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[Assistant] Obviously like, Ollie will have had a seat, you will have had a seat, what, just sort of waiting in the wings and, and your helmet and your overalls and, and all of that kind of stuff. How, how does that happen? How easy is that process to, to change in from one driver to another?


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[Assistant] And just, just for people at home who maybe aren't aware of how Formula One seat works, can you just explain the process of making a seat and how do you make adjustments to that seat?


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[Assistant] And then you just sit in this carbon shell of your body, right? It's exactly molded to you because yeah, there's very limited suspension or comfort.


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[Assistant] What about the pressure that Ollie will have been under? You will have, I'm sure in your time in Formula One, seen this happen a few times. What kind of pressure will Ollie have been experiencing? There's media, isn't there? I mean, from the minute he was told he was going to go into that car, there were cameras outside the Ferrari hospitality building where he was waiting to go into the car.


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[Assistant] It's a real scrum, isn't it? How impressive was it that he stayed on top of that and seemed to take it all within his stride?


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[Assistant] And I really felt a bit like with Ollie, you know, his dad was in the garage watching, he sort of felt every moment. And I think your, your dad, I imagine that must've been a really special moment, particularly in Singapore, obviously when you got your points.


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[Assistant] What were the conversations you had with him afterwards? What were some of the things we didn't hear on Drive to Survive? That must have been really special.


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[Assistant] No, I was going to say one of my big takeaways from that episode, Liam, was the candour at which you spoke and I think actually hearing you guys speak so openly and honestly.


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[Assistant] Is, is, is way more what people are after now. You know, rather than the kind of media answers that people trot out time and time again, very neutral, actually hearing genuinely what you think, I think engages an audience way more than, you know, just pulling out the same platitudes day after day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You will have experienced. I'm curious to know in your role as a reserve driver, when I saw you on, on Saturday, you were in your, um, your RB.


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[Assistant] Visa Cash App Kit. Uhm, but how much time have you experienced with the RB20? Have you been in the sim for the RB20? What was your, what were kind of some of your feelings about just how incredible that car is with what Max is able to do at the moment in it?


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[Assistant] Ted, what about you? What have your, been your impressions of this RB20 this year?


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[Assistant] It seriously is, it seriously is. And Liam, what about Max's performances? What are you, as a reserve driver, I imagine part of what your remit is, is to observe other drivers around you and to try and pick up as much as possible. So obviously,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Max Verstappen, not a bad person to do that from. So what are you, what are you seeing in his driving? How is he able to be so far ahead of not just the field, but also his teammate in the same car?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Give us perhaps some words of encouragement that maybe the rest of the field might close the gap a little bit, that maybe there are some, oh no, you're looking, you're looking a little bit.


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[Assistant] Liam, while we've got you, I want to get onto our mailbag. We've got a few questions in for you at the end as well. But just, just tell us a little bit about your, your role at the moment and what your race weekend looks like. I mean, we were chatting before we started recording. You're going to every single race this year as a reserve driver. So take us into a sort of day in the life of, of Liam Lawson as a reserve driver.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Once you've been in a Formula One car racing it, I imagine doing anything but that at a Formula One track is, is just not going to touch the sides. Yeah, exactly. Do a little job swap with Ted.


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[Assistant] Another question Liam for you, which you might choose not to answer. This is from Charles. Would you leave the Red Bull family if it guaranteed you a seat in Formula One?


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[Assistant] Who would blame you or begrudge you if you, if you get offered a drive somewhere and you chose to take it, that, that, yeah, would, would make a lot of sense. Um, changing the tone, Basil would like to know, what hair products do you use? Your hair is very luscious. It's not clear, Ted, who was, who this was directed to, but let's assume it was Liam. Take us through the routine.


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[Assistant] Very good. Ted, care to elaborate on your hair routine?


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[Assistant] Yeah, once a year. Speaking of Australia, that ties in nicely to the end. Obviously we've got Australia next week, we've got a weekend off before heading down to Melbourne. So, I mean, Liam, it's not a home race, obviously it's not a home race, but is it a race you always look forward to? It's obviously your nearest to home, I guess. So yeah, it must be a weekend you look forward to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Very, very important, I'm sure. Hard to operate, isn't it, Ted, without proper sleep? You know?


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[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, very good. Right, uh, Liam, thank you so much for your time and, well, what is it, just coming up to 10 o'clock there, so you can, we'll let you go, go to sleep, uh, if, if that, if that's what you're off to do. Uh, and Ted, thank you very much, uh, we'll see you in Australia.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, nice one. Cheers, Liam. We'll be back next Tuesday, but until then, bye for now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, there's healthy distractions and there's unhealthy distractions. Like if he's sitting there worrying about where he's going to get his next batch of pills from and whatever, and he's always worried about where that's coming from, he doesn't have time to worry about and have the anxiety about basketball and all the pressure being placed on him from the outside. So maybe it was a little bit of a distraction. How long did he play in the NBA?


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[Assistant] Pretty large breaking news. Here we go. Here we go. So 17 minutes ago, Rapport tweeted out that the Chiefs and Chris Jones were close to a deal. Then seven minutes later, uh, Rapport got dunked on by Chris Morrison. The Chiefs do have a deal with Chris Jones. Four years, $85 million deal with 60 million guaranteed.


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[Assistant] No, they have a smaller arc in U-Trip. So it's coming in like super fast like, oh


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[Assistant] Yeah, I'm all over the place. I had 10 hours on the plane, got back, went straight to sleep at 10, woke up at 4, then went back to sleep at 9. I think that it kind of sums it up really. It was, um, it was bonkers for, uh, for sleep this week, but as I said, we put our viewers through it so often that it was time for us to suffer.


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[Assistant] Uh, well in terms of scale, there's never been anything bigger than it. Uh, but I think we all knew that coming into the weekend.


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[Assistant] I go back to what Max said at the start of the weekend saying it was 99% show and 1% sport and then the delicious irony of him being dressed as Elvis spraying champagne on the top step of the podium and go to the Bellagio and go into that Rolls Royce.


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[Assistant] Max calls it as it is, uhm, I can see where he's coming from, but at the same time,


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[Assistant] I think then the racing spoke for itself, and with that, I think...


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[Assistant] You have to say that it offered both the show and the razzmatazz and also the quality of racing that we hoped. And it was a little bit like Baku, but better as Lewis had said. So I think that, uhm, scale-wise never seen anything bigger.


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[Assistant] Timing wise, if I was going to change one thing, I think everybody thinks that you could, if you can sort out the logistics of the local traffic and you can close down the strip earlier, why not have a six or seven?


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[Assistant] In the evening race and qualifying, which works for the East coast in America.


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[Assistant] And means that potentially people over this side of the pond can stay up for it rather than get up for it. And I wonder how the balance would work there in terms of view figures. I think perhaps it might be, um, it might be bigger if people stayed up on a Saturday night rather than getting up Sunday morning. So I think that that's what they have to kind of balance up.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I mean I was talking to Shove from, from Mercedes and a couple of other people from within different camps and it's...


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[Assistant] It wasn't really, it's not the, you know, we just talk out loud for a living, right? So we can, we can do that whenever. We're not the ones that are putting together Formula One cars and then debriefing as engineers do and had to with the drivers.


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[Assistant] And after that, what night was it? Was it the Thursday night? I lose track. So it was a Thursday night, wasn't it? Which was the late finish, 2.30 till 4.


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[Assistant] They then went into their debriefs, their engineering meetings, and I think it was, uhm, one of the driver's trainers literally had to pull him out of one of the debriefs because they really have to stick to these rigid plans of sleet to make sure that they can, they can operate at their


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[Assistant] They're best when it comes to qualifying in the race and it was getting to that point where it was just...


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[Assistant] If you're a driver and you want to have your eight hours beauty sleep, that was one of the difficulties for them.


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[Assistant] Also, the beginning of a triple header, to then think of them going straight on after a D-rig and a pack-up and having to do that to go to Katara and then to Abu Dhabi, that is going to be brutal because I think there's another triple header before then, isn't there?


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[Assistant] Next year, the end of it, long season, I know they've scheduled in another little break in October time, which will help the teams, but absolutely everything points to them having to change the schedule, and I think as Craig was revealing there, I would imagine that everybody will be behind that.


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[Assistant] I'm getting to that point where it is filled, before we get into 24 races.


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[Assistant] Max being the pure racing driver that he is, that everybody respects up and down there, he will


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[Assistant] He doesn't like that aspect of the job. That's fine. I think he could, he could have just kept his council. I think that's the only thing, I think it probably will have annoyed, uhm, he's gonna have annoyed Liberty, he's gonna have annoyed Formula One because they've put


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The triple world champion. He is the reigning world champion. And then I kind of think he stepped back a little bit once he enjoyed the race. Uh, and we all enjoyed the race. There was multiple overtakes. He had to work for it. In fact, it was one of the probably the hardest he's had to work for a race victory this year. So.


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[Assistant] Once he was convinced that the track was worth his salt and that it produced what was to him a fun race, then he about faced a little bit and said, ah, you know, that was good. I enjoyed that and sang the Las Vegas, did everything they needed to do. How do you just.


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[Assistant] He kept quiet for the, for the, for the beginning bit. It might have, it might have helped the promoter out, but, uh, Max is Max and he's refreshing and that's what a lot of people love him for.


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[Assistant] Yeah, well, a hundred percent. I think that's what he stands for. I think with a racing father who's undoubtedly a purist, um, and the, the fact that they, he just loves, he loves racing in Europe, I think more than anything, as you're going back to your point, Craig. I think he's, he's really either, whereas you look at, you compare him to somebody like Lewis who,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, arrives at some weekends and you feel like, okay, this isn't his kind of weekend. He, when he arrives at a US.


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[Assistant] There's a balance to be struck, isn't it, about building this sport and growing in new territories, which then takes it back to what full circle to what Craig was saying about why don't you just please


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[Assistant] He could have been managed better this weekend on that front. And I think the thing with America and these races is that


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[Assistant] When they find a problem or they think, okay, that didn't work well this year, they try to rectify it for the next year. They're very, very good at that because they learn fast, they are very malleable and adaptable. And I think that's why we'll see significant changes. One thing, for example,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's, just as a, as a silly thing, I was fully expecting to see a brilliant shot of a Formula One car going past the Bellagio fountains from behind the fountains as they go up like that, but of course you didn't get that because the catch fencing was in the way. And then we had our Bellagio moment at the end, which took about 25 minutes to get there at balance.


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[Assistant] So there, there are a couple of little things like that, the, uh, that I thought, alright, maybe, maybe let's see if we can tweak that for next year, but uhm, it just, it looked great from the air, didn't it? It looked like Singapore did. Phenomenal. You know, lit up.


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[Assistant] Uh, great backdrop, great cityscape.


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[Assistant] At night, cause it's totally different as Craig having been there for 19 occasions. When it's not lit up, those buildings are kind of seventies and a little bit drab and you wouldn't want to have it in the daylight because it would completely defeat the object to the Vegas Grand Prix. So I know I've got a bit of a tangent, but yes, I get what he is.


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[Assistant] About being principled and purest racer and that will appeal to a lot of the core fanbase.


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[Assistant] It's your devil's advocate. I don't- Does Max care?


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[Assistant] Does he, is he one of these people that goes on social media?


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[Assistant] And does his own stuff or does he have someone doing it for him? Do you, I don't, I don't see him as the kind of person that's trawling through comments going, I've got to say this. I just think it's innate and he knows what, he knows what those race fans, pure race fans want to hear you write and says it. But I, I think actually it's part of his DNA and nothing's going to change him.


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[Assistant] No, I didn't think I'd do that. We were all going mad by that stage because we'd been up for 22 hours. You know, when you go that way, everybody's waking up at 5 in the morning anyway. Doesn't matter what you try to do.


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[Assistant] Yeaah. I mean, that was one of the stories of the week. I think that's what made it, uhm...


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[Assistant] Made it unique, and probably a bit special, or, but it was certainly confusing.


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[Assistant] That, that, you know, when we're finishing it, come on out at 2.30 for the 4 a.m. and thinking that's, that's no cool.


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[Assistant] East Coast it's 5.30 on air, you know, it actually worked out well for the UK audience that, but, uh, uhm, I think, uh, yeaah, that's why they need to change it, because it's just not fair on the teams.


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[Assistant] At the moment, I guess it's dangerous, but...


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[Assistant] Always gets over 400,000 fans there, uh, year on year. It's a great racetrack, one of the best racetracks I think we go to on the calendar. Uhm, and you talk about Purist, that's one that no one can argue. It's, it's really cemented.


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[Assistant] I think it's number one status and it's for the others to try to change and make it like that. I know they've all got different feels. They all do have genuinely different feels. But my favourite feel is Austin. And that's just a subjective thing.


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[Assistant] I've always liked going there. I think it's a great city. I think you get a lot of really, really knowledgeable fans there too. You get a big Mexican contingent that are always cheering on Sergio Perez. They love motorsport over there.


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[Assistant] And you get people flying in from all over the states to go and sample it because they know that it's become a real staple of the calendar. So that's still my favourite. I think there's a place for all three of them. And I think that Vegas will grow and learn and it was a good start in the end and they rescued it, as Craig said, from what was a


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The most embarrassing style that they would have wanted.


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[Assistant] Um, and they, and they turned it around. Um, and the racing was good and it was different racing to what you get at the Circuit of the Americas. So.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I think, as you said, it's the Space Brawl 3, but...


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[Assistant] I think Vegas and Miami, that identity and improving on what they've got will definitely be their priority over the next


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[Assistant] Over, over in the states, then that helps it globally, so.


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[Assistant] I don't, I could easily see that being a fourth one added from, from over there.


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[Assistant] I know when you think about what, actually what it's thrown up for, for the last race in Abu Dhabi.


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[Assistant] Because the net gainers were, were, were Aston Martin, weren't they, and, and Ferrari, and therefore it's close to within, what is it, 11 points now, I think, Aston Martin and McLaren, 4 points, Ferrari and Mercedes, and uhm, that's, that's brilliant for, for Abu Dhabi, I mean, this is, you know,


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[Assistant] Into the millions of pounds, ten million dollars probably for, for second. And Mercedes will want to cling onto it. And actually when you think about the nature of the Abu Dhabi track, probably more a Ferrari track.


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[Assistant] That it is a Mercedes track, I would have thought. Certainly the first half of the track is with the kind of technical slow stuff and the long straights. Maybe the second half of the track is a little bit more uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This way towards Mercedes, but then you have to worry about the Ferrari deck.


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[Assistant] We saw a couple of brilliant drives through the pack, gotta give some props, haven't we, to Lance Stroll and to Esteban Ocon, we cut that amount. So it had a bit of everything, you know, it had back and forth, it had coming together, it had a couple of safety cars, it


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It had racing to the end, and that's what we want from these street tracks, and that's what you get when it is...


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[Assistant] You know, tyres on a cold track and people locking up and the walls really close and a few bumps here and there. So yeah, I think it had the racing which made it live up to the hype.


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[Assistant] Strong-willed. He's got a good sense of humour, but he's, he's tough. And he's, and he's, you know, he's done it in the lower formula as well. He's, I think that they believe in him as a, as a, you know, kind of racer himself. They, that's what Friday'd argue with you, Craig. I think that, uh, you know, he could be a formidable leader going forward.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I enjoyed the coverage of course, uhm, always, always entertaining and informative, uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was Machine Gun Kelly. So yea, interesting, interesting fellow. Uhm, so that, as, that was pure, obviously, uh, gridwalk gold, uh, everyone responded to that. Uhm, and the dancing people, uh, you know, and the lovely little chap on the ukulele, or it's not a ukulele, is it? It's called, uh, something else, it's, uh, uhm, it's different. Ted's nailed it. They tune it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so of course, and so we watch a whole, everything around the event of course was, was fascinating and, and as the vibrancy of Brazil comes through, doesn't it, every time you, you know, you can't help but be affected by


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The energy in the place, uhm, and the track is also, I think, one of the best racetracks we ever go to. It's relatively simple, but it produces fantastic, watchable racing and opportunities for drivers. The Senna S is, and the back straight is another overtaking opportunity, including this


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[Assistant] Uh, as well, that kind of creates issues. And we saw that in the race unfolding when we got to the end of the race, uh, with Fernando who was using some clever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With Lando and, uh, with Max. Uhm, but so it was a bit of a kind of bit where I thought this race seems to be a very long race. Uhm, and then it got interesting at the end. So I was happy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In Brazil, they want to claim the whole thing for themselves, not donate it to the wider state. But anyway, uhm, I agree with you, it definitely had a, you know, the normal peak and then a lull, a very kind of long lull in the middle.


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[Assistant] Urgency about the sprint performances of the drivers, so.


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[Assistant] Uhm, it is entertaining, of course it's a bone of contention now, they've talked about potentially changing the format and whether or not it's, some people don't like it, Red Bull don't seem to like it, Max doesn't seem to like it.


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[Assistant] So there's discussion about that. And fans, of course, have got their right to say what they think of it, uhm, whether they think it's a plus or a minus. I mean, it's, uh...


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[Assistant] I know what they're trying to do, but uhm, it can be confusing, I think. So there's, there's something to be discussed about. When, when I get, when I just talk to people who I know who follow, you know, follow racing loosely, they don't understand. They just, you know, you say to them.


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[Assistant] On a kind of broader level, it's difficult to explain to people why you're having a race the day before the race.


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[Assistant] The effects, I mean, I agree with Nomi, this is, this is a one, I mean, because in America, it looked great, except they were disqualified, so, you know, uhm, and maybe they, they erred on the side of safety a little bit too much, maybe, you know, these cars are incredibly fickle, the F stands for fickle at the moment in Formula One, because,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, everyone's up and down. It was previous races, last two races, Aston Martin were nowhere. You know, and, uh, and then suddenly they're up there looking good. I know they were helping the qualifying a bit, but, but Fernando was reasonably competitive and, and it looked, uh, good for them. So.


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[Assistant] Uhm, you don't need much to be out of the window it seems with some of these teams cars. Obviously the exception is Red Bull. Uhm, but uhm.


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[Assistant] Dependent on precise set up for each particular track and if you get out of the window and the competition being as tight as it is now, uhm, then you really are hammered. But uhm, I mean I know Toto, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's half weekend and, uhm, Lewis underlined it by, you know, admitting that this is not where he thought he'd be by this time at the end of the season. But it could have been just a one-off. We've got two more races to find out.


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[Assistant] They know it's wrong. They've admitted that as much, you know, this season. They can't do anything with this car. So you have to wait till next year. That's why Lewis is so...


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[Assistant] I'm keen to say goodbye to this car because there's only so much you can do with a fundamental design and the word concept. I know they don't want to use it, but there are parameters within.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, from the beginning, uh, it took them a year to admit, or maybe even more than a year to admit that it was wrong. Uhm, they've admitted they've changed some things and they're heading back, probably they believe in the right direction, but they won't know until they get their hands on next year's car. And that's always a bit of an anxious situation to be in. Uhm, I think there's a, there's a, in some ways, you know, if you've got,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To provide, uhm, a competitive car. It's not good when you've got...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One team able to just simply do whatever they like when they turn up, it seems to me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you take a plunger and you stick it on a window, okay, you try and pull it off. It's, if you've got a perfect seal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You could, you could hang off the ceiling with one of those things, you know, a vacuum under a car is an enormously powerful thing, but unfortunately it goes up in a very, very sharp


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Rate. Now you could change the rate at which it goes up by increasing the ride height.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and they've got a very simple, cheap device for doing that and it's called the Plank.


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[Assistant] Uhm, which I always think is the wrong terminology for, uh, uh, sport as sophisticated as Formula One, to have a plank on a Formula One car. But, uhm, it's just simply make the cars.


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[Assistant] Everyone would say, well Rebel would just say, well that's totally unfair. We've got our car working, why can't everyone else fix theirs?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do you have trouble concentrating with that far ahead, you know? Uhm, is it difficult to keep your mind on the job, uhm, when you're in front? And he kind of, I think he kind of admitted sort of, it is, you still have stuff to do, but,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You get applauded. I've been racing in races where I've won by a country mile and everyone says, what an amazing performance. And you sort of want to go, well, to be honest, it wasn't that difficult because everything went for me right, you know, the right way. And, um, and I just had to not make a mistake. So, um, you know, the things that you remember, the things that we,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And down the outside of, uhm, was it Checo, I think, uhm, and it would, that was a brave, brave move, you know, and those things are what we live for, you know, he, uhm, he showed his brilliance and also the race with Fernando, we all get to the edge of our seats again. So we do want it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How you get it? This has always been Nightless Performer. I mean, I used to watch, you know, Jackie Stewart.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Give us the challenge. But on the Mercedes point, my anxiety is this, which is that for a long time Mercedes dominance really was down to their power units.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They persisted with their relatively flat-looking rake on the car, whereas Red Bull were absolutely huge. They led the way and everyone started following Red Bull with this very, very high rake. It looked like a rat running along, didn't it, the car? It had a very high back. But Mercedes stuck.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, persistently with, or doggedly with their, with their other, they looked like they were running a different aero concept on their car in the previous regulations and then along come a new set of regs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What I'm saying is, is the Mercedes aero department missing a trick here? And they've lost quite a few good aero people to other teams as well. Uhm, so, over time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, it was close, checker was overtaking. So when you see the pictures that were taken just after the finish line, he's actually right on alongside Fernando always passed him. So he was, it was incredible how it just basically the photo was there. And then a fraction of a second later, checker was passed him. So thrilling finish and also a wonderful.


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[Assistant] Psychological I think, you think you're helping, but, uh.


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[Assistant] The, the advantages to the, to the guy in second place because you know it's coming. You, you can sit there in anticipation and say, well, he's now got to defend and he can't change lines more than once, so.


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[Assistant] Uhm, yeah, so it is, it is good, those sort of circuits and the early days of racing, it was underpowered cars, the aerodynamics and the drag is, is such a factor in racing, how you use the, the ability of the car to tow up to someone or the cart and, and get past, and you see it in bike racing as well all the time.


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[Assistant] I know, how can you, how can you plan for anything when it's going to be up and down to that degree? I mean, I literally had Fernando Downers giving up on Aston Martin, the car was parked in the last


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[Assistant] Uh, two of the previous two races, he looked dejected and what you, you don't want to dejected, um, Fernando Alonso, you know, he, he doesn't like.


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[Assistant] Even so, uh, tremendous opportunity for him and what a, what a bounce back. Mike Crack, I think, I think they've done, I think Mike Crack is very good. I think that uhm, that team, they, they seem to have the right approach to


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[Assistant] I think he mentioned it actually in Teth Notebook. He said that they were down, but they didn't start blaming each other. You know, this is a guy who's come from Ferrari and I can probably say without.


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[Assistant] They would, they got the right approach and they, they learned from what they got wrong and they come back and they've fixed it and he's happy about that. Now that would, that would definitely come from someone like Mike, uhm, at the top to, to get everyone to deal with the challenge in the right way.


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[Assistant] But a point, a point Matt was, you know, do they understand what they'd, what they'd done wrong and,


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[Assistant] I think with the floor they made a good step forward when they brought a new floor in for, was it Austin, and the car performed well. So I think we have seen this before with other teams where they brought an upgrade, even McLaren, they brought an upgrade and it didn't work to start with.


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[Assistant] On the car and what Naomi was saying about the correlation between the theory and the wind tunnel and the actual performance.


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[Assistant] It's very difficult to get, uh, any kind of consistency of information. So they're, they're working sometimes in a little bit of a, of a, of a less, um,


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[Assistant] To crack these problems. One is you spend, if you call it man hours, you can have more people, uhm, double the people working for the same amount of time and you'll get there if they're working to the right, uh, plan. You'll get there before the other people. Or you can have the same amount of people working for double the amount of time. Now Red Bull, they've not had to fix problems.


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[Assistant] It doesn't seem this year. They've been able to focus on next year. So they're already like months ahead of all the others who've been trying to get their current car to work. And that's the only thing that


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[Assistant] What doesn't bode well for next year is that you, you know, if you get half them, Mercedes have had to find the direction first before they can start developing next year's car.


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[Assistant] And that is the million dollar question or the billion dollar question or whatever it is now in F1. Uhm, you know, it is whether or not they really do have a clue about what to do and I think Lewis will be


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[Assistant] Asking Toto every day, are you sure, you know, you've got this right? Because he was very forceful in saying, I don't believe in this current concept when they came in with the new reg. So anyway, this, this is Formula One. The pressure is huge.


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[Assistant] I wasn't actually following Formula One that closely at that in those days, but I remember the Clive James in Las Vegas documentary that he did was utterly brilliant. I mean, it was, uhm, it was a very, it's definitely worth, everyone should watch that again. Uhm, but uhm, it, it, uhm,


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[Assistant] And so it, uhm, it was a backwater event. Now it's not. It is main stage.


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[Assistant] I think they're used to jet lag anyway, aren't they? I mean, they, they seem to be like, I can remember the biggest problem for racing when I was doing it was jet lag when you go to places like Japan, but of course you're going west. So you're not, you're missing your bedtime. And they've already been in, been out there in, in the U S anyway, in Mexico. And, uh, so they're on, they're on that, that time scale, but, um,


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[Assistant] It's going back, it's going back, sorry, uh, Nomi, it's going back the other way. That's the, that's gonna really, Abu Dhabi, god knows what we're gonna end up with in Abu Dhabi. We've got a lot of, a lot of sleepy drivers and, uh,


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[Assistant] Yeah, it's been a bit of a manic start to the year, hasn't it? With so much happening over the winter, we thought with no driver changes, it's going to be a dull off-season and then, uh, it's all been mad. It never is.


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[Assistant] I know that Ted's lost none of his humour over the winter. My favourite moment of testing was when he spotted some hipsters in the pit lane and...


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[Assistant] Made jokes of them, which was very amusing. Uhm, I was gonna say this pretty much the same as Nance, is that just when you think a car is perfect, they come out and improve on perfection, which is quite amazing. So uhm, I'll segue into something else and I'll say,


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[Assistant] Gonna have a tough year, is by, uh, by most people's conclusions. And, you know, this is a team that...


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[Assistant] Went from fourth to fifth to sixth last year and there's lots of hopes about moving forward. They might well do, but they're gonna need some big upgrades.


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[Assistant] They have finally thrown away the shackles of that wind tunnel penalty that they were counting for the cost cap breach. So I think it was the 26th of October that went away. So they've had that extra wind tunnel time to develop into this year's car.


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[Assistant] They had such an advantage last year, uhm, as Natalie rightly said, they didn't need to keep developing last year's car at some point, they could switch focus and it just shows that, uhm, you know, it's,


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[Assistant] They are still, we're still, you know, in a relatively immature stage of this rule cycle. We're only in year three.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and bizarrely, we're only going to get four years of it. You know, normally we get a longer run in on a rule cycle. So they're still finding new things. So I wasn't surprised that they have found new stuff.


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[Assistant] I think I'm surprised that they've, of all the teams, they seem to have made the most progress. Uhm, when you think normally there's a lot of diminishing returns here.


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[Assistant] I think we have to talk about the elephant in the room, isn't it? It's obviously the noise around Christian that's going on here and there is an ongoing investigation that's all unfolding.


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[Assistant] But the point is that noise hasn't distracted the technical team, you know, and I think.


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[Assistant] There could have been a very destabilizing factor. It's obviously come up recently and most of the car has been designed and developed prior to all this getting public. But you would imagine before it became public,


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[Assistant] Inside the team, there was probably things going on. Uh, it's impressive how Jonathan Wheatley and Tony Burrows, you know, who run the test team and the race team.


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[Assistant] They've, they've just put everyone's heads down. You know, I saw there was some, some shots of Jonathan organizing all the mechanics together, going through their usual end of day meetings. You know, they're just carrying on business as usual.


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[Assistant] You know, for the rest of the world, you know, Red Bull could have wheeled out Taylor Swift on the rear wing of the car, and still everyone was looking at Christian Horner last week, you know? And I think it was, uhm...


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[Assistant] Yes, I think that that for me is going to be when we get to Bahrain and we're all getting on our flights fairly soon to go.


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[Assistant] That's, that's, that's going to be a big, big thing this weekend is how much of a distraction is it for the team as a whole?


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[Assistant] Rubens Barrichello, Giancarlo Fisichello, uhm, you think of David Coulthard against Michael Hackney-McClaren, you know, effectively they were all number two drivers, but in January,


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[Assistant] When they got to the new car, the new season, they all thought, this could be my year to be a challenger.


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[Assistant] I think it's a bit different because I think Nico was closer to Lewis than Cheko's ever been to Max. So I think, you know, I think...


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[Assistant] You look at Irvine's case, you know, in 96, he didn't do any testing. You know, he was just on the beach. Michael did all the testing, week in, week out. The only week Eddie got to test was when Michael was moving house and they gave him a week off. But Eddie accepted that and accepted that, listen, if I'm number two at Ferrari,


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[Assistant] I might win some races and something will happen to the number one driver and I'll get, get my day.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and that's still better than being a number one driver in a midfield team and not winning any races. So I think it's a mentality shift that needs to happen. I think Natalie's hit the nail on the head. It's, it's, you have to accept.


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[Assistant] Listen, being number two to this guy, there's no shame in that. Really isn't. He's one of the greatest talents ever in the history of F1.


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[Assistant] But that's a really tough shift to make, is going into a season saying, at best I'm gonna be second.


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[Assistant] The tricky thing for him is he also got Daniel Ricciardo coming out of the Natalie Pinkham School of Positivity hanging around. And if he lets his chin drop too much, the team will, will have a think about that.


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[Assistant] Yeah, no, but Daniel, you know, this is a big year for him because he had a great race in Mexico, the one you mentioned against Yuki, but actually he was outqualified by Yuki 4-3. We cut him some slack because it was disrupted with a broken hand, of course. So I think this is a big year for Daniel to come back. He's got to hammer Yuki, hasn't he? You know, I think it,


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[Assistant] The Red Bull have been pretty open about the fact they don't see Yuki as a driver for the top team. So therefore, by definition of that,


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[Assistant] Uhm, you'd have to say, Daniel's got to hammer Yuki this year and then put himself in pole position for the top team. So, big year for him.


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[Assistant] So first of all, they seem to be attracting themselves to drain covers more than anyone else. I think they, they are better, but you would expect that. Are they a Red Bull Peter? I don't think so. You know, if you look at Max did a race run.


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[Assistant] There's a 17 lap run he did on the final day, and he basically had no tired egg, you know, he was, and by, to explain to people at home, you look at the trend from the early laps versus the later laps, and he was basically doing the same lap time, whereas most people would lose.


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[Assistant] Up to a second, some people, you know, Oscar Piastry, for example, lost over a second, so uhm.


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[Assistant] So that tells you that there's more in the tank with the Red Bull. I think the Ferrari is very good in slow speed corners. They seem to be able to rotate very well in the slow speed. They, uhm, uniquely have the, the, the pull rod rear suspension, which is, I think they're, they're the only one apart from Williams to have that. Uhm, it's all to do with Aero anyway, but,


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[Assistant] If I look at the sector times, they were consistently very quick in the last sector, which is two slow speed corners basically. So I think they've got a lot of potential there.


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[Assistant] I think the battle between themselves and Mercedes is going to be close. They tend to run a bit lighter and go for slightly more headlines in pre-season testing than Mercedes. Mercedes tend to run a bit more conservative.


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[Assistant] So, I would say it's nip and tuck between them and Mercedes for best of the rest behind Ripple.


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[Assistant] There's a fascinating dynamic between Leclerc and Ferrari at the moment, isn't it? Because they first handed him a vote of confidence saying, we're getting rid of one of you drivers. Guess what, Charles? You're staying. So, you know, good job. You've done a great job. And oh, by the way, we don't think really you're going to be our number one title contender. We're going to bring in the most successful bloke ever.


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[Assistant] You'd always lean towards a quick car, but I think they had this issue where it had plateaued, you know, and anything they did to unlock more performance out of that concept.


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[Assistant] Take a holistic view as a team and that's where James Allison I think has come in.


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[Assistant] You know, he's, he's coming early enough. I think Toto did absolutely the right thing to make that switch.


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[Assistant] Early in the year, so James could have an influence on this year's car. And look at it from the big picture and go, right.


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[Assistant] Why are we chasing performance in these areas? Let's understand that. And should we carry on or should we chase performance in different areas? And ultimately, the drivers have come away from this test saying the car's much more drivable, they've got much more confidence, and that gives them a stable base to build on. Because that's what you're doing at this stage of the season. You know, it's not,


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[Assistant] The car we have in Bahrain is not the car that we're gonna have.


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[Assistant] Even in Silverstone, let alone Abu Dhabi, right, it evolves so much through the year.


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[Assistant] But if they can get a stable foundation that the drivers find is confidence inspiring and that the design office thinks, okay, we can keep going in this direction, add performance, add downforce.


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[Assistant] And every month add, you know, 10 points of downfalls or 6 points of downfalls, whatever it is, just keep adding performance.


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[Assistant] It feels a bit of a dog. And oh, yeaah, all the lap times just come easy, or you do a run and you go, oh that happened quite easily, and oh I can do more, I can do more. But in the first, if you start the weekends on the back foot, if you start the season on the back foot,


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[Assistant] Yeah, I think, I think, you know, you, you, Ferrari's had a couple of issues last year. One, the car, the operating window was very narrow. So there were certain circuits where the stars all aligned and the car was brilliant.


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[Assistant] But it was quite hard to get in that window. They were very wind sensitive, so circuits like Bahrain, like Silverstone, which uhm, you know, you've got big crosswinds, they had a miserable time.


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[Assistant] Looking at the test last week, and you know, I traded texts with some of the engineers, they've managed to just make it a bit more benign, uhm, in terms of wind sensitivity.


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[Assistant] One of the issues Ferrari have got is that two drivers drive differently.


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[Assistant] And that is a problem. You know, you've got Mercedes where Lewis and George typically won the same thing from the car, same at McLaren. I mean, McLaren, frankly, there were times last year I watched it, and if you


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[Assistant] Painted the two helmets black. You wouldn't know which driver was driving it. They drive in a very similar way. Whereas as we see with Red Bull,


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[Assistant] And with Ferrari, they have different requirements. So, so many times last year, one driver was happy and the other one was not, because they just couldn't get it in the right window. So if they can open up that window and get two happy drivers, straight away that will help the team as a collective.


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[Assistant] Uh, happy with a slightly edgier car, you know, so the rear of the car moving around a bit more, whereas as soon as the rear of the car starts to move around a little bit, Carlos is less happy. So races like Singapore last year where they had an inherently understated balance, Japan, you know, there were certain races where


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[Assistant] Uhm, the balance just favored one, you started to see bigger differences between, you know, one way or the other. So, I think


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[Assistant] That's the big thing for Ferrari is to just widen the envelope that the car can work in.


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[Assistant] But listen, the science to Audi thing, everyone's gotten very excited because of his dad's look at Audi. And everyone just assumes he's going to Audi for 2026. I mean, but I just don't see why he wants to go there.


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[Assistant] And I don't think he wants to go there. I think he will think about going there further down the line towards the later part of his career.


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[Assistant] But, Audi aren't going to win the world championship in 26, 27 or probably 28. They're not.


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[Assistant] In, let's say, gets a championship contender in 2029, he's gonna be 38 years old.


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[Assistant] This is the prime of his career. He cannot afford to waste it with a new startup team. He needs to be


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[Assistant] But think of, I think that's his other choice. I think if he doesn't get into a Mercedes, for science, I think he'll be trying to get into an Aston. But, you know, what seat is going to be available in 26? If you believe Crofty, then Lance is off to play the ATP tour.


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[Assistant] Listen, I think, you know, we've been saying it for many years, certainly I've been saying it for many years, is I always think drivers need to have options, especially when there's fluidity in the market and


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[Assistant] I must admit, you know, I didn't think Lewis would be going to Ferrari. I thought he was, when he signed that last year at Mercedes, that's where he was. But I still thought people like Lando, who is the


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[Assistant] Probably the top driver on the market outside of the world champions, Lewis, Fernando, Max.


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[Assistant] You know, you want to have options for the day that Fernando or Lewis retired. That's what I thought was going to happen. I didn't expect the change, so uhm.


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[Assistant] Maybe he has got options, right? I think the one lesson we've all learned out of Lewis's contract announcement from August 31st, 2023 is guess what? There are options built in and maybe Lando has got those to go.


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[Assistant] What's the space? Uhm, listen, he believed in the McLaren project. Zach has sort of mentored him ever since he was a young driver in junior formula, so uhm, they're very sort of joined at the hip in many ways. I think uhm,


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[Assistant] We'll have to see. We'll have to see. I don't think they're as good as Mercedes or Ferrari at this stage, but I think for listeners tuning into this weekend's Grand Prix,


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[Assistant] To think about is, I don't think Bahrain is a track that suits them. Slightly ironical, given the fact that they're majority owned by the Bahrainis, but it's a track that doesn't really suit them. I think the high tire deck and the abrasive surface doesn't suit them. They will be better, I think, in Saudi and Melbourne, the next two tracks. Suzuka's towards the start of the season as well, high speed corners.


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[Assistant] Oscar was horrendously impressive last year. You know, the highs of his season.


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[Assistant] The win in Qatar, the qualifying lap in Suzuka, you know, the highs were as high as we've seen from a Lewis or a Max really in their debuts, but there were some lows, you know, and certainly the race pace.


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[Assistant] Places like Brazil, uhm, places like Abu Dhabi where you just went backwards. Mexico is another one. You know, Lando had a terrible qualifying, made that mistake, started at the back.


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[Assistant] And drove, what I think is probably one of the drives off the season to come through and finish in the top five, top, I think it was fifth or sixth, but ahead of, of Oscar. So clearly there's, uhm,


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[Assistant] There was an Achilles heel with Oscar last year in terms of race pace, you know.


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[Assistant] Which is fair enough, I think it is very hard to manage with the Pirelli tyres, but he won't have that, that...


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[Assistant] Mitsubishi Alliance is the third largest car manufacturer on the planet by volume.


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[Assistant] Finishing sixth or below is not a result befitting of a manufacturer of that size. You know, they, they should be in here competing with the other manufacturers, i.e.


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[Assistant] I think, I think they are in trouble, is the short answer. You know, just looking at some of the body language and comments from the drivers, they weren't particularly complimentary about the power unit. Uhm, there's, there's rumors about the car being overweight.


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[Assistant] Point at testing where you saw a sort of standout lap or a standout racer on there, you thought, ooh, they're going to be in the mix.


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[Assistant] So it does look like, if anything, they've dropped off further from that group from second to fifth that you were mentioning, instead of getting closer, which is


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[Assistant] What their ambition, they need to be in that mix. You, you know, you think back to that Kobe deal.


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[Assistant] When Daniel was qualifying superbly and he got those podiums in Nürburgring and someone else, wasn't it? He got two podiums. Yeah, the car was flying, you know, and he qualified in the top five and that's, that's what they should be doing. If they can't win, and I get it, they may not have the budget or the,


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[Assistant] The resources of a Red Bull or a Mercedes or a Ferrari, fine, but you should at least be fourth. And I think that's where the expectations of Luca De Meo, the boss of the group and the board will be.


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[Assistant] There was a really telling scene. I don't know how many of you have seen the Netflix show so far. There was a really telling scene.


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[Assistant] Surviving to drive or something. Uhm, in that first episode, I think of Aston Martin, there was a shot where they cut to the pit wall at Alpine, and Ottmar Saffnauer and Alan Permain are there.


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[Assistant] Yeah, but it's not like a football manager, it's like the star player leaving. I think the football manager leaving is like when Ross, you know, when Ross Braun took Rory Byrne and Nigel Stepp, he took a whole bunch of people to Ferrari. It is, it is a little bit, I suppose Michael went first, but it is a bit different, I think.


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[Assistant] Ferraris. But I think Ferrari, if you have to look at what...


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[Assistant] You know, they sent a screen grab of their sort of senior engineering figures in the team.


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[Assistant] And I found it really interesting actually, because I reflected back on something Matteo Binotto was saying when he took over the team as TP, saying how he wanted to build an Italian Ferrari.


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[Assistant] He didn't want to do the thing where you just bring in a whole lot of people from other places. He wants to build an Italian team, uhm, and then go down to those sort of core nationalistic pride really.


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[Assistant] And he's done that actually. If you look at the engineering room, you have...


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[Assistant] Fred Vassio is a Frenchman at the top. You've got, uhm, Charles Leclerc's driver coach Jock Lea from England, and you've got Xavi Macos, race engineer, Spanish. But everyone else is actually Italian, apart from, I think, the chief strategist. So, they built that sort of team, and they're trying to do it in this Ferrari Italian way.


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[Assistant] Well, you speak of Rob Smedley and people like that, they have to go. You have to live out there.


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[Assistant] Uhm, that's what I was trying to get at is I think it depends on the philosophy change. Now, Binotto spent all these years recruiting all these Italians into the senior engineering and build that team. That doesn't mean that's Fred's vision.


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[Assistant] And Fred might go out there and say, actually what we need to do is nick these people from Red Bull and Mercedes and Motorsport Valley.


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[Assistant] You'd want to have the comfort blanket of having Bono by your side. I also think if I was him, I'd be on the phone to Nui or P. A. Vashe or any of the senior aerodynamicists at Red Bull going,


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[Assistant] Right, do you want to come and join this Ferrari project? I mean, what a legacy, right? If you could be part of the team.


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[Assistant] That gave Ferrari their first championship since 2008.


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[Assistant] I mean, of all the teams and organizations, I should say, because they are two teams, on the grid, they're the ones who aren't opposed to doing swaps during the season, isn't it? You know, they're the ones who are.


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[Assistant] And they've got a pool of drivers to pick from. You'd have to say there's five of them and I include Lawson as in that, in that pool. You'd have to say Max is not going anywhere. So those are the four. If we could say Yuki's probably not going anywhere.


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[Assistant] There's that pool of three of them where there could be a bit of shuffling. I don't think they'd put Lawson in the big team. It's too early. He needs to earn his stripes. So by process of elimination...


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[Assistant] Well, you know, the last two years hasn't graduated to F1. I don't like the fact Oscar had to wait a year when he was clearly an unbelievable talent. We have got a logjam.


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[Assistant] Yeah, exactly. And you know, you look at Filipe Dragović, he's going to feel hard number, isn't he? You know, he won the championship in a year where Logan Sargeant finished fourth.


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[Assistant] And Logan's getting a second season at Williams, Felipe's on the sidelines for the second season, so.


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[Assistant] If you were him, you'd be feeling a bit aggrieved with life, uh, but that, that is Formula 1. I think it's just Formula 1.


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[Assistant] Hello everyone. A very warm welcome to this week's episode of the Sky Sports F1 podcast. I hope you are well. To help me make sense of a eventful Mexico City Grand Prix, I'm joined by our very own Sky Sports News, Craig Slater. I'm also joined by Formula One content creator, Tomo. Uh, hello to both of you. Craig, first time on the podcast. Welcome. How are you? Hope you're well.


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[Assistant] You're most welcome, you're most welcome. Tommy, you're nodding your head.


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[Assistant] Yeah, definitely. I, I think, I think for nought first, sometimes it's slightly uneventful, I mean you alluded to it, to it there, slightly uneventful Grand Prix. I thought it did deliver this weekend. Craig, you were...


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[Assistant] Tell us a little bit about how you kind of split your time. Cause obviously you were at some races and you're from the studio for other races. So you were from the studio this week. How do you, tell us how you decide which ones to go to across the season and what, what's the difference in your role between the two?


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[Assistant] I'm gonna guess Craig, for you, the biggest nightmare is two drivers disqualified after a Grand Prix that starts on Austin time. Would that be fair?


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[Assistant] Especially if we encounter a similar situation at a future race. Let's talk then about the weekend in Mexico City Grand Prix.


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[Assistant] I feel almost a little bit bad going in on Perez here because I think that certainly in his post-race reaction, he's, he's been very sort of vocal in saying that I had to go for it. I had to.


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[Assistant] Make that move down into, into turn one. It didn't, didn't work out. Um, eventually he didn't even, well, he finished the first lap, but, but was out after that. Tommo, I mean, when you, when you were watching that at home, you saw that happen.


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[Assistant] It was, it was obviously Mexico, you know, his home Grand Prix. It was, it was, it was frankly just really, really hard to watch, wasn't it? And obviously it was very emotional afterwards. Yeah. I mean, he tried to pull the move that.


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[Assistant] What about then, I mean, we mentioned Hamilton sort of almost coming out in support of Sergio and also referencing what he, what he did in Qatar being of a, of a similar degree of, or similar nature. In terms of P2 in the championship, Lewis is now only 20 points behind Sergio. Lewis is also worth noting has thrown away quite a lot of points in recent weeks.


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[Assistant] Almost you would argue is very much Lewis's place to lose and, and he might still obviously take Peter in the championship. But Tommy, what, what do you make of that battle for, for second in the championship? Lewis has obviously said, hasn't he, that it really, it's all about the constructors, but I mean, that would be a massive blow, wouldn't it to Sergio in the, in the.


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[Assistant] I will say that as well. Craig, put some meat on the bone in terms of the, the, the, what Mercedes would get from finishing second in the championship with, in terms of the financial gain, but also in terms of the wind tunnel time, I guess, I guess they're going to get less wind tunnel time, of course, but, but more financial gain, right?


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[Assistant] Very interesting point. Yeah. How do you retain talent within a Formula One team if their eyes are constantly being turned elsewhere? I guess a big question. Just back onto the Perez and the pressure mounting on Sergio Perez. We've spoken obviously about the pressure coming from Lewis Hamilton and from Mercedes in terms of the championship.


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[Assistant] The other point of pressure, which Craig, you mentioned earlier, is Daniel Ricciardo. And it was a brilliant weekend for Daniel Ricciardo in Mexico. Uh, to quote Horner, he looked like the Daniel of old this weekend.


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[Assistant] Tommy, what did you see in Daniel's performance this weekend that makes you think that he's, maybe he's back or that he might become a factor in the future of Sergio Perez?


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[Assistant] Well, I was going to say as well, the point from this weekend that I guess really kicked off this whole conversation was Saturday in qualifying by being out-qualified by your sister team. You know, and I know it wasn't by very much, but still on paper, you know, Tom, I think I saw your tweet about it, like, when you just write it down in factual terms.


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[Assistant] Being out-qualified by Daniel Ricciardo and you're in the fastest car on the grid, it can't be acceptable. Yeah, Tommy, what do you think would be a good final three races for Sergio for this year? Podiums.


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[Assistant] Well, don't forget as well, Vegas is a street track. We know that Sergio loves the street track. No, no one's gonna know Vegas, so you never know. That would be, uh, that would be quite a story, wouldn't it, if he, maybe he wins in Vegas.


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[Assistant] Hmm. I guess the, the important point on that as well is Lance Stroll, if they did, if they were to lose Fernando Alonso, they'd be left obviously with Lance Stroll and another driver, but Lance has not been pulling his weight, certainly compared to what Fernando has done this year. Uhm, Tomo, when you heard these stories of the, the selling up of the team.


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[Assistant] Astronomical figures as well when we're thinking about it. And from a purely business point of view, maybe, maybe there is a strong business case to be doing that. Um, final thing I want to sort of talk about really and move on to Brazil. Obviously we're at the end of a triple header this week.


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[Assistant] Um, and yeah, but we've got, we've got Brazil against Interlagos. We've got another sprint weekend. We've got, this is now going to be the sixth.


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[Assistant] Of six, uh, sprint weekends. Uhm, Tommy, I'll start with you.


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[Assistant] As we reach the end of, of the season, sprint format, yea or nay, what would, uh, what would be your assessment? What would you give out of 10 across the season?


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[Assistant] It was good enough for Fernando. It was good enough for anyone. Exactly. Yeah, I also agree with you, Craig. I think if you could build in a Friday afternoon qualifying session for the sprint and then Saturday morning is the sprint.


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[Assistant] Some of the racetracks haven't suited a sprint. I'm thinking maybe Belgium or certain tracks just haven't quite worked, have they, in terms of getting exciting racing?


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[Assistant] Another time. Driver of the day, incredible drive from Lando. Uhm, yeaah. Exciting isn't it to see what else he can do throughout the season. Maybe that win isn't so far away.


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[Assistant] Welcome back anytime. Craig, thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it. Tomo, thank you as well. Uh, we're going to be back next Tuesday to look back at the Brazilian Grand Prix. I hope you can join us then. Bye for now.


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[Assistant] Well, clearly, uh, clearly I didn't make the list. Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure if you, you know. Are they sitting at the Dunkin Donuts outside our hotel trying to listen into the music?


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[Assistant] It was a really fun weekend. Uh, if I'm honest, I was in Singapore and Japan, I was a bit concerned that it's all gone a bit flat, there's no real stories.


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[Assistant] And then Katar came back with a bang, didn't it? We had all sorts of fun. I'm sure T-Dog and I will get right into it, this podcast. TK Maxx. Absolutely. TK Maxx, that we're going for.


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[Assistant] Yeah, and don't forget, practices nowadays are much shorter than they used to be. We, you know, when you started Ted in the late nineties, they used to have these two hour marathons. Yeah, you were doing 50 laps, weren't you?


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[Assistant] Yeah, yeah. So I think, I think in recent times, certainly since we've gone to the one hour practice format is probably right.


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[Assistant] Uh, good word. Karun, what about yourself? Uh, I was going to go with intense and just because honestly, I mean, we're now 48 hours after coming back home and my brain still feels fright because there was just so much, in a sense, you know, the, the,


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[Assistant] The news and, and the plans for the weekend were just coming at us thick and fast and you had to sort of...


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[Assistant] Understand, okay, the implications, are they going to be mandated, these stops? Well, what does that actually mean? And, you know, Ted had his wonderful little drawings in the pit lane stuck on the wall and, you know, we were all trying to work out.


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[Assistant] Just how the weekend will be unfolding. The Andretti stuff, which we'll come onto.


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[Assistant] I got quite stuck into that. Ted knows I like a good little political story in F1 and I spend most of Thursday and Friday talking to different people in different teams and the FIA and F1, most of whom, you know, at the moment don't feel comfortable going on the record.


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[Assistant] So then you're sort of going into this part of trying to paint the picture in your own head of, hang on a second, why are all these people against this and why are all these people for it? So uhm,


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[Assistant] It just felt like a very intense weekend on and off the track.


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[Assistant] The sheet came out from Pirelli. So normally from Pirelli we get a sheet going, you know, they've got so many new and used tyres for the three compounds. And it's normally pretty easy because by Sunday they've all got one set of new hards. We know what that is. They don't really care about the softs. You only need to look really at one column.


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[Assistant] But all of a sudden this sheet came out because we had to know how many laps the drivers had done on every tire of every set of tires that they had remaining for the race. And they could have used any of those should they have chosen to at some point.


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[Assistant] You know, as, as I was literally walking from, from our TV component to the pit lane, I thought,


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[Assistant] Uh, tripped on a drain at one point and dropped my book, which was very embarrassing. Um, and then walked into the back of Ted's shot because I was still writing as he was explaining his thing in press. And I was like, look, I was like, oh, they're here. I'm in the pit lane. It was all very confusing, but anyway, um, it helped me understand what was going on. Yeah. Well, you helped us.


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[Assistant] Uh, Harry, Harry was our excellent skypad man this weekend. He saved the skypad in the hot sun. Well done, Harry.


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[Assistant] Let's be honest Ted, your neck muscles are that big because of the size of your head. The only person who has a size 64 helmet made bespoke on the planet. Tea Kravitz.


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[Assistant] Can I ask you a question about going into this weekend?


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[Assistant] We raced in Malaysia before, uhm, you know, I've raced in Malaysia in different categories as well, and it is...


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[Assistant] It was unbelievably hot in the cockpit and it didn't feel any hotter.


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[Assistant] This weekend necessarily then we've had in those peak blazing sun 2pm races we used to get in, in Sepang. Is there an element of, you know, the drivers haven't


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[Assistant] Being used to these flat-out races, you know, we've gone into this era since 2011 of pace management and drivers driving well under the limit of themselves and the car for a long period of time. Now with all the tyre stuff that we had this weekend, they suddenly had a flat-out race where they had to push their


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[Assistant] Their bodies physically harder, uhm, all throughout than they've had to recently.


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[Assistant] I think we've also got to keep in mind what the drivers are wearing, right? You've got, you know, you know, the undershirt, which is a fireproof Nomex material, but the race suits themselves are three layers. They've got the balaclava, which is a fireproof material and the helmet. And it's, it's all just, uh,


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[Assistant] It's like wearing ski gear and going in a sauna and then trying to get on a spin bike and trying doing, you know, 90 minutes of hard exercise where your heart rate's up in the 160s throughout.


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[Assistant] Uhm, if you take the example Sam gave Logan Sargent, someone else on another bike that you're racing with, you know, it's uhm, it's the stress of all that.


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[Assistant] It is extremely hard, I mean, I, and I think that there's some genetics involved in this as well, you know, it's funny, I,


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[Assistant] Grew up in, in India and Madras where we, it's a similar latitude to Singapore. So actually throughout my career, whenever there's been hot races or going to hot countries,


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[Assistant] I don't tend to suffer as much as if I go to cold places.


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[Assistant] We have a really cold race at Spa or the Nürburgring. I, I always really struggle to get my body warmed up and going. And so I think that there is an element of, of genetics involved in, in where these drivers or, or frankly, where all the people who are at the paddock, um, come from.


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[Assistant] Yeah, in sports car racing, in fact, you know, there was a huge issue when we went to the closed cockpit cars at Le Mans, uhm, and the FIA actually stipulate a cockpit temperature, if I'm not mistaken, I think the cockpit inside,


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[Assistant] In a closed car with windows, obviously you get the greenhouse effect of the sunlight coming in, uhm, you know, as you would if you were sitting in a conservatory at home in the summer. And there's a, there's a threshold. I think it's, it can't be over,


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[Assistant] 28 degrees above the ambient or something like that. There's a threshold. Uh, and at that point, the car is black flagged. You actually have to stop and pull out of the race. So they do mandate.


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[Assistant] At certain temperature, look after the driver's comfort. Uhm, so, you know, we don't have the situation where they're passing out.


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[Assistant] Everyone got somewhat caught out by the weather. And it sounds silly to say, but I think


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[Assistant] You know, I spoke to two or three drivers who I won't name at the airport who were, you know, telling us about just how hard it was, et cetera, et cetera.


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[Assistant] And it's funny, all three of them, they were in a division competition and said,


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[Assistant] I didn't really think it was going to be this bad. And I think, you know, everyone sort of.


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[Assistant] Expect Singapore and expect Malaysia to be as bad. I think because the last time we went to Qatar it was six weeks later in the year.


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[Assistant] You know, you sort of look at the temperature and go, okay, it's hot. We know it's hot, but it's going to cool off in the evening. And it, and,


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[Assistant] You know, they didn't do this acclimatization, right? Not, you know, that Sam was talking about being so crucial, even within the realms of all this other stuff. When they go to Singapore, they all try and get there on the Monday or maybe Tuesday morning to get into that.


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[Assistant] That pattern of sweating it whole and getting into the weather and I just think it's also


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[Assistant] Yeah, exactly. I mean, you know, the stress of pushing on a bit more.


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[Assistant] For example, the difference in your heart rate between a qualifying lap and your race pace lap would be 10-15 beats. You know, it's, when you're doing a qualifying lap, you...


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[Assistant] You often come out of it so huffing and puffing and thinking, oh god, I've only done a lap. How do you, but it's because you, you, it's the intensity of it. Um, and that extra 10, 15 beats is, uh, you know, enough to maybe, as Ted rightly said, take you over the tipping point.


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[Assistant] I think just the fact that they've got two drivers scoring has made the, I don't know, whatever they're paying Daniel Ricciardo not to drive for them this year, but it's a fairly significant sum of money.


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[Assistant] The fact that they've got Oscar firing on all cylinders, scoring the points, and they're gonna get ahead of Aston because they have two drivers scoring points,


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[Assistant] You know, gonna recoup about 10 million of what they paid Daniel not to drive. So that's turned out to be a pretty smart move and on the whole, the team's performance.


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[Assistant] They're pushing each other. I loved that, the two qualifying sessions we had this weekend because


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[Assistant] They were nip and tuck all the way around the lap. They, you know, they are really pushing each other hard, both Oscar and Lando.


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[Assistant] I think they want similar things from the car as well, which is the opposite to Ferrari,


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[Assistant] Leclerc and Sainz, you know, they don't often want the same thing from the car, so it's quite difficult in terms of setup comparisons and car development.


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[Assistant] We see the similar story at Red Bull. Uhm, you know, Christian, I think, admitted, didn't he, in the post-race interview we did for the first time, publicly, Red Bull don't have a two-driver line-up in the same way that McLaren do, or Mercedes do, frankly.


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[Assistant] I think that's been an absolute game changer. I thought Oskar, he's been impressive all season, obviously since we put the update on in, I say we, they put the update on in Austria, uhm, it's been more apparent.


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[Assistant] But there was always some question marks around his race pace. You know, in Suzuka as well, he finished, what was it Ted, nearly 20 seconds behind Lander, wasn't it? It just went away in the race. But as this weekend for the first time, we didn't have that. And I loved that little bit of needle where during the Grand Prix,


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[Assistant] They tried to hold Lando back and said, right, hold positions, team orders are going to stay here. And Lando went, no, no, no, no, hang on, why are we calling us off? Let's carry on this fight. And he had a couple of laps where he got closer to Oscar, because I wonder if Oscar got a message to back off.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and then Oscar picked up the pace. You know, Crofty and I were looking in the commentary box and suddenly we saw, ping, ping, purple sectors coming in from Oscar. So,


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[Assistant] That for me was impressive, that he matched Lando for race pace, um, and just did a super, super job.


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[Assistant] Not just that one Ted, they did 4 pitstops under 2.15. They had 4 of the best 5 pitstops in a race full of pitstops and, uh,


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[Assistant] I think it is, you know, the gap's just going to get tighter and tighter. You know, if we see it in any regulation cycle, it's diminishing returns, the gains that teams can make. And therefore the ones further up the top are going to be getting


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[Assistant] Theoretically less and less year on year, the ones further down. And we've got the change with the, with the sliding scale of aero time. So the teams further down will get more aero time to develop their car. So you're absolutely right in the sense that it is going to get tighter and you're going to need two drivers scoring points. I mean,


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[Assistant] Check out now, that's the second weekend in a row, isn't it? You know, Japan was a nightmare for him, crashing into KMAG and all sorts of things. In, uh, Qatar,


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[Assistant] Okay, he added 15 seconds to his race time by getting three track limit penalties. But even that 15 seconds would have still only moved him up a couple of places. He was still being behind Fernando.


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[Assistant] I take the point that he started down in the pit lane, but after the first lap shunt, George was down there with him. And the fact that George, you know, was able to come through and finish up in fourth place, uhm,


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[Assistant] You know, showed really that if you've got a car that is fast, you should be able to deliver a result that will get points, you know, a better result out of it. And you'd have to say the Red Bull is a quicker car than the Mercedes, really? So I think, you know, that point wasn't lost on Christian. Um, yeah, I mean,


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[Assistant] At the moment it's not yet critical, but it could well be for next season.


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[Assistant] I think it's very hard to orchestrate that off the start of the race. You know, at the end of the day, you're so reliant on how people, different people get off the line. You're, you know, you have to, I think,


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[Assistant] You can't arrive at the first corner of the race and be looking in your mirrors to say, ooh, I'm here at the first corner. Where's my teammate? I need to back off, let him pass. George, and he said it, didn't he? He's looking forward because at the start of the race, you have to look forward. You have to look at where other cars are around you.


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[Assistant] As much as have some spatial awareness, sure, but the focus is looking forward and driving forward and uhm, I think I was pleased to see Lewis admitted 100% fault because as I said in commentary at the time,


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[Assistant] George was sandwiched in the middle. A bit like Nico Hulkenberg the day before. Three into one doesn't go and actually the car in the middle is the one


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[Assistant] Who can't do anything. They can't move to the right, they can't move to the left.


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[Assistant] They've just got to hold a consistent line, and George did that.


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[Assistant] The issue was Lewis obviously was coming in. Lewis was the one who had more space on the left.


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[Assistant] What I think Lewis's mentality was is he went for the dive around the outside.


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[Assistant] Uhm, but it just, the whole thing, it was really unfortunate for the team because they had a quick car. And I think...


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[Assistant] If they hadn't have had that, uh, issue, I think the fight between them and the McLarens would have been actually quite good. And they would have finished ahead of the McLarens because the McLarens were starting sixth and tenth. And as all that unfolded, you know, the path opened for young Piastri to just sneak up the inside and get into second. So Mercedes gave away a second and third place really there.


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[Assistant] Uh, not anytime soon. I don't see this getting settled really until the early part of next year. And, uh, you know, this is a, I think it's important to explain. There's a three phase process here. Phase one, the FIA invites all new teams to.


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[Assistant] Potential teams who want to enter the championship to submit their, their, uhm, case really to be considered. We've been through that. Four teams submitted.


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[Assistant] Went to phase two where the FIA went through a due diligence process, looking at their technical, sporting, financial situation, their sustainability plans, you know, what they're going to do until the social impact. The FIA went through quite a strong due diligence process. Three of the teams didn't make the cut. Andretti are the only ones who have.


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[Assistant] Step three is Andretti needs to come to a commercial agreement with Formula One Management. Uhm, and unless these three steps are done, Andretti's not getting on the grid. Now, to make that agreement with FOM,


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[Assistant] Um, is, is going to be the hardest step because the other teams quite clearly, well, at least eight of them don't want Andretti on the grid. Um, and FOM are in this tricky position where they have to evaluate what does the Andretti entry bring in terms of value to the sport.


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[Assistant] Um, versus upsetting their existing customers basically. And if you think of Stefano Domenicali as, I don't know, the, the, the hotel general manager of the, of the super seven star hotel of the F1 paddock, and he's got 10 very VIP important guests who,


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[Assistant] He wants to be staying for life and adding value to his hotel and spending money in his hotel.


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[Assistant] He doesn't want to upset them and get them to, um, you know, head off to the whatever down the road. So he's in this balance of trying to look after his 10 incumbents while, um, you know, adding another little 11th villa on the side for Andretti. Was that a terrible analogy Ted?


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[Assistant] Well, fundamentally, I think my personal view, and I think, you know, most people who are neutral are not part of one of the 10 teams.


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[Assistant] I would like to see Andretti on the grid. You know, I would like to see two more cars on the grid. I don't like the fact that


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[Assistant] Young Liam Lawson is now going to be sitting on the sidelines because there aren't two more seats on the grid. I didn't like the fact that Oscar Piastri, as reigning F3, F2 champion, was stuck on the bench for a year because there weren't enough seats, or Felipe Dragovic. And, you know, I think, uhm,


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[Assistant] F1 runs the risk of being the sort of closed shop, you know, no, no, no, we're not letting anyone else in because we're in our, we've made it here and we're in our super little...


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[Assistant] Little tower, um, and I, you know, I think maybe it's too simplistic to say that I'd like to see more cars and more drivers on the track. And I think it's, it's better for the show and better. It's just better opportunities for young drivers, but, um, that's how I feel anyway.


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[Assistant] But they are taking all that on board and that you will have something next year where you can enjoy what Max is enjoying.


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[Assistant] No, I've struggled to get here today. The M1 was closed in both directions. Had it not have been closed, then I would have been here an hour ago. It wouldn't have been raining. Outside this podcast studio, it is lashing down and I'm reliably informed someone is starting to build an arc.


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[Assistant] That's where we've got to this summer. Uh, Karun fancy going on a little boat journey with us, mate. It's not going to get any better, is it? Well, the only good news is, Copy, it has...


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[Assistant] I think that's a good one. They were the proper heroes of Spa. Isn't it nice that we went in July for the first time ever? We went to race in Spa in July, which has 1.4 millimetres less rainfall on average than August.


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[Assistant] But yet the entire rainfall for the month of August was deposited on every single day, uh, Bar Sunday. It was appalling conditions at times, but the fans, great humour, uh, great voice, uh, most of them got the result I think they wanted as well, which was a max win. And we got some really good action when it stopped raining.


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[Assistant] Spark! Because it's the way you say it. Spark! We had a bit of everything, didn't we? And I think we had some great reminders as to why we love that racetrack, why it's got to be on the calendar as one of the firm favourites for drivers and for fans.


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[Assistant] And how it's so unpredictable, it challenges the engineers, uh, even if it's not a sprint weekend.


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[Assistant] And it just threw up everything that Spa throws up and yeaah, I was grinning from ear to ear when I got on the plane to come home last night. I was grinning even more when I got home. Half past nine, I got home last night. That is the quickest I've ever managed to get home after a race ever.


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[Assistant] Yes, that, that was the best dash ever. Simon Lazenby still sweating from that run, to be fair. No, we, uh, we, we got, uh, we got the back roads out of Spa, uh, got to Liège, uh, got on a, on a charter.


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[Assistant] With, uh, with the Williams team and, um, landed at Luton Airport. My bags were there by the time I got through passport control and I was back home with my other half in time to watch the highlights.


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[Assistant] Can I say after 12 races this season and 4 races in 5 weeks, never was there a better time to be home when it was still light outside.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I think that GP and Max, Jampiero Lambias, I think they are the best combination for each other that they could possibly have.


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[Assistant] GP is vastly experienced, he's been around the sport a long long time, he's pulled a rest as a race engineer for many years at Force India. He takes no nonsense from Max, but understands that there will be times that his driver gets a bit hot headed.


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[Assistant] And uhm, isn't in full control of the facts and would like to make the decisions himself and would get, you know, a little bit irate when it's not quite what he envisaged.


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[Assistant] He understands, he has the patience, he absorbs it all, and he puts, uh, Max, once he puts him away, but he, he puts Max right in a way that Max respects, and there was a huge amount of respect, uh, from the pair of them. They work together superbly well, they both know each other's, uh, faults, uh, and, and each other's, uh, pros.


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[Assistant] It's a seamless relationship that, I know we heard a lot of it over the weekend, but that's only because it's racing, isn't it? At the moment these sort of things happen.


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[Assistant] That's a really good analogy KC, cause Seb used to push it as well, and used to go do things that Rocky didn't want Seb to do, and Max tries the same. At the end of the day, Max respects GP enough to not push it too far.


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[Assistant] But I think, I think they were a great combination and I, uh, I want to hear more of that over the team radio. Yeah. You have Bono and you have Lewis. What a brilliant race engineer driver combination. That's been over the years. Uh, we had shoved, didn't we? And Michael Schumacher, Andrew Shoveling and Michael Schumacher and Jensen Button, uh, was, was, was shoved Tom Stallard.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and, and, well, Oscar Piastri this year, Daniel Ricciardo before, you know, these are, these are the people.


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[Assistant] That are the connection between the driver in the cockpit who will feel vulnerable because he doesn't know all the time what the decision is being made and the rest of the pit wall and those with all the data at their fingertips and their mouses. So you've gotta have that essential trust.


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[Assistant] I was sort of talking to someone about the trophies on Thursday, because of the irony that we were, you know, being swept away by rivers of rain at a race sponsored by a cruising company. The only thing that could float down Eau Rouge was one of their ships on Friday, quite frankly.


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[Assistant] Rarely I ever say this. I tend to agree with Helmut Markow on this one.


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[Assistant] Whereby Sergio's trouble started when he thought he could be a world champion and he thought he could win the world championship. And Miami, he was six points off Max starting on pole.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and I think that broke him a little bit, and then I think the very next time in Monaco where he crashed in Q1, absolutely broke Cecho then.


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[Assistant] And I think if he returns after the summer break, I'm no psychologist, but I think if he returns after the summer break, happy to accept that he's playing second fiddle to Max Verstappen.


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[Assistant] Happy to accept that second is what Red Bull need him to do.


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[Assistant] Happy to accept that that's a good place to be and better than 18 other drivers on the grid. Cecha will be absolutely fine. But if he harbours ambitions to be better than Max Verstappen at the moment and to beat Max Verstappen, he probably needs to start putting a bit more effort into it.


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[Assistant] Because the one thing I will say about Max, he's in the best car, yes. His team have done a superb job and, and there are many, many theories out there in social media land as to why Red Bull are doing so, so well at the moment. I'm not interested in going down that path, but what I would say is the team and driver


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[Assistant] Red Bull and Max have come together beautifully. And Max behind the scenes is putting so much effort into his driving at the moment. It is no surprise he's driving so well. What do they say? The harder I try, the luckier I get. Max is at home.


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[Assistant] His sim or the Red Bull sim. Honing his craft. Honing his skills. What does he do on his weekend? Not if he goes and races 24 hour sim races. He loves driving.


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[Assistant] And the more he drives, the better he gets because he's practicing all the time. And maybe he's raising the bar to a level that other drivers kind of need to follow at the moment. So if Cheka wants to beat him, he's got to put the effort in.


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[Assistant] You gotta raise your game and you gotta, you gotta put the effort in or you get nothing back.


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[Assistant] In North America and in Latin America. He brings a lot of sponsorship money to the team.


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[Assistant] Which is important, even in, even in these cost cap times. But that is not going to save him if his results don't come up to where Red Bull want.


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[Assistant] Actually not in Red Bull. Exactly. And I think second at Spa, however many seconds he was beaten by Max, absolutely fine. Twenty. Twenty seconds. It really doesn't matter because he finished second. Red Bull had a 1-2 for the second year in a row. His performance in Hungary was


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[Assistant] A great rebound. But if he goes to Zandvoort and he doesn't make Q3 and he finishes 8th, you know, once again, that's not where Red Bull are expecting him to be. And I don't think for all his commercial value.