The Late Braking F1 Podcast - V10s back in F1?

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

Can we expect the roar of V10 engines to return to F1? Ben and Sam delve into the FIA's recent remarks on the potential reintroduction. They also explore McLaren’s leadership setup, whether this season could see more winners than last, and discuss Carlos Sainz’s new role as GPDA Director. They wrap up with a game of Overrated/Underrated... FOLLOW us on socials! You can find us on YouTube, Instagram, X (Twitter) and TikTok SUPPORT our Patreon for bonus episodes JOIN our Discord community JOIN our F1 Fantasy League EMAIL us at [e-mail]   & 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 check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. Welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage. And me, Ben Hocking. Fresh off of teammate wars at the weekend, Sam. We're back to regular chit chat today, but, oh, it was a good episode that. Oh, it's always solid to him.

If you haven't watched it or you haven't listened to it, both are available. then go back and give it a go because that is the episode. Will we at the start of the year make our predictions on who will beat each team? We come back at the end of the year and we win and lose absolutely nothing except pride. Actually, Ben, we never lose. We don't know the definition of losing. No, never lost, mate.

Literally ever lost. Unlucky Harry, who's deciding not to turn up today through shame, I assume. Yeah, I assumed he would intentionally miss the teammate wars episode, but come along to this one and he's just flipped it, baby and reversed it. Flipped it, baby, reverse it. But we've got some proper news today, proper chik-chat, and we're back into the world of F1, because as we record this,

testing is happening later this week. Yeah, as we're recording later this week, as it will be coming out, we'd have had some testing, unbelievably. Cars on track. We'll talk about a little bit of a review of testing in Sunday's episode, and we get into predictions week next week.

So we've done team-mate wars, but we've still got constructors and driver's championship predictions to go. But as you rightly say, we've still got some very interesting topics to run through today. A little bit on Carlos Sines and his new role as a GPDA director. Some comments from James Allison about Mercedes in 2025 and whether we could have more winners this season than what we had last year,

a bit on McLaren as well. But we're going to start with Mohammed Benz. It sounds like we're going to have another rant at him. It might not actually be the case this time, but he did say something at least semi-interesting, which is that he's raised the possibility of reintroducing v10 engines to Formula 1. Of course, two decades after they were phased out,

the last time the F1 field was fully powered by V10s was in 2005. Ben Suleim made his comments in a social media post, referencing the F-175 launch event in London, which took place a few days ago. This week's F1 launch in London has triggered a lot of positive discussion, he said, on the future of the sport. While we look forward to the introduction of the 2026 regulations on chassis and power unit,

we must also lead the way on future technological motorsport trends. We should consider a range of directions, including the roaring sound of the V10 running on sustainable fuel. Now, this is an interesting one to bring up. Where engine regulations are heading from 2030 onwards, I think is still a bit of an open discussion. Of course, he's wading in here. Is it a realistic option, first and foremost? Harry Ead is absolutely devastated that he doesn't get to speak on this topic. True.

Matt Mang, I'm sure, we'll be listening to us now, yelling at the radio. It's diabolical. Diabolical, I'm sure. Is it realistic? Is it plausible? Is it feasible? Is it something that actually we should even be bothering to consider with how the world is moving in this day and age? Well, to be boring, to begin with, on the roads currently, there's a real crossover at the moment still, especially in the UK, between diesel, petrol and electric cars.

And hybrids, of course, sit in the middle there. And there are a lot of electric cars up and down the group, but are electric cars truly sustainable? They're probably a good step up on the likes of pure, hardcore petroleum gas, you know, burning that fossil fuel straight into the air. Not good, not good. But equally there are... Let me write that down.

Not good. Scientific approach there. But also, there are a lot of hidden elements to electric cars that pose threats and negativity to the environment. And we are talking about Formula One here as a fact. factor. F1 is not a green sport. F1 is not a good thing when it comes to the environment. And some argue that we should just embrace that, you know what, sport is entertainment and changing F1 isn't realistically going to change the world and its approach to its carbon

footprint. But as Mahabberg-Sillium, I can't really about to say this, has rightly pointed out, Formula One is at the cutting edge of automotive and technological development. And the way it shapes a lot of progression when it comes to cars. And cars do a lot of the polluting of the air. So whether it's mining lithium in the likes of Nigeria or it's burning petroleum gas in your car from the Middle East or wherever it might be, both are bad. And so having a sustainable method that is good for the environment that also grants us the pleasure of hearing a screaming VTeng roaring down the back straight at Silverstone,

for example, which is a pleasure that sounds ridiculous, has still got been matched since I was about eight years old, whatever it was that they actually made that transition. I would truly and joyfully want to hear that sound again and it'd be a regular thing. Now, I've also seen a few comments that people said, it's too early. We haven't even had the new regulations coming yet. We've still got the new ones coming in 2026. Why is he doing this? Is it to garner some merit, some praise after the booze from F-1-75?

And whilst that is definitely a complimenting factor, and I don't disagree with that argument. You definitely could have this point in your back pocket until you're needing other positive to come out with. it does also make sense to be jumping in the conversation as early as possible, right? 2030 are the next regulations, as you said, Ben. That's when we're going to get the next big change. And the amount of cost, amount of energy, the amount of planning,

these manufacturers and the regulations, everyone has to go into to make sure that this is viable, feasible. It has to start this far back. It has to be put into practice now. You can't get to New Year's Day, 2009, January 1st. Should we do V-Tex sustainable energy? Yeah, go on then. Yeah, go on.

then 12 months, let's knock them up. Doesn't work like that. If you want to attract the big supplies in the world that could bring engines, you know the ones that we're missing, your Toyotas, your portions, you want to keep your Hondas. You want to make sure that Ferrari sticks around forever. Mercedes aren't going anywhere. You do have to have these conversations bright and early.

And understand, actually, if Mercedes and Ferrari both turns ago, we are never making a vetoing our lives ever again and we hate sustainable fuels, it's probably not going to be the way the F1 goes. But it's logical to have that conversation now. But I 100% think he's brought this up because the FIA got booed. at the F-175.

Quite possibly. I find that whether this is realistic or not, I've got two sides of myself competing with one another, almost angel and devil on each shoulder. And you've kind of got one side going, yeah, three-turnedgedges, loud, yeah, power. And then the other side of me is like, hang on, is it realistic? Maybe not.

We call dream, then. Yeah, that's the thing. I think, no, I'm not, I'm not certain on this one. Modern F1, the modern F1 engines and the regulations around them have been, I guess, created with a lot of the manufacturer's support and with them in mind. And it's helped, I guess you can't say grow yet, but potentially grow the sport with the likes of Audi joining, General Motors joining, Honda joining slash staying, whatever you want to call them. And maybe even some other, maybe Mercedes would have left if it didn't go down this path. You don't know that.

And I'm not saying that by 2030, we should carry on with exactly what we have now. But you are going to need, and it's a little bit sad that it is this way, but you are going to need overwhelming support from all of these manufacturers. Otherwise, I just don't see it happening. And ultimately, whilst, even with sustainable fuel, are the V10s as road relevant as they were 20 years ago? Probably not. And that might be, that is a factor, right? That is going to be a factor for at least some of the teams.

You'll get some teams like, I don't know, maybe Williams and Hass who aren't necessarily an engine manufacturer. And they just might want to go with whatever is best for them and their F1 team. But you are going to get some other engine manufacturers like. like Audi, like Mercedes, who are definitely going to be at least thinking about what is that road relevance. It's a bit of an outstanding question, how important that is. I think you actually raise a really, really good point. And I'm going to play devil's advocate here a little bit and flip it and go, well, actually, if someone in the back end of Mercedes or the back end of, you know, a Kagalak or a General Motors goes, well, actually, sustainable fuels

could be an option for us. But the general conception publicly is that that fuel type doesn't work. if we can make the marketing push to make Formula One work on sustainable fuels, maybe you flip the movement away from hybrid, which again was championing very early by Formula One, and go to a sustainable fuel model, and they lead the charge rather than follow what might be suitable for now on the road, if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

That is, again, part of what Ben Suleim is saying is that they don't want to necessarily be following what is being said. They don't want to follow the trends. They want to be the ones leading the trends. So you can't work in, you know, you can't have a set of regulations from 2026 to 2030 that's based on the relevance of 2020 or 2021 when they might have been announced. Yeah. And the same thing is going to apply for the new regulation.

So that's entirely possible. I guess the other thing that I'm less certain about as well is, is cost and logistics around it. obviously there are a lot of wealthy F1 teams and maybe the budget is right to try something different in 2030, but if things haven't moved us, move forward in the way that some might think they will right now, it is going to be, it is a massive investment to go away. It was when we went from V10s to V8s and from V8s to V6s, and it will be regardless of what the next one is. Again, it's just the manufacturers having such overwhelming power in the

sport that if they're on board with it, you've got a great chance to seeing it through. And if they're not, it makes it very difficult for you. Yeah, very fair point. There is a lot of politics in Formula one. And even if you think that something might be the perfect option for us as consumers, or it might improve the entertainment of the sport, unfortunately, unless it gets the buying from those 10 teams, it is almost impossible to get that across the line. One question I had on this that I haven't got the answer to, hopefully, is good. Yeah, that's, that's, that's, where all great questions start. He's gone straight to V10s

and ignored V8s completely. VTeng is the better sounding car. Yeah. I think that VTeng has a sensational relationship. There is a lot of the audience. Our age, our demographic that grew up with F1, people older than us are our parents who would have loved F1,

who can still very much get behind VTeng. I also think that the V8 it was in a slightly dodgy period of Formula One. So if you're looking at that nostalgic element of Formula One, I don't think V8s hold the same romantic feeling. I think the VTen is almost like the best PR movement. Whether he actually intends for the V10 to be his actual option, and V8 might be perfectly viable for him.

I think the V10 gets the working man of F1 on board for him, right? He goes, yeah, I love V10, me. It's the biggest number. Yeah, one to ten. Yeah, ten's bigger than eight. That's all I learned. So I think that might be part of it, you know. I think that might be part of it.

And also, it does just make the best bloody noise. And he goes that. He ain't stupid, Ben Silliam. He says a lot of stupid things, but he's not actually stupid. The thing is, as well, if there is going to be a change from V6 to whatever, you need to be like 100% fixed on whatever option that is rather than, Because you could, someone might say, well, what if V10 is the ultimate destination, but you go to V8 as a bit of a stepping stone? You can't really do that because the amount of money, again, logistics and costs surrounding changing the engine formula, by the time you've absorbed all of that, you're going on to the next one again.

You've got to be committed to whatever direction you go, regardless of which direction that is. I think the biggest question is, and I think this is what we started with. So I'm ending the whole point on my question is logically, is this the right move for Formula One's future? You know, are they going to stay relevant? Are they going to be useful to manufacturers so they can come and use? It's not just as a marketing exercise, but as a technological exercise, is it going to benefit people enough that they can go, okay, they're polluting the world. But we get a lot of tech out of it. We get a lot of information out of it.

And we get the entertainment side as well. And if they choose the wrong option, as we kind of. saw with how the 2014 regs were handled, it can really damage the sport long term. We could be in a place where for six years on from 30 to maybe 2036, we have a very dull sport that's very one-sided or doesn't produce anything of use. So you really have to make sure that however it is, it's judged, whatever formula is chosen for these engines, it's relevant, it's entertaining and it's fair and accessible for a lot of these teams.

Yeah, I think that that relevance factor is the one that is probably most abortive. for the average fan, but it is, it is going to be important. I think I already mentioned some of the manufacturers and how much power they have, but think of Ford as an example. Like they're not technically in the sport as a full-time engine manufacturer, but their decision to link up with Red Bull was, I don't know how I remember anything from that god-awful boring introduction we had from them a couple years ago.

But one thing I do remember is how much they stress that the engine regs were one of the reason they were there. So, yeah, I think that is going to be important. I know you've touched on this already about Mohammed Ben Suleyam and why he might be saying this, whether it is truly what he thinks or whether there's politics at play. Is it both or are you seeing this just as politics? I think it's definitely both.

I believe you can think something and also have some kind of political buying or motivation behind what you're saying. and Benzillian will have grown up seeing Formula One in that era, right? He probably will have a finity to that era. He probably will have joy seeing that era. Joe, who's also an absolutely major global fuel producer in this world and they don't want to move away from electricity, the Middle East. Guess who's reinvesting Formula One?

Oh, no, you've got to be kidding me. They're re-investing. Salia. What? Reinvesting. No one guessed it. Doha. My best joke of all the time. Yeah.

Yeah, and obviously we know that he has a lot of affinity with that part of the world. Formula One is growing. It's allegiances, its dependency in some ways on that part of the world. You know, they won't want to have electric cars. They won't want that. And this is speculation. You know, this is me just kind of thinking logically. It rarely happens.

But that to me does have some logic to it, that the region that is pretty pumping the most cash. into Formula One right now, the development of the core part of it that drives these actual cars could very quickly flip away from a product they simply don't produce and doesn't make them any money. Yeah, I landed on the same sort of opinion. There's a good dollop of politics involved in this statement. And I arrived at the same conclusion after the hammering that Mohammed Ben-Suliam and the FIA took at F-175. This is just a really cheap way to, get some favour. Like the way I immediately thought of it was,

you know, sometimes when you got a wrestler talking and they just mention like the, whatever city they're in just to get a cheaper. How are we doing Chicago? Yeah, yeah, right. That feels like this tactic from Mohammed Ben Suleim. How about V-10s though?

I'm all right. Woo! To be fair, that's me. Woo! He's got us, hookline and sinker. I'm your best friend now. I forget everything I've ever said about you.

You're absolutely right. This is another example, I think, of Mohammed Ben Suleem, finding a way in the media to shoehorn whatever the hell he wants to into conversation. Because when he says, this week's F1 launch event in London has triggered a lot of positive discussion on the future of the sport, has it? Full stop. I've not seen a single piece of discussion. Right. I think we spoke about this off there. We look at all the news ourselves, right? Yeah.

No discussion. I think when we were in the studio, the other. the other day, we were talking about how, like, some people liked F-175, some people didn't, but regardless, everyone's kind of just got on. It's like, yeah, all right, it happened. No, I don't think anyone's come out of it. Like, now we really need to talk about the future of this sport, you know. Thank God, F-175 spoke about this, because it's a topic that's been neat to be broached

for a long time. No. No one. And then actually, you know, he's talking about V-10s. It's like, yes, you've managed to somehow mention this despite not being asked about it whatsoever. had no relevance to anything really, but you wanted to make a point,

so you found a way to make a point. Not a single engine was actually fired up in F-1-75. All the cars were wheeled out on trolleys. Ironic. What engines talked about once? No, not relevant. Well, all those positive discussions, eh?

Let's take our first break on this episode. On the other side, we've got news from McLaren. One day, you should do a first break like Mohammed Bung Silliam. Maybe we should take our first break. I don't know, you know. Maybe we should. Maybe we'll ring about V-Tenks. Maybe we shouldn't.

Welcome back, everyone. McLaren has extended the contract of Aerodynamics Technical Director, Peter Prodromu, a key figure in its 2024's title charge. Team Principal Andrea Stella praised Prodromo's leadership, calling him a key architect of the team's performance turnaround on and off track. He's a long-serving member of McLaren. So his association with the team goes all the way back to the early 1990s. did spend some time at Red Bull in between two stints.

But as mentioned, this is obviously a team that's got to the summit of F1 for the first time in a very long time, going all the way back to 1998 for the last time they won the Constructors' Championship. How crucial has he been and how crucial is this extension? I think the first and most important part of this conversation, Ben, is what we discussed off there, about Peter's surname, about the fact that his surname sounds like an Italian meal. Peter, I apologise, but it really does. I'll have the chicken and tomato promedoro, please. Sorry, Peter.

This guy is like so experienced in F1 circles, has achieved so much. And here we are. You sound like an Italian bastard dish. I'll have to pay a pedromo, please. We're so, so British at this moment. So British and also so true. So Peter, send me some pasta. Send me a bastard

You're a game, Sharon. What I think about it. Yeah, he's a very long-standing, one of the old heads, really, of kind of the aerodynamics world of Formula One and has been around some very successful moments in Formula One. Yeah, he's his early time in McLaren. He picked up that world title, of course, in the late 90s. He then transferred over to Red Bull, as Red Bull formed, essentially.

So at the same time, it became a proper F-1 team, and Christian Horner came on. board. And then of course, Adrian Newee was a key part of that transformation as well. And he was there the whole way through building the car, that transformation from being a pretty bad midfield runner to Sebastian Vettel's four-time, you know, drivers and constructors championships in a row. He was a key part of that as well. And I would argue that his biggest blip was probably those late teen years where McLaren were maybe going through the Renault early Honda relationship that they were working on, even without that engine, the car aerodynamically just felt a bit like

a slug in a straight line. It was not good around any part, even around the likes of Monaco. It never had a massive pickup where engines are becoming a bit irrelevant at that point. And so when you've had a career that spanned 34 years, you're going to have some downbeats. It's going to happen. But what I love to see from McLauring is they've, one, stuck with a talented individual. They've understood that their internal culture and their framework of their management system is clearly fueling success. And it's growing well.

He's got a great head on the guy and he knows how to think about how his F1 cars should work. And he's clearly being instrumental in building the car into what it is now because their engine, remember, they're powered by Mercedes. Mercedes power unit is not what it used to be. It's not the engine it was 10 years ago in terms of dominance. It's a very standard power unit. It doesn't really supply any extra. Remember the difference from Red Bull and Mercedes two years ago, the way it would blast past. among a straight line, the engine is not giving them anything spectacular.

So it's the aerodynamics of the car. And if Peter is being instrumental in building that success for the 2024 season and in theory, this coming year, then why would you not keep him? Why would you not want to keep him around? That talent, that experience and that loyalty is very hard to come by. And I think they've done a good job. I think Stella and Zach Brown have done a very good job at securing the top end of this team for a little while longer.

Yeah, I think this guy's massively critical. to the way in which McLaren have surged forward in the last couple of years and obviously won a title last year. You're right. As far as experience goes, you would be hard pressed to find too many people in F1 who are more experienced than him. Bear in mind,

like this guy started at McLaren when Aet and Senna was winning a driver's championship. His time in F1 goes back a long way. A Pyong era, that is. Yeah. He wouldn't have been overly influential at that point, obviously, but he was there all the way from 1990. And you're right, if you look at some of the more successful periods of F1 since then, he's been part of quite a few of them.

Like the early 1990s at McLaren were successful, the late 1990s at McLaren were successful. Then he joins Red Bull. They were pretty good from 20, well, let's say 2009 to 2013. Got four championships in there, drivers and constructors. And then, of course, we've got the most recent period of success the last couple of years. And he very much, he knows this. He worked closely with Adrian Newey. He was trusted by Adrian Newey for a number of years.

I don't think Adrian Newey hands out trust like their sweets. Like he will keep his inner circle close based on guys that he has worked with a long time and knows that they can get it done. So the fact that he was there and worked so closely with him should mean a lot. And as Andrea Stella mentioned here, you're right. He rejoined McLaren just over 10 years ago, but Andreas Stella, I clearly correctly identified that he was being underutilized in his role late in the 2010s. And he's done something about it. And this change in structure essentially gives him full control, full domain of the aerodynamics department that has done a really great job in the last couple of years.

He's had huge influence in terms of, you know, the high-speed corner. has really improved for McLaren versus where it was probably a weakness a couple of years ago. And I know a lot of the emphasis will go on just 2024 because that's the year they won the title

and it all came together. It's more of a journey than that because 2020, do you remember how they started off that year? I think I'm aware of the stat then. What was the stat? They were just 17th in a DNF at Bahrain,

first race in 2020. You don't hear about bar in 20203 stats a lot, you know. For such a great race, you really don't hear much about it. Great to pull that one out of the bag. They really improve throughout 20203. I forget exactly what race it was. I think it was maybe the Austrian Grand Prix middle of the season,

where they brought an upgrade package and everything just turned around. And then for the rest of 2023, sure, Red Bulls still had a massive advantage, but they were there in some races. Piazzi won that sprint. And they were getting routine podiums, and that was the springboard they needed for 2024. And he has a huge part to play in both of those things. Extending his contract is an absolute no-brainer because you can't afford to lose them to a rival. We know what these F1 teams are like.

As soon as you start to have success in the sport, that's when other teams go, well, those are the reasons you've had the success. So we'll have those, please, here's some money. You only have to look at the likes of Adrian. and we go into Assy Martin, Pat Frye, obviously moving to the likes of Williams. There's not too many of these big dogs left in F1, the old hands. We're starting to move into this newer era. There really aren't too many. So when you do get an opportunity to either keep or lose, you can't make that decision.

You've got to make it work. A fair play to Stella for recognizing the talent in a guy that he's been working with and actually able to put that to use. I think that's managing is one thing, but seeing this potential in someone and really molding it, that's a real skill. and McLaren have got a real talent on their hands in Stella if they can continue to nurture him and make him into that team principle for a long time.

He clearly gets people and that is invaluable. If we're extending the conversation out to not just this decision, but McLaren as a whole, obviously not only is it the first time they've won a championship in a long time, it's going to be the first time they're defending a championship in a long time. So now they've got that structure, they've got that leadership.

What's the next challenge? for McLaren. Well, consistency, isn't it? It's predicting what's coming next and not being a team that follows, but rather a team that leads. And this is a complaint I brought up quite a few times with Aston Martin. I'm assuming that's what they're trying to fix with the new wind tunnel, the massive factory, Adrian Nui, all the change they're making.

Of course, might crack no longer the team principal. They've looked to move that along as well. And the amount of talent that they picked up recently, previously a lot of it being Mercedes and Red Bull, great pickouts because they're trying to change their dynamic from being, a team that follows and a team that copies. And I'm like a broken record at this point. The reason I think Ashton Martin hit a wall about three quarters of the way,

if not halfway through the season, every single time, is because they're copied upgrades from the end of last season and the start of the current season run out. And they don't want to do next because Red Bull or whoever it might be haven't released their next proper updates and they haven't got a picture of them to copy. So they need to do it themselves. And McLaren to make sure that they continue to be those striding ahead rather than following someone else's footsteps. They need to utilise their new wind tower

that they put mass investment into as well. They also need to utilise that huge marketing bucket because that thing is like, everyone has that mate that's got about 50 tattoos and you're like, what does that mean? Dan I just like it. What's that tattooing? Then I just just a smiley face.

That's their car. Just carvading sponsors, head to toe. Do you know the best? Well, the, I don't think it's strange, but they're the only team without a title sponsor. And they don't need it. Well, that's the whole, they've got such a roster of these sponsors that they're the only team that can feasibly say, we don't, we don't need that representation from one title sponsor.

And it's safer that way as well, because if you lose a couple, it's like when Hasse, like, lost, which one of the bag once you're all Carly, that's the one. Oralie, yeah. Pick rich energy as well, sure. But like, when they lost that sponsorship, it probably made up such a large percentage of the sponsors. of that team, of the sponsorship money of the team, where do you go from there? I think McClara are in a spot. They've got like, as you say, 50 tattoos on their car.

They lose a couple of them. They can live. And I think there's probably a queue of clients waiting outside the door to go, oh, a Google Chrome leaving. I wouldn't mind being the thing on the wheels next year. They are so marketable right now. And they need to harness all of these elements. They are in a real high, not just with performances on the track,

not with their driver line up, not even with their leadership team. everything is clicked into place. They're in a real golden era. McLaren fan, you need to recognize this. It's been a long time since you were in a golden era at McLaren. Even when Hamilton was there and they were regularly winning some races, that was a small blip. That was a really small moment for McLaren across a long period of time.

They need to continue to lead and make sure that they don't start making dodgy choices, which could tip over the Applecart very, very quickly. Yeah, I've always said in F1, winning is one thing, but dominating is another. Like, it's far more difficult to keep your seat at the head of the table than it is to get there in the first place. And I was quite happy with what I have with what I have seen and heard of McLaren over the last month for. So particularly at F-175 and with the launch of their car, it does feel like they're not just saying, hey, we were great last year.

Let's just carry on developing the concept as far as we can take it. and that will do us. That's not going to work. They do need to keep being innovators. They do need to keep spearhead. They have to be leading the charge. And I got that from them. There are a few things on their car

that they have admitted are not left field, but like they're experimenting. Yeah, they're not necessarily just following what they already have. And we know that other teams are doing similar to that as well, like Ferrari have said, like they're bringing a pretty significant upgrade early on in the season.

So they need to stay ahead. Like Red Bull and Mercedes, would it shock you if one or both of those teams bounces back in 2020? I feel like Mercedes are like a 1% away from making a car to dominate. Like they're so lost by it, that tells me that there's got to be something special there.

And if it clicks, Mercedes without Russell and Tegeli partnership easily could win their title this year. Yeah. So they need to be wary of their rivals because one of them's going to step up. We can't really say for sure which one is going to be. And we'll give some insights on that next week in predictions.

But they are going to have to stay ahead of the field. And they're going to have to do it with the least amount of wind tunnel time. Now, it is a sliding scale. So everyone towards the top of the championship is going to have less time than the teams behind them. But they have got the worst issue. They've got the least. So they are going to have to make different. choices that the other teams will have to make as well, but they're going to have maybe the

most difficult choice of where they spend their time on this year versus next year. The 26 regs are approaching. They're going to have to make that cool. So what their next challenge could be, it's holding on, but it could just to throw something else in there. And I've mentioned this a couple of times over the winter break. Maybe their next biggest challenge is managing the drivers and making sure that team orders, papyr rolls, are all working okay. I think for me, two things. You're right. Team mortgage is a big one. The other one, which I think is a really, really distant storm is their engine supplier.

I think they probably need to look at not being a customer of someone who's on the grid anymore long term. It's backfired on them a lot of times in the last couple of decades. I'm saying these have always been a very loyal customer to them. in terms of supplier, sorry, they've always been

very good at what they've given them. It's always a worthy product. When McLaren haven't been beating them. When McLaren

haven't been beating them. And now they are beating them handedly. And I do think that there will probably be some suppliers out there who go, you're a customer.

Do you want to have your own engine that's custom built for you? And they're a great product for it. It might take a few years. It probably might be for the 2030 season.

But I think long term, you might hear some rumors of, oh, we might be looking for that changeover in 2030 because if they're still up there, that's a very viable product. It is a reliance you don't want to have. If you say you pull out one day, you're screwed.

Yeah. And it's just, it's one of those decisions that you pretty much have zero control over. And you have to live and die by whatever the manufacturer does or doesn't do. So I absolutely think that if it's not going to be a conversation this season, as you say, but in the medium to long term could very well be. So yeah, something to keep an eye on. Let's take our second break on this episode. On the other side, we've got some comments from James Allison.

Always good. Always good. Sam, before we get into our next topic, we are, of course, very, very close to the start of the new season. We are weeks away from Australia, which means soon enough, power rankings is going to be returning to Patreon. There is no better time to sign up to the Patreon than now, right? There is no better way to sign up to Patreon, right?

I mean, links there. It's right there. You're looking at your phone. Just scroll, ever so slightly. Go on. Do it. Maybe you're on YouTube. Just scroll.

Click that. It's right there. Just click it. Promise you. Promise you. It's really good. Yeah, that is now. Sign up now.

You get loads of extra content. Two normal episodes. You get a history episode. You get beer breaking, which last week's was ridiculous, by the way. Find out what we think is the best. things since sliced bread. If anyone can guess, I don't know what you'll win, but you'll win summon. Maybe some sliced bread. Yeah. Um, honestly, so good. And you get power rankings. Now, if you're new to F1, it's your first season to F1 in the dog. That is we sit down as a trio and

we run through every single result of that race. So first, all the way down to last, that's how it works. And we give each driver a ranking, a power ranking. And at the end of the season, we assess who we think is drive the season, worst driver the season, where they've all sat, Who's impressed us, who hasn't? It's a really interesting debate that we have after every single race, and you can be a part of it as well, listening along, commenting along as well. Give it a try.

You can cancel after a month. It costs you pretty much the cost of a cup of coffee. Promise you, really worth trying. We're really proud of that content and everything on there, ag free and on YouTube where you're going to get the full episode, you do on Patreon. So give it a go. You do indeed.

I buzzed about the return of power rankings. It's one of my favorite episodes to record throughout the season. So, yeah, got some interesting results last year. Of course, Australia power rankings will be the first one up in a few weeks' time. Let's move on to some comments from James Allison. So the 2025 F1 season could be even more competitive, says James Allison, of course, of Mercedes. The current rules in their final year, he expects the chasing pack to close in on the big four. He said it will be a fiercely fought championship, performance is converging,

and we could see more teams winning races than last year. So Sam, we had four different teams win last year, seven different drivers win last season, but here's James Allison suggesting maybe we haven't seen it all yet. Maybe we do get another team. Do you agree with him? Can you see a way for another team to join this group?

I can definitely hop on the hopium and pray that we will have, I don't know, a winner from every single team. I would love that. Of course I would. Ten different winners, minimum. I would love that world. It's now F2. F1 is now F2. Yeah, we just swapped over. Yeah, yeah. Of course I would love that. Can I, can I get on board with it? Yes. Do I believe that it's actually going to happen? No, I'm really sorry. I don't.

I just logically with where we are, unless your upgrades were already throwing you forward, why are you going to be putting loads of that time into your 2025 car to try and get closer at the top, to try and converge. Because the big dogs, we just spoke about it in the last segment. Ferrari are being crazy and trying new things.

McLaren are going left field to experiment. All the teams at the back are doing the same thing with the hope that 2026 is where they get catapulted to the front. They find the formula

that works for them. So I don't think any team is actively building their car to dominate this season because you'd have to be a fool. Realistically, you're building to dominate for the next five seasons

with brandy, regulations. And so unless you so happen to have an upgrade that is meant for 2026 that weirdly ag, I don't know, half a second of lap time to your 2025 car, just despite they're being incredibly different, then I can't see where the likes of a Williams or a Haas or an Alpine or God forbid a kick salver is going to jump from all the way back there and start challenging the likes of McLaren and Ferrari and Red Bull at the very, very front. I believe we could have eight race winners. I believe Lawson could get a win when maybe Perez couldn't last season.

I think it's definitely viable. I believe we could have nine when we have another freak race like Brazil, but see if the stopping coming from the back, it is Gasily at Alpine or someone like that, or Ocon at Haas. Oconn-Hon-Hon-T that's on this time. Come on, Al-Kon, that takes that wing. Yeah, we may see a few more winners in a brilliant season. It's possible.

I don't think it's a given. I don't think it's even a likelihood. I think it's pretty unlikely that this is the case. But I absolutely love the positivity of James Allison. And I love that we're going in with super compressive minds. But there's rinks of Mercedes marketing talk of wanting to not be seeing as anything good right at the start of the season. They've got history, folks. If you need to have fun, they've done it before.

Oh, yes. Yeah, I really hope you're right, James. I don't, but I really hope you're right. I'm struggling to say, I think it's just a step too far. I understand his point as a whole that performance has been converging. That's already happened to a certain extent. That's why we had four really competitive teams last season. I can't remember the last time a fourth place team in Mercedes was so competitive.

Like we've had multiple wings. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And we've had seasons where a fourth place team would be good for one or two podiums. But instead we've had, as you say, multiple race wins from the fourth place team. I just, the gap between the top four and the rest still feels a little too large for me to see one of those teams catch up. And I was having a think about this earlier and I do think he's got more of a point when it comes to qualifying. Because I think with qualifying, the performance of the 10 teams has really come together. We're about a second now across the whole grid, which for F1 terms is tiny.

Well, as an example, Abu Dhabi last race obviously of 2024. Hulkenberg, before he got a penalty, qualified fourth in his house. Pierre Ghazley qualified sixth. That was within half a second of the pole position time. Like that, we wouldn't have seen that in previous seasons. So I think qualifying-wise, we are getting a really close field now. The problem is, I still think these top teams have too much of an advantage in terms of race pace to give too much optimism for one of these other teams to catch up. I'll use the same race as the example, Pierre Gazley, as mentioned, qualified sixth, was within half a second of the pole position time.

But when it came to race day, he still finished well, he still finished seventh, but he was a minute and 12 seconds behind Lando Norris who won the race. It's a lot of time to make up. And I just can't quite see a team bridging that gap in 2025. And why would you? Why would you want to bridge that gap? That was going to be my next question, is are there,

and the answer might well be no, Are there any teams where it might make sense to take advantage of every other team's focus on 2026? Is there one team who could elevate themselves up the grid a bit to achieve something that they haven't done in a long time or something they've never achieved before? Or is it just everyone should be just focused on 26? Two come to mind. And they are for exactly the same reason. Al Pee and Haas. And even then I think it's, I still think it's mostly what's the point.

but if you had to pick a couple, they're the two. And why adds value to your team? If you walk away, you're a Constructors champion. If you're a harsh, you're an American team. You go, we're Constructors champion. It's this new year of F1. And Toyota are backing us. Come on with the sponsors.

Also, Kallak, are you an F1 champion? No, we are. We're the American team. Right, that helps. That really cementes you in there. That's a solid reason to do it. Yeah, you'll probably take a dip again when it comes into those new regulations. But you've got some legacy.

You've got some, you've got some get up. to get some sponsors on board, where I imagine Kagalak are probably going to be attracting a lot of those American sponsors. Alping, of course, being the other one, if the rumours are true that they are becoming a bit of a, you know, a chop shop and they want a sell-up, a recent championship on the cards could definitely bump up a few quid on the value on the old spreadsheets.

So where a prospective buyer comes among, they make a little bit more money off of it. And maybe it keeps the likes of Pierre Gassi around for a couple of years. And maybe it helps with the likes of Colopinto sponsors in the background. But to me, those are maybe the only two where it seems feasible and I guess logical, even though to me it really isn't. But that's where I'm going to push the boat out. I had one maybe noted down, which was Hass. The only thing with Hass is like they have, they've only been an F1 for 10 years, but they haven't had success that maybe they could get to this season.

Like it could feasibly, they could have the most successful season they've ever had in the sport. It wouldn't be a massive shock if they did. And I appreciate the bar is quite low because they haven't had any wins or podiums to this point. Fourth is the highest they finish in the constructors? I think it's fifth. I think they were in, they nearly finished fourth in 2018, but I think fifth is the highest. But yeah, they haven't had any wins or podium. So if they could push their development in 2025 to get at least a couple of podiums, maybe a win,

then suddenly maybe that makes sense. But I think even that's a maybe. The other ones you would all imagine, particularly like Williams and Salberg slash Audi, they're going to be fully focused on 26. I mean, Kamatsu, man. I reckon he could go through my bings at cook up something toasty. Yeah, maybe. There's also a point, I guess, as well, if you think the top four teams are untouchable,

in that I don't think any of the other six are going to catch up to them. In terms of like wind tunnel time, it doesn't matter whether you finish a distant fifth or a very good fifth, you're still going to get the same amount of time. So if like Hasse were able to focus a little bit more on 2025, and let's say they claim a fluke win or a couple of flute podiums, and they're still fifth and maybe they would have finished fifth anyway, but with a lower points total,

I don't know, maybe at that point it becomes somewhat worth it. But that's very different from a bit of a, hey, we're a good time, and we made the most out of it in comparison to what James Allison is saying of, good Lord, we'll have so many winners, which is blowing it out the water. No,

I think, like you say, the only way you could probably get more than seven or eight winners is if you do have a fluke result. You have a Gazli at Monza from a couple of years ago. I'm hungry where it was.

Yeah, yeah. I think on pure performance, I don't, I don't say it. But I still welcome more. Oh, yes. There are things. that I am very happy to be wrong about.

This is one of them. Yes, small winners is good winners. Let's move on to a little bit of a quick chat on Carlos Sines because he has been named a director of the Grand Prix Drivers Association replacing Sebastian. Excuse me. Good Lord, Sebastian does that to you. I get it.

Hey, man, Sebastian. He's still got that grip on you. No, he's actually replacing Sebastian Vettel, not Sabah. The Williams driver joins George Russell in representing F1 drivers to the FIA and Formula One management. He was asked about this and he said, I'm passionate about my sport and think we drivers have a responsibility to do all we can to work with the stakeholders to forward the sport in many aspects.

So I'm very happy and proud to do my part by taking on this director's role. Good move for both parties, I guess. Yeah, generally I'm quite happy with the fact that Sykes is taking on that role. That will do a fantastic job at being the director of the, it's the GD. EPA. No, it's not other way around. God's sake. Post-domestic product. The Grand Reprivers. Get that wrong every time. Vesel did a fantastic job and he was really vocal and I think he won a lot of favour with a lot of the F-1 drivers by how he managed that relationship. Everyone is Sebastian Vettel's best friend. Everyone loves him. Do you remember when he did the

the buzzing corner? The bees. Yeah, yeah. And he set up that B thing at Brazil last year. They were all in there having their photo take. Even Lewis Hamilton was like a little kigsadding a little beehive, which I love, by the way. Carlos Sainz has been around long enough now that he understands the risks, the permutations around Formula One. He probably has a good idea of how the business of Formula One works. He's been running enough teams to know what the person is going to like. I was adding this up.

He's been with half the grid. He's like a journeyman of F1 at this point. Yeah, five of the ten teams he's been with. There will be an F1 back and forth soon of name drivers that have been with five or more themes in Formula One. Oh, if only you hadn't said that, that'd be a great idea. I'd prefer I'm going to go look it up. You can still find it.

Sam, it just reels off every answer one by one. Suck, I did my research. So this is a logical choice. And I think it is why Sengot picks someone who is maybe coming to the end of their career, the twilight of their career like Alonso or like a Hamilton, for example. Sorry, I take it back a Lonson. Those two together. I also think it's wise to not take someone like a Max for Staff.

who is fighting at the absolute pinnacle. He is at the tip of the spear. There is also that risk of Maxa just go cheers. I've won five driver's titles in another year's time or whatever and walk away. Science feels like he's just committed to a project. He's doing it for a long haul. He clearly does care about Formula One. His father has always been very much safety focus, Carlos Sainz, Senior.

So he clearly has that having his blood a little bit. He's been brought up with those priorities, which is fantastic to see. This is logical. I like the move. I like Carlos a lot. And I think he represents Formula One pretty darn well. So, yeah, very pleased. Yeah, thumbs up from me as well.

As you say, he is deceptively experienced in this sport. You wouldn't think so. But he has... His first season was 2015, in which case, this will be his 11th season. Have a day off, Carlos. Make me feel old. I know, right? Well, he is the fourth oldest driver in the sport somehow at the grand old age of 30.

Oh my God, I'll do the same ages a minute, like a week. Yeah, it's moving swiftly on. He's always struck me as someone who is very measured and respectful, and I think he'll do a good job in this role. And I've always said, whoever steps forward and does this role as a director, and we've had others in the past as well, I'm always appreciative of it. And I think others should be as well that some of these drivers do, want to be a part of something bigger than just themselves and represent the collective and

I don't know, make sure that their interests are protected against the FIA. So yeah, I'm all for this good move for Carlos, good move for the GPDA. Gross, permissic product. That's the one. in terms of the FIA and F1 drivers, they're not best of friends at the moment. No. Does that make this role more important now than it has been for a little while?

Yes. And I'm actually glad that George Russell kind of has like a partner to team up with because George Russell is a car. Yes, chef. George Russell is a divisive figure at the moment. he's, you know, splitting a lot of opinions. He's got abroad in quite a bit of drama with Max Verstappen. And that's obviously very high profile drama at the moment.

And so I do think that having a couple of options on the grid, kind of at both things as well. Now the Titans has moved down to Williams as well. I think it's good representation. And you know what? Oh, British boys, I'm glad I got another British driver. I really am because I do think that there will be a lot of cultures, a lot of mindsets, a lot of individuals on the up and down the grid.

Look, we as British people can't relate to. We don't know. So I've got you, Ben, I know you're all completely multicultural. If it was me, the association would just be Hamilton, Bearman, Russell and Norris. Not Norris, please. He's half Belgian. Oh, yeah, he doesn't count. No, full British.

Full British. No, again, it's a joke. It's a joke. Please. We don't mean it. Not at all. The joke was a maid. Anyway, yeah, no, I think that this is very pivotal.

I think he's going to have to be very diplomatic in his approach for a lot of things. And I'm hoping now that he and Russell can maybe work quite closely together to try and creatively get the point across for the drivers that maybe things are not going in the direction that the drivers wanted to go into. Or a lot of fans who agree with those drivers as well. I also think that the timing of this is interesting. agree wholeheartedly that the role now is more important than it has been for a few years based on those tensions. Sebastian Vettler has obviously been out of the sport for a couple of years so he could have in theory have moved on earlier than this and handed over to someone who is still on the grid. I think this might be orchestrated quite well that the drivers

realize that they need the representation on the grid right now and Vettel has gone, Don't let me stand in your way. I'll become cause. I'm going to ask the question. I don't know the answer. Second time to go. When we have the directors, obviously all of them are F1 drivers.

We have two others, don't we, to sit outside of Formula One. Alex Verz is one. Yes. Verts. I think Verts takes on the role of chairman. I think he's the chairman.

Obviously, ex-F-1 driver. The other person, I cannot remember the name. Someone is going to be screaming at us. Not an F-1. one driver, yes. I was going to ask, did science's role have to be filled by an F1 driver? Because we already have F1 representation in that group. I don't think so. I wonder how that's decided. Yeah, I stand to be corrected on this. It's always felt like

it's been a little bit loose. I'm not even sure that we've always had the same number of directors at any one point. But yeah, I think you wouldn't necessarily have needed to. We wouldn't necessarily have needed someone to come in. Very interesting. And if you know, listening, feel free to write to me. I don't mean with pen and paper. Get your address out. Full docks.

I just docks myself. No, just Discord, links in the description or social media. Just let me go. Yeah, whatever takes you fancy. Always willing to learn. Well, we are going to take our final break on the other side. We're playing F1 overrated, underrated. It's underrated, by the way.

Welcome back, everyone. Feels like it's been a bit of a while since we've played this one. The tune is coming for F1, Overrated, underrated. Overrated, underrated, what artists do we give? What way will they go?

Overrated, underrated. What a weak shoes come to see the show? Overrated, underrated. So good. The nostalgia really carries that one. I don't know. I kind of love how awful it is. Oh yeah, yeah.

I mean, the first half of all of our jingles in creation are based on that. They're very special. I'll love it. Good news, folks. This one's really easy to explain. F1, overrated, underrated. We pick out three things. It could be anything.

It could be drivers, could be circuits. We've got them ready here. And we just have to say whether we think they're overrated or underrated or rated, because that is a thing and we're okay with giving that out. We are comfortable with our rated. There's always one person that can play. one of the other. No. It's our game. Be rated. Anyway, let's start with the Las Vegas circuit. Do you think it's overrated or underrated?

I think it's underrated. And I'm pretty comfortable with that expression of choice. Okay. I am comfortable with that. I'm comfortable with it. I think because of the conflict is a strong words, but the disagreement around where the Las Vegas Grand Prix is, it's a street circuit, the people who live there are very unhappy that exists. The everlasting contract it apparently seems to have with the city.

There's a lot of negativity around that, but I thoroughly enjoy the two years of racing that we've had there. The conditions seem to throw up really bizarre results. It's slippy, it's difficult to control. It has that threat that we mowing about with a lot of races. The walls are right there.

It's got a lot of overtaking, a lot of good action. The straits, I know obviously you like a lot of corgues on a racetrack, but the straights really do provide something very, very interesting. And we've had some great action there both years so far. I think the first year was pretty a little bit better than the second year, but the second year for me was also still a pretty solid Grand Prix. So yeah, I think it's underrated. I've gone marginally overrated on this one, but I don't think massively so. I will say versus like some of the expectations before the first race, I think it's underrated because there were a lot of people of a certain...

Me included. There were a lot of people coming into that first race, but this is going to be awful. I've said the same thing. It looks like a... Just like that as well. This is going to be awful. See, that was actually Sam saying at the second time,

not me. You wouldn't be able to tell. It's actually a sound bite we could click from the last episode. I think, I know we discussed this on a recent Patreon episode, where the two of us, we went through all of the circuits on the 2025 calendar and gave them a rating. and one of the points I made about Las Vegas is a completely unrealistic expectation

but I kind of wish this was just a full oval because I really like the final sector. I don't love the middle sector. There are a few. But it's probably based on how much I don't like playing it on the F1 game that I rarely play nowadays. That's not a real reason. I'm using it as a real reason.

That left-hander, the blind one. Yeah. That's just really difficult, isn't it? Can't get the car slow down on the controller. Yeah, exactly. So as a result, that massively overrated. Counterpoint. I love the sphere.

I like the sphere as well. I like the big crash helmet that looks at the drivers as it goes by. I get great joy out of seeing the sphere wave at the drivers like a little child. It's because you're watching the F1 kids version, aren't you? God, damn, I get off that channel. The client's still dancing about Monaco. I love that. Let's go on to, I mean, relevant, pretty season testing.

Is it overrated or underrated? Massively overrated. I get why we have it. I do understand it. I'm glad it's been cut down from five days you three. Some of you still think at every moment should be televised. What are you doing with your lives? Get a life.

Honestly, it's not... With cover. You need it if you're that bloody boring. I love F1. Cut me, I'll bleed F1. You know, Steve Sunday crawls out my veins. He shouldn't do really. You might want to get that look at.

That's a weird thing of saying. You know what? Yeah. It's a bit. But F1 testing is so irrelevant to you as a viewer. Not to the teams, to you as a viewer, because you don't go to the fuel run, you don't go what era they're running, you don't know what projects they're running, or if they have to do any kind of specifics for their team to manage it.

And you go, oh, Hamilton was 1.3 soil in the Clough in the day of 10. Relevant. Literally irrelevant. I've done that voice for a while either on the show. Yeah, true. You know, oh, Salba referred. A relevant. Shoulders as well. Yeah, the show classic, famous shoulders. It's irrelevant. It's literally irrelevant. You can't base anything off of it unless a car either doesn't turn up, Williams, or it blows up Williams. So, you know, point is, stop reading too much into it. It's important for the teams. It really doesn't mean anything for us as viewers. it's overrated. I will say in terms of testing, it can be a helpful indicator as long as you don't

look at like the headline times. I think sometimes people get caught and look and see, well, look, the Salba had the third fastest time all week. They're going to be really good. Now, hang on. I think the long runs, you can get something from that. If you think back two years ago to Aston Martin look really good in preseason testing, and they were pretty good when the season started.

It's not an indicator for the full season, because a lot changes. from the first point until the last race. But that was a good indicator. And I think last year as well, you remember GP Lambiasi's smile. He was right for the early part of the season. They were dominant. But yeah, the headline times are always misleading.

But in terms of like, it's not supposed to be entertainment. It's testing. And look, if people want to cover it and people want to watch it, like, I'm not going to police that. But if you're one of those people that watch, is testing and complain about how boring it is, I have got no sympathy for you. It's, yes, it's boring. It's supposed to be boring.

It's testing. The people I feel most sorry for are the commentary team. Talking over testing is tough. It's a long old day. Three whole days of that. Nothing you can concretely talk about and know that you're accurate or not. That is hard. Yeah, I mean, imagine commenting over a Manchester City training.

session. That is what you're doing. That's what you're doing. It means nothing. It shows you nothing properly and you don't know what anyone's up to. Like I said, if people enjoy watching it, then so be it. But if you watch it and you don't enjoy it, no, don't come. What are you doing? The only good thing is, it's cars on the track. And I like seeing cars on the track. We do like cars on a track. Speaking of, first IndyCar race this weekend. Oh, Colton Hurter, do be proud. The last one in overrated, underrated. something we talk about quite a lot, the 2012 season. What do you think?

Underrated. I think it's being forgotten. I think it is a sensational season. I think it is one of the golden seasons in Formula One's history. It definitely peters out a little bit towards the mid-late part of the season because obviously the eight winners in a row is the first eight races. And then it comes back at the end of the season. It does come back at the end of the season.

There's a dry period between like race nine to like race 14 of that season. and you're like, it's not bad. Like, it's just normal F1. But in terms of you, if you're very new and you're thinking, well, what do I watch at the moment? How do I get to know stuff? Go and watch the 2020-2012 season. Go and go on to F1 TV, whatever it might be.

Did I say 2020-12? You did, yeah. Oh, good. When I finish this point, it might be 2020-12. Hey, we're going to do a great review of that season in many, many years time. And have the, what, 100 years I know what that might be. But go and watch it. it is very, very good. I do think it's being forgotten

by a lot of the new, new fans of F1. If you want to go to your history, go check it out. Yeah, I've gone with Rated. People see it as a great season. It's a great season. Listing the number of brilliant races from that year is difficult. I tried to do it earlier. I was like, well, I need to mention

that Brazil's great because it is. It was fantastic. And Malaysia and how good that is. I won't spoil too much, but you get a great battle between Alonzo and Perez and that one. You get China, so I wrote that one down as well. So, well, Canada's pretty good as well, because you get Alonzo, Hamilton, and Vettel fighting in that, which we didn't get to see anywhere near as much as we should have done in this sport.

Even Spain was oddly juicy. Even Abu Dhabi was great. Yeah. If Abu Dhabi's great, you're having a great season. Is it the only season we've reviewed more than one race in the classic historic races? I'm going to say no, but I also couldn't tell you what we have done. I feel like there's probably one other season where we've done a couple of races. All right.

I'm going with yes, but okay. Fair. Yeah, that brings us to an end of overrated, underrated. But that's not the end of the episode, don't you worry, folks? No, no, no, no. It's a midweek episode, which means we have time for the greatest segment in all. of podcasting it is the I'll be question of the...

I'm chatting this out to Harry far away. Like a bat signal. Week. Oh, there is. Thanks, Harry. Sorry, Harry. I can't do as good a job as you on that one. But we did do a question of the week. Of course, testing, as we've already mentioned,

is coming up this week. And you would have already seen a day of it by the time this one goes out. But we were asking the question, what will be the biggest surprise? that we get from testing. Yeah, some really good answers as always. Thank you for everyone that comments on the social post.

Like, Breaking F-front, if you're going to be involved, we do them every Monday. I love this one from the Crimson Ching, which is also one of the best. Yes, okay. We're the best nonchalong superhero in TV of all time, if you've not seen fairly old parents. And that is that Williams are announcing Alex Albon as their second driver. Yes. A lot of love for that, rightly so.

Yeah. Colling Jennings has said that Harry announces, he will make every episode of recording this season. Leave him alone. He's busy. Yeah. I also love the irony, but yeah. He's got things to do.

He's a busy man. I've got one here from Danny, which buckle in folks. Crofty will go streaking down the start-finish straight, repeatedly saying it slides out, and away we go. which quickly becomes more and more faint as he starts to tire out. After he crashes into the barrier,

a tow truck picks him up and takes him back to the pit lane. His dream would finally come true. What? What was the cream? Going down the start-finish stroke going, it slides out, and away we go. I've just got... He's running.

I've got Chief Wiggum, doing it in my mind. Oh. His lights out. Away we go. Terrible impression that was. She's chasing him down. Oh, boy.

Good. Sorry if I've got Motto-fly shots has said, the younger F-1 shows up with more investment from the Saudis. Oh, that is a good shout. Unusual, but I appreciate it as well. Alex Clement has said we finally figure out what Alpine was so smug about. That is a throwback. That is a couple years old now that joke, but we'll find out eventually, I'm sure.

Well, we're done for pulling that out of nothing. Yeah, appreciate that. I've got one from Twitter here, which is from Ups' All Legends. Oscar Piastri will announce his shock retirement to start a small bakery called Oscar Pastry, with their specialty item being the Charles Aclare. The venture will be funded thanks to heavy investment from Saudi Arabia. Good. Thank you.

Love that. I love that. I think this is George, I think. George back out on Twitter. You have answer it seriously, which always brings me immense joy when I actually does this. There won't be any surprises. Max is fast.

Everyone else is slow. Yeah, I can't argue with that. I also had another semi-serious one from Tim which is stake will top a session using a low fuel glory run which is what they did last year. And most likely will happen again. Yes.

Because I think it actually attracts sponsors going into the new year because someone won't understand what testing is properly. And I have one more, which is, and this would just be quite funny. Over the off season, Huss forgot how tyres worked. If they've gone backwards to where they were. Yeah. Yeah. Kamats who stood there literally scratching his head while they fry into the ground.

It's like, I don't know. That comes Gunter. Oh, yeah, great. good stuff. Right, there is one thing we should probably do before we leave though, Ben. There is indeed one more thing

that we should do on this episode because this is the final episode in February, which means it's time for the happy birthday.

Happy, happy birthday to you. I'm going to start this one off with the fact that today is my dad's birthday. Happy birthday, to Papa Sage. Much love to you.

One of the biggest supporters of the show as my father. Sorry, this isn't related, but I do have to say this. I was, no, I can't say it. Sorry. Okay. Sorry, my bad. Okay.

Moving on. You tell me afterwards. I hope you enjoy your pottery kit that I got you. I hope you've opened it by now because that would be awkward. Anyway, let's go through the birthday shoutouts of the Patreon subscribers on our top tier. That is a perk that you get. So if you want to hear your birthday or someone else's, I suppose, if you want to subscribe for them on their behalf.

And you make sure that you message us your birthday after you become a top tier member. A hall of famer as we call you on Patreon. So you've got Lisa on February night, happy birthday to you. Joy on Feb 10th. George Russell's big number one fan there. Happy birthday. B!

Oh, there it is. Just February. All on February for you, B. Megan Fed first. It's a long way away, but I hope you enjoyed yourself. Lincoln Anderson, which sounds like you should be a brand of car and I love it. You know, I drive the new Lincoln Anderson. Oh, yeah. February 24th, happy birthday. Um, Mark Banholzer. I hope I've got that right because that's a great sir.

And I'm February 6th. Um, I believe Ian Austin, February 7th, happy birthday is my sister. So, happy birthday. Um, Evelyn, 13th of February. Josh, February 3rd, happy birthday to both of you two. And then this lovely last one, which I'm going to take us a moment to read. Yeah, yep. Now, sir, I don't believe you know this is coming, but this is a birthday shout out to Michael from Ballarat in Denmark. And this comes from Tom in Philip Ireland. Now, if you don't know your geography, and you have to remember the last time I said that Doha was in Saudi Arabia, so takes one to go one. They're quite far away from each other. But we've got this little message that says, yeah, I'm going to read out bits of it here.

And this is from Tom. So Michael, hope you're listening. Thanks for the continued content of the F1 season break. I have thoroughly enjoyed the banter and updates what's working on other people's. He says a swear word here, so I'm not going to say it. P.S. Mechaner King in Australian summer isn't fun. I would like to request a birthday shout-out for my dear brother,

Michael from Ballarat in Denmark, who turns 70 on the 19th of February. He's a mad Fung fan from way back, and he's the one who introduced me to the sport as I'm 20 years, his junior. I have therefore purchased 12 months of patron at the Hall of Fame tier as one of his gifts. I'm sure that he would be chuffed with a birthday shoutout for his first exposed to the late breaking F1 family. Feel free to include as much for as little of this message as you see fit.

You're getting all of it. Thanks again and keep the awesome pods coming. Best regards to Tom. Firstly, thank you, Tom, so much for your support. That's truly wonderful. And thank you for using Patreon as a way to introduce someone new to the content. And I hope that this is the first episode

that Michael listens to and he can be a part of this wonderful F1 world. That kind of support is truly wonderful. Thanks to everyone that subscribes on that top tier and we'll be getting into the March birthdays, of course, at the end of that month. So if your birthday is in March, you want to hear your name shout out. You haven't let us know yet. Subscribe to that top tier and drop us a message.

I think that's it, Ben. I think you're absolutely right. Of course, back with another regular episode at the weekend, taking a little bit of a look at what's transpired from testing. But if you mind until then, getting us out of here. Folks, you know all the links are I've gone through enough in this episode. But thank you so much for listening. testing, actual F1 also coming very, very soon.

We've got prediction episodes all the way through the middle. So loads of great content to round out this winter break. We are finally back with cars on the track. Join us again at the weekend. And you can watch this on YouTube. You can follow us on social media, whatever it might be. In the meantime, I've been Samuel Sage. And I've been Ben Hocking.

And remember, keep breaking late. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you.