The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Late Braking F1 Podcast: 03/11/19

Episode Date: November 3, 2019

Valtteri Bottas wins the United States battle but it's Lewis Hamilton who wins the 2019 war. The Brit secured his 6th world championship and the guys react to the achievement. Also, what do they make of the 2021 regulations? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to look out for new episodes every Thursday and Grand Prix Sundays. Hello and a very warm welcome. This is the Lake Breaking Formula One podcast, and we are reviewing the United States Grand Prix, a grand prix in which Lewis Hamilton finally wrapped up his sixth world championship. But it was Valtrey Bottas who claimed victory on the tournament.

Samuel Sage and Harry Eder with me, Ben Hocking. How are you guys doing? How did you feel the race was? It was a very enigmatic entrance there, Benjamin. I enjoyed it. I thought the race was good, not great, but I am happy to see a history be made. The 7654-3-2-1 is kind of complete now.

Maybe Lewis can just stop to allow it to be all nice and continuous in terms of how many titles we've had one by certain drivers. Yeah, good, not great. for the race, but as Sam said, we have a second six-time world champion. Big news. Incredible scenes. History has been made. Yeah, and we'll be talking more about Hamilton's season and his achievement as a whole later on, but we're going to look specifically at the race, first of all. It feels like it went a very similar direction to Mexico, but it kind of had the finale that Mexico didn't have. That's kind of how I saw the race. I agree with you. I thought it was

good, not great. The one-stop and the two-stop, both viable options. Ultimately, ultimately the two-stop of Valtry Bottas defeating the one-stop of Lewis Hamilton. Harry, you said off-air that this was one of Valtry Bottas's best performances of the season. Do you think it is the best he's done all year? Like I said, definitely that.

I don't know, Sizek was pretty convincing as well. So he's had a good few weeks as Valtry. He's come on the wrong title, or it's come too late because the championship's already won. But yeah, it's that, it's that. no-nonsense porridge attitude that we have seen glimpses of this year, not all the time. And he's shown it again today to overtake Hamilton on track for the win, which I thought was a, I don't know, it'll be not much comfort to him, but it's a big statement going forward that he can do it. He can beat Hamilton on track.

And he's done it a few times this year now. Now he just needs to build on it and be more consistent with it going into 2020. but yeah, really good performance from El Bardo. Yes, the Texan porridge was strong. Sam, how impressed were you by Vouchy Bottas? Of course, you do often criticise Bottas. What did you think of his performance, a performance where he had to overtake Lewis Hamilton

in order to gain the victory? Yeah, I'm a lover of Bottas off the track. I think he's a jolly, lovely chap. But on the track, often critical, where you have the best car at your disposal. And anyone can wing a Mercedes, I'm sure many people will say. I am going to completely differ to what Harry has said.

I don't think it was that impressive. If anything, I was thinking he was the favourite to win it the whole time. And if he didn't win it, he'd have really have let himself down. Qualifying on Paul, and his Saturday performance was astoundingly good. Full credit where credit is due. Bottas on pole, ahead of the Ferrari and the Red Bull of Vettered by less than one tenth of a second. That is an incredible performance, especially when his teammate, the largest pole sitter of all time, sits back in fifth place. That is, I mean, not like

physically. He's not like 27 stone and 18 foot tall. And he sits on poles. Sorry, everyone. Sorry. It took a less than five minutes.

So, that is a fantastic performance for Voucher Bossas on Saturday. Sorry, I've got the giggles. But he should have darting off from Max Verstappen at the start there. Hamilton was right on the back of max how was the starting in fifth place remember incredible overtaken vet around the

outside of yes we're struggling at the time but did the job well got past the clerk convincingly as well nice and easy off the start he was right on the back of the staffing and the gap to the staffing of botas never really grew to more than two or three seconds i expect more from botas and a car that was clearly faster this track weekend especially with the tires with the same life we saw later wrong in the race when botas was on the same tires as the stack and a half they both pit what's that's had much more speed at the start of the stinks. I expect to go a large gap from Bottas to appear. He could have made this a lot more comfortable for himself if you just put his foot down, go away comfortably and then manage his tyres. I really think he almost could have come out

consistently ahead. And maybe wouldn't have even needed to overtake a struggling Hamilton on dying tires at the end of a race. It wasn't really a fair fight at that point. It was almost a guarantee the most DRS was available. So he did what he needed to do. He sure won the race and he did. It was a good performance with Bottas, but I still think he used to do way more if he's going to challenge for the title come next season. I thought Bottas was pretty good this weekend. His Saturday qualifying performance was very good. Of course, all three teams were very close, so it was marginal gains, and he was able to make that work. And he is at this point, 5'4 in terms of pole positions against Lewis Hamilton this year. And even though the championship won't go Bottas's way,

that is something at least for him to hold on to. And he has got the most pole positions at all time as Lewis Hamilton. So taking that victory or potentially that victory, see how the last few races go, is something for Bottas. I thought he did pretty well in the race as well. But like I said to introduce this, the one stop and the two stop were very, very close around Austin.

There was not a lot to choose between them. You know, Lando Norris and the two-stopper managed to beat Carlos sign to the one-stopper, but both of them lost to the one-stopper of Daniel Ricardo. So we saw plenty of times on the last two or three laps where two stopping cars were catching one stopping cars and passing them. You know, Perez and Kaviyat both involved in a last lap collision because of because of the two stops and the one stops converging. So I thought it was fair game.

And Bottas did a great job in catching Lewis Hamilton. He could have easily been dissuaded from that first attempt that he had where he was nearly there and Hamilton kind of shut the door on the outside after the big long straight. he managed to eat back into that gap yet again and made a more clinical move. And I thought it was really impressive from Vouchy Bottas. Was it his best performance of the season? Maybe not quite, but it's definitely up there. And I think it's, as he say, he just needs to deliver this on a more consistent basis

and not go a bit anonymous for a few races at a time. Hamilton has got so many of these championships because of consistency. And Bottas just needs to match him. but he has proven to himself out there today that not only can he take pole position, not only can he get the race win, but he can overtake Lewis Hamilton in doing so, which is an achievement. Happily. But, of course, where it went very well for Mercedes, one to finish,

Shao LaClair, Sebastian Vettel, the Ferrari guys, their pace just seemed to disappear. Of course, Sebastian Vettel retired very early on, but even so, he was lingering in seventh place at the time, and Charles Leclair was a very distant fourth. Sam, were you surprised that Ferrari showed no apparent pace out there. Surprised and made a fool of as my predictions coming into this weekend were that Ferrari were to get to pole position and then Ferrari were to win this race, a one-two. I didn't get anything right this weekend. The closest I got was Norris in the top five and he was still two places off a bat.

So no point. No point for Sam. I was really disappointed, especially as Ferrari came into this with, I think, seven pole positions in a row. Every single pole since the summer break ended, I believe, has gone to Ferrari, which is an incredible statistic, an incredible turnaround after they were struggling for so long against the Silver Arrow's. And yeah, they come into America. Clear favourites could do well again. And nowhere. I just don't think they have the ability to activate the tyres as well as the teams around them. The tires seem to warm up properly. They couldn't activate the rubber well. Vettel then obviously had that absolute disaster where he somehow pulled off a three-wheeled wheelie in a Formula One. Carl, which was fantastic to watch. You get something you'll get to see often, but of course, disastrous for his race, as much as we love a bit of Sebi Vett on this channel, gutting to see him out.

I think it would have spiced himself a little bit more if both Ferraris were able to be competitive, and I'm surprised they weren't. Harry, what did you think of Ferrari's performance out there? Of course, they didn't get pole position, but they were fairly close to doing so, and their pace just seemed to evaporate. Yeah, I mean, I think they'll probably be scratching their heads as much as everybody else is. On Bob predictions, by the way, I was again wrong.

So, Haas, sorry, he didn't score any points this weekend. That's my fault. Yeah, I think the writing was almost on the wall from lap one when you know, LeCle got a bad start. Vettel didn't seem to get any heat in his ties whatsoever. And it's so much so he seemed to think

there was something wrong with the car because it just wouldn't grip. Yeah, it didn't work on the mediums. I think Leclair had slightly better pace when he got onto the heart. But by then he was miles behind anyway. He was in a different race. At one point, I thought he was so slow. I almost thought Ricardo might have him for fourth,

because before the first pit stops, Ricardo kind of pegged him about eight seconds. Yeah, they'll be scratching their heads. People will say it's because this slight rule change or rule clarification about the fuel flow, which some teams have suggested Ferrari had been cheating. I think that's rubbish. And it wasn't engine power-related today, was it?

It was just they couldn't, they never really pace, no grip. Yeah, they'll be, they'll have some soul searching to do before Brazil, all the, all the scooty rear. I think this is the first time and a long time that the tyres have been really, really interesting in a Grand Prix. Albaugh manages to make a three-stopper work. I haven't seen that for a long time. Ferrari can't turn them on. Hamilton nearly wings on a one-stop while Bottsas attacks on a two-stop. this is what I want to see every race from the tire compound.

I want to see these strategies being able to be used, different, interesting, attacking, defending, using your strategy as well as your car space. If the cars get all come closer together on the grid, a la 2021, bring it on, we'll discuss it later. Then I think we've got a real concoction for some exciting racing to come. I think we had this for Mexico, but because they couldn't follow each other, it was all teed up to be like it was today, but then it didn't happen because they kept all get overheating. So yeah, but I agree with Sam.

It was great to see some, like, three different strategies in one race, absolute scenes. I think a lot of it came down to the increasing tire, sorry, the increase in temperature on Sunday compared to Friday. And I don't think the team's quite cotton on to how they would work. And actually, the durability of the three tires, the gap was a lot less than what I was expecting. I think Lance Stroll had the softs, medium and hard tires on at one point in the race. Like he had all of them going and he went longest on the soft tires.

But he went longer on the soft tires and he did the mediums and the hard. So I don't think the gaps were actually that much between them. And the hard tire, maybe they were expecting it to go very similar to Mexico where, you know, Max Verstappen did 66 laps or however many it was. And actually they struggled to do 25. We saw Nico Holcombberg. He did 28 laps, which wasn't even half race distance on hard tires. And he could barely keep it on the circuit at the end.

of his stints. So I really don't think the difference between the soft mediums and hearts was as much as the teams were anticipating. In terms of Ferrari, I'm a bit, it's a bit of a hungry situation. It's the first time since Hungary where they have been so far off the pace and not competitive in the slightest. I mean, again, the temperature might well have played a part in that. It might also be because of the bumps. It seemed very skittish over the bumps. It didn't seem to respond very well to the surface of the track and we saw obviously Sebastian Vettel had the suspension issue but Leclair also had a couple of times in the race where sparks were flying and it didn't look all that stable so maybe there's something in that as well but a better race for Red Bull max Vastappen of course on the podium nearly

got Lewis Hamilton for P2 and Alex Albin had a good race in his own right of course two very different races Harry what did you think of Red Bull yeah for Vastan I thought might have been I mean, he was in the mix. He just didn't quite have the pace. He didn't seem very happy all race with his car, did he? He seemed to, there was always something wrong with it and nothing quite was right. And he was catching Hamilton in the end,

but on the onboard, even on that last lap, I know it was hampered by the yellow flag from box office in the boonies. But it just looks like there was no grip in that car at all. So I think Max's got the most out of it that he could. Maybe could have got P2. He wasn't, didn't have the race-winning pace. For Albin, I was really impressed, actually.

And I think he got Drive of the Day in the end. I'm not sure. Yeah. You've nodded in unison, beautiful. Yeah, I know he got caught up at the start, but that was just kind of first corner shenanigans, and he was the unlucky victim in that. But he kept his head,

and he raced back through to get probably what the best result he could from where he was at the end of that one, which was last. Yeah, so any rebel can be too disappointed. might have hoped they could challenge with Vastappen for the win. But yeah, not a pretty good race all along. So what did you think of Vistappen and Albin? Just go quickly to get the term box office in the boonies

is painting a fantastic Rambo-esque image, but with KMAG's face. If anyone wants to send that in so we can use that, you can email us or tweets us, please. That'll be fantastic to see. Because I'd love to see what that looks like. K-Mag, in the job. jungle, but we're harsh gear on.

Red Bull looked solid. Max was always in the mix. He's always a permanent threat. Never able to fully utilize that. And the track was almost its own entity today. It was causing cars damage, left, right and center. We saw front wings flying off here and there, carbon fiber shattering across other people's cars. Max had a cracked front wing at one point. He was never in a hundred percent okay car.

And I think he did a really good job because of it. He was calm. He was able to be concise with his attacks and his energy. energy. He did nothing rash to make himself look silly. And yeah, I think, realistically, he probably would have got Lewis Hamilton had box office not being in the boonies for the last couple laps. It was a bit of a left down, actually. Hashtag box office in the boonies. That's St. Harry off. Albaugh, on the other hand, unreal performance. If he wasn't already cementing in that other Red Bull seat, he deserves it. He was, again, as Harry said, caught up in the unforefore.

incident in turn. I don't really think that was his own fault. Yeah, car on his inside, car on his outside. It's always difficult when you are the ham in the sandwich. Eating a really solid job for me, it was a great comeback. He made a three-stop work. He put on some great overtakes. And, you know, he got the best position he realistically could have got, convincing me as well. It wasn't a last gas thing. He really made it work for him. So I'm super happy with both red balls. I think they did probably as well as they could, given the circumstances. This is promising size. And I think going into Brazil, They really could excel.

Yeah. I just want to interject with Danny Kavilla for the second consecutive race. A penalty means he won't finish inside the top 10. I haven't seen it. He has got a five second time penalty, which has demoted him to 12th. And Perez therefore gets a point after starting in the pit lane. So I just wanted to say that before going on to Red Bull. Yeah, I agree with you.

I think Max Verstappen had a pretty good race. out there just didn't quite have the place to challenge Valtry Botas and of course strategy nearly got Lewis Hamilton as well but I think Vastappen was right to attempt the undercut early on he had nothing to lose really he of course he was going up against two Mercedes didn't have any support from another car so I think he gave it everything he could and Alex Albon I think they were right in calling that first corner incident a racing incident I think there's anything signs or Albon could have done to avoid it. But from that point, he made a really good comeback.

I think the three stopper worked well for him. When he needed to make overtakes, he made them clinically. And he's just bolstering his claim for that 2020 seat. And I think he will take that if he hasn't already got it. Driver of the day, Harry, who have you got on this one? I'm either going. I'm thinking between Albon or Perez. I'll give it to Perez because he was starting at the pit lane.

And that was harsh. And even the, I don't know, the FAA, they kind of admitted that was a harsh penalty, but they couldn't really give him anything else, which they're now looking at. But for missing the way bridge in practice and sent to the pit lane is a very harsh penalty. And he drove really well. Like Albon, he was making good moves through the field. and he's that he's not front-running driver

as Perez as we've seen he didn't make it work in the McLaren year but he is that kind of driver you want for that kind of race where he needs you need to get through the field make a strategy work make the tyres work Sergio Perez is your man so solid solid solid race from him

driver of the day for me and who is your driver in the day Sam I think there's a possibility of four people in my mind getting driver of a day Harry, you've already given it to Perez, so I'm going to refrain from doing so, but he deserves a huge amount, bucket loads of credit, a fantastic drive from, as Crofty continually referred to him so much that my girlfriend went, why do they keep calling him the Mexican? Because they didn't say his name so many times. The other man actually got driver of the day in the, for once, a deserved driver of the day giving on TV, Alexander Albon, again, a brilliant driver. We've given him praise here. The other two, Landon Norris, Daniel Ricardo. I'm going to say Danny Ritch. just because he made those hard they made that ones that work brilliantly well kept it in front of what was a really quick

McLaren car and beat by a few seconds it was best of the rest he just kept himself out of trouble that Renault is not that quick it's quick it's not that quick he's not that quick here a great drive Holgerberg was well far back and couldn't get the ties to work as he did so for me honourable mention for Lando Norris

did a really good job but Danny Rick is my driver of day I agree with all the names that you've said I thought all of them delivered really solid performances. I'm going to give it to Daniel Ricardo as well, though. I thought he put in a stonking effort. That first stint that he did, like you've said earlier on, Harry, that he wasn't that far away from Shaol-Clau-Claire, and he was kind of holding a gap. And he made the one-stop work. He went a long way on those hard tires. So he, signs and Perez were the guys who went the longest on the hard tires. So, yeah, he managed to make those work, even with those charging two-stoppers,

behind McLaren seemed to have the edge over Renault in qualifying, and then Daniel Ricardo really pulled it out of the bag in the race. He just seemed up for it today. So yeah, Daniel Ricardo, for me, he is, he is driver of the day. Sorry, we are just now going to watch footage of Danny Cavia. Yeah, absolutely torpedoes. So, yeah, just watching that for the first time. Worst driver of the day, Harry, who have you got for this one? Can I say Ferrari? I don't think Ferrari is technically a driver, but... Worst driver of the day.

I don't know. Who had a particularly bad race? This is good. Come back to me. I'll tell you what. We'll give you a bit of time to think. Come Abu Dhabi. We'll just ask you for all of the last three races,

worst driver of the day. Simple. Sam, who'd you got? Well, I'd like to say I'm a bit of an exception, and I've beaten Harry to the punch on this, but also equally difficult to choose a worst driver of the day. I'm going to have to give it to LeCler just because the lack of ability to all those tires, the lack of fight, you know, it was just slow from Ferrari.

I don't, I mean, he was able to set the fastest lap at one point. I think he did actually get fastest lap of the race in the end. So there was pace in the end. that Ferrari. They clearly could turn it around. They had the fastest car on track out of anyone at any given point at one point in that race. So they could make it work. So something in there allowed them not to. And Leclercée needs to have a broader and wiser mind, I think, to overcome those hurdles going forward. So tough race for Ferrari, really difficult to pick someone out of this group. And I know that Blaine's can have some wise old answer that we've forgotten about. But for me,

for me, yeah, show Leclercourt. But just because I feel like he realistically should be doing better and that car clearly was capable of more. So just Charlotte Clove. I'm going with Antonio Divenazzi. There you go. Yeah, I thought he had a bit of a bit of a NAF race. Sorry to use the word NAF Antonio, but that's kind of how I sum up your race. He was there with Kimmy and Qualifying and he has regularly been there with Kimmy and qualifying

over the, since the summer break. But in the race, whereas Kimmy Reichen got that lightning start, Jovanazzi kind of only went backwards and obviously the Williams guys and really the Haas guys were completely out of it. So Jovenazi didn't really make much of an impression in the race.

It seems as if that Alpha's performance as a whole, not just including Jovanazzi, seems to be waning away at the end of the season, which is really disappointing because they seem to be going in the opposite direction at the end of last season. but yeah, I didn't think he had a great race. Kimmy had the edge on him.

So, yeah, Antonio is my worst driver of the day. I'm going to go for stroll, because when your teammate starts in the pit lane, he shouldn't beat you. Sorry, that one got me. Yeah, I mean, it's fair enough. Part of the way through the race, I was like, why is stroll last?

What's happening? He hasn't pitched. He just kept having more tires, didn't he? He doesn't care for it? I'm just open the window. The neighbourhood thing will be very confused. Also, as I said earlier, Stroll doesn't understand how tire

compounds work because he went like 12 million years on the soft tire and then pitted for the hard tyres and left them on for about two laps. So... Confirms, Strull is driving around dinosaurs whilst in prehistoric America.

Yeah. He doesn't understand a lot of things though, does he? Oh. Oh, Harry. Savage. Sorry, Lance. What can I say about that? Savage, wrecked.

Oh, wow. Yeah. Should move on to Lewis Hamilton, who outside of the race has obviously won his sixth world championship. Didn't cap it off with a victory, but he is one title away now from Michael Schumacher. He stands alone as the second most successful driver distancing himself. from Fangio. Harry, it's been another great season from Lewis Hamilton, wraps it up with two to go.

What have you made of his season? Is it just what we've come to expect from him? Yeah, I was thinking this earlier. He obviously had another fantastic season because he's just won another world title, but he's just there all the time. Like, he's in qualifying this year, he's not perhaps had as many polls as he might have had

in previous years, because Botas has suddenly stepped up and some of the other teams have as well. But he just brings it home. Again today, he started P5, but then he finished P2, and he's always there in the race. And when others are falling by the wayside, today was Ferrari, other times it's been Bottas.

He's always there picking up points or winning a race. And that's what makes the champion, that consistency throughout an entire season. Yeah, I'm not saying he's had a bad year at all, and he hasn't because he's won't say he's had an outstanding year he's had outstanding races but it's just it sounds like I'm being negative I'm not it's like it's not boring to be consistent is what I'm trying to say and he has been so consistent once again this year as he has been over the past couple of years ever since Rosberg Rosberg retired really 17 18 19

have been so consistent for Hamilton and but he doesn't look like like he's going to slow down any time soon. So I feel for the rest of the field come the next few years because Hamilton doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. So yeah, congratulations to him if you're listening, Lewis, which I'm really sure you are. I'm almost certain he'll be listening. I don't want to put money on it, but I'm almost certain.

Sam, where do you think this title ranks with Lewis Hamilton is now six that he has to his collection? This has been a particularly strong, but also oddly challenging year for Lewis Hamilton. You need to remember that he has not had a pole position since I think it was Germany. He does have the most victories not on poll in a season of all time with eight so far. It could be more. There could be more to come with two more. He is not finished outside the top three apart from on three occasions.

He's like a fourth or fifth and ninth, Germany being the ninth of that crazy weather that we had. That's incredibly consistent stuff. I generally think this could be up there with his best performance that we've ever seen from Lewis Hamilton. And that is slightly terrifying for other drivers on the grid. I mean, Max Verstappen in terms of raw pace, Charlerclochlor in terms of raw pace, in terms of consistency and raw pace, I still think there is no one on the grid that matches Lewis Hamilton.

He even comes close to Lewis Hamilton's ability. And if Masekis can produce a car equal to the ability in comparison to the rest of the field for next season, I think Louis Hamilton. Hampton walks away with a seventh world title. This has just been breathtakingly good from the Brit. He deserves six. He's... The fact that before we went on air,

we saw that someone put him 10th in their all-time top 10 is hilarious. I... We've seen history be made. Congratulations, Glewis. I don't know when we will see someone else gets a six world title. You never know. Maybe the next 10 years,

Sherlock Graham, Max, Stapham, might go win 10. You don't know. But you don't feel like you see it off. and all of a sudden Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton to cut from a completely different cloth, those key drivers. They had to change the rules for Schumacher to stop him from winning, and it does feel like they've had to change the rules to stop Lewis Hamilton winning. So for both of them, this is being an astoundingly good year from Hamilton,

who is at his oldest point ever, because that's how time works. So well done to Lewis. That was so eloquent until that was. I can't be eloquent. Damn. You nearly had it. Sam. So nearly had it.

Threw it away on the last one. Frustration. Eking out to Sam's expression there. Yeah, Hamilton's at a sublime year. Whether it's his best of his career, I'm not too sure. He has obviously been a little distant on Saturdays. Only four pole positions in 19 race is really surprising for Lewis Hamilton's normal standards. But regardless, yeah, it's been pretty epic.

Sorry, I am going to interrupt myself there. Sam is currently spraying his cactus, and that's not a euphousal. I just realised they both look quite dry. I thought I'd give them a quick spray when I wasn't needed. I was probably going to make the most important point ever, but it's going to have to wait. Ignore it, Ben. Oh, Siriscus, go. I can't remember what I was going to say.

There aren't so many. you know, podcast, YouTube channels dedicated to Formula One, but none of them would interrupt a speech about Alice Hamilton's Sixth or or Chavidit with one of them team members watering their cacti. It doesn't happen anywhere else. And that is why people need to listen to us because this is unique. It's unique, yeah, unique. Can't argue against that word.

Sorry, folks. That's quite all right. Yeah, Hamilton's been epic all year. It's as if there isn't really much of a weakness to his game. Of course, qualifying has been a little bit off this year compared to previous years. But his work within the team, obviously the team themselves have been brilliant in terms of their strategy this year. And in terms of race pace, Hamilton just can't be touched on a consistent basis. We've seen, like in Austin, that Bottas, uncertain weeks can be there with Hamilton.

He can beat him. He's got the ability to do so. He just can't do it every single race. He'll do it once, won't do it for the next three races. They'll do it again, and then it'll be another three races. And at the end of the day, Hamilton has won more races this year than he hasn't. It's just a crazy stat. And he's done so many of them after not starting in first place.

So, yeah, a really great year for Lewis Hamilton. There's just not really much of a weakness to his game. We've seen him win in different ways all throughout the year. We saw Hungary where he had to play catch-up to Vastappen. We've seen him win. in Austin and in Mexico where he's had to really rely on tire. Sorry, in Mexico, he didn't win Austin, obviously, but Mexico where he's had to rely on tire management.

And there have been some races in there as well that have just been a classic Hamilton driving into the distance and no one being able to keep up with him. Harry, we've often seen that especially the last two years where Hamilton hasn't had the best starts the year, but then second half of the year, he's blown away Spastin Battle. this year he had an excellent start to the year how much do you think how much of an importance does that play in his championship win that incredible start from Mercedes

yeah well i'm not going to put it all down to that because he's still been good after the summer break but it's definitely been important because the other teams did eventually catch them up and we've seen that in this latter half of the year although mercedes have still won the last last three races so they're still there Yeah, they were mighty at the start of the year. Do you remember when we all thought Ferrari you're going to be fastest? I'd like to input here and say, I didn't buy into that, so not including myself. I am sick of it.

You're such a smug gear, all right? We get it. Ladies and jents, Ben is wearing a hoodie that has Mercedes on it, so he is basically Bono. He looks like Bono as well. Bono's an attractive guy. I'll take that. I'm more than happy with that one.

Get it there, Ben. I've been fasting Bordeaux, so... Sorry. Seve Bordeaux. Yeah. Oh, Mercedes, yeah. They had a fantastic start

for the year. And Hamilton, I mean, Hamilton and Bottez maximized it. Bottas did in the first race, but after that, Hamilton just went on a, which is a winning machine for a while, wasn't he? So until we got to, what was it, Austria or something? thing. You win

championships by winning races and picking up points. So when he wasn't winning races, he was picking up points, as I've mentioned already. So it's obviously responsible in part, but his consistency is what wins your championship. And I mean, we're probably going to be asking this question over the next sort of three

or four months or so, so we won't dwell on it too much. And we've pretty much been asking it for our entire adult life. Sam, how do one of Red Bull of Ferrari, stop Mercedes and Hamilton? I don't know. They simply need to be better everywhere. And I think that each team does have a driver that is capable if given the car.

And I think only then, if they are given the car, can they beat Lewis Hamilton? I think if you were to put them in an equal car, Lewis Hamilton, Charlotte Clair, Max Verstappen, just those three on the grid, an equal car across the whole season, I still think Lewis Hamilton comes out on top. I think he's just got the consistency, the wit, the strategic thought process, the ability to moan his engineer to the point that we all attempt to just shut up, but it still gets the point across that what he needs is going to happen.

He thinks outside the box. They need to do something like change the regulations. Otherwise, I don't know what they could do to beat him. He is a supernatural talent. And if he's not in your top five, top four drivers, of all time, which I know is difficult to compare because of time scales and whatnot, but you're a fool if you haven't put him in your top four or five, because he is a wonderful, wonderful talent that we get to witness.

And I don't think anyone, of pure talent alone, could beat him at the moment. Well, you speak of the regulations, of course. On Thursday, there was a press conference, Chase Carey, Jean-Tott, Ross Braun, all involved announcing the F-1-2020 regulations. It's been a long time coming. It's been in direct competition with Brexit to see which would happen first. And finally, F12021 has won that battle. So well done.

It's true. I mean, they were in direct competition there. Get changed to deliver Brexit now. Oh, wow. Ross for Brexit. So I really shouldn't have opened that can of worms. But so the F12021 regulations have been announced. Cost cap, new cup.

are loads of different things, standardized parts, there's going to be an increase in those. Harry, what was your initial reaction to these regulation changes? It gets a thumbs up for me. That's hard-earned as well.

It's very hard-earned. Yeah, look, they've been teasing it for a little while now, and it seemed at one point they might not get over the line, and I think the mood in the paddock was one of surprise that Ferrari eventually agreed to it, so I don't know what they've either promised them to be threatened, them with but Ferrari have agreed to it so there's a cost cap for the first time in Formula One and

I think that's gone maybe slightly under the radar it that's a big deal for 101 for a sport that loves to spend the dollar having a cost cap I mean it's still 175 million dollars and it doesn't include like driver salaries and all of that jazz but it's a cost cap nonetheless it's a good start that's important for me the car cars look what I know it's a mock-up but The cars are going to look slick, quite retro. It all looks good to me. The halo is built into the car more efficiently. So I like that.

No fancy aerobits like that as well. It's all getting a thumbs up for me. It just needs to work, okay? I can't give it two thumbs up until it works. They'll get two thumbs up. Wow. F1 will be on the edge of their seats, wondering if Harry Ede will give them that second thumbs up

that they desire. Sam, what was your initial reaction to these regulation changes? Thumbs up from you? I will give it two thumbs up because I think they're bloody brilliant and if someone comes along and makes it work properly 100% in 2021, I will purposely hire people in to give more thumbs up just to show how thumbs upy I am about these new regulations. I was going to say what else would you put up if it works. Inappropriate comment, unnecessary. I also, investment-wise, I feel like there are better avenues for us to go down. Not going to lie.

Yeah, we haven't made a lot of money yet. Anyway, unlike us not making a lot of money, F-1 can go look to spend a lot of money. Apart from your top three highest earning members of staff, marketing, drivers. Everything else, though. Bonus. Oh, yeah. Apart from that, though, you're going to not spend a lot of money. But I love that, because that means that realistically a team can actually speck

get out and go, right, minimum, we're to hit that cost cap so we know we're spending the most we can on the car and the base team, we can enter Formula One. That means that people go, I can enter Formula One, I have a plan, I'm not going to go bankrupt in two years, and Bernie Eckleston will laugh at me from his many mansions. So, I love that. Also, I love that it's been branded, sexier cars. I am all for having one of these on my, not the actual car. Again, don't have a lot of money, but a poster of the car, I love that the wheels and the sidepogs are going to be having LED panels. I love that you can see information about it. I love that it's going to look like Trong or something like that driving round F1.

That is incredible. Bring it on. I love it. I love that the wings are so aerodynamically well made that the air is going to be pumped up into the air by an extra few feet. So cars can drive straight under, only losing between 5 and 10% aerodynamic loss going around corners. And got the classic 40 to 50% aerodynamic. loss around most corgues, unlike maggots, becats, Castle, Stowe, I'm making up names now. Whatever.

Where basically you lose 60% aerodynamic performance if you're not able to somehow cut through that. So much getting to changing Formula One and Brawn, Mr Ross Braun, the man that won that title has once again turned up a good 10 years later and done it all again. It is fantastic and I'm so excited for 2021 that I always. wish we could just skip over 2020 because these rules are brilliant. They are, it's shorter weekends. So like Ben's always asked for, the practice is. Park Fermi now starts in FP3.

Brilliant. I love it. That's fantastic to see as well. Less tunnel time, more simulation time. You just, we're going to get way more variants in races. Teams are going to be much closer together. LED panels on cars and less money, but closer competition means more teams. So many thumbs up.

My toes are up. My thumbs are up. I love it. I love it. Bring it on. I'm going to give it 1.5 thumbs up just to be awkward. That is awkward. I don't even know if that's allowed, but that's what I'm going to go ahead with.

I really like everything. The cars look great. Really excited to see how they work. Of course, we're unsure as to where sort of the dirty air is, whether that is going to be completely solved or at least partially solved, I really hope it is. Everything coming out of testing for this car is that it will be solved at least to some degrees. So hopefully those testing is not a false, it does end up coming to fruition. And there isn't anything hidden there that could be a spanner in the works.

Yeah, I think the cost cap is something that I've been wanting for a long, time in Formula One, a number of years now. And finally, they've gone ahead and they've done it. 175 million, I think, is a fair amount. It's about what the midfield and lower end teams are spending at the moment. I think a lot of the teams are currently spending between 150 and 175. So I'm very happy to see sort of that involved. And Mercedes and Ferrari are going to have to find a way to scale back massively. They're going to have to scale back by something close to 50%. So, yeah, It's going to be interested to see how they cope with these regulation changes, but really happy that it's managed to get through because there were times, like you said, Harry, that it was really unsure as to whether it would work. I don't understand why driver salaries aren't included. I don't really know why the top three members of a team aren't included.

I mean, they're all part of a team, so why shouldn't they be included in this cost cap? but that is perhaps picking at it a bit. I think overall the fact that it's even there is good enough for me. Yeah, I'm happy with how they've done the sort of restructuring of the weekend. I would have liked to have seen them get rid of the practice session, but I like at least that they've managed to get rid of one day. Whether those teams will manage to fill it with sponsorship stuff anyway, who knows, so it might not be much of a break for the drivers.

But, you know, at least F1's doing their bit. yeah i i i'm just really happy they managed to get this over the line they've seen many occasions throughout the year where it wouldn't happen someone would come in and stop it um they've all agreed to it i'm a bit dubious as to what ferrari have agreed with the fiaaa to get this through because i can't i can't understand why they accepted it from their perspective but maybe they just want to change as well um and going back to the cost cap again one of the best things is that because the top teams can outspend everyone else, that just eliminates or at least puts on the back burner some of the other qualities it takes to win races or to do well in races.

Like, you know, driver performance is kind of eradicated when there are a couple of teams doing so, so well in the sport. If we can even it out a bit more, then suddenly things like driver performance manages to push a team over the edge, which is what we want to see make the difference, not cost. So, yeah, all four of these changes. Well done, F1. 1.5 thumbs down. Ben has thrown down a crazy almost gang sign with his thumbs then for those that can't see. I think the reason why driver caps weren't involved in that is because I think there's every chance it would drive off a lot of the top racing names in the sport. I mean, Lewis Hamilton's wage alone would be about 35% of Mercedes' entire budget if they had to include his current wage now

in that 17025 mini cost cap. So either he'd have to take. a monumental cost cut or we start losing some big games. So I'm okay with it. Maybe they need to put a separate cap on what drivers can be paid. I don't know. But for me, I can kind of understand it. I think that's the point. You have to have those sort of trade-offs.

Do you pay someone like Lewis Hamilton that amount of money? Because we know he is so, so good and he might make the difference for the team. Or do you go with a slightly cheaper lineup and develop your car? I think these kind of trade-offs, this kind of decision-making, that's what I want to see. It's like design your own F-1 team. It's like we're making a game. I love it. A sport manager.

Absolutely plug. I'd be really interested to see if they'd had this budget cap next year without the rules, what would happen? And then other new rules as well in 2021. Just see how it would even up, if it would even up at all. That would be interesting, actually. And that leads me on to the final question about this before before we end the show. Do you think, and Chase Kerry doesn't see this as a problem, but I'm not so sure,

do you think some of the top teams such as Ferrari Mercedes Red Bull will go out next season, massively spend in preparation for 2021 so that they have an advantage before these regulations come in? Oh, God, I had not even thought about that then. Why not, though? If you can, I would. If Masegas is debating leaving the sport, which we've heard many rumours of. And of course, now we will have McLare and Mouss once again in 2021, with Landon Norris being side by Mosega's management, which is very interesting. Maybe they'll go, we'll go out with a bang, but just enough of a bang to celebrate seven consecutive years of Formula One, which there's every chance they win that seventh title.

And we'll leave it there. I don't know. Ferrari definitely will make the most of it. We've never seen Ferrari not try and bend a rule to get the most down of it. Red Bull, they're super competitive. So if they can, then why not? But if I was one of them, I would too. I would definitely throw as much money in development for the 2021 rules before the 2020 run rules.

They almost need to set a date before you're allowed to invest in anything 2021 related. And in that way, that can't happen. Yeah, this was kind of the discussion of whether the cost cap should come in the year before the regulations change. And you might avoid that. Harry, do you see it as a potential problem? It can be a potential problem. But I watched the press conference when they were announcing it. And Ross or someone said that there is like a voluntary,

it is voluntary, obviously, but a voluntary cost cap thing. So they have to submit their, they don't have to submit, but they can submit their expenses by the end of the year or before the year, whatever. And it goes through this new system to trial the system. So it'd be interesting to see how many people, how many teams do that? They don't have to because, as I said, it's voluntary. Yeah, they could, the top three teams could theoretically just go and spend a shed load of money. And that was brought up, I think, but one of the journalists in the conference.

But I hope not. They might do, but I hope not. I'd be interesting to know who is. I think it is still raising point the lowest spending team currently in Formula One. But it can't be that far off now because obviously the huge investment they've now been given over the last 12 months. But, I mean, a lot of teams have got to be spending a lot of money. money. Toros obviously have the Red Bull investment, Alpha, Renault, a Renault, Williams and MacLau.

I've got so much private funding. But I don't know. It's going to be slightly balanced out now, surely. Yeah, I think these teams like Mercedes and Ferrari are going to have to scale back to a similar level to what the guys at Williams and Torroso are currently spending. So it'd be really interesting to see how they scale down because that is not going to be an easy process. They're going to have to make cuts and they're going to have to work their way around it.

whilst obviously preserving as much of the DNA as they can that has got them so many titles in a row. I'm sure we'll talk plenty more about the F1-2021 regulations. Of course, we've got another year of speculation on that. So we will return to that topic. Sam, for this episode, do you want to get us out of here? I think I shall. Just a quick point for out for all those who are around.

We are so close to 1,000 subscribers. We have got some silly footage prepared to go that we'd love to see, but we're also willing to do another video to commemorate that. If you've got some questions or some ideas that you'd like to throw at us, then please get in the comments, let us know what you'd like to talk about or what you'd like us to do. We'd love to give it a shot. What are your thoughts on what we'll discuss today? We'd love to go down as well. Please get down in the discussions. Have a conversation. Remember, always be nice and civil, and we'll join you down there. Leave a like. If you

haven't already, please subscribe as well. It'll be a massive help. In the meantime, I've been Samuel Sange. I've been Ben Hocking. And I've been Harry Eats. And remember, keep breaking late. part of the sports social podcast network.