0:00

With the $5 meal deal at McDonald's,

0:02

you pick a McDouble or a McChicken,

0:04

then get a small fry, a small

0:07

drink, and a four-piece McNuggets. That's

0:09

a lot of McDonald's for not a lot

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of money. Price and participation may vary for

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a limited time only. Hello

0:18

and welcome back to the WTF1

0:20

podcast with my self-hating goddess and

0:22

the incredible Emma Jones. Today,

0:25

we are doing our

0:27

post-Austrian Grand Prix wrap-up.

0:29

And oh boy, was

0:31

there a lot of drama that we're going

0:33

to need to get into. I say a

0:35

lot of drama. There was just the one

0:37

piece of drama that is probably going to

0:39

take up the majority of the podcast because

0:41

it's the only thing that anybody's talking about.

0:44

Everyone on social media seems to have an opinion and

0:47

fan bases are already at each other. And

0:50

for me, it's already alluding towards what

0:53

we experienced in 2021, not maybe in terms

0:56

of the championship battle and how heated it

0:58

might be out on track and how close it is in

1:00

terms of the championship, but in terms of maybe

1:02

the opinions from social media is already getting

1:05

to that stage. But Amber, you're joining me

1:07

on the podcast today. First

1:09

of all, what were your thoughts of the Austrian Grand Prix? So

1:11

Hayden, I completely agree with you that when I

1:13

was watching it after like, what, it was like

1:15

lap two or lap three or four, right? This

1:18

is it now. Maybe a

1:20

few different positions. Here

1:22

we go. He's six seconds ahead.

1:24

What? What is going on?

1:26

But then obviously got the last few laps

1:28

of the race and I thought what has

1:31

gone on? This is the drama. I was

1:33

watching it on my phone as well. And

1:35

then my boyfriend comes in and I'm like, get in here

1:37

now. Oh my gosh. They've just hit each

1:39

other. So it was super intense towards the end. But

1:42

yeah, as a as a Grand Prix

1:44

as a whole, it didn't impress me

1:46

until the Max and Norris drama, which

1:48

I'm so frustrated about because, yes, is

1:50

it a racing incident? Was it Max

1:52

Verstappen's fault? Could it have been prevented?

1:54

Of course it could have. And that's

1:56

where I'm like, oh my gosh, Max,

1:58

you know, you could. still

2:00

had a nice position. You could have stayed

2:02

at P two Lando gets past and he's

2:04

P one. But no, it

2:06

didn't happen. And he still came out 10

2:09

times better than Lando because he got

2:12

profit in all fairness. Yeah, he was if

2:14

it has stayed one to he

2:16

would have gained seven points or if

2:18

Lando would have taken me will lost

2:21

seven points. And instead, he nudged

2:23

Lando slightly, gave him both punches, Lando's other

2:25

race and he got an 11 point game

2:28

in the championship. It's just honestly, it was

2:30

just mental. You know what, Hayden, I'm gonna

2:32

say I know you don't want me to

2:34

because now I am the predictions queen. And

2:36

as we know, I was

2:38

on five out of five. I was about to

2:40

get a five out of five. I know you

2:42

were. And then look what happened. And I'm glad

2:45

it happened. My gosh, thank you to everyone in

2:47

the comments that actually some people were like, wow,

2:49

they got those predictions wrong. I

2:51

had some people defending me in the comments.

2:53

I actually Amber had five out of five

2:55

until that incident that no one saw coming.

2:57

So thank you. But it spiced

3:00

it up at least. So maybe it made the

3:02

rest of the season interesting. You know, are we

3:04

going to see is it like 2021 again,

3:06

we have the Hamilton, the staff and battle is

3:08

it turning into Max B. Norris?

3:12

Yeah, I mean, I think it's gonna be too

3:14

late for that in terms of a championship battle.

3:17

I'm feeling like this season is

3:19

more similar to 2020, where we

3:21

have a lot of different

3:23

race winners, a lot of different drivers on the podium. And

3:27

we're two years before a technical regulation, whereas next

3:29

year will be one year before a technical regulation. And

3:31

I think that's when we're going to get even closer

3:34

to Red Bull from the start of the season.

3:36

And I think we will have a championship battle between

3:38

those two drivers across the season who comes out on

3:40

top. Let's wait and see. Or if it even,

3:42

you know, actually happens, but this season

3:44

at the moment is just that buildup right now. We're getting

3:46

a lot of different race winners. I think we were it's

3:50

exciting that we are getting, I think it's

3:52

five. So the Stappen Carlos, look,

3:54

Laura Norris and Russell now. So five

3:56

different race winners, Sergio Perez,

3:58

still yet to get to win a race.

4:01

and I don't think he's going to, unfortunately,

4:03

we'll talk about him later. But

4:05

yeah, this has given me slight

4:07

2021 vibes in terms of like the two fan bases

4:09

against each other, but also 2020 vibes in

4:11

terms of what's happening else on track. And

4:14

yeah, I think Austria was so

4:16

dull, so boring. And

4:19

then the last 10 to 20, I can't

4:21

remember when exactly they came into the box,

4:23

but made that 10 to 20 laps. Then

4:25

it got exciting. Okay, Lando's on the back

4:27

of him in the DRS and those, those

4:30

moves to send up the inside to try

4:32

and get that position. And then of course,

4:34

the contact. I want to get your opinion

4:36

first. What are your opinions about the collision?

4:38

Who's at full? Is anyone at full? Was

4:41

it the FIA is full for not dealing

4:43

with it sooner? There's a lot

4:45

of opinions from a lot of people. But what are your

4:47

initial thoughts? It took me a while to sort of get

4:49

my head around it when it happened. I was like, Oh my

4:51

gosh, was that was a noise? Was it the staff and you

4:53

watch all the replays back again? I think it's

4:56

a hard one to answer because if you race against

4:58

Matt Verstappen, you do have to expect that he's not

5:00

going to let it go easy. He's going to push

5:03

you to the very, very limits, even if he ends

5:05

up getting a penalty. So half of me is saying,

5:07

Norris really should have just said, you know what? It's

5:09

a little bit too difficult. We are going to have

5:11

a collision. We're both going to damage our cars at

5:13

the end of the day. Maybe I'll just have to

5:15

settle for P two and let's hope the next race

5:18

I can bring it. But as a racing driver, you're

5:20

never going to do that. Of course, you're going to

5:22

make those moves. Of course, you're going to push it

5:24

a little bit too much that already riled up because

5:26

of incidents happened in nearly every corner

5:28

they were going through. But

5:30

ultimately, if I had to

5:32

pinpoint any blame, I do think Max

5:35

just pushed it ever so slightly and he

5:37

can get away with it. Just we see

5:39

this with the FIA and you

5:41

know, in the team, he gets away with these

5:43

little moves. You have to question why is it?

5:45

Why can another driver do it and get penalized

5:48

10 times more than Max Verstappen? So it does

5:50

need to be fair. I mean, we've seen comments

5:52

from Carlos signs the past few races saying, you

5:54

know, why do we have rules if we don't

5:56

follow them? So I would

5:59

say it's more. max's fault, but at the

6:01

same time, it is racing.

6:03

You know, they're gonna go hard. They're gonna

6:05

battle head to head. It's so unfortunate that

6:07

it happened. I think one of them should

6:09

have just calmed down. Ultimately, it's, it's max

6:11

in my opinion, but I don't know what

6:13

your opinion is. Well, racing, you in

6:17

most incidents, I mean, if somebody just absolutely

6:19

sends it across the corner in somebody else,

6:21

and it's fully 100% on their fault, but

6:23

most incidents, it's never always 100%.

6:26

It takes two drivers to crash and to

6:28

come together. And there's always if buts and

6:30

maybes. Let's talk about the, the sends first

6:32

of all, from Lando Norris. I don't think

6:34

there was particularly massively anything wrong with

6:37

the sends. If a driver wants to dive up the inside,

6:40

you know, it's up to kind of like the driver

6:42

behind or ahead to be like smart to that, to

6:44

say, okay, you send it, you're going to overshoot the

6:46

corner, I'm going to switch you back. And,

6:49

you know, Max Verstappen complaining

6:51

about that, which I completely

6:53

understand when your driver in the cockpit,

6:55

you are in that moment,

6:57

the adrenaline is pumping, you

6:59

are going to complain about it like these drivers moan

7:01

and whine about all these little things. Anybody

7:04

in any racing situation will do the same,

7:06

you don't put a microphone to a football

7:08

player and expect them to be all happy

7:10

and nice and and saying nice things about

7:12

everybody. Everyone's moaning about little different things because

7:14

it catches you off guard. And, and you

7:16

know, you're trying to just

7:19

just wave that flag to the students be like, Oh, have a

7:21

look at this, you know, just in case something does come of

7:24

it. I don't think there

7:26

was anything particularly wrong with a dive bomb maneuver. But

7:28

again, it takes two people. If Max Verstappen decides to

7:30

go for the corner and you've dived it in there

7:32

and you've crashed, it's your fault, you're the driver behind.

7:34

So it's up to the it's up to both drivers

7:36

to sort of navigate that the first one over sent,

7:38

it went off the track, which you actually got a

7:41

penalty for the final track limit warning,

7:43

which is another thing that I'm not sure of.

7:46

I don't quite agree with if you,

7:49

if you, okay, the track number warning thing I

7:51

understand, but if you've given the position back, then

7:53

does it count as a track limit warning because

7:55

you technically haven't gained anything from it, you've just

7:57

got a warning you run off run off wide.

8:00

But yeah, so the first one over

8:02

sent it went off wide find the second one made the corner

8:05

and max had to go off wide because

8:07

there was enough room. Now again, this is something else I

8:09

disagree with, which is this whole, uh, era

8:11

of racing that it's all about. I'm going to

8:13

send it to the apex first. And if I'm

8:15

ahead of the apex, it's my corner. You've got

8:17

to back out and it doesn't matter that I

8:19

understand it's racing. It's just different people's opinions of

8:21

racing. Uh, I, you know, on the majority of

8:23

times I like drivers to leave

8:26

space or, you know, majority of times I like

8:28

to leave space myself. Okay. We make mistakes and

8:30

sometimes we ever send and we understeer and not

8:33

enough spaces there, but the majority of times you

8:35

should try and leave space. Then you get greater

8:37

spectacles of racing because that's your will to action

8:39

rather than I'm just going to go as fast

8:41

as I can into the corner. And

8:44

if I get to apex first and you're on the

8:46

outside, tough luck. I'm going to push off wide, which

8:48

Matt can complain a lot, but if we remember 2021,

8:50

he made a career out

8:52

of those sort of sends. We're talking

8:55

Brazil. It's all good Saudi Arabia. So

8:57

like things come and go. Um, they

8:59

always come back to you in the

9:01

end, but then for the actual collision,

9:03

I think the moving under breaking is

9:05

something I'll get into in a second.

9:08

Um, cause I want to know your opinion of it first,

9:10

but the, the moving to the left is

9:12

a weird one because you usually when two

9:15

drivers crash, it is on the majority

9:17

up to the driver behind to make

9:19

sure the overtake is done cleanly and

9:21

land and horses, the drive behind going

9:23

into a space. And

9:26

this is the thing about

9:28

Max Verstappen. You know that he

9:30

is not going to make it easy for you. And he

9:32

said, you know, I'm not just going to give you space.

9:34

I'm not just going to let you, I'm not going to

9:36

stay all the way to the right to give you an

9:39

easy opportunity to go around the outside or switch it back

9:41

on me to take the position. No, I'm fighting for a

9:43

race win and I'm going to fight for a race win,

9:45

which I completely respect. You know, I think that's completely fair

9:47

enough, but you know, with him, he's going to push you

9:49

and it's up to it's a center

9:51

Schumacher where driving that I'm going to send it there.

9:53

And if you don't back out, we crash. It's up

9:56

to you. This is where I'm going. You back out.

9:58

We crash. And I think Lando Norris enough

10:00

and said, you know what? No, I'm not backing out. He

10:02

could have definitely used the curve. And we've seen in the

10:04

past that on Hamilton went side by side in that corner

10:06

a few years ago, when they

10:08

were rivals fighting for the championship and they made

10:10

it through cleanly. And it was a great battle

10:12

because it was two drivers willing to have that

10:14

battle. But for Lando Norris, yes, he

10:16

could have used the curb, but he didn't have to

10:19

use the curb because he is entitled to a car's

10:21

whip. So he can stay on that white line. But

10:23

if he had gone over there, they wouldn't have come

10:26

together. But I think he had enough of being like,

10:28

no, I'm going to teach you that I'm not going

10:30

to back down and I'm not going to get out

10:32

of the way. And I actually quite like that because

10:34

I think too many drivers in the past have gotten

10:37

out of the way for Max Verstappen. And I do

10:39

think that in order to

10:41

get the racing that I want, which is drivers

10:43

to go side by side for corners a lot

10:45

more, somebody needs to say,

10:47

no, I'm not getting out of

10:49

the way. And if we keep on crashing coming

10:51

together, then I think that's the only way that

10:53

we're going to get that sort of racing. But

10:55

I do understand fans opinions that saying he had

10:57

loads of space to the left. Why didn't he

10:59

use it? But ultimately he made the

11:01

collision moving to the left. The puncture

11:04

occurred and his closest championship

11:06

rival is out of the race. Okay.

11:08

It's not a close championship, but he is still his

11:10

closest championship rival. So it's one of those weird things

11:12

in motorsport that we don't have

11:15

set rules for certain tackles in football,

11:17

for example, or, or fouls in football.

11:19

It's one of those where

11:21

I do think you have to take in

11:23

the consequences slightly because every situation

11:25

is kind of judged differently. But

11:28

is it worth it? That's the only thing

11:30

I'm like, Norris, you're out of

11:32

the race. You know, you're, you're so close now.

11:34

We're hoping that you can catch up to max

11:36

eventually. But now you're out. So you've just lost

11:39

that P2 would have been great. I've got you

11:41

a nice amount of points. It would have been

11:43

great for McLaren as a constructor as well. Was

11:46

it worth to try and show I'm going

11:48

to go against my way.

11:50

It could have easily been Max Verstappen out

11:52

and it could have been, you know, Landon or a South

11:54

could have easily been both of them out. It could have

11:56

been a small, so many times we've seen a collision like

11:58

that and no damage has happened. just will to

12:00

will. They just gone punk and then they're fine. So

12:02

it's one of those where you

12:04

don't know the consequences of your actions. You don't

12:07

know what is going to happen when you

12:09

push that button, but you're

12:11

prepared to take that risk,

12:14

which, you know, if we're

12:16

going to have two drivers who are going to

12:18

fight for the championship, I think they both need

12:20

to be prepared. And I think that's what ultimately

12:23

lost Lewis, the championship in 2021 that

12:25

he backed out time and time again,

12:27

apart from Silverstone, where he said, you know what,

12:29

I've had enough of backing out and

12:31

what happened, a massive crash happened. And I

12:33

think that also spooked Lewis in a sense

12:35

where he was like, okay, like that was

12:38

a horrendous crash, which, you know, could

12:41

have gone horribly wrong for Max Verstappen.

12:43

That, you know what, let's maybe

12:46

not be

12:48

as risky with the overtakes in that sort

12:50

of sense. And well, I

12:52

think it's hard for a driver as well. It's so

12:54

easy for us to sit here and be like,

12:56

I would have done this and I would have

12:58

done this. But obviously you don't know until you're

13:00

in that position going at those ridiculous speeds, you

13:02

know, your brain isn't going to brain the way

13:04

we're sat here now at a microphone, talking to

13:06

a laptop. So you can see it more clear

13:08

and concise afterwards. And I'm sure Norris maybe would

13:10

reflect on the race and can also not done

13:12

that. And Max would have, but they're not obviously

13:14

openly going to come out and say, okay, I

13:16

shouldn't have done this move. Maybe I shouldn't have

13:18

tested that. But it depends on is Norris

13:21

trying to showcase himself as a driver

13:24

and an individual, or does he want to

13:26

keep the points for the team and for

13:28

himself in the championship? And that's where it

13:30

gets a little bit difficult. It's what's your

13:32

decision? Are you showing I can beat Max

13:34

Verstappen? I'm going to come against him. Our

13:36

car has got the pace. Now we're in

13:38

this battle. We're going to get as close

13:40

as we can. Or you know

13:42

what, Max, it's too difficult. I'll

13:45

try and catch maybe the next few laps. I'm

13:47

not going to push it right now. Obviously,

13:49

you've got the risk and we're going to drop back

13:51

on times and the tire degradation. But that's

13:54

the problem. I think we're going to see a

13:56

lot. Max is super competitive is Lando going to

13:58

go for a move like this again. And

14:00

what has he, is it going to knock his thumb

14:02

down? That's why I just hope that he has now

14:04

set a standard that is like, okay, I'm willing not

14:06

to back out. And that's what I mean. Because what

14:08

you're saying right there is you're saying Lando knows what,

14:10

how Max is going to drive. He should just settle

14:12

for the points. And that's what I mean. Max

14:15

is going to drive in this sort of way. So

14:17

don't put your car in there because you're going to

14:19

crash. So therefore let Max win. And

14:21

I think it's right for Lando in a sense to

14:24

be like, no, I'm not going to get out of

14:26

the way. If you've crashed out

14:28

of this race, I don't care because I'm going to

14:30

tell you now, I'm going to set a precedent that

14:32

we're not going to get out of the way. And

14:34

I want it to be a situation where both drivers

14:36

consider that instead of, instead of it just being Lando

14:38

thinking, I don't want to put my car in here

14:40

because Max is going to squeeze me. And

14:42

that could potentially ruin my race. And I need

14:44

to score points for the team. I want it

14:47

to be the same way that Max also thinks

14:49

like that is driving craft as well, because if

14:51

that's not where your skill is, you know, if

14:53

your skill is not jumping in there and overtaking

14:55

there, obviously we know Norris is good at this,

14:57

but have we seen enough of it against a

14:59

super aggressive driver like Max has happened for him

15:01

now to push it? Because

15:04

for example, I'm stuck at it is as if

15:06

I am a driver and my skill is defending.

15:09

So it's not overtaking, but it's keeping

15:11

people behind me. Then

15:13

I can't be crazy just because I'm in a position

15:15

where now I can kind of try and make these

15:17

moves. If that's not my top skill and I'm not

15:19

best at it's not my strength, should I

15:21

be pushing it just because I can? I think that's

15:23

what we need to see with Norris. Is he capable

15:26

of doing this against Max? But I know what you're

15:28

saying. We need someone to go up against him. We

15:30

need someone to do it and not just back off

15:32

and take the easy way out. So it keeps the

15:34

rest of the season exciting, I think. Yes, certainly. Like,

15:37

you know, and I think for any driver who wants

15:39

to be considered as a world champion, it's

15:41

not a case of, Oh, my strengths are only this. I

15:44

need to suit to this. No, your strength should

15:46

be everywhere. And that's what I think

15:48

we've seen with Max Verstappen is the strengths have been

15:50

everywhere. He can overtake, he can defend, but he can

15:52

ultimately be super duper aggressive

15:55

and tough in those situations

15:57

that he will put his car in a place. that

16:00

forces you to have to get

16:02

out of the way. Otherwise, you're

16:05

both going to compromise. And he has

16:07

that luxury of being in a

16:09

nice position in the championship of

16:12

having that buffer that if we

16:14

both crash, we both lose a lot of points. Then,

16:16

you know, ultimately, I've still got that

16:19

net gain on you. If they both crashed

16:21

out, he still has the gain on Norris.

16:23

Leclerc was out of the points as well.

16:25

So he wouldn't have lost anything to his

16:27

two closest championship rivals. So I

16:29

think having that luxury to be like, oh, I can

16:31

put my car wherever, whereas Lando is the chasing one.

16:33

And if he wants to get the championship, yes, okay.

16:35

He needs to potentially be smarter. But I also like,

16:37

as I said, just saying, no, I'm

16:40

not going to move out of the way. And

16:42

I hope that we get to a situation where

16:44

it's not just speaking. Lando knows how Max is

16:46

going to drive. He will have to drive around

16:48

that. I hope we get to a situation where

16:50

Max and Lando both know how each other are

16:52

going to drive. So they have to drive around

16:54

each other and not to not make a collision.

16:56

Yeah, I think it is. That's why I

16:59

do agree. I think obviously it'll just keep the

17:01

season more exciting. We're not going into the race

17:03

going, oh, great. It's a Max win, even if

17:05

Lando is so close to him, it's all. But

17:07

Max has always got the upper hand against Norris.

17:09

So hopefully we do see

17:11

something else. You know, we're not seeing

17:13

it with Perez, for example, the right

17:15

two teammates fighting. So what an absolute

17:17

stinker for Perez once again. Yeah,

17:20

I mean, I've got to shout

17:22

out to Perez in a sense, because he

17:25

did actually have a massive hole in his side pod,

17:27

which is going to lose you a lot of time.

17:30

A lot of people claiming, oh, look at this man.

17:32

He's he's he's fighting with two house cars. They were

17:34

both tractors and he can't get past Nico Holkenberg. And

17:36

then you look at his card, it's just got a

17:38

massive hole in the side pod. So like at the

17:41

end of the day, I don't think Perez is still

17:43

on that level of Max was that

17:45

definitely not. But to come out of

17:47

that race and be like, what the hell was he

17:49

doing? He's fighting two house cars. His teammates had a

17:51

crash. He's driven a whole lap with a puncture, which

17:54

is to be fair, the short slap on the calendar.

17:56

Done that with a puncture. And

17:58

he still come out and beaten him. him,

18:00

uh, which is fair, but then the

18:02

other cars being damaged for 71 laps. So yeah,

18:04

I think Paris had a better weekend. This weekend

18:07

is still not where we need to be, but

18:09

he had a better weekend. I was going to

18:11

say what your opinions on that incident between Piasht, Rida,

18:14

Claire and Perez at the start of the race. I

18:16

think just a racing incident at the start.

18:19

You go three into one. It's a very

18:21

difficult corner because it tightens and it rises

18:23

up over the crest of the hill. And

18:25

it is such a difficult corner to navigate

18:27

free cars in there. And we have had

18:30

the, the, the

18:32

luxury to have driven a single seat car

18:34

before, right? Which

18:36

was amazing. But like, how

18:38

many times do you use a mirrors? And also

18:40

how easy is it for you to see, not

18:42

just to the left, which is, which is kind

18:44

of easy just to look there, but the left

18:46

behind, which is where those cars are. Because if

18:48

you look in a mirror of a single seater,

18:50

you're not looking towards your blind spots, right

18:52

and left of you. You're actually just looking what's

18:54

behind you. So if you, if there's two cars

18:57

there, you're unaware that you've got two cars. And

18:59

I think Piastry is unaware that I think it

19:01

was Leclerc that was in the middle. And so

19:03

he's unaware of the car there. Leclerc might have

19:05

a better site because he's the one

19:07

behind in between the two. And he did actually try

19:09

and back out, but it was just a little bit

19:11

too late. And I think it's just, it's just one

19:13

of those racing incidents where it's three into a tight

19:16

corner of one. Sadly, not going to work. Piastry doesn't

19:18

know he has two cars there. Perez, you know, on

19:20

the inside is going to try

19:22

and get that maneuver done on the inside because you're

19:25

already there. You're not going to back out of that.

19:27

So yeah, it's just one of those, those

19:30

things where three cars just unfortunately come together.

19:33

I just hope that we do see some

19:35

improvement because I feel like Perez is similar

19:37

to Leclerc and the aspect where they both

19:39

have, you know, really bad luck, despite if

19:41

they're on top form of the weekend, something

19:43

always goes wrong for them. And that's

19:46

why people are speculating even more, you know, over

19:48

Paris's performance and what's going to happen the rest

19:50

of the season. Now he's got an obviously an

19:52

extension on his contract. It actually,

19:54

I think it's more negative that he's got this

19:56

now because everyone's like, you don't deserve this. You

19:58

know, you shouldn't be. Yeah, it should be a

20:00

different driver. So I just want

20:03

him to prove himself. And we're not seeing

20:05

that at all. You know, last year at

20:07

Silverstone, he was like, what? P six or

20:09

P seven. So if that was his position

20:11

last year, he finished this race, Austria P

20:13

seven. What's going to happen for Silveson? Is

20:16

it going to be a repeat? And I

20:18

just think it's not great to have, you

20:21

know, you've got one driver getting P one P two

20:23

or obviously not in this

20:25

case, a little shunt, but then

20:27

you've got your other driver getting P seven.

20:29

And it's just difficult. You know, when is

20:31

Perez going to turn this around? He's safe

20:33

now. So there's less pressure on him, but

20:35

I'm just hoping we see something because yes,

20:37

we're fed up of having Max at the

20:39

top of the grid and all. It's the

20:41

Red Bull, but it'd be quite nice to

20:43

have another Red Bull up there fighting and

20:45

fighting with the McLarens or is it the

20:47

Mercedes or is the Ferrari like these the

20:50

conversations you want to have, you know, who's

20:52

fighting? And now we're going into the race

20:54

going, oh, Perez is probably going to have

20:56

a stinker anyway. So we're not really looking

20:58

at him. There's no eyes on Perez. So

21:00

disappointing, I'd say overall, but Piastri,

21:02

he had a great weekend. I

21:04

was really watching Piastri over the course of the

21:06

weekend because, you know, it seemed like he had

21:08

that car in that sweet spot. He did well

21:10

in the sprint race. He was

21:13

disappointed. His comments at the end of

21:15

the full race is he's

21:17

disappointed to not get that win. But for me, I

21:19

didn't, you know, I was watching obviously the

21:22

times and he was like three seconds away

21:24

from Brussels. So I was like, you're not

21:26

going to get that win anyway. So why

21:29

are we commenting that? Well, I think it

21:31

comes down to qualifying, make a mistake of

21:33

running wide, which I think does

21:35

need to be looked at and a

21:37

question of the policing of

21:39

track limits. I am somebody who

21:42

fully agrees the white line is the white line.

21:44

Just like any other sport, you look at football,

21:46

you look at rugby, you look at cricket, a

21:48

white line is a white line. And if

21:50

you cross that white line, it's a foul

21:53

or, you know, it's a goal or whatever.

21:55

Like that defines it. However, we

21:57

don't have the technology in Formula One. least

22:00

they don't use technology in Formula One that

22:02

clearly dictates whether a driver is over the

22:04

white line. The shot that they were using

22:06

was a shot looking at the front right

22:09

corner of the car and you can see

22:11

the front left. Oh, it looks like it

22:13

might be over but you can't see the

22:15

rear left tire. So then you're like, I'm

22:17

not sure about that tire. So realistically, you

22:20

need some sort of bird's eye view over the

22:22

top to see the white line and to judge

22:25

it or sensors in the outside of the tire

22:27

that will flag up if

22:30

the car has gone fully over the white

22:32

line. Yes, okay, I think they made a

22:34

great improvement this weekend for track limits to

22:37

add the gravel traps

22:39

to stop cars going so far wide and it

22:41

worked. You know, we didn't have the

22:43

load of penalties we had in previous seasons.

22:45

That was brilliant. But if you're going to

22:47

enforce track limits, we need to be able

22:49

to see if the full car is over

22:52

because even if it's on the white line

22:54

by a millimeter, that is still in just

22:56

like any other sport just like when you

22:58

use Hawkeye in tennis. If it's in by

23:00

the smallest margins, it's in. So we need

23:03

a system in place if we're going to

23:05

be talking about track limits and penalizing people

23:07

for that that is just a lot better

23:09

and a lot smarter. But I was really

23:11

that's what cost him the race win. Well,

23:14

I didn't read too much into

23:17

it. You can correct me if I'm wrong

23:19

here, Hayden, but I saw that they did

23:21

integrate some sort of AI technology in relation

23:23

to obviously helping with the track limit situation.

23:25

So if that's the case,

23:27

and there's already a program sort of

23:30

implemented, I'm sure with, you

23:32

know, engineers, scientists, whatever, we can look into

23:34

that and hopefully Formula One can integrate that

23:36

into sorting out these issues because then yet

23:38

it does become a frenzy of, you know,

23:40

what's right, what's wrong, what happened here, what

23:42

didn't someone then gets a penalty and then

23:44

you've got half of the grid, you know,

23:46

kicking off and fans kicking off and then

23:49

you got the FIA saying, no, this is

23:51

what we're doing. So it saves this whole

23:53

backlash, I think of, you know, towards the

23:55

FIA if we had something else integrated. Yeah,

23:58

I think, you know, it just needs to be We

24:00

need to find technology out there to make it a

24:02

lot easier and also flag up for drivers when they've

24:04

gone off, because that was the problem that we had

24:06

in Austria last year. I mean, this time it's a

24:08

bit more knowledgeable if you've gone off because you're hitting

24:10

that gravel and it's a bit more of a bumpy

24:13

ride. So you're like, Oh, I've got a bit wide

24:15

there. Let's not do that again. But at least before

24:17

and maybe at other tracks, you can

24:19

run wide slightly and you won't know until five laps

24:21

later because the FIA has finally told you, Oh, by

24:23

the way, you went off five laps ago. And by

24:25

that point you've gone off another five times because they

24:27

haven't told you, obviously it's great for me when I'm

24:29

playing the F1 game, because I know as soon as

24:31

I've gone wide, it comes up track

24:33

limits warning straight away. And I'm like, okay, I

24:36

went a little bit wide there. Let's not do

24:38

that again. Let's hold it back a little bit.

24:40

So I think technology just needs to catch up.

24:42

You know, Formula one is an innovative sport and

24:45

it needs to be with the

24:47

times. And you're looking at other sports that have systems

24:50

in place that can, that can judge down

24:52

to those small millimeters. And I think, you

24:54

know, that needs to be something that needs

24:56

to be implemented for track limits. And something

24:58

else that I think why he was disappointed

25:00

as well was actually Lando Norris speeding back

25:02

into the pit lane, throwing a load of

25:04

debris on the track, bringing out a virtual

25:07

safety car was potentially actually what costs be

25:09

actually getting the wind because he was faster

25:11

than Russell. He just overtook science. Virtual

25:13

safety car comes out gap stays. I think it went

25:15

up. I think he missed out on the virtual safety

25:17

car because it went back up to three seconds. And

25:20

by that point you've slowed down. So you need to

25:22

get your ties then back up to temperature. And then

25:24

by the time that he was starting to catch up

25:26

to Russell again, you know, got it down to two

25:28

seconds. It was the end

25:30

of the race. So I think that had

25:32

it been warmer tires, he would

25:35

have been within the RS range,

25:37

I think maybe on the last lap. And I think

25:39

that's why maybe it was slightly disappointed at the end

25:41

of that race. Yeah. I

25:43

mean, I just thought if there were more laps towards the

25:45

end, then of course, you know, he can start to fight

25:47

for that. But there was only like four or five. And

25:50

I thought, you know, obviously he was talking about it on

25:52

the radio and I thought he's not going to get that

25:54

win. You know, he's too far away now, but you know,

25:56

it's still a good result for McLaren at the end of

25:58

the race. the end of the day to get on the

26:00

podium. At least one of them, a car and it's got

26:03

on the podium, not the one that they were expecting, but

26:06

the Ferraris, what

26:08

a stinker. And I'm going to say is I, I

26:10

kind of called it again, that look like it was

26:13

just not going to have a great weekend. I don't

26:15

know why, I don't know, you know, what gave me

26:17

that, because he did have the

26:19

pace towards the start of the weekend. It was

26:21

very close between him and signs obviously, you know,

26:23

track limits and all this stuff did affect him.

26:27

But I just knew going into it, something,

26:29

something's not right. Something's going to happen to

26:31

him. Signs is going to be the Ferrari

26:33

that comes out on top. Got on the

26:35

podium. So another maybe unexpected position for Ferrari.

26:37

I don't think they knew they were going

26:40

to be there at all, but there's just,

26:42

there's no consistency at all with the Ferraris.

26:44

There's just nothing you're going into the races

26:46

and you don't know where they're going to

26:48

end up, whether it's engine failure, whether it's,

26:51

you know, an upgrade. That's just not what's

26:53

that weekend, whether it's the drivers fighting, there

26:55

is no consistency. Are we seeing Ferrari slowly

26:57

dropping down now? We thought it was going

26:59

to be, you know, the second team on

27:01

the grid. Are they slowly dropping down to

27:04

like third, fourth, potentially even fifth at this

27:06

point? Yeah, I think they are. I

27:08

think they're behind Mercedes. I think they're behind certainly behind McLaren

27:10

and behind Red Bull. And I think they have been for

27:12

a while. Monaco is a unique circuit that if you have

27:14

the car set up and you know,

27:17

I'm looking back in previous years when

27:20

Mercedes were dominant and Red Bull would

27:22

always pop up at Monaco and would

27:24

be fighting for pole position because their

27:26

car was just so well

27:28

done aerodynamically that they were able to fight

27:30

at a circuit like that. And, you know,

27:32

then it rewarded them again when we went

27:34

to Mexico because the engine wasn't necessarily as

27:37

important as other circuits. And

27:39

I think that's a similar situation. It might not

27:42

be down to exactly the same things. It might

27:44

not be a case that the Ferrari is the

27:46

best aerodynamically, but it's the best maybe in the

27:48

slow speed and with the bumps and

27:51

a street circuit like Monaco. And that's just

27:53

really where they excelled because Canada, they were

27:55

nowhere, Spain, they were nowhere.

27:57

And then we come to Austria. They were

27:59

nowhere. And we're probably going to go to

28:01

Britain and they're going to be nowhere as well. So I

28:04

think Sandy for Ferrari, they have chopped off

28:06

and McLaren have been the team that have stepped it up

28:08

and caught up to McLaren. When at the start of the

28:10

season, we thought, you know, science Leclerc,

28:12

who's going to be the one who's going to

28:14

fight with the red balls? No, instead, now it's,

28:16

it's Lando Norris and the McLaren team. And even

28:19

Mercedes are starting to make improvements. Yeah. Okay. They

28:21

got lucky with a race win, but that sport,

28:23

you know, sometimes you just need that luck, but

28:25

just to push you forward and motivate

28:27

everyone back in the factory to be like, right. Okay.

28:29

We're really on for something here. Cause we put our

28:32

car in the best position to pick up the pieces.

28:34

If something badly goes wrong. And, uh, you know, as

28:36

I said earlier, if those two at the front want

28:38

to keep on buying against each other and not wanting

28:40

to yield George Ross is going to be sitting there

28:42

with his popcorn. Be like, you two go do your

28:44

thing. I'll say the race win once you crash into

28:46

each other again. So, um, yeah, we just

28:49

have to see how it works. But for me,

28:51

Ferrari, it's just not working for them. But is

28:53

it a case of they're like, okay, this season

28:55

we're not where we want to be.

28:57

It's too late really now to maybe get ourselves into a championship.

29:00

Let's develop for next year.

29:03

But is it also, I was just

29:05

thinking with Leclerc and signs, yes,

29:08

they're great drivers. Yes. I think they can

29:10

be all rounders at times and they've got

29:12

great strengths in their driver craft, but they're

29:15

not as aggressive as max or now

29:17

what we're seeing with Norris or Hamilton

29:19

when he makes his aggressive moves. Is

29:22

that what we're missing? You know, even if they were

29:24

at the front and they still had that strong car,

29:27

are they going to be the drivers that go? Yeah.

29:29

Okay. Actually, I'm not going to push. We see it

29:31

at times. Of course, we see it with all the

29:33

drivers on the grid, but there's

29:35

other drivers that are consistently more aggressive and

29:37

they're pushing for it more. And I think

29:40

maybe that plays into the team not doing

29:42

super well also, because if the car's not

29:44

there, something's not working and your

29:46

drivers aren't pushing, pushing like a max for

29:48

staff and push the components,

29:51

they're not making something great. I've

29:53

never thought of it like that before until now. I

29:56

don't think so. I think, you know, if the car's not underneath

29:58

you, then there's not really too much. that you can

30:00

do. Like you can't if you

30:02

haven't got the car, then you can't be aggressive to

30:05

make the overtakes because you can't be put into that

30:07

position before making the overtakes in the past. Have

30:09

we seen signs or

30:11

the super aggressive signs? And Leclerc

30:13

at least signs be super aggressive

30:15

with Leclerc. So it is there.

30:18

And I think we have seen

30:20

it with with science when he went with will

30:22

with Max at the start of the season in

30:24

Australia. Like he when he went through

30:26

his movie, I do remember it being a bit

30:28

more than aggressive ones. So I

30:31

think they are both capable of

30:33

being aggressive drivers when you

30:35

just don't have the car underneath you to make those moves.

30:37

Then you know, you are just a

30:39

sitting duck and you can defend all you

30:41

want. But at the

30:43

end of the day, it's going to be difficult. Like most

30:46

of the time in the middle of the race, there's no point defending. You

30:48

can defend as hard as you want on lap 36 out of 71. But

30:50

in reality, what is

30:53

the point? Because you're losing yourself time.

30:56

You could be on a different strategy to the car behind. And

30:58

you could also be putting yourself into the trajectory of

31:01

cars that you don't want to be fighting

31:03

with that behind that then will be like, oh, we see an

31:05

opportunity here. I just want to try and get this position here

31:07

to make my team feel good or to make me

31:09

look like a good driver. So I'm going to

31:11

try and go for this overtake here on on

31:13

a car that I shouldn't really be overtaking. And

31:16

that's just the problem that you do. Basically, if

31:18

you're fighting too hard in the mid

31:20

stages, it's just picking and choosing your battles and picking

31:22

and choosing to be aggressive. When you find an opponent,

31:24

you can be more aggressive. I

31:26

just think despite obviously that I'm not even talking

31:28

about now because they're not there. But once they,

31:30

when they were there in the past, I just

31:32

don't think and of course everyone's got different opinions

31:35

on this. But for me, it's just they're not,

31:37

I don't talk about Charles being an

31:39

aggressive driver and talk about signs, being an

31:41

aggressive driver, but you talk about your max,

31:43

your Hamilton, your madness. So I mean, he's

31:46

not even fighting the podiums. I'm like, wow,

31:48

super aggressive. Obviously, Ocon is getting a lot

31:50

of stick at the minute. So you

31:52

need to have that perfect balance. You can't be

31:54

too aggressive because yes, your car is going to

31:56

be in the wall. You're going to be crashing

31:58

to everyone. You are. of a Magnussen.

32:01

But then you don't want to

32:03

be too relaxed, too laid back, you're managing your

32:05

tyres a little bit too much, you're listening to

32:07

team orders and never going against them. And I

32:09

think that's what we don't really see with Sainz

32:12

and Leclerc. But I'm hoping we see

32:14

some crazy battles once

32:16

Mr Lewis Hamilton joins Ferrari in

32:18

2025. Maybe, who

32:20

knows how that's gonna turn out there. But I think

32:22

we need to talk about the man of the moment.

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33:25

Russell. We haven't. I mean, picking up the pieces, it was an

33:27

amazing weekend, but definitely signs

33:30

of improvement because they put themselves again in a

33:32

position further up the field. And then,

33:34

yeah, Hamilton, unfortunate with a penalty too, but he did, you know, put a wheel

33:40

on the white line, I believe. So yeah, it's one of

33:42

those that, you know, if you have a chance, yeah,

33:47

it's, it's one of those that, you know, if

33:49

you have a good team behind you, they can

33:51

probably argue that I'm looking at Red Bull, Red

33:53

Bull in all fairness, but I made this claim

33:55

now getting rid of Adrian Newey, our Red

33:57

Bull isn't the main person you need to get out of Red

33:59

Bull. in order to stop them being

34:01

as dominant. There's a man who is more important

34:03

in that team. And that's Jonathan Wheatley, who is,

34:06

knows that rule book inside and out. And if you

34:08

try and give that team a penalty, nine

34:11

times out of 10, he's going to come at you and be like, explain

34:13

this rule to me and tell me where I've broken it. You

34:15

know, I'm looking at two

34:17

years ago, I think it was in Monaco. Both

34:20

Red Bulls exited the pit lane were on the white

34:22

line. They were on the white line on pit exit.

34:25

And they were usually you get a penalty for that.

34:27

But he said, tell me how we've

34:29

crossed it, because in my opinion, we haven't crossed it. We're on

34:31

the line. We haven't crossed it. And usually

34:33

it's just on the line. Lewis Hamilton was on the

34:35

line, I'm pretty sure, when he came through there. But

34:38

because his team maybe don't have as

34:40

good of a legal person behind the

34:42

scenes as Jonathan Wheatley, you know, they're just

34:45

like, OK, he gets a penalty and it's done. Whereas Jonathan Wheatley be

34:47

like, no, no, no, no. That's not

34:49

a penalty. But we're on the white line. We haven't crossed

34:51

it. So he got a penalty. Got

34:54

a penalty and Perez for the same

34:57

incident. So, yeah, Albin also got one. But

34:59

Paris might have got one in the race. And I must

35:01

have missed that. In which case, Jonathan Wheatley doesn't care about

35:05

unless he fully went over the white line. But

35:08

yeah, so only for Mac. So

35:10

I'm not is it because he's bringing it

35:13

home. But yeah, George Russell

35:15

taking in the race win and Toto Wolf

35:17

got very, very excited on the team radio

35:19

shouting in his ear in the breaking zone,

35:21

which I absolutely love. And it

35:23

just turned into F off of

35:25

the team radio. Imagine telling your boss to F

35:27

off. Well, that's the thing when obviously when

35:29

the team come on the radio, sometimes who was

35:31

I talking to? It was someone recently and it's

35:33

like it's so distracting. You don't understand how distracting

35:36

it is for a driver. Sometimes they do need

35:38

to F off and just let me get on

35:40

with it. But I love. Yeah, I think so.

35:42

So I was like, wow. He was

35:44

very excited. Yeah. Just

35:46

bring it home. You know, they weren't in this

35:48

position ever. I mean, of course

35:50

it was because of the crash that's happened. But they

35:53

weren't in these positions at the start of the season.

35:55

And now we're like, yes, we're getting closer. We're getting

35:57

points, even if we weren't really meant to this race.

36:00

So it's good for Mercedes. I think each

36:02

week, the past like three or four races,

36:04

we're seeing these improvements from them, which is

36:06

giving them optimism. And I think they're bringing

36:08

that to the race. Then they're more confident

36:10

going into those races. So I'm

36:12

happy to see George get on there. I think it's

36:15

what the first time that I think

36:17

Mercedes have won in like 33 races. I

36:20

think I read that somewhere. Yeah, last race it was 2022 in Brazil. So

36:25

quite a long time for Mercedes to get

36:27

on the top set. You know, a team that was so dominant, but

36:30

that's just what happens in Formula One. You know, dominance

36:32

doesn't last forever. So,

36:35

you know, those who dislike Red Bull, at

36:37

some point they will stop being dominant and

36:39

another team will take over and

36:42

be just as dominant as Red Bull. How

36:44

the mighty can fall sometimes, but every season

36:46

since then, it looks like they've been able

36:48

to pick themselves back up and at least,

36:50

you know, get closer towards the front and

36:52

fighting. And yeah, George Russell doing

36:54

a good job. And I think that's what the

36:57

first time that you've ever, I will say though,

36:59

so it came out that Christian Horner has

37:02

obviously been talking about, you know, the max

37:04

going to Mercedes rumors. His comment was, you

37:07

know, as a driver that gets all the

37:09

information and can see, you know, where

37:11

potentially the car for whatever team you're joining, where

37:15

the car is going to be due

37:17

to the regulations, Christian Horner saying that max knows Mercedes

37:19

are not going to have it for the 2026 regulations.

37:24

And that's where they are. So that's quite disappointing

37:26

if this does come true because we had to

37:28

2026 and then Mercedes have made all this progress

37:30

in 2024 and more progress in 2025.

37:33

And then it gets 2026 and they go, bye, back

37:36

to the bottom of the grid. So I hope that's

37:38

not true. But again, of course

37:40

the teams are going against each other. They're going

37:42

to say things. They're going to talk badly about

37:44

other teams, but I just never, ever, ever thought

37:46

the snapping will or would

37:49

go to Mercedes ever. How

37:51

much does Christian Horner really know about the conversations

37:53

that Max just happened to be having with Total

37:55

Wolf? Because how much is Max really going to

37:57

tell him about it? And obviously, you know. his

44:00

whole career. And we see this, he gets a

44:02

lot of stick and I think very unnecessary stick, but

44:05

there was so much more negative, I

44:08

think opinions leaning towards Max. And obviously

44:10

we have Abu Dhabi at the end, which

44:12

of course is a whole other thing. But

44:14

I do think it's right to comment on Max's driving in

44:17

2021. Max and Lewis had

44:19

an instant, the Italian Grand Prix, they have an instant

44:21

at Brazil, and then obviously more

44:23

races, we're not gonna talk about. But again,

44:26

it's just a driver style. I think that

44:28

is Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton is not

44:30

gonna give up either. So now Verstappen has

44:32

been put in these positions where he does

44:34

have to defend. He's been so far ahead

44:36

for most of the season. He just needs

44:38

to do anything. You know, he can just

44:40

coast through and he's like, la, la, la,

44:42

la, I'm off. Whereas now he's having the

44:44

McLarens fight against him. So he's not gonna

44:46

back off. We are gonna see him be

44:48

super aggressive. And yes, we're gonna be annoyed

44:50

at times, even if you are a Verstappen

44:52

fan, but is Max

44:55

more to blame and it wasn't necessarily

44:57

Lewis? We've seen Lewis be

44:59

like this also. So that's where I'm

45:01

just sort of in two minds of,

45:04

Max is more aggressive than Lewis, but there's

45:06

been loads with Lewis and Alex Albon, you

45:08

know, everyone kicked off about that. So

45:10

I don't agree with this hot take. I

45:12

think they're both super aggressive. I don't think it's not

45:14

as if Lewis wasn't the problem. I think it's just

45:17

two drivers that are super strong in their craft and

45:19

they're gonna fight until the end. I

45:21

think the problem I have with race driver

45:24

Max Verstappen and there are two different people

45:26

with Max Verstappen, I think the one outside

45:28

the car is, or

45:30

outside of Formula One is such

45:33

a lovely person. And I can understand why there

45:35

was such a huge fan base for him because you

45:37

look at him with Kelly Pique and

45:39

Penelope, who's her daughter and Danica Viet's daughter. And

45:41

you see him with her and it's always just

45:44

so lovely and family. And you know, he is

45:46

just, he's one of those people that whenever I've

45:48

seen him with others outside of Formula One, he's

45:51

just seems like such a nice down to

45:53

earth person. But the

45:55

racing driver, I despise Max

45:58

Verstappen. There's two different people.