The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Sergio Perez OUT at Red Bull!

Episode Date: December 19, 2024

Following the breaking news that Sergio Perez and Red Bull are parting ways with immediate effect, Ben and Sam give their reactions, discussing the lead-up to the decision and its ramifications. They also cover Ricciardo's response to a potential F1 return amidst Cadillac interest, and finish with 3 word summaries for each teams' 2024 season... Get your friends or family the gift that they truly deserve... gift an LB Patreon membership HERE

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. Welcome to the Late Breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking, on what should have been the Albee Awards today. We've still got an awards evening, folks, don't you worry? That's going to come on Sunday rather than today, because we've got Breaking News. I mean, I love a bit of Christmas breaking news.

Thank you to Red Bull. 18th for December, Red Bull. Have you ever seen anything like this before? Yeah, we should probably mention what it is. Oh. Yeah, Perez is not going to be around for a Red Bull anymore. They've actually decided to move on from him. This is what, the first year, 2025 would be the first year, what, since 2011,

that he won't have been on the grid? Oh, cricky. He's been a staple. of the Formula One Grigg for a decade and a half. It's going to be crazy that he won't be here. Yeah. And that is, of course, the reason why we are moving the LB Awards to Sunday. And we've got a bit of a standard episode for you today instead.

We're going to be doing three-word summaries of all 10 teams in the seasons they've had in 2024 coming up. We've also got some chat about Ricardo and whether he'd be interested in Cadillac or not for 2026. But we will, of course, start with that breaking news, which is that Sergio Perez and Red Bull have reached an agreement to partways with immediate effect. Earlier this year, Perez signed a deal to race for the team until the end of 2006 on the back of his strongest season in 2023, where he finished second to his teammate

and champion Max Verstappen. However, his form has tailed off this season since signing that deal, and he scored just nine points in the last eight Grand Prix weekends of the season. Throughout this difficult period, Sergio Perez has remained. named resolute that he would race for the team next year. But following discussions with Red Bull, they've agreed to split after four years together. Sam, this has been somewhat drawn out, because I think this has been on the cards for a little while. As mentioned, Perez has been quite resolute throughout this, that he would be returning next year. But I think his confidence

in that started to wane when we got to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. We know that they had a shareholders meeting directly after that Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. And then, of course, the news now that he won't be racing for the team next year. Your immediate reaction to the news. Not shocked. Shocked at the timing of the announcement. I thought it would either come straight after that kind of stockholders, shareholders' shareholders meeting that we saw straight after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix,

or they would wait until the new year, which we discussed, I think, on a Patreon episode really recently, that that would be kind of when it would be announced if it ever came. And we kind of almost said, at this point, no news for Sergio Perez. It's good news. But because of that gap, I'm still not shocked. I'm still not surprised that this has been the decision.

We've been calling for this for a lot of the season. He started the season particularly well. He picked up three second places, all behind Max Verstappen, when Gustafin won. The one that he didn't pick up in those first four Grand Prix

was Australia, where you'll remember Max Verstaffa had a DNF. I think Sergio Perez finished fifth in that Grand Prix. So the Red Bull not looking strong there either. But after that point, it really went downhill for Sergio Perez.

There were talks about him being replaced by Daniel Ricardo in the summer break, you'll remember. That never materialized. And then Liam Lawson stepped in for Daniel Ricardo, and he was ousted in Singapore from the RBC, the junior program. And now the conversations are that Lawson may be the one to replace Sergio Perez after his removal. He's not been on his best form. Sergio Perez has had a glowing career. And I really stand by the fact that he was much like what Holgerberg did this season, he was kind of the leader of the migfield

for so many years previously to his move to Red Bull and that's why he got that move to Red Bull after Red Bull had so many poor choices with their second driver and not allowing enough time you remember both Gasly and Albuhr and Kiviat were all kicked off the seat

very quickly due to a run of poor performances when they were very low on experience Sergio Perez was the man they turned to to fill that seat he picked up that brilliant wing in Bahrain in the racing point and seasons and seasons before this he was regularly the guy

that outperformed picking up podiums in the Force India as it was back then the racing point. He always excelled, always excelled. He was mis-consisting. He was going as the tire whisperer for a reason. So to see him have such a falling in form and in ability in this Red Bull maybe speaks to the fact that it follows the trend of the car being built very much to suit Max for Stappen. Again, that does make sense. It makes sense to build the car for your number one driver. Stappen makes it work.

He wings titles. But the car is built in such a specific way that maybe. It doesn't suit any other driver's driving style. We're seeing that negative effect. Nonetheless, we don't know to what extent that ability has been hampered by Perez is driving a car in a different style. He hasn't been on up to scratch. He's half the points that the Stapagos managed.

He was the only driver in the top eight to not pick up a race win. And fundamentally, he is the reason that Red Bull did not win the constructors title this season and actually ended up finishing third. So as much as he's had a fantastic buildup to this point, the last year or so where he's only led one lap in the last 12 months really has been the cause of why he's been kicked out of that seat. So it's going to be sad that he's no longer on the grid anymore and maybe he'll find his way back in the likes of a Cadillac or something else in years to come. But for now, we're going to have a season without him. And I do think it's the right call.

I do think now is the time for Red Bull to move on from Sergio Perez. I think Perez has been somewhat helped this season and potentially last season as well in that Red Bull have failed to develop an alternative option. And I still believe that's true, regardless of whether they do go with Liam Lawson or Yuki Sonoda. I'm not, and I don't think Red Bull are particularly frilled by either option. It's not like when Vastappen came into the team that they had an obvious next person up. I think Sonoda's had a good season-ish. I think Lawson has shown some potential.

but I don't think either option is what they had in mind a few years ago when they brought Sergio Perez in. Remember, when Perez joined the team, it was rather unusual for them to look outside of the Red Bull program to the point where I think it was always intended to be a short to medium term deal for them to develop the next Vestappen, or at least the next Ricardo or the next vet or someone who could come into the team and really be a solid, teammates to Vestappen, and Perez, who of course was much older than the average person that would go into the Red Bull program, could just do a job until he's no longer needed. And that isn't how this has worked out, I don't think. Perez has been moved on through his own poor performances throughout this season without there really being an obvious successor. I think we've

mentioned it before that if Ricardo had been good enough this season, he probably would have been a contender for that seat. Certainly, if Sonoda, Lawson, DeVries last year, if any of these drivers had shown more early on in their Alphateri slash RB careers, it might not have waited this long. But the fact that they've made this call, even without that next obvious person up, tells you everything you need to know about how much Perez did struggle throughout this season. they would have had to, Red Bull would have had to really move mountains to make this happen because it's not like it got to the end of his contract. He had two full years on his contract to serve in 2025 and 2026.

I don't even want to guess the amount of money they would have lost as a result of making the call to terminate this as early as they have. And that's not even including the amount of sponsorship that they will probably lose. and F1 generally will struggle with him not being there anymore. So this was a massively detrimental decision to their financial status, Red Bull. And I understand why they waited until this point, because you want to be confident of whoever's next up, but I don't think they are confident.

I don't think they are confident with Lawson if they go with him. I don't think they're confident with Sonoda either. So we'll wait to see how that decision is handled. But I can understand why. But the future, I think Red Bull have failed quite simply put. I think Red Bull have failed in what they've tried to do with the advantage of having a second team. And this is the result of that failure. I think you're very right to call that out.

I think historically the failure of what we see with Sergei Perez right now goes back years because of Red Bull's failures previously. Ricardo was at his prime of course in that 2018, 2017 period, sublime, absolutely incredible. We were touting him as the next world champion. He had multiple race wings, eight to his name. I think seven before we obviously left. Red Bull picked up one with McLaren, of course, at Monza. The performances that he was able to execute in the car that suited him.

You saw how close Ricardo and Bastapin were when they were there together as teammates. It was silly to lose him. It was silly to not do more to keep him because at that point, he excelled. And arguably, his form would have been much better staying at that Red Bull for the next four or five seasons. They were going through the difficulties at Renaud, moving to a team like McLaurin, leaving the sport, coming back in at the junior team of RB. We probably would have seen a different Riccardo, one that probably could do a fantastic job in supporting Max Verstappen or arguably challenging Max Verstappen. And that's where the failure has started to come about that has led to in the long term. You know, the meme that you push one domino and it leads to Sergio Perez's kind of fall down in about 10 years time.

that's what begun it was forgetting how good Ricardo was for you because then we get the promotions of the likes of the kiviats, your albums, your gassilies who you don't give enough time to. Yes, their subpar.

Yes, their performances are not good enough at the time, but they barely get a year to a season and a half in that seat in a time where your car wasn't able to really win too many times either and they're kicked out so quickly. And then Red Bull make what I think is the biggest wrong decision.

and they hire Nick DeVries based on a one performance in favourable conditions rather in a car that is suitable to that racetrack in Monza off the back of him having a terrible formula E defence and he's just

picked up, scooped up because they panicked they panicked, they don't know what to do with themselves and they've got this will work, this will work and that was a road decision from Arby and they don't prioritise their young drivers they don't prioritise the development, all the money and effort they spent into this, they go external and they don't give time when they should give time. And then they move forward and

Perez gets that seat, of course. And you look at the drivers that are coming out of the systems since that's happened. And no one is set up properly. No one is given the time and the talent and the nurturing to be the next ricardo of the second driver of 2017, 2018, or the next Vettel, all the next for Staff and Benes you've mentioned. There is a fundamental falldown from what Red Bull of Dung in their hierarchy of drivers. And they have not given justice to any of these young drivers whatsoever. I'd be a little bit worried if I was Hajar or someone like that coming through because you think, am I going to get the prioritisation? Am I going to get the time? Do I get what I deserve coming through here after being a part of this program? Sangoda is possibly about to be

looked over. Lawson, maybe he gets the drive. We don't know yet at this point of recording. It doesn't feel confident either way. And the fact we're not sitting here going. it should be X and they will do a good job or give them a year and they're going to be smashing it is a worrying sign for a team like Red Bull who are going to want to carry on competing and beating McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and others. Was there a particular point this season

where the situation became untenable between Perez and Red Bull or was it more a combination of the lack of results in the second half of the season? It was definitely the early mid part of the season for me that really is cemented. It's cemented where I thought we were going. I've always thought from the start of the year

that when we got that announcement that the surgery would be given that multi-year deal in Augusta one year extension for 2024 and they review at the end of the season. I was always skeptical. Actually, like I've mentioned, he started the season really, really well. If you look at our power rankings on Patreon,

three of the first four Grand Prix, I give him an eight out of ten. He's done a really solid job. Australia, I give him a four because he does finish behind all of his rivals, essentially, apart from the staff and as I mentioned who DNFed. But it was when we got to the run of

Emilio Romagna, Imola, Monaco, Canada, Spain and Austria. And you can throw Britain to there as well, where for me he doesn't score higher than a three in our power rankings ratings. He is consistently off the pace. His qualifying has fundamentally

always been poor in that Red Bull car and no more so than this season where it was almost a running joke of Will Perez qualify outside the top 10? Can't wait to see Perez getting on top of Q2 again. it became the shock that he got into Q3. And it was in that period where that really truly began. He's qualifying a lot,

meant that it was always so much harder for him to ever score solid points or beat rivals around him because he was starting five, ten positions back so regularly from where they were. And I've already mentioned the statistic that he's the only one of those top eight and not when they're Grand Prix. It just was always evident. There was never one moment where it seemed to fall down a hill

or fall off a cliff for him. He was just never really up to the point that was worthy of a second driver to Max Verstappen. And that's a tough order for anyone. That is a tool order for any driver to be alongside Max Verstappen. But it's very clear that the way the car is built, his driving style, and I just think his own full ability, just weren't able to match up to what Red Bull are expecting this season.

And that's something Red Bull have to look at. They have to look at going into next season is that the way that they set this car up for Vastappen is clearly not working for his teammates. and I use the plural on that because Perez is included, but so was Gasly and so was Albon. They have not been able to crack this, and it's cost them this year. It's cost them a Constructors' Championship.

Now, of course, Perez did enough in that second seat in 22 and 23 to win the Constructors' Championship, but I think we were all skeptical of when that car had more competition, whenever that might be, maybe they would be in more trouble. and whether they need to reassess, whether they can find another driver who races in a similar way to Vestapp

and whether they make some compromises on the car, whatever it might be, it's something they need to solve and it's something they need to solve quite quickly as well. I do think it was salvageable for Perez a bit later on. I think whilst the midseason was tricky for him, that wouldn't be the first time that the midseason has been tricky for him. It's generally been where he struggled for this Red Bull

team. But it's the fact that there was no bounce back in the later parts of this season. And in many respects, I think it got worse. I think his home race might have been for me, the one that really clenched it of, I don't know if there's any going back from this, even without another suitable candidate. That was maybe the low point for me. But Baku was a real problem because he was fast in the Max Verstapp in that race weekend. And the fact that that's ending up with him and Carlos science in the wall and there's still no real blame placed on that. They're both kind of going in a straight line, not really going in a straight line you remember coming out of turn two. That ruined his Grand Prix and arguably he may have gone on to be a contender for that race

wing, if not second place and it would have been his best results since the fourth race of the season. That was pretty much, you know, if you're not going to get it right here where you're comfortable where you've won before, where are you going to get it right? I think, I don't think the result matter too much for Baku because Red Bull would have seen the pace that he had there. And if he could have extended that form on for a couple of Grand Prix, regardless of whether he ends up winning the race or finishes on the podium or just off the podium, I think that might have been enough to save him. So the fact that he retired from that Grand Prix didn't score the many points, I don't think will have affected them too much. I think it's just the fact that it was a complete

standalone performance in the second half of the season and it couldn't be built on at any other any other race tracks where he has struggled at. We know he does well at Baku. We know he does well at Saudi Arabia and some of these other tracks. But there are many more tracks that he seems to struggle at or had struggled at in that Red Bull that he couldn't turn around in 24, which I think really hurt him. Collectively, is an average between the three of us, obviously Harry, including in this, we scored him at Mexico an average of nought.

0.7 out of 10. It's not a very high number. It's quite a low number. Tough one. Tough one to swallow. Last question on this one. How do you think Red Bull will reflect on the last four years of having Sergio Perez in that seat? As mentioned, it obviously hasn't been enough to grant him that fifth and that sixth year that was expected when he signed that contract. But equally, Perez has been that second driver where they've won two constructors championships.

Perez has won five races for the team. Will they look back at these four years fondly? Will they look at it as for areas of improvement? What do you think? It's going to be tough. I'd like to think that Red Bull can learn from this, but we've seen so many times with their decisions in this second driver department

that they don't seem to learn from this. They seem to be too rash in one instance where it's very clear that a driver deserves more time, Gasly Albon, I'm putting in those two departments. And equally, they're having some real glaring moments where drivers like Sergio Perez, as much as historically, they're a very solid driver. They probably should have been showing the door slightly earlier

and maybe more time given to their development program. So the likes of Yuki Sinoda, where half a season in the Red Bull, where there was nothing really to lose because you were already falling behind in the constructors, maybe we'll have been worth the risk at that point to see if a driver was able to pick up. I think what's frustrating is Paris is kind of two for two.

He's lost them two constructors, and he's, like I say, won them two constructors, but he's being useful in the other two constructors. Of course, 2023, Max Verstappen was winning that on his own, regardless. 2022, Paris was useful. He had a good season. and of course this season, he was essentially the reason

they don't go on to win those two Constructors' titles and that means they've lost two championships because of one driver's performances. Hopefully they'll look back and I think the biggest thing they need to assess

and Max Verstappen is a real blocker in this and it's a pretty hefty blocker to have is, as you've really mentioned Ben, how do they work out the setup, the development of the car to take a small percentage of what Max Verstappen is able to do and balance that so that second driver is actually able to produce

consistent solid performances. Because clearly that car and the way Max Verstappen drives is built in such a fundamentally unique manner that it does not complement many other drivers in their driving style. So for me, that's what they need to learn. They need to go and assess that. I suppose they need to ask themselves, do they care? Is it enough for them to take away performance from Max Verstappen

and give some to a second drive with how a car is developed? I don't know. But for me, that's probably the biggest changing point if they're going to make one where it should be made. And as mentioned, we don't yet know what they're doing with the lineup from Red Bull themselves. We'll know in due course, due course is a little bit vague. It might be tomorrow. It might be in a week's time. It might be after Christmas.

But you can be assured that when we hear something about this, when it is confirmed, we'll give you our verdict on that. We'll take our first break at this point in the episode on the other side. we've got some comments regarding Daniel Ricardo and Cadillac. Welcome back, everyone. Sources have told ESPN that Daniel Ricardo has no interest in returning to Formula One with General Motors Cadillac team in 2006. Sources close to Ricardo have told ESPN he has not been contacted

and he has no interest in making that move. Of course, Daniel Ricardo has been without a seat for this last part of the season after he left the RB team at the Singapore Grand Prix. And a lot of attention is turning to this Cadillac entry for 2026. Of course, two brand new seats that will be available. And as of this point, it's unknown as to what direction they go in, whether they go for youth, whether they go for experience, as would be the case of Daniel Ricardo.

Let's start from Ricardo's perspective of should he be interested, then we can kind of move on to Cadillac and whether they should be interested. Do you believe that Ricardo has to be interested? has no interest here? It's really tough to tell. I think for a lot of drivers, Valtrey Bottas, for example, I would say,

they're just saying that. They're just saying that. You know, they've been unceremoniously removed from their seat after a good season, and, you know, that's how it is. But Ricardo is a very unique case.

He went for a really tumultuous time. He mentioned more times than races he had this season on this podcast, he had a really difficult year. And a lot of that I don't know if it's necessarily down to his own doing. We speak about this on the Patreon a little bit where the first few races of the season, he claims to have a cracked chassis.

The team replaced that crack chassis. His performance has improved, but they improved directly in the time that the car's ability, in comparison to its rivals, falls backwards. It's unable to perform as well. It scores far less points over that period. Now, his good performances match that segment,

meaning he's not able to realistically show that with points on the board. He's then removed in Singapore. And that removal in Singapore might still be one of the worst handled PR driver situations I've seen in Formula One for quite a long time. The love that people have for Daniel Ricardo, the positive marketing spying around him, the global renown that Daniel Ricardo holds is huge, absolutely ginormous. That's now two Red Bull drivers or ex-red Bull drivers this season that won't get a proper send-off. There you go. There you go. That's two in a row.

Ricardo, it really is a force to be reckoned with in the marketing and PR world, right? He is known far and wide. And the way they handled that was pretty disastrous. And because of that, there's a part of me that thinks that we know Ricardo went through some dark times mentally, especially at McLaren. He kind of, the famous speech of, you know, I just stepped aside. I was always here. You take that however you want, but it shows to what his mental health was where he was in a difficult place. And I think that probably put him back in a difficult place.

I've seen some videos of Ricardo. I've seen some images of Ricardo since leaving Formula One. And he genuinely looks healthy, happy. Like he's got a bit of a glow about him. Like he's focusing on him. He's got enchanté, he's clothing brand. He's out doing his own thing, going up to other sports stars and exploring the world without the restrictions of Formula One.

And maybe he's just come to terms with the fact that, you know what? I have a really good run. I'm not going to be world champion. I got eight race wings. I was one of the greatest of that period of time. apart from the world champions, maybe he's just done. Maybe he's happy to put it aside.

Until we get proper, proper confirmation from Daniel Ricardo or his agency or whatever, it's hard to permanently say and concretely say that's how he believes. Maybe he's just keeping his carter's chess and playing it cool because he's a sports person and any racing driver who hears of someone being interested in, surely the ears prick up a little bit and you go,

the offer could be very good. And that's definitely possible. But for me, I'm hearing on the side that I believe him. And I think that maybe he might just be ready to walk away from F1 after everything's happened. Here's where I'm at with it. I would be surprised if there's zero interest. But as you've mentioned, Ricardo has, at least in terms of F1 and his racing career, he has made a point of staying out of the spotlight ever since he left the team at the Singapore GP.

Now, you're right that he has still had quite a bit of attention in terms of his other things outside of racing. But actually, in terms of talking about his career in F1, looking back, looking forward, he hasn't said a lot, which makes me think that I've got no idea if he wants to return to F1. I don't even know if he wants to return to motorsport at all based on the limited amount that he's really given us since he left the team. You know, Canalac and GM and Andretti, forever Andretti, I'll remember you. It's a longer term project, right? And they'll be coming in in 20206, but we have no idea whether they'll be competitive straight away. And there's a good chance they won't be. There's a reasonable chance that 2026, 27, even though they will have an up-to-date Ferrari power unit,

that won't be the thing that probably lets them down. they're still building. So if they're not competitive straight away, Daniel Ricardo, who's currently 35 years of age, is looking at, I would be starting that when he's 36 and a half, and then the first year might be a ride off, and then suddenly you're looking at, am I going to be, if I'm still there at 40, is the car then going to be ready? And there are similar situations to that on the grid right now. Like Holkenberg is doing a very similar thing with Salber and with Audi.

he will play an integral part in the building of that team. We don't yet know whether he'll be there to reap the rewards of it. You could say the same thing about Fernando Alonzo and Ashtam Martin. They're currently developing, they're currently making huge strides in their infrastructure, and at some point they're going to hope to be competitive. Fernando Alonzo is praying with every fibre of his being that it's going to be when he's still at the team. But it's not a guarantee. He might go and then they might get good just.

as he's gone. So maybe at this point in Ricardo's career, if he wants to return to motorsport, maybe he is looking at shorter and midterm opportunities rather than this long-term project. And that is a guess. But if he is thinking that way, I think his opportunities are going to be quite limited because the type of profile that the Cadillac might be looking at to have an experienced driver who has been around F1 for not far off. 15 years to have someone who has like over 200 races under his bell and maybe someone who they're willing to look over some recent bad form. Like having an experienced driver for feedback more than anything is going to be vital for Cadillac in their early days. There aren't other teams that

fit that bill. There are other teams that will opt for youth or recent form, which Ricardo doesn't have either. So this is all based on, you know, whether you think he is interested at all. But I just don't know where his opportunity is going to come from if it's not this. I don't think there is one. To be blunt. Not right now, for sure. It'll be a shock retirement on the last, you know, with the Christmas break and they're scrambling. And even then, is a Ferrari, is a, is a McLaren going to really come running to

Ricardo's doorstep? There's so many opportunities for even midfield drivers of now that are in better form than what Ricardo was. Yeah, it's tricky. the difference between Holgerberg and Ricardo is Ricardo is almost like I was I was you know that the bride's made

whoever is never the one that gets married what's the expression there always always the brides me never the bride he's the the girlfriend that you're with before you go on to get married you know he was there at Red Bull before Red Bull were big and started winging there again he went to Alping of course well we would at the time now Ping

and it goes to McClaren the year or so before they were big and it's just like is he going to want to sit there and do it again with Cadillac for two or three years and then he's going to get to 40, 41 and go unpacking it in. And then the year after, do they go on to be big? And Holgerberg hasn't ever had that. He's never had, I'm in the car the year before it gets big. Audi, in theory, is the, it could be big for him.

So I think, like, you're right, he just wants a, give me a year with the best car and I'll see if I can win in it. But unfortunately, he doesn't have the credentials previously of your Fernando Alonso's, your Lewis, Hamilton's that can go take a punk. I'm a multi-time world champion. I'll see what I could do with it in one or two years. He hasn't got that level of criteria. And if we're looking at it more from Cadillac's perspective now, I think they should probably look to do experienced plus rookie,

because as we often tell Hass and they finally listen to us, that is a good way to go about things. And we'll see from the lesser experienced driver who they go for, Colton, God damn, hurt her, make it happen. But from an experience perspective, I feel at the moment it might come down to three drivers and it might come down to Ricardo, Bottas and Perez. And they're all of a similar sort of, I mean, Ricardo 258 race starts, Perez, 285, Bottas, 247. Like, they're all in that mix in terms of experience within the sport.

All three of them have question marks about. them. Certainly, Ricardo, I would say, might have the highest upside of all three of them. The problem is he's probably the furthest detached from when that upside was. You have to go back a number of years at this point. Perez, obviously, very tough 2024, but he has shown at the likes of Force India and Racing Point, like what he can do for a team that's on the up. And Bottas, who might have had the best 2024 of those three drivers, there is still a question of, there's a reason Mercedes got rid of him. So I don't think any of those three options are, we absolutely have to have it. But I think Ricardo might at least be in the mix with those names. Yeah, agreed. And I think the

rookie and experience combination is what looks like Audi and Salba are doing as well is definitely the logical choice. You do need the driver that can provide feedback. You do need the driver that knows a rival team to go, this is what they were doing. This was working. We tried this previously. This wasn't working. They need to do. They need to. to know that setup. They need to help with development of the car. That is a massive part of growing a team and developing a team. That's also another key reason why someone keeps Fernando Alonso around. It's not just his raw pace. He can read a car and understand the car and tell you openly why something isn't working and your Bottas, your Ricardos, your Perez's are good

at that. For me as well, if we're talking drivers generally for Kagalak, stick Colton Herta and F2 as soon as possible. I know that sounds silly, but drop him into the lower formula so he can up those super points and there are no excuses as to why he can't take part in this race because he will be magical in Formula One. He has that ability. Look at his qualifying placing Indycar. The man is electric. He crashes instantly the moment the race starts, but good Lord the man can qualify brilliantly. And you could make an American hero out of that boy and I would love to see it. So get him an F3. I don't care how far down he's got to be. It could be a 35 year old man carting with eight year olds. I want to see him climb the ranks, Kagalak, make it happen.

happen. In terms of that experienced driver, like going back to, I know it's not just these three names and we've got no idea whether all these three will be available and interested. But if it was Ricardo, Perez and Bottas, I was thinking to myself earlier, if I was in Cadillac shoes, like, which of those three would I pick? And I had absolutely no idea because there's so much, there's so many question marks about all three options. Genuinely, if all three of those were interested, I'd do an old-fashioned shoot-at. Genuine. Not like with guns.

I mean, with cars. Like put them in the car, see his fastest. Because we don't get many of them in modern F1. I mean, it's very rare actually that experienced drivers will have to do a shootout for their seat. But we've seen it before. The likes of Jensen Button got his seat in F1 because he won a shootout against Bruno Junckerra

back in 2000 or just before the 2000 season. It can happen. I think if you've got so many question marks about an experienced driver, and the experience is pretty much the same across the board, and you're not sure which one still has the pace, if any of them do. Let them race against each other. See what happens. I love that idea.

That's a soon more shootouts for everything. Who's paying for dinner? Do a shootout. I'm not sure how well that idea will go down. But we are going to have our second break on this episode. aside, we're doing some three-word summaries. Welcome back, everyone. We're going to not only, I mean, round out today's episode,

but it's a bit of a summary of the season as well. We're going to do three-word summaries for all 10 teams. How have they fared in 2024? How can we, in a rather succinct way, wrap up what has happened? So we're going to go in Constructors' Championship order, which means we start with the Constructors' Champions McLaren, which still might be a weird sentence to say for a few. few months because it's been so long since we've had to say it. But what three words have you

got for McLaren? And then I'll give mine and we'll go into some discussion. Ironic, that this is going to be a three word summary because my first three words from McClaren are too many words. The team need to just stop talky-talkie, more drivey, because they mucked themselves around so many times this season. And obviously there is the joky side that their reggae and mesquies became a bit of a what is going on, a bit of a fath, bit of a fast. with the whole, I can't hear you, never repeat the joke even louder despite being in a pressing environment and, you know, being told to shut up the whole, please, we're begging you. Think of how important it is to the team, you know, think of the greater good.

There were so many moments where their ridiculous comms over the team radios allowed them to almost throw multiple performances away. Hungary, they're lucky they're so dominant. Brazil's sprint race, they got lucky that they. got away with that one as well. And there are two or three others that spring to mind as well that you can throw in the mix. Just be concise. Get to the point, make a decision because your car was fantastic. You've got a great driver line up for future. Just get it together. Because as Ben said so many times, you're being so fast, but boy, you'd be silly. Just do the first bit. That's absolutely all right with us. I like that for this first one, we've actually gone in completely different

directions. So my three-word summary for McLaren's 2024 season is Downforce wins title, because I think that's kind of the difference between them and Ferrari come the end of the year. McLaren were pretty much competitive at all races from Miami onwards. I think the only exception to that might be Vegas. Vegas, they might have had the four fastest card that it just didn't connect with them that weekend whatsoever. But other than that, they were very consistently, fighting for podium positions. The other exception in terms of result, you could say, was Brazil. But equally, I don't think that was a pace issue.

I think that was a bit of a crazy race issue. But actually, where they made the difference over Ferrari and the rest of their rivals, was at tracks like Zanvort. It was at tracks like Hungary. It was a tracks like Singapore where high down force is absolutely crucial. All of those races, Lando Norris takes dominant victories at Hungary. sorry, McLaren take dominant victories. Norris takes two of them,

Piastri takes one of them. But yeah, I think that was almost those types of circuits were the difference between them with the Ferrari. Speaking of, we'll go to Ferrari next. Three words for them. Then Canada happened.

For me, they gave all this fighting talk. We've got upgrades that are going to slash this gap to ironically to Red Bull at the time. We'll be level on pace. And they had the line up to go and take it from there if it did work, if it went their way. But it just, that was the unraveling for them. I do believe that they could have won both titles this season.

And essentially, it all comes down to Canada, not just the result, which was by far their worst result as a team that weekend. But the series of events at kickstarts after that with the form of the car, the ability of the car, not being understood, the set-ups being poor. Charles LeCler regularly having to out drive the car, which for him causes mistakes. It just led to so much uncertainty for them. Because of that, they drop points, they drop positions, and it means they walk away with nothing this year. It's the closest they'd come for a long time.

But because of Canada, it means they do come away with nothing. So for me, that was pretty pivotal for their entire year. It is the closest they've come in a long time to winning the Constructors' Championship. It's become quite unusual to see Ferrari still competing for the constructors going. into the last race of the season, which was the case in 2024. And because of that, the temptation here is to be nice to the team.

And I have managed to completely avoid that temptation, and I'm going to be incredibly cruel to Ferrari instead. My three-word summary, team fails drivers. Because, and this might be controversial, and look, we ranked all drivers in a recent Patreon episode, so we would encourage you to check that out for the season. I do believe LeCler, even if it was marginal, had a better season than Lando Norris. And I think Carlos Seines, even though it was marginal, had a better season than Oscar Piastri. I think this driver lineup had what it took to win.

I think they had the skills. I think they had the experience edge. I think they had everything they needed to go ahead and win. Apart from, as you've already said, Sam, the car, when they needed it most after a dominant victory for Lecler at the Monaco GP. Five races, Canada through to Hungary. Those five races, they have one podium. And I should also add that podium was Carlos Sines at Austria, where he was on track to

to finish fifth until Lando Norris and Vestappen had contact. They could have easily gone five consecutive races at that point without a podium. And you look at the end gap in that Constructors' Championship, and it's very clear that's the reason why they didn't win it. The wins that they had in the likes of Austin and Mexico should not have been Ferrari closing up the gap. It should have been them extending the gap because they shouldn't have needed to chase at that point. And yet they did. So yes, I can say they had some very good races this season. They took some brilliant wins and they did get closer to a Constructors' championship than they have in a long time. I think this is a missed opportunity, a real missed

opportunity for Ferrari this year. Red Bull, Sam. The Stappings saw shoulders. Yeah, the man is holding... Oh, almost went into a cold Palmer, that. Oh, no, not a cold Palmer celebration there. Oh, sick. They both start to take a shiver on camera.

Yeah, I mean, he's held the whole garage on his shoulders. He was superb in the first seven Grand Prix, and then, of course, Australia, which he'd be in after. even then he's starting on the front row. The car was starting to slip from being the best car on the grid around that immolert kind of Spain, Canada area. And yet he continued to go on and take race wings. It was that period around Spain, Canada, etc.,

where he was winning races where I don't think he should have been winning Grand Prix that meant he went on to win that title. He doubled the points of his teammate. He won the most Grand Prix across the entire year in a car that for half that season wasn't the fastest. Reguling was the third or fourth fastest car on the track. He's the only reason they were remotely competitive for 20 of those 24 races. He deserves so many applauded, so much credit for it.

I'm not going to labour on the point, but as we've already discussed it in the first segment on this podcast, Rebel do need to do more to ensure that they can fight from both sides of their garage and it isn't on an absolute legend that is Max Verstappling and his outright ability. On an absolute beans legend, Max Verstappenhan. I love that goal really understands where this expression comes from. I don't think we understand. Oh, I know. I know.

Yeah, I've gone with, 2025 happens early because when we go back to Sergio Perez signing his contract, which was the beginning of June for that two-year extension, I think we were all fairly aligned that it was the incorrect timing because we hadn't yet seen Red Bull properly challenged when they don't have a dominant car and what the effect of that might be, worrying that basically what happened in 2024 was what was going to happen. The only difference is, and hence why I've put 2025 happens early, I was worried at the time that what has happened this year was actually going to be next year.

I thought the advantage they had at the start of this season would have been enough to see them through for the rest of the year. As it turned out, McLaren and Ferrari, caught up or Red Bull went back, whichever way you want to look at it, far quicker than I thought was going to happen. So they were in danger far earlier than I thought was going to be the case. So I think this might be an instance where my read on the situation was mostly right, but my timing was off. I just didn't think it would be this early. That's your entire season, man. Definitely. Also, just a point on this with the Constructors Championship. They were second

leaving Austin, Red Bull. And yet, just like Cassie Mind's back, they were second, well within mathematical chance of winning this. You never thought they had a hope. None of us, I think all comfortably said, they were not winning. I think we all said that Ferrari have a threat here, not Red Bull, and we were all very confident in saying that,

and it came true. It's got a Merck next. What have you got? Haven't understood anything. say three words every time we do these. Yes, because they still have understood it. It's baffling that you have so many genii in one team, so much money, so many facilities, so much data,

and yet you still do not understand why you do well in one place and why you don't do well in another. And let's face it, that is the absolute foundation of performance in sport. Why do we do good here? Why do we do bad here? Fix bad, keep good. You don't know how that works, Mercedes. You literally don't know how that works.

You don't understand it. Well, well done on the one two at Vegas, Mercedes. Why have you done it? You don't know. The answer literally in the public domain was, we don't really know. And that is actually stupid. So work it out because you've had three years in a row now

where you don't seem to understand whatever it is you're doing. And it's troubling, baffling. I want to see Mercedes fighting up the front. I want to see another team battling away. I want Georgie Russ to have a go at a title. It would be fun. So can you work it out, please?

Why something is working or why something isn't working? Because I feel sorry for the teams behind you because I know how you're beating them without having a clue what's going on in your own car. I've gone with no man's land because that's essentially where they landed up. They were over 100 points away from Red Bull and they were over 350 points ahead of Aston Martin.

I think we could tell, about race eight of this season, that Mercedes were going to finish fourth this year. They were just so in their own league, really. Nowhere near the top three, but equally a long way from anyone else. I will say this about Mercedes. They only, they had nine podiums this year, at least in main races. I'm not including sprints in that. They had nine podiums.

And four of them were wins, which kind of proves the point that when they were in with a shot, when they had an opportunity, they took it. Like, when they were on it, they were on it. Like, 44% of their podiums were wins. If you compare that to McLaren and Ferrari, Red Bulls is a bit of a trickier one because Vestappen was often on the podium, and Perez wasn't,

but McLaren, 29% of their podiums were wins, and Ferrari, it was 23%. So the issue wasn't necessarily taking victories for Mercedes. It was turning sixth place finishes into third place finishes. That's what really let them down. From one race to the next, you never really knew what you were going to get. The last one of this first part, the last one of this top half in the championship,

Aston Martin, three words for them. Gouie, come now. With a cover in there, yeah. Yeah, of course, yes. We're allowing commas. Yeah, they need him as soon as possible because they are, ironically, another thought I have for this scene was what Ben's comic from the Sages was in no man's land. They are floundering around their doggy paddling in the ocean.

They can't see any land for miles about. Adrian Nui is just over the horizon in a bloody lifeboat, hoping to cast them a little rubber dinghy to save them. Because they are struggling. I've said this for the last couple of years now, that Ashton Martin have a policy of almost copying the big designs of the teams in front of them and then not really knowing what to do once they actually catch up with that design because their big team hasn't revealed their latest design

because they've got nothing to copy. They can't seem to produce any results themselves that allow them to kick on. So Alonso's trying as best. Stroll is Lans Strong at this point. I can't comment too much more on him. They need something innovative. They need to become thought leaders,

not followers of their Formula One design. They've got all the infrastructure now, start putting it to the test. It cannot be another year in that fifth, sixth place for Ashton Martin. I will say this about Astor Martin before giving my three-word summary. And you're right to raise a, I almost went with an Adrian Nui one as well, but I've gone with something else. There is a case for Aston Martin to turn around in 2024 and say, we have underdelivered

on track, but we could have ended up with zero points. This year was a success because we've got Adrian Nui. We know that they're building for the future. that one day where they, or that one morning where they announced Adrian Newey might have just superseded absolutely anything they could have done on track all year. So if you want to approach it from that angle, maybe it's successful for Aston Martin. I will look at what they've done on track and say early promise evaporates. One of the good things are going back and doing the championship review that we did in our last episode,

absolutely encourage you to check that one out if you haven't already, is we get to go back to the early races of the season that maybe we've forgotten a bit more. And that's the bottom, we're all right. Alonzo was able to fight. In fact, Alonzo scored points in all of the first six races of the season. The problem is he then scored points in eight races of the remaining 18. And that's not because Alonzo tailed off.

That's because the car just wasn't there like it was at the beginning of the year. Landstrol, as you say, Sam, there's not too much left to say on him. but he scored 24 points in 2024. 23 of them were in the first half of the year. One of them was in the second half of the year, which isn't a great split. And in fact, he didn't score any points in the last 11 races of the season.

It's only him and Valtrey Bottas who did those 11 races that scored no points in them. And can you tell me the last time, Lance Stroll, failed to score in 11 consecutive races? 2001? Trick question because... Well, 2001 is as right as 2021. It never happened. This is the first time he's gone 11 races in a row without scoring.

So that just... And again, I know the car tailed off, but Alonzo was still scoring some points to end the year. Sorry, I love that Larnstra is peddling around in like a Benetton in 2001. It might have given them more chance, to be honest. Right, we'll take our final break on this. episode. On the other side, we're getting to the other five teams and giving them three

word summaries. Well, we've got through the nice half of the championship, the ones that have actually achieved something. We now go to, oh, Alpine. What have you got for them? Carbon fibre failure. And this is almost a metaphor for what we went through at the start of the season where they brought out that livery. God's sake, man. It has about a gram of paint on the car. And I went ape. I went crazy on the internet about how sick I was of carbon fiber on these cars being revealed. But it is almost a metaphor for them trying to take off weight or remove resource or skim the fat in a flailing attempt to be a Formula One team. Every single week, we kind of saw another issue with Alpine, whether it be they remove Ocon almost prematurely. They fire another

staff member, they decide that they're going to throw away their engines and their gear boxes. And yet they did seem to claw something back with with kind of Oliokes and Gasly at the end of the season. But it was just race after race of silliness, sillyness, sillyness where they can't seem to perform like a normal and efficient group of people together to actually create a result. And I do just think that then being overweight is a car and not knowing how to remove any form of weight other than take paint off the vehicle. We made a whole joke about

Esplan Okolby and Mike Wozowski for God's sake because he would do anything for the team including lose his limbs to ensure the car could go faster because they were so impractical. They were so useless. So it's almost a miracle that they are the team we're reviewing now and not much further back. Because you remember the first

five or six Grand Prix. They were at maybe the slowest car if not the second slowest car consistently. I think so. Yeah, then being here is a real turnaround right at the end of the season And a lot of that is the development on Gassie's car and Gassie's performance. But it's been a shocker of a year for them. And I do think that the finishing position at the end of it will make it look far rosier than it ever really was.

Yep. That's the inspiration for my three words, which are Brazil, masks, crapness. I like that. And I wrote down crapness and I thought, surely I've got a better word than that. And then I thought, no, you don't deserve my time, Alpine. I'm sticking with that word. I'm not going to become a phasaurus for you. You deserve crapness because that's what you've given us all year.

I'm not going to become a thesaurus for you. What a line. I ain't doing it, Alfein. They scored 65 points this year. 35 of them came at that weekend. 33 in the race and then Ghazdi scored two in the sprint as well. And honestly, you're right. I mean, it really does.

It really does mask what a terrible season it was. Because let's say, for example, they don't score any points in the sprint, but they get sixth and seventh in the race. That would have been their best result of the year, right? That would have still at that point been a great result for them. Even if they did that, they still would have finished eighth. They needed an all-time shocker of a result to put themselves in this conversation for sixth place.

And the fact that, again, credit to Gadsley for what he did in the last few races to seal that championship position. but it wasn't a good year. It's a good thing they have this Brazil result to hang their hat on because otherwise it is just, I don't know, Bruno Famin being called Bruno Fuming and then going halfway through the year. And then do you remember there was a mass exodus of staff

after the first race of the year? And then we had Prietori come back and then we had Ockon Go. And then we had them lose out on Carlos Signs. And then we had them, announced they aren't doing their own engines anymore. Folks, this is this year. Don't forget, though, they did have

Indiana Jones livery. That, honestly, might not even be in the top 20 Albee moments of the season. That's how much... It's just been a year of ridiculous. I was thinking back to all of these things, and it doesn't seem real that they've all happened

this year. How can you fit so much stupidity into 12 months? I know. And you just think, look at the results hang in the last few Grand Prix in the way gasped the Excel. Like there's something in there. You could do something good. You just continually sabotage yourself.

Yep. See how old 2025 goes for them. Let's move on to Hass. What have you got for Hass? For Haas, I've said it so many times this season. I'm sticking by it. I think I've said it on a previous three weeks segment that we've done as well. But let Kamatsu Cook. The boy has turned

it around. They understood tyres for a start. The developments, whilst they were running low on funds, which we know that Haas are a very streamlined team when it comes to their financials. He's pulled it out. The man is an engineer and he knows what works and he's got it working. Holgerberg was sensational. Magnuson, whilst not brilliant at times, dig what he needed to do for the team regularly. And it just felt like they really got themselves back on track. That partnership with Toyota, which allows them to have a bloody simulator that's their own. That's a start

for them. That's a really good partnership. That can really go on and lead to big things for them. It's very, very clever, very sensible. A lot of potential. Kamatsu is a lot of potential. Khamatsu is a real reason why that came together. I thought it was Zambort. It might be Zambort. Yes, you might be right.

Zambort where they were thinking, oh, well, we'll have cars with X-Race because we owe someone money. That didn't happen, fortunately. And what a year you had? They were delighted with seven. They almost got six, if it was, if it was for Pierre Gassi at the end. And this is what we needed from them.

This is a good kick on. I'll stick with praise. Most impressive team. They were, for me, the constructor of the season. Obviously, they even won the Constructors' Championship. but in terms of like most impressive based on preseason expectations, they were first for me and by a comfortable margin.

The fact that there's a reason, Mr Sam Sage said that they would finish ninth. And there's also a reason that that was the closest that any of us got to because me and Harry both said 10th. We had very low expectations for Has going into the season. And why wouldn't we? They have continually undelivered. But you're right.

Kamatsu has cooked. Kamatsu has found the solution to the tire issue that they've been having for the last few years. They've scored in 14 races this season, I believe, which I'm happy to be corrected. I think that's a record for number of races scored in a season for Hass. And in fact, if you were to add up the number of points they scored in 2020, 2, 1 and 2020, all four of those seasons combined, you end up with fewer points than what they had this year alone. So it has been a real comeback for HASS. Hulk's been great all year. Magnuson ended the year quite well. They worked really well as a team as well, I should say. And they were consistent. They were consistent throughout the year, which is a good sign for the future,

as is the Toyota partnership that you've already mentioned. I don't mind that they lost P6. I still think they were very impressive. Let's go to Racing Bulls. Oh, Gav's another name you have to try and learn. I still bloody call them Tora also. What should we call them next year? I need some work on that.

Yeah. I'm not happy with racing balls. No. Comment below, please. Get in the comments. What shall Racing Bulls new name be? We will consider options. It just becomes a yearly segment of what are they going to be called this year after it's been Minardial year.

I've had four names in the last eight years. Good old. Good Lord. Fortunately, you don't need four here. Sam, you need just three. how many words? I'm going to give you two. Oh, I know.

Consistently inconsistent. They were so up and down. I've spoke about this so many times, but, you know, Sengoda was good at the start. Ricardo was poor at the start. Ricardo was good in the middle. Sango was bad in the middle,

but the car wasn't there to bring it back up. And then Lawson gets brought in. And the car ebbs and flows between being maybe just faster than the Salber and around where the Aster Martin is, to possibly being the car that can score 8th, 9th or 10th and pick up multiple points.

it really was maybe the hardest form to predict out of all of the teams this season as to where they might sit week to week. I know that the Senghis had their random moments of brilliigs, but R.B. would go from finishing potentially the seventh, eighth, you know, in points of being the fourth or fifth best team sometimes to being the slowest team. And you would never know when they rocked up to a weekend how that would appear. Sonoda one day were finishing qualifying ninth, Lawson will qualify 17th and then they'd meet in the middle again. It was very almost emulative of what Haas were doing last year, where one of their drivers seemed to out-qualify a car and they just drift back quix throughout the race. It was so difficult to know what they would achieve.

And fair play for them for beating Salbra Williams. They put up a valiant fight against the likes of Haas and Alpine. It just was nowhere. It was so hard to know whatever they were doing throughout the year. I've gone with Actions Speak Loudest. A lot of chat preseason. A lot of chat about top five. finishes and bringing in brand new hires to lead the team and senior personnel,

a lot of chat about how they were now going to be an independent team and not necessarily just be an offshoot of Red Bull. A lot of chat, a lot of yapper, yapper, yapper. Not a lot of action, action, action. Disappointing overall. They didn't have any top five finishes. Sorry, asterisk on that. Daniel Ricardo did achieve a top five finish.

It was during a sprint race. therefore I'm not counting it, not because I don't like Daniel Ricardo, but because I don't like sprints. But outside, in main races, they didn't have any top five finishes. They didn't even have any top six finishes. I think their best was a seventh place finish, which they got at the Brazilian Grand Prix, where they actually had a very good race, but they were few and far between. At the beginning of the season, at least, they took some opportunities, but I feel like a lot of it was Alpine were awful to start the year. Salba were awful all year.

Hasse got better as the year went on. Their worst period was the start. What else? I mean, Williams really fell off compared to where they were at the beginning of the end of last season. So I think in a lot of instances in the first part of the year, it was left to Sonoda to be like, all right, I'll take a point. I'll take two points. But then other teams caught up and they never really kicked on. So disappointing year.

Two teams left, Sam. Let's go to Williams. Yeah, I've gone with plaster's not progress. If you're American, that's Band-Aids, not progress. But I've got the same, you know, plosive ring to it. The amount of times that those drivers, and I mean all three of them, have smeared that car down the wall this season, is astronomical, astronomically high.

one of your drivers or both of your drivers being in the wall is so regular for this team and the worst part is when the car is on the track and running well and finishing races it ain't finishing races well it's barely scraping into the points and I know that James Vowler has said we're not looking for last year

we're not really looking for this year we're looking for next year they're looking for 2026 to be the first real catalyst moment for their rebuild of this heritage brand that is Williams to become an icon in the sport again towards the front but I thought we'd see some progress.

When the car was finishing, I thought they'd be in that fight with Haas. I thought they'd be challenging R.B. I thought they'd be closer to Al P. who were miserable for so much of the season. It does worry me that Al P. went from being slower than Williams

by a considerable margin to comfortably beating them by seven, eight places in every single race of the last seven or eight. Williams are not making that jump. Williams don't seem to be progressing at all in what's going on. And unless they're holding absolutely every upgrade back for 2026, there's something not properly working right now.

They need to work out what that is. So stop crashing the car, but also when the car isn't being crashed, you need to be faster. In a segment where we are assessing the teams, I have appropriately gone with tough to assess. Good. It's a tricky one because on track, yes, they have underdelivered versus the previous season. and the other side of the argument is will they care? Because they have ticked off a couple of boxes they needed to tick off for 2024, which was get a far better lineup, which they've done.

I mean, signs for sergeant is a massive upgrade. So I think they can tick that off. They also went on a mad hiring spree earlier on in this season, which again is going to be crucial for 2026. So they've got that ticked as well. The performance was underwhelming. But if we're looking at this through the, if we're looking at this through the lens of what do they need to do

to get ready for the next era, I think they'll still, vows isn't under pressure. I think they'll be happy with that. But certainly on track, I wanted more from them. Which leaves us to that one green toaster. I've all green appropriately for them.

Yes, indeed. In fact, I think you might be quicker. Three words for them. My is a fun little game, actually, if you can play. Get involved down there. Comment below what your answer is. The first two words I'm going to give you the third one, you've got a filling yourself. Okay.

All right. Word number one and word number two are waste of. And I'll let you pick the final word, because everything you choose is correct. Any thoughts, Ben? Anything you want to just chuck in there? Not anything that won't give Kirst the extra work. I'll come back to you on that one. Okay.

I mean, I've gone with money, time. Toast. Toast. Bread. Yeah. Air. Fuel. Whatever.

Whatever it is, it was a waste of it. You're getting nothing. You develop nothing. Jo Guangu scored points once. I don't know how they did that. Botas has been crushed. Waste of Bottas is valid. It's a waste of botas.

Yeah. The man is a gem of a human beast. he is a hero amongst normal people and yet you have punished him for 24 races continually. I can't believe he hasn't scored a point. He was so good in a car that was so bad. I don't want to go into it. I just hope that Audi know what they're doing.

I hope that behind the scenes, Audi are making changes. We've really seen with Benotto coming in and of course there's going to be a new team principal from a certain Red Bull join in their ranks very, very soon as well. They have a whole new line up with Holgerberger-Bortoletto. So let's hope that Audi have got their claws in there and changes are coming because if I was Audi and I hadn't, I would be so incredibly worried because this has been a disaster, an absolute disaster.

I forecast they'd be last and they were last beyond my wildest dreams. It really has been a shocker. So turn it around. Don't let me be scathing this time next year. My three words is a question, albeit a rhetorical one. What was that? Fair. Look, I feel like people get somewhat caught in the trap of just saying,

Salba were slow all year, Salba were rubbish, they didn't have a quick enough car, which is mostly true. But that actually lets them off a little bit because there were pockets of potential that they just did nothing with. Remember the start of the year. Yes, they were slow. They weren't that slow. Like they were at least in contention for points on a number of occasions.

and it was just the fact that they couldn't do a pit stop that cost them points to start the year and also reliability at the Chinese GP. Remember, Zhou had 11th at Bahrain, Bottas had a chance at points in China and Japan, both of the drivers made it to SQ3 in China, so there was something to start the year, but they just never built on it. The middle of the year was atrocious. They were so often the slowest by a long way. but again, if you look at the end of the year,

they showed something. Like the last seven qualifying sessions of the year, that includes a couple of sprint qualifying sessions. They had no double Q1 knockouts or no double SQ1 knockouts. They had at least one driver make it through to the second part of qualifying. And in fact, at Abu Dhabi, Bottas made it through to the final part of qualifying. So actually, the first and final parts of this year, Salba did at least show something. The middle part was just atrocious beyond belief.

but regardless of whether they were slow, really slow or goddamn slow, they couldn't take advantage of it. So, well done, Sawa. Right, before we wrap up this episode, we are getting towards the end of December, which means we have to say those immortal words of, Happy Birthday. Happy, Happy, Happy birthday!

For our wonderful December patrons. Happy Happy birthday Happy birthday Happy birthday It's our Santa Claus Day It is

It's December isn't it Happy birthday It's December So you get a Happy birthday Anyway folks Our Patreon Subscribers

If you're on the top tier You get the option of a birthday shout out We do this at the last episode The last normal episode That is Of the month

Of course Because it's Christmas We have a logo Fun episodes coming up That have either been pre-recorded Or already a kind of set and planned.

You've got the Elbeys coming up very soon, which is a real bang of station for that. But we've got a long of December, bust the showtops. So we've got T-Rex, December 15th. You've been around a long time. How long have you been alive?

Mr. T-Rex? It's the prehistoric. Cricy. Mike Bridgeford, the man that gave me my massive sausage stick. Happy birthday to you for December 30th. Never been so happy about the word stick. Jessica B.

Happy birthday, December 15th. Scott Hickox. That's how you say that. I'm so sorry. December 11th, happy birthday. Badger Brock, all of December

you've said is your birthday. Northern George, we love you, Northern George. Have a carding on us. For the 20th, happy birthday. Eric,

just December, happy birthday. Georgian Wilburying, great name. December 3rd, happy birthday. Joe from Pennsylvania. It's a long surname,

but it sounds great. December 19th, happy birthday. Boof, hello. December 3rd, happy birthday to you. Scotty,

born on Christmas Day. Oh, Oh, happy birthday for my birthday, Santa Claus. I really hope there are many more. Oh, there are. Oh, no, happy birthday. You've left Formula One, but you've joined the Patreon, which is what we love to see.

So happy birthday. Mikey, Spikey, December the 2nd, happy birthday. And finally, to round out 204's, birthday showtos 4 is Tom from Philip Island, December the 22nd. Happy birthday. Thank you to everyone in this. the top year.

Everyone that's submitted their birthdays throughout the year. They will be back next year. So enjoy that. Father Christmas, had a great ton. Oh, oh, oh.

You know when you say something in a funny voice and you immediately, immediately regret it because it's just going to come back to horn you. Yes. Yeah, it was me like two minutes ago. I'm surprised you haven't learned this about us yet. Oh, right.

That'll do it for this episode. As mentioned earlier on, we have got the LB. awards coming up a little bit later than expected, but it will be your regular episode on Sunday. So make sure you tune in to find out whether your favourite drivers and teams and anything in between has won an award. And of course, who is going to join the LB Hall of Fame? We know, we know who's in there.

You don't yet. But stay tuned on Sunday to find out. Sam. I love that you're teasing them like it's not our show. We know, you don't. Yeah, you're going to have to find out. That's true. Make sure you're listening.

sure you watch. It's a real spectacular event. I would say it might be the best of all of podcasting is the old LB. So make sure you check it out. It's a great time. Patreon is available if you want to add free. Go check it out there. And you might get yourself a happy birthday. So, you know, check that out as well. There's loads of other benefits like B-Wa-breaking. You get a historic review and you get two extra episodes every single month and everything there is ad-free. It's great value. You can still give a gift of Patreon your subscription if you'd like to, to a friend or a relative or your mother, because I'm sure she'd like to listen to us. Discalled the loose of the description, 3,000 F1 fans from around the world,

talking Formula One and other motorsports all day, every day. So go in there, find yourself a friend if maybe you watch F1 or alone. You can follow us on social media, late breaking F1. You can watch us on YouTube late breaking F1, and we will be back from much more entertainment throughout the month, throughout the winter break, and all the way through to the start of this season. Thanks for being with us. We love you. In the meantime, I've been Samuel Sage. And I've been Ben Holwell. And remember, keep breaking late. Ho! Very happy.

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