The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Verstappen and Hamilton collide! Who was to blame? | 2021 British GP Review | Episode 134

Episode Date: July 18, 2021

Well, it finally happened. Verstappen and Hamilton collide at the British GP - with Hamilton taking the win, and Verstappen scoring 0 points. The boys break down a huge moment in the championship.Talk to us: https://bit.ly/3r83aUGTweet us @LBrakingMake sure to SUBSCRIBE! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to look out for new episodes every Thursday and Grand Prix Sundays. Hello and a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented as ever by me, Ben Hocking, Sam Sage and Harry Eid. British Grand Prix review time. we are absolutely boiling, ladies and gents, but we are here. We are committed to the cause regardless.

And, well, a bit of a swing in the championship. After quite a few races of Red Bull dominance, Max Verstappen looking very good going into the weekend. But with Max Verstappen retiring due to a crash with Lewis Hamilton, Hamilton then going on to pick up the victory, a dramatic victory in the last couple of laps over Charles Leclair, it means now that there are just eight points in the championship. coming out of round 10. Guys, how are you doing? It's boiling, isn't it?

It's absolutely boiling. Yeah, I mean, I wasn't sure if it was Moikaleente because of the race or because it is 33 British degrees here in London. And when you have humidity of about 70%, it's a version of hell that I don't enjoy being a part of. But at least the race was spicy as it could be. What a bloody Grand Prix that was. Yeah, I mean, we didn't need any extra heat in our lives today,

but Silverstone delivered it in bucket loads. Have some more heat, they said. Enjoy the extra heat. Depending on where you're listening to in the world, you might well have heard Sam's 33 degree reference and think, oh, we get that all the time. But bear in mind that we're Brits, we're used to 15 degrees. It's like 33 plus another 20 compared to what we used to.

I miss my 15 degrees with mild showers. Please bring that back immediately. I miss snowing. Probably be back tomorrow. Oh, God. That's enough British weather chat for one podcast, I think. We've got a lot to get through naturally. We've got that crash to get through between Maxford.

Sorry, I'm just getting an email from Toto Wolf. Oh. Ben, we don't check our emails during a... Yeah, we said about this, Ben. Sorry, he's just said, subscribe to late breaking. Thank you for that. It's hot lad. How does he sign his email off?

It was a fist emoji and a table emoji, just to confirm. That's how he closes it off. But we have got plenty to get through. We've got what caused that email, which was the crash between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. We've got the dramatic end of the race to discuss. and in amongst all of that, we had spring qualifying for the first time ever, so we'll give our thoughts on that one later on. We'll start, though, with the moment that everyone's talking about.

Into Copse Corner, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton side by side, or not side by side, depending on who you listen to, Christian Horner. They come together into the corner. Max Verstappen is out of the race, goes into the wall at some speed. He has been, I think, precautionary but he has been he has gone to hospital but he did get out of the he did get out of the car on his own accord so obviously best wishes to him hopefully there's nothing no damage there going forward for the rest of this season but in terms of the incident itself Lewis Hamilton 10 second

penalty Sam do you think it was an appropriate one well speaking of cops call and someone should bloody call the cops to confuse the situation because my lord that was an unreal If I haven't heard Christian Horner say it enough times already in the last two hours, a 51G crash that was after Lewis Hamilton stuck a wheel up his inside, in the exact words of Christian Horner. Do I think it's a racing, do I think it's who is Hamilton's fault? I think in our little text chat that we always have when we're watching a race, we always discuss it as it goes along.

We were all a little bit undersiding, a little bit too and fro to begin with, and then I looked at some evidence online, I saw some kind of telemetry of how cars were meant to pan out in certain lines, and I have swayed towards this being a mistake on Hamilton's part. The corner at Copps is an odd one. It is a very late apex. It's obviously fast, very flat-out corner in these modern cars. And the Stappen is taking the racing line.

Hamilton is alongside at the start of what is technically the corner. But at the point of the apex, because of the angle of the corner, Lewis Hamilton is already front wing in line with the Stappan's rear tyre. essentially that's where they made contact, obviously, as we're all aware. The fact that tyre came off absolutely crazy. That was really strange to see. So I have linked towards this being a Lewis Hamilton fault, and I actually think that the 10 second time penalty,

a little soft, but at the same time, it's a first lap incident, so that always gets a little bit of leeway from the skewers. And I admire the fact that Hamilton has bloody gone for it as well. Not that that should play into any difficulty in serving up a penalty, but I loved the ambition, I love the optimism, the attempt. Now it's a shame that resulting Max Mustafa being out of the Grand Prix, it's a shame that that resulting no points being scored for our championship

leader. Max was on fire this weekend and not just because it's 33 degrees outside, because he is being so on form this season. The fact that he's finished in the top two every single race apart from Baku where he had that unfortunate tire issue and now at Silverstone where he was ruthlessly taken out

by his championship rival. Yeah, I think Hamilton just deserves a penalty. Ten seconds. It felt like an age when he was in that pit box. but I do think Hamilton probably should have backed out of it. It felt like he rushed into that a little bit. It felt a little bit desperate from a man that's won seven world titles and knows just how good he could be in a wheel-to-wheel situation.

But then again, he went over to two other people at that corner, and it went flawlessly, so it can happen. But this one just went wrong for him. So, yeah, I think a penalty is fair. I do think this was more Hamilton's fault than a racing. What are your thoughts, Harry? Do you agree with Sam? Do you agree with the stewards?

Well, when I, as Sam's already mentioned, we were obviously texting each other and my thoughts were conflicting. So first of all, when I first saw it and the angle we had I actually thought of the Stappan's fault because I thought you completely closed the door on him. Then we had the replays and I was like,

oh, I think that's racing incident. But after watching the replay about a billion times whilst we had a red flag, yeah, I think it's Hamilton's fault. I think the way that I've come to that conclusion is just because

But if Vastappan isn't there, I don't think Hamilton's making the corner, as in he's not making it inside the track limits through cops. Because he's on the marbles. I don't think the angle he's going is actually going to carry on within track limits. So for me, that's kind of what sealed it. Yeah, I mean, I think the penalty itself, difficult to judge if that was enough too much. Not entirely sure, because it's, you know, this whole incident is clouded. with the context of it being a world championship battle and it's the two championship protagonists.

But yeah, I agree. It was Hamilton's fault on that one, a rare mistake. But, you know, those two were going at it, they were going at it for the entirety of that first half a lap. They weren't far off coming together, going down the Wellington Strait. This seems like it was an inevitability.

But yeah, I'm erring, well, I have urged towards Hamilton's fault. on that one, even though for much of it, I was thinking it was a racing incident. But yeah, what, I mean, obviously glad Vistappen's okay, because that wasn't absolutely horrendous shunt, but it was, what banter? What championship banter? Love it. Yeah, first and foremost, yeah, the best thing about this is that Max Wistappen is okay because he really did hit that wall at some pace.

And due to the fact that we saw afterwards how long they had to, take in order to repair that barrier. I think that just proved the point of how fast he went in there. And I don't know if it should be a concern at all that the gravel just out from that wall there didn't really seem to slow him down too much. It's not to have a bit naturally, but I don't actually think it did a great deal and he seemed to still hit it at some pace. So that's the first and most important thing here. If we're looking at the three potential outcomes of this, so first one being It was Vastappen's fault. Second one being it was Hamilton's fault.

Third one being it was racing incident. Is it Vastappen's fault? I actually agree with you, Harry. First, like normal racing speed, normal camera speed. I was like, oh, as Vestappen shut the door there, he didn't. On first inspection, I thought he might have done. But I think of the three possible conclusions of this,

that's the one that I can't really buy into. I don't think this was Vastappen's fault. If I had to say anything on Verstappen's part, I think he could have left another car. I don't think he had to, but I think it would have been prudent for him to leave another car's width just to be sure. That doesn't mean it's his fault, but because of the championship lead that he had to protect, he obviously doesn't have it anymore, but at that point, 33 point advantage, I think, and maybe this is inexperience of him never being in that leading championship position

before but I feel with that position he's in he can start to to make a few smarter decisions there he doesn't want to he doesn't want to seed positions to louis hamilton left right and center i just think that given the speed that you're going into cops you know that hamilton's not going to back out there i disagree with what christian horner said in that i do think hamilton was entitled to the space at that one card i think he was alongside and entitled to that in which case I think you've just got to be realistic and say he's not going to back out here I can leave him one car's width but going at 160 miles an hour am I that confident that he is going to make that corner even Lewis Hamilton I think the answer is no so I think the Stauffin could

have just done a bit more not saying it's his fault though in terms of whether it was Lewis Hamilton's fault or whether it was a racing incident I watched this uh plenty of times and I couldn't work it out until I got the onboard view, at which point you do see that last little bit of understeer that drives it into it. Because I think for the most part, he was doing all right. And really, it's only that sort of last half a second where he just can't hold on to it when he drives into it. So from my side, I think it was a Hamilton-led crash. And I do believe he should have been penalised for it. As to what that penalty should have been, a lot of people are asking,

why isn't that penalty more? I'm actually going to go the other way. I'm going to ask why wasn't the penalty less? Why was it not a five-second penalty? Because over the last couple of race weekends, we bark on about consistency all the time. We saw Sergio Perez and the Charlerclair incident. We saw the Landon Norris and Sergio Perez incident in spring qualifying.

We saw the Carlos Sines and George Russell incident, all of them five seconds for forcing the other guy off the track. this is the same thing in that sense, right? So why is it 10 seconds? If there's a reason that they can give, fair enough. But I can't understand why this one is 10 seconds and all of those other ones are 5 seconds. You could argue, a staff had been put out of the race,

the contact was at a higher speed. My view on stewarding is that the result should never dictate the penalty. It should always be the action rather than the result. A lot of people seem to think that it was a harsh penalty. after the race was finished and after Lewis Hamilton won by a few seconds, you can't apply penalties in that way. You can't go on and see what the result would be and then say, okay, based on that, he should get this penalty.

The penalty should be awarded from my perspective at the time that it's done, and it should be based on what the action was, not what the result has been. In which case, I can't make a case for this being 10 seconds over the other ones being 5 seconds. but I think it depends entirely on what your view on stewarding is. That's my view on it. So I don't think the 10 seconds, you know, whether it was 5 or 10 seconds, the result wouldn't have actually ended up changing. But that's how I see it.

I mean, the other thing that this is not to do with the penalties at all, but not a dig at any of our loyal British F1 supporters, but I saw a few clips going around of the cheers when Vestappen flew into the barrier, which I think if we've been at Austria or Zandvo and his opposite way around, I'm sure that it would have been the same way, but you know, we don't

want that, we're better than that, I know it's passion and people are very passionate about supporting the British drivers at Silverstone, but you know, it was a heavy shun and you shouldn't be cheering, cheering for that one, but as I said, spicy banter, we love it.

Yeah, I think it's an important point to raise because I know the people who were cheering weren't necessarily cheering Verstappan going into the wall, they are cheering the fact that Verstappen is not picking up any points, which is fair enough in that sense. But, you know, just have a bit of awareness that you don't know how that crash has gone until he's out and confirmed to be okay.

So, and I think you're right, Harry, it should just be a general point for F1 fans. It sounds a bit, being a bit like a party pooper, but it is their lives at stake here. So I do think it's worth the mention. If we were not called late breaking, we would be called party poopers. That was the close second place

when we were thinking of what this podcast should be. It narrowly missed out. Could have gone one way or the other. If you want us to attend any of your birthday parties, though, we definitely do have secondary abilities. So give us a ring. Sam, I would not try to. you anywhere near a birthday party, regardless of what the age we're talking about here.

I've been to yours for like nine years. And I've regretted every single one. Lovely. Cheers. Thank you. I'm kidding, of course. So after that term one incident happened, we saw God Leclair, who he definitely deserves the moniker today. God Leclair lead for pretty much the entire race until two and a half laps to go Lewis Hamilton again at Copps Corner, got the overtake done on Charles LeClair up the inside. I mean, Sam, first of all, in terms of that specific move, do you think it was brave of Lewis Hamilton

to try that again? And secondly, in terms of the entire performance, do you think it goes amongst Lewis Hamilton's best of all time? What's funny about the moves that happened at Cop's Corner? He had to make a move on Landon Norris earlier in the race, obviously after the pit stop fading, he served that 10 second penalty, and then obviously he made the race swinging move at that corner. Lando almost looked like he was praying he wasn't the next victim at Copps Corner and backed out of it, welling of arts, went, yeah, cheers, you go on through, sir, don't worry, don't mind me, was very quick to realize that I'd rather finish this racing

fourth place rather than not finish this race at all. And then a similar thing, I think, happened with Charler-Claire. Hamilton, again, so committed to wanting to take that lead position, so ready to make sure that he, you know, in front of this home crowd, I think the home crowd really spurred him of Dr Nigel Mansell making very good points, that actually the home crowd really did seem to bring something home for him. Charlerclair was almost scared off the track.

Did you see how quickly he went wide off onto the curb and had a little bit of a wiggle, and that allowed Hamilton to walk on through? I mean, the tyres were dead. He had pushed that Ferrari to its bloody nuts and bolts were about to fall off, that Charlotte Claire really was gone to Claire today and deserved every ounce of credit that he could get

because he drove brilliantly with so many issues coming to that car. But no, I respect Hamilton for ignoring the previous stuff and delivering two good, fair overtakes on a corner that is incredibly hard to overtake on. Do I think this was one of his best drives of all time? No, I don't. Firstly, because, of course, he was involved in the incident that took off his rival. That's never ideal. I don't know if you could really put that down to being in the best crime of all time.

Secondly, team orders allowed for him to go through a hell of Bottas. I think he would have overtaking him, but I don't think he would then have got caught up to Leclair. I just don't think it was all around great performance. I think at Hamilton actually, at the start of the race, not the end. I think he was brilliant towards the end, then we're going to close that gap down and make that move.

But I do think there were things that weren't perfect. So I will not put this into a greatest of all-time category. But it was a bloody good Grand Prix. When you've had 99 race wings, you've got a lot to choose from for, you know, a top-ten list. I wouldn't say this makes it just into the top ten, but it was definitely a very good Grand Prix for him, And those closing laps hunting down the clear were absolutely spectacular to watch.

And the Silverstone crowd were phenomenal to listen to. It really made me when I get out my chair and whoop and holler, as the Americans might say. I did have some little goosebumps on the arms as the crowd went wild. It was bloody lovely. Harry, stop giggling at me like a small child. Whoop and holler. Whoop and holler. Yeah, I agree what you say in terms of the crowd and the atmosphere.

fear making you miss Silverstone. Should we say 2022 British Grand Prix live podcast from the Grand Prix itself? Let us know if you'd like us to do that because sounds good to me. I also love how the incident between Vastappan and Hamilton was quote Sam Sage, not ideal. Could not have put it better. Headlines. Front page of the Guardian tomorrow. so not ideal.

It's hard to disagree. Harry, what did you make of God LeClair's performance and Lewis Hamilton's performance? Yeah, I mean, I was so confused about how LeClair was in, I know why he was in front, obviously, but then stayed in front and was just so quick. Like, that's, and they were pointing it out in the,

if you're watching Channel 4 this weekend, and, you know, a couple of races ago, a few races ago in France, they fell through that field like a stone. It was ridiculous. Those two Ferraris couldn't look after their tires to save their lives. And now today one of them was leading the field, holding off Hamilton for, I mean, he held off Hamilton for that first stint entirely, and then obviously he was leading, but got hunted down the end.

But, yeah, Leclair, yeah, absolutely earned his title as God Lecler today. That was just some ridiculous stuff. Hamilton's performance, I agree with what Sam said entirely. I mean, not ideal, that incident. I can't put it as one of his greatest ever drives. If you watched from, you know, when he got, or Bottas let Hamilton go, from then on in, it's up there.

That was vintage Hamilton, but, yeah, I don't think you can, no matter what you think, who was at fault for that first lap incident, I don't think you can put it up there as his greatest when he was involved slash probably the person at fault in that first lap. So, yeah, but, you know, as I said, those last 2010 laps were classic Hamilton. But, yeah, yeah. Classic conclusion for me that. Classic conclusion. Yeah, really nailed that ending, didn't he?

I thought I had another point and then I realized I didn't. So you're welcome, folks. So not ideal and, yeah. Yeah. I'm too hot, all right, I'm too hot. It's fair. It is a fair point. In terms of, I've seen a lot of people say that,

well, it's one of Lewis Hamilton's best performances as long as you ignore the first lap. And it's like, well, you can't really ignore the first lap because that was part of the race. So it doesn't quite get up there for me. It was, you know, the last sort of stint was pretty epic from Lewis Hamilton. And what was probably most brilliant about it is the Charles LeClaire responded. Like, Charles LeClair responded by up to about one second per lap that he got quicker and quicker as Lewis Hamilton was chasing him down.

And it still didn't matter because Lewis Hamilton was going from 131 to 130 into the 129s. I know Sergio Perez ended up getting the fastest lap, but Lewis Hamilton would have got that if Perez hadn't come into the pits late on. So, you know, he did a really epic job on that second stage. And it proves that he's still one of, if not the best driver in Formula One. It's him Vastapa and maybe you want to throw LeClaura into the mix as well.

But he is amongst that elite at the very least, and many would argue perhaps including myself, that he is still the best driver out there. And it was epic. It wasn't perfect because the first lap wasn't ideal, if I'm using a Sam Sage phrase. But also, you have to bear in mind that he didn't get past Charles LeClair on that first stint when, you know, he was camped out sort of one and a half, two seconds behind for a lot of that first stint.

He didn't get past then, so it did take him a long time in order to make up that position. And I don't want to, I don't want to take away anything from Hamilton in terms of, of the time that he made up, but the penalty he got did help him out a great deal because really it was only the Lando Norris overtake that he needed to do as a result of the penalty. If you think the Botte, I'm not going to count the Bottas overtake, you know, the LeCler overtake he would have had to make anyway regardless of whether he had that 10 second penalty. So really the only one was that Lando Norris overtake. It was still a great overtake and so was the LeCler one.

but it's not as if if it dropped 10 seconds once the, when the field was rather condensed, he would have had to have made up about 10, 15 places. He had to make up one. So it was a great performance, don't get me wrong, but not his best or probably

top five, according to me at least. On the other side, LeClair, he was a god. I've got nothing else to say, really. He's a god. I reckon, and folks, I live in a converted church, So I very much reckon that on the top of the spire they're going to put Charlecler on there

as a kind of signal as to how holy that man is behind the wheel of a Formula One car. Just spectacular. Also, before we move on from Ferrari, I don't know about you guys, but when signs came into the pits and they cost him about 10 seconds due to that issue, I was, how are they going to find a way

to mess this up for him? And they didn't. they are making they're making strides I feel like they brought signs in first because they were all really nervous they were just like shaking like get signs in first

if we balls this up we've got to get at least balls up signs his race um obviously yeah well on Ferrari for I mean he's his engineer is extremely calm at giving him very complicated instructions just like I know you're driving fast y'all and you've got Lewis Hamilton hunting you down

but can you just do that like put up this mode into your stereo, right, cheers, right. Nice one. Cheers, ma'am. It was like he was speaking Latin to it, wasn't it? It was like, uh, hello Charles, yeah, alpha 50A, minus 412, divide it by pie, and then tell me

how far the moon is. And then, yeah, if you could just carry on leading the race, that would also be great. Thanks, Charles. And Charles, like, popping. I'm trying. Honestly, I was, I just, I can't believe nothing happened on that.

pit stop and it happened on the signs one. I was just thinking to myself, if if Charles Leclair went over the team radio like, oh, how did Carlos' pit stop go? It was great Charles. 2.4 seconds. Nothing to worry about.

Don't panic. Don't panic. Also, kept my bold prediction alive. So thank you Ferrari engine is. I know. I was wondering how long it would take for Sam to mention that one. Well, you know, Carlos saw the sign. and he duly delivered. He did.

He typically did. Driver of the day. Who have you got, Sam? Oh, Charlotte Claire, 100%. The man was, in the words of Sebastian Vettel, he was amazing. Gratio de Rugazzi. The guy drove fantastic.

Well, I know he didn't get the race win. But that's the best performance singer Ferrari. I think we've seen since he won either in Monsor or Belgium, I think. and Vetter won it at Singapore. It was genuinely that good. He deserves all the applauded. Charlerler is so, so good. He's such a great talent. I know all the focus is on Max Verstappen, and it deservedly should be this season. But my lord, Charles LeClaert is fantastic. And he will be, I think, a world champion at some point. The guy just knows how to extract

performance out of the car, much like Verstappen, much like Hamilton. I'd love to see all three of them go at it all at the same time. It would be great. Shout out to Max Verstappen being second place on the fan vote for driver of the day, by the way. Nice one, Holland. I got a good chuckle-army when that came aboard. Although Sam has agreed there with the public at large. They also gave it to Shao LaClaire. Harry, are you also going to give it to Shao LaClauette?

Yeah, a no-brainer for me. And, you know, this whole performance from Rochal just makes me slightly sad that he's not in a car that can fight for a championship at the moment because him versus Vestappen versus Hamilton would be. so good so good to watch but hopefully Ferrari get their act together

soon I mean they're getting there but yeah Charlotte left me small shout out to Lance Stroll for turning up on Sunday

because he didn't turn up for the rest of the weekend but he turned up today and yeah I'm not going to give him drive the day but I thought he had a pretty solid race

all called my phone what a fantastic tone that is that's a classic British ring tone that is so British sherry thank you for that um i am going to go for charles le clare because he was a god pretty pretty simple there are some there are some race weekends where i'm uming and aring between like three and four

different drivers this wasn't one of them this was a fairly simple one from me the only the i mean lano norris was great as well i'll just throw his name into the mix but yeah charlaclair driver of the day. Worst driver of the day, Sam. Well, speaking of Kratzu Ragazzi and Bhatababababababab and doing Egyptian dances on a podium, Sebastian Vettel, it was like watching me trying to learn no traction control

on the latest F1 game. The man just doesn't understand how hard to put down a throttle. He spun twice on his own accord. He had no one around him. It's like he got excited and went all revs and then went down the wrong pit lane. And they've been in the second time? Was I asleep? It wasn't on camera. Yeah, it wasn't on camera.

They had a court it. They just said that Sebastian Vetter dropped another like 10 seconds because he'd spun a gang and then they retired the car. It wasn't great from Sevi Vett. You know, I've got big love for number five, but this was not one of those races.

And I do expect better from a four-time world champ on a regular basis when Lance the wall scrolls was letting anyone through in P8. And Sebastian Vetter was, you know, lounging around at the back facing the wrong way. Not really good enough for Sebastian Beto this weekend. Yeah, just a quick one actually. You say that that Vettel spin, the second spin didn't happen on camera.

Just a quick one for Mr. British TV director, if that is indeed your real name. All of the racing seemed to happen in the small boxes on the left. I think they're a great addition. But all of the racing happened in the boxes and nothing of note happened on the main screen. The Kimmy Riker and Sergio Perez battle, I was just there like, like, you probably can't see this, but I'm going right up to the camera like, oh, what is that? It's like, it's like, I'm watching the race on my, you know, I'm a hardworking man, everybody, and I have a lovely big TV in my lounge. I know, it's baffling, and I get to watch this, and it's like watching the actual race on my iPod mini that I've brought back from 2007, you know, ridiculous. I just don't

What a machine that is I don't understand if they can see it happening in the top left corner that something's boiling up Like I love the addition of it But if you can see it Switch it over It must be able to do that

Anyway Don't mind Great banter Great banter So Worst driver of the day Harry Are you Gurree with Sam?

I mean yeah I kind of do, but for the sake of variety, I'll go for, I'll go for no bodies because your teammate, your teammate has a 10 second penalty and then he comes up behind you and then he catches you up and then they have to let you through, let him through and you still finish. But I don't know what the gap was, but you still several seconds behind it with the end. So, yeah, it wasn't, wasn't great. I thought at one point he was going to win it and prove Sam wrong, but no. on that basis Walter that's why you've got worse drug the day for me

something I did love about Mr. Bottas was when we're all sat there in the red flag no one's doing anything everyone's chilling out over the radio appears Valtrey Bottas so that was a racing instant guys yeah I loved it

I love the absolute I can't say of swear word poo-housery from Valtry Bottas there to big up a tit he will do anything to remain on that Mercedes team now to make sure that he is a team player that man is giving it at all to be the number two driver.

So, yeah, fair play to you Valtrey for even trying that sneaky little, little bit of propaganda from you. Great stuff. Love it. My worst driver of the day does go to Sebastian Betel. Yeah, couldn't channel the number five energy from Dr. Mansell, I'm afraid, as much he tried. Yeah, I think because of the format of the weekend, this might have hurt even more

for him because he did all right in practice. He gets to traditional qualifying, does a reasonable job there, gets into Q3 just about, makes it to Saturday, does the sprint race, does a good job there, makes up a couple of positions. So it's like, you're checking all the boxes like, yeah, I've done traditional quality great, I've done sprint quality great, fantastic, let's get to the race, and one lap and all of his work from the previous two days is just completely undone. And he's, at the back of the grid. And I don't know how much of his issue was preventing him from overtaking even the slowest cars on the grid, the likes of the Williams and the Alphas. It's tough to say, but he didn't make up any ground after those spins. Well, I guess with the exception of the hash

drivers, but that's really scraping the barrel, isn't it? So yeah, not a good one for Mr. Vettel, I'm afraid. Can I also give a shout out to, I give a shout as well to Mr. Serg. Sergio Perez, who, I mean, it wasn't great, was it, from the other side of the Red Bull garage? He, he bing it on his own in the sprint qualifying, which we're going to talk about shortly, and then he didn't really make up as much ground as he would have liked with the strategy from the pit lane. You can see me if that was Bostappen or, let's say, Hamilton, points. You'd like to think top five, top six, possible here. He didn't even get into the points, and then made another pit stop, and he didn't, again, finish very well. So I would have

expecting a bit more from Perez here. That car was quick and he wasn't delivering. I loved the when Hamilton got through on the lead. It's not, I don't, I didn't think it's petty, but it's kind of the petty move. We're like, well, we're going to steal your fastest lap away from you then. Louis, suck on that. And Perez just to take away the fastest lap. I actually understand why and it makes total sense, but just made me, make me chuckle that sacrificial lamb. Checoe, come in, lose any chance of points and go fast please okay got it boss we'll actually quickly talk about Perez and Bottas after we finish with moment of the race before we go on to spring qualifying but I absolutely loved yeah you make a point there I absolutely love that he does his first thing he comes into the pits

he makes his way back up to the points and it's like no we're going to bring you back in again it's like all right fine I'll go and overtake all those cars again he gets up to P10 we're going to put you again said oh come on man Every time you got near the points. It's like Chris King's picked up the phone and gone, Hello, Checo, you're right, yeah. If you pick now, I'll put chips on your pizza later. How's that for you?

Oh, yes, please, boss. Go on, Nick. I can't go against that. Goodness me. So, yeah, I mean, we'll talk about those two, Botas and parents in just a little bit. We'll just go through a moment of the race, first of all. Sam, what from your side would it be?

It's got to be the crash. We've spoken for the last 10 races, how those two have gone wheel to wheel. Let's say at least 50% of the races we've seen, and how many times have we all said they will come together? It is going to happen. There will be a physical catalyst on track that shows them two coming together, and it's happened. And all the commentators I've watched three plays from Sky, what's replays from Channel 4, I've heard radio stuff online. They've all compared this as a pro-st-sener moment of they've taken each other out.

there it is. That is the big moment to make this an iconic battle. And it brings Hamilton fully back into that championship. The repercussions this could have for the rest of the season, if that were saying is, can become competitive again, is pretty potent. Who knows? The Red Bull might go on to be the strongest car for every single race for the rest of the season. But if it isn't, this could turn the tide.

So I think that was a big moment of the season. So yeah, that is race at the moment of the race, rather, for me. Got it. Harry, moment of the race for you. Yeah, I'd hard to. to disagree with that. I was trying to think of other things I could use as an alternative take, but none of them quite match up to the drama of that lap-on crash. I mean, just that first lap, first half a lap in general,

those two going at it, I think, as Sam said, it's going to be the one that people remember in years to come. Where were you when Hamilton and the Snap and Collided sort of thing? So yeah, it's got to be that one. And it feels, you know, obviously Hamilton's ticket. a huge chunk out of the stab and sleep, but it just feels like this is a, don't know if it's a turning point, but it's a very pivotal moment of the season. Yeah, that's the real answer.

I've got a couple more. The first of which didn't actually happen in the race, but shout out to the Haskyes for a bit of variety in terms of when would their lunge be? It was a complete shocker. You don't know what corner it's coming at, but it didn't even come on the right day this weekend. It was a Saturday. I appreciate.

Hass Watch every time. You don't know when it's going to happen. It will happen at some point. This time it was, uh, this time it was on the Saturday. So appreciate that guy. Like Crime Watch. Yes. Hashth watch. Yes. Haswatch. That absolutely is a new segment now. No going back. The other one from me did actually happen. Well, actually technically this didn't really happen whilst there was racing going on either. Sam, you've already mentioned it. Valtrey Bottas coming over the team radio was the best thing. I, I almost, I lost it. Like, It was great. You just had like the Red Bull communication with the FIA.

You've got Hamilton and Vestappan team radios. You've got Red Bull and Mercedes team radios. And then all of a sudden on the right of his screen, up comes Bottas. What earth's this going to be about? What's he got? There was a racing incident, right? It's like, come on. He might as well be making the T rounds now.

It's got to that point, isn't it? He will do anything. Yeah, we'll cut to the Mercedes garage. and it'll be Hamilton there, you know, working out or whatever, you know, doing something social media base. You'll pan to the corner of the room and they'll just be Bottas, like, massaging Roscoe Hamilton's dog. Yes, Hamilton. Yes, Sir Hamilton. Whatever you need, Sir Hamilton.

Just don't fire me from this team. I just have images. Sorry, I've just got images of Toto Wolf, like with a piece of paper, or he's probably doing it by email, considering it's Toto Wolf. But I can just imagine him with a piece of paper, like scribbling down, all right, this is the script for Valdry Bottas, what he needs to say over Team Radio. You got James Vowse just sprinting out to him in his car and in the red flag moment. Like, there you go. Just say that word for word, all right. Okay.

That was a racing incident, right? Just honestly brilliant. I've got to say, and this is not very related, but this whole incident on Drive to Survive is going to be Earth ending. Like, the world is, they're going to portray it as literally the world's ending. And Christian Horner, his head's going to pop. He'll play it down. It was nothing, guys. Don't worry about covering that. I mean, I feel really sorry for Yuki Sanovi in all this because you know he's going to have a rivalry with both of them after this episode. You know, don't just go. And this was all, it was all Yuki's fault and he's now not going to get the Red Bull seat.

Drama in the F1 community. Pans to Mick Schumacher in black and white. Like this is where the drama started and God, I just... Yeah, you're right. It will be an experience when we get to that. Before we move on to spring qualifying and what we thought on that, we did see that the 44 point advantage appropriate that Red Bull had over Mercedes

has been eroded to just four points thanks to the 25 that Hamilton got and the 15 that Valtry Bottas got. So Samuel Forts, first of all, on Perez's race, obviously not an ideal one from his perspective, no points whatsoever. And Valtry Bottas is, he was on the podium, although not in second.

Yeah, Nilpoa for Perez and for Red Bull. Honestly, I know we had a bit of a joke about how he got close to points a couple of times. If he picked up one or two points, it's not really enough in that car. He should have been able to cut through that field. There were a lot of overtakes going on. It showed that you could close. It showed that Tywe was playing a factor, and he was working a different strategy. You know, he got to start on a different type of rubber, out of the pit lane,

avoiding either drama. Then we had a safety car, which also brought him into the mix. The guy, and then obviously had the red flag rather, that also then brought him into the mix. The guy should have been further up the field. And if Red Bull are going to continue this dominance that they have, that Vastappan is utilising brilliantly, then Perez needs to be there.

We've said it all about Bottas before when Hamilton has been dominant, and I'm going to say it about Perez. Perez has been fantastic on and off this season. He's had some real moments of brilliance, you know, the fact that he was right behind the Stavis, after that awful linking in Baku that wasn't for Stappan's fault, and he took that race victory. You know, Hamilton made a mistake, and Perez brought it home.

That's brilliant. That's what you want from your second driver was to hold on to that result. Perez hasn't been doing that the last few races. Didn't do a great job either in Austria race, of the Austrian races. He hasn't done a great job on a few of the previous ones either. And now it's shown again here in Silverston that the stake was entirely his own fault in the sprint race. This hasn't been good enough. This hasn't been good enough.

Valtry Bottas, on the other hand. I mean, he played the team role, right? He has done exactly what needs to be done. The only thing I would have asked more for Valtry was that he got past LeCler. But as we saw, it took an absolute mammoth moment from Lewis Hamilton, a seven-time champion to close that gap and get past him. It was still a nine-second gap. And I watched as the times ticked over, and I went, Hamilton is now closer to LeCleur than Bottas is to Hamilton. And I understand that he let him through.

I understand there was no fight there. I understand there are team orders. I have no issue with Bottas finishing behind Hamilton. I don't think he has any say in that, and fair play to him for being a team player. You know, he's doing what he can. But he still needs to hold on to the back of Hamilton. He still needs to close the Clare down.

He used to have him under pressure. When Bottas was in second and LeCler was in first, I thought, here we go, go on, Valtrey. Give it a go. You might win this. You might prove me wrong. And he didn't. He didn't.

He just wasn't there. So it was better. Bottas' race was better than Perez's race. Bottas's race was not up to the standard that I would still want from that perfect second driver. But it wasn't bad. It was not great, but it wasn't bad. But Perez, not good enough. Are you thoughts on those two drivers?

Yeah, I mean, Checo's weekend was sorted out when he spun off on Saturday in the sprint race. And from there, it never really recovered. I mean, he tried to get into the point, and, you know, Red Bull obviously didn't want him to be there. but yeah it was his mistake that caused it in the first place and you know once that Vestappan was out you have Hamilton and Bottas in the top three still and that's when like he was in Baku that's when Red Bull need Perez around for when Vastappen's not there to score the point so yeah the Red Bull will not want to remember this weekend whatsoever because you know they're both championship days have been absolutely

actually slashed. And yeah, they needed peris there when it really counted for the, I say rare occasions, it happened twice as year now, but they're normally rare occasions where Vastappan doesn't finish a race or score big points.

As for Bottas, yeah, I had some hope that he maybe he would be the one, I didn't really want, I wanted LeClaire to win, obviously, but I thought he would be the one to close down LeClaire and not Hamilton. But yeah,

I just, there wasn't, I just, I feel, I just feel sorry for him because I think it, I just think his drive has slightly gone and now all he's doing is, is, you know, doing everything you can to keep his seat by playing the team game, giving Hamels on the toe in Quali, starting on the softs in the sprint, in the sprint quality, and it was sensible for him to get out of the way in the race, but, you know, the radio message, another prime example. so I just feel like his drive as a Formula One drive has slightly disappeared and it's sad to see because I think he, you know, he's definitely one of the hotter talents coming through the field in 2014-2015. So, yeah, I agree with what Sam said. I don't think he had a bad race whatsoever, but it was just not amazing. And I think his spirit has been slightly extinguished.

I've got news that have come through actually that Valky Bot has been taking off the Netflix series Drive to Survive and now he's just on Drive to Exist, which is a new series that's coming through just for Valtry. I'd give it a watch. Yeah, go on. That sounds all right. Anyway, maybe a bit of a beside the point there. All right, my view on both of those. Actually, before I say, just a point to note here, Max Verstaffir. two DNFs this year, yet the number one Red Bull driver is still beating the number one Mercedes driver. Now we've had the 15 points for Valtry Bottas. The number two Mercedes driver is actually beating the number two Red Bull driver. So Max Verstappen is beating Lewis Hamilton. Valtry Bottas goes ahead of Sergio Perez with that result today. I just thought that was

quite interesting. So I think overall Sergio Perez, if we're looking at him in the first instance, I actually think, I agree with what you say, Harry. The damage was done on the Saturday. I don't think his Sunday drive was particularly bad. He seemed to get past the slower cars, the alpha-rameos, the Williams, quite quickly. I think he made fairly good work of that.

And it's important to bear in mind as well, that this isn't necessarily Perez's strength when it comes to coming through the field. what Perez is good at. We know what he's not so good at. I don't think it necessarily suits his style to come through the field from the back. But I think he made a pretty good job of it for the most part. He then ended up behind the likes of Stroll and the Alpha Towers. And I think at that point, he couldn't get the moves done. But I do have a bit of sympathy because we saw the likes of Alonzo being able to hold back cars for long periods of the race, even when the cars behind were in DRS.

Same with Sign with Sines and Ricardo. We saw Signs go out behind Daniel Ricardo. Signs was almost permanently in Daniel Ricardo's DRS range. He was permanently within one second, yet he still couldn't get past either. So I do have a bit of sympathy for Perez not being able to make those overtakes on those midfield cars. But the damage was done on his own accord on Saturday. That's been, I think, just ultimately cost him. and it's the complete opposite of what we saw in Baku,

where in Baku he was able to win when Max Verstappen Dnft. Here he was nowhere near in terms of being able to capitalize on the misfortune Max Verstappen early on in the Grand Prix. Valtry Bottas, I think comparatively had an all right race. I still don't want to be too harsh on him, but really everything was aligning for him out there today. if you think about what happened to Valdry Bottas Lando Norris had the pit stop issue that allowed Bottas to get past

he got the overcut due to that issue for Lando Norris Hamilton has a 10 second penalty Vastafin is out of the Grand Prix Perez is nowhere near the top 10 because of what he did on the Saturday there aren't going to be too many incidents where all of those things add up towards giving Bottas a great result and it was still only P3 I just think given everything that happened out there, this was his chance to really put in a dominant performance and it didn't happen.

So I don't think it was a terrible race by any means. But just based on everything that happened around him, it should have been more. And it wasn't. Now, I mean, it says a lot. The amount that has happened this weekend that we're 45, 50 minutes in and we're still only just getting to spring qualifying. It's been a very dramatic race weekend. Sprint qualifying, the first of three trials that will happen this year. I don't know if it's actually been confirmed what the other two.

I think it was speculated to be Monza and Brazil, but I don't know whether they actually confirmed those two yet. Regardless, this was the first time that we had it. So we had traditional qualifying on Friday, which set the grid for sprint qualifying on Saturday, and then the normal race as usual on the Sunday. So, Harry, what did you make of sprint qualifying? What do you make of the format?

So I think Callie as in Callie as we know it that we had on Friday proved that qualifying just works on its own because that was exciting enough on Friday but what I will say is I did enjoy the sprint race what I think should change is

it shouldn't be it shouldn't decide the grid for the race have it separate I kind of, I enjoyed the short nature. It was something different. We never see these cars on 17 laps worth of fuel all on new tires, very often at least. So that was something different. They all look much racier for 17 laps.

So I would be for having sprint races, I wouldn't have it sprint qualifying. I'd have it as a separate race. Keep quality as it is because quality works, as proven by how good it was on Friday evening and as it's been throughout the year. but as just a standalone concept, I think it worked all right. And I think, you know, if it is at Monzo in Brazil, I think that could be even spicier, to be honest. And if I get to watch Fernando Alonzo drive way more kilometres of Silverstone than he needs to to stay in fifth place, then I'll take it because that was amazing to watch.

But yeah, overall, I give it a thumbs up, but I would tweak. it, I just don't think it needs to be, because even Vastappan, even though he got poll, he didn't really, he was saying himself he didn't really count it as having pole position because he didn't really feel like he'd necessarily earned the right to poll. So, yeah, I don't think it works for that, but on its own, then I'm happy with it. Sam, thumbs up from you as well? It's very much aligned with what Harry was saying in the sense of, I love the traditional qualifying format that we have. I think it is a very exciting way of

setting out the grid. You heard the crowd or Hamilton pips that pole and the last two laps didn't go as planned. The staff of himself said it didn't feel like he deserved the poll name because that isn't how poll is earned. And I know that things change and you have to look at things differently, but poll is all about getting the fastest lap time outright, the fastest lap time to set your race up for the best opportunity. You also then do another weird type of qualifying and the next day that then sets your race up again. In my eyes, it needs to be tweaked. I loved the race on its own. If you were to just pick up the race, drop it into a completely separate world and we can only watch that race, loved it. Good entertainment, great fun.

Fernando Alonkso was a little slippery snake down some of those straits and liked to go left and right more than you like to go in a straight line. And it was entertaining. It was good fun. But do I like it as an overall part of a race weekend? Do I think it complements the race weekend? Do I think it should be integrated into, let's say, 10 races across a whole season? Not in its current format. What I would like to see, and I think if we're going to start having two races, then you have to look to the junior formulas. F2 does this really, really well.

And I know that would shake up a lot of what we do, but I think you need to be giving out more points to certain people across a sprint race. I think you then need to do some kind of reverse pole, which would work well. It gives a lot of encouragement to those who are in the midfield. They might be going to hang on to a podium. we might get a mix-up of results. The junior formulas have a fantastic strategy to this, and it creates exciting racing.

If you're not watching the junior formulas on a regular basis, I would highly recommend it. They're only the warm-ups. They're considering only the warm-ups, rather, for Formula One, but a lot of the time, they bring much better will-to-will races, and you should definitely give it a crack, because their way of having the weekend laid out is really strong. This is how I would want to do it,

if we're going to have to have two races of Formula One in one race. Also, for ticket players, on the other hand, it was much more entertaining. You did get to see more content. You did get to see more races and race starts and battling on track. You got your money's worth if you were in a grandstand. So I can understand it from that aspect. But it did just make normal qualifying that we then had on the Friday feel a little bit pointless.

I would almost rather they do a... Here's the championship standings for the start of the sprint race. We're going to reverse the top eight. So the Staffman was starting eight, Camerton was starting seventh and so on and so on and so on. And then you go from there and then you have normal. pole or something from the race from the results started for the main race afterwards. It needs to be tweaked. I like it.

I don't love it. I don't want it to carry on as a major event in this format, but I am more than open to listening to how it could be tweaked. I've got to say, I would still take it over a practice session. I love watching it all F1, but

give me experience. They don't deserve any practice. Well, I mean, fine, but yeah, let's just make them qualify. Just off you go. Go qualify. I would much rather watch a sprint race and have another practice session. So I went into the race weekend and my expectations were not very high for the sprem race.

And I have come out of the race weekend and not a lot has changed. I didn't really like it. And a lot of people are saying that, well, it's better than nothing. It's like, why is that the benchmark? Why is nothing the benchmark? Of course, where do you then stop? You might as well just have racing 24-7 then if that's the benchmark. You know, in terms of, I don't really understand what value it's adding.

I was, I much preferred the Friday session compared to the Saturday session, and the Friday session was somewhat diminished because you knew that it wasn't setting the grid. That Lewis Hamilton, epic pole position that the crowd went mentholed, for, ended up didn't really matter much because he was overtaken for the sprint race. All this was for me was actually, rather than a 52 lap race, this was a 70 lap race that took place over two days and there was one massive red flag that took place from about five o'clock on Saturday through to three o'clock on Sunday. I don't really, it's a bit of a longer race that stretched over two days. I don't really understand what the value is and I just much prefer cars going as fast as they can in qualifying to set the grid.

That's just, I prefer it that way. And I know they're going to bring it back for a couple more times. And when they do, I'll watch it because, you know, we say, you know, everything, every time we say things are entertaining or not very entertaining in F1, it's only relative to other F1 races. Like, for example, the 2019 French Grand Prix that might go down as a most boring race ever is still entertaining from my perspective because it's more entertaining than not having F1. But again, that shouldn't be the benchmark. I, you know, if they want to tweak this, first of all, I don't understand the whole giving points out for it. I don't like, I don't like races being more important than one another.

I know it's not quite double point abby-dabby territory, but it's still giving a few more points for the British Grand Prix and a few other Grand Prix. the reward should be where you start the race. The reward shouldn't be points in my view. It is qualifying. Regardless of whether it's a race or whether it's one shot or whether it's elimination qualifying, everyone's favorite, it's still a qualifying session. They all still do the same thing. So there shouldn't be any points awarded from my view. If they want to bring this back, because the only value I can see in this is everyone going out on,

lower fuel loads and just absolutely going for it. I haven't fought this through whatsoever, but something like having reserve or F2 drivers racing the cars with points being contributed to the Constructors' Championship in some way, I wouldn't be against something like that. It would need some thought, and clearly I haven't given it much, but I could get behind something like that. I honestly don't want sprint races outside of, if they were to tweak it and it was qualifying

still set the grid and this sprint race was separate to that. I still probably wouldn't be for it. I don't know. It just doesn't quite work for me. I understand with Formula 2 reverse grids and I get, I understand the value in it at F2 level because it is a training ground that you are trying to give these young drivers the tools with which they all exceed in Formula One, but outside of that, I don't really like reverse grids, generally speaking. So, you know, it's not for me. I understand that actually a lot of people either

liked this or could see the value in it if it was slightly updated. Sure. And I don't think it was bad. Don't get me right. I don't think it was bad. I just don't quite see why it's good. I just don't quite see it. So confirmed there, folks. Ben Hocking hates fun. Yeah. I think Ben's simple thoughts on it were it was not ideal.

Wow, I could have just done all of that in two words. If only I'd known. I'm not going to title this podcast, by the way. Not ideal. Why say many words when a few words do better? Thank you, Michael. Yeah, I... that is just such a great summary.

I don't know how to follow that, really. That's exceptional. Thank you, Sam. Thumbs up from Sam Sage. Well, it's hot. We've been speaking for a while, and I am the fun police here, so if anyone's having too much fun listening to us,

stop it. We won't be having it. Apparently that's my role now. The party poopers will come and get you. Yeah, we'll poop on your parties. we've somehow managed to start the podcast with being party poopers we've ended it by being party poopers and there might have been something in between probably poop based on what we're saying here so great that wasn't even a sound effect folks that was actually sam um we'll wrap it before we melt shall shall we wrap it up here we'll be back uh midweek of course for the next podcast but sam if you wouldn't mind getting us out of here Folks, you might have heard me talk about it 43 times last time.

We've got the form. The form is in the podcast link. Please get involved with the form. Let us know your thoughts on what happened. We'll always talk about your points of view. If we think you're interesting. If not, we'll just act like you never say anything. I'm joking.

We read every single one that we get. They are really interesting. We've got some good ideas that some of you are saying it for maybe some videos or some podcast topics. So keep those coming in on the form. We really appreciate it. We love that interaction from you guys. Of course we are going to be back

We'll be back midweek Why aren't we? When are we not back For the midweek? So we'll be here chatting Make sure you join us then And we're going obviously See this championship Go right down to the wire

Hopefully let us know your thoughts on the race It was a crazy one In the meantime I've been Samuel Steve I've been Ben Hocking I've been Harry Eats And remember Keep breaking length

Find more great shows Or join the team At sport dash social comco. The podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.