The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Making friends with F1 Statman, Sean Kelly | Friends Of The Podcast

Episode Date: July 18, 2022

We're looking for some new friends, so we thought we'd reach out to the great and the good of the F1 and motorsport world. In episode 2 we speak to F1 Statman, Sean Kelly - otherwise known as the @virtualstatman on Twitter! He talks all things from his career and plays F1: Order Please. Will he be our friend by the end of the podcast... JOIN our Discord: https://discord.gg/dQJdu2SbAm SUPPORT our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/latebraking TWEET us @LBraking BUY our merch: https://late-braking-f1-podcast.creator-spring.com/ SUBSCRIBE to our podcast! EMAIL us: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Right. Hello. Something all of an intro to the podcast. Just for you to coming and say, Sam and Harry here. You're having a nice day. Hope you enjoy yourself.

It's very hot. It's all with it. We've just wanted to make you aware that as much of the interview with Sean is fantastic. He's a really good guest. There are some audio issues. It's just small. A few small ones. You might not even notice. No.

But we just want to let you know that we are aware of them. So don't talk to us about it. And we'll be back to normal quality on the next episode. Yeah, don't at us. We don't want it. It's too hot. It's too hot to be added on Twitter. Okay, what we'll do now is we'll hand over to podcast, Ben.

Cheers, cheers, Ben. Bye. Thank you for listening to the late-breaking F-1 podcast. Make sure to tune in for new episodes. every Wednesday and Grand Prix Sunday. Hello and a very warm welcome to the late-breaking F-1 podcast presented by Harry Eid, Sam Sage, and me, Ben Hocking. Our quest to find a friend in the world of Formula One continues today.

Mixed success thus far in this series, but we're giving it another shot. And today's attempt, today's guest, is Sean Kelly, F-1's stat man. if there's a stat in F1 that you need to know about, he'll probably know it, more so than the three of us at least. Sean, thank you very much for coming on today and agreeing to be part of this podcast.

I'm only here for the money, guys. As long as that check clears that you promise me, I will be the best friend you've ever had. Are we certain we've got the 85P ready? Yeah, yeah. I mean, Dave Benxon Phillips, who hosts one of our games. He gets 50p a game. Hang on a bit.

That's not true. Did someone mention Dave, Dave Benson Phillips? Is that what the other name you just said? Yeah, exactly. The guy used to do children's TV. Oh my God. I mean, he's not actually here. He's not actually here.

He did say no to actually coming on the show. Is that amazing? You had me at Dave Benson Phillips, to be honest. Anyway. People of a certain age. People of a certain age would have enjoyed that. Exactly. Exactly. I'm sure people all over the world have no idea what we've just spoken about,

which is the makings of a great podcast when you start with a topic that no one knows anything about. But we're here to learn about you today, Sean. F1 Statman, like I said, you've spent a number of years in the sport. Firstly, most importantly, how are you? I know you're in the UK at the moment. British Grand Prix as we record is a few days away. yeah it's it's nice to be back it's most of the time that the heart of the pandemic was ripping through the world we couldn't travel anywhere and for those who don't know i live in southern california which on any given day is obviously fantastic i mean it's can't if you're going to be stuck somewhere that's about as good as it gets but there does come of the fact that it's different when you can't

leave as opposed to when like yeah i'll see you in a few months or a month or two and then then you can. So yeah, there's a long period of missing family and everything. Now we're reunited. And now they're like, yeah, actually it wasn't so bad when you weren't here. But notwithstanding that part, it is nice to be back in summertime. Because one thing I miss, this is something, this is a bit off topic, something they don't tell you in the California tourist brochures.

The longest day of the year in Southern California, the sun sets at 8 p.m. So one thing you really miss living there is the long evenings that you get in Great Britain. And you know, anybody knows this. when it's nice weather, it's just, it's fantastic. I always say like a sunny day here. It's kind of worth 10 sunny days in California just because you've got to really savor them.

But of course, since I got here, it's been cloudy. So maybe I'm just like a bad luck show. Fingers crossed it improves for you. In terms of Formula One, like I said, we're recording this just a few days away from the British Grand Prix, so the halfway mark not far off. How are you finding the season as a whole?

Obviously new era of the F one? Well, it's been, to use a cliche, almost like a tale of two halves, isn't it? Because early on, Ferrari leapt out to this massive lead. And I think a lot of us, fans and insiders alike, were almost prepared to write the obituaries on Red Bull's title hopes, thinking, well, they've blown this. I mean, they're miles behind already. And yet, from being 46 points in the lead, you know, well, well, I mean, the Stapham was 46 points off the lead. Now he's 46 points. in the lead, which is an astonishing turnaround in such a short space of time.

To turn around in the space of the season would have been amazing. To get back on terms so quickly and to win six in a row. Yeah, I mean, I don't think we saw it coming. I mean, we knew Red Bull quick, but I don't think we thought it would come around this fast. Of course, Ferrari have shot themselves at the foot a couple of times, but that's notwithstanding the fact, and this is the fact that people don't really realize the Red Bull have had more mechanical failures in Grand Prix this season than Ferrari.

Just that the Ferrari ones happen when they're leading the race. That's the key part is that the player failures have both happened when they were in the league. That's costing 50 points in effect. So, yeah, they were more costly failures as opposed to Red Bulls.

The irony is we don't actually know when this episode is going to wear. So people might actually be listening that with the hindsight of Red Bull being 200 points, in the lead. Ferrari might have claimed it back by the time this goes life. We just don't know.

I'd tell you what, Nicholas Latifie, who had him as the podium finish? I mean, unbelievable. That was, and that, you know,

the way he went around the outside of Kevin Magneson to get second place on that last lap, was amazing. Wow. If that happens, you're painting, is, yeah, where's my ticket?

Immediately. Someone get me a ticket. That sounds fantastic. Well, there was all that, and we haven't even got to Nika Horkenberg ended up in the Mercedes because, you know, Russell got COVID or whatever.

I don't know. I like your F1. Your F1 sounds very fun. Really? My F1's really groovy. I don't know why they don't do it the way I should do it. Unless your stuff will vandal. Because obviously the whole thing,

the whole thing's scripted, as you know, because liberty, everything. Like, okay, so here's the script. Here's what we're doing. And then all of us, we're all told, you have to say, you have to pretend that this all happened spontaneously and none of you knew we were doing it.

And so, yeah, we're all told, at all times you must power at the party line and not have your own opinion. Which is very difficult, obviously, because, you know, for us, for no one, for no one to blow the whole thing and say it was all, yeah, it was all scripted.

It's very, very difficult for 10,000 people to do that. But somehow, every week we manage it. The funny part is, this podcast is part of that exact script. People are going to listen to this, think they're blowing it all away, but it's a double bluff. They would have never have known. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, this is that, or alternatively, this does happen. They'd be like, why didn't we put money on this? God, you're saying. So, Sean, you are, for people who don't know, you're known as the virtual statman on Twitter. But how did you discover that you had a passion for, I don't know if you do have a passion, but you wanted to go in the direction of stats,

and particularly F1 stats or motorsports stats. How did that happen? Well, I never, never so much as crossed my mind that I know more about facts and figures than the next person, so much as there was this sort of, you know, this realization one day that not everyone has been paying quite as much attention as I was. Not everyone was interested that the 91 Lola had a Ford engine when it previously had

a Lamborghini or the, or the Aguri Suzuki failed to pre-qualify for all 16 races in 1989. Like people were interested in what was happening at the front. They didn't give a crap of what was going on in the back. But I assumed everybody was taking it in at the same rate that I was. in the mid-90s, my mum started to push me on the idea and say, why do you see if you can get a job working in Formula One? Because, you know, Murray Walker's got to retire at some point. And obviously, to those of us who are old enough to remember

Murray Walker in the 80s and the 90s, Murray Walker is not going to retire. He's just going to carry on into infinity. Like, we'll just be there 100 years from now. And so I thought it was kind of a bit of a far-fetched idea. But eventually, Murray did retire. And I started, like, every time I tell this story, I always say,

There was a woman involved in the beginning. And she was American and I spent a lot of time going back and forth to the US. And at the end of 02, I thought, I should call a broadcaster here and see if I can tag along doing stats for the broadcast. Because every time I watch the ground free, everybody pondered out, like you're always way ahead of them. You say like 20 minutes before they even bring something up. This hasn't happened since then. Why haven't they mentioned this? Why haven't they mentioned that?

which is a glorified that in a nutshell is what I do in formula one now is basically I shout at the broadcasters the only difference is that now they can hear me and sometimes they'll ask me questions back but in a nutshell

it is that it is just simply okay you know all these numbers slightly better than the next person and it is more important these days because it is the Twitter generation and it's very very quick to get

information moving around the world. Not always accurate information. So the brevity, how quick you can get this stuff on the air and be correct has never been more important. So I came along at just about the right time

just before social media and I took off. I was in that period between after the internet and really caught on, but before the point where everybody had a voice because we all had social media. So yeah, that was a fluke. But I'm 20 seasons into it now. So I guess they still find a use for me.

Where did that first break come from there? You mentioned you reached out to a broadcaster. Where did that start? The broadcaster, it was Speed Channel who used to broadcast F1 in the US at the time. They did it for 16 years up until the end of 2012. I called them up and left a voicemail message. It'd been quite convoluted approach to try and find who was the producer of the F1 broadcast. I called like three different offices, put me through to the next one, put me through to the next one.

And eventually I got through to the producer who was a guy called Frank Wilson. And I left a voicemail message. The thing is, in one of my previous jobs, and this is one of the most important jobs, every F1 driver has had this job, obviously. telemarketing double glazing. So in that seriousness, I had learned how to sell something down the phone that the person at the other end didn't want to buy. So when I called them and left this message,

I don't remember exactly what I said, but I knew how to sell a product down the telephone that the unwitting recipient was not interested in buying. So I just used the same technique. The product was me instead of double glazing. Now, to my surprise, Frank called back about three days later. And conversation instituted. And like I said, you know, he said, could you produce an example of your work?

I said, sure, no problem. I have no previous experience in Formula One. I've never done it before. And basically, I was like, okay, tomorrow morning, I've got to submit this thing. I have no idea what standard he's expecting. I don't even know what format he wants. Like, does he want it as a Word document? Does he want it as Excel?

What does he want? I don't know. So I spent a whole day improvising this thing. and then I said to him, could I see what you currently use? She said, sure. And to give you, by the way, listeners, if you're of a certain age here,

stand by, because there's a historic reference coming here. He faxed me. He faxed me what they used, right? This was kind of the kicker. This is kind of what put it over the top for me. I went through it in like the next hour with, you know,

not a highlighter, but, you know, felt tip pens and corrected this, you know, crossed this out, changed this slightly, and faxed it straight back to him so that he knew that, like, I hadn't had three days to go over this, so I'd only had a few minutes.

So there was that, and then I spent like all of the off-season in 2002-03 calling, what do you reckon, Frank? What do you reckon? Good idea. You don't want to miss out. Don't want to miss out, Frank. Someone else might come in for me.

Or whatever nonsense I was coming up with. And eventually in February, It was around about the 10th of February, about a month before start the season. He says, we can take you on, but we can't pay you very much. We can give you like 200 a race. Actually, he didn't even say that. He said, he can give you like 200. So it was left open-ended whether that was 200 a race or 200 for the whole year.

Naturally, I accepted it because I had no money anyway. So it was like, okay, great, I'm getting paid to watch Grand Prix. No one can emotionally blackmail me anymore and say, come on, do you have to watch every race? No, you can't pull me away from this. This is now my job. You cannot give me that offensive. You can't watch every race. So in 2003, it was just completely bland it.

I didn't know anybody in F1. I mean, I knew all the faces. Obviously, I knew that. No one knew what it was. Quite rightly so. And, yeah, I was just making it up as I went along in that first season. And then about halfway through the first season, I thought, the real epiphany,

This was the moment when it went from being kind of a cool thing that I'd blagged it to being, wait a minute, I could make this a career. I realized, what about the other broadcasters? There's dozens of other broadcasters around the world who are all doing the same race, looking at the same TV pictures. Don't they need the same service? That's when that was the eureka moment because then I started selling it to everybody else. And here we are 20 seasons on, 16 broadcasters, Formula One TV, four of the teams. F1 experiences some of the title sponsors

yeah that turned out to be quite a good idea thanks mum we all owe a lot to our lovely mothers and it's lovely that you have that kick on right my mum was the same

she's my biggest fan and also of course shout out in off respect an area to stay bright windows of Claremont Street in Shrewsbury for hiring me to telemarket double glazing 25 years ago

thank you very much indeed the bill is in the Thank you to that double glazers. We'll be expecting a large fee for the sponsorship on that one. And also some new doors, UPVC doors and different. A lot. My flat could do with it, actually. Clearly you are very good at selling yourself,

and you're clearly a very charismatic individual, which we love. But when you start off your career, it's a tough industry to be involved in. Was there anything that you kept coming across, with any hurdles that you came across, that you thought, I'm not very good at this and you had to learn, you had to change you something, you had to grow in a certain way to overcome a struggle

that you maybe kept encountering. That's a really good question. No one's asked me that before. And yeah, there is probably more than I realize, but one thing that does cross my mind is, as I mentioned, I kind of knew all the faces, nobody knew me. And I had to come to terms with the fact that, If I spoke to anyone, they genuinely had no idea who I was.

But I knew exactly who they were. The first day I was in the paddock. I was in the driver's press conference. And Louise Goodman was sitting behind me. And Bob Constantoros was in there and James Allen was in there. And it was just like, you have no idea who I am. I'm like, Mr. Nobody in here. But I don't, I think you see it next to me.

What's happening? So there was a lot of that going on. And I had to bear in mind that don't come to these people and start talking to them as though you're old mates. They don't know who you are. You're starting as though you've never met them before. So that was a bit of a strange one. I mean, it's easier now. I mean, a 41 now kind of got used to that concept.

But when you're 22 and a bit giddy that you've just blagged your way into the World Championship, there was a little bit of excitement overload and acting like a bit of a fan. boy initially. And I had to temper that a little bit. Because it gets to the point where they're always just looking at you and thinking, who's this Burke? He's acting like he's our best mate. And he's never met us before.

Which I totally understand in retrospect. So there was that. And also, another thing I would say, this is an important thing for anybody who wants to get into sport. Because I get all the time, people come up to me and say, how do you get in? The three questions you always get in Formula One. how did you get your job? Can I have your job? And do you need an assistant? Those are the three questions you always get. And I got, so I had this idea in 03. What about all the other broadcasters? Well, they didn't all say yes right away. It took me, in 2003, it took me eight years to get hired by the British broadcaster. Because of course, it was ITV initially. ITV never hired me. It was the BBC who hired me in the end. I spent eight years coming and going from, from the idea before finally, they were like, yeah, we want you.

So if this qualifies as an anecdote and also as a little bit of advice to people who are listening, want to get into the sport, don't get downhearted if the first answer is no, because you'll get no a lot. It's a bit like being an actor going for, you know, to read for roles. Yeah, you'll get rejected a lot. You mustn't take it personally. It just means what I always say, no doesn't mean no. means come back with a better offer. It never means no go away, never come back. It means

not yet, but come back with a better idea or a better offer or better a product, you know, and it might be a yes. And that's what happened to me. And it took, as I said, it took eight years to get the British broadcaster, even though I'm from Great Britain originally. In the meantime, I've been taken on by Finnish TV and Austrian TV and Germany, but that one remained elusive. And then finally the mothership came along, Formula One took me on in 2013. But if I'd given up in the early 2000s when I got so many noes and I had no money at all. Like it was literally the first year I made $1,000 the first year was in F1. That was my entire income for the year.

So that's about £6,000. To this day, I still don't know how I survived. How the hell did I get away with living? six thousand pounds for a year. I really had to cut the cloth pretty thin but I thought if I stick with this it's going to work.

So there's my advice. It might all come to you at once, but hang in there because there's a lot, you will get a lot in Formula One based on how long you hang around and how much you become part of the furniture. We have a lot of youngsters that listen. So I think here a little bit of a story like that is something that will encourage those to just keep trying.

Like you said, it's not just try it once and give up. It's a try and try again. The whole cliche kidding on the shopping line of hanging there, baby, you know, keep it going. Keep trying. And you said, yeah, you mentioned that obviously all three of us have been excusing our life. So we're all aware of how hard it is to string a budget along for a whole year whilst trying to get stuff done and live. While you were going through that difficult financial time, kickstarting your career. It's a bit of a stressful time in your life. Did you have that moment where you were watching a broadcast or listening to a broadcast and suddenly your stat appeared? Do you have that memory? Do you remember that time where suddenly that's me? I'm on this broadcast. Yeah,

I mean, it happened from the very first broadcast. And the first broadcast I did, I remember being extremely nervous because I'd lived a life thinking I was very, very knowledgeable on this. subject. And in a way, this was kind of like the final exam. Now, what you're, what you think is important is going on the air. So now it's a court of public opinion as to whether you actually know what you're talking about at all, whether you're just been living a lie and convincing yourself that you know what you're talking about. And I must confess that when I was at six four college and, and, and so on, I talked a pretty good game. It was a, I was never shy about telling everybody or proving to everybody that I knew what I was talking about on this subject.

But now it was like, okay, it's for real now. Now it's the real formula one. Now it's not just your mates who kind of half-assed and don't really, not really, don't care whether you know this stuff or not. Now they will care. So that was nerve-wracking. But the one stat that stands out from that first season was from Italy. And Michael Schumacher won that race in Monza in 2003.

And it was the fastest race in the history of the world. world championship still is to this day that's still the fastest average speed ever it's just under 154 miles an hour and before the race i looked up in 1971 which was the record at that point and i've calculated using the current you know the contemporary lap distance the exact time to a thousandth of a second that they had to beat if the race time is less than one hour whatever it was 1932.832 it's a new record Schumacher wins the race. There's no safety car in the race.

So we knew like, okay, this has got a shot. You could break the record here. Crosses the line. As soon as I sit in the club, the, it says on the screen, winner, race time and everything. Fastest race in history. Put it on the air now.

So we had it on the air while Schumacher was on his slowdown lap. Fastest race in history, the record's 32-year records gone. And I'm sitting there thinking, job well done nice one that we did pretty good job there we were well ahead of that one big

number and then no one else in Formula One reported it for the rest of the day no one no one said anything about it it wasn't on any of the websites I was convinced that I'd made a mistake and I went away and recalculated this thing another five or six times

and every time the answer was the same it's still a record but at that stage in my career, I'm still new, and I'm convinced that I must have got it wrong. If no one else is reporting, why has no one else mentioned it? And I remember having to write an email that night

to everybody in production and say, look, I'm convinced that this is right. I've done this calculation several times, several different ways around. I've tried to reverse engineer. I've started with the winning speed and worked back to the race time. That's correct.

But there's a possibility I'm wrong, because no one's reported and I just can't believe no one said on him. So I was literally getting emails that night making us look stupid on the air basically. I think they still they was trying to be as sensitive as possible

but at the same time it was like they just made us all look like idiots on live television which I was having to make my peace with that maybe this is the end of my career after one glorious season in Formula One but the next morning all of the websites

that someone in the paddock had obviously cotton on to this but the next morning everybody was all over it was like oh it's a factory's race in history yesterday so you can imagine how I went

how I was the next day like yeah we had that before the cars and stopped moving apart from May and then two weeks later we had Indianapolis and I was at Indianapolis

there was a first race I did on site in person and there's a very famous restaurant in Indianapolis called St. Elmo's where if you go there for the Indy 500 or if you went there for the US Grand Prix back in the day, everybody who's anybody hangs out at St. Elmo's.

You know, Michael Schumacher was told he had to have a two-hour wait for a table once. It's that sort of place. We had a reservation. So I go in there, bearing in mind I'm broke, because I've got my $8,000 for the year. I got no money. My glasses are broken. I don't have enough money to fix my glasses.

I'm wearing shoes that have holes in them. I'm going to this St. Elmo's place, which is an incredible steakhouse. And Jean-Tote and Ross Braun are sitting there at the, next table, right? That was like a big leap forwards in terms of home. Like, no money. I can't even, I can't even for the starter in this place, let alone the main. I never dine in anywhere like that. I'm from the poor house on. I don't spend $100 on a piece of filet mignon. I've never had one before. So that was the, that was the real moment where I thought,

wow. That is a lovely little story. That was when the ball started rolling. It was like, hey, you know, is this how the other half live? Can I have a bit of this from now on? This is way better. Yeah, I totally understand how you come to that mindset. I would quite like to sit in a steakhouse next to the likes of Brong and Tot and have a

Philharamingon, maybe one day, maybe we'll get there. The interesting point that you made was about. Now, you running through that calculation of the fastest lab, you working it through, you reporting it, obviously finding out you were correct, but having that panic. In the world of missed stats, fake news, and when you began your career, the internet was knowing he was responsive or up to date as it is now, how did you create a process or how did you find a way to validate your statistics to make sure that everything you were reporting on can be relied. Obviously, you've been doing this for years now, so you are a reliable individual. People trust you with what they're saying. How did you create that process to make sure that you were seeing as this reliable individual? Well, you're right to bring up the trust is everything in my job.

You know, half of my, most of my reputation is do we trust this guy enough to say what he's telling us to say on live television? Because if he's wrong, it's us that's going to look like idiots. so a lot of my you know the word of mouth if you like within the paddock about using me is like oh yeah you're sure and he'll get it you come up with something ridiculous off the wall and it'll be right so you'd be fine in the early days

it was tough to know for certain because there was no the thing is not only was there a dearth of reliable information but there was also a dearth of people to sort of and let you know that something was wrong so sometimes things would slip the net where you'd think, oh, that, you know, it wouldn't happen now. But we might have got away with it back in the day.

Nothing big. I mean, all the big numbers, like the fastest race in history. You know, like, this is a big call. It's like calling who's going to win the general election. Like, you can't get this wrong. You've got to, if you're saying this is going to happen, then this needs to be right. But when it's minor stuff, like, you know, oh, he's got a seven race scoring street. Well, no, it's actually an eight race scoring street.

Like that stuff people don't really notice. And they'll let it slide. mentally they'd be like, I knew what he meant. Basically, it means he's doing really well right now. But there's been a few. Like in, I can remember Peter Windsor to open the unilateral, the post-race press conference to the top three drivers by saying it was the youngest podium finishes in history.

I forget which race it was. I think it was Australia one year. Might have been Australia 2009. And we've done that. that actually the second race I ever did, Malaysia 03, when Kimmy Reichen won the race, it was Kimmy Reichen's first win. And it was Alonzo's first podium.

Barakle was the other guy on the podium. And I'd said, I think that's the youngest average age of a podium in history. So we put it on the air. Right. But I didn't know what the record was. I'd have a guess. Because I thought, okay, well,

Rikin is the second youngest winner of all time. Alonzo is the youngest man ever on the podium and Barracalla was still only 30 so on that basis I like the odds of saying that this is the youngest average age of a podium we've ever had in Formula One now as it turned out the record had stood since Belgium 1974

and it was obscure and if you've ever heard all these you've probably heard a lot of youngest average age of podium stats if you're a particularly if you're particularly interesting Formula One stats you'll see like on the Forrex page, for instance, is even a separate section, age of the podium.

And I like to think that I've had some small role in its cultural significance to nerds and anorax because no one gave a crap about that statistic until Malaysia 03 when I basically reasonable guess that it was a record with no idea what the record was. And it's since been lowered a couple more times. You know, we've in Hungary that year, in Italy, 08 when Beddle 1. And again, in Brazil, 2019, it was Vastappan Gassley Science, the very unusual podium. But yeah, it all started from there. I can't remember what the original question was.

I just went on off of a sort of thought, stream of consciousness. I mean, that's literally our entire podcast, so I wouldn't worry too much. Yeah, but I remember what I was. Getting things right in the early days was quite difficult. But also, the counterweight was it was quite difficult for people to prove you were wrong. Whereas now, if you're wrong, we'll tell you. You don't need to double check. They'll let you know, which is a help and a hindrance.

In a way, it's a validation of, okay, no one said it's wrong. I'm dead certain that this is correct. But then also at the same time, if you do get something wrong, people let you know quite quick. But as I said, you can sometimes get things wrong if they're little things, but if it's the big stuff, if you said, Lewis Hamilton will clinch the World Championship if he finishes fourth in this race. And he's fourth, and he doesn't clinch,

kind of look like a bit of an idiot. So you've got to make sure you get that stuff right. Exactly. In terms of statistics that you have and you know, do you have a go-to stat if someone randomly asks you, what do you do? I'm the stat person in F-1. Okay, tell me a stat about EF1.

F1. Do you have a go-to or in that situation? Do you have a stat, you would say? No, not really. There's like 6,000 of them to choose from at each race. I mean, the stuff, everything we've done for Silverstone this weekend is already pre-packed and ready to go. And then obviously you react to what happens. So, you know, the probably the story I mentioned most often is that one about the fastest race,

because it was so early in my career. And it was literally one of those sliding doors moments between, or we're going to keep this guy, is he any good, versus, oh, yes, actually, we'll keep him for next year and we'll give him more work to do and actually pay him some decent money. So it's kind of an important, it was an important one in my life. For this weekend, you know, Hamilton, as relatively unlikely as it might say, could become the first driver to win at the same track nine times. Unless you're listening to this on Monday, in which case, yeah, he's won at Silverstone nine times. I can't believe he did it. So, you know,

things change from from from from from week to week you know but he's got to stop red ball who are in the middle of the second longest winning streak in the history of them as constructor um they've only won six in a row once before and that was when bedel won nine in a row in the end of 2013 so yeah it's there isn't one go-to statistic it just depends what the prevailing wins are that on that particular week sure i mean that makes sense um i will tell you this though we'll tell you this for free the date we're going july the third is the date of the race two races in history on that date have had passed for the win on the last lap of the race. So, you know, I'd like to think, I'd love to think that we will come up with that and use it in the broadcast. It would be fantastic if, you know, the race got decided on the last lap. Let me say, that's the third time on this date that we've had a Grand Prix and someone's won it on the last lap of the race. It's going to be that. use that. That could be completely useless and we'll never get anywhere near it.

On the other hand, it could end up going viral because people will point out Austria 2016 and France, 1977 as the other two instances. So who knows? Maybe I've just given you an exclusive there. That is definitely most decidedly either a late-breaking F-1 podcast

special or completely useless information that will never see the light of day. You are welcome. If it's the first, it will be a first. Yeah. Yeah. We're also usually, useless. So, you know, that will fit the trend of us being the useless ones rather than the actual exclusive ones. We tend to be late to that. The newsbreaking. Of course, to keep in line with the name, of course. In terms of Formula One, obviously, we've got nearly not far off 75 years

worth of statistics to go on now. Is there an era that you like telling stats about more than other eras? Obviously, I think you need to, correct me if I'm wrong, you probably need to to impress, you probably need to look a bit more finer in the current day of F1, whereas you might be able to impress with more general stats earlier in F1's existence. But do you have a preference in terms of a decade? Not in terms of numbers, no.

Because, you know, I always say if a statistician tells you there was nothing to say about any given race or event in history, then sack him. because you hired him to tell you stuff. So we didn't know anything, you didn't get rid of him. I say that in the early days of GP2 in the A1 Grand Prix series. What do you mean there's no stats?

Of course there's stats. These drivers have got careers. What have they done in other series? What have they done on this racetrack? What have they done on this day in history? What are these teams done? You know, what are the black records around this track in other series? There's loads of stuff you can talk about.

You can be that nonsense that you can't come up with anything. You're useless. But what I particularly like, like is whenever I can tie in something from the present day with something from the distant past. And we had that in Montreal, because Alonso was on the front row. And Alonso was over the age of 40. There's only the fifth driver in the last 60 years

to be on the front row at that age or older, over the age of 40. Question to the floor. Who were the other four drivers? Oh, hang on. So, in, bang, this was for you. In the last 60 years, there have been four. Since 1960.

There's been four other ones. Mansell. Yes? Bramble on some background music. Jack Brabham. Yes, very good. Jack Brabham. That's right. It really is.

I'm going to let you down here. So you're aware, Sean, we have a little jingle here. Ben is our resident Statenan, right? Ben is the one that fills in our information. It's relative. It's very relative. Yeah. It's not to your level of.

ability. And when Ben throws out a stat, like you've done multiple times already in this podcast, I tend to go, Stadman, almost like a little jingle for him. I get that all the time. All the time at work.

Good, good, you should. The old Scatman John song. I'm the stat man. Exactly. It's nice that you get the reference. Anyway, I was saving that for Ben. He's let me down, two out of the other four.

I was hoping Ben that you can nail that. So that we are worthy of her. Now, leave Ben with it. Leave Ben with it. Now, I can see it. I can see him on the screen. So I'm going to reasonably assume that he's not cheated. Of course not. Because that's going against the spirit of the regulation. I've never cheated. If not the wording, if he blurts them out, we can have a conversation amongst ourselves

and we'll just leave Ben with this little side project. Where were we? Good question. Good question. I'm too distracted now. There are no more questions that I need to ask. in terms of a couple of current Formula One drivers just to look at them. Lewis Hamilton start off with. Statistically speaking, I'm sure in a number of categories, could already be argued, I mean, he's going to be argued as one of the greatest of all time, regardless, but surely in terms of some statistics,

there are those that are going to argue he is the greatest of all time already. In terms of any way you could look at it, do you think that Lewis Hamilton has built statistically a good case for being the greatest driver of all times? time. There is no case to answer. He is the greatest of all time statistically. It's not even an argument. He leads in wins, polls, podium finishes, laps led, races led. He's tied in championships. Some of his supporters would say he has eight world championships and he was wrongfully denied the eighth world championship. In almost every statistical category, Hamilton is number one. There's no case to answer. He is the greatest statistically. Now, whether you think he's the greatest driver,

that's a more subjective debate. But numerically, he's number one. There is no case to answer as far as I'm concerned. Because you could say, you know, oh, well, Chumacher won more races. Before his first retirement, like at a higher win percentage or whatever you want to say, it was on the podium in every race in 2002, all this sort of stuff. That's an argument to make.

Who's statistically the greatest? you say Hamilton. Because if you're going to say, well, it's, what isn't it all down to how many races they actually competed in? In that case, you get everybody you've just mentioned, and Fangio is the greatest of all time, because he won 24 Grand Prix and 51 starts. So therefore, there is no case to answer on that.

And everybody else, Jim Clark, Senna, Schumacher, were all Muppets compared to Fangio. I mean, you've essentially answered what my fallout question was going to be there in terms of percentages and where Fangio would come into that. But yeah, I think you make a good point.

Now, you see, I have, my opinion is, who is the greatest driver? Who is the driver? I always think that was Jim Clark, because Jim Clark, 72 times in Formula One, was on pole 33 times. That record stood for 21 years after he died. In 63 and 65, he scored the maximum score, because it used to be back in the day that you dropped scores, you couldn't score more than like six races a year.

And he would win six races in a year. And then in 65, he did that, scored the maximum possible score in the world championship and skip Monaco to go and win the Indy 500. I mean, what more can you ask of the guy? And also, 25 Grand Prix victories, finished second once. That to me says, okay,

so basically as the car keeps going, Jim Clark wins the race. That's it. And from the contemporaneous descriptions of Peter Windsor, who was basically Jim Clark's number one fan, and you can see why, that is how it went.

It was just, well, if all four wheels stay on the car, then Jim Clark's going to win there. And in one instance, Watkins got in 1966, all four wheels didn't stay on the car because the rear suspension failed on the last lap, and he still won the race. So, yeah, and he won that, by the way, you won that race with a Lotus 43,

with a BRM H-16 engine, the only ever race victory for an H-16 configuration, basically two eights on top of each other. A bizarre engine. It was the only time it was ever a winner. And to think that a V10 never won a Grand Prix until 1989, but an H-16 did. He basically won a Grand Prix with a tractor engine.

Unbelievable. Goal-Clarky. Yeah. Genius. Really, overused word. Looking at someone who, I mean, some might argue, is already getting there, but certainly he is on somewhat of a path, Max Verstappen. Statistically speaking, given his age, given his current position at Red Bull,

what would you give his chances to maybe eclipse some of Hamilton's records or at least some of them? What do you reckon, given how long he could have left in the sport? Everything, all the prevailing wins would say that Vastappen would eventually own all of these records because he started so young in Formula One. I mean, yeah, he's the youngest in history, but the youngest by a long way, and the youngest to win a Grand Prix by a long way.

I mean, you know, he was winning races at the age of 18. No one else has won a race under the age of 21. Actually, a big head start in that regard. He's been, you could say, somewhat fortunate that he's in a car that is reasonably competitive all the time ever since he was promoted from Tara Russo. But you can also say that about Lewis. You know, Lewis has never been in a car that's truly a dog.

part of the first half of 2009 when McLaren hadn't figured out their car, eventually he got a handle on it and he won two races that year. So he hasn't had that yet. And that will come. I mean, it always has, if you're going to be, if you're around as long as Lewis,

eventually you'll have a car that's not so great, if only for a season or two. But eventually you would say Vastapen should own the success categories. If he's still in a car of this level of competitiveness, because the calendar is going to expand. We're going to have 25 race. before long. When I started, there was only 16, and even that seemed a lot. Now you've got another more than half of that on top per year. So with that, the fact that the cars have never been as

reliable as they are now is very rare, notwithstanding the amount of technical failures we've seen this season, for cars to break down. And that leads to a certain homogenousness of the results. it tends to be the same four or five teams that are up at the front. You don't get, about this conversation before, we used to have a situation where the big three or the big four teams

would be so far ahead in terms of competitiveness that they all had to break down for someone else to win. Now that's not the case now. The field's never been as close. So it means if you get a weird chaos incident like boat has taken at half field at the first corner in Hungary, you can end up with Esteban Okon

winning a race in an Alpine because he can stay far enough ahead for long enough before Hamilton could have caught him up to win the race. If that had been 30 years ago, Hamilton would have caught him. In fact, he probably was still lapped him because the field as a whole more closer together.

But the problem is the reliability as such tend to get the same guys at the front. So if you get chaos here, you can get a different winner, like the bottom. artist thing, like the Ocon thing, Gasly at Monser as well as a good example. So Vastappan has

the luxury of being, coming into sport very young, instant success, ever-expanding calendar. So all of that says, eventually Vastappan, speaking now, you know, because he might announce his shock retirement age 28, who knows.

You know, we didn't expect Niko Rosberg to retire and he did. So you would say he's got a very, very good chance. Let's put it that way. It would be not a surprise, I would say. Because we thought Schumacher was so far ahead, and now, well, now he's not in the lead anymore. So it was ever thus.

In fact, if Mastappen wins this weekend, he's already won this weekend, in which case, congratulations to Max Mastafin. It'll be his 27th Grand Prix victory. Now, when I started watching Formula One in 1987, that was the record. Jackie Stewart, was the record holder with 27 wins.

And that seemed like a huge number. And then Alan Prost beat it at Estoril that year, when he was 28. There was a huge big deal. I remember even as a kid in 87, like they made a huge big deal. Alan Frost broke Jackie Stewart's record. And now, you know, he's going to reach 27.

It's going to be like, yeah, and, you know, now it's like ninth all time or something like that. It's, yeah, the goalposts move in this sport quite regularly. Ben, if you thought the other team? yet. I only have like half punts that I'm not very sure about. You're not going to go. No, there's no point of me thinking any longer on this.

I don't know whether he would have quite made for. Alan Prost as you, no. No. Alan Prost did not race an F1 after the age of 40. He must have, was it 38, 39? 38, I believe he was when he retired. Yeah. I figured he was just.

short of it, but didn't have a... You'll kick yourself. Wasn't there other... You didn't say you had more than one punt to make you? Because you got Mantle and Brabham. Wow. Yeah. My next one...

Go on then. All right, okay. My next one is I'm certain he definitely made the age. But he had pretty... He didn't have a lot of competitiveness late on. So, Graham Hill. It was not Graham Hill. Although logical.

But no, he was not. In fact, I was surprised he wasn't on the list. I will give you the clue that the two drivers you're missing were both world champions. So that should narrow it considerably. Bearing of mine, I said, since 1960. Okay. Michael Schumacher.

Yes. I tell you what I've done. I wrote him off because I was like, well, you have the pole at Monag. Oh, no, technically he didn't. I didn't even think, oh yeah, he finished. He started a P2, didn't he? That would be one of them. And the other one.

Oh, it's the tension. Do we need to describe the podcast listeners what Ben is doing? Yeah. Dang is going through physical turmoil. I really am. He's twisting his chair. This is absolutely horrible. Sean is the first person ever to come on to the podcast.

put Ben through some form of intellectual pain because Harry and I failed to do this every week. Well, I hope you get your own back in other senses. Oh, he will. Every single week, don't worry. Sure. Andretti? Yay! Got there in the end.

I'm going to assume you mean Mario Andretti and not Michael Andretti. In which case you'd be right. Marco. Come on. Yes, Mario Andretti was on pole position, age 42. at Mons are in 1982 as a replacement for Didier Peroni right at the end of his career. Well, that was great. That was enjoyable.

So there you go. So there you go. The other four, Jack Brab and Mario Andretti, Nigel, and Michael Schumacher. Congratulations to everybody at home. You emailed in and tweeted their answers. You are. And did so far quicker than I did. We'll see how well they all do in the quiz at the end,

which is going to be a far more different test of knowledge. That might be your opportunity to get your own back on me. Potentially. Sean, in 20 years, what has been the funniest moment of your career? Oh boy. Well, I suspect the funnier moments are going to have to go in the memoirs because I probably have to save the names of the guilty parties. There's been a lot of laughs, actually.

There's an idea in Formula One that everybody's kind of mean and scowling and so on. Not to me, they're not. Quite possibly because I supply information to so many people to make them look better. They probably feel like they should probably be nice to me. So that obviously helps the mood. I'm not really a nag. I'm an assistant. Yeah, there's been a lot.

I can remember, I mean, there's so many things to choose from. You know, from that first weekend, Indianapolis O'3, the first, one of the first things I had to do was go and get Sir Jackie Stewart from the Padat, because he was going to come up and do a bit of commentary with us. So I had to go and get him. So bear in mind that my financial situation, and I'm broke and I'm going to be signing on unemployed

at the end of the season because I've got any money. I had to go and get, the first thing you have to do, go and get the knight of the realm from the Paddle. and bring him over here. So that was quite funny. Having small talk with him on the buggy. Literally, we're going through all these people, and I've never heard the word Jackie said so many times.

I thought, this is what it's like to be Jackie Stewart. This is literally what it's like driving this buggy. And all you hear is Jackie, Jackie, Jackie, Jackie, Jackie, as you go past all the craze. And everyone says the word Jackie. You were having small talk, and he said to me, where are you from? I said, Shrewsbury, where are you from?

Dunbarton. Do you know, I'll get tired of this? This racket. Hey, you get used to it after our way off. So yeah, that's a strong stu at that. Jackie Stewart impression, by the way. Very good. It's a great deal for motor car racing.

What you think, someone? Yeah, that was a good start. Funnier stuff. There's, we left fart noises on the voice-activated thing on our rental car in Montreal one year. That counts. So literally, I won't say who did it. Me, but I was involved somewhere down the line.

I will admit, Gilt, associated guilt. But I remember one time we had a thing, start the car up, and you could change the voice. So when we left the car, the person who shall remain nameless said, I'll record this, here we go. So he hits the recording,

he goes, oh, I've got a fart. I left it and handed the car back so I can't imagine the next person to get in the car I hope the rental company that was there because I changed it

or knew how to change it because you imagine the next people get in the car it's like somebody trying to impress their mother-in-law or something and they get that Yeah, that's happened a lot. Like mistreating mistreating equipment that we should be looking after. I ended up with, again, I can't name names or places,

but I ended up with, I swear this is true, the front brake discs from a certain driver's race car that were going to be used in the Grand Prix the next day. This is a Saturday night before the Grand Prix. And for reasons that don't need explain, just trust me, we ended up with the front brake discs and the curfew had started before we could give them back. So the mechanics had left.

You can't stay in the paddock. Take them back. You're taking back to the hotel. So I ended up with these front discs in my room, thinking to myself, when they show up at whatever time curfew ends, and if they're not there, it's going to be like World War III,

because they're going to put these on the car. Um, so that's happened. Whose front brake discs were they? I couldn't possibly say. But are they still on the grid? I would say this. I will tell you this. This were returned to the rightful owner and said vehicle did compete in the Grand Prix.

Oh, no. So that, yes, this disaster was narrowly averted. A diplomatic crisis was narrowly averted. What else? What else has there been? I mean, there's, you put me on the spot now.

I wish you'd ask me this before I came on because I could have put written down dozens of examples of things that have gone wrong or, you know, ways we've tried to get around stuff. I can remember, again, got to protect the innocent here, but I can remember there was one track

where the facilities were a little bit too far away from the commentary box. So said, who was a former Grand Prix driver. This is going back a few years now, but used his water bottle to get around the problem and then put it on the

desk. Oh. Is it necessary entirely? That's got David Coulter had written all over it. I'm not going to say you at It was not David Cawthard, I promise. Great guy, David Cawthard. We're very blocish. I love that.

He's very, he always plays, I don't know if you've ever met him, but Cawthud plays a wonderful, slightly bewildered man. What am I supposed to be doing? Where am I supposed to be over here? Okay, what am I saying? Okay, fair enough.

I'll say that, okay. Yeah, if you like, sure. So, yeah, I love his, I love his faint sense of bewildered. at the whole thing. I aspire. I aspire to that general level of befuddlement. Yeah, so this is like me, Ben, when I gave you that thing,

the old driver's on the front row. This is like the reverse of that. Because I guarantee you there's a ton of story. Getting lost away to the studio when I've been at a TV studio, we had that. We had the first race we ever did at NBC when they took over from Speed Channel. It was in a brand new building. no one moved in yet

they do the Premier League together there and everything now it's all big budget stuff but back then in 2013 there were the first people in there it's massive size of an airport zone I think like Terminal 5 at ether was like massive and there was no signs to where everything was so you just had to know where

you were going and we didn't we had to go from the vocal booth where we'd do like the preamble to the set when we do the on camera stuff and we didn't know where the studio it was. So it was like a spinal tap getting lost on the way to the stage. It literally happened. So yeah, there's another one. Oh, playing

football. I say it was involved, but there was a football match that broke out in the TV compound once. And we weren't supposed to be playing football. We're actually supposed to be working, allegedly. And yeah, a kickabout ensued. Because somebody produced a football and when you've got a load of blokes hanging around with not

much to do. Moves inevitably in the direction of having to kick a bait, even though you know it's a bad idea with all these satellite dishes. And eventually, of course, inevitable happened, which is we kicked it and banged a satellite dish and then moved it. And then it was like, did anybody know how to realign that satellite dish that we've just smacked the

potball? That's happened. Yeah, there'll be dozens. I'll probably talk your ear off one. I'll go come on another episode and I'll prepare. I'll prepare a playlist of weird crap crap that's happened to. Oh, I've got a great one involving my own dad. I can't believe I forgot this one.

Silverstone, 2019. My dad was a guest, right? Because with my birthday that weekend, the race was on my birthday. And they allowed me to invite my dad who'd never been to a Grand Prix. My dad's 89 now. It was the first time he'd ever been to a Grand Prix. So he listened to me drone on about Grand Prix race for decades. Finally, he did a Grand Prix.

The Friday night, we did a thing called Live in the Pit Lane, or Pit Lane, like, Insider Access. And I'm one of the expert hosts. I'm standing outside the McLaren garage talking about this, that, and the other. Here's everything you need to know about the race, blah, blah, blah. My dad sees it, and then he moves along to the next bit, because there's like, you know, Bird My Land is there, you show you the safety car.

It's a lot of cool stuff. If we're F1 fans like us, it's all like, stuff we think this is this is so cool um anyway my boss comes over at the end he says that i don't want you to panic you but dad's had a bit of a tumble and he's ended up in the medical center what bloody hell what's he done so what's happened was he was going to go up to the podium and have his picture taken on the podium but in the process of going up the steps he went ass over her elbow and ended up in the medical unit so i had to go over to the medical unit at silverstone the same place they took michael schumacher after he crashed in 99 right

God knows what's happened to my dad. Like, is this, is he, is it serious? You know, what's he going to look like? Is he unconscious? Don't know. I come in. And I said, and I'm here for my dad. Yeah, Tommy Kelly.

Oh, yeah, he's just through there in the back. So I go in, literally, and again, literally the place where Schumacher had, you know, they fixed him up after his broken leg. My dad's in there. Fair any mind, he's like 80, six years old, eight or seven years old. He's in there chatting up two of the nurse. And they're going, oh, your dad's so funny. Blah, blah, blah, blah.

My dad's giving it all the old chat. like a bandage on his head and cut on his face and all that and he's like, do you come here often? All that sort of stuff. In the middle of the Silverstone Medical Center. Must have skipped a generation.

What can I say? I haven't got that sort of chat. What's going on there? But that was the funny evening. Yeah, and that was the same day invited into the Red Bull garage in the practice session. And they gave him

the gurney flap from Vostappen's car and he was looking at it and going, wow, that's nice. And the mechanic was waiting and waiting and waiting. Eventually, could I have it back, please? They put it on Vastappen's car and sent him out. My dad was holding the piece of the car. This had all happened on the same day, and I had to say to my dad as we went to the car to go back to an hotel,

I said, Dad, this is your first day at a Formula One race. You've been in the Red Bull garage, you've been mishandling bits of Vastappen's car, you've fallen down the stairs of the podium. You've ended up in the medical unit chatting up those two nurses. I want you to know, Dad, this is not how Formula One races are for most people. It's not always like this. Just, I don't want to lower your expectations for every other day you're ever here. I love that. I love the idea that you can almost create a bit of a story book of,

you just send your dagger round, a different Grand Prix around the world and see what Miss Chief he could get up to. Yeah, there was another thing that didn't happen, which we were, we were supposed to meet Leo Sayer, you know, the musician Leo Sayer from sending. And, um, If you're not familiar. And I've been telling everybody all week, like, we're going to end up doing karaoke. My dad can end up doing jumping karaoke. If you make me feel like dancing with Leo Sayer at like 11 o'clock tonight.

And in the end, of course, because he ended up in the medical unit, none of it ever happened. So, yeah, there we go. The weird and wonderful world of bringing parents into a Grand Prix. Bring your parents at workday. You talk about bringing parents into the Grand Prix. And you mentioned David Coulthard, and the chapter going on in my favorite story.

When I was a young boy, David Coltsox has me. There's barely an episode where he doesn't say this. Hey, look, I went to a family wedding the weekend just gone, and I spoke to my lovely father about this, who was a religious listener, so he'll be paying attention right now. And there was a photo of me as a child being held by David Coulthard. And it turns out the reason for that is because my granddad's company, when I was a very, very young man,

when my dad was a young father, sponsored David Kortar up the start of his, well, it wasn't his company, he worked at the finance department for the company. The sponsor David Kortar, they were a large sponsor. And it turns out that my mother and father were flown to David Kortar's house for Dinger on his private plane, which my dad helped fly at one point.

And when his agent turned around with David Kortel's practice helmet and said, I haven't got any space for this, do you want it? It turns out we had that crash helmet in our loft for about 15 years. And he flogged it back to David Kortar for 200 pounds, because quite frankly, we need, oh, it's a grad,

we're getting in the cash. And I thought, Dad, I can have David Cautier and crush helmet here. You sold it for a bloody grand in the mid-2000s. Anyway,

so yes, parents and racing, maybe we should have mixed them. Yeah, yeah. Who's the sponsor? I don't know, quite frankly. I used to be sponsored by group of healthcare a lot.

And there was a big sponsor in the lower formula, so I wondered if it was them. But it was some, yeah, financial or building company. He was a financial advisor. for that, that company.

That's the boring part of the story, that's for sure. So do you, have you, have you told Caw that? If I can have a word with Coulthard, yes. I would love to tell him that. If you want to put in a word and get him on the podcast, we'll definitely let him know. Well, I'll tell you what would happen. If I brought that up with D.C., he'd go,

did I, did I buy it at that? I don't know. Because he'd be literally, by his own admission, can never remember anything that's going on. And he'd be like, I may have done. I don't know. I don't remember.

So, yeah. Bad luck on that one. That was a... I know, right. I know. Was it one of his former one? I had a lost time. It was one of his practice round helmets.

So obviously they changed the visors and whatnot. He wore it for a practice round for a couple of practice sessions before an actual Grand Prix. Right. So it was, it was race. Yeah, he never wore it technically in a lapped race, but yes, it was part of a race weekend helmet,

which he wore. Wow. That would have been worth. way more than 200 quid. Yeah, I was quite devastated. I can't believe. I can't believe. I'm going to say,

I cannot believe you're selling a David Corthod helmet and a guy comes along called David Corthod. I'll buy that offer you for 200 Nick. And he goes, done. What are you? Hang on. You can tell that my father maybe didn't get the financial acrament

that my grandfather may have took with him, which is great stuff. Yeah. He has been, sir. Budget doing business. I was going to say, well, we've got some questions from our listeners. We have a Discord server where we have a load of people and they're about 800 people. So we'll, I'll move on to that.

I'll do the first one, then I'll hand over to Sam. The first one is from someone called the Bungalorian. So make of that way you will. What a fantastic name. I salute you, Bungalorian. Yeah, Bungers. Bungers. Bangers.

Bangers. Yeah, that's our name for him. Yeah, he is asked, what is it? Most people don't understand when it comes to sport statistics. I guess what do they get wrong about them? I don't think this is a fan's fault. This is a sport of data science fault. There is a creeping tendency,

and I use this term a lot. I call it the look at the size of my algorithm. Like, look, we've got a database that can do this. And look how fantastic. Like, you know, Mool of Hamilton is only the seventh Mercedes since 1973 to have gone six races without being on the front row whenever his teammate has out-qualifying before time.

What? What the hell did you just say? I have not, you know, that happens a lot. And my mantra has always been, if I have to explain to you what I just said, it's not a statistic. It's just a load of words. It's a word salad.

You know, you've got to keep it simple. You got to remember mind. Formula One fans, sports fans are just that. They are sports fans. They have tuned in to see the sport. They haven't tuned in to hear a statistical math lecture. And if you have to explain what this nonsense means, it's nonsense by definition. It needs to be short and straight to the point.

Lewis Hamilton can win here nine times. No one's ever won at the same track nine times. Anybody can understand that. It's more prevalent in football right now with this expected goals thing. You hear them talk about expecting gold. What a load of nonsense. You know, that really, there needs to be economic sanctions against somebody.

I don't know who, but there definitely needs to be sanctions. The UN needs to get involved. Because to pollute the airways with this utter nonsense, you know, Liverpool expected gold in that half only 0.072. Oh, well, that's exciting. I mean, they're winning 3-0. You could have just told me that instead. That made more sense.

Instead, you're going off on this. tangent of nonsense, wasting my time. And I like to think I speak with a certain amount of authority on that because I am a sports statistician. And it is important, and this is especially relevant given this time of year, this sporting time of year. Statistics in sport, we are like the ball boys and ball girls at Wimbled. If we do our jobs properly, we make the thing that you came to see better, which you didn't even notice we were there. We are an invisible part of making it better. The point when we start to become conspicuous is when we start to detract from the thing you actually came to see, and that's when it becomes a negative. So that's, I wouldn't say

that's something that fans misunderstand. I think it's something, it's misunderstood on the other end, on the professional side. That's really interesting. That's a good way of thinking about it. So next up, we've got Norm from Texas, so relatively in your part, a lot of our audience are from the United States, so they'll be pleased to hear that you reside over there. He has asked, What is the most shocking statistic that you've uncovered from the 2022 seasons so far? That's a good question, Norm. The most shocking statistic.

Well, I probably already mentioned it, and that is that Red Bull have had more mechanical failures in race than Ferrari. Because it seems like Ferrari have got this Laurel and Hardy-type car that falls apart on them when they're in a winning position. And it is certainly true that Leclair was in the lead in Spain and in Baku and the car failed. but yet there's this idea that Red Bull have got this in the bag now and we shouldn't fall into that trap

because Red Bull have had more breakdowns than Ferrari. So fortuitously, the Vastappan thing happened right at the start of the season when he wasn't winning the race and he wasn't winning in Melbourne either when his car rode down. At some point, with this level of reliability, that car's going to break down when he is leading and then it's going to seem like they're throwing the points away.

So it's not necessarily a statistic that you've not heard already, but it does surprise me. Even I would think, well, Ferrari seems like the unreliable car. Not the case. Yeah, maybe it's Ferrari's statisticians themselves and strategists who are the ones that are the more unreliable part of the grouping then. Well, yeah, I do understand why it's, you know, it is relevant that Ferrari keep breaking down

when they're in the lead. That is obviously highly relevant. But yeah, as soon or later, if Red Bull can't fix this, then they're eventually going to have a taste of that medicine too. Next up is the wonderful names,

Palo Desandio. Using stats and data, this is an interesting one for you. I don't know if you'll really be able to give a proper answer from this, so it'd be interesting. Could you theoretically say, who would wing between O'Kong and Russell

if they were in the same car? we're just picking two random drivers on the grid now right right does he give any context for why he's chosen those two drivers no no and I just hung this with you when I asked I wasn't expecting you could sit down and break down every detail around their careers to provide an answer I think he's simply wondering if you could have

two random drivers on the grid for example at Silverstone you could pick Gasley and Latifi for example could you theoretically say based on the statistics and their careers and how you profile them, but one is more likely to beat the other in the same car. Well, I never look on, I don't analyze any of the AWS stuff, like the data that comes off the cars.

My specialty is analyzing historic context. And he would obviously say in historic context, George Russell won the GP2, sorry, won the DP3 championship, won the F2 championship in consecutive years. That to me was enough to know that, okay, so this guy's top draw, like we've established this.

Ocon had that remarkable run in GP3 of winning. He didn't win. He won, I think he only won one race that year. He had nine consecutive second place finishes. I think was, what was that, 15? I think it was. So, you know, Ocon missed a consistency. but I wouldn't I mean I would only look at those as my those will be my my data points I wouldn't look at oh well now we've moved to these ground effect style cars does that favor Ocon style of driving compared to Russell and does that mean that we discount what we saw of them up to this point I don't do any of that that is to me you're chasing after stuff in the dark you know you could look at at telemetry

data and whatnot. But you would still say to yourself, for instance, for argument's sake, that you might not have expected George Russell to outqualify Lewis Hamilton as much as he has this season. But Mercedes would counter this way saying, well, he's been running these experimental setups and whatnot. So, you know, you can't, you can say that's not a direct comparison. There's always, there's always caveats to all that stuff. Ultimately, you look at the end of the season, the championships. I'd always say this with Valtre Bottas. when people would say, well,

that he's losing his drive because I always thought he did a pretty good job. Really? Every season, he was 100 points behind Hamilton at the end of the season. And in 2020, he was 125 points behind.

And Hamilton didn't even do all the races because he missed Sakhir. You think on that basis that Valtteri Bottas was serious opposition to you because I don't, because all I saw was the guy was getting his ass kicked every year.

And I've got the receipts to prove it. Because you didn't get any points for pole position. Bartas could beat him on one lap. He was beating Hamilton over 70 laps, which is a more difficult assignment. So, yeah, that's... I don't know if that's necessarily the answer he was looking for.

I don't know what the answer could be, quite frankly, so I think you've done a good job. In my... I would say, in conclusion, I would expect Russell to beat Ockon over the course of a season, because my opinion is that Russell is from the same drawer of talent

that brought us Hamilton and Leclair and looks like being where Oscar Piastri is starting from as well when he inevitably gets a drive. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Okay, well, you know what? I hope that, Paolo, that answers your question, because that was an interesting one.

Okay, Kianboy has said here, what stat of yours is most misinterpreted by F1 fans? Hmm. Jeez, that's an interesting one too. I think in this Twitter generation, if I make passing reference to Lewis Hamilton hasn't done this or Max Verstaffin hasn't done that, it is instantly misinterpreted as being

you're obviously a massive fanboy of the other driver. It's become a little bit of an art form to be called total Hamilton fanboy and massive anti-Louis Hamilton on the bandwagon, you hate him, you hate Lewis, in the same weekend. In the same day, you get bonus points, if you get it on the same day.

You obviously hate Lewis. You obviously cannot, you know, you're in love with Lewis. Both are the same thing. Yeah. Is there a stat that's really misinterpreted? There probably is somewhere down the line. That's not a good question. No one's ever asked me that one before.

I admire the intellectualism of your listenership. I mean, there's probably... That's a bit... There's probably been... There's probably been quite a few. I remember after Bahrain this year was outright at the end and Hamilton ended up on the podium

after Perez's car stopped in the last lap and that meant that Hamilton was 15 points ahead of Vastappan after the first race and I remember running a stat that Hamilton was now further ahead of Vastappan after the first race than he was at any point in 2021 and for some reason that that won't gain traction, that went viral

and I think people read stuff into it way, way deeper than is intended. Because to me, it's just like, it's a statement of fact. That's not me saying that, oh, well, Hamilton's going to win the world championship or that, you know, Vestappen's blown his only opportunity to beat Mercedes and Mercedes will win every race the rest of the year. There's nothing like that.

It was just simply, oh, how funny. By sheer coincidence, he now further ahead of Vastappen than he was at any point last year. How funny. So I think the misinterpretation can often be actually, it's actually a reflection of the prejudice of the person reading it because they think that you're pro or anti their driver. When it actually in fact, it's just like, I don't really care. As long as it's as long as it's factually correct,

if it's wrong, then we've got a problem. Then I've got a problem more accurately. But as long as I always say to people who, if they give me a tongue lashing on Twitter, I appreciate that you didn't say it was wrong. You didn't argue that it was factually accurate, which I greatly appreciate. Probably casting down on my, you know, parentage,

probably not necessary, but you did at least say the stat was correct. So, yeah, that's how I roll with that stuff. Good, good. I think that tells more about the social media situation in the world today rather than your stat telling ability. I think, I think, You're about to have a thick skin to be in F1 anyway.

Because as I mentioned, coming up, you'll get a lot of people saying no. Once you've dealt with that and sort of dealt, you know, you have times when you feel like no one's listening and nobody, you know, what am I really doing here? Are they going to get rid of me? I'm sure they're going to rumble me, realize the whole thing's a scam. So you've got to have fairly thick skin anyway. So dealing with Twitter is like a walk in the park compared to that. Because people on Twitter are just, they're just on the burner account, you know. They're just, half the time they're just jealous.

I mean, all the shit that Will Buxton gets, half of it's just jealousy. It's just people who wish they were him. And, yeah, it's just like, we've got real problems to deal with, like, contractual negotiations and, you know, people in genuine positions to influence our career, getting angry with us because of A, B, and C reason.

Those are the things that bother us. We're not interested in some, like, you know, first name bunch of numbers on Twitter says you're a dick, and that you're obviously a Lewis fanboy and I hate you. It's like, oh, that's all right. Well, thanks for tuning in and stay tuned to my Twitter account

because there'll be loads more on here that will piss you off. Very good. Yeah, I think that's something we can all relate. See, the final question from George Rameas is nothing to do with stats nor is it to do with Formula One but we thought we'd ask you anyway.

He's a fellow American, well, he's American, you live in the American, so maybe I understand the question slightly more than we did. he's asked, what is your favourite potted meat? What? Do you ask that question? George, George, Rameas.

George, I've got to be honest with you, George. It's got to be spam. I mean, they used to sponsor, what, Lake Speed, the number nine NASCAR, I think, in the 90s. Guy on Twitter, there's a guy on the YouTube. He's an amazing YouTube channel. Name escapes me temporarily. He does the whole thing about why Spam's marketing in NASCAR was genius.

You should look it up. Actually, I've got to find that guy's name because he's brilliant. I highly recommend you follow him. I'm not even a massive NASCAR fan. I love this guy's NASCAR channel because he tells all these great stories about NASCAR or your. It's really, really interesting. But yeah, spam. I would say potted meat.

It's going to be spam. Then there's also Thanksgiving dinner in a can That's another piece of inspired genius I think we all agree there Big Turkey in a can It's inspired genius You're only laughing because you don't appreciate genius

In your own lifetime And that's okay That happened to Leonardo da Vinci as well You know So I can't believe we just had Leonardo da Vinci Be compared to Thanksgiving dinner

in a little can that's sensational. Slapshoes is the guy's name. Slapshoes. And it's spelt with like name and numbers. I would spell out of the guy's name slap shoes. You look up slap shoes and NASCAR. He does a brilliant thing about NASCAR marketing, particularly spam.

And yeah, and for that reason, you know, it's got to be spam. Because once you've had spam in a can, because you've watched a NASCAR race, there's no going back. I mean, you've just let. The funniest part of that question, Sean, is that I cut off the end of that question because I didn't want to bias you in any way with their answer. And the full question is actually, Sean, what is your favourite potting meat? And why is it spam? It's the full question.

So the fact that you said spam is fantastic. He will love it. Right. Where you see, what I wanted to do was preempt the correct answer by, you know, there's only, there's probably only five drivers over the age of 40. You've had spam and qualified on the front. Formula One race since 1960, and we've already named them, so we don't need to go over that again. But well done, Fernando Alonso keep eating spam.

I never thought spam would get such a large mention on this podcast. A lot of spam. There's been a lot of spam, and not just in our email inbox. A lot of spam chat. Correct. Correct. Ben, I think that leads us nicely onto game time. This is where I get to turn the tables back again after the question about the over 40s. So we call this game F1 Order, please. You'll be absolutely delighted to know that there is a theme song associated with this that Sam does. I would try and describe it.

It's far better if I just play it for you. Either it's a can of Coca-Cola or a lump of cheese or we're ordering drivers by the size of their knees. This game is full of facts. Just you wait and see. This is Formula One. Order, order, please. Tell me that wasn't beautiful. Simon Cowell, what did you think of that performance?

I think he loves it. That's that next year's Eurovision entry, I think. I think you can give that a go. Why not? Build on the momentum of this year. Sam Sage with F1, Alder, please. Sam Ryder, by the way, Sam Ryder is supposed to be singing the national anthem before the start of the race, on the grid on something.

Fun fact. And not Sam Sage. It is. That's cool. That's a shame. That's next year. Maybe we could do it. Yes.

See if we can make that work. F1 order, please, just to explain the concept to you, Sean. It's not too difficult to understand as I'm sure you'd be delighted to hear. Basically, as the name suggests, you just have to order things in a certain way that I'd say. So I might say four different drivers and tell you to order them in terms of how many poll positions they've had from most down to least. I'll give you the four, and then you just have to give me what you think the order. is. If you are correct, of course the former house of common speaker John Burko will come across and say the word order. If you're wrong, the other person has the chance to steal and claim a

point. But there is a caveat to that. If you try and steal the other person's incorrect answer, but you also get it incorrect, because I won't say how we're going to incorrect, you will lose a point. So you've got to careful about are you confident enough to steal the person's wrong answer? Is that when John Burko comes in and personally addresses the Chancellor of the Duchy or something like that? Unfortunately, that is the only John Burko sound we have loaded into the soundboard, but we will take the feedback on board because I think it's good. More John Burko is what we need on this podcast.

All right. He can be the official starter, official starter in Formula One racing. Literally should stand there at the gantry or Charlie Whiting's job. stand there. They should have micro-order, order, order on the grid, order. Mr. Stroll. You're right. I can see that happening.

There are six overall to go through. So, Sam, I will allow you to choose first. A number from one to six, which one would you like to go for? Sean, here's a fun stat for you. I'm pretty certain I've never got one of these corrects in this game mode. So I hate this game so much. My brain doesn't. in 10 minutes.

You might. You might. But my brain and your brain are the total polar opposites in how they work. So I'm a moron. You're a genius. Find out. Might be about to be found out in 20 seasons into it. We've got you.

Ben, let's convolut the order entirely to start with. And I'll kick off with number four, please. Okay. I'm going to give you four drivers that all raced for McLaren. You've got to order them in terms of the earliest they drove for McLaren to the latest. So their debuts, essentially. When did they debut for McLaren?

Okay. Nigel, Mansell, Martin Brundle, Gerhard Berger, and Mika Hackan. Those four drivers from earliest they drove for McLaren to latest. I am going to write them down on my phone. So we say Mansell, Brondel. Do I have to write them down? Burger.

Yes, yes. We don't have to. It just helps me remember because my memory is like a sieve. Sean McHugh. And, okay, okay. Go on,

Mika, you'll be coming out of a sabbatical soon, I imagine. Anytime now. Or Mantle. Yeah. Right.

Yeah. Right, debuts, debuts. Okay, I don't know. So, Sean,

be ready to steal. I'm going to just throwing out there and go from earliest to most recent, I'm going to say Burger Brundle,

Manxel, Miko. Burger, Brundle, what was The last two, sorry, what does he order on those? Manxel Mika. It's not correct.

Yeah, why did you go for his first? It's not correct. Shock, it's not correct. Which does mean that Sean has the chance to steal if he feels confident enough to give it a go. Which I do. But before I do that, I'm just going to write it out because it's more fun that way.

So here we go. Now let the record show that I'm holding up Berger, 1990 to 92, in 1993 to 2001, Brundle in 1994, and Nigel Mantle for two races in 1995. He didn't even put dates on it, folks. This is going to be... Why am I playing this game? Why am I bothering? We probably should have switched the... Switched on us around on this one, Sam.

you won't be too surprised to know that was absolutely spot on which means Sean does claim the first point of the day and it goes over to Sean for the next question so any number from one to six that isn't four well let's have number five in tribute to Nigel Mansman Sam will be delighted to know this this is probably the easiest one of the lot oh crying out loud similar to the last one you just have to say from earliest to latest when they happened

Okay. Giancarlo Fizichella wins his first race. Yeah. Six cars to start the United States Grand Prix. Yep. Michael Schumacher wins his seventh title. Yeah. And Honda race their Earth livery.

Okay. So it goes in order. Jankalo Fizichela won the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix. Michael Schumacher clings to seven world title at the Belgian Grand Prix of 2004. The six-car Grand Prix in Indianapolis was in a year. in 2005 and the Honda Earth car raced in 2007. You know what? That's all correct.

He didn't play the theme shoot. Sorry, yeah, I've got to give you the credit. Order! Or other John Berker gives you the credit. Sam. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'm really confident in your ability to pull out a comeback here, Sam. He's already dead. Now, come on. Red Bull were 46 points off the lean. They turned it back. Exactly. Just think. Just think of Red Bull. Numbers 1, 2, 3 or 6, Sam.

Which do you want? I'll kick off with number one, because that tells me the one you put the most thought into. Good thinking. Also, that is very flawed logic. I do them incredibly randomly. Nice strategy. Number one is I'm going to give you four drivers.

How well do you remember the 2021 standings? Not well. Again, memory like the two. You're going to have to name these four drivers from best championship position in 2021 to worst. So you've got... Can I say, before you name these, this is a much harder question than the first two.

Because remembering a championship standings, even as a statistician, I'll be like, I'll be like, oh, I don't. That's the thing. Sometimes it's the luck of the drawers to which questions do you get. And Sam usually has a very good way of picking the wrong once. George Russell,

Lance Stroll, Sebastian Vettel, and Kimmy Reichenen from best to worst in last year's championship. So Russell Scroll Vettel

Reichen and Kimi. Russell, Scroll, Vettel, Kimi. For best to worst. Russell, Stroll, Vettel, Kimmy. I'm going to say Vettel did best. I'm then going to say that the Astor Martin was better than it had been this year.

So I'm going to say it's Vettel than Stroll. And I'm going to say that Russell did really well in that car, outperformed it, and then Kimmy would be last. So I'm going to go Vettel, stroll, Russell, Kimmy is my one to four. Oh dear! He's got a point. The Red Bull come back is on?

It's happening. Red Bull 46 points behind is in the memory. Yes, well-down. That went. That was very good. Thank you. Vettel 12th, Stroll 13th, Russell 15th, Rikin and 16th. So they were all closely banded together.

They weren't far apart. I want to say, in the interest of full disclosure, I would have the wrong answer because I'd put Russell and stroll the wrong way around. Yeah. Dodged a bullet there, Sean. Dodged a bullet. All right, there are three more to choose.

Just so you know, just so you know that I'm not infallible or anything. Yeah. But I am capable of not remembering stuff myself. But it's good to get the ones wrong that you aren't asked. So well done. Yeah. Hang on, before you carry on, my air pods are running out, which is an unforeseen problem. I think I'm all right for the next few minutes, but the right air quality.

We'll make it quick. Hang on a minute. If I put the right airport on charge, and the left airport keeps going. All right? You can still hear me, right? Yeah, yeah, absolutely fine. Yes.

Okay, so your listeners are going to pretend they didn't hear that? Carry on. They pretend that they don't. Yeah, exactly. Lovely. Numbers two, three or six. Which one would you like to go for, Sean?

Number six, please. Number six, from most podiums to least podiums for these four drivers. Okay. Fernando Alonzo. Yeah. And Senna, Kimmy Reichen in again, making an appearance. And Valtrey Bottas.

Hmm. Well, I'd reasonably certain that Alonzo would be first on that list, I reckon. Because I don't think Senna... Did Senna reach 100? I don't think Senna reached 100. See, these are the tough ones, you see? Like, when you give me distinct events in history, it's like, oh yeah, yeah, I remember when that happened, I remember when that happened.

When you're looking at, like, base numbers? It's like, well, down there in the drudgery outside the top three, you know. It's like, oh, it goes like this. So I think it would go, I think it would go alongside Santa Bautus. Rikina, where Rikin? The outlier would be where Rikin on it. He's very good at not winning in his Ferrari days, but coming on the podium. He was, thank you.

I am trying so hard to work this out in case short. but just this. I'm sexy and opportunity. Yeah, it may well be. Because if I remember rightly, Alonso has 97 poge and finishes, I think. I think Sena reached 100.

That would be amazing. He did because he did 161 races. So yeah, the question is where Rykenen is in this list. I can't bloody remember. Well, in the interest of moving, in the interest of moving this go along. Let's say, therefore, Alonso, let's say, Alonso, Sena, Rikin and Bottas. Let's go with that. Not correct.

Sam, do you want to try and steal this one? As I expect so much time trying to work out, I will attempt the steal. you like to change. And I think you've, I think you've been naughty here because I think, as Harry alluded to, I think Kimmy might have the most podiums of the lot of them.

So I'm going to say, Kimi most, a longso second, Seng a third, and despite being at Mesailles for so long, Bossas fourth, I think. Oh, dear! Oh, Kimmy Reichen.

Very good, son. So you've got to trust yourself. You said the comeback wasn't all. I do. Exactly. I need you there against me all the time, Sean, is my motivational speech. You were right, but Kimmy Reichenen was the outlier, though. And it's very close between himself and Alonzo.

So Kimmy Reichenen has 103. Fernando Alonzo, just shy of 198 he's got. Right, yes, of course, because he had the 98th in Qatar, because the longest time was 97, which is why you see in my head, 97. Makes sense.

And I couldn't, I was conflating Rikinen's last win with his last podium. And I couldn't remember whether there was 100 involved. So, yeah, there we go. And then Sennar has pretty much a 50% record of finishing on the podium. He's got exactly 80. And then Bottas, 67 at the time of recording. Of course, he's going to get another 10 or so for Alfa this year.

So he might well catch Sanna when this season's done. Leaves it two all with two to go. Internately, where is Rikin on the all-time list there? He must be, what, third? I guess. Frost Schumacher and Hamilton will be ahead of him. Well, where would Vettel be on that list? There's a good question.

Vettles got over 50 wins. Can't remember. I'm going to look it up quickly. I'm going to look it up as well. Yeah, I'm curious. Rikin would be fifth. Vettel is number three on the list, 122. There you go, listeners.

There you go. We seek to both educate. It's very interesting. We are an educational podcast, first and foremost. To the surprise of our listeners. We just educated me. You reminded me that we can have another hundred podium in his career. Exactly.

We all know something. Do you want number two or number three, Sam? I'll have number two, please. Isn't this to go into the lead? This is to go into the lead. Unless I get it wrong and you steal it and then, yes, you'll be in the lead. Massive pressure. on this. We're looking at circuits that have held the most Grand Prix in any sort of

configuration in terms of the actual Grand Prix name itself. That doesn't matter. Just circuits that have hosted Grand Prix for most to least. Spar, Albert Park, the Nureberg ring and the Red Bull Ring. Cool. Blimey, Governor. Okay, I'm going to go Spar the most. The Red Bull rings second. The Nureberg ring third. Oh, I'm getting to...

Albert Park and Alton Park confused, you know, this silly old brain there. Oh yeah, because Oortem Park's... That's probably going to be last. Yeah. I thought that. I was throwing that one is an easy one for me. In that case, I'm going to say,

Spar, Red Bull Ring, Albert Park, Nürberg Ring. It's not the correct order. Damn it, Alton Park. Now the question goes to Sean. Would you like to steal? I'll have a go in the interest of making it an interesting contest. Why not? I'm not sure that Spar will be first on the list

and that the Nureburg ring would be second. And then if you're in including the Eusterite ring with the Red Bull ring. Because the Red Bull ring has been the Osterite ring and the A1 ring as well. All of both included, yes. Which I think puts it ahead of Albert Park, which puts Red Bull Ring number three in Albert Park four, I think. Oh, dear.

Well done. Absolutely right. Is he going to a three two lead? There's a caveat city there, because you've got the Nurburring Nordschleifer, the Nuremberg, GP circuit, the Osterite ring, the A1 ring, and the three two two,

a red ball ring, all in that one question. Exactly. Spa hosted the most, as you both got, right? 54, Nurberg Ring 41, Red Bull Ring 35, and Albert Park, 25. So, yeah, you know, Nerberg Ring and Red Bull just six between them. So that was a tricky one in the middle there. Which leaves us just number three left. Sean has a three-two lead.

So if you get this one right, Sean, it is all over. Number of wins for these four drivers from most to least. David Coulthard, Felipe Massa, Jensen Button, and Mika Hakenen. Ooh, some close numbers there. So, Button. Not moving on, however many. Hackan is number one on that list, I think,

with like 22, 3 once, all of that. Then, yeah, button. Coulthar 113, memory says me right. Button 1-1-0-601-061-6. This is exactly what I do when I play this goddamn game. Yeah, I think my fingers out. So is what I'm doing now. I'm having to write down the numbers on my phone

to make sure I'm keeping count of what I'm doing. The only thing that would make it a true Harry-eat appearance is Harry usually goes, he was quite good, wouldn't he? Yeah. Yeah, no, he had more wins than that, yeah. He was quite good, wouldn't he? Oh, to himself. Yeah, let's go with, I think,

I think that it's Hakenan. Button, Colthard, Massa. That was my order. That's very interesting. That's, although you've kind of given it, if you want to steal,

you're going to have to go to something else. But you're not going to get the chance to steal. Oh, God! Well done. Well done. But they're quite close. How can they should be out front in the 20s?

Exactly 20. Exactly 20. And then Button, Massa and Kulthard are quite close to each other. Yeah, there's only four between those three drivers. So Button with 15, DC with 13, and then Felipe Massa with 11. Oh, look at that. That's pretty good going.

Sorry. I didn't have that. For the people who are listening, I'm just holding up my piece of paper, which has the numbers written on them, which I worked out in my head what the numbers were. There we go. So pulled out the early lead. Sam threatened to come back but the door was firmly shut on him

4-2 scoreline We made a game of it It was good Well done, well played Brother, you are the first possible friend of the podcast To triumph in the quizzes as well So you have that accolade

Well, yeah, Sam managed to beat Jack Nichols In all honestly It would have been Hang my head in shame, wouldn't it If a professional statistician had lost You know It really wouldn't have been really wouldn't have been a great moment in my career if I got trounced.

Given, I mean, Sam mentions, of course, this is a series title, Friend of the Podcast, and your reputation is in order after your win here. So our most important question of this entire podcast, can we call you a friend of the podcast? You may call me a friend of the podcasts. We've done it, Mom. Noted an esteemed friend. of the late-breaking F-1 podcast, Sean Kelly.

No online is Virtual Statman. You can call me the actual stat man because I'm a friend of the podcast. Oh, this has been a lovely time. You'll be shocked to know when we had Jack Nichols on and Sam managed to beat him at one of our other games that we play. He wasn't too okay with being a friend of the podcast. So we've got the key now.

Let the guest win, then ask the question. Right, exactly. Exactly, exactly. Take a dive and then, you know, you're away. I definitely threw it on purpose. That is the official party line and we will be parroting that forthwith. We massively appreciate you coming on, Sean. It's been a really wonderful chat, some great stories that you've said. And like you said, I'm sure you've got plenty more if we'd been able to prep you.

So you'll be very welcome back on the podcast at any point. Next time, I hope I can prep something. At the moment, I'm drowning in form of two. Formula 3W series and Formula E-HEL, because I've got all of these series racing alongside F1 this weekend. So I am going to be rather busy and, yeah, laptop jockeying for the next weekday. Busy weekend, indeed, which makes us all the more thankful for you stopping by and coming on the show. We'll be back with another Friends of the podcast episode at some point in the future, and of course our regular podcast episodes will continue.

But until then, keep breaking late. social podcast network.