The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Late Braking F1 Podcast: 27/10/19

Episode Date: October 27, 2019

After Lewis Hamilton claimed victory at the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix, Ben and Sam review the race looking at how the Brit got the job done. Also, the guys have some scathing comments surrounding a certain driver Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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a grand prix in which Lewis Hamilton claimed victory, Sebastian Vettel's second place, and then Valtrey Bottas third. I'm joined by Samuel Sage. Sam, how did you find the race? Well, I thought everything was just peachy. There's a description of how Vessel described his strategy halfway through the race. I loved the race. I thought it was super intense. The start was absolutely crazy.

Vettel was the ultimate squeeze on Hamilton. The craziness of what was Vastappen doing for half of that race. It was regardless of how crazy it was, it was super, super fun to be a part of to watch. I was on the edge of my seat for a long of it. You never knew until maybe two or three laps in the end. Who was winging that race? And that's what everyone's all about. You just can't predict what's going to happen.

I loved it. Ben, what did you think? Yeah, I very much enjoyed the race. It was very much a race that I would kind of enjoy, a real strategic battle between the top guys. We've seen plenty of enjoyable races this year, such as the likes of Germany. And then you get other races such as here and Hungary as well,

and other strategic races. It just proves that there isn't one formula to create a good race in Formula One. There are plenty of different ways in which a race can be entertaining. I would say that it was looking like it was going to be very, very good and it didn't quite materialise at the end. Perhaps if Vettel had just a little bit more pace and he would have brought Bottas and Leclair with him, that could have resulted in a very interesting final few laps. But ultimately, yeah, it was still an interesting one, splitting the two stoppers and the one stop.

Yeah, I was going to ask, obviously, Lewis Hamilton, he managed to claim victory at a circuit in which Mercedes have struggled over the last few years. were you surprised that Hamilton was able to take the race win and were you really impressed by him? Firstly, I was shocked that he could take the race. When he was on the grass going through turn two, next to Max Verstappen, and then having to fight the likes of Carlos Sites and whatnot, and then picking up a little bit of floor damage as he pointed to on the podium, I was genuinely shocked that he was able to stand on that top step.

I think for me, this is what a Champions drive looks like. Valtry Bottas, who wasn't too far behind, had a fully. repaired car and fresher tires was never able to get up behind another car to attack Hamilton Hamilton ends the race a second and a half in front of Vettel who has the pace of your car the whole weekend. This for me is what

separates Hamilton from the rest. People always say, you know, Hamilton needs to do it from a lower grid car. The Mercedes wasn't the best car this race and he has still turned it around and still won the race. The strategic thinking of the Seagis, he's I mean, he mowned like a

bloody train the absolute half of that race, but he turned it around, he kept those ties to a fantastic level, managed with the whole way, kept the gap going. And he deserves it. It was incredible to watch him do it. I'm gutted there wasn't a proper fight on the last lap, but still, a champions drive that I was surprised to see, but very grateful to see, because for me, it's another crowning reason why he does deserve to be one of the all-time braced in Formula One. It was a fantastic drive from the soon-to-be six-time world champion. Yeah, in a season where he has had a lot of impressive performances, I think this was right up there, perhaps up there with Hungary. It was a really impressive performance from Lewis Hamilton.

And Jensen Button touched on this when he was speaking after the race that was so often used to seeing Lewis Hamilton take race victories in a certain manner where he is super aggressive, such as Hungary, where he was given a target, look Max for stopping ahead of him, however many seconds up the road. and he just had to go hammer time and go as fast as he can lap after lap. This was a completely different race win, which was based on tire management, based on car management, as we obviously found out, he did have a little bit of damage. And he did it to perfection. Those hard tires did last much better than I thought they would. I think Mercedes overall was slightly better during the race than I thought they were going to be.

But that shouldn't take anything away from Lewis Hamilton's performance today. whereas we saw Max Verstappen spinning out of contention. Lewis Hamilton, he was able to stick around. Obviously, that first corner incident or the first couple of corner incidents could well have spelled the end for him. He recovered well from that. And yeah, I think this is one of his better performances of the season so far. How much, though, do you think comes down to Mercedes, again, proving very effective with their strategy? We've seen time after time, after time,

but what wings races is understanding the race. You can have a lot of role pace, but if you don't have the team in the car behind you, it proves almost impossible to do so. And Mercedes are the experts when it comes to strategy. Ferrari and Red Bull have definitely up their game, and they're better, but Mercedes just seem to understand the tire development, the fuel development, how tracks work,

the following ability of the cars at the moment of the current aerodynamics on those cars. Mercedes are kings of strategy. And yeah, I don't think Hamilton might have had that. that opportune moment had he been driving for Ferrari at that given time. We saw Vettel with that wise old Heng of his go, let's not react straight away, let's keep our call. That's what cost them. If they jumped in that lap after, then maybe they were being side by side going to turn one

after Vetter's pit, and he could have come out on top. The staying out for those extra few laps cost him. He had to kind of scrap away with Bottas, which I think damaged his ties a little bit from having to defend. And once again, yeah, Hamilton with that raw pace, the brilliant strategy, I sent a Texke you being half and through the race saying Hamilton just can't manage his tyres. We saw Daniel Ricardo go, what, 46, 47 laps on those hard tyres. There's me going, Hamilton can't do it after 15 laps.

He's a five-time world champion. He can't manage his tyres. What a Muppet I look like, where he's pulling him out to the end and maintaining a gap to Sebastian Vettel in a faster car behind him. So, yeah, strategy plays a brilliant part, but you've still got to give credit to Hamilton's brilliance in persevering and to preserve that rubber on the back of his car because I don't know how many other drivers realistically could have done that under the same pressure.

And this was such a surprising strategic race as well because coming into the Grand Prix, many were expecting it to be a two-stop race with the potential for a three-stop being competitive. And of course, as the race wore on, we could see that a three-stop definitely wasn't going to work. And actually, it was the one-stop that was probably better than the two-stop.

Mercedes once again nailed their strategy because they were the only guys, or at least with Hamilton, it was the only driver out of the top five that didn't secure their strategy from the get-go. So you had Albin and Leclair, who came in very early on. From that point on, they were going for a two-stop strategy, not only because of going on to another set of medium tyres, but because of how early they came in. And similarly with Vettel and Bottas, they left them out so long that it was only ever going to be a one-stop.

Hamilton was the only guy in that top five, where after his pit stop, he still had both options open. He went obviously, did go into the end on a one-stop strategy. However, if it turned out that a two-stop strategy was more prominent, it would have been very easy for him to transition onto that and go on to medium tyres, say, for the last 20 laps or so. As it happened, they stuck with what strategy they thought was going to work best, which it did.

It was just a very surprising one, though. We saw it, though, with Leclair, as he came into the pits, obviously much later, sorry, much earlier than everyone else. And I think this is what gave Mercedes the heads up on this. Leclair was not eating into that gap that Bottas had in front of him very quickly at all. I think I calculated it in the race. It only made up about 1.7 seconds within about 12 or 13 laps, which is way less than you would have expected it to, particularly as we've seen in previous years at Mexico, the tire degradation can be really high, but they manage them very well. Of course, the stop and nearly went the whole race on hard tyres. So yeah, this was a strategic masterclass

yet again from from Mercedes, but that isn't taking anything away from the faultless execution of Hamilton. I mean, because of this strategic play, which was super exciting, it made 90% of the race exhilarating to watch. There had been some outcries on social media from the commentary box as well during the race that several compounds of tyres should be throwing away, we shouldn't be dealing with it anymore, and to bring the 2021 regulations in as soon as possible, again, get those solidified. So following, attacking, tire wear isn't so much of a given. I mean, theoretically, Max shouldn't be able to go. What was it? 66 laps on one set of tire. That is a little bit ridiculous. I mean, they were almost burnt to a crest at the end of that. But this needs to

change. We need to have that more unpredictability. We need to have, you know, some more two, three stop strategies, more regularly available and capable of winging races or at least challenging for victories. And it's becoming too much of a given. I mean, Hamilton, once again, a fantastic job. Vett also doing a great job maintaining those medium tyres in the first thing and same with Bottas. But we need to have that excitement more often. We need to have that wheel racing. Even if there isn't an overtake ever made, we need to have the pressure, the ability. The idea for a driver to go, I'm going to put early and go on to that three stop because that tie is going to work. And I think we need to see that change from Pirelli. It needs to happen because

it's becoming a little bit too samey, same where a race gets to that climax and just nothing happens. We could have had one of the best race finishes for a long time. if Vettel got right the back of Hamilton, Bottas was there and LeCler also, that could be up being so, so exciting. But it wasn't meant to be, and maybe that's all down to tyres and aerodynamics. Yeah, and I'll briefly touch on that point as well.

And it's, as you said, Sam, it's not all about the overtaking. It's not even really about the overtaking at all. It's about the potential of an overtake happening. There are entertaining races all around the world where there will be no overtakes made or very limited number of overtakes made. It's the frilling a few temerable.

in it knowing that a mistake could cause an overtake that really makes a race. Such as the Perez Ricardo fight. I thought that was the most entertaining fight of the whole race. And there was an overtake wasn't made. But it was so entertaining because Ricardo, fresher tires, different compound, was always threatening Perez and couldn't quite get there. That's what those sort of entertaining tussles is what we love to see. I was going to briefly touch on Shao LaClair, actually. Of course, he got pole position, kind of. He obviously qualified second was promoted to poll. But it didn't quite work out for him, finished fourth place.

The two-stop strategy didn't quite pay off for him. Do you think he had the pace to win that Grand Prix today, Sam? Well, clearly, I think Ferrari from the start decided to split their strategy. I think they always intended one car to be a two-stop, one car to be a one-stop. What was odd was obviously because of the shinganagan's that happened in the first lab, he had quite a good lead after the first time. I think he was at least a second and a half in front of his teammate, come the end of the first lap.

And we know, Scholarcler at any track has got pace. I mean, he was the closest man to Max Verstappen qualifying, and he was well ahead of his teammate, a couple of tents in that qualifying time. So we know he's got the pace around there. I was really shocked that when he put on those second medium set of tires, he was unable to get onto the back of Botas and Vestan Hamilton faster. I mean, you can see him closing in time after time,

but then he's frozen away right at the end of that. that lockup and it immediately halted any progress. After LeCleur's recent success, I did expect a bit more pressure, a bit earlier. I thought if anyone was making that two stop work, it's Charlercler. He's going to be in the fight in a different way. And it just never materialised. So yeah, I was quite surprised that Charlotte, Clair could never breach that top three podium place on an alternate strategy, but one that seemed almost equally as quick if you've got the right car to make it happen. And he was the man to make it happen. It just never, never did. Yeah, I was I was really surprised.

I remember messaging you, Sam, saying this is a two-stop, but this is going to work out. I think Albin and Leclair have got this in the bag, and obviously it just did not materialize in that way at all. But it turns out that the hard tire, it was basically just a horizontal line in terms of performance. And where Hamilton was doing personal best after having done 40 plus laps on that tire, that hard tire was just so durable that it was the one stop that prevailed. on that topic, Alexander Albin, of course, finishing P5, he went for the two-stop strategy. It was kind of a non-factor after he went for that. What did you think of his performance today?

I think this performance 100% semantics that he gets a Red Bull drive come 2020. He is still not on the race pace of Max Verstappen. He has outscored Max Verstappen, though, over the last few races since being in the Red Bull. I think they did a points tally that he is somewhere like 8 to 10 points ahead of Max Verstappen. for Stappen overall in terms of from the summer break onwards, which is spectacular. We saw in Japan, as you said in our last podcast, that that qualifying lap that matched Max for Stappen's, that was the lap that gives him the spot. But Helper Marco said that he was deciding this race.

And I think this is a good enough performance. Yes, the car maybe wasn't quite there in the race base, but he hung on. He fought well with the likes of Hamilton and LeCler. He was never too far off the top four guys. If he's not going to be the same pace as Max, he's done well enough to be a really solid number two driver at Red Bull for now until it develops further. I was really pleased with Algon. I think he did a great job. He was consistent. He kept everything clean. His racecraft at the start to avoid all contact him to get himself up into P3. It was really,

really strong. I can't really say anything negative about him. Maybe just can be a bit more raw pace, but I was really happy with his performance. One of the best drivers on the track for me this weekend. Yeah, I think he was solid. Un-spectacular, you could argue, but solid enough. And I think it goes back to that point of he's not quite on Vastappen's pace, but they don't need him to be. It's always what I kept saying with Pierre Gassley. He doesn't need to match Vastappen. He just needs to be playing the same sport as Vastappen. He needs to be within touching distance of him. You know, Valtrey Bottas is not on the pace of Lewis Hamilton on, say, 70% of race weekends. And that's fine. Mercedes don't need him to be. Mercedes need him to be a supporting number two

driver for them to win the Constructed's championship every year, which he's doing. Vestappen and Albin, they might well try and force the same relationship on them. I mean, it's working for Mercedes, so there's no reason why it can't work for them too. Vestappen is their future. There are still a few concerns over Vestappen. A few of them were raised today. But he is their guy. That's who they're going ahead with.

They just need a good supporter. And Alexander Albin is ticking all the boxes at the moment. He's proving that he can get a solid points finishes. He does still need to up the ante a little bit at times, but he's definitely on the right track. And you say you were impressed by Alexander Albans, Sam, but who was your driver of the day? Can we just give an honourable mention to Formula One's actual driver of the day, which went somehow to Max Verstappen, a comical poll that's becoming now, I think. I mean, any driver of the day that is not done by the verified source that is late breaking needs to go in the bin,

because how on earth can you determine that Max Verstappen is driver at the day? I mean, that gives a slight spoiler as to who is not getting mine, but who are you going for some? Yeah, we'll talk more about Max Verstappen in a moment. My trial of day is going to be the race winner Lewis Hamilton. It was a champion's drive, as I said to earlier. He goes will to wheel with Sebastian Vetter, who squeezes him so close to being over the line, over the limit, and keeps his foot in it. He carries on.

He's on the grass doing 200 miles an hour, which is incredible stuff. He then goes swills with Maxa Stappen comes out on top. No contact made there properly. A little bit of floor damage for him. He then carves his way through the field. And the strategy is just so fantastic. And now the tire compound that he was unable to keep it for 50 laps, you've got to give it to Lewis Hamilton.

It was just so good. The other honourable mention is Daniel Ricardo, but the mistake at the end with slipping off the track and not getting past Perez is what decides it for me. So Lewis Hamilton, the number one, with an old old Danny Rick. Yeah, undoubtedly, Hamilton had a very good race, as did Daniel Ricardo. I'd also throw Danny Kavilla into that mix as well, actually.

He was hampered by his strategy a lot. Those guys starting on the soft tires were always at a disadvantage, but he managed to claw his way back into the point, so I'll give him an honourable mention. I'm going to interject. I can't give him an honourable mention when he punts Holkenberg on the last corner of the race. Yeah. Yeah, I forgot that.

So that was just so brilliant being able to see Holkenberg completely destroyed past the race line and not having a clue why until the replays came on. Yes, you make a good point on. It could be out there. But I'm going to give it to the hometown hero. I'm going to give it to Sergio Perez. He was, apart from Daniel Ricardo, he was over 20 seconds clear of Nico Holcombberg. And that's not even including that last corner incident.

when they were on almost identical strategies, I think Holcomberg came in the lap before Perez. But apart from that, they were on identical strategies. We've spoken about how well Hamilton managed his tyres, absolutely agree. Perez did it for about five laps more. So he definitely deserves credit in that department as well. He kept all of the two-stoppers at bay. I think he was something close to 30, 35 seconds clear of Lance Stroll,

who was on the same strategy as him as well. Perez fully deserved his best of the rest tag today. P7, well-earned six points. He is dragging racing point up the tally. They are now level with Toro Roso, so that's still to play for, maybe Rano ahead of them too. So I'm going to give Sergio Perez the nod on this one.

Who is your worst driver of the day? Fair play on Perez. That is a fantastic show. Worst driver of the day. It has to be Max Verstappen. How can it not be Max for Staffing? The man is mental at the moment. This weekend has been ridiculous in terms of behaviour.

I have complimented Max for Staffen all season long. I praised him for being a complete package, for maturing, for being brilliant in terms of his racecraft on and off the track. He turns up to a press conference after driving past Bottas flat out and goes, yes, I drove past him flat out. After we've had a horrific inkling o'er in the season for an F2 driver, appalling behaviour for any start, he then obviously drives straight past Kimmy Rikin,

inspire, with a broken suspension, could have hurt someone else badly. So that's so bad in terms of health and safety alone. Then in the race, which is what we just driving the day on, he is super aggressive off the start, which is too much. You didn't need to be that aggressive. He almost costs his race entirely, springing out both himself and Hamilton on the brink of that. And then a silly dive on Bottas costs him some contact, puncture,

and then he has to drag himself up through the ranks where realistically he should have been fighting in that top three or four spot with LeCler, Vettel and Hamilton. and Botteis, of course, and it's just, it's not good enough from a man who is expected to win multiple world titles. We did not see Hamilton making these silly mistakes in his first few seasons in the sport. We didn't see it happened to better leader. It's happening for Safflin. He's got to get it out of his system.

So for me, Max is just well the worst driver on the track, regardless of other results, behaviour is appalling. Yeah, more on that in a little bit. I'm actually, I'm also going to go with a. guy who I have praised a lot this season. I'm going to go with Carlos Sines. He just seemed to disappear in the race today. I'm not quite sure what was happening. I don't know whether it will be discovered that there was some sort of damage to that McLaren or not, because it was unusually slow. He obviously had a pretty good start, was fighting up with the Mercedes for a brief time, and then Norris seemed to catch him up very quickly. He comes into the pits. He loses some more

positions, and he ends up well out of the points. This seemed like a race in which he, she definitely would have finished somewhere in the top 10, perhaps fighting with the likes of Ricardo and Perez. And it just really didn't happen for him. Whether it's just a random blip, whether it was damage, that might come out at some point in the next day or two. But yeah, Carlos Sines, a guy who have given driver today to many times this year, I'm going to give my worst two today.

Well, there was a little story that came out about him on the hard tire. The car just did not work with the hard compound tire. And I was going to say it's so odd that the hard tire can go six-year laps of one team, And yet Carlos Science, I don't think, could take it more than 15 laps. He got off. Yeah, got so quickly, and then came off of it so quickly. And he had to go the rest of the race on medium tires. And that's why he was never able to get past it.

He had to take those mediums so long that he was nowhere. So I don't know if that's a McLaren call where the car can't work properly with the hard tire. Don't know if science is just struggling on that hard tire, which is odd. Because science is a brilliant driver, as we said, given drugs a day many times. But it was difficult to see for McLaren this weekend. The poor pit stop costs Norris the race and then maybe bad strategical plus driver error cost science any points.

It was really disappointing for the papaya car. Now let's talk a bit more about Max Verstappen. He did not have the weekend we were anticipating. Of course, we, in the buildup to this race, in the preview to this race, looking at him as a potential race winner, of course he clawed his way back to sixth after being last after five laps or so.

And of course he lost, he lost, pole position this weekend too. So a very eventful weekend for Max Verstappen and not entirely successful. Sam, what did you make of them? So honestly Max Verstappling in almost a blatant form of arrogance decides to tell the world that he did not lift off going past Bottas who was in the wall after a really bad accident and trying to get out of the car. Now there's a lot of people that are praising Max. Hey, isn't he being honest? Isn't he just saying what he did? To me, he shouldn't need to be honest in the first place. You need to lift off when you see yellow flags for the same.

Sebastian Vettel gets out of that car and an interviewer asked him, you were going to be faster than Max Verstappen on your lap if you didn't lift off. First thing Vessel says is not relevant. Doesn't matter. Bottas is safety. It's the first thing that anyone thinks about. I lift off because of Bottas's safety. And that's how every driver should be.

Hat off once again, Sebastian Vetter, would be one of the sweetest men in the world. but not good enough from Maxa Stappel already. Terrible. So it goes into the race angry. Caused entirely by his own doing, he would have had polders it was. Cause entirely by his own doing, Max and Stappen goes into the race angry. He's too aggressive into the first few corners. He almost costs himself the race entirely and Lewis Hamilton's race because there was a bit of a tank slap a moment there, but Hamilton catches it. The Stapper continues to squeeze as much as possible also kind of loses it having to lift off a little bit. And just from there on it goes from bad to worse. He then does the dive bomb of Bottas.

Bottas does as much as he can to get out the way while still making the corner. A slight nick on the back tie costs him a puncture. He loses a whole lab. He's lucky to get back to P6, I think. He should be having way more than eight points to his name. He should be fighting for top three. He should

be on the podium this weekend. He had the pace. He's cost Red Bull time and time again. And this is another chance where he could have really showing his stuff off and he's failed to do so. And I think Max goes one or two ways here. he comes back and he has another full season of being a mature young man and getting it together, or we see a spiral and it happened at the start of last year's season, where he took people

off for about five races in a row, and I hope it doesn't happen again, because someone needs to have a word in his ear, or he needs to get a decent PR manager to slap him up in the head where he's being an absolute Muppet like he was being this weekend, because it's embarrassing from a man that's got this most experience now. Unfortunately, for Max, it's not going to get any less scathing from here on out. And let me just preface this by saying that for every one time we give a bad review of Max Verstapp and we give about three good reviews. So don't think that this is a completely directed towards Max hate video or anything like that.

You know, we admire him. He is a great driver. But this weekend, he was an absolute idiot. and I don't use those words lightly. Start with qualifying because this is one of the very few race weekends recently where we've gone into it saying Max has a good chance of victory here. We've generally gone into preview saying, hmm, is it going to be Merck, is it going to be Ferrari?

Max Vastappen might get in the mix, maybe into P3, P4, who knows. This is the first race weekend for a long time. We've been able to say, you know what, Red Bull have a really good chance if Vastappan could take the race win. Qualifying proved that he had the pace in qualifying. I mean, he had pole position on two different laps, let alone one. And then he doesn't slow for Valtrey Bottas, who has had not just a minor incident.

It is a pretty major incident at that final corner. And as you rightly say, Sam, Vettles' response and Vettles' answer to the interview question was spot on. Doesn't matter if he was going to go quicker or not because safety trumps anything else on circuit. It trumps winning. It trumps getting the fastest lap. It trumps overtaking a car. That is the paramount thing to aim for as being as safe as possible. Max Verstappen saw the yellow flags. He admitted it and he did not want to slow down.

And when he was rightly questioned by an interviewer, you know, is this not a breach of safety? He said, are we on this safety thing again? Yeah, we're on this safety thing again. In your industry, people die. All right? People are killed. People are seriously injured when safety is not met. So, yeah, we are going to get on that. And he was rightly dismissed of his poll position. I'm really glad the FIA made that call. I was worried that they weren't going to. When things like that happened, they need to make sure the drivers understand, you know, this is how it goes.

In the race, it could have gone one or two ways. Vestappen could have seen the wrongs in what he did on Saturday, responded on Saturday with a measured drive, perhaps getting in the mix for the race win, sorry. You know, everyone in that top four was competitive. He could well have been in that fight. Instead, he comes out like, I don't even know what the expression to use here is,

but he was way too aggressive on that first lap. He makes that move on Valtrey Bottas. David Croft made the comment that we've never seen anyone make a move into that corner. Probably a reason for that is because he couldn't slow down the car and he was very, obviously, he nearly got away with it and didn't. He had to go into the pits. And sure, his recovery back through the field was great, but he shouldn't have needed to do that.

P6, so if you'd have asked this happen at the beginning of this weekend, You're going to finish this race in P6. How do you feel? He would not have taken that, not by a long shot. This was from a safety perspective, from a driving perspective, from maturity perspective, a terrible race weekend for Vastappen. I hope it, for his sake, that it's a blip rather than the start of a trend, like you mentioned, could happen, Sam.

But yeah, this one's a write-off. Max Vastappen, not a good one. Yeah, I mean, you're writing your proverbial saying of, he was a Red Bull in a Mexican-China shop this weekend. He smashed literally everything. There is no building standing after Max was stab and toured through it this weekend. Hurricane Max. A lot of people saying, Mexico when he got pole, it's Max a no from me this weekend.

And we have bashed on about safety far too much. We shouldn't be making videos about this time and time again. I don't want to make videos about safety because it's not an exciting topic. It's not fun to discuss. It's really quite scary that there is still that much dismay, that little care from some people racing at the pinnacle of motorsport for the safety of their colleagues, for the people that help the sport,

and for themselves. There was something could have happened to him if you slid out of that corner the wrong way. You can never know what might have happened in his car as well. And that unnerves me a little bit. I don't want to make any more because of safety, but if people like Maxx's huge out, though, they are,

we will have to carry on doing it because it is, as you said then, the absolute paramount thing in any sport, let alone one where you go 220 miles an hour into a heavy braking zone where you experience 5G more than aeropilots going into space. You have to do more. And drivers like him are.

For me, it almost brings up the question of should you get penalty points or something like that? Because the behaviour isn't good enough. And he's showing it too many times in too short space. So I'd love to hear what those in the comments want to say about, about Maxis Stafford's actions, because I'd love to know if we may be going over the top, are we overthinking it?

But I'd love to know what you guys think. I feel like we've been in the majority recently, but it's always interesting what you guys think. So please get down in the comments to let us know about what's happened with Max and Stafford. But in my opinion, someone's got a time. I'm going to stop it. I mean, it was the deluded response. And his, it was how he was able to say that it was okay.

He said that it was fine because we're F1 drivers, we know what we're doing kind of thing. Well, guess what? One of the drivers who knows what he's doing is in the wall. You know, unless he is saying that Bottas doesn't know what he's doing, there is nothing to say that Vestappen can't do exactly the same thing that Bottas does and go straight into his stationary car.

It was just, it was a ridiculous weekend for Vestappen. I've really got nothing else to say on the matter other than he was idiotic. And yeah, like you say, we welcome all the comments on this one, but I'm going to have to be pretty heavily persuaded to be changed my opinion on this.

I'm not going to lie. Moving on to something else, the FIA, of course, did say this weekend, they're going to try and push through that the Q2 rule, where whatever tire you start on, sorry, whatever tire you qualify on in Q2, you start the race on if you are in the top 10. They're looking to abandon that rule. Sam, do you think that'll be a good move? I am quite tall on this. I know that you're someone who is going to have been too keen if they love the rule or not, but I'm a little bit tall because I like the fact that there is an element of strategy in their skill. And if a car isn't quite capable of making it into Q3 on that medium compound tire,

they have to weigh up their options. Do we go in on the soft tire and get into Q3 and possibly get a seventh or sixth place if something happens? Or do we go on the medium tire and maybe get Q a P11, but we're in the best for the rest spot in terms of starting on the fresh tire? I really enjoy that strategic option that teams have. The fact that often we'll see maybe a Ferrari on a Ferrari on a medium and a Mercedes on a Mercedes on a media.

And we have to see these strategies change over. that makes for an interesting race. But at the same time, it's nice to see drivers all go guns blazing and maybe try something different. So I'm really undecided about this rule. Ben, I know that you've got slightly stronger opinions on this. What do you think should happen? To be honest, though, I'm fairly torn on this as well.

I can see the benefits of both sides. We saw today, Mexico's a really, really prime example of this, is where particularly in the bottom of the top 10, there can be real struggles with the guys who qualify into Q3. and have to start on a substandard tire, such as the soft tire. The soft tire was a terrible tire at Mexico, yet the likes of signs, Norris, Kviyat, Ghazli, they all had to start on it. And ultimately, I think it was only Kviyah of those drivers that ended up back in the points.

You know, they had to commit to a two-stop there and then. We found that guys who had qualified outside the top 10 were at an advantage, which is not what you want to see. We saw was it Russia last year where the racing point guys didn't even bother taking part in Q2 because they wanted to qualify outside the top 10 rather than start in and around the 9th 10th position. We've seen that the 11th place is really coveted. 11th place in a lot of races is a better race starting position than P10, P9, maybe even

P8. It's only really when you get to P7 and P6 where it starts to become an advantage to be there. Of course, when you get to P6, the top three teams are going to take up those positions and they're so far ahead of everyone else that it doesn't really matter. what tie they start on. It's only a squabble between themselves. Maybe the rule needs to be adapted. So the top five have to start on the tire they've qualified in Q2.

A bit of a spitballing session here on because I'm not really sure what we can do about it. Yeah, I have to say, I won't be gutted if they get rid of it. I also won't be gutted if they keep it. I mean, again, I like the fact that there is a consequence to what you have to do and the fact that there are, are options, you know, you have to make a decision early, strategy comes into play. But I think, I think for the top three teams, it's interesting. And I think you're right, for the teams that qualify best of the rest, the midfield, between usually seventh to 12th 13th, it kind of is unfair on those guys that put the effort in and get themselves into 7th, 8th, 9th, because they've gone

faster. They've done well to qualify four or five places in front of 12th, 13th place. And now they're almost a negative. It almost doesn't make sense. because they're going to lose out. And we saw that happen to both Torosos and both McLaren's. Daniel Ricardo was able to get through. Perez was able to get through. And then they were being challenged by the likes of Holgerberg. He was right there till the end.

He still could be at punting him off into the wall on the last corner, just despite this argument. But it seems odd that the cars would do better on a Saturday are then penalised on a Sunday. So I can totally understand the argument for both sides here. I kind of think I like the Q2 rule slightly more because of the excitement at the front of the grid. And at the end of the day, that's what the size championships and race wins.

So I think I'm like 55% one side, 45% and other. And if we have some great races with the other rule, then my opinion will easily be swung. And again, in the comments, if you can persuade me, I'll be easy to persuade. So please, let us know what you prefer and why. But there'll be an interesting one to see what they do. Yeah, I'm just thinking how it would affect, because we haven't really seen for many, you know, obviously we haven't really seen how it would affect the top guys and what strategies they would do, would they all go for the same thing? Or would they spice it up? Because it could

be very interesting if the top 10 did have free tire choice. You might have, taking the Mexican Grand Prix as an example, you might have Hamilton and Bettle and Vestappen and LeClaude. Maybe they would all opt for the medium tires as they actually ended up starting on anyway. But maybe Albon would try the hard tires. Maybe he would in P5 decide, you know, I haven't really got much fret from behind. I can go for this. If I can outlast everyone else, maybe a safety car can happen. I don't know whether those strategic options would play into their minds and therefore create exciting races that way. Yeah, I think that's a fair point. The hard tie doesn't get used enough. And it's clear that it is a raceable tire on the way that the cars currently work. So it would

make sense to almost give it a go, give it a crack every couple of races. For races that are very long, like Singapore, like Mexico, it would be interesting to see what would happen if we were to put those into play more often. I've all looked for anything, throwing results into the air. So if it could spice it up, then I am all for it and happy to go with it. Throw it at me. I'd like to see what happens. I mean, Mexican Grand Prix, one guy started on the hard tire out of 20,

and I think he would be fairly happy with the decision he made. So, yeah, maybe it would open up a few more strategic options. I'm not too sure. I think that should do it for today, Sam, if you'd like to get us out of here. Well, if you have enjoyed the Mexican Grand Prix and you do have anything to say on the topics we've discussed whether you want to talk about Max Verstappen, whether you're talking about the race in general,

or talk about the tire options. Then please get down in the comments, start a conversation and we'll join you down there after the videos. We love chatting with you and we will be doing our best to reply to them. If you have enjoyed the video, then please hit the like button.

It massively helps out. And if you haven't already, please subscribe. We are getting so close to that magic 1000 number. And we want to be more exciting than the Formula 1, 1000th race. So if you could get involved, that would be so fantastic.

But until that point, I've been Samuel Sage. And I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.