The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Verstappen takes race victory from Hamilton on the penultimate lap! | 2021 French GP Review | Episode 127

Episode Date: June 20, 2021

What a cracker that was! Max Verstappen took victory in France after a penultimate lap overtake on Lewis Hamilton - the boys break down all the talking points from the race.Tweet 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. We're here chatting to you after the French Grand Prix and it was all right. Actually, I'm going to go even better. a great race and it was the French Grand Prix. I truly shook her. Anyway, Max Verstappen taking the

victory to open up an 11-point lead in the championship over Lewis Hamilton, came down to the wire yet again between those two. Bottas and Perez involved as well. It's what we love to see. Alternate strategies, late breaking loves that kind of stuff. What did you make of that guys? Well, as Harry said, just we shooketh. That was really not what I was expecting from the French Grand Prix. He said those exact words. Honestly, it was great to see.

We had real fighting up front, both teams, both drivers from each team were fighting alongside each other. Bottas absolutely raging in his helmet, which it was good to see for a body. I mean, he was still the worst of the four in the end, but it was good to see him get annoyed, get a bit of firing him.

This was so much better than I thought. The moment Max Ossaffing fell off the track at turn one, and then that undercut worked. I thought, here we go. It's going to get a bit spicy. And it did. We didn't need the rain to spice it up, which is fantastic. It really turned into it.

It was a slow burner with a real monumental finish. I was really pleased with it. Not a waste of a Sunday. Well done, France. I think what's happened here is that we are living in an alternate universe, where the Spanish and French Grand Prix are good. I like this universe. It's the first time that never happened.

Yeah, because in the normal universe, Monaco's a belter every time, isn't it? All right. Not all things can be made great in the alternate universe. Come on, because that old turn is. Some slack. Come on. Sorry about that.

Yeah. I mean, I thought it was an absolute belter of a race. I mean, personal news, I was getting my first COVID jab this morning, certified member of the, of the Pfizer chiefs now. But we're on Pfizer. Get out. Disgusting. That was, I apologize. But as the needle was going in, I was like, is this going to be the most painful thing that I experienced today? And the good news is the answer was yes. It was. You haven't done this podcast yet, Ben. True. This is very true. The day is still young. We're going to get in. into a few topics later on. So Yuki Sanoda had another crash in qualifying.

We'll be discussing his first few races of the season. We're going to be looking at Ferrari. No points today, surprisingly, after a good couple of weekends. But we will start, of course, at the front because Max Verstappen decided to go, or Max Verstappen and Red Bull, decided to go down a different path to Mercedes. So looking like it was going to be a one stop before the race, that's what Pirelli were predicting. Pirelli were wrong. It seems to be the feature of the month.

So it was a two-month. It was a two-stop race instead for Max Verstappen and Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton stuck with a one-stop. It came down right to the death. Just a few laps to go, Max Verstappen getting passed for the win. So, Sam, the question is, why did Max Verstappen win this race? Was it Max Verstappen's brilliance? Was it Mercedes not playing the strategy game very well?

Was it Bottas not holding for Stappen up long enough? What do you think? I mean, extra, extra regal about it, Mercedes absolutely played at their own game. I mean, twice. Twice, Mercedes have done that to Red Bull. Back in Hungary, what, 2019, I think it was. Hamilton absolutely played the fiddle that is Max Verstappen. We come to Spain, you know, they can't get past.

Boom, two-stop. Hamilton drives clean around the outside of the Stappen. Again, you think, we said it on the podcast. Come on, Red Bull. You've had this happen before. You should be wise to it, and you've let it slip again. Who have thought? Flipside 180.

We come to front. and Rebel are like, ha, get him, and they've literally done the same strategy back to them. I can't believe

that the Sages fell this hard for the two-stop pull-off. Christian Hawking seems very, I don't know if he was just playing, you know, playing the cars

after the race that it had happened using hindsight, but he seemed very confident that actually his strategy with Max all along was to go for a two-stop.

Again, you might say that because it worked, but nonetheless, it was a blinding call by the Red Bull strategist, and this is something we've seen that feels a bit luck

Lacks, rather, from the Mercedes team. They seem a bit complacent. They seem a bit sluggish. They don't seem like they're as alert and ready to be proactive as they have been in the previous years. I think they're nervous that Red Bull, when they do capitalize on it, can really deliver a result. Now, it was not the only factor. Red Bull played Mercedes beautifully. It was quite funny to watch them get sold the absolute dummy and Hamilton-A-Botas struggling around in those old, old tires.

But let's got discount back for Stappen for a minute here. And Stappen got off to a bad start. Yes, that is true. But my God, did that man deliver a consistent, fast-paced, well-executed race? You know, he absolutely sold Bottas for a bag of chips in one corner. And then Hamilton, it was there, slaving away, bless him, he's working hard, I'm going to get to the end, I'm coming. And Max is like, no, no mind, I'll have you anyway. You know, it was pure brilliance from Max Mustafa.

He really delivered the strategy when he needed to. It was what you have to do when you are that league driver. When you want to take a world championship, you have to do that something. something a little exceptional. And Verstappen did that. Botas also was a contributing factor. He held up Max Vostappen for less than one corner and then gets angry.

I, well, you should have done a two-stop. Oh, you don't think, Valtrey. You don't say, a bit late now for that decision. So it was a real number of factors that brought his victory home for Max and Red Bull. But my God, Red Bull were on the top of their game. Stappan drove an absolute blinder. And Bottas, of course, was thinking,

no more bosses, please. You can just have it. See you later. Lewis, think all he can. This was a perfect roundhouse from Redbourne. I'm really quite impressed. What do you reckon, Harry, do you think the Stappen was just on another level today? Or should Mercedes have done something a bit different?

I think the way that the momentum in this race shifted about a gazillion times, I feel like it's quite hard to pinpoint a reason behind the win. But, I mean, the first one, and Sam's already alluded to this, is how Mercedes got absolutely played by their own game. It just baffles me a little bit that that happened Because it's their game Because they owned it Because they've been the car behind before

As they were in this position Why didn't they pull the trigger and do that Instead of letting Red Bull do it first Because they were the car in front It's not even like Max was behind Hamilton And pulled that trigger Max was leading So yeah

That's a I'm sure they'll be scratching their heads at this one But they got played twice They shot themselves in the foot in the first place by pulling the trigger with Botas, which I know why they did it, but it still shocked me because if everyone knew the undercut was going to be strong, pulling Bottas in was always going to pull Verstappen in, which left Hamilton on the front completely vulnerable from two guys who were going to undercut him.

So I know Bottas didn't get him, but Vastappen did, and it was very close. But, yeah, twice in one race for a bit of a gaffe on that one. But I think the other factor is that, I mean, Vastappen obviously drove extremely well, apart from the mistake at the first corner, he was pretty faultless, I think, and executed that strategy, as we've seen Hamilton do before. I don't know if there are many other drivers that would have been able to do it as well,

apart from Verstapel and Hamilton, but the other factor is Sergio Perez, just being a nuisance, basically. He didn't have the raw pace of those top three, but because he was in that pit stop window, it stopped Mercedes from pulling that card. And obviously, in the end, by leaving him out, he got Bottas too because he had those fresher tyres so yeah i think it's definitely a combination of

gas from Mercedes some great work from the rebel pit wall and the stappen driving supremely well i mean also shout out to hamilton for holding onto those ties in a way that botas couldn't even couldn't even dream of doing unfortunately um yeah excellent race all round go poor ricard I mean, before I get into why Vestappan won or why Hamilton lost, depending on which way you look at it, I just want to say first of all, this is another race where Vestappan versus Hamilton has been a factor on track. It's happened so many times already this year, and it's an absolute pleasure to watch as a fan, and long may it continue. And I don't mean this in any disrespectful way to Bottas whatsoever, because Bottas, is a perfectly fine driver, but having someone like Vastappen, who is realistically the first driver to

take it to Lewis Hamilton since Sebastian Vettel did, just having that driver in that spot, it's a breath of fresh air. And they're having to pull out their A game every single time. And I think Hamilton and Vastappen today, regardless of whether Hamilton could hold on at the end or whether Vestappen got passed, which of course he did, they were both exceptional out there. Hamilton making those tyres last as long as he did. Vastappen making up that sort of 25 seconds in, what was it, just over 20 laps, it was a tall order for both of them. And ultimately, I think their greatness pretty much matched each other out to literally get past him with a couple of laps to go. So before I laid blame or put credit, those two guys. And I think Bottas and Perez did perfectly fine jobs as well today.

So I think we actually saw all round just some quality racing and it contributed to a wonderful Grand Prix. And I was saying to Sam before we got on here because Harry is fashionably late as per usual, I was saying that actually outside of Bahrain possibly, that might actually be my favourite race of the season so far. And it was that good. And it was that quality racing that led to it. to look at why Vastappen was able to win this race, I'm actually going to say the main contributor, because you're right, there are a number of factors.

None of them are completely independent. But the number one reason for me was the first round of pit stops. You pit Valtry, Bottas, perfectly fine decision. I agreed with it. But really, the warning signs came a few laps earlier than that, because if they were the first guys into the pits, if Bottas was the number one driver out of everyone to come into the pit, I would have some sympathy here.

But Charles LeClair pitted quite a bit, quite a few laps before Valtrey Bottas did, and he pitted when he was behind Daniel Ricardo. Comes into the pits, and what happens? There's like a three second gap that Leclair has by the time Ricardo comes in. That should have been an alarm to Red Bull and Mercedes, like, okay, the undercut here is strong. That is an issue for one of our drivers potentially. Botas pits and you should know at that point having seen the results of what happened with Lecler Hamilton should have been in the next lap because you know if Bottas is coming in and Vastappen is not that far ahead of him

Vestappen is going to pit on the next lap so you pit Hamilton on exactly the same lap as Vastappen you have to do that you don't have an option and basically from that point on you know that the undercut window is pretty large and that's the gap you have to play with because if Hamilton comes out in the lead after that first round of pit stops, he can manage that sort of two and a half second gap as he was doing to Vestappen in the first stint. And then even if Vestappen does exactly what he did and Pitt a second time, you've got a lap spare in which you can respond to it on the next lap. And I think overall, the pace, there wasn't a lot in it between the two teams. So really, as long as you had the, as long as you had that one lap advantage where you can protect against the undercut,

you would then have been fine. But ultimately, because Vestappen gets out in front, Red Bull made a very bold call and fair play to them. But they were kind of screwed by that point because they hadn't managed the first round of pit stops very well. At least that's the way I saw it. Looking at Bottas and Hamilton, of course, we saw Perez and Vestappen on completely different strategies. Perez on a one stop, although he pit much later than Bottas and Hamilton did,

Verstappen going on to the two. Bottas and Hamilton, save for a couple of laps, almost an identical strategy. Harry, do you think that it would have been worth Mercedes in the case of Bottas or Hamilton trying something different from one another? I think so. And like I say, I think it was the nuisance that is Sergio Perez that stopped them from doing it. But I think, you know, we could see even from the midfield people who had pitted later than others. But, you know, Norris by that point was flying through the field because he pitted later, had fresher ties.

I think you could see that even with overtaking being difficult in that port of card, it was not that difficult if you had a tire advantage. So I think at least with Bottas, with Hamilton, it wouldn't have made any sense once Verstappen had pulled that. It was the same for Vastappen in Spain, wasn't it? It's happened now. They have to go with the other option. With Bottas, who was obviously behind,

yeah, why didn't they go for it? Because he could have been more powerful in either defending or chasing, thing this happen in those latter stages of the race. So yeah, I'm a bit surprised I didn't do that. But I know why because there was another Red Bull in the way, which is exactly what Red Bull have wanted all these years. They finally got it. What do you reckon, Sam, do you commend Red Bull for doing something different with

their two drivers, or do you think Mercedes have just been caught napping here and have gone for exactly the same thing for both drivers, and it was the wrong call? I think you have to give it to both sides. I think Red Bull deserve all the praise. They were gutsy. They, you know, absolutely pulled out a strategy that no one was expecting. The Perez run long. How many times are we seeing a quotation number two driver run long

and just be shafted into oblivion, you know, sent to the shadow realm, been told that, you know what, your race, your result is not relevant. Don't care about you. We are focusing on our lead driver. But actually, Perez and that side of the garage played an absolute blinder. Perez was relevant for the entire race. Perez had the pace, and we know Perez can maintain tyres very well. I say President Hamilton and the two drivers on that grid that can maintain tires better than anyone else.

And Perez did exactly that. He played himself perfectly into this race right at the end, caused constant hassle, mostly for Bottas. And this is what Red Bull had been needing. Rubble needing that second driver to really cause havoc for the rest of the Mercedes team. Now, I'm also a bit frustrating at Mercedes here. Mercedes have had so long at the front that I feel like they've become a little lacklustle, will try and pull off a gutsy strategy more regularly.

And with Bottas, I know they don't want to sacrifice Bottas. I know they want to give Bottas a fair chance, which is fine. It's all well and good. But that championship is falling further and further and further away. The difference is, I don't think they have the faith in Bottas could do what maybe something that Hamilton could do. I don't know if Bottas thinks he could get past Perez on the same strategy. I don't know if Bottas maybe could challenge Verstappen on the same strategy if he was to do what

what Verstappen did. That is the issue here. I think there's a lack of confidence in their second driver. Bottas is not delivering the results at Skiy's in the Mercedes. So when you pair that with Sergio the nuisance Perez, as he's now known as, being an absolute legend on tyres, Max Verstappen driving in a sublime manner, Lewis Hamilton, now having to do what Verstappen used to do previously,

which is fight off two cars on his own. Bottas was good today, but he was just second fiddle again. He was never making enough impact that you felt like he can actually go on and achieve something. I would have liked to have seen a different strategy from the start for Valky of Bottas. I feel like that is the only one. that Bottas can have amazing impact deeper into the race. You've got to split this into two prongs. Hamilton versus

Max, Bottas versus Perez and you've got to hope that your drivers can come out on top. Theoretically, they're both talented enough. Hamilton is capable of beating matches and Max can be able to beating Hamilton. You've got to hope that Bottas is capable of beating Perez because Perez is nestled into that team now. Perez has really started to come good

and I'm nervous that he's going to start mopping up Bottas in a lot more races. We're going to Bottas's sanctuary. Other than Russia, Oscar is where Botas likes to be. And I think this is the final proving ground for Botas. If he slumps behind those three again where he likes to be, then I think that Mercedes are in trouble for the rest of this season. So, yeah, try something different Mercedes. It would be great to see. I feel like you might have had a bit more opportunity at the end of that race.

The Botas Sanctuary. That was about that. It would be interesting for sure. Yeah, I think to start with Perez here, I think, yeah, they absolutely nailed the strategy with Perez. And you could not. note in the first sort of five, six laps that, hang on a minute, he's falling one second behind the top three. This is a bit concerning when in reality that wasn't a true reflection of the pace because he was accounting for doing more laps than the other three. And I think actually on pace, he was perfectly fine. He wasn't on the same pace as for Stappen, but at the same time, he doesn't necessarily need to be. So I think he did a perfectly good job. And we referenced

this a lot of the time, but it's one of those where they've always wanted it, and now they've finally got it. So, you know, fair play to him. In terms of Vestappan versus Hamilton out front, and whether Hamilton and Bottas could have split their strategies, they definitely could have, should they have? I mean, I agree with Martin Brundel on commentary here when he said, yeah, they should have done. I'm in full agreement. Ultimately, this isn't 2014 and this isn't 2015 when Mercedes were essentially worried about which of their two drivers was going to win the championship and they didn't have to really worry about much else. This isn't that same situation. You've got Max Verstappen, you've got Sergio Perez, both of which are clearly capable and it's a

two-on-two fight. It's not a two-on-one fight anymore. It's not a two-on-one-fight as it has been in previous years. You have to step up your game and they've been so interested in fairness of putting their drivers on the same strategies. It's incredibly rare that Mercedes will do what Red Bull did today and put their two drivers on a completely different strategy. But you feel like they kind of have to. They have to cover both bases because whilst Max Verstappen did take that race win and he did so very well, I don't actually know if it was the perfect strategy. I feel like the perfect strategy would have been to run those hard tires another five laps possibly, leaving yourself about 15 laps or so at the end of the race on the mediums.

I don't actually think Vastappen had the optimal strategy. It was close, but I don't think it was quite there. I think you've got to do that with Valtry Bottas. You've got to do it. It was a big question with Lewis Hamilton, would Max Vastappen catch him? And fair play to Mercedes for not reacting too quickly.

You know, they took their time with it, and it nearly paid off. But with Valtrey Bottas, it was fairly clear that Vestappen was going to get past him. So you might as well try something. and I know there's the Perez factor which might have been an off-putting thing but if you were that put off by Sergio Perez that is a massive concern because if Valtry Bottas pits

let's say five laps after Max Verstappen or something like that he has much fresher tires than Perez way fresher tires of that right I know I know Perez went long on the first stint but you would still have a much larger tire advantage compared to Perez later in that Grand Prix. If you can't trust him to overtake him, then you've got a problem. You don't trust your driver enough to do that. I mean, you trust Hamilton enough. I'm sure Red Bull would trust Verstappen enough to do that. And I actually think Red Bull would trust Perez to do that. Whether he would or I think he would. You have to trust Bottas to do that. You really do.

And yeah, I don't know. It was a sign of no confidence, which is never a good thing. Never a good thing. We'll go on to driver of the day. Who've got on this one? A lot of great drives out there today. I can't really think of anyone who is really, really terrible. So making drive the day harder to choose. But I'm going to go for, you know what, I'm going to give it to everyone's stable Australian.

I'm going to give it to Ricky Bobby because I think he had, I know he's still finished behind Norris, and I think that was due to the strategy they gave Norris in the end. But he had, by far and away, I think it is best weekend of the year, way closer on the pace to Norris and during the race he was he was loving life he was pulling moves like he used to back in the day so yeah I'm going to give it to Ricky Bobby but there are some notable I mean for Stappen obviously an obvious one Hamilton I think you could definitely give it to

as well for what he did on those tires to be honest but for the sake of variety I'll give it to Ricky Bobby yeah I mean for me like it was so good to hear the old Ricardo back and see the Ricardo back in terms of the moves that he was making the energy that he had on the radio. He can be somewhat unique with how he is over the radio. Sometimes you find that drivers, I don't know, will let their driving do the talking. And I don't want to dismiss that approach,

but it is good to see Ricardo on form. Sam, driver of the day for you. I also want to comment on Ricky Bobby. Ricky Bobby is his very own hyperman. And if Ricky Bobby wants to every single day, nine to five, come over a crackly radio and swear at me through my headphones in that excitable way

that he does to his race engineer. I am all for it. That man got me pumped and I was sat on the sofa with a cup of tea and I was like, yeah, Ricky Bobby, you can do this. He was loving it and it was really, really great to see.

So yes, he didn't be Norris. The strategy for Norris was better but he was properly on the pace and I'm excited to see. I think maybe this could be the tilting point now where, different to tipping point, where Ricky Bobby could start to challenge

for those points that Norris is also challenging for. So exciting. In terms of growing the day, I think there are two options. Lewis Hamilton is definitely one of them. There was no mistakes in Lewis Hamilton. The mistakes came in the strategy. The way he pulled those tyres out of the bag was ridiculous.

You know, Bossas had the same strategy essentially and was just miles off the pace. And Lewis Hamilton just makes ties go so much longer than everyone else. Even with his constant dribbly mowing over that radio about his bag his tyres are, he still pulls him out. And it's crazy, crazy good. But I am going to give it to the race runner. I know he made that mistake at the same.

start but it was just tremendous from max wistappen he really delivered a world championship level performance to bring that back that's what we think i expect of lewis hamilton if he makes a mistake max wistappen did exactly that i was very impressed good to see him taking it to ms vasseges like that so for me just maxi vastap gets driver the day just a just a quick question on lewis hamilton before i go into my driver of the day but we were we were talking about valtry botas earlier and his inability to hold up Max Verstappen. Lewis Hamilton was only side by side with him in one corner and he let him go past as well. Is it not the same thing?

No. Move on. To be fair, this is ironic the person commenting on this, but I think he has a point was Rosberg on the Sky broadcast when I was being late to this recording. Saying they were replaying the move of the Sappen, Rosberg made the point that he, I mean, Hamilton did defend it, but he didn't close off the inside. I know it was perhaps an inevitable, you know, well, an inevitability. Is that he said it?

It was inevitable. But, yeah, he made the point that Hamilton didn't necessarily close it off quite as much as he, you know, as Rosbergh is, you know, perhaps used to. So, yeah, I don't think there's much in that, but just interesting to note. From a non-comed standpoint, I think you make a very good point by bringing that up, actually, of course. didn't last much longer from Hamilton's point of view. The difference at that point for me is how much of an absolute dummy for Staffing sold Bottas. Hamilton was able to meet the corner. Hamilton was able to run side by side.

He was able to run next to him. And then the corner that actually with the overtake took place at, on those older tyres, is so much harder to execute quickly when wheel to wheel to something than what Bottas was able to do. Bottas had a simple breaking zone to nail. He was on the inside. He had the right line to the fend, at least for another half a corner that actually game and he absolutely fluffed it at the first sign of any offence. For me, that's why Bottas sinks a bit lower than Hamilton. It was still easy for Verstappen once he was there for both

drivers, but Bottas just with his own errors made it so much simpler than it needed to be. So that for me is just why Bottas sinks a bit lower than Hamilton. I think you said he sent it for a bag of chips. It was more like a kilo of potatoes. It was a big cent. Yeah, go start your own farm mate. It's over there. Kilo of potatoes. Gimmis, mate. anyone have that on their bingo card well done um okay my driver of the day i agree with the you know very impressive performance by max vastapen he of course won the vote from the fans at large which sometimes doesn't matter a great deal considering how it can be taken as a joke but i think the fans in general have done a pretty good job with it today um i'm going to go with someone

who we didn't really see a lot of but considering this was only the tenth race in f1 history that has had no retirements. The fact that George Russell was able to finish 12th place ahead of a Ferrari, ahead of Ocon, ahead of both Alpha Romeo's, as well as obviously his teammate and the two Haskeyes, Sonoda as well. He got an overtake on him late in the race. If George Russell finishes 12th place in a Williams, that's highly impressive in really any circumstance. But to do it in a race where there were absolutely no retirements, and he was able to be legitimately on-trans. you know everyone else behind him i don't know i'm not sure what more you can expect from him so i'm going to go with him as driver of the day today great shout worst driver of the day who have you got harry

i feel bad about this one but i because i think there are a number of factors involved but i'm basing it on where they started and where they finished and i'm going to have to give it to not so god leclair because he was um just wasn't i think the ferrari was horrendous on his tires today and we saw the same with Sines but Sines you know he was just outside of the points at the end whereas the club was 16th so yeah just it wasn't a great

I think Sines had the measure of him all weekend he was quicker in practice quicker in Kuali and then quicker in the race and they obviously picked LeCler late in late in the day for a second stop which obviously I think makes that finishing position worse but yeah

they had to because I think his tyres were rooted so yeah it wasn't a great wasn't a great day for everyone's favourite in Monagascar, but it's not a sign of things to come, I don't think. Yeah, I mean, not the best race in the world for old Charles. He's not God today. He's got next race to try and get that Monica back, but until he proves himself again, he is Charles.

Worst driver of the day, Seth. Well, Harry took the words of just Charles throughout my mouth. So for repetition, I will move my worst try the day onwards a little bit. But I completely agree. LeCler was nowhere and science had the better off him all weekend. So God's science this weekend. Hallelujah to Carlos, Jr. that is. Worst try the day has got to be Nikita Mazepin.

Or as Crofty actually called him Mazepan. By accident, called him Mazepan. Which I love, because I say that intentionally. But the fact that he did it, on Sky, live. called him Mazapang makes my weekend alongside stoked and twirking

we've had some real gems from Crofty this weekend and by gems I mean stop forever so yeah Mazapin you know the fact that he literally shafted

Mick Schumacher off the track at one point and as we said before we recorded Mick Schumack had to literally drive to Barbados and back again with a chance

of getting back on the track around that bollard and he still beat him by a huge margin It wasn't like they work a few tents apart. It was huge. It was the biggest gap in the world. And the fact that Mazaping seems to think that he's got this chance of being successful in this sport is rapidly disintegrating.

It's quite comedic. The guy is just an absolute marshmallow at the back of that track, isn't he? He's a real egg. Don't let him hear a car. He's useless. And he showed it again today. There you go. On the fence of that one, son.

Yeah. Tell us what you're. really think. Oh, classic. I still can't quite get over Crofty saying the word twerk. That's going to be, yeah. It conjures up some horrendous images, doesn't it? It does.

Being stoked about twerking marsypan. Good God. God, that's horrible. That is horrible. My worst driver in the day, I pinned it down to two. One of them has already been said. That's Shao Leclair. I was tempted to give it to LeClaire.

The only reason I didn't is because we did have signs have a pretty similar descent. It was much worse in the case of LeCler, definitely. But if signs have finished P5, P6, P7, this would have been a no-brainer. I'd have given it to LeClair. But the only reason I didn't is because signs dropped out of the points. However, there was another driver who was out of the points, seeing his teammate do very well in the points. And that was Esteban Okon. So that's who my worst driver of the day was.

and we actually saw that the hard to medium strategy one stop wasn't as effective as I thought it might be. Vettel and Stroll did an all right job with it. I think Stroll had a pretty good recovery from where he was to be just outside the points. I think Vettel did get in the points in the end, so he did make a few places up, but it wasn't as effective as I expected it to be. But considering that Stroll started behind Ocon and Vettel, sorry, I'm Vettel as well. Vettel was behind O'Con at the start as well. To have both of those guys elevate ahead of O'Con,

O'Con was kind of in no man's land for most of this race, whereas Alonzo had a really tough first stint, but had a really impressive second stint, and O'Con just couldn't quite match him. So I'll go with him on this one. I think he's had a good season thus far, really, but this was not a good one. Can we talk about Alonzo, by the way,

being Alonzo again, just directing the strategy from the cockpit. I think plan B, yeah. He's back. He literally, the way he rolls his tongue, even in the cockpit while speaking, is absolutely fantastic. I sent you guys a text. I can't remember what word it was now. But he literally put a, there go, struggling.

He said, struggling. And I know that he's obviously Spanish. He rolls his tongue. He's very good. Obviously, it's very comfortable for him. But it's like he's just delivering this mosaic of words brilliantly in the, on the radio. year while driving at 200 miles an hour and beating his teammate who's just gone three a deal yeah i won't go over anymore see you later um it was great for the long time really really great

i feel like alonzo might actually be on a limited contract so he races he's agreed to race for like 20 laps per race so actually the first like the first 40 laps of a race he's just going to go around at his own speed does whatever he wants and then it's like his contract kicks in like okay we saw it at the end of portemau we saw it at the end of today we saw it at the end of the end of Azerbaijan. He's like, okay, I've actually got to go and do some work here and remembers he's Fernando Alonso. That's just a theory. I haven't got much proof behind that. That will shock you, I'm sure. Moment of the race. What have you got, Harry? I'm going to go for the, after the first set of stops when Vastappen came out in front of Hampton, and I know it was doing it just,

but that shocked me. I just didn't, I knew we probably should have done. But the way that Bottis hadn't really, he'd eaten into Vastappan's gap, but there were similar gap, so I didn't really see that coming, so it was just a mighty outlaw from Max. Yeah, I mean, there were lots of moments of the race, to be honest, but that was at the start of the, of the, not chaos, but greatness of this race, I think. Moment of the race, Sam. The moment of the race for me actually comes after the race in terms of what Lewis Hamilton said in his post-race interview, where the words I never thought would be uttered were they were too quick for us on the race.

the Straits. Now, Honda, too quick on the straights, that is crazy source. The fact that the Honda, theoretically, is possibly the fastest engine in a straight line now, is hats off to Honda. They've absolutely turned that out. I bet McLaren are like, huh, we went to that engine. It didn't work for us, we moaned about it a lot. And then we said it was a GP2 engine and really annoyed a lot of people. And then we went to, obviously, the Renault. That wasn't very good. And then we'd go to Mercedes. and that's not as good as it was now and how the Honda's even better. It must be very embarrassing,

in the words of Fernando Alonso from McLaren. I'm shocked at how quick that Honda is in a straight line and we really do have a fight in our hands because I think that that was the crutch that the Sengis could lean on if they were struggling. They had straight line speed. Here, they just didn't seem to have it.

So really, really intriguing. I got to say on this one, I know it was just after the race happened and I know Hamilton, of course, in the car isn't going to be privy to everything. Strategy-wise, isn't going to know everything. But I don't know. I thought the whole pace argument was a bit naff, to be honest.

I don't know. They've both cars are very reasonably paced. I think it was strategy to let them down today. I don't think that Mercedes desperately need to find tents. I'm sure they'll try to, obviously. But I don't think it's an absolute must in order to win this championship. I was. I didn't think that narrative suited the race at all.

It is intriguing, though, that most teams made a DRS pass, but neither Mercedes made a single DRS pass on either car that they were challenging the entire race, which is just an interesting thing to say. I think the Mercedes was, well, at least in Hamilton's case, I think it was the quicker car, but they turned a bit of wing out of the Red Bull as well, I think, because they could, which might help things.

But, yeah, anyway, that's a whole lot of part. I think. Indeed. And so that was your moment of the race. Sam, what was your moment of the race? It just did, isn't he? Oh, that was your one. You don't.

I've flustered in, folks. It's happened. Damn it. You merge into one, you two. Oh, we do. I'm just trying to think how terrifying that would be. My moment of the race, I'm going to keep going

with a moment of the race, even though I should be banned from having one for getting that wrong. But I'll go with the Max Verstap and Overtake on Lewis Hamilton with a couple laps to go. Because, I mean, it was an overtake for the race lead with a couple of laps to go. It's thrilling. And I know we've seen it a couple of times before already this season, which might have numbed people to it. But it doesn't happen that often. And it's happening loads this year.

It's great. Like, chasing down two different strategies, chance to win. AWS is saying that it will be all wrapped up with eight laps to go two laps to go and it isn't wrapped up It's fantastic I really enjoyed it How did you give their money? Stop it

Hey Who wants to be the person to go to Lewis Hamilton and say According to AWS you could do 5% more in your cornering Jeff Bezosover is telling you you can Lewis with all his data that apparently arrives I don't imagine Lewis being a very sweary person but I think that would end next people. Yeah.

That would not end well. Let's move on from the front of the grid because whilst we've seen the last couple of races, Monaco, Azerbaijan, the gap between the front and the middle of the grid hasn't actually been that substantial, but here it seemed as if we returned to something close to normal. The front of the grid was quite far detached

from everyone from fifth down. But we'll look at Ferrari because, based on qualifying, they must have been expecting another solid result competing with McLaren yet again. McLaren managed to score 18 points thanks to fifth and sixth place with Norris and Riccardo respectively. Leclair and Zines end up with a big fat zero for the first time this year, clearly struggling on their tyres.

Sam, what did you make of Ferrari's result out there and is it a cause for concern going forward? The McLaren Ferrari swap was very interesting because I think McLaren almost gave a brilliant recovery drive. obviously Lando's starting 8th, Ricardo's starting 10th, and they end up fifth and sixth. I think that is a brilliant result for McLaren.

On a track that is difficult to overtake on, I think they've done a brilliant job there. Ferrari, I don't know if we could take this as Gospor. I don't think we can apply this to the rest of the season, but the fact that they were that severe on their tyres, I think does ring alarm bells a little bit. We have got some abrasive tracks coming up.

Maybe they've just set the car up wrong, maybe they just underestimating how well the Pirelli rubber works here. obviously we need to come and get with that context that Pirelli have changed the regulations on their tyres as well

they up to the PSI which makes them more abrasive because the tyre is harder so it wears faster so maybe they weren't expecting that and the car

isn't built for that but this wasn't great freedom of them but at least it happened to both drivers so they know it's a car or set up issue they've got

and got a science or LeCleur problem and I think if they can work that out and they seem to be able to this year they are working

well as a team I think they can bounce back pretty quickly There's a long way to go in this championship. I don't think that fight for the third place in the title is over for them. I really do think they can deliver. They've got a lot of strengths that they can bring. Lecleron and Sites are a brilliant partnership,

and they've still got the better of Daniel Ricardo over the course of this season so far. So, yes, you need to pay attention to it. Yes, you need to look at what went wrong. But I would not take this as, oh God, it's the end of the world. We're never going to score points again. We're once again like the third worst car. I don't see that happening. They're just too long form this season.

So get to work, but don't plan it too much. I think you'll be okay. Any cause for concern in the Ferrari camp, Harry? I think they'd already acknowledged about their race pace being bad in terms of they're just chewing up their tyres. Yeah, I think it's all... I don't want to say flattered, but the past two races I think maybe have flattered their recovery somewhat.

I mean, Lickla, I have poll at both races. But there's no denying they've made progress. but they were never going to jump to mid, you know, top of the midfield straight away. They definitely have pacing that car, that's clear, and they've got an absolutely solid lineup. But, you know, and arguably in quality, yes, Sam said, Ferrari were quicker than the two Maccas. But the McLaren's are so much kinder on their tyres. I mean, I can't remember what Lapie came in on the mediums, but it must have been one of the last, if not the last, to pit up from starting on mediums.

So, yeah, I'm sure there'll be some head scratching going on at MAP. Marinello but you know it was quite a high wear race for tyres which I don't think potentially anyone was expecting so it maybe exaggerated that downfall during the race but yeah the speed is definitely there and then you know way further up than they were last year but they just need to learn how to manage their tyres a bit better and it's obviously something with the car because as we said they both fell down Leclair more so but they both fell down during the race and they didn't score any points so as the season goes they not going to want to do that too many times,

especially in McLaren are going to finish fifth and sixth each time, because that's a lot of points to lose. Yeah. If only McLaren and Lando Norris had listened to Ted Kravitz, they might have got something out of this race, but there we go. Tough one, tough one. Squeeze the point.

I bet you regret saying that. Yeah, I think for Ferrari's sake, this isn't necessarily news. Like this is something they've been dealing with all year. and I think it's just an issue that comes up a bit more in certain races. And I think to this point, this is the race where it's hurt them the most. And I think they just need to work out looking ahead, which can be a bit difficult to do. What is it going to be like at the other tracks?

Is it going to be similar to what we saw today? Or is it actually going to be fine? And this is something of a one-off, or at least if it's going to happen again, it's only going to be once or twice more, because there isn't much in it between the McLaren and Ferrari. I know they've definitely got their strengths. and it's very polar opposites from one another. But when it's all, when it all comes together, all the fact that's come together,

there really isn't much between this McLaren and Ferrari this year. So there is the potential that this could be the decider. And I think if everything else is even, I don't necessarily think they need to, you know, panic and completely redesign the car and anything like that. But I think they do need to address this as soon as possible because if we come to the end of the season and we find that McLaren have won it by,

10 points, then you look back at results like this and you think, well, that's the issue. That's what costs them third rather than fourth. Of course, Ferrari will get 200 billion pounds from the FIA for being Ferrari anyway, so it won't matter too much in terms of prize money, but hey, results matter too. Yeah, I don't know what happened to Ferrari. Like I say, it's the first time they've been outside the points, so I can only assume that this issue that they've had all year has just been most affected by them today. Signs did a better job of dealing with it. Leclerc couldn't even do the one stop. So yeah, tough, tough one for them. From the McLaren side of things, you know, Lando Norris, you know, perfected the strategy.

There were certainly doubts about it early on in the Grand Prix. As it turned out, it was a master stroke and they were able to get the appropriate overtakes when they needed to. Daniel Ricardo already agree with what's been said there. I think it's his best season, best race of his season so far. did a great job. Although I do have doubts whether it was Daniel Ricardo and I think it might have been Darren in that car.

Suddenly, is this the first time? Is this the first time that Daniel's actually got in the car this season and that's why we've suddenly seeing a result out of him? Maybe it's the reverse year.

Daniel Ricardo with a mustache and Matt and trash is finally gone. All right, Daniel, I've got to go back to work now. Can you get in the car please? And we've finally seen a good result. It sounds like Daniel Ricardo's been pulled over for speeding and he's like, are you Daniel Ricardo's?

Like, me? No, I'm, uh, Darren McLaren. My mustache. I love Darren McLaren as an alter ego to Daniel Ricardo. Can we get a cartoon series like Toomed, but it's not tuning. It's just called Darren McLaren. And it's Daniel and Darren in awkward situations. This needs to happen. But yeah, fair play to McLaren. Because When Ferrari, you know, Ferrari have had their issues, but it was still down to McLaren to take full advantage of it. They still could have given up points to the likes of Gasley and Alonzo, and they didn't.

You know, they took, I know 18 points isn't the mathematical most available, but realistically it was from the race that happened. So, well done to them. And lastly for today, just a little look at Yuki Sonoda, the wibbly wobbly rear wing of Yuki Sonoda, as we found out in Quirble. qualifying, pulled out another red flag after his Q3 incident at Baku and had to start from the pit lane and ultimately no points from this race. Seeing quite a few incidents from Sonoda, of course, his rookie season. Sam, what do you make of his season thus far? I mean, he's clearly got some all right pace, but these issues, are they concerning to you at this point in his career? Firstly, if I delve into Little Yuki, if someone could just overlay a nice banging track

over that back end wobbling like that on the track, like, ah, get it, get it, get it, get it, hit it, you know, over the back of Yuki Sanoa's back end shaking like that, then I am all for it. Please send to us at L Breaking on Twitter, or Instagram, late breaking. Please get in touch, I can have to see it. That's your challenge. In terms of, am I nervous about Yuki Sanoida,

this one is the topic that's actually troubled me, Ben is very good at sending over our topics, folks. Ben is very good at coordinating me and Harry. If you haven't noticed, we're a bit useless. And he's things over these topics. We have to agree whether they're something we want to talk about. And usually nine times out of ten, they are bang on. And I read this, and I went, am I concerned about you getting older?

And I still haven't fully made my mind up. So that tells me maybe, yes, I am a little bit. Because these cars are clearly a bit harder to drive this season. We have seen some errors up and down the grid from a lot of drivers. a long so, Hamilton's made, had troubles, you know, we've seen the likes of Mazasping every single race.

There are drivers up and down the grid that are having their troubles, having their problems. But at the end of the day, you look at Pierre Gasley, who is up there fighting for four, fifth place on a regular occasion, and you look at little Yuki Sankoda

who currently can't seem to really get it in the points on a regular basis. I think it's what, two points finishes so far this season, on his first race, where maybe he had a bit of Beginners' luck and he absolutely sold it around the outside of Alonso. And back at Portemale, Imola, one of the two.

He got a points finish. I can't remember which one it was. You know, I am expecting a little more. That Alpha Tauri is a competitive car. That Alpha Tauri is capable of scoring good points. And I think could be a threat to McLaren and Ferrari if they were to really knuckle down and get it right. So no, I don't think it's the end of the world.

No, I'm not going to start saying that. maybe Yuki was here too soon, or maybe Yuki should be kicked out of that seat and replaced for a season. I think he will learn well this season, and I think he has got the raw pace that actually, it's going to sound bad. I don't think Albon had. I think Yuki on raw pace, maybe he's a little bit faster than Alexander Albon. He just needs to become a bit more consistent. And then after that gets delivered, I think he could be a real threat on the track. He just needs to calm himself down. We love the little rocket that is Yuki's saying. We love that fiery energy. But he just needs to deliver a bit of consistency. And I think

it'll be all right. So concerned not properly. I'm not properly worried, but it definitely could happen if we get to race 30 or 14 and he's still throwing it in the wall causing red flags on a regular basis. How are you concerned at this point?

Yeah, and I don't know about concerned. Although I starting to think, and this is nothing against UK, but maybe they should give him another year in F2. I'm not, I'm not, I'm, I'm still undecided on that opinion, but yeah, I just get the impression he's putting too much pressure on himself and, you know, your rookie year is for when you make mistakes, you know, we've seen Mazapin do it a lot, we've seen Mick Schumacher, I mean,

he absolutely toad with his car in Monaco and he been there again yesterday in Kuali, so it's not like, you know, we should be more harsh on Yuki, but I think he's putting perhaps too much pressure on it on himself just because of who his teammate is and Gazli is performing week in, week out. And Sonoda, I think maybe it's just trying too hard to match him. And obviously, he needs to show that he's close, but there's no point being fast and close on pace if you're going to keep throwing it into the barriers

every other weekend. I mean, it's two weekends and two qualities on the trot. He's done that. So maybe he was still trying to break for turn three of back in. Maybe that's why he ended up in the wall yesterday. I'm not sure. That would make a lot of sense. He hasn't started that yet.

Yeah, oh yeah, sorry, far too soon. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I'm with Sam. I don't think concerned is the right word yet, but I think he needs to stop binning it soon. I think I'll text my dad this yesterday when it happened. I was like, he might need to stop doing this at some point. And the same goes for all the rookies.

Because you can't keep doing that, especially if it's costing your gearbox. Yeah, especially if it's costing your gearboxes, etc. Yeah, just, I think, as Sam said, quite rightly, just, you know, just calm it down just a tiny bit. I don't want to lose the fieryness, obviously, but yeah, just to mellow out a tiny bit. And I think it will come.

So I'm not too concerned, but as I said, I think that don't keep doing it, Yuki. Yeah, I think for me, on the positive side of things, I think it's easier to iron out errors from a driver than it is for them to gain pace. I think a lot of the time when these rookies come in, generally speaking, it takes some time to get used to the car and whatnot. but if you're quick, you're quick and you're quick fairly soon. You know, we saw not to, I don't necessarily want to compare Sonoda to Lewis Hamilton, but, you know, Lewis Hamilton, when he came in, he was quick from the off. The consistency, at least to what we see from him now, it took some time, but the pace was there from the off.

So I do think that crashes are easy, these sorts of crashes that he's having, they are easier to solve than maybe a lack of pace, which I don't think. he has. But I am concerned at this point and I know it's early on in the year and I don't for a second think that they should be, you know, considering dropping him or anything silly like that. You know, he deserves this full season in order to get used to the car. But I am concerned somewhat because it's, if you look at the other, I know that Schumacher and Mazepin have had plenty of crashes, plenty of issues. I do think that has is a bit of a handful and I do cut them both a bit a slack in that respect.

And if you look back at the last set of rookies, let's say Latifie, Norris, Albin, Russell, in their rookie seasons, did they crash that much? I don't think they really did. I don't think Latifie's massively error-prone. Albin, you know, we occasionally bemoaned his lack of pace and occasionally might be being a bit too nice on us, but he didn't make too many errors in terms of outright crashes. Russell and Norris, they've been fairly. solid all the way throughout. I know they've had their errors, but they're piling up already for

Yuki, and I do think it's concerning that they need to figure this out. Again, I know you said you're sort of, you don't know where exactly you stand on the, should he have been in another year in F2. I'm fairly convinced he should have been one more year in F2. I think he has come up a year early based on what we can see, which is okay. You know, drivers develop at their own speeds. not everyone has it nailed down straight away, but it's something that they need to wire now. I couldn't put it any better than you, Harry. He probably needs to stop doing this at some point.

Probably. Will Kingsings is an official sponsor of late breaking, and Wilkinson's, if you're listening, and you'd like to actually sponsor late breaking, we are all for it, but we like to get the Wilkinson's bings out, and the Wilkinson's bings have become quite full, and I don't like taking the bing out unless I have to.

So if you could stop putting it in the bin, that would be great. For people who aren't in the UK, Wilkinsonsons is a shop that sells everything. It's like a homeways shop. It's not even a bin specialist. But most UK households, for some reason, do have a Bing from Wilkinson's, which is always strange. I imagine for US listeners it's the same as a target. Yeah. Yeah, we might have insulted Target now.

We might have actually brought them up to a new level. We don't really know. Wilkinson smashes it all the time. Big up Wilkinson. If you like Target over there, if you ever come to the UK, come say hello to us and get down at Wilkinson, give it a go. This is not sponsored.

If you are a US listener and you have experience of both, can you please let us know what the comparison point is? That would be really helpful for some reason. I mean, before we go to the US listener, Today at Elbreaking on Twitter. We're active during race weekend. So we did ask the question, was it Mercedes incompetence that led to today's result? Was it Vastappen's brilliance?

We've got a few comments here. James Maloney believes that it was a poor call on the part of Bottas. They'd split the strategy. It would have been much more difficult for Stappan to get passed. Mostly racing, saying I think people are being a bit harsh on Mercedes. Red Bull for once gave a bold strategy a go and it only just paid off for them. and a few others saying it's incompetence. Craig saying that we've seen both teams out think the other once so far this season.

So it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out. Couldn't agree more on that last one. So at Lbreaking, get involved. Let us know your thoughts. On a race weekend, off a race weekend. We love to hear it. But until our next podcast, which will be later on next week, Sam, if you wouldn't mind getting it out of here. Yeah, folks, we've had the French Grand Prix, and it was actually good.

Hallelujah. We'd love to hear it. your thoughts, as Ben just said, in the comics on YouTube, over on Twitter, outbreaking, we'll always reply and get in our messages. Come and say hello, why not? We're going to be back in the week, of course, for the Austrian Grand Prix, part of the triple header.

Austria times two. If you listen to the other podcasts that we did, I forgot the name of it. It's the A1 Ring, but it's not anymore. It's the Austrian Grand Prix. That's another funny podcast. You don't listen to that. Go give that a go. We've got some silly games on there as well. Let's know your thoughts on the race.

Let us know his Yuki-Sinogo. Should we be worried about him? for Rory can be okay to bounce back. Hey, if you're listening a lot of the time and you're not, give a little subscribe, give a little follow, you know, like it. We really appreciate it. It must be helped us out, and it shows it you can stick around for all the fun. If you hate us in two weeks, you can leave again.

We'll have our permission. We appreciate it. In the meantime, and for when we get to Austria, I will be Samuel Sage. I've been Ben Hockey. And remember, keep breaking late. Alaviga, say. Find more great shows, or join the team. at sport dash social.com.uk.

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