The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Verstappen wins, as Mercedes stumble! | 2021 Monaco GP Review | Episode 121

Episode Date: May 23, 2021

Not the most dramatic race, but a big result in the championship as Max Verstappen wins around the streets of Monaco - Ben and Harry break down all the talking points.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. 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 well welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast, reviewing the Monaco Grand Prix that's happened this afternoon. All change in the championship, a disastrous weekend for the Mercedes guys. It means that they now lead neither championship. Max Verstaff and Leapestaf and Leapestown.

the driver championship by four points following his victory today. Lewis Hamilton, of course, all the way down in seventh place. So just six, sorry, seven points to his name, thanks to a fastest slap bonus point. And one point lead for Red Bull in the Constructors Championship. All change. My name's Ben Hocking, Harry Ead alongside no Sam Sage today. Harry, surely that one is a contender for race of the century. I mean, race of, yeah, race of,

time. That's, yeah, I said to you off there, I think that could have been made more exciting by some actual TV direction, but unfortunately, we had no overtakes, we had no yellow flags, no safety cars, and no TV direction, which did not help things at all. All of the things that add together to make a great race. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I can't even believe there was no yellow flag. It's Monaco.

Like, come on. What's going on? guys. I feel like on the one hand it's a bit of a disappointment for the race entertainment as a whole but on the other hand I guess you have to somewhat respect that all 20 drivers could go around and none of them create even one yellow flag. I mean I know they're driving well below their means in terms of what pace they were producing and qualifying versus what they were doing in the race but that's still somewhat impressive I guess. Doesn't help much for the race overall but No. I mean, Strull gave it a good go, trying to bunny hop over the swimming pool a few times.

He did try, bless him. I think he's still out there in those car tires. I don't think he ever stopped. Just loves a long stint. As we say, Max Mastappen did take the race win. Somewhat unfamiliar podium as it was Carlos Sines in second place. And Lando Norris, another podium for him. He's in third. Of course, Lewis Hamilton struggled, didn't have a good place. to start with and then couldn't make up any positions in the race, didn't get the strategy right at all. Valtry Bottas, who was in place to get at least a podium, I believe his tire is still stuck to that car,

and he's actually going to use it for the rest of the season now. It's never coming off. Yeah, a bit of a shame for him. We'll start with the race out front. I mean, Mercedes, they seem to have everything in control coming into this race weekend, but it just proves that one poor result, both from a driver's championship and a constructor's championship perspective.

One poor result and then everything can shift. Do you think the momentum is now with Red Bull? I mean, yeah, definitely momentum after today. It's hard to say because, you know, you'd say after Spain, were they convincingly won, I mean, with a good strategy, that momentum was easily with Mercedes. So it can easily swing back again in Baku, I think.

So yeah, I think this, in terms of the championship scenario, this has been an excellent race in that respect, because, yeah, it's tightening things up again at the top. We got a new leader in both championships, which we've not had for a good couple of years, which is nice to see. Yeah, hopefully, because I think we were all a bit worried after Spain. Like the Red Bull challenge was starting to fizzle out.

And, you know, you can argue that it's down to Mercedes. mistakes and Red Bull capitalise. But that's kind of what Mercedes had been doing also towards the beginning of the season. So I don't think that you can take it away from Red Bull. So yeah, I'm glad to see that it's closed back up at the top so quickly. So yeah, in terms of the championship, it may not be the best race on track,

but at least we've got something else of it. Yeah, we have. I mean, it's a really difficult one for Mercedes because you're almost guaranteed, even with how consistent they are, that you're going to get a poor result or an incident here or there. But it's almost about where you make the incident and when you make the incident. Because we saw, for example, at Imola, where it's not an easy circuit to overtake at all, but Hamilton, even with his error, he was able to reclaim a number of those positions that he lost

and obviously came all the way back to second. And I think pretty much all circuits that we're going to go to this year, apart from really Monaco, you have an opportunity to at least claw that back. You know, if you have a poor pit stop or if you have this, you have that. You've got, you know, you've got the overtaking possibilities to make up positions again. Qualifying at Monaco is so important to the point where, you know, if Hamilton starts seventh place, pretty much anywhere else, he would still back him to get onto the podium again at some point in that Grand Prix. Today, unless you get it done in the pit windows in terms of strategy, which of course they didn't,

then there's pretty much no opportunity to make any places up. So I think what we'll find here is that Max Verstappen has fewer race wins this year than Lewis Hamilton, but is leading the championship. It's almost not the race wins in the second places that will make this championship. It's those really poor races like Hamilton's had today that will decide. the championship, it's consistency. I think Hamilton knows that perhaps better than anyone else because he's the one that's been doing that to his rivals for so long, whereas everyone else seems to make a, seems to

have a poor performance here and there, you know, a retirement here, a seventh place there. And he just ticks along getting firsts and seconds and first and thirds and first. And suddenly it seems to be somewhat reversed to the point where Hamilton has more race wins. But because of just one poor performance, he did. he finds himself not leading the championship. So, I mean, before we go any further, of course, Sam Sage is not here today, unfortunately. I think it's best to just give his verdict on the race. And to give you the full Sam Sage effect, I'm going to read it out word for word.

I don't want to paraphrase Sam at all because that's a dangerous game. Sam's view was classic boring Grand Prix. And not often you see Hamilton so off the pace. We've got a championship on our hands. Dot, dot, dot. but also RIP BOTES. I believe he's referring to Valtry Bottas there, if you weren't aware.

I mean, looking at Max Vastappen's performance, he won the race fairly comfortably in the end. Valtry Bottas was his closest challenger up until the point that he retired. Do you think it was a good performance from Vastappen today? Do you think he just did exactly what he needed to do? And could Bottas have got anywhere in that second half of the race? Yeah, look, it was, like I said, it's capitalising on others' mistakes today that Vostappen and Red Bull really nailed.

He didn't get polling quality, but he's obviously capitalised on the fact that LeCler didn't even start the race. And then, yeah, Bottas looked like he did have the pace, at least the first part of the race to stay up with Max, although he did start to fade away, which is, I think, well, they brought him in. Yeah, did Mercedes really have the pace to go? all the way through it. I think even after that pit, even if the pit stop hadn't gone so badly wrong for Bottas, I think we saw with Hamilton, it was the wrong strategy to do

an undercut. The overcut was the way forward. So I think even if Bottas had got the wheel off and the new wheel on his car, I'm not sure he would have had the pace to challenge Max. You know, we saw signs was fairly close, but

as it's okay, someone ago, doesn't matter being close, you're probably not going to be able to overtake. So, yeah, it's just an unusually weak weekend for for Mercedes. And it's happened before at Monaco. It's not been the happiest of hunting grounds, you have to say. I know Rosberg's won three times, but, you know, they've tend to struggle sometimes there.

So maybe it's not a surprise, but yeah, they'll want to forget, they'll want to forget this weekend quickly, Mercedes. But yeah, yeah, for Max and Rebel, it was exactly the weekend they needed. And I think probably after quality yesterday, didn't put it on pole and Hamilton was down the seventh. You know, there was a fear that maybe they weren't going to make the gains that they should have done. But obviously they did. So, yeah. Yeah, I think ultimately, Vestappen did exactly what he needed to do. And ultimately, we saw

that the undercut wasn't very powerful compared to the overcut. We'll get onto that, specifically relating to Hamilton in a little bit. But, you know, Bottas performing that undercut, arguably he was forced into it thanks to thanks to the tyres not holding on as long as as long as they did for other drivers you know I I'm pretty sure he would have he would have stayed in touch with the snapham but ultimately we didn't see any overtakes on track outside of lap one

and coming out of the pits so to expect Bottas to feature especially if he didn't come out ahead of the Stappen I think it's completely unfeasible but overall I think Bottas can be he can be pleased with his performance on the weekend, definitely. You know, the result is the furthest thing away from what he wanted. And it's almost even more cruel that actually he's found a race weekend where he has very comfortably and clearly got the better of Lewis Hamilton.

And he still walked away with no points, which is... Poor Valtrey. Which that could be the most Valtrey boss-ass thing I've ever heard. But it's... Yeah, he can be buoyed by the performance. again, you know, you want the results to match that performance. And ultimately that just hasn't happened for him at all. But I don't want to take anything away from Max Verstappen at all.

Like, even if his two main rivals fell by the wayside due to various reasons, he still needed to convert. It's still 78 laps around Monaco and he succeeded. And, you know, there wasn't exactly any panic about the performance at all. he just went about his business. And you often find, and we saw this a lot with Mercedes in their sort of early hybrid era days, the less you see of a driver leading the race, the more comfortably they're doing because there's no reason for the TV director to go towards them.

Now, maybe, you know, the TV director in Monaco didn't actually realize that Verstappen was on track because that's the TV director at Monaco. But, yeah, I think Verstappen, did exactly what he needed to do, fair play to him. And a first win at Monaco. It's first podium at Monaco as well, which seems baffling. But yeah, it does seem to, for all its problems, Monaco, it does always throw up some interesting results.

You know, Hamilton, like you say, Mercedes have never really done too well there, which compared to usual Mercedes standards is pretty incredible. I'm not sure how many wins Hamilton has, but I don't think he's. It can be more than about two of them on a coconut. It's four or three? He's three, isn't it? He's only had two poles around there, which, again, is pretty mad. Yeah, not as happy as hunting ground, which is obviously saying a lot.

He's still got three wins there, but, you know. I think it says a lot about Hamilton that we can look at a track where he's got three wins and say, huh, that's a bit poor, isn't it? It says a lot about Hamilton and how good he is. But yeah, you're right, Mercedes not a happy hunting ground, and that continued today. Looking at practice results on Thursday as well and going into Saturday morning, it seemed pretty apparent that Mercedes did have a job on their hands, particularly with Red Bull, but of course the emergence of Ferrari as well.

I think realistically, if they had walked away from this Grand Prix, let's say, with a P4 and a P5, you could say, well, that's not a very good weekend, but at the same time, they've, you know, it's been some sort of just making sure the damage isn't too bad, damage limitation. And, you know, they walk onto the next one still with the championship leads. Instead, they, it's a poor race turned even worse because of the retirement and Hamilton finishing far down the top ten, rather than just fourth or fifth as, as can be expected. Ends a really, really long streak as well for Lewis Hamilton. That was his first non-podium in 13 races, if you take out the Sequeer race, obviously.

But that's pretty crazy. got to go back to Monser last year. Says a lot about the consistency. Looking at Lewis Hamilton, because of course he was stuck behind Pierre Gasly in the first part of the race, thinking, hmm, how can I get ahead of Pierre Gasley here? Would love to make up that position.

Couldn't do it. Oh, and also Vettel and Perez got past as well. Didn't work out too well. He was the first one that went into the box. So do you think that Mercedes have just thrown up a blunderer here? it's so easy to say and you know they were already in a tough position with hamilton because he was already down in seventh um but i think it was kind of not you know not crystal clear but it was uh um apparent that all the drivers at

the start of the race weren't really pushing really hard so there was more more pace within all the drivers they weren't they weren't trying to extend any gaps so i think there was always that risk that if they came in, you come in and then the driver in front of you is just going to pull the pin and start going faster, which is exactly what Gazley did and definitely what Vessel did, you know, even over a couple of laps and jumped the pair of them. So yeah, it's surprising to me that Mercedes maybe didn't read that one. I know they had to try something different, so it had to be them pulling the pin rather than, rather than Gassley. But yeah, it's, it was just, it was just looking at it now.

it's easy to say, but it was quite a bad decision in the end. And, you know, maybe they should have waited to see because Hamilton was one of the first, if not the first to pit, I think. Maybe they should have waited to see what others were doing when they pit, you know. But yeah, I get that I get why they did it, but I think in hindsight, they'll say they should have maybe waited a bit to see how things were playing out with that undercut, because, as I said earlier, it was just not the strategy today.

overcut was king by a long way. So, yeah, it's a shame. And we'll never know where Bottas was going to come out, but I think he would have still lost out to Sines, to be honest, even if they had got the wheel on because Sines did the Overcutt as well. I say the Overscut, he stayed out longer. So, yeah, it's an odd one,

especially when we praised Mercedes so much for their strategy in Barcelona, as that seems a long time ago already. But, yeah, an unusual, uncharacteristic Mercedes Blunder seems harsh but mistake i i i yeah i'm similar line of thinking to you really and that i i can understand the i can understand the logic in what they did ultimately you don't want to ever strategically strategically be caught napping like you want to be on the front foot and you want to make sure you're the one dictating the race and of course yeah like you say hamilton was one of

the first in i think you apart from the has guys possibly i think it was the first one in um And naturally with Monaco, you want to make sure that you're feeding your drivers back into gaps, which they did. They saw a gap emerge in front of the guys behind. I think he only actually dropped about two positions as a result of the pit stop. So the gap emerged and the default setting really for all of these teams is gap emerges, undercut is king, make it work. So I can understand why they did it. And to your point as well, Harry, they were going to be. going about at the beginning of the race at least about seven or eight seconds slower than what

they were in qualifying. So theoretically, if you get some, if you get some clean air, and these guys are still going around at that similar sort of pace, you've got the opportunity to make it work. Unfortunately, for Mercedes, this is Monaco, and it doesn't, it doesn't conform to the normalities of Formula One. First of all, I mean, the overcut is something that we've seen at Monaco before, you know, 2017, perhaps most notably for the Vettel and Reichen and battle for the lead of the race then. And it's something that can work because those tyres will just keep going and keep going. The hardest compound that we had at Monaco was the softest compound we had at Portugal and Spain. And yet still, those tyres will just keep going as if nothing's happening

to them. And it gets to a point we saw in qualifying that these guys were taking a new, numerous warm-up laps to get those soft tires up to speed. So I think it makes sense that Hamilton coming in for fresh tires, those fresh tires, you know, at most races are going to be ready to go. They're going to be better than the worn tires in front of them. But if they do need that warm-up, then that one-lap difference is going to play quite well for the overcut. And as Hamilton says, you know, his tires were, his tires were still good at the point where

they brought him in. Now, he probably said on the radio two laps before. that they're absolutely dead with no chance of going another 100 metres, but we know that that doesn't mean a lot when it comes to Hamilton. So likelihood is, yeah, he did have a lot of tire life left. And the likes of signs and probably most notably Perez were still able to keep going on those soft tires well after Hamilton had come into the pits. It was a strategic error.

I can understand the line of thinking. You see that gap emerge. You think immediately, yes, let's act. now and make everyone else panic completely get it but it's monaco it doesn't quite work like that sorry murk sorry about that driver of the day who've you got um i'm gonna give it to astin martin's strategy department no that's fair i mean they they they put a blind on both fronts to be honest and yeah stroll doing his classic never stopping uh strategy um no try the day uh I'll give it to Vastappen.

You know, it seems fairly simple, but it's, you know, he led every lap, basically, of Monaco, apart from maybe one when Perez was in front of him after he came out of the pits. But, yeah, Vestappen was, I don't think signs had much of an answer to him today. Maybe Lechler would have been able to fend him off or, you know, had the pace to beat him. But, well, again, we'll never know because of his own mistake. So yeah, I'll go to Stappen, but there were some real notable drives. Antonio Giva Nazi, because no one seems to notice him ever, a solid race for him as well.

And obviously, nois benefited from the Leclerc incident, obviously, Hamilton, and no, wait, what did he benefit for, how did he get ahead? How did he end the third in the race? Oh, Bottas, obviously. Yeah. But yeah, I'll go for Vastappen for me, but there are a few pretty standout drives over the weekend. Yeah, I always think driver of the day and worst driver of the day is very difficult at a circuit like Monaco because a lot of the time these drivers aren't going as fast as they could do in terms of their actual pace.

If you're stuck behind another car, you're just kind of at the mercy of them. Having said that, there were a few good performances out there. Like, you know, Sebastian Vettel, he did a good job. Went side by side by Pierre Gasly. He got his elbows out and made sure that that move stuck. and he got the overcut done. Of course, that's partly due to his own performance on the in-lap, and it's also partly due to the performance of the strategists.

So I really do think it is tricky to assign a driver of the day. I'm actually also going to just mention Antonio Giovannazzi, because his pace was unreal. He did a really good job in that first stint of sticking with Hamilton and Gasly. He wasn't too far behind those two guys at all. and ultimately if he didn't get stuck behind Esteban Ockon, thanks to strategy, I think he actually would have,

he wouldn't have been far off to the point where I don't even know whether Hamilton would have had, maybe Hamilton would have still had the gap to pit another time, but I think he would have been quite comfortably up the road from Esteban Ockon at that stage. I'm going to give him some Maxifestappen though. Fultish drive did exactly what he needed to do. and ultimately, you know,

it's not besmirching him at all that, you know, he just did what he needed to do because ultimately that's how Hamilton's won championships year after year. It was a Hamilton-esque performance, to be honest. Fair play to him, driver of the day. Worst driver of the day, have you got. I think at this point it would be Sam giving it to Bottas

because it was his fault for driving too hard on his tyres and that's why he didn't come off. that's probably how that would go. Wow. I'm surprised he hasn't offered that up. No, worst drive the day for me. I'm going to go for little Yuki Sonoda. He's very anonymous again this weekend.

And you compare where Gazley finished to where he finished. I know it's obviously a lot set in Quali, but yeah, Sonoda wasn't very quick in quality either. Yeah, just really nowhere compared to Gazley and I know he's new. But yeah, it seems to... So isn't it's almost that crash in Imala qualifying,

like Denton his confidence somewhat or something. So, yeah, we're one. But he just, I think just for how far off his own teammates' pace he was, I have to give it to him. Yeah, I think that's a fair one. Whereas, because he was on the same strategy as Lance Stroll. And I think he actually went longer than Lance Stroll did by a few laps. he went a long, long way on those hard tires,

but whereas it worked out for lunch, stroll, and he gained about, was it five positions overall in the race? Sonoda was essentially where he was to begin with. So I think that's a fair one to give. I think if it was looking at the weekend as a whole, we only assign it for the day itself,

but if we were looking at the weekend as a whole, Hamilton is absolutely in contention for this. Because we're only looking at the day, I'm actually going to give it to Daniel Ricardo. He was obviously out of position due to qualify, out in Q2 and he's got to watch his teammate on the podium, whereas he scored absolutely Zilch.

Just never had the pace. It's really confusing because whilst he didn't get up to speed with the Renault straight away, he wasn't that far off the pace of Holcomburg. It was still competitive. At the moment, apart from Spain, obviously, last time out, he's not there.

And I'm not quite sure why. I don't question his quality as a racing driver. I do think he's one of the best out there. But for whatever reason, he has not adjusted to that McLaren as well as he would have liked. And it's a shame because he has had very good performances at Monaco in the past, of course. He's in multiple-time polls. It's a race winner there as well. Should really have been two-time race winner at Monaco.

And unfortunately, I own these streets. he got lapped by his team, mate. Which streets are those? I don't know. It certainly wasn't the ones he was racing around this weekend. It's a shame, but a poor performance from him out there. And he just needs, I know you could argue well, he added it in Spain, but he needs a performance where he's just on par with Lando Norris

at a racetrack where overtakes are possible when he still finishes ahead, because obviously Spain is easier to, overtake the Monaco, but there was that factor of him starting higher up the grid and kind of working out like that. I'd just like to see him put in a really good performance at, and let's pick out Baku. He's won there before. Let's see him do a good performance there. What was your moment of the race? So many to choose from. Let's look back through. What have we got here in contention?

I will go for the moment that everyone didn't see, which was probably the only bit of side-by-side action we got all race, which was Vettel versus Gassley-slash-Hamilton, going up the hill to Beiravaj. And then the director cut to Lance Jor doing his best attempt to bring out a yellow flag, which was just insane. But I think even without that misdirection on the TV,

it was still a pretty exciting moment of the race. So I'll go for that one. Another one is obviously LeCler, not even making it to the grid. But I'll go for the vessel pit exit one. I think that's a fair selection. There were also a few blunders that I'd pick out here as possible contenders.

Gassley being a three-time race winner this season, that was fun. Don't remember that. When did that happen? Apparently he's won three races this season and Hamilton's won none, so fair play to appear. What was the other one I was going to pick out? Oh, yes, Sebastian Vettel's graphic coming up and then just going to the McLaren's.

That was fun. I'm going to pick out this moment where Mick Schumacher, the notification came up at the top of the screen saying that he received a black and white flag for cutting, you know, for track limits. at the same time he was cutting the chican in order to get out of the way of faster cars coming through. I know obviously it's blue flag, so that is not exactly why he was getting it, but I just thought that was hilarious that the timing couldn't have been any better on that. Yeah, exactly. Also notable one is Serena Williams not being able to weigh with check of lag, which was, we've focused on that one to way too long.

Yeah, it's a shame that she doesn't have a living where, you know, that sort of action is needed. That is a shame, is it? Imagine if she was actually famous for doing something where that two-handed, you know, baton holding style object waving would be useful. You know, that is a shame. Real shame.

But anyway, I didn't decide to give it to her because she had to put up with whatever that post-race interview was with DC. so I felt bad for her to that point. Let's move on because it was a bad day for the Mercedes, but arguably it was even a worse day for Charles LeCler, who after gaining pole position in very normal circumstances, of course he got the fastest lap in the first runs on Saturday, crashed on his second run,

which meant that signs boss asked for Stappen all behind, thinking they could go faster than McClure were not afforded the opportunity with the red flag that that crash brought out. Due to start on pole position, there was a bit of a question mark as to whether the gearbox would be good to go or not. Seemed all okay until about 30 minutes to go in the race.

It turned out it was a drive shaft issue that not only meant that Charles Leclair couldn't start from pole, he couldn't start the race at all. And his strong performances at Monaco continue never finished a race there in Formula One. or indeed Formula 2 either. Seems crazy. What do you think of Shardt?

Do you think, first of all, let's just get this out of the way, was Charles hit against the wall intentional? No. Thank you. Yeah, look, I think we were the, any critics of, you know, people saying that it was blatantly on purpose, you wouldn't, today proves why you wouldn't do that on purpose, because it ruins any chance of being in the race,

let alone fighting for the win. And we saw when other people, who we won't name, have done it, they've done a job where they don't hit their car against the barrier. They just park it. So if you want to do something deliberately, don't crash your car into the wall because it risks your car being mangled for the race. So, yeah, people who are saying that, I respect everyone's opinions, but only when they're not stupid.

I agree wholeheartedly. I feel like there was quite a bit of chatter about this being intentional until the point where he couldn't start the race. And then that chatter died down quite substantially, surprisingly. Yeah. Look, if he was going to actually think about doing this intentionally, even if you, I know, Schumacher basically got caught out for it because he didn't make it look intentional enough.

I think this would be going too far the other way in terms of, you don't need to be that intentional for people to think that it was an error. If he really wanted to go down that route, he surely would have picked a slower speed corner where he knocks off part of the front wing and doesn't even consider the gearbox. Here, he actually goes full into the barrier and then it results in a massive crush.

Why would you jeopardise? First of all, there's no guarantee that they're going to go quicker anyway. Why would you consider jeopardising your overall race or even a five-place grid penalty has seemed possible? Why would you have that in contention when even if, let's say, Vestappen goes faster than LeClaire,

he ends up starting P2? Surely that is a better result than the potential of not starting a Grand Prix. I don't feel good about Leclair not starting the race. Obviously, Home Grand Prix was in contentioned to do really well. So the only silver lining that comes out of it is that the people who suggest that this is intentional, just look that little bit more stupid about it. I'm sorry if that is your opinion and you actually think that Charles LeClaire did this intentionally,

but it's not something I can subscribe to at all. looking at the fact that he didn't start and what impact that had on the race I think Charlotte Claire could have won this considering there were no overtakes done on track he had pole yeah I think he absolutely had the pace to win

I think you know both Ferraris were obviously quick this weekend but I think LeCler was always that bit quicker than Signs was you know we quickly forgot that LeClaire didn't even do FP1 his car had an issue and he was still quicker straight out the box in FB2

so he had an hour's less running and was still quicker so yeah I definitely think he had the pace to even if Max was right on his tail as we saw it was not necessarily easy to pass so yeah I definitely think the clerk had the pace to win

gutted for him to be honest because the only thing he did do wrong this weekend was smash it up at the end of quality and that was his downfall, but, you know, maybe he'll never finish a race at Monaco. Wouldn't that be ridiculous? Starting to feel very Rubens Barakello-esque with Brazil. It's starting to feel that way. Fortunately, LeClaire's got a number of years ahead of him to reverse that at some point,

but it does start to feel a bit like that. Do you think that in terms of the overall pace of Leclair and Ferrari, do you think that they will cycle back to where we will, have expected to see them like third and fourth best team on the grid, but they might have occasional weekends like this at tracks that suit them. Yeah, I think that's probably what will happen for this year. I mean, yeah, I mean, fair play for them. Because you would say not that long ago,

their strongest point was their engine for reasons for which we're not going to get into now. But perfectly legal, perfectly legal. than they did chassis whereas now they have potentially a stronger chassis than they do engine and that's been shown

by here in Monaco so yeah it's a strange one it does seem incredibly strange that you know the perfectly legal powerful power unit that they had a few years ago

deteriorated out of nowhere yeah you're right it's an absolutely reverse of what the situation was a few years ago to the point where the chassis is very strong now. And I think we saw that at Imola. It was very good there. And Spain, it was very good there as well. Charlerc, of course, finished P4 in that race. And here at Monaco, where power unit is not completely taken out, but not far off that to the point where they can perform

strongly. It's not the first time we've seen that over the years. If you think back to, you know, the days when McLaren used to struggle everywhere, pretty much, because of the Honda Power Unit, but they tended to do all right at Monaco. Not quite as good as obviously Ferrari have done here, but you can often see that the performance at Monaco doesn't necessarily follow everything else that we see throughout the season. So I would expect the Ferrari to push back to either the third or fourth best team. I expect them to pick up that rivalry with McLaren again. maybe at certain circuits they might be able to challenge Red Bull Mercedes again.

I think Monaco was probably the number one contender for that. Maybe they fancy their chances at somewhere like Singapore, for example. I don't know, maybe Japan or something else like that. But we'll have to wait and see on that. But for now, they can be very happy with that performance. Arguably, yes, they could have had the win. I think they'll need to just take the second place that they got with Carlos Science. Yeah, obviously the Charlotte-Claire side of the garage isn't going to be quite as happy.

I mean, considering that the actual issue was a drive shaft issue on the left side of the car, which of course isn't the side of the car that had the brunt of the impact, do you think that Ferrari, so obviously they inspected the car and said everything was all right, do you think that they've missed the trick? Do you think that they haven't necessarily done their job as well as they could have done? I mean, always very difficult to tell. We don't know what exactly they were doing,

but I'm sure more attention was potentially paced to the right-hand side of the car, than maybe the left. They'll have checked all of it. I don't doubt that at all. It's already been around long enough to know what they're doing on that front. But, yeah, I don't think it's necessarily something they could miss. I think it is, you know, how do they know whether their drive shafts going to fail on the left side it's pretty difficult to know until you start the car up and you know we saw

it with vestappen in monaco in 2018 when he had the crash in fp3 they fixed the car it was fine but then they went to start it up and that's when the gearbox leaked or failed or something so these things you can't always you can't expect the you know the structural integrity of it but you can't literally test it on the track until it goes out there so um yeah i don't know if it had been the gearbox that was the actual issue. I think there definitely would be questions asked about whether they should have changed it, but considering it wasn't, yeah, I don't know whether there's much

more the mechanics could have done on that one, to be honest. Would it have been worse if LaClaire had been leading the race and then it failed? Probably, yes. I don't know, but yeah, I don't think, I don't think there's much more they could have done in the time they had and within the rules.

Yeah, exactly. The rule book is another consideration here as to what they, not only what they could do, or wanted to do, but what they were allowed to do. And it's, yeah, it is a shame from Charles LeClau's perspective. We do have to consider that there is a chance that the issue that they have here isn't actually caused by the crash at all. And it's a completely separate thing.

It seems fairly unlikely, but there is that possibility. So I'll just put that caveat in there. But let's assume for the second that it was Charles Leclair's crash that caused the issue here. I know that there is this Monaco curse that he has. but ultimately it was his crash that led to this. So my sympathy only goes so far, I think, on this to the point where it's not as if he had nothing to do with this whatsoever. From Ferrari's perspective,

usually I'm the first to jump on the bandwagon of crushing Ferrari strategy because, well, usually it's Ferrari strategy, so it's easy to do. But here I'll lay off them a bit. you know usually i'm all over there strategy c plus 23.2 laps but for the for the moment i'll um i'll lay off them here and and a great result for carlos sykes obviously um so one side of the garage it didn't work well for and actually we'll move on to that man carlos science first podium for ferrari we went to spoke on last week's podcast about the drivers who are who have had their

first season at a new team this year. And signs, we all agreed, was doing by far the best of that lot. And I think this race probably consolidates that. Second place, only Max Verstappen ahead. He's now only two points behind Shao Lecler in the championship. It was 20 before the race started. It's of 40 to 38 now. Do you think that Ferrari are starting to consider signs if they weren't already is a bit of a long-term prospect for the team? I think Sines has a knack of being able to jump from car to car quite well. I think maybe the only exception is potentially Renault. But even now, I think that's underestimating the mighty Nico Hulkenberg potentially.

But, yeah, I think Sines is just very good at jumping from car to car. And he's been from Torosso to Renault to McLaren and now into Ferrari in a very short space of time, to be honest. And he's adapted fairly well on all. of them. So, yeah, I think Ferrari did have, I don't think they were, I don't think that's really an option for Ferrari to have just a, you know, a placeholder driver until someone else comes along, because that's their Ferrari for growing out loud. So, yeah, maybe, maybe they only had him down as a one or two year, but I think he could be around for a while. And they seem like a good pairing, Lecler and signs are fairly similar on pace. LeClaire only tends to really nail signs

in quality. because he's a god, apart from yesterday, maybe. Ironic. But, yeah, I think Sines is showing what everyone kind of thought he could do anyway. So, yeah, I think that's a great little pairing at Ferrari. And, yeah, Sons is always one that flies under the radar,

but he's certainly racking up the points now and showing up all the other drivers who have joined new teams, as we mentioned the other day. So, yeah, LeClaire. signs Ferrari if they can continue to improve their form could be a very potent combo I think going going forward. And what does that mean for the likes of let's say McSumacher and Robert Schwartzman, guys who would have fancied getting in that seat within the next couple of years?

Because I know, including myself on this, a lot of people would have looked at Carlos signs his appointment and thought, okay, he's a solid driver, that's going to work for a few years whilst one of these guys gets experience and is good enough to get in the car. but signs is not very old himself. He could be around for, you know, another dozen years if he wanted to be, same as Charles Leclair. So what does that mean for the guys like Schumacher and Schwartzman? Are they going to find it more difficult to actually put forward their case ahead of signs?

I think, yeah. I think it's difficult already for those younger drivers. But I was saying this weirdly to my dad earlier. We were watching the F2 feature race. and there's such a good bunch of young drivers coming up through the ranks. F2 is almost too efficient in getting these young drivers towards F1 because they're running out, there's not enough seats. It's something we've said before, but yeah,

they need more seats on the grid to be honest for these younger drivers because it's so tough to get to the top, especially when you've got drivers on the grid, such as signs LeClaire, who are already in those top seats at Frye, for instance, who are performing so well. So, yeah, I think, you know, I don't see, like, Mick Schumacher and Robert Schwarzener wishing that science does badly because, you know, I don't think they want that, but it's certainly going to make things more difficult for them.

And even, you know, the likes of Giovannazzi stepping out this year is going to, again, make it difficult for these guys to get up because I think, you know, at the end of last year, I think a lot of people would have said giovannazzi didn't really deserve that. well, not that he didn't deserve it, but a younger talent could have come through. He's been around for a while as Giovannazzi in terms of in that Sable team. And someone else, like maybe Kalamar, a lot deserve that seat or shortsman. So, yeah, I think that's definitely making things difficult. A lot of drivers have, well, a couple of drivers at least, have definitely stepped up their game this year.

So, yeah, I still think Mick Schemecka will end up a Ferrari just because of who he is. But I hope it's not in, you know, not just down to. the name. I hope it's down to performance as well. But it's, yeah, as I said, it's making it difficult with signs doing so well at the moment. Yeah, and without going too much down a rabbit hole with this, with F2, but I agree with what you're saying there. I think a few years ago, we actually had a situation where there was a very clear top of F2. Like, we had Charles LeCler come through one season and it was clear he was going to be a star and, you know, it's turned out to be that way. Same with the year after, with George

Russell and Lando Norris coming through. But I've, I've, feel as if there was a very, very distinct top of F2, whereas now the last couple of seasons, there might not necessarily be those obvious stars that are coming through, but at the same time, there's probably about 10 drivers you could look at and say, yeah, they'd do a job in F1, and there aren't enough seats to go around. We've already seen it with Callum Eilat, not able to get a Formula 1 seat despite finishing his second place last year. Nick DeVries, of course, was champion, didn't get a seat. Lungard and Guan Yuzhou, of course, two Renno Academy drivers, two Alpine Academy drivers now,

where are they going to go? They're not being able to find a place, and we've already searing, like with them, Ocon's doing a fine job. Alonzo isn't going to step aside unless he's forced to, so where are those two going to go? I think you raise a good point there. But I mean, looping back around to Carlos Sines,

not to compare those two to Bottas and Hamilton, because I don't necessarily think their relationship is exactly the same, but in terms of longevity, Could you actually see that being a similar situation where those two are just working in harmony for years on end? I timed that mouthful of food. I just took really badly. Sorry, yeah. Yeah, that's what I mean.

I think going forward, if science continues this form, and Ferrari continue to improve, then LeClaire signs at a competitive Ferrari, I think would be a real threat to, you know, the top of F1 because Hampton's not sticking around forever. Red Bull only really have still one driver who can challenge at the moment. So I think, yeah, it could be really tricky for them. We're not tricky. It could be really good for them

going forward and tricky for the rest of the field, I think, because that is a, as I said, a real potent combination of driver and team if they obviously get the right car. Yeah. As you very rightly say, two working drivers that are in harmony is perhaps, you know, underappreciated and it's not easy to get. Case in point is Red Bull that they haven't been able to crack it.

And Ferrari have. Ferrari have got that. Ferrari have done something great. Good Lord. Goodness me. You know that they'll throw it away next year now. No, you know, they're in a good spot. And even, you know, I think Ricardo, it will work out for him at McLaren.

But at the moment, that's, again, a very much a one-driver team. the time being, whereas they've got two functioning drivers doing very well. So it's on the up at Ferrari. It's on the up. Just have a look at your power unit, see if you can make any gains completely legally. No. We'll move on because we can't get around the fact that the Monaco Front Creek, it was not the most exciting race we've ever seen.

What are you talking about? It wasn't the best race ever. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that. apart from Mick Schumacher deciding that the Lowe's hairpin doesn't really exist. There wasn't really an overtake that happened outside of that. And of course, the Vettel and Gazzley incident. But outside of Lap 1 and coming out of the pits, there were no overtakes done on track. Is this, first of all, a Formula 1 issue?

Is it a Monaco issue? Or actually, should we just stop complaining about it and say, yeah, we're not to get any overtakes at Monaco, but the spectacle and qualifying is enough. Look, I think that one of the things is, especially over the last few years, is that people have a medium in which to complain about boring races, whereas we necessarily didn't always have that, especially, you know, even 10 years ago. So it's more vocal, people are more vocal about boring races around Monaco, but, you know, it's kind of always been the case that it's been difficult to overtake.

I think, obviously, if you listen to our previous podcast, I argued that F1's a worse place without Monaco. Saturday, I think just the spectacle alone is just amazing. Even Saturday, I think Saturday is such a thrilling day to watch Monaco, even if the race doesn't produce anything anywhere near like the same excitement levels. I think to your point about is it a Formula One issue? I would say yes. I think there's changes that can be made to Formula One because we saw Formula E. around the same circuit but

bar a slightly different in New Welsh Shagame but it's the same thing basically around the same circuit produce an absolutely ridiculous race and it was thrilling and it shows that Monica can still be thrilling in both Kali and the race

so yeah I think that is a that's a casing point right there that it's a Formula 1 issue I mean the cars are so big and wide these days even the F2 races people were still sending a couple of moves like the inside into Raskass gas trying around the outside of Raskas.

At least they were trying to get alongside because the cars are a bit smaller. I know it's the same spec, so it's not quite a great comparison. But still, I think that's an issue for Monaco. These cars are absolutely massive around there. So yeah, I think there's... I'd be really interested to see next year. I mean, the cars don't get any smaller, to be honest,

but whether that helps at all. But yeah, you know, I think Monaco... Monaco is Monaco and it's just, it's not like Spain where, I mean, Saturday is, you know, just like Sunday, it's not exciting all around. It's just Spain. But at least in Monaco, the spectacle you have on Saturday is worth it, I think, in my view anyway. And I would be sad if people, if we got rid of it because it was a boring because it's always been there. It's not like it's snuck up on us that it's boring. It's always been the way. And that's the thing. And if you look at it from a wider context, it often throws up a weird result and that, you know, as in today, we've got a new championship leader. So it's definitely spiced up the championship once again. So in that sense, I don't think it's a bad thing at all. But yeah, I am a Monaco advocate, so I'm slightly biased. But I think the main, if anything were to change, it would have to be F1. I don't think Monaco itself needs to change. Yeah, I agree with your point on qualifying being

frilling at Monaco. And I don't take that away from Monaco whatsoever. It is the, yeah, it's the best Saturday of the season. And it is frilling. I think the difference here is that for you, that's enough. And that's, you know, even a poor race, that's enough of an incentive to go to Monaco. For me, it's not quite enough.

You suck them, Ben. Yeah. Yeah, I said it. No, you're writing what you say as well in that this shouldn't be a shock to people. This is what we, okay, it might be, it still might be one of the worst Monaco Grand Prix we've had, but also it's not completely out of line from what we usually see. You know, there might be some Grand Prix where we get five overtakes, but is it that wildly different from what we saw out there?

Not really. So it's not as if we should be surprised by what we saw out there. I agree as well in that it shouldn't be Monica. that changes, it should be Formula One that changes and it is the size of the cars predominantly that just doesn't quite work at the moment. And hopefully, actually, next year, when the new cars come in, we can see a significantly better race because it's not even the lack of overtaking that makes me think that this is a poor race. I've always said, you don't need 100 overtakes per race in order for it to be a belter. But what you at least need is the ability to try and

overtake, even if it doesn't come off, like you need that threat of an overtake. To make an overtake around Monaco, you don't even need the driver in front to make an error. You need them to make a horrendous error. We saw Daniel Ricardo a few years ago win the race with 75% of his power available. Unless you are going into a wall, you're not getting past there really at all. I think the closest we got really was Perez on the back of a couple of drivers, really, of Vettel and Norris later in the race and also Hamilton to Gassley a couple of times, but there still wasn't really that threat.

So I think the changes do need to come in in terms of Formula One rather than the Monaco track. I just think overall, and putting the qualifying thing to one side, because that is a factor, but I don't make any excuses for the racing in Spain being poor. And when the racing in Spain is poor, I'm very outwardly saying, look, this is an issue. And just because of the spectacle of Monaco, I don't want to change my tone on that. I feel it should be consistent. And if the racing is not good enough, because I think the racing should be above everything else in terms of the entertainment value of a weekend.

If that's not on it, then I think it needs to be addressed. And my address on this would be, yeah, let's wait to see what the new cars can do. Hopefully we get, I'm not asking for Formula E levels of overtaking. You know, we're not going to achieve that. That's absolutely fine. but just a little bit more of a threat would be lovely. Yeah, I can totally understand that. And, you know, even if you look back at the

battles, classic battles around Monaco, I'm thinking Mansell's center, there was at least a, you know, Mansell had definitely had a sniff on a fair few occasions of an overtake, but he couldn't get past, and that's remembered as one of the most threatening battles in F1. So, yeah, I definitely see a point there. Yeah, I think that illustrates it the best, really,

and the number of overtakes there compared to today was exactly the same. But that was much more entertaining because he could have got past. Like he was there and Sena had to pull it out of the bag in order to keep him behind. Rather than, you know, you look at Carlos Sines when he got out of the car today and he was interviewed by DC. And Kulthard actually made the comment like, you know, you look absolutely, you haven't got a sweat. And it didn't look as if any of the three drivers at the front actually had to, like you see in Singapore where they, you know, they're sweating as they come out.

It did look like, and when you're going around at seven seconds a lap slower than you would usually do, again, I haven't done it myself, so feel free to throw that criticism my way. But when they're tire managing as much as they can, you know, you want to see, you want to see them put 100% effort in on every lap. Well, if Sam was here, he would say throw Monaco in the bin, I hate Baltry Botas Yeah Yeah

It was his fault The wheel got stuck Yeah I wish he was here Because I'm sure that That would be something he said Just kidding of course Even Sam won't go to that lengths

I say not I say not very confidently at all I mean next time out We're going to be We're going to be in Baku So that would be two weeks time So we'll be back for our usual podcast on Wednesday

we'll be talking about something or other that we haven't decided yet. We'll have to see what comes out of this weekend before we decide the topics on that. But then we'll be back, of course, for preview and review of the Azabot-Shank one. Another street circuit, but I would imagine one or two more overtakes than that. But until then, we'll leave you for now. Keep breaking late. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.