The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Malaysia is hosting the 2026 Bahrain GP?! Our reaction

Episode Date: July 29, 2026

Ben and Harry discuss the surprise news that the 2026 Bahrain GP will be held in Malaysia, ask if anyone can reel in Antonelli's 50pt championship lead after the summer break, and whether the Williams drivers are starting to lose faith in the project. Plus, a special 700th episode edition of a much-loved game... P.S. Episode 700! A huge thank you to everyone who's tuned in over the years and joined us on this weird and wonderful ride. Join us in Amsterdam for pre-Dutch GP drinks! CLICK HERE for event details and to confirm your attendance. Want more Late Braking? Support the show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and get:Ad-free listeningFull-length bonus episodesPower Rankings after every raceHistorical race reviews& more exclusive extras!Don't forget! You can also gift a Late Braking Patreon subscription—perfect for loved ones or your own wish list. Choose anything from 1 month up to a full year of top-notch F1 content: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/latebrakingf1/gift⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connect with Late Braking:You can find us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X (Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Come hang out with us and thousands of fellow F1 fans in our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Discord⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ server and get involved in lively everyday & race weekend chats!Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠F1 Fantasy League⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and see if you can beat us! LEAGUE CODE: C6Y6R4ZUY02Get in touch any time at [e-mail]  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Thank you for listening to the late-breaking F-1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. Well, welcome to the late-breaking F-1 podcast presented by Harry Ead and me, Ben Hocking, here for the first of many summer break podcast episodes. But we're okay, right, Harry? We are okay. Is that a trick question? Should I not be okay?

It's just weeks of F-1 in it? Oh, I know, I know. but not too much long. We've done it already. We did it and that wasn't even planned. Well, this is actually the shorter break of the season. Actually, the problem is we've used our summer break content in the gap that we were forced to have.

Oh, I'm not worried about that at all. Not me. Couldn't be me. Could never be me. He says looking in the mirror. Honestly, if one of these teams wants to announce drivers are leaving, going like, that's fine with me. A bit of transfer market gossip.

that that would suit me okay right now. Yeah, anything plus F1. New GP, new driver. Who knows? What are we talking about today, man? On what is a special episode? It is. This is episode number 700, which...

Come on. First of all, by even mentioning it's episode 700, we've done better than what we did for episode 500. So well done, like breaking. Bare minimum, but well done us. Yeah, we've got a very special. special 700th episode special fill in the blank coming up later on. Who knows what that could involve?

You'll have to stay tuned to find out. We're still not sure. No, we're not really sure at the start of this episode. A bit of chat on Williams coming up, a bit of chat on the driver's championship as well. But before we get into our first topic, which kind of is a new-ish Grand Prix, or at least a returning Grand Prix, wanted to mention that. If you've been listening to the podcast over the last couple of months, we've mentioned that we'll be going to Dutch Grand Prix,

of course, next month, about four weeks away. Very excited for that. We also mentioned as part of that that we would do some sort of a meetup. Well, here's the confirmation of those details. We are doing a drinks meetup in Amsterdam on the Thursday before the race. So that's Thursday the 20th of August ahead of that Dutch GP. from 7pm till around 10.30pm at, and I love that I get to say this. Yes.

Come on. A brawn de frauwen. My apologies to all Dutch people. The good news is all of the details will be in a form that will include in the description. So you can actually see how it's spelled and you can laugh at how different you probably right now are going in your head. That must be spelled that way based on how Ben said it. and then you'll see it written down and it'll be completely different. It's completely free.

All you need to do, all we ask you to do really is fill in the form again that will be in the description, just to give us an idea on the numbers that we can expect throughout the evening. So if you're coming alone, there'll be an option just to say that. If you're bringing other people with you, if you could just let us know how many, again, that would give us an idea on the numbers that we're looking at.

But very excited, aren't we, Mr. Reed? Can't wait. Never been to Amsterdam before. and it's terrifying that I'm going with you lot for my first time. Yes. No, it's going to be great. Looking forward to the weekend. Looking forward to seeing Amsterdam.

I'm looking forward to hopefully meeting some of you lot. Please, please come. Yes. Otherwise, it would just be us four in a bar. Wouldn't be the first time. Do you know what? That's true. Wouldn't be the first time.

I reckon we're going to mess up the place, not the actual venue, but mess up Amsterdam so much that this will be the last Dutch GP. There won't be another one after this. That's a great kill, yeah. Amsterdam doesn't know what's going to hit it. Amsterdam's seen a lot, but hasn't seen late breaking.

Last thing just to mention, if you do have any questions at all, just basically get in touch with us anywhere you can find us, but pretty most convenient place is on email podcast at latebreaking.com. And if you spell breaking wrong, that's on you, and you're not getting a response, I'm afraid. Deserved, actually. Yeah, we don't want to respond to you if you can't spell it. We also literally can't because you would be sending an email somewhere else.

Probably going to bounce back. Yeah. Let's crack on with some F1 news. And it is actual news from the world of F1 that came out this weekend. Because F1 has announced that the postponed Bahrain Grand Prix will take place on the 4th of October, but not in Bahrain. Originally scheduled for April, the Bahrain GP and the Saudi Arabian GP were both canceled due to the conflict in the Middle East. While there had been hopes within F1 of rescheduling at least one of the two events, the resumption of bombing in recent weeks has forced an alternative solution.

Instead, the Bahrain GP will be held at the Sapang International Circuit in Malaysia, slotting in between the Azerbaijan and Singapore rounds of the championship. The race will mark Formula One's first visit to Sapang since 2017, with the circuit having debuted on the calendar in 1999. Formula One CEO, Stefano Domenicali, said the decision to reinstate one of the two cancelled races was fantastic news for our fans. Well, are you happy to see Sapang back on the calendar, Harry? I'm very happy. Can I just say my two feelings on this are, man, I love this so much, and man, I hate this so much.

The duality of Harry. But, yes, firstly, I'm very happy to see Sapang back on the calendar. It's a track we mention, you know, when we have this conversation, you know, when we have this conversations or we get a question of what tracks would you add back on the F on Canada. High up the list in it. It always comes up. Great track and it's a real shame that we stopped, you know, we ever stopped going in the first place.

So last time we went there was almost 10 years ago, right? 2017 was it? 2017, yeah. So yeah, so I am happy that we're going back. I fear for the super clipping at the end of those two massive straights that we're going to get. But that's... Will they get to turn one? Not sure, really unsure on that one.

But either way, I'm excited to go back to Sapang. It's a great track. And for those of you that won't watch the F1 when it was around, watch out for the weather, because, boy, it do like to rain in Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur. So, yeah, it could be an interesting one, especially the time we're going. Yeah, so we could get quite an interesting race.

I think so as well I'm yes overwhelmingly yes to answer my own question about being happy to be back at Sopang really enjoyable circuit my only real issue with it is that 10 year old Ben could never nail the pit entry

on the old F1 games it's a real bugger isn't it yeah because you can't really spot it when you come around the final quarter now I fear this might actually be a skill issue on my part rather than something I should hold against the Sopang circuit

No. No, I'm going to hold it against Spain. Other than that, though, great circuit. One of my favorite turn ones, because maybe a little bit similar to China, but not quite as exaggerate. If you think about Shanghai turn one, it's quite an exaggerated slower sort of right hand, whereas better, I'd say. Yeah, I think so as well. But I compare it to China because you've still got the immediate swerve back to the left and then sort of a run down to a heavier breaking zone, which is for. So it's, I think it's a nice flowing circuit, particularly in the middle sector. You've got a range of corner types, quite a few heavier breaking zones, particularly the final and the first corner. I like you, I'm not too sure what battery management is going to be like here. My instinct

is it won't be as bad as some of the circuits we've had on the calendar so far and Monsa that's still to come. I don't think this will be like, I think it'll be better than the likes of bar and in Melbourne. I think it might still be in the bottom half of tracks maybe, but that will be an interesting one to keep an eye on. And yeah, for those of you that are maybe slightly newer to the sport, this is a circuit that has been home to a number of really big moments in F1 history. If you think, we'll go all the way back to 2003,

it was the site of not only Fernando Alonzo's first pole position, it was the site of Kimmy Reichenen's first win. 2016, quite an infamous engine failure of Lewis Hamilton that helped decide that year's driver's championship and unbelievably 2017, the last year we were here, Max Verstappen won. What was his second race win? Goodness me.

He'll never win a lot of. Yeah, what happened to him? There are loads actually because like 2012, banging race. It was, yes. We've reviewed that one before. We have on Patreon. on.

2013, less of a banging race, but quite controversial and interesting with Weber and veteran than multi-21. So, yeah, it had seen quite a few stories, like you say, over the decades. I was realizing as I was thinking about this topic earlier that we're obviously very blessed on the podcast to have so a wide variety of listeners. We've had people contact us before who have been listening, sorry, watching F1 all the way back from the 1970s. and yet we have plenty of people who are new for this season

or new for the last couple of seasons. And the likelihood is there's going to be more people listening right now who haven't seen a race at Sopang than have. And you mentioned weather as maybe a bit of an introduction into what you might be able to expect. It's not just that it can rain, right? It's the unpredictability of it. Yeah, exactly.

It can appear in seconds and appear. in vast quantity of water. It does worry me a little bit, given the track record we have with like full wear conditions these days about what will happen. I think about like 2009 we had to deluge. Half points. Half points. And they red flagged it then and that's 2009.

Yeah. So yeah, we could see some stoppages, which might be a bit frustrating. But yeah, the weather can really play havoc. And also the heat as well. we used to oh well sorry we now always talk about Singapore is the one

that drivers always trained for before Singapore Malaysia was the one they all used to train for it's it's a hot humid race for them so yeah expect that to play a part

and you know the time management as well it's always going to be tricky so lots of fun positive things to look out for yeah 100% and as you say monsoons are very possible

around this time of the year or really any time of the year I think in Malaysia, which does add a really interesting element to it. And you're right, it's unpredictable. Like, you don't exactly know a lot of the time when it's going to strike and how heavy it's going to be. I was having a look like in October, in Kuala Lumpur, rains approximately one every two days.

So whilst it feels like 2026, we are just not allowed to have any wet weather running whatsoever. If this doesn't break that duck, I don't know what's going to. It's going to happen, surely. Yeah. I also was going to mention the humidity, the heat is really tough on the drivers. Like, depending on who you listen to, Malaysia is one of the top three or top five countries in the world, most humid. And you think about Singapore, it's almost next door. So it might well be a similar, similar challenge.

Does this back on to Singapore as a race as well? Is it Singapore then Malaysia? Is it Azerbaijan first and then Singapore after it? Was it that way around? Yeah, but they're next to each other, right? Yeah, yeah. That's a tough couple of weeks for the drivers. Oh, 100%.

Yeah, yeah. They'll be coming back five stone after those two, I reckon. There'll be nothing left of like Isaac Hatcher. It's gone so small. Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this is one of the hottest races of the year. Now, what are your thoughts on the name of the event and the way that deal has come together?

Man, I hate this so much. I understand and it may be that we wouldn't actually get to go back to Sampang had it not been orchestrated like this because as far as I understand Bahrain are paying for basically all of it so that it can go ahead

but that's why it's called the Bahrain GP but it's so why do we have to call it the Bahrain GP because it's quite clearly not in Bahrain if we hadn't noticed. So I don't understand why we've had to go down that route, given that this isn't the first time that we've had to replace races

and, you know, in odd circumstances. If we hadn't had 2020 as a year, I'd forgive them a bit more, but they made it work in 2020. And yes, I know we had races at the same track and they were called different things. I'll accept that more. But this is just a totally different country. It's crucially not in Bahrain

It's really not in Bahrain I mean what are they going to play the Bahraini national anthem At the start the race How's that going to work? Great question I hadn't thought of that Do they get the golf air playing coming over

There's so many weird Barang flags everywhere But we're in Malaysia I'm not sure It just It smacks of the fact That money will always talk First in Formula 1 But this one is

yeah, great, we've got another race, but for the organisers of the Bahrain GP, what are they gaining out of this? Like, you spend a lot of money to have your GP but it's not in your country, so what are you actually gaining? I don't know. It's just odd, odd, cool. Again, I'm appreciative of that we may not have had this

if this hadn't worked out of this way, but I don't like it at all. Yes, I'm not a fan either. And the only reason I can live with it is we get Sopang back as a result of it. But it is a bit silly. If I had control of it, I would, I don't mind. Obviously, Bahrain's paying for this. So you would expect them to get credit for something they've massively paid for.

But could we have not had the Malaysian Grand Prix presented by Bahrain? Or like, yeah, almost like a title sponsor. Like, just change it up ever so slightly. as someone who I quite like the history of F1 in years to come it's going to get really annoying when we're talking about Bahrain GP winners

and we're going to have to include whoever wins this and then we'll talk about Malaysian GP winners and not be able to include this and that will be really weird it's not the first time that we've had you mentioned sort of 2020

and what we did there we have had instances where other countries have been given the name of a Grand Prix so for example the Luxembourg Grand Prix back in the late 90s, that was held in Germany at the Nuremberg Ring. We've had the Swiss Grand Prix held in France

back in the early 1980s, I think that was. And of course, Imola was known as the San Marino Grand Prix for many, many years, crucially, not in San Marino, that's in Italy. But there are two key differences. Number one, the reason was because their country already had a Grand Prix. Imola couldn't be called the Italian GP,

because that was held at Monza. That's obviously not the case here. And secondly, I think whenever it's been done before, the country that they've taken the name of has been adjacent to them, not 6,000 kilometres away. I'm not convinced, actually, that Kuala Lumpur is...

London could be closer to Bahrain than Kuala Lumpur is. I don't know. I scored the British CP, then. Be done with that. Right. Yeah. Yeah, it's going to be a weird. one, but at least we're back at Sopain.

It does mean, though, that potentially, if everything else stays the same, we could have three triple headers to end the year, which would be nine races in 11 weeks. Yeah, that is a brutal schedule. And I think I saw, I can't remember who, it might be Chris Medden that tweeted this, that, I think it was as well, because I've got the same thing written down. Oh, fine. Some teams gave staff some more breaking in April time when there was that gap, because they they sort of saw this coming a bit.

So I'm glad they have done that, but that's going to be a brutal 11 weeks towards the end of the season for these teams and everyone who works in Formula One. So at least it kind of works from the travel point of view of Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Singapore. They've put it in the right place. So I understand why they've done it,

but the actual schedule of them, you know, those few months. is going to be savage. So, yeah, it's circumstantial, but not ideal for those guys and gals. It is still going to be in 11 weeks, essentially Asia,

and covering quite a lot of Asia, to North America, to South America, back to North America, and then to, it may be the Middle East. Like, that's a lot to be done in 11 weeks. I went back just out of interest,

20 years to the 2006 season. That year we had 18 races in 32 weeks. And here we have... One every two weeks, basically. Right. And here we have 9 and 11. That's very intense. And yeah, the move that you mentioned,

that Chris Medlam reported that they are at least doing... They at least did something back in April to try and give employees, team members, a bit more time off. It'll help, but it's going to be brutal. When they're on race five, they're going to go, for, thank God I had that week off in April. Exactly.

Final question on this, what are your thoughts on? Because we don't know that Qatar and Abu Dhabi are definitely going to happen. They might well be suffering the same potential issues as Bahrain has. So is Imala going to be back again? Oh my God. Imola in like November. In fact, that's my veins. I need it.

I mean, it could well because, Weck, World and Joyner's Championship today, announced that they're replacing their final two rounds. Oh, sorry, they're replacing what was the first round, which was supposed to be a Qatar, and the last round, which would be Bahrain. They're doing Barcelona and Monza. It's the last two.

But similar to Monza's in November. That's going to be chilly, guys. They didn't have tile warmers in there. and We can't. That's right. F1 has no right to complain. No. But, yeah, so, you know, WEC have led the way on that and it can show it's doable.

So we could well be looking at somewhere like Imola or I know Porta Mal has been thrown about as well. Yeah, it could be interesting because we saw a similar situation with it again in COVID times with thinking back to the Nureburg ring where they had, or even Port-a-Mal that year, it was pretty chilly, wasn't it? So, yeah, we could well be in for quite an interesting interesting race.

I also saw someone say that they're trying to try and make Imala the championship finale so that if and when Anthony wins it, he's at home. Oh, yeah. Sure. But yeah, I mean, Europe in November time could be a very interesting place for former one to be. Yeah.

The initial rumor that I heard about was Port-a-Mau, but I think that's died down a little bit because we know the Portuguese Grand Prix is coming back next year, but I can't remember if it was the track itself or some of the facilities, but I think they're looking to do some upgrades ahead of that, in which case they might not go ahead with this substitute appearance, in which case it does seem as if Imola is back in the picture. I've got to be honest,

I didn't think Imola and F1 ended on great terms, because you remember that Imola basically stepped in during COVID in 2020 and then sort of stuck around for a few more years after that. But if you remember back to 2023, we didn't race there because of heavy flooding in the area. And F1, as a result of that, Imola believed that their contract that was ending at the end of last year, they deserved an extra year to replace that one. And F1 essentially went, nope. No.

And now we're going to get the same situation anyway, we're going to go to Imala, apparently. Yeah, you're right. it will be pretty cold if we're there late November or even if it replaces Abu Dhabi early December, which we mentioned the nerve-bogging race. I looked that one up because that's the one that immediately came to mind. That was 10 degrees in October. It could be colder than that in Imola.

Yeah, because also Imola, it's not like it's southern Italy. We are, we're northern Italy. It's not going to be warm. Inject it. That's all I have to say. Just ridiculous. Just ridiculous spectacle. And why we want to see it? Well, we'll have to see if that one comes together.

And yeah, we'll be paying attention to what happens at the Bahrain GP in Malaysia. We'll take a quick break. On the other side, we're getting into the championship advantage that Anthony Lee holds. Welcome back, everyone. As we go into the summer break now, we can take stock of the picture of the driver's championship, which looks pretty pretty pretty pretty. if you're Kimmy Antonelli, 50 point lead over Lewis Hamilton as it stands. And then you've got George Russell 59 points back, Lecler, 81, L'Cler, 81, Vastappen, over 100 points back 110.

How significant do you think the margin is at this point in the season that Antonelli holds? It is significant. And I think, you know, we've spoken about this before. It's fluctuated a little bit throughout the, you know, the first. half of this year. But even when Antonelli has suffered some misfortune, should we say, and lost points, he's managed to bounce back pretty convincingly. I know there's been some misfortune for Russell as well on the way.

But, yeah, he's not been phased by it. So I think whilst this gap, it's not like it's the end of the world for those in the chasing pack, that's still recoverable. And as we've seen, these cars have been temperamentally. until this year. We've seen some odd results, some incidents as well, with like a rustle in spa.

So it's not over by any stretch of the imagination. But yeah, it's quite a comfortable, I think it's a comfortable gap for a driver that is in super form. If it was a driver that was, you know, having a bit of an up and down year, you'd go, well, that's, you know, good job they've got that lead.

But it's quite a commanding position for him at the moment, given how well he's driven well, all year so far. He probably didn't want the summer break, right? Just carry on the momentum. Yeah. I think Russell says, I saw an interview with him after the race in Hungary,

and he was like, I'm glad this break has come. From his point of view, I think he obviously bad luck, etc. It had a pretty poor couple of races in Hungary and spa. But also just to steady that, you know, stop that momentum from happening for a few weeks, just to let himself reset. So, yeah, for Anthony Kennedy, he probably, yeah, like you say, just will do another race. Yeah. I think, and this could just be the way I look at things.

But I tend to think maybe there are at least some teams and drivers might view it the same way. 50 points, which is a nice round number, it's a really nice margin to have psychologically because that is essentially two race wins exactly. And I feel like if it was, say, 35 points or something like that and you're one of the chasing pack, you might say, well, if it just gets one DNF, which, you know, He's had quite a few, they've had quite a few of so far this year, and I can win that race. Then suddenly, I'm 10 points back and I'm very much in this. 50 points feels quite big in that you need two things to go wrong, really, for Antonelli,

whilst also being perfect yourself. So it does feel like quite a good margin to have. I think what is most concerning for George Russell and the Ferrari drivers and whoever else might consider themselves a rival to Antonelli at the moment, is it hasn't been perfect for him. And George Russell's very valid in what he says that he's had some pretty bad luck so far this year. Would 100% agree with that.

But it's not like it's been plain sailing for Antonelli either. Bear in mind that when he left Monaco with that, I think it was a 66 point advantage, if at that point you just said, okay, next five races before the summer break, here's what's going to happen. You're only going to win one of these. five. You're going to have a DNF at Barcelona. You're going to have an issue at Silverstone

that's going to cause you to score no points. You're going to have, I don't know if we can call it an error, but an instance that happens in Austrian GP qualifying that your teammate takes advantage of that you don't. And you're going to get a three-place grid penalty at Hungary. Put all that together. What do you think the championship advantage is? And it's 50, like down from 66. If you laid all those out, I'd be like, oh, he's probably got the lead, but it's probably like two. Yeah, right? Yeah, that is mad.

Yeah, he's still here with a two-win advantage. Yeah, I think, like I say, I think with, there's been some misfortune in there, but the form that he's in versus others, because those chasing him at the moment, the nearest challenges, Hamilton and Russell, you know, Russell's had problems with the car. Hamilton's had some great form, but also some

slightly inconsistent form. Man loves a penalty, not helped his cause. Yeah, it's not, it's just, and it's, you know, we've said this before with it, you know, Mark of a champion is just to be consistent across an entire season. That's what he's being and the others aren't. And that's why even though he's got those setbacks, the gap is still 50, 50 points. Well, you look at the two races that he hasn't scored in, which were Barcelona and Silverstone. He was set to be at least second place in both of those races, which means, because he's been on the

podium at every other race so far this year. So he's had the pace to be on the podium at every Grand Prix with no exceptions. And obviously a lot of those, he's had the pace to win it as well. But again, no one else can claim that. George Russell's had some bad luck, but he hasn't had the pace to be on the podium every Grand Prix. So it's incredibly impressive what he's doing. I thought what I would do is go back to some of the other leaders of the championship going into the summer break. I went back through the last 10 years, excluding 2020, because we didn't really have a summer break that year,

thanks to COVID-19 and how the calendar worked out. What's interesting is, if you look at the advantage of the championship leader in those nine remaining years, including this one, Antonelli's 50 points advantage is bang in the middle. It's fifth place of those nine. And if you look at the four that have had bigger leads at this point than 50,

you're looking at Lewis Hamilton in 2019, and then Vestappen's championships in 22, 23 and 24. In 2019, Lewis Hamilton had a 62 point advantage going into the summer break. He won the title by 87 points. 2024 is the next one, so that's where Vastappen has a 78 point lead. He wins the title by a slightly reduced number of 63. And then 2022 Vastappen leads by 80 points going into the summer break, wins by 146. And then 2023 is ridiculous.

Verstappen leads by 125 points at the summer break and wins by 290. Brough. Point being, I guess, if you look at anyone who's had over a 50 point margin going into the summer break in the last 10 years, in all four instances, they've gone on to win the title, and in all four instances, quite comfortably. Yeah, this is what I mean. It's not an insurmountable gap to close down, but it's quite a difficult one because a driver it's got 50, you know, that sort of margin, 50 points or whatever,

they're in a great, they're in a great form. So trying to stop them, it's going to be tough. To give some hope to those of you that are supporting drivers and teams that aren't Antonelli, there were three instances in the last 10 years where the championship leader hasn't gone on to win the title by the end of the year. Oscar Piastri last year, Lewis Hamilton in 2021. I can't remember what happened with that one. And 2017, Sebastian Sebastian Vettel, when Ferrari pretended to be good for half a season.

Yeah, cool. The problem is those three points advantages were nine to Piastri, eight to Hamilton, 14 to Vettel. It's going to be, it's a bigger job than that that these rivals have. Yeah, it's a lot more to close down, isn't it? Yeah, we'll see. Anything could happen in Formula One. And it probably does.

Normally does, Chis Murray, but it's going to be a tough one for those chasing to catch up. You'd have to have more weekends like Hungary, basically. And I don't think we will have that many. Do you think Antonelli might be vulnerable to either Ferrari driver, given, and these are just rumours at the moment, potential aero upgrades coming at Zambort, potential engine upgrade, the next one coming at Monza, if those two work out? I mean, yes, definitely.

But I think Antonelli is, like you say, he's always had the pace this year to be on the podium. So even if he does have lots of hungries, if he finishes third each time, then obviously they'll chip away at that gap, but it's not going to be hungry every weekend, I don't think. You'd fancy Mercedes to be the favourites for places like Monza,

maybe Malaysia as we just spoke about and even if Ferrari had the advantage at a place like Xandvort then yeah it's going to take some bad luck and some DNFs as well for that to come down also to throw into the mix McLaren getting involved if they are now getting involved whilst it might seem exciting, it is exciting and great

are really unhelpful for those chasing because they don't need two papaya cars taking points off, you know, away from those that are trying to get points back from Antennae. Yeah, 100%. I think Hungary for Ferrari was sort of, I was going to say equal parts. It's not equal parts, but it was part encouraging and part frustrating. So Fred Vassar after the race was quite clear that everything went wrong and they made too many mistakes. And he's absolutely right, because after being one, two earlier on in the weekend, the fact they weren't on the podium was really

disappointing. There is at least some encouragement to it that if you are strong at Hungary, there are some tracks coming up that I think you can be strong at as well. Certainly is Anvort, but also Singapore. Singapore is tough to judge, but in theory, maybe Singapore as well. Madrid is an even bigger unknown, but based on what the track looks like, that could be quite beneficial to those with good cornering speeds. So Ferrari will need to improve, though. And I mean the team, but I also mean the drivers, because whilst Hamilton's been pretty good this year and far better than last year,

and LeCler has been good in patches, driving well isn't going to get them a title here. They're going to have to be brilliant to beat the combination of Antonelli and Mercedes, and they cannot afford LeCleur being good for two races and then being off the pace for one, and they can't afford Hamilton picking up needless penalties. If that continues to happen,

they could well finish second in the championship. They aren't going to win it. Yeah, they need Hamilton from Barcelona, and they need Leclair from Silverston. But the problem is they've only turned up once each this year, those drivers. John Elkins's fuming. Furious about it.

Last year, going into the summer break, Max Verstappen was 97 points away from Oscar Piastri, and of course we know he lost the title by just two, points in Abu Dhabi. Lando Norris, currently 91 points back. And Max Verstappan has mentioned just over 100. Are they completely out of this? No, I mean, no, let's go with no, let's be optimistic.

But I think the inconsistencies of those teams this year, I wouldn't say the drivers because I think it's been down to the car for both of these guys, doesn't help fuel any more optimism for me because whilst Hungary was great, obviously Lando won it and Vastappen was pretty competitive we go to another track in maybe a

different story as we have seen this year so they're not completely out of it but they would need the form certainly from McLaren's point of view they need the form from Hungary for the rest of the year. There can't be another there can't be another dip in form again for them. In fairness

we've seen it from them before where they've brought an upgrade mid-season and it stuck like that form. It's true. This is very true. So I think what's not giving me confidence is I referenced this before, but like with Miami, where they brought an upgrade look promising. And then after that, it just didn't again.

So, but yeah, maybe it may be well. But like I said, they've got, they've got to have that form from now on. They can't be languishing, you know, at the bottom end of the, you know, top, top eight. Yeah. I think the issue for all three of those, drivers mentioned is that in 2025, Norris and Piastri were quite consistently taking points off

of each other in that they both had seven wins. They both had, they're a similar number of DNFs and non-scores. It meant that the Constructors' Championship last year was won by over 350 points, and yet they nearly didn't win the driver's title, which is just an unfathomable never-heard-of thing in F-1, but it nearly happened. But that situation, isn't happening this year, because Russell's not taking enough wins and enough points off of Antonelli. And because of that, I'm struggling to see a way back in. If Antonelli and Russell, similar to last year with the McLaren duo, if they had the same number of points this year, they'd both have, let's say, 190 points. In which case, Max Verstappen's only 91 points back,

and Lando Norris is 62 points back. And you think, well, if the upgrade works and keeps working, there's a situation that could unfold, but they, I think, would need a lot of help from definitely DNFs. And the thing that would concern me, maybe even more than that, is Mercedes as a team this year, have brought the second leased upgrades on the grid. It's only Alpine that have brought less so far this year. It makes me think that Mercedes are being quite patient and they might well have upgrades up their sleeves if they need them. I wouldn't be surprised if they are holding back a little bit on a duo upgrades. And also, if they can get away with not really upgrading this car much more

and still winning the titles and putting all of the investment in 2027, they'll make that work. Like, that's what they want to do first and foremost. Yeah. It's really funny when you say that, you know, those two teams, Mercedes, like you say, I immediately think the same thing. They're trying to be patient or even push it into 27. And Alpine as well, yeah.

An Alpine, I'm like, bring something. No, no, bring something. What are you doing? No, no, Alpine are playing there. An upgrade would do at any point. What are you doing? I tell you, it depends how many races we have this year, but we, well, we've had 11 races now, right? And I distinctly remember last year, I distinctly remember in their,

I've got this tweet bookmarked. Flavio Privatorei wanted to take podiums at 50% of the races this year. So they're currently on one out of 11. So I'm pretty sure they have to be like perfect the rest of the year in order to meet that target. Well, second half of the season, you never know. Yeah, you kind of do though, don't you? On this occasion, you might just know.

Also, they got a podium, but they didn't actually stand on it either. No. Flavio probably says that doesn't count. I did see some of his comments after Hungary, by the way. Weirdly, wasn't very happy with no points. That's interesting. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Oh, well, see which driver gets fired on the roulette at some point in the summer break. Let's take our second break. On the other side, we're chatting Williams. Welcome back, everyone. A rough weekend for Williams in Hungary. Seems obvious to say, but they lost P8 in the championship to Audi. But as well as that, 17th and 18th.

their worst result when both cars have finished a Grand Prix since Spa in 24, excuse me, Spain since 2024. So that's over two years. As well as that, or at least one of the reasons why they've fallen back, of course. Aston Martin's upgrade has worked well enough to get Alonzo and Stroll ahead of both signs and Albin. Some interesting comments from Alex Albin about that Aster Martin upgrade. He said, I don't know what kind of upgrade that Aston had, but I could only dream of that.

We're going to be fighting with them in some races purely because of the straight line speed, but I can tell you in the corners they're considerably faster than us. We know what our Baku upgrade is. It's not that. And James Vowls, I don't know if you've seen this. He usually does his sort of debriefs. He's basically corroborated this by saying the Baku upgrade that's coming. it will be a step, but it won't be enough.

Thoughts on that? Oofed. Yeah. Yeah, that's, I mean, right off this year, guys. And I think they've, James Walsh was sort of saying that too. They'll start focusing on 2027. But given, I don't think this was the year that Williams were going to start winning again. But in the same way, Alton was hopeful about this year.

So but Williams, like everything was aiming towards that. Because James Vowles, told us to think that. He just kept saying it. Not for weeks, not for months, for years. It's all he said. And it's gone, it's gone so very wrong for Williams this year. And it's getting worse as we go on. I mean, yeah, the Baku upgrade will give them some, some hope. And that, you know, that track will be more positive for them, given it's got a big old straight on it. It's not just called us. It's not just corners.

But, yeah, it's, it's been a, it's been a tough, it's been a tough year for William so far. And, and I think questions will start to be asked of, of James Fowles. Do you know, I think for the most part this year, they've been saved by the fact that Aston Martin had been behind. I think that, that hungry race is really, that's hurt. Yeah. That's hurt their, how their year has been perceived. I mean, not that we were perceiving it in a, great way to begin with but the fact that

Astor Martin has jumped in front of them at least at that race has not has not helped so I don't know if they were closer to Cadillac or Asthma Martin like Cadillac were obviously behind them but I don't know if they were closer to Cadillac behind them than they were Astorne in front of them. It's hard to know because Cadillac can't finish a race

of the moment but limited number of laps for sure but yeah but I don't know because yeah that carlid awful around that track so yeah it's a it's a tough one stuff on for Williams and was, you know, I'd say, and I did say just sack this year off and concentrate on next year. They did that already.

They've already done that for this year. So I don't know what that really gains them. If they couldn't get it right, I think, yeah, like I say, Astor Martin would save their blushes somewhat in that they two have got it wrong. And if, you know, the money and brain power that Astrid Martin have got it wrong, then at least that helps,

Williams calls a little bit and probably James Vowles too, but that's a pretty thin bit of ice to stand on right now. Firstly, well done to James Vals for an excellently delivered apology video. He's definitely learned from the best from his time at Mercedes. Mercedes 2020 apology letters, they hit. Like they slabs. What were they doing, man? It's just ridiculous.

Mick Schumacher writing them out every week. Yes, boss. Okay, Tato. You give me the F1 drive now, right, Toto? Yeah, yeah, sure thing, mate. Yeah, yeah. Little do we know there's a 12-year-old called Kimmy Antonelli coming through. It is a shame.

And I've got to admit, I didn't expect this Baku upgrade to be on a par with what Aston Martin have done here at Hungary. I don't think that was realistic. But it's worrying how pessimistic they sound. I don't know if some of this is just expectation management of, we're going to play this down as much as we can. and then if it's a bit better than that, we the drivers and the team look a bit better. But I don't know.

It doesn't sound particularly positive. Since Miami, where there were a lot of upgrades because we hadn't been racing for so long at that point, the way in which teams have done upgrades, it's kind of diverged a bit, but it's the same philosophy of there seemed to be these major upgrades for teams sort of and then minor, smaller upgrades sort of filtered in alongside. So if you think of Austria, for example, that's where Red Bull, Audi and Cadillac

brought their significant upgrade packages. Canada, it was Mercedes and McLaren. Barcelona was Ferrari, of course. And then Hungary last time out was Aston Martin. Williams haven't had one of those in a very long time. In fact, they are the only team on the grid not to bring more than three upgrades to an event since Miami. And that's fine if you make a massive jump like Aston Martin did when that big upgrade arrives, it just doesn't sound like it will. Hungary really exposed the reliance this team has on that Mercedes power unit and how good that battery is because through the corners, it's just, it's bad, it's real bad.

I mean, Piastri's got first-hand knowledge of that now, but it's not great. and I thought it was interesting was Albin saying, well, we'll fight these Aston Martins in the races that, you know, due to straight line speed at some of these tracks, I'm going to have an engine upgrade coming. You might be right, but you might not be. And also, it doesn't really matter that much. I mean, you can have the best engine in the world.

They probably do. It doesn't matter if you still can't do corners. Like, it's irrelevant, right? Yeah. So if that Aston Martin is now better, you know, a better chassis overall and the Honda upgrades coming, which they think will knock a bit of time off

that a little bit more... Half a second, maybe? After a second they're saying, so... Yeah. Maybe be more pessimistic album. I was almost like, as someone told album that Honda have got an upgrade coming? I don't think he knows.

How much do you think Carlos Seins is regretting his decision not to go to Audi? That is a brilliant question and feeds in nicely, because signs are suggested that they should, as James Vowler has now said as well, that they should focus on 2027. But he himself, signs, had a lot of comments before the Hungarian GP, don't think the race itself help matters,

saying like his timelines have almost been knocked back a couple of years. Like he was hoping, maybe not to necessarily be winning races with Williams this year, but maybe be in a position to win some next year or something like that. It sounds like in his head, like this whole project is a couple of years, like, out of shape now. And I think he probably is regretting his decision, yeah. Well, just look where Audi are. I mean, they're not winning races,

but that's probably at least where he'd hope they'd be, where Williams would be at the very least. So, yeah, I think also last year probably gave them a bit of false hope. I know it's a completely different car, etc., but they had a good year last year. A couple of podiums for them. Exactly. And on good pace as well.

So he probably thought things were looking pretty rosy. But yeah, this one's been a stinky part of poo so far. Is he staying? Even if Audi's off the take, like does he have a choice? But where's he going to go? Yeah. Not that I don't know he wouldn't take him. But yeah, realistically, where an Audi going to go?

I think Audi out of pride. I'm not sure they'd take him. And also they've got two drivers who are pretty evenly matched and doing a great job at the moment. So I don't think they'd take him. He'd need another domino to fall almost, right? Like he'd need to, I don't think he'd be the first domino. Like, he'd have to take advantage of something else happening.

Exactly. I just don't really know where I think there's a few dominoes before that he makes a move as well. It's not like just one person's going to go. The only one I could potentially see is Aston Martin. but that relies on a certain other Spaniard to make his mind up. I would like that to happen because I predicted it in the 2027 lineup video we did. And honestly, I just want to be right about something for a change.

Well, that's fair. For your sake, mate, I hope it does. But for everyone else, no. Sometimes you just need a win, you know. Just want to win one. Yeah. Yeah, I think particularly on, oh, we're talking about Carlos Sines here and whether he has faith. I'm not sure when it comes to Alex Albin, he has much choice in that I can't see a path out right now for Carlos Sines.

I think there's less of a path out for Alex Albin because if, let's say, both Williams drivers were available for a team to pick up, that could be wrong on this. I think every team on the grid is going to Sines before Albin. Yes. I'm not saying that's completely fair, but I think that's what would happen. I think no, he's a race winner. me proven he can work in the top team an album whilst he's been great has started to be shown up a little bit by

Carlos. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be an interesting one to maybe just keep an eye on as we go throughout this summer break. One other thing about Williams and Carlos Sines in particular that we can cover that we didn't know about the time of the race review is what Carlos Sines' response to the Piastri incident

would be. Would he apologize? Would he double down. I'm going to go if he doubled down. The second one. Yes. Essentially saying that it's racing, that the blue flag system failed. Piahtri was in his blind spot.

Okay. Is that good enough for you? No. Okay. It's just racing. As you said yesterday on the power rankings, Ben, it's quite literally not. You're being lapsed.

There's no racing. in this point. So that's not how that works. The blue flag system failed. I know they do get blue flags on their dash, blue lights, I guess, on their dash. So I'm hoping and assuming he means that. But we've watched the onboard,

and he goes past so many boards that are flashing blue. Use your eyes, man. But you must, if it's a yellow flag, you'd see that, would you? God damn it, man. Yes, that's rubbish as well. And what was... Sisy Wander out here? What's he doing?

Nice. What was the last thing? He's in my blind spot. Yeah, shut up, man. Whatever. I get that in the heat of the battle with Alonso, he might not have seen him. That, what I will accept. But he'd had like five blue flags before that point.

It's ridiculous. Just get out of the way. I thought what was interesting when we asked Patreon about this and we gave them a preview of what the topics were going to be, the most liked comment by far was from Barry, who basically said absolutely diabolical. He really let himself down with this. And whilst I think like the incident itself, as you could probably tell by a rather animated reaction to it

on Sunday's race review, the incident was really poor. The response is worse. Because I don't know if you heard Olly Berman's team radio after he finished the race and he was informed about his five-second penalty. And Behrman at that point is just like, I don't know who that was, sorry, my bad.

It's all it needed to be. Behrman also picked up a penalty for that same thing, and who was about 10 years junior to Carlos signs was much more mature in this situation, just to say, like... But why are you doubling down on this, Carla? Like, what's it worth? What's it worth? Yeah, I thought it was really poor.

Just own your error, man. own it. Yeah. I think nearly every other driver on the grid would. Yeah. So I apologize because you ran into it. Even if you think you're in the right, you still ran into someone.

So I apologize for that at the very least. Yeah. It was interesting. Shall we do our F1 fantasy update? Yeah, go on them. Wow. You can already tell by the enthusiasm in Harry's voice, he's not leading yet. But before we discuss,

the four of us. Congratulations to we go again. Well done, John. 339 points. You won this week, the Hungarian GP. Saw your comment, by the way, John, that we didn't mention it at all on the race review. It's fine. We were always going to get to it on a Wednesday episode to make sure you have your moment in the sunshine.

So, well done to you, John. Perfect limitless strategy, by the way, because I used it on both of the Ferrari drivers. I think it was Vestappan and then Antonelli and Norris, but managed to avoid Piastri and avoided the McLaren team. So clearly knew a DNF was coming. Clever man. Not much change in the top three in the championship.

Still never Lewis Faeff out front. Still Lumley Speed Syndicate in second. And a return to the top three for Fanamp Fantasy HQ, but just 20 points separating those three in the league could lead to a very interesting second half of the season. four of us, a lot of improvements here. I'm happy. I've gone up 47 spots, 227th now in the league.

Sam's up 34 places, 369th. Kirstie's up, 21, getting closer to the top 500, 542nd. Improvement, improvement, improvement. Harry, you're down 22 spots. to 854th. Yeah. Not a, not a... Do you know what?

It wasn't a stinker. Just not great. I was going to say this because I was thinking about, you know, how can I clown you about this? Because that's how I live my life. But I was thinking about, like,

it's quite brutal in that you're beating like three quarters of the league. But we're having a great year. We're just all doing way better than I am. Yeah. LB's doing all right this year. I had to play some chips, I think. I only played my three times

and I played it on Charlotte, player who retired and it was annoying. So not this race, early a race. I need to, I need to up my game. But you still got, you still get a liminalist chip to use. Everything else, yeah. Still some heavy hitters to come. All right.

We'll see how that plays out. We'll be back with another F1 fantasy update, of course, after the Dutch GP in about a month's time. We'll take a quick break on the other side. It's time for our 700th episode edition of fill in the blank. Yeah. Welcome back, everyone. It's time for the long-awaited and almost certain, to under deliver episode 700 of fill in the blank.

Fill in the... He's Phil. I can't wait in a few years' time to just remember that Sam's only presence on our 700th episode was via the jingle. I assume he's also going to come up in this game as well. But his first mention is via his fill in the blank jingle. So what we've got are seven clips. that go back to other milestone episodes in the podcast's history.

So I think we're going to go back to episode 600, 500, 500, all the way through to the last question, which will be something about episode one. We're going to play a clip from the episode, which will have a bleeped out blank in it. It's our job to try and work out what fills in that blank. Are you very confident on this? No, not in the slightest.

I barely remember what we did last week. on the podcast let alone 600 episodes ago. That's a great idea for my next game, actually. What happened last week? Oh, mate, that's no chance. You can ask me what happened on Sunday, and I've got no one. Hungary, actually, I think it was, yeah. Ah, yeah, sorry, Dowdham.

Okay, let's give this a go, starting with something from episode 600. Play along at home and see if you can get any of these. Ferrari, let's focus on them, because... How? Why? Two very good questions. One of their Achilles heels, and I'd stress one of, because their biggest Achilles heel this year has been... Okay, so that was from the Mexico Grand Prix qualifying review last year.

We've got to work out what was the Achilles heel? Themselves? Everything? Yeah, like, it's got to be something like that, because it literally was last year. I'm going to go for themselves. Are we working together on this? or we were against each other.

We can put together our own guesses. I'm going to go with if it's just their Ferrari or something like that. Okay, I'll just say to themselves. Go on them. Essentially saying the same thing. Ferrari, let's focus on them because... How? Why? Two very good questions.

One of their Achilles heels, and I'd stress one of, because their biggest Achilles heel this year has been being fast. But one of their Achilles heels, has been qualifying. They've generally been better race pace on a Sunday than they have been qualifying pace on a Saturday. We've been used to seeing them six, seven. Here they are, second and third.

Got a six seven in there as well. What I'm bad. You're so cool. Is that that old? I couldn't put it to get from my head. Like, was that trend that going at that point? Well, it was, I definitely was because I remember we did it We were doing it whilst we were in Austin last year

We were doing it Why would you say that out loud, man? Six, seven So not quite right, we said themselves or being Ferrari But the answer was being fast Which, to be fair, yeah, is an accurate Achilles It's not wrong It's not wrong

Okay, next one is from episode 500, which, as you'll remember, we made a big deal of. The episode title this time was, who is under pressure in 2025? So I'm assuming we're going back to one of the earliest months of that year. So have a play. Right. So, would be Vin Diesel. Yes. Who's the rock?

Oh, come on. Come on, man. There's no way. Someone would be Vin Diesel. And we didn't even know who would be The Rock. Oh, there's so many people this could be. Like, this could be Jason Orange. Like, we've got no idea.

Sorry, what was the episode we were doing? We don't know. The episode title? Yeah, we don't know. Who is under pressure in 2025? The Rock. Oh. I'll go for, who would have been on depression 2035? I'll say Lewis. Albert.

I'm going to go with other brilliant bold man, Rob Marshall. It feels like Kamatsu, this is going to sound really cringy. He's trying to build a big of a family. He's watched a lot of Fast and Furious over the winter break, and he's channeling Dom Torreto. Right. So Kamatsu. would be bin diesel.

Yes. Who's the rock? The Ock? The Ock, yes. Sure. I love that so much. Bearman's ludicrous, right? Obviously, yes, yeah.

It'll be on the moon soon. Another ludicrous shout. Yeah. Another one. I love that that wasn't the only ludicrous shout. Obviously. How did ludicrous get multiple? Anyway. the correct answer was of course.

Congratulations. If anyone got that at home, with proof, let us know. Oh, lordy, lordy, lord. I fear this is only going to get worse to go through this game. Both in terms of audio quality and the clips themselves. Okay, so we're on naught out of two.

Episode 400 is up next, which was the 2024 Miami GP sprint shootout review. How have we managed to sign this, where episode 600 was a qualifying review, and episode 400 was a sprint shootout review. Anyway. Sprint shootout. Let's see what we got for this one.

Not only have Alpine gone, we're struggling here, we need a bit of cash, we need a bit of cash flowing. Fine, fine. We've all had dodgy sponsors in Formula One. But you've gone down crypto, and not only if you've gone down crypto, something Ferrari have never done, is change their profile picture to a bloody what year is this? 2020?

What? I think I know the answer to this one because I remember it. It was around the time of the NFT monkeys. It's either going to be monkey or ape or something like that. Yeah. Oh, yes.

And they had it as their Twitter profile photo. Can I just say, you're talking about the Sprint Shootout Review and he's having a right old winch about the profile picture? Where else are you going to have that discussion than the Sprint Shootout Review? That's how good, the Sprint Shootout.

Sam had to get it up his chest. I'm sure there was a lot of content from the Miami GP sprint shootout that we had to talk about, yeah. This is so true. I'm pretty sure it's going to be monkey ape, something like that. Yeah, well, go for that then.

Not only have Alpine gone, we're struggling here, we need a bit of cash, we need a bit of cash flowing. Fine, we've all had dodgy sponsors in Formula One, but you've gone down crypto, and not only have you gone down crypto,

so that Ferrari have never done, is change their profile picture to a bloody cartoon ape. What year is this? 2020? I guess. There we go. He's not wrong.

He's actually cooked for them there, well, then, mate. Sam has absolutely cooked on that one. And we've got a point. What year is it? It's not 2020. What were they doing? Yes. So we've got four more to go.

We don't care if we get another point. We've got one on the board. Episode 300 is up next. And that was a preview of the 2020. 23, Belgian GP, where we were asking the question, could Piastri pick up his first podium? Blimey. Yeah. Let's see what we said.

I have heard that in Brazil, is a delicacy. That's why it was on the quiz. In very suits. It's very British. They want you to call it re-e-e-aging era. The bleep thing sounds so much worse. That's why it was on the quiz. What quiz?

When were we doing a quiz? This is tough. What would be a delicacy in Brazil according to late breaking? Again, the Belgian GP preview. Why are we talking about? Rio. Rio is something to engineer it.

Is it? Maybe with, I don't know, waffles, Belgian waffles. You know what? I haven't got a better guess. Let's go with waffles and see what this is. I have heard that in Brazil spam is a delicacy

That's why it was on the quiz In very suits It's very British They wanted to call it Rio Spam Gingero Spam It's amazing sense I don't know what you do Spam Paolo

Spam Paolo's right there Spam Paulo So good Spam. Okay, what's the context? Sam asked in real or no real the following question. Oh, God, we're doing real or no real. No wonder.

Ruben's Barichella used to have a weekend race ritual at 1 a.m. on the Sunday morning of race day. You were fry a tin of spam and eat it in wearing his race suit. It's the most real or no real thing I've ever seen of a life. Also, this is going to sound really weird. I feel like it was getable, spam. I think we could have worked. I think we could have got there.

Could have worked that way through it. Yeah. Oh, boy. Spam Julia. Again, when Spam Paolo is right there. Oh, boy. Okay, that's episode 300. What about episode 200?

What we'll be talking about here? This was actually a race review of the Azerbaijan GP. This is shocking. Ferrari are the of the Pit Lane High Street. Whoa. Ferrari are something of the Pit Lane High Street. Immediate for is Woolworths. Okay. I'm just, I, it wouldn't make sense because Woolworths went out of business and Ferrari didn't, but I don't know.

Poundland or something, something, something, yeah, maybe Poundland. I'd go more towards Poundland. Do you go Poundland? I think we like Woolworth's too much, no. True. The only thing is that the bleep wasn't that long, which makes me think maybe it's one syllable, rather than two. Argos. They're two syllables, but it is shorter. Boots.

Why would Ferrari be the boots of the high street? That's the question. Should we lock in power, lad, and see what happens? Hey, go, them. You looked at the bloody pit wall, and it was like it was available to rent on the high street, you know, like they moved out, and it was an empty lot,

you can walking and pick it up at a discounting rate because this is shocking. It can be turned around. Exactly. Ferrari are the Woolworths of the pit-day-house street. And they are in a recession right now when it comes to point. Even they're doing bad at Woolworths, come on. If you're Australian, I think Ozzy still have Woolworths.

You have Woolies, I think. Let us know. This is gone off topic. Nonetheless, Red Bull. nonetheless, Red Bull. Talk about Ferrari or almost. Nonetheless, Red Bull. What's the rest of that point?

You've got to go with your gut, haven't you, mate? That was poorer, poor, mate. Yeah, we should have committed. Could I just say as well, Ben, you sounded like you were recording in a cupboard with no microphone. I might have been, to be fair. It was episode 200. That's wild.

Yeah. Sounds sounded okay, but yeah, anyway. Anyway, sure it's not going to go worse from here. Episode 6 we're going all the way back to episode 1. 100. I'm really pumped. I am super pumped. You're not saying I say often,

how pumped I am, but I am pumped up very much like a... Okay. That could be things. He just said pumped a lot in that. It did. Man was pumping away.

Actually, a little too many times from I like it, I'd say. Bit too bumpy. Too bumpy. be sage. Oh, that's my outro done. Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's the old.

I don't know. He's pumped up. The thing is, with Sam's analogies, you naturally go for like a beach ball, but there's no way. It could be a pizza, right? Doesn't make any sense. Could be a pizza.

But I'm done like a pizza. I could say. Beach ball feels like a fair shout. Pumped up, like, or is you, I didn't like, we get on like a black-eyed peas reference. Oh, I don't mind it. Big up taboo.

Pumped up like taboo. If he said taboo on episode 100. All right, well, you say beachboard, I'll say taboo and let's see how long we are. Okay. I have like a 1% chance of being right, which is one more than you have. This is taboo now.

Come on. I'm really pumped. I am super pumped. Not saying I often. How pumped I am. But I am pumped up very much like a blow-up bed. Oh, you know what I mean? Yeah.

No, what it means. Pummed. That's one of your worst metaphors you've ever done. Good stuff, yeah. You can save them for episode 100. If you're still risking, you don't care on the metaphors, I'm like. I agree. I agree.

It's past Harry. That was terrible. Do you know what a blow up bed's like? I didn't, but now I've got it, yeah. Good Lord. And to put an end to this ordeal. Question number seven, we're going all the way back to episode one.

What next for McLaren? Good Lord. I've been Ben Hopking. I've been Harry Ead. I've been Samuel Sage and goodbye to... Bear Man, Love him. Wow.

Goodbye to... Also, wrong order. What are we doing? Yeah, yeah. What's that about? I think we did that for the first. few, yeah. Crazy.

Goodbye to... I mean, I immediately started seeing James Blunt, but I don't think he said James Blunt. He could have done. It doesn't make any sense, which is why there's a good chance to it. I don't know he was saying goodbye to either because no one listened to it.

No, no. Goodbye to... I've got nothing on this. He might have said, my nan. Let's go with that. You know what? He might have done. I've been Ben Hopking. I've been Harry Eid.

I've been Samuel Sage and goodbye to Fernando Alonso. Bye, Mano. See you again, Fernando Alonzo. Thank you for listening to the late-breaking podcast here on Drive Tribe. My name's my name is Harry Eid. And with love, with care.

I'm Samuel Sage. Remember, keep breaking late. Hang on. Double outro. Yeah. One outro wasn't enough back then. Yeah. Fernando was, yeah. He was.

He was. 2018, yeah. Tyron. again feel like we could have got that based on the title if we were if it was the beginning of the episode we were fresher I think we'd have got that we thought about it yeah yeah so overall not no we got one thanks to the alpine monkey and technically we did get what was we just lock it in

yes yeah but let's call it one if you got more than one at home please let us know folks let us know if you thought it was a member of the blind Like I, peace. Yeah, and which one? Did you think it was also taboo? Well, normally I would say this is the greatest segment, but after that, I don't know if it is anymore.

But I'll do the intro anyway to what is the greatest segment in all of podcasting. It is time for the... Have a question of the week. Yeah. It feels like an unusual comment. I don't think we've done a question of the week without Sam's beautiful dulcet tones. But we still got a question. it's relating to the Bahrain Grand Prix being held at Malaysia.

The question is, what's the next crossover we're going to see in F1 after, and Harry's already seen a great answer. It's actually, yeah, what's the next crossover we're going to see? And someone said, so not someone, Myra on Instagram said, Monaco host Interlagos. And the reply to that from Corbyn Spencer said, little known fact, Monaco means the track between two. It's true.

It does. People don't know that. An answer from DJ, which is Lansstrol and being respected, to which I had to remind DJ. Lansdrol is now the lead Aston Martin driver, as of the Hungarian GP. Yeah, put some respect on that man's name. We have Noah on Instagram who said the Abu Dhabi GP at Bouta Eve on Tafu. I knew that was getting a reference. Was that the reply that featured subalba would be the driver under pressure?

Under pressure, yeah, that way will be suburbia. Of course. From Gem, who replied that. I do have to mention this one from Kevin, because I think it was quite the most liked comment by far. I'll give the people what they want. Late Breaking F1 podcast presented by producer Kirstie. Oh, God, and we produce it?

Yep. I don't know which is scarier. Probably us producing it. Yeah, it will make it worse. Yeah. Lydia said the youths and full races. Oh, the youths. Honestly.

Clives taking over the grid walk whilst Martin Brundle chills in Sam's cupboard. I'd want to see that. More specifically Clives rather than Brondell in the cupboard, but I'd love to see Clive's... Clive's Pickleworth on the grid. That feels like a recipe for disaster. Yeah.

One from Tyler, which is the late breaking F1 podcast, And Harry imitating Ben, Ben imitating Sam and Sam imitating Harry. I don't like that idea. No, I hate that. That's not a thing. And it never was a thing. You were dreaming that didn't happen.

Yeah, you think that happened. And if you don't know what we're talking about, don't go looking for that episode that doesn't exist. Doesn't, does not exist. Judson on Instagram said the FIA and a competent governing body. That is a wild crossover. Oof, but also fair. Last one from me, from Hillary, which is telitubbies and drive to survive.

That was going to be my last one. Good stuff. Great, great answers as ever, though, people. Indeed. I think that's going to do it for this episode. Thanks for coming on what was a very crazy ride. Some very serious talk to start and some much less serious talk to end matters. We'll, of course, be back on Sunday for our next episode.

we've got episodes twice a week all the way throughout the summer break. Nothing changes on that front. And we've also got our additional content on Patreon. If you're not already a subscriber, the link is in the description. Get involved. We've got beer with breaking coming up in August. We've got a couple more bonus episodes. One is about to drop for July.

One already has dropped for July. So there's plenty of content coming out almost weekly on Patreon. I really appreciate everyone who's already over there and helping us to create this. brilliant, hopefully, content that we're giving you. You can follow us on Facebook and no other social media channels because we don't care about the other ones. Late Breaking F1 everywhere,

that will include the likes of Instagram X and TikTok as well. And of course, episode 700, thank you for, no matter whether you've been with us for, maybe this is your first episode, in which case, I'm so sorry. And I'm sure there's many of you that have been with us for hundreds of episodes, but no matter. thank you for coming along this journey with us. It's very much, very much appreciated.

I think that's going to do it then. I've been Ben Hocking. And I've been Harry Ead. And remember, keep breaking late. No, I'm not. I've been pumpy sage, what we're talking about. It's all gone to rats. My boy!

My boy!