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[Assistant] It's going to rumble on for sure, isn't it? Over the coming weeks. It's well, years. I mean, if we're looking at 2028 for when they're actually going to join Formula One. So we'll keep you posted with any developments and any more visits to the Andressi factory, but let's get back onto China. Craig, we're going to let you go soon because I know you had quite a long


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Craig, what else is catching your attention this week in the, in the panic? I'd say there's been, there has been a lot of news, hasn't there, since, since we were last, last racing in, in Japan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is a perfect segue into the track specifically.


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[Assistant] And how, and how it's going to, and how it's going to evolve across the weekend. Craig, we might bid you farewell at this point because I know it's late over there and you've got your lantern and maybe, I wonder if your oil is running out.


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[Assistant] Fingers crossed, uhm, and now you can get to sleep with the crazy time difference that there's gonna be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Great. Thank you for your time. Really appreciate it. Have a good time in China.


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[Assistant] Okay, so this, this Bernie would be a perfect opportunity to talk about everything that's happened.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Since the last Chinese Grand Prix in 2019, which was won by Lewis Hamilton ahead of Valtteri Bottas, his teammate of course, back in 2019 at Mercedes.


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[Assistant] And Ferrari, Sebastian Vettel. We've had Hamilton win a sixth and a seventh, seventh world title. Max Verstappen has won 52 races, uh, since then. There's been a few other things that have happened in, in the five years, but we'll, we'll let people at home fill in those blanks. But this weekend, we've got so much unknown, haven't we? Because we haven't raced there in five years. And.


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[Assistant] We don't have data on this current set of cars on that track.


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[Assistant] Yeah. And we, we learned actually from the press conference in Japan with, with Carlos Sainz, he or Ferrari seemed to think there has been some resurfacing on the track. He went on record saying that we don't, but to your point, we don't know how much resurfacing could be one or two corners. And we discussed it in the podcast last week actually with regards to Turkey from


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For some people who haven't seen the Chinese Grand Prix track before, just give us a, give us an outline of what sort of track it is. What, are there any similarities to other tracks on the calendar? What, what could, what could we expect?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Exactly. What kind of, um, you know, what are we going to expect in terms of slow speed, high speed corners and the amount of straights?


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[Assistant] We'll get on to who that might favor a little bit later, but, but I want to, and you mentioned earlier that the sprint weekend elements of all of this. So yeah, not only is it, you know, the plenty of drivers who haven't raced here for five years, we've still got four drivers who've never raced here at all.


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[Assistant] So the sprint weekend, I'll just go through it in terms of how it's, of how the new structure works. This is, as I said at the top, the new sprint format for 2024.


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[Assistant] We've got practice one Friday morning. We've then got the sprint qualifying on Friday PM before the sprint race on Saturday morning. And then we go into the normal.


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[Assistant] Qualifying for the race on Saturday afternoon before the race on Sunday.


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[Assistant] So it now, from my perspective, it feels like we've gone much more


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[Assistant] Chronological throughout the weekend, it's less. Yeah. Poor Rachel Nat in the pen going, Oh my goodness, which race is this? Are you on poll? Are you like, do you work it out? I think now it's going to be much clearer. We're going to know where we are in the weekend. What do you think? I mean, obviously the teams have approved it, so they must, they must be in favor of it. Do you see a similar thing from your perspective? Do you think it's, it's moved to a different, uh, different format for a positive change?


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[Assistant] Only taken us three years, what is it, four years since we've had the sprint to get to this point. Let's see. I'm sure there'll be more tweaks going forward. It was interesting what you were saying about the part-fome rules. I think that will definitely help teams because particularly if you look at this weekend in China, if you get it wrong in FP1,


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[Assistant] You in the previous iteration of the regulations would have kind of been screwed throughout the whole weekend. You never would have been able to get on top of that, whereas at least now I guess you get the chance to reset, give it another go. You're more likely to get more out the weekend.


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[Assistant] It's exciting. I'm definitely excited to see it. I wonder, I mean, we sort of asked this question at the top, the sort of overall question really that I wanted to ask on this podcast is, is this going to be the most unpredictable Formula One race in


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes. I mean, there seems to be so much unpredictability to this weekend. Maybe we've visited, you know, Vegas, for example, as a new track.


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[Assistant] We'd never visited it before, but we had all the practice sessions just about with the drain cover problem. However, for this, we've got the sprint race added element too. So I wonder, yeah, I mean, you know, can you think of a more unpredictable set of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In terms of teams then that this is going to favour that, that you're going to potentially go well this weekend.


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[Assistant] And it's funny you mentioned Mercedes earlier that you'd seen their pre-race notes because surely for a team like Mercedes that are struggling to get on top of this car that need


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know what sort of the perfect race weekend for them might be. It might be a Monza, for example, super reliable track that they've got loads of data on before and that they know they're going to get through practice sessions in, for example. Whereas this seems to be the exact opposite of what they need. So much unpredictability, but could it work the other way? And could they go, well, everyone's starting from zero and therefore actually maybe we might be in with more of a chance this weekend.


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[Assistant] No matter how good you try and get your setup, I guess if the car's fundamentally still got problems and still isn't quick, there's limits to what you can do.


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[Assistant] We don't really do previews on the podcast. I'm quite excited by this. We actually get the chance to make, I'm not going to ask you to predict who's going to win necessarily, but I mean, what, what are your expectations for who is going to go well? Do you, do you see it as another Max Verstappen domination show?


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[Assistant] Or a Ferrari going to be there or thereabouts and nice and close in behind.


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[Assistant] Fancy that in Formula One. That's great. That's, that's a brilliant sell for this weekend. So look, just time to, just time to tell you what, what, what the times are. These are all UK times. So apologies if you're not in the UK, you might have to do a bit of maths, but.


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[Assistant] Friday FP1 starts at 4.30 before sprint qualifying at 8.30 in the morning. Then Saturday we're on air for the sprint race from 3.30am for a race start at 4. Then we're building up to quality from 7am. The session starts at 8.


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[Assistant] And then Sunday, we're on air from 7 for a race start at 8am, which is relatively sociable. Look, for a Far Eastern race, that's...


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[Assistant] Oh, I know it's so windy here in London. I keep being blown around left, right and centre, but yeah, it's good. I'm really excited for this weekend. I think, I think it's going to be really interesting, but maybe.


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[Assistant] We're all excited for a good old fashioned European start time after these flyaways. I say that on behalf of people who work on it in the UK. Um, look, Bernie, thank you so much for your time. No problem. Really appreciate it. Have a lovely weekend, uh, on holiday. Uh, we're going to be back next week, uh, to look back at what is undoubtedly going to be an unpredictable Chinese Grand Prix. So I hope you can join us then. Bye for now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hello everyone. Welcome to this week's episode of the Sky Sports F1 podcast with me, Matt Baker. We've decided to go full mailbag this week and answer your burning questions. So to help me do that, I've managed to pin down Anthony Davidson and hello, how are you doing?


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[Assistant] Hi Matt, yeah, all good, thank you, yeah, good to be here with you. Yeah, good to have you. Excited for Australia? We were just chatting about it, weren't we, before? I swear it's moved earlier. So the overnight work that we're going to be doing here at Sky is going to be going on even earlier. Don't know which way my body clock's going to switch.


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[Assistant] So look, we've got loads of questions to get through for you, uhm, have some brilliant ones sent in, but I want to start by talking mainly about your role as a simulator driver for Mercedes. And some people will know that you work with the Mercedes team, some people won't. So just break it down for us in very sort of simple terms, what that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Rolling tales and, and what I guess use this weekend as an example, what does sort of a typical weekend in the life of a SIM driver look like?


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[Assistant] Yeah, fascinating. I think it's a very, what I find interesting about it, it's a very efficient way of working, isn't it, for a Formula One team. In the era of the cost cap, like you mentioned, it's really important to maximise the time on track. And I guess obviously you are sort of the first buffer, aren't you, between an idea


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From Lewis Hamilton in the simulator. Have you learned anything that you've applied to your own driving sort of in the other things, kind of, uh, as information kind of gone the other way to you? Cause obviously you're still racing and you're still active, active in the racing community.


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[Assistant] We, we learned after Saudi Arabia that, uh, there was a, there was an issue wasn't there with the correlation of the simulator to the real on track data that, that Mercedes seemed to be getting. Is there any light you can shed on that and, and what, what has been happening since Saudi Arabia to try and get those to, to fall more in line?


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[Assistant] That seems to be what Formula One seems to be, particularly now as we were saying in the cost cap era. And we've had a really interesting question here about some of the drivers like Hamilton, Ricardo and Perez who've been in Formula One quite a long time and who have all proven to be very successful drivers within the sport.


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[Assistant] But is there any theory that these guys are struggling with the new era of ground-effect cars?


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[Assistant] Do you think that, this is a question for someone online, do you think that actually, that they're perhaps struggling for confidence versus the newer guys who aren't so used to driving the older type of Formula 1 cars? Can you see any correlation within that?


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[Assistant] But also by the flip side of that is Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso. These are hugely talented drivers. Obviously many world championships between them. I'm sure they can make it work. They could probably drive my VW Polo.


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[Assistant] And make it into a pretty good race car if they, if they really wanted. So yeah, it's, it's, it's a very interesting point. And yeah, maybe we'll see further down the line, you know, getting used to different cars or driving different categories as well.


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[Assistant] A few more questions then. So, Ivor wants to know, is there a reason as to why Alpine have had such a downfall in performance this year?


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[Assistant] Yeah, I really like that analogy of the building work. Very good. And you know, I think as well in this era of cost cap, I guess we've got 24 races for Alpine to catch up. We saw what McLaren did last year in terms of a brilliant mid-season development.


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[Assistant] I mean, hopefully, hopefully for, for, for their guys and for their fans that they can. Um, I want to talk a little bit about Oli Behrman's performance in Saudi Arabia and you, you were there and, and, and did plenty of great analysis on the sky pad, but I want to know.


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[Assistant] Where do you think Oli's performance has left the driver market? Do you think it was already quite a volatile driver market, wasn't it? In regards to there are a lot of drivers out of contract this, this summer.


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[Assistant] So do you think adding another driver who's got a great chance in Formula One, who's already proven himself to be able and up to racing Formula One, do you think that's almost made the driver market more volatile and more explosive when it comes to silly season as it were?


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[Assistant] How would you feel, Anne, if you were one of those drivers that you mentioned, add Liam Lawson into that mix as well.


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[Assistant] One of those drivers on the sidelines and you see, you know, there's a, I don't necessarily need to name the drivers, but there are quite a few drivers still on the grid in Formula One who've been around for 10, 15 years who are taking up some of those spots from, from the younger drivers. Do you see the tension there? Do you, do you understand the frustration from those younger drivers?


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[Assistant] Yeah, link to that and sort of the final question I want to ask you then, and this is from Bethan, is should we be giving rookies more than just two?


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[Assistant] Practice sessions a season, and I guess if we do give them more practice sessions a season, they become more known quantities, don't they? And perhaps they're less of a risk. If we look at perhaps Logan Sargent, who struggled last year, James Valves made the point, didn't he? He said, well, look, he's only had.


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[Assistant] Uh, Bahrain, uh, you know, three sessions or two or one and a half sessions in Bahrain to get to grips with the car. It's not a shock that it's taking a little bit longer with someone like him than maybe with a more experienced driver.


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[Assistant] That actually brings us perfectly back full circle and to the simulator work, doesn't it? Because that's exactly what you were saying at the start. The whole point of simulation is to try and establish, uh, patterns and make sure things are going to work. So yeah, look.


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[Assistant] Perfectly cyclical. Well done. Uh, very good. Uh, just time to tell you at home, uh, about the timings for this weekend. As we alluded to at the beginning, it's going to be an early start for most, for most of you. Or a late, or a late night, depending on how you're going to play it. So uhm, we're live obviously across Sky Sports F1 this weekend, on air with FP1.


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[Assistant] Uh, thank you very much for your time and really fascinating. And, uh, yeah, I mean, there was so many questions we didn't get through and a lot more about your simulator work as well, which hopefully we'll try and cover off in a few more podcast episodes this year. But yeah, great to have you with us. Thanks for joining us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. Thanks a lot. Yeah. Enjoy the Grand Prix. Very good. Right. We'll be back next Tuesday to look back at the Australian Grand Prix. Hope you can join us then. Bye for now.


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[Assistant] Stuff to get done back in the factory, uh, awards events, uh, prize givings, FIA prize givings coming up this Friday, uh, Christmas parties coming up as well for all the staff, so, uh, uh, but still a lot going on back in the factory as RB20 starts to, uh,


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[Assistant] Give us some insight into a Red Bull Christmas party. What's it like?


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[Assistant] They're always great fun, uh, everybody lets their hair down and, uh, you know, it's that work hard, play hard mentality that we have and, uh, and especially this year after what an amazing year, um, to celebrate, uh, everything that the whole team has achieved together under one roof. I think it will be very special.


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[Assistant] Uh, a shareholder dinner in Dubai on, on Monday evening. So, uh, Monday morning I went down to the beach and, uh, who was there but Daniel and, and his partner Heidi and, uh, others as well, Pierre Gasly and, and, and so on. So, uh, obviously they were hanging around because they were testing on the, on the Tuesday.


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[Assistant] Well, it's a piece of history now. I mean, what it's achieved is quite outstanding and of course so much of it was carryover.


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[Assistant] You know, more than 30 races. Uhm, and uh, it's incredible, incredible to think what we've achieved as a team and so this car to a broken


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[Assistant] All the records from the McLaren 1988.


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[Assistant] Of course, you can always improve, and that's what Formula One is all about. It's always looking at where can, where can you be better? And RB19, whilst it ticks a lot of boxes, there are still areas that we can improve that we'll be taking and looking to carry into RB20.


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[Assistant] Uhm, but, uh, that's, that's Formula One, that's competition, it's all those marginal gains that you're, you're pursuing.


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[Assistant] Well, it's what you're measured by as a team, and I think for us, uh, we're incredibly proud of every statistic that we achieve, and particularly as a reasonably young team, I mean, we're still not 20 years old, uh, and to think, you know, 13 world championships, 107 victories, uhm, the amount of success and podiums that we've had has been


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[Assistant] Been phenomenal on this incredible journey so far. So, uh, all of those statistics are incredibly, incredibly valued and important to us.


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[Assistant] It's far simpler than that. Uhm, it's, uh, it's basically taking Spotify and ramming it on the, on the mouthpiece of the, of the microphone and, uh, and hitting the button. And it did seem to work pretty well, I mean, but it started in Brazil with.


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[Assistant] Well, it was his father that told me, uhm, in the celebration for his world championship in Qatar, and I was talking to him and said, you know, what, what Max did, what music that Max doesn't do when he was a kid, and he said, well, when we were driving around, you know, Europe in our van going to car races, we used to, I used to play a lot of Tom Jones and Green Green Grass, and I was like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Spring green grass. Yeaah. And, and, you know, played it out the next day for him. Uh, so he had another race in Brazil and sure enough he started singing away.


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[Assistant] I'm very proud to have done this year is address so many different departments of the, uh, of the business. So many departments that don't get the credit that they deserve. Now, uhm, of course, in the past we've had Hannah go on the podium, uh, who runs our strategy, but this year we've managed to get the truckies up. We've managed to get people from


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[Assistant] IT up from electronics, from the supply chain, from


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[Assistant] From all aspects, you know, our, our physio, uhm, uh, all aspects of the business we've managed to get up and represent it. And of course, it's a huge honor to go and collect the Constructor's Trophy on behalf of the team. And, uh, uh, it's been great to see, uh, how much is meant to so many people.


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[Assistant] Yeah, for sure. I think all, all members of staff deserve an opportunity. They've contributed and...


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[Assistant] A female on the podium, uh, in Jill Ganderton many, many years ago, back in 2010 or 11.


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[Assistant] Well, a fan is maybe, uh, excessive, but, uh, I grew up, uh, my grandfather was heavily involved in Coventry City, so we all had it embedded


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[Assistant] I think everybody is so motivated by success. And of course, you know, Singapore still hurt this year that we lost a race. And that's a big reminder. It's a humbling reminder that it's not that easy. And we've got some massive competitors that want to beat us, that want to see us fail.


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[Assistant] It's that motivation that charges us and drives us and, uh,


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[Assistant] Uhm, that fit, that winning feeling becomes addictive and that's, nobody wants to lose


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[Assistant] One of the things we've had at Red Bull has been tremendous continuity. A lot of our staff have been there for a long time. We don't have a high turnover in staff. So they've been there on the good days. They've been there on the not so good days. And, uh, you know, in sport you tend to have more


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More days that you lose than the new win and I think it's, uh, it's, it's that winning feeling that you have to harness and, and, and capture and celebrate and enjoy, uh, because you never know when it's going to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is a challenge. I mean, it's a massive challenge. Of course, you know, he came into the sport on the back of a winning team and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Enjoyed a huge period of success, uhm, and serial success for...


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[Assistant] Uh, you know, seven or eight years and, uh, and then suddenly it's a big adjustment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To not be going to Grand Prix's and uhm, you know, I think Mercedes have won one race in the last two seasons. Uhm, and that, that will hurt and that, you know, people


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Start questioning things in the organization and uhm,


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[Assistant] You know, heads drop and, and, you know, as a leader, you have to, you have to motivate them. You have to, to pick them up. And it's a, it's a totally different challenge to one, uh, of being, you know, at the, at the top of the field to striving to get back there.


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[Assistant] I think that uhm, eh, is, is making sure that people believe in themselves and, and trying to instill a confidence. Uhm, and it's inevitable that when you've been winning for a long period of time that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When suddenly you're not winning, then, then that's when fingers start getting pointed and...


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[Assistant] And that, that, that, that the team gets truly challenged during that period. And that's why I'm particularly proud at Red Bull.


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[Assistant] During the period that we weren't able to be in a winning position.


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[Assistant] Uh, two or three races, you know, by 2015, we won two or three, a minimum of two or three races every year. Uhm, and, uh, at the, at the places that we could do so where there wasn't, you know, the engine disadvantage was, uh, was nullified.


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[Assistant] Well look, we're up against some great teams, and we're seeing those teams, uhm...


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[Assistant] And, you know, they're all very competitive, very strong teams.


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[Assistant] I think our opponents just kept moving around behind us and so we were never, it wasn't the same opponent from weekend to weekend. It would be Mercedes in, in, in, uh, Austin, you know, we've got, uh,


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[Assistant] Monaco with Aston Martin. We had Silverstone with McLaren. Uhm, Las Vegas with Ferrari. It just kept moving around.


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[Assistant] So it's not worth worrying about that. We're racing everybody. You've got to beat everyone to finish first and therefore the only thing we can control is what we're doing.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it's an amusing moment because I think my wife had just smacked his bum so hard. Oh, right. Uhm, that, uh, I think it took him a bit by surprise. You probably can't see my clenched fist that is out of shot there, but uhm, but look, I mean, it's been a long season and, uh,


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[Assistant] You know, there has to be competition on track, but uhm, yeaah, there still has to be, there still has to be respect.


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[Assistant] Obviously, of course, everything that he's done and achieved in the sport.


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[Assistant] Well, very little. I mean, he could do certainly three races. He could have been better, but that was beyond his control though. Most of them. Uhm, so, so yeah, I mean, what an unbelievable year he's had. He's just been absolutely incredible. So is he impossible to fault?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well look, he's, uh, he's a competitive guy and the calendar's gruelling, he's 26 years of age.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's looking at drivers that are 42. He probably can't imagine himself driving for that, that length of time. I doubt he, I doubt he will. I think Max knows his own mind, he's his own person.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, he has his own strength of character and I think...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] While he's motivated and, and committed, he'll continue in Formula 1, but I think if he loses that motivation, I, I don't think he will, he would stay around that long. So will he be racing when he's 42? I very much doubt it.


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[Assistant] That enthusiasm, that determination, that grit, uh, phenomenal car control and natural ability, none of that has changed. He hasn't, you know, none of the fame or the wealth has gone to his head. He's still the same guy.


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[Assistant] Tell you what he thinks. He's not trying to be a stereotype. He is who he is. And I think that, uh, you have to have a lot of respect for that. And uhm, of course he has the benefit of experience now which he's using extremely well.


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[Assistant] I think his, his biggest resolution would be to sort his qualifying out. I mean that's been his Achilles heel at certain points this year and I think that if he can do that then his race pace is always strong, he races very well.


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[Assistant] Yeah, we need him qualifying nearer the front, nearer to max, uhm, and, and, and putting more pressure on. We can't afford for him to go missing at certain points of the championship and have that, have that consistency. He finished second this year, third last year, fourth year before, so he's on the, on the right trajectory. He's on the, trending for, for, yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of course they are different, but we just develop the fastest car that we can and the drivers extract and adapt and get the most out of it. Simple as that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're not developing in one route or another. We develop a car to, uh, you know, to be the most competitive car that we can.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then of course it's down to the drivers to what can they extract out of it and how they adjust their style and nuances accordingly.


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[Assistant] From Red Bull Racing, but they, they take benefit of


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[Assistant] The parts are allowed to be transferred like the gearbox and the suspension and so on in the same way that Williams


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[Assistant] And Aston Martin have done so with Mercedes or Haas with Ferrari. So uhm, obviously they're based in Italy, uhm, but they have a new management coming in, in Peter Bayer as CEO and Lauren Meckes as team principal and they're both competitive guys, they both, you know, want to compete to,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No it won't be, I mean they're designing their own car, they've got their own ideas.


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[Assistant] Whilst they use the same wind tunnel, uh, and certain components, not all aerodynamic surfaces as per the regs, they, they have to conceive and develop themselves.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're going to look like the Red Bull. You can see design influences from our car, so I'm sure that's going to be up and down the grid next year.


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[Assistant] It's great to see Daniel back in Formula One. I think it was something I was very keen to.


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[Assistant] To, to bring him back into the fold over the winter and when he came to us you could see.


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[Assistant] He was pretty much done with Formula One and he wasn't enjoying it, but slowly that smile came back, that energy came back, and certainly the test he did in Silverstone for us mid-season was truly, truly impressive.


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[Assistant] The work behind the scenes on the simulator. So, he deserved the chance in the AlphaTory. He was unlucky then to break his hand in Zandvoort, but I thought he drove very well this year. And most importantly, he put some engineering direction into the team with the experience he had. And I think that really benefited, uh, the AlphaTory team.


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[Assistant] Well look, we always feel the most competitive cars that we can. There's never a difference between the two cars now.


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[Assistant] We had an era with Sebastian where he was incredibly dominant and, and, you know, there was, uh, it was difficult to be his teammate. Now with Max, exactly the same thing. He's...


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[Assistant] He is a machine. He is arguably, certainly the best driver currently in Formula One as a three time world champion and to be his teammate is incredibly tough and if you're not


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[Assistant] Psychologically strong, you won't cope with being his teammate. It's as simple as that.


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[Assistant] Just relentless in, in his pace, in his, in the way that he operates. I think that's been one of the positives with Cheko is that he's had the strength of, uh, of, of character to be able to, to deal with how we've seen it sort of break others in the.


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[Assistant] In the past, but uhm, yeaah, it's a tough gig to be his teammate.


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[Assistant] I think the expectations on the Red Bull drivers are so high it would be very unfair to put a...


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[Assistant] A junior straight into Red Bull Racing and that's the luxury of having.


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[Assistant] AlphaTauri is that, you know, it's provided Max, it provided Seb, Daniel Ricciardo, it's, you know, so many drivers, so many of our drivers over the years have come out of AlphaTauri cars.


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[Assistant] The sport has been transformed. It's now truly a global sport. It has global appeal. The US has been broken. Uh, the appeal of the sport. Everybody knows.


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[Assistant] Formula 1 now, and I think that that's why there's so much demand to have races, so much demand for action, uh, and the fanbase it's now bringing in as well is much more diverse, it's a much younger fanbase, a much more female fanbase as well, it's fantastic, uhm, so it's the biggest change I've seen.


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[Assistant] It's fantastic to see so many fans, so many people that want to know and follow Formula One, and everybody knows.


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[Assistant] What Formula One and who the characters and personalities are and you forget how big globally the sport is now and the appeal and...


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[Assistant] That it, that it has, uhm, and to see young fans really wanting to get involved. I mean, I have a 17 year old daughter and she and her friends showed no interest in Formula One, you know, two, three, four years ago. Now, they're all completely hooked on it.


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[Assistant] And, uh, my daughter came and did some work experience in the summer and it was her that came up with the concept for the Elvis suits in, uh,


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[Assistant] You know, Sky do a fantastic job of...


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[Assistant] of, uh, providing the information and covering the races, but, but you've got obviously the Netflix phenomenon that has just bought this massive, it's been a game changer for the sport and it's just brought a massive new audience into Formula One that previously wouldn't have known what it was.


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[Assistant] I love what I do and, and I have a commitment and...


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[Assistant] Responsibility for the team, having been there since the beginning and still as the second youngest now, team principal in Formula One, I still got a few years.


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[Assistant] Left in me, and whilst my motivation is still sky high, I mean, with Red Bull powertrains coming in 2026, that's by far the biggest challenge that I'll have in my time in Formula One. So uhm.


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[Assistant] So, so yeaah, it's, uh, it still motivates me to get out of bed every day and I'm excited every day that I go to work.


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[Assistant] Well, it's, it's been wonderful in many respects, hasn't it? I was a bit concerned a few weeks ago when, you know, Charles...


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[Assistant] Uh, contracted, uh, for long-term at Ferrari. We know that Lando and Oscar, uh, uh, McLaren long-term, George at Mercedes, presumably Max Verstappen says he'll finish his career at Red Bull.


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[Assistant] It all looked a bit static, uhm, to me, and I think, where's the story? You know, for the first time in the history of Formula One,


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[Assistant] We go into a season with an identical driver line-up to the year before and all of that. The calendar, I mean, China coming back on after five years away is hardly Las Vegas arriving, is it, in terms of notoriety, and I thought,


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[Assistant] Oh dear, where's the story going to be? These cars better be much closer together. And then Lewis comes up with this magic move to Ferrari.


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[Assistant] Because there was a clause in it, so the teams are slightly disingenuous when they tell you about new contract signings, because they only tell you edited highlights that suit them, and clearly they forgot to mention that he had an exit clause, which he's chosen to take, as you say, very early indeed, but, you know,


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[Assistant] Do you know what? I see everybody's got an opportunity here. I think George Russell has got the shiny confidence, the talent, the speed, the experience to pick up the mantle and be the number one driver at Mercedes-Benz. I have no doubt about that at all. I think it'll energise Mercedes with losing Lewis and it's an opportunity for them.


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[Assistant] Act in haste, repent at leisure. They can wait and see, as you say, how Kimi Antonelli goes. They've got, uh,


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[Assistant] Esteban Ocon I suspect if they want, they've got access to Carlos Sainz, maybe Fernando Alonso, they've got Mick Schumacher in their gang and any number of other drivers.


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[Assistant] I think they'll see how this season goes. Why do they need to jump now? Uhm, and then I think it'll energise Ferrari, uh, uh, uh, into, as you say, Charles Leclerc as well. And it'll certainly energise us lot, watching it and talking about it. So I don't see really any downsides here. I don't buy all of this is going to be emotional, you know, we're leaving. Lewis is a winning machine and that's what he wants to do.


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[Assistant] And the team consciously, subconsciously will, uh, favour George. They've got to.


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[Assistant] I have no doubt he will give it absolutely everything he's got until the last lap of the last race in Abu Dhabi for Mercedes Benz. He'll be wearing those overalls, holding that steering wheel, representing one and a half thousand people.


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[Assistant] If everybody's smart in that, and I think they are all very smart people, as you said, they've had such a wonderful relationship together, Hamilton, Mercedes-Benz and Toto and the team, I think they'll see it as a farewell tour. That's how I think they should and will treat it. Uh, and then,


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[Assistant] Yeah, philosophies, how the car works, what he likes, where he likes to sit and what he needs from a car to maximise his talent.


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[Assistant] So you've got to go and find out where all the buttons are to press.


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[Assistant] And that's why I think Lewis will want to try to take a few people with him. But there'll be non-compete clauses where he can't really do that. But you really want to take some of your own gang with you when you, when you go.


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[Assistant] So that you can hit the ground running, but I think he'll have such respect there anyway that if Lewis says, I want the back wheels put on the front, they'll, they'll go straight away.


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[Assistant] I think it's still the case. Uhm, I think if Lewis wants to do, so how could this go for Lewis? He could either do a Michael Schumacher and turn them into champions again.


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[Assistant] Or he could do a Fernando Alonso and a Seb Vettel where it's kind of a bit of a near miss but look pretty good on occasions.


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[Assistant] And just look at what Schumacher did, the Schumacher Piazza we'd been in and filmed where Schumacher had his gym where he stayed overnight when he was always embedded in Fiorano in the factory like Leclerc and Science have done. So I think if Lewis really wants to get a fast start


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[Assistant] Over there in Italy, I think he'll have to go and embed himself in it, yeaah.


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[Assistant] Came back a little bit, said we weren't aiming at 25, we did yet another new car for 2026, we were actually aiming at 2026 and we didn't get the invitation, got lost in spam or something like that to go to the presentation in December, which seems all a little bit odd.


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[Assistant] I'm very surprised we haven't heard anything from the FIA or really from Mandretti since that decision was made. I would personally like to see an 11th and even a 12th team on the grid. That's another two


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[Assistant] You mustn't be too confident. You've got to think a little bit longer term.


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[Assistant] And we're now sitting with this magnificent position we find ourselves in where all the teams are solvent and doing good business and looking pretty professional. But let's not assume it's always going to stay, you know, that circle, what goes around comes around on that. So I think we need to think long and hard about having some more credible teams available.


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[Assistant] It was confusing, wasn't it? The disconnect between quali on a Friday, when a lot of people were at work and couldn't watch it, and the race on a Sunday, and in the middle we had all of this sort of action. But as always in Formula One, there are unintended consequences. And so, at a sprint race on Saturday morning,


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[Assistant] And then have a shunt or two in that and then you're not ready for qualifying so they're going to have to get ready to


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[Assistant] Uhm, maybe with a spare car, a spare chassis, more built up than the regulations currently allow. What happens to the Park Ferme regulations? When will you go into Park Ferme?


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[Assistant] And just the general workload of the teams, especially, uh, I know we've only got six sprint races, but over 24 race season.


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[Assistant] So there's a lot still to be clarified on that, but I think chronologically it makes a lot more sense for us and for the fans and don't confuse your audience. And I think the old system did confuse the audience. The drivers always say, well, we're not really interested in the sprint, we don't try.


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[Assistant] As soon as that, as soon as the lights go out, they drive hell for leather, don't they? And it's really quite exciting sometimes, so.


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[Assistant] Yeah but I think Ferrari had a decent car and they understood their car towards the end of last year and so did McLaren as well I would say. Red Bull obviously. I don't think we ever really saw Verstappen and Red Bull


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[Assistant] And they, they always concertina with static regulations. So it's a question of how much. For example, we saw in the first half of last year when the Red Bull opened its DRS rear wing.


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[Assistant] But I think the teams know anyway because they have all sorts of GPS analysis and sound analysis. They soon know who's running which fuel.


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[Assistant] I was up at four this morning, uhm, it's now like midday, so I'm already on eight hours, I've got a little, the wife grabbed me a coffee earlier to get me through, but I'm feeling good. Yeah, I mean, I get it now, I understand it. Having been to Maranello, the whole, everyone's a Ferrari fan.


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[Assistant] Yes, like it's an incredible facility, the factory where they build the cars, but also obviously Scuderia Ferrari Furano as well. Got a passenger lap in a.


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[Assistant] I would argue that Charles was more impressive to me personally. He came in and, you know, almost took over that number one driver role, uhm, from Marcus Eriksen and got those three P7s at the end of the season in an Alfa Romeo Sauber which, you know, was


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[Assistant] A similar calibre car to where it is now, maybe a little bit quicker back then. Uhm, I think for me, if we're looking at, you know, if we're naming these drivers, we're taking the names away and just being driver 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, I think 8th is probably quite fair, but...


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[Assistant] He's a rookie coming into a brand new team in a sport that he's never, you know, he did a lot of testing for Alpine, but...


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[Assistant] He's not raced competitively in this sport before. He's got all these other hurdles that Lando doesn't have to overcome. And for him to be, you know, qualifying pace around two tenths on average over the course of the year, yes, of course, in races, Lando really showed his class, his tyre management, right?


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[Assistant] Lando started the game. He didn't have to worry about that. He knows that team so well. He's been that team for a long time. He can focus on the performance. The team know how to get the best out of Lando because they know how he drives and how to race engineer him. With Oscar, it was a lot more unknown. So for him to get as close as he did to Lando Norris that


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[Assistant] Paul McLaren as well. Turned it around and delivered pretty consistently. Again, for a rookie.


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[Assistant] I didn't see him doing too much wrong really at all, uhm, all season. And again, to have that challenging car at the start of the year, you know, he's still got what, P7 I think it was in Australia. Uhm, so he was still able to get points out of that car when it wasn't at its best.


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[Assistant] I think we've seen some incredible performances from Carlos Sartes, particularly obviously in Singapore this year. He's really come good and Lando kind of went toe to toe in qualifying in his first year at McLaren alongside Science. Close the year prior obviously Ricardo comes into that team. A lot of expectation that he's going to kind of take that over and Lando.


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[Assistant] Aserted himself as number one at that team. Oscar, one of the most promising rookies we've seen for a long time coming in and like you said Karun, when you're talking about piastry, you know he did comfortably outperform piastry in these races over the course of the year.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, is, McLaren, give him the car, because I think he can do it, and Max knows he can do it, and we saw a little glimpse of it at Brazil, didn't we? Uhm, I really hope so, because them two, them, them two racing, Max and, uh, Max and Orlando, come on, come on, I want it.


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[Assistant] I think what's important to, it's important to distinguish qualifying performance and qualifying competitiveness and then race competitiveness. Obviously the Red Bull struggled to.


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[Assistant] I think Sharl is just continuing to do what we know he can do, like he's done this since he


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[Assistant] Again, since he was at Sauber jumped straight into that Ferrari in his debut at Bahrain in 2019 and should have really won that race. Uhm, you know, he's got it. Obviously he's got it and Ferrari need to give the full package. It's, I mean, we've seen, you know, towards the back almost Ferrari and Haas quite similar. They both qualify quite well. I mean, Haas had,


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[Assistant] He's, he's that guy, he's that guy. And we've seen, I mean, him and Max were toe to toe in karting back in the day.


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[Assistant] There's nothing more shol can do other than just keep performing and I guess where, when you don't have that


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[Assistant] Car advantage and Shoal knows he needs to, you know, he'll push 100% and he's guilty of pushing over 100%.


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[Assistant] You know, you, you're gonna get, I think was it, I remember Bonotto, uhm, there was a quote from him, uhm, back when he was in charge, a driver have a driver who over pushes and try to draw them back, then a driver who never gets to that 100%. And I think Char was gaining experience and.


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[Assistant] And confidence again, like since Japan, he was just on rails. If it had been that good over the course of the whole season, he would have been, he was clear second best for really from Japan onwards. So he's good. He's good. He's good.


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[Assistant] This is his first year at that team and I think you look at the experience he's got, more experience than any F1 driver ever.


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[Assistant] But he's still got, again, different race engineeer, new team, new feel of these cars, these ground effect cars that are so temperamental on set up, seemingly more than any previous generation, because if you're out of that window by a fraction of a millimetre,


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[Assistant] On the underfloor, it's, it's, yeaah, we saw all the issues with Paul Pessin last year, these cars are very tricky to get in a setup window and just straight away in Bahrain is there, that unreal movie pulled on Lewis, just absolute, what a cheeky man, like, Fernando Alonso, come on, like, it was, it was so good this year and his first year at that team as well, like, I think I would have put him second anyway,


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[Assistant] Come on, 42 years of age. It's proven like that. I think these drivers will go on for longer. I think whether it's more understanding around nutrition and the science of how to keep yourself and the brain as well, because of course it's, you know, that, that is,


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[Assistant] That is the most important thing and he's still there, he's still cunning, he's still got that capacity, uhm, to pull those moves on, on Checo that he was doing and thinking outside of the box and really maximising. There was a race where he did


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[Assistant] Uhm, yeah, I think George, again, those, those, I mean, Monaco was a messy, uh, weekend as well. Made some kind of errors there. Vegas, when he just kind of drove into Max, you know, that was, it was on him, he kind of put his hands up, he just.


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[Assistant] I'll take the easier route, which would be to side with Lewis, of course, because he's the seven time world champion who's won most of them at Mercedes and George is the young blood who's coming through and


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[Assistant] Uhm, it's a difficult situation for him to manage, uhm, because you want to play the team game but at the same time he needs to look out for himself and...


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[Assistant] Very, very good. Mercedes are going to be changing their philosophy. They're kind of running a Frankenstein car this year and did well to get the


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[Assistant] It's tough for George because you've almost, it feels like to me like you've kind of got two alphas at that team and, and when, when, when has that ever led to a world title? I always think back to 2007, Hamilton Alonso, you had Hamilton come in.


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[Assistant] Well, again, the consistency, well, outside of obviously Qatar, the contact with George, which was obviously on him, uhm, and the disqualification in Austin, where


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[Assistant] I think that Mercedes was consistently like third quickest car. It was rare, sometimes it was second but not as often I think as the Ferrari, you know, second quickest, quite a few races, McLaren obviously of course, Aston at the start.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I can't put him ahead of Alonzo or Norris for me, uhm, because those peaks I don't think have been.


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[Assistant] It's close. It is close for me. Norris and Hamilton, for me, it was very close between the two of them. Uhm, this has been around a long time. It's a, it's a...


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[Assistant] Difficult card, but he has been, like, if you just, again, like, you like Matt, you like it on paper, okay? If you look on paper.


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[Assistant] Very consistent finishes over the course of the year, but yeah, I think that it's, it was a good year from Lewis, that is fourth out of 20. Like that's not a bad rating at all, but yeah, I think there's those, ah, Qatar, man, Qatar, what could have been?


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[Assistant] Surely, surely. Right, I think, I think, uh, Yost Kapo played a blinder bringing him in. Uhm, you know, because he wasn't a vows appointment, it was, it was Yost who, who brought him in and, you know, he, he...


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[Assistant] He sold himself enough, you know, he was, he was contemplating IndyCar and various other, um, opportunities, but Williams gave him that lifeline and he's, I mean, the value of, of P7 in the Constructors, that's...


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[Assistant] Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see Alex bring Williams with him, uhm, because I think he's proven a lot of understandable doubt, uhm, wrong by the performances. For me,


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[Assistant] Again, Alex is my favourite driver. I can't with the best wheel in the world. He's got a rookie teammate, which is an unknown.


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[Assistant] You know, if you had, say, uh, Carlos Sainz in the other Williams, then you've got a real benchmark. Cause we, Carlos is a known entity. We've seen him alongside various teammates over the course of the years and we know what he can do. And we kind of have a general idea. I think most people kind of rate Carlos in a pretty similar area.


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[Assistant] With Alex it's really hard to know, like, where the ceiling performance was of that Williams because it's hard to really rank, like, I can't, I can't put, when I think of how I consider everyone in F1, I can't put Alex ahead of,


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[Assistant] I'd love to, but I can't put him ahead of Lando and George because I feel like they've had more, um, known entity teammates and then proven themselves through that. So yeah, I mean that Williams obviously was set up great in a straight line.


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[Assistant] Uhm, which again, that's, that's hugely valuable. I mean, think the gap between Alfatero and Williams in the end. If, if not for those points gone and finishes at the end just picking up P9s and...


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[Assistant] That adversity, he's, he's reborn himself and he's proven to a lot of people that he is, he's here for a reason. He was in that, you know, F2 field with George and, and Lando, you know, picks up more wins than Lando that year. And I think that.


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[Assistant] Straight in, I think it speaks volumes for the, I think super formula, great series to go into to set you up for.


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[Assistant] You know, the downforce, uh, through the corners around Suzuka, they're about on par with F1. It's, it's down the straights that F1 really pulls away. Yeah, worked for Gasly, um, Porcher is going to be in there next season, or at least he was doing testing. I'm not sure if he's going to do the full season, but, um, and, and Liam, super impressive in super formula, uh, DTM, he was,


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[Assistant] He was, he's been at least as good as Okon this year. You could argue he's actually been better than Okon this year. And I rate Okon really highly.


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[Assistant] Esteban's kind of one of the drivers I've been rooting for for a while. I really love his story, uhm, how he got into F1 from, from, you know, very humble beginnings, but I think Pierre's come in and just really established himself at that team and


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[Assistant] Put in some, you know, obviously got on the podium, uhm, twice didn't he? Once in the sprint and once in, uhm, race as well.


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[Assistant] Look, it's, it's phenomenal from Pierre, uhm, super impressed and that Alpine is a card that is in that kind of uncanny valley between the more competitive teams and the least competitive teams. You know, they were really slow in Monza but really fast in Vegas and I was like, what? That doesn't make, you'd think...


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[Assistant] Car characteristic wise that, but obviously temperature is different and all that. So yeaah, I think Pierre, for me, he gets, he gets 10th because I was just really impressed, uhm, how he took it to Ocon and, and arguably outperformed him.


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[Assistant] One thing I would say about that per finishing second, I think as well, part of that, like I said earlier about, uhm,


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[Assistant] You know, he was consistently up there in that Ferrari, uhm, knocking on the door and he finished ahead of, ahead of Weber in the other Red Bull. But there, where there, if there had been an equivalent consistent second, if that McLaren had been as quick at the start of the season as it was in the middle of the season, maybe more than the end.


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[Assistant] Checko did what he did, he got his before, uhm, the points he did, but I think him getting second for me, I don't really consider that, uh,


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[Assistant] I don't consider that something that's like, oh cool, that's a, that's a fly in his cap, cause that's kind of out of his control to an extent, how everyone else does.


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[Assistant] Yeah, there were quite, there were some quite abscathin' words from Pat Fryer, who's moved from Alpine to Williams, and to paraphrase, he didn't, he was like, he didn't see the ambition in Alpine to get to the top, uhm, which, and he's moved to Williams, who are a team currently slower than Alpine, uhm, yeah, I'm concerned.


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[Assistant] For me, obviously at the start of the year, Czechos got the win in Saudi, got those two victories, Saudi Baku, and it was like, ooh, okay.


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[Assistant] Gets the move done, moves through the field and to win that race from where he started with Checo being at the front, I think that...


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[Assistant] Something happened in Baku, and he wasn't able to win that race, but then he could take that knowledge into Miami.


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[Assistant] And that kind of set the, set the tone for basically the rest of the year. Uhm, so for me, that drive and the moves he was making, I think he did, I remember doing a double overtake into turn one, uhm, where he kind of DRS and I think, I can't remember the drivers, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Easy to move through the field when you've got a quicker car. We saw Checo trip up a number of times, uhm, making those kind of recovery drives. But Max was just, picked his moments.


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[Assistant] It's flip-flop day, and whilst Naomi's stocks are amazing, we like her flip-flops, they haven't got a bottle opener on the sole. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the future of flip-flop technology.


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[Assistant] On the golf course yesterday. Massive shouts and the second hole. A lot of commotion. Almost a hole in one. Almost a hole in one. By about that much he missed a hole in one. Matt Baker, who wanted to play off 40 because he said he was that bad, almost hit a hole in one. Unbelievable.


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[Assistant] Uhm, that there are 330 species of birds in Bahrain. We knew that. And I know furry mammals is your usual specialty. It is, but I'm also great at birds. The national bird of Bahrain.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is the white-cheeked bull bull, which I thought was quite appropriate.


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[Assistant] Uh, for this weekend, the, the white-cheeked bull bull, ladies and gentlemen, uh, eats fruit rather fond of dates. And, uh, I'm just searching for my phone. I, I, I have got a picture on my phone. I thought I'd, uh, I'd show you of the, uh, of the, uh, aforementioned white-cheeked, uh, bull bull. Um, there you go. Lovely little bird that is.


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[Assistant] And hopefully at this moment, no one's going to message me, there is the white cheats bull ball. That, perhaps more interesting than what happened to the white cheats driver in the red bull during the course of 57 laps, where he seemed to be in a race of his own on Saturday.


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[Assistant] As a man who's slept on the couch from time to time in his life, how comfortable a night is Kevin Magnuson having?


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[Assistant] And it's, it's a double edged, uh, attack as well. It's not just the speed and the pace of the car. It is that reliability and that reliability.


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[Assistant] And Max isn't making mistakes and hand in hand that goes together to win your championships. You get out of it what you put in and Red Bull are putting a lot in and deserve that success based on their efforts from driver and team.


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[Assistant] It is. Short of putting a wheel clamp on Max's car at the start, I'm not quite sure how the rest catch up really quickly, to be fair.


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[Assistant] I'm gonna say this, and I think it's important to note, it's only one race down. It's only one type of track. Jeddah next week is a different type of track altogether. Australia is a different track, as is Japan, as is China. Once we've had five races,


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[Assistant] And Red Bull have won all five, then we can definitely say, you know, this is the car. So I think there's a lot to come between now and writing this season off and we shouldn't write this season off just yet. It is only one race.


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[Assistant] I think what we're saying is, it's really, really close, apart from that bit from the chasing pack to max. Exactly. That's the gap that I think everyone would love to see come down.


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[Assistant] We use the word balance and I think balance was a really key word in Asia New Year's concept for 2022.


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[Assistant] Obviously it's tempting when new regulations come in and you're designing an F1 car, you're chasing performance, you want it to be the fastest car, but Adrian understood ground effect.


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[Assistant] And the consequences of it in terms of porpoising, that if you chase performance too much, you are going to get porpoising. So he designed a car that was fast, but was balanced and didn't suffer a lot of what the other teams were suffering.


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[Assistant] And we're seeing the knock-on effect of that now, because whilst other teams have cured their problems from 2022,


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[Assistant] While you're fixing the problem, while you're finding the solution, you're not enhancing the performance. There's only so much you can do during the course of a day back at bass to put things right and find performance, and it's a trade-off, isn't it? One thing has to suffer at the hands of the other.


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[Assistant] So Red Bull have not had to find solutions to problems necessarily. They're just finding new answers to performance. And that's what we've seen through 22, 23 and now into 24. That is why they are still the top team.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I do, and I think, I think Mercedes, you would have seen a better Mercedes on track had they not


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[Assistant] Yeah, they were. What happened, uhm, HPP will set, uhm, will set the parameters on which to run the engine and I think there was a miscalculation that


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[Assistant] Wasn't argued or otherwise by the chassis team, by the team at the track.


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[Assistant] And if that is the case, that's good because that's not a long-term problem. It's not, we've got a massive issue with the engine. It's just, there was a miscalculation for that race and Williams, I think, was suffering a bit as well and maybe McLaren too. It wasn't just a Mercedes works team specific problem.


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[Assistant] But yeah, the car does look a lot better. And, and...


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[Assistant] They were second at the championship last year by a whisker. I would expect them, you know, on the showing that we saw leading up to the race to be challenging for that second again.


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[Assistant] But then again, Ferrari in the race had their brake issue problems, so we didn't see the best of Ferrari. And here are your reasons to be optimistic, because the chasing pack didn't get it right in that race, did they?


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[Assistant] Because why would Adrian Newey want to give up?


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[Assistant] Yeah, no, no, no, right. Listen, that's, that's a quadrant as well. Right. And I'll get onto this in a minute because yes, I would love to see that. And I don't know if Lewis has had a chat with Adrian Newey or not.


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[Assistant] If he had the chance to get Adrian Newey to go there, Ferrari had been trying to get Adrian Newey, uh, for the last few years and it hasn't quite worked out for whatever reason. And with the situation as it is at Red Bull at the moment is now a time that Adrian Newey thinks


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[Assistant] Good time to go. And the Quadrant, by the way, is not your best chassis man, you want your best engine man as well.


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[Assistant] You're going to say, yeah, Cowl. I'm going to say Andy Cowl, yeah. Well, Andy Cowl, the man who was responsible for the Mercedes rocket ship from 2014 onwards, who's worked closely with Lewis Hamilton. They're still friends. They still talk away from the track as well.


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[Assistant] If you could get Adrian Newey and Andy Cowell to go with you to Ferrari if you were Lewis Hamilton, wow, what a four-timer that is. How long would that take?


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[Assistant] If they went tomorrow, if they went tomorrow, maybe by the time we get to the start of 2026, they would have had enough of an influence to, to, to have.


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[Assistant] On a sporting context, let's get into this now.


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[Assistant] Could we be seeing, could we be seeing the start of, of the beginning of the end of Red Bull's


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[Assistant] And 2026, by the way, for those that are thinking why that particular year, new regulations when it comes to engines, new sustainable fuels and new engines. And the rumours are, and my phone has just pinged in the background there, which is probably someone else. I know there it goes again. More breaking news. Yeah. Red Bull engine for 2026.


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[Assistant] Let's just, let's just say, what if, if that engine, for 2026, at Red Bull, is not good, or, or, they don't think it's going to be that good,


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[Assistant] Max is tied in for 26, 27 and 28 in his current contract.


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[Assistant] Unless he has some sort of clause to get him out early. Whatever that clause may be.


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[Assistant] Former team principal, now CEO, said to me during the off season, the power is all with the drivers at the moment. Drivers are signing up for long term contracts full of clauses. Because


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[Assistant] And especially if you're a top driver, you've got the advantage. Teams want you and you know that you can get your way. Um, Lewis has got a Ferrari and I'm sure he's on a much better terms than he was at Mercedes because Ferrari were desperate to have him. So those clauses are there and we're all speculating, but why, why would Jos Verstappen


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[Assistant] And why, why is it important? Max is young enough to carry on beyond 28. Why would 26, 27, 28 be so important to him? Because he's made no secret of his desire to end his F1 career in 2028 and go off and do something else. So it's maximizing.


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[Assistant] No pun intended. His opportunities and his chances whilst he's in the sport.


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[Assistant] He wants to go racing in some way, shape or form. And if he's not racing in reality, he's racing on, you know, and he's happy doing that. So make the money as fast as you can.


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[Assistant] As much as you can and then get out and allow yourself to be a family man, to have a little less time at the racetrack, to pursue other interests as well. Wouldn't surprise me one day to see Max Verstappen at Le Mans. Might even want to give him the ego. You know, he just loves, he loves racing.


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[Assistant] You know, on a weekend off, he'll go and hire a racetrack and zoom around in, in, in Porsches with his dad. You know, and, and he loves that sort of thing. We go and take our sons for a kick around in the park and, you know, Max takes his dad for a drive around a racetrack and, and, and has as much enjoyment doing that as he does racing a Formula One car. Cause that's, that's the guy. He's, he's just a racer. He loves it.


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[Assistant] At all. Unless they're trying to make the seats even lighter, because cars, you know, weight is a problem. And they're maybe not reinforcing them quite the way they used to.


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[Assistant] I'm not, I am kind of surmising, I'm not making it up. Last year we saw parts, aerodynamic parts fail on cars because they hadn't been reinforced enough because teams were trying to save weight. So that's where that educated guest comes from.


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[Assistant] No, I have more than a modicum of sympathy for Yuki Sonoda during the race. He's four tenths behind Kevin Magnussen. He's got DRS and the team say, yeah, let Daniel through. Now, I'm not sure I'd be that obliging at that point either. It was a clumsy time to try and engineer a swap.


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[Assistant] I have less sympathy for what happened after the race, but in the heat of the moment


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[Assistant] Team principal in the making, I think they're very intelligent man, very calm man needs to get both drivers together to say, right, you've had your chance now next time, right? You do what we say because we've got all the data. You don't get all heads up about it. And I don't want to see anything like that after the race because that was just silly.


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[Assistant] Daniel's got winning experience. Yuki I think has got.


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[Assistant] Massive potential to unlock, I really do. And I actually, I think they're converging to quite similar abilities at this stage in their career. I really do.


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[Assistant] But he's also got Alan Permain with him as sporting director, who's been around a long, long time. Uhm, but yeaah, this, it's...


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[Assistant] Once upon a time, Nigel Mansell was winning races by, you know, three seconds a lap faster than anyone else. We don't look back on that period and go, God, wasn't it dull? Or, you know, wasn't Mansell just great?


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[Assistant] Uhm, but you make a really good point. You're fully paid Dragovich. You're Jack Dewan. Dragovich. F2 champion. Yea, you're sat on the sidelines again.


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[Assistant] You know, and yes, there are 13 drivers out of contract for next season, but,


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[Assistant] I think Jack Dewan could get a seat next year, because I think the situation at Alpine might not tempt Gasly and Ocon to stay around, uhm, beyond the end of their contract, but where does Felipe Dragovic go?


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[Assistant] Fernando's potentially not staying yet, Lance, as discussed in previous podcasts. Felipe Dragovic is not going to get in at Aston Martin.


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[Assistant] They, Ollie Baerman as, as reserve driver there. And I think through the Ferrari Academy links.


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[Assistant] He'll be earmarked there if Magnuson and Hulkenberg both or one, uh, drop out Williams.


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[Assistant] Look, there's a lot of talk about Andrea Kimi-Antonelli, uh, for Mercedes. Let's go back to the Max Verstappen story. If Mercedes get Max Verstappen, they want to put Andrea Kimi-Antonelli in somewhere. That might be a two year deal down at Williams. That is a fascinating line up. As well as I know James Vowles. Yeah. He is not going to say.


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[Assistant] Even with such a great relationship with Toto Wolf, yeaah, I'll take the guy for a year. That's not part of his methodology for Williams. It's about the long term and it's, it's not about temporary short fixes.


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[Assistant] What should you be looking forward to? Do you know what? You and I. Very fast track. Let's take a little stroll along the Corniche and go and have some, there's a particularly lovely fried chicken spot on the Corniche that we can take you to.


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[Assistant] Hello everyone. Welcome to this week's episode of the Sky Sports F1 podcast with me, Matt Baker. Joining me for this one is the 2016 Formula One World Champion, Nico Rosberg and broadcaster, Liam McDevitt. Hello. See you both. Nico, I'll start with you. How are you? How's your weekend in Hungary?


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[Assistant] It's hard to move you through the paddock, Nico. You're a very popular man when you go to Formula 1 races.


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[Assistant] I think so, I think so. Uh, Liam, first time on the podcast, so I'm going to give you the honour of giving us your one word race review for, uh, for the Hungarian Grand Prix.


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[Assistant] Nico, I don't know if you were briefed before to have a one word race review, so I might be putting you on the spot here, but if you were to define that race in one word, what would it be?


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[Assistant] It's really legendary. I couldn't agree more. Uhm, I've gone for cruising and that's because of just, I felt like Max was just cruising all of Sunday. Bit like you said, Nico, uhm, you know, he never, he never looked in doubt. Matt, that's not a call.


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[Assistant] You can do better than that for sure. You can do much better than that. Alright, legendary, astonishing, perfect. Should we call it perfect?


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[Assistant] It wasn't a perfect weekend, but it was a perfect race for Max Verstappen. I think, yeah. And what I was going to say, the reason why I was kind of going to go down cruisy, but I'll change it to perfect, is finishing 33 seconds ahead of Lando Norris in second.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and, you know, no one seemed to lay a glove on him, basically. As soon as he overtook, in that first corner, he was straight into the lead, and it never looked in any doubt. So yea, alright.


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[Assistant] It really was. Right, here's what's coming up then on the podcast today. We're going to ask the question, can anyone catch


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[Assistant] Max Verstappen and Red Bull, and when will that happen? We're going to talk about the Red Bull records that you alluded to earlier. Uh, McLaren's turnaround, Mercedes getting a bit closer.


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[Assistant] Maybe on Saturday, maybe not on Sunday and Ricardo's weekend as well. But let's go through some of the records that Red Bull have broken.


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[Assistant] This, this, this weekend. So we've already talked about that 12th consecutive win. Red Bull have now won 21 out of the last 22 Grand Prix. Verstappen becomes the fifth driver in history to win seven consecutive races.


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[Assistant] And they are Alberto Ascari, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and a certain person called Nico Rosberg. So Nico, I want to start by asking you about your seven wins in a row and tell us how hard it is and therefore how much respect do you have for what Max Verstappen is doing at the moment?


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[Assistant] That's amazing. Nico, when, if you, if we look at some of the great partnerships in Formula One, I'm thinking Schumacher and Ferrari, for example, is Verstappen and Red Bull, that is going to become legendary, isn't it? I mean, it already has, but, but where do you see that sitting in the history of Formula One? Thank you, Matt, for appreciating my work.


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[Assistant] Liam, if Red Bull, because I think when we asked this question at the start of the season, can Red Bull win every race, we thought, haha, that's a great question to ask Christian Horner after the race, I mean, that won't happen, that can't happen. Now, it is looking very possible that Red Bull could win every single race this Formula One season.


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[Assistant] If you look at sport more widely, and I'm thinking there's plenty of other examples of domination in sport, where do you think Red Bull winning every race would sit amongst the great sport achievements?


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[Assistant] Nico, when you were racing, were you bothered by records? Will Max be thinking of the next record to come? And will the whole team be thinking of those records?


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[Assistant] I've got a tweet here from Dan, uh, this is sort of directed to you Nico. What's the difference between Mercedes dominating era compared to Red Bull's domination now? And do you think it's now much more predictable that Red Bull would win compared maybe with when Mercedes were dominating?


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[Assistant] Another question, and this is on the Sergio Perez question really, because, you know, it was, it was a, what started as a very difficult weekend for Sergio.


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[Assistant] He started P9, or sorry, he had the crash in FP1 first of all, which was obviously not the start he wanted to the weekend, but he went from P9 in the race to finish on the podium in third.


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[Assistant] Cameron on Twitter would like to know what lessons could Checo learn from your approach in 2016 when it comes to beating an unbeatable inverted commas teammate? What would you, if you were Sergio Perez's coach or manager, be saying to him now about dealing with dealing with Max Verstappen?


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[Assistant] Do you think actually what Sergio's doing at the moment is kind of, it's not really bothering Red Bull because actually Red Bull could be leading the Constructors Championship just with Max's points by himself. So, you know, we know how difficult that Red Bull seat is to find a good, a good match for that, for that second driver to Max Verstappen. So would you say perhaps actually.


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[Assistant] The only person this is harming, really, is Sergio Perez. It's not harming Red Book.


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[Assistant] What about, what about that summer break Nico, when, when you were racing, was that a period, I guess it depended on how the season was going right, but if...


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[Assistant] Was that a period where you just needed that time, that time to switch off, to reset and to go again for the second half of the season?


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[Assistant] All right, let's, let's move on to talk about McLaren because obviously McLaren, the last couple of races, Silverstone and now Hungary have performed exceptionally well. I think we were both waiting for Hungary to see.


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[Assistant] If, if it was just a Silverstone thing, the lower temperatures, the specific type of track, but Nico, if McLaren can do it at Silverstone and at Hungary, is this car the real deal?


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[Assistant] Liam, how good is, is it now for Formula One to have another person at the front, and particularly Lando Norris, who


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[Assistant] Is, I mean, I was standing under the podium yesterday. I think he got the biggest cheer out of certainly from Verstappen and Perez. It was all for Lando. I think like Hamilton, when he came out for the, for the driver's parade, got a massive cheer equal to Lando's, but he probably is one of the most popular drivers on the grid at the moment.


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[Assistant] Now I was back in Formula One after not being in the car for a whole year. Nico, what about Lando's contract until 2025? I think at the start of the season when, when McLaren were often not getting out of Q1,


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[Assistant] There were a lot of people saying, wow, I'm in that contract, how watertight is it? Because if you're Lando Norris, you're wanting to get out of that potentially pretty sharpish if the McLaren isn't as good as that. Now, it's maybe starting to look a little bit like actually till 2025, that might be the right kind of timescale for that car to get to the front of the grid.


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[Assistant] Why not? Hmm. Liam, eh, you, you, you start to work a little bit with, with McLaren over the, over the coming months. I mean, what, what's the mood like in the McLaren team at the moment? What's the atmosphere like? I mean, if you get a couple of good results like this, I imagine it turns, turns the team around.


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[Assistant] And then McLaren are on 87, so it would have to take a lot of points away from Mercedes.


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[Assistant] There we go, yeaah, that was a very good question. Let's move on to talk about Mercedes, speaking of, because uhm, it was a weekend of mixed fortunes, wasn't it, for your old team, Nico. Let's start with the positives, that poll for Hamilton on Saturday, you could see how much it meant to him.


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[Assistant] What do you think that did for Lewis in terms of his energy and moving forward, feeling like the team are going in the right direction?


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[Assistant] It was a case of how that result will impact Lewis going forward, you know, into the second half of the season.


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[Assistant] Maybe that's something. Liam, what did you make of Lewis's poll? How excited were you at the prospect of Lewis being on poll and potentially going on to win the race?


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[Assistant] It didn't last very long, did it? Did it that hope? Nico, do you think we were almost robbed of that, uhm, that battle, that wheel to wheel battle between Max and Lewis going into turn one? You know, obviously we had it into turn one, but it was a pretty, it was over pretty quickly, wasn't it? And I think it was such a shame it didn't at least give us a few more laps of that battle.


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[Assistant] Don't realise how lucky we were in, in 2021 to see that kind of weekend in, weekend out. Uh, Nico, do you, do you sympathise with Lewis and his lack of confidence in the car? It seems like that's kind of the, in quotes after, after race weekends, that's, that seems to be the problem. What is it like as a driver when you don't have confidence in the machinery underneath you?


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[Assistant] Uh, Liam, are you, I guess when, when we first entered 2022 and we were, we were kind of...


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[Assistant] Every weekend that Mercedes weren't up right at the very top was a shock. And are we now in a situation with Mercedes where it's kind of like, ah, well, you know, they are just kind of operating in the midfield at the moment, being honest. It's, it's hard for them to get out of the midfield. It's no longer a shock, say, when, when they end up P4, P5, P6.


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[Assistant] I wonder, I wonder what that is. Some head scratching at Mercedes HQ, yeaah. A tweet here from Stephanie. During the Hungarian Grand Prix, this is you Nico, sorry, you said Lewis isn't done with F1 yet. How long do you think he can and wants to go on? Well, because Martin


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[Assistant] I mean, Liam, how long would you like to see Lewis go on for?


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[Assistant] There's no guarantees, are there, that next year Mercedes will be able to give Lewis a car to go for eight? No. No.


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[Assistant] No, no, no. Uh, right, the final kind of big, big topic I want to get into is just Ricciardo's weekend. Obviously his, his first weekend back, uh, in Formula One this season, replacing Nick de Vries at AlphaTauri. Uh, Nico, start with you. Give us some marks out of 10 for how you think Daniel's weekend was.


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[Assistant] Getting in that car halfway through the season, having not even tested in that car, was this weekend, do you think, a lot about just kind of getting comfortable?


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[Assistant] Understanding that AlphaTauri and getting the setup right in order for maybe then Belgium might be a slightly even better thought for him because I guess he'll spend what, all week in the factory this week working on the setup, working on the car to make sure it's as good as it can be for him.


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[Assistant] Liam, I'm intrigued to get your thoughts, uh, and this is actually a question from Stephanie on Twitter. How much time should F1 rookies get to prove themselves? And uh, yourself, you're a professional footballer and imagine if you, I don't know what, I don't know what 10 races is in football terms. I'm going to, let's say we say six months. Imagine you get six months, half a season to prove your worth. It's brutal, isn't it?


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[Assistant] Human level, there's just huge, uh, yeah. Sympathy with, with going through that process so publicly. It's, it's not nice.


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[Assistant] Um, yeah, no, not nice at all. And yeah, I'd say a huge amount of sympathy in that scenario. Um, just want to, just want to quickly look ahead, Nico, to Belgium this week, this weekend. What are your expectations? Is it hard to look past another, another Red Bull domination there?


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[Assistant] Last race of course before the summer break. Right, final two things. I've got a question here for Nico from Andrew. Where did you get that shirt that you wore on yesterday's show?


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[Assistant] When you got on the bus in the morning, there were some whoops, weren't there? And, and, and some more whistles, I think amongst us. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Like it was like, yeah, you look great. You look great. And then the final thing, which, uh, Liam, you, you brought this to my attention today because I... Nico, I've got to know.


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[Assistant] Button, I'm not doing that anymore. Yeah, you can do a carousel of every driver and then you can't, you can't get blamed. Yeah. Yeah, either way.


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[Assistant] The Nico curse. Yeah, it was a lot of talk of that on social media over the weekend. Right. Okay. Liam, thank you for your time. Nico, thank you very much for your time as well. Much appreciated. And we will be back on the podcast next Tuesday to look back at the Belgian Grand Prix, the final race before the summer break. So we hope you can join us next Tuesday. Bye for now. Skysports F1. Feel it all.


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[Assistant] Hello everyone, a very warm welcome to this week's episode of the Sky Sports F1 podcast with me, Matt Baker. Now on a week...


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[Assistant] Where Max Verstappen said he didn't like podcasts. We're going to try our best to keep you entertained with Bernie Collins and Anthony Davidson. Before we get on to talking a little bit about what happened in Japan. Did you guys see this? Are you aware of the cool down room, Max Verstappen podcast? You are. Bernie, I can see you nodding your head.


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[Assistant] The idea is basically, for those of you who haven't seen this, is that Max is in the call down room every single weekend, normally winning. So he's the host of the podcast and then he's joined by two guests in second and third place. So there we go. Well, Max, if you're listening, we'll try our best to keep you entertained. I'm sure you might be, uh, well, I don't know where you are, Max, you're probably on your jet ski, aren't you, Monaco?


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[Assistant] Maybe, maybe a flexitarian, uh, for Damon. Yeah. Bernie, how, how is Japan for you? Uh, I, I haven't been to Suzuka. I haven't even been to Japan. So, so just fill in myself and also the listeners, cause it all looks a bit bonkers, doesn't it, in Japan?


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[Assistant] Yeah, so there wasn't any karaoke. Crofty wasn't on the old mic. There was no karaoke, not this year.


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[Assistant] A bit of Robbie Williams angels for Crofty next year, yeah.


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[Assistant] Look forward to it. Okay, so I'm conscious that Japan, we're recording this on a Tuesday, and especially if you're listening later in the week, Japanese Grand Prix was three days ago at least, so we're not going to dwell too much on what happened directly in Japan just because it was a while ago, but...


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[Assistant] It's thrown up some really interesting discussions and topics off the back of it.


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[Assistant] We'll get into those, but before we do, I just want to give a shout out to obviously Red Bull and Max Verstappen who helped them win their sixth Constructor's title, an incredible achievement by the team. It was also Verstappen's 13th race win of the season, which ties him with Michael Schumacher in 2004.


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[Assistant] And Sebastian Vettel in 2013. So incredible achievements. And yeah, I think, uh, looking at the Christian Horner's Instagram account.


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[Assistant] But I think the, one of the most interesting things for me from this weekend was, was one of the interviews right at the very end. And that was with Lewis Hamilton speaking to Rachel.


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[Assistant] And Lewis was talking about the development of the car next year. So we haven't done this on the podcast yet. Brand new. We're going to play you a clip of Lewis's interview, uh, with Rachel. Uh, here's what you have to say.


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[Assistant] So, and when you, when you listen to Lewis speak there, we know, we know obviously they're going to be at the team till, well, George and Lewis going to be there till 2025. They're a part of this team going forward. So, so there's no question that they're going to be going elsewhere. So they are part of that team. But when you listen to Lewis there, what, what, what's your reaction and, and, and how do you think Mercedes are?


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[Assistant] Setting themselves up for more success in 2024.


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[Assistant] You know, the next six months of development have to be the greatest six months of development we've ever had. Take us inside the Formula One team right now, obviously from your experience with Aston, with Force India, with McLaren. What is happening right now? You know, we've got six races left of 2023. How are teams getting ready for 2024?


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[Assistant] Yeah, and I, I'm intrigued to know just, just, just obviously for us who haven't been a part of Formula One teams, logistically, how does this work? Is there, is there like a 2023 team that's sort of seeing the car through to, through to the end of, and end of the races this year and, and who is involved in the 2024 team? Because is it a case that,


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[Assistant] I don't know what you were like as a driver. Would you be sort of knocking on the door of the, of the design team for 2024 and going, what have you got planned? What's next? I really want to know.


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[Assistant] Or how much, how much interest do people take? You know, or is it kind of all locked away secretly in one part and everyone works quite separately?


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[Assistant] Bernie, were you, were you, how interested were you in next year's car as a strategist?


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[Assistant] And if you had someone like Lewis Hamilton watching or standing over your shoulder in that position, Bernie, how would that make you feel? Would you welcome him being a part of that process or would you actually go,


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[Assistant] This is best that we, we develop this ourselves and then you give us feedback after.


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[Assistant] Yeah, fascinating, fascinating. Uh, I, I want to talk a little bit about the last couple of races for Mercedes and, and I think...


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[Assistant] I don't know if you both agree, it's probably the raciest we've seen both Lewis and George together.


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[Assistant] Uh, certainly in terms of Singapore, where Lewis was behind George, you know, said he was faster. Obviously George then had the, had the accident in, in, in, into the barrier, but, but Lewis was really pushing George there. And then we saw them pretty close on track, uh, over the weekend in Suzuka, which.


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[Assistant] Led to George's radio message of, of saying, who do we want to fight? Each other or the others, which I thought was a bit heat at the moment. Um, uh, you know, and after the race, to be fair, they were very cordial saying they've got bigger fish to fry than battling each other. They're obviously going for second in the championship.


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[Assistant] But, Anne, how do you see this playing out for the two drivers? And I guess it's probably worth pointing out now, isn't it, that this is all well and good because they're ultimately fighting for second in the championship, as I said, or they're not in the drivers' championship individually. That could all change if they do manage to develop this car.


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[Assistant] That could change, couldn't it, having these discussions when they're right at the front?


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[Assistant] Those two drivers, if you were, if you were at Mercedes as an engineer or strategist.


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[Assistant] You said there that sometimes drivers would be told incorrect information by the other side of the garage.


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[Assistant] Oh, so interesting. I was going to say, if they were telling each other different things across the garage that was incorrect, that would obviously be, uh, well, be very, I'm sure that has happened in the past in Formula One, but probably not, not sort of normal, normal procedure.


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[Assistant] Let's move on then to talk about one of the other stories that I think is brewing and might kind of come to a conclusion over the next few weeks is the final seat at Williams because we have a full grid for next year apart from one seat at Williams. Obviously it's, we know from what James Fowles has said in the past, it's Logan Sargent's To Lose.


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[Assistant] Bernie, what do you think are the chances of Williams keeping Logan Sargent as things stand?