The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Late Braking F1 Podcast: 08/09/2019

Episode Date: September 8, 2019

Reaction after the Italian Grand Prix as Charles Leclerc wins Ferrari's home race. Their first since 2010. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's been a long time waiting. 2010 was the last time Ferrari were able to claim a home win at Monter. But finally, 2019, Charles Leclair, in his first year with the team, he has got the win, Italian Grand Prix, ahead of the two Mercedes, Bottas in second, Hamilton in third. Crazy scenes. Sam, what did you think of Leclair? I love the race, and I thought the Claire put up an absolutely valiant effort.

holding off two incredibly mature, incredibly talented, incredibly experienced drivers in the likes of Hamilton and Bottas. It's no mean feat. Those two both know how to pressure. They both go how to win races, and they both know how to overtake wheel to wheel. They are two of the best overtakers on the grid. Charlotte Clare showed maturity through the years.

He's only 21 years old and displayed absolute poise for the majority of the race. For 90% of it, I think he drove absolutely perfectly. It was an outstanding performance. and so lovely to see a Ferrari take the top spot once again at Monza. So, yeah, I think he did a nine out of ten. There was a couple of occasions where I think he might have been a little bit too more, if my own liking.

Harry? My opinion. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a bloody great race from the Clare again. That's two races in a row that he's had a gearbox. He's had a Mercedes of his gearbox for some laps. and more so they'd clam around. And he soked on the pressure just about,

a couple of mistakes here and there. And like Sam said, it was a couple of the moves were maybe on the line. But yeah, as long as he didn't go over the line, I think it was okay. Yeah, another great win for him. And he's cementing himself as team leader

in that feather outfit, isn't it? Yeah, that could get controversial as we go forward as to whether Leclair will assume a number one role, or whether they'll remain on equal footing. Of course, Leclair with his win today going ahead of Sebastian Vettel in the championship. I don't think there was a point in the race today where there was more than two or three seconds between Leclair and the next best car. I think Hamilton was within DRS range for a loss of that first stint.

And when his challenge subsided and Bottas came in, there was not more than about two seconds between him, the two of them. Spottas did get it into DRS range once or twice as well. So LeCler had that pressure on him from the word go. Yes, there were a couple of incidents where he went to the very limit, and it's a matter of opinion as to whether he went too far, and he went over that limit. At least with the breaking into turn four, he left a car's width to Hamilton,

but it was pretty much anything more, and they're colliding, anything less, and it's nothing to talk about. So it was right on the borderline. Yeah, it was a fascinating race. And it would be interesting to see if Leclair can take this forward at all. I am quite disappointing, actually, at how Lecler defended a couple of times. Like I said, I think he rang a fantastic at race.

And he deserves the race wing. He really does. I think even if Hamilton did get past, he would have immediately had the ability to get straight back past again the other way around. but you don't swipe a driver, especially at that speed, and that is what he did. Hamilton had to immediately hit the brakes on,

when the curve, basically cut the curb, on the, when he locked up the brakes on the first corner, the Rastphilia, he cut across Hamilton, how would I had to back out of it and look for the other way around. That is a swipe.

That's a max for Staffan last year-esque move that is a blatant. I don't want to let you pass, so I'm going to do everything I can. Hamilton, if he misjudges that by a millimeter, Hamilton has his nose just in line on that back tire. Hamilton's flying through a gravel trap.

That is a little bit gaudy for my liking. He really had a black and white flag to his name, which seems to have only been benefiting Charlerc, since it's coming to play in the last two races, really. And I think realistically, that should have been the other half of the yellow card. I think he probably should have had a penalty there and then. But of course, that was then combined

with the first half of the black and white, where he essentially did squeeze Lewis Hamilton off the track onto the gravel, previously before black and white flags have been brought back into common use, that's a penalty there and then. That's a slam-dump penalty. There was not a car with car width left on the track for the other driver. It caused him to possibly drive dangerously and have to take action off the track. Every other race, that's a penalty. It's not consistent. I genuinely think that Charlotte-Clau has been incredibly lucky

to have not been awarded at least a two or three-second time penalty for the way he defending against Lewis Hamilton. And that for me, it just needs to count, like we said, last time out, really, a quiet wording his ear of going, just got to be careful with that, because if you keep doing it, there's either going to be an accent, or you're going to lose out on a race wing. Harry, hard and fair all the way,

or? Pardon? Hard and fair all the way, or was a, the second one is, yeah, definitely, I would have given the black and white flag for the second one.

The first one, I think, was, was, I don't know, it's difficult, and we saw what this happened last year. He got the penalty, didn't he? Um, Yeah, maybe if Hampton had been fully alongside, because he was still behind him, we may seem a different outcome to that.

But Hamilton sort of, when they hit, get to the corner, they're about halfway alongside. I don't know. I think what they gave him was fair, but then they didn't give it for the second one, which they probably should have done. So, yeah, like Samson said, a bit inconsistent, but I think the first one was just, it was on the lie, but okay, second one probably deserved something else. I mean, I don't really understand what the whole purpose of this black and white flag is if you're not going to implement it. I mean, he was given the black and white flag for that first incident.

Fair enough. That was the steward's decision. Okay. So at that point, he is on a warning. He was informed over the radio and it was publicly broadcast over the on TV. And at that point, you have to assume that the next incident is going to be a penalty. Because if it's not, then what's the point in having a black and white flag? you might as well just not even not even have it there and then another incident obviously did happen you had him skipping over the um the first corner um able to keep the position um which you know if you're not going to give another if you're not going to penalize that based on the last one

then don't even have the black and white flag a whole system in place there's there's no point in it yeah my frustration with the cutting of the corner of the way that they're clergy and a few other drivers have done in the past is there is a runoff area there. If you don't make the corner, these drivers, as we saw Hamilton do, he snapped the front left and he went through the runoff property as you should. Lecler almost found a very comfortable middle ground where he didn't lose a position. He didn't really lose any time, but he also didn't have to take to the runoff zone, but it didn't get the other half of the black and white flag. So it was almost like, hey, you've jumped to curb, fine, carry on. If you, but the whole event is worthwhile of a, uh,

another half of black and white flag. And I generally think the two together, yes, separately, probably got worth a penalty on their own. But the performance overall, I think at least worth a two to three second penalty. Yeah, I think they just need to be consistent. Like, if they want, they need to set a precedent. If they want there to be no penalty for skipping over the first corner, then so be it. But they need to be consistent with these. And it just hasn't been the case once again.

Mercedes, they decided to pit Hamilton onto the medium tires. Ultimately, they fell away quite a lot in the later part of his stint. He did end up getting the fastest lap after pitting with a few laps to go. Bottas waited a bit longer, went onto the medium tires, but had fresher tires at the end. Do you think Mercedes played their hand as well as they could have done, Harry? Yeah, I mean, once Vettel had his incident, which we'll touch on later. he the same

had the the luxury of they can split their strategy so with Hamilton they went for the undercut and then with Bottas

went for the over car and it almost worked it almost worked for Hamilton he almost got past the Clair on a couple of occasions Botas I don't know

I mean again he was just as close as Hamilton was come the end of the race but yeah those tyres were getting towards the edge towards the end

yeah I don't know what else they could have done I just think the Ferrari was just too quick. And they were caught in that turban in the air for too long so that ties just didn't last. Yeah, Mercedes-don't. I can't see what more they could have done to try and out-fox one Ferrari, but just LeClair held on really well.

Sam, do you agree that Mercedes did all they could? I mean, the first thing we have to give credit to is the absolute strength of that Ferrari power unit, a straight-line speed that that Tofosi engine possesses is breathtakingly quick. The fact that Lewis Hamilton had double-toe at one point, DRISO, and Charlotte Clare didn't have DRS and he still didn't get past him is, you know, a real kind of off-the-cat moment to Ferrari for that impressive show. It's a shame that it won't apply pretty much anywhere else for the rest of the season, but a fantastic display of actual engineering from Ferrari. I think, as Harry said, Mercedes is absolutely everything they realistically could. I think the Ferrari in terms of straight-line speak was just too much from Mercedes.

And undercut and overcut, what more could you really do unless you're going to work them perfectly together to give the double toe to try and maybe pick. some removal of Leclerc. It will end up being ridiculously complicated. They probably end up crashing or

something silly like that. I think Bottas bottled it at the end, but we'll go into that maybe a little bit later. But yeah, I think Mercedes dig as much

as they really could have done. But how would it dig say? Can I have more power? So maybe there was a little bit more power there and they're thinking of saving that power unit for later on into the season.

It'd be interesting to see. But yeah, for me, Mercedes ran a very good race. The only complaint I would have is, well, two actually. Firstly, I think Hamilton should have gone onto the hard tires. I think going into the pits that early, it worked out that LeClaire had enough

to defend with on those hard tires that by the end of the race, they were far too good. And if Hamilton had stayed out there, there probably would have been double figures in terms of seconds between Leclair and Hamilton. And the only other thing I would say is, I think they should have done it the other way around. I think Bottas should have come in earlier, perhaps goaded LeClair into that strategy. And then Hamilton went longer. And I think he might have, and as he say, Sam, we will probably get into this. I think Hamilton might well have got LeCler at the end of that race, whereas Bottas didn't. Obviously very difficult to say, but I would suggest that Hamilton might have had a better chance of doing it. And it proved that that was the better strategy of the two. And because Bottas was

quite a few seconds behind LeClaire when Leclair made his stop and the gap was much less at the end of the race. So if Hamilton had done that strategy, he might well have won it. Yeah, but I think Mercedes, they weren't quite able to do what they did last year. Of course, it was a similar situation in that Reichen and was kind of left isolated. At that point, they probably didn't have the top speed advantage that they do now so that Rikinen couldn't defend against Hamilton, LeClair just about could. But they alluded to it at the end of the race where these two Grand Prix have been so good for Ferrari in terms of their car suiting the circuit and you think of this race,

Mercedes have come away with it with more points than Ferrari. So Mercedes now can look forward to Singapore where theoretically Ferrari are not going to present much of a challenge. So yeah, I think all in all Mercedes have done all right from these couple of races. Driver of the day, Harry, who are you going for? No, I'm going to go to Claire.

I was thinking maybe Ricardo, but no, look like for me. Yeah, held on. We've spoken about his slightly dodgy tactics, but I think they were okay in the end overall. And yeah, and to have that pressure of Lewis Hamilton on your gearbox for pretty much 40 laps of the race, and then you're also in front of the Defosi driving a Ferrari. Yeah, it's pressure that his teammate can't handle. So, yeah, he's my driver of the day. Sam? I have to realistically agree with Harry, but I'm not going to go down that route for the sake of not having. the same answer to all of us. I'm going to know for his other answer, Daniel Ricardo.

That reno was surprisingly lightning fast going through the, going around Monsor, surprising how little drag they have on that reno. And it's incredible to see just how well both those cars did. Holkenberg really struggling, of course, against Albaugh right at the end. But Ricardo did a fantastic job. He was light years ahead of his teammate. Of course, slightly unlucky with the BSC was Holkenberg. But Ricardo is capitalized really well. So I'm having to say that Ricardo deserves driver of the date, alongside Charlotte Cloho, I would have given it to had Harry not. I would probably go for either one of those two drivers. Actually, no, I've just remembered Sergio Perez exists.

I'm going to go with Sergio Perez. He had a really good race. Sorry, Sergio. I completely forgot about him. He had a very similar comeback to what Max Verstappan did. And of course, Vastappan did have the front wing damage that Perez didn't have to deal with. But, of course, Vastappen in a much, much quicker cast. Yeah, I'm going to go with Sergio Perez.

Started well outside the top 10, took advantage of a few retirements in the midfield. Stroll, of course, getting involved with Vettel, that incident, which we will speak about. Don't worry. Yeah, I think I'm going to go with Perez. Some solid points for the team. And as we have seen with Force India slash racing point over the years,

they tend to get better as the season goes on. And it seems to be going that way again. It would be interesting to see if, for the last stretch of the season, and whether they can get towards the top of that midfield with maybe Renault and McLaren. And where there is a best, there has to be a worst. Harry, worst driver of the day? That's to be fair, yeah.

We all know there. We've got another deal there. Just horrendous. Yeah. I don't know what's more to say. No, that's fair enough. Sam? I have to entirely agree with Hattarie.

Sebastian Vettel. Not often do I actually squeal in a Formula One race when watching it, but I immediately jumped to my feet with both hands over my mouth in disbelief of what we've just seen. I think if that had maybe been on turn one of Hockenheim, where the corner speak is much more, we could have seen a possible another fatality there. That was an absolutely stupid. I don't care if he hasn't got the vision to look.

He is a four-time world champion, incredibly experienced driver. He knows that if you can't see, and there are going to be cars relatively close to you, you've just got to wait and be waved up by a marshal or sacrifice beating the car because it isn't worth another driver's health. That for me immediately ruins him to be towards the worst driver of the day. And also, he just never really recovered from that afterwards. So, yeah, so be there, appalling, appalling, Rose. Just say for a second, Vettel doesn't crash into Stroll as he rejoins the circuit.

He still gets a worse driver of the day. I think that that bit, and I will get onto that as well. I really think that was inappropriate. but if you take that out of proceedings, I still think he was the worst driver of the day. He was really slow. He made that mistake all by himself and dropped it there. None of the other top guys did that. And yeah, he paid the price.

He didn't really show a great deal of pace. I think he just about beat George Russell at the end, which says everything you need to know, really. He wasn't able to take fast. I was thinking he might be able to take fastest lap away. At least Valtry Bottas. Once Lewis Hamilton went in, he did a fastest lap. I don't think he was ever going to take that away. But theoretically, Vettl, who pit fairly late on for fresh mediums,

he should have been able to get the fastest lap and take it away from Bottas or Leclan. He couldn't. So, yeah, a real poor one from Vettel. I can't disagree. Talking about Vettel, his incident with Lanchstrol, of course, he beached it at Ascari, went to rejoin the circuit, clipped Lance Stroll, who then spun. That caused some sort of chain reaction

because, of course, Stroll nearly drove into Ghazley. Sebastian Vettel, do you think he should have been disqualified from the race, Harry? He's done with me. I thought you'd go with Sam first because he's got...

I know Sam's opinion. Yeah, if you do, then you've got to get... You got to bin Stroll as well. I know it wasn't his fault he got spun around in the first place. Yeah, look, it's 10 seconds. I know his race was ruined anyway,

and you never recovered, but you've got to set an example. It's the example to the younger generation of drivers. I just want to top, top that by saying that driving standards all weekend have been horrendous. Like, and even in an F3, they've read flagged F3 because they were doing the same thing that did an F1. Then we had the ridiculous shambles of Q3, which we'll get onto. And yeah, even in the race, and we've talked about Leclair. And yeah, I don't know, considering that recent events, I just thought driving standards were bad.

and this sort of topped it off. Yeah, and I know he probably couldn't have seen, but as Sam said, you've just got to, maybe just wait, get a Marshall to push you out, or it's just an instant reaction he actually just wanted to get back in the race. And he did stop slightly to let the runners go through and then flawed it, but should at least wait for his engineer to come on and say,

you've got a gap, now get back on the track. Yeah, as a city, well, as Sam said, it could have been a horrendous accident, because Stroll did everything he could come on, good to get out the way of it. Yeah, and then, but then Stroll on top of that, having complained of what Vettles just done, which was not good, then does the same thing. What's that about?

Yeah, I'll put them both in the bin. We've seen black flags for less, so, yeah, I think him and Stroll should have been qualified. Sam, I've got my popcorn at the ready. What do you think? after last week's horrendous events where a car comes back onto the track, not through any fault of that driver's own, of course, but emerges back on the track at a high-speed corner

and causes a fatal collision, possibly a double fatal collision, of course. We are still hearing news about the other unfortunate driver who's now in a coma in critical condition. That should send shockwaves to drivers on the grid, who all preached after that weekend. You don't know how dangerous driving a sports car is, how dangerous Formula One is. You don't understand the risks we go through

every single week to put on this show. Then stay bloody true to what you're saying because appalling behaviour from Sebastian Beto and almost worse from Lance Strohl. Lance Strohl got away from it. Lucky boy. Lucky, lucky boy. He then does exactly the same thing. If Gasoli is faster through Oskari

and ends up hitting stroll and causes a massive fatality, life long-lasting injury, any form of disastrous crash there, Struggle is almost more to blame their more Vettlers at that point because it's pure hypocrisy. Vettel goes better.

Rather DMF your car, rather get off the track, rather wait for a safety car to be called. We have so many safety measures in the sport that you are a responsible adult behind a car at the end of the day. You don't drive at the, kind of the opposite direction

to oncoming traffic, or you're moving over 100 miles an hour, regardless of what you're doing. I am genuinely appalled that there was no disqualification, there was no reg flag, there was no safety car, there was nothing. Sebastian Betel didn't even get a telling off over the radio. It got his penalty.

It is the most of a penalty you can receive while carrying on racing. But to me that isn't good enough. You need to give a message to other drivers. And normal road users that this kind of behaviour isn't okay. You will kill someone if you keep doing that. That happens on the wrong corner. Another person dies and it is just not good enough. slam dunk disqualification slam dunk i had no doubt in my mind the first time i saw the incident

i decided okay i wait for the replay just in case it was viewed slightly differently to what uh you know if second viewing was slightly better it wasn't it was actually worse i think um it was it was a slam dunk disqualification and i i really thought that they were going to do it uh and i'm really disappointed that they didn't because that just tells you that okay whilst you did receive the most severe penalty you can get minus a disqualification, it tells you that you have to do something worse in order to get disqualified, which I cannot understand what that would be. Because I can't remember the last time we actually had a disqualification,

and you don't want to see it, but if it's needed, it's needed, especially in light of what happened last weekend. Okay, Orooge is a quicker corner than Ocari is, but those cars are still going for Ascari very quickly. if you think how quickly the 2019 cars go through corners, it's really dangerous. And Landstrol was fortunate enough, well, I mean, fortunate slash skilled enough to get out of the way of it in the first instance. So it was just a minor tap rather than a full-on collision. But that was down to Stroll.

That was not down to any kind of caution from Betel. And this is an incident where I don't think it really matters who you support. I think it really matters if you are a passionate member of the Tofosi. I don't think it matters if you are a mad Sebastian Betel fan. I don't think it matters if you are a mad Mercedes or Hamilton fan. This is about safety. Safety trumps anything when it comes to fandom over a particular driver or team. Safety is the be-all and end all, and it's not good enough.

And the stewards should have recognised that and gone forth with an action that represented what he did. Bear in mind, he nearly hit the Renault. He nearly hit the second Renault coming through there. It wasn't far off it in him. And I think the only reason he didn't hit that Renault was because of luck. I don't think he stopped seeing that Renault. He's just gone for it. And, you know, like Sam said, vision or no vision,

you need to be aware of other drivers on circuit. You have a duty in that respect. And Sebastian Betel let down his fellow drivers today. And I'm not going to pull any punches on this one. I think it should have been a disqualification straight off. Lance Stroll, I think probably a disqualification as well. The only reason I say probably with Landstrol is because, first of all, there wasn't contact, but you could argue that doesn't really matter in this instance. But more

importantly, he did actually let a few drivers in front of Gasly go. He saw that they were there. He was stopped. He actually waited. There was a minor gap between whoever the car in front of Gasly was and Gasly thought that there was enough of a gap there. It's still really poor judgment on stroll's perspective. And I think there is a very good case for him getting a disqualification too. He of course did receive a slightly lesser sentence than what Vettel did. But yeah, slab done for me, no question about it. Disqualification. The only thing that avoids me more as well is it once again, steward inconsistency. How many times are we going to see stewards give one penalty for one driver, another penalty for

another? Longstroll, yes, Ben, like you said, he delayed his re-entry a little bit. I don't care if you delay your entry for two minutes. If you pull out on a driver doing that speed and possibly take them off the track or cause a collision, you've done exactly the same thing. Gassley has to drive so far around him onto gravel to avoid any contact. That's more Gassley than it is Stroll, in my opinion. I don't understand why Strull doesn't get a 10 second stop-go penalty, but just a drive-through. For me, once again, inconsistent judging by the stewards, both drivers should be off the circuit for that race, and they're really easy an example made out of this. We've had examples made out of big drivers beforehand, Hamilton, being one of them in the past,

has to come down to this. If like you said, Ben, safety is crucial. It is all-powerful in Formula One. You have to stick to it. You have to be harsh when someone's life has put at risk. And that could have so easily been two, three, maybe four drivers' lives put at risk on one corner in a race. So, yeah, they need to be consistent

and they need to be harsh when it comes to these things and they want. So you're right. For me, both drivers should be off that track immediately. I've just read that Vettel's now only three points away from a race band that he's got three events to not get another three points which would mean Giavanatsu would be in the feather and look who's back in town lads

it's only Marcus Erickson go on Markyek yeah so there you go there's a positive out of everything in this yeah that is very interesting yeah we'll have to see see what he does he needs to be a well-behaved feather over the next few races. Let's hope no one hits the pheasant. Yes, indeed.

So Sebastian Vettel, his incident and Landstrol's incident, wasn't the only bit of poor driving over the weekend. We saw that in qualifying, every single driver minus Carlos signs. And I'm not sure about Leclair, he might have made it as well, he might have made the line, but every other driver failed to get a second run in Q3 because they were too busy trying to back each other up so they didn't have to tow the rest of the field

round that Monza circuit. Sam, what did you think of it? Was it right that no penalties were handed out? And what can we do to avoid these shambolic scenes again? I mean, I have no issue with penalties not being handed out there. No one's life was in danger. No one did get anything technically wrong to another driver. They all just drove slowly.

which if they're all doing it, it isn't dangerous. It's just frustrating. It was farcical. It was embarrassing. It was hilarious to watch for a sport that earns as much money as Formula One, that has as much expertise as Formula One, that has as much technical analysis and expertise as Formula One does, that they all drive around at half speed, all next to each other,

waving their arms at each other for, no, you go, no, no, you go, please, there you go. It was hilarious. And I'm glad it's over, but next season, we have to come back. I don't know, with maybe a different Q, three technique just for Monsa, where teams are only allowed to go out in certain time slots two by two or something like that, and you get one shot at it. Because otherwise, it's going to be fast going to again next year. We saw it in F3.

That got red flag for the same reason, and maybe the same thing happened for Q1, but, for F1, rather. But something has to happen to stop that from happening again. It is just ridiculous behaviour to watch. And we lose all that excitement. You know, Q3 is a fantastic moment in any Formula one weekend, and we lost it. We did not get to see it. Even LeClau was frustrated, and he was the man on pole. So, yeah, something needs to be changed to stop that happening next year.

Otherwise, we will lose a lot of the fun that happens around the Monza Grand Prix. Harry, what do you think of the scenes on Saturday? I disagree with Sam. Keep it. It's great fun. I don't care that they get it. It's their own fault. They didn't get a lap in.

Yeah, it was a bit far school, and they all look stupid. But so what? There's literally their own fault, and they didn't get a chance to go for another lap, apart from science. I mean, imagine if he stole... I know it wouldn't happen, but imagine if he stole pole. He was the only one left on a lap.

That'd been hilarious. Anyway, yeah, they'll learn the lessons from this year. They're not going to do that again. They'll go out a bit earlier on than whatever they went. They only went out with like one minute 40 to go, which was just not enough time

because they're all waiting for each other to blink. So under normal circumstances, they'd be pushed for time. Yeah, but look, It was silly, but I don't mind. It doesn't happen at every race of the year. It's just this one. And it was a bit funny.

And it's only happened once. I know we saw an F3. And I get that they read Flagg, because that was all the drivers. And this is only nine of them. But yeah, it was funny. But I'm fine with it. It's not going to happen again. Yeah.

I can understand why no one was penalised, because essentially, if you crash into another driver and you get a penalty for it, that is because you have hampered the other driver's race, whereas in this instance, the only teams that they're affecting are themselves. You know, they're basically handing themselves a penalty with what they're doing. So there's no point in penalising them again. So, yeah, I can understand why there was no penalties handed out in that respect. You know, it's at their own detriment. They look stupid. And by proxy, the sport kind of looks stupid as well, which is a massive shame. And like you said, Sam, the excitement was really taken

out of that final two-minute Q-3 rush, but it was their own fault and they all look stupid as a result of it. I don't quite understand why particularly someone like Stroll or someone towards the back end of that top 10 didn't try and go out a few minutes beforehand to just set a lap on an open circuit. Okay, you don't get the tow, but at that moment you are definitely going to get a lap in, you're going to be uninterrupted on that lap. in case there is a late yellow flag or a red flag, you have got your lap there. We saw last time out of Belgium, okay, the toe's not quite as impactful at Spa as it is at Monza, but LeClau wasn't bothered about the toe. He said, you know what, I'm just going to go out and

do my lap, not bothered about a slipstream at all. I just want the open air, and he got pulled because of it. It'd be interesting if one of the other drivers out there decided to go with that same strategy, maybe went a minute earlier, and might well have got pole. Maybe there was room for Hamilton or Bottas to improve. And essentially with Hamilton and Bottas both there, one of them was going to get a tow anyway, regardless of what the other teams were going to do because one driver can tow the other. I thought it was a bit ridiculous. I have to admit, I thought it was a bit hilarious as well.

Can I interject about one more bit of controversy, actually, that I don't think it's getting brought up too much. Just to compile the ridiculousness of what's been going on. Mercedes dummy pit stops. I mean, it's about the 800th raw when Mercedes have walked out at a set of tires gone, oh, a car's driven past again,

and we said that maybe they should box but they haven't. Guess we'll go sit down again. It's getting a little bit silly now. It's against the rules. There is a rule that says you can't create dummy pit stops. And if Ferrari were falling for it every time, or other teams are falling for it,

but like, yeah, all right, fair enough. But they're literally not because they walk out and walk back in again. And then far are like, or Red Bull are like, that's, no. What a good idiot? So, yeah, I agree with Sam. It's a bit, like, that's a bit fast school as well. They should be, perhaps the FAA should be a bit stricter with like,

you can just come out and walk back in again, unless it's a genuine mistake, which I suppose it's hard to police. I think it's happened enough now that genuinely when they came out with those hard tires, I shouted at the TV, turn around, go away. Everyone knew you weren't going to pit. And what a surprise a minute later, they all stumbled. back inside. Like, last 13, you're like, you're definitely not coming in on this lap.

Oh, Dame, you had it all fooled, Nathaniel. Oh, wow. Oh, no. You came out with the tyres. I mean, you didn't pit. Oh, boy. Good one. I haven't seen that one.

I mean, maybe there should be a raw of doing this. But you can do dummy pit stops. But if you do a dummy pit stop, the driver thing isn't allowing the pit lane for the next three laps or something along those lines. So there is a, there is a actual, you know, deficit to doing it. You lose something. Do do it. So, uh, do too.

So, um, yeah, like maybe something else needs to be written into it, but it's quite funny to see. And I think if I am going to find Mercedes, if they do it again, go, oh, come on, you know, or another rule is we brought in, or they just need to say to Mercedes, stop it. Stop it. Stop it. You look fools. You look like a fool. Stop it. Oh, well. Yeah.

Yeah, it has happened a lot this season, the last couple of seasons, actually. It is getting ridiculous now. moving on to the midfield because we do like to talk about the midfield sometimes i feel like they're getting neglected in the conversation at times so we're going to give a massive shout out to reno p4 and p5 in the race 22 points to their name i think they've only got 65 for the season as a whole so pretty much a third of their points this season have come from this one grand prix ricardo just about ahead of hulk and berg well actually wasn't it was massive margin in the end wasn't it um so yeah they get a big advantage on maca who are

only pick up one point. Question is, Harry, do you think Renault can catch McLaren for P4? I don't know, actually, because I just... So obviously that Renault engine works well, because it must work well, okay? It had good power. I just think their car's got no downforce, which obviously a Monzaa makes no difference whatsoever, because you can go pretty fast. Yeah, we'll see what it's like when we get to Singapore, because that's a totally different

circuit again. They can do. I just don't think Renaud quite have the consistency of McLaren, although McLaren have had a couple of unlucky slash poorer races after the summer break. Yeah, and if Lando had had that fifth place in Belgium, they might be slightly different. They can catch them. We've seen Renae before. They've built up momentum as the years gone on.

They've caught Haas in 2018, didn't they? Well, they overtook Haas. Yeah, it's doable. We'll see how it plays out. Maybe that car is finally improving, but I do think it was exaggerated by the lack of the you didn't need to have a good setup. or a downforce setup for Monza, which helped them. Sam, do you think this good form will continue?

No, I don't. I think, playing simple. I think Macro have had their two dodgy races. I think that they were incredibly unlucky when it came to Norris's DNF and SPAR and how did they got that 10 points there. That would have been a massive jump for them. And then they cocked it up themselves,

you know, this time out in Monza with the poor pit stop. And that sacrifice, picked up at least sixth place with that. So that's at least 18 points they've dropped off. You know, if you then take those 80 points away, you know, Renov only getting about four points in total there. I generally don't think that the rest of the season suits Renno at all. They're a car with very little drag, but also very little downfalls, whereas McLaren are almost kind of like, Renner of the Ferrari of the Renault engines, and McLaren are the Red Ball of the Renault of the engines, and the rest of the season is just benefiting McLaren.

Even if they only score a point more every single race, I generally think McClaren overall are going I have bigger race base to be that little bit more competitive this season. I just can't see it happening. McClaren got such a strong driver, line up. Holgerberg switching off as well, which doesn't help anyone. I just can't see it happening. I think McClain will hold on. Yeah, I agree.

I think McLaren will hold on. This season has overall just been stupidly topsy-turvy with teams. I'm sure you look at last year and it was Mercedes that had good straight-line speed and had the advantage at high-power circuits or at least two years ago. And that's completely flip-flopped. And you've got Renault who were good at high-down-force circuits. Now they're apparently really good at places like Monza and Canada with their Renault power unit. I don't really understand how it's come to this.

But yeah, I think the circuit did exaggerate Renault's potential. Good to see, yeah, good to see them do well, P4 and P5. But, yeah, unless they can get their car working at the likes of Singapore, where they need good downforce. I don't see how they'll be able to catch McLaren, and they have been really unlucky McLaren. Signs this season's had a few retirements that have not been his fault.

Lando Norris, of course, had that incident in Belgium. It'd be interesting to see how quickly Valentino Rossi gets up to speed after his one point today. So, yeah, I think, yeah, Renno McLaren, I would still edge towards McLaren. Renaud are probably favourites for P5 now. But yeah, it would be interesting to see if we get another Hasse-Reno kind of conclusion,

but instead of Hasse it being McLaren. And there you go, midfield. Don't tell us that we don't give you shout-outs. We love you, midfield. We love you up at the midfield. Yeah, we really do. It'd be very interesting to see if in 2021 we can actually get the midfield fighting for more

podiums and wins. But that's a discussion for another day. Sam, do the honours, please. Honours are mine indeed. Folks, if you have enjoyed listening to us, then please sit around for quite a bit more. We've got many more videos coming out, much more content along the way. There's many more races to come. So, subscribe, like, get involved. We want to hear all your thoughts in comment sections where they're available. Dig Vettel observing his qualification. What about Lance Troll? How do you feel about the safety of the circuit? Well, a Charlotte-Cla, finally winning for the Tofosi in Monser. please stick around. We'd love to have you.

Thanks for joining us and support at the channel. But in the meantime, I've been Samuel Sage. I've been Ben Hocking. And I've been Harry Ead. And remember, keep breaking late. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.