The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Ocon wins a chaotic race in Hungary! | 2021 Hungarian GP Review | Episode 137

Episode Date: August 1, 2021

We're not entirely sure where to start with this one... The boys give the lowdown on a completely bonkers race around the Hungaroring!JOIN our Discord: https://discord.gg/fKJgADfzTWEET 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 podcast with hosts, myself Samuel Sage and Harry E. joining me and you might be thinking, hang on a minute, that isn't Ben Hocking and you'd be right. not Ben Hocking.

Ben Hocking is trying to have his birthday, but he's rather unwell, he's got a lot going on. He sings his best regards. We've got some notes from Benjamin to include, but he's bloody left the podcasting our hands, the silly fool. I can't believe it.

Harry? Can't believe it. We've already got the soundboard out. He's left us in control of the tools, and it's going to be an absolute nightmare. So I hope you enjoy this absolute mess after a mess of a Grand Prix, which is going to be absolutely ecstatic.

Harry, how are you doing? Did you enjoy what you just saw? Well, I said before we just start recording, it's also, Ben, I think, has already got his head and his hands listening to this. But, yeah, before we start recording, I said it felt like I was watching some sort of dream race because even after the race is finished, Sebastian Vetto, P2 went to a portal loop, and then Establanokin forgot where the pits was and then ran down the pit lane. and we're just watching this like is a normal grandbrough. Oh, and Lewis Hampton couldn't stand up.

Yeah. Yeah, that was just bizarre. So bizarre. Such a weird race. I don't even, I don't even, the start feels about five days ago now. Bowling ball. Oh, you're right.

The bowling ball ball ball bat has. It takes a strike stroll. I believe they're going to be knowing as now. Who would have thought that are hungry, we'd be making such a meal of the race. And I hope that you ate it all up, folks. There we go.

It's good to get them in there at the start already. Right, so let's actually talk about things that are racing. Here's a few things that we're going to cover throughout the podcast. Later on in the podcast, we're going to be talking about the implications that this might have

for the drivers and constructors' championship now that Lewis Hamilton leads Max Verstappen and the Sege's League Red Bull for the first time in a good few races. We're also going to be talking about the fact that Williams' bloody score points with both drivers and Latifie has outscored Russell.

Just like when Kubitsa outscored Russell backing, I think, Germany in 2019. It's happened again, but at least time he has got points on the ball for Williams for the first time. We'll dive into that as well. Also, did the race restart title cost Hamilton the victory? Or was there always a chance for Rockong and Vessel to be those top two?

But we are just going to dissect. One, the start of the race and the race itself. Harry, what on earth Jamaica of that, Valtry Bottas, and Lance Stroll cacophony of bizarness at the start there. That was just bizarre. Oh, what was going on there? Yeah, I mean, I think I said to you and Ben, who, you know, it's his birthday, he's not well as to be here, but still watch the race. Like, what a slacker.

Yeah, come on. Yeah, come on, Ben. Yeah, I said to you both in our chat that, that it was like, I was like, when's the F1 starting then? Because this is clearly not F1. It was like an F2. If I, I wouldn't even give it F2 reputation. I think it's lower down than that. It was some real.

I'll tell you what it is. It was like an F1 online lobby without any assists for the first time. Folks, if you ever played the F1 game online, that is what it looks like, usually, at the start of the race. Yeah, it was exactly like that. And I appreciate that they didn't get to drive around in intermediates, but they had the formation lap, you know. And they're paid a lot of money to do this.

So, yeah, Stroll and Bottas were just pretty amateurist stuff. And, you know, Botas, he'd backed out of it because he got squeezed. So at that point, you're back out of it. entirely. If he looked at like Ocon's start, he got squeezed by Leclerc, so he backs out of it, gets whatever, because he knows that, you know, there's a corner coming up here, guys. So I don't know what Bottas was doing then, because you can already see, like, Norris in front of him, one of the rebels, probably Perez, I think, on the left, who are decelerating because there other lights are flashing for the harvesting. And Bottas, like, nah, don't need to

break yet, don't need to break yet. Oh, no, I need to break. And he wipes out a good chunk of the top five. And then Stroh, again, not sure where he thought he was going to break either. He made a great start as well. It was all the ones that made, I know, because Bottas's start was terrible. But, yeah, I, Stroll, I feel less, not confused about. But I feel like he made an attempt to try and get out the way, and it almost made it worse.

but he really shocked. I mean, we put up a little poll over on our Twitter page at El Breaking if you got following us and we asked who will be better at bowling, stroll or Bottas, and there was over 100 of you that got involved with 83% of the vote. Bottas is the king of bowling.

He did hit the ultimate strike and he managed to, as a true team player that Valtry Bottas is, take out the entire competitive field for Lewis Hamilton, who somehow still didn't manage to go on and win the race by every single close competitor possible not being involved in the entire Grand Prix.

I agree with you entirely, though. It feels like Bottas, you know, it's not like he's never starting a wet race before. It's not like he's ever gone ahead on intermediates before. Everyone else, regardless of where they were up and down the field, other than scroll, managed to hit their breaking points correctly. You know, everyone got round the corners.

And I don't think I've seen such carnage from one shunk for quite some time on the first corner. It echoed back to, you know, turn three at Austria where I forgot about, game now I think it was Sato or some completely missed her three wiped out a couple of the cars or the Nureberg ring where every car went down off into the runoff trap into the turn one. It wasn't far as spa 98 was it? It was a bit Spar 98-esque and you know Jordan went on to win that race and we've had an Alpine

going to win this one. Lark Strolay, it wasn't brilliant. It wasn't great. It wasn't ideal. No, it's not ideal what he's done there. But in a strange way, he won pave the way for his team to get a pay. podium position, which is, you know, he's assisted there, which I can appreciate the effort. And so at least he was trying to take, you know, adverse action to not have a collision.

The whole point was he was trying to stop hitting people. He's gone, I'm not slowing down. It's not going to happen. Ruled that one out. Check, not happening. What's the next thing I can do? I'm just going to cut the corner and hope it works. But then he did like a weird bouncy middle ground where he just went, that car's red over there.

I've hit it. I'm out the race. And it, you know, it's not. gone well. It's not gone too well. But we're not going to talk about the rest of the other words just yet. The stewards then made a decision on Bottas and Stroh's action and they have both been giving a penalty after this was made. Of course, they didn't carry on in the race, both DNFed. And they're both giving a penalty that had to be taking in SPAR. They both received a five-place grid penalty. Now, Harry, we've seen some strange penalties up and down the seasons

before. We've seen stewards making bizarre decisions based on previous acts, not looking at previous acts, do you think that this is a fair penalty? Do you think they've looked at the consequences of the crash and used that as part of their reasoning? Or is it because they couldn't carry on, but this is the only way that they could get a penalty that seems fair going forward? I mean, yeah, the grid penalty itself, I think that's a sensible decision because they were both out already, but they still cause some carnage. The actual, the amount of places, I think, is fairly lenient. I think, I know you shouldn't,

it's difficult to base it by each incident, but you know, look at the consequences, and I'm not just talking in championship consequences here, but the consequences of what Botas and Ostrall did with their late breaking antics. You know, Bottas wiped out,

yes, Bottas wiped out, how many was it, Perez Norris for Stappan. Was there any more? There might have been more. The carnage was constant. Just kept happening.

And Strull got, he got Leclair and in turn, Daniel Riccardo, who was having a lovely little start there. I've got to say, and that ruined the rest of his afternoon. Who knows where he could have been by the end of that race. But, yeah, so it's, I think they mentioned it in the Sky, broadcast, Schumacher on Bruno Senna in Spain, he wiped him at one person out. He took him both out of the race. That was a five-place

grid pen. Is this to say, should this be the same? Because they've taken out a lot of cars here. Five cars in total. They've wiped out between them. Not including their own. Yeah, I think the penalty itself is pretty and Rosberg said it as well on commentary.

It seemed quite quite a lenient one because of the amount of carnage they cause. And I'm guessing their judgment on that is because it was lap 1 and they take a slightly calmer view on lap 1 incidents. But not when they wipe out three or four cars. It seems a bit unfair on the ones who did get wiped out.

And again, not saying from her chat, not just Red Bull, I just think any of them. I mean, Norris, he's had a terrific season. he had another blinding start, was looking at P3, and then he gets completely wiped out, and Leclair. So yeah, I think it's a bit lenient. I agree with the actual, the way the penalty's been dished out, and fair play, though they didn't really have much to do during the race,

apart from the unsafe releases. So the stewards, they've got it done before. They wanted to go home, probably. Got a flight to catch, so. There's a lot of traffic out of that way, correct. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, get off early. Yeah, exactly.

So, yeah. I agree with what they, the penalty they could. but not the amount of places. Things should have been more. Yeah, it was a tricky one. And we've seen several instances that I think are comparable. There are slight differences, but, you know, the penalties do seem to vary.

I'm glad you brought up that Schumacher incident because if you're going to look at just the action itself of missing a breaking zone or mistiming a corner, which then results in contact and the DNF of another driver, and we're not going to talk about how badly that was, the championship consequences. Theoretically, they've applied exactly the same penalty, and there is precedent for this.

And, you know, if you have any legal experience, you'll know that if there is something that mirrors a very similar case in the past, you tend to have to take that evidence from that previous case and apply it to the modern case. So convictions are consistent. Now, of course, this isn't the same as a legal hearing. It's motor racing. It's good fun. Lots of fast cars around the track. But it's good to see they've applied consistent reasoning. What is interesting, how I'm interested in your point of view here, is that if you go back to Silverstone, just, you know, last race there.

On the first lap, Hamilton, technically misjudges a corner. and takes out a driver, regardless of who it is, on the first lap, and that driver's race is over. Theoretically, exactly the same as to what Bottas has done with Norris. Of course, Norris then went on to hit Perez and Verstappen, no fault of his own there, but that's just the aftermath. Theoretically, it's pretty much the same, in my point of view. There are slight differences, but why does Hamilton get a 10-second stop-go penalty, which he can serve out of his pit stop, which is he can still go win in the race,

but Bottas gets a five-second grid penalty. Is it because Hamilton was simply in the race? Is that the only difference? And would Stroll and Bottas have got that 10 seconds? Or do you think that actually Hamilton should have got a five-place grid penalty for the Hungara ring? Now we've actually seen that settled in as a precedent. Yeah, I didn't even think of that. It's a very interesting point, isn't it?

Because if Stroll and Bottas both survived that incident, were they given the same penalty as Hamilton, I would hedge bet that they would get a harser one. I think they'd be slapped. So Hamilton got a 10 second added to his time, didn't he? So not a stop go. So I think they would have given an actual stop go where they had to come in again. And it's not added to your pit stop.

We've got to stop for another 10 seconds because of the carnage they caused. So, yeah, very interesting one. I mean, if Hamilton, it could be the other way around. If Hamilton also got wiped out in that Silverstone incident and didn't, couldn't carry on, maybe they would have slapped the same penalty on him. I don't know. And then again, you say, well, is that fair? Because he only took out one,

and Bottas and Stroll took out many. Yeah. Yeah, so people, let us know what you think on that one. Yeah, it's very hard to separate looking at an incident. And I know Ben would be raging about this. He's probably replying to us now as he listens to this over on his radio, whatever Ben tunes into. It's back in the 17th century.

Tuning is radio for a podcast. I'll find it. We're on the airwaves. You know, I can imagine he'll be going. No, because you're meant to take penalties only into account of the action taking and not for the carnage afterwards. But maybe there is an argument to be made where you should look at what happens in the collision or who it impacts, but then does that make drivers seem more important than others,

just because maybe they're leading a championship. You know, very interesting to hear your points of view on this. If you do want to have more conversation with us, you do want to get further involved, you just don't want to talk at your mobile devices or at your car radios or like a weirdo on your own, then we have a Discord. And there are quite a lot of people in that Discord now. There's a good 60 odd, I believe, which is crazy. Get involved.

It's the link in the description. You are more than welcome to join. And we'll always be asking you questions in there, getting your points of view in there. Please get involved in there. It's huge. It's great. It's great fun to have you chat now.

We have a good laugh as well. So if you want to have a chat more about F1, you want to be light-minded people that love F1. And they call themselves the late breakers, which is hilarious to me that someone's decided to doubt that. We didn't encourage that, by the way. That was all on them. No.

So you could become. a late breaker. Please join the link. Give it a go. You can always leave again if you don't like us and or then. It'd be great to get your

points of view on things. So let's move away from the start there. It'd be interesting if anything happens like that later on the season and what the ruling is given there.

And let's talk about the fact that Lewis Hamilton started a race, technically, a restart, entirely on his own. Which is I think the first time I've ever seen this happen. It was almost like

they've gone, Hamilton show. It's all for you, Lewis. off you go, yay! And then he's absolutely screwed this one up, made the bad decision in terms of the strategy, and has that cost him a possible wing? Harry, what do you think?

Yeah, I mean, firstly, that was the most bizarre scene. Well, the most bizarre thing I'd seen in about 30 minutes because we'd only just had the crash at the start. But that, I mean, that puts Indianapolis 05 to shame. Six cars. I've seen six cars, and I lower you to one. And yeah, it was completely ridiculous. what was going on there.

Fun fact, folks. I didn't miss it, but as they were coming around to the grid, someone rang me, my girlfriend, she's in trouble. And I was going to do another room for something. And as I came back in, so they were coming around to the grid, I came back in, and they just Lewis Hamilton on his own. I was like, what, what, what? What is going on here?

What is going on here? Yeah, I realized her in the pit lane. But yeah, a bizarre call. Don't know why. and we said it before. I think Mercedes, and they do get it right sometimes, you know, strategy calls Spain this year when they did that two-stop undercut,

hungry a couple of years ago, we did the same thing again. They've made some great calls, and you don't win championships by being terrible at strategy all the time. But I do wonder if they'd had to close the competition over the years, whether they would have lost a few more races, because it was, even from us watching on that formation lap,

it was clear it was absolutely bone dry. I mean, why they didn't, I know I can get why because they're in the lead but it's always about being on the right tyre at the right time and if it's dry you've got to be on a dry tyre. So yeah, it was tricky because he was the first one but I mean their hearts must have sank when they saw literally every car pile into the pit lane apart from them.

And yeah, I think it lost them in the race, didn't it? I mean, there are other factors because Fernando Alonzo was driving an Alpine bus for a few laps. But without that mistake, that strategy call the restart, I think Hamilton had eagerly had the pace to go on a win, even with Ocon Ovetel there. So, yeah, odd cool. And they're lucky in a sense that the Bottas wiped out of the Red Bulls.

But because, you know, if Vastappan had been in the race, you know, in P2, they would have absolutely, they'd have punished them so hard for that, for that call. So, yeah, I think Mercedes were lucky to get away with that one and still get a podium. But it undoubtedly still costs them the win, a dominant win at least. Yeah, well, I mean, we've seen some mistakes from Mercedes this season already, which is really interesting. It's not just Mercedes, it's Hamilton as well. And considering that Hamilton is paid the big money, as I like to call it, when you're the number one driver on the grid.

He earns the most. So therefore, on his contract, it simply says Lewis Hamilton will earn the big money. We saw mistakes already up and down the season. We've seen Hamilton make the mistake in Baku, for example, where realistically he could have gone to win that race had he got pressed the magic, as they like to call it, on the back of the steering wheel, which of course warms the brakes up for you.

Ruined his own race. Vastafin, you know, cruelly taking out of that race through no fault of his own with the tyre issue. And Hamilton, golden opportunity. He got a better start than Perez. He was off. He was happy to go. And he absolutely ruined that one. So that's one mistake from either the driver of the team already this season.

and then the French Grand Prix, for example. They had the place to go and win that race, and Red Bull made a brilliant call to do a stop slightly earlier. They got the jump on the Mercedes, and that was game over from there. Max was able to take it all the way home. And now again, we see it here. This is silly.

This is silly from both Hamilton and Mercedes to not coming, to not have a go, to not try a tie change, and to get yourself on the slicks. Although I would be curious to have seen how it would have happened in terms of traffic, in the pit lane and Hamilton having the first pit box. Obviously, they were so close behind him.

Hamilton would be pulled into his pit box. He had those tires on and then due to the unsafe release issue, he would just have to sit there and wait for every single car to pile past him to go into their pit box. Does he get released? Just like Kimmy Rikin decides to absolutely spearhead Nikita Mataping in the pit lane? Brilliant drama, by the way. So yeah, you know, it did cost them the wing,

but fair play to Hamilton and then the Mercedes-Saheader. trash this afterwards for trying that two-stop. The first undercut worked brilliantly, going out in front of Ricardo and Bostappen that was holding him up. And then, of course, somehow navigating Fernando the London routemaster bus Alonso, who put up a stellar defence, by the way.

It was fantastic to watch Fernando give it his absolute all defending against a seven-time world champion. That's what we love about Fernando Alonso. It was great drama, though. I'm glad we got to see it. But he did well. He got past, and then he got past science very, very easily. Maybe that shows you the calibre difference of those two drivers, you know. and he got on the pogging.

So it wasn't all a loss, was it? It wasn't all an absolute loss for him. You raised the point there. If he had come in, what would we have witnessed if there was no cars on the starline? It's lighted out in a water. We would not.

Oh, wow. And the safety car wins. Yeah, because who, because obviously everyone had to wait for Hamilton to go past and then the green light goes, who do you wait for? What are you waiting for now? I don't understand who would,

they'd have to, anyway, that's probably never going to have to. happen again but imagine that had happened. The only other thing I was going to say on the Hamilton Mercedes call, and we've seen this a lot of times and again, you don't win champion seven world championships together and be bad at F1 things. But surely Hamilton could have called that one himself and said, I'm coming in because we heard Russell saying everyone's coming in. Everyone's literally going to come in. It's going to be slick. So, and you know, during the race and we know this about Hamilton.

He's not necessarily, there are other drivers that think about what's happening more. Carlos Seins being one of them, running the Ferrari Pitwall and driving. But Hamilton doesn't do that. But sometimes I think it does cost him because you know, someone else and I'm not saying replace him obviously, but someone else

would have said, and he's coming. It's dry and it needs to come in. So yeah, it's an interesting one. And obviously it's the complete trust he puts in the team, but sometimes that doesn't work out. Yeah, I do wonder. if there was a momentary fluster there because he's looked at himself and gone,

hang on a minute, Perez is out, Bossas is out, Max Verstaffin literally doesn't have a flaw and is somehow floating around on the racetrack. I can lead the championship here. I can take a massive jump in the championship, and I do wonder if that played on the mind a little bit too much,

and he thought, I want to do nothing to risk losing this first place. And then inadvertently threw away first place. which I get. We've all been there. We've all thought this is too good to be true. They're absolutely being something off in our lives. We've all been in the first place at the Hungara Ring at one stage or another. Yeah. It happens. You should go back to the 1994 folks where both me, Harry and Ben, were the first three on there.

It's fantastic race. Check it out. Yeah, so, you know, Hamilton did well to come back. It was a fantastic race. Considering that Hungary is, you know, nicknamed Monaco without barriers, we've spoken about this, it does have barriers. The expression makes no sense. But the point of the expression is that you can't overtake. We saw some really great battles. I want to shout out just a few people before we go into the likes of Drive of the Day.

The little fight, for example, between Max Verstappen and Nick Schumacher. Nick Schumacher and that Haascar, which has struggled all season. The little lad knows how to get his elbows out, doesn't he? He's put up a fight, you know, Ricardo Verstappen. He's not afraid to go wheel to wheel these race-winning level drivers

that are in championship-level cars. He was happy to, you know, put everything on the line, which I love to see. Yeah, I mean, the old, Schumacher's squeeze was out in full force today, wasn't it? I mean, that's probably the first time Mick's ever in F1, obviously. He's been able to race anyone

and didn't embarrass himself in the slightest. He didn't overall, obviously they got past in the end because he's driving a house, so it's about three years old. But yeah, he thought, he didn't let it go, and with Vastappen he squeezed him, and

obviously Vistam still got past, and again with Ricardo, I think Ricardo had made the lunge and I was like oh it's all over and then Mick's like nope around the outside I'm still I'm still here still here guys so um yeah very impressive stuff great it was a good run from him today obviously he still didn't finish in the points but uh it wasn't far off in the end yeah really really encouraging stuff I'm sure bigger teams are we looking at Mick there doing that kind of defense on a track where the car that they know is the worst car going and um he put up a fantastic fantastic fight so we move on after looking at that quick race review um let's have a quick moment just to harry

at our predictions that we made in the race preview podcast, my bold prediction was that the person who led out of turn one would lead every lap of the race and that the teams would finish and know as our order two by two up until 10th place. That went well, we'll just write that one off entirely.

hilarious. Harry, what was your bold prediction? Mine was something about... No, both Ferrari's going to be on the podium. I mean, we weren't far off one. Stroll took care of the other one in a swift fashion. start.

So, do you know, I know where this is going, by the way. It's so good that he's not here. He might have got his right,

but he's not going to be here to gloat about it. So, also, it's summer break now. So we're not going to talk about races when it comes to the next podcast.

We're going to talk about F1 general things. He can't gloat. So, Ben, I'm going to just say, I don't remember what yours was. Never mind. We'll have to move on swiftly.

I mean, Sorry, Ben. If you're talking about the reverse curse, it didn't work in calling because it literally happened what he predicted. Russell's out in Q1, but it got in some points.

Yeah, we're going to be talking about the Williams' points and what that maybe does for Russell's reputation and Latifi's reputation after we have a quick look at what our driver of the day, worst driver of the day,

and moment of the race is. Harry, let's start with you then. Driver of the day, who have you gone for? So many choices. I will go for a look. Ocon drove incredibly well because the Aston Martin, I think, was faster than that Alpine during the race

and, you know, subsides of difficulties, but he stood a four-time war champ, and he was just behind him. He was a second behind him the whole race. I mean, apart from that one. Relentless. Just the whole time. And Ockon was, I mean, really,

even hear from O'Con, I don't think. He was pretty calm and collected, though, and obviously got the win. So he's a contender. But just for pure theatrical entertainment, payment value. I'm going to give it to the man that was driving a bus during that latter stage of the race. Fernando Alonzo, who, yeah, he, that was, it was so good. I mean, watching Hamilton, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonzo, we've been waiting, as Ted Kravitz pointed out,

we've been waiting 12 years for this, ever since they left McLaren, well, Alonzo left McLaren. Yeah, it was such a, such a good fight. And Alonzo was using quite literally every trick in the book to keep the Mercedes behind. And, you know, I'm not saying the Ockon didn't win the race himself, but I think Halmter would have caught them if he hadn't been held up behind. And he'd been only just enough, wasn't it, in the end? Because I think another couple of laps and he still could have caught them. So, yeah, I'll give it to Fanano-onzo, but obviously Ockon drove incredibly well.

I mean, Vettel, again, had a great race too. And we've already already mentioned Mixedumacher, I think, did a stellar job in that house. but yeah I will give it to Fernando Alonzo I think that's a lovely show I think you can make a case for anyone with almost there's almost about six or seven drivers that finished in the top ten that could realistically have an understandable shout

at driver of the day you've already mentioned Ocon who was stellar so consistent so able to just hold on and stave off the pressure from a four-time world champ behind him in Sebastian Vettel who equally had a fantastic Grand Prix it was so good to see Vettel challenging for a win again And, you know, there aren't many other people who can put that much pressure on you than what Sebastian Vettel does.

And I don't think that should take away from the fact that Ock and one had a fantastic drive and it shows just how hungry Vettel still is for that level of success. About one second average time across a 70-lap race to the car in front of you, where you can't follow, you can't properly overtake. It's really, really incredible. Carlos Aynce, calling the strategy wall from the moving Ferrari, about 20 laps back goes, we need to be looking out for Hamilton. he's going to stop again, it's going to happen, we need to be worried of it, and then Hamilton passes, 20 laps on, after stopping again,

and you just hear sights over the radio go, ah, there we go, exactly what I said was going to happen, and, you know, he's still got fourth place, although Alonkso was bearing down on him. Also, shout to both Williams drivers, they took advantage of a terrible situation, and especially, I mean,

it was lovely to hear Russell be like, focus on Nicky, give Nicky what in Eags, I'll take the hit, you know, Williams need the points, I want to fight for the team, which is bloody lovely. But also, Nick the TV, he just drove a bloody,

a good race, held off a lot of cars that are much faster than him. He was in 10, 15 seconds clear. Yarno Latifi, as he's now known, Chuchu, all aboard Latifi Express. We're going for points. That's the next stop, and he's got them. He's delivering his passengers safely.

George Russell was the conductor on that train. But I am going to join you in the Fernando Alonkso Hyped train, the love for Big Fernando. What a man! I would love to say, I live in London, if you don't know, folks. And I would love to go out now

into Central London and just see a bright blue and yellow bus with Fernando's face on the side of it. Just with a lot of traffic behind it and I'll go, no one's getting past that bus. It's just going to drive around London all day with traffic behind it. What a stellar performance. There was a few moves into turn one that Hamilton tried

that I think 99% of Formula One drivers would have succumbed to. They would not have been able to hold off Hamilton's onslaught, especially on those fresher tires. Alongso's defence was so clever, he was so able to hold off in so many different ways. And he can, when you talk about, out drivers all the time leaving the space, Franklin Aldo also famously said.

And when you talk about leaving space, when you talk about squeezing correctly, Alonso delivered that every single time. Not once again overstep a boundary, not once again make it dangerous for Hamilton. Apart from that slight moment up into turn four, I think it was, where there was a little bit of a wobble, Hamilton had a bit of a moment of,

that was so dangerous at high speed, man. It was fantastic. That's what he said. There was exact words, quote. Yeah, yeah. You know, but it was fantastic to watch them. And they've said multiple times both of them, how much respect they have for each other. And of course, Hamilton's starting his career alongside Fernando Alonkoso.

So to see that 12, 13 years on, is absolutely spectacular to witness. So, yeah, driver of the day for me is Fernando Alonsoe. And now we move on to a cacophony of other options, which is worst drive of the day. Harry, who have you got? Yeah, let me say, it's between two people. We've already mentioned them. And I'm going to go on the basis of they wiped out one more car than the other person. so yeah there was there were quite literally no bodies and and botas this weekend had a really

encouraging weekend um he was doing what i don't think he would have necessarily challenged hamilton but he was he was relatively close most of the weekend and he threw it all away in turn one for a Mercedes point of view they're probably giving them a nice little slap on the back but uh just from a driver point of view that was it was we've always mentioned it was pretty pretty amateurish um So yeah, I'm going to give it to Vardry Bottas. Sorry, Walter, but you took out three cars. I just want to remind everyone that I make a prediction before the season even started,

that Valtry Bottas will never win a race again. Not the keep going that, anyway. Look at that, folks. What a state. And when you've got someone like George Russell going wheel to wheel around the outside of Mick Schumach, we saw an F2 champion battle. And it was spectacular and clean and great fun to watch.

and Botas doesn't actually know where to break for turn one. You've got to ask yourself some questions. I agree with you entirely. I don't really think there's anyone else that's up for it other than Lance Stroll, who I think was actually trying to do something good, bless him, and just giving it very badly. Whereas I think Bottas was just bad. So Bottas is by far the worst driver of the day.

Now, if you're in the Discord, you know that we ask you for your worst driver of the day and driver of the day options. Folks, if you're not in the Discord, join it. and we can ask you, and you can end up featuring on the podcast. Harry, some people responded to your lovely message. What have the people said? Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to read everyone out because they are quite literally all the same. No, they're not all the same.

It's a strong consensus here. Worst Drive of the Day, we've, it's pretty much, there's a couple of strolls, but it's BOTies all around, really. We've got, yeah, Rye Guy 26. He's putting Capitals, BOTES for Worst Drive of the Day. what else we got DRT underscore HB21

Catchy name It's gone for stroll Yeah Who's another one CLR 76's also gone for stroll Lily Kate's gone for Botas Seriously no more BOTTs

Yeah It's a It's a consensus on that one And for Drive of the Day It's Alonzo and Ocon Across the board To be honest So

Alpine Yeah Just Alpine For Drive of the Day Just Alpine All of Alpine Yeah Anyway, thanks to those on the Discord

getting involved. Again, if you want to get involved, Discord is in the link. Please join us. We'd love to have you there. And I'll move on to the final part. Oh, actually, oh, sorry. I've once again forgotten

about our other co-host, Benjamin Hocking. It's his birthday. Again, if we haven't mentioned it. He has given us his suggestions. I'm sorry, Ben. His drive of the day was Okong, if you're interesting.

His worst drive of the day is Botas, probably for the same reasons. We all gave hashtag, no more boties, please. And we move on to the final segment. of this thing here, which is our moment of the race. I'll let Ben go first. I'll read out Ben's.

He's kind of texting it to me. The poor lad can barely speak at the moment. He said, moment of the race, how bizarre it looked when one car, being Lewis Hamilton, took to the start line. That is something that we may never, ever see again in Formula One. It was absolutely crazy.

I don't know what Hamilton was thinking. I'd love to actually sit down with Lewis and go, when you realize that you're the only person there, obviously the sinking feeling that you've made the wrong choice, yes. but also what's it like do you only person to start an F1 race? Another record maybe.

Harry, what have you got for a moment with the race? That's a strong contender, isn't it? But I will go for I'll go for that on so Hamilton Battle. It was so entertaining to watch. And we've, you know, for whatever reason, we've kind of been robbed of that ever since they were not on McLaren together.

They were rarely in a championship battle together. And they're not now, obviously. but ready in an on-track battle together, I'd say. So, yeah, that was, I was, I was jumping up and down at that one. It was just so good to watch. But, again, a lot of contenders for a moment of the race. There were a lot of moments, to be honest. Yeah, that whole Hungary Grand Prix was a big of a moment.

And finally, by the way, folks, if you follow us for a while, we'll be making the same joke that there is a 10% chance of reigning at the Hungara ring for about two years. So it finally happened. We hang a big of a wet start. My moment of the race, I, go on Hungary. I think it's just going to be George Russell. When it's starting off at the fact that he decided to just drive around everyone else at the exit of the pit lane.

Love that. Go, look, I'm second. Not how rules work, George, but I absolutely loved it. Fantastic, you know. And then half of him around the lap, everyone thought, has he got a puncture? Is he breaking? No, he's just been told that he's got to give back positions to half the grid because he's illegally overtaking him. That was fantastic.

And then, like I've really mentioned, the, um, the, the, um, the, kind of F2 champ on X F2 champ Mick Schumacher Russell's scenario, sending back Williams, which is a boat around the outside of what is also a large boat on a track that requires a lot of aerodynamics and a strong chassis. It was fantastic to watch from the pair of them. So well done to Mick Schumacher. Well into George Russell. Yeah, Russell generally was my moment of the race. I thought it did really, really, really well. So yeah, that's kind of the general race overall. We're going to move on now a little bit to kind of, firstly, to talk about Williams. Williams, for the first time since 2019, have scored at least one point in a Grand Prix.

As to be fair, the last time they did that was via a double penalty, post-phrase penalty to the Alpha Romeo guys, which gave Robert Kubitsza one point, I believe, in the German Grand Prix in 2019. And before that, I believe there was a Williams point in the Italian Grand Prix in 2018. So it's been a long time since they've actually scored points on track legitimately. And now Latifie and Russell, I think they finished, what, eighth and ninth, it was? which is six points for Williams, which is, you know, it takes them above Haasst properly,

it takes them above Alpha and Mayo. They officially sit on the points table with points to their game. Harry, what do you think this means for Williams, for George and for Latifi? I mean, for Williams, a lovely bit of pointage there. They've not had some for a while.

Pointage is a word that will be used going forward. Hashtag pointage. Hashtag pointage. Yeah, it was finally the, like, the crazy race that Williams were. able to take advantage of. The irony though, I think for me is that George Russell finally get some points

for Williams in one of these crazy race scenarios. But Latifia gets more. Because of course. Obviously, of course, Lativa gets more. But, you know, that's a, when was the last time William's had a double points finish? That's a crazy

result for them. So, and they had to take advantage of it. Was sad that Russell's cheeky. They tried to, you know, Audi in formal e sorry you took formula e here folks but yeah just go through the pit lane and they say everyone tactic which I love so yeah it almost paid off there

but yeah it's great for them for Russell I was really impressed with his comment on the radio about let's just get Latifie as far up but what can I do to sacrifice myself so you know that's a huge team

player score there and it was another message to Mercedes saying look guys I can do that job as well if you need me to. But yeah, he was, I think he recovered fairly well because he got knocked back a bit by having to let all those cars back through, whereas Latifi obviously didn't.

So, yeah, no, great rest of both of them. And we'll help Latifi's stock, I imagine, as well, for 2022. Who knows if he's still going to be around? But a race like that where he, you know, I know it's hungry, but he still had to hold off cars that were way faster than him for a long time.

And as we said, he honored truly, the hell out of it and held them up for a long time. So, I mean, it kind of inadvertently also helped Okina Vessel because they just sort off up their own. But yeah, it was a great race by both both Williams drivers, which we've not said that for a long time. Yeah, fantastic. Let's start with George Russell here. George Russell, I feel like this entire race was almost like he had decided to print off his CV and stick it with a sticking note on the Seagy's door and Toto Woolf's door. and go, look, I'm going to write my CV for you on this racetrack today. Good race start, tick.

Advantageous when there are issues going on around me. Tick. Understanding the tire situation that Lewis Hamilton can't. Tick. willing to literally sacrifice my entire, what felt like career with how desperate he was in his voice to make sure that my teammate is able to have success and the team can go further. Tick. Able to go round the outside to battle wheel to wheel to make fantastic overtakes.

It was a really, really great race for George Russell, who somehow, like we just said there, still managed to finish behind Nicholas the Tifi, who I feel like had a comparatively quite quiet Grand Prix. He was just defending brilliantly the entire time. He's defending so well that not really, anyone got close to him. I think the Alpha Tauri guys managed to slip past him. And after that, he was kind of playing sailing. He was able to, because motor on, keep things consistent. So, for me, after Valtrey Bottas has one of his worst starts to a race ever, I think actually there was a stat that came out of the conference box, which is surprising from Crofty,

that Valtry Bottas has never DNFed through contact on lap one. And that happened today, which is a pretty crazy stat if ringing true, and I've remembered that properly. I saw another stat that, and it came up after lap 20 or something, that Ocon, he'd led 19 laps, and that was more than Bottas done all season. So, wow.

Okay. If you're looking for damning statistics from the resident, Stadman, I'm sure Ben will bring some to the next podcast because the stuff that we've remembered alone is pretty damning. So in a race that saw Botass look absolutely shocking. George Russell, I think, did absolutely everything he needs to do to go, look, I'm where your future is now. I can bring home consistency. I can deliver on a difficult day. So I think that's great from George Russell.

I think it'll be a little bit, I don't know, I think part of him will be a tiny amount bitter. that Latifi has now scored more points to him after George Russell's one never been out qualified by him, he's regularly finishing in front of him. The same with what happened with Robert Kibitsa, right? Very, very difficult to swallow. But at the same time, you know that George Russell was the kind of bloke that we'll walk back into that garage and be so happy for the team that he's driven for now and go, look, we're getting somewhere. This was a really, really good weekend for us. Let's talk about Latifi on the other side of the garage. Latifi, again, was advantage of a very tricky situation, kept his car out of trouble, and there's been a lot of rumors around what Latifi

is going to be doing for the 2022 season. Has he got, does he done enough to keep that William's seat? Has he got what it takes to be a long-term F-1 driver? And a lot of people were suggesting that, you know, Bottas would theoretically take Russell's seat, Russell would take Bottas's seat, and that maybe Ghazley or Holkenberg or numerous other youngsters might filter into that William's seat. But if Latifi can carry on with similar form, you can show that he can compete with Russell, on a regular basis. If he can deliver strong results, not necessarily always in the points,

you know, Williams aren't always expected to finish in the points, but be present, be strong, put up a good fight like that, then what's to say that Latifi can't go on to deliver another couple of seasons of driving for Williams,

who are a team on the up, it feels like. So I think this is very, very positive for Latifi. Do you know what it was? It was the fact that he had a tank everyone on the weekend that's done it. That's it.

I reckon what's happened is Bottas has looked in his wing mirrors. at the start of the racing going, is that Latifian a tank? Oh God, I need to get away and he's forgotten to break and then Natifi's just cruised on through. He's the battering ram.

Literally just, it's like that image is just popped into his head. The moment he's supposed to hit the brake, he's like, oh my God, a tank. Latifi in a tank. The Maple Man is coming for me. The Maple Man! Yeah, no, really pleased.

Really pleased for Williams. A lot of teams, out there that deserve a good result, but I don't think anyone more so than Williams deserve a bit of reprise, a bit of a break, a success story for them. So absolutely fantastic. Right, final thing that we're going to discuss for the podcast, we'll let you get back on with you, the rest of your day, folks, we don't want to keep you listening to our voices forever, is that after this bizarre Grand Prix, and after Lewis Hamilton probably threw away a race wing, and after Valtra Bottas gave, Ineversely the biggest team assists that he could, with Maxa Sappen,

only scoring one point in that absolute. ruined Red Bull, which, by the way, was quite impressive on a track like this. Hamilton now leads by six points going into the summer break, which is, I don't think anyone would have really predicted that after the recent form that we've had, after how strong Max is being, after how successful the Red Bull team have been, but they do. Mercedes-lead of the Constructors on Hamilton is now six points clear going to the summer break with Belgium, Mercedes-Hunging ground pretty much, coming after the summer break. Harry, what does this mean for the championship?

Has this swung back into Mercedes and Hamilton's favour? you say that Red Bull are still theoretically the favourites to go on and win this as they probably have the stronger machinery so far yeah i mean it's in the Mercedes favour again surely now with with you know they have it's not massive lead but it's a it's a lead um i i think yeah it's going to be i mean we've got a whole summer break for people to make upgrades to their cars but uh the stappen's now on his third uh engine power unit which is also going to be an issue, I think later down the line. But the Mercedes just from Silverstone has looked quick, quicker, slightly quicker than the Red Bull,

you'd have to say. I mean, very close, but the Red Bull advantage they had in France and Austria doesn't seem to be there anymore. And I don't think the Red Bulls got slower. I think Mercedes just improved their car. So, yeah, it's a tricky one. I mean, how, what, in terms of a disastrous two weeks, Red Bull have had, it's up there. It's not been, and expensive.

It's been a disaster story and very expensive. So, yeah, look, it's far from over. And, you know, I think we said the same thing when Mercedes fell behind Red Bull a few races ago. And things, so much can happen in F1. And as Murray Walker used to say, it often does. And it's been proved in the past two weeks that Leads that Vastap and Red Bull had looked very ominous,

and now it's gone, evaporated in a space of two races. so yeah it's definitely back in Hamilton and Mercedes court and we know how good Hamilton is in the back end of a season it's not what Rebel wanted to do or Rebel wanted at all but you know I don't see Vastappen I see Vestappen in the same vein as Hamilton where he doesn't need momentum to be quick to be quick in a car so it's you know

it's damaging but it's not it's not the end of the world for Vestappen and I think he'll still be on for when we get to Belgium. So in terms of constructors, that might be more difficult, although if Perez and Bottas just keep wiping each other out then who knows what will happen there. But yeah, I think the driver's championship still on.

It's only a six point gap, I think. So I don't know it was an eight point gap the other way around going into the weekend, but it's still not a huge amount. So there's a race win for Vestappen, Hamilton, and second, and Vestappen takes a lead again. So it's far from over, but, you know, it's definitely advantage.

advantage Hamilton and Mercedes for the time being. Yeah, we've essentially reset the championship back to race one, where obviously Hamilton just scraped across the line in front of Vastappen, and there was a six-point gap due to the difference of a racing of fastest lap, essentially. Now, if I've done my research correctly, which folks I probably haven't, so apologies, but just humor me on this fun little journey I'm about to take you on. At one point, the championship gap between Hamilton and Vastappen was 33 points, which of course is the race number of Max Vastappen.

Another point in the championship, once it had swung, a championship gap was 44 points the other way, which of course is the race number of Lewis Hamilton. If you were to add those two leagues together, what number do you get? That's race number 77, and who drives number 77, folks? That, of course, is Valtry Bottas? So, is it rumoured that Valtry Bottas could come back and steal this championship, or is Valtry Bottas going to be the key point? Who knows?

The point I'm making, though, in terms of those levels of consistency, is that the championship has won massively, and there is something I believe that Hamilton has that the Stappan currently, and I don't think this is through fault of his own, currently doesn't have, and that is consistency. Lewis Hamilton will regularly be able to just finish on the podium. Time and time and time and time again. Has a bad race, podium finish anyway.

Has an awful race, podium finish. Get a penalty, podium finish, win, podium finish, wing. Max Verstappen, awful tire blowout. A big tire blowout, folks, y-hoo. down in Baku. You know, Silverstone, it might, sorry, it might have been different

for if it was the other way around. Hamilton maybe would have recovered, maybe we'll hit the wall. You know, we've seen instances that are similar, like a couple of years ago where Hamilton got taken out in the first corner of Silverstone

pulled it back for a second place. Unfortunately, these things do happen to drivers, and for Stapham has just been way worse off with the way it's affected him. And now again, at the Hungara Ring, taking out through no fault of his own, was just a collision ornament, essentially on this silly crash that Bottas had put himself on.

He was basically a really lovely red and blue vase, and Valtry Bottas was a big bull in a china shop that was painting in red ball colours. Max thoroughly got trampled on, unfortunately. But the point I'm making here is, Hamilton has been able to, for the most part, avoid these issues, whether they be his own fault, something else's fault. Hamilton is very good at not getting involved in this level of carnage.

He's not been perfect, but Verstappan has definitely come off worse for wear. Harry, you brought up a minute ago that the engine issue for Red Bull and for the Staffen might be a problem. It took an absolute clustering, of course, in Silverstone. They've used it again here in Hungary. There might be some underlying damage there as well. You never know where a penalty is going to strike. It could come out a race such as, I know it's not necessarily going to happen, but Singapore, for example, where overtaking is very, very difficult.

We have got track like that that are going to come up later on. You get got back five or six places due to a parts change, as a minimum. It's going to be very, very difficult. Let's say it happens at Sao Paulo, where, you know, you can't. overtake anywhere necessarily with the start finish straight. What happens if the staffer finishes in fifth and Hamilton goes on to win? That could be the difference in this overall championship. The Staffen needs to find that level of consistency if he is going to take this all the way

to the end that Hamilton has. And what we saw happened to Vettel. Vettel and that Ferrari in 2018, 2017 could not carry on the attack that they started the year with. Is the same thing happening here? Obviously, we can't predict the future. We can't see who's going to go on a win. If we could, we have a lot more money than we do.

we don't have a lot. So yeah, you know, we don't know what's going to happen, of course. It still definitely swings a roundabouts. It could go either way. And as you said, Harry, one race wing and one second place could flip it back again. It could be back to zero points for all we know come the next race in Belgium, which would be fantastic to have ten races where both drivers are on exactly the same points. I don't remember the last time that happened, maybe all the way back in the likes of 2012 territory.

But this was a pretty crazy, crazy race. Harry, you got anything to add before we decide to Vanlos, as Carlos Sites might say. I mean, only thing I need to add is that I'm, I don't normally say this, but I'm kind of glad we've got the summer break, because I think I need the entire four weeks to digest what just happened. It still doesn't feel real, and I'm exhausted. Yeah, I'm knackered. Yeah, I mean, F12121 is some crazy, crazy nuts.

I don't know what is going on. hashtag crazy nuts is the way we're going to describe this season so far which i love um for the summer break folks you'll find me dressed as estabang o'con running around london with my arms above my head desperately looking for a podium to uh to find who knows when i'll find it and you'll find harry running around the south uh probably looking for a portal who dresses asston martin uh it's sebastian betel there you know asking martin colors who knows it might happen the rung is endless possibly um folks we're going to leave you there we hope you've been enjoyed the Hungarian Grand Prix. We definitely did. Thank you for

tuning in for listening. Hit the old follow button if you've enjoyed. You know, we're coming out with plenty of stuff across the summer break. We'll have a podcast for you every single week and then we will be back of course for Spa at the end of August. Join the Discord if you want to chat to us more. And you can send us topics and stuff to talk about as well because I'm sure crazy season in terms of transfers is going to hot up very much so into the next few weeks. Harry, you want to say goodbye? Bye-bye. We haven't got the same flow with only two of us It doesn't like how do we do how do we do this

Anyway we'll do this on air So Sam you go first and I'll go second Okay in the meantime I've been Samuel Seid And I've been Harry E And remember Keep breaking late Stop it

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