The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Mercedes are constructors champions! | 2020 Emilia Romagna GP Review | Epiosde 85

Episode Date: November 1, 2020

Mercedes seal the constructors championship for the 7th time after an eventful race at Imola!Make sure to SUBSCRIBE! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. This is the late breaking F1 podcast today, reviewing the Amelia Romagna Grand Prix held at Imola, where Lewis Hamilton led home a Mercedes-12, although not without issue as Verstaffan was ahead of each Mercedes driver

at some point, during the race before a late tire failure caused his retirement. Safety car brought some banter. It's time to welcome in Samuel Sage and Harry. My name's Ben Hocking. Guys, did you enjoy our return to Himala? I thought it was going to be a right snooze fest after about lap five. After the staff and jumped Hamilton, I was like, oh, bad start from hand, Bottas is going to start pulling away, Max is just going to sit behind. It's going to be a procession. And it was a bit of a procession. Oh, and then the banter happened. It was just so spicy from about midway through. I actually loved the second half of the race. It was really interesting. Yeah, I was enjoying it anyway.

I didn't mind that there wasn't much overtaking. And then Max Verstappen's rear right was like, do you know what? Let's make it a bit more spicy. I'm out of it. And then it was. You didn't you give himself out of me for me. I want to be in Turkey already. All I can say is, Max, that's why you don't use bad words over team radio. This is what happens. You're right. It's a bit of karma. Yeah, it was a bit of karma, though.

I'm just kidding, of course. I think the two incidents are unrelated. But anyway, coming up, no points for Alex Albin today, or indeed the Red Bull team. A late spin from Alburn saw him drop to the rear of the field. considering Perez's strong performance again today, we ask whether they should switch them around. George Russell, oh dear, George, George, George, crashed under the safety car,

went straight into the barrier, when a 10th place at least was on the cards. Is that concerning for his future? But first, we're going to be discussing Lewis Hamilton, taking another race victory over Valdry Bottas after the Brit made his stop under the VSC much later than his teammate made. His first stop, Bottas in P2, after the retirement of the Stapen,

Daniel Ricardo, rounding out the podium. Sam, the VSC was a big part of today's race. Do you think it was that that gave Hamilton the victory? No, I don't. Haters will say he was lucky, and I get it, I get the argument. Hamilton already had a 28 second lead by the time the VSC was actually. Yes, it was picture perfect. He was coming around the final corner.

as it was brought out. And it happened to end the moment he left the pit lane. Don't get me wrong. I understand the convenience and the frustration for those who are tired of seeing Lewis Hamilton wing. But the guy's strategy was working. Bottas had damage on the car. He was not going to be as fast. He was on a tire that was slower anyway. Hamilton had made the tires last again. We've seen it time after time after time. The staffer was caught up behind Bottas, so the threat wasn't there. Hamilton was making it work. Fast and slap after fast slap after the fastest lap. He was getting through traffic at a good, quick pace. I really think that the strategy was going to playoff anyway.

I think Hamilton would have actually jumped Bottas, regardless of BASC. Yes, it would have been incredibly spicy. Yes, I would have preferred to have seen them come out maybe side by side and have a little bit of a scrap for a chican with the staff and there as well. That would have been great to watch. And we didn't get that. We weren't privy to that. Thanks, O'Con. But nonetheless, I do think that Hamilton and the Sades team have worked that out brilliantly and actually constructed the right strategy. That is where a seven-time consecutive world title winning team comes out on top. They played it correctly.

It was a great call. I do think Hamilton would have gone and won the race anyway after we heard the damage from Bottas. And I feel for Bottas, right? How gutting is that again? Bottas cannot have done any more. Got pole position from Hamilton who are being faster pretty much the whole way through the weekend. Leads off the start brilliantly. Hamilton gets a bad start.

The one time Hamilton gets a shocking start of Bottas nails it. He picks up debris and damage on the second lap. maintains the lead the whole way through to the pit stops, jubbs the staffing again in the pit stop. So he stayed out in front of him, Hamilton nailed it. It's tough for Bottas. It's a tough world for Bottas to live. We're all in Lewis Hamilton's world,

and Bottas is just watching along. But I think Hamilton is still hanging it in the bag after that strategy call and Bottas is damaged. I think the VSC helped. I don't think it made the race. What do you reckon, Harry? Do you think the VSC was simply a help for Hamilton? Or was it the thing that made his race?

I think it was just a help I think Max Verstappen won the race for Hamilton because, I'm not taking away from Hamilton here, but I'm just saying, Vestappen pulling the pin and pitting first meant that they had to cover him, Bottas had to cover him off. And I know he had damage,

but if he had all that damage from lap two, his first stint was pretty good. He was pulling away from Vastappen and Hamilton as well. I know they were in dirty air, but he didn't struggle anywhere near as much as he did on the heart, so I think it was more of the case he just didn't get the hards to work.

So, yeah, Vastappen pulling the pin, making Bottas having, you know, cover him off, allowed Hampton to go to go along on the mediums, which I think works better, maybe on both Mercedes, but yeah, like we said, Hamilton made them work beautifully. And at the time of the VAC, he was going to come out in front of Bottas anyway. So, yeah, it was, you know, it's just the way it goes. It happened with Schumacher, like things like. that would just always go his way and it just seems to be, you know, be the way that it goes, but that doesn't take anything away from the fact that Hamilton was making that strategy work.

And yeah, I don't think the VSC would have made much difference anyway, apart from extending that gap when he came out the pits. Yeah, I think with the VSC, I think there was every chance that it was going to happen anyway. The VSC obviously just helped it along and made it a certainty rather than a possibility. It's tough to say exactly where Hamilton would have come out. It was pretty much on the delta. But we know that Hamilton was asked whether he could do 10 more laps, and I'm not entirely sure how many more laps would have been left of that. But I don't think he was planning on coming in on the next few laps anyway. So I think he would have actually extended it further and

made it more of a certainty. It's not as if this was a situation where Hamilton was definitely not going to come out in front and the VSC completely changed and transformed things. this was just a case of, I don't know, I think Hamilton had maybe a 70, 80% chance of coming out ahead, and this just made it 100% chance. And obviously it did help in that he then had a gap as well to work with. We know how difficult those hard tires were at the very beginning of their stint and warming them up.

So there maybe would have been a chance for Botas to get ahead again, even if Hamilton had come out of the pits in front. The VSC, I think its biggest help was that it created, something of a gap between the two drivers and meant that anything like that was, was, you know, irrelevant. Ultimately, and I think this is going to be partly down to having the two-day weekend

rather than the three-day weekend and cutting down on practice time, is that those hard tires were slow. Like, they were really slow. We had late in the race where Kimmy Rykinen on medium tires that had been going for 50 laps or so was lapping. I know Bottas had damage, but he was lapping at the same pace pretty much.

as Botas was on those fresher hard tires. Those medium tires were vastly superior to the hard tire. And it's one of those things where on a longer weekend, you probably would have known that going into the Grand Prix and adjusted your strategy accordingly. But as it happens with Vastappan taking that early pit stop, Bottas covering it off, we could see that the medium tires of Hamilton still had enough to give

that they were quicker than the hard tires. Yeah, given hindsight, maybe he doesn't want to cover it off, Bottas, and maybe he wants to go longer like Hamilton did. But on a normal race weekend, you can't really argue with the strategy that Mercedes put together here, because it would have, well, it did work,

but in Bottas's favour, it would have worked on most weekends. It just didn't this time around. And you could argue there is an element of luck about it, sure. With the, obviously, the VSC made an appearance and made it a lot more certain. but this is something that, and I'm pretty sure I'd make this point about two times each season, because this happens about twice every season, is that by going longer on your first stint,

VSCs and safety cars becoming more of a possibility is a part of the strategy. It's not complete luck. That is one of the elements that they are considering when they're making these calls. You know, Hamilton stays out, if you stay out for 10 laps longer, you increase your chances of a safety car appearing by X amount of percent. that's how it works. There are other advantages to going long, such as staying as Hamilton did out of traffic and having fresher tires on your second stint.

There are all of these elements to discuss and to debate when you know, you're internally as a team working out what the strategy should be. The increased chances of a safety car, yeah, it's not going to happen most races, but it's going to happen sometimes. That's something they factor in. So I don't consider it to be good or bad luck one way or or the other when it does happen. So I think Hamilton did a great job.

Overcuts are very rare in modern Formula One. We have to remember and he pulled it off. The VSC, I think if anything, just took away from the good job that he did to put himself in that position. So fair play to him. And with Bottas, obviously, going up against Max Verstappan later in the race,

of course we find it very difficult to assess exactly how much damage that, you know, the debris caused on lap two, but I think we could tell that it was at least something. But Bottas did make that error to aid Max Verstappen. Is that concerning for you, Sam, that he made that error and let him in? He was dealing with a lot of damage. And I mean, we even heard over the Mercedes Radio that the downforce damage was significant. You spend a lot of time on the throttle at MLA, but it is a downforce heavy track.

And there's a lot of corners that you need to carry a lot of speed through, especially those two-punimate corners, you need to really nail the exit of both of those to ensure that you've got a great run and a good gap to the car behind. Bottas, I think, did a fantastic job. He was driving with a car that was struggling. He was driving with a car that had been damaged since that two,

and he was holding a hungry Max Verstappen behind. Max was raring to go. The moment he got past Hamilton on the start, Max had that, you know, we've said it before, that sniff, that chance of, I can beat them here, I've got a chance now, and he was in within a second and a half the entire race.

So the fact that Bottas held him behind for that many laps, with the car that was damaged, with Verstappen, who was desperate to get past behind, I think Bottas did as good a job as he possibly could. And it was not an easy overtake at the end of the straight either. Bottas still managed to gather it up. He still managed to get enough straight line speed that actually, Verstappen even came on with the radio

and was going, send it! Which we absolutely love to hear, by the way. That's the right kind of radio message, Max Verstappen. Good job. It was a good overtake. There was a bit of fight put up. I can't fault Valtry Bottas struggling with that level of damage. You know, I don't think that was an error.

I don't think that's a long-term worry to get into. We've seen Bottas struggle with wheel-to-wheel racing, but I can't take this into account when a car is not functioning as it should. If he was at 100%, if Bottas was driving a car as healthy as Hamilton's this race, then I would say there may be some concerns with the difference in pace. That isn't the case. So I don't think we need to analyse that to the point where we sland the botas for doing what I think was a pretty good race.

Because of the Staffing's puncture later on, he still comes to, second. The title is essentially gone, but he's still gathering up the most points he theoretically could have done. What do you reckon, Harry? Do you think Bottas did about as good of a job as he could have done out there? I just looked at the window and there's some pigs flying and that explains why Sam was nice about Bottas. Sorry, lads. Nothing more I could do. I was shocked. I think I need to lie down. No, I agree with Sam on that one. Yeah, I'd still think maybe the damage wasn't as bad like I said earlier but it was clearly something not right with that car and yeah max was relent lap pressure i think it was about almost 20 laps he was just on the

back of him like an annoying like an annoying tailgator on the motorway this won't get off your bumper um yeah and in the end you know bot has finally relinquished the second place um yeah i feel for him again it's just like yesterday you know on saturday you know on saturday in qualifying, he finally gets a quality result that's super close between him and Hamilton. And it goes his way for once. It's less than the 10th, but he's ahead this time, not just behind Hamilton, which is normally the case. And then he gets a dream start.

Hamilton's back and third, and then it all just falls apart for him. And, you know, the damage wasn't really his fault. I think it was a bit of Ferrari I heard. So from the Vettel Magnuson incident on lap 1. So, yeah, I feel for him. But, you know, as Sam said, in the end, he probably got the maximum amount of it that he could. And he was fortunate with Bostappan falling out the race.

But, yeah, so I think he'll probably happily take a P2. I think it was fairly tough on Valtrey because it was probably just a case of him being first on the scene was the thing that caused him the debris damage. I think otherwise, very similar to Baca a couple of years ago, you know, when he went over, when he had that incredible tie. explosion just going down the going down into term one. Likelihood is if he wasn't first on the scene there, it was someone else who was picking

up the damage. And I think this is probably what happened here. It's a massive shame for him. It's very difficult to say exactly how much, how much slower he was as a result of that. But considering the pace advantage that Hamilton had at the end of the Grand Prix, when it was essentially a level playing field outside of that debris, obviously there was the dirty air factor as well. But Yeah, Hamilton was so much quicker than Valfrey Botas in that final stint when tires were exactly the same. They can just go racing.

Yeah. Well, I mean, that's kind of the point. It's that that's the deciding factor then, isn't it? So if that wasn't causing enough damage, if that wasn't doing anything, then they would have been on this pretty similar pace. I see your point. I'm just a moron. It's, I think that was the giveaway almost.

It was difficult in the middle of the race when they were on different strategies to work out how much it was actually affecting him. Having said that, and, you know, Bottas for me, this isn't a course for concern long term, just because Bottas, one of his best strengths, if not his best strength, full stop, is his consistency. And how he very rarely retires from races. He doesn't let, he doesn't give away positions very easily. He's very solid driver. However, I do think this is on him to an extent, even with that damage, because it was an outright error that caused Vastappen to get past. If Vastappan had got past as a result of eating into that gap lap after lap, he just so happened to be half a second behind coming out of the final corner, and then he made the overtake into turn two. I wouldn't have raised it, but because he did make that outright error, and it was his second error as well, we have to mention, he makes that error coming out of the final.

corner, which is the one place you don't want to make an error. We know he made an error previously earlier in the lap, but he got away with it because it's very difficult to overtake outside of turn two. And Vastappen got past as a result of that. So I think this is on him. He doesn't go wide. There's every chance he keeps him behind. Not to say that he wasn't doing a good job up until that point, because I think he was,

but it was the mistake that caused it. It wasn't the pace difference. So, yeah, I have to put this a little bit on Valtrey. here, but overall, I think it was fairly unlucky not to come away with a race win. I can't believe I think you're wrong and I'm on Valtry's side. What world are we in? Are you feeling the right to do? What's the matter with you?

I'm having a good day. Valky has been a really good job. Ben's wrong, but we won't go into it. Maybe it's the mustache. I love for mustache. Bottas, keep it. Kecky Bottas. I'm all for it.

I'm all for having a mustache. Anyway, let's move on to Driver of the Day. Who have you got, Harry? Tough one, because I think there are a fair few contenders. Hamilton, again, just being Hamilton, doing Hamilton things. Danny Rick, he's been on good for, I mean, good for a more year. And I think it's a shame Gazley wasn't there because, you know, I'd put him in his category as well, because I think he was about to have a stellar race.

He was on magic formal weekend. But I'm going to go for the old man. I'm going to go for Kimi Reichener because he doesn't like pitting for tyres. And he was brutally unlucky that he didn't wait a lap until the safety car came out because I think he'd have scored an even better result. But I think Kimmy did pretty well. And I know, like you said, Ben, the hard tyres were naft. But at one point, he was literally lapping at the same pace as a Mercedes and a Red Bull,

which is fairly impressive for an alpha-o-a-car. But, yeah, good drives all up and down the field. Sergio Perez as well. God damn it, Sergio. You will get a podium one day. I swear to God. But I'm going to get for Reichen as my pick for driver of the day.

I think today was evidence that no, Sergio Perez won't get a podium. They will put him in the absolute best position to do so and still find a way for him not to get a podium. Oh, God. Anyway, who have you got some? I just want to start by saying that

it's entirely racing points fault, I think, that Perez can get a podium. Ricardo was capable of holding off Daniel Cavilla on those softer tyres after a lap or so. He had a great restart. We saw a great move on Alexander Albonne. I think Perez is up there for driving the day.

I do. I think he's had an absolutely stunning Grand Prix. Starting outside the top 10. Does a great strategy. He finds himself in front of the likes of Ricardo, Lecler, Albon, who we'll get on to that. And he was on for third.

He was going to get third place. And Kyiviat would have had to have got through more drivers. He would have had to have still got through Daniel Ricardo, but Perez will be in front of him. I think Perez having a proeer be a sure thing. And I think the racing point threw that away a little bit. And that's quite devastating because I think he deserves it. Pretty much out of every driver on the grid that hasn't been on the podium this season.

Perez deserves it. I'm not going to give him driver a day. I'm going to give driver a day to Lewis Hamilton. The ability to turn that overcut into a strategy was absolutely fantastic. He rescued a poor start. And he just dominated that race. That was a true world champion strategy. was a, I'm not coming in. Keep me out. I can do 10 more laps. Fastest that. Fastest that. Fastest that. Fastest that. Fastest that. Fastest that. Cut through traffic. I don't care. VesC or not. He's winning that race. He's made it his own. And once again, VAL

we've been to for a long, long time. Lewis Hamilton turns up, it takes a victory. That is a world champion's drive. He's a fantastic job. Again, Valtry is a little unlucky. I think Lewis is not lucky. I think Lewis deserves it. But I do think Valtry is unlucky with what happened to him. But for me, Hamilton took that. I don't think Ricardo should be up for drive of the day. I think he actually benefited from a big of a comedy of areas around with other people and just had a good consistent race. Ricardo's former has been brilliant

all season. I don't this was his best race. I think it was just a very solid race resulting a better than what was expected performance from him. Kimmy did a great job. As in Chiya Fianzzi, you ending up in 10th place as well. Latifi was 11. There's a lot of good performances up and down the grid. But for me, Hamilton really showed

why seven titles are coming here. why? In terms of, with Reichen and Perez, I think they both had good races, but I don't think either of them are in contention for driver of the day for me, just because Perez was on a vast superior strategy to the guys in front and just basically benefited from staying out, not to say that he didn't still have to execute it, but I think he was massively helped there. Reichen and similarly, you know, if Vettel hadn't messed up the pit stop, I think, you know, that was essentially the same strategy. And Vettel was comfortably ahead of Reikening at the time of the pit stop.

Latifie went long as well, so they proved that it wasn't undoable to go as far as Rikinen did on those tires. Again, he executed it well. So I think he was one of the better drivers, but I don't think either of those two guys for me are in contention for driver of the day. Hamilton as well, I think he had a very good race to perfect an overcut in 2012. 2020 Formula One is not an easy thing to do whatsoever. However, the reason he had to do it was as a result of his own shortcoming. So, you know, he lost out to Vastappen at the start, didn't get pole position to begin with. So the fact that he had to execute that strategy at all was down to him.

So that's why I'm not going to give it to him. I'm going to go with Max for Stappen for driver of the day. I think he was excellent. Based on the qualifying performance of Mercedes on Saturday, no one had any right to be near those two guys in the race. you know, Mercedes were very, very, even by their standards, they were very, very quick this weekend. The fact that Vastappen was able to lead both Hamilton and Bottas, not together, but he was ahead of both of them at some parts of the race, took advantage of the Bottas era, got Hamilton off the start. I don't think he could have done any better.

So Max Vastappen for me. Well, drive of the day, Ben, wouldn't have picked up to Brie and had a puncher. I'm just saying. Yeah. It's banter, everyone. It's banter. I don't mean it. Maybe you've transformed.

You're now of the Stappan hater and not a Bottas hater. Don't be silly. I'll be lynched within minutes. True, very true. Worst driver of the day. Who have you got, Harry? Oh, no. Oh, no.

Oh, no. Oh, no. I'm going to have to go without Albon. I just feel for the lad, like, we've discussed that length, then I'm sure we're about to again just his issues at Red Bull and yeah he

you know you as Ben said like Gestappen was pretty mighty this weekend and how close he was to Mercedes and Albon was nowhere near and got a poor start so he lost more places and then even when he had a chance of a good good-ish result of the end he dropped it all by himself so sorry Alex

it was another poor one from you and maybe the nail in the coffin for your Red Bull career you know I have to see how that goes, and we will discuss Albon a little bit more in a bit. But Sam, who have you got for worst driver of the day? Hi, is that Red Bull? Yeah, if you see that satellite that's flying over London.

You just want to pan it, that's it, towards my office window, keep zooming in. You'll just see me waving. That's me waving goodbye to Albaugh on seat at Red Bull. Yeah, hi, yeah, bye. He's got no chance. I'm sorry. What an amateur mistake. George Russell's up there as well, by the way.

What a rookie and embarrassing error to make. I'm not going to be kind on them. You should be doing better than that. drop it like that as easily as Russell Dean to the wall. The fact that Albon kept out of the wall is, you know, well done. But the fact, oh, come on. You're both, you know,

Formula One drivers and you're dropping it like that. We're going to come on to both of these guys in more detail. But for me, Albon takes worse round the day. He needed to perform here. For staffing DNFs in the race. Where are you? Where are you? You know, let's be having you. He's not there.

He should be in the top four. And he should. He should be then take. taking a podium off of Ricardo, off of possibly Qiviat was in front of him. Albon was the worst driver out of all four Honda Power cars today by a long shot. It was for me awful display. Get him out of that seat. Sergio Perez deserves a drive. The fact he hasn't got one and these two are being considered ridiculous. This is a rare moment of weakness, but I can't pile on Alex Albin here to make it three worst

driver of the days in a row. What is wrong with you this weekend? I can't do it. I'm going to have to nominate someone else, although deep down, I don't disagree with either of you. I'm going to nominate Lando Norris for this one. I thought he had a pretty disappointing race, actually. Started, started, he started P-9. So he out-qualified Carlos Sines. He had the advantage over Carlos Sines throughout qualifying, but was overtaken, obviously, near the start. and just didn't really give much throughout the Grand Prix. It seemed to lack a bit of a bit of a punch. Carlos Sines was at least threatening the guys in front.

Lando went into the pits very early on. I'm not sure if he was struggling with tire wear significantly in that first stint. But yeah, it was a bit of a bit of a nothing Grand Prix in a race where these midfield drivers were vying to take advantage of Vastappen retiring. You know, Ricardo was able to do it. Ghazley might well have done it if he didn't retire. Perez would have done it if the strategy was different. But Norris was never really there in contention.

So even though he did score four points for eighth place, I think that was more of a case of just how the race ran. I think it's probably the first time I've ever given this award to him as well. But Lando Norris for me. That feels harsh. I've got to be honest with you, Ben. That feels harsh. She couldn't have been.

I know you should get in one after his comicry so far. Okay. Moment of the race. What have you got, Harry? I'll go for, I mean, moment of the race, probably Vastappen. Vestappen's tie, saying, I'm done here. I'm out of there. So, yeah, it spice things up a lot towards the end of the race, so I'll go with that one. Surprise you didn't give Vestappen's tire driver of the day, really, but yes, definitely makes it. Under heavy consideration. What about you, Sam?

What was your moment at the race? I'm a proper clock watcher. Anyone that's ever watched an F-1 race with me will know that I keep an eye on the timing screens on the left-hand side very intensely. Clock, as in TikTok, TikTok. Oh, that was an unprecedented outburst. What?

Yes, I thoroughly enjoy the possible pitstop overlap. I enjoy that side of the strategy element. I think it takes a lot of execution to really nail that cycle Formula One. And on tracks like Imola at the moment with the modern cars, overtakes on track are difficult. So, nailing a pit stop strategy for me is tough.

So for me, it was when the timing screen ticked over Hamilton had a 28 second lead over Bossass. And that would have therefore, giving him a one second lead coming out of the pits. And for me, that was the tipping point in the race. That was the moment that Hamilton snatched it back again. And that's why I gave him the drive of the day,

because for me it was a brilliantly leg race. So, yeah, that was the moment of the race for me. with that all that sequence of events happen, 28 seconds, VSE, in your first, you've done it. There you go. For me, that was the moment. I'm going to go with Perez's move on Albin coming into the Veilnerve chican. That was a pretty sweet move. Obviously, overtakes Imala outside of turn two are pretty rare.

So anything that is made outside of that is usually cause for jubilation. So, yeah, Perez, that was a really swift move. Of course, Albon dropped it literally straight after it as well. But, yeah, really impressive. That one was for me, the one that got me out of my seat. I'm never going to let Album carry my shock at home. It'll just drop it. Oh, dear.

Oh, definitely. Well, moving on to George Russell. George Russell, of course, no points for William since his debut at the beginning of the 2019 season. was given perhaps his best opportunity to do so today was in P-10 at the time of the safety car, but going around behind the safety car, George Russell, drops the car, go straight into the barriers and retires on the spot, leaving him with no points yet again. Sam, do you think that, first of all, do you think this was just a bit of a rookie error from Russell? And secondly, does this give you any concern for when Russell probably finds himself in a better car

and might find himself in pressurized situations similar to this. Well, I think if it was a one-off, I'd say, no, it was a rookie era. He still is to learn, but he's well into his second season of F1 now. You know, he's clearly got pure ability. He's a junior-level champion, never been out qualified by a teammate. And this is now the second time this season that he's been on the cusp of points. And both that's Annie in Grand Prix. You know, you cast your mindbats to Vigelo, where there's every chance he scores points.

and gets off to the worst start you can imagine on that restart. I think once again, under a possible race restart, not the same car we had last time, but, you know, another restart, it drops it into the wall. Kimmy Rikinger, who was sat behind him at the time, must have been looking at him thinking, what on earth?

What have you just done? It looks like he puts his foot down while still turning left, and it's like he's turned off traction control by accident, and he's just plummeted into the wall. For me, that is a kind of a... or, you know, Botas manages to come home with a damaged car. Hamilton is about to secure a seventh world title. You've got to be careful there, George, because you keep making too many mistakes

and doubts will start to creep into people's minds. I think he is still, by and large, the next man to fill a Mercedes seat. But it does make me wonder that if maybe in two seasons time, he is using a Mercedes against someone who's fighting for a world title, we've got a restart, maybe he's leading. Does he do that again? We've seen mistakes not often happen from a Mercedes against. F-1 drivers like this, but you never see that from someone like a Lewis Hamilton, you know.

Don't drop it under a safety car like that. So I am mildly concerned. I hope you'd just be like a brushing off. But for me, that was a really big, silly moment from George Russell. What about you, Harry? Do you think this is something the likes of Toto Wolf should just brush off? Or does this make you sort of raise your eyebrows a bit? It was really silly. It was a real rookie error. But I don't think it's going to affect him in the future I mean as long as he doesn't keep doing it

and you know this was a huge opportunity to finally get that first point for George but like he is only in his second year of F1 and I know it's F1 and we're harsh on the likes of Albon because it's the same for him but it's his second year of F1 and he's driving the nuts off that Williams

like it doesn't deserve to be in Q2 at any time I don't think and I know he's still to pick up a point. But I think it's a rookie mistake. He is, you know, I know he's a year, almost two years in now, but he's still pretty new to the sport. And we've seen Hamilton make mistakes,

even the greats make mistakes when they're only two years in. I remember Hamilton plowing into the back of Kimmy in a pit lane in Canada. That was only year two of his career. So they make, you know, these drivers make stupid mistakes sometimes, just as long as you don't keep making them. them. I think that's key for George. He's just got to learn from it and not dwell on it too much. I don't think, you know, Toto will be concerned by it for now. But yeah, just as long as he learns and moves on from it, I think it could be fine. Yeah, I think whilst these younger

drivers are coming into the sport and are at a more advanced level than they used to be, you know, I think previously in Formula One, it's taken a significant number of years for rookies to really get up to pace and to, you know, be a solid all-round driver. I think nowadays we expect more from rookies earlier on in their career, and I think they generally respond to it. I think they come in as more complete drivers, you know, probably because they are largely part of these academies and they can sort of prepare them pretty well. So these mistakes are not eliminated, but they are reduced to a certain extent.

But George Russell, yeah, even though it isn't his rookie. season. We do have to remember he is still early in his career. For me, the fact that he made this error, and it was a silly error, you know, we can't deny that. For me, the more concerning bit is not necessarily that he did it. It's the situation that he did it under. If he was in his normal position of P-16 with 20 drivers still in the race, and he dropped it under the safety car, I would still say that this is a pretty reckless error and one that, you know, I think you know, he doesn't make all that often, so I'd excuse him. And I'm still excusing him now, but it's, you don't want to make those mistakes in the most

important of situations. You know, Williams don't have a point this season. George Russell has not been in a position to claim a point. So it's not as if it's his fault that that's the case. But here was definitely his best opportunity. We saw back in Austria as well when he had a very good qualifying. He was in and around the back end of the top 10. We saw him go into the gravel and essentially cost himself any chance of being there again. You don't want to make these mistakes in pressurized situations.

Ultimately, he will expect to be in a car that is capable of winning races, probably the Mercedes at some point in the not too distant future. But whilst he's in the midfield and the back of the field, you need to be opportunistic as we see the likes of parents, can be and the likes of Lecler can be this season. Russell needs to find a way for when these sorts of races come about where it's a bit of a race of attrition and some of the front runners retire.

He needs to find a way to be in a position to take advantage of that. A little bit concerning that he made that error under this sort of circumstance. But as you said, Harry, and actually the pit lane incident was the one I was probably going to bring up is the no driver is a music. from errors across their entire career, but particularly in the first couple of years of their career, I wouldn't be overly concerned, but I'd at least be keeping a watchful lie.

I think the other person you need to directly compare Russell to, of course, is the person he'd beat in the F2 season before they came up, Landon Norris. Now, Ben, you gave Landon Norris worst driver of the day this race. I think that's a little harsh, but I understand the criticism. But have we seen a silly mistake? say like that from Lando. Lando has been opportunistic almost every given chance. You know, he got

himself that podium, remember, and deservingly so, due to being opportunistic at the time of event. I think that maybe if Lando's in that, Williams, the results are a little different. And now what you've reminded with the Austria moment, is that three times this season that

Russell theoretically could have score one point, and Williams don't get the chance to score points very often at all. And Russell's had all of those opportunities. And for him away, she even actually got points a day again. And the car that is arguably maybe worse single Williams this season. Yeah, which is why I think it's something that shouldn't be flat out ignored. And it could just be a case where, and I think Holcombberg, this obviously in terms of a

podium rather than in terms of points, but I think this happened to him a few times, is that, you know, he found his way to have his best races in the races where he didn't need to be at his best. He'd finish P5 or P6 and essentially be best of the rest in a few Grand Prix. But the one time where there are a time. time it's out front and that P5 or P6 becomes P3, he wasn't in that spot. And it can happen once or twice. And you can say, okay, that's just, that's just horrible luck that hasn't happened at a time where that suits. But with Holkenberg, that happened again and again and again. And it became too much

of a pattern to ignore, which, and we'll move on to the Red Bull seat in a bit, is one of the reasons why I think Perez is a superior driver to Holcomberg and should perhaps be in line for a Red Bull seat is because he is opportunistic and finds himself in those spots when he needs to be. Now, with Russell, I don't think it's happened enough yet to consider this a done deal, but it is a bit concerning that it's happened a couple of times where if he's in a position where P9, P10 is possible, he's out of the race, or he's made an error. It's not something that should be flat out ignored. I also don't think it's something that should be said, okay, this is a pattern right now. I don't think there's been enough evidence yet.

Should we, with that, move on to the Perez situation because Alex Alburn, we know that Red Bull were putting a lot of emphasis on this double header in terms of his performance of whether he should be in the Red Bull seat next season, and he's had a tough couple of races. No points today, obviously. He was in a position to finish fifth,

there or thereabouts, following the safety card, but he dropped it after being overtaken by Sergio Perez. ended up outside of the points. Sam, what did you make of Albon's race? And do you think now that Perez, considering what he was able to do, has taken the lead in terms of who should get that seat? I mean, Albon's race,

I'm going to talk about before the spin and after the spin, because we obviously don't know when a spin's going to happen, so we'll get to that in a minute. The race before the spin was not great. If he was having a brilliant race and then made a rookie error, I can almost sigh and go, for goodness sake. But as we've already said with Russell, you can work those errors out. It comes and goes.

But that wasn't the case. He started way off his teammate again. I think he was what, P6? P6. P-6. I mean, it was outqualified by Gassley, comfortably in a car that is the sister car, but is slower.

Let's, let's be honest, that we all know that Alpha Tauri is not as fast as a Red Bull car. He got a bad start. It was jumped by a couple of people, which is not great. And then he just struggled to get, and I know this is a tough track to follow around, I'm going to try not to forget that point of view, that it is not difficult, not easy rather, to overtake around here. And Albon

did struggle with that, though, you know, there were moves being made, science got past his teammate, which is arguably even harder to do is to get past someone in the same machinery issue. And Albon just seems to consistently go backwards, you know, he got jumped again into pit stop phases, he didn't do too well there. And then the restart comes around, he thinks, right, my teammates out, I'm now the lead driver for this. And it turns out that Daniel Kuviat, the man who is also probably going to lose his seat, but is in the slower car of the two Cisker teams, is in front of you and doing a better job. I get that he's got the fresh tires on, but he put himself in that position.

And you've got mugged son. He absolutely mugged you off. And the fact that we then get to the point where Perez is going to come past you and entirely on your own, you absolutely drop it. you drop it in the one time you probably knew to put up a hard fight. I've got no real issue with Perez getting past Albon. You know, Perez is on the better set of tires.

He's got the better strategy going. It was getting up to speed. Maybe a better defence is probably could have put in place. But I understand it. For me, it's just poor, poor, poor. And the fact that Album finishes last after an entirely self-made mistake, you know, it was unforced.

It was his own problem. To me, that's just, it comes on top of everything else. If it was just this, I could look past it. He's had such a poor season. He now moves even further away from the rest of the guys in front of him. You know, Ricardo, Norris, Scyt. Kivets gained on him.

They're all moving away from him now. He's lucky that Ghazly didn't finish this race, because Ghazley would have jumped past. I think Alainable will have dropped a 10th in the driver's championship. So for me, with how good Perez has been. And Perez is up there now with I think the top three or four drivers of the entire season. He's up there with Hamilton, Gestapen, Ghazley and Perez for me. How can you look past Sergio?

He doesn't need to beat the staffing. We know that. They just give a man that can support the staffing. And I think Perez would be able to do that. Perez is given some of his best performances this season and somehow hasn't got a podium. Well, he definitely deserves it this season, maybe more than others.

So the fact that Perez is not signed, and Albon currently is still up for debate is a little bit strange to me. But we also heard that Sonoda might be a guaranteed seat now, and that means that Alvin could be axed entirely from the sport, which is pretty savage from Red Bull.

So we'll see how that plays out. But for me, Perez is definitely the favourite for the seat. Harry, do you think Perra should be the favourite for the seat here? And what did you make of Albon's race? Yeah, Albon's race was just not great again. Even before the spin, as Sam said, it wasn't going well. I mean, that for me, it's kind of a difference between Russell and Albon. At least Russell was actually having a good race.

And then he made the silly mistake. Albon wasn't having a great race and then made the mistake. Yeah, I think it would be as Sam said, brutally savage if he gets kicked out of the Red Bull seat and they put Sonoda in the second Alpha Tauri. Albon doesn't end up with a seat altogether

because I do think he deserves a seat and F on, just not in that Red Bull. You've been put out there too early. You know, like we've seen with Gassley, like we see in a way. and he needed more time in a lower team without the pressure because it's just not working. He's all at sea.

And I've already said they need to go external. And Christian Horner has said this now as well. I think Perez would make sense. Get Perez in that car for a year, maybe two. Let's the junior team build up their confidence, as Gassley is doing excellently well the moment. and then put them in when they developed a bit more. And then, you know,

Jekko can have this couple of years in a top flight team, probably then retire a happy Mexican. And everyone's happy. And, yeah, I, you know, especially considering the way that Perez is driving at the moment, it would be a travesting not to have him in F1. And he does deserve, I think, another shot at a top seat. Because, you know, Perez, again, was another driver.

He was promoted up to a kind of top team, McLaren at the time, too young. And it didn't work out for him. Yeah, I hope Albon doesn't get, you know, kicked out of F-1 altogether. I think it would be unbelievably harsh. And I hope Perez gets that red bullse. Yeah, so in terms of the race itself, this was about as bad as it could have been for Alex Albin. And that's how the race went rather than his performance.

Not to say his performance was any good, obviously. but the race unfolded in a way that could not have been worse for his seat prospects. So first of all, we know that Alex Albin's strengths and weaknesses. Alex Albin's strength is within the race. And yes, he does find himself in positions where he needs to overtake weaker cars. I get that. But I still think his race pace is far better than his qualifying pace, which is okay at circuits where you can make a lot of overtakes like, you know, Shanghai or Silverstone or wherever.

but it's not great at circuits such as Imala, where overtaking is at an absolute premium. It means that Albin, and I don't really hold it against him within the race itself, that he couldn't make overtakes because it is just that way. The only overtakes we really saw were where there was such a tire difference and the Bottas Vastappan incident. Those were the only incidents where we saw overtakes happen. So I don't hold it against him within the race exclusively that he couldn't. get stuff done. But ultimately, this was the worst, in terms of characteristics of the circuit,

this was the worst possible Grand Prix for Albon to show what he's capable of, because a poor qualifying or even an average qualifying, which I think probably is more representative of what he did, saw him help back. And we know how bad his race starts are as well. Again, not a good time to get a poor race start. So it definitely unfolded in an unfavorable way in that sense. Ultimately, we know what Albin needs to be, and we know what Red Bull need from a second driver. They need someone who can support Max Verstappen, ably. They don't necessarily need someone who can beat Max Verstappen as much as Max Verstappen would beat him. They need someone who is a reliable second driver in a very similar fashion to how Bottas is that very reliable second driver to Lewis Hamilton.

The problem for Albin is this race could not have highlighted Mollison. more what he needs to be. Because Vastappen was left out there. It was a three-horse race. Hamilton-Botas, Vastappen, all up against each other. Vestappen did his part in getting ahead of Hamilton at the start. But what situation did we find ourselves in? The obvious situation where they had the possibility Mercedes Mercedes of doing an undercut with Valtry-Botas and they had the opportunity of then doing the overcut with Lewis Hamilton. Let's ignore the fact that Vastappen got past Bottas because obviously there was an error made there and there was car damage there. But the strategy itself worked out perfectly for Mercedes because they turned that one three into a one two. Again, it highlighted

as well as it possibly could have done how much Albin was missing from that Grand Prix because that would not have been, you know, they would have had the power to have two versus two. in that scenario rather than two versus one. Max Verstappen obviously did a great job to get back into P2 regardless, but it really showed. It really showed. In terms of the seat situation, obviously Perez,

I've spoken at length how good I think Perez is and how I think he's deserving of that seat and that hasn't changed. You know, at a good race today, he's had a good season overall, but this goes far beyond just this one season. Perez has shown what a capable driver he is over the last, well, since the beginning of his career, really.

So, yeah, I think that is an obvious choice for them. For me, Albon should go back in the Alfa Tauri alongside Pierre Gazley, and they should keep Yuki Sanoda in Formula 2 for one more season. Just because Yuki Sanoda could still learn more from another season in F2, and I don't think it would be detrimental to his progress. And at the same time, that still gives you the flexibility of having Ghazli and Albin in that Alpha Tauri, so they can go essentially head to head. and whichever one performs better,

you can then consider to promote if Perez's deal is only a one-year deal. And that also means as well that if Gazzley does go off to Renault or if Alman doesn't recover and they decide to get rid of him entirely, Yuki Sonoda is in the best possible situation to replace one of them. The way that I think is going to pan out

is with Sonoda and Gassley. It means that Red Bull in that situation either have Albin in the car, who is underperforming, or they have someone extoller. Colonel in the car, but Albon, who is a talent, would be nowhere. So, yeah, it's a bit of a problem for them, a bit of a dilemma. I know how I would deal with it. But yeah, this was not a good weekend for Alex Albin. It showed what Red Bull are missing. And lastly, before we go, Imola

itself, we saw a number of comments from drivers throughout practice and qualifying comment on the circuit and how brilliant it was to drive around. George Russell in particular was very favourable towards the circuit. We, predictably, it was a bit difficult to make the overtakes in the race. Harry, do you think this is something that is best served as a one-off or do you think Imala should be considered for a return? I just think F1 belongs at Imola. I love it. I just love the track, love the surroundings. And yeah, you know, the circuit itself highlighted the difficulties with the current breed of F1. So if it was to return, maybe not next year,

but maybe let's wait until 2022. And, you know, but if it did return next year, I would not be in the queue of complainers. I would definitely, you know, be on the advocate side of F1, go out to him and that it just feels, just feels right.

It just feels like, you know, F1 should be there. And to be fair, I know, you know, overtaking action was slightly less than we might have other tracks, but it was still an enjoyable race and quality yesterday the cars looked amazing.

So yeah, I'm all four go back to Imola and any of the other old tracks we're going through this year. What do you say, Sam? Do you think this is something they should consider to bring it back? Definitely not next year. As much as I love the feeling of what might be right,

that doesn't always mean that it's fun or exciting for the viewer. And we had a good race today because of strategy. It was not particularly a fun race on track. It only came in the last five laps when tires were really shook up. But I agree with Harry Wong who says that maybe we come back in the new era of Formula One. I'd be well up for that. I also think that other race tracks on the Formula One calendar need to look at a lot of the features of Imola and it would make them better. For example, let's have more gravel traps. Let's have more runoffs where you don't have a per...

Imagine if Botas made that mistake on the ultimate corner and if you're throwing off into gravel like he did get at Imola, we're on, let's say, the last corner of America, where it's just more tarmac. Does he lose the back end? Does he lose the place? Probably not. Probably carries a speed exactly as he would have done. I like the fact that drivers are punished for mistakes, and we need that across the calendar.

And Imola does that brilliantly. So again, with the new cars, I think that could be really, really fun. The only other thing I would take away from this weekend before coming back with the new era is two-day race weekends are brilliant. I've made this point about three times already this season. Less testing, less practice, less information makes for a super fun Grand Prix. And we saw that again with the tyres and the strategy mix up. It was entertaining.

It was fun. We saw an overcut for the first time in God Goes How Long, properly pulled off. We saw the tire jumps from Kimmy Riking was able to run at the same pace as the league is on like 35 lap old medians. It was exciting and there were different things happening because of the lack of testing. Bring that forward. Reduce running time. Let the junior formulas have more fun during the Friday and Saturday period. and let's have a bit of an unknown moment on the Sunday.

So I'm all for that happening going forward. And I think bring Imola back at a later date when the cars are more suited to run your side by side with less downforce implications. I'm with Parry on this. When I usually make a point, regardless of what it's about in terms of F1, I usually say, I think this because X, Y and Z.

But when it comes to Imala, it's a case of, I think that F1 belongs to Imala. Why? Because it does. and it doesn't need anything more than that. I can't explain it. It's just, it's meant to be. Yes, there were fewer overtakes than we'd usually get at the average Grand Prix.

I think that's to be expected at Imala. And I don't necessarily think that's a terrible thing. I think there are going to be circuits where there are more overtakes than there are others. It doesn't mean that it's necessarily a poor GP. I would leave it until 2022 to see what the new era of cars, because I would like to see a little bit more in terms of close racing. but it felt great for Imler to be back on the calendar. Whether it does become a permanent fixture,

my guess is unfortunately no. But yeah, if I had anything to do about it, I'd do everything I could to get back there because it is a lot of fun. And with that, I think we will round off this episode. We'll be back for another podcast next week, although that one will be a bit of a miscellaneous one. We'll let you know what we'll talk about.

We're not too sure yet, to be honest. I'm sure something will happen in the world of F1 between now and then. But Sam, if you wouldn't mind, getting us out of it. Yeah, if you've enjoyed the roundup of the Imala Grand Prix, which of course is always very special to all of us, then feel free to share the podcast, give it a rating, come and talk to us over on Twitter, let's hope you think. Of course, videos on YouTube, subscribe over there. We're nearly at 2K, that would be mad if we got there by the end of the year. So thanks for your support so far. And we'll, of course, we'll be back next week, and then the

week after the Turkish Grand Prix preview as well. Lots more to come before the end of the season. Please stay with us for it. meantime i've been sang this age i've been ben hockey and i've been harry east and remember keep breaking late cast is part of the sport social podcast network