The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Max Verstappen wins the shortest F1 race in history... | 2021 Belgian GP Review | Episode 142

Episode Date: August 29, 2021

Well, that was different. Somehow the LB boys still have something to talk about after no racing at the 2021 Belgian GP....JOIN our Discord: https://discord.gg/dQJdu2SbAmSUPPORT our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/latebrakingTWEET us @LBrakingSUBSCRIBE to our podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to look out for new episodes every Thursday and Grand Prix Sundays. Hello and a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented as ever by Sam Sage, Harry Ead and myself Ben Hocking. We are of course reviewing the first. Belgian Grand Prix? I guess.

It counts as half a race, so we're reviewing it. Plenty of action, of course, on track this afternoon, some scintillating stuff. George Russell getting a podium. I can't believe George Russell's got a podium and it's the most boring race. Not any fault of his home,

but yes. What do we talk about, guys? Oh, I mean, what a waste of my Sunday and everyone else is. and those poor people that have stood in the rain. Just do it tomorrow, lad. The X-rays is already in the Netherlands.

It's like driving from Cornwall to Devon. Just do it that way. Sam, your content of the map of Europe. Hey, I didn't do geography past KSC level, okay? It only takes a few hours. I love how here to London is probably like here to Moscow in Sam. I only ever seen the map for one those scooping school ones

so everything is the wrong size isn't it so what grade did you get in geography that amount of interest I did get an A so the schooling system is failing us I think that's the more worrying thing

I mean it had some highs and some lows isn't it this weekend had some great moments had some rather painful moments well I think I feel like a curse because today was the only live running all weekend that I sat down to watch.

And then there was no live running at all. So it was all going well up to Sunday. So sorry guys, that might be my fault. As usual, it's Harry Heed's fault. Classic. If Harry is involved with it is wrong. It all goes wrong. I just think it's one massive conspiracy because in those conditions,

that's where Botas tends to thrive and he probably would have gone on to victory and proved my prediction correct from Wednesday. So I think it's just the weather conspiring to make sure that that didn't come true. I'm sure Sam would have got with that. It's God playing a trick. Yeah, yeah.

I forgot to mention I am God. And I didn't want Bottas to win again. So I've cursed Spar. And also, I mean, we're not going to, we would usually review our bold predictions on this podcast, but naturally there's not much to review there. But I will say it was absolutely hilarious that Harry Ead's prediction was that Hass would score points

and it would have come true if you could get a fastest lap outside the top 10. So Harry is yet again finding new ways to be wrong. It's impressive. I did say Mick specifically, so I probably still want to vote. That's true, yeah. But yeah, Matt's been fastest lap. I mean, what a way?

You've won the Bitcoin. late-breaking bold predictions award for this weekend. So well done. Yeah, we are now sponsored by Bitcoin after our love of cryptocurrency. You know, we're well in that field now. We'll take money from anywhere. There is actually, because of everything that happened this weekend, there's actually still quite a lot to discuss,

even with just a few laps behind the safety car. George Russell put together an all right qualifying lap on Saturday, so we'll discuss that one and if it improves his standing for getting a contract next year. Landon Norris, of course, had a heavy shunt in qualifying on the Saturday. We're going to ask whether that corner needs to change. He had the crash at O'Ruz and Radion. We'll discuss this afternoon. I won't say race.

I'll say event because I think that's a more apt word in this situation. We saw half points awarded. So Max Verstappen, quote-unquote, wins the race for 12 and a half points. George Russell, he's got to be happy to take home. Would have been nine points for him. And then Lewis Hamilton rounded out the podium. So Sam, given the lack of racing that we saw, given the lack of any green flag racing,

do you think that the rule needs to change in terms of how half points are awarded? Yeah, I 100% do believe the rule should change. I think you can go two ways with it. I think you either need to change the distance that is covered to require half points. I think to receive half points, you should ideally finish half of the race.

So if there are 44 laps, as there will be today, you have had to have finished 22 laps of the race to be awarded those half points. I think that is a fair way to look at it. Of course, there are conditions that are out of the hands of the FIA, as much as we all would love sprinklers attached to racetracks, it makes for a fun time. You know, there are going to be wet races

that the FIA, the skewers, the drivers themselves, can't deal with visibility. was horrible as we saw, and maybe you need a different rule set. You can't always reach that 50% mark. So, I don't think any points, half points or four points regardless, should be awarded if zero green flag running is taking place. I think, unfortunately, you have to abandon the race or move it to a different date. We've got space later on in the calendar now. It will still be the amount of races. We'll be coming back here and give it another go, but I don't enjoy the rule set that Max Mustafa has a wing.

Russell's first podium. You know, Lewis Hamilton keeps up with a championship fight. And they haven't done anything. They've driven around behind a safety car to literally just check a box that the skewers have gone, yeah, that means that we can technically mark this one down as done and we can move on from it. So I think changes need to take place. I understand it was too dangerous for any green flag running, and I agree not to have

run in green flag conditions. But I think, therefore, the race should have been a band is not just scapegoated into half points to show the fans a few cars on track for two laps. feels like a bit of a cop-out and I don't enjoy it. If that ends up deciding the championship because of those points won here, I think it'll be a little bit disappointing. What do you reckon, Harry, about the half points rule?

I mean, the snap and wins the championship by three points. That would Twitter will explode. Yeah, I think maybe I'm just exhausted. I'm not particularly hugely mad about the points. I think it's such an unusual situation, but I agree with what Sam said in that. maybe they need to change the distance for when they are awarded half points because two laps seems we've never had that situation before where we've only been able to do two laps and they're not even two proper laps

so yeah I think something has changed there and I guess they've never ever thought we'd be in that sort of position I mean moving the rate I mean tomorrow is fine for us in the UK because we've got a little bank holiday so we've got another day off but I guess logistically it's too difficult Zanvort isn't the same distance as Kuhn to Devon, so Zandwold's Belgium is not the same, unfortunately. So I don't know where that would work. And I guess the slot in November wouldn't work because it would be snowing instead of rain,

and that would be even less fun. So, yeah, I don't know whether that, you know, it would just have to be abandoned, I think. So, yeah, something needs to change there. And, you know, it's the most George Russell way of getting a podium, isn't it? And his qualifying lap yesterday was absolutely stunning, and we'll get to that. But, yeah, it would be that's the most George Russell way of getting a podium.

Actually, I think even more George Russell bad luck would have been he gets a front row start, and then they cancelled the race entirely. But he'll take the podium nonetheless, I'm sure. But yeah, I think something does need to change there because – and the way they started the race was entirely strange. I mean, they didn't start the race for ages technically, but the two formation laps, docking four laps off the race distance to start with, just didn't make much sense because normally when you would go

and then they'd have to red flag it or say that we can't keep going. So I don't know why they did it that way around. But yeah, I think that rule does need to change for future events. Yeah, obviously on these podcasts, we don't swear at all, which is usually easy enough to avoid. it's going to be more difficult to avoid here because I have no idea who on earth made up the rule that you can do two laps of running and get half points.

It is utter lunacy. And before anyone comes at me saying I'm a Hamilton fan or a Vestappan fan or I don't know, it changes every week, I can't keep up with it. But if you're saying that I'm saying this out of it being preferential treatment for one driver or the other, Bear in mind that Max Vastappen gained on Lewis Hamilton by the amount of five points, wasn't it today?

When in reality, even if Hamilton in a full race managed to get up to second and lost to Vastappen, Vestappen would have gained more. He'd have gained seven points. So I don't actually think that the way it finished necessarily benefits Vestappen versus what could have happened. But regardless of whether it was Hamilton in the lead, Vastappen in the lead, whether it was Russell in the lead, my thoughts on this remain completely unchanged. It is an absolutely bonkers rule that needs to be abolished as soon as possible. And as Harry has alluded to, in all likelihood, this rule probably won't

need to be enacted again for another 10 years or something. But you never know. That's a reason a rule book exists in the first place is covering off eventualities. And just in case this does happen next time out, I really hope they assess this. My view is, is what, what Sam has said, I think 50% running to get half points. And if it's anything less than 50%, you don't give out the points. Maybe you go as less as 40%, I don't know, but anything less than that, it seems a bit cheap. And regardless of whether it's green flag running or yellow flag running,

and we can discuss whether, and we'll get onto this, whether we actually think that the FIA believed there was a chance for them to get going again. and that's why they did the laps under the safety car or whether they just wanted a result in the books. What their motivation for getting the guys out there again, we could discuss that a bit. But regardless of that, the rule itself is just an embarrassment.

I feel bad. And I know he doesn't feel bad, which feels a bit weird, but I feel bad for George Russell because his first podium should be one of absolutely unbridled joy. It should be pure. from the side of George Russell to stand on a podium for the first time. He's been, until one race ago, in a Williams at least, it never scored points. And to get a podium should have been this massive achievement for him.

And because of the qualifying lap, it's not completely irrelevant, but it just feels, it feels cheap. It doesn't feel like the joy that a podium should bring. I want to be sat here praising George Russell and being, so happy for him in his journey from right at the back of the grid to podium. And I can't feel that way because it's a cheap podium. George Russell just has to take it as it is and the team should still feel very proud of the achievement based on the qualifying lap. But I kind of wish it came under different circumstances. In terms of the afternoon itself, we obviously had the first

attempt to go running, sat in the paddock for a long time after that, a second go, at which point they decided it's not going to happen. We were there for probably about four hours in total or so. But Sam, do you think that this was run in the correct ways? Do you think the decisions that were made along the way were in the best interest of the sport and the drivers? It was very hard to tell. It felt like every single person kind of muddled through

from Michael Massey at the top of the skewers all the way down to engineers and people sat on the pit wall to the drivers themselves. You know, you've got Pierre Gassely sitting there going, can I have a couple of sausages? I'm getting a bit hungry to Danny Rick saying that, you know, he's kind of a big deal around here if you didn't know. He's hit his 200th Grand Prix. And then we go back to Daniel Ricardo doing a Mexican wave from the pit box.

I mean, it seemed like there was endless confusion up and down the pit lane all the way through every official. Toto didn't know what was going on. Christian Hawley didn't know what was going on. We had four different opinions at one point from four different pit boxes from different team principles. The only consensus was that everyone seemed pretty certain. that it was not safe to go racing, other than Max Verstappen, who sat at the front there

without any spraying his face going, I don't see what the problem is, let's go for it. Which was quite funny to hear that maybe he hadn't considering what everyone else might be going through, and he has done the job I'm supposed to stick it on pole,

so why not enjoy that privilege of being on pole position? But, I mean, in terms of how it was handled, I don't think there was anything drastically wrong with how it was handled. It just wasn't handled clearly. There clearly wasn't a structure put in place. there clearly wasn't a okay, X thing has happened,

so we need to go down the X route of rule sets or procedures or checkoffs before we can make sure that actually we're good to go racing again or this race is going to be cancelled again. So I suppose in that case, no, I wasn't fully satisfied with how it was handled. I'd much rather have got to a, yeah, we've got the three-hour window, it's still chucking it down with rain, the conditions are fine, then we're going to end the race. We're not going to have any further racing.

We're going to declassify the race. It's not going to be rung. End of. So on that, no, I wasn't too satisfied. It wasn't too great. It wasn't exactly entertaining. Everyone was a bit bored watching it.

I had to listen to Croftly talking about his own swimming trunks multiple times and how he'd like to go panning around in some puddles for a bit, which is a little bit strange to listen to. Ah, it was unpleasant. It was unpleasant. Someone I heard, thinking about Discord, actually, if you're involved in the Discord, the links in the description get involved, discussed maybe, um, um,

considering sending out a set of stock cars that are much more comfortable and put up a lot less plumage, just to run around for a few laps and have like a mini race on the track, and maybe it should be something where local races get to turn up and do that if the event ever happens. I know it's a lot of material to use and a lot of time to taking, a lot of money to use, but it might have cleared the track and we might have seen something happen, which will be good fun. Yeah, no, it was an ideal, it was very boring. Everyone was a bit confused, and Pierre Gaslid to my knowledge still hasn't received any sausages. So it's not a good day for anyone at the Spar Francoschunk track.

Apart from the bloke selling chips and mayonnaise, eat it like he didgle right. Hashtag sausages for Gasly. That's a bad hashtag. What are you talking about? Get your sausage out for Gasly. Sausages out for Gasly. Yeah, that's even better. Let's go with that as the hashtag.

No. Unless you think it could be misconstrued, but I can't see where you're coming from with that. What did you make of the afternoon's events, Harry? But the events as a whole, yeah, bizarre. In terms of how it was handled, yeah, it was, I don't think that at least I said, nothing drastically wrong.

It was just a bit of confusion around the starting clock, whether a clock was running an hour and 15 minutes in McLaren like, yeah, it's the clock running. And Michael Massey's like, do you not know that? And they were like, oh, all right. So, more than left now. I've been into this race.

Yeah, so that seems a bit odd. They did know that. And I guess now that we have that little feature between the Pit Wall and Michael Massey, that we hear these things. So maybe that, you know, does happen more often than we used to realize. So, yeah, apart from that, I think, you know, the right calls were made in terms of not sending cars out.

the events as a whole there were there were some padding going on a lot of TV padding as Sam mentioned Gatsley was looking for sausages yeah I was interested on that stock car point

imagine if you just had like a group of racing drivers in their stock cars the just in case not some people like just a lot of people who just wait wait for these situations. They're like, oh my God, it's hard time to shine.

It never really, it would never happen. But yeah, look, it was a, it's, I don't want to put it's farcical, because it's not really, it's not F1's fault. It's just, it's just spar doing spa things, but in a really, really, really extreme way this year, which is a shame. And all the times we are pray for a wet race,

it's like, all right, we didn't mean that much. Calm down. Just a little bit, please. Just a little bit less, this. No, next time, please. Yeah, it's a shame. But, you know, we move on. We'll have forgotten about this by, by MV, I'm sure.

Maybe. Or not. Yeah. I quite often, I won't say complain, but I offer constructive criticism to the commentary team quite a bit. And I feel like they could do a better job at times. However, I do massively sympathise with any commentary. team today because I think even us three, well

even me and Harry would have real difficulty patting out for four hours. I'm sure Sam would only be a third of his way through his material. Yeah, but it wouldn't be a lot of natural. That's the only issue with Sam. For us, basic plus rating Sky Sports

channel, you'll have to enter your ID first before you can talk to me. For us mere mortals, it might have been a difficult one this afternoon. So I'm not going to complain too much. And actually, I think in terms of when they went racing and ultimately when they didn't go racing, I understand those decisions and I think they made them right.

I think when they were going around both times, first and second time, it was evident fairly quickly that this shouldn't happen. And I'm glad that they didn't just for the sake of the sake of the fans, so I feel very bad for, but I'm glad that for the sake of those fans, they didn't just say, oh, let's give them three laps of green fly racing, adjusted just to have something out there. I'm glad they didn't make a decision like that because that would have been completely

unfair to the drivers and reckless beyond belief. So I don't think at any point this afternoon it was good enough to go racing. So I'm glad that that was the decision that was made. On the point of Michael Massey, of course, the director of the director at the circuit, I really don't think he handled it brilliantly well. when someone a team comes over to you on the team radio and we're getting these sort of team radio messages come

through from the likes of Mercedes and McLaren it was heavily used today and it's a brilliant insight I'm really glad they introduced it but when someone comes over over team radio and says you know how many laps have we got left and you respond with something along the lines of oh my assumption is it's this much you're you're the direct that you don't work on assumptions you're the one who says it's this many laps. It's the teams that have the assumptions and then it's your job to either say, you are right with that or no, that's not how it goes. You aren't the person saying, yeah, I assume it'll go down that way. You're leading it. Whenever anyone comes over, and I appreciate there are a lot of regulations, and it is a confusing rulebook. Completely get that. But if there's

one person that should be able to definitively say at any one moment, this is a lot of, this is how it's going, it should be Michael Massey in his position. When someone comes over the radio and says, how many laps on the left? It should just be, there are 39 laps left. Here's why there are 39 laps left. If you're not inspiring confidence in that position, it's a bit of a worry. So I really think they need to tighten that up. It was a bit concerning that he couldn't answer with more, with the Perez stuff as well, with a bit more conviction than he was able to. That was worrying. It's like going to the American elections, right? And, you know, the news walking over to the White House and going, hello, Mr. Biden, President Biden. How are you? Yeah, good, good.

We're halfway through the election. Can you let us know how many states are left to give their verdict, please, on the election, please? Or, duh, five, six, I'm not sure. I'll All right, okay. We do need to actually know because they'll be running the country for the next four years. Sorry, America, this is pretty very wrong. But I assume it's like that, right? You're leading something. You need to be quite sure when you make a decision that affects a lot of people when you're in total control.

I'm sure Jesus, when he fed the 5,000, probably was aware of how many meals he was given out. If that actually happened at all in life, maybe it didn't. Who knows? Nonetheless, I'm sure they knew exactly what they were doing. I mean, sorry, Ben. I was going to say, you know, have interest rates been raised? Yeah, I assume they have, yeah. You two single-handedly brought politics, religion and economics,

all into this podcast. Well done, guys. We've united the world. Just a disclaimer, we do not subscribe necessarily through any of those points of view. We're just using it for comedic effect. Please don't hate us for it. honestly politics economics religion don't you ever complain that you don't get the full package here at late breaking we've covered off of the big three and crofting is underwear slash swim trunks the big four yeah

we saw after the race black clascus today and it are i mean it's fitting with the race you know we've got to we've got to live up to it um one one question because there is a series of point here, the fans, thousands upon thousands of fans staying around in the awful conditions for up to four hours to receive absolutely, well, basically absolutely nothing. Lewis Hamilton, in his interview after the race, did make the point that the fans should get their money back. Sam, do you agree to that? Yeah, completely agree with it. And I don't think it should come out of Spars Wallet either. That circuit, obviously, and with any circuit, really, tries very hard to make sure it's funding works and make sure that it's able to run these races. I think

that the FIA and F1 as a commercial entity having off money and especially with the prize money or whatever, I think they should take equal parts out the prize money or equal parts out some sponsorship money and give SPAR the necessary amount to be able to refund every single person that turned up. If you turned up to any event, regardless of whether it was sport or whatnot, you got to sort, see 2% of that and then you got told to go home after being stood in the rain for four hours. You'd be criticised worldwide for not giving those. fans a refund. There is enough money going around in the F1, FIA world. Every single person can have their money put back in their pocket. They're still probably going to be out accommodation fees,

travel fees, you know, petrol, food, whatever, but at least they might get their F1 on ticket back. And that is something. And F1 have control over that. And I'll be quite disappointed if they don't, you know, help out the little guy, the people that support this sport and make it successful, the people that watch it. So I think they can definitely reach into those rather deep pockets and pull out a few pennies for their loyal fans that turn up and stick around even in those horrible conditions. Harry, what do you think? Yeah, I agree.

I mean, it is normally up to the circuit promoter to do refunds, but I think it's a special circumstance, so I'd hope F1, you know, even if it's not fully, you know, if they work with a promoter to do half and half or something like that. But yeah, I think the fans today, well, they saw nothing.

Was there, I think it was a Porsche, a Super Cup race this morning, maybe, but you know, they didn't get, they didn't get to watch what they actually turned up for so um yeah i hope i hope f1 and and spa sort sort out a dollar for those people those i mean they're going to be driving themselves out for the rest of twenty twenty one to be honest they're also and other rinks i feel i feel so bad for them um i completely agree with what you said sam full refunds and not a penny of it should come from sparr because it's not

Spar's fault, just like that isn't the fans fault. Should have built the circuit there. Yeah. Should have built it in the Middle East with the rest of the calendar. You know, there should be absolutely no reason that they don't get refunds for this, and there should be absolutely no reason why Spar should have to pay for this, because if you are asking Spar to, even if you ask Spar to pay 50% of it, but especially if you ask them to pay 100% of the refunds, it doesn't give.

off the best impression. But perhaps more importantly, future decisions might be made that are not in the driver's best interest. Because if Spar come away from this thinking, well, it's cost us a massive amount here because we didn't get any racing done. If they're faced with a similar decision down the line, do we go green or not? Well, if we go green, we don't have to give away refunds. So from a financial standpoint, I think it should come directly from the FIA. And if they say that they can't do this financially, it's an absolute disgrace because they absolutely can do it financially

with the... We all know they have the finance to do this, so they absolutely should in my book. Should we take a look at Saturday? Because we actually had some racing on Saturday, interestingly. Yeah. Some pretty entertaining stuff. So it was intermediate of wet conditions

all the way throughout qualifying, and it was a fairly standard result, really. Red Bull leading away the two Mercedes of Russell and, oh, sorry, no, it's 2021, ignore me. It was a Red Bull of the Stappan leading away the Williams of George Russell in second, and then Lewis Hamilton in third. So I don't think many people had George Russell starting on the front row. Sam, does that qualifying lap put that final nail in the coffin for Bottas, do you think? I mean, it isn't promising, is it, for Mr. Botties?

he's rocked up to the circuit. A circuit he's got a relatively good history with. He's not exactly like a multiple, multiple race winner, but he's always been pretty strong around spa, especially in wet weather. Maybe not, Turkey. But Valtrey Bottas is considered a pretty well-esteem racing driver is someone that can produce good results,

and he's fighting for a seat with the man that is in technically the second worst car on the grid. So when George Russell decides to let all the other chumps have a go around the track and he's gone, I'll weigh it out, owning evil. one lap, don't bother with me. And Georgie Russ turns up with his brand new, fresh, incredibly warm

intermediate tires, absolutely slots it onto provisional pole before King Max decides to go and put it on pole position, which is fair players, a fantastic lap. But Russell P2 was astonishing. I'm not sure who in Williams called it, whether it was George or a strategic or strategical, I don't know what the word

is, a person in charge of strategy. That's an idiotic say. It's been a long day, folks. I don't know. That's the one. I don't know if it was George's nan that got him on the phone for too long. He went,

Nan, I've got to get on the track, I'm running out of time. I feel like George Russell was the kind of lovely person that would give his nan a call every couple of days, you know? But Valtrey Votas in the mud. He's already got a fireplace grid penalty

for something to play bowling outside of the bowling rink with the barriers up, taking out the rest of the front of the grid. And George Russell's going, yeah, you know what? While you're down, Valtry, on your birthday, might I add,

I'm just going to add the top spot. Cheers, I'm just going to sit next my new team mate, which is guaranteed to happen. I'd be massively shocked if it doesn't. And he sticks it on P2 and regardless of if it was a tire decision or whatever, the strategic thinking and then

the actual guts, the performance to go out there on that track when everyone was struggling we saw so many top drivers struggling, stick it on P2 in a car that has struggled for years was phenomenal. It was absolutely phenomenal and you cannot, despite whatever happened today on on Sunday, you cannot take

away the incredible performance of that on that side of the Williams garage and then what George Russell was able to produce in a last gasp attempt on a pole shootout. It was fantastic. And if we see more of that, if we're going to move into a top team, then Max was stabbing, watch out. George Russell still got that absolute

top place that he needs. It was brilliant. I loved it. What do you think, Harry? Is there any way that Mercedes can't take him now? I'd find it really difficult. Yeah, I saw that someone, it might have been Tiff, Nedell because obviously big tiff big tiff all right

oh one is a very it's been a while isn't it wow um I don't probably no one listening knows what I smell anyway um yeah I think it was Tim Nadele saying you know

it must be a really tough decision now for Toto Wolf and I was like sarcastically obviously um yeah and I was thinking yeah like what what's stopping him I mean, yesterday was phenomenal. I think even before the P2, almost poll, as we'd like to call it,

both Williams were doing very well, but George was absolutely flying. He was out there with Norris in terms of the stars of quality. I thought Norris bin did, obviously. But, yeah, look, it's, I mean, if it's not already done, yesterday has not hindered his chances whatsoever. So, yeah, I've seen quite a few things about it's already done deal, they're just trying to find somewhere for Botas to go before they announce it, which I get, you know, so they can announce it all in one go.

But, yeah, I mean, if he's not signed, then, like I say, that's definitely not hindered his chances at all. And if he has signed, then it's vindication for that signature, I think. So, yeah, I think it just proves what we kind of all thought, that Russell was a top-quality driver, and he shared it yesterday. Yeah, I was in shot. I was in utter shock. I missed it live and I watched it late tonight and I was just like, there's Williams on the, and when they had it on the little mini thing, it was so good.

They had it on the mini thing and they actually switched it to the full view camera in quality because they were like, oh my God, a Williams might actually get a poll here. And thank God they did because he almost did. But yeah, what of that? I was just completely utterly stunned by it. Yeah, I'll talk about the lap first of all because surely, it has to go down as one of the best qualifying laps in definitely recent history, but you probably can go quite far back and struggle to find laps that were that good.

He was nearly half a second faster than any other car in the first sector. And you talk about the strategy. It was a fantastic strategy from the Williams guys. Well, originally it wasn't because they sent him out on wet tires and then realized, nope, that's not a good idea. So they brought him back in. But what it meant was that he had to. had just two flying laps, or actually just two laps full stop on the intermediate tires.

So rather cleverly, they on the first lap, put a banker in by going, using all the sort of tools that they have in the first half of the lap, charged up for the second half of the lap. So for that last lap that we saw where he nearly claimed pole, he would have full deployment available to him. So it was quite clever how they managed that. And he put together a fine enough lap in the first instance and then as you would expect on the second lap he went quicker. The way in which he handled the first court, you will

have noticed if you saw his lap, he went very very narrow going into LaSour's first corner, whereas pretty much everyone else was using the wide carting line, so to speak. Clearly proved pretty effective because like I say he was nearly half a second faster than anyone else in that first sector.

But even with that, you would expect in the middle sector he will lose so much time that it's not even going to matter that he was purple in the first sector. But he did such an amazing job in that middle sector that he was still competitive going into the final sector. And of course he didn't claim poll, but he was very, very close. The fact that he was anywhere near pole position

proves it was such an incredible lap. So really that middle sector, you would expect him to lose all that time. And he was just so smooth in those conditions. He's a very different driver to the likes of, let's say, Leclair and Vastappen, who you can see a visibly quick by the way in which they drive. Russell is so much smoother. It's a different driving style, but it works, and it clearly worked yesterday. So, sensational lap, in terms of the Mercedes seat and what that does for him,

in my, I've been fairly clear on this. In my book, it's a done deal. It has been for a while, and I think they are waiting for the time to announce it. So if they are still waiting to make a decision, I don't necessarily think it would have helped much only because he's shown everything he can do already. It's that one extra step, sure, and it was a brilliant lap,

but for me he's already done more than enough to convince Mercedes that he should be there. And I'm a big fan of Valdry Bottas and I'm not actually going to... I won't take anything away from Bottas. Obviously his qualifying performance wasn't great on Saturday, but he's never been good...

He's never been good in those conditions. We saw Turkey, we saw him a little this year. He doesn't thrive in those conditions. So it's not exactly new information that he didn't do very well here. But in terms of Russell against Bottas, Mercedes cannot throw away an opportunity to sign a world-class driver or a potential world-class driver, as he might call him, because there are so few of them out there.

I like Sergio Perez a lot, but he is not world-class. He's the step below that. and Mercedes have the opportunity to have two world-class talents in their team, and I don't think they can, they can't throw that away. They can't pass up that opportunity. How many excellent drivers or potentially excellent drivers are there in F1, a handful? Mercedes have the opportunity to have two at the same time, and there's a chance that they might not go that way?

I think the only way that Bottas gets that seat next year is if it is written into Lewis Hamilton's contract. and I don't believe that's the case. So I think they have to go with George Russell. But what an epic lap. I mean, he nearly got pole position. Max Verstappen did get pole position, but one other driver that probably felt like he should have been in the fight,

Lando Norris, very quick in Q1, very quick in Q2, and then of course had that massive crash going up O'Rouge. He was cleared to race. Obviously, didn't really have to in the end, but he came away relatively unscathed from the incident. which was a massive relief, considering the speed at which he hit that wall. It's not the first incident we've seen at that corner.

In a relatively short space of time, we've had a number of incidents at that one corner. It's one of the most epic in F1 history, but it is also proven to be one of the most dangerous in recent years. Sam, do you think there is need to change that corner up to avoid these incidents? something needs to change doesn't it as much as i hate to say it as much as i maybe a lot of people going you know it's pure it's f1 that is so historic uh ruge is one of the most classic corners

in racing and i i completely agree with you it is it is an iconic corner where the the danger the thrill the the skill it takes to navigate that corner perfectly is is massive and it really you know separates the best drivers to do it well. The unfortunate thing about the Radion-Irooge complex is that it's not when you hit the wall. If you make a mistake, you spin out, that's not the problem. We don't tend to see major damage caused by simply just being the person that hits the wall. That's not the problem. The damage, the issue, the health risk, the danger for the drivers comes when once you've hit the wall, what happens after you've hit the war, and that is that the most frequent occurrence

of having an impact at 180 miles an hour with that barrier is you are immediately spat out again across the start of the camel straight where it is over a blind crest essentially and you are travelling down that blind crest at 170, 180 miles an hour. Other cars are coming along behind you.

We're very lucky that Landon Norris was on a completely empty track at the point that it happened and that, you know, Sebastian Vetter was far enough fact that he was never going to come near him. But we have seen it in multiple different categories, W series only this weekend had the issue, but we've also seen it in Weck, you know, both Jack Akeke and Kalamilat have had issues there as well, I believe. And of course, you can cast your mind back to the awful occurrence that happened a few years ago with Hubert. This corner has got some seriously dangerous elements to it, and something needs to be changed with the way that you are impacting the barrier and where you are being directed.

Crashing on any corner statistically is fine. The cars are well built. We have great crash cells in. these cars now and the safety requirements in Formula One and the respective series around that are very, very good. But there is an odd occasion where something can go horribly wrong and we need to mitigate that. So we need to change the direction that barriers are facing on the way the cars are directly if a car does hit that wall. They need to be either a bigger runoff area, the barriers angles need to be changed, something does need to be changing that back part area of the exit of Arooge. To stop you then running straight off into the track again and causing possibly another fatality in motorsport, which is nothing, we never want that to happen again. And safety

is king, as much as it is classic, as much it is great to watch, as much it is thrilling to see cars go through there, I never want there to be a single percent chance that someone could lose their life. It's never worth it. So something does need to change. And I believe there are rumours that it is going to be changed for next year. But even Lewis Hamilton said there's now a bump that's happened there that is ruining the corner completely and makes it incredibly difficult to drive. So there does need to be changing is put in place. I'm not sure they are, there are better people around the world that have more expertise than me on what those changes should be, but I am fully agreeing that there needs to be something happening, because

the W-series crash alone that happened was horrific enough. I had to, you know, shut my eyes at one point. It was really, really horrible. So glad to see everyone walk away essentially from that, and I know I got seriously hurt, but we don't want anything serious like that to happen again, and it could have done with Lando on Saturday, and we're lucky that we didn't have a race today because something could have gone wrong. So yes, changes need to be made, more runoff, change of angle something does need to change unfortunately but it is for the the sake of people's lives so therefore it is what takes precedence harry does the corner need to be reprofled um i don't think the corner needs to be reprofled uh it but it sounds right it's where the barriers are and i think it is confirmed at least for

the the barriers on the left of the top of radion they're going to be moved back and straightened so there's just a bigger runoff and it doesn't bounce you back onto the track like we've seen with well with two accents this became as Sam mentioned with Lando and and the W series so I think that that's a good change but then also on the right hand side of the top of Radia further down at the top of Radion they need to go further back as well because again with the Hubert crash we saw cars hit that Barry but then there's not enough runoff and they they bounce back on I did see an interesting point from from Karoo I don't know necessarily if I agree with what he's saying but um from Karun Chandok this is that you know they got rid of the tarmac, sorry, go out of the gravel there and replaced it with tarmac, and now drivers are prepared to take more risks, which I can see, I can definitely see his point.

I don't think putting gravel there is better, because I think you hit gravel, you end up flipping, and that's worse. But I see his point there, there's so much tarmac around runoff that drivers are prepared to take bigger risk going up through that section. But yeah, I don't think the corner itself needs to be changed, it's just moving those barriers back. and I know it's been moved back before, but it's for good reason,

but I think it needs to go back even further, because, yeah, it's the cars bouncing back on the tracks that are onto the track that's the main issue. Obviously, the initial incidents are huge, but you have other cars coming out behind you, and then they take out what's left of your car, which, you know, any racing car,

but F1 cars as well, they're designed to have one big impact. They're not designed to have lots and lots of impacts afterwards, So that's one of the problems. And I know, you know, must cost Spar. Because Spar's so hilly, they have to basically dig into hills to get more runoff, which I understand is an issue. But I think it does need to change because, you know,

we've seen accidents in F1W series F2 a few years ago. There was another big accident with Jack Aitken, not a long ago in GT cars as well. So it's not just an F1 problem. It's all over motorsport. So, yeah, I think. I think barriers need to go further back in my opinion. There will always be risk in Formula One.

You cannot take that away. It will always be there to some degree. And the job of safety people is to reduce that risk as much as it possibly can, but you'll never eliminate it. You never will. But my question is, how many times does a crash need to happen at the same corner before you can identify it as a pattern? if you have one standalone crash at a corner, regardless of how heavy that is,

if it's the only one in a five-year period, you might turn around and say it was incredibly unfortunate, you'd still need to investigate it, but you might well conclude that it was a freak accident, that's absolutely fine. But considering the amount of crashes that have happened in a, what, three-year span, it's way too much for it to be coincidence. We obviously have the Hubert and Correa crash a few years ago. And then following on from that, we've had the two crashes this weekend. The Aitkin crash that you've mentioned as well, Harry. These are adding up very quickly in a short space of time,

which makes you think it has to be relating to, I was going to say the corner, but I think you're absolutely right in saying it's not even really the corner. It's actually the runoff area. I've seen a lot of people suggest that you either need to, increase the runoff area or you need to put gravel in, I would say do both. I think absolutely both are necessary.

I agree with what Kerr and Chandott was saying and I was going to pick up on that if you didn't actually Harry because I think he is spot on that drivers would take less of a risk if they know that cutting the corner wouldn't, you know, it would end in a gravel trap. I think they would be a lot more careful at that corner as a result of that. But yes, also that the runoff area needs to be further back because it is way too much of a risk.

for them to be spat out back into the racing onto the racing line in some instances, but definitely back onto the racing track. It's not okay to just allow that to continue. They absolutely need to sort that out as soon as possible. And I again, yes, appreciate it. It is difficult. They've already gone back at that corner

and it's not as easy as just saying, let's go back some more. But when safety is concerned, you should make absolutely every effort, you can in order to make it right. It's not like a minor performance to the corner. It's people's lives here that are at risk. So you need to go the extra mile in order to, in order to preserve their health. So I know, yes, you're right. Spar is, it is already committed to doing some changes to O'Rouge coming into next year. I believe it's related to motorbike racing, reoccurring at

spar again for the first time in a long long time. So hopefully there are some changes that are made in line with that that will not only benefit that, but will also benefit Formula One. But yeah, without those changes in place, it's only a matter of time before we get another massive incident that doesn't result in the same incident that we've had with Landon Norris here where he's walked away relatively unscathed. There will be an accident at some point that is worse than that if improvements don't come along and I don't want to see that day.

I want to see things improved. Hopefully they do so. All right. What was your, it was your driver in the day, Sam? Oh, it's about time you've asked me. I've been absolutely, you know, ecstatic to speak about who could be the driver of the day.

And I reckon, I might have to swing for Bert Myelander, you know, he was electric. He led the field brilliantly on multiple occasions and it just really makes that red, to crowd strike Mercedes pop you know so for me big bert takes the number one so you're talking

big bird he's called burned but burr good old burnt what bird big burr um obviously I was gonna

disagree with you actually Sam I was gonna give it to Al Van de Merve because he did more lots than anyone else after a crack in choice he did a Cracking choice He did a huge amount of laps

It's not what we expected to see after four weeks of an LF1, was it? Just him pacing around. See you're telling me that in awful conditions, Vastappen qualifies on pole, he doesn't lose the lead once, the entire race, and you're not giving him driver of the day? British bias. Sorry, Max.

Did you at any point think that Vastappan was going to lose the lead? No. He was that confident out, though. Hey, look, every time he went out on track, I always saw a car in front of him. so doesn't look like a winner to me, you know. Also, didn't get the fastest lap.

Well, exactly. Big Mazurbin. Taking that one off him as well. Anyone that cares, this is a big joke. You know, please don't find us. Can't believe Max Verstappen was beaten by someone called Bert. On a slightly more serious point, with the fastest lap, of course,

half a point would have been awarded if someone in the top 10 got it. I don't know if any teams did try this and I'm a bit surprised that they didn't. Do you think any team was basically telling their driver? All right, when you get into the bus stop chicane, give yourself a bit of room to the car in front and then when you get to the line the next time around,

just make sure you're right behind him. I'm a bit surprised. I know it's for half a point, but I'm actually a bit surprised no one tried that. Or if they did, we don't know about it. Maybe that's what Mazepin did. We didn't see it. Maybe he was an absolute legend.

I mean, this will go down in report books. When you look up on Wikipedia, the 2021 Spar Grand Prix Fastest Laughal War, we'll go to Nikita Mazepin. He has a fastest race lap to himself now. You imagine, like Mazapin's

half a point ends up costing the Stap and the championship. The rage. The rage that the Dutch fans will have. We're having rightfully so in that situation. They'll invade Russia. Well, we're about, back into politics again. Again, you get the full package. You really do here at late

breaking. Before we go, just a quick note on something that we've just launched or will have launched after we've done here is our new Patreon. So Patreon, if you haven't heard of it before, it's a, I guess it's like a subscription service, which allows you to gain extra benefits for a small amount of money per month. We've got a couple of tiers. We've got a couple of tier is up there two pound per month and five pound per month it's uh we're not expecting anyone to you're still getting these podcasts whether you like it or not and nothing's changing in that respect but there are a few bonus perks to be had if you wanted to go on to iver tier all all the money raised in this will be towards covering costs for the podcast it will go towards improving the content for you so um it all comes back

into the podcast so to speak and again there's absolutely no expectation to take it up but We'll leave the link in the description. Harry, please remember to do that. Please. Please, Harry, just for this time. And just check it out, whether you like the perks or not. We're always open to feedback as well. If you don't want to subscribe based on what you can see,

but there's actually something that you would really enjoy to be there. We'll take that under advisement. So please do check it out. And like I said, any money we massively appreciate from it, and it will go back into the podcast. cast. And now I think we really are done with what has been a thrilling, thrilling Belgian Grand Prix. Sam, if you wouldn't mind getting us out of here.

Folks, whether you've enjoyed the religious aspects, the economic aspects, the politics, or of course, croftying his pants. We hope this has been a little bit spicy for you, a little bit more enjoyable for you. Or maybe you just want to talk more about Bert, because he's a wonderful fella. Honestly, the race was not too enjoyable. We all had to sit through all that time of watching that. Hopefully our podcast has brought you a little bit of relief, a bit of fun on the end of you, or maybe a tough Sunday.

Do you get in the Discord, the links in the description. We've got a rather big community there, and thousands of you listen to these episodes, bizarrely. So we appreciate your sport massively. And of course, we're going to be back midweek for the preview podcast of the first ever Dutch Grand Prix at Zamborts. I want to say first year, but, you know,

There's technicalities. Anyway, in the meantime, I think Samuel Sage of things grimacing at me. There's technicalities in that it's not true. It's not true. I've lied. Yeah, fair enough.

I've been Ben Hawking. I've been married. I remember. Be heartbreaking. Crofties Panks. Find more great shows or join the team at sport-ssocial.com. Past is part of the Sport Social Podcast Network.