The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Toto Wolff labels Michael Masi a 'liability' and 'disrespectful' - unfair?

Episode Date: April 13, 2022

Sam and Ben rate each team's performance in the first three races, discuss Toto Wolff's comments about Michael Masi, and play a game of F1: True or False. JOIN our Discord: https://discord.gg/dQJdu2SbAm SUPPORT our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/latebraking TWEET us @LBraking BUY our merch: https://late-braking-f1-podcast.creator-spring.com/ SUBSCRIBE to our podcast! 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 tune in for new episodes every Wednesday and Gronberry Sunday. And a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking. Just two of us. No late breaking light to run away. He's going to enjoy that one to start editing, isn't he? Hi folks, Harry here, or late breaking light as I am apparently now known.

Just apologies for not being on this week's podcast. You're about to hear why, but sorry for leaving you with these other two morons. Anyway, just thought I'd say hello because you won't hear me again for the rest of the podcast. Also, Ben, Sam, you suck. Enjoy the podcast, everyone. He absolutely hated that. And it's not even his fault that he's got here. It's my fault that he's got here.

I'm away tomorrow. I'm having a joyous occasion of seeing a friend's wedding and like we always discuss obviously every week folks a little behind the curtain for you everyone good for a Wednesday which we when we usually record and I said this week

can't do Wednesday Tuesday would be ideal Ben I think you said that you couldn't do Thursday if we were to push it back a day and Harry kindly said I can't do Tuesday and I'll do Wednesday if that's the normal day if not because Harry kindly does our regating usually

he's having a day off lesson he's had a busy day at work and we thought you're going what? Well, let's have a day off, have a relax. So no podcast light, but that also means that you're not deafened or having to listen to whispers over the podcast, because the audio should be as crazy. And we have noticed a few people mentioning that the audio is a perfect, and we are aware of it. It is an issue we're working through. We're not entirely sure of the cause, if it's editing, mic-based, software-based, but we are working through it.

So to those of you listening, those who are new, if you do hear any crazy audio moments, Thank you for sticking with it. We appreciate you looking past it. And we're hoping it doesn't last too long and we come to the fix very, very soon. Maybe it's just, I am really loud. And Ben and Harry just talk like... No.

No? No. I just thought that it might be like a giant bellowing next to two little mice and that just might be how it comes across on the microphone. To be clear, anyone who is mentioning audio quality and getting in touch,

you're absolutely fair and you have your right to opinion. That's absolutely. fine and I think you're right on that but to anyone who's getting in touch with us about our reaction to the Australian Grand Prix and getting up early you just don't understand the pain

of being a European F1 fan it's more difficult being a fan here you know when you got up this morning you thought right podcast time did you go into the cup when you think I'm going to get my biggest fishing rod out put a big chunk of getting up early

bait on and you throwing it out there because you've done that the last three podcasts now someone's got a bite come on someone's got a bite you're biting very easily folks he's getting too much joy from the bite please let him simmer away on his own yeah very true all very true I mean we've got we've got plenty to discuss tonight so we'll crack on just as a bit of a teaser for our last segment even though there are only two of us here and not three of us here

that doesn't mean that there isn't a bit of trivia involved in our last segment Sam is going to compete against himself in F1, true or false. It's Sam's favourite 50-50 game where you can't lose, but you might find a way to. I mean, I don't know if anyone is going to make 50-50s look as difficult as I'm going to later. Expect no answers to be correct, folks. There's only two options, and I could guess. And people would guess more correctly than me actually putting thought into the matter. So that should just be renamed F1.

laugh at San, I think. Pretty much. We'll start with grading some teams. So three races into the season as we record this, we've just had the Australian Grand Prix. We're starting to get a pretty good measure on where the teams are in terms of their performance, how that relates to points.

Drivers are settling into their new teams. So now we've got a bit of a sample size. Now we've had three races. We're going to go through and grade the teams based on where they are versus their expectations on the 1st of January this year. So when they were there New Year's Day thinking where might we be after three races this season, we're going to grade them as to where they actually are. We'll go in reverse championship order from this season,

which means we start with Ferrari, who are not only first, but first pretty comfortably at this point in time. They've been fast, they've been reliable, but Sam grading A-plus all the way down to the dreaded you, what are you giving them? I mean, it's a nice way to start. We're on a high, wrong a positive, and it's hard to look away from the A plus grading, really. The only thing that is causing me to look away from the A plus grading, and he's going to hate this because he is a friend of the podcast.

It's Carlos Sikes. Carlos Sites in that last race. Remember, I only doing it off three races. He's absolutely bottled it. I know there was a lot of excuses that people would like to give for the performance on Saturday. He had the red flag, not his fault. He then had some kind of issue on a run, okay, but you had time to get a runging. It wasn't widely reported, and even when he got out the car, he didn't sit there and give complaints.

So he could have got that runging. He is what's letting that Ferrari side down at the moment. And he's not really letting them down. They're not sat there struggling. Oh, God, Carlos, please, score some points. You know, they're sat comfortably first in both championships. But when one side of the garage is beating the rest of the grid by over a race distance, if not two race distances, you should be second and he's not.

I'm going to give them an A plus because the expectation I think for Ferrari was not to be this dominant this early on in the season. And you know what? Long may it continue for this series? It's different. This season is producing something different and I'm all for it and I'm excited for the hunt that is going to happen with the other guys on the grid. So for me, Ferrari A plus, you love to see it.

How long it lasts? We don't know. It's Ferrari. Mistakes will happen. So from my side, so I write some notes down. prior to recording because, I mean, if I was left to freestyle, it would be a disaster, or at least more of a disaster than what it usually is. And I can just say I've got sort of ticks and crosses here, and there are a lot of ticks next to Ferrari. I would show you the fans,

these notes, but unfortunately, this is an audio platform. And secondly, even if it wasn't, you aren't going to be able to read what I write. My handwriting is genuinely appalling. Ben's handwriting might be the worst handwriting I've ever seen and he is a fully grown man He is not a child like me He can't write, legibly Yeah, it's great

But what are those ticks? Well, Shell Lecler God Leclair has been fantastic so far this year Two out of three wins And the other one He obviously only narrowly lost And finish second The car is fantastic

Carlos Seins has two out of three podiums I know that it's a slight blip in Australia but he's still, you know, on the podium twice out of three times. But really the best thing from Ferrari so far isn't even related to themselves, really, in that they've nailed it. They've nailed the car. They've got a great driver lineup. But the best thing for them is they're the only team that has.

Like, this would still be a strong grade, but they must have been expecting that either Red Bull or Mercedes, probably those two, one of them or both of them, would also have nailed it like Ferrari have. but neither of them have. You know, Red Bull have got the pace, but it appears they don't have the reliability. Mercedes definitely have the reliability, but they haven't got the pace. So, yeah, I think that's the best tick for them is they've nailed it, and no one else has. I was tempted to knock this down to an A just because signs, even with the two podiums,

has been a little bit off the pace through the first two races, and then obviously Australia was a bit of a disaster. but I decided I will be kind to Ferrari because at some point down the road I'm sure I won't be as I'm sure long-time listeners of the podcast are aware. So I'll be nice for now and say A-plus. This one could be a funny one because second place in the championship is Mercedes, which on paper doesn't sound too bad. But in terms of pace, we know that they are quite a long way off where they want to be. So what grade are you going to give them bearing in mind all of that? I want to repeat the prefix that this is based on what the team's expectations would be and I think everyone's expectations are about Mercedes will have been fighting right at the very top

on the pace for every race again. You know, the amount of people, including us here, that are saying either Lewis Hamilton or George Russell, one person said that, would be world champion come the end of the season. Hey, Russell's closer. He is. For now, he is. It's only other 20 races to go, so we'll see.

Yeah, so remember we're basing it on this And so because of that, despite being second In both the constructors and the drivers, I'm going to have to give them, I think, a D-minus. They are there through sheer luck, I think. Russell less so than Hamilton Considering that that first podium came entirely through Both Red Bulls having that failure.

You know, what are the chances? Considering that the reliability that Red Ball had last season was bulletproof. They were exceptional. And in one race, both cars go, okay, Hamilton gets lucky there. He definitely gains a good eight points or so on the overall charts.

So going through races, eight points is a lot. And then after that, you get Jeddah. Russell really performs. Hamilton absolutely struggles with a new type of car that they've tried to give, and he hasn't pulled out the best pace going. Not good at all. And then we come to Albert Park, Australia,

and it's better from the overall team. You know, they are definitely the third, his car at that point at that race, but Albert Park is not a true test of pace, it's got a really weird track surface, it's an incredibly bumpy tracking, it's hard to know just how good cars can run around there in comparison to the rest of the calendar. And again, they get lucky because of other teams' reliability issues. If you were to add in all the cars in front of them that went out due to reliability, they wouldn't be sitting in going near what they are now and they know that they are a long way off the pace. In Albert Park, after 16 laps, they were 15 seconds

behind the Ferrari. That's shocking. That is excruciating when you have won eight Constructors' Championships in a row. So they've got so much work to do. I wouldn't go as far as

an F, a U, which I don't think Americans have as a grade, but a U means unmarkable. It means you've scored so few points that you don't even count for a grade.

It's an official fail here in the UK. And I don't think they've gone that far. They are still the third fastest team. They ask you're relatively competitive. And George Russell and Hamilton are doing what they can with that car.

And they've done well to pick up the pieces. It could have been another team in that spot. So it's a D-minus because they are expecting to be the reigning champs. They're expected to go ahead and win it again and they are so far from that. And there's so much work to do. They've got it very wrong. So for me, D-minus. Wow, I have been a lot, lot kind of the new, Sam.

I've got rid of the minus and it's D. You haven't been the first half. Yeah, sure. Positive from their side is they have maxed. out the points. Like they have got every point that they have deserved and probably a few more just based on where they are in terms of pace. But that's pretty much the only positive to this point. And also, you know, George Russell is on the pace early as well. I think that's another positive. But the car just isn't there. And it's all very well listing the teams in terms of pecking

order from one down to 10. But that doesn't tell the entire story because by doing it that way, you are saying Mercedes are probably the third fastest team, which on paper, it doesn't sound too bad. The problem is the difference between them in third and probably Red Bull in second is way greater than the gap between them and probably seventh or eighth place. So it doesn't, you know, pecking order

doesn't represent the gaps between the teams. There's a big gap between them and the top two. So, yeah, they are a long way off where they want to be. And I know a lot of people have mentioned, I think maybe Toto Wolf mentioned this himself, was the parallels to 23. the year before they became this dominant force when the hybrid era kicked in in 2014. And I don't quite understand the comparison points because whilst 2013, Lewis Hamilton's first year at Mercedes, wasn't great.

You know, they weren't competing for the championship. They were getting regular pole positions. They were regularly getting good race finishes. This team isn't anywhere near pole positions at the moment. So they've got a long way to go. I have been a lot kinder than Sam and giving them a D. Lovely. Well done. We love a half score taking off there. You're such a kind person then. I really am. Let's see if that continues as we go to Red Bull, who are somehow third in the championship.

Don't really get it, but here we are. What grade do you give them? Weirdly, you'd like to think, I suppose, if you were basing this of championship positioning, that their grade should be lower. But we all know that's not the case. We will have a bit of foresight. We will have a bit of understanding of situations. and whilst they are not going to be anywhere near the grade of Ferrari, they're definitely going to be an improvement for me on Mercedes, and I'm going to give them a B-minus. And the reason why they've got that improvement is, firstly, Max Verstappen is still his wrapping old self.

The man is still putting in result after result. You're giving that man a car. He will fight for every single inch of track in every position. And he appears, we hope, and we continue to see, that the on-track action between Max and rivals, Charler-Claire this time around, is a lot smoother, it's a lot cleaner, it's a lot more thought-out,

and we've had some brilliant on-track fights for the top spot. Think of Bahrain, think of the brilliant DRS chicken that we had in Jeddah. Unfortunately, the Ferrari looked to be unmatched to Albert Park, but even on the safety car restart, when Max was stab and got along the side, it was well thought, it was clean, it was fun. So he's brilliant as well.

And I also think Sergio Perez is stepping up. we are seeing an improvement for Sergio. He's had a pole position. He was going to be fighting for a win if Baglark didn't take it away from him in January. He got hit with the DNF, which in Bahrain. He was right on the tails on the top three as well. And then Albert Park picks up second place.

He was relatively close to his team, mate, a little bit further away, but we've always said with Red Ball, Perez doesn't need to beat Max every race. He just needs to be there with him. And he was. He was there to pick up the place when Max's car went kaboon. So, for me, I'm really impressed with Perez. I think he's having a good start to the same.

season. What's letting Red Bull down? It's not strategy. They've got that all right. That's fine. The pit crew are doing the good thing. No, no, no. It's really bad power engines, really bad power trains. R-B-P-T. Letting them down. The reliability, you need to be consistent to be with a championship fight. They're slightly off the pace at some tracks. That's okay. I think the likes of the Stafford can make up that two-tenth, three-tenth gap. But when your engine can't make it to the end of a race, two out of three Grand Prix, you're in no chance. to have a championship. No chance.

Look at the gap. The gap is already bigger this season than it ever was last season. Such a hill to climb for reliability. And the issue of having reliability problems is you don't really know when you fix them. Driver form, I think, can be adjusted. Driver capability can be changed and taught and adjusted,

but power trains are so unreliable. When you've got unreliably bad, you don't know when it's going to go to boom. So the driver side, the strategy side, is the red ball that we know and love they are nailing it. But the car itself, the power train, the thing that drives the car around the track, is just letting them down bid time.

And I think they are slightly off the pace on raw pace for Ferrari at the moment. So for me, it's a B-minus. I won't spend too much time on this because you've essentially, well, I would just be copying your answer, really, in that I have given the same grade, B-minus, and essentially for the same reasons.

Perez, done a pretty good job, car is quick, not quicker than Ferrari, which is why they're not higher than this, but pretty good. And from a reliability standpoint, out of six possible finishes this season, of course, three races, two races at each Grand Prix, they're three and three. You know, it's a 50% DNF rate for the drivers at this point of the season, which is pretty terrible. But at the same time, I cannot see the rest of this season it finishing that way. I cannot see it being a 50%

DNF rate for the whole year. So I think they will probably recover to an extent. I think the question is how much they recover. Maybe not enough to win the championship. Who knows, but I think it will get better from here. And their development is always good throughout the year as well, which you do have to factor in. So I'll give them a B minus as well.

Could you imagine if Red Bull got to the end of the season and out of 46 possible finishes, they only finished 23 times combined? That's my point. I can't see that happening. wouldn't that be absolutely crazy though if that was actually a statistic oh I've ginsed it now I've jingston it will happen

but you know no I can't believe it well it creates good drama and that's what we're here for when it comes to the late breaking podcast so that's fine with me well we're not here for technical insight or indeed insight of any

in any capacity so we might as well be here for something outside if anything leaders in outside that's what I'm going to call us from now on I'm looking at at my notes here in terms of this championship order and I've looked at it five times and I'm still convinced it's wrong

based on what we saw in Bahrain the first race of the year but McLaren asked somehow fourth who knows how based on where they were at the first race of the season. What grade are you giving? I yeah it feels like the Albert Park

was a bit of an anomaly but at the same time we know that they could get stuff sorting at the moment they're back to where they basically were this time last year which is really weird and with the development that McLaren had been having over the last two or three years where every single season they seem to take a step forward, after the first two races you think they've got maybe the worst car on the grid,

if not the second worst car on the grid. And because of that, I'm still only going to give them a C because they feel like to me they're the most topsy-turvy team at the moment in the grid. Because Norris is still driving brilliantly. The guy is still performing well. And Ricardo isn't far off that. Look at his performance at Albert Park at home. They cross the line, I think, half a second away from each other, which is great.

And strategy-wise, again, they're all right. It's not terrible. They're getting things right. They're not making an absolute fath of it. They're not, hang on, hashing up every decision they could, which is good. And that's why it's middle of the park. That's why it's C. But they need to improve on a lot, and a lot is the car.

And I think Ricardo also needs to step up just that little bit more, because he's done well, he's on the ball, he got its first points of the season, unlike Norris, who already picked some up. But Hingies can be there every single race, just like Norris is at the moment, every single race. The other thing, of course, is the car itself. And it's not as obvious what the problem is with the McLaren car. It's not as certain. We've seen the talk of Masege's with their porpoising issue. We've seen that, you know, the cars further down the field are just slow.

And I've told you, aerodynamic insight is not what we provide, so they are just slow. But McLaren are a rocket, and then there's... terrible and then there are a rocket and then they're terrible and it's really confusing what way they're going so for me they're a bit topsy-turvy they're a bit all over the place but there are some very strong positive signs there as well so it's a C this is in the mingling as you can get we are sticking very close together in terms of these gratings we're not quite exactly the same on this one this time it's my turn to be the harsh one because I've gone C minus here oh savage yeah I know

right the positive from their side has to be and i know albert park can throw up a few anomalies but they're going in the right direction they were awful in barrain they were a bit better at jeda to the point where norris could score points and they were you know double points finish fairly good in in albert park so they are trending in the right direction which is the main positive the negative is they probably wanted to be further up than what they are even compared to their albert park pace, you know, because that's essentially where they were last year. And I know we're doing this compared to their expectations on 1st of January of this year, rather than after preseason testing in Barcelona.

But coming out of that test, it looked like it might well be Ferrari and McLaren. And Ferrari went through on that promise, and McLaren just went massively backwards on it. And maybe this recovery continues throughout the year. But even so, they've had this steady progress year after year, starting, 2018 and then this season's come along and it was supposed to be the one that elevated them to the winning positions hasn't happened hasn't happened at all it's gone the wrong way so overall i think it's a negative start not disastrous which is why it's not worse but but c minus alpine it feels like this is the same situation as mercedes red ball in that for pace-wise they

should be the other way around it feels the same here for mcclaren and alpine what grade would you give Alpine currently fifth? Alpine is possibly alongside McLaren is the most confusing grade to give because I had this perception where O'Conn wasn't driving very well he was letting himself down and then I've started to notice that he's cropping up

in seventh, sixth and I'm like, hang on a minute, what O'Con is suddenly very strong in the points? You know, when you look at Albert Park and again Albert Park throws up anomalies but again moving in the right direction. So I feel like Ong's performances across the season are improving. You of course have that drag race across the line as well again in Jeddah, which is almost deja vu for him that happened in last season as well. And then Alonso, you know, there were questions around Alonso, I think, in Bahrain about, you know, oh, you know, are we maybe a season

too far now? And then I feel like actually he's done pretty well. But then we get to Albert Park and he immediately burnt out his tyres. He couldn't ekew any performance on the mediums where there's plenty of other people were able to. And he finished, I think, I think, I think last of all the actual runners, which is of a long so standing, well, he had nothing wrong with his car, is pretty poor. And the car again, tough. They've voiced already that they are rather going for pace than reliability. And I would argue that that risk for having pace over reliability is not paying off because they don't really have a lot of pace. But they're not really falling out of two million races either, so maybe they want to extend that a little further. Maybe a bit

riskier. That might work out for you. So I'm going to give it. In terms of their expectations, remember they are a manufacturer. They are just like the Seagis. They're just like Ferrari. They are Rengo essentially, remember, folks? It's part of the Rengo outfit. So they are making their own engines. They have full control over everything they do. And I would like to think

that this season, they were thinking where that Ferrari McLarenbatten was last time, that kind of fourth, maybe pushing for third, we should be there. And I would say they're not. So I think currently they're on a C-minus. And I think that the car and the drivers both need to step up again it's not bad but it's definitely not

good so i think a c minus they want to be higher than they are it's pretty middle of the ground again and they're not really making the strikes that i think they'll want to make we've reversed our mcclaren and alpine picks because i've got them at a c yeah um good yeah i think in terms of pace they they are fourth and i actually don't think they're far behind mercedes in terms of pure pace. I just don't think they've quite been able to show it yet. Barrene, perhaps, being the exception, but Jeddah, I think they had pretty reasonable pace there. They were just too busy trying to kill each other. And then we went to Australia. I think Alonzo had pretty epic pace, as we saw in qualifying. Again, not quite able to unlock it because he had to go a different way with the strategy

with where he started. Ocon, I think he did all right. I think he was pretty very similarly paced to the McLarence. So I think we've still got more to see from them yet. But ultimately, you're right in terms of them being essentially Renault, and I think their expectations would have been higher versus where they are right now. For any team, this is probably the one team, with the exception to maybe Hass,

who essentially took the year off last year, Alpine have been building for these regulations for years. Like this was their intention years back, was we're not going to get it in this current reg, we're going to have to wait for the new reg. So they should have been building for this for a long time to the point where they'd want to be contending for... I think they should be contending for a championship

versus how long they've had to prepare for this. And they're not. They've got the infrastructure there. And pace-wise, they're basically where they were last year. So I'll give them a C. Again, though, I think we could see a bit more from them throughout the year, but certainly not enough to challenge the likes of the top couple. Alpha Romeo, definitely trending in the right.

right direction versus where they were last year. What grade are you giving them? Oh, I'm so happy with Alfa Romeo. They are, they're such a lovely team, it feels like. I really like Botas, as we all know. I'm a huge Bottas fan. And Zhou Guangyu, for me, I know that, you know, don't jump the horse and ride off into the sunset just yet,

but he's definitely surprised me. I'm definitely a little bit taking her back as to how strong he's started. And you know what? I think when you look at expectations, that's what we're doing from January 1st. Happy New Year, everyone. We've got someone that won't be going to driving F1 car. We've got someone that won't be able to overtake. Oh, that's not a great sign.

I don't think they're expecting to suddenly see themselves, you know, Bottas, especially, qualifying 6th, qualifying 7th, fighting for top 5 positions. Having people like us go, Botas will finish in second this race. That's Alfa Romeo, who, for the most part, could have beat an 11th or 12th or 13th, plays in. finished last season. So I'm going to give them a B plus because I think they are really starting to fly high. You know what? I think with a bit of an unlock and Joe Guangyu having a bit more experience, they could push on to be very regular point scorers. And I don't think they're too far behind the likes of Alpine, actually. I think they're going in the right direction massively. And considering that they were the third worst team for the most part last season, this is a huge

step in the right direction for them. I'm really pleased for them. because I think that they've been kind of languishing for a legal while now. So, yeah, B plus, really pleased. A minus for me on this one. Yeah, I think they've got three things that have made them, that was essentially given them an A minus here. Firstly, the car is way better than it was last year, pretty obvious one. Secondly, the Bottas pickup has worked.

He's doing a great job there already. And third one, this is going to sound weird, and it's going to sound slightly patronising, and I don't mean it in this way whatsoever. Guan Yu Zhou, oh sorry, Joe Guan Yu, he's not crashing, which sounds really patronising, but it affects rookies early in seasons way more than people give it credit for. Like, obviously it's affected a couple of drivers in the last few years. Just being able to keep costs down and get as much track time as possible early in your career,

it's really important and he's not trying to push too hard to the point where he's losing out on valuable time on the track. I know it sounds patronising, but he would not be the first to fall into that trap. I don't think the pace is there. Will it ever be? I don't know. We'll have to wait and see on that one. He's still quite a way off Bottas, generally speaking, which is fine. He's only done three races. But the rest of the season will determine how well his career will go in general, I think. So, yeah, A-minus, pretty happy with their progress.

I think they went a bit under the radar versus our next day. team, which is Hass. Your Hass were very, very direct towards 2020. Alpha Romeo, slightly under the radar, I've done the same thing. Which brings us nicely on to, Hass. Great for them. So I think we might invert here, and I'm going to give them an A minus. And I think a lot of people might be thinking, well, why not an A or an A plus?

Because the growth of Haas has been almost as spectacular as the growth that Ferrari have seen, from being, you know, third or fourth to comfortably the fastest team. So isn't going from last to being maybe the fifth or sixth best team, the same amount of grossing, it all inherent the same grade? And here's one for why. Essentially, that expression, by the way, folks,

makes absolutely no sense to anyone. I just like saying it. Magnuson might be the best bit of driver business that we've seen this season. The fact that the guy had a year out, the fact that he went to dig something else, and they went, Kevin, mate, box office, you go to take a year off, go have some fun.

We're going to spend all this money, and then we'll get rid of that individual again, and you can come back. And he is just as quick, he's just as rapid. And you know what? I think he's more consistent than he was when he left. And he's leading that team already. He's gelled backing immediately. And Nick Schumacher, okay, he's not as close as I wanted him to be.

That's part of the reason why they got an A-plus. But he's competitive. He's doing well. He's finding himself, and it takes a bit of time. get yourself adjusted to suddenly fighting in the midfield, to suddenly deal with a car that is incredibly competitive. And I think he's getting there. I think we'll see more from Mitch Schumacher. As I've stated many times, I don't think Mick Schumacher is going to become a multiple-time world champion. I don't think he's got the same youngster prowess that Bostappelin,

Lecler, Norris, Russell have. But I do think he could be a very strong driver. I think we're starting to see that. But when you take an entire season off and you invest everything in your development for the next year, for new. regulations. And I mean everything. They knew they were working towards this season, the new regulations. And you're still losing to teams that were in battles for the entire time. You're not fighting regularly for podiums or those top endpoints. You're still finishing with both cars outside of the point is what happened on Albert Park. Those results do damper a lot of effort, a lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot more over what other people have done as well. So for me, it's only an A-minus.

I do think that they could be just a little higher with the amount of of effort and resource that they've put into these new regulations. So very happy, amazing a scene of fighting. Love Good to Steiner, so he's always brilliant. So it's an A-minus. We're not inverting on this one. We are staying exactly the same. I've also gone A-minus here.

Yeah, it's been a dramatic transformation, as anyone who's watched the first three races has been able to see. Bear in mind we're comparing against 1st of January here. First of January, it was Mazepin and Schumacher that were set to race for the team. So Mag not Maz has worked out very well indeed. It's been a great comeback and he's done very well. The reason it's not higher,

still some errors from Mick Schumacher that need to be ironed out. And also, this is bizarre. If you're new-ish to F-1 and this is the first race you've seen in Australia, just a bit of context, has, it doesn't matter if they're having a good year or a terrible year, they will be quick in Australia. No idea why, but they are always quick in Australia, apart from this year. This year is completely but the trend where they're fast everywhere else and then they turn up to Australia and can't score points. Really weird. So, you know, the fact that they were quicker at the first race of the year versus the third race of the year, a bit worrying, but overall, Derrygood starts the year, so A-minus for them. We go to, we're back to the A's, Alpha Tauri.

How are you grading them? Alpha Tauri. Oh, we love the A's. Now this is one of the teams. We've been quite complimentary. We've had a nice little run. A. Possible. and I think this is definitely a step down from them. And now, Alpha Tauri never expect to be a championship fighting team. That's what the point of Alphotauri, despite being a, in quotation marks, independent team. We know that they are a figure team to Red Bull. We know they're a direct relative, so to speak. We know that they're entirely to test, to promote young drivers, and to give experience.

And it's a fantastic project. It works, for the most part, when they stick with those drivers. So I don't ever think their expectations come January 1st are, oh, I hope we nail the regulations and we're fighting for the championship. I think they'd be very happy if they were basically doing what they did last year, but with both drivers. Regularly sitting in the top five, maybe a podium, maybe if a crazy race happens, they get a win.

That's what I think Al fatauri always look for. And they could not be further from it this season. You know, Yuki Sanogo, I feel like I've barely seen him on the racetrack. He's not crashing, which is very good. well done yuki but at the same time he's nowhere he's regularly running halfway down the teams and isn't featuring the points of pierre gazley who i still have a lot of faith thing i still think he's doing a good job even in this car i still think he's doing a good job he's not anywhere near of the level that that alfetari was able to achieve last season so for me i'm going to put this down as a

a big fat d um they are well off they're going backwards they're going the wrong way and I think it's a solid D. Very disappointing. D for disappointed and out for Tauri. This is, at least so far, the biggest difference that we've got in terms of grades. It's interesting because our logic isn't actually that far out. I think I'm just giving them a bit more leeway on it.

So I've given them a C. And it is basically for the reason you gave in the first part what you said there, in that my positive for them, again, this is going to sound patronising, is that I don't think they've fallen back that much. because if you look at the teams around them Alpine have been

searched for these regulations for years McLaren have made good progress over the years Ferrari you know they were expected to make a massive jump and they have Williams have had a cash injection Aston Martin again it hasn't worked for them but they were gearing up

you know they've had a massive investment Alpha and Hass have basically taken a year off to work for these regulations all of these teams, they can't all go forward without a team or two going back. It can't happen. And I think Alphiarei have just been stuck in that position of, well, we don't have the championship aspirations

of these other teams. We are a sister team. And as a result of that, I think then moving back is somewhat expected. That's why I've perhaps been a bit kinder on this and giving them a C. I think you're right, it was good to see last season GASley getting these sort of P6s in qualifying.

They're not happening this year so far. but I feel like this sort of move backwards given the context kind of expected it two teams to go Williams one point on the board gives them ninth of the moment

what are you going for oh isn't that sad one point on the board in three races I'm going to be quite brutal brutal with Williams I think I think the only good bit of business that they've done so far this season

is Alex Albin and he surprised me And I think their expectations would be, we've been at the back or joint at the back with another team for how many seasons now? Four, five, six years now we've seen Williams cruising around essentially picking up one point a season or picking. And only until last season did they not pick up more than one or two points, right, with both Russell and Atifi scoring. And you think with that evolution, you think with Russell and Atifi, obviously in the race that technically wasn't a race at Belgium, Russell got a podium, right? But you think the car was capable. Russell manipulated that car to the point where he qualified in the front row of the grid.

That Williams was capable of doing that. And we saw several races where they scored points. You think, right, new regulations, and we're ending on a high like this, we've got to step up now. We're getting a step up, especially with this, you know, big investment coming in. The Williams family is stepping aside, huge investment, big money. They want success. And they rock up.

And Latifie puts it in the wall four hundred and three times over the course of 20. minutes. Album obviously takes his time but I think he's been good, not great but good. And they are still struggling. They're still not moving forward. And as we said, you know, they probably put more time into these regulations than a lot of teams and put more focus into these regulations than a lot of teams. And it must have been their time to go, we've got to nail that. We're going to throw away these old regulations because it's not working for us. We won't catch up in the time that they're around. All focus on the new regulations. and they're still ninth after three races.

So for me, it's a big, juicy E. It is one of the worst grades I'm going to hand out. I am really disappointed at where Williams are. The only saving grace for me is one of the livery. Blue actually done well, so well done Williams. And Albon, I think Albon is a good bit of business. I think he's doing well for them. Other than that, shocking.

And Latifie, if he's still in the drive come summertime, I would be shocked because it is one of the worst starting performances of a driver that isn't a rookie that we've seen for a while. It's not good at all. Yeah, I won't be too much nicer. I've given them a D here.

Yeah, ultimately, there were three teams at the back of the grid last year, two of them have moved forward, and the other one's Williams. It's not a great look. You're right about Alex Albin, slight asterisk in that Nicholas Latifie is,

making him out to be Pride Michael Schumacher, but he has done a good job, nonetheless. He settled him well, and he did a good job picking up that point in Australia, but they're still slow. And they're probably, I know they're not in for the championship, they might more have the slowest car, even if they aren't last than the championship.

So it just hasn't worked out for them. Very simply put, and Nicholas Latif, as you say, he's really struggling so far. And finally, Aston Martin, bringing up the rear. I can't imagine this great. going to be brilliant, Sam. What are you going for? No, you don't think so? Folks, we spoke about a certain grade that I think in the US doesn't exist.

And they are getting the unmarkable grade. It is a you, you know, like Soldier Boy, when he's like, you! Soldier Boy, tell us you Martin, that's what their grade is, because they don't deserve to be on the bloody marking board. They don't even have the worst car on the grid. Ben, as you just said, Williams probably do have the worst car on the grid. And the thing I think that's what makes it worse.

Their expectations, as a manufacturer again, remember. Same as the likes of the sake. They make their own cars. They manufacture, they have their own commercial aspect out there. Okay, they're not running Ashton Martin engines, but they have the investment, they have the prowess, they have the ability. And when you look at what Asken Martin used to be, racing point, force India,

what they were able to do is such small budgets, the efficiency, the driver moves, savvy moments across the season that meant that they scored more points than their rivals. and now after three races there last. Just take Albert Park, Australia as it was. How many times can two drivers from the same team crash and still not score any points despite being in point scoring positions?

It's embarrassing. It is embarrassing. The whole blueprint needs to be screwed up, put in the bin, and get a new architecting to draw a whole thing again. Because this is shocking. It is so bad. I think if I was an employee of Racing Point or Force India, I'd be looking at Ascom Martin

with literal billions of pounds of investment. I'm thinking, how have you gone so far backwards? This is ridiculous. I think that when their facilities are maybe improved, we might see them stepping forward. But Lance Stroller Sebastian Vettel had been woeful. Obviously, Vettles only being in one race, so I can't be as critical.

But Stroller hasn't been good at all. And Vettel didn't exactly display any brilliance while he was in Australia. I hope that now he's got a race under his belt in the new regulations. We'll see him step forward. Otherwise, it's very damning stuff. So the fact that they're not even the slowest car,

but they've still managed and not score any points and Williams are a head of them is pretty shocking, pretty bad. So for me, it's the lowest grade you can get. You need to change everything, Ashton Martin. Yeah, I mean, I'm going to go with an F

and perhaps it's good that we've gone in this order because the letters don't do too favourably if they are the other way round, although they might be appropriate based on the start of this season for Ashton Martin. Again, just to refer back to the very first one where I said about Ferrari, I do have ticks and crosses against all of these team names here down on my piece of paper. I say that because that's not quite true. There are no ticks at all

next to Aston Martin. They're all crosses. It hasn't been good. Hasn't been good at all. The drivers aren't performing. Sebs had COVID. The team's gone backwards. They tried to build to this season. I know the investment of Stroll is yet to fully, it's going to take a couple of years to come in fully, but even so, they should have been higher than they are here now. I mean, they're wanted to be probably leading the midfield, if not, maybe slightly better. And they aren't leading the midfield. They're leading, well, they're leading opposite season. But outside of that, not good. F for me. Oh, that's not a nice note to end on, is it?

Sorry, if you're an Askin Martin fan, I am sorry. I hope for better things for you. Yeah, maybe we should have done it in reverse order, at which point we could have finished nice with Ferrari, but, you know, hindsight's a wonderful thing, isn't it? Yeah, but Askin Martin think the same thing about a lot of their developments. Ooh, burn. A zinger.

Zinger, indeed. Please let us know what you've got further grades for the 10 teams and how they compare to ours. So, you know, get in touch with us on Twitter, our Discord, we'd love to hear your views on this and maybe why yours are slightly different from ours if you've got different viewpoints. But we'll move on to some comments from Toto Wolf

in reference to Michael Massey. And I feel like since Abu Dhabi happened last year, we've neglected to talk about the events of it too much. We covered it a lot in the review episode that we did. But apart from that, we haven't really covered Massey We've done it too much in the trying to move on sort of way. And I think other podcasts probably cover this more than we have. But some of these quotes are really quite eye-catching to the point where we thought this is actually worthy of a discussion at this point.

So Toto Wolf went talking about Michael Massey. He had a few things to say. I'll pick out a few of them. You know, he doesn't take criticism on board and he needs to develop. That's one thing he said about Michael Massey. he said that drivers were saying he was almost borderline disrespectful, how they were treated at briefings. He even went as far as saying a promoter in the Middle East.

He didn't specify which country, but that he was happy he was gone because of the abuse he received from Michael Massey. So these are pretty, this is why I think it's worth even discussion. They are pretty damning words from Toto Wolf. They're strong words. What's your reaction to it, son? Firstly, listeners, if you're wondering why we haven't spoken about Abu Dhabi, since Abu Dhabi, it's because we are entirely sick of the conversation around

Abidabie. We'd like to get on enjoy the new regulations, but this seems to have really ripped open a word. It seems like Toto Wolfe has been holding on to some pain around the situation. And I get it. I get it. The man is incredibly competitive, is incredibly proud, and a personal decision that someone has altered the entire outcome of his chavisanship.

I mean, that's what the FIA said, right? It came down to a personal error, a personal failure. Although that error was made in good faith, which is what the report said, it was a personal error. And that personal error was not Toto Wolf. It was not a driver on the grid. It was the race director who should be never seen, never heard. You should be going to make decisions quietly in the background.

That's what we all think of race directors. So, obviously, only by a slim margin, but Toto's. Wolf does have a better insight into the Formula One fan than I do. Very marginal but he does just catch me there. And to hear him say that Michael Massey, who was, you got to remember the legendary games we've had as race directors.

All right, you know, rescue please, Charlie. The people that have had so much respect, have had so much govern, so much ability to control a situation and the drivers have looked to for safety, for understanding, for explanations.

And you hear words like this from the most successful team director that there's being in Formula One? Oh, that is scathing. That is scathing. It was like your head teacher has seen you've got a bad report card and come down and spoke to your mum and dad

at the end of parents' evening and said, liability, disrespectful to teachers, isn't very nice to other people in the classroom. And you think, oh, don't tell my mum and dad that. Please, come on, it's embarrassing. I don't want to know that. But Total Wolf's told the press. He's told everyone in the world.

And I can't tell you if it's true or not. We've not been there. But it's pretty damning stuff. And if that's the reputation that he's built up for himself, then you have to wonder why Michael Massey was able to stay in contention. It's not the right word, but power, essentially, for so long, if so many people saw this issue, so many people saw problems with it, if drivers were leaving these driver briefings going,

he doesn't take on any feedback. We've tried speaking to him. He doesn't listen to us. There's no... How do they have trusting someone that has such ability, such control over a very dangerous environment? You wouldn't... Say you're working on a building site. If the person in charge of the building site didn't listen to a single person, you think there's heavy machinery, there's, you know, lots of sharp objects. And this person doesn't listen to a word we're saying. Would you want that person to stay in charge or would you all come together and go, get him out?

He doesn't care about our safety. And that's how it feels. And to hear this from Toto Wolf, who is probably one of the most respected people in Formula One, despite what your opinion might be of him as an individual, is done rather well from himself. This is damning, it is scathing, it is atrocious to hear these words. I'm not going to say, I can't say, whether I fully agree with it, because I'm not being any of those meetings. I know you're all thinking, Sam, why aren't you in those meetings? I just, I was getting an ice cream, or I was having a roast dinner, many reasons, but I wasn't in them. And Toto Wolf is speaking.

I wonder if I'm a people... Michael Massey. Present? Sam? No, he's off eating a roast dinner. Oh, okay, we'll crack on. He's got a roast thinger. Yeah.

Every meeting, Sam's having a roast. And I wonder now if Toto Wolf has come out and said something to the press, to I think it was with Sky, he had this conversation, if we're going to see other remarks, allegations, comments about Michael Massey and the way he dictated this sport, this running, because it seems like he was not the type of race director who wanted. to not be seen and heard, it felt like he enjoyed the show.

He enjoyed the spectacle and maybe like to encroach on that a little bit too much. So, if that's what Toto Wolf thinks and feels, and that's what Toto Wolf thinks and feels, and he's far more qualified to make that observation than I am. But that observation is bloody

horrible, and it is a strong thing to say about someone. So, it'll be interesting to see. And arguably, the actions that did happen at Abidabee, if that was just the cherry on top, would point the arrow towards what Toto Wolf is saying. It makes sense to go in that direction. But I can't be too skating on the man.

I literally don't know anything about him other than he's Australian and he was the race director for Formula One. Then, interesting to see what you think. Correct on both fronts, by the way. Well done. Good. Well done me. Yeah, I'm kind of with you on some of this in terms of wanting to leave parts of this alone just based on

we've only got Toto's word on it. And I'm not necessarily saying Toto's lying about anything he's saying. but especially the parts about the promoter in the Middle East and drivers saying he was disrespectful. No driver has come out really, not in relation to his Massey being disrespectful, and the promoter in the Middle East, whoever that is, has not come out either.

So until that happens, I don't think we should comment specifically on that bit just because it is Toto's word against Massey's word and Massey hasn't said anything. So I'll leave that part alone. But in terms of Toto Wolf, calling Massey a liability, I feel like we can talk about that a little bit more because we were privy to the decisions that Massey made on the racetrack. You know, his communications through the

FIA. We kind of know whether he was a liability or not. We don't, as I said, we don't have access to all the behind-the-scenes stuff, but at least there is some part of it that's visible to the fan like the two of us. And I don't disagree in that he was a liability. and I don't even think this is a lot of people are going to go back to Abidabie very specifically on this and I want to make it very clear if Abu Dhabi did not happen

let's just say the season ended Jeddah my opinion on this would be absolutely no different he was a liability in many races towards the back end of last year Abu Dhabi I think he was as well but I'll leave that

alone because if you take that out of it and I had no horse in the fight last I didn't mind who won, but I wanted whoever to have won to have done so in a fair way. And I think he was a liability long before the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, quite frankly. There are two lines, sort of two questions that I want to address here. The first one, and I've seen a lot of people say this about Toto Wolf, because this essentially came out as a result of a meeting between Toto Wolf and Michael Massey. They went for lunch five days before the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

And a lot of people have questioned this, you know, is this tampering? Is this Toto Wolf trying to influence him just before the biggest race of Mercedes season and Red Bull season? Which I think it's fair to bring up. I will say this, though, I don't believe Toto Wolf, and call me naive on this, I don't believe Toto Wolf's intention of that meeting was to influence him towards Mercedes' favour. Reason being, some of the quotes about what Toto Wolf allegedly said in that meeting, I can't see how that would bring Massey on side. I think it would do the complete opposite.

It's like, agreed. Okay, he's got on to Michael Massey for lunch and he's told him, you can't take criticism on board. You know, you need to develop more. You need to listen more. That sort of thing is going to alienate Michael Massey. It's not going to bring him closer to Mercedes to make decisions to favor them. So I don't, I'm not on board with this whole Toto Wolf took up that meeting to try and,

there you go, Michael, go on. I don't see it that way whatsoever. the second part of this which is very interesting and you've already slightly touched on this Sam is why now this happened four months ago five months ago it's happened a long time ago why is toto wolf now saying these things he could have said it a couple of days after the race he could have said it in January he could have said it preseason could have said it after barrein why now and i think it's a really important question and i honestly think and this is perhaps where i'm becoming less naive i think it's a case of misceasing

Sadie's keeping up the narrative of what they believe happened. And I tend to agree with their version of events, but I believe it's them trying to keep up the narrative here. They've waited, I think they've waited a few months just for it all to die down, but just to add something else in there about Michael Massey. And I don't be surprised that they do this in three or four months time again, because the more they can reinforce this position of, we were robbed of a championship. the more they can do that over a greater period of time,

the more it's going to stick, and the more it's not going to be an opinion, and they're going to try and actually force it into the history books. This is what happened. I believe that's what they're doing here. The other thing as well is, if he said this two days after the race happened, he said, well, Massey's this, mass is that.

We chatted a week ago, and this is what I told him. Everyone, absolutely everyone would call it out as sour grapes, right? they'd just say, you know, emotions running high, you've just lost the championship. They wouldn't take his words at face value. They wouldn't mean much. I think Mercedes' intention here is because they've waited four months or five months, and now they're saying this, it's almost like they're trying to spin the narrative of, we've taken the emotion out of it now. A lot of time has passed. So this is actually what we truly think. I don't actually think it's worked. I still think people are seeing through it. But I

think that's what they're trying to do. It's just like we've detached ourselves enough from the situation that happened last season and now we're free to say it and without as many repercussions. And the last point here I want to make is that to be clear, I know he gave up this information willingly as part of press. It would have been really easy for Toto Wolf to bat off a sort of question about Michael Massey, as he has done a couple of times. It would be really easy for Toto Wolf to answer any questions in a very PR way and say, we're only focused on this season. Last season was last season.

It didn't go our way, but all our focus is on 2022. We're trying to win the championship this year. It's basically, it's a gimmy. It's an easy answer to any question about Michael Massey. He could have gone up with that approach, and he didn't. So what I'm trying to say is don't feel like he was pressured. into saying something here. He gave up this information willingly.

If he didn't want to, it would have been really easy to do so. I completely agree with you. It's almost like listening to a politician talk. You hold something in your back pocket. It's ammunition. You use it as a tool. And it is equally a PR tool,

as much as saying we're focusing on this season. Let's move on. He has planned and executing something here. It is definitely not by mistake. It's not by a, Oops, it slipped out that I told Michael Massey he's a liability. Oh, I told him that he couldn't take on criticism. Oh, I didn't mean to say that conveniently, five months on from the decision after a race.

And to go along with that and the way that he spoke to Michael Massey at lunch, you wouldn't dream of it. You imagine, we'll do a British football reference here. Manchester City, Liverpool. They are one point difference with a few games away. Imagine if their game together was the last game of the season. and they knew, I don't know, Mike Dean was the referee, who was a referee here in the Premier League. You wouldn't get Pep,

you wouldn't get Pep Guardiola going, Mike, on Wednesday, do I come out for lunch? It wouldn't happen. You would never have a manager taking a referee, the person who dictates the way of play, out for lunch. It's considered, go on then, I can see you, Richard. Also, I would just say to that as well,

I'll let you carry on with it in a moment. But if that did happen, Just say it did happen, Pep Guadio or Yergen Klopp would not sit there with Mike Dean and tell him you don't take criticism very well, do you? It would be the complete opposite. You would kiss his butt, right? That's what would happen.

Yeah. Yeah, sorry. Exactly. And both points are correct in the sense of Toto Wolf shouldn't be going to lunch with the race director less than a week before the championship decided where he had a horse in the race. That is not okay for sporting reasons. But for those of you saying, he was trying to butter him up, he was trying to swing him our way. You wouldn't sit there and slag someone off for an entire lunch, would you?

I don't go up to my manager at work looking for a pay rise and go, look, I want a pay rise, but by the way, you're rubbish at man management. You're terrible at making decisions, and I really think you could take criticism better. But if you could just raise my salary at the same time, that would be ideal. It doesn't work like that. It's one or the other. So the fact that he's using this intentionally, remember that, and we shouldn't be having these meetings

between high-ranking officials in a sport where there is a lot to play for. If you want to go for lunch with Mike Massey during the winter period, fine, be my guest. If that's when you want to do it, but that close to a crucial moment that is defying a Formula One history, sorry, I don't care whether it's good or bad,

shouldn't be happening. That is bang out of order. Yeah, I agree with you on that. It is almost like with he's either, Toto Wolf is either the worst butterupper ever, or he's lying about what he said. I don't see how it can't be one of the two. He's either lying about what he actually said in that meeting, or he just doesn't understand how to play it.

I don't think Toto Wolf's a liar, so I think he is the worst butterupper of all time. Do you think when he goes downstairs, he thinks, oh, I'll make myself a pump a knick-along, on toast or a pumping-neickle sandwich as he likes to have. Do you think he's one of those people that when he spreads to the butter, he just puts the knife straight through the bread just has a massive hole in his slice of bread.

He goes, I'm the worst butter up ever. Flashbacks to Michael Massey. To be clear, Tootow Wolf does actually like that and that's not just Sam being incredibly stereotypical. He does eat, if you're what to survive, he eats pumping-eck, okay? Exactly, yeah.

I'm not making it out. I thought I'd at least back you up. before someone came along like, Wow, really? Okay. What a stereotype kind of guy. Let's move on. We'll finish off this episode

with a bit of true or false. So even though Sam will be competing against himself essentially here, I've got eight statements written down. Sam loves a 50-50. Sam loves a 50-50. And he's got to guess whether these statements are true or false.

Since it's 50-50 If you get five or more Correct, I'm going to call it a win If you get four, I'll call it a draw Because then you would literally be four all And three or fewer You've lost to yourself Bang, I haven't got a 50-50 correct

Since this podcast has been creating You've got eight chances, surely you get one right Right, fingers crossed folks That we get one Come on, here we go What number do you want first? Let's annoy Harry, as he's not here, and going order. Let's do number one.

We'll go exactly in order. Okay. The three youngest drivers to start an F1 race all have Belgian mothers, but none of them have or used to race under a Belgian licence. That is true. It is true. He's done it on the first go! One for one.

What a day. Can I name them? Yeah, you can, yeah. If I can remember them. Sybasky vessel, Max Verstappen, Lando Norris. It's Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, and Lanchstrol. Ah, Lansy boy. Okay, two out of three.

I'm still happy with that. It's a really weird stat, though. That is a weird stat, yeah. Okay. Second one. Pedro de la Rosa, big friend of the podcast. Paul de Resti. Yeah, after Pedro de la Rosa got his first and only podium at the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix,

his wife's friends called him. Now, he was thinking that they were calling to congratulate Pedro on his first ever podium, but instead they were actually calling to inquire about whether Jensen Button was single. Is that true or false? Ben, you have made up some preposterous things on our 50-50, and I think for my own peace of mind I have to say false because otherwise I look like an idiot

so either way I feel like people understand why I've said false so I'm saying false I did not have fun making that up because it is true oh for Christ's sake so in this 50-50 contest you are 50-50

you've got one right and one wrong good all right number three about big old Bernie Bernie Stone. In 2004, tried to convince ITV to let him commentate

on the last race of the season. Is that true or false? Again, this is just a preposterous thing that Ben's made up, but this is Bernie. He 100% would want to do that. 2004 season, so that's Michael. Bernie bloody loves Michael. I'll get it wrong, but I'm I can't say true because it's Bernie.

No, I had fun making that one up. That's false. I'm going to get one out of eight. Honestly, I can't stress to the listeners enough how much fun I have putting these together. It's only for me though.

You can stop tormenting me. It's so much fun. This next one is my favorite one of the lot. Number four. Oh, I'm going to get it wrong. Okay. I'm going to struggle up with this bad.

Oh my. This is really tricky. Ben to make himself laugh so much. Derek Warwick's father, Warwick Warwick. Can I look that up? Is that a real person? You can't look it up. Derek Warwick's father, Warwick Warwick Warwick.

Warwick, Warwick. Good. What's his middle game? Warwick. I don't know. He competed in two British Grand Prix in 1954 and 1955. Is that true or false? I've got to say false.

I'm sorry, it's fosters. That's false. True, isn't it? Oh, good, I go for that. That is hilarious, by the way. Warwick, Warwick. Oh, good. I knew I was going to lose it, that one as well.

That's what made me say fault. I'm going to Google if someone's called Warwick, Warren. Please, let me know if someone is. Certainly Derek Warwick's father isn't though. Oh, that is so funny. You are back to 50-50, Sam. You are too old. Of course I am.

Number five, Christian Horner raced against Toto Wolf in the 1992 British Formula Renault championship. Is that true or false? That is false. That is indeed false. Well done. Christian Horner did compete in that series but Toto Wolfe did not

I thought so look at me look at you go you're ahead for the first time of myself well on you're on you're on you're on Corset number six the 1961

Dutch Grand Prix had no pit stops I remember it I'm going to say that's true that one is true well done oh we're on a roll I've got a draw here, then you cannot lose now. Even if you get the next two wrong,

the worst you can do is draw against yourself. So well done. I can tell you what, I reckon it's Harry that puts me off. This is a miracle. Number seven. Damon Hill, his first name is actually Damien, but his first teacher at school

misheard and it's stuck from there. That sounds so ridiculous. I wanted to be true, so it's true. Nah, I made that one up. sorry. Oh, you're very good at storytelling, Ben. These creations are quite brilliant. Yeah, like I say, I have a lot of fun with these.

Which means there's a lot riding on this last one, Sam. Number eight, if you get it right, you are five and three, therefore you finish with a positive record, and you have officially beaten 50-50s. However, if you get it wrong, you are four and four, which means you are 50-50 in a 50-50 game. Oh, for Christ's sake. And this is another good one.

In 1994, one Manuel Fangio opposed a province of Buenos Aires law which denied driving licenses to over 80s, Fangio at the time, over 80. Fangio challenged traffic bureau personnel to a 250-mile race in his 80s, and they decided they wanted no part of that, so they just granted him in exceptions. so he was able to still drive. Oh, so right, folks, I'll walk you through what's going on in my mind here. I could 50-50 to 50-50. And if you've come to learn who I am, you'll know I'm quite a sporadic person, is putting it politely. And I like things like this to be true.

I want the world to be like this. Now, the part of me is, do I risk 50-50 in the 50-50, and just going with what I want to happen, or do I not risk the 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, and just say that is the most ridiculous event to have ever happened other than a certain Ferrari boss chasing a certain driver around the garage which Ben made up on another 50-50

and say it's false. And I feel like I wouldn't be honoring myself if I didn't say that this is true and Fangio should raise the entire princletality of Buenos Aires. Ben, it's true, I'll accept the 50-50. I love how you stick to you stay true to yourself you do go with your heart over your head

and you've done it yes it is unbelievably true also big up one no fang huanganganggho for challenging the council to a drag race This guy is, I can't remember his exact age.

He was over 80 years old at this time, probably early to mid-80s. That is, firstly, props to you, Fangio, absolute legend. Might go down as a goat moment. He goes. I might do that to Southwark London Council. I'll go, remove all the speed limits, or I'll beat you in a drag race, and I'll see what they think. It's like, what do you do in that scenario? It's like, well, you either enter it and be humiliated by losing to an 84-year-old or, you know, you don't, you do it and, you know, something bad happens to him and you basically injured or killed an 84-year-old.

It's not a good look either way if you're the Bureau there. So I feel like they, I mean, they were wise to stay away. This feels like a Michael Massey situation where they could have just gone, no, we make the law. the answer is no Fangio is the law that's the problem I mean Fangio is

yeah I mean if you are from that area that he residing from and you knew what he was capable of doing you probably have got a lot respect for the bloke

also my respects for him 10-fold it was already through the roof but what a moment in your life I fought the law raced and I won I cannot think of a better way to end an episode of a podcast.

You've won. You have actually won. I'm so happy. The irony is that if Harry was here, you would have had to pick numbers, and you would have picked the three that you got wrong, and you wouldn't have beaten him. So true.

Another reason why it's fantastic, Harry is not here. Harry would probably have known the answer off by heart without even having to guess right or wrong because that is just the way this podcast goes. I am of course joking about Mr. Harry Ead and it will be lovely to have him back for our next episode which will be in a week's time as we record this right now. We'll be back for the preview at Imala. That'll be our next episode but Sam if you wouldn't mind until then getting us out of here. Yes folks we will be charging 19 IP to unlock the full version of the podcast and that does include Harry Yead.

That's a joke. We will be back, of course, next week for the Imler preview, which does unfortunately include the first sprint race of the season. We will be applying medication to Benjamin Hocking for the next fortnight, just to make sure that he makes it through okay. Thank you for joining us. It's been a big of a big of a wild ride, and the two of us hopefully have kept you entertained,

and Mr. Harry Ead will be back, of course, next week. If you have enjoyed the podcast, you'll be more involved. We've got a whole week, of course, until more content. Then hang over to the Discord. The link is in the description. Come and chat to us on Twitter at El Breaking. Instagram is the late-breaking podcast. We're on TikTok.

That's what it's called. TikTok. Someone asked if I had flossed yet. I have not flossed yet. One million likes on TikTok and I will floss. That's the rules. That's the rules. I should get there.

I'll floss. I'll do a full three minutes of flossing to a song of your choice. But we're on TikTok. That's the late-breaking podcast as well. Merch is available and I'm going to be making some more in the near future. As I've said last time, we'll be doing a sausages out for gals, and the game more bodies, or more bodies, please. T-shirts, they are coming.

It's just, I'm slow. There's got there's Patreon, which, you know, if you really want to spend some money on us, you're bizarre, but we do massively appreciate those who do it. In the meantime, I've been Warwick Warwick. And I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late. I got a 50-50 right.

Warwick, Warwick, Settling. podcast network.