thought about it, I think they actually have dropped back slightly versus, I mean,

we think maybe Alpine and Hass could be in front of them. So in that sense, they're not where they were last year. So yeah, not the fact. The only thing I remember from them from testing was there was a clip of Liam Lawson, who like,

he went wide at a corner, and rather than just like going straight on, he just like cranked full lock on and then went over a curb and then hurt his hand. I was like, but why did you do that? It was really stupid. But anyway. Lim, mate.

What he did? It was his birthday next day. Didn't he all have a day off? Yeah, maybe. I checked it. He was fine. I didn't work. I didn't.

Yeah. So yeah, that was the most memorable thing I can remember from them. So, yeah, very, very low-key test. There's nothing interesting, is there? There's nothing interesting happening there. Sorry. Apart from the car looks good. So, I'll take that.

It doesn't look good. that's no problem. Hope Linn Blah's good. We'll see. We'll see. One more team before we hit our next break, and that will be Cadillac. Okay, three, two, one.

Cadillac, Sam has gone with slow, but ambitious. Harry's gone with maybe not last, and I've gone with Keep Expectations Low. So slow, Sam, but there is ambition there. Yeah, look, we all expect to, Kagalak to be nearer the back, if not at the back. But I think they're approaching it really well. Whilst they've got big investors, they've got cash a resource to build things up. They're currently, I would say the plucky underdog. They came into Formula One in a really

difficult manner. You know, we had the whole Addressy saga that went on, got the approval late. They were running things without approval. They're picking up an engine that isn't theirs and they've had to make that work. There's a lot of things that could go very, very wrong for a brand new Formula One team, especially going into a new era of the sport. But I think their hands, it really well. They picked up two very experienced drivers. They've got good laps under their belt. And you know what, whilst they do look slower, they're longer the grid. They are there. And I think they're trying things. We're seeing different elements of the car get put on. They're being a little bit experimental with some of the kind of the side pods and the cooling areas that they're working with.

I think it's really good that they're trying to be a little bit ambitious in what they're doing. I don't think we'll see anything huge from Kagamat this season. But I do think they're willing to build. I think they're willing to take their time. And I got that from this testing. So overall, I'm encouraged and excited by them, but I think it's going to be a bit of a distant run-up for Kagalak. They'll get there eventually. Yeah, I can't see them being overly competitive, at least early on, in their stint as an F-1 team.

And that might be a shame to some who are hoping that they'd join and be running at the front straight away, but realistically, this was always far more likely. But this is pretty all right. Keep the expectations low, but this has been a fairly solid preseason test for a new team. over 100 laps on multiple days. A lot of focus on race sims,

particularly late on in the Bahrain test. They went away from qualifying sims quite a lot, which I think makes sense. They're far more likely to gain from a 5% increase in terms of their race trim rather than their qualifying trim. So I understand why they've gone with that approach. I've said it before, but it could be a lot worse for a new team at this point

than what is currently going on at Cadillac. So, you know, they were, what was it? Like three, three and a half seconds behind LeClaire's time on Friday of Bahrain, which, again, that sounds like a lot. It's not too bad at this point. Harry? Yeah, I agree. Maybe not last because there's another team that's coming up that we'll talk about.

But that in itself, they could well have had the test that Aston Martin had been having as a new team. but they've not and it's been it's been relatively solid as you said Sam they got a lot of laps under their belt and yeah while the pace isn't there we didn't really we didn't expect the pace to be there so um to have come out and not be the worst that's a win as far as Cadillac's and so I think because no one was expecting them uh I was expecting more than being the the slowest cars on the grid so um yeah solid all around at a good place to build from if you were just like Just say how Aston Martin's test went without putting a name to it. And we're then asked, okay, how confident are you this is Cadillac we're talking about? I would say like 75%. Like that pretty likely it would be them. And the fact that it isn't, they do deserve some kudos for that.

Right, let's take our second break. On the other side, we've got the remaining four teams. At Medcan, we know that life's greatest moments are built on a foundation of good health. From the big milestones to the quiet winds. That's why our annual health assessment offers a physician-led, full-body checkup that provides a clear picture of your health today and may uncover early signs of conditions

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Max, mad. And then Sam has used his third word as an angry face. Harry's gone with, they're still good. And I've gone with power unit promising. Sam, you've gone with more of a Max Verstappen-led answer here. Well, yes, if Red Bull have gone with a more. Max Verstapp and lead team. I've gone with a more Max for Stap and lead whiteboard. It's not like a good chief. My guy is really grumpy coming out of almost every session.

He appears to hate the car. He hates how Formula One is right now. He keeps referring it to Formula E. They're bathing in free press. It doesn't feel like... They don't need it. I'm doing great with it. Lots of good stuff coming out of that series. Sam, you asked them before we started how the Wednesday episode when it was just like an hour of taking shots at Formula E. Oh, God. Sorry, Formula E.

This is he having okay? Good, good. Sorry, yeah, he's not a happy bunny. And I even saw there was an interview from Max, and a lot of his fans were like, right, he's gone. Apparently said goodbye to every single engineer of the team individually. And they're like, cool, cool, it's not starting the season. Which would be maybe the biggest using Formula One history if Max was to happen to

decides after testing to go, I'm not coming back. See you later. Just off to do his own thing. Good luck, our middling blood. I think Bwayne me would get the shelf. Oh, yes. Don't blame me. But I genuinely think it could be that serious in the same.

Not that he's going to retire, but that he's so grumpy that I think it could have a major effect on how Red Ball develop and proceed for the rest of the season. If it's really unhappy with how the cars are, it might have a major impact in turn on how the team works. So it would be really fascinating to see how that does. dynamic plays out. I've gone with a more positive outlook in terms of the power unit, but before I mention why, the engine itself, how do you think that sounds? Because it's very distinct from the others, the Red Bull power unit. I like it. I like it as well.

I like it. I like it. I actually like a lot of these cars quite a lot. It's just, yeah, the power unit sounds really aggressive of Red Bull. Yeah, but I'm focusing more on the performance of it, of course. there's always a concern with a somewhat new power unit. I appreciate there's an asterisk there. But, you know, Audi haven't been 100% smooth. Honda, less said the better. But Red Bull's engine has been really promising to this point.

I'm not sure they have a one second advantage, as Toto Wolf indicated last week. But even if our Mercedes aren't sandbagging, it still looks pretty good from Red Bull's perspective. Overall, I think preseason has been all right. Max Verstappen title push isn't out of the question, even if he hates driving the car. Speaking of Max Verstappen,

I don't think the Astor Martin move is happening anytime soon. I'm so awful, literally laughing in a little room. I'm not saying it'll never happen, but I don't think he's making that call now. That's why he said goodbye. He's like, do you know what? I'd rather be there. I want the challenge of willing to.

from the back every race. I think maybe the biggest negative from Red Bulls preseason has actually just been Hadjahs had the worst luck in terms of getting out on track. He hasn't had as much mileage as I think he and Red Bull would have hoped. The other last thing to note from Red Bull, they weren't very good here in 2025. So if that's carried over at all, maybe they'll look better elsewhere. Who knows? But overall, power unit pretty promising.

Harry? Yeah, that kind of stems into what I was saying with, they're still good. even with everything that's happened to Red Bull and, you know, let's take Verstappan's grumpiness aside. I think that's more about F1 than Red Bull. Yeah, even with everything that Red Bulls had happened in the past year, obviously Christian Horn has gone,

helmet markers gone, they've got a brand new power unit, etc. And they're still there. They're still in the mix. And whilst, yeah, Hadja obviously had some issues with the car, and it wasn't completely smooth, a completely smooth pre-season. They're still there. like they are quite good at this, aren't they?

Even, they've got a lot of good people. And we've spoken a lot about, you know, the potential downfall of Red Bull with losing so many key members, like Adrian Newey, etc. And Rob Marshall, obviously. But despite that, they're still in the mix, in that top four.

So that's what I've gone for. Didn't they lose someone else for any reason? They did, yes. Yeah, I can't remember who that was. It was a, no. I can't remember either. It was big enough, big enough to make the news,

not big enough for me to. remember the guys next. Oh, that's great for an F1 podcast. Well, done. Producer Kirstie's looks just ashamed of us. Well, we are, yeah. Right, should we go Audi next? Craig Skinger.

No, Audi. No, Craig Skinger. We'll do the Craig Skinner team after, all right? We'll do Audi first. Skag of F1. All right, Audi, three words in three, two, one. We've got, they scare me. they scare me from a German steak from Harry

steak spelt S-T-A-K-E and I've gone with mystery box team why Sam it's bloody terrifying it can't hurt you dreams oh God yeah honestly driving it listening to it, it just looks like

an absolute nightmare. I mean, Holkerbergs on over the shop, Gabby's trying to hold onto it, the engine, good Lord, it sounds genuinely like a monster coming over the hill, which I think is what the automatic is. Yeah, I love that.

Morgan's shout out. What's that coming over the hill? It's an Audi. Yeah, genuinely, just terrified. Not sure what it's doing most of the time, and their developments are also equally terrifying. Sidepox are just going in crazy directions. I don't know what's happening.

It's just all over the show. I like the picture of Gabby or Andor Holkenberg just screaming all the way around the lap as they drive it. They are also terrified by this. Yeah. Harry, you've gone with a German steak. Again, steak spells ST-A-K-E. Yeah, obviously referring to the team that they were last year.

Yeah, look, it's... They're certainly, like Sam said, a little bit more noticeable now as Audi with random side pods and an engine that is terrifying. But kind of that they may be a little bit further ahead, not sure, and that's still TBC. Reliability is also question marks. I've just put a German state because they are basically that team, which is, you know, actually factually true, but they are basically the same team they were this time

last year, just rebranded as Audi now. So, yeah, I'm intrigued. It could be a, it's been a relatively okay testing considering. They're not a new team, but they are a new team. Obviously, the power units new, as we know, because it's terrifying. So it's been an okay testing in that sense. Yeah, I went with Mystery Box team, because if I was ranking the teams based on my confidence in where they are, they would probably be last.

I just don't really know. Like pace-wise, they look like they're not awful, but somewhere in the bottom half. In terms of reliability, probably the same. And yet there's such uncertainty on where this season is going to go for this team. They might have the biggest turbo on the grid, according to some within the paddock. They have a very unique design, I think the most unique design of the current grid, which is funny because we were thinking about Aston Martin and Adrian Nui and what he would do and Williams were like we're going to bring something in terms of the front wing that no one

else is doing. And yet it might be Audi that just looks the most distinct of all the teams on the grid at the moment. And if they get anything right, they'll be the only ones that benefit from it. You know, outside of, well, really, it's just them and Aston Martin are the only two teams that if they find anything in terms of engine or arrow to benefit themselves. It will only benefit themselves. and it won't benefit any other team. So I think they're towards the back of the pack, but there's no guarantee that'll stay there. Williams are our penultimate team

in this three-word summary challenge. Ben is slow. That'll be my three-word summary of this show. I mean, of the two options, the squeak or the slowness, I think the slowness wins. Again, producer, Kirsty, unimpressed. I guarantee if it was the other way around

and the squeak was there. Yeah, you get there. If a squeak. Okay, three words for Williams in three, two, one. We've got hype not realized from Sam. Hopefully there's more from Harry, and I've gone with All About Perspective. Harry, are you hoping there's just a bit more

that they haven't shown so far? I hope so, because of all the commentary we've had from Williams, the slash James Vales going into this year. Look, I think the missing Barcelona aside, in the end, that's not really, I don't think that's really cost them. They've done so many laps now in Bahrain anyway. It's made no difference.

But just pace-wise, like, I hope there's more than this, because 2026 was supposed to be the start of something big for Williams. And currently, they might be near the back. again TBC and where they're going to be but they don't have a look to massively in person, nothing radical in terms of that car so far and it's beat. But when I say hopefully there's more I'm confident there is, I think there must be more on the way

from Williams but at the moment in Bahrain they've not looked like where they were last year which in itself is not good. Where are the Wodiums? Where are the Wodiums? That's what no one will be asking. I went with all about perspective because if you told James Vowls and others in the team that this would be your preseason test like a year ago or even six months ago, they would be pretty disappointed. No progress has been evidence so far in regards to the top teams. They seem further behind the top teams than they were last year.

Not sure where it will be in the midfield exactly, but it does look like they've fallen back from where they were a little bit in terms of 2025. So if you look at it from that perspective, it looks very, very gloomy. However, if you'd offered them this preseason two weeks ago, I think they would have taken it just based on where they were looking to be, you know, going into Barcelona in that they weren't there. It could have been that the test that Aston Martin have had could have been the test that Williams have had. So I think overall it's negative, but there might be at least a silver lining in the, it could have been worse based on where they were a couple of weeks ago.

Sam yours is quite damning, hype not realized. Oh, it's the biggest disappointment on the grid. I'm sorry. James Vows has been... We've got one more to go yet. Well, no, that's... Okay, yeah, hold on. It's the second biggest...

It's the second... It's been bleating on about how, you know, we're doing a slow build, we're getting there slowly, we don't care about results. The new ear is what we're going for. Blagga, blah, blah, blah. Then they missed the shape down.

They released this most god-awful livery. And the car itself, is slow. It's not like this radical change, this ambitious alteration that you're making is producing anything exciting. You're further away. I don't think there's excuses. I don't think you can really hold on to the whole, oh, it's better than it was a couple of months ago. It's still bad. Bad is still bad. And I am really disappointing in Williams this season. I thought we were going to get this really cool looking vintage style plucky underdog who's come out to fight the big kids. And it's not, it's ugly. and it's at the back, and I don't want to look at it.

Well, we'll see how much you have to look at it based on where their contestants will be this year. We have just one team left to go, and that is Aston Martin. Three, two, one. It's already dead from Sam. Absolute nightmare fuel from Harry, and I've gone with Honda Horror Show.

There are three very positive options there. Sam, do you want to start us off? It's already dead. Yeah, the dream. The dream died. Those Honda Power dreams are now Honda Power Nightmares, and it's just not good, is it? It feels like there's sort of a single redeeming moment

about this test for Ascomarting. They can't rev the car to its utmost RPM because it sounds like it's going to explode. So they can't maximize top line speed. Asthmarting, hang on long so, again, I'll be shouting GP2 engine very quickly, I fear, which is not good. They can't get the chassis around the engine problem.

which is causing issues. Were they the team that were set in their chassis on fire with the engine? There was like a burnt hole coming through one of the cars. I fear it might be Ashton Martin at one point. It's just everything is negative. Absolutely everything is negative. There's been lots of reports of Loric Stroll sat there in the paddock talking to Nui and Key personnel about how it's not going to plan.

If Williams were the team that were doing things long term, Aston Martin were right there with them, and both of them have had a monumental failure in taking a big step forward. They could be back there with Kagalak. If they didn't have Adrian Newey where I believe he could conjure up some kind of dark arts, I do believe they might be sat there, 10 through 11 for the whole season.

It's insane how it's at this point. Like not going to plan would be, if they were where Hass were right now, I would consider that to be not going to plan because they have been working towards being one of those top teams for the last like three or four years. And not only are they,

they haven't stood still, they have quite comfortably gone backwards. I'm not saying Aston Martin are blameless in this because they might well be, but it's tough to say where they're at because of Honda. It's just hurting them so much. They are slow and unreliable. And I think maybe the worst thing is we were talking about

how Lanchdoll thinks we might be four, four and a half seconds off the lead group, which in itself is awful. I don't think that's their biggest concern anymore. Their biggest concern is, is there any confidence that both cars are going to finish Australian GP? I can't remember the maximum run they've done so far in Bahrain, but they have...

26 laps. Oh, God, that's my welcome still out on the intermediates now. That's not half of a Bahrain GP. I honestly think the chance of both cars finishing Australia is like 20%. I'm not sure I would put much... 50-50-one car finishes, I think. It's bad. The only, the only hopium I'm clinging on to here is like,

this is as bad as the Red Bull 2014 pre-season. And we'll go with that because Daniel Rukala got a podium, got qualified, big old podium. Our favourite kind of polio. Yeah, but, yeah, it's, it's there. We have no idea where that car is because they've just not been able to run it anywhere near it. is potential.

You'd like you said, Sam, they haven't been able to use the max RPM. They've, I don't know whether they ever did, but they never tested or they hadn't been testing the, you know, boost or overtake modes because they just couldn't.

And, and yeah, we, I don't think they know. That car, I know this, this, I mean,

there's been a lot of jokes obviously made about the 2015 McLaren Honda saga, but we are very similar to that because we never really knew where that. They always said that car was really good, but it was always held back by the Honda engine. But it's the same again. That car could genuinely be one of the best on the grid. It's got Adrian Newey's touch. It's got Adrian Newey's design.

But we have got no idea because they're not even able to get anywhere near the potential of it at the moment. And like you said, Ben, I don't think they're blameless. I'm not going to make this a completely Honda problem. Because it's a Honda problem, but it's also that engine's really tightly packaged into a car designed by Aston Martin. So it's not ideal, actually. Yeah. You're just about putting the jazz engine in the car.

I generally think that might be better right now. I'm more reliable at this point. Yeah. Give it a well. Give it a chance. Just give the jazz a chance, people. Too jazzy? That's going to wrap up our three-word summaries.

Let us know what you think, whether you think we're getting things right or wrong. Maybe you've got your own witty three-word summaries for any of these teams. let us know. We'll take our final break. On the other side, we're playing F1, higher or lower. It's by Expedia. You were made to occasionally take the hard route to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We were made to easily bundle your trip. Expedia, made to travel. Welcome back, everyone, to the final part of today's episode. It's time for a game of F1,

higher or lower. F1, high. It's sad faster. is Harry slower F1 higher F1 lower F1 The pitch on those notes I know

It's just what you need at quarter to 11 on a Sunday That's what you rise to A Cockrell was back in the day Now they've got me singing that Do do do Farmers across the world rise Oh man

F1 higher or low six questions in front of me. Sam and Harry will take it in turns to have a guess, a numerical answer for each of these questions. If they get it right, they get two points. But if they get it wrong, it goes over to the other person to guess higher or lower. If they get it right, they get a point. But if they get it wrong, the person who guessed first gets the point. And we'll start today with Sam. What number would you like? Three. Oh, geez, an early three. Okay. How many drivers on the 2020. grid have been disqualified from a race. Oh, that's a fun question. From an F1 race, just to be clear. If they were disqualified from a junior formula race, I don't care. I just can make a really bad joke.

I'm going to go with seven. It is not seven. How ready, would you like to go higher or lower than seven? Lower? No. It is higher than seven, believe it or not. The correct answer is nine. Lewis Hamilton has been disqualified three times in his career.

So has Nico Holkenberg. Charles LeCler has been disqualified twice. And then there are six drivers that have been disqualified once. Perez, Ocon, Russell, Gassley, Piastri and Norris. Fascinating. There you go. Harry, over to you. I have number six, please, Ben.

Number six, how many podiums did George? and achieve. Oh. Oh. Eight. Not eight. Sam, higher or lower than eight. Oh.

That's a really good guess. Higher. It is higher. It's way higher than I thought as well. It's 19. Oh. I was thinking about 11. I was thinking like 8, 12, like that region.

Yeah. 19. Believe it or not. well done Eddie Big up Big up Sam back to you I'll have number four please Ben

Number four How many times Did Lewis Hamilton Miss Q3 last year Or Not including SQ3 Oh

That's changed my answer Completely Good I'm gonna go with 11 Not 11 Harry higher or lower than 11 I think that's quite a good guess.

I will go for lower. It is lower. The answer to this one was also nine. Same as the first question. But yeah, nine of the 24 races. He missed Q3, which means Harry's on the board, but two one down and it's back to you, Harry.

Number two, please, Ben. Number two. How many times has a British driver won the British Grand Prix? Craig. Man. He's getting the fingers out, folks. I'm actually trying to write it down on the whiteboard.

And just to be clear, it's not how many British drivers have won. It's how many each individual times they've done. Oh, right. I did think that. I wish you aren't clarified because I got like an easy job. I understand. 21. 21?

No, it's not 21. Sam. or lower than 21. I'm going to higher. It is higher. It's actually 31. Damn. What's 19 plus 12?

Oh, that is 31. That is actually 31. Good. Sam, back to you. You can't, well, you could just just about lose if Harry got the next one spot on, but you're three one up. You're in a good spot.

Another one, number one. Number one. How many points did Michael Schumacher win the 2004 championship by? Oh, this is going to hurt the Ead that you can't get the double. I don't know that anyway Okay I'm going to go with 23

Not 23 Harry higher or lower than that Higher It is higher Not too much higher 34 Which means Harry if you get this spot on You can claim a memorable

4 3 win Or even if you get a point It would be a draw Number 5 is the only one you got left Yes Oh don't get a point for that man Damn it How many teammates did David Coulthard have?

Oh, come on now. Don't rhyme down. I am. We're going through his entire, whatever, how long he was in there, F-14-20-year career. Six? It's down the right wing. It's crossed into the area. Harry Ead with the diving header.

He's missed it. And it's over the bar. Sam, higher or lower than six. I know higher. Higher is correct. I'm sure Harry won't be surprised to learn. It was exactly one more than six. Seven.

It was seven. Who are the six you got down, by the way? Weber, Clean, Leutsi, Reichenen, me, Kehackinen, Damon Hill. Put some respect on Robert Dornob's name. I knew there'd be a one.

Rapper door knobs. Yeah. I figured if it was going to be one that you missed. Red Bull in a stupid 2005 rotating seat. Oh, very unlucky indeed, but it does mean that Sam wins a very close contest for two. I'll tell you what, Sam. You need to get us out of here. Not because we won this episode to be done,

but it's because we won the next couple of episodes to come sooner, because we have got a heavy hitting week. We do. We call it the Big Daddy Week here at LBHQ. No, we know. We is a strong term. Yes, it's only Harry you that says that. Megarie.

A big batty week. Every week is big batty week, all right? We've got cheeks at LBHD. Thanks on Escape, folks. I'm sure you'll definitely come back after that ending. Yeah, we're doing things like teammate wars. So our predictions for the season are coming up, and then we do get into the new season.

Finally, it's getting here very soon. Thanks for listening. Follow us on Patreon. Give a little subscribe down there. You know, support the show. You get lots of extra content. It's massively appreciating. Join the Discord if you want to have more chitter-chatter.

And follow us on social media for things like Questioning of the Week or just show. Really great banter. Lead breaking and fun everywhere. In the meantime, I'm be Samuel Sage. I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late. And remember, keep breaking late. Gussing, it wasn't a big batty.

It's a Sunday, honestly. No, right.