The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Who is driver of the season? What was the best race? | 2021 LB Awards | Episode 169

Episode Date: December 22, 2021

It's the final podcast of the year which can onlt mean one thing...it's time for the 2021 LB Awards! Ben, Harry and Clives Pigglesworth are back with the most prestigious awards in Formula 1...JOIN our Discord: https://discord.gg/dQJdu2SbAmSUPPORT our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/latebrakingTWEET us @LBrakingSUBSCRIBE 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 tune in for new episodes every Wednesday and Grand Prix Sunday. And a very well welcome to the Lake Breaking F1 podcast presented by me, Ben Hocking, Harry Yeed, and I'll usually say Sam Sage right now, but he's not here tonight. No, instead we have someone else. Introduce yourself, sir. Hello everybody, my name is Clives Picklesworth and I'm your host for the infamous Elbe Awards.

Excuse me, gentlemen, you're meant to play the theme music after I've introduced the LB Awards. Sorry, Clives. Sorry, it is Clives, isn't it? Not Clive. Just the... Yes, C-L-I-B-E. Imagine Chives with an L. Introducing your host, Senghis, special guest is me, Clive Ficklesworth. Of course, joined by Benjamin Hocking, Harry Ead, and yes, Samuel Sage is here. Here, ladies and gentlemen, the LBs! Clives. If you didn't tune into the LBs in 2020, Clive's Pigglesworth might not make any sense.

Actually, no, if you did tune in, it still won't make any sense. Sam has some fixation with a made-up person called Clives Picklesworth who presents these awards. Why he's called Clives and not Clive, I have no idea. But here we are. Sit over there, hang out, Clives.

What does Clives look like? He is a balding middle-aged white man who grew up in the home counties and he never takes off his suit. Do you think he's not like round spectacles? Yeah, quite like that. Little white gloves that he wears. White gloves? Why is he wearing white gloves? You know, like those like waiter table gloves where you put down fancy silverware and shying around a table.

Great friend of the podcast is Clive's great friend of the podcast. He loves it. Apart from we forgot about him until earlier today. Yeah, I did. Completely forgot. Tonight is the Elbeys. The Elbe Awards, the ones they all want to win. Who are they?

We've got no idea. But we'll go through the awards. There are 12 to be won in total, including the first inductees into the late-breaking Hall of Fame. More on that later on. but we'll kick off with our first award tonight, which is race of the season. Harry, what race are you putting forward for this?

I've got to put this one forward because I missed it. But it's going to be the Italian Grand Prix because that race was craye, cray. And for the title fight, it was a pretty huge moment when the pair of them crashed into each other, happening in Hamilton and then Daniel Ricardo despite a slightly tumultuous year for the Aussie he absolutely smashed at that race

and he brought home not just a McLaren win but a McLaren won two with Norris in second yeah I unfortunately missed it I was watching it in a hotel room late tonight after I've been on a stagged do actually so I'd had a few beers I might have cheered loudly but I'm not ashamed about it I'm gonna go for that one

I've got this vision right of you Harry sat there in a foreign country right as someone a local walking part down the road late a night it's quiet no one's around

the hotel is all quiet it's just one room lighting up in there it's just walking down the road I think I'm minding my own piece yes coming English local lad screaming at the top of his voice

at McLaren 1-2 the only one too for the whole season as well by the way folks absolutely loud not yeah pretty crazy a good suggestion

there Italian Grand Prix and of course a lesson in that don't watch races it works out for the best

I shouldn't I shouldn't want any of them yeah we haven't yeah Sam what are you

going to put forward I am going fun enough when I read through the awards when we're sent over to them

by the officials I initially thought Italy as well that was what came to mind and I thought bloody hell

I've given up to it two years in a row. That said something. And then I remember Brazil. And just how ridiculous Brazil was. The fact that we saw someone overtake 25 cars over one race weekend was pretty spectacular. You know, we had the drama of the can you overcrowed a car off the track, which is still a talking point regularly now. And I think it was a really crucial moment for building the end of season hype that we then saw, of course, in Abu Dhabi. So for me, Brazil, which always delivers a fan.

Palo, always going to be a fantastic Grand Prix, but for me, it was the race of the season.

I think that's a fair one. Brazil was my runner up, but my first place

is actually a different race entirely. It was the Russian Grand Prix, which just sounds so weird.

Unbelievable. Best race in Russia. Doesn't fit. It's a blitzer. But it was a belter.

It was an absolutely and it was heavily impacted by weather. and I'm sure it wouldn't have hit those heights without it. But those last laps of Lando Norris trying to hold on to the win, Lewis Hamilton closing up, obviously the rain coming,

making the decisions, do you come in, do you not? I thought it was a great race. So unbelievably, I'm going to pick the Russian Grand Prix, but we need to pick an overall winner. So who do we go for? I did have Brazil as my runner-up, so I would be all right. We can go with Brazil. I'm happy with that decision.

We'll go with Sam's suggestion here. The Brazilian Grand Prix has won. The first LB tonight is Race of the Year. Juan, Brazil. Vamos. Next up, we've got another continuation award from last year. So this is the Stop Talking Award, presented to someone that we would just like to stop talking sometimes.

Unfortunately, last year, this award went to David Croft. so he's out there to try and be a two-time winner. Is it going to work or not? We'll see. The Stop Talking Award. What have you got, Harry? This is a very generic answer, but I'm going to, and we spoke about this already,

I'm going to give it to Team Bosses at, with the at sign, at the FIA. That's my Stop Talking Award. And when I say Team Bosses, I basically meet Toto, Wolf and Christian Horner, just a pair of them. Zip it. Zip it.

Don't want to hear from you anymore. Thank you, Jonathan. All right. So I appreciate it's quite generic, but get your point here. Just basically team bosses towards the FIA for Harry's Stop Talking Award.

Sam, the Stop Talking Award from your side, who you gave it to? I thought I was being really smart with my award. And then I listened to last year's LB's, and realised that Harry literally gave this award last year so I had to change it it was going to be two sex Ted and then I realised that Harry also picked

two sex Ted last time told you it's still going on poor Ted Kravitz gets shut up more than literally anyone in this world so because of that I've actually decided to be quite serious and I've gone pulled a rester never in my life have I found someone's input so boring and useless and uninspiring and you know what paul i don't want to hear your commentary or punditry anymore i've got enjoyed it for at least a couple of years now so you paul stop talking lad i

appreciate it appreciate it so i'm guessing paul is not a friend of the podcast no um also folks if you picked me for stop talking award um that's acceptable more than okay I was going to say you, Sam. The problem is I made the same joke last year and I need to show that I can evolve somewhat at least. I was unsure on this one. I eventually ended up settling on Helmut Marco because I don't feel like I've ever heard him say something

that has positively contributed to a discussion. So I've gone with Helmut Marco, but who wins overall? I can respect your answer, Harry, to be honest. It's wide-reaching. Team bosses was my second choice. I agree entirely that team bosses is a very, very fair call. I think, no, Michael, please, no, is getting a little bit.

hilarious as a meme, but also should never be heard every day. No, safety car, Michael. No, please. Michael. All right, so we're going to give this to team bosses at the FI. unfortunately team bosses was unable to be here tonight so harry you can pick up the award in his absence i will do do i need to make speech no please don't okay no michael no we've we're doing well we've we've so far given out an award to a race and a a person called team bosses so it's going to

best result of the season um i'll kick us off on this one because i had two contenders for this and it they actually belong to the two championship protagonists here louis hamilton and max vastappen uh lewis hamilton's drive at brazil was sublime uh and i think that one's worthy of a worthy of a place on the list just because the amount of ground that he had to make back up in the grand prix uh the other one though i'd like to suggest from Max Verstappen. And to be fair, there are quite a few here. You could pick either Austria race,

and I think you could be, you'd be right with that. The I'mala race was sensational for Vastappen as well. But I've gone for the extreme pressure of his first race under home crowd, Zandvo. He absolutely dominated that weekend. There was never any shredder doubt whatsoever

he wasn't going to win that race. So I've got those two as the contenders. I'd probably just lean towards Hamilton and Brazil. Sam, what about you? I also had two contenders. One of them was Hamilton at Brazil. It was one of the best races of an individual performance I think I've ever seen, at least in the last decade.

It was phenomenal. The other one, more of a joke, because you know me, folks, can't do anything seriously, was George Russell getting a podium at Spa. Oh, that was sensational. It was actually because qualifying was so treacherous. and he somehow made that Williams work to the point where he was able to qualify second. You know, everyone else had a better car.

I know the rain brings an equalizer to it, but come on, but Williams, it may be a boat, and okay, it might be a snatcher in habitat when it comes to water, but he pulled off a brilliant performance. And yeah, okay, it got red flags. That's pure luck. He got the car there in the right time and the right place could do so. So I do think that Russell deserves a shout-out for that Saturday performance, which allowed him to pick up what first one is playing for what since Matt.

or Botas for God knows how long. So yeah, I think I'd probably scared towards Hamilton. But I do think Russell actually deserve a shout-out, despite it being a ridiculous race. I mean, just to say, first Williams podium since, don't do lunch, Strull or disservice.

Of course, Lancey at Baku, right? Can't forget Mr. Strull. Sorry, mate. And honestly, I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again with the Belgian Grand Prix. Was there any point during that race you thought that George Russell was going to get overtaken.

No, it was never in doubt. Defending champion. Defend like a lying, George. In terms of at the flag, he was just behind Mastappen. There was barely anything separating them. So, got to give him a lot of credit for that. Performance of the season for you, Harry.

Well, this is, I don't know, ironic or awkward, but I was actually going to go for George's qualifying lap in a in SPAR. That is my result of the season. because it was in a Williams and it was P2. I don't care, it wasn't the race.

I know the race didn't even happen, but filthy. I agree with the other ones you mentioned as well, Hamilton in Brazil and Bastap and Zandvoort, so I don't mind if we go for one of them, but that is the one for me because it was, quite frankly, stupid.

I thought he was going to be on poll. You know, Williams. To be fair. Outrageous. That was pretty bonkers. It speaks volumes to how crazy this season was. There are so many we have. haven't even mentioned at this point.

Like Lando in Imola, that probably deserves a shout when he got third place there. I mean, Ocon won in an Alpine and he hasn't been mentioned to this point. There are countless races that Vastappan has dominated, that Hamilton has dominated. Bottas is winning Turkey. Legitimately, I think, actually deserves a shout because he did boss that Grand Prix. So, yeah, plenty of contenders. I think based on what we've said, though, it's probably going to either have to be Hamilton in Brazil

or Russell's qualifying lap, which is going to be great for British bias comments. Oh, no. Damn. Oh, go, go. Shall we give it to Russell then? Let's take something else away from Hamilton at the last lap. All right.

Oh, oh. Something boring. It's a bit soon for him, isn't it? Sorry, Louis. Lewis. Yes. You know, consolation prizes. I think Damon Hill referred to it as not quite sure if Lewis Hamilton will see it the same way. But George Russell is our best result of the season for his qualifying P2 at the Belgian Grand Prix. This next one's a really serious one, folks. It is the Drive to Survive 2022 fake story of the season. So we've got to pick something from this year that is

definitely going to be a story for next season's drive to survive that really shouldn't be a story. Sam, have you got anything for this one? Yeah, so of course, after Bahrain was the first race of the season, we saw the immense performance from Yuki Sengoda, where he went around the outside of Fernando Alonso. He appeared to just go missing after that first race. And I think that Drive to Survive will craft a story where, for the whole season, Yuki Sengoda being so short will hide behind things in plain sight and they can't find him for the whole season until the final episode where Yuki snatches fourth place at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

And I think we are going to play hide and sink with Sengoda for the 2022 series of Drive to Survive. Deadly serious stuff there. Thank you, Sam. But also, could be legitimate. Could happen. I'm actually going for a bitter rivalry. as we all remember what happened at Monza. We all remember the big crash

between Mick Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. Sebastian promised to be Mick's guiding light throughout F1. Both of German heritage, both seen as some sort of having some connection and that crash changed everything. From that crash on, it was never the same between Mick.

Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel and they were bitter rivals right up until the end of the year. We remember their vicious battles over P-15 at the last couple of Grand Prix. I can imagine this will be woven in quite naturally into Drive to Survive next year, that epic, epic deal. You think that they're going to show them to playing football in the pit garage? And it's going to be like a narrator over the top of Sebastian Vettel trying to actually break Mick Schumacher as late so he can't get back in the car that kind of thing a really violent football match between the two of them just like really bad like dubbed over the top

like I hate you Sebastian and I hate you too Mick or even German for those in our US audience we're talking about the real football the one you play with your feet Oh don't you can't insult another country Sam not our biggest listener base as

well, you can't do that. And I've just insulted soccer. Soccer. Oh my word. Give us another storyline, Harry. Mine is also a bitter rivalry, and it's one that's, you know,

not hidden, in plain sight. It's Verstappan versus Hamilton. I think it was either after Imala or Portemal qualifying, and they're having the interviews in the pits. And they're swapping over, and Hamilton and Vestappel are walking towards each other

and they just brush shoulders and what will happen is there will be an entire episode dedicated to that fight between them and when I say fight I mean a physical punch-up when they just brush shoulders past each other and probably said sorry in the meantime but there will be an entire episode about that moment and they'll put pictures of Grosron's car

going up in flames like as they as they brush shoulders it'll be that dramatic yeah this is legit

that'll be the the the the uh the crescendo of the series I think it won't be

ambi dabby it'll be that bit I can see I bet they'll call that episode the butterfly effect and we'll see the shoulders

brushing and then cut hard cut oh Louis Hamilton and Max Mustafa of colliding at Cop's corner

whoever it is you know Mustafa in the wall It's the same impact, and then again, oh, it's the turn one at Monza and the Staffing at Hamilton around, the same brush as well on the shoulder. I can see it happening now. It's got perfect mirroring throughout the season.

Yeah, like they'll do the shot of them brushing shoulders, and then it will pause, and then frame it will be Silverstone crash, Monser crash, Brazil, Saudi, all of those all in one, and then they continue walking past each other. Whole episode on that. gives another great opportunity for the dubbing team as well. So when they do say, sorry, mate,

then we can actually just dub it like, I hate you. I hate you two. F off, mate. I'm going to crash into you at every race. Max. No, Lewis. Don't do that, Lewis. At every race.

It's tough to pick a winner out of those three. They're all so realistic. Which one do we go for? They are. it could just be the science norris rivalry again to be it could be could be

maybe we should leave that up to a fan though we can't not give an LB the fans tune in for this well the FIA always leave everything after the race

and we can't be the FIA that's what I'm saying we can't be Frederick not Frederick Freddie I'm going for the butterfly effect let's go for the butterfly effect the max

it's even got a title game The Max and Hamilton brush in Port-a-Mau wins the day. Let's go on to a slightly more serious one. Most Improved Driver. What have you got, Harry? I found this one really tough to decide. I'm going to go for, and this might sound silly, but I'm going to go for Lando Norris.

And not because he had a terrible year last year, I just think the level he got up to this year was another significant jump in his performance. And he's certainly shown Daniel Riccardo the way. I mean, that first, he's been great all year, but that first half of the year in particular, he was very, very impressive when that McLarencar was at its best. He absolutely utilised it to its full potential. So yeah, this is not me saying,

Norris was crap in 2020 because he was not. He was very good. But I think the level he's reached this year has been huge. And yeah, I think maybe he gets my most improved. Most improved from your side, Sam? Well, the drive-to-survive rivalry rings true because I'm going to have to go for Carlos Sites on the other side of the ex-McClaren bromance,

Sangawa Ferrari. I put him in my predictions if you listen to last week's episode as was going to be the biggest letdown of the season. Not only did he beat out pretty much all the young drivers that are considered to be kind of, you know, the golden era of Formula One this season. You know, we finished fifth. He adapted to that Ferrari so bloody quickly.

He outgrove so many of the people around him. I think he picked up four pogim to the end, three more than Charles LeClair, I believe it was. You know, it was pretty much the most outside of the top four, which is fantastic to see from him. He blew me away. He was so much better than I thought he was going to be. I always knew Carla Sykes was going to be.

good, he's a good driver, but he was spectacular this season. So for me, it's got to be most improved as Carlos Sykes. I'm going to add a third name into the mix. I agree with both of the two that you've suggested there. I'm going to add a third name into the mix, which is probably going to come as even more of a surprise than those two. I'm going to put Max Wastappen in this mix. Because whilst he was brilliant in 2020,

he has been otherworldly this year. I think he's really, the car has helped, don't get me wrong, but I really think he's taking his game to that next level this year. The utter consistency to finish first and second in, what was it, 18 out of the 22 races, that's utterly sublime. Appreciate, there wasn't too much growth for him to have after last year, but I think that speaks volumes to how good this year's actually been. So I'm going to throw his name into the mix as a third choice.

But again, we've got to give out the award. We always disagree, that's the issue. If we had a consensus, we wouldn't have to do this. Yeah, what good at this bit, are we? Okay, to start things off, out of your two that you've suggested, I think I would go Norris. All right, I don't really care. Don't care, I'll tell you who would care, Clives would Claire.

Clives would Claire. Clives does care. Clives with Claire, and Clives would care. And Charlotte Claire. In the cupboard, over there. That's the most line. Yeah, I'll do. Clive's care with Charlotte Claire.

Thank you Clives. So we're going to put Lando Norris in this spot. Lando Norris' most improved driver. You love that. Yeah, I mean, he had a good year, didn't he? So I think he's worthy of that prize. We'll go to our SIFth Award of the evening, which is rookie, sorry, no, it's not rookie of the year.

The Nicholas Latifie Memorial Award rookie of the year He's not dead Yeah but He still commemorate him We say Nicholas Latifian Memorial Award because he won this award Because he won this award last year

By virtue of him being the only rookie Although I will have you know Sam did try and give it to Jack Aitkin Instead for his one race that he did in Bahrain The amount of... I tried to give it to Holgerberg For fair, yeah But essentially the joke was last year, Nicholas Latifi was the only possible winner.

And I don't want to make any predictions at this point in the year for next year, but Guan Yu-Jou might be in store for a good year next year. But we do at least have a choice for 2021 because there were three rookies on the grid. We had Nikita Mazepin from Hass. We had Mick Schumacher from Hass. And we had Yuki Sonoda from Alfa Tauri. Harry, rookie of the year out of those three. Fernando Alonzo for me

Fair Here we go again Yeah Yeah That don't count Do that count? No, it doesn't count Get out of it

He did the bloody Young driver's test before as well Rooking I forgot he did that That's a joke That's a yoke Okay I am going to give it to

Your Draw I'm going to give it To make it I was going to give it to Yuki, but he was, apart from the first and last race, this is a joke we keep making. It wasn't great for him. I don't think either of these drivers had fantastic years, but I'd say maybe Mick had the most consistent, potentially.

So I'll give it to Mick Schumacher. There's only two real contenders here, because if you have never finished on the lead lap before, looking at you, Nikita. not joking. But, yeah, I'm going to give it to Mick. All right, one vote for Mick Schumacher. Sam, who's your vote going for? I don't need to debate this.

It's going to Mick Schumacher. The fact that at one point you can have an incident be 20 seconds behind your teammate and then somehow finish a whole minute ahead of that teammate in the same race blows my mind. So, yeah, Mick Schumacher. I don't know if Mataping is that bad.

It makes you look insatiably. good but for me you're getting it. Mick Schumacher is rookie of the season. Sorry, Yuki. I did want to give it to you, but you have let me down a bit. Mick actually did have a good... I was just thinking then. He overtook Latifie and Porta Mal was it?

I think on track. It'd beat him on track. Which, if you look at that, Hass, and we said this before, it does try to kill you every available opportunity. So I think it was actually fairly impressive. So, yeah, he's had some sort of races. this year, although some mistakes are on the way, but, you know, Ricky, yeah, I guess.

I'd probably stay clear of topics that include Mick Schumacher, Nicholas the Teefe, and overtaking. It's been a still a bit soon for some, I think. Okay. Okay. So, good news, good news on this. We have a first unanimous award. Yay. Yay. I already took six awards. Yeah, I'm going to give it to Mick Schumacher as well. well. Again, it's really tough to tell what he's doing in that Hass, whether he is outperforming a terrible driver in Nikita Mazapin, whether he is not actually doing a very good job at all,

because there's just no reference points. So this is why I'd like to see Hass in a better position next year for a multitude of reasons, but also just to see what can you do, Mick? Can you mix it with even a car that isn't your teammate? You know, we saw the Nicholas Latifi example, you gave earlier in the year. I know he got a bit involved in Hungary as well. There were a few occasions where he could get stuck in, but there was just so bad that it's tough to tell. But I can't in good conscience give it to Yuki with, you know,

I can't give it based on two races out of a 21 race season when he's got something way more useful at his disposable versus Schumacher. So we do have a unanimous vote for Mick Schumer. So halfway through the awards, just to recap the LBs that have been handed out thus far. Race of the year ended up going to the Brazilian Grand Prix. The Stop Talking Award went to literally all team bosses that complain to the FIA over team radio.

Best result of the season went to George Russell for the Belgian Grand Prix qualifying. The 2022 Netflix Drive to Survive Story of the Year was the butterfly effect, the brush at Portemale that Vastafin and Hamilton had. most improved went to Lando Norris and Rookie of the Year Mick Schumacher

We move on to the second half of the awards And this is the one that Sam somewhat teased At the end of last week's episode This is the Sassy Massey Award The biggest moment A sass from the Mass What have you got, Sam?

Well, I kind of saw this as actually more like a general radio thing So I've got one from the The sassy Massey himself, and I've also got another example, which I'd like to bring both up. The first from the sass man, Sassy Masi himself,

was, you know, where we got the infamous Toto, I don't check my emails throughout the race, I actually have to pay attention to the race. It's iconic. You know, that is a real moment in Formula One history. Toto Wolf sending emails to the race director going, I've given you a chart

on where the cars should be, and in terms of going, I'm coming up. That is hilarious. Brilliant. The one that is not Sassy Masi based, and it's just team radio based, is we go all the way back to the first race of the season to Bahrain, where I think it's even in a practice session

where Kimmy Ryking had an absolute nightmare off the track, bump the wall, and yeah, Kimmy has a couple, many great regular moments, including the one where Russell and Bottas collided in front of each other, Imola, and his racing engine is saying, there's going to be a safety car,

there's going to be a safety car, He was like, I know, it happened literally 50 metres in front of me, okay? I'm aware of it. hilarious. But this is not that one either. This is the one where Kim is going, can you hear me? And then Kim is going, no, no, I can't hear you. And then Kim is going, can you hear me yet?

I can't hear you. And then he's gone, negative, negative, we can't hear you. And then Kimmy goes, you can't hear me, but you answer still. And it just absolutely sames me that Kimmy is like, why can you keep answering if you can't hear me? I completely forgot about it. That's amazing. You can't hear me, but you act to scare. I love it so much.

They're my options. They're my options. Good Lord. I've got a few myself. I actually also wrote down the Toto email thing that happened. Also, just the running, thank you, Jonathan, is fantastic. But I've got one more. There have been, it was a year of iconic moments, wasn't it?

We had the iconic moment of Vestappan and Hamilton, battling in Brazil, that was iconic. We think of Ricardo's win at Monza. That was iconic. First McLaren won two in a long, long time. We think of Russell's podium at Williams, at Belgium, iconic. And then also Michael Massey, you know,

forgetting Esteban Okon existed. You know, just absolutely iconic moment. in the sports history. Ocon exists, Michael. You can't forget him. It's like, yeah, you can go, you can go P2, it's alright. Yeah, Max can go P2, it's fine, because Hamilton's P1. And Ockon's like, what about me, sir?

What about me? I managed to get up there as well. And Michael's like, oh, yeah, I forgot about you, Esty, didn't I? Oh, go on then, you could get in the mix as well. That's probably my one. Just forgetting Estabana Ocon existed over Team Radio. the fact he was offering out deals still absolutely blows me away that is still such a baffling piece of radio bizarre all right i i mean harry from your side anything to offer up the any other one i was going to offer up

and i actually don't think it's my favourite because that kimmy one i's just the best but um it's uh it's actually our dear friend fernando um in the last race of the season and this goes back to the lapped car debacle. And they came over the radio and said, Fernando, they are not going to let the, because he was one of the infamous lapped cars that were between Hamilton and Verstappen and said, yeah, Fernando, they're not going to let you pass Hamilton

and not letting lap cards unlap themselves. And he just replied with, of course they're not. And that was it. Spicy. I love Fernando's sarcastic laugh. You know that clip of him and the McLarency suit? I think he's at Australia in the fancy car and he's like,

ha ha ha! No. Like, don't look at me. Like, just absolutely laughing. A longso gets cheesed off about something. Ha ha! Stop it. It's great.

It's literally how we did it. So, yeah, that's my nomination. I mean, what do we pick out of that? I do think that the, the, the Toto Wolf email is up there. It's probably the most iconic, isn't it? Yeah, although I am still laughing at Kimmy talking about.

Sassy Kimmy is up there. It's got be one of those two. I mean, this is the Sassy Massey Awards, and it is meant to be for Michael. We will therefore give it to Toto Wolf and Michael Massey, the checking email gate. Well done to you both. Unfortunately, this is a bit of a shock.

Massey, despite us being very complimentary of him in recent podcasts, is not coming on. Does that mean he's not coming on? No. Harry, would you mind picking up the award for him? I appreciate you've had to do this for a few people already. Would you mind doing it for this one as well? No. Michael, no.

Did we send him the email during the race time? Because he doesn't check his emails. He doesn't. I'm sure as soon as he's learned that he's won and ever, Elby, all will be forgiven. Moving on. Awkward. Best podcast

moment. We've done a lot of episodes this year and we have talked a lot of rubbish. This could be interesting. Any starters for ten on this? I actually forgot a lot of them and I had to go and refresh myself from something. I was going to run off a reel very quickly. Do you guys remember Mr. Qualow

Lumpur when we sung Mr Lover Lover. Oh wow. Kuala Lumpur. Yeah, to Shaggy, Mr Lover lover. Obviously, my romantic song to Botteys was I think a highlight. Sosage is out

for Gazley, of course, has gone around. You know, that's great as well. One for me, a real highlight for me, though, is Harry completely forgetting that Giavanazzi drives for Alfa Romeo and just thinking it's Roman Grojean

instead. Committed to the answer though. Committed to it. Yeah. We are literally one of the biggest Formula One podcast in the Western Hemisphere now in terms of charts every week which is mind-blowing and again thank you for your support and one of our hosts forgot that a driver was in a car and gave it to a retired driver who is not part of the sport anymore. So that is up there for me.

Just add something else. our um just that's insulting all countries always sorry I am sorry

I am sorry um I would be lying though if I said I had something else written down that wasn't Harry's Javanazzi

Grojan mix up oh dear I mean it probably won't win but Alonzo C Onzo no it's also been a personal highlight man with you Lonzi or a Londona.

Sam getting all true and false questions wrong. Oh, I'm so proud of that. I'm equally ashamed. The revelation that Pedro Denis tested for Ferrari. I can't believe I even said that that was true now I think about it. That is hilarious. If you didn't listen to that episode, ladies and gents, we did a true or false game,

and one of them was that Pedro Dennis tested for Ferrari. in the 90s. It wasn't even that. It wasn't even that. It was the story you told around Pedro Deguiz testing in the 90s. It wasn't that you just said did Pedro Degu's test for Ferrari

in the 90s. It's that you came up with this strange story about Jean-Ton attacking possible drivers for Pedro Deguiz to possibly get a seat. It's the most mind-blowing story you've created and I agreed with it. Yeah, the whole story about how Jean-Tor Pedro Dillis was like five seconds slower and Jean-Tor forced throughout the car and said I could do better than that

and they had to convince him not to go around. I had great fun. You haven't seen that episode. I had great fun making that up, but even better fun when you said true. I think I'm going to have to give it to Harry though and the Jovanazzi grows-on situation. Harry, you actually do get to take home and help? You won. No, Michael, no.

Oh, wait, I did. You've got to keep making that speech. Default setting. Did you actually win something but reject the award? He's so used to losing. Good. Number nine. Award number nine.

The Ferrari moment of the year. there are plenty as per usual I'm going to have to go with the turkey incident for me yeah it's already on top of my list I mean the incident of what was it exactly if you don't let any cars past Charles you'll stay fast

you're P1 Charles you'll still be P1 as long as no one overtakes you right on obviously obviously Oh, I mean, okay, you can hang on to see that's one, right? Sure. I mean, yeah, things like Sykes directing the entire pit wall.

That was a good stop for Ferrari, despite it being a second and a half slower than everyone else's average pit time. Honestly, the list goes on with Ferrari moments. I have to mention the instance where they tried to do a double stack and you're like, oh my God, this is going to go horribly, and they pulled out their two best pit stops of the season. Just double-staffled all the time, apparently. Yeah. It's got to be the radio message between the clearing is engineering here.

Where will I end up at the end of the race? Well, Charles, if you don't let anyone pass you, you'll stay P1. Good, great, brilliant. Who is that engineer? And the thing is, that's not the only moment from that Grand Prix. It was also the realisation on the Ferrari pit wall that Charles didn't actually have to pit if they didn't want him to. Can I go to the end of these tyres? Oh yeah. Oh yeah, you can. That's a legit strategy we could do. Go, baffling.

I think Charles' engineer is also was Kimmy's engineer when he was at Ferrari. But I think I understand why Kimmy is the way that he is because you have to put up with that all the time. I would be annoyed. Shut up. Shut up.

You still answer. You can't hear me yet. You aren't still. so good negative okay so unanimously on that one Leclair's team radio

about P1 P2 that wins yeah you know when you get really hot because you laugh too much I'm sweating I'm really warm it's bad

it's bad it's bad oh something like winter driver of the season what have you got Harry um I'm going to give it to Maxi Vestapp.

Obvious answer here. But I think he was top of the pile this year, and this is no disrespect to Hamilton. I think he just made a couple more mistakes than the Stap did over the course of the season. But saying that, they were both on an incredible level all year, but I think Verstappen just edges it for me. So I'm going to give it to the world champ,

as we should have to call him. Yeah, I'm going to go for the world champ as well. I'm going to go Max Verstappen. I think he was the best driver this year. You appreciate I'm again playing into my British bias here, but I am going to go with the Stappen. Max. I agree with you.

I think there were a few instances this year where Hamilton wasn't necessarily on his tip-top form, which is such a in-the-sky expectation that he really didn't fall that far short of it. But there were a few instances where the consistency of Vastafen. was slightly better than the consistency of Hamilton. Hamilton did a great job coming back into it at the end of the year,

but ultimately what Max was able to do, particularly in the middle of this season, just first place, first place, second place, first place. When you have to nitpick errors, obviously you've got the Saudi qualifying, you've got the Imler qualifying that he kind of messed up, Bahrain, where he lost the lead, that would probably be the one that I would point out more than any others, but outside of that, there really weren't many instances where Vestappen was off form this year. So I'm also going to go for Max Vastappen. Driver of the year for you, Sam. Even if Hamilton had won the title in that final race, I would skill of giving it to Max Vastappen

for me. We have always said throughout, you know, the rain that has been Lewis Hamilton's dominance pretty much over the last era of Formula One, that what makes him so brilliant is even on a bad day, he is able to pick up the next best thing. And Vastappen emulated that to a T this season. He was phenomenal. And I know what? I think the one thing that makes Vestappen look bad this season

is the FIA. I don't actually really think it's Verstappen. I feel like if the FIA and cracked down on the run cars wide immediately and properly as we addressed, I think he would have followed that rule and understood his boundaries and whatnot, but he decided to race to the rules that he was

given. You know, I think Mustafa was phenomenal. I think his biggest mistakes could be counting on literally one to two fingers. Of course, a 20-2 race season is incredible. 18 podiums is absolutely. I don't know Hamilton got 17, but, you know, 18 of those pogromes of Max were wings. And the fact that he never got a third place is astounding. So for me, yeah, it was absolutely brilliant.

It was up there with a proper true great world championship drive. I hope you can emulate it so he gets some more big battles in the later on the seasons. but Max is by far my driver the season. Okay, so unanimous one then. Max Verstappen is the winner of the LB. And technically he's already got one win because he had the shared award for the driver's survived one. So he's racking up the titles here, Max.

We're going to do a slight variation on that. So driver of the season, who wasn't competing for the championship? Who have you got, Harry? I'm going to give this one. Well, first shout out to Pierre Gassley, but I'm going to give it to Carlos Sines. I already mentioned, as potential most improved driver, but I think he, like Gadsley in a way,

kind of flown under the radar for most of the year, but has been solid pretty much throughout. And as we've already mentioned, he's finished ahead of LeCler, which none of us saw coming, if you listened to our last podcast reviewing our predictions. we all predicted the club

was going to beat him Ben thought LeClau was going to smash him and he didn't so yeah signs for me because I didn't

expect him to to beat Chuck this year at all so yeah he's been my driver of the year that wasn't fine

for a championship what about you Sam I can't wait for whoever picks up this award by the way to look at the engraving

that will be done by me with my car keys on the bottom of the award and it's clearly got there isn't Max slash Lewis on the award they're going to feel really good

about that one well I'm going to join you Harry it's Carlos Sikes you know four people got more pogims than him four people got more points than him and the Oggs were stacked

against him you've got Charlecler the Golden Boy Gogh LeCler as we've called him for so much of the season no longer until he restores himself at Ferrari you know it's his home term and we've all big to him

Everyone bigs him up. He's Charlerclair. He's been phenomenal. Carlos Seines comes in one season, absolutely doesn't. You know, it does him. And he was brilliant all season long. Consistent, as we said. He was able to be consistent. Even qualifying outside of the top ten, he regularly would bring it back to the finish right behind Sholacler, or in front of Charlecler quite often. He was fantastic. It was looking like it was going to be Norris, I think, for the first nine or ten races. And then it really started to slip away from around, unfortunately, the Russia period.

Ricardo bit into the win in Monza, the Russia wind fell away because of the weather. Because of that, I think Carlos Sites has just pipped it to me. But if you were to give it to Norris or Gassley, I can totally understand that. I think that's a totally fair show. Yeah, from my side, I think it's between three drivers. I think it's either the Ferrari drivers or Lando Norris.

I think Pierre Gassley is just that one step back a little bit, but not by a lot. So of those three drivers, Sines did beat LeClaire in the championship. I do think Leclair had a better season, so I would put Leclair over the signs marginally. However, I would actually put Lando Norris just about ahead of Shao Leclair. He definitely had a better first half of the year

versus a second half of the year. I would definitely say that much. However, I do think he had quite a bit of bad luck in the second half of the year. If you think about Jedder, he was pretty hard done by in terms of the tyres there. You know, started third in Abu Dhabi.

That kind of unraveled a bit. Russia, of course, whether you want to put down to luck or skill, I guess, is interpretation, but he was in position to win that Grand Prix. And he had a couple of podiums earlier in the year. Of course, he had podium at Imala, hit a podium at Monaco. So even though he was caught up eventually by Bottas and Perez, the fact that he was beating those two guys for long stretch of the season says a lot about what he was able to do.

And actually, even in the second half of the year, even though the performances might have dropped ever so slightly, not enough for me to have thrown him of this third place. So I think it's Lano Norris, but consensus wins. So it'll be Carlos Sites, who takes the non-Maxel Lewis driver of the year. And given that's its title, I don't think he's going to be interested in picking that up. Maybe not. Harry?

Do you want to do it, Harry? No, Michael, no. Fine. to find someone else. Dave. Dave. Dave. No, Michael, no award. Clives. Clives, take another award back. Go on. So that is the end of the traditional awards,

just to run through the second half of those there. Toto Wolf and Michael Massey pick up the Sassy Massey Award for the email saga. Harry is an LB winner, thanks to the Beds podcast moment mixing up Javanazzi and Grosjean and just be completely unaware of it. Ferrari moment of the year goes to LaClauero.

and his engineer, driver of the season goes to Vestappen, and then the non-Maxel Lewis driver of the year goes to Carlos Sines. And we'll end tonight's episode, we'll end the LB's with the very first inductees into the late-breaking Hall of Fame. There are going to be four inductees tonight. There will be one inductee from all three of us, and we're also going to pick out a fan inductee. We've been asking this on our social channels and in the Discord, get involved via the link.

So were we having four inductees? It can be literally anything or anyone, but just something or someone that embodies late breaking. The spirit of late breaking is with whatever the hell wins this award. So we'll kick off. Sam, it's going to be a great honour for you, Sam, because this is going to be a tradition that goes on for decades. You get the very first nominee,

very first inductee into the LB Hall of Fame. I really don't like that level of pressure. because I have, folks, we've been talking about the Elby Hall of Fame for quite some time now, or off air, you know, it's been debated, and we've launched it, and we've had a lot of your suggestions, and you've come to GOMI now, and I don't know whether I should do something serious to give it to someone who thoroughly deserves it, or whether I should just be downright, ridiculous,

and say something silly, but he's become a bit of an icon on this show over the last year, and a lot of the fans voted from as well, So I feel like I've got to agree that the first ever late breaking Hall of Famer is legend, TV legend, Dave Benz and Phillips. Oh, Dave. I'm so happy for you, Dave. He's had a massive contribution. He's had a massive contribution to the podcast this year, consistently gunging us in pump the brakes. He's done a great job in that respect.

So thank you, Dave Benson Phillips. And well done for you are the first late. breaking Hall of Fame inductee. But we've still got three more inductees to get through in the class of 2021. And I'm going to go next. And I think if you're looking at the current grid and you want to pick out someone who really embodies late breaking, you'd go for Daniel Ricardo, given he's been the guy who's been making the moves for years and years and years. However, this isn't about successful late-breaking.

This is about everything that encompasses late-breaking, the good and the bad. It's all about the intent. It's all about the attitude, the spirit. And ultimately, you're not a late-breaker if you only do it when it suits you. You're a late-breaker if you do it when it doesn't suit you. And that does not apply to anyone more than it does to Yuki Sonoda. Because throughout the course of his young F-1-com, career, he's had a bit of both. Absolutely planting moves on Fernando Alonzo in Bahrain in the first

race of the year. Botas is still shocked at the fact that Yuki Sonoda went up the inside of him at Abu Dhabi, and it's been at least, you know, a week and a half since that happened now. So, you know, you've got both, you've got both ends of the spectrum of the season here. But the point is, it's an attitude from Sonoda, because he'll do it and sometimes it won't quite work out. He tried it on stroll in Brazil, even though. he started the move in Argentina. He tried it. You remember his qualifying lap,

his Q3 lap at Baku when he tried to break. He tried to break for a corner, but the problem is he went past the corner before he started breaking for it, which is such a commitment to late breaking unlike anyone else I've ever seen. So Yuki Sonoda,

well done. You are the second inductee into the late breaking Hall of Fame. Before we move on to Harry, incredibly, you know, worthy nominee. Can we just take a moment to sit down and think about Dave Banks and Phillips and Yuki Singh Oding and sat there to get in the LB Hall of Fame?

They're in the green room at the moment. Yeah. Oh, in the cold-down room. But who are they going to be joined by, Harry? Who are they going to be joined by? Two words. Two syllables. Big Shack.

Oh, Shaquillo Neal. because as a podcast in the sports world, I think we are the big shack at the USDP. We are awkwardly standing on the podium. As if we've won. Yeah, on the F1 podcast. Trying to tower above the greats, but pretending to be good when we're not really that good.

good so big shack you've shown us the way and we're going to follow you gladly so you said sam what's what what that green room look like with yuki and dame now big shacks in there as well third inductee can we just get the giant longhorn car together and drive off into the sunset you can drive as well he can that's true um i don't know if he can drive better than Chack, but, you know, we get a go. So there we have it. Third inductee into the late breaking Hall of Fame is 7'2 Big Diesel, Shaquille O'Neal, bringing it as he always does.

Oh, I'm so proud. But we also need to have a fourth nominee here that is elected by the fans. So you put this out on Discord, Twitter, Instagram, anything that took your fancy here. well i mean we had a few front runners um harry's fire alarm got a big shout out by a few of the people and i mean it came late right you know it's only been around for the last maybe month or so that's really been bleeping its way along but it really has featured heavily over the last while we of course have other things such as sausages out for gazley um dr nine every time the gazzle's name gets back i got a message other day from a lovely a lovely man

who listens to the podcast uh he just asking about how we record the podcast he's very very lovely And after I gave him a bit of information, he ended his final message to me with, oh, and sausages out for Gassley, which is baffling. Someone just says that to me now. Dr. Nigel Mansell, actually not a doctor, but definitely is a doctor. It's brilliant. You know, Bodies, just calling Bottes has Bodies. Valtree Bodies himself is obviously amazing as well.

There's a number of different things. Ben, any of you take a personal liking to? I'm going to find it hard-pressed. against Harry's fire alarm. That is a prime contender for me. Beeping away in there with big shack of you. It's actually a fire alarm. He's having a conversation.

Just beeping away. There's a part of me that really likes that. Right, there we go then. The fan's choice for a late-breaking Hall of Famer is Harry's fire alarm. So just to confirm the class of 2021, the late breaking Hall of Fame, first ever class, Dave Benson Phillips, Yuki Sanoda, Shaquino O'Neill, and Harry's Fire Alon. The height range on this Hall of Fame is hilarious.

I imagine that big Diesel Shaquille O'Neill will put Yuki on his shoulders to change the battery eventually, you'll be ston phing up and the beeping. What, Dave's there going, get your own back. Dave's gun-juring as they're trying to do it. Oh, God. Well, that was an... What a way to end the year.

Yeah, what a final podcast in 2021. Pretty much sums up the year, doesn't it? Honestly, though, what a crazy year it's being. I mean, let's be a little bit self-indulging here. for both the championship, of course, but because of the championship and you brilliant listeners, our podcast has done so much more

than we ever thought it was going to, right? We had an episode that was inside the top 100 in the US, inside the top 30 for the UK, thousands of, literally thousands of thousands of you listening every single week. It is absolutely baffling. We thought that we'd just be three idiots and we still are three idiots,

just talking to each other. And yet you all turn up every single week. and it is absolutely humbling so thank you we will be here very much next year and years to come making lots more Formula One content so it's the end of the year I hope you're happy with your families and you're safe and you have a lovely holiday but a huge thank you to all of you for your immense support over the last 12 or so months I mean if you couldn't tell by the last hour we have an absolute blast doing this absolutely love it every week come rain or shine you know there are there are certain we're where we're struggling to get back in time from the office or you know trying to make time to do this but it is always absolutely worth our while for for all of the interaction we get all of the engagement on the discord on Twitter all of the all of the kind messages every single one in their own right means so much to the three of us so to extend on what sound has said massive thank you for your support throughout the whole of this year and we aren't going anywhere we'll be here

all of next year as well. Sorry. Yeah, sorry about that, folks. Yeah, and also just extend the thanks out to Lewis Hamilton and Max just after him, because you are our listening figures, okay?

You two, banging into each other, all bloody year. You made it for us, so do it again next year, please. That'll be great. Or someone, just do it again next year. It doesn't have to be it doesn't have to be, it could be

Carlos Lines and Lano. If you want to take a year out, if you want to take a year out, or something else give it a go that's fine don't mind just someone do it someone someone yeah exactly i've realised i've at end of the elbees we probably just need to um to do the proper like oscar's music sort of thing of um of playing playing ourselves out we should get out for stage now well thanks once again you've joined us for the 2021 elbys it has been a spectacular show a big shack is going to carry me home thanks so much for joining us once again for the lbys

Thank you very much Clives. And I look forward to you making another appearance in exactly 12 months time. But until then, we're going to be away next week. So no new episode next week, but we will be back the following week. So you've only got one week without us before we're back into the weekly grind throughout January and February, heading towards the start of the new year. We've got plenty going on outside of these podcasts as well. Even without racing going on, we're in the Discord.

server that is in the link, the link is in the description to this. We're doing quizzes, we're just chatting F1, doing everything you can possibly want in the Discord. So get involved in that. But until our next episode in the new year, see you in 2020. So if you're one of getting us out of here. Folks, Ben's already saying it. Twitter, at Elbreaking, Discord in the link.

If you have loved the podcast, if you've been a big supporter all year long, and you know what, you sat there at the end of year, your grand sent you a little 20 quid in the post. You go, don't know what to spend that on. We do have a Patreon link. And everyone that does support the Patreon, you know, thank you. It is massive, and we are so grateful for that support.

And if you'd like to support us further, we're always trying to improve that to grow it and to add more things to it and do more stuff with our Patreon fans as well. It is a huge thanks from us. We will be back in the New Year. I've said it already, but have a lovely holiday. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not,

have a lovely holiday. I hope you can't thank you for the family. I hope you're safe. And I hope you have a lovely New Year's and best wishes to be going into 2022. We will be back. in the first week of the new year, all the way through the winter break

and into the new season for more and more content. Do join us for it. In the meantime, I've been second safe. I've been Ben Hocking. And I've been Harry E's. And remember, keep breaking late. Back in your cage, Clive. Find more great shows or join the team at sport-ssocial.com.

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