The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Perez wins chaotic race in Baku and championship contenders fail to score! | 2021 Azerbaijan GP Review | Episode 124

Episode Date: June 6, 2021

Where do we start with that race?! Sergio Perez led home Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly after a crazy race in Baku - the boys break down all the talking points from the Grand Prix.Tweet us @LBrakingMake 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 well welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast, reviewing the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Carnage was of course expected and in one form or another, that's exactly what we got. Max Verstappen for all the world, looking like a certainty for the win, and then a few laps from the end, only to suffer a entire failure as he goes down the start, finish straight. It wasn't the only time that happened in the race as well.

Lance Stroll suffered the same fate. So we're definitely going to be getting on to that in a little bit. But guys, Mustafa, Hamilton, Bottas, no points between them, fully expected. Neil Poir, just like England at Eurovision, you're going expecting nothing and you come out with nothing. It's exactly the same. I'm sure they were satisfied and expected with that result. Yeah, I mean, when was the last time of that? They didn't score, those three didn't score points.

I mean, at least it's like consistent, because it's always those three on the podium. And when something bad happens, it's all three of them not on the podium. So to do it as a trio every time. That's how it works. It's nice that the championship fight is just kind of gone, we'll just pause.

Yeah. And then next time, play. Good. As I said before, we started recording, it hasn't paused. Kimmy Reichenen is one point closer to the championship lead. The comeback is on, ladies and gents. Watch and see how it manifests throughout the second half of this season.

Maybe not. Maybe not. Anyway, we will of course be discussing Sergio Perez's first race win for Red Bull and his second career win as a whole. Like London buses, aren't they? You go 10 years without a win and then two come along in the space of about five months. Absolutely love it. So we'll be discussing that, of course.

course, we'll also be discussing Valtrey Bottas, not a good race for him whatsoever. So no points at all for the Mercedes in their Constructors' Championship fight. And Sebastian Vettel, second place, his first podium for the team, first podium of the year, of course. So we'll be discussing that. But first of all, the Pirelli tyres. Max Verstappen, of course, suffered a tire blowout as he was going down the start, finish, straight, a few laps from the end of the Grand Prix.

if Red Bullard be to be trusted, no reason not to there was no warning that that was going to happen and it was eerily similar to what happened to Lance Stroll earlier on in the Grand Prix as he was going down the start-finished straight. One of his rear tyres blew out and he hit the wall.

So what needs to happen here Sam? I mean if I could be on the fly on the wall for Pirelli when they were discussing this, I'd love to see what was going on. There's very much a tale of two sides, I feel like. I feel like when something happens like this to one drive, which it did happen to Lank, stroll first off, you think your initial reaction might be, oh, hang on a minute, this came out of nowhere. There was no debris. The team was saying there was nothing wrong with the tire.

There was no warning. And at 200 miles an hour, a driver down a straight line goes into a wall. That's worrying. Maybe we should look into what's going on there. Maybe for the safety of our race, decide to pit our driver. Of course, one, this is racing. Everyone wants to win. And why would you want to give an advantage

to someone who's behind you who might not make that decision? Of course, no one decided to do that. And Red Bull went ahead and made that decision with Max Bostaffan. They didn't bring him in. And Bostaffan was the one that paid the price. Fortunately, it's not coming at any cost

to his championship race. But this is, majority of my opinion, this is on Porelli. I am all for softer tires. I am all for more pit stops. I am all for more varied strategies. But we cannot have a race situation where a driver is doing upwards of 200

miles an hour with concrete walls either side of them and there is a risk that that tire could blow out without warning. I mean it almost feels like it's ironic that this has come on the passing of Max Mosley. We had that awful loss of Formula One

where two greats of Formula One have disappeared, Max Mosley being one of them of course who was such a veteran and such an advocate for Formula One safety, controversial man, but he did a lot for Formula One safety and we've had a massive Formula One safety question today. What is going on up really that means that these tyres, without warning,

have blown on two different cars, resulting in two, 200-mile-hour crashes. There could have been life-threatening. You never know what could have gone wrong. We could have had an airplane crash coming down that straight. Yes, teams could have pitted. But this is racing. You don't throw away that advantage. This falls onto the safety of the tyre.

I want more degradation. I want more pit stops. I want more variation. But I do not want to have this safety factor throwing in. If a tyre is going to go, it needs to be a more safely deflating, structured way that means that cars can run that tyre back to the pit stop and make a strategy court or a change. It can't happen like this again.

It can happen in an awful way and we could see some real incidents happen. We were lucky that both drivers walked away as they did. What do you thoughts, Harry? Yeah, I mean, it's ironic, isn't it? Because we were literally talking about softer ties on the preview podcast with Alonzo saying they should have do a special street circuit. tire. And we said at the time, obviously, we like softer tires because it creates more strategies. But yeah, you can't sacrifice that if, you know, it's something about the tire.

They're going, you know, so fast, you know, down that main straight, a Baku. And there must be some, some stress in that tire that they're soft. I mean, there was the hardest tire that was going, to be honest. None of the soft ties went, maybe they didn't take them as far. But, yeah, something about the softer range of tires. Because, Pirelli, to, you know, to be on Paredi side a bit, they haven't, this doesn't happen often. We had it at Silverson a few years ago. We had it at Silverston last year.

But often, yeah, most of the time, it's all fine. But, yeah, as Sam said, it can't, it can't happen again, especially at a track like Baku, because if there are another, you know, luckily for the Stap and the stroll, they weren't near anyone, but if, you know, what if there was side-by-side action, three-wide, as we have seen there,

that would have been an aeroplane crash. And, yeah, we're lucky that they were, fine. So yeah, I'm sure there'll be a massive investigation. Should they have not brought those softer tires? I guess in hindsight, yes, they should have brought the same tires they had if a structural integrity wasn't going to hold up. But yeah, it's not something we want to see again. I'm sure Pirelli will be doing a thorough investigation into it. Yeah, I mean, the first thing from me and Sam, you've already sort of reference this is that this can't happen. Very simply put, you can't have cars going 200

miles an hour and at any one moment in time for the tire to just absolutely go because it's far too dangerous. And a full scale investigation needs to happen. Regardless of who ends up being to blame, if anyone ends up being to blame, there needs to be a full scale investigation as to why this happened on both of those cars and what they're going to do about it, what Pirelli are going to do about it, what F1 are going to do about it going forward. Those are the things that we need to find out who's to blame, what went wrong, and how do we take that forward?

If we look back at, you know, Pirelli have had a bit of an up and down history when it comes to F1, particularly in this era. You know, they've been the sole tire provider for, well, over 10 years now. I get it about a dozen years, yeah. Yeah, yeah, so it's been quite a long time. And if you think back to, and I can't remember if it was their debut season in 2011 or if it was maybe a year or two after that, you remember there was a very big episode about the tires at the beginning of one of those seasons.

Forgive me, I can't remember which year it was. But essentially they were having these tire blowouts nearly every single race. and there were a few each time, which was a real problem, and they ended up fixing that, of course. As you mentioned, Harry, this is an isolated incident, really, if you have to go back to Silverstone

for the last time that this happened, which makes me curious and doesn't make me immediately want to blame everything at Pirelli's feet and say that the tyres are to blame. It seems suspect that this is the only Grand Prix where this has happened. So in this full,

scale investigation, not only do I think that Pirelli should be looked at and what they've done, but also the Azerbaijan circuit itself and whether there's something there at play. And they just need to find out essentially what went wrong because this is something that's unacceptable and can't happen. I don't honestly think it is going to be to do with the softness of the tyres. Because what's perhaps most odd about this is it's not as if the tires started on a certain level of performance. They, you know, lap times went slower and slower and slower through the stints. They were getting high levels of wear and then boom.

That didn't happen. The hard tyres in terms of pace were fairly good all the way throughout the stint. Even when, you know, Max Verstappen, his tire went, when Lance Strolled tires, you know, there wasn't drop off in pace. They were still going very quickly, which again makes it all the more confusing because you would expect, you know, if the tires were ready to go at any moment, they'd be lapping significantly slower than what the other cars around them were. Strohl wasn't having any issues from the likes of Gazley behind him when he went,

and Max Verstappen was pumping in fastest laps not too long before his tyre went. So it seems strange. So I don't seem, so based on that, I'm not certain this is to do with the tyre softness. I'm not sure this is to do with tire wear. It's got to be something else. And, you know, I don't want to, I don't want to guess too much as to what it would be. I would rather the investigation go ahead, and that will confirm and deny things as to what went wrong here.

But it seems very odd from the outset what's happened. And we've seen quite a lot of teams, I've seen a lot of teams, a lot of people suggest that the teams are to blame here. Maybe they should have pit. Sam, you've already mentioned this. Do you think that there is a responsibility on the teams here as well as the likes of Porelli and Formula One as a whole?

Well, the first thing I want to start off with with talking about this, because I think it is a valid question to ask whether it's the right answer and I think it is a valid question. There is some onus on teams to take responsibility for the safety of their drivers and the car. We need to remember that that hard tyre for this race has been the soft tire for many other races

and we've not seen this happen anywhere else, especially it tracks with higher load. This was the soft tire technically for Catalania, for example, and it went longer at Catalonia with higher low corners and we did not see this happen. So there was something that went on here at Baku that was isolated that we haven't seen at other tracks. Now, we asked this question on Twitter.

If you're not following us on Twitter, at L Break and get down there, we always ask these kind of questions, especially around race weekends. And we asked, folks, what are your opinions on the tyres and the Porelli situation? We're discussing at the Race Review podcast, which you're listening to right now. Thank you. I've got a really interesting mix of answers. Some great usernames, by the way, in this. So if you hear yourself called out, thank you for your great usernames.

One big thick seagull, Evan, thank you. You simply replied with a farcicle. You think the whole situation is farcical, which is really interesting. Especially with that name. You can't call anything farcical that name, can you? I mean, that tells you just how farcical it must be for a thick seagull to think it is far. Fabian, At Cook underscore 21. You replied here with Pirelli did nothing wrong with the tyres.

It's the same story as Silverstone last year. If the teams want to push the tyres too far to the point they explode, then that's on them, putting their own drivers at risk, not Pirelli, which is really interesting. but then we've got people like John Doe, never know who he is, of course, the mystery John Doe. Pirelli are not to blame how the teams use of use their tyres. If you want to blame Porelli, give them a decision on when to pit each driver. Don't let teams decide.

But then you've got the other side. Max Richmond, for example, has said here, two crashes over 190 miles on hour duty tire failures. Hard to say it's anything but a disaster for Porelli, especially when you take into account the tyre age versus expected tire life has been completely ruled out. Porelli at the start of the race did say that these tires can go 40 laps around. and coincidentally, scroll and Vestappan, around the 30 lap mark, both lost their tyre. So yes, I do feel like once one has happened, you do need to take into account that maybe you should look after your driver. But I say it at the start.

This is racing. We are competitive. You do not want to give advantage to a competitor, especially if you're Vestappan or you're Hamilton. What if that throws away 15 points? Of course, in the end, it doesn't matter, as we know in hindsight. But if that throws away 15 points, and we get to the end of the season, and that 15 point gap that you, gave away because of this one decision is what wins or loses you a title. You can't

do that. You can't make that choice. You need to know that what you're driving on is safe. And I just think that in ideal world the teams would be able to make that call, but they can't. They want to be as successful as possible. It is on Porelli to guarantee safety, even in the event of a failure, that we will not have a reaction like this.

We've seen failures happen before. With a time, more spirals out of control, it rips bodywork apart. Robert does like to flare around a little bit. But as with Hamilton at Silverstone, was able to get the car around the track across the line without any damage to his health, overall to the risk of other people. He got the car safely across the line. Yes, the tie was a bit messy, but he did it. Whereas here, the staff and stroll could have resulted in possibly life-threatening incidents to both themselves, spectators, marshals, and other drivers. So I think

Porelli definitely need to investigate here. It's definitely not a kind of one-box tix all. Something went wrong here that hasn't happened previously, and it needs to be looked into. What are your thoughts, are you, in terms of the teams and what part they play in this? I think the team and Sam, I was going to pick up on that point about the expected tire life. The teams will always push that number. But they didn't even get to the number that Pirelli advised. So that's a worry for Porelli to start with. So I don't think you can particularly blame the teams for taking it too far.

And I had this conversation with my dad, actually, and he was saying that they were being stupid, i.e. the teams. because they were taking it too far. But I don't think that's correct because they weren't taking, well, they hadn't taken it at that point further than Pirelli recommended. So, yeah, that's a worry for Porelli there. And I think, you know, in future,

is the onus on Porelli to make it like a, not just a recommendation or like an expectation, make it you cannot do more than these amount of laps on these tires. I don't know. But yeah, I don't think that you can, for this, event, I don't think, well, personally, I don't think you can blame the teams because they hadn't actually gone further than Pirelli-Telton do. So, yeah, on this occasion, we've seen

it before where you can blame the teams, where they've gone too far and a tyre has failed. And, you know, Pirelli will go, well, we told you. Don't go that far. So, but this wasn't the case. So, yeah, I'm not sure too much blame can be placed on either Aston Martens or Red Bulls doorstep there. I'm 100% with you, Harry. I appreciate that the teams definitely have a level of responsibility when it comes to their drivers and their cars. And there should always be a monitoring of where they're at. And that should of course happen very generally.

But looking at this situation specifically, you're right. They weren't even at the amount where Pirelli said they were. And Porelli are the tire providers. Pirelli are the tire experts. And as a result of that, the team should trust everything that Porelli said. and if anything happens within the window that Porelli says is fine, then blame or questioning at least comes at the doorstep of Pirelli, not the teams.

And I think as soon as you go outside of that window, if Porelli set a 40-lap limit on these tyres, and the second they go over that 40-lap limit and they go to 41 or 45 laps and something happens, you haven't gone with the experts, you've gone against them, you've tried to push it. And that's your decision. and that's yours to take, but also accept the consequences if it happens.

But that isn't what happened here. They were well within what Pirelli said. Pirelli, see, I can't remember exactly the numbers, but it was looking at about 15 laps or so on the soft tires with about 36 or so on the hards. Of course, there's a few laps difference. You can't expect them to be deadly accurate to that degree. But they were using the strategy that Porelli said, this is probably what you should use.

So with that in mind, I can't put any blame at either of the teams here. They were doing exactly what the tire expert says. You wouldn't doubt, you know, your doctor in a situation concerning health. They are the experts when it comes to health. Therefore, you trust every word they say in the same way that you should trust the tire providers and the tire experts here. So, yeah, I don't put any blame on the teams for this one at all.

And really, either Porelli need to, well, I think Porelli need to look at their tires regardless, but maybe they also need to look at the estimates that they're giving in terms of how far those tires can last. Because, you know, realistically, if they give a 40, let's say they give a 40 lap life expectancy on a tire, there should also be a bit of buffer in there as well, in that they shouldn't be fairly confident that if they go to 41 laps, it will go to boom. Like they should have some sort of leniency as well. So I don't know. Maybe they got their estimates completely wrong. You know, maybe because they sent different tyres this time out compared to 2019.

It has been two years since we've been to this circuit. Maybe that's related to this. Maybe that's why their estimates were out. But because it's a matter of such importance, you know, these estimates, these teams rely on these estimates to go as long into stints as, they do. And when it goes wrong, we've seen what happens today. Big crashes, fortunately, neither of them were injured. But, you know, if that happens on another day, maybe we don't get the same situation. So it's important they get this right. It's important they take a look at this,

really. Let's look at our driver of the day before we get into the likes of the Perez win and the Vettel podium. We'll get onto all that in a little bit. But driver of the day, who have you got some? I mean, how can't it not be Sebastian Vetter? The man is back. For all those people that said that he was overrated, up your tailpipes, folks. He's back. Four-time world champion, he's here.

What a drive in that Aston Martin, the car that was not pegged to be even close to a front runner. He does a Ferrari, he does Gasly. Hamilton's deciding to drive to the next race because he's adding up already. And in comes Sebastian Vetter with a lovely number two. Second place that is, folks. Get your mind out the gutter. sick of it. I mean, the guy does a fantastic job. He might have done that as well.

He might have been, oh my God, what's going on? I might have packed myself also. Anyway, Sebi Vett, you love to see it. The guy did such a consistent drive that a massive overcut on the hard tire works fantastically well. We even joked on our little, of course, we always talked through the race as we have to do because we can't stop getting out of each other. But we're saying, oh, it's good to see Sebi Vett trailing the old Lance stroll strategy of just never coming into Pitt. It actually worked. It was well delivered.

The tyres held out for him, and they pulled off for the right time. Then, of course, we had all the incidents, which then played into the favour even more. But it's all about maximising what's coming your way. Sebi Vett showed expertise. He showed good tyre management, and he was ruthless to the right level. And there was no spinning tops. Sebivet delivered, whether he needed to do. I'm so happy to see it.

It feels like he's got that fight back. And it's great to see Aston Martin up there. Their first programme is Aston Martin, you know, since they've had the game change. Brilliant stuff. Love it. Seby Vett, driver of the day. Driver of the day for you, Harry. I, too, I'm going to go for Sebivet.

A couple of shoutouts for Sergio Perez, because yesterday wasn't amazing for him, but his pace today was insane. And I was watching Christian Horner on Sky just before we started recording. And he was saying he went a bit long in his pit box, and he said that's why he had a slightly slower stop. And he thought that if he hadn't done that,

he would have jumped Vostappen out of the pits, which would have been an upset. Obviously, he didn't matter in the end. But, yeah, Pado Perez is great. Who was the other one? I was going to shout out. Can't remember. This wasn't for Drive the Day,

but Alonzo on the restart, second restart was just... Ooh. It just appeared in sixth place. Yeah, I've watched... Someone posted it on Twitter, the onboard, and it's just, yeah, Alonzo doing Alonzo things. But, yeah, for me, I'm going for Vettel because a bit of luck involved.

But he, yeah, he... Yeah, his, again, as Sam said, that first stint where he was doing a Lance Strollstrat, his pace was mighty. And when Vestapp and Hamilton Perez came out of the pit behind him on the fresh tires, didn't really catch him that quickly. He was, even though they had the fresh hard tires, and he was on old soft. So, yeah, I thought he had some mighty pace and some, yeah, clinical moves when he needed to. So, yeah, Sebi Vectomy for me.

It was good to see him back on there. It's a hat trick for Sebby Vett. I'm going to give it to him as well. I mean, yeah, he was great. And I'm not going to say that Sebastian Vettel is back because this is a guy who won four consecutive world championships. He's going to need to deliver a few more results before I confess that he's back fully. But these are encouraging signs these last two races, definitely. He is at least getting there.

And I think he just, I'm not sure if the plan, you know, he qualified 11th. So he started on the fresh soft tires rather than the use soft tires of those in the top 10. So I'm not quite sure what his strategy was from the outset. But he was able to essentially use the information that he was getting on track, or at least the team were able to use the information to make him go much longer. Because we actually saw that the undercut, much like Monaco, was not effective. And actually it was the overcut that was working better. We saw Alonzo come in very early.

He was overcut when he came. He was overcut by someone. I can remember who off the top of my head. We saw that Perez, obviously, without that, even with that slow stop, managed to do the overcut on Lewis Hamilton. There might have been one or two others. I think Ghazley, Gazley got the overcut on Leclair.

So there was the overcut happening really well for all of these guys. And I think Aston Martin kind of just sat there like, these guys are pitting really early. I don't really know why, to be honest. it's not really working for them. Should we just keep going for a bit? Yeah, all right then. Let's keep going. And it worked very well. You know, Sebastian Vettel came out. And to be fair, I think Lance Stroll, it would have worked out very well for him as well, considering he started on the back row. So, yeah, Vettel delivered a great performance. There seemed like a time where he might be able to

threaten. Obviously, it doesn't matter in the end, but threaten Lewis Hamilton. But yeah, yeah, he showed good pace on that second stint as well. this is this is much much better he's starting to get used to the car now he threatened him so much that Hamilton didn't go I can turn some magic off and he just disappearing off the tracks tell me that he's a scary person to have behind you maybe he just thought that Vettel was going to pull alongside him again yeah oh not for cats again sir please all right worst driver of the day who've you got sam uh... Valky Botta's dangle duskin move on

I've got seriously that was I know his car spec wasn't great. It wasn't the same as Lewis. But what is the difference between those two cars? What has happened between Monaco, where he was up there for a podium and Baku? And they've changed, from what I've heard, obviously I've got on Mercedes-Engineer, something to do with the rear wing. And all of a sudden, the guy is struggling to beat the Williams cars,

and there are only three drivers behind him in the entire race. He can't get past anyone. He beat his team, mate. Oh, don't give me that. He beat his teammate, he was great. I want to hear that rubbish. This might be, and I've said that Valtrey Bottas won't win again this season, I stand by that. But I do think this could be the downfall of Bottas.

This has been a horrible, horrid weekend for Vowdy Bottas. Every race that goes by that he doesn't win, your prediction comes closer and close to being true. It's awful. It's very worrying, isn't it? It is very worrying. We still got a lot of races to go. We'll be fine. But I'm starting to feel less fine.

And we will get onto Valtry Bottas a bit more in a bit. But Harry, who's your worst driver than I? Yeah, there were no bodies, like not even a sign of any bodies today. Yeah, I think some of it is definitely down to the two. They went two different ways on the setup. And I think Bottas have the higher downforce setting. I mean, that doesn't explain the complete massive gap that in Pacey had Hamilton. And in Venice, Mercedes had been struggling all weekend.

But even if Hamilton was struggling, Bottas were struggling even more, didn't matter what session we were in. So, yeah, just a horrendous weekend for him. And, yeah, everyone just seemed to go past him, especially at the safety car restart. Yeah, not even close. I also realized that Mazepin finished in front of Hamilton. That may be the first and only time that happens.

But there you go. I think there could become a regular thing. Maybe not. As it was a hat trick for Sebastian Ovetel, it is also a hat trick for Valtry Bottas, I'm afraid, although not in the same positive way. I won't labour the point for too much because we are going to talk about him in a little bit.

But I will just say this. I think that was Valtry Bottas' worst race in a Mercedes in terms of pace. Not in terms of the result as well, really, but just in terms of pure pace, he was nowhere. At least on races where he's not there with Lewis Hamilton,

he's usually there in qualifying. And I know he didn't get the second run, but no one did. He wasn't even there in qualifying. So, yeah, this was a bad, bad race for Bossus. Moment of the race for you, Sam. There were many, to be fair. None before maybe lap 12 to 15.

because it was a slow burner and then it really turned into a big of a firecracker but I'm going to actually hark back to the restart for Mr Fernando Alonso and I feel like you know old Nando if you were to take your loved one or a friend Tengando's I reckon they need to on the spice scale

Levin and Herb of course at the start they can simply make one called Fernandos at the end there because if you want to have an absolutely spicy meal chuck on a bit of Alonso and you know it's going to get hot you know it's going to be spicy and that man just delivering There's pure spies. It was good to see him back.

And also, also in Betel, having a little cuddle at the end. I love seeing that. Awesome. Oh, it's 2013 again. I enjoyed it. So for me,

that was brilliant. It was really enjoyable. Do you think that was just Alonzo's experience kicking into the point where he was going backwards all race and he was just there the entire time? You know what? It doesn't matter.

This is Baku. Something crazy is going to happen at the end. It doesn't matter. I'll be there and I'll just overtake people on a restart with three laps to go. Easy. Along also has this ability to just be like,

go on then, let's have you. And I imagine that if he was in like a pub fight, he'd be like, here we go, then last win, last song of the night,

come on. And I just feel like he would just come out on top just because he's a bit crazy, crazy, crazy, Frando. I love him. It was great.

I'd like to have Alonzo's. Alonzo would have you back in a fight, wouldn't he? Oh, yeah. He would never let you down. He would never let you down. Three of us, of course, notorious scrappers.

Anyway, moment of the race, what we got, Harry? What have I got? I'm going to go for, it's going to be Vastappen's tie blowout. Because from there on in, I think that, you know, the championship standing swung back and forth quite a few times. You know, Vastappers out, Hampton's going to take at least 18, maybe 25. Then it looked like 25 for about a second. and then it was taking none and then Red Bull thought the Perra's going to take 25

but then he almost didn't take 25 so I think from that point on the carnage was crazy but yeah it was that'll be the shot on the front pages tomorrow probably so yeah that's the that's the one for me honestly I think the

this will decide the championship and it goes in one way or the other I think people should just give up with that it's a long season it's going to go as we like to say back and forth several times Nice. Just let it happen.

One thing isn't going to decide the championship. This is going to keep going. Also, not to make light of quite a scary safety situation with the tire blowout, but I have wanted to say, Yoohoo, big tire blowout from Frozen about 20 times since it's happened. Every time you guys say tire blowout, I've just wanted to go, yuh, big tire blowout. I've said it now.

So there, good. I can breathe. It's finally out. It's all way off his shoulders. It really is. Well, I'm glad we could do that for you, Sam. Cheers. My moment of the...

I'm going to cheat for my moment of the race. I apologize. I know this is a very important category we give out, but I am going to cheat here. Because I'm not going to pick a moment from the race per se. I'm going to pick a moment from qualifying because I still don't think Yuki Sonoda has started breaking for turn three yet. Honestly, I mean, we are late breaking, but we're not no breaking. Come on, Yuki. I just thought, I thought that was fast.

It's just, I didn't think he was going to stop. Wasn't even close to stopping, was he? I hate to break it to you. You can't go around the corner at 200. I'd love to tell you otherwise. You can't break it to him. You can't break it to him. I just understand the word break.

Oh. And then he's so much, sorry, so much so that signs saw it and just completely papped himself and like fell off the road. Like, what has this happened? Where have you gone, Yuki? It's like, well, Yeah, that's the 200 break. Oh, okay, you've actually reached the corner now.

Do you just want to think about it? Do you want to? I thought that was brilliant. And I can say that because he recovered with a fantastic race. And, well, actually, he recovered with a fantastic race to the point where he finished inside the top seven, which means that both Alpha Taurys were inside the top seven. Oh, no. Which means, oh, what does that mean?

I think that means. I'm going to stop being bold and start being right. for him watching them be vitally. Oh, well, if we weren't going to try and get this out as fast as possible after the race, I would say, Harry, roll back the tape when Sam said that that was a bold call on Wednesday. All right. You called it. It's the least bold of the three.

That's what I'm going for next time. I was right. You were wrong. Ha ha. All right. Let's move on to Sergio Perez, of course, taking his second career win, his first. first win in the Red Bull. First time, someone who isn't called Max Verstappen has taken a win for Red Bull since

the Monaco Grand Prix of 2018, so give a take three years. It's been a long time. He was helped, obviously, by Max Verstappen, his tire going out towards the end of the Grand Prix. He overcut Lewis Hamilton earlier in the race, so recovered from just a P6 on the grid to take the win. Sam, do you think that this was a bit of a transformational weekend for him? and do you think this is the first weekend of the old Sergio Perez, almost? Yeah, I mean, I'm going to start with a little disclaimer.

I don't think this was perfect from Sergio Perez. There were still mistakes in there that I feel like he got away with. For example, going along in the pit box meant that he couldn't jump Max Verstappen for an actual chance at the race win until the inks happened. He was not great off the restart from the standing starting or jump by Vessel and did get jumped by Hamilton until Hamilton realized that he left the magic on, which I might make a t-shirt of, to be honest. But Sergio Perez, I think, drove,

it's why I didn't give Perez Drive of the Day. And that's why I gave Vessel Drive of the Day. Perez, for me, drove like a 95% race. And I do think, of course, he thoroughly deserved to take home the victory. And I'm glad he did. It was fantastic to see him take his second career victory. But yes, overall, this is what I expected from Sergio Perez,

high-class pace, pushing his teammate to the very end, making tyres last. The guy knows how to drive a race car and he could do it, very, very quickly. This is what I wanted. When I said that Perez was going to beat Bottas in the championship, I think it was going to be close. Ha! Jokes on me once again.

Perez, absolutely flying at the moment now. I think this is going to be a progression. I think we're going to see this start to come in race after race after race. Red Bull have the wingman that they need. Red ball gives you wings. Well, they've got one. They've got a wingman in Sergio Perez. And I do think they can mount a full challenger.

Look, they now leave the Constructors Championship by an absolute furlong. They need Mercedes to really come home with a big one-two in France next time out. And I don't think it's going to happen. I think Rebel are in their stride. Perez has got things going out. And Max, this is unfortunate for Max. This was not Max's fault. Max is really up and going.

So I think those two are a fully potent team. And I think Perez can really start to bring home the results. I would not be shocked if Perez gets two or three, four more wings this season. What do you think, Harry, do you think this was a bit of a turnaround performance? I mean, it's by a mile his best and his most consistent this year, isn't it? We've seen glimpses of it, but not across a whole weekend. I mean, again, as I said, it wasn't perfect quality wasn't great. That first running did in Q3 wasn't great at all.

But, yeah, I think, I don't know whether we can call it transformational, because I think it depends what happens in the next race or so. If that carries on, then, yeah, it's good news for REP. good news for Checo, good news for Red Bull. We saw today how much better it was for Red Bull to have Checo in the mix because it was Hamilton versus two Red Bulls, so they could play with the strategy like Mercedes-Douet to Vestappen or have done for Vestappen on so many occasions.

So, yeah, it was it was, yeah, I said it earlier. His pace was insane in the race. I think that first in particularly. And then, you know, Chekker's been around, long time. But he did have Lewis Hamilton on his gearbox for most of the race. And that's quite intimidating. Especially every time he pulled a gap in the middle sector, Hamilton was like, nope, I'm coming back in the storyline speed. So yeah, it was definitely the Checo we've, we're used to. So I'm hoping that this is, as you say, a transformational weekend remains to be seen.

But it was definitely very like Seb, it was very encouraging to see that kind of performance from him. Yeah, this was a great performance from Sergio Perez, without a doubt, the best that he's had in a Red Bull so far. You're right, Sam, definitely not flawless. You know, he was due to lose out to his teammate. We can't take that away from Max Verstappen. But he was there. And ultimately, that's what Red Bull need.

When something like that happens to Vastappan, they need to know that Sergio Perez is in a very good position to either win the race instead of Max, or at least be in second or third, which he was. So fair play to him. He drove a really good race and he got the first lap that he needed. He was frustrated after qualifying and I think rightly so because he did have that pace. He's had a few if he qualifying so far this season

but it's almost been as if yeah, that's about where his pace is. So it's not overly gutting on the day. Whereas yesterday I feel as if he probably felt he did have a chance at the front row of the grid. And he was able to recover to the point where that became somewhat obsolete as the race went on. And we saw the way that the strategy played out.

You know, Hamilton had that pit stop issue, of course, that ended up taking about two seconds longer than he would have liked. And because they had the two cars in position to do something about it, it did give them a bit of flexibility. You know, the option that they went for worked perfectly, even with the slow pit stop for Perez. It worked perfectly. Vastappen pitted the lap after and then Perez the lap after that.

That's the strategy they went with. But the beauty of the situation is because they have two cars, they didn't even need to do it that way if they wanted to. They could have, if they didn't feel they had that margin, they could have pit Vestapp and the next lap, as they did. They could have asked Perez to do exactly what Vettel did if they felt that that was worth it. They could have double stacked them if they felt that was worth it. It just opens up the strategy playbook way more when you've got the two drivers in there.

The way they did it ended up perfectly, but the options are there at least to do something else if they wanted to. And, you know, Christian Horner, you know, he said that he might have got past Max Verstappen if it wasn't for the pit stop issue. I was looking at the timing screens quite intently, a lab. I think it would have been close. I personally think Vastappen would have had about six tenths, seven tenths of a second on Perez. So who knows, Perez might have had an opportunity when they eventually got round to sector three

and back down the start finish straight if he was still close. at that point, I don't think he would have quite beating him up the pits, but he was at least in the conversation. And ultimately, this is what Red Bull had been searching for this entire time. I would say at this point, and I think this is something that we all agree on, really. But there's been a lot of comparisons first five races of the season compared to Albin's first five races at Red Bull and Gasly's first five races at Red Bull. Stop them.

Stop it, because Perez is not in the same position that, those two drivers were in. Gasly was in probably the third best car at the time. Albin was definitely in the second best car at the time, but it wasn't a championship winning car. This, you know, even if you think Mercedes has a minor edge, or if you think Red Bull was a minor edge, this is a car that is capable of winning a championship. Neither Gasly or Albin had that at their disposal. So if you're just comparing points, don't bother. There's no point. But having said that, if we just look at Pace versus Vastappen, which is a way more accurate indicator as to how well he's doing, that was in terms of pace, the closest the Red Bull teammate has been to Vestappan since Daniel Riccardo.

I don't think Gassley or Albert have ever been that close in pace to Vestappen. So really encouraging from him, and we'll have to see whether he takes it forward or not. And from one extreme to the other, of course, Valtrey Bottas was off the pace pretty much all day, struggled to make an overtake on Lando Norris wasn't really threatening outside of that and then on old tires slip back a few more positions at the end of the Grand Prix. Sam, going forward now, having seen Bottas's performance today, having seen Perez's performance today, who would you trust more as a secondary driver from here on out? Oh, I can't resent Perez. I mean, I lost faith in Bottas quite a while ago. I do feel like

Bottas has been secure in the motion that the Seguys were that much better as a team than the rest of the grid that realistically, you put an acceptable performance in that Mercedes, you should be on the podium, really. And I think that most drivers on a good day in any previous Mercedes could put that car on the podium. You know, let's say, you put Ockon in there, you get a podium. You put gasoline in there, you get a podium. You put Bottas in there.

You'll get a podium. But now we're in a year where that Mercedes is not capable of just walking away with the championship. We're not able to just run off the road and just be Hamilton-Botas. Bottas. Bottas Hamilton, Bottas. Bottas has flares of brilliance. Just like any driver.

They're the best drivers in the world. They're going to have moments of brilliance. Botas is not consistent enough. The Bottas is not able, the Bottas, I call him, folks. He's not able to deliver alongside Lewis Hamilton. He's cut extracts the absolute last amounts of pace, that car. And now that Mercedes is being threatened by Red Bull definitely,

but also Ferrari on plays in certain tracks. McLaren are definitely there as well. And you go after Martin, Alping and the likes, definitely starts a challenge. It's possible. Bottas isn't able to find that extra few cents that Lewis Hamilton can that put him out. Whereas Perez, on the other hand, Perez is getting better week on week. Perez is improving week on week. And I always like to run with form. Form is good. It's encouraging. It keeps you motivated.

And from what I've seen from Perez in previous teams as well, the guy knows how to pull a performance out of a car that necessarily might not be the best it can be. How many pogues has Perez had in a team that shouldn't ever be on a podium? Perez is the guy that's done that. And I think he could do it. more so here at Red Bull. I've got faith that over this season, and hopefully they'll get a couple of seasons if they stick with him, he could become a regular race winner, and Red Bull could go on to win

championships because Perez is there to back up, or even beat Max Westappen. You never know how the form might swing. So for me, Perez is definitely the guy I would choose over Bottas. Botas is going to be careful. Got to start delivering big time, otherwise questions are really going to start being asked. More than just me,

who I think is quite clearly the first person to jump on the Bottas isn't there anymore than I'm like him. What are you thoughts, Harry? I know this Perez versus Bottas' second driver battle isn't necessarily official, but that's definitely the way in which this season is heading. So if you were Red Bull and Mercedes, who do you have more trust in right now? Look, we know how solid Perez is,

and it's taking him a few races to get to the form we're used to from him, and today shows that he's getting there. But I know Bottas had a terrible race today, but most for the most part Botas is a very good no offense Bottas but it's a very good number two driver he's always for the most part he's normally in the way

for like Red Bull strategy or helpful to Mercedes strategy to you know to help Hamilton when he's fighting against for Stappan so I don't know who I would trust more I think based on today you'd obviously go Perez

but you can't just base it on one race botas has done a solid job as another two for many years. We know he's not as quick as Hamilton, but for Mercedes, they don't necessarily need that. And we said this before. So, yeah, interesting one. I don't know who I'd pick. I mean, on current form, you might go for Perez, just the way the momentum's swinging.

But, yeah, look, Bottas is, he's had a tough time. Monaco, he was good. So he just didn't get the result he needed. So I'll go for, I'll keep the faith in Bottas for a bit longer. and that's nothing against Sergio, but just because I think Bottas has proven that he's a worthy number two, and Sergio is still getting to grips with that card despite the win today. More botty's for Harry.

Sad at the lack of boties, you know? Yeah, it's a tough one because the most concerning thing for Bottas right now, he's sat, I think, sixth in the championship after today's no score, Perez has elevated himself. of course up to thirds. So there's a few, you know, a few positions between them now. And theoretically, you know, Bottas has been in that Mercedes seat for a long time. This is Perez's sixth race for Red Bull. So Perez should get better as the season goes on where there isn't necessarily a reason to believe that Bottas will.

So, you know, Bottas needs to improve on what he's already done to this point so far. Bottas has had unlucky events this year. I wouldn't put Azerbaijan in that mix whatsoever. I know people have said that it was incredibly unlucky what happened to him in qualifying. Don't buy that. You need to go and put a lap in on both of your runs because that sort of thing can and does happen. But at least in Monaco, yes, he was very unlucky there. So that that will even itself out.

Let's not pretend that Perez has been completely lucky to this point. You remember Bahrain where he broke down on the formation lap and had to recover somewhat in that Grand Prix. Who do I trust more? It's tough. They have, they're almost completely different drivers because Valtry Boss has his clear strength is qualifying. And I would almost suggest he is Yarno Trilly-esque, Choochoochoo. Because, you know, his strength is qualifying. And occasionally when the qualifying isn't there or he drops down the order for whatever reason, he doesn't have the overtaking prowess to make it back up. that's not his strength. Bottas is on his day a very quick driver. Over one lap, he's very, very good. And he has been a good number two driver for Mercedes for all these years. But when something goes wrong, when challenges arise,

when he's down in the bottom half of the top 10 and he needs to make overtakes to get himself back up, Hamilton has the ability to do that. The Staffan has the ability to do that. Bottas doesn't have the ability to do that. So if we are going to see Mercedes not hold that dominance that we have done in previous, years, those sorts of situations are going to crop up more and more, which doesn't suit Bottas at all. And I think Perez is completely the different driver in that qualifying is not a strength, but in terms of tyre preservation, in terms of race space, he's usually on it. So who do I

have more trust in? I want to see more from Perez. So I'm going to say Bottas at this point, but I'm not going to be a prisoner at the moment. Botas's race in Azerbaijan was a abysmal. I'm not going to sugar-coated at all. But he should almost feel all right about it to the degree that it should be a complete anomaly. And, you know, he might be back on it in the next race. I think he just literally has to get the chalk out because, you know, we're still in 2002, and draw a massive line under it, move on to the next one, pretend this didn't happen. That's how bad this was. I'll come in quickly with a stat thing. I'm going to still. your job.

Oh, no. Stadman. Stagman! Beta version. Early access. Bottas, if you want to talk about him being a good number two driver, he has only come running off with the championship twice in the four completed seasons that he's had with Mercedes. And I think on other two occasions, he finished outside the top three.

On one occasion, when finishing second, he was only nine points clear of Max for Staping as well. So it wasn't exactly far off. I think this run of Bottas getting away with it Botas having to maximise a car that is far more dominant than the rest of the grid I think Bottas has been flattered by the performance of that Mercedes after looking at the form

and this is becoming a regular question that people are asking now after races it's not once a season this gets asked it is every four or five races someone goes this has been bad again from Bottas who hasn't delivered again now for me there hasn't been three seasons previously where I'm like

Yeah, he's not as good as Lewis, but he's done everything he can. I think actually Lewis is dragging Bottas up a little bit in terms of the points that they've had. If you look at history, and actually, I think Bottas hasn't delivered. Probably when he should have done in the past. So that's why I would go Perez. I don't think this is a one-off, one-hit wonder. I don't think this is such a bad race of Bottas that has made me sway my choice. Bottas has not been on it as much as he should have been for the last three, four years, I don't think.

I absolutely agree that the margin of error is much, much less. for Botasso than it has been in previous years. When I say he's been a good number two driver, what I mean is they've won every driver's championship and they've won every Constructors' Championship year after year. I would agree with you that, you know, yeah, it's going to be more difficult for them to achieve that this year considering the level of competition.

But certainly in 2017 and 18, the competition was there, 19 and 20, probably less so. I wrote most of the years that he didn't finish in second place. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah. So we'll see how that goes. We'll see. Come on, Bottas, you have to win a race. I can't.

I can't let his prediction be right. Come on, if I get that right, I don't care about a single driver prediction or a single constructor's prediction. That's the one I'm taking home. We got the Russian GP yet. It'll be fine. Oh, that's true. Damn it. Can't write it off. You forgot about that.

And we've got Austria coming up as well. Austria's in two races, isn't it? He likes a good Austria. He likes a good Austria. That's like a sad day. He always always always always gives himself a nice Austria. We'll see how that goes.

We'll move on to Sebastian Vessel. Look like he was going to finish P4. Then Vastafn was like, nope, I'm out of here. So he was in P3. And then Hamilton was like, see you at the next race. So he ended up P2. Did pretty well to get to that point. started outside the top 10, of course, all the way to the podium. His first podium for

Aston Martin and Aston Martin's first podium in Formula One. So, Sam, what's your reaction to this? I bloody loved it. Honestly, Sebastian Vettel, for me, in terms of personality, in terms of people, I want good things to happen to, Sebastian Vetter is my number one. I've got a real soft spot for and the fact that he did get, Aston Martin, who I've also got a big soft spot for as a childhood fan of the manufacturer. It was amazing. It was generally amazing. He drove a brilliant race.

I kind of made a bold prediction, yes, which turned out to be wrong in the preview. But I did say that someone, usually in those kind of end of points, does tend to do very well. Wasn't George Russell, no, but it was, Sebastian Vettel. He picked up that podium.

And it was fantastic that we can have races that throw these results up in our faces. It's brilliant to see it mixed up like it was. I loved it. I really hope this kicks on. Good form for him. He's not going to come back and get a second places every single race, folks. Let's not get our hopes that high. But I'd like to

continue to see him pushing that Aston Martin, challenging the Alpine guys around him, nipping at the hills of the Alpha Towers. We've got a fantastic race car. And you never go, picking off Daniel Ricardo if he's struggling. It's Carlos Sites if he's having a bad day. That's what I want better to be doing. I want him to always be the guy that picks up those best of the rest from the upper midfield spots that he can get. You know, if he can continually start getting six, seven, eighths, on race by race, that's great. He's done really well in my own. He's done. my opinion. We don't know those mistakes we saw on the throw, which he's really starting to do,

continue this up with momentum. This is the start. I hope of seeing Vettel deliver what we know he can deliver. What's your reaction to this one? Harry must be delighted. Yeah, I mean, it was, I think even if Sebah hadn't got a podium, this was another great race. It was like Monaco in that sense.

And it's helped, because I think, Astin Martin's strategy is, as a whole this year, it's been fairly good. They've not got it right all the time. But last weekend and this weekend, they just don't like stopping, basically. What was the point of stopping? Who needs a pit stop? Overrated.

But yeah, I think he was on for another great result, even before the carnage ensued and he got a podium. And it was, yeah, really encouraging. And apart from, you know, the clumsy accident he had with Ocon in the first race, like Sam says, he's ironed out some of those mistakes he had been making.

and just seems increasingly more confident with the car. I agree with what you said, Ben, can't suddenly call in the Sebastian Vetter of old quite yet. But it's definitely, this is easily his most consistent run of form since 2018, maybe 2019. Yeah, he had a good race in Turkey last year, and that was about it. So, yeah, it was really encouraging to see. And I think, Sam, you made this point on our Twitter. it was just nice to see his bit of fireback in his belly,

which I think was lacking even at the beginning of this year. Yeah, after Monaco and after quality yesterday, he was so annoyed that he missed out on Q3. Ironically, might have helped and get where he got today. But anyway, he was so annoyed about it and I get obviously happy again today. He just seems a bit more pumped up and is enjoying that environment.

Yeah, and I guess with the absence of much of a pre-season, not much getting time, getting used to the car, Now that he has had that under his belt, essentially through the first few races of the season, that's what's inspiring his confidence. I've always seen Vettel as very much a momentum driver. You know, I don't necessarily see Hamilton or even really like the likes of Leclair in that same fashion. Like, I always deal with like Hamilton after he's had a bad race, he can pull out a good race in the next time around and he'll recover.

That's not to say Vettel can't do that, but I think Vettel is more of the case of, we saw it at the end of 2013 when he just won race after race after race. When he's got the confidence, he is very, very good and he is really difficult to stop. And I think, you know, with Monaco being a good performance, here at Baku being a good performance, he might continue to take that on. And I just think that, yeah, because of that, I think Betel's performances are a bit more suspect to momentum. So he can get on those good runs of form.

You know, the reverse of that as well is that when he does get in a slump, it does last a bit longer than for other drivers, I think. But he was exceptional out there today. And he was, I gave him driver of the day, obviously. Very rarely is a driver of the day a complete no-brainer for me. It was a no-brainer on this occasion. I didn't really have to think long and hard about this one at all. And you're absolutely right with what you said, Harry.

It's not even that he finished on the podium and in P2, because if he finished P4, I think I still would have given it to Vettel, because it was the pace. It was performing that overcut, managing, to, I'm not sure if he overcut one or two drivers, but he managed to get ahead of the likes of, you know, the likes of Sonoda in the pits. And then he had really good pace. You know, he was on the back of Gasley and Leclair for the second stint before, before obviously making that move on Leclair, which by the way, was a really good move on Leclair as well. He went so narrow into that

corner and managed to get him on the exit. I thought that was a really underrated move, actually. Yeah, and he was able to see it out from there. He made the... the clinical moves when he needed to make them. And that's the Sebastian Vettel that won the championships. So I am, an on form pumped up, Sebastian Vettel is great for Formula One. It is great for Formula One. So excited to see what he can do over the next few races. I also want to give a special award to Sebastian Vessel and Shaula for squeaky bum time moments of the race.

Oh. of the clergy, what felt like a quadruple four-year-long lock-up and missed Sebi Vets car by what feels like an absolute beard hair. But that literally made me gasp as that happened. I thought, oh, no, this could be curtains for everyone here. But no, it was incredibly close. Thank God they'll get out cleanly. So good to see Sevy Vettel back.

Folks, if you don't know what Squeaky Bumtime means, it's literally like where your entire body tends to stuff, and you go, oh! and something bad could very much happen, but he doesn't. So it's good. That was fantastic. That sound effect clips. By the way, get that description on an urban dictionary or something.

I have no idea how he stopped that car in time. No. I still don't know how he got that car stopped in time. That's how it's done, Muki. Yeah, exactly. He managed to leave the country and still make the corner. I don't know how he did it. That's pretty exceptional.

I think that's where we'll leave it for this, for this podcast episode. It's been a fun one. It's been a fun race. Sam, if you wouldn't mind getting us at it. Folks, we hope to enjoy the Azerbaijan back in Grand Prix. We had a thoroughly good time watching it. If you want to join in our discussions that we have around the race weekend,

do head over to Twitter and follow us at El Breaking. Of course, videos will be up on YouTube as well about all the usual discussions. And we can be back later on in the week with our usual Wednesday, chit-chat, no race unless I'm completely wrong on my game. calendar. So it'll just be normal Formula One conversation. But join us, please. Because we come from topics and you can get involved. I'd love to see you there. In the meantime, I've been Samu'll save. I've been Ben Harking. And I've been Harry Ead. And remember, keep breaking late. Bye!

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