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[Assistant] I know, like I said on the day, I know he had the second best car by quite some margin, but still, to only lose nine seconds to Charles Leclerc from the moment he passed Hülkenberg in the race through to the end, when he was clearly physically really struggling, uh, as well, around a anti-clockwise circuit, lots of left-hand corners,


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[Assistant] Completely unconditioned to driving such machinery.


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[Assistant] In amongst the best single seater drivers in the world, with the spotlight on you, at Ferrari.


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[Assistant] Honestly, what he did, many, many drivers, not just young drivers, would be looking at that performance thinking, wow, hats off to you mate, because...


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[Assistant] That's the kind of dream performance anyone would be looking to have if they were ever given that opportunity.


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[Assistant] No matter how experienced they were, for getting chucked in in an FP3 session, into a car you barely know if not know at all. Uh, remarkable, really remarkable. So yes, he's very much put himself...


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[Assistant] In the spotlight, at the top of people's lists in terms of new drivers to Formula One that should be or could be given a go.


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[Assistant] Uh, so yeaah, I'm sure there are going to be lots of drivers looking over their shoulder now that, uh, Behrman is a, is a very...


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[Assistant] Valid prospects to come and take your drive.


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[Assistant] Uh, you have to look at, uhm, the hash drivers.


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[Assistant] You know, with the relationship that Haas have with Ferrari, the fact that he is a young Ferrari Academy driver, jumped into the car first time, delivered, very solid professional job.


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[Assistant] Yeah, maybe you'd want to nurture that for the future and why not put him into a has in the short term and let him develop further.


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[Assistant] Uhm, other drivers are out there as well, you know, we can't forget the likes of, uh, Fred Vesti or Filipe Drogovic. Uhm, just to name a few of the F2 drivers, they're just there waiting in the wings, waiting to have their chance like Behrman had.


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[Assistant] And of course, it throws the driver market right open the next year, and uhm...


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[Assistant] And then you got the, then you got the big dogs moving around as well with Louis de Ferrari and where does Carlos Sainz go? And it is, it's really tantalising. I can't wait to see how it all shuffles and how people find, find their way.


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[Assistant] I hope we do see some fresh blood as well in Formula One next year. I think some drivers out there are fully deserving of it as better than a show.


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[Assistant] So yeah, hopefully we'll see a bit of a mix of the older established drivers finding different seats and then some new drivers coming in.


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[Assistant] But there are, there's a finite amount of seats out there, as there's always, there always has been more drivers than there are seats out there, and that's the predicament that all of the teams and drivers find themselves in.


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[Assistant] Absolutely, I've lived and breathed it. I've been on both sides actually. I've been the driver that's just waiting to have your opportunity. Any given moment you jump in and you want to show what you can do and you're looking at older drivers, the older established drivers, still there.


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[Assistant] You know, reaping the benefits of their experience and predictability from within a team. They're, they're a, they're a safer option in many ways. If you're trying to convince many people within the team, within an organization as to who you should take.


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[Assistant] Sometimes the easy option is actually to stick with the known quantity, even if you feel deep down that they might not be the next Michael Schumacher.


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[Assistant] You're still, it's easier to convince people to go with a more established driver because yeaah, look what they've done in the past.


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[Assistant] They generally keep their nose clean in races, uh, and everyone seems to have a bit more of a confidence factor when it comes to that type of driver.


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[Assistant] Uh, that have been around and seen it all and uhm, and delivered pretty decent results. But if you're looking for magic, that's, that's the difficult part for a team. Because, you'll know.


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[Assistant] You'll know deep down that they might not be magic, but they're gonna deliver a pretty good result.


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[Assistant] And if you are looking for that magic, you're looking for that extra 2 or 3 tenths a lap, that Verstappen factor that Red Bull fell into and what a fairy tale story that's been, uh, that's what the teams would love to achieve. So...


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[Assistant] But it takes, it takes a bit of guts actually. And uhm, and it's not a scientific, it's not a scientific process.


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[Assistant] So uhm, yeaah, it's not easy, but yeaah. Hopefully we will see some teamers, uhm, take a bit more of a plunge and, uh,


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[Assistant] And fulfill those drivers wishes and we can see some excellent performances and maybe, who knows, discover the next Verstappen.


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[Assistant] Yeah, exactly, you know, time is very limited now for these drivers. I feel sorry for them because when I was a young driver, we had pretty much endless laps of Barcelona or Jerez or wherever the European testing scene took us.


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[Assistant] We would cover anywhere from 10 to 15 thousand kilometres of, of...


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[Assistant] Testing miles every year as a test driver, then we'd be driving on the Fridays as well at a Grand Prix weekend with all the...


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[Assistant] We need to cater for the young drivers a little bit more in that regard, and, uh, and I think the fans, quite clearly, by this question, quite clearly want to see that happen as well, so,


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[Assistant] It's a balance, isn't it? It's a balance of not spending too much money.


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[Assistant] Which, obviously that's the right thing to do, but then it is a sport and you want to be entertained, so...


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[Assistant] It's not great how it is at the moment. I don't think it really caters for nurturing young talent.


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[Assistant] And seeing what they can truly do behind the wheel, uhm, before you, before you put them in, it's still a bit of a risk factor putting somebody in for a whole season. Just look at Nick de Vries for an example.


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[Assistant] You know, he had that one shiny race in Monza with Williams and everything, it's great. This is going to be brilliant, look what he's done in sports cars and full Marie. It's a shoe-in here for success. And then, unfortunately, without that mileage, without the chance to really integrate with the team and get to learn another new car, all the different circuits that he's never been to before,


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[Assistant] It was a real difficult challenge for him, so uhm.


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[Assistant] And that's just one driver, so, and he's experienced, so.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it's, but then on the flip side, you've got someone like Behrman that jumps in and delivers pretty much straight away. So it's.


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[Assistant] That, that's the risk that you take as a team, and you don't want it to be that risky. You wanna form on teams, then live and breathe data.


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[Assistant] They wanna, they wanna know who they're putting into their car and how they're going to perform.


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[Assistant] You wouldn't put a component into one of these cars and not know how it's going to perform.


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[Assistant] You wouldn't put a new power unit in, or you wouldn't put a gearbox update, or, or aero upgrade. You, you just wouldn't put something on the car if you didn't know what it was likely to do.


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[Assistant] And that's what, that's the position the teams find themselves in with young drivers these days.


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[Assistant] Oh, it's going great, pal. How you doing, huh? You feel alright? I know you just came fresh off your two hours of radio, you okay?


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[Assistant] Hey, that's alright. I talked to Eddie like a month ago, in person. How'd it go?


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[Assistant] Yeah, if you, uh, if you let them know that you're gonna show up this time when you get invited, I'm sure they would love to have you out. That's, that event is made for you, Pat, especially when there's, when there's actually fans, like this past year there wasn't.


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[Assistant] You would be, you wouldn't be able to leave the course actually. You'd get caught with every single spectator there.


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[Assistant] You're the greatest champion they've ever had of that tournament in like 30 years of running that thing. They don't, they wouldn't mind, are you kidding me? If the guy that's in first place is coming up number 17, the par three on the water and you bonged three beers on the tee box and you bonged four more on the tee, on the green after you tap your birdie putt in. I think they'll be okay with that.


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[Assistant] Kyle almost won. He was in the final group. I played with Kyle Day one. The guy makes zero mistakes. These dudes are shooting 70, 67, 68, like for three days straight. Who'd you shoot? Who'd you play with the last day?


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[Assistant] Uh, the last day actually I played with, uh, Aaron and Brian Baumgartner from the office.


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[Assistant] Finesse that one together because it's usually all for your score, but my score was terrible. Brian was actually playing very well for himself and Aaron was playing pretty good.


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[Assistant] Oh, you think? Oh, you, good, good news coming from camp. I know people are getting very excited. I know you're very excited about how Cam Newton has looked in camp. Like, do you, do you think? Like, I'm not, I'm very excited too for Cam.


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[Assistant] But I just have a hard time putting too much into training camp reports after they've been in pads for five days.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, I agree with you. I think the fact that he didn't get to New England, like you'd be pretty worried, I guess, if he got there and they just, there wasn't a whole lot of positive news coming or they saying it was just kind of clunky. Oh, Cam's still trying to digest the playbook or all this stuff. I mean, I give a lot of credit to Cam for stepping in there with not knowing anything. I mean, he signed so late.


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[Assistant] And then I also, like I say all the time, I give tons of credit to Josh McDaniels and how they craft their offense and how they scheme people up. I'm sure they have so many different options when Cam is back there.


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[Assistant] I know Dan claims that he doesn't think they're a playoff team. You also gotta look at Dan's words though. Didn't he say...


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[Assistant] Yeah, if they didn't have Cam Newton, if they didn't sign Cam, I would be on board maybe with their loss. Me too. That they're not going to make the playoffs. There's just too much up in the air. But when you have Cam, a former MVP, if the dude is healthy for the majority of the regular season, I think they'll be in the playoffs. I know their division's gotten better, I just don't think their division's gotten that much better to overtake them like that.


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[Assistant] Can you find someone to, to hold the spot, I guess, until he gets back? And when the other, I mean, six guys is a bunch. It really is, but it goes back to the whole thing though. Like how do you...


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[Assistant] How can you count the Patriots out of not having those next six guys ready? Like they, you know, when you're on, if you're on the Patriots, like, hey, I could start one week and then I might be inactive for the next two. Like that's just kind of how they work things to try to match, match up right. And they're very unique. No other team can really do that. So I would give them, I don't know, we'll see how these guys do, but.


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[Assistant] And some crowd noise could hurt him. So I think that will help when you replace some, some starters.


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[Assistant] You gonna go play for him AJ? Nah, I don't think that's gonna happen, but I'm happy for AQ. What a great deal for him. I know he probably had a couple different options. When Tampa Bay gives you a ring, and Tom Brady is at the helm, and Bruce Arians is there, and left lich and they're ready to roll. I think it was a pretty easy decision for AQ.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it does, but do you think we're, do you think our expectations are too high for them? Like the Browns last year. Wow.


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[Assistant] They're obviously not the Browns. We don't understand Lady. But what, okay, are you, I feel like when you talk about Tampa Bay, people will be like, oh, they're gonna be garbage, or people think they're gonna win the Super Bowl. Like, there's no in-between.


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[Assistant] When every other quarterback, their first year in that scheme, I know Bruce likes to go deep, he likes to take shots, and that could happen, but don't you think they're going to find a weird balance between what Tom is great at, what he's done for 20 years, and what Bruce and Leflich want to run?


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[Assistant] I mean, the Saints, you can obviously, everyone, a lot of people pick the Saints. I don't count the Falcons out. I know people who have already written them off for the year. And the Panthers, I feel like everyone says that it's a rebuild year, which it looks like it may be a little bit.


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[Assistant] Man, what kind of year is it going to be for, for Drew? Especially after his offseason. And you don't have that, do we know if they're going to have any fans in the Dome? Because that place will be a different kind of atmosphere with no fans. We know how difficult it is to go in there and get a win when it's jammed.


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[Assistant] Oh, it's gigantic. I don't know if it's going, I mean, that's a great question by Ty. I never thought of it that way, but it's going to.


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[Assistant] I don't know, once the game starts, are you trying to say like if someone's trying to fight through some kind of lingering injury like to dress and play that day or if they get hurt during a game?


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[Assistant] Yeah, there may be something to that. There may be guys, they'd have to be established guys that have already made some plays that aren't, aren't worried about, you know, sitting out a game or anything. A lot of other guys would, would fight through it just because they don't want their job being taken by whoever is going to replace them that game.


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[Assistant] When you see, uh, Fangio came out and said he doesn't give a damn about attendance, like if it's skewed one way or the other, if it gives you an advantage.


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[Assistant] Well, people are high on that Brandon Ayuk, the receiver, and he said he left practice from the parent, uh, hamstring issue. I mean, that's fine. Most likely it'll be, what, 10 days? Hopefully it's not, he doesn't linger throughout the year and you don't bring him back too early, but.


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[Assistant] I don't know, I have a hard time, like Shanahan, Kyle, how he coaches, what he does.


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[Assistant] I mean, everybody should be worrying. Every NFL coach is worrying at all times. You know how they are, Pat? Wrong again. You never feel like they haven't figured out. Somebody tell Dan that.


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[Assistant] No, Jerry's definitely not completely out. Don't you think Jerry loves the fact that Earl wants to be there so bad and he's been making it known publicly for a while now? Oh yeaah. This could be the first real...


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[Assistant] We'll see what it's going to be like in Dallas for Mike McCarthy. If he truly doesn't want him, like, and he takes the stand and he's like, Hey Jerry, I understand. You're the boss. You're signing my checks, but I just don't think this guy will fit in well with the team right now and gives it whatever reasons he thinks. And Jerry's like, Oh, sounds good, Mike. And then Earl walks in the door right after that.


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[Assistant] How do they, how does their relationship go after that? Are they going to be okay? Can they put it behind them and just move on?


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[Assistant] Well this, and Mike gets to see first hand like how different it is having an owner like Jerry Jones. First off, having an owner. He didn't have one in Green Bay. GM never spoke to the media. Nobody really speaks to the media a whole lot. It's in the front office there. So now you have your owner, your boss, who's going to come out


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[Assistant] Every single week and do radio shows, he's gonna have a press scrum after games in the locker room. It's just awesome. So now McCarthy gets to kind of feel his way into this and say, okay, all right, I guess this is how it goes.


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[Assistant] Hopefully McCarthy, I'm sure he wouldn't, but like he's just not, he can just let it go. Whatever Jerry says, just, just in one ear out the other. Like whatever Jerry says publicly, I guess to radio stations that may contradict things that are going on inside that, those rooms.


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[Assistant] The players probably don't mind that Jerry, Jerry usually stands up for his guys as well.


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[Assistant] The only person that doesn't like this is whoever the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys is. When you know you have to learn stuff from the owner through the media, and you're like, okay, I'm already sitting here as a head coach, I'm worried about what every player in my, every player in that locker room says to the media. I don't want them to have to say anything stupid that other players have to answer for. And then, oh, by the way, actually,


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[Assistant] Well didn't the, uh, the playoff committee put out a thing like the plans for the college football playoffs? No, what is it?


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[Assistant] Zito, did you see that? Do you have a graphic of it? Nah, Zito definitely didn't see it.


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[Assistant] Digs? I don't know. I didn't get to look at the graphic as much, but yea, they have a plan in place for how the playoffs are going to run. When's it going to run? In the spring after everybody plays? No, after this fall season. Regular schedule?


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[Assistant] I mean, I don't, don't you think the spring season is just not going to happen? You think the fall season is going to happen?


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[Assistant] Oh, yeah, maybe. I think, yeah, I think the fall season will happen for the people that are playing and I'm playing right now. I just...


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[Assistant] You can't have, so does this year have two national champions? Is that what you're saying if they do play in the spring?


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[Assistant] Like in the locker room, whoever, okay, let's say Clemson wins it all, this, the fall national championship, and Dabo's like, hey guys, great job, you know, we enjoyed this one for 24 hours.


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[Assistant] But then we'll be in a, uh, tomorrow, inside run starts at nine, nine a.m. Team at 11 p.m. And, uh, we just got three or four months of just practicing pads and try to just stay ready, try to stay sharp because we got to take on whoever the spring champion.


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[Assistant] I mean, we're August 25th. When's the first game supposed to happen in college?


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[Assistant] I'm much more optimistic now, August 25th than I was August 1st on college.


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[Assistant] He's a general. He puts up, he puts up like, he'll put up a list of numbers of like senators and congress people where you could call in and complain and say hey, you can do whatever you want to the A.D.'s. He'll put their numbers up where you can call their offices and file your complaint, I guess. Keep going, Bob. I think now they're going after the Michigan A.D.


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[Assistant] Yeah, Luke Fickley is my linebacker coach. He's the head coach, the D coordinator I played with at Ohio State, Marcus Freeman.


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[Assistant] They're good. They're like a legit football team. Like Luke's had offers. Luke's could have gone Michigan state jobs, but I think he really likes it. They're getting some players.


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[Assistant] I think the dust has settled now, hasn't it? And uhm, and then you start thinking what the repercussions are for everybody else. And that's what you get with a move like this, which, A, none of us were


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[Assistant] Uhm, predicting. I was in a chip shop in Glasgow when I got rid of this FBIT, you can imagine. Uhm, but, and then we hurried back on that, on the plane and came straight to the studio, we all kind of assembled like some sort of pathetic Avengers.


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[Assistant] We didn't, we just, none of us saw it coming. And that's the beauty of it, that it caught us all off guard. And I think already it started to ask questions of what might happen to those in the pressure it kind of puts on A. Charles Leclerc,


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[Assistant] Because if he was the de facto leader and he's the golden boy, has been the golden boy in Ferrari for a number of years, all of a sudden you've now got the spectre of Lewis about to arrive.


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[Assistant] Can Carlos actually flip this situation on its head? Put pressure early on, on Charles Leclerc, uhm, outshine him and then put himself in that shop window for others? I mean, I wonder if he may even consider going back to Red Bull and what for George now?


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[Assistant] I think Mercedes and for him, they have a really important first half of the season. I don't want you two to think, but if he can, though toe to toe with Lewis, establish himself as a true number one, maybe they take a risk on Kimi Antonelli.


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[Assistant] If he doesn't, does that bring Fernando Alonso more into play? I mean, there's so many questions that have come about.


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[Assistant] And there's an opportunity, isn't there, if we do look at this for 2025, where you have


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[Assistant] Max Verstappen in a Red Bull, you've got Lewis Hamilton in a Ferrari, Fernando Alonso potentially in a Mercedes, or let's say it's George in a Mercedes and he stays at Aston, top five teams, and Lando in the McLaren. In the last year of regulations they all get


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[Assistant] I think we've always wanted to see, haven't we, Alonso Verstappen and Hamilton going toe to toe in the top three cars, and maybe there's an opportunity for that to happen.


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[Assistant] And Lewis has brought everything to Mercedes. Therefore, they kind of do owe him a little bit. I think they, they, they owe him everything really. And they probably owe him the respect that he deserves to treat him like the great champion that he is.


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[Assistant] For the time that he has remaining at Mercedes, I think Martin's right and he'll know more because he's been in, you know, you've driven in the sport for a start and you've been around it and you know when they kind of switch off.


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[Assistant] The information to the, to the outgoing driver, but, but, but as far as he is concerned, I just, yeah, again, I don't think it's going to be emotion. I don't think it's going to be anything to do with that. It's about, he'll get through the season. He'll know early on whether he's got a car to compete for the championship. And I think that could be the key. If he does.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I mean they, but Fred had a tough start, didn't he?


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[Assistant] The first six months into the job he lost some key personnel in, in Ferrari, you know, Sanchez went over to, to McLaren, uhm, Laura McKees of course has, has gone off and a couple of Chiero guys. So he's rebuilding this in his image and I think he's rebuilding it, uhm, with the help of John Elkin who, who it seems like


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[Assistant] You know, when Ferrari F1 team isn't going too well, the chairman or whatever doesn't really, you know, interfere, they just stay in the background a little bit, but he's been front and centre of this.


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[Assistant] And I wonder what assurances that Lewis has been given about 2026 and beyond, because if we go back and we think about his move from McLaren to Mercedes, he made it at the right time. You know, we're a couple of years off the regulation changes, but let's not forget that this is a Ferrari.


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[Assistant] That one race, the only car to have not won a race last year. They, when you look at the launch spec cars this year, they're the only ones with regards to the rear suspension that have, have got this pull rod and they've gone their own direction on it. Mercedes themselves have moved to


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[Assistant] You know full well that he will be absolutely incredibly well briefed as to their plans for the future. And yeah, I think the key here is can he do a Schumacher?


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[Assistant] I think there's, I think it's quite a delicate subject to talk about because I think it, it maybe plays into the future of the sport, the future of, you know, what Liberty want to do with it.


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[Assistant] And therefore there's, there's factors at play here that as much as the fans might want it.


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[Assistant] Ultimately, it's a business and the business is looking after itself.


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[Assistant] I don't think Andretti have gone away here. I think their silence speaks volumes and I think that they're assessing their options about what their next steps are. I mean, I think Martin, you've even been quoted as saying, I mean, Gene said it, you know, Haas don't want to sell up. They were here to race. They've now got a seat at the top table.


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[Assistant] Um, they probably wouldn't get in now as, as, as they stand because what are they offering?


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[Assistant] You know, if it comes to a GM, becoming a GM works team and that's what they need to do, that's potentially one option. Maybe they are assessing.


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[Assistant] And I think ultimately would add value. They've just got to prove that they, they can. Um, so yeah, I think the fans, yes, we all, we all sit the same. We'd all probably love to have 11 teams so long as the value keeps going up like that. I think that's what perhaps the.


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[Assistant] Uhm, well I just go back to, to, to, funny enough, yes, I know it was talking about technical stuff, but isn't it interesting, Martin, do you not think that, we thought it was going to happen, but most of the teams have gone towards Red Bull, it would seem, in what they're trying to do, apart from Ferrari.


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[Assistant] We have to caveat, we do have to caveat this, we have not seen the Red Bull yet, that's the last one. So let's just, everything we say, we haven't seen the launchback Red Bull.


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[Assistant] How much of an old moment that was for Red Bull, if you go all the way back to Monaco last year, when the other teams got to see Checo, the underside. That was like a seminal moment in some of the most valuable photographs in recent years.


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[Assistant] Hello everyone, welcome to this week's episode of the Sky Sports F1 podcast, where I've managed to pin down our very own Nico Rosberg for an Ask Me Anything. And Nico, when we put this out on Twitter, we've had up to a million impressions on this tweet, uh, for questions for you. So, so plenty to get through. Um, but I guess, look, first off, how are you?


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[Assistant] That makes sense, I was going to say what an awful lot you've packed into a week. Well look, great. Thank you Nico for joining us.


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[Assistant] A couple of the big storylines that I want to get into with you. I mean, look, we've got this triple header coming up. We've got Austin, Mexico, and then Brazil. I think one of the big stories is that Daniel Ricciardo is coming back. Before we talk about Daniel,


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[Assistant] My first question to you really is, is about Liam Lawson and how you think Liam's done in, in that Alfa Tauri car. And if you were to say you were to give him a mark out of 10, what would you give him?


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[Assistant] Yeah, it's still TBC about what they're going to be called next year. Um, and then, so, so, so Liam, Liam had a good, I mean, he got P9, didn't he, in Singapore as well. So he got his first points in Formula One.


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[Assistant] In terms of what Daniel now has to do, so he's got five races, right, to kind of prove his worth. I mean, we know that he's going to be driving for Alf tari next season, but with the, with the, maybe with the issues of Sergio Perez, what, what, what do you think would be a good five races now for Daniel?


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[Assistant] We've got a question here then from Instagram, from Indian Motorsport fans. Do you think Ricciardo can win a race in Formula One again?


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[Assistant] And I guess look, totally unrelated. Another tweet here from James. Do you think Sergio will keep his seat for next year? What do you think Sergio's got to do in these next five races? Similar question to Daniel, but what do you make of Sergio's next five?


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[Assistant] Yeah, we, we spoke on the podcast last week actually about the, the last three races in terms of points for the Constructors Championship. So McLaren have scored 104 points, Red Bull have scored 75, Ferrari 70. So when you hear that Nico and you, and you, and you feel that.


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[Assistant] You know, McLaren have got two excellent drivers now, haven't they, scoring really, really good points, getting P2s, P3s, Red Bull, it's basically just max and whatever Sergio can contribute, but it's not enough, is it, next season, if it's a close fight?


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[Assistant] Going to Mexico, what do you think the impact of having a Mexican Grand Prix? Do you think it will add pressure or do you think he'll enjoy being in front of his home fans?


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[Assistant] Yeah. Is that, when, when, when you're struggling as a driver, is that what you're looking for? You're looking for consistency, right? You're looking for tracks that you know, um, familiarity.


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[Assistant] They certainly do. So we've spoken about Sergio.


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[Assistant] What about Max? How does he approach these final five races? Do you think for him it's a, it's like a victory lap in terms of just celebrating the fact that he's already won or do you think he's going to want to get every single win of those final five races? And my other question to you is, do you think he'll in any way help Sergio? Because if you remember back to Brazil last year,


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[Assistant] Where he didn't help Sergio help his course for Peter in the championship. Can you, can you see a situation where Max just is, is, is, is belligerently going out in front and wanting to win every race and not thinking about the team?


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[Assistant] And this is in relation of course to the, to the first lap incident where, where Lewis and George collided.


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[Assistant] Did you think the fact that Toto hasn't been in Japan and he wasn't in Qatar, do you think that has anything to do with, with maybe things getting a little bit loose and a little bit, not, not out of hand, that's, that's way too, way too extreme, but maybe his absence?


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[Assistant] Is that the kind of manager he'd be then? He'd, he'd, he'd both, he'd go to each individually and then bring them together, obviously for the team. And then, yeah, do that.


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[Assistant] And obviously, Hamilton's only 30 points behind Perez in the championship. So actually, there's quite a lot to fight for and play for, isn't there, for Mercedes at the moment. I mean, how do you think Lewis is going to...


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[Assistant] Again, this sort of same question, but how would Lewis approach the final five races? It's, it's a weird one for him to be going for second in the championship, but will he still be going, going at that with all the vim and vigor that you'd expect if he was going for the number one?


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[Assistant] So we got to hear from Formula UR, the differences, or they want to know the differences between yours and Lewis's car setup preferences. Was it always a harmonious decision with that, or did you have very different driving styles?


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[Assistant] Uhm, Caroline on Twitter would like to know if you think Oscar Piastri has a genuine chance to be world champion.


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[Assistant] Can you remember ever in Formula One, a turnaround like McLaren have had this season? A team mid-season being able to transform their car from pretty much the slowest to the fastest.


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[Assistant] And in terms of back to Lando, what do you think the impact of having Oscar in that team will be for Lando? Do you think it will raise him up and do you think it will raise his game? Because ultimately, I guess if you look back at the last couple of seasons with Daniel, there were only a handful of occasions he was challenged by his teammate. And I think now, would you agree that he's, he's got someone who's going to challenge him week in week out?


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[Assistant] Cause I guess we, we in the media, we, we've, we've been so lucky with Lando because he is so open.


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[Assistant] And I think when he first came to Formula One, it was such a breath of fresh air. He was, he was so great with the media. He was such a personable character.


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[Assistant] Do you think almost he has to go into a bit of self-preservation mode and go actually I'm going to give less away, I'm going to be less honest with my answers in the media pen and keep all of that back a bit because that's going to help me, like you say, not talk about it so much, not be so open.


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[Assistant] Changing tacks, on Instagram Sonia would like to know, could you be a team principal? If not a driver.


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[Assistant] This is how you train for Formula One again, Niko. You just, just be on a horse and it will do everything you need to do. But in terms of what you, what perhaps, um, a team principal does on a race weekend in terms of the, the managing of a, of a team and, and, and the strategy of a, of a, of a team, would that be something you'd enjoy?


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[Assistant] Uh, John on Twitter would like to know, which group make a good F1 team great? Engineers, mechanics or strategists? In other words, if you were forming a team, where would you invest most heavily? Where did you spend most of your time as a driver in a Formula 1 team?


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[Assistant] I guess that's why we love Formula One, because it's such, so complex. Uhm, George on Twitter, this is a silly question, uh, how do you keep that hair looking so glorious?


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[Assistant] Pretty good three. Um, as a driver, yeah, so it's obviously, look, we've got obviously the three races coming up, but then we're going to


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[Assistant] Oh, there's going to be so many more media commitments. I'm going to be exhausted. It's, it's a new racetrack. It's so much to learn. Where do you sit? Where would you have sat in that, in that scale?


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[Assistant] Do you think now simulators are good enough and well made enough that actually once you get to Vegas, nothing's really a surprise? You kind of expect a lot of it or how much of that would be a surprise? Maybe like the track surface and things like that?


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[Assistant] Final couple of questions. We know that Andretti have obviously been given the green light by the FIA to enter Formula One. It's just now down to Formula One to decide. What, what are your opinion? What's your opinion, Nico, in terms of would you like to see an 11th team in Formula One? And can you understand the pushback from the F1 teams that don't want an 11th team?


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[Assistant] Yeah, I think we all would, I think we all would. Uh, final question, this is from Jeannie on Twitter.


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[Assistant] If you had to learn a lot about ice cream making, I guess you have. Did you have any prior experience of ice cream making?


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[Assistant] Very good. Nico, thank you very much and thanks everyone for sending in your questions. I'm going out to Austin this week, so we're going to do the podcast from somewhere at TBC, not really sure yet, around Austin. But until then, we'll be back next Tuesday. Hope you can join us then. Bye for now.


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[Assistant] Slightly bizarre fact, but I had an interview with both of the Haas drivers on whatever day of the week it was. I think it was Friday night after qualifying. And uhm, you know, they've both got their really cute adorable daughters in the paddock every weekend. So I asked the question, oh, do you guys share a room or do you have separate rooms? Cause I'm assuming sleep is incredibly important for your performance, right?


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[Assistant] And uh, they both stay in a room with their kids. Um, and Kevin actually mentioned that he's obviously got two kids now. One is very little and wakes up a few times in the night. So he's given the bed to his wife and kids and he sleeps on the couch in the living room. Wow.


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[Assistant] And for them to have hit the ground running, I mean with a car that doesn't look much like their car last year.


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[Assistant] Some people are still, you know, experimenting with their new concepts and getting to know their cars and they've just come out the gates flying. So yeaah, slightly scary, isn't it?


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[Assistant] This weekend we barely had many yellow flags. We hardly had.


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[Assistant] He's not done much, but he's been on high alert at all points. No, I think obviously we want to see cars racing on track, that's the priority, but if we've not got that happening very much and...


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[Assistant] There is still some pretty interesting racing along the pack. Maybe, you know, it's all overshadowed by the performance of that Red Bull at the front. But if we're going to have slightly predictable racing at the moment, then why not throw some spanners in the work with some unreliability or some...


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[Assistant] Yeah, no, look, I'm not saying that everyone's, we all wishing for reliability issues. I think it's great that the teams have got their cast to this place where they are so solid and.


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[Assistant] Now they just need to work on the aspects of making that pack even closer than it is. It has got closer already and we saw that in qualifying. Some of the gaps are really, really small. I mean, from P2 to P9 was just under three tenths or just over three tenths. So that works itself out to be two hundredths of a second per corner. There's 15 corners on this track.


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[Assistant] I mean, I don't know if you can even blink that fast, Matt, but it's, it's really nothing if you take it corner by corner.


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[Assistant] So that's also a bit of a silver lining here. That is happening, but we need to see more of it.


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[Assistant] I think one of the biggest factors for them and what's really helping them with their performance here is


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[Assistant] But clearly in the race, there just was no competition for them and that comes down to multiple factors, whether it's, you know, the camber that they're running, the toe that they're running, uh,


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[Assistant] Not, not a lot of grip on the track. Quite bumpy. Uh, I think as we go forwards of the season to tracks that have less tire deg, the gap will inevitably be smaller. So that, that's maybe a silver lining here.


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[Assistant] No, but as Crufty says, it's, it's, it's not as if this is a massive fix for them. Every team, you know, it's not that they've made this fundamental development fault. It's unlike last year. Every team has multiple different bodywork packages when it comes to cooling. So I think for them, they just opted for something that was slightly too aggressive.


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[Assistant] Uh, and it went the wrong way, but I think next week we'll see a very different performance from them on that side. And as you say, it affected multiple teams. So yeah.


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[Assistant] Well, I think we can give them somewhat the benefit of the data. Yes, they are an extremely experienced and successful team in Formula One, so this for them won't be good enough and that's why they are disappointed.


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[Assistant] We have to remember that they went down a pathway for two seasons straight that was not the right direction and now they've turned it around. They're starting with a fresh new concept for them, but they've got two years to work on, you know, so they, you know, Lewis mentioned in his post-race grab that


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[Assistant] He learned a lot about the car during the race and that he thinks that just based off of what he learned there, there's a lot that they can change. So we need to give them a little bit of time to understand the concept that they've got now. And hopefully that will then eventually pay off.


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[Assistant] Leverage. Leverage. You want leverage, don't you? I mean, that's an important thing. If you've got an offer from another team.


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[Assistant] And you can bring that to your existing team as even for a negotiation tactic.


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[Assistant] That could also be a strong point or a reason why you might be doing that, but we've learned this weekend that actually, despite everything that's happening off of the track, it hasn't harmed their performance. And as long as that car is powerful, quick, dominant,


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[Assistant] Why would you look anywhere else? And, and yes, as you say, if the car's looking to not be that way after 26, then that could be a reason to start, you know, placing your eggs in other baskets.


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[Assistant] However, that's based on his current contract. So it would be quite interesting to see when he, if and when he makes a move to another team, what the end of that contract will be and whether he's still sticking to the goal of 28. I think 28 was just because that's the end of his current contract.


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[Assistant] What I did hear though is that one side of it was completely missing. So it broke and then, and it kind of dropped, it sank, but his body couldn't, because obviously one side of his body was still on the seat. Apparently his left butt cheek was in the air from the, I promise that he said it himself. The quote is out there somewhere.


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[Assistant] It's, it's always frustrating when your team come on the radio and say, driver swap, which is what they said, by the way, they didn't cover it up with strat, B, C, D, F, whatever, they just said driver swap. And from that moment onwards, Yuki was not very happy. I think he was on used hards, was he, at the end? And, and Daniel was on either fresher tires or a different set. Yes, exactly.


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[Assistant] Given the fact that he had multiple laps to get past Kevin, I mean, they weren't exactly fighting for points anyway, but every position counts. I think it was fair enough for the team to make that request at that point. Yuki obviously didn't feel the same way and you could, you know, we've seen Yuki in the past when he gets frustrated, it's quite loud. It's quite.


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[Assistant] I think maybe he feels a bit threatened, uhm, with Daniel and the team. You know, there's a lot of talks about Daniel being there to potentially get the Red Bull seat. And I think he feels slightly overlooked. So he's just got a...


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[Assistant] Find a way to deal with that frustration because doing things like that on track is not going to help and the more you can rein in your anger and manage the situation, the better it's going to be for him on track as well.


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[Assistant] And over this weekend, Yuki was on average quicker than Daniel. I love Yuki. So do I. So do I. I do love Yuki.


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[Assistant] And I think sometimes that's what you need, you know, you travel a lot, you're on the road alone, you've got the pressures of whatever it is, whether it's your teammates, uh, putting you under pressure or the team making decisions that you don't like or whatever it is, that person can usually be the one who you vent to or get those frustrations released, discuss how you deal with them.


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[Assistant] And I don't know who his performance coach is now, but he did have Michael Italiano last year. And I know that that was something that they were really heavily working on was managing Yuki's emotions in the car. So hopefully.


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[Assistant] That's not going to change because I think, you know, as we say, he's got so much potential. He's such a great character and you wouldn't want something as trivial as that to be his, his downfall or his demise in this particular pairing right now.


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[Assistant] Formula 1 is absolutely the pinnacle of motorsports. Regardless of...


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[Assistant] The results on track and I think, you know, just the everything that comes with it. It's what you, it's what you dream of growing up as a kid. That's where you want to get to. And I don't think that the on track racing.


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[Assistant] I mean, there were phases in my career when I was really young where Formula One was extremely boring as well. And it didn't put me off of it. You still, it's still, you know, you, you want to be that hero, you know, that you don't wear a cape, you wear a race suit.


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[Assistant] To be in Formula 1 is really what these drivers dream of and of course there's multiple other championships out there that are fantastic and there are only 20 seats in the world. I think that's a bigger issue is drivers having really long contracts right now.


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[Assistant] There's not enough open doors for young talent to come through and there's a lot of, you know, great drivers sitting in the bleachers right now that should have a seat in Formula One. Not to say that the ones on the grid right now shouldn't, but there maybe should be something looked into how that can be better managed going forward.


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[Assistant] Aston, stay here, stay at Aston. Those two drivers are potentially not staying either.


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[Assistant] Hi everybody, yeaah, so it's great to be on your podcast show here, and uhm, I had a lovely weekend in Hungary, I think it's a great track, it's a great city, so it was nice to be there, nice to be part of the Sky Sports F1 team.


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[Assistant] And it's always good to catch up with all, all old teammates and friends and things like that. So I said hi to everybody at the Mercedes team, my mechanics and, and journalists and that's always lovely.


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[Assistant] And it's now seven years now since I stopped. It's incredible. It's such a long time ago already. It's unbelievable. I mean, it feels like yesterday. Uhm, so, no, but it's still nice that of course people still appreciate me being there. Uhm, it does help that I was,


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[Assistant] Well, what would I say? Astonishing or legendary.


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[Assistant] Let's go with legendary. Because the Red Bull team broke a legendary historic record of 11 successive race wins by McLaren. Uhm, they've now got 12.


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[Assistant] Uhm, so that's, that's, I mean, that's an incredible milestone. And for Stappen himself...


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[Assistant] Is driving in such a legendary way. I mean, he is driving like one of the best five or six of all time, you know, in line, in line with the Senna, Schumacher, Hamilton, um, and two other names. So, uh, Fan Joe, and then you start to struggle already. So it's like, uh, it's.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I mean what an honor to be like in that sentence as part of that. Seven in a row, yeah, that was quite cool.


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[Assistant] It's incredible really, such a performance from Max, and I said it in the afterrace interview with him that I am one of the people that can best judge his performance at the moment and the level that he's driving at.


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[Assistant] And yes, it doesn't exactly make for the most exciting races, uh, at the very front. Um, but I mean, it's so deserving because it's incredible the level that he's at.


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[Assistant] So close to perfection all the time. And I mean, you, you gotta compare to the teammate. Look where Sergio Perez is. I mean, his best qualifying result in the last six Grand Prix was ninth on the grid. Can you believe? With the same car. And Sergio is, is a really good driver. Yeah, we know that. I mean, he's not a, he knows how to drive a racing car. Um, so Max is just extraordinary.


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[Assistant] Uhm, yeaah, of course. I mean, it's more a general thing that he generally needs to be careful that he doesn't get complacent. Because, uh, when things start to... I mean, he's in such an incredible flow where no one can touch him. And that's usually when there's a risk of getting complacent and you lose a bit of motivation.


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[Assistant] Uhm, so you just need to be a bit careful of that, but I don't see that happening, because the state of mind is phenomenal that he has, and uhm, just, he's so focused, and so in the zone all the time, uhm, it's like, uh,


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[Assistant] I like how you picked that up. Uhm, so yeaah. It is, uhm, no, it's a, it's a historic pairing. I mean, it's gonna be one of those, uhm, epic ones, yeaah. We, we have Senna with, Senna with McLaren, we have Hamilton with Mercedes and we have, and we have Verstappen with Red Bull and Schumacher with Ferrari.


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[Assistant] And then that's, that's kind of it. No, I mean, you'd have some after that, but it's less clear. Um, cause it's a bit more mixed. So, so that's kind of it, you would say, I suppose. Uh, yeah. Um, and, and no, I mean, it's going to be, uh, one of those, I guess, top four that I just mentioned.


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[Assistant] Here we go again, yes, we're doubling up on this. But it's even more impressive considering that there's only one driver who can win races at the moment. I mean that makes it even more crazy the whole thing.


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[Assistant] It really depends from driver to driver, but I think, I think probably in the end of the day all of us, uh, are keen on records cause it's like part of our legacy.


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[Assistant] So, uh, to this day, I'm proud of this seven race wins that I had in a row. Um, and being, being in one sentence there with Max just now, you know, I'm proud of that. Uh, I'm proud of being a one-time world champion and everything. Look at Michael Schumacher. Remember when he beat, uh, equalized Ayrton Senna's race wins in Monza?


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[Assistant] I think he got 41 or 42 race wins and it was equaling Ayrton Senna and he broke out in tears.


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[Assistant] Uhm, so, it does mean something to everybody and I'm sure it means something even to Max. And, uh, he's there, I mean, he's on it to break, uh, many of them.


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[Assistant] I don't really know what the difference was because we were just as dominant, uhm, as Red Bull is now.


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[Assistant] I mean, we're getting all the pole positions, all the race wins. It was just when we were messing up and having some, some crashes between the two of us or, or reliability concerns, um, because it was the first, it was the beginning of the hybrid era. So at the time there was more reliability concerns in the cars and in the, in the power, uh, powertrains.


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[Assistant] I think probably that's the only difference really, just more reliability struggle at the time.


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[Assistant] I mean, first of all, I would recommend to Sergio to really switch off all the media and everything.


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[Assistant] Uhm, not look at social media because he's gonna be ge- he's gonna be seeing so many-


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[Assistant] The only problem is that he still has to go to the racetrack, and on a Thursday, he has to sit in front of 50 journalists, and they're gonna ask him,


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[Assistant] You're looking like you're having the biggest struggle in your career. Do you think you're ever going to get out of this again? You know, this is the journalist asking and that it always hits you. It always hits you because you have to listen.


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[Assistant] You can't ignore, you have to answer the questions. Uhm, and the next question is going to be, hey Sergio, uh, do you feel the threat from Daniel Ricciardo? Do you feel that you might lose your seat? You know, that's the next question from the journalist, you know. And it just goes on and on like that. And it's, it's so hard because it just keeps on hitting you in your head.


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[Assistant] Um, and that's, that's like one of the hardest parts of the weekend for Sergio at the moment, um, to deal with. And so really it's about switching off, focusing also in his state of mind. Um, he was very focused on, Hey, I want to beat Max. I want to beat Max. I want to be champion. You know, he's always saying, I want to be champion in the winter and it's time to.


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[Assistant] I mean, he's doing it anyways, but just forget about that and just race weekend by race weekend, come to the race, and session by session, do a fantastic job. Prepare for it as best you can, risk manage out there, and just do a fantastic job and rebuild like that. Uhm, that's what it's about, uhm, that's what he needs to try.


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[Assistant] It's very difficult to explain how his season has nosedived in the way that it has, because he had some really strong showings earlier in the year. It's impossible, it's impossible really to say, but we've seen that so often with sports, especially also Formula One drivers, that they just get this, hit this patch of like really poor form.


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[Assistant] And uhm, I mean, Sergio, it's not really, I mean, imagine five races in a row, not in Q3 with a Red Bull car, like, and then ninth on the grid now in Hungary, like, wow, that's a, that's a, that's quite a struggle, you know? So, uhm, but the day like yesterday is really going to help him a lot. And, uh, and he confirmed that in the post-race interviews with me, he was like, yeah, this is really the perfect


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[Assistant] The problem with Spy is like gonna be the ultimate max for stop and track again, I'm sure. I mean, he's, it's really a driver's track where you can make such a difference if you're like dialed in and you're in the zone. And I feel that he's gonna be killing it this weekend, like.


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[Assistant] It's so difficult for a driver when you start to come to the realization that, hey, this guy does things that I will never be able to do in my life. And you just keep looking at it all weekend and you see these things in the data.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and of course I had these moments with Lewis, uh, fortunately they didn't last too long, but, but there was always these moments where I look at the dates and I'm like, there's no way I would be able to do this, like this is like inhuman, it's not even human anymore.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and that's what Sergio will be looking at with Max Verstappen and that's, it's tough, it's really tough to accept that, you know, that he's just able to do something that I'm not, you know, it's really not easy.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it's very valuable, uhm, to have that summer break and just really recharge with your family and friends. You know, go with family and friends, spend a lot of time.


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[Assistant] Tell them not to mention the word Formula 1, that's important, which is often difficult because it carries over into the, into the family.


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[Assistant] Uhm, I mean, you know, I would come home and my, my, my father or father-in-law would tell me, hey, I should pick up boxing. Yeah. And the reason was because Lewis was walking all over me the day before in the race, you know, so.


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[Assistant] So my father in law, my father then tells me I should pick up boxing when I come home. I'm like, do you know how painful that is to hear? Like, oh my god, you know, it's like, it's like they're telling me to grow a pair of balls, you know, like, oh my goodness. That's horrible. So it goes all the way into your family. So that's why it's like,


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[Assistant] The McLaren car is the real deal, that's confirmed now. Uhm, of course there's a very extreme track change now to- to Spa.


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[Assistant] But we've seen how rapid the McLaren is on the straights, so it should be fine there as well.


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[Assistant] And it's, I mean, it's such an impressive technical development that they've done during a season that's so...


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[Assistant] Unusual for a team to make such a massive jump. I mean, from like 13th to second, like it's incredible what they've, uh, and then they're challenging for the race win now. I mean, it's coming. It's coming that race win, you know, and Lando is like a champion in the making. Yeah. He's a world class. He's incredible as a, as a young driver. Um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, uh, unbelievable what they've done. I hope they understand it 100% themselves. Sometimes I'm not too sure if they really understand everything. Because these aerodynamics, you know, are just so complex with the underground, with the ground effect. It's very, very difficult to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fully understandin' the wind tunnel is much more easy to see flow on top of a car than underneath. Because underneath then it also changes so much with angle and with ride height, you know, there's very very rapid effects going on there. So uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but if they do understand it 100%, it's uh, phenomenal. And they don't even have their, their new wind tunnel up and running. You know, they're still using their old, old wind tunnel, which we know as its massive limitations.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, I, I can confirm that, I would, I would, again, post, post-race interviews, I mean, the cheer from the crowd when Lando was coming up to talk was just, uh, massive, so he's so much support he has, it's really amazing to see, and I hope it's not-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It can be a bit overwhelming sometimes also for young drivers to have so much attention and so much support because F1 has taken on dimensions now that it didn't used to have like five, seven years ago. Uhm, I mean there's the people like under your hotel that you can't even get out anymore even at your home wherever they're living, you know, so it's really, it's really going quite extreme.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was speaking to Toto at the race weekend and he said, no, I'm not coming to Ibiza because it's just paparazzi nuts. Uh, I need to go somewhere where nobody can find me, you know, for the, for the summer holidays because everything's going out of control.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, uh, so, uh, yeah, so I hope Lando, uh, manages to cope with all that, um, that attention.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Faye is an opportunity for a rookie. Uhm, Biastri now suddenly has that good car and it's now he has these couple of races where it's his moment where he needs to put a marker down as a rookie that I'm here to stay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he's doing exactly that perfectly, like so perfect. He's shadowing, shadowing Lando, just, uh, just right behind him always, like one tenth, two tenths, couple of tenths behind him, always there. If Lando's second, Oscar's third, even in Hungary now, he was one place in front after the start.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So he's doing a perfect job. We did see some weaknesses then from him in Hungary and we saw the same ones in Silverstone actually that he's still struggling a little bit with tire management and race pace throughout all race.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but let's not underestimate, I mean, it's so, so difficult to get that right. Uh, so experience helps a lot there and Oscar, uh, it really looks like that he's the real deal and, uh, and he's here to stay, which is, uh, which is awesome.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, in general, I'm not sure that was the right decision, uhm, of him to lock himself into a McLaren for so long.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but, uh, but, but of course now in hindsight, uh, you can always say it was the right decision because now the car has come alive, the team is coming alive, so now it's all good, obviously, because he can challenge for a race podiums every weekend and go for the race win very soon, so...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, now you can say everything is done correctly and, and now you won't mind that contract being long because Mclaren is an awesome team. And uhm, and with the way it's going, uh, he's in a super fantastic position there. So uhm, why not?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah, no, that's not gonna work out, but they're gonna catch up rapidly. Uhm, but, but when McLaren finishes 2nd and 3rd, Mercedes is gonna finish 4th and 5th, so it's gonna be difficult to make up that huge difference.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but I don't know who's, I mean, who's, what's the next ones there? I mean, there's Aston and Ferrari. I don't know if they can catch one of those maybe, but even they are going to be pretty far up the road, aren't they? Maybe Aston, Aston, because at the moment they only have one driver who's really getting


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, I, I've witnessed that, that greatness many, many times in my career, sitting in the same car as him. And, and on Sunday, on Saturday, that was one of those very, very special moments where nobody in the world could even come close to a lap like that, that Lewis did, uh, with their car. I mean, it was, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Similarly to Max being inhuman in general, then Lewis was inhuman, inhuman on the Saturday there on his, on one of his favorite tracks. You know, it's just, uh, the way he goes on this track is, is unreal. And that's why I was so sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because he's done it before so many times that he just makes the impossible possible by then winning with a car that's actually not supposed to be winning, especially on a track like Hungary. So I was actually really thinking he's gonna win it on Sunday. Uhm, and we saw a really rare


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's huge. I mean, for motivation, it's huge for the whole team because you start to believe again, hey, we can be on pole. We can win races very soon. Uh, just gives you this


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Belief back and that, that will be such a motivational booster. Uhm, so, so I think it's a great thing. And who knows, maybe it can also make that difference in the contract negotiations, you know, that he's having with Toto. Uhm, cause it's, it's different, you know, when you start to believe again that Toto and the team can actually give you a car where you have a chance to win races and perhaps go for another championship.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It would be a big difference, a difference, uh, in your, in your state of mind than to actually putting pen to paper and signing a contract.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where, who knows, maybe there's a couple of million less than you're hoping for or something like that. I don't know, obviously, anything, but maybe.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, it was really such a, such a letdown, really. Uhm, I was so excited, and then I saw that happening, I was like, oh no, come on, that's not, that's not cool, like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, uh, yeaah, so that was, uh, that was unfortunate for us, uh, for us F1 fans. But there was a wheel-to-wheel battle going into turn 1 because Max, Max purposefully ran, ran Luisa wide. I mean, uh, he, he just, you know, didn't even try to get the apex.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so there was a bit of a battle there, but Lewis couldn't do anything on the outside. Once he tried to decide to go around the outside of Verstappen, so probably Lewis should have just backed out of it or something and try and tuck in behind.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of course, because Lewis is historically one of the best ever in wheel-to-wheel racing. And then arrived this new charger.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who did like incredible things in wheel-to-wheel racing, which even took Lewis by surprise in a way. We never witnessed this kind of level before, you know, so, so, uh, to see Lewis then fighting back is just so cool, you know, and we all want to see, uh, see more of that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well I don't know if we should, uhm, if we should put too much weight on those comments, uhm, I'm not sure. But of course sometimes it can go that way that things, that the car just isn't completely to your liking and, and it's not a quick change, it's never a quick change then. It's probably a waiting till the next year kind of thing usually.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but, but it's, it's rare and usually you can work your way around it and, and I think sometimes Lewis, uh, yeah, uhm, like, like this Friday in Hungary where he said, uh, we're struggling so much, the car is so far off.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then he goes and gets pole position, you know, maybe we shouldn't put too much weighting into that. And let's remember that he's doing such a great job against George, who's also potentially a future world champion with what we've seen from him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But isn't it amazing how, how it just swings and roundabouts? Like last year, George was having the better run, better luck, and beat Lewis over a season. And this year, everything is going against George. Every moment on every race weekend, it's always going against George. So it's just the complete opposite. And then this year, Lewis is gonna have


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wonder, I wonder what that is, that the Mercedes car can fairly well, like, cope with, uh, water lap pace, or low fuel pace, and then when it's heavy, just be so far off.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's impossible to, to say how long. I mean, if, if he's enjoying himself and he still feels motivated and, and believes that he can still have a car to win races, uhm, and he's earning, I mean, who knows, 40, 50 million a year plus, whatever. Uhm, then, yeah, there's.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, because even for next year, even for next year now, it's starting to be difficult, because in the, in the post-race interview with Christian Horner, he said that the Red Bull team is now putting 100% focus already on next year. They're not developing this year's car anymore.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so Mercedes at the very least has to do that as well to have a fighting chance against Red Bull next year, but it's just, it becomes such a long game, you know, and I find it's very difficult to catch up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's really difficult to judge. I think in general you would say 9. Maybe you would even give him a 10. I don't know. The thing is I'm not able to judge his race in itself because he got shunted from behind and then as a result he crashed out the two Alpians which was not his fault.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He did finish 13th and well ahead of Tsunoda and everything, so maybe his pace was, uh, was good. Uhm, but anyways, already his qualifying pace was, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was really, uhm, way, I mean, really strong, because beating Sonota first time back is, is really strong in a car that you've never driven before, uhm, with very little running the day before, you know, that's, wow, that's the ultimate challenge, so, super, and it's so nice for all of us that he's back, uhm, we love, uh, watching Daniel Ricciardo, you know, he's such a, such a warrior on the race track, and,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uhm, Christian Orner was saying that a happy Daniel Ricciardo is a fast Daniel Ricciardo and I'm seeing him very happy at the moment. The pressure and expectation is not really getting to him, uhm, which is, uh, so he seems to be in a good place and maybe then we can see a different Daniel Ricciardo and see the old Daniel Ricciardo again, you know, who is incredibly fast and talented.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, it's gonna be really dominating Tsunoda. Uhm, it's gonna be getting some, getting some points, some strong races. Uhm, and then, and then it depends on Paris also, if Paris continues this difficult form.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then there could be a chance, but it's gonna be a big ask. But anyway, I think Daniel made a bit of a mistake to mention that interest in going back to Red Bull Racing. Cause it just adds, the whole focus now on him is like, is he gonna manage to do this?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's all about that. And it shouldn't be. It should be about him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just racing for AlphaTauri and, and trying to do a good job. That, that's it. So it was, it was, it's a mistake for him to, to put so much focus on, uh, I'm only here because I want to get back to Red Bull Racing. Uhm, that's a big lesson that I learned in my career. You know, that's a total unnecessary extra pressure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Totally. Yeah, because you're gonna rate him based on that. Was Sunday good enough to get him back to Red Bull Racing? That's all what it's about now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, uh, I mean, he's a race winner in, uh, in Belgium as well. So it's a track he goes well at and, uh, cause he beat me there. I remember that. Um, and, and Hungary I think was really about also.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think a lot of fine-tuning just for driver comfort will have happened in Hungary for him and uhm, that's why there's much more to come from him once he settles in into the car and feels comfortable and has a comfortable seat and position and steering wheel and everything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] GriginOrder said, we're only interested in Nick if he looks to be like the world class we're looking for to potentially come to Red Bull Racing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and, and they came to the conclusion that yes, Nick can be a great Formula One racer or whatever, but he'll just never be what we're looking for.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They could find the old Daniel once again and not the Daniel they saw at McLaren, uhm, which would be very exciting for Red Bull as a whole because of course Daniel is a huge personality and was a huge driver, you know, so I think it was a combination and it was very harsh on Nick because to get kicked out of your dream


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For Nick, for Nick and for all of us, you know, the dream is to drive a Formula One, be a Formula One driver.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you get it for a couple of races and you get kicked out brutally. Um, it's so harsh mentally. Uh, and you saw it on the social media that you just went black out on social media and just came with a short statement and said, hey, sorry, I need time for myself. You know, it's, it's painful. So, um, so yeah, that's, uh, that's the way it is sometimes, I guess. Yep.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's like if, it's like, yeah, it's like if you met tomorrow, uh, Sky calls you up and says, hey Matt, uh, you're just not good enough. Yeah, brutal, horrible. You're getting, you're getting kicked out and it takes you by surprise as well, kind of, you know? Um, that's, that's the same, it's the same feeling. And then add a hundred million people watching that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, uhm, probably. But at the same time, there can be surprises in Belgium. We've always seen that there can be real surprises. And probably the team that has a chance to surprise will be McLaren.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, maybe someone like Ferrari and qualified or something, because I don't see, Mercedes I don't see at all because they have no straight line speed, or very little, uhm, for now. And, uh, and then Aston I think somehow are a little bit on the back foot, but I would put it to McLaren to do a big surprise. That'd be great.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So what you don't know is I had the full outfit in the morning because I have the matching silk shorts. Wow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I was asking the SkyBoss Billy, can I, can I pull it off? Will you allow me to? And he was like, if you feel comfortable, go ahead. But I, I chickened out, I chickened out and I put a long, long pant on to go with it. So actually it's my, it's my Ibiza Ushuaia party. Wow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's from a vintage, from a vintage shop next to our ice cream parlor in Ibiza, which our ice cream is called Vivi's Creamery. Vivi's Creamery in the old town and we're like number one ice cream now in Ibiza and it's from the vintage shop next door. So, but yeah, I like to start pushing a bit of boundaries on the fashion front.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guarantee you the shorts and the combination is epic, but I didn't, I, I chickened out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, that's not cool. Yeah, that's not cool at all. Um, cause I just, I post like, on race weekends, I just post a picture from the pit lane with some, with a car or something and, and that car has then gone pretty poorly. So, uh, I need to be careful with that in future.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So the back, the back story here is that on Saturday I posted Max's car and of course he lost the qualifying and then on Sunday I was like go Mercedes and I posted Lewis's car. Uhm, and that went completely, that went completely wrong. So that's the back story behind this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I wasn't aware of it previous to this weekend, but it seemed to be a rolling joke. I think Norris had said something as soon as he got in there, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wasn't aware of the dislike of podcasts, but I was aware that it had been a conversation in the cool time room.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, like I love Japan and I think the reason is it's so different to most other places you go in the world, like even the language barrier.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I tried to get a ch- a tree in just a very short distance one of the nights.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you don't know any of the symbols, you don't know what any of it means, just to try and get your ticket is really complex. You can't ask someone because nobody speaks English where we end up, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It just seems like everyone's trying to be really helpful so they keep chatting to you in Japanese but you just don't, you're none the wiser. So it's really interesting, like you go to the sushi place and they really take it really seriously. But they're just, it's just so different to get anywhere, to do anything, the passion's very different.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Town's been overrun by all these strange people. It's just, it's really, really interesting. Like I enjoyed the sushi place.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But yeaah, so it's loads of fun. I think the least fun thing we did was bowling because it was so like-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Western bowling, I was expecting it to be mental Japanese bowling in some way. And it was actually very close to bowling that we have at home, whereas everything else, like if you go to karaoke in Japan, it's a really small room, really intense, really exciting. So I was a bit like expecting more from the bowling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yo, I think there's a few things to say, like, if we think of the McLaren example, if we take a step back a bit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] McLaren have made a fantastic gain through this year. Nobody's going to take that away, but they account for much.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think actually Mercedes, out of the teams that we discuss, are maybe one of the strongest positions of them. Mercedes have a very strong team, like Ansys, they know that, they will know the weaknesses of the car now, they know it's not.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A full philosophy car if we want to think of it like that. So they'll be starting from a ground up design for next year compared to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Aston and McLaren, they're not bringing online a new wind tunnel. They're not bringing online you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A factory like Aston have done. So they are in a set up position that I think


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Should be smoother transition to just say, right, we're going to take this new concept. That'll be going through variations in CFD.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even within a new concept, there'll be certain routes, there'll be different ideas, there'll be different ideas of flow over the front wing, different idea for side pods.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Teams tend to split it into like a front, middle and rear group or different groups may be working on different concepts and they'll be trying to see.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One, what the most laptop is in that first idea, the first fundamental idea.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And second, what they think the reach is going forward. So how much more development they can get out of it. And from my understanding, I'm not an aerodynamicist, but it's.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How much more you can develop that concept that's actually the difficult bit. You can have three ideas and you can benchmark them now and say, you know, is A B or C quicker? But which one's going to allow you to continue to develop and develop? And that's maybe when Mercedes have gone wrong at this stage where they had a design that was probably stronger initially.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But actually they've met the end of that development cycle. And that's the point that from an aerodynamicist is actually difficult to do. And I actually.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Spoke to, to one of the leaders, one of the teams this week that said, people don't realize that actually our denomocyst is probably one of the most difficult jobs in the pit with Liam because it affects everything else that that team does.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that, you know, it's so, it's easy to be a strategist in a strong team. It's easiest, easier to be a race engineer in a strong team. It's all about the car you've got underneath you. So there'll be a frantic work going on. The split between CFD and the wind tunnel is going to be very important in those teams.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think Mercedes will be in a strong position because they're going back to grind zero.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, as a strategist you tended, they would give the entire factory sort of update means.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Surface design because mechanical design needs to take over at some stage and they need to start to make physical bits. So yeaah, there's continuous updates about what's going on. And you're, you are always interested in


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause you have to remember there's lots of people in teams moving around or thinking where they might go or what job offer they might take or whatever. So it's fun, the teams are fundamentally trying to keep everyone interested, everyone bought into next year's design. And it might mean that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And what I'm related to when I was doing mechanical design at McLaren, we were making huge mechanical design compromises just because the Aero wanted something different.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or when you were doing gearbox design, the arrow surface might move a little bit and then suddenly...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's not room for all the stuff that you're trying to fit in and around the gearbox, but you sort of accepted that Aero was king and the mechanical design still needed to be there, still needed to work.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But just needed to fit within whatever surfaces the air will give you to a large degree.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know that, that surface, you get this overall surface of the car and that'll be beginning to be finished almost now such that from this point onwards mechanical design can start to pick up. Now that doesn't mean aero design stops, it just means that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some of the BS surfaces that we get for the first car will be tied down. The chassis will be tied down. The gearbox will be tied down. Certain things will be tied down now. And then things like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it depends, if it's for a second interesting in what you're doing, trying to understand the fundamentals of what you're trying to change.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How the developments going and that's good. It's good that you've got driver by and it's good that you're trying to solve the problems that he has.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If he's at your computer going, oh no, I wouldn't do it like that. I'd do it like this. Then that's not what you want because he doesn't understand how, like everyone's got their niche market. So it is just about, you do need buy-in from the drivers because you are going to make such a big change and you need to get them on board. They need to be working with you. They need to be like on spending time in the simulator, giving good feedback.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really involved in what you're trying to do. And you know, it does sound like Lewis and George both are, they're both on board that they are going to turn this around and progress and bring it forward.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think there's, there's a few interesting battles, so the Mercedes we're speaking about obviously, but there's a few that, the Ferrari boys, the McLaren boys, it's all the same. They're very, very close.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's interesting, Fred Fusser actually said something very interesting in The Grid. He said, one of them's happy, I mean they're never both happy, whichever one's ahead is happiest.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is very, very true. You get, you know, I find that interesting with Lewis's comment, particularly after qualifying. I don't think he actually qualified too differently to the position he qualified in Singapore.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But in Japan, he was ahead of George and in Singapore, he was like five positions behind George, but I think actually his qualifying position was pretty close.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he was much, much happier with qualifying in Japan. So it's very, it's very interesting that and, you know, you have to be very careful because it's one of the only sports, motorsport is one of the only sports where you've got an individual sports person that's competing for their own interest.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As well, there are engineers in the pit wall. You've got this dynamic of where you've got a central person, but then you've got someone to your left with one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A jan done someone to your right with another and you need to be very careful with all the information that comes through.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You particularly don't believe that I'm faster than him. Information.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And even when you ask that how much, you always get a number that's incorrect.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you just need to be very careful and you have to, some teams come up with a lot of rules, internal rules of how they're going to manage that strategy situation where two drivers are competing. Is it that the lead one always gets preference in pit stops? Is it that if they,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Undercut accidentally, they'll switch the cars later on, there's lots of different things. You need to be really careful, you know, we as a midfield team were a lower down team at that time. You need to be very careful about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Starting the two cars on different strategies, if the person who was faster because they were on a softer tire ended up behind, he'd only just be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Switching a car and fighting each other, the old race, you want to do a plan that works well for both and works well together. So does that mean.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Putting one on a one stop and one on a two stop just so you avoid more interaction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's the way it's going. Uhm, there's a lot of things teens can try and employ.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But you really want your, your two guys to be working together as much as you can.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They, you have to remember in the back of the mind, their vested interest, the first person they want to be on track as their teammate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's not necessarily the first person the team wants to beat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, garage slot next year is based on team finishing position.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the driver doesn't care so much about that. He just wants to beat the guy cause he knows that way he is, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, people watching the sport, the first thing we judge them on is how they perform against their teammate. So it's very interesting dynamic in the team.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are things you can do to try and help, like I say, put them on different parts of the track.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Put them in different run plans and qualify and put them in different things in the race.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But ultimately, you know, we don't want to overall hurt your race in that situation either.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh no, what I meant was, sorry I've decided like that, what I said is...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At times a driver will say, like a Lewis will say, in Singapore, that he's faster, but faster than George. He'll say that on the radio. And then sometimes he'll ask, oh, how much faster do you think you can go? And he'll say some ridiculous number.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One second a lot faster than in the pit while you have to go, let's take a bit of caution on that because it's probably not true, you know, so you just.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The guy behind always feels like he's quicker, and often that is true, but often you have to say, well, is it because he's got DRS? Is it because he's got, you know, there's loads of different reasons why that could seem the case.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think in general drivers from what I've seen and what I've heard historically have got a lot better at working together. We share a lot of data across the garage where, you know, they work together and qualify and to try and get the best lap time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think in the past it was, you know, more secret squirrel in terms of what setup changes you were doing or whatever. So I think in general the teams have got a lot better at that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the drivers, it's, you just, in the, in the heat of the moment race situation, you just need to be trying to remove any


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, feelings one way or the other towards the driver and try and get it dead in the middle, which is very difficult for the person in central seats.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it's so hard to predict what's going on in the background of a team, mainly because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Although we see instance on track, we see the pace on track, we see, we can hear his driver comes on track.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We are not seeing how he's performing in the debriefs, what he's bringing to the team in terms of development, how he's interacting with everyone, so maybe the team is really working together as a fit, but...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think a few things we're telling this weekend in terms of a chem delight.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because there's been so many accidents that that car isn't at the full spec.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's only so much time that a team can sustain that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you know, I think James is very vocal in that, you know, when we spoke to him on the pet wall and saying,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you still, you know, have a big accident. It's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That, you know, will eventually grind the team, grind the management, if you can imagine. And it's very, it's very difficult in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One of the lower teams to the grid. Now Williams obviously can't consider 10th anymore. They're running much higher than that in the championship, but the mechanics work so hard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's hard to keep motivation up if every weekend you're fixing a car, putting it back together, running it with bits.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think those are the things that are probably gonna stand against him more than the-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I deny PS performances because that could be tempered by something that we're missing in the engineering meetings.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but the inability to run a car at your preferred spec is very detrimental. Because you're doing half the learning. You're doing half the learning on your upgrades. You're doing half the learning on any development item that you do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, you need to, ideally what you want is you want two drivers that are very equal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That in FP2 you can run one in the medium and one in the hard and you can take the learning from both. So that's your ultimate aim is to put two really well matched drivers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think you need to look, a lot of it is, you'd end up, we do exactly what we said, the other drivers are concerned about, we do the compare to their team mate, you know, have they just been


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Poor final points position because of unreliability. Is that a team issue or a driver issue? You try and see where the pace is in qualifying, where the consistency is.