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[Assistant] So sometimes, you know, you can have very strong results and very poor results, but the championship ends up not that far apart, but it's just the consistency through the whole year. You know, in F1 now, if you go to luck internally in F1,


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[Assistant] As a team, you're given all the driver videos and another driver talks to their engineers through the race.


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[Assistant] That's the first place I go and look like, what's the feedback like, what is, how is the conversation going? Is there always this heated debate? And there's a lot going on. The other thing to sort of add to Anne's point for, ehm,


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[Assistant] I'm particularly trying to take someone like Liam Lawson.


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[Assistant] He now has very valuable experience from a competitor team that is doing better in the championship.


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[Assistant] So that is insider knowledge that you don't get every day to a team like Williams, how they set their car up, how they do their meeting.


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[Assistant] Really simple things you can take ideas from and that's, you know, that's why engineers move around. That's why everyone in teams moves around and you end up with this sort of.


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[Assistant] You know, debrief at the start of, oh, how do they do this, or whatever.


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[Assistant] Stuff like that could be very valuable development addition for Williams and obviously albums come from the Red Bull family as well, you could argue.


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[Assistant] And James has a lot of experience from Mercedes, so there's a lot going into the pot there and there's a lot to be improved on, but to have someone with


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[Assistant] Someone who's fast next year and someone that they can develop going forward. And I agree with Anne's point that.


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[Assistant] You know, maybe someone like Lawson, if he was to stay in the Red Bull family.


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[Assistant] Is detrimental in two years time if a gap becomes available in Red Bull somewhere.


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[Assistant] It's got to be an interesting, it's an interesting problem for James. He's holding all the cards.


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[Assistant] Hello everyone, welcome to this week's podcast and to help me look back at a weekend of records for Red Bull, I'm joined by not one, but two Pitlane reporters, Ted Kravitz and F1 journalist Claire Cottingham. Hello both.


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[Assistant] Yes, we will. We certainly will. Uh, and Ted, you, you have just come in direct from Canada.


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[Assistant] Yeah, yeah. Before we get onto the race, actually Ted, I just want to, cause when you came back from Australia, you gave me a Joey.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I do know that you've got a present, and though part of me is slightly disappointed it's not a little cuddly toy marmot.


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[Assistant] A lot, do you know what? A lot of the meat flavoured crisps are vegan.


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[Assistant] There you go. Lovely. There's your present from Canada. Thank you very much. Not a cuddly marmot, but anyway, fine. Right, let's move on to our one word race reviews. Claire, you go first.


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[Assistant] I think so, yeah, for sure. I've actually gone for records, because it was a big weekend for records, for Red Bull and for Max. 100 wins now, for Red Bull.


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[Assistant] 41 wins for Max, which now equals Ayrton Senna's amount of, uh, race wins in Formula One. And the record, which I kind of think got slightly overshadowed by the other two fairly incredible achievements for Red Bull and Max, was 200 wins for Adrian Newey this weekend, their Chief Technical Officer. So records for Max.


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[Assistant] Yeah. And, and certainly on the race wins point with reliability now, the way it is, I think reliability means that actually if Ayrton Senna was racing in 2023, he would have finished more races. Is that, is that a fair comment?


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[Assistant] Yeah, do you think though, even though Max, even though Max says he's not interested in records, do you think a little part of him, as he, as he went to bed last night, put his little trophy in the, in the, uh, you know, next to him in bed, do you think a little part of him just went, oh.


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[Assistant] What about that podium yesterday? We had Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, and of course Max Verstappen. And Ted, what about the generations that were spanning there? Because obviously you've got Lewis and Fernando who are kind of


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[Assistant] Would you say a generation, sort of, beh- beh- ahead of, sorry, behind, uh. In time.


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[Assistant] And I think, I think one of the journalists in the press conference sort of alluded to this, you know, if you had the three of them going for a championship, just how special that would be.


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[Assistant] And, you know, I don't know if this is just fantasy land in Matt's head.


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[Assistant] Could we ever get to a situation where we do see them race in say equal machinery in this finite period of time? Anne on Twitter would like this. Can we see Max Alonso and Lewis in the same car for a race?


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[Assistant] Could we in a 25 race season next year have a little exhibition? 24 races and one exhibition.


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[Assistant] Let's have a word on Max, and his performance this weekend, and I want to go back to something you said after Australia, when you gave me a Joey, last time. Well it was the kangaroo and it's Joey.


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[Assistant] You said after Australia, what was so great about Max's performance there was that he was able to kind of glide through the chaos serenely throughout that race, avoid all the red flags, all the nonsense that was happening behind him and still win. And that made it super impressive. And I think not with the race this weekend, but with the certainly what happened in qualifying.


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[Assistant] Didn't look in any doubt, did it, with the way Max performed. He seemed to everything that came at him with the weather.


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[Assistant] Ted, he just seemed to be able to deal with it and bat it away and perform well.


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[Assistant] But is he not the perfect number two driver in this scenario this year?


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[Assistant] Red Bull this year probably will win the constructor's title and probably will win the driver's title. And if both of those happen.


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[Assistant] What more could you possibly want? There's no award for 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2 in the races.


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[Assistant] We get to the summer and Sergio's form is still not where we think it should be.


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[Assistant] Do you think they'd look elsewhere mid-season for a change? Obviously we've got Ricardo in the wings, we've got Albon. To be fair, Albon at Williams now seems very settled and seems like he's really growing and building that team.


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[Assistant] Especially with James Vowles there now. Yeah, he doesn't wanna go back. He doesn't wanna go, surely he doesn't.


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[Assistant] Yeah, yeah. Now Alonso was asked in the presser yesterday.


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[Assistant] If he can beat Sergio Perez and he just replied with a stern look. Yes. He's now nine points behind Sergio.


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[Assistant] And that could be a really interesting battle for second, couldn't it, in the championship, Fernando and Sergio? Yeah, I haven't thought of that.


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[Assistant] He's like, no, I don't think I could. It was, I agree with you, it was a funny question, but, but what was brilliant was his response and the manner of which, you know, it was, you know, it was actually quite a jovial press conference by all accounts, but that line was sort of like, I think Sergei will see that in his nightmares.


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[Assistant] We were talking about how Red Bull was serenely gliding.


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[Assistant] But, there was one thing that could have caused problems for Max Verstappen, and that was...


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[Assistant] If a bird in a break- how big a deal is a bird in a break duct? I saw there's a photo on Twitter which if you're not into


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[Assistant] Animal things, maybe don't look at, is of the mechanic holding up the offending bird that was in the break ducts.


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[Assistant] Yeah, okay. I mean, how specific do you want to get? No, no, no. I was just, I'm just curious. I'm just curious. Cause yeah, that really could have caused him problems.


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[Assistant] So Formula Photography on Instagram has got a question, and I don't think the answer to this is a bird, but let's ask anyway. How come Max didn't pull a 20 plus second lead out like he has done at tracks in Spain or Miami? Is this a type of track?


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[Assistant] Or is Canada the type of track that didn't suit Red Bull, or are the cars behind slowly getting faster? Where do you guys sit on this?


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[Assistant] Or maybe not pushing flat out every lap, are they, as well?


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[Assistant] Let's talk about Red Bull's achievements of getting 100 wins. Because that by itself is a remarkable achievement. Only Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Williams are now ahead of them. And even more impressive when you think that they started the team in 2005.


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[Assistant] Horny yesterday, which had the stat up his sleeve, which I thought was quite interesting.


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[Assistant] Yeah, we're not feeding juniors anymore necessarily through AlphaTowery into the Red Bull team. I just want to, because it's 100 wins for Red Bull and I think it's quite a nice opportunity to look back at the history of Red Bull. And Ted, I want to go back to 2005 when they first started. Yes.


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[Assistant] James Blunt released You're Beautiful. Right. Six weeks at number one. He was number one, yea. Where was Ted Kravitz in 2005? I'll tell you where I was.


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[Assistant] Claire, what about what Red Bull have kind of done for Formula One?


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[Assistant] When you learned that Christian Horner was going to become a Formula One team principal, did you ever in your- After they bought it from Jaguar. After they bought it from Jaguar, did you ever think in your wildest dreams they would go on?


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[Assistant] And 200th win for Adrian Newey as well. Claire, what do you, what do you think?


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[Assistant] I mean, it's kind of an obvious question, but what is a, how valuable is Adrian Newey to Red Bull racing?


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[Assistant] He's famous, isn't he, for drawing with a pencil. That's kind of in an age of technology and computer aided design. Him and his pencil are kind of synonymous and whatever formula


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[Assistant] Let's move on to talk about something which I know you were quite interesting on after the race and during the race yesterday was Lando Norris and his, uh, and his


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[Assistant] Well, unsportsmanlikebehaviour, Sinviltron on Instagram would like to know what does unsportsmanlikebehaviour mean and what did Lando do to warrant it?


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[Assistant] What was your reaction when you saw unsportsmanlike behaviour in the pop-up on the graphic?


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[Assistant] Alright, before we go, we must talk about the news last week that the W Series has entered administration after failing to secure funding to continue. You'll of course remember that in 2022 the championship ended three races early. Now Claire and Ted, you've both worked on the championship. Dispointing news. We were founding...


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[Assistant] So there you go. So, I mean, you, well, tell me your reaction, Claire. First of all, what was your reaction when you heard the news?


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[Assistant] Yeah, and actually to that point, it's not just about the drivers. It's about all the girls that would have seen the W series, put it onto TV, watched it at the races and might then, yeah, you're right, go on to be journalists or go on to be


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Camera operatives, and anything within the Formula One sphere manages, you know, there's so many jobs in Formula One and the legacy of W Series might only become clear in five years time or 10 years time when people say, Oh yeah, I watched W Series that year and I.


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[Assistant] Yeah, yeah. Well, look, progress is what we can hope for, and yeah, we might yet see the legacy of WSeries evolve. That's all we've got time for, but thank you very much for your company. Thank you, Ted. Go get some sleep.


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[Assistant] It was, uh, it was cool. Uh, Austin, it's my second time here. Uh, first time was last year and, uh, a place that I really looked forward to coming to, uh, last year I think because it was new and maybe I wasn't doing as many marketing and media activities. The weekend felt like super long and I was like, holy crap, like this is super cool, where this weekend,


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[Assistant] Quite a few, uhm, opportunities that I had available to go do thanks to the team and also potentially just because I was more involved, it went by in a, in a click of a finger. So, uhm, yeaah. Special that it's, it's done the dust it again, but it's also closer to my, to my FP1 coming, so I was happy about it.


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[Assistant] Being downtown, it's super cool. It's like you're in the heart of the city as well. So, it's great that we can all be here and not sort of stretched out. Yeah. And staying like at some places through the year where we're staying like 40 minutes away even from the city and then from the circuit.


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[Assistant] Is a bit mid, I'd say depending on how you come in. So that can be the stretch, but that's just because the array of fans, obviously. So it's a, it's an atmosphere here that I haven't seen really much from anywhere else.


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[Assistant] You know, it'd be super difficult to take, uh, like anyway, I think, uhm,


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[Assistant] It would have been a lot worse if they had had a great season, they were in a championship contending position and, and these points were extremely crucial. For sure they are.


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[Assistant] However, I think Lewis will still be able to take away that they were fast, they were back into a position where they actually, you know, a couple more laps, the win was potentially on. So nothing can take that away potentially if there was any performance enhancement.


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[Assistant] Maybe there were, maybe there wasn't. I know that the Mercedes car particularly wasn't super fast in a straight line this weekend, uhm, so potentially, I don't know that


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[Assistant] I don't really know how that one's gone so wrong. Uhm, but uh, yeaah, you know, from a driver's perspective, it's super tough because it's completely outside of your control and, and there's really not much you can do to, to protest or argue on, on a technical breach like that.


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[Assistant] A sort of a middle game where they hadn't really committed, like you said, indecisiveness, hasn't committed to one sort of option and end up in no man's land to the point where Max all of a sudden was way in the end past their pit window and they lost out all this time and


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[Assistant] Lewis as well would be questioning, you know, where's our race at now? So, everything sort of was up in the air. They were having to rescue it from there. So, from in my opinion being in structure, strong position to sort of being thrown out.


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[Assistant] The fact that it came so close in the end proves that definitely the win was on with, like you said, the right strategy call.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I think at that point, uh, you know, you're relying obviously a lot on the team, but.


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[Assistant] Also, you could potentially be relying on a safety car, something you know that


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[Assistant] Alright, my race is potentially not over, but it's potentially going to go quite bad here.


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[Assistant] But, uh, yeaah, at that point from a drivers perspective, you can only be honest with how you're feeling, how the car is.


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[Assistant] What level you're pushing, how much you're managing and relaying that back to the team. In the end, they've got obviously all eyes or information on everything that everyone else is doing. Plus, who potentially has been going to that extent on that same tire, how they've managed to drop off or continue. So, their perspective, they're in the seat to really make the call at that point.


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[Assistant] Because you've gone past your, your expected pit window where you thought you were pushing to. So now it's, you have to adapt to them. So it's, it's a difficult situation to be in as a driver for sure.


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[Assistant] The difference is with a Mercedes, if they're often qualifying, often the race, they're consistent. The package is out the window, the package is out the window. Whereas Ferrari, they can put it on pole like they did on Friday, and even when I was doing the post race show with F1,


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[Assistant] My prediction was that Charles wasn't going to be in the top three on, on Sunday, which...


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[Assistant] When you don't know how, why, yes in the moment it's a great thing where P1 hooray.


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[Assistant] It's also a scary thing going, we don't know why this has happened.


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[Assistant] So it could equally go that other way so quickly at a click of a finger. So that's always a scary position to be in. It's great if it continues to go well, but unless you have that recipe, that formula, you can't evolve it.


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[Assistant] So it's always going to be fluctuation and, and especially in a race situation, they just don't seem to be able to number one.


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[Assistant] Get it all together in all terms and it's unfortunate obviously for the drivers, but on top of that, they are in the, these meeting rooms. They are in these discussions. The strategy doesn't happen just once they're in the car. So I think it is a team effort like always. Uhm, but yeah, they're in a tricky position like you guys said.


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[Assistant] He wasn't happy and potentially with the carbon brakes they would at the factory run those in so to make sure on the race track they don't have time to bet in a set of brakes. They just, they can't lose that time. So most of these are bedded in in the factory and then placed in the car.


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[Assistant] Until obviously he gets that feeling as he is on Sunday, you don't really know where they are, you expect, you hope them to be perfect, but sometimes you can slightly graze the carbon disc and when that means is that it hasn't been completely pressed, it hasn't been sort of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Better than correctly uhm, so then all of a sudden his feeling when he's punching the pedal is that the car isn't decelerating as he would like to.


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[Assistant] So potentially that can also then put him into a situation where he's playing around with the break bias, potentially going two forwards, two to the rear, which then is offsetting the temperatures. You get yourself into


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not only were that, he was then having issues with a GP talking through his break.


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[Assistant] Potentially it was mainly through the braking which I thought it was quite crazy how he managed to keep timing that. I don't know how that was happening but potentially it was somewhere where he was so locked in having to be so focused to try and get this thing sorted. I potentially, I don't know what he potentially was doing through the braking. I think maybe it was maximum focus just to try and get this car stopped.


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[Assistant] He won't be wanting to brake extremely amount earlier because he knows that he has Lewis and Mercedes that are charging that are quick. So, he's going to be trying to manage that as much as possible and I don't know what tools they have accessible and available to do that but he for sure I know wasn't Sunday cruising just going in there on the brakes.


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[Assistant] I'm, I'm emotional. I had to work quite a lot on my emotions as well. Uhm, so I've, I've definitely, I'd say improved as well over my junior career of maintaining that, that level of exertion and, and really trying to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Basically calm down because I'm keen, I'm really ready to drive so I don't really need to be pumped up in a way. So uhm, for sure I'm on a high level and potentially can sort of...


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[Assistant] Be on that same level as Max over the radio but I also think as a driver you need to be calm, you know, and you see that as well on the level of work they do mentally to sort of try and be.


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[Assistant] Assertive short, but I don't think we, we dive in to see how you, when you see Bono speak back to Louis or GP, how calm short after being screamed over the radio they are. It's always, you know, GP understood, okay, very short.


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[Assistant] Because they have to be, you know, when you're trying to tame us drivers or really trying to.


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[Assistant] Calm that all down, that is so important and so to see these guys have that skill is obviously why they're in that position because not many people have that to be able to calm that down, take it away from being screamed at and really channel some almost like baby, gentling, kind, soft voice work to calm the situation.


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[Assistant] You know, it's not my race engineer. It's not someone that's been talking to me that I've been talking to him over race distances, over sessions. However, I have been listening into every one of their sessions with Pierre and Carolee's engineer or Josh and Esteban.


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[Assistant] And, uh, to be honest, actually, Carol, who was Pia's race engineer, it was his last time as a full-time race engineer yesterday. Uh, so I will be having John, the performance engineer as my, as my race engineer. Um, but what has been really cool, upgrades.


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[Assistant] What is really cool is that the test engineer who I have in my ear for all my A521 testing is now coming on as performance engineer. So I will be able to work with him. I know him very well. Uhm, he's also an amazing, amazing guy. So at least it'll be something familiar. I speak with John a lot as well. So at least I'm not going into something very foreign.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I think it's so important, uhm, I was speaking to a few people over the weekend. Everything has to...


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[Assistant] I'm glad that, you know, I'm very comfortable with the team. I'm well involved. I feel comfortable in F1 Machinery as well. So I can try and maximize that session as much as I can for the team so that we can be running test items. We can use it most beneficially for the rest of the weekend rather than a session that we're giving it to a rookie driver.


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[Assistant] It's okay, we're gonna have to put that aside and start fresh in FP2. At least I can really try and take some things forward and also work with Esteban to know where we started off and where he's gonna be starting in FP2.


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[Assistant] I think it's an example not only to us, but to everyone of how quickly things can turn around, how you can really get your package together. Uhm, you know, we haven't really been focusing on McClown too much or anything, you know, you have to obviously accept when a team is doing well and they've done really good things and you know,


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[Assistant] I don't believe something like that. I don't think many teams or anyone else can do that on the grid, but we have to go with what we're doing. You know, we're making the right decisions that we are now to hope that we're going in the right direction.


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[Assistant] Like you said as well, we have to be real, accept where we are, but we're going in the right direction. We have a great group of people involved, so we don't want to be here either, uhm, but we are for the moment, so we're taking the necessary steps to make sure that we, we go forward and we try and go in that same direction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Lando's drove that car now for, for how many years? Since 2019. He knows when it's outside the window. He knows when it's in the window.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Potentially the car wasn't perfect this weekend. It wasn't like it's been in Qatar. It wasn't as good as it's been in Japan. And Lando just knows how to get on top of that quickly. No, he has that relationship with the engineers, with the team to make sure this is what we're adjusting. I know I can make these modified adjustments in the car and I can get it back to where it needs to be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oscar just, he doesn't have that experience. You know, there's, you can't discredit him at all because he just doesn't have that time and potentially that is the difference, especially now with you seeing him qualifying on Friday. Such close margins.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That can be the difference between Lando qualifying on the front row and Oscar being back in, at the back of the tail end of Q3. So small margins have big consequences, especially at the moment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Trying to relate from, from where he's coming from, you know, currently I'm not in the driver's seat. I'm not potentially feeling that effect that he is getting from those people. So, trying to really be in his position.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Elite sportsmen, elite athletes coming, coming through that have all been at the top of their game in their selective sports who all want 100%, who want to be winning. So, to have people come into the team that have that mindset, know that they, they, they don't want to be second best, third best, they want to be at the top. So, you know you have that, that foundation coming through that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's the same when you have the team that are around you that are okay with, with doing the, the bare minimum, just getting by. That doesn't boost you as a driver. So I can try and understand from where he's coming from. And I think everyone in the team as well will be, be grateful that they're on board to try and go in the trajectory that we're wanting the team to go in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wasn't arguing at all. No, I think if he held his arm out, potentially I could have sat on that. It's absolutely, his hand is twice the size of my face. On my initial handshake, it literally wrapped around us. I could have just gone in with a fist and there was no difference because I wasn't, I wasn't grabbing any hand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was just like basically me going in with my index finger. So uhm, that was cool. Anyway, I tried to make that as awkward, as awkward as possible, but no, he's an awesome guy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's great obviously hearing, you know, Rory who we spent with on Saturday and a lot of yesterday, but also Anthony, hearing their stories, hearing their, their passion to obviously want to get to the front as well. And everyone at a point, you know, that you don't start, you don't start at the top, you have to grow like everything and you have to go forward.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Them trying to see where we are now and where we wanna be, it's, it's cool. So it's a cool place to be.


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[Assistant] Probably as a spectator, yes, when you're driving in the driver's seat, you're like, no, you know. I did a great job, now I get punished. Exactly, and what's even worse is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You reverse the top ten, you poll it, you start tenth, and then they go, okay, and we're only gonna score the top eight.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you start outside the points. So you have to overtake your P2, P3 qualifiers who, you know, are very close in pace. It's not like you're overtaking the other side of the top 10 just to get one point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Saturdays are tough, uhm, no pit stop as well. So, it's not that point where you think, oh, I'm starting at the tail end of the top end. I have opportunities to come through, pick these guys off who are particularly not as quick as me. It's, no, it's these guys who you are qualified by a hundred, two hundredths.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you're really trying to make the difference there, obviously targeting the guys in front. Uhm, it creates opportunity, it's great.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's created Ferrari potentially being on pole, them seeing better results because they seem at the moment to be able to roll out of the garage with a strong package. They seem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They seem to be able to have that confidence with the car, the drivers and that's what enabling them to I think to get that pole position on Friday, but not also have that pace on Sunday. It's a, it's a thing of not being able to evolve the car.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the car is pretty strong as it is and that's where then the teams.


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[Assistant] Like, like you said, I think if they're going to go for the sprint program in my position, I don't really want to elaborate on it too much, but I would like to see them more of a shaker. I would like to see a bigger difference because not that Saturday's meaningless, but there's very few points on offer. If Saturday goes, uh, not ideal,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's not the end of the world. You have Sunday really to get it back together and it's sort of an in-between little area. It'd be great to have a, you know, high risk, more points potentially on offer and something a little bit different because it would create more stress, more environment and I think the fans would like to see that as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In my opinion, one of the greatest tracks and also an area where you need that running, you need to get the car in the window. So, you have Mexico which isn't ideal and also it's a, it's a year where people are still bringing upgrades, people are still evolving their cars through now instead of before where it slightly goes frozen and it's a, and a position, yeah, put the young driver in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's at a stage of the year where it doesn't really going to hurt us so much where it's still an important part.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we only have two opportunities, so I agree that they should be spread out more completely on board with at places where it potentially is going to be a benefit and not somewhere where we saw a little bit stale this weekend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I got to spend a, I got to spend a day in the simulator, got to do, uhm, started with Abu Dhabi because that's the last place, but and we ended with Mexico. So, you'd think that you would start with Mexico and with Abu Dhabi, but due to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're wanting to end on the sim at the place you're going to be at first, so it's a place that's freshest in your mind. Uhm, so that was great, to be honest, just to get my head around the circuit. I drove there last year, but a refresher just to know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] These breaking points, anything more like that, we weren't going into the depth of testing. It was more just for me to get a feeling, which is great. And, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To be honest, even starting from yesterday afternoon, I was already going through on, on race watch and F1 TV looking at Fernandez on boards from last year. I was obviously in the session.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I only got to do a handful of laps before I had a PU issue, so I wasn't able to do the whole session. So I was looking over Fernando, looking he's on board.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just seeing, because it's a tricky session, FP1 in Mexico, the track's dusty, we already know, you know, how difficult it is from an aero point of view with it being super slippery, not much downforce.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Evolving through that session as a driver and being able to take the most out of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Setting a great lap would be awesome, but at the moment I, I don't seem to, I think I'm, I'm going to be too, uh, don't know what happened there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the moment, I think, uh, I just really am planning on just making it most beneficial for the team. And, uh, I think that's what, what we're trying to do and what we're planning to do, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I get to spend time with the engineers today, tomorrow on the charter flight down to Mexico with them and then on, on Thursday we're, we're getting in, getting in amongst it. So it's great. The team are trying to make it a really not pressure environment, you know, not putting too much, putting too much on top of it, which I'm not either. So really looking forward to it.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, race sharp is, is one thing, uhm, and, uh, you know, I've been obviously with a team since then, uh, after Monza went back to Australia before then going to Singapore, Japan, and then went guitar, and now we're on, on this loop before Abu Dhabi, uh, I'm really just trying to embed myself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the team as much as possible as if I'm driving, as if I'm there trying to not really get out of it because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Putting myself in the position going, okay, I might have to jump in the car, FP3 here and be in, and it's also preparing myself for when that, if that time ever comes, I'm prepared for that. So it's great to be, to be here on this, on this circus as well. I think I'm learning, you know, as I'm going as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Potentially I'm, I feel I'm ready to get in the car, but I mean as a point of becoming a full-time driver.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're surrounded really by, by championships, race wins, podiums, uh, cars that have huge legacy behind them. And in fact, behind you, some of my favourite here. Uhm, yeaah, one of my favourite places to come, definitely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sorry. Very frequently you'll find me, uhm, just, just when I need a five minute break, this is the place I'll be coming just to walk around.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, my particular one is if we went way back, I mean, sort of, Mathematics, Computer Science and then Engineering were the degrees that I, I sort of grounded myself in before joining Formula One.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then spent around about 20, 23 years in Formula One building up my expertise. And I was fortunate, 20 years ago, you could do a multitude. In fact, you had to do a multitude of jobs. Uh, it wasn't uncommon. There was sort of around 250 people within the team. So you'd end up doing vehicle dynamics, in my case, race engineering as well. At the same time, a bit of R&D, a little bit of software. So just.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And built up very much within both the strategy and the race engineering domain up to a certain point. And then strategy really took over and that's what I became known for.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, strategy then became not just the focus of what we do during the race weekend, but what we do across the year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How do we actually plan power units or upgrades or how do we actually across the whole year end up performing well in just on one race weekend?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then expanded to multiple years. How do we across multiple years keep performing and including regulations? How do we want the regulations to move forward that helps us and helps the sport at the same time?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then it went even further than that. How do we, as a group in motorsport, want to be perceived? What are we going to do? Formula E, GT3, and you can start to see the build up of it. Drivers started to fall underneath me, simulator drivers, young drivers, and race drivers. And I started to do the building blocks, really, of the journey through to team principle. But that covers the engineering a little bit of, of,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So if we go back a bit, you have to lead the organization, which means you have to understand the organization clearly.


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[Assistant] Everyone else would be more of an expert than you are. The designers are more expert in designing than you are.


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[Assistant] But culture is what you enact, but it's more importantly that you have the ability, the faith, the trust and the respect within the organisation that people want to follow that direction.


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[Assistant] The way I'd describe Williams is incredible organisation but through various mechanisms didn't have the money behind it for many, many years and really a lack of investment for near 20 years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, clearly Mercedes had tremendous amounts of funding behind it. We had, when I was there, a significant amount of tools, systems and infrastructure that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just in terms, for example, Dalton invested heavily and in a good way in the machine shop. I'd say the machine shop is in a great...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So it falls into this, uhm, mechanism where there's individuals that work.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is incredibly difficult and really just a nod to how well this team has organized itself previously, but also what, what tremendous growth we can have going forward.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, first and foremost, even before the floors were perhaps lifted in the air, you will know just by the stopwatch that we're clearly underdeveloped relatives.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, in terms of the photos themselves, I have seen them. I've seen all of them. Uhm, the Red Bull ones are very interesting, as are the Mercedes ones.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the case of, of the Williams one, it's a little bit deceptive, and what I mean by that is, is our floor less developed than Red Bull? Absolutely. No, no way I'm going to say anything different to that. But, what I would say as well is it focused a lot on what I would call the diffuser ramp, which is an area that's very difficult to develop the regulations in, and it's not much more developed on the other cars.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Here's the interesting thing. It's not as straightforward as just simply copying their floor. Doesn't work that way.


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[Assistant] Again, what you also saw on the Red Bull and on the Mercedes is now going to be 6 to 10 weeks out of date.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then taking those concepts and moving them into our own car. A hundred percent. Not just within here, I suspect within most organizations.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guess brought back to, if we'd focus just solo in this year's car.


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[Assistant] And it sounds far, far ahead. In fact, the regulations in 26 aren't even decided. But you absolutely have to have your vision based on the future in order to get it right in those time periods available to you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] First and foremost experience, I mean Alex, Alex is an underrated driver, incredible ability and a leader of the team in many regards because he's been there for, for enough of a period of time that he understands the direction of trouble we need to go in. He's not questioning himself anymore, he's questioning how do we move things forward within the organization and the team. Uhm, Alex is also very communicative, he's very good, if you ask him


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Logan is different. He has a fire in his belly from wanting to get the absolute most out of the car. And often as a result of that, we'll push things to the absolute limit. Sometimes over, but to the absolute limit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It will take time to find yourself. The world of Formula 1 is tough now. He's gone from an environment where he was literally driving an F2 car to driving a Formula 1 car just a few months afterwards with nothing in between.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In hindsight I've underestimated how much that really was, but we're into a...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If I wind back, I mean, I worked with Jacques, uh, actually he's transitioned from Williams to himself. I've worked with Jacques back then. Very different style to other people, but just performance driven like no other.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've worked with Michael, and Michael was this incredible...


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[Assistant] And we have drivers there that have both won world championships, but very different talent pools available to them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have Lewis who has just such an amount of natural talent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is that they are, uhm, other world champions or future world champions.


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[Assistant] And that, that same dedication for going after every millisecond, that competitive nature is inherent in all of this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Within Formula W, the most successful driver, no question about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But again, you're years away, really years away before we have the right success. And I think part of that is that the investment wasn't done at the right level at the right age group. We have to go all the way back to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who we are as Williams is we're racers. Pure and simple. I'm here to do a better job than absolutely everyone else on the grid at the same time. And that open and honest pathway to how we're going to become successful is one that I think I'd like to share with the world because I want the world to be following us on this journey at the same time. And I want the team to follow us on this journey at the same time as well. Uhm, I think


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More so than that perhaps. I have a passion for the sport. The sport has looked after me very, very well. And I want to share that passion and some insights.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Behind the scenes of some of the great things that happen in our sport I think will only be better for us and for the sport in the long term.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I'd say probably many of those tick boxes I hadn't actually ticked prior to turning up at that event.


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[Assistant] And to explain a driver change, just that, for example, you're travelling down the pit lane, one hand on the steering wheel, whilst you're loosening your belts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's one example of everything that was on that journey on the way through.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and I think that's important. What you have to remember is when you're driving, what you can really see is a couple of hundred meters in front of you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But you go through these trials, uhm, and personal trials throughout this process that are, that are challenging.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it does from the minute the lights go green. It certainly doesn't up until that point. And that in itself gave me insight into elements I'd never had prior to that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's something definitely that uhm, very much on my radar to get back into and compete in, in again these series, but my focus as I am here is in Formula One.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't really. It's a problem. It's a problem that comes with me in the bowl.


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[Assistant] I frequently, and I've been open about this, but I wake up at 4am, I have a notepad by the bed and I'll make notes and all the things that I've been thinking about throughout the night.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if I do enough of that, I can get myself back to sleep. If not, then, then that's it. I'm up and around.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Under the lights in Saudi Arabia, no one could stop Sergio Perez, not even Max Verstappen. The drama though for this race was after the chequered flag. Alonso was on the podium, then he was off the podium, then he was on the podium again. Was the right decision reached? This is the Sky Sports F1 Podcast.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hello all, I hope you're well. Welcome to this week's podcast where I'm joined by David Croft, fresh off the flight. Hello from London Heathrow to Sky Studios and Natalie Pinkham. Hello.


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[Assistant] I think it was the radio message that was quite telling. Cheko asking, you know, where is Max? How far away is Max? And what was it? He said four point, he was doing one, one thirty.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm pretty proud of this one, but I can't take credit for it because it's from Twitter. It's from Mr. Bridger. Yeah, well, I'm going to credit Mr. Bridger on Twitter. FIA Asko. No, you mean...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fiasco, which I think leads us quite nicely into our next- Well it's clever! Next cover- It's very clever!


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[Assistant] There we go, exactly. Right, so, fiasco. Alonso.


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[Assistant] I think what would be sensible would be to try and explain this chronologically. Yes. Crofty. I don't know if you, well, you were there. I can try and explain it in terms of timings. Okay. But I think that's quite, that's quite key. I'll do my best on this one.


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[Assistant] I think the key question though is does he gain an advantage? Well that's the thing, if he is, by being on the, essentially on the left, because I guess...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guess though with football, yeaah, it doesn't affect the fundamental end of 90 minute result. But, but, so I'll ask you this question.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fernando is on the podium, celebrating, massive grin, smile on his face, trophy in the air, the penalty comes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I want to get into the fan questions here, because there's understandably a lot of confusion amongst fans. And I think this kind of sums it up quite well. So this is from a tweet from P's TV.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, do you think that the silly penalties and the time taken by the FIA to make decisions may turn off some of the newer fans? We've got a lot of new fans who've come to our school and those are, there are people at home who'll be watching this who might go to sleep.


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[Assistant] I mean, how much time is that saving? That's like 0.3, 0.4 seconds, but if you add that onto a pit stop.


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[Assistant] I want to get onto other sports and their governance and their rules because I think it's fair to say everyone has had some issues with rules and governance, certainly since Abu Dhabi.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 21, and I'm sure before that, but also, you know, more recently I think in F1 we are going through a bit of a process at the moment of just learning and developing those rules. But if you look at other sports, rugby for example this weekend, Freddie Stewart's red card in the England Ireland game,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ultimately, we've had this discussion. Was the right decision made? Yes. With Alonso.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I mean he said it even before he was given, well when he was given the trophy he said I sort of feel a bit guilty for taking this. Because also I guess as drivers you know that if the rules are being applied to Fernando, the next week...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's building at a buffer, so it's okay. I mean genuinely, how do teams count? They're five seconds. Well some do. They really, they count.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wonder as well if you, I don't know how you actually enforce no one touching the car, you know, like the game operation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Very good. Alright, well look, I think we can agree the right decision was reached, even if it took... four... three, four hours?


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[Assistant] I want to get into some fan questions now because we put out a little post. Thank you for your comments on Twitter and Instagram about the race and to get your thoughts on it. So.


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[Assistant] Alex on Instagram wants to know, we're going to completely change tactics here from Alonso and Aston Martin, can Red Bull win 100% of the races in 2023?


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[Assistant] Yeah, I mean they had three DNFs in the first three races last year. But as we've talked about already.


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[Assistant] Okay, I think conclusively then we can say that we don't think Red Bull are going to win every race this year. I think we certainly probably, in the interest of the sport, hope they don't. I think it'd be great to see some other people win this year. I certainly think fans would say that too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, that brings me on to my next question. Clark on Instagram. Why didn't Max park his car in the second position at the end of the race? Anyone else would have got a penalty. He parked it on the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where did you put it? Yeah, just didn't put it on the, where the 1, 2, 3 car positions are.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I mean, Max is quite used to winning Formula One races. He knows where to park, you know, fair enough if it's your first race.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It does happen all the time. Final question, from the fans. Jack on Twitter, should Ferrari be worried with their lack of pace? Yes. I think yes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I think they're trying. And reliability as well, because if you look at the state of...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fair enough. I think Ferrari, if I was a Ferrari fan I'd be a little bit worried.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How do they feel? Uh, dispirited, yes. I can imagine. Right, I think that's, that's all we've got time for. Really?


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[Assistant] We will end it there. Thank you very much for your company. We will be back next Tuesday to look ahead to the Australian Grand Prix. We will see you then.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it was lovely to be back at Silverstone, always feels very special atmosphere, you know, going to the track and all the fans there. And yeah, it was a really busy weekend, I think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Very typical silverstone in some ways, and now we got, you know, the best at the way they could throw at us. Friday got a little bit burnt.


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[Assistant] It's already got quite wet, so it's been a little bit of everything, but it was nice to see.


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[Assistant] You know, eh, a brilliant Grand Prix and a brilliant podium that we ended up with as well in the Brit, the Brits on there. So yeah, it was definitely an interesting weekend.


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[Assistant] This is Trace. So I didn't realize they were yours, Tad. I've just been stealing those.


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[Assistant] The step between Austria and Silverstone wasn't going to be as big to the step and Austria.


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[Assistant] But it's, it's quite a big change, isn't it, in terms of pace? Now the Circa, I think, suits them. So Austria I think suited Norris, he's always gone well there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The circuit characteristics of both Austria and Silverstone does anyway suit the McLaren cars. They were expected to be.


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[Assistant] More in the running, but the step they've taken seem really dramatic.


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[Assistant] Aston Mercedes-McClaren, where is the order going to sit post Budapest? They've been back and forth.


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[Assistant] All year, now McLaren in the fray, it's going to be really interesting. So it's hard to put it down to one element of that car because we obviously


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Only see a small fraction of the upgrades that come. We only see what's on the outside. That's the only thing they need to declare to us. We don't see what's happening under the bodywork.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it seems that I come from that team much, much more positive. The driver speaking much more positively about the car, the balance of the car a lot more in, in days and what impressed me this weekend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Was how quickly they get the tires working up to temperature.


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[Assistant] Norris notably, you know, on top of his stop and at the start of the race, fit to hold off Hamilton after the safety car restart when Hamilton run the soft. Everyone thought that hard tyre was going to be really difficult to hold on to and you see it. Further back down the field,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, anyone on a harder tire really struggling to hold on to people on softer tires. So something in that McLaren, be it the brake heat and how they get the tire ups really, really helps in these colder track conditions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Get the tire working straight away. So, and maybe that helped him in qualifying as well in those tricky sort of crossover conditions, slightly damp. They were definitely on top of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The tires and the heat much more than other teams. And again, Budapest is probably going to be a test in the other direction, really hot track temperatures with a different track. Is it going to fundamentally change where they sit?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, it's interesting questions that this year I've sort of been observing.


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[Assistant] With Max, he hasn't been very aggressive at any of the starts, I don't think, so he's very rarely actually lost the position off the line, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's been much more conservative than he was in the past.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I put that down to the car haven.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Confidence in car past and it is the Lewis effect. I think it is that he has matured in terms of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Doesn't need that raw aggression off the line to make sure he has the position.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he does have this buffer where he doesn't need to be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Turn one lap one in P1 in order to win the race.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I read something, which I think your numbers that you've just read out confirm that this scored more points, but Harn's scored more points this weekend than they had all season.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it is a struggle to overhaul that points difference.


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[Assistant] Going through the rest of the year, you know, we've got a 23 race season, so we're almost halfway through the season now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And to have lags so far for the first half of the season, it is gonna be big to overturn those positions to where they sit in the championship. But, like you mentioned, it's not undoable. The interesting thing that you mentioned, Ted, is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The tire dug and they're concerning that they're one of the few teams McLaren that stuck to the medium hard one-stop strategy. They had pre-race a lot of the other teams.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Red Bull, for example, went to the soft final instead, which was definitely a quicker shot at Mercedes as well, which is why Hamilton was still on track at the point to benefit from the VSE.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If they can't overcome that tired egg problem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In other circuits where tired egg is higher fundamentally, it will be harder for them as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Silverstone is a low dag track. You can stick to the harder compounds that are working there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And McLaren are getting them to work, but if we got to a very high dag track.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With the high track temperatures, if they've not overcome that fundamental overheating issue, it looks like that's causing their tire dag. That's going to be more difficult for them to score those big points.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's very difficult because we look a lot at field average degradation and actually we get quite a range of degradation within that. So I think on field average, the soft medium was the correct way strategy. Now that did involve George Russell, as you mentioned in the first in managing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm listening to some of their radio comms midway through that first stint. They're then telling them actually the tyres are a lot better.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can decrease the management. You can push a little bit harder. At one point he's told target lab plus eight.


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[Assistant] Now eight laps over the 52 laps of Silverstone is a 15% switch in where they thought they would stop. So the tyre was performing a lot better than they thought, or they could manage it a lot better than they thought.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I think on the whole, it was the right thing to do. I think people were.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Licking at McLaren Norris in particular worried that the hard tie was going to be overcome by the soft.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And potentially Lewis didn't manage to stink the best, pushing quite hard to try and get Norris initially.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Overheating his tires, then having a very difficult soft stand. It's all a cycle, you know, when it's, when you're in the dirty air, it's harder, et cetera, et cetera. So I think going free air, the soft medium was probably correct.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is unusual for Silverstone, because normally in Silverstone you need the two harder comp binds to make the one stop race work.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that's maybe a sign that the Perali construction is working well or better than expected, combined with the lower track temperatures. If you look further down the grill, someone like Perez.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Managed to key in positions over the Ferraris. He's stuck to the hard tires, so he can't just look at the Norris Hamilton example.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think there was examples further down where the softer tire definitely benefited compared to the harder one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Carlos lost out I think on the harder compound versus other drivers that...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, Perez, even Leclerc on the medium or soft tires were fed to take advantage of him in that part of the race.


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[Assistant] Oh yeah, like I think in those tricky qualifying positions, if we go back to Saturday to qualify so well.


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[Assistant] When there's big pressure on, there's a lot of fast paced decisions being happened and fundamentally you have to get the lap done at the right time is very strong showing to be so close. And then.


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[Assistant] To line up P3 on the grid at Silverstone or any event is big pressure. Big pressure in terms of


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[Assistant] How the car is gonna go, we haven't done as Ted said, you haven't done 52 laps on these new tires in this construction week at work. So.


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[Assistant] It is big pressure to start in that position and hold on to that position and he ran a really good race.


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[Assistant] And was unfortunate to miss out with the safety car, not through any poor decision or poor driving on his behalf. Just unfortunate timing of the VSC. I don't think McLaren could have predicted that in any way.


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[Assistant] So really strong showing from him. And I think he started, you know, I think there was some comments post-race from Norris saying, you know, he is pushing him quite hard.


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[Assistant] Which is, you know, a very, very positive review of Piastri's performance. And I think we will start to see.


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[Assistant] As his confidence grows and he goes through these experiences time and time again, even stronger show-ins from him.


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[Assistant] McLaren do like to have a very, very strong driver pairing. And if that car can perform in these other events that we've discussed.


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[Assistant] Then, you know, it's very positive for his brush fault season, isn't it?


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[Assistant] It's weird when you, when you're listening to a lot of the radio now, a lot of the drivers.


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[Assistant] Are very on top of what's going on strategically, very on top of their own and other strategies.


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[Assistant] Whereas maybe, you know, previously a lot of drivers weren't necessarily always paying attention to the strategy of eating, but now they realize that that midfield.


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[Assistant] It's not midfield, it's the second to the fifth field.


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[Assistant] It's so tight that these small, small differences in stop block me quite a big difference and I thought it was really interesting from Mercedes and I as outsiders we don't know where I came from but...


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[Assistant] They were one of the few teams to split the cars between the soft and the medium start tire. George was a bit of an outlier starting on the south.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and they had more work to do in that first stint in order to make that work. Now, it was a very smart move from Mercedes or George. Again, we don't know which, but.


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[Assistant] Very smart move in that they had feedback on both tyres, one of the few teams that had direct feedback on how both of those tyres were going.


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[Assistant] As a strategist, when you're watching the race and both Mercedes were very close behind both Ferraris, it's very hard to get a read on their degradation or their pace because they're in traffic the whole time. So you're actually reading Ferraris degradation and Ferraris pace. You're not reading theirs.


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[Assistant] So they had some information that were not available to the remainder field until they got in free year when the Ferrari pitted.


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[Assistant] So, and you know, George's feedback at that point was very much, these tires are still good. I think we can extend. That's, you know, even to the point of saying.


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[Assistant] Well, why are we stopping in there? He was told I think that they're stopping because of optimum stop-lapse, not because of traffic. And at one point he said, and I think this is a good mark of George, he's been given


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[Assistant] The positions to Ferrari or the pit window gap to Ferrari. And he actually says, I'm not interested in looking backwards. I'm interested in looking forwards. What are my gaps to McLaren? Where are McLaren? How are we?


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[Assistant] And that fundamentally changes a bit the thought process, or at least his thought process is very clear to the pit wall that he's interested. He's not.


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[Assistant] He's worried about undercut and Ferrari. He's worried about getting his best strategy in order.


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[Assistant] And P1, which isn't that useful from a strategy point of view, but it is good for driver feeling.


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[Assistant] So I think, yeah, there's a lot of intellect going on in the background there in order to draw, he knows the information that the people want from him.


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[Assistant] And he's given that information in a very clear, concise way. So, a good strategist, I can't comment, but.


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[Assistant] A good member of the strategy team through his driving and his feedback. Yes, Dash Welley.


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[Assistant] 100% there's too much to do in the race, starting from not getting out of Q1, that's guaranteed. I think some of it, you know, this week.


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[Assistant] Needs to be more. It's easy for us from the outside to say.


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[Assistant] And the Jack was nominated out of Q1 for five weeks from now or whatever it is.


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[Assistant] It's easy to look at that and say, why is that happening? You know, is he not performing as a driver? This week, from what I could see, there's a discrepancy between the strategy team and the driver. So to, on those conditions, improving conditions.


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[Assistant] To be the first person to finish a lap. I think when he first crossed the line he showed up in P1 or P2 was that lap that he did.


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[Assistant] And then it just tumbles from there. The lap times are tumbling really, really quite dramatically, which is what always happens in those types of conditions. So if you have a driver that has struggled to get out of Q1.


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[Assistant] Disregarding the fact that the car is by far the fastest car on track, so it should be easy to get out of Q1.


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[Assistant] You've got to give them the best possible chance of doing that. And that fundamentally is being the last car on track in those conditions. I think he queued at the end of the pit lane for a long time as well. So there's a few things there that go together that say he should have through


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[Assistant] You know, partially through his driving because the car is the fastest car that's out there.


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[Assistant] But partially through the position on track, it should be much easier in this example to progress through Q1.


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[Assistant] So yes, he is leaving himself a lot of work to do. I think historically, Tacko has not been the best qualifier.


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[Assistant] He has been more suited to re-esmeaking the tires work, managing whatever strategy he's done.


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[Assistant] So there's a combination of things that need to come now. There have been races, you know, one that goes clearly to shunt, not getting through, but there have been races since that that haven't been so clear cut.


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[Assistant] And all of that needs to come together. Now we don't know where the communication has broken down there. We don't know what's going on in Silverstone Q1.


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[Assistant] And, there's often this, teams sometimes get wrapped up in the save and sets for Q3 or whatever. Your first priority is to go through Q1.


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[Assistant] And that's the bit they need to know next week. In Hungary it's much, much more difficult for overtake. You need to go through Q1.


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[Assistant] And that needs to be the fun, you know, the priority in qualifying and worry about the key three position at another point. Um, because it's, it's shocking statistics.


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[Assistant] Uhm, to have not gone through Q1 so much in what is clearly the fastest car on track.


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[Assistant] I think just to add to that Ted, it's always really difficult, you know, on the pit wall.


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[Assistant] To defend it a little bit in those, you've got the dry end track.


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[Assistant] And you will guarantee have someone in your head saying, what if there's another red flag?


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[Assistant] We just need the lap on the board because at that stage I think they weren't through before he'd put that final lap on. So you're trying to, you've got this risk reward of we need a lap in case someone else causes another red flag versus


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[Assistant] We need the lap at the end because we know that's going to be the best track condition.


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[Assistant] And they may have just underestimated how much the track would improve through those three minutes.


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[Assistant] Um, so it's a really difficult situation when you're out, effectively.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I totally agree with everything you said. I think that they are coming together as a team and they...


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[Assistant] Maybe see this as a bell's year to something better next year and therefore developing the driver that you have in the car, giving them the confidence.


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[Assistant] You know, sergeant is going to have some good overlays against Alva to learn from.


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[Assistant] If they can build as a team and work together and it seems like James is putting the right steps in place to get that to happen.


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[Assistant] Then it's about building the strength for next year. And if they can finish this year in P7, that's massive, you know, way more than I think they expect to go on into the season.


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[Assistant] Let's see if they can hold on to that because there are cars that are faster behind, you would think, or should be faster, but they've done very well. Alex has outperformed the car on the events that he's scored big points. So it's going to be


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[Assistant] It's nice to see them working so well together and it's nice to see the sort of positive attitude there from James.


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[Assistant] Well, it's weird because qualifying showed that that car at Silverstone is good, at least in the qualifying conditions.


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[Assistant] And be beaten in the race by Alex Albon, who we've just discussed. Yes, Albon got the VSC, but Ferrari to be beaten by a Williams in Silverstone is borderline unacceptable from a team performance side.


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[Assistant] Now, the glimmers of hope I think was Canada. The strategy in Canada was very, very strong. To stay out under the safety car, get the track position really did well there. And this weekend I sort of was trying to go through it a little bit and


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[Assistant] They're stuck. They were one of the few teams along with McLaren. He's stuck to the medium hard strategy.


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[Assistant] Despite evidence showing throughout the race that probably the medium soul strategy in terms of lower degradation was better. And I tried to find.


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[Assistant] Reasons from my strategy had as to why, why did they stick so strongly to that strategy?


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[Assistant] And there was a few contributing factors for me. So one is Nicola didn't do any run on Friday.


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[Assistant] In FP2 sessions, so they had no long run data. They were down to one car, getting long run data on new construction.


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[Assistant] And instantly on Friday for Carlos was very high degradation on the soft when you compare it to someone like Mercedes.


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[Assistant] So I think we've spoken many, many times in the past about this high deck that Ferrari seem to be carrying and that was evident on Friday and that maybe scared them away from.


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[Assistant] The sulfur compounds in the reeds despite evidence from others that were fit to control that dag.


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[Assistant] They were also worried about both Ferraris were running with both Mercedes directly behind.


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[Assistant] And at one point they're giving them the gap to the car behind and trying to say,


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[Assistant] You need to maintain the scalp in order to be free from undercut risk.


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[Assistant] So they were very concerned about being undercut by both.


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[Assistant] Mercedes, which I think is why they forced the clerk in particular.


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[Assistant] And then they're forced onto the safety car to box again because they've already done 14 laps on these hard tires.


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[Assistant] So that just compounded the issue for Latara, but Silverstone


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[Assistant] Historically has a very high risk of safety car. So you need to be open to the possibility of a safety car coming at some point in the race and you need to be ready or in your best position for that.


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[Assistant] So I can see why on the powerwall the nerves of the undercut from Mercedes-Benz Cam


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[Assistant] Particularly with Russell and Solve that you think is going to box early onto hard tire.


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[Assistant] But they missed what others picked up on that the DAG was much lower with the lower track temperature than it had been on Friday.


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[Assistant] Now maybe for them if they had fitted a soft deck would have been too high, maybe they just cannot control that soft tire. Not clear. But they did, you know, it's easy in hindsight. Definitely went too early and then weren't fit to benefit.


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[Assistant] They will be disappointed, the entire team will be disappointed to come away from a reasonably strong qualifying for them. And, you know, be P9 and P10 in the races is reasonably fair, but it doesn't feel like the car


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[Assistant] The networking of the team around it and it always sort of feels to me like.


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[Assistant] The communication within it to get the decisions made quickly. We've seen time and time again on the pit wall.


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[Assistant] Questions being asked of drivers, uncertainty in decisions being made.


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[Assistant] And I don't think it's that fundamentally the strategy team are poor or I don't think fundamentally any of the engineering team are poor. I think it's that.


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[Assistant] As a group, they're not making decisions quickly enough. It feels like there's too much.


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[Assistant] Checking someone's opinion or getting authority to do something or getting approval or.


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[Assistant] A discussion about what we're doing is right or wrong, it feels like almost.


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[Assistant] And I don't know, it feels like the strategy team haven't enough authority to just make a call and make it stick, that there's too much discussion as to whether the strategy team are right or not.


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[Assistant] I don't know, that's surmising from the outside the uncertainty and the cause that we sometimes meet.


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[Assistant] You're helping straight line speed, but potentially you're not helping the high speed because


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[Assistant] You're sliding more in the high speed and therefore potentially lead into higher degradation.


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[Assistant] So there's always a very delicate balance to be placed and Silverstone is one of those circuits that does demand, like you say, a balance of all of the contributing factors to get it exactly right.


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[Assistant] Yeah, so there's a lovely little moment that I witnessed over the weekend, just sort of sat on the pad of observing, you know, there's a little seating area there that you can just sit and watch and chill out. And as I sat there, the...


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[Assistant] The actor in the movie who's playing the Pirelli guy, so all of the characters have a Pirelli representative in there and he was playing that person and


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[Assistant] He walked through the paddock while another Perali guy came in the opposite direction, a genuine Perali representative.


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[Assistant] And they just had a little nod, a little hello at each other because the guy looked so genuine that he was just assumed that he worked for Pirelli that weekend. He was someone that he'd not seen before, didn't know, whatever.


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[Assistant] And I seen the actor then as he walked past, he giggled to himself almost going,


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[Assistant] Probably don't know whether I'm real or not real anymore. And I'd imagine if he was walking into the hospitality, he probably got away with it. And it was just really interesting to see that.


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[Assistant] They've covered it to that level of detail that actually people in the paddock are assuming it's just a different prelly guy for the weekend.


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[Assistant] Um, but I just, the way the actor laughed to himself as he walked by going, yeah, I've got this right. Like I'm playing the role really well. And that's just going to be such.


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[Assistant] That character's probably gonna be such a small detail in the film, in the background.


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[Assistant] That it's going to be really interesting to see how much of the other details have gone right.


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[Assistant] The 2023 season is almost upon us. 20 drivers, 10 teams, and 23 races. Time to do it all again. Can anyone knock Red Bull and Max Verstappen off their perch? This is the Sky Sports F1 Podcast.


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[Assistant] Hello all, uh, we've got a podcast! Woohoo! Finally!


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[Assistant] Hello, hello, hello. It's a pleasure to be a guest on your podcast. Thank you, Ted. Thank you, thank you. Uh, just for a bit of context, we'll be with you every Tuesday throughout the Formula One season, uh, to discuss the biggest topics, help you understand the sometimes complex world, uh, of Formula One. So let's kick things off, shall we? Start by talking about testing. Ted, you were there. Was it useful? Well, before we kick things off, Matt,


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[Assistant] Ted, why was it shorter this year? And, you know, George Russell before testing said that three days wasn't enough. He wanted more. He wanted maybe two cars in three days. So what are your reflections now having had it?


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[Assistant] That was good. All right. Testing done. Draw a line under that. It's race week now. Let's move on. Let's talk about it. Uh, we thought for this episode, uh, we go through the runners and riders who could realistically, in inverted commas, maybe mount a challenge to this year, to last year's champions. I should say Red Bull and Max Verstappen. So.


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[Assistant] Before we talk about the others, let's talk about Red Bull and Max Verstappen. Now, start with you.


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[Assistant] What about that domination of last year? Because it was, I mean, it's incredible, wasn't it?


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[Assistant] Yeah. Corinne, is this the first year he started as an out and out favourite at the beginning of the season?


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[Assistant] I wonder then if perhaps the people who can stop Red Bull, the most likely to stop Red Bull, uh, are Red Bull? And perhaps the issue of Sergio Perez?


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[Assistant] An internal battle. And, you know, I mean, Castrum went back to Brazil last year, the team orders, uh, Verstappen didn't yield that place, didn't allow Perez to be in the best position to get Peter in the championship. Now, I mean, what do you think?


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[Assistant] When the race is max doesn't win.


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[Assistant] Ferrari seem to be second in line. I think that's fair off to testing as the team that could.


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[Assistant] Could challenge them. Uh, I think let's, let's customize back to the launch.


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[Assistant] Do have this down and you know, they are the team that's perhaps second in the championship. I mean, what an epic battle that would be having Alonso and Stappen battle throughout the season. He's not gonna be battling for Stappen. No, he's not gonna be battling for Stappen.


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[Assistant] Dun-dun-dun. Dun-dun-dun. Right. That is, I mean, that's very exciting. Right. Well, that's Fernando. Also.


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[Assistant] Actually that's not what I think and you know it. I know, I know. This is a whole other podcast. Sorry. Uh, right, let's talk then about the second slash third, uh, depending on which, which way you look at it, uh, in, in, in standing, shall we say after testing Ferrari.


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[Assistant] And yeah, I want to, I want to just think back to the test and get your guys reactions to how surprised, pleasantly surprised you were that


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[Assistant] They chose to run the car live, sorry not during the test, during the launch, they chose to run the car live during the broadcast and was that a show of strength, the show of, you know, we are here and we are confident in this?


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[Assistant] Alright, I think the point for me is, yeaah, I thought it gave a really great impression of the car, the way they were feeling about the year ahead. Obviously a new boss, Fred Visser, in, what is in his in-tray in order to get


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[Assistant] Ferrari up to speed and up to the ability to challenge Red Bull at the front. What do you reckon?


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[Assistant] To quote him in your notebook yesterday would be the biggest challenge of his life. Of his life, yes. Professional life. Professional life.


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[Assistant] I think it sounds like we shouldn't get too excited by Ferrari.


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[Assistant] And of course, Fred Forseur saying, I will take action later in the season. If I need to. If I need to. Yeah. I think it's going to be a very, very interesting, uh, discussion there at Ferrari as to who will be the number one driver. Right. Let's move on. Mercedes. What noises are coming out of Mercedes at the moment from testing? Is Lewis Hamilton going to get this car to challenge for his eighth world title?


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[Assistant] Just, just a final point on Mercedes that I want to talk about is, is George and Lewis and their relationship. And you mentioned earlier about how last year they weren't going for a championship battle, so it was all very cordial. It was all lovely and, you know, great noises coming from Mercedes. Uhm, but this year,


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[Assistant] You know, as the pressure ramps up, perhaps they're not going to be involved in a championship battle, but do we think, I mean, for example, last year, Hamilton got 240 points, Russell 275. Is that an accurate reflection of their season or do we think like Lewis was working on more parts of the car maybe, or Lewis was taking in elements, taking a bit more of the pain to allow George Russell to flourish?


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[Assistant] That's Mercedes. The floor is now open for any other people, teams who might cause Red Bull and Max Verstappen problems this year. We talked about Aston.


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[Assistant] Talked about Fernando Alonso. Anyone else caught your attention?


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[Assistant] This is the point of the podcast. I think that for me, yeaah, it's quite clear this season, Red Bull, Manchester United are leading from the front, but there are many factors, there are many teams and drivers who, on their day, we hope, fingers crossed, can provide.


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[Assistant] Okay, we'll be back every Tuesday throughout the season and since we're starting out it really does help if you can like and subscribe. Even in a summer break we'll be back every Tuesday.


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[Assistant] Two British drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris, both spent the Bahrain Grand Prix lamenting their lack of performance. Are Mercedes in crisis and can they give Hamilton the car to win his eighth world title? For Lando, is he running out of patience with McLaren? This is the Sky Sports F1 Podcast.


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[Assistant] Hello all, uh, I hope you're well. Uh, it's race week. We've got the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this weekend, so plenty to get our teeth into. Uh, and with me for this one is someone who needs no introduction, the King of Gridwalks.


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[Assistant] And Sky F1 analyst, Martin Brundle alongside Jess McFadden, producer at Sky Sports. Martin, well, it's both of your first time on the podcast, so welcome. Good to have you. Martin, we'll start with you. How's it going?


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[Assistant] And Jess, you're relatively new to Sky Sports, so settling in all okay. Good to see you.


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[Assistant] And I think the interesting thing we're talking about Lewis and Lando in tandem here is obviously they're in very different situations. You know, Lewis, seven time world champion, Lando yet to win a race, but they are kind of bound by these underperforming cars for this season.


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[Assistant] Ultimately, you know, that could cost them, uh, as drivers going forward. So, uh, I want to get into that and also we'll, we'll obviously have a little look ahead to Saudi as well at the end.


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[Assistant] Uh, Martin, I want to, I want to start with you really and get your thoughts on Lewis and Mercedes, uh, and where they find themselves now. And just to remind everyone, of course, Hamilton P5 in Bahrain, Russell P7. It was a disappointing weekend, uh, to say the least for them, wasn't it?


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[Assistant] Jess, I was going to ask you if you could just put into context how, I mean, 50 seconds in Formula One, that's how far Lewis Hamilton was behind Max Verstappen, that is so much time, isn't it?


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[Assistant] Martin, what did, what did you make of that comment? I'll, I'll read it sort of in full. Yeah, he said Mercedes didn't listen to him over the development of their 2023 car. He said last year, there were things I told them. I said the issues there are with the car. I've driven so many cars in my life.


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[Assistant] I know what a car needs. I know what a car doesn't need. I think it's really about accountability. Were you surprised that he so publicly called out the team?


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[Assistant] Yeah, especially after one race. And I think that's really key, isn't it? This is, this might happen at the end of a season and kind of a post, post disappointing season letter to your fans, but to be off to one race, I think really shows that the strength of feeling. Um, all right. So that's kind of Mercedes as a team, but specifically Lewis.


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[Assistant] Martin, is going for that eighth title, clearly that is the, the number one objective now, I would, I would say for Lewis Hamilton. I don't know if you agree with that. And, and, and is it all about trying to get that to number eight? He's, he's 38 years old. Obviously Alonso is, is 41 and still at the very peak of his powers and doing exceptionally well. So.


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[Assistant] Where do you see or how do you see this playing out over the next couple of years?


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[Assistant] And also, I mean, I've got a few tweets here. Martin, uh, on Twitter said Lewis isn't going anywhere. All this Ferrari talk is laughable. He is woven in far beyond his position as a driver with Accelerate 25 and Mission 44. And I guess that's kind of true, isn't it? Because he, he is such a, he's been there so long that he's such a strong part of that team.


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[Assistant] I wonder then this weekend in Saudi, because there is a lot of attention now on this, on this story and, and, and what Lewis is, is, is going to do. And I wonder Jess, what, what would a good weekend in Saudi Arabia look like for Mercedes sitting here now?


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[Assistant] I mean, he'd love that conversation with Christian right now, given where they are, uh, on the grid. I bet, I bet he's longing for that, uh, for that conversation. Right. Uh, let's, let's move on, I think, to Lando.


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[Assistant] Um, cause obviously we've got Lewis trying to, trying to get his, his eighth world championship. Bless him Lando still hasn't actually won a race yet, which is still incredible to think. I mean, he's been in the sport five years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, it was a disappointing weekend for them, for McLaren. Uh, he finished P17, which was last of the finishes and, uh, Piastri didn't, didn't fare any better having to retire after 14 laps due to an electrical problem. I guess, Martin, this is a, a team at the other end of the spectrum, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For Lambo Norris, this is a hugely concerning start to the season.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jess, there was a, we obviously put up our message and thanks to everyone who got back to us on Twitter and Instagram, uh, about this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, it's breezy. Uh, great, great Twitter handle. Uh, sort of summed it up quite well I think. So looking to 2026 and beyond, what strategic career move would give Lando the best chance of becoming a world champion? So four options, sticking out with McLaren.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Heading a new project, ED Aldi, perhaps with Seidel, his, his old boss, waiting for Lewis's seat at Merck or being number two at Ferrari and Red Bull. I mean, those are four options, all very realistic options, I guess, for, for Lando. What, what do you see him, him doing over the next couple of years?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was going to say, I mean, Mika Hakunin, we've, we've heard Nico Rosberg say on Sky's coverage that he sees him as a future world champion. Mika Hakunin this week said he's on the same level as, as Max Verstappen. And I think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I guess even from a British perspective, we just want to, we want to see him fighting at the front. He was so exciting. I mean, Martin, you referenced Russia.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, those three races that he could have won, it was, it was exhilarating to watch him, him fight near the front. And yeah, I think, you know, speaking on behalf of a lot of fans, he's a very popular member of the paddock as well. When we say we want to see him at the front, we want to see him, uh, battling. And yeah, I think that sentiment is felt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, you know, throughout, I just wonder on the, on the, on the future thing, is there, is there any potential, do we think the relationship with Andrea Seidel, uh, Martin, you know, do you think, do you think there's a strong enough relationship there with what he's doing at turning that into Aldi by, by 2026? Can you see them uniting at all at that project?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We've, we've achieved the fact there of, of where we think they are at the moment, where we think they'll, they'll end up. Um, I want to end on a couple of questions, a few tweets from, from, uh, listeners and viewers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and just, just get your, your guys thoughts really on Saudi Arabia. Um, there's a tweet here from James. He says, uh, looking ahead to Saudi time for race two of El Plan, uh, looking forward to seeing Fernando Alonso, uh, back on track and Blake on Instagram also agreeing Alonso will dominate again. Um.