The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Verstappen dominates an uneventful Styrian GP! | 2021 Styrian GP Review | Episode 129

Episode Date: June 27, 2021

Max Verstappen dominated a fairly uneventful race in Austria to extend his championship lead over Lewis Hamilton - oh, and Charles Leclerc played car tag. The boys break down the 2021 Styrian GP.Take our podcast survey: https://bit.ly/3jgjCAgTweet 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 with your host, Sam Sage, Harry Yew and me, Ben Hocking. So we are after the Sterea Grom Prix. Who would have thought, okay, hands up, I'm sure we can't see this from you, but hands up who had the polar car race as being a more exciting one than the steering Grand Prix.

F1 is full of surprises. Not the best race in the world, but Max Verstappen takes the win with two Mercedes-Drives on the podium with him. Lewis Hamilton P2, claim the fastest lap with that. And Valtry Bottas P3 after just about surviving an onslaught from Sergio Perez at the end of the Grand Prix. What did you make in that one? guys.

Oh, I mean, at one point I asked people on Twitter what their favourite race snack was. That's how boring it got. I had a squares bar and I'm being air open on that was interested. So it wasn't thrilling. I did. I did. That's lovely. Look, I know people, there's a poll on our Twitter that's asking if it's the worst race of the season.

It wasn't great, but it still wasn't Monaco. I feel like people have forgotten. It was that dull in Monaco that people have forgotten it even happened. So, yeah, it wasn't great, but I won't go as far saying it's the worst one of the season. I think the thing with the Austrian Grand Prix, sorry, the Styrian Grand Prix, the Eurovision entry started the race off for us, is that you expect a good race in the A1 ring. You expect something to kick off and be a bit fun, or some weather implications, or a good fight, or something like that.

With Monaco, if you don't get a safety car, it's all downhill from there, really, and nothing happened. Lecler decided to break up. his own front wing and then go, I'll make it fun, I suppose, after that point. Pierre Gasly still hates him. It's rumoured. I mean, yeah, could you imagine that race without that, come back from Charlotte, Claire? That would have been something else again. But yes, I think Stere can definitely thank Monaco because, and actually any bad race from here on out for the rest of the year, can thank Monaco just because it isn't that. So, so well done, Monaco.

We've got plenty to run you through. Driver of the Day, worst driver of the day, of course, coming up later on. Ricardo, another tough day for him, McClarencer, we'll be looking at that one in their battle against Ferrari, where both Ferraris did score points, and we'll be looking at that lap one incident to see if there was anything in that from Charles LeClaire's perspective. But we'll start with the race out front, because Max Verstappen, with his win, now has an 18-point advantage over Lewis Hamilton. We're getting close to the territory where Max Verstappen has a full race win ahead of his nearest rival, not far off that mark now. So we'll see how that goes next race.

But considering the advantage that Max Westappan has, Red Bull, have got a 40-point advantage in the constructors now. Sam, do you think that Red Bull are now firmly the favourites? And do you think that Mercedes are on the back foot here? Oh, very much so. I think Red Bull was starting to cement themselves as the favourites over the last few race weekends. Paul Ricard actually feels like the outlier in that situation where Mercedes seemed like they could possibly put off a fight.

but Max has done brilliantly, especially Max. Perez is definitely coming on loops and balance, but Max has really delivered so far this season. And Hamilton, I think, is driven, for the most part, exceptionally well, but that Mercedes is just is not up to the same speed that the rebel is able to produce now. That Honda engine is comfortably, I think, level, if not slightly better now than the Mercedes engine.

As we heard over the radio, they were losing two and a half tenths down a straight, which is almost unheard of in the modern era between Mercedes and a Honda engine. Who would have thought that? three, four years ago, you'd be saying that one. The fact that Max has got an 18 point gap and we're doing almost a repeat race

next weekend, it feels like a championship slam dunk for the Red Bull team. I mean, maybe they can hope to go one better with Perez and get a one, too. It feels like they are quite comfortably the favourites for the, at least the close races that we've got coming up, and we know that Red Bull come on stronger in the year.

After the summer break, Red Bull tend to also ramp up that development. So I wonder if they're going to realize, you know what, we're on for a championship wing here, let's lower that focus on next year's car, let's make sure we solidify this and walk away with it. And I think Max is motivated. Christian is very, very happy at the hair of that team. Perez is doing exactly what he needs to do in that Mercedes team. After this race was such a monumental margin between Max and Hamilton.

I can't see how Rebel are anything but the favourites. What do you reckon, Harry? I mean, if we look at the four races now without a win for the Mercedes team, first time that's happened since 2013. So even with Ferrari, of course, a few years ago being very competitive, 2017 and 2018, they still weren't able to come up with that sort of a record. Do you think that Red Bull has a result of what they've been able to do are now firmly the favourites? Yeah, I mean, it's a tricky one because we've seen it vary from track to track in the past,

and even the start of this year, but we've gone, you know, the past four tracks, all very different and Red Bull have been the strongest on all of them so yeah I mean yeah we know that Mercedes have switched their focus quite a lot to next year maybe they are having to sacrifice they're going to have to sacrifice 2021 for 2020 and maybe a Samsaid Red Bull are thinking well this is our chance we want to seize it which may help which may hinder them sorry going into into next year with the new regulations but um yeah look that car that car is solid and Vastappen is on, he's on lightning form. I mean, both Hamilton and Vastappen are driving impressively well.

Again, today they were just ahead of literally everyone else. I know Vestappen was more ahead, but yeah, Vestappen's driving incredibly well. So, yeah, I'm sure Mercedes don't want to throw in the towel, and they won't, and they're still in the fight, but, yeah, I wonder if they're starting to think we might just have to take the, take the L on this one and wait to next year. Because this, not being the fastest car this year, because they switched focus may help them for the years to come from 2020 onwards. So, yeah, we'll see.

But, yeah, I think at the moment you've got to say Red Bull are looking mightily strong wherever we go. Yeah, I do think even in a season that is as long as this one, this was a really defining win. Because if you were to look back at all of the other races that have happened this year, they've either been very close or there has been a reason as to why they haven't been very close in terms of Red Bull being out in front. I mean, if you look back, you know, Bahrain, for example, that went down to the wire. Imala, you could argue, was fairly comfortably in Vastappen's favour, but Hamilton was still within a few seconds of Vastappen before he made his incident. So that wasn't exactly dominant.

It was comfortable, but not dominant. You know, Spain and Portugal, of course, Mercedes took the wins there. Monaco, if Charlotte Claire doesn't, if Charlotte Claire takes the start, does that race go down the same way in terms of Vastappan dominance? We're not sure. Baku, Hamilton did have the lead in that race and, you know, the pit, Vestappen might have gone to victory anyway without that pit stop error, but there's still that, that still happened. And even last time out, again, it went down to the wire. So we haven't really seen a race so far this year where Vestappen is basically just driven. driven off into the distance and left Mercedes in the dust. It's been fairly close at nearly every

venue. Here, it was a completely different story. You know, Max Vestappen had this race one from the off. There was really no doubt about it. There were stages of the race where Hamilton and Vastappen were on a par, particularly if you were to look at the start of the second stint. There wasn't really much in it. There was about a 10-lap or so window where they were actually pretty much dead on exactly the same pace. But that was the best. that it got for Mercedes and the other times outside of when it was very close it really wasn't even you know the Stappan to Hamilton at the end of that second stint the Stappen was just was dominant over Hamilton we saw that the gap was fairly steady around the five or six second gap and then

it became 10 and then it nearly became 15 at which point it becomes you know two-thirds of a pit-stop distance, which is really concerning from Mercedes perspective. They've got to be buoyed by what they saw, and they've got to be buoyed by the fact that it's the same racetrack again next week. So if for Stappen can take that win, let's say, for example, neither of them take the fastest lap point. We are then at that point at the gap of where there is one race win between them. And when you can start to afford a DNF, that's where it becomes very concerning for

Mercedes. You know, whilst it's under that gap, you can say, okay, we've got a long way to go, we'll chip into the lead, seven points here, seven points here. That's fine. But when it gets to that stage, very concerning from the Mercedes point of view. So, Max Verstappen was brilliant. He did exactly what he needed to do. And, you know, the pace advantage he had on Hamilton was thoroughly impressive, and you've already brought this up. But the pace advantage he had on Perez and Bottas over such a small lap was crazy. I think Botas pretty much, it was about half a second, I think it averaged out at. Again, it varied throughout the race, but I think overall it was about half a second, which, you know, it's Austria, it's only a minute and five, a minute and ten lap. It's not, you know,

it's not spa. So, yeah, concerning for Mercedes. I've said on previous occasions that we don't want to be prisoners at the moment, and we don't want to read too much into one individual result. But here I think there is reason to, not by the fact that Vastappen was able to win, but the way in which he was able to do it. A couple of points there. Then, firstly, prisoners of the moment sounds like a fantastic band name. True. So if you do start up a band, a little old indie band,

and you want to call yourself Prisons of the Moment, just give us a little shout out on one of your lyrics or something of your first song. That would be lovely. Don't go hating. All we're doing is late breaking. Something like that. That would work brilliantly. and now the serious point that I want to make

is that we asked the question on Twitter while the end of the race was happening and that gap was very large it was kind of do you think there is still a championship fight ongoing or are Rebel now the absolute favourites and we've got some good replies from that Paul quite clearly said it's over rebel are too good

unless the Honda engine suddenly becomes temperamental again it is just a matter of time I'm assuming until he means the championship is won whereas Cosmic Dust which is a great game Scottish Chris love that not to be confused with English Chris or Welsh Chris

For me, Red Bull are now the top team, short and sweet. And then, Haddy, you said there, yes, Red Bull are the top team, but there is still a championship fight, which is optimistic from Haddy, which we like to see. But it seems like the general consensus that Red Bull are the favourites. If there's still a championship fight, you know, that's up for debate. But Red Bull definitely the stronger team. Well, it's up for debate. Let's have that debate.

Is it still alive, Sam? I don't think it is. I think with the development changes that are going to occur in the next season, I think that unfortunately, Masegis have lost out. The engine difference is too strong. The flexi wing that Red Bull developed, and has now obviously got rid of us given that advantage. I think even without that,

Red Bull managed to develop that rear wing to a point where they were able to have less wing on their front, obviously allowing them to have faster straight line speed. Whereas Masegis can't counter that. They don't seem to have that ability to have both the cornering speed that they usually possess and the top end speed they can get down the straight line, but Red Bull have found a way to mirror that.

Hamilton is driving absolutely brilliantly, but on the other side of the garage. I think yes, Bottas got a better result today, but I think overall this season, Perez is out driving in the second driver competition that we seem to be having here. And the staff, and if he's able to match Hamilton in terms of skill,

then because that Red Bull, I think, is a better car. Unfortunately, that will just continue to take him further and further up the road. So I think if Mercedes is we're going to have a chance at winging this season, they're really going to have to find something developmental. It's not about driver skill at this point. Developmentally, they need to change the car

to be able to combat what Red Bull are doing. right off the season and absolutely dominate coming into the next time because for me I think it might be done and dusted so um both championships over yeah I don't have wrong of course there'll be there'll be a few swings and moments uh but I do think that I don't seem to say he's going back to the top of the championship on either side swings and moments is a good first track for prisoners of a moment all right well in the interest of wanting a championship to go all the way this season, Harry, would you please mind predicting the same as Sam that it won't so we can see it carry on?

I'll see, I disagree with Sam as well because I think it will start off. No, you can't think that. It's going to happen. I am right with everything and Harry is always wrong. Oh, no. Sorry, do you want to remind very slight detail, do you want to remind people what your bold prediction was for this weekend? The Jinks.

The Harry E. Thanks. I'm sorry, George. I'm sorry, okay? It was looking so good. It was looking so good. Like, it wasn't even like a point. It was three points or four points and one point.

Yeah, George, I am. Sorry. Please forgive me. But moving it back to Red Bull, you still think that there is a fight. You still think it's alive at this point. No, I do think there is a fine. Because I think until, you know, Perre, sorry, you know, Mercedes cannot fight with Perez and the Stappen.

I think there's still a fight involved. At the moment, you know, we see the second drivers are fighting out. I know they're separate to the main title race, but they're still there or thereabouts. So, yeah, I think there's still a fight. Mercedes has got a tough, tough job to do. think to keep it alive at a moment but i think maybe too early in it i mean too early in the season but we've still got a long way to go yet to call it and it only takes a d-nf of a stab and then a win for hamilton and you know it's it's swung back in a mercedes over swings a moment as sam said

i won't i won't call it uh i won't call it over yet but it's going to be tough for mercedes that's definitely true yeah i i don't think this is over i i i i don't think this is over i i i appreciate and understand your point though Sam in that I actually think this is going to be a point of confrontation later on in the season where we could find a situation where Mercedes just want to fully focus on next year if they think that a title this year is unlikely. Ultimately, Mercedes know better than anyone how to perfect the start of a new era and what it can bring you. The advantage they've got they had in 2014 has carried them to this point. that advantage, you know, it's ebbed and flowed, you know, it's been 2014 and 15, it was completely

dominant, now it's not, but that advantage they had from the off has really been the starting point of everything that's followed it. So they are going to be, if their long-term future is in F1, which we believe it to be, they need to hit the ground running in 2022, which could lead to a confrontational moment because Mercedes are going to have a longer, you would think at least, Mercedes are going to have a longer-term plan than Hamilton has. You know, Hamilton, we don't know how many more years he's going to be in F-1. So whilst Mercedes might be thinking, you know, 10 years in the future, Hamilton might not really care what Mercedes want to do 10 years in the future.

Hamilton wants to compete for championships now. Hamilton wants to beat Michael Schumacher's record. He wants to keep winning races. So the competitor in Lewis Hamilton later in this year will still want Mercedes to go for, it in absolute terms. And Mercedes might be looking to get the advantage on Red Bull heading into next year. That could be a bit of a confrontational moment. I wouldn't be surprised to see that happen at all.

And the other point is that whilst when Mercedes were in a fight with Ferrari, Ferrari have notoriously been very good at the beginning of the season and not very good at the end of the season. Red Bull are generally the opposite. Even though Mercedes have in sort of second half a season's done very well, you know, it's, Red Bull are very similar in that respect. You know, Red Bull have done very well in second half for seasons themselves. So I understand your point here, Sam.

I don't think it's over just because we are too early in the season at this point. And I just don't, I have a funny feeling about going against Mercedes based on how great they are. But we'll see. We'll see how that goes. Interesting to see either way. looking at Bottas and Perez who were noticeably a long way off the pace. Bottas did finish ahead of Perez. Sam, how do you look at this? Because on the one hand, he's finished well over 30 seconds back from Max Verstappen for the race win.

On the other hand, he has beaten the second driver for Red Bull. So do you consider that a success or a failure or something in between? Yeah, that's a really tough one to call, I think, because Bottas' race was not a good one. chalk this down as a good performance for Valtrey Bottas. I don't think that he will walk away from Austria thinking, oh, I'm boy, I'm back up to the top, I'm here, I can fight for it again. Now, I think he would still look at this as a failure. He was, you know, even before Hamilton's pit stop, he was 27, 28 seconds behind his teammate in the same car over a minute and eight to nine second lap, which is pretty shocking in terms of teammates, and Perez was the same for

for Verstappen. But what worries me here with Bottas is, I feel like it was more a poor choice by Red Bull to Paul Perez in when they did, whereas I feel like Perez was going to get past Bottas soon or later at some point. I felt like there was a moment on the original strategy that Perez was on that he was able to maintain the tyres a little better, he had a little bit more speed, he was able to negotiate traffic a little faster. Botas, I think, just got lucky with laps running out. The strategy ended up working for them, but I think that was more because Red Bull called a bad strategy for Perez at the end of the situation rather than Bottas having a good enough drive to escape Perez so to speak.

I still think Bottas really needs to improve. Like I said, I don't think Bottas comes away from this thing feeling really, really good. It would be very interesting to see next weekend when we're back at the Austrian Grand Prix. Tire, there's a tire compound has been changed. And Bottas obviously qualified. That qualified Hamilton had that penalty, he could swing in the pit lane. If Bottas can start where he was intended to start, I'd be very curious to see how the Grand Prix runs. But right now, I don't think it was great. I do not think it was a positive race for Valki Bottas. I don't think it was too good for Perez either.

But he looked like he was trying to make something different work and put some pressure on which I admire, considering that I don't think the strategy was ideal. So still room for improvement, I think. What do you reckon, Harry, do you see this, how do you see it from Valtry Bottas's perspective? And on the back of Sam's point, do you think that Perez's strategy here was an error from Red Bull?

Yeah, I think, I think if Perez hadn't had the bad stop, he probably would have been in front of Bottas anyway. Wouldn't have had to do that last stop to try and catch him up again. Having said that, I don't know why they didn't quite do that stop earlier because, yeah, as we saw it in, it was only another lap and he would have had him. So, yeah, look, it was a bit of a recovery drive for Bottas. So I guess it would take a podium from where he started,

but it still wasn't amazing. easing from him. Yeah, Perez might be, I think, will be a little bit frustrated by the pit stop, which, you know, it happens, although very rare for Red Bull. And, yeah, the strategy to call him in was, I think, a tiny bit,

tiny bit too late. I think a lap or too early, it might have helped. But, yeah, I don't think either driver would leave entirely, well, they're not leaving their stay and every other week, but they won't get to bed tonight entirely satisfied, I don't think. Yeah, yeah. I mean, from Perez's perspective,

It was about a three second gap or so that he was able to chip away at to the point that I think it was about 1.5 seconds or so by the time they decided to pull him into the pits for the second time. So I would have at least hoped that Red Bull were on team radio to him. Do you think you can overtake Valtrey Botas? This is how many laps you've got left. Do you think it's going to happen? If he comes back categorically and says with this strategy, it's not going to happen, then fair enough. But yeah, I see your point, Sam. would have liked to have seen Perez, Perez try it, try and overtake on that one-stop strategy.

And maybe it would have paid off. I really don't know. I do find it difficult to believe that Red Bull would have pulled him in without the confirmation from Perez that it wasn't going to happen. But, yeah, we'll never know on that one. Yeah, I think from, you know, Bottas and Perez were a long way off Vastappen and Hamilton today, particularly Vastappen, but it, So part of that was not the poor start, but Lando Norris, ahead of both of them to begin with. They both took their time to get past Lando Norris. But bear in mind that the gap was about 13 or so seconds

between Vestappen and Perez after Perez got past Lando Norris. So even after that point, they're losing every single lap. At the end of the race, it wasn't 13 seconds that separated them. So whilst you can put that down, you know, the bad start can be put down to that the rest of the race that they were on an even footing and that they couldn't do anything compared to him. I think Valtrey Boss asked, yeah, he did enough in terms of the points perspective. You know, he finished ahead of Sergio Perez and ultimately even in a race where Max Verstappen has dominated and taken a victory, Mercedes in terms of Constructors' Championship

have only lost three points here. So it's not it's not the end of the world from a constructors point of view, but at a track where we've already noted he is so good at, it's worrying to see him that far behind on one of his favoured circuits. You would have hoped that this was the type of track where he would have been closer. Ironically, Paul Ricard, he showed much better pace in comparison to the two guys ahead of him. So, yeah, it's tough. The Perez strategy to pull him in a second time, I can understand it. I agree that it was probably worth doing a couple of laps earlier than what he did.

hindsight's a wonderful thing of course that we know one more lap and he had got the job done but i think realistically what they were perhaps expecting was Perez to have a massive advantage at the beginning of his second stint and then it to fade away at the end when in reality the gap was was noticeable at the end of the stint just as much as it was at the start so if they had anticipated that then maybe they would have pulled him in earlier but yeah um it'd be interesting to see how that carries over to next weekend whether that gap between Bostappan and the rest is noticeable again. Yeah, I think one last thing I want to bring up about that battle, which is the third part, which you pointed out then, which is the fact that Norris obviously was in the way.

And Norris only got out the way because they wanted Norris to get out the way, McLaren, that is, not Bottas and Perez, who were desperately trying to get past in any way they could. Norris, I think, looked comfortably in front of them and was able to hold them up, quite comfortably, was very racy. I think in the long-term strategy, if McLaren could have done so, they would have been on for a P3, obviously, of course, the entire link for the race. We saw that Norris was unable to maintain that top speed. But it felt like that Perez and Bottas were struggling to make any kind of inroads, any kind of actual racing pass on Norris until he got the call from McClaren to say,

remember our strategy, this is what we're doing, we're not racing these top guys, let them go through, run your own race. I think if they hadn't radio to Norris to say that, they could have been behind Norris maybe another 10, 15 laps until the pit stop phase, and then Norris might have dropped off. So it was really quite interesting to see how well Norris was doing in front of those two top guys. Yeah, I think he performed very well,

and he can take heart from the fact that he was in that fight for so long. Ultimately, I think it was kind of inevitable, but it's not the same. So we saw in the midfield there was a massive train of cars, mainly sort of Fernando Alonso at the front of that, but it was going back a number of cars and overtaking as a result of that was very limited in the midfield,

particularly in the first half of the race. You know, Perez and Norris, it was a one-on-one fight. Perez had DRS, Lano-Norris did not have DRS, and it still took both of them, Bottas and Perez, quite a bit of time to actually get there. But yeah, I think we'll speak a bit more

on McLaren versus Ferrari in a little bit. But yeah, Lano-Norris, is, I think he did an impressive job to keep them behind for, I can't remember how many laps it was, but yeah, it was an instant anyway. Who have you got for driver of the day, Sam? So I'm also going to go for the obvious Mr Max Mustafa, and I think we can all categorically say that Max deserves a lot of praise for this race. That Red Bull is looking relentless, it's looking doggling, and Max is doing what Hamilton

has done previously with Masegis and carried that to the very top. I want to give a shout out to a couple other people as well, Norris being one on individuals he seems to just have a little bit extra on the rest of the field when it comes to the best of the rest once again we always call it the best of the rest that F1.5 he seems to be able to just be able to outperform the Ferrari guys he is ruining Ricardo's reputation at the moment of being the driver that we all thought he was going to be there's something going horribly wrong there and we move on to Ricardo a little bit more and a little bit so I think Norris is a fair shout I think Carlos

Sainz also had a very good Grand Prix but I am going to I'm going to give it to Max Mustafa, and the guy was absolutely dominant. You'd be absolutely silly, I think, realistically to not include them in this conversation. Also, for those who were giving it to Shaulacler, yes, he was fun to watch. Yes, it was entertaining. But for me, you don't get driver of the day by essentially ruining yours in someone else's race. You're just having to fight back to the point of where you were starting in the first place. That feels counterproductive. So, sorry, Charles. I'm not driving the day for me. And I bet Pierre Gazley is on my side for this one. And you ruin my bold prediction as well.

So cheers, mate. Appreciate it. it. Yeah. The voter at large or the people at large disagree because obviously

they have Charles Leclair as driver of the day. Harry, who gets the award for you? I'm going to give it

to Carlos signs the other Ferrari driver that everyone seems to forgotten about. Yeah, unlike his

teammate, didn't have to run into anyone. But, yeah, I thought it was an absolutely solid drive.

And he kind of flew under the radar for the start of it and you know went on this median ties for an extraordinary amount of time so um yeah i thought it was a great drive from from carlos i mean max was pretty dominant again but we can't give us to him at all the time so i'll give it to uh give it to carlos lines junior vaminos thank you carlos for temporarily joining the uh joining the podcast that was much appreciated with the author atopjeer appears he's he's such a little smooth, slippery man, isn't he? I've heard he actually listens to our podcast when he's in, when he's in the race.

Calming, I'm actually. Just a rumor, but yeah. Who knows? Driver of the day for me, Max Verstappen. Most dominant winner of the season. It's really difficult for me to give it to someone else. I agree Carlos Sines was brilliant out there. Charlele-Clau's recovery was great.

At the same time, I'm 100% in agreement with you, Sam. If the reason you're having to recover is your own actions, then I have little sympathy for you and I don't think you should necessarily be a front runner for driver of the day. It was a great run back through, don't get me wrong, but he was the reason he was there in the first place.

You know, George Russell did great in the first part of the race, but he didn't do anywhere near enough for the Grand Prix to be voted for this. Thank you very much for that, Harry. Yeah, I'm actually staff and I think he has to, he has to claim this one. I am 100% blaming you for George Russell not scoring points there, Harry.

I mean, how badly, are you just DNF? He had to go through literal torture on a track, and that's all because of you, Harry, unable to call a prediction right in your entire late-breaking history. I just thought I was... You got one right once, I think. It was a long time ago, but pretty sure it happened once upon a time. Pretty certain that was when Carlos Sikes Cooney is skeptical for Harry.

True, yeah, I remember that. Worst driver of the day, who you've got, Sam? I think this might be the first time I've ever given this person worst driver the day, which says how good they usually are, but Daniel Ricardo, if one half of the garage is able to start the racing third place, they're able to scrap around with Bottas and parades, and arguably look fast in them for at least the first 10, 15 laps, only be told to get out on the way due to strategy reasons,

and you're finishing, what, eight, nine places behind, you're scrapping out with the slower Aston Martin and the two Alpha-O-Maios, It's not good enough, Daniel. Honestly, you've had enough time to adjust. We've seen all the other drivers adjust. Harry's just given Carlos Science Driver the day. Vettel is... God, what? Sorry?

Oh, no. Couldn't agree more, Harry. That might be the best point you've ever made. I didn't say anything. We can't hear you. So I'm going to carry... Always gone, anyway. Okay.

I'm carrying my Ricardo points. But bye. But... But... Anyway, as I was saying... Dangar Ricardo, worst driver day. The fact that your teammate is nearly 10 places in front of you, you qualify that far at the back of the grid.

Norris is fourth in the championship fight. Bottas is getting closer now, I believe, but Norris is still comfortably ahead at the moment. And keeping that McLaren fight alive against Ferrari at the moment after a really good race. And all the newcomers to the teams are starting to come alive. Carlos Sykes is driving as well as Charlerclair and nearly catching him in the points.

Ferrado Alonso, he's had a fantastic run of races, really starting to come home in that new hour. Alpine car that he's getting used to. Seb Vettel has had some really, really strong results. I think Ricardo has had one result that is worth noting, one impressive result that is worth taking kind of note of, and he's still finished behind Norris in that good result anyway. So Ricardo is by far for me the worst driver of the day.

Charler, actually, despite being so entertaining, was an absolute menace on the track, so I actually think he qualifies for a mention on worst driver of day. But no, Danny Rick, worst driver of the day. Yeah, not a good one for him. Harry, worst driver of the day? I agree actually with Danny Rick being worst driver of the day, but for the sake of

a bit of variety, I'll give it to Esteban Okon, who apparently is signed a new contract and then fallen or asleep. I'm not sure what's happened. I know it was super close in that midfield, and actually in the end he wasn't too far behind Alonzo in terms of positions, but yeah, it just

that, the early part of the season, he was so strong, which seems to have fallen away a little bit in the past couple of races. Yeah, and today he was, you know, you know, several places behind Alonzo outside the point.

So, yeah, I'll give it to him, although I do think Ricardo did probably deserve it more. I had two names written down, and you've managed to get both of them. Ocon and Ricardo, for me, were the two contenders for this. I gave it to Ocon last time out

for the French Grand Prix, which doesn't deter me from giving it to him again if he deserves it, but I am going to go with Daniel Ricardo here. quickly on Esteban Ocon, yeah, you're right. It seems as if as soon as he's got that contract, he's gone with the Valtry-Bottash strategy of, I'm safe.

It's all good. Don't worry about it, guys. So it's a bit concerning that Alonzo seems to be getting to grips with the car. O'Conn, I think, just needs a result just to quit the momentum and to start up again. But I will give us to Daniel Ricardo, because when your teammate is very comfortably fifth place and you're not in the points,

that's fairly worrying. And in other races this year where Ricardo's not been at his best, it's been a continuation from free practice one, generally speaking. It's been, hasn't been very quick through practice, wasn't very good in qualifying, didn't have very good race. It's not exactly reassuring when that's the case, but at least it follows a pattern all the way through. Here, he seemed absolutely fine in the practice sessions.

He seemed perfectly fine in terms of lap time. he gets to qualifying and just falls off a cliff. You know, metaphorically speaking, not literally. I don't think he fell off a cliff. But yeah, it's incredibly worrying that it was there and then it wasn't. And in the race, he was obviously compromised by the fact that he was in this massive train of cars and towards the back of that train of cars. But Carlos Sines made it work.

Carlos Sines and Daniel Ricardo were on similar strahers. in that they went longer than the cars around them. Signs executed it's to the point where he finished P6 after not making Q3. Daniel Ricardo, of course, also not making Q3. I think they might have started either on the same row or at least one position apart from one another. Daniel Ricardo, on the other hand, falls back behind all of that crew and doesn't really get a chance to recover it. So, yeah, we're going to speak about this more and a bit, but, bit worrying.

Moment of the race, Sam. See, this is a difficult one because I think it feel like there were many moments of the race, unfortunately. But it felt like Max Verstappen being able to literally slow his car down to the finish line, get out of it, top on the back of a snail,

ride the snail across the finish line, waver his team, get back into Formula One car and cross the line and still win the race by 38 seconds. Feels like a pretty dominant moment, not just for this race, but possibly for the season to come. The fact that we've got the double header coming up, results weren't too different between the first race and the second race the last time out, apart from the weather changing. We can see this happening again next weekend. I feel like this is a sign of things to come. Max Verstaff and his government win for me

was the moment of the race. Just before we go to Harry's moment of the race, this is going to make me sound incredibly nerdy, which is also going to make it very accurate. I don't know, I don't it's just me. But when all of these late pit stops happen to get fastest lap of the race, and it leaves a what should have been 15 second win, give or take, and it turns it into a 38 second

win, it kind of bugs me a bit thinking that, I don't know, it's not representative of what actually happened. Again, I think this might, yeah, I know, I'm sure there are plenty of people saying that right now, and it is a bit,

I agree, just looking after the stats, I don't know, I completely agree with you, Ben. Because if you were to look back through the history books and show someone who's never watched Formula One before and go, look, for stopping 38 seconds, that person would think, bloody hell, that's massive, that's huge. And you then explained the story, and that wouldn't be the case.

Hamilton was 15 seconds behind, which is still hugely dominant if you were to tell me that Mesaigas would be beating on pace by another team and be 15 seconds behind without any issues. That's still crazy. But it's no one near as crazy as 38. seconds which does have a story behind it so i think you're very right to bring it up anyway maybe maybe something for another day but moment of the race for you harry um i'll go for a bit that i just enjoyed which was um lucler coming up the inside of uh kimmy into turn three and it looked like

he'd done another pretty easy pass and then kimmy was on the outside and he was like ha ha no and just power off again around the outside because that outside line in turn three is probably the quicker way to do it and you get better traction but I was just like yes, Kimmy who actually pretty good race today I thought but yeah I'll go with that one

but as Sam said not a lot to choose from to be honest yeah I mean Kimmy definitely recovered well after a poor qualifying started on the penultimate row of the grid and yeah did a good job very nearly got into the points Yeah, a moment of the race for me. First of all, just, Charles Leclair is a god

at nearly every race circuit and he just turns up at Austria every year and he's like, what is space? How does that work? The man has forgotten how big his race car is. He hits... But only at Austria. Yeah, he hits Reichen and going past him

and then he hits Gathley in the most ridiculous way. I mean, other way round, but yeah, the man seems to think his car is about three inches long in comparison to the rest of the year. Man, is a minute. on that one. Yeah, I just won't bring that up.

But moment of the race for me has to be, and you're right, not exactly a massive amount to choose from here. But moment of the race for me, after Mazapin's superb dive bomb on Mick Schumacher at France, I'd love Mick Schumacher returning the favour here. The house battles are so entertaining. You never know what corner it's going to be. You never know when it's going to happen in the race,

but you can be sure at some point, one of them will dive bomb the other for literally no reason whatsoever. Just, it is. One of them will just go, oh, a bit bored here in P17. Hello, Mick.

Boom. I think it'll break this time. They're just having a great time at the back by themselves. Mick Schumacher dives past with about one meter to spare. He then goes into turn four, like, oh, dear, I'm going to lock my tire here as well. honestly they were trying their best they really were trying so i found that funny and i'm looking forward to obviously we've got austria next week but i'm looking forward to silverstone um you know where

they'll try it um you know where's that one to be probably side by side into cops or something weren't it um yeah it's uh thrilling stuff from that house goes let's move on to uh McLaren versus Ferrari because it was another interesting chapter in that battle it's very quick emerging that it will be one of those teams that will finish P3, the other will finish P4 this season. It's currently McLaren who have the advantage, although it is a slender one, 120 points McLaren, 108 Ferrari, so 12 in it. But at the moment, the Ferrari duo are much more balanced in terms of the points, whereas Lando Norris obviously heavily outscoring Daniel Ricardo at McLaren. So Sam, do you think that if Daniel Ricardo doesn't get his act together here, there is a chance

that he is going to cost McClare in that third place in the championship. What's really interesting is coming out of Paul Ricard last week, we made the point that when Ferrari scored no points at a race, both drivers, not in the points, that who would have thought that at the end of the season, that could be the deciding factor on whether a team gets third place or not? What I'm surprised to be saying is actually Daniel Ricardo could be the letdown for a team not securing a position.

The man who is, you know, because a single one of the best overtakers, the man who can pull out a result out of nowhere, the man who can get past anyone, you know, is fearless. He is so far down the grid for where that car should be. Arguably, the fastest car on a straight line, it feels like, is that McLaren. And he's just unable to pull off a move. If this continues, then I think consistency over outright results, which is what Norris is achieving, will prevail.

I do think that Ferrari will be going to make up for those lack of points. Norris is bound to have one race this season that doesn't go his way. Over a 22, 23 race calendar, unfortunately, that is just, you know, chance. It will happen. He will have an incident. He'll get hit by someone. There'll be an engine problem, and he'll finish right down the back end of the points, or he'll finish just out of the points.

And if Ricardo isn't there to pick up something, which he hasn't been, more than once or twice, this season, then Sykes and Lecler will finish, say, let's say, fifth and sixth again, and they will pass McLaren. I really do think that if Ferrari were able to, you know, to maintain this consistent, almost underlying level of performance, get themselves back on the horse, the prancing pony, and get themselves over the line each time in a nice steady manner, they are going to close down that third place, and I think they're going to do it very, very soon. They just seem to be consistently there. I think France felt like the anomaly. It felt like the

Oggone out at the moment, even with that poor start from LeCler, and Science got in the best position, they really poor performance out of the bang. If they can keep doing that, I think Norris is going to be overturned by these two Ferrari drivers. What do you reckon, Harry, in this fight? Two thousand years later. You reckon nothing. You are knocking it out of the park today with these points, Harry. I could not agree more yet again.

We're not quite sure what's happening with Harry, in which case I'll just give my thoughts on this, that, yeah, you're right in what you say, Sam, in that two versus one can only go so far. Landon Norris can only deliver so many brilliant performances. And I think outside of Max Verstappen, and some might argue, including Max Verstappen, I think he's been the driver of the season this year. He has been absolutely exceptional race after race. And he will continue.

I think he will continue in that vein, but you're right, at some point, something will go wrong. He will, he will DNF, he will have a bad race. He's not perfect as good as he has been. So at some point, it's not going to work out in his favour. and in those sorts of situations, it's fine, as long as Daniel Ricardo is there to back him up, which at the moment he isn't.

If Daniel Ricardo, if you had two Daniel Ricardo's in the team, they would be on 68 points. If you had two Lando Norris's, they'd be on 172. It's a massive difference between them at the moment in the championship. You've got Lando Norris, who's ahead of Valdry Mottas and not far behind Sergio Perez, whereas Daniel Ricardo, who's only four points behind Sebastian Vettel, who's been very on and off this year.

So it's worrying, and it just feels as if that car is not, it's just not suited for him. Because I can't, I can't subscribe to a theory that he is no longer a great driver. We've seen him be so good for so long. I can't, I cannot imagine that it is just dropped off like that in an instant. This has to be the McLaren being a very different car to drive than at least the Alpine, sorry, the Renault that he had last year, but probably also the Red Bull that he was driving before it. It has to be a brand new experience because occasionally he's getting it right.

It's not very often, but he has occasionally got it right, but it's being so massively outnumbered by times where it's not going, right, that it's leading to a big disparity between those two drivers. and even in a situation like today where Landlo Norris is ahead of the two Ferraris in the championship, it's minus four to, it's minus four for McLaren, plus four for Ferrari. So 12 points in it, it's everything to play for at this point, and McLaren will be praying that Ricardo gets on the pace sooner rather than later. Otherwise, Ferrari, I think are going to overturn that. And McLaren are going to have a tough journey to get back into that spot.

and to make matters worse and I'm interested to hear what you think on this one Sam but McLaren obviously they are doing better than Alpina this year so in that respect the move seems to have worked for Ricardo even if it's not working for him right now

but he's having to watch Max Verstappen win race after race a car he was in just a few years ago if we think back a few years to when he made that decision to move away from Red Bull where they are respectively now how much should he regret the path that he has taken in his career? It's really interesting. I think that if Daniel was still at Red Bull, I think that would

still be the perfect partnership for Red Bull. Red Bull love internal dispute. Rebel love internal rivalries. Red Bull see competition, internal competition as a real motivator. That's the kind of environment they seem to like setting up. And I think that Daniel Ricardo in terms of maybe even over Carlos Sites, I think, has been the closest competitor that match Vastappen has had at the same team since they've been racing. I do think that Vastappen is a better driver than Ricardo. I think Vastappen is shown more promise and is now demonstrating that. But I definitely think that Ricardo, should he still be in that Sain against Vestappan,

they would be having one-two in the championship. They would be able to fight off Hamilton more efficiently than what Perez is doing. What I also find very interesting, and I think it would even be more frustrating for for Ricardo is that the Alpine, now driven by Alonso, where it was Ocon, also are beating Ricardo in that McLaren. You know, Alonso finished

what seventh or eight this time out? O'Con previously in races, has been comfortably inside the points on a regular basis. I mean, they're both, Alonso and O'Con are gaining on Ricardo in the points table. Each race, they're getting closer and closer and closer, Alonso is really finding his form. So, I think Ricardo is in the second best car he could be in,

in terms of his career span. But yet every single driver that he is up against, maybe apart from Locke on, I would put him below. I would say that I would choose along someone current form at the moment. I would definitely have Norris. I would much rather have Perez.

I would definitely have the staffing in the car. For me, I think this has been really damaging the last four or five seasons for Ricardo. The journey isn't going the way he wanted it to be. He's finally been giving a car that could theoretically be challenging for podiums or at least four-fif places on a very, very regular basis.

He's not taking them. He's not delivering. McClaren don't need to prove anything, I don't think. I think they have shown they are comfortably joint third, if not the third best car. And I think McLaren should be well in front of Ferrari if Ricardo was performing. Ricardo is the problem.

Which I think other teams maybe previously might be thinking, well, hey, that's gone all right for us. We've come out better than that. But McLaren themselves, who have the car, they have one half of the garage sorted, they're being let down. Harry, are you back with us? Can you hear me?

is the dulcet tones are Mr. Reed. The pit stops worked. I would be very interested in your opinion on Daniel Ricardo in this whole McLaren versus Ferrari fight. I mean, I

caught most of what you both said and I agree. I think it's a real issue for Maca if it continues and you know, I think we knew this happened with when he was at Renault.

Maybe it was less noticeable because he was up against Hulk, and Hulk wasn't necessarily doing as good a job as Landau's doing now, and that's no slight to Hulk whatsoever. I just think Landau's doing a fantastic job. And because they're fighting, or at least Landos fighting up at the front slightly more often, it's just showing Ricardo's issues up even more. And I heard Ben you say about the McLaren being a difficult car to drive. I think Signs has made that point before.

Ricardo said something like Why didn't you warn me or something like that But as a joke But it does sound like it's a difficult car to handle And especially if Lando's been there for You know, this is year three Car's probably going to suit it more than it is Riccada Because Ricardo's only just annoying

So yeah, look It's Ricardo's problem to sort Not McLaren's although as you say It could start costing So if they need to start making the car More suited to Dino Ricardo I think it may be in their best interest because at this rate they are going to struggle to fight Ferrari especially on even today was a bad day for Fezler they recovered it pretty well I think and scored a decent amount of points and there's only Norris that to fend them off so yeah I think the results or more consistent results need to come sooner or later because we saw it started to come back in France and it slipped away again this weekend so yeah it needs to happen soon yeah I mean that that's the thing like you said from Ferrari's

perspective is that not every weekend they're going to have one driver out in Q2. In a lot of weekends they're going to have both in Q3. And it's not every weekend that one of them will need to pit after the first lap. So yeah, you're right what you say. Before we finish up, just to close this Ferrari versus McLaren chapter here, Charlecala of course was involved in that incident with Pierre Gazley on the first lap. He decided he was playing a game of car tag today. just trying to make sure that he got to everyone.

Do you think that these stewards were right not even to investigate that one, Sam? Oh, honestly, you're right with Carr Tag. It was almost like Car British Bulldog with how violently aggressive Charlotte Clare is getting. You're out. Sam, that's banned. Well, yeah, exactly.

That should tell you everything you need to know. I don't mind a lap one incident being investigated if it's a little knock, if a car runs wide, or something like that. But if it results in a car retiring, due to your actions which were caused under zero pressure, then for me, that needs to be looked into. Sherlockler was on the outside of a pretty open track.

Yes, they were three wide, but it's a very wide area of the track where the inks happened, halfway up a straight, effectively. And Lecler tried to dip back in to pick up some more slipstream. And again, he just seems to forget what space is in Austria. It's absolutely ridiculous. He ruined one race, and then poor Gazley, who's trying not to touch anyone, desperately trying to get himself off the track,

takes out bloody Reichenen, there's other cars flying around, it's all go, and Lecler's like, la la la, la, off I go for the rest of the race, and then he hits bloody Reikingen's front wing as well. I think you should investigate this. I think too much damage has been done. It's not a little knock.

It was not a turn one inch again. It didn't happen off the line. For me, this is clumsy. This is bad driving, and you have ruined another competitor's race unfairly, unprovoked. You were not forced into an unforceable error, you made that error in title on your own doing.

It was silly. It was reckless. It was a really, really poor mistake from Charlerlerc. And he essentially did the same to his teammate last time now, of course, with Sebastian Vettel when they both together at Ferrari. It was another unprovoked silly, essentially at the same corner. I think this now needs to be investigated. And we've, I'm not going to bring tin hats into it. But we are seeing a lot of incidents where Charles LeCleur has made silly mistakes or done things that other drivers maybe would have been picked up on.

And the FIA have almost walked around and gone, oh, where's... Clair's done something again. Has he? Oh, there's another race to start it. Thank you, Ben. Put on your hat. I've got my blindfold on. And we're just making sure

that nothing affects Charlotte Claire. It just feels like, really, that even if it was investigated with no questions answered, no results given against, no penalties awarded, it should be looked into. This felt silly,

this felt costly, and unfairly so, to the likes of Pierre Gasley. Harry, do you think this was a return of the dastardly Ferrari international assistance. I will not don my tinful hat and get into that debate. But yeah, look, I know that stewards take a different view for Lapot on incidents, but they weren't jostling into a corner.

They were going in a straight line and with a lovely, a lovely clear track in front of them. And Chuck just moves over and just clips him, like for no reason. And as Sam said, I know they're three wide, but it just seemed a bit. It was just really clumsy. And, yeah, I think that's true is at this point need to say, well, we'll take a lighter view on lap one instance. But not when they're obviously stupid. Because why do they let that one go?

Yeah, because it ruined Cassie's race. So, yeah. I'm surprised at how lenient they were on that one. Yeah. Thank you very much for that robotic Harry. in there. Not sure. Not sure whether that will come out as robotic as I could hear it in my headphones. But yeah, it was, yeah, I think from my perspective, yeah. I think at this point you could have, and I don't even think it's Ferrari specific. I think it's like the whole grid. I think you could

have one driver come along at the, you know, midway through the first lap, park up, get out of his car with a knife, stab one of the other drivers and the stewards would go, you know what, it's lap one. It's all right. Don't worry about it. Absolute GTA allowed. As long as it's on lap one. It's almost like, you know, like Crash Bandicoot. Let me get out a rocket launcher at the side of my car. Fire.

Oh, I've hit three drivers. Lap one, though. Off I go. Thank you. Lap one is fine. That one. It's almost like the purge, right? You get 24 hours to commit any crime you want.

As long as it's on lap one, commit any atrocity. Honestly, it's Mario Kart rules on lap one. Thereafter, it's back to F1. but this should have been investigated. Come on. I mean, like Harry said, it's not into turn one. They are just going down a straight. And he has, you know, he has ended his race.

And I don't like to lean too much on what the result of an incident is. I don't think it's the way that stewarding should be done. I don't think you should look at this and say, well, Gassley's race was ended. So LeClau's punishment should be adjusted because of that. It should be there because of him hitting another car. Like that's how it should work. And I'm sure there are plenty who were saying he had to go back to the back anyway. He had to go and have, you know, he had to go and have his front wing repaired.

That was the penalty in itself. It's not something I've ever subscribed to. It's not something I've ever really, I think, is a fair way to do things. Because at that point, you have to judge how much of a penalty is right. He ended up behind that car. So was that enough penalty? Well, actually, he probably would have ended up behind that car as well. I don't think that's the way that stewarding should be done.

And ultimately, Leclair actually pissing on the first lap and having clean air for a long period of that first half of the race, it might well have helped him. It's not as if it was a massively end racing incident for him. He was able to recover. And yes, a lot of that was down to his own brilliance in overtaking. But a lot of it was down to he wasn't involved in that massive line of cars, massive train of cars that were behind Alonzo for a lot of that first half. So really, I don't think in that situation what happened to him was enough punishment.

And yeah, they should have looked at this and I think probably penalised it. But like even if your decision is ultimately no penalty, look at it. Come on. Anyway, it seems as if Harry has completely dropped off the face of the internet earth. He's a DNF, isn't he? He's a total DNF. he cursed George Russell and I always decided that he's a DNF himself. So I guess the end of this podcast will be, I mean, we can debate who finishes first and who finished his second,

but yes, Harry is a DNF on this one. And you might think we're going too harsh on Harry, but actually, and this is a bit of a segue, we've currently got a survey out there. You'd have heard this if you were listening to the preview podcast, but we've got a survey out there for our podcast listeners, we've had some great responses to this and actually one of the responses was be more mean to Harry so whoever that was thank you for that suggestion we have taken it on board and we are fully committed to making that happen but yeah we got some absolutely brilliant responses firstly in terms of constructive constructive criticism I guess and we'll look to improve some of the areas but also just some absolutely lovely comments that mean the absolute world to us so thank you so much to everyone who has participated in that survey. We'll leave the link again in the description of this podcast and most

probably the next podcast as well. We'll leave it open for a little bit longer. It's just to let you have your feedback of what you like and don't like about the podcast. And ultimately, that's going to help us to make things even better for you. So thank you to everyone who has filled it out. If you haven't yet, please consider it is really helpful. Based on Harry, probably not reappearing. I think it's best if we end this and wrap it up, Sam. Yeah, yeah, I want to agree with you on all the people saying, be more silly, do more of you three,

you know, come up with more silliness and have fun with it. Honestly, the words were, I'm surprised that many people like listening to us. So thank you. Never thought there'd be that many of you that enjoy it.

And yet so many if you turn up, there's so many of you fill up the survey. So if you haven't, go over there, give us some constructive criticism, let's know how we can prove for you. We know that the likes of the tech and whatnot isn't perfect, and we are working on that.

But if you're having ideas on content, or if you want to change, please do let us know how is your chance to really give an input and we'll definitely try and include that where we can. Did you enjoy the Austrian GP because it was all right, wasn't it? It wasn't Monaco, but it definitely wasn't Paul Ricard. I never thought I'd say that anyway.

Let's know your thoughts. Get over to Twitter. Of course, we've got to do this all again next weekend and we will be back midweek for a preview of the actual Austrian Grand Prix. This one, of course, was just the fake one, the one that didn't really exist. The next one's going to be the real one. Harry might be here as well.

So if you're a big Harry fan, then fingers crossed, he might turn up. If not, you might just have to like Ben or something. I don't know. It's a tough world that we'll find themselves in. Let us know what you think. Get in the comments. Come and talk to us. We love to hear all your things, of course. So Ben, I'm sure Harry does say goodbye, but for now, I've been Samuel Sage.

I've been Harry Ead. And I've been Ben Hocking. Remember. Keep breaking late. Idiots. Find more great shows. or join the team at sport-ssocial.com. Podcast is part of the Sport Social Podcast Network.