The Late Braking F1 Podcast - What would IMPROVE the F1 race weekend?

Episode Date: April 23, 2023

Sam, Ben and Harry are in the same room! Together, they discuss if there are any ways to improve the F1 race weekend from mandatory two stop strategies to a one shot qualifying. They also discuss Ricciardo's Red Bull demo at the Nürburgring and whether F1's target of 24 races in the 2024 race calendar is just too much, before finishing with a game of F1: Higher or Lower. SUPPORT our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/latebraking JOIN our Discord: https://discord.gg/dQJdu2SbAm JOIN our F1 Fantasy League: https://fantasy.formula1.com/en/leagues/join/C3CCEW8P704 TWEET us @LBraking BUY our merch: https://late-braking-f1-podcast.creator-spring.com/ EMAIL us at [e-mail] SUBSCRIBE to our podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. Hello and a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Harry Ead to my right, Sam Sage, to my left, and me, Ben Hocking. As you can probably guess, somewhere in the middle. Unbelievably, all three of us in the same place at the same time. Wow, it's a bit of a rarity.

We've got way too much in terms of expensive equipment in front of us, including hot drinks. This is a recipe for disaster. But we're here in the same place. I'm glad about it. I can't believe it. It doesn't happen often, what, three, four times a year? You're in the same spot? I know.

Disgusting. Oh, good. Oh, wow. Cheers, Harry. You're welcome. Good stuff. Stop hitting the table. It's so expensive.

Right. What are we talking about? then. Good question, Sam. What are we talking about? We're going to be playing F1 higher or lower later on, so I'm probably going to have to do a very good job of hiding and concealing the answers from these two who are right next to me. We cannot read your hand writing at all. Even you might be able to read my numbers though. F1 targeting 24 race schedule in 2024. It sounds good. I mean, maybe they're just doing it for the sake of that. I mean, it sounds good with it being the year. Nice. What we're going to do then we get to 2072.

You wait and see Two races a week Ricardo's doing a demo run at the Nuremberg Ring and we're going to be talking first of all about how to improve the Formula One

race weekend at large Before we start though If someone enjoys the podcast What should they do about it Harry? I'll tell you Ben Well you know Five star reviews Wait way

Um We look We are shallow people Yes that's how we won an award. Did you know we won an award? We are award winners. Yep, because we are shallow and the BBC can't plug an award.

And then we also plug five-star reviews. And look, I don't care, gets results. And we get some great ones through. Speaking of, Oh, have you got something to read out, have you then? We have had some great reviews over the last week. So thank you to anyone who puts in a five-star. This one made me laugh, which was Sam said he would shake me down

if I didn't leave a five-star review. So I'm leaving one, but the sad thing is I would have left a five-star review even without the frets. You just want the shake-down. Cheeky bugger. This is the best podcast I listen to, even though they don't talk about true crime at all, unless you count Logan Private mugging DeVries as true crime. Oh, did mug him.

I love that. Still no penalty. And a shorter one than that, it's the title of this review from D-H-G-G-D-J-K-F. Are you doxing them? Is this doxing? No, this is literally their name. Okay. Totally fine.

Five stars. Yeah, entirely totally fine podcast. Listen every week. Five out of five. I'd love to know what is not totally fine for you. We won't, Sam won't shake you down if you give us a good review. I'm also the least threatening person you'll actually ever meet in real life. I'm going to give him the old Sammy shake down.

Famous around parts of London. I ride into you on a tiny donkey. We're in a cow. It's actually the cat. Okay. We'll start our proper show with how to improve the Formula One race weekend because we know a lot has been said over the last few years. How do we improve qualifying?

How do we improve race day? How do we get sprint races involved? Thank the Lord. But we've actually got a few that we want to run through here that are ideas that are being thrown around and we're going to make our decision. Should Formula One go ahead with it? Should Formula One not go ahead with it?

Or do they need just a few LB tweaks in order to make them absolutely fine? Nice. Elb tweak of the week. Elby tweak of the week. Week. Twink of the week. Let's start with mandatory two-stop races. So I know that the three of us and a lot of the Formula One community at large,

likes to complain about a one-stop race when everyone does exactly the same thing. So mandatory two stops. Sam, do you want to see it happen? I think a lot of the fun in Formula One race, comes from the pit stop strategy. It comes from where people come out in traffic. You know, we're going to have the reduction of tire blankets coming up very, very soon as well. So this would add to that thrill of cars coming out of the pit laying on stone cold-dusting tires there.

Stokel, oh, yeah. They'll be slips sliding around like they're in some kind of water park, but they're going to do it but once, but twice. I absolutely love the idea of them getting it at the wrong lap or a safety car coming out after the first one, maybe, and then they can all dive in again into safety car for the second one, and it's chaos. I don't think this is a bad idea. I generally think that the idea of cars having to get their strategy correctly and think more about it after the one-off go that they each get a long of a time

could produce a lot of excitement. I'm kind of for this, you know? What do you guys think? Is it nullified if there's any intermediate or wet tires used? Oh, I don't think it should be. Because I think a lot of the time when we get a wet race, you go start to finish on one set a lot of the time. And I also think that the red flag rule should be altered,

that you're allowed to change your tyres under the reg flag, but it isn't counting as one of your mandatory two stops. So what do you do if you turn laps into the race? You've only used one dry tire and it starts chucking it down. Well, no, I mean, you know, if it's a wet race, you just have to still stop twice, but put on either your inters or your wets or whatever it might be. Right, right. Yeah. So they can count as the, as well.

Yeah. So if, you know, if it's a full wet race, you have to start on the wets, stop for wets, stop for wets. But I still think it would cause chaos because those tires will be cold. They don't be used to be moticing around. there might be strategies going around and you might do your two stops one lap after another and then go straight to the end, right?

I think it throws up a lot of excitement. Do you think it should go ahead, Harry? No. Wow, okay. Oh, good. Why not? I hate it. Oh, really? Why?

No, I see the logic of it and I want more more two-stop races. I want more three-stop races. But I think if you're making people do two stops, that takes away, that's just like everyone doing one-stops. We're manufacturing fun.

Yeah, but I get that there's more... What's the word? What's when it's a bit up in the air? Is there a word for that? Random? Yeah. Variable. Varyed.

Let's shut. Let's go with that one. I get that that would be more varied with two stops. But I like it when you have some people who do a two-stop, some people do a one-stop. So I think the issue is not making them do two stops. It's let's have some tires that mean, that we can.

Minimum two stops, but you get points if you do more than three. And there's fire. Correct. And let's put sprinklers round the track to randomly make it wet. I didn't realize we were doing the podcast of Bernie Ackleston this week. Please never call me that ever again. Bernie Sage. Bernie Sage, yeah.

No. Oh, yeah, I'm with Harry on this one. Oh, no. One of my most under-rated, like, races is the 22. 12 Chinese Grand Prix, which... Don't remember it. It was a good race because... Nika Rosberg was really good and everyone else is a bit rubbish.

Yeah, pretty much. I'm just a mad Nika Rosberg fan. It's Britney. But you had in that race, people doing three-stop strategies of making it work. And you had people in that race, I believe, doing two-stop strategies and making it work. And I think you have like Kimmy Reichenen possibly,

trying a one-stop. Of course, a kind of bottle of pit stops. Yeah. It really was like 10 laps. to go and his tyres were dead and he's like not giving in now, you just get overtaken by everyone. I think this was hated at the time or at least underappreciated, but the 2011-2012

original Pirelli's loved them. I was going to say is it's up to Pirelli to create a tyre compound that's close enough that actually, like the soft drops off super fast, the medium is like not very quick but rung's all right and the hard tire is so slow but can go the entire race. Yeah, that's, yeah. Yeah, that's what I think.

That's why I wouldn't necessarily go for mandatory two stops. I want to see two-stop perhaps be the default strategy. And I don't think that the one-stop should be. But I'd like, for me, the ideal is a race where a one-stop, a two-stop and a three-stop can all be viable. They're like five to six seconds faster or slower around every track. And it's up to you guys to work out. The double soft with a hard is actually faster than just two mediums or something like that. Exactly.

I'd almost be convinced to say at that. if you can get to that point, then can you bring back no-stop races? Like, if you've got the tyres to make it work and that's a strategy, then maybe. The old no-stop. The old no-stop strat, the one that Alex Albon tried in Australia. I was going to bring that one up because that race where Kimmy only did a one-stop, it didn't work for him, I don't think. It didn't.

But it was viable enough for him to try it. Whereas now when, with Albon in Australia last year, where he just did the entire race and then change on the last line. He could have done another 50. Exactly. boring. Don't want that. Sorry, Alex. Yeah, you don't want every single team to go, we literally never need to come into the pit lane. It's now a redundant pit lane, because that would be bad.

Or you, that's what the hard tire is, but it's not necessarily quicker. Yeah. Doing a two-stop is, or a one-stop or two-stop. Because we kind of sort, didn't we, with the battles when we had, in Hungary the first time round, Hamilton versus Verstaffin, right? Stapham was going a bit longer. Hamilton stopped for the softs and caught up.

And that was one of those thrilling end-to-er races we've seen in the last five years or so. We're going all ab-abab. but then Hamilton and the Staffman swapped roles and did the same thing again at Spain, didn't they? Where the Staffan stopped again, caught up to Hamilton, and they had a wheel to wheel fight,

and it both looked very plausible that they can run to the end and potentially win the race on those alternate strategies, which is what we want in every race, ideally. Absolutely. Let's move on to One Shot Quali. What do you think on this one, Sam? Now, this is, I'm going to edge more towards a,

no, because qualifying for me is the perfect formula, current. right we've got the you know the sixth drop out of the start 5-grip up the start then you've got the Q2 and you got Q3 I think I would tweak this idea a little bit to maybe have one-shot quality in Q3 only so you know you get yourself into that top 10 shootout and then we get almost like a just a one-off one-go shoot-out you get your ticket randomise of what number you are like a draw so it's not always championship leader gets to go out last or when they choose it's a max for staff and drew the number seven this time seven's been drawing is the fourth car to go

out, you go. So that way it's no planning. It's a, that's the luck of the draw, you go out and do it. And that means I think that sometimes, if maybe the weather changes or, you know, it cools down dramatically or someone bings it on the track, we could see a really shuffled top ten, which produces some randomizers, I think, which I know that some people don't like because Formula One's all about fastest person at the front. Fair enough. But I do think that this, you know, makes sense. Their one. God forbid, you're talented, you deserve to be first. I think this allows for enough randomisation that it doesn't

spoil the overall agenda of qualifying, but at the same time, it gives us a bit of a, every race should in theory be different. What do you think, Harry? I just, what I think is, why is your Mike Silver? What do you mean? Special Mike. It's always... It's always been silver. It's in the shot of every one,

every recording. I don't know why... I've never seen it. Would you mean you've never seen it's always there? We must have seen it, but I've, It's never not there. Have you seen it? YouTube? Yub tubs. The yubber tubs.

Why, Ben? You mean why? Why is it silver? Is it a bit cheaper? Well, than the black one. Yeah. I actually respect that. Oh, no.

That describes the three of us perfectly. Harry and Sam will spend more money to look nice. Ben, that's the job done and half the price. It looks just slightly worse. Why would it be... Do you know what? I don't want one shot, call a fine. There we go.

What, because of this conversation? Yeah. Right, okay. Because it might. silver. No, I, to be honest, I don't think one shot qualifying is certainly not the worst for qualifying format we've tried. Elimination. God, elimination qualifying. And I think I saw a clip of some one shot from the mid-noughties, well, that's when they ran it, wasn't it? Mid-Norties other day, and it like rained halfway through, and that's quite exciting because it gets

some people that are back. But there's nothing wrong with the current qualifying. Yes. It's, it's too late. It's quite a good point. That's why I was, but... It's quite a good point. Yeah. Please stop trying to change it. It's...

I don't want to say perfect. Pretty much is. I don't think there's, unless it was just an hours quality, which again, I don't think would be as exciting because you lose the... The urgency. Well, the urgency and you lose the excitement of people getting knocked out. Nothing wrong with quality.

It builds up perfectly every time. And yes, sometimes you get a red flag at the end. But do you know what? Suck it up. of F1. Go over yourself. You look at other motorsports that obviously have qualifying,

you know, Indy car, for example. It's nowhere near as exciting. I think Formula One is good at keeping it not complicated. A very simple process. Formula E. I don't understand it.

The head to head one. I don't get it. I just don't, I just don't care enough about that format. I do have a simple mind but even my simple mind does not understand that. I don't mind the jewels in Formula E.

No, you're an idiot. You got a silver mic. I'm not saying I prefer it. I don't mind it. I'm not saying it's. again, still not elimination qualifying, still better. But I just don't think there's a better format than

what we have. We could start every single one shot qualifying with, you've only got one shot to make it count. Sorry, I didn't realize JLS were on the cards of being involved. Otherwise, I had to change the line. Just love Saturdays.

I do, because I've got to find. We're not far into the podcast and already Aston bloody Marygold's game. Like, goodness me. For Americans, they were a British boy band of the mid-Norties. I like that there were four members in JLS,

but there was only three letters in JLS and they had to put a star at the end of J-LS and one of them was just the star. That's asked him, that's why. That's like us were LB and then we just put a star on the end for the third of us. That's so true. I...

In terms of once... I love the concept of one-shot quality in that it's just like one attempt to be fast and if you mess it up, you're right at the back. Apart from if you're Takumasato, in which case your second last, even when you spin when you're doing your one-shop quality level. Canada, 04.

Love that so much. I can't even remember who he beat, but apologies. The niche F1 references. I really do like the concept of one-shot quality. I think whether you view it as a problem or an amazing, like, randomiser, the weather element of it is really, it really divides because part of you think,

things, well, if it weren't for weathering like that sort of quality, we don't get Japan 05, right, which was a great race. Very fair point. But also it does feel a little bit unfair that you get different track conditions based on where you are in the championship position. That sort of thing can happen. So I'm going to say, I'm going to say need some tweaks because I like the idea of what you said, Sam, of introducing one shot quality in Q3. Yeah. The only thing I would do is actually not even make it one shot quality and it's like design, I would just reduce the time in Q3 to the point where you can. It's only one lap.

You literally get six minutes to get in, do an out lap. Six minutes, yeah. Not collapsing, do a cool down lap. So it's not, you're not necessarily making it one shot quality, but you kind of are because you're never going to get two runs in at that point. I'd also do something similar to what Indy car likes to do, which is if there is a red flag late in the session in that one shot quality,

where they just let them go out and have another. go. Give another go. Yeah, go on. Go on, lads. Had it. Yeah, so I would

actually introduce Q3 as a one-shot-ish session. The only other thing I would consider doing, if we wanted to make the whole thing in one-shot quality, is have like four qualifying sessions rather than three

and have, like, all of them six minutes or something. I couldn't do the whole thing, be one-shot. Yeah, and I prefer just making a Q-3. And if you're time, it as well, you then lose the element of randomising due to

whether, because everyone's still getting the same track conditions, it's just... You know, like, in football, for example, like the Champions League when they're doing the, like, the drawers of who's going to play who kind of thing, right? They'll be like, this team and this team on like, that would be quite interesting to be like, and the first driver that has to go out to set a lap,

number four, and that'll be, I don't know, Holkenberg now has to go. You've got that's his one go and the next ball comes out, you go. I think for the final shootout, just Q3, that could be a lot of You know in British touring car? Yes. They do three races a day.

The goat. The goat. The last race is reverse grid from the like top 10 to the top 15 or sorry. 10th to 15th or something from the second race. And then they just draw some balls out of a bucket live on TV. That's so British tour. Yeah. And that's how they decide pole.

That's crazy. That's so British. holding a side of your balls. Hey, keeps a close. You're there with your tyre, your pole position award. Like, yes.

I heard this. Thanks, man, over there with a bucket. But it's Steve Ryder and then some random person they've just like dragged in. Can we get Craig Charles?

Asthmaire gold. Yeah, Craig Charles and Ashton Merrygold to do it together. Clegg Charles. Ball number three. That's a bad Craig Charles. That was terrible. Oh, God.

Oh, dear. Never appearing on red. dwarf, I'm like, what about the next one? All tire compounds have to be run. Well, I mean, I'm assuming we're not counting wet if it's dry. No, no. If it's a dry race, running all three tire compounds. I mean, this very much thing relates to the mandatory two pit stops, isn't it? It's just a better... It's an evolution of that. Yeah, it's a different version of that. And to be honest, I almost prefer... No, I wouldn't. I would rather have the mandatory pit stops rather than run every tire, because at least that way we'll get a much larger

variation of strategy. If you're allowed, for example, run. Three sets of softs one after another if that's what you fancy doing. I feel like running every single compound, you see a lot of the same strategies up and down the grid. It'll be people going, the hard sucks. Let's get on and off it as soon as possible. And then run the race on a medium and a set of softs. So for me, this one is just saying, no, actually I'm really not a fan of it.

Only slightly related to that. One thing that F1 used to do that I kind of wish they'd bring back. Do you remember, obviously, we've got seven tire compounds or whatever it is at the moment, which three dries are selected from that. Yeah, five overall compounds and then three trades get selected. Five, yeah. Do you remember how... It seems like today, they always do the three in a row, right?

They'll do C1, C2, 3, and it's always... It used to be that you might have, like... I remember like the Chinese Grand Prix, had like the ultra-soft tire, but then they skipped a compound and then they had like the medium and the half. Yeah, you want like C-0.5, C-4 and then C-5. I'd like to see them bring that back in, I think. like bigger gaps between the compounds available each weekend.

You're obsessed with the Chinese GP. Yeah. Oh, that's too. Shut up about it, mate. Hey, it's a good race. Just missing, missing it. This spring break is because of that. Yeah, fair point.

Stop giving it me airtime. Sorry, Chinese Grand Prix. What about you? I, no, three from three from me. Yeah, you are so miserable. No, no. Lighten up. But I, what you said?

Coffee-based. But I think that that speaks to what. was probably my first point. I don't want mandatory stops, I just want the gaps in between tyre performance. So yeah. Yeah. Speaking of this, how are we

currently all feeling? Obviously, recently we have the qualifying change, where Q2, you used to start the race on the tyres you qualified on in Q2. And then that massively impacts strategy anyway, because now every driver can choose any tie that they want from start to finish, which I think isn't a very good thing.

How do you guys feel about that no longer being there because I think that's removed a lot of the strategy element, especially from the top teams at the front. I don't think it made enough of a difference to the top teams. The thing that it was affecting was the midfield because you're quicker and qualifying,

but you qualify 10th or 9th. Do you remember a Russian Grand Prix? I think it was Force India, just didn't send their cars out in Q2. That's true. Don't want to start. Yeah. It was that bad.

They didn't want the prospect of P8 or P9 if they could start P11. Yeah, so in that respect, I'm kind of glad they got rid of it. I would like to see something like that again. I just don't really know what that rule should be. Do you think we should still have a mandatory you have to run to different compounds of tire? They used to have to, yes, but they used to have to start on the Q3 ties a while ago. Yeah, they did.

Which maybe that was better. 20 years ago? 20 years ago. What year are we in? 23? Yeah, like mid-2000s. Yeah, but did we have, we? Anyway, I don't know what the rule is, what the rule should be.

Not that, though. Not that. Not that. Yeah, I think they're all kind of linked these points, because if you had a position where all of the tyres were, like, viable, then suddenly you don't have everyone at the front starting on the same compound a tire. Because at the moment, what we're often seeing is that everyone apart from the driver starting 17th and 19th are all starting on the same compounds,

because it's the right strategy. But if you've got multiple strategies that are at play, then suddenly you don't have everyone starting on the same one. So I think it is somewhat linked. I agree with Harry. No, in terms of every tire compound. We are miserable boys. Speaking of miserable, this is sure to be three S's straight.

Should we bring back refueling, Harry? No. Oh, I don't know. I've heard a lot about this on social media recently. Let's try refueling again. Why? What benefit do we get out of it? I'm sorry, go back and watch any race from the 2000,

well, from 1993 to 2009, any of them. What joy does it bring? There, none. Genuine, I apologize to anyone who liked refueling, and I'm going to offend here. Be an idiot. Why? I don't think there's any,

I don't think there's any instance of, like, nostalgia that is unnecessary more than refueling. I feel like that's the number one, if you're to create a top 10 list of things people are nostalgic about, but shouldn't be in Formula One refueling is number one. And I stand by. Always got past him in the pits.

Oh yeah, because he's been in there for 45 seconds. And we've had no on-track overtakes again. Yeah. It's a site like the Schumacher, you've got to do 20 qualifying laps now to do an extra stop. Great story to tell after it's happened. Yeah, watching it on the tell.

It's not that exciting. Yeah, yeah. Just to sort of put a pin on this one. No. No. No. No. No. No. So we're not changing anything then. No, good. F1's perfect. Good stuff. All right. Well, cool. I think that's the end of that topic. We'll see you later. Well done, all of us. We've managed to get through a whole topic about changing Formula One. We didn't, I think, mention sprint races at all.

That was the aim, though, and we stuck to it. Yeah. Well done. Brilliant. Did you go into the break? Oh, I didn't. I was completely out of rhythm, man. He was. That was the break. Folks, it's break time. Oh, perfect. Get yourself a snack.

Okay, we are back from our break that you enjoyed. Been in the playground for 20 minns. Come on, next class is on. We're talking Daniel Ricardo. You're talking to a little sweaty. You've got to sit down and do maths. Daniel Ricardo, Red Bulls, Junior Reserve, test, marketing driver. Hunk.

I didn't know what he said then. Dangerous game. hunk, he said. Funk delicious. He's going to be driving a Red Bull. Wee! Around the Nureberg ring as a demo. Cool, but not essential.

So that'll go down in September. It'll be the first time in 10 years that a Formula One driver has gone around the Nordschlife version of the Nuremberg ring. Last time since. Like green hell. A Schumacher. Michael Schumacher did. Yes.

So, yeah, that 21 kilometre track is going to be raced around in a in a F1 car for the first time in a one. I was going to go for Red Bull and then I went to a F1 car instead. A Fredball. A Fredball. Like a Fredo, a Red Bull.

It's Freddy Vassar and a Red Bull. Fred Ball. What do you make of this, Harry? Do you think this is a sign that this is really what Red Bull have in mind for Ricardo or will it open any doors? What do you think?

Oh, no, no. You're not optimistic then. If you told, imagine going back to 2018 and Daniel Ricardo has just signed for Renault. But he's, you know, that year, he's won two very good races. And you go, by the time we get to 2023, he'll be driving a Red Bull again, but it's around the Norch life.

Everyone, everyone be like, wow, did I retire as a two-time champion? Yeah, yeah. I think I went every season after that. You went to two other teams and you went back to Red Bull as a reserve driver. Yeah. Look, I, as much as I want Daniel Ricardo to be back on the green. it's it just doesn't doesn't look

likely and Perez is doing enough of a job at the moment he's not I mean Australia wasn't great but it's I mean they're 1 2 and they've had a 1 2

1 2 and a 1 5 and you know that's that's enough for red boy they can afford to have a dodgery race from Perez every so often and probably still take home the championship comfortably so at the moment

it doesn't look the amount they they post about Daniel Ricardo. Do you think Checo sat there like, oh, that's not being. Another one. Oh, still, Ricka... And I, I 100% get it. And he, you know, he's missed the drive, apart from Gunter, maybe.

Mr. Marketing, though. But he's missed a drive to survive. And they will, you know, it makes total sense to keep him in the, that, in the fray for that sort of thing. But all the things they're posting about is, you know, he's watching someone surfing in Australia. And then, you know, he's doing some silly thing in the paddock when, do you see the one when he, he like sneezed and they like

pretended to wipe up it. Oh, I didn't say that one. It was, yeah, weird. Sounds bad. I'm just like, oh, dude. So anyway, I, look, this, this, I know they said he's actually going to have some proper, I guess, practice.

They're going to put him in a practice session. Probably when they've wrapped up the championship. Yeah. Well, you know, which is fine, but it just feels a bit like a token, token gesture. And this is, this is what they've got, Ricardo. for that Red Bull is the

king and queen of marketing and they're not idiots and that's why they've got him so sorry Danny Rick I mean what this isn't like it was back in the day when you could be a test drive all the time you're jumping in the car and you're testing and you're proving yourself

just isn't enough of an opportunity for him to like reprove himself again and they they obviously know how good he can be but they've just got nothing to base on and and a lapper of the Norgeleaf, whatever, it will be Red Bull from three years ago. That's not enough to...

Yeah. I'm not going to show anything. So, yeah, I don't see them doing anything different. Knowing that I've said that... He's in next race. Congregor on the seat for 24. It does seem as if increasingly this looks like a marketing and marketing-only decision.

I know we don't know behind the scenes how much of a factor. Ricardo is, but at least from the outside, it does look like a marketing employee. And I, and I don't mean that in a way that Red Bull are like exploiting Daniel Ricardo, because I think this is completely mutual as well in that Daniel Ricardo is remaining somewhat relevant in the F1 world by being with Red Bull. And Ricardo had the opportunity, or we believe had the opportunity to be on the grid this year. Like, he could have been, not with a team that he wants. He, you know, he has certain standards that maybe those teams like Hass couldn't have met.

But it was a decision that he made that he didn't want to be on the grid this year. And instead, what would rather be a reserve driver for Red Bull? So it does feel as if this is mutually beneficial from a marketing perspective. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, Ricardo knows how to market himself. He knows how to raise his net worth. He's spoken about this previously.

He's got his outside ventures. You know, he's now got his whying. He's got his merch lying. And he's working with a lot of wider companies. I think he was in like a little Amazon TV show, right, where he was actually cast as like himself essentially. I don't know if it's come out. I think it's coming out,

whereas he's basically playing himself in like a weird show that... The guy's making money, right? The guy's making... Oh, bank. That is not an issue if you're down your record. He's got dollar bills up to the ceiling, you know? You can fill this room with cash. My point is here, testing doesn't get you anything these days.

And we've seen it with the likes of... Look at Nick DeVries. know they're different in quality and they're different in standing. And Riccario's a race winner and Nick DeVries isn't. But Nick DeVries testing and testing for so many different teams. And then he gets one Grand Prix. In the worst car of the grid, it does well. He gets a seat almost immediately after that came around.

We won an F2 championship. And there was basically three years between the point that he won that F2 championship and got an opportunity in an F1 car. And in that, he then won a Formula E championship, right? So you can do whatever you want outside of Formula One. the biggest prover of being in Formula One is being in Formula One. Nice.

Yeah. Yeah. It sounds for it. Yeah. If he got, if, I know, Checo gets COVID,

that is the time that he needs to strike. He needs to beat this happen. He needs to win races. I'll stop you there quickly because that was going to be a question, which is,

if something like that happens, is it Daniel Ricardo that gets in the seat? Or I don't see who else gets in that seat. Well, Liam Lawson's racing in Super Formula, hasn't he?

and is it one of the Alfa Tari guys? I mean, I think if the championship's still on, I don't know. I don't know. I don't think they give it to someone else. I think he will have had so much testing time on the simulator. He's no time to drive a Formula One, he's a race winner.

And also, Ricardo will beg, Bill, Bill, beg, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill. He's going to beg Ian Bill and Borough. He's going to beg Ian Bill? Yeah. He's got nothing left. We need to get up the pace, Ian. I've got nothing left.

That's a very niche. Very niche. My point is, I think Ricardo will walk into Hawker's office and go, I will do literally anything. You give me that drive. And I think if he outperforms for Stappan, then they have a question on their hands. But until that happens, and Checo is still second place in the championship, picking up second places or wings if Fassappan doesn't, what more can you complain about? What more can you go where he's not doing the job? He's doing what they want Ricardo to do if Ricardo comes in anyway.

but they're getting the benefit of Ricardo's marketing as it is. So it's the perfect formula for Red Bull. That's the only way he outdoes Checo, I think, is by getting in the seat. It does, I don't know, it seems all a bit questionable from a Ricardo point of view. He's very optimistic that he will have a drive next season. Well, he is, and I can't quite understand. With who? Yeah, with who? Doing what?

So obviously, McLaren didn't work out for him. And we've discussed a lot whether it's on him, whether it's on the team, whether it's a combination of the two, but for whatever reason, it didn't work at McLaren. But he wants to either make a sideways move, somewhat, and wants to stay at a team that is similar to where McLaren were,

or better. But the problem is, Red Bull have first-hand experience of what Ricardo could do in that car. Like, Red Bull don't need to play a guessing game. They know what he did in the car. Yeah. Anyone outside, and Red Bull aren't given the opportunity yet or at all.

To your point, who? anyone else is having to use secondhand experience to give him that opportunity. And that ain't good. Well, if you've got one team that won't give him the opportunity on first hand experience, it doesn't seem all that likely. But also list the teams out that you say,

you say he wants to take a sideways step while Mercedes, near and then two are going anywhere. And he won't get the first call. There'll be other drivers. Ferrari, no, it's just not going to happen at this point. Ashton Martin, you think a long time? And stroll owns the team. No.

No. Owns the team. So that's the other. Alpine. They've just signed their drivers. I've gone, Ockong's there till we die. And then McLaren's gone backwards and he wouldn't go back there anyway. And Hars, he didn't want.

So what is available for him now? Pollock racing. Yes. Perfect. It does feel a bit like Alpine at the beginning of the season where they were really smug and you couldn't work out why. And it seems the same way that Daniel Ricardo is really confident that it's going to work out for him.

And I really hope it does. But I can't understand why. Miskick Rick. What do you know that we don't? Question. If a driver gets COVID these days, do they have to not race? I think so. I think they still have to isolate, yeah.

Don't know for sure, though. I mean, fine. It feels unfair to put every other person at risk because we know how contagious it is. Should take a short break? Okay. Yeah, break time again. I'm going to do the break properly this time.

We're going to go for one now. Play kiss, chase. What don't? Well, people with appropriate age and consent. There's only three of us, isn't it? We're not playing it. We're not to the podcast. Time for the break.

Okay, 2024. That is the year that follows this one, which is 2023. Oh, God. For anyone who's unaware. For anyone listening in 2043. Yeah. You're too late if you're listening in 2025. How are the, 12? How are the 43 race a season? I know people do occasionally like to go through the back of the catalogue in terms of what we produce. So if there is anyone out there who's listening to this in 2025, please let us know.

of course we're not going to know for a couple of years yet. Are we millionaires yet? Yes. We're a long way off. Let me know, please. Millionaires. I like a Porsche. So they're targeting 24 races.

Yeah. Which is a lot. Oh, God. There's so many, isn't it? Is that the issue? Is the number they're targeting the issue? Because F1 at least have now admitted that this is putting a strain on their staff. It doesn't seem like it's slowing them down.

Yeah. Is that the issue? Or given that we've got a back-to-back of Baku and Canada coming up, is it more down to the way that it's organised? Well, like if the Canada went the way they wanted it, it would be Australia and China before that as well, right? They got exactly coherent, close together races. They made a promise.

We went on about this. It might even mean last episode, before. We've all brought it up. The three of us who brought it up consistently. And they even brought it up themselves on social media. They all can make a promise to make their seasons more environmentally friendly and it would have almost like a narrative.

to it. It will start in one part of the globe and it would move cohesively throughout the globe and finish at the end in the Middle East where we currently have it in Abu Dhabi. Fine, make sense. Makes a lot of sense if you're a team viewer, you know, if you're a someone who works with the team and has to travel that much. But that isn't the case currently. And currently these team members, it's not the drivers that are the problem. It is the people who have to stay at Inkedron pre-weekend until maybe a Tuesday evening, pack up their garage area, put it all in a lorry, drive it to an airport, get the car go onto a plane, fly it halfway around the world, unpack it, get it to the track, set it all up again, and then be part of the race weekend.

They get less than a day off a week if it's back-to-back races. No wonder they're knacking. No wonder their personal relationships aren't lasting. No wonder that they feel miserable because they have no personal time, you know? It's just not cohesive to a healthy and stable way of life. As much as it's cool to be part of Formula One, that's not healthy. And some changes do need to be made if that they want, if they're, if they're, want to have 24 races because I think if you look at other sports, again, I'll take football,

they play 38 to 42 league games and then a lot of those teams will then go abroad and playing cup competitions as well. They play upwards of 60 to 70 matches a season in a nine-month period. So the physicality is available to them, but you look at the substitution of players. The staff can stay at home in certain areas. They have breaks that are allowed into the season more regularly. There has to be some safety changes made. Otherwise, I think you're going to have slips of safety within the team that can have very much wider and more dangerous repercussions. Is it in any way reassuring that Formula One are referencing this?

Well, they've referenced it before and no changes were made. This isn't the first time they've done it. If they hadn't made any of those promises beforehand, and the first time they've taken it is, we're going to make changes to have a calendar that gets laid out. And actually, you know what? We're going to put cost cap budget to one side that you have to hire an X amount of staff so people get time off.

I go, great, you've thought about it, makes sense. They haven't done any of it. His actions are not words, is it? No, yeah, exactly. What do you reckon? They need to do less races. There you go. Thanks, Harry.

I cannot wait to imitate you next week. I don't have to say anything. You'll have a great time. Just give that voice every three minutes. Great time. You have a great time. Yeah, look, there's all well and good saying, saying that this is getting a bit of a strain.

But why, so just, just, I go, I refer to my previous point, do less races. That would make things. Sangamil. Yeah, 24. I feel like, I know we moaned that we've had to put completely a, you know, like a month off. But the amount we've got now, I think it's too many even now. We'll be on 23. 23?

23. Yeah. Yeah. To 22. 22 this season now. Just a lot. So I'd go less than that. And I think 24, I don't really, what are you,

apart from money, but what are they gaining by doing another two, adding another two to this calendar? Well, that's the problem, isn't it? It's like you say apart from money, but that in itself is a factor in itself so big that, yeah, but I feel like you said, what are they gaining? If we get another dominant year, let's say Mercedes 2014 happens again next.

season. The championship will be over by race 15. Bring back 1950 calendars, you know, seven races. But that means you've got nine Grand Prix where nothing can be changed in the championship. That is boring from even a marketing standpoint. Yeah. Do you remember having the debate in 2020 that year that existed if you've, yeah, 2020. You don't remember it and my memory sucks. So we had the debate about whether a championship won in 2020 would be solid at all thanks to a reduction in the calendar. We still had like 17 races. We did in the end.

I think it was before we really knew how much it was going to be. We thought there was going to be maybe 11 or 12, didn't we? And we had the question of if someone wins the championship, is it actually going to matter or is it going to mean as much than a regular season? It was a good season. It was a very good season. I enjoyed it. And you know what?

We only had 17 races and I was still hooked for 99% of it. I'm sure I enjoyed it, but I don't remember. I don't know what you were doing that yet. I mean, COVID, but you were on a trip. Yeah. Yeah, I was in Reading. Oh, that'll be it. I promise it happened.

We're all trying to raise Redding. Sorry to anyone who are reading. Oh dear. Yeah, I agree with what you mentioned, Sam, that it's all well and good. Them actually coming out and saying it's a strain. It's like, okay, what do you going to do about it? Let us know, bullet point.

Like, okay, we're tackling it by doing this, this, this and this. Because there isn't anything at the moment. And if anything, based on the calendar this year, they're actively trying to harm their employees, right? Because the back. and Canada back to back by itself is ridiculous. Bear in mind, we also have the Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi back to back later in this year as well. Two races that geographically have nothing in comparison to one another.

So they have to, I think first and foremost, they just need to tackle the organization of the calendar. The irony being they already started to look at it and promote it and then never did anything about it. I think that's the number one step because actually, whilst the number of races matters, I actually think it's the organisation of the calendar that matters more. I think we can do 24 races if it's done correctly in the same way that we couldn't do 20 races

if it was completely unorganised and we went around the globe the wrong way around. In theory, if you are putting in those environmental areas and geographical-related locations, you could put brakes in because you could do right. We'd do all the Australasian areas, right? in one go, we'll have a two, three-week break, go to Europe. We'll have eight weeks of pure European racing, and we'll stop, we'll go to the Americas.

We'll have pure back-to-back races after a three or four week break, come to the Middle East, finish the season. And that will work. Why? Sorry, are we going from Baku to Canada? Yeah, I believe so. I thought we were going to Spain. I've got to look up the Canada now. Or Miami.

Hold on, everyone. Miami. Oh, no. I'm in the city with the heat is on. Sorry, yes, it is Miami. Back to Miami. Which is still the same.

The same thing. We're going, Azerbaijan, Miami, Imola, Morocco, Spain. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry.

Yeah, I knew it was North America. Got the wrong one. It was all the same in it. But yeah, middle of Asia to North America. Still bad. And then we're doing it again

the other way round at the end of the year. Yes, exactly. So. But the thing, someone is, it may be Steve Sunday,

but someone at Formula One is sat at that, look to the canon, gone. I don't, see anything wrong with it. Yeah. Sign that one off.

All of them have looked up the calendar gone, I don't see you're wrong with that. Or no, I think it's worse than that. I think they do look at the calendar and say there is something wrong with that, but we're not going to do anything about it. Which I think is worse. Yeah.

Like, there's one thing to be ignorant to an issue. It's another to be very aware of what the issue is and still do nothing about it. To me, the only argument that I will... The only argument that I listen to and understand is when people go, well, you can't race in X location at this time of year because I don't know, it's flooding season,

or it's hurried. a king season and we only get 70% of the days where actually it's a mess and the other three out of ten days it's okay, it might be dry or something like that, you know, and then that point I get, like Japan has monsoon season, right?

And we've seen the rains in Japan, we saw them at... Malia. Thank you, yes, Malaysia. Right? And we saw it happen in Belgium for Christ's sake, literally what? Most recent time that we went there by one. So that was a menace. We don't want that every time

we go there. So I understand if that's their argument but there's surely got to be ways to work around them. Yeah, you would think so. I mean, if you compare it to say NASCAR as an example. So NASCAR, I can't remember how many races they get in in a season. And I'm not saying we go to whatever they do, but they have hundreds and thousands of races, right? But they can get away with it because it's all in one country. So logistically, there aren't too many.

Same time zones. Exactly. Yeah. So I think to an extent it's not necessarily the number of races. It's just the logistical issues of getting around the glass. if you can solve some of the issues we've got at the moment. It's a very unique challenge. Formula One is probably the only truly global sport

where the same group of people have to go to every single location around the world. Like football is a global sport, but the leagues are in each country. You know, F1, Lewis Hamilton has to go to 24 different countries every single year. His engineer has to go to 24 countries every single year. If you're a football player, you might play just in Europe. Yeah. I appreciate there are complex issues with this. in regards to, you know, if you want to mandate that there are two teams within a team that are

operating, that's great. But then money-wise, cost cap has to increase. And then it becomes less of an incentive for new teams to join. So I appreciate there is like a cascading, yeah, yeah. But it feels like these are the sorts of issues that should be sitting around discussing. Yeah. There are a lot of clever people there. Don't just put it on social media once and a mowing about it in two years later. Exactly. All right, we're going to take our last break. And we're going to go into F1 order, please, after this.

No, we're not. We're playing F1 high or lower. You did this to me. Now, usually I can get away with this because I'm not in the same location as Harry and Sam. So at this point, I always have to go through my notebook and find exactly where I put the last game of fire or lower. Usually I can style this out a bit better. The factory has come to a grinding halt. Say what?

Play the intro, Harry. I'll get back to you. Okay. Sound faster. Everyone higher. That was seamless. Folks, some fact, we don't have, I'm the only one that has headphones. We can't hear it.

They didn't hear it. I just danced to nothing. Then just crash the vocals. Do do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. You sound more like, um. Wait, let me do the, let me do the, let me do the alarm again. We're not doing that again. No, no.

Carry on. F1, higher or lower. So, Sam versus Harry, all in the same place for once. So this could get physical if someone wins or losing. We've never been physical in our lives. Let's get physical. Punches will be thrown. I want to get physical.

Thanks, Harry. Great. There are six questions, all of which have a numeric answer. The guys will take it in turns. I'll ask them for what the answer is. They will have to give me that number. If they get it right, a bit of a rarity. Two points to them.

But if they get it wrong, it goes to the other person to try and steal the point. They have to guess whether it was higher than the initial answer given, or lower. If they're right, they get a point. But if they're wrong, the point goes to the person who initially guessed. You'll work out if you haven't seen it before. Yeah, it's easy enough. So... Hello, mate.

Numbers one through six. Yeah. Which one would you like? Another number six, please. Number six. Giancarlo Fizzare. I know him. The Fisicela.

You know that man. Hey, what? Phizzy! Sorry. I didn't know you were here, mate. Hello. I was good to see, Jean-Cala. You'll know the answer to this.

Back to the quiz. 2005 and 2006. Fisichella's teammate, of course, Fernando Alonzo won the championship. But Fisichela himself scored a good number of points in both of those years. Yeah. Combined, how many points did he score in 05?

and 06. Oh, that's difficult. I'm going to go 172. It's not correct. Oh, shock. Higher or lower than 172, Harry? I'm going to go for

lower. Lower is the correct answer. Well down, mate. I guess. 171. Wee. Imagine I would be furious. No.

Because they only had like 10 points for a win And he didn't win very often That was what I was debating, yeah 1.30. Oh, wasn't that bad? No, it was not bad. So it's 1-0 to Harry. Well done, mate.

Numbers 1 through 5, what would you like? One, please. Number 1, of course. How many points did the Stauffin score in 2022? A lot. Correct. You win two points. Lower.

It's not correct. In 2020, he scored 290. Not correct. I think yes. I think yes. I'm going to go, I actually don't know.

I'm going to say, lower. Did you guys fall asleep after June? Yeah, well, I got confused after Japan. Harry, I don't want to give you the point for this because the guess was so rubbish. How far off was he? Very, very off.

It was 454. Whoa. It's quite good, wouldn't they? You just took like seven wins off the man. By the way, folks. I feel like I need to explain this now. I have ADHD, so I have short-time memory problems. Hey.

And I'm just stupid. There we go. I can't get an excuse. Harry, it somehow leads to now. Oh, done. Numbers 2 through 5, what would you like? Number two, please. Can you read it?

I didn't do this. I can't believe what did this. What's he done? How many points of Sam scored in games throughout the podcast? Hang on. This has already been mentioned on today's episode. Oh, no, that's not short. I did this like a, I did this like a month ago.

Oh, I forgot, I wrote this as a question. How many races were there in the 1950 F one season? Seven. There were seven. Yes! I'm back in a game! This is mad! I can't believe I'm back in the game! I'm on fire! Hey I just, I'll just play the applause. Oh god, hang on. I'm done. I just play the...

They're clapping folks and they're clapping. So to be clear, Sam is on five. because he was given an answer and he's back to a drawer at two-all. Sorry about that. Oh, mate, it happens. I'm sure you're right with it. Happens for the best of us.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it happens. Yeah, you know. Numbers three through five, what would you like? Yeah. I think number three, me, Lord. Five, please. All right. You still get that one again in a few minutes' time.

Oh, God, what have I written here? This is a farcicle. Daniel Ricardo, how many races? Daniel Ricardo's driving my rich track in September. How are you going to do higher or lower on that? How many miles is that track? Okay.

How many countries have hosted more than one Grand Prix in the same season? Oh. Um, six. That's not correct. Okay, so America have. Britain has, Germany has, Spain has, France.

I thought you say six. Yes. Italy has. And now I am stumped. Well, given that you've got six. Yeah, I know. I know, but that's my point. So...

But then it must be higher. 404-hour. The load. Ding. Ding. Well done, Sam. Yeah. It's nine overall.

Sam's got the most undeserving three-two lead. To be fair, Harry was never going to be right, because a couple of them happened in 2020. So, Austria. Or Bahrain. Bahrain. Fair point.

France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, USA and Japan. Oh, I think all right with that, actually. I deserve this, win. Right, three, two. Oh, I'm not going away. We are last. Which one? Three or four?

I think number three, my lord. I don't think I got the option for number four. I think I just got... What? What? I thought I only got... You only got two options? Three or five.

I thought you got off. No, 3-2-5. Oh. I'm having a bad day. Three through to five. I'll have number four, please. Christ. Okay, number four.

How many times has Suzuki hosted a Formula One and one? A lot. Higher. Need to clarify. A lot, a little. Quite a few.

Quite a few. None of those are acceptable answers. Okay, right. It's been around a long time. I'm going to go with 46. Not correct. Lower.

It is lower. 32. Oh. It's not bad. Was it the first come in? 1970s, 80s. 1980,

something like that. Making it up. It's something around 85. It must have missed a few years in that time period then, right? Yeah, a couple of years at Fuji. COVID years. Oh, righty.

For your year. Okay, so last question. Everything counts. Go on. Pick number three, me lord. Yeah, all right. For the win, how many points

did Braun score in 2009? There's Jensen button there. It's fizzy going back the other way, yeah? They scored. They scored $212. They did not score 212 points

which means if Sam can correctly guess whether Braun had more than 212 or less he wins Sam

higher or lower for the win It's a 50-50 It's a 50-50 For all the glory Higher 50-50 Of course Harry's won

Oh he does get the point Yeah 1 17 So lower That was a tense game of fire or lower. That was real tense. To fair, I'm only inging it because of a bad mistake. So I'll take it.

I still genuinely, I cannot remember even writing that question. It's like Harry scored two own goals for me halfway through the match. I mean, that's already happened. We've been playing FIFA today, oh man. Okay. Do you want to play us out, not that we're able to hear it?

Everyone, please hold. Just put my headphones on. Yeah, go on. I just can't remember which. does well. It'd be really funny if you pick the wrong one. Is sad faster? Is Harry slower?

F1 higher. F1 lower. F1. There you go, folks. There you go. Well, this has been suitably chaotic. We've had some good chats. We had a good game.

But it's all come to an end now. Oh, good things come to an end. Why? If they want to hear more from us, Sam. If they want to follow us on socials, what should they do? Right, yeah. Folks, Patreon is a thing, and you'll get two extras every single month. The first one for April's already out.

And the second one is going to be recording very, very soon. We're also tonight, if you thought this was chaotic. We haven't had any alcohol yet. We're doing beer with breaking. Another musical reference. We do it with breaking. You should have left it. Anyway, so that's coming up.

So if you want to see that extra content or a bit drunk, being silly, talking all things, Life, F1, whatever it might be, then do subscribe to the Patreon. It's on the highest tier. So everyone that already does, massive thank you,

because it really actually does. You paid for this set up. Yeah, very true. All of this. Issues incredible and baffling. So thank you. But yes. Thank you so much.

If you want to follow social, then please do because Twitter's in the mud, so we need this following. We've got from unverified to unverified, folks. How you have to pay for it? didn't even get it without paying for it. So follow us on our breaking on

Twitter or the late breaking F1 podcast on Instagram or because we are down with the kids. Oh, we've got a musical interlude. Damn. That's on TikTok, folks. And we're posting regularly because of our lovely editor and producer Kirstie is smashing it with the reels.

Like so much better than the three of us combined. I don't understand. We hire someone funnier than we are. Yes, it's a real... Easy. It's a real issue. Anyway. Go and watch them, go and support them. It does mean a lot.

Helps us grow. Helps us bring in the money. Big shacks on one of them. He is. Ooh. Also, we've got merchandise. I also made a baby onesy. This baby's a late breaker, it says, on the front of it.

I did see that the other day. Yeah, someone requesting it. So I made it to some. Little breakers. Little breakers. We could start a crash. More like a crash. Anyway, that's more than a crash.

Anyway, that's more than going to. Next week, the preview for Baku is the episode where we will intimidate each other. Intimidate. I meant intimidate, maybe. No, I meant intimidate. What's your bold prediction? Come on, basically. Pull one, two, three, punk.

Me too. I'm ex-same the stage. I've been Ben Hocking. His second outro in a row, he's absolutely lost it. I've been Fred Bull. I remember. Keep breaking leg. Can't wait to shut you down.

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