The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Is Russell right about Antonelli's championship lead?

Episode Date: July 12, 2026

Ben and Sam discuss Russell's recent comments on the growing points gap between the Mercedes teammates and whether he can turn it around. They also cover Adrian Newey's explanation of what went wrong for Aston Martin this season, the latest plans to re-introduce V8 engines by 2031, and round things off with some Formula Fortunes... 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 F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. A very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking. One week removed from the British Grand Prix one week to go until the Belgian Grand Prix gives us a good opportunity to take stock, Sam, and celebrate England's continued success in the World Cup. Oh, is that what this episode's about, is it? Yes. What did you make of Dan Burns cameo? Dan Byrne is my favourite human being of all time.

I love that man, and I'm very proud of him being a Newcastle player. He is the tallest man in life. Him and Gary Barlow's son. I'm really glad we've started this episode here. And apologies to other countries that, unfortunately, your terrible teams have already been knocked out. Did Argentina beat Switzerland? They did. Need extra time as well.

but yes they did. I wanted to play Switzerland. Never mind. We've got plenty more World Cup chat. Never. Literally never. No, it's never coming again. Okay, fine. On today's episode, we're playing Formula Fortunes,

the grand return of Formula Fortunes later on. Some discussion from Mahamabin Suleem on V.A. engines. God. It's all right. He doesn't say anything completely ridiculous this time, which is odd because it's probably brewing for something else coming up. But some comments from Adrian Newey

about Aston Martin's struggles at this point in the year. But we're going to start with Georgie Russ because he has admitted he needs to raise his game if he is to remain in the Formula One title fight this season. After nine rounds, Russell sits 25 points

behind Mercedes teammate Kimmy Antonelli in the championship, although the gap has narrowed significantly from the 68 point deficit he faced just a few races ago. Despite closing in, Russell admits he is still struggling to understand this car and believes Antonelli has done a better job than me this year to this point.

So he deserves to be ahead of me. Are these fair comments, Sam, and what are your thoughts on him actually admitting to this very openly? Let's break it down into two side of things here. Yes, I think they're fair comments. And if they come from a journalist, they'd come from, say, the race or something like that. And I've seen an article that discussed how George Rossin does need to up his game

to be a better part of this title fight, I probably would look at that article. Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. The fact that these words have come out of George Russell's mouth is awful. Absolutely awful, in my opinion. There is a set mentality that world championship winners must have. It must be cutthroat. It must be so heggstrong.

And I think Russell is approaching this quite almost too kindly to his rivals around him. He's almost lost the battle mentally here before the war has even properly begun. And I just think the way he's talking about Antingale, who is a 19 year old, he's a teenager, and he's masked at these cars faster than you, George Russell, who is not old as a human being, is younger than me, so therefore he is not old. And I do believe that he still has the ability to just get to grips with this. He's got rocket science. He's got the ability to learn this. He was only in the junior formula less than a decade ago. He had to go through the trials and tribulations of the Williams in the previous era.

Then he mastered the Mercedes in the ground effect era, beating Lewis Hamilton two years in a row. It's not that much of an extreme challenge to overcome that Antingelli has been that better than he has. And the only way he's actually clawed back so many points is mainly due to reliability problems. But Antingelli has faced two in the last few Grand Prix. And Russell has been quite fortunate at the pendulum of luck. has swung the other way and he's been able to finish the races, arguably not maximising the points that Henry Anting Annie was able to maximize when Russell was losing out due to reliability problems.

So I do think that that point's telling you that's dropped from, like you mentioned, what was it, about 68 points. 68 to 25. Down to 25. A huge majority of that is because of reliability. It is. And that's why I think his comments are fair in that, and it's almost encouraging that he isn't letting the point.

points gap sway him. It's gone the right way. That's why I think. Yeah, but I mean, he's not saying, well, I've been way better. That's why the points gap has come down. He's being honest in why it's come down. And he's saying that he hasn't been better than Antonelli. It's just that the reliability has sort of swung the other way. The pace of Russell versus Antonelli hasn't really changed all that much in the last few races.

I still think you have to go back to Canada for the last time it was even between the two. you know, Antonelli was definitely stronger in Monaco. Antonelli was definitely stronger when he was overtaking Russell in Barcelona as well. And he was probably Antonelli on course for victory at Silverstone, if not second place. And then of course that goes sideways thanks to a reliability issue where George Russell picks up the pieces. So it makes complete sense what he's saying here. And I think that's why he would say, as part of the statement I didn't read out, that he was actually feeling better after Canada than he was after Silverstone,

because whilst he didn't come away from Canada with any points, he at least showed that he could be a match for his teammate, whereas that wasn't the case, of course, last time out at Silverstone. The thing I'm not sure about, and I think I've mentioned this before, and I'm still no closer to an answer on this, is whether he's struggling, George Russell, or more than he was, or Kimmy Antonelli has just kicked on as the season has progressed. because he was talking earlier in the season after he swept Australia and the first half of China as well.

He was basically leading every session. And he was, yeah, I love this car. Love this engine. Love this car. Yabodabado. Yabado and all the rest. And then all of a sudden he's not enjoying it anywhere near as much and he's really struggling. And I have to ask whether that's actually true or whether it's just he's still on the same level he was.

It's just Antonelli's click with the car and moved ahead of him, like leapfroding. him. You're right. There is every chance that Russell is actually at his ceiling of capability right now that we don't realize. Actually, his ceiling is still very high. And he's a very competent, a very good Formula One driver. But maybe that's, you know, is this going to sound harsh?

But maybe that's all he ever will be, a very good, very competent Formula One driver. It happens with so many where you think up and up and up, or you've got the chance at a title car and you've immediately not been able to rise to that final challenge. He has got as many wins as Ferrari have right now this season. And I think it's important to note that because if, Russell does turn his form around properly and it's not just reliability base, you know, he starts actually beating Antingelli on pace alone in Grand Prix. He just, he isn't just contending

now with Antingley like he was through China, Australia, even the likes of Suzuki, which was a bit safety car tampered with, which, of course, he lost out on as well. This is now becoming a multi-car fight for victories on a regular basis. If it isn't Ferrari, well, then McLaren you seem to rise to the occasion. If it isn't McLaren, Max, for Stafford. and is putting his car on the front row of the grid now. These events have all taken place in the last four Grand Prix. Before that, it was essentially a mass production line of Mercedes 1-2-1-2 with pole positions all the way along.

They now have more things to contend with, and that is a big issue for George Russell. Kimmy Antingelli's done the dirty work. He's got the graph done when he needs to get it done and when the cars are in his favour. Russell now has to climb a mountain, and that mountain along the way has got Ferrari's obstacles. It's got Anting Ellie at the very top,

but within that you've got Bostap and you've got Landon Norris, Oscar Piastri, reliability becoming more and more infrequent as well. Well, upgrades work, it's so difficult to know at this stage if Mercedes will have the overall ability now to produce the same amount of points that they were producing for the first Grand Prix for, let's say the next four Grand Prix. So Russell's got it all to do, and I do think he needs to get his mindset correct in order to actually overcome a lot of these challenges. The only thing we differ on here is I actually don't mind Russell,

coming out and saying this in that I don't think it would be fooling anyone if he'd said the reverse. I think it would be almost that he's in denial. And I think that would maybe indicate a worse mental state than him just coming out and saying, look, I'm not as good. I haven't done as good a job as my teammate. I think that at least implies that if he's confident enough to say that he's maybe also confident enough that it isn't guaranteed to be that way for the rest of the year. I haven't changed my view on this, and I still don't think Russell's going to win this title. I think if it comes from Mercedes, it will come from Antonelli. I personally don't mind him saying it. I have a issue with him thinking it. I have a problem with him being so opening,

I guess about it publicly. I just don't think it'll impact Antonelli, either way. No, it's true. It's true. I think, I suppose I'm looking at it in the way that maybe Hamilton versus Rosberg, they were so at each other at every single moment. Oh, it's very different to that. very different culturally to what they went through. And you would never hear Hamilton say, I just haven't been as good as Nico over the last few races. I don't think that's the kind of line that comes out of his mouth. Same as Max Verstappen.

I don't think he ever concedes that he isn't as good. I mean, in Stappen, since it was never his teammate. It'll always be a title rival from coming from elsewhere. But the point standing, I don't think he gives the concession that it's on him. That's the reason why there's been a failure of some area. and it's almost just a world champion's mindset of, I will, and it's horrible, it is horrible,

I will stamp on everybody to get to the top. And that is where someone like Schumacher thrived, Senga thrived, Hamilton thrives, Vestappen thrives, even Vettel, when he was in his evil man era, when he won four back to back. You have to play the bad guy to get what you need to do. I actually think Russell's being too kind.

I think he's being too nice. I think one of the differences between say Rosberg and Hamilton and Antonelli and Russell is that Rosberg and Hamilton basically came up together like via like they were carting against each other. They basically debuted in the same, you know, a year apart. They were the same cohort, whereas the only way that Russell would know Antonelli growing up as if he was babysitting him. Like they're not in the same cohort are they in any way.

So I do wonder whether that impacts anything at all. In terms of that points gap, 25, George Russell says that is reflective of the season so far. That is a fair number. Do you think it's a fair number? No, I don't. Again, I think it should be more. I think it should be more. And I do think that he is lucky where these reliability problems have struck because I think on both occasions he was losing to Anting Annie anyway.

And he's not just carried on with, you know, let's say 18. he's overhauled it to be larger. Let's take Silverstone, for example. Russell at that point, I think, is what P4, maybe P5, when Antingelli actually ends up having the problem, dropping back through the rankings, and then end up picking up the penalties, Liding the other down.

We know he doesn't get points. Russell gains from that, and then also, of course, gains from the safety card. That's not an Angi's fault. Yeah. My point here is, if Russell was already second place and Antigelli fell out the Grand Prix, Russell will have gained 18 points.

What actually happened is Russell were only gained the 18 points. He actually gains probably an extra five to eight points depending on what position he was in because he's also overtaking his teammate due to the fact that he has been behind him for the entire Grand Prix.

Now, I know that Russell at that point had the slow punch or whatever, but the pace wasn't there. He wasn't on the same pace as his teammate. I think that's happened on both occasions. The same happened in Barcelona. Antigali passes Russell. So he's already at a three-point definitely.

So when Antingeli then has a reliability strike from Barcelona and Russell gets back past, he's not just gaining the 18 points by finishing seconds. He's actually gaining 21 points because he's gained another three back over Antingelli in the first place. I think there's little bits there that when Russell had his reliability problems, Anthony All righty was already in front or we could argue that he was going to be in front and it wouldn't make that much of an impact. He'd earned the spot before the D&F actually occurred. So I do think that whilst 68 is probably, probably extreme, and whilst 25 is probably too close, I do think it probably should be a bit

more towards the 68. Yeah, I thought 25 was fair enough. I don't think I'd go less than 25 as a fair number at the moment, but I think 25 is about right. I am glad that George Russell has kind of dropped the bad luck gimmick at this stage because it was valid for a while, and it's definitely not valid anymore. I think what you're saying is right that when it's, comes to DNFs and reliability issues for One Driver, it does impact the other one as well. So there is a bit of a bit of number working out that you need to do there. But if you look at George Russell, his drop points due to bad luck this year, you've essentially got Suzuki, Monaco and Canada.

I calculate that to be about 46 points dropped. Antonelli, his two are Silverstone and Barcelona. I calculate that of 43 points dropped. Now, what you're saying is right in terms of Monaco, for example. Anthonylli didn't benefit from George Russell's DNF. He did in, well, he didn't DNF in Suzuki, but he benefited from the safety car in Suzuki. And I think Canada, whilst it would have been close,

Russell was ahead at the time of the DNF, so I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he would have seen that one out. But it could have gone either way. So I think actually 25, 30 points I would consider to be. In my head, I hang it at about 35, which where I thought I saw it sitting. Yeah. So it leaves us in an interesting spot. We're starting to get into that one DNF could really swing things again zone. You mentioned Ferrari a little bit earlier on. Do you think the threat of Ferrari helps or hinders George Russell?

I mention this. I actually think it makes his life even harder. I think he's not having a one-on-one battle with his teammate now where they can get out ahead. They can qualify on the front road of the grid and all he's going to do is be our one team mate, you know, one driver. And we've seen these interteam battles before where basically the garages almost go to war with each other. And that might be approached in different ways we saw McLaren. Most recently have to do that with Landon Norris versus Oscar Piastri. And they kept things quite civil. They kept things quite open. We heard conversations go back and forth between engineers, Zach Brown, the drivers themselves, about, you know, how we're playing out.

That's where Papa rules comes from, right? Papa rules now. Sensational sound like. You know, it's one of those moments that we can actually. of like 20 years ago, this was a big outright chaos and McLaren are trying to handle things differently. Equally, 10 years ago, we bring up Hamilton and Rosberg again, they did face things very differently. It was always, what's Nico doing, what's Lewis doing, how can I beat him? What's different to him? How has he got a hang on me? How, I don't want to hear anything from him,

I'm beating him. It's not a teamwork situation. It's a, I need to beat him situation. Now, with Ferrari coming into the mix, alongside Antinelli and Spa coming up on the horizon where Ferrari have got to remove their blown diffuser. That's an extra few horsepower. They've got an improved Evo version of the Macarena win. There's five straight line modes, which means the battery harvesting is not as important for them. It's honestly going to be such a competition. And I'd much rather have one car on equal machinery where I can just be the fastest driver than three cars, and two of them I can't control in any way, shape or form to be, that makes your life more difficult. So I think, like I said, Antingelli did the groundwork when it was a simple competition between two

people. Russell's now got to do the hard work when it is against possibly three, maybe more cars that might be in the mix. Yeah, just to remind everyone the situation exactly, Lewis Hamilton, 32 points behind Antonelli, which means he's seven behind George Russell, Ferrari 78 behind Mercedes in the Constructors Championship. What's interesting, you mentioned one-two's for Mercedes earlier on. Yeah. If, I don't think I'm incorrect on this. The first two races of the year, Mercedes had one, two finishes. I did. They haven't had one since.

They have not. Yeah, it just tells you how much Ferrari and other teams, how much Ferrari have gotten back into this fight. I think it's an unknown as to whether a close constructors battle could hurt Russell or Antonelli, because after Barcelona in particular, Toto Wolf was very open about, look, we might well have cost ourselves today thanks to an intra-team battle. If the closer the championship gets, the more Toto Wolf will not. be accepting of that. I do believe him when he says he wants to as much as he can let his driver's race, but there is a limit to that if there is a threat from someone else. And I also believe

Mercedes when they say that there isn't, I don't think they'll favor Antonelli or Russell. I think they'll I agree. I just think if they need to make a call based on one of them being quicker than the other, doesn't matter which way around it is, they will do that. So it's tough to say if that sort of the team order comes about. I don't think they ever ask that team order. I think what they won't ever go, you need to move out the way for your teammate. I don't think they'll do that whilst they're both in contention for a title fight.

I don't, I think what my point is, they'll let them get on with it. I don't think they'll interfere. I think right now, I agree with you. I think if it gets closer in the constructors, I don't know.

If Hamilton, for example, overtakes Russell again, and let's say Hamilton ends up 10 points behind Anting Ellie, and Russell is behind Hamilton and the standards, by that's saying other five points. And there's a few races to go. There will be a time that needs to come where they go, for example, in this, in this scenario,

Russell is no longer the threat. Hamilton is a threat. And one of us needs to win a title. Could be interesting. I think Ferrari being involved, by the way, like when Russell was 68 points back, I think Ferrari being involved is a good thing because it's higher risk and it's higher reward

in that suddenly Antonelli can lose points to someone that isn't you. But I think the closer it gets, the more you want it to be a one-on-one battle with your teammate and then just hope that the reliability goes your way and you can get enough wins of those one-two finishes to end up ahead. I will say I am surprised that the gap is back down at 25 points. When it hit 68, whilst I thought, you know, that will fluctuate. That might come down a couple of races. You're going to go back up a couple of races.

I never thought we'd be basically 40 points closer against having a nil-0. It's because we wouldn't have seen that last year with reliability the way that it was. We wouldn't have seen these big swings, but we can see that now. And I don't think we're done in terms of DNFs for any team, let alone Mercedes.

There will be DNFs still in this season and how they're spread out might well be crucial. But Formula One, I'm absolutely gagging to put out that graphic on social media that shows the little bar chart thing of the points changing throughout this. They love that. They love a bar chart, aren't they?

Final question before we go to our first break. What does Russell need from the last two races before the summer break? We've obviously got Belgium next week and then Hungary the week after. I think I'll surprise listeners by saying he doesn't need wings. What I do think he needs is to categorically beat Antingelli on pace. Now, that might mean that, let's say Ferrari get two-one-two in a row. They won't. But let's say I agree with what they do.

If Russell could come away from both of those races and say, yeah, right, we finished fifth and sixth, but both of those races, I was fifth and he was six, and I did that on pure pace, so there's no reliability problems. That will mentally restore him for the fight for the rest of the season after that summer break. So I think he just needs to outpace Antinganagan. Let's just only win the Grand Prix because he can't necessarily control that. But I do think he needs to outpace Antingham. I landed on the same conclusion.

I don't even think it needs to be both of them. I think it just needs to be one of them. I think so. I don't think it matters which one either. Just proof for George Russell that he can still do what he did in Australia and comfortably beat your teammate. Basically Austria, but just he extends the gap rather than the gap comes down to a couple of seconds. If he ends up winning a race by five seconds, between five and ten seconds maybe,

I think that would do him the world of good. Spar feels like a good place for Mercedes. It feels like it could easily be a dominant showing for them. Maybe. More discussion on that midweek. Let's take our first break on the other side. We've got comments from Adrian Newey. Welcome back, everyone. Comments from Adrian Newey now, who I keep forgetting this, is still Aster Martin team principal. Yeah, what is happening there? He's given new insight into the cause of the team's dire problems with its 2026 car and how it attends to address them.

He said, we were relying on tools and processes that had been patched and bodged for years. years. You could trace some of them right back to the very early days of the Jordan team. At some point, a system that's just patch on patch stops being fit for purpose. The result was a very frustrating car build. Parts weren't being ordered at the right time, not because people weren't doing their jobs, but because the underlying system was failing them. On the chassis side, we're quite a long way overweight. Some of that comes from integrating the power unit, but we also didn't do as good a job as we should have on our side at saving weight. When you design in a rough, Weight is the first thing that suffers because you don't have the time to thoroughly optimize everything.

Aerodynamically, we also took a bold direction, which was largely pushed by me, without the luxury of exploring multiple concepts in death because time was against us. I wouldn't say the direction we've taken is fundamentally wrong, but it has thrown up challenges we didn't anticipate. Quite open comments, I think, here from Adrian Nune. Refreshingly honest. What are your thoughts on his reasoning? I really enjoyed this from Nui. He is right to start talking about the problems,

and there are many of those problems. It doesn't surprise me that Aston Martin are a Formula One scene that have got systems that are almost built on other systems that didn't work in the first place. Built by Eddie Jordan. Oh, Eddie. Oh, Eddie. Love you.

Love you so much, but I'm not surprised that these things don't work as the way they intended to do so, especially 20 years in advance. But equally, I can't let the blame rest to Eddie Jordan store because someone at some point in the long and incredibly esteemed list of pursing out and team principals at that race team before it was even game Dustin Martin should have come along and said this doesn't work anymore this system

doesn't work anymore you blame you're blaming Otmar I never blame fellow podcast host Tomah well I'm blaming Otmar it's all your fault Otmar as a fellow host you're one of us and I stand by and your many children I'm just not surprised actually The way that Ascom Martin approached the last few years with their turnover and replacement of team principals, the way they brought in so many, you know, you have Mike Crack, you have a cow, you've got the likes of Nui, of course, coming in. There was talks of Horn of course recently arriving. They're so quick to make changes and adjustments and go, oh, that's not good enough, that's not good enough.

And they almost didn't have any foresight. And to have foresight, you need to know your foundation. And these team principles were not willing to make any actual structural changes. and that includes the system to then allow them to go almost, we need to take three steps back. They need to pull everything away, refresh everything,

to then rebuild. And it's like the old saying, don't build your house on sand. And that sand is Eddie Jordan, it's Force India, it's racing point, and it's all just scattered. And you're like,

yeah, let's put our house right here on all these teams that never really actually amounted to any major success. Instead of going, actually, let's take the bricks

and put it over there on a whole, new fresh area and just start again. And it's because they don't allow them on the time to do that. So I'm really refreshed that Newy has come out and said, the system doesn't work. And the fact that they've still got

plasters going on top of plasters of the Jordan days, it just tells you, I think Williams had a very similar thing recently where they came out and basically said, we're not fit for purpose almost. We're so using archaic gear in the terms of Formula One that is. It's just not able to compete with a McLaren

and Mercedes, a Ferrari. It's actually amazing that the Ferrari haven't fallen foul of this themselves because of how long they've been around. And yet they have continually able to innovate and change and adapt. Asa Martin haven't done that. So I'm hoping you we can. It's interesting. My first note that I've got written down is very insightful.

Sounds a lot like the Williams situation. And maybe not on the same scale, but we talk about Williams and how they've invested a lot, particularly in personnel over the last couple of years, but there are still key systems that are failing them. and it sounds very similar to what Adrian Newey is describing here. I thought his comments were proof of a couple of things. Firstly, that signing key staff and investing huge money will only get you so far, which sounds weird.

But to your point, like if the systems and the processes underneath all of that are not fit for purpose, it doesn't matter what you're building on top of it, those processes, they take a long time to fix. And I still think it's bitterly disappointing that no one has come along and fix. them to this point because this shouldn't be a surprise in that Aston Martin have now existed for five years. The team obviously has existed far longer than that. You kind of knew this day was coming. You knew that when 2023 you were doing quite well in terms of competitiveness and it fell

back, you were making those decisions based on attacking 2026. And the fact that we've got here and these things are still present, like it is very disappointing, it also just proves the scale of the challenge. The other thing I think his comments prove is how much of a knock-on impact these things can have, because he's talking here about processes that are old and that they're not working. Well, that then leads to, as he's outlined, parts being ordered late, not because of people not doing their jobs, but because the systems are telling them to do that. And then parts being delivered late, that's leading to a rush in terms of the design. A rush in terms of design inevitably leads to an overweight car. An overweight car

is pretty awful when it comes to F1. It ain't going to work anywhere near as optimally as it should do. And then, of course, when again, you're running out of time and you can only explore one concept in terms of the arrow, you've got to hope that's the right concept. These other teams are all trying multiple things and going with what they think is best. As to the Martin have gone, we've got time for this one, then I hope it's good. And right now, it isn't. I agree with what you said as well that I think a lack of authority at the top is really hurting them here. The fact that they didn't visit the Honda factory until November of last year, still and probably forever will baffle me. Yeah, it's one of the most confusing and

bizarre choices in Formula One I've seen for a long time. The systems obviously aren't good enough, But also, yeah, we've had this revolving door of people at the top. We've had Mike Crack. We've had Adrian Nui, who's now the team principal. We've had good old Martin Whitmash, or Martin Whitmash is more commonly known. Dan Fallow's obviously had a spell. Nothing's come together. Andy Cowell has been there and now they've sent him off to Japan never to return.

Hope he's having a nice time. Which, to be clear, isn't true. they need someone to basically bring everything together and they haven't got that at the moment. Yeah, system is a lot of what needs to change. But at the same time, you need someone at the very top to turn out and go, I think the system's wrong. I think what the computer is telling us is not correct.

To put it into real layman's terms, it's like I want to send a rocket to the moon. The system is saying we should do it at 179.9 degrees. That's how we should get there. Okay. there's going to say, actually, what if it's 0.1 degrees out, though? And actually, you end up firing the rocket and ending up in Jupiter. That would almost be more impressive.

Well, in theory, though, that's what's happened, right? They've gone, we're going for first. And to do that, we need to go down this route. Okay, but what if we're 0.0.0 degrees out and actually end up in 20 first? We'll be so slow we go backwards. Yeah. Why is the car go, why is Stoffel van Dorn inside of the engine cover? Oh, we've got a Stoffel van Dorn mentioned today.

Oh, that's just bright enough my Sunday. That's why the car's overweight, guys. You've got a third driver. It's a Belgian who's just in the wing. Sir, there's a Belgian in the wing. No, I'm the reserve driver. I'm Stoffel van Dorn. Oh, man.

I was going to ask you another question. I've completely forgotten it. In terms of an upgrade that's coming at Hungary, obviously, Belgium, write that off. If you're an Astermarton fan, just wait. Stoffel Van Dorn.

Sorry, yeah. Home race for Stovall Van Dorn. And he can claim it because he's on the car. He's in the car. Yeah, he's going to claim it as a home P-21. So we've got Stoffel van Dorn on the car, obviously, at Belgium. But after that, presumably this upgrade will get rid of him. That is not great.

What does a successful upgrade look like at Hungary? Oh, it's a really tricky question and quite theoretical, I suppose. There's been some interesting comics coming out of the Aston Martin Camp. Most interestingly, from Lance Stroll, who, you know, let's not, let's be really honest. He doesn't break boundaries when it comes to interviews. What are you talking about, man? Someone said the man's got the charisma of a ham sandwich once. So, you know, got your fingers.

Don't do ham sandwiches like that. That's true. They are delicious. My point here is that he doesn't tend to say things that make you stand up and listen. But he believes that if it goes really well, they can be fighting for points in Hungary. Now, on our Patreon episode, we just recorded, we spoke about Bortoletto's comments about how Audi, actually if they got the ranging sort, it could be essentially a top team. And there's always take it with a big assault judgment that comes with drivers' comments.

The same can be said for Carlos Sikes. Well, he was speaking about Ferrari's upgrades a few seasons ago. We'll have half a tenth off. Remember those that came out? Was it the spaying upgrade or something? We'll bring out, knock off half a tenth. Half a second, sorry, not half a tenth. And doesn't.

The same can be said here for Lance Strohl's comments by the fact that actually if Aston Martin 2.0 is successful, then they will be fighting for points. Now, I disagree. I don't think that's going to be the case. But what I think is a fair and realistic, ambitious target for us and Martin, if this overhaul genuinely works, and it will have to be a true overhaul, not just we've made a couple of proper changes and hope it's better. I'm talking weight down. I'm talking side-pog rejuvenation. I'm talking the way the engine operates in the car has completely shifted, a proper new car. maybe one car out of Q1 is a possibility because they are two seconds away from safety currently.

So to gain two seconds in a lap is a monumental effort from any team. And if Mercedes Sunday gained two seconds a lap, they are two point three seconds. Congratulations. Champions. You've won the title, right? It is a golf in pacing Formula One to be two seconds away. So if they can gain two seconds,

fair enough, you've got a car of 16th and 17th. I think it's a start, and I think that's a fair start. The simplest way I can put this is, if when this upgrade comes in in Hungary, we are talking about how many tenths, Aston Martin are faster, it has failed. Because we can't be talking in tenths. We have to be talking in seconds. And like you'd say, they need multiple seconds, not only to catch up to, not to catch up to the leaders, just to kind of get out of these Q1 spots.

You can go ahead with a strategy of no upgrades for months, as has been the case with Aston Martin. They focused on some reliability improvements towards the beginning of the year, but very little in terms of performance improvements. That's fine. You can only do that, though, if when you bring that upgrade, it makes a monumental difference. Again, seconds, not tense. The crazy thing is, I don't think we knew how bad this was in Australia. Like in Australia, obviously, it wasn't good. Everything was rushed and they weren't competitive. But it was actually worse than it looked because they would have known,

at least some key person though what Aston Martin would have known at that point, we aren't improving this car for a while. It's almost like Hasse at the beginning of the year. They were far stronger then than they are now. And they maybe knew, okay, we need some points early on because they're going to catch up. Aston Martin was basically in the same position, except that they didn't start well and they just continue to struggle.

There's a point that their trajectory crosses over at Hungary and hearts become worse. Maybe. I mean, in Australia, to use sort of Mercedes as the baseline, we'll say they're at 100%, and then the further above 100% you are, the worse it is because that's further away from them.

In Australia, Astor Martin, we're 104.5% off. at Silverstone it was 105.5. So Mercedes, who most teams have actually caught throughout the year, a further away from Aston Martin than they were to start the year, that's why, you know, they need to improve by seconds. Botas was 1.8 seconds faster in than Alonzo at Silverstone in qualifying. So Aston Martin, by your logic,

need to gain about 3%, to realistically show a proper improvement based on what everyone else has actually been able to achieve, versus Mercedes. Yeah. 3% in a Formula One car is massive. Yeah. And that's why I'm kind of worried about this, because whilst Adrian Nui is talking about some of the improvements,

I'll read some of what he said here. Chassis, mostly unchanged. Gearbox, mostly unchanged. Front suspension, unchanged. Rear suspension, slightly revised. The engine's the same. There are going to be good improvements, don't get to be wrong,

and they're going to be far closer to the weight limit. But this isn't, by the, the sounds of what Adrian Nui is saying, there's not a new car. No. Where are the upgrades coming from? Where are the upgrades? Where are you? Jeez. Stoffel Vandals.

I eaten them all under the engine cover. No, that just adds to the weight. Come on, Stoffel. Adrian Nui says that Alonzo's future might be determined by this upgrade. But again, another very true and honest statement. Fingando Please don't let this be the last time we see Fingando on Formula One car

I need to win a Grand Prix I don't need him to podium I just want to see him competitive At this point I think I'd rather see him compete in indie Like actually compete in indie For wins, podiums something that isn't last

There are certain teams though That are looking at drivers For experience up and down the grid That probably could have taken Fernando Alonso two or three years ago, and at least he'd be looking at P10s. Go back to the comments, I know he referenced this recently, go back to the comments a few years ago that Alonso made about Mercedes when he said, why would I go to Mercedes? Because at that point, Asthmannes were quicker.

Which is so funny. That's age well, isn't it? Van der Alonso might historically be the worst. The most wrong man. Most incorrect man at picking his own career direction. It is lucky. he's so good behind the wheel of a Formula One car because he has had so many theoretical opportunities to move

and would have become another world champion and has made the wrong choice. I like the idea that he's got an agent that's actually preventing things from getting worse. Like he keeps going, I'll tell you what, that job in Tesco looks really good. And no, stay in F1. F1 in any capacity is better than Tesco, Fernando.

But it looks really good. Those trolleys look pretty quick round the car. Park. Someone just saving his career over and over. Fernando. It should also just mention before we wrap up this topic and go to a break, Adrian Nui is part of this interview as well, did speak out a bit on some health problems that he's had recently,

which is why he wasn't at the majority of races to start this year, despite his team principal position. So by the sounds of things, though, things are on the up and improving, which is great to hear from his side. Fingers very much crossed. I guess it stays that way. Yeah. Let's take our second break.

On the other side, Ahma Ben Sulean time. NPS. I bet he really wishes that people would chant that. Of course he does. Welcome back, everyone. As promised before the break, it's time for some comments from Mohammed Ben Sulean

because he has spoken further about plans to reintroduce V8 engines by 2031, whilst also highlighting proposals to reduce the influence manufacturers have over customer team. A central part of this vision is to guarantee teams access to an independent engine supply, allowing customer outfits to operate without relying on manufacturers. One option under consideration is for the FIA to appoint an independent engine supplier like Cosworth, so they would produce a standardized, cost-effective VA engine that any team could purchase

off the shelf. Ben Sillian believes that if engine development and production costs can be reduced to a sustainable level, there are teams that could build their own power units, citing McLaren, and Alpine as examples. Before we get into maybe specific examples of McLaren Alpine, anyone else, do you like the idea? It's a fascinating concept.

And, you know, NBS. I'm always fair with my criticism. This is an interesting conversation point. I don't know if it outright works in the way you're proposing, but I genuinely enjoy that conversation points. And I do, I am a big leader in terms of conversation where it comes to believing that all teams should be of an independent manufacturer when it comes to engineering.

And I don't care if that is you are a creator yourself or you have to buy it externally and you have like Astor Martin Honda right now, for example, as a key area. Yeah. I do believe that we should really limit the amount of independence, sorry, the amount of dependency that you have on another team within the sport that provides you with more independence. So McLarence and Mercedes, for example, it's very hard for them to go out and outright beat Mercedes because they run on the same power unit. This in theory, in concept, is on the right path to what I would want it to be. I would just be really surprised if any engine manufacturer would want to do this because I don't see what the benefit is for them. They get paid, great. but the chances of them still winning a title are, I think, very slim.

I do think that the attention to detail that these teams will be given are very, very small. They don't have the same love and care that maybe a Ferrari engine in theory giving to Haast would actually be given, because Ferrari have a vesting interest in their engine being as good as possible. So whilst I think this incoming engine of whatever it might be, would have to be up to a certain standard, I believe it would literally have to be at the standard and not above it, not overperforming, And also those upgrades, I think, would be few and far between in comparison to what you might get if you were actually competing in the sport. And I think here lies the problem with the overall method, for example. I really like this idea.

And my ambition is the same as yours, which is to have somewhere between 10 and 12 independently owned teams who are all factory teams. That is the ideal. A much cheaper engine gets us closer to that ambition, for sure. And I do appreciate there is risk in that as well. Like where we have, like now, for example, where we've got a regulation cycle that is far more geared towards engine power than the last one was. Of course, the ground effect era that we've just come out of,

engines were basically balanced and level across the board. Screw the ground effect era. Which is not the case anymore. So I do appreciate there is a bit of a risk that you could, if you had, say, 11 factory teams, 11 different engines, and there's a real pecking order of those 11, you could get some rather dull results where they're just kind of spread out.

A duo exists, my guy. That's a really good system. That's what I was going to say, in theory, we have new rules and a new approach now with a duo that could help that a little bit, but I do appreciate there is a risk still attached. If that's the ideal, which I'll be honest, I'm not sure we're going to achieve.

I'd like to think we will. Not sure we will. this independent supplier idea is a, I think it's a fantastic intermediate solution. I don't like hearing at the moment about McLaren and how they don't know what they're getting from Mercedes and there's a bit of frustration there as to what the info sharing agreement is. I don't like teams being under the thumb of another team. If F1 can find, and this is the problem, if F1 can find a reliable partner who, is going to want to be there on a pretty long-term contract and is willing to work with

anyone and everyone, great. Now, that is going to be a problem because, and now I know they wouldn't do it obviously because they're in F-1. Audi, they would never supply Mercedes. And there's so many of these connections in the world. You would have to find someone who would just go, does not matter who wants to buy the engines from us. We have no choice but say yes to them. it's an unfair system, which is... A porelli of engines, essentially. Yeah. And maybe Cosworth is that engine, I don't know.

But it leaves teams in a really interesting spot, I think, because either you go with that independent engine and it has a chance of being really profitable for you, but equally you might not be contending for a title that way, or you have to be brave and go out on your own and create your own engine, as McLaren could possibly do. I think it leaves an interesting dilemma for those teams. Yeah, I like the dilemma,

and I like that teams would have to be forced to make a decision to not sit and buying engines straight off of a manufacturer that's already within the sport. It's being a weakness of Formula One for, not just recent times, but for decades, where the amount of teams that kind of rely on a bigger and stronger outfit, and I'm talking about, you know, the automotive industry here are able to essentially monopolize the market of Formula One

based on the fact that they know how to make useful, drivable, reliable engines. And let's say McLaren, who whilst are an automotive industry, make very specific niche hypercar based vehicles that don't have a direct crossover and don't have the impact that maybe a Mercedes might get, they can't produce the same level of engine, despite actually in a recent podcast we spoke about, maybe they are just starting to Tito being able to make those engines. I just think that, like you mentioned with Cosworth, for example,

is there a Ford relationship there? If there's a full relationship with Cosworth, as we know that Ford Cosworth have been a thing for many a year, then actually is there a subliminal benefit for someone like Red Bull that maybe information might be passed? And we're really talking espionage

and unnecessary rule breaking, but it's sport, it's Formula One. The system has to be strong enough to... You cannot be able to question the system. No. You need it to be able to be watertight. And for that, you almost need someone that isn't a car.

manufacturer to come along and make the engine because then they don't have any prior relationship with anyone else. Let's say Honda decided to buy out horse, but Toyota end up being the engine that's provided to everyone. Well, that's going to be a nightmare because that means there's a direct rivalry between two massive Japanese manufacturers. And what happens if they then get a message to say block the Honda cars because we don't want the Honda cars to meet the Toyota cars. I've heard it before. It's possible. I would much rather, we almost get given a five year in advance. The engines in 2013 will be X.

The rule set will be, you must provide your own engine. That must be either a version A, you've got to make your own engine. Or version B, you partner with a manufacturer that is not a part of the sport. And then essentially, for example,

you might get McLaren Porsche that was rumoured a little while ago or something like that. You might get BMW cut back into the sport. That's the way I'd like to see it. the V8 in theory would be more cost efficient and a lot of these manufacturers have experiencing of making a V8 engine

so it's not like it will be particularly new for them so that I am keen for in the guys that MBS is suggesting do see some problems yeah I think that's fair and as with any comments from Ben Suleem take them all with a pinch of salt because... Take the whole box of salt yes, probably safer that way

there's a concept I'm kind of struggling with here because Ben Suleim has mentioned as part of these comments, both McLaren and Alpine, as maybe teams that could go ahead and build their own engine. Now, my memory isn't great. I feel like Alpine were building their engines quite recently. Now, I'm trying to work out if Alpine have actually been geniuses or stupid here,

because... They are definitely the team to be stupid and end up looking like geniuses. Probably the right answer. Again, yeah, they've moved away from being a factory team. They have, which, by the way, as a decision I still absolutely hate because it really did rip all of their identity out of them. But if V8s come back and they decide they do want to create their own, they've essentially ditched the V6 hybrids for the last few years that they'll be needed, taken another team's very good V6 hybrid engine, given themselves more time and maybe more budget to work. on the V8 behind the scenes, whilst everyone is still finalising the V6 era.

Now, I'm not convinced they've been geniuses with this because there's still the issue of they've closed down the engine part of their business and they'll need to bring that back, which isn't terribly efficient. Maybe they're under some of it. I don't know. You know that, I've never seen the programme,

but there's a meme from, I think it's the boys, where that guy with the blonde hair who looks a bit like Superman. is a bit like, have I actually done something correct? It's got me that's the problem. That could be them. Obviously, Rengo is still a powerhouse in manufacturing, right?

So it's not like just because they're... Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, that's because that's shut down. They can't have the expertise. Same with Honda. Same with Honda. They have enough capability to kickstart. And if they do it early enough,

they will overcome those hurdles. And you're right, maybe they've saved themselves a buck or two. Maybe they're able to sit down and recreate things. They have a whole side project. but actually in 2013, they are a true powerhouse of engine manufacturing. I'd be surprised. It's definitely possible.

Another thing that could be looked at as part of this is second team ownership, most specifically, of course, looking at racing balls and road. No. You don't want to look that? I want it banned. Yes, I figured that's what you actually meant. I feel like it would be a good time to look at it, in that the Concord Agreement that's in place right now lasts until 2030.

that's when, in theory, we'd get these new engines. We'd get a new Concord Agreement. It feels like a good time to review this. If the rule comes in, as we've just suggested, that every team has to have some form of independence, then if this off-the-shelf engine goes ahead,

then in theory, to Reg Bull keep Ford. And let's say it's Cosworth, do racing balls take Cosworth? And again there, have you got a behind-the-doors? link that allows an advantage, which again, we wouldn't want to see. I have been so against beatings in Formula One. And there have been talks for years about Mercedes having a possible beating. We know that they had quite interesting ties with Williams, with the way they sold them

in engines. And we've had secondary drivers sitting there in the lights of you have Botas. And then we've had Russell, of course, from the most famous one for a long time, being sat there waiting in the wings for someone to leave. I do just think that it pollutes the sport, it stops the competitive nature of the sport, and it means that you are essentially removing one variable in a championship, which we don't want. I don't want that. Alpine was the most recent of these conversations where actually Mercedes were looking at buying a stake in Alpin properly.

If this independent engine ruling aligns with the Concord Agreement, we actually can have a rule that says you've got to be completely independent with your power unit. In theory, that would separate racing balls further from Red Bull, and we would see some at least difference. But it also opens up the doors of, well, information sharing, something you're doing differently that we're not doing, a whole other test bed that actually you could pick up things that work in one engine, pop it in the other.

That leads to problems. So in theory, I do wonder if you have to separate and tether the teams completely. Yeah, it sounds brutal because I don't mean this towards anyone who's working for racing bulls. But in terms of like the model of the team, I don't want to see that model of team do better than like an Audi model.

Like I, and it's not down to the teams themselves. It's just I like the idea of an independent factory team really committing to the sport rather than racing balls, which is largely a copy of, a sister of Red Bull. Let's take our final break. On the other side, we're playing Formula Fortune. Get it then. Chabba! Never get me whiteboard to me pink. Welcome back, everyone to the first.

the final part of today's episode. We're going to round things out with a game of Formula Fortunes, which if you haven't been with us for one of these games before we bring it out a few times a year, don't we? Where we have to guess what your answers are to particular F1 questions. So we've got eight different questions. We're not giving our own opinions here. We're just guessing what we think the most popular answers are. If we get the most popular answer, we get four points. If we get the second most popular answer, we get three. Third most popular answer you get two and then if you get the fourth most popular answer you get one point and it's myself versus sam now i feel like you you won this last time so i have i have a sense that i'm going to

go on a generationally bad streak oh i thought you're going to say generationally good street oh no no okay it won't be the summer of sage it's uh yeah it's got a soge yeah it's got a soge summer okay it's a hocking heat wave oh i like that like that uh well question number one then we asked f1 fans, which current F1 driver would you most like to go for a drink with? Okay. Tricky. There's, it's always a tie between, obviously, they might just be a fan of said driver and they might just go, or do they think it's going to be a right rambunctious time?

Yes. Hmm. So immediate names who pop out, but I'm going to go with this gentleman, I think. Okay. You got an answer? I do, sir. Okay. in three, two, one.

Okay, so we've got a vote for Valtry Bottas and a vote for ex-teamate Louis Hamilton. Famously known as ex-teamate of Valtry Bottas. Yeah, yeah, it's that way round. Yeah. I don't know, I was just kind of hoping that the popularity of Hamilton might see me through, but Bottas is a very good answer, I think.

Now, we quiz our listeners on this. Yes. So I was going down the sense of, they're there for a good time, not a long time, and they just like a laugh. but there are some Hamilton and Stangs in the chat, so who knows? True. Well, those of you playing along at home, make sure you keep track as well.

Fourth place, 7% of the vote. Carlos Sines. A new science would feature. I think he'd be fun. But I think it'd be going like a round of golf. I don't play golf. Third place, 13% of the vote. Might be who I would have gone with, actually, personally.

Fernando Alonzo. Yeah, that was definitely one of the contendants from my list. Second place, you can give yourself three points, Sam, because 18% said Valtri Bottas. Come on, botty. But the top answer, four points if you said 26% of the vote, Max Verstappen. Yeah, I have a feeling he creep up there. Okay, so Sam, you take a three-nothing lead. Question number two, how many more races will Ferrari win this year?

So we know they've got two already. How many more are they going to win in the rest of this year? Okay. I guess your logic would depend maybe on how many upgrades you think they're bringing, how far the sales might fall. Well, I'm ready to go. Yeah, me too. I'm...

Okay. I don't know. I don't know. In three, two, one. Okay. You went with the answer that I so nearly went with as well. So I've gone with four. You've gone with three.

You had to really, didn't you? I can't really get away from it. I didn't have a choice. But what other people said? That's what it's most important. Fourth place, five races. I think that's too ambitious. Yes.

I'll take two points because third was, third was four races wherever numbers are introduced man you're on the whiteboard mate you're on the whiteboard yeah you may get on

yes good stuff two points for third place four races 17% on the phone you can give yourselves three points if you said two races but

to get four points I swear to go if it's one three races bang on the money Sam one person said 10 races, but also only five people thought they'd win no more races. Fascinating. So the hopes are relatively high for Ferrari to have a bit more success. Some other answers out there. Someone said one and just Singapore signs. Bit late for that, I think.

Are you scaling 2024? Yeah. It's like one of those Twitter accounts where like, like, They're reporting on things that have happened in the past like a number of years ago. Slow Sky Sports. Yeah, yeah. Someone said all of them, sure. And someone said, as an intellectual,

not at all under the influence of opium, seven more races. Seven? I think you are under the influence of opium. Is that like Goodman? Seven. So this isn't good for me, Sam. You're taking a good lead.

Just call me answering, Ellie, but look, I might have some reliability problems. I'm very much banking on that as we go to. break or something. You know what? I'll take that. Win by any means necessary. Question number three.

We asked F1 fans, which current F1 driver is the cleanest racer? Oh, I'm going to need to think about this. Yeah, this is a toughie. A toughie but a goodie. Yes. Hmm.

The cleanest racer. There's going to be some conflicting fan bases here as well, I think, that might drop some people some points. quite possibly. All right, I have an answer, I think. Yeah, I don't love it. I don't know on this one.

You come up with the questions. Yeah, yeah, but I've intentionally not thought about them since then in any way. You're a bigger man than I. Okay, let's reveal our answers in three, two, one. So we've got... Well, we're going with the ex-teamates theme here because I've gone with Sines and you've gone with Sharl LeCleur.

Sharl LeClair. Let's see. Okay. Fourth place is actually a draw. So you can get one point if you said, ivory of these names. Lando Norris or Carlos Sines. Wee. Another point for bang.

I've got you exactly where I want you. apart from my don't because you can get two points if you said Charlotte Claire. Yes, he extends. I considered both of these names as well, but three points, if you said, Oscar Piastri. Yep. But the top answer, four points. If you said, Lewis Hamilton, Alex Albin would disagree with you. Yeah, I thought the Stapham Fangs might end up outweighing the shout.

That's why I didn't have any of those to my list. Just to have a look through some of the other answers. Vestappan and Russell only got two votes each, which, yeah, that seems pretty fair. Maybe the height has shifted to Russell. Liam Lawson, he doesn't make those people hit him. That is great logic. Great logic. I will be honest.

I did not consider Liam Lawson for this one. Carlos signs, duh. I'm sure he shampoos and conditions his hair twice. a day, just look at those locks. Yeah, we get it. What has this got to do with his gorgeous hair? Clean hair. Clean driver, what is that mean?

Clean hair equals clean driver. Right, sure. Everyone else should shower more is what we're saying. Yeah, pretty much. Okay, question number four. We asked F1 fans, who is the best current team principle on the grid? Oh, I could tell you the other end of the spectrum.

The best current team principle on the grid. Well, you've answered quite quickly there, Ben. I have actually, yeah. I'm not overthinking this one. That strategy's not going very well for me, you see. Yeah, I know, I've kind of linked into the Benhawking realm here. This is where it all turns around. I'm going to...

I'll get to play it safe. I think it'll be on the board. I don't think it'll be a leader, but... Okay. He's playing a tactical game as Sam. Well, I've taken a lead now. Now he's got the lead, yeah. Okay, here we're going to.

Three, two, one. Okay, so you've gone with Jungle is Vassive, Fred Vassar. I've gone with Toto Wolf. Just to explain, I couldn't remember how his belvasser. So I put Vassive. Ah, you could have sold that as well. Sorry. Okay, in fourth place, again, another tie here, 6% of the vote going to

Andrea Stella and James Vowles. I am surprised that James Vowse has made that list. I think maybe Andrea Stella is somewhat hurt as well, just based on the dynamic between him and Zach Brown. I think he's almost forgotten. Yeah. Otherwise, I think he might score slightly better. Third place, Iokamatsu. That was why I was debating.

I was really debating Kamatsu. Points on the board for you, Sam, though. Three points, if you said Fred Vassur. The safe strategy has worked. But the comeback starts here. Yes. I've gone with Toto Wolf, and that got me four points. That was the top answer.

Excellent. You've drawn back the Charler-Claire-Colourless Science point there. Quick shout out to the two people who voted for Flavio Brio Tori. That one, okay. Famously, not the team principal of Alpine. He's a senior advisor. And even if he was, I don't think I'd vote for him. Someone said, Alan Permanain, interesting how V-Carb improved once Mecky's moved on and needs to be talked about more. That is a fantastic shout.

That is a fantastic show. People aren't talking about that. And I would argue might be the bottom two of the most underrated team principles on the grid. I think you could ask F1 fans who is the team principle of V-Carp, and like 90% wouldn't be able to say. Yeah, correct. Anyway, let's go with question number five. By rough maths that I'm trying to keep up with, I think I'm like five points down at the minute. So I still need to recover here.

Okay. We asked F1 fans, apart from Lance Stroll, who is the worst driver on the grid? Now, you're probably wondering, why have we added apart from Lance Stroll? Well, as you know, he does get some, I think unnecessary hate at times. I think our Patreon power rankings might sometimes reflect that. Yeah, you can get involved on Patreon for your power rankings, right? You get to be a part of the vote for the driver ratings. We call it Stroll tax.

I think Lank Stroll does get a bit of a stroll tax apply where he gets dropped a few points because of who he is. quite possibly. So apart from Lance Stroll, who is the worst driver on the grid? This is quite tricky. Because Stroll would have been the answer. I would have put Stroll because I would have the way people vote. I would have put Stroll for this. It's a good grid at the moment. It's a very good grid. And the fact that we've got the likes of Limblight on the grid right now, I wouldn't even put as a rookie realistically in how he's performed. This makes it very difficult. Also, do I go for what they enjoy? Do I go for pace? Do I go for wheel-to-wheel combat is tricky.

Those are the questions. I do have an answer. Okay. This speech is my recital. I think it's very vital. Get it? Cheers, run DMC. It's trick, trick, trick, trick, trick. Here we go. Here we go. This is going to cause some pain.

Okay. Pain in the membrane. Not more painful than my answer, I can guarantee you that. Oh, okay. Okay, let's reveal in three, two, one. It's because it's the same answer. Now, to be clear, I am just going with what I think the people are saying, rather than what I think, I've gone with Esteban Ockon, and so has Sam.

Which isn't good news for me, because I need to make up some ground. Yeah, my trust is now max your answer. Oh, people! I haven't seen this, but that's a good reaction. Fourth place, Albon and Lawson. 7% said those two names. Wow, okay. I'm surprised I'm supposed to recently biased

I'm playing a bigger part there. Third place, two points if you said Valtry Bottas. Ah, I'll show you how good this grid is. Multiple time race winner Valtry Bottas is the third worst driver on the grid. Second place, 13% of you said, Franco Colopinto.

Silence on the show. Four points, if you said, 43% of you said this, you disgusting people. Esteban Ockon Oh, mate, cook your baking and go home. No. I think, you know what?

It's a really tough one as to who the answer actually is. And who I would say. We just heard who it was. No, I wouldn't actually say it was Ockon. Who would you say it was? If you could pick, who would you say? Other things grow. I probably would have gone Collopinto,

but it is incredibly close. I would probably go Ockon. He is in the... It has to be in the conversation, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, dear. Never mind.

Four points for both of us as we now go to. Question number six. We asked F1 fans, who is the unluckiest driver on the F1 grid? The baller telly of the grid. Yes. Why always me? Oh, I know who I'm putting for this.

Hmm. Okay. I've got an answer. I'm good to go. Cool. and we'll reveal our answers to this one. In three, two, one. Phonando Alonzo.

Fornando Lonsor. Yeah, maybe not a massive surprise here. We spoke about it earlier, right? My man can't pick a crime to save his life. No. But what did the people say? 7% said Carlos signs, so that'll get you one point. Two points if you said Nico Holkenberg.

Oh, okay. Three points if you said Shaul Clair. That's fair. Yeah. I think that's fair. But 31% of you said Fernando Alonso, so four points if you said him. LeCler was actually the only other name I had in my mind. Well, someone said, I'm going to say, Shao LeClaer,

but I feel like he brings it upon himself by continuously signing with Ferrari. Have you, at what point is luck more a choice? And someone also said, Behrman, because being the goat in a shopping trolley is rough. You cross the house, mate. No, it might be a shopping trolley at this point. Okay, well, the same answer again means that that gap isn't coming down at the moment. It's still five points between us.

I can't believe we're going to lose again. Come on. Come on. Question number seven. An ultimate round. We asked F1 fans, what has been the best F1 race of 2026 so far? Ooh. I've got an answer on.

just trying to think if there's been a better one than that. Okay, I've got an answer. Have you got an answer? Well, I'm about to, yes, now I have an answer. Yes. Okay. Well, let's reveal that in three, two, one. Okay, so we do have a different answer here.

Sam, you've gone with Barcelona. See? I have gone with Canada. We. Very good. Very good. It's not very good at all. Let's see what the people said, though.

One point, if you said, the British Grand Prix. Right, okay. It's the most recent one. People remember it. That's true. Two points, if you said, the Austrian GP. Yeah, fair enough. Okay.

Three points, if like me, you said the Canadian Grand Prix. I swear to God, if we have to go into the final round, I've only got a two-point lead. I cannot deal with that stress. Four points. Top answer. 37% of you said. The Barcelona-Catoulogne Grand Prix.

Fat post. Dan Byrne has put it away. You're being swayed by the result, people. And not folks. You're being swayed by pure genius. You're all morons, the lot of you. Oh, good. It's won over the people immediately.

He's lost it. The race with the least votes Australia with just two The Barreig Grand Prix That didn't happen got more with three Someone said It's great cool about this Someone said Bahrain

I loved when signs and Albin drove the same car What a throwback comment that is I forgot about that Someone said Silverstone Would have got my vote if not for the safety car finish. Yeah, wiped it apart, yeah. And an interesting reason.

Someone said Monaco, because it was the race least impacted by battery BS, which is true. It's most impacted by boring BS, though, wasn't it? That's also true. So, Sam, you've won this, but... Get in there, Lewis. We'll do the last one anyway.

So this one is slightly different in that we've gone from a scale of 1 to 10. Oh, okay. So the question is, we asked F1 fans, how confident are you that Max Verstappen will be racing in F1 next season? Ten is most likely, one is least likely. Doesn't necessarily have to be at Red Bull,

doesn't have to necessarily be for the full season. He needs to be in F1 somewhere. Right, okay. Hmm. Yes, interesting. They're straight down the obvious answer, I think. Okay. Well, let's reveal our final formula Fortunes answer in three, two, one.

Yes, six, seven. Len Goodman's out. Seven for Sam. Seven for me. So we think it's more likely than not he will be here, but also not a guarantee. And let's see what the people have said.

If you said, 10 out of 10, he is 100% going to be here. That will get you one point. Fair enough. We get two points, Sam, for saying 7 out of 10. is a safe option. Three points, if you said, six out of ten.

But the top answer, and it was very close to be fair, so this is just an 18% of the vote. If you said eight out of ten. So we were in the right range. Yeah, we were. I think we'll take that. 75% of people voted five out of ten or over, so more people are confident he will be here than won't.

That's interesting. I think that actually the general Liska believes that we will have. Max Verstappen in 2027. Yeah, we just play a game, but really we're just using this for market research, to be honest, folks. This is actually the poll that's defined by Akali uses in this research. So what we need to do is ask a question about the length of races and make sure we sway people to put longer races. Well, we are completely unbiased here. We won't be swaying anyone.

I didn't know we were that influential. But maybe you will be now, Sam, after that glorious victory. Feels good. It feels good to come away on a Sunday with a big dub, a one day, as they, call it. You can't say that though, Ben. I can't, no. It's just a Lundy for me, isn't it? Take the L'L. Lung Day.

Yeah. Take a breath. Thanks for listening, folks. It's been an interesting episode with definitely some highs and mostly definitely some lows. I hope you enjoyed listening. We'll be back week, of course, because it is time for the Belgian Grand Prix preview, which is great fun. Five straight mode zones, you go, upgrades, I'm here for different cars, all sorts going and we'll also be doing a qualifying review, of course, at the weekend, race review, power rankings. We've also got some stuff coming around throughout the week on Patreon as well.

So if you're interesting in joining Patreon, the links in the description below. You can also still join our fantasy. The way to do it is in the link below as well. I have a few people asking about that recently. You don't lose your points. So when you join, you keep all the points you've made. Annoingly. Annoingly for us. You stop nicely into the league and you just become a part of the competition. And then the Discord is available. So if you'd like to join in, be part of the conversation, let me hear yourself on the show for the moment of the race after the Grand Prix.

That's the place to do it. Thanks for listening. Thanks for your support. And we'll see you in the next one in the meantime. I've been sounding the same. And I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late.