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[Assistant] Manchin returned to the same idea as Clinton, requiring background checks at gun shows. He hoped he could convince the NRA to go along.


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[Assistant] With polls showing wide public support for expanding background checks, Manchin and the vice president figured they had a chance.


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[Assistant] Under pressure, there was hope that Lapierre might even get on board. Depart from the playbook.


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[Assistant] Larry Pratt represented one of those groups, whose 300,000 members were some of the most fervent gun rights activists.


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[Assistant] Pratt quickly issued an alert to his members warning them about the NRA's talks with Manchin.


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[Assistant] Lapierre got the message. This bill wasn't going to fly with hardcore gun owners.


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[Assistant] Lapierre pulled the NRA out of the talks.


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[Assistant] Papier returned to the playbook. He launched a full-scale assault on the legislation.


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[Assistant] Republicans and some conservative Democrats backed away from the bill.


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[Assistant] The bill fell five votes short. The NRA had won.


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[Assistant] Obama invited the Newtown families to the White House after the vote.


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[Assistant] Any effort at gun control in Washington was over.


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[Assistant] But by 2018 in the wake of the Parkland shooting, a formidable new threat to the NRA was emerging.


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[Assistant] President Trump and the NRA were back on the same team.


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[Assistant] The Parkland students had helped put gun control on the agenda of the 2018 midterms. The NRA was under fire.


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[Assistant] As Attorney General, James would go after the NRA from a new angle to try and weaken it from the inside.


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[Assistant] There were bills for nearly $300,000 from a Beverly Hills clothing store. Private jets to the Bahamas.


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[Assistant] And plans for a six million dollar mansion on a Dallas golf course.


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[Assistant] Aaron Davis spent a decade as an NRA fundraiser. This is the first time he has spoken on camera.


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[Assistant] Attorney General James has issued subpoenas to nearly 100 former and current NRA officials. LaPierre has denied any wrongdoing.


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[Assistant] But the investigation has thrown the NRA and its leadership into crisis.


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[Assistant] And now, in the midst of the presidential campaign.


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[Assistant] Lapierre, the NRA, and their chosen candidate.


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[Assistant] But Wayne Lapierre, as always, says the NRA is ready for the fight.


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[Assistant] You couldn't have picked a better caricature of who you wanted speaking with that stentorian voice of his.


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[Assistant] Purchases at gun stores start to go up astronomically as people who are thinking about buying a particular gun over the course of the next year or so.


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[Assistant] Worry that they may outlaw it, I better get it while I can.


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[Assistant] If you're a political junkie like Wayne or like myself, it was a wonderful job.


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[Assistant] In no small measure, it was that fight over guns after Columbine that had the firearm community


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[Assistant] More enlivened, engaged, and a few votes difference, and the whole thing would have gone the other way.


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[Assistant] I heard Evan Mobley is so upset that it took him over a minute and a half to solve his Rubik's Cube tonight.


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[Assistant] I heard Evan Mobley is so upset that he lost his cool and said the C word out loud. Crud.


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[Assistant] Apparently Evan Mobley is so upset that he couldn't focus during his D&D game tonight. He fell into a River Orcs trap, lost half his gold and his best elven cloak.


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[Assistant] Apparently, Evan Mobley is so upset that he hasn't stopped drinking since he got the news. And now he is completely out of 1% milk.


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[Assistant] Hang in there, Evan Mobley. Your day will come, young man. Go Cavaliers.


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[Assistant] That stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.


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[Assistant] What if he'd been confronted by qualified armed security?


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[Assistant] We as a society leave them every day utterly defenseless. And the monsters and the predators of the world know it and exploit it.


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[Assistant] I think truth be told, the White House needs the NRA. The NRA needs this White House.


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[Assistant] Welcome back to Late Night, it's time for the Newlywed Game!


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[Assistant] Where three couples compete to find out who knows each other best, let's meet our contestants. She's a retired school teacher and he will tell you the same story twice in one night.


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[Assistant] Alright, now let's get down to business. Earlier tonight we asked each of you a few questions. You wrote down the answers and now your spouses are going to try to guess the answers that you gave.


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[Assistant] Dad, what's your answer?


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[Assistant] Uh, alright, uh, Seth, what's your answer? I think she would have my beautiful blue eyes. Beautiful blue eyes, Alexi, let's see the cards.


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[Assistant] Alright, uh, Tom, what's your answer? I'm gonna go with musical talent. Musical talent? Joanne? Singing voice?


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[Assistant] Uh, alright, our next question is for the wives. We asked your husbands,


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[Assistant] How can you tell when your wife is mad at you? Mom, what's your answer?


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[Assistant] I think it would be a sullen silence. Sullen silence? Dad let's see what's on the card.


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[Assistant] When you're in her good graces, she refers to you as... My hero. There's a very clear delineation. Alright. Alexi, what is your answer?


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[Assistant] Seth, let's see the card. She says, I am mad at you.


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[Assistant] We asked your wives, how do you deal with telemarketers? What did your wife say?


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[Assistant] Dad, can you do a quick impression of where you get to? If you can act like your hand is a phone, what it gets to.


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[Assistant] Uhm, well, alright, let's take a quick look at the scorecard. We are tied three ways. One, one to one. Uh, so this is anybody's game. The last question is worth up to three points. Joanne, I hope you can sort these core cards out before we get there. It's time, uh, for the wives. We asked your husbands to describe you in three words.


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[Assistant] What three words did your husband say you will get one point for each word correctly guessed? So, mom, three words. What is your answer?


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[Assistant] Beautiful, heiress and joyful.


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[Assistant] Also, just for you watching at home, my mother is not an heiress, uh, but she will get a check from being on this show, and they tend to rerun it, and when those checks come in, she claims she's an heiress.


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[Assistant] Okay, let's look at the final score. It looks like a tie for second and third. Seth and Alexi and mom and dad with one point each. Turns out va-va-voom and obsessive compulsive disorder tanked you.


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[Assistant] Tom and Joanne have a true love that will stand the test of time. That's all the time we have for her. Thanks for joining us for the Newlywed Game.


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[Assistant] He was looking for an opportunity and his opportunity was division. His opportunity was mining resentment and weaponized race. And that's what he did.


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[Assistant] Prejudice against Trump, a kind of incredulity in the parlors of Washington and New York and Los Angeles. Somehow this guy who was so


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[Assistant] Well, he found he had a historic role to play, and he cannot make a mistake.


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[Assistant] Very hard. He swore he will never shake Arafat's hand.


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[Assistant] That this is exactly what's going to happen if you put yourself to be in a situation that the other side sees you as such a weak leader.


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[Assistant] Reconciliation is not going to be a historic shift. Metamorphosis of the Palestinians is going to be war.


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[Assistant] And I remember him coming back from his first meeting with President Obama.


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[Assistant] We felt it's ridiculous, unjustified.


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[Assistant] There's a rejection of elitists and a rejection of intellectuals and certainly a disdain for the media, uh, because those people feel that they're being looked down upon.


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[Assistant] He saw, uh, what that forgotten man and woman was going through in the United States right now.


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[Assistant] I'm the avatar of your anger. If you elect me, I'll literally be an orange wrecking ball at the barricade known as a swamp, and I'll knock that barricade down for you.


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[Assistant] When he wins, if people are being brutally honest, there was a level, a large measure of disbelief.


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[Assistant] Bloomberg was reporting that stock futures were down 600 as a result of his victory. And I remember saying to him, hey, we got to put some stuff in there that are sensitizing to the market. So let people know things are going to be okay.


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[Assistant] I think there was a little bit of shock, uh, uh, there. A moment of vulnerability. He said he was literally going to act more presidential than Abraham Lincoln. We laughed, but he meant it seriously. You know, he was going to...


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[Assistant] Trump, whenever there was a moment to draw a line between himself and these extreme parts of the voting bloc, he refused. I think without question, the only way you can interpret that is that he was going to use these groups to try to build this coalition.


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[Assistant] Michael Lombardi, former GM for the Browns and executive for the Patriots and coach, he's had every job. Good guy, Italian guy. He said that if you look at the deal that they offered, uh, Derrick Henry,


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[Assistant] It's worth like a million and a half more than if he was to get franchise tagged this year and next year.


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[Assistant] So, like the franchise tag for the next two years would have got him like 23 million dollars. This deal gets him 25 and a half million dollars in two years.


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[Assistant] And it was basically, he set a deal that Derek Henry couldn't turn down.


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[Assistant] Uh, it was a deal for Derek Henry that was like good money. So he said it was almost like a perfect setup. Like he said it was like a perfect setup by the team. And he wondered if Dak and the Cowboys were ever going to come to an agreement, especially because he feels that Dak's agent, Todd France, I believe is his name.


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[Assistant] Was waiting, just waiting, because Deshaun Watson has a deal coming in the next 10 days, I guess.


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[Assistant] Which can be around 40 million a year, is what Michael Lombardi thinks.


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[Assistant] He just said it in like passing. He was like, they know Deshaun Watson's deal is gonna be done in the next 10 days for about 40 million a year, and you know, they know this, and I was like...


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[Assistant] That's happening? He's like, oh yeah, it's in the NFL. Everybody pretty much knows that once Patrick got done, they were going to try to lock down to Sean and, and for Dak, that's what his people are watching for those two.


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[Assistant] It was wild to hear it all because these contracts, a lot of people think it's how good you are, which definitely matters. You have to be good. You have to be good. But the timing, how much does the team revolve around? There's so much that goes into whether or not a quarterback gets broken off or anybody.


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[Assistant] Two years, 69 million, any deal that is offering anything less than double that you probably turned down, right? If you're not doubling at least 140 million guaranteed, probably going to get turned down there because why would you commit to five years if you can get


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[Assistant] Half of the money guaranteed in two years automatically. That's just tough. Those business negotiations, man.


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[Assistant] That guy deserves 41. Oh yea, but that 4 million in between, I'd take that too. You know, it's just like, it has to be, I don't know how you balance that. It's just like at the casino, I guess, when your chips are just like, eh, it's not really worth money. These are just chips.


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[Assistant] But you have to be able to do it. Have to be able to do it, AJ. You have to be able to do it.


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[Assistant] A half a billion dollars! How much is guaranteed we don't know because they only release that injury guarantee bullshit. Bullshit.


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[Assistant] Me neither. I would like to know what the guarantee is. Not just the injury guarantee. I'm about sick of it.


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[Assistant] Okay, so what if he is, but they don't know that, they're, that's...


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[Assistant] That's all you gotta say. I mean, it's crazy, I guess there's nothing out there. There's no- Nothing. You gotta create some content, so. How did this Sports Illustrator writer find out about Zeke saying this on his Twitch stream? Just on- People on Twitter maybe saw it and said something? Well it's Zeke Oliot.


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[Assistant] Well, you know, um, Cliff Kingsbury, I had him on my podcast years ago when he was at Texas Tech. He told me they... they'll...


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[Assistant] It made some news too, like he said they will reach out to people through like, burner Twitter accounts posing as girls, trying to make them see if they'll make bad decisions.


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[Assistant] I don't know if that's exactly what he said, but he's definitely said they use online, they go like, they'll use accounts to check on players. I don't know if he's, but there's something with females.


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[Assistant] I've shed a few tackles and blocks, but my fingers all remain the same because I'm an athlete.


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[Assistant] Oh true, defense alignment there, that thing had a lot of grabbing and feeling in there, you're right. Hey, can I say something about Booger McFarland by the way?


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[Assistant] He goes into the booth after Jason went and retires and goes back to football. He gets a lot of hate because him and tests whatever couldn't find it. Him as a pundit, like an analyst, opinion guy on get up.


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[Assistant] Unbelievable. I am very, like, I've never seen him on those shows before, which I guess is what he did before he became a game commentator. He's unbelievable on that.


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[Assistant] Just good, not scared to get into it. It explains things very well. Like I enjoy him as a pundit. And to be honest, I think I've never seen him play that role before. What was that? What just happened over there?


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[Assistant] Do coaches ever reach out to the referees after a game if they think they've been, you know, kind of slighted? You know, Brian Flores almost fought a ref after the game last year.


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[Assistant] Hello everyone, welcome to this week's episode of the Sky Sports F1 podcast. Now the dust might have settled on a rather bonkers Las Vegas Grand Prix, but we're going to try and answer the question, did it live up to the hype? And to help me do that, I'm joined by Craig Slater and Simon Lazenby. Hello to you both. Uh, Simon, I'll start with you.


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[Assistant] Very simple question. What time do you think it is right now?


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[Assistant] Impressive, uh, impressive stuff. So as, as I mentioned, we'll, we'll try and answer that question. Um, did, did it live up to the hype? And we'll, we'll try and do that through a number of sort of ways and talk about the event, the Verstappen comments, the show versus the sport. But, but guys, you, you were both there. Simon, just, just give us an overview of what it was like to work at. And I guess.


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[Assistant] I'm, I'm, I'm maybe coming at this from the angle of, you know, we've been to Miami recently, haven't we? And in your career working on F1, you must've been to quite a few new racetracks and new events. Where does this rank in terms of a new event on the calendar?


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[Assistant] Um, Simon, I was just to pick up on what Craig said there because next year when we look at Vegas in the calendar, it's going to kick off.


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[Assistant] The triple header, the final three races of the season are going to begin with Vegas next year. I can see you smiling already, even just contemplating that. Surely there does have to be a change to the schedule to allow the teams and everyone who's associated with Formula One the chance to at least give them a fighting chance to be able to survive until Abu Dhabi.


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[Assistant] Let's, let's move on to talk about the comments from Max Verstappen and Simon, you mentioned it earlier in regards to, to what he had to say about the event.


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[Assistant] First off, do we think Max was right to criticise the event early on in the weekend? Simon, I'll start with you. When you heard those comments, what was your reaction to him kind of, not quite toeing the party line as it were?


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[Assistant] I thought as well his comments were interesting in that so often as journalists and people who work on that side of Formula One, we're trying to get out


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[Assistant] Yeah, I just, I just think actually having someone who's being honest and speaking their mind is something that often we're asking for. And when it happens, it's actually a great, it's a great thing for it to happen. Um, Simon, do you also, do you, do you subscribe to the fact that maybe Max is kind of.


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[Assistant] Becoming a bit of a, uh, celebrant of the kind of, the purest motor sport, isn't he? In the, in the last, uh,


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[Assistant] I feel like he's becoming quite likeable for that. He's, he's a true racer, isn't he, at his core. And he seems to be kind of harnessing that and pushing that agenda forward in a, like, as we've said, in a sport that's definitely moving in all sorts of different directions.


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[Assistant] A couple of other sort of key, key moments across the weekend. Obviously we have to talk a little bit about Friday and the drain covers. It was obviously a long time ago and I don't want to dwell too much on it, but Craig, you spoke to fans afterwards, didn't you? And what, what was the sentiment amongst those people? Because I was trying to compare it to other sports and thinking, you know, if you'd,


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[Assistant] I guess maybe like Wimbledon possibly. If you'd, you know, back in the day, you, you might've seen 10 minutes of play on the, on the outside courts and then gone, oh, it's raining. We can't, we can't see anymore. But because there were no support races, the only thing you would have seen for your.


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[Assistant] Quite expensive ticket, I would expect, would have been nine minutes of track action. Which is, it's probably not enough, is it?


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[Assistant] Final, final couple of points. I do want to talk about the racing a little bit, but there was one thing that I thought was an interesting discussion about Miami.


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[Assistant] And where now the success of Vegas, and I think we can all agree that was a hugely successful race. It delivered amazing racing on a brilliant street track through the, through the, you know, the under the lights in Las Vegas.


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[Assistant] I wonder, I wonder what Miami think now of the three US races. Simon, we'll come to you on this maybe. Like where does that sit? You've obviously got Austin, which is the, the, the race track in terms of, you know, it is a out and out race track, but, but would Miami kind of go, well, we're a street tracker, but we're probably not delivering the same level of racing that we saw on Sunday. Oh, well, as far as to rank them.


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[Assistant] And who knows, maybe a fourth in America in the near future as well.


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[Assistant] Just, just a final point then on the racing and the success of it. Craig, I know you've got to go soon. So just a, just a brief word really on.


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[Assistant] How much you enjoyed the, not just the event, but, but the on track action. Cause to my mind, it was one of the best races we've had all year when I know Verstappen obviously, you know, it was never really in doubt by the last few laps, but the fact that Charles got Sergio Perez on the last lap, I mean, it just delivered brilliant drama, I thought.


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[Assistant] I agree, Craig, I agree. I think the way he was in the press conference, the anger that he embodied would have made him a lot more liked by the Tifosi because he sort of, he felt it, didn't he, in himself. He felt the anger.


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[Assistant] Yeah. What a way to tee up the final race, but also next year as well.


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[Assistant] Simon, you will. I will. One more day of rest and then you're straight back to it, so best of luck.


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[Assistant] I think of a, of a 23 race season. Uh, yeah, so look, one, one more to go. We're going to be back obviously after Abu Dhabi to wrap up the season. So, uh, yeah, we hope you can join us then, but until next Tuesday, it's bye for now.


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[Assistant] Hi Matt, first of all hi Damon, I hope you guys are both well. And Brazil, I mean look, I think Brazil is probably one of my top events of the season. It's always a pleasure to go back, I went last year for the first time so this is my second attempt at the Brazilian Grand Prix.


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[Assistant] And yeah, I just love it. The crowd there are incredible and everything that they had to put up with between weather, sunshine. I'm not the most incredible racing on race day itself, but they got a great sprint race. And, um, yeah, overall I'd say pretty big tech for Brazil in terms of the atmosphere that it delivers. Big tech.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I feel like it's quite tough. Is there a synonym for something that means that something starts at the peak, sort of plateaus and then peaks again at the end? If you can think of one word for that, then that would be nice.


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[Assistant] The sprint itself was quite full of action. And of course we had a very different grid on Sunday and that obviously potentially played into it. We lost a lot of drivers off of the grid as well. So that maybe also played into it. But as you said, Damon, it's one of the best racing tracks that we've visited all year, especially in terms of the racing that it typically delivers and.


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[Assistant] I guess this just wasn't the year. I think last year we had a statistic of 62 overtakes, which made it the most overtakes of any race last season. And I don't know what the number was this time around, but it certainly didn't feel like the most overtakes of the season.


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[Assistant] I don't actually have the opportunity to ask the question to all the drivers that were in the press conference on Thursday on what obviously last sixth and final sprint race of the season, what were their, you know, reflections on the, uh, and I have to say it was quite mixed and I was surprised that


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[Assistant] Quite a few of them, I would say probably the majority of them were pro uhm, the sprint. I think viewing figures show that the sprint is loved by audiences as well because at the end of the day, even if it is confusing and I think because there's so much in this phase of sort of experimenting with the format and it keeps slightly changing that people can't really keep up with it, at the end of the day,


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[Assistant] Would you rather watch Free Practice 3 or a sprint shootout or a sprint race? Uhm, yeaah, I think Free Practice is a lot and I think this is a way to give both audiences at home and at the track something more interesting to watch.


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[Assistant] Well look, uhm, I think we all heard Toto's words on the show and I think Ted was the one to ask him the questions and I think...


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[Assistant] Well done to Ted for persevering with the questions because it just seemed like Toto was not in a good place. And I think those words are-


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[Assistant] Quite strong and I'm not sure if it's potentially a bit of an emotional reaction to a moment after the race.


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[Assistant] Uh, because overall, of course, it was not a great weekend for them. You know, they, they, they lacked pace. Uhm, they were obviously...


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[Assistant] You know, using up the tires a lot more than majority of the teams around them and something that's very uncharacteristic for their car. So unable to use the tires in the way they wanted to add on top of that, they had reliability issues. So a lot of things going wrong for them, but if you look back just two races, they had two podiums and two races and that car was moving forwards in a positive trajectory. So I think although it was quite a dramatic result for them.


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[Assistant] It just does seem like it may be a once off and maybe they know more than we do and obviously they do, but...


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[Assistant] At the end of the day, we've seen that car in the past be very, as Toyota described it, on a knife's edge. So that working window for them is very narrow.


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[Assistant] And I think that given the fact it was a sprint weekend, it's possible that they led themselves in the wrong direction when it comes to setup. So I'm pretty sure that they're having major debriefs right now, but I don't know if we should take Totus' reaction with a bit of a pinch of salt. I think it was quite a...


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[Assistant] Pessimistic, uhm, outlook on a weekend that of course didn't go the way they wanted it to at all, but is, are they really in that dire of a situation right now?


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[Assistant] I think recent future, I mean recent history I should say, uhm, shows that they aren't in such a terrible place.


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[Assistant] Well look, I think that's something that, you know, unfortunately for Mercedes, we maybe thought or thought that they'd passed that phase. Cause if you look back to last season, obviously new generation car.


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[Assistant] They started the season off pretty poorly and every time they brought an upgrade to that car where they thought there might be a glimmer of hope.


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[Assistant] Um, it sometimes went in the opposite direction and I think there's been a lot of confusion with this car of when they set it up, it tends to do things that they weren't expecting.


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[Assistant] We all thought that they had passed that phase and I think this weekend just...


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[Assistant] I think it's a good thing for them right now to have a weekend like this because sometimes when you have too much of a positive trajectory, you start to think things are fine. And given the fact that they aren't fighting for the championship this season, obviously they're still in a title battle with them.


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[Assistant] With Ferrari and they only lost two points to Ferrari this weekend, but it's good for them to recognize that actually the changes that they make into the car for next year, I think there's, there has been a bit of doubt on the concept perspective, like,


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[Assistant] This for them is just a big learning curve. You know, it's a good weekend to take away a lot of learning. I think they've had weekends like this in the past. I think if you think back to even Singapore in 2015, they had a terrible weekend that they then had a lot of learning from and took some positive things out of that. So,


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[Assistant] It's coming at the right time and again, obviously, as I said, they, they only lost two points to Ferrari. So although it wasn't great, uh, it didn't put too much of a dent in what they're trying to achieve for the season.


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[Assistant] And that's a very good point that, uh, that Damon brings up is, is that ride height and, you know, if you look back to Austin, obviously Lewis was on the podium, um, so was the Ferrari and,


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[Assistant] If you look back at last year, don't forget that this race, Brazil was the race weekend where Red Bull offered the same opportunity.


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[Assistant] ...to Mercedes because they got their operational window wrong.


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[Assistant] Because it was a sprint race weekend as well, and they just let that car in the wrong direction. And therefore, you know, George had the opportunity to take both wins that weekend. So it can happen that easily. And I think we've seen so many teams this season have big swings in weekends like this. Let's not forget that, you know, everyone's singing the praises of McLaren. And of course they deserve all of that because they've truly.


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[Assistant] Of course, look, of course, there's no two ways about it. They're all there because they want to win. I mean, one, for Lewis to come back after Abu Dhabi 2021 and not have the tools underneath him to really fight back for that eighth world title.


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[Assistant] Hugely frustrating. And then George, you know, biding his time for many, many years at Williams in a car that kind of just drove around in circles and didn't often, you know, there were some highlight moments, obviously, but to be then upgraded to this Mercedes seat that everybody dreams of and also not having the tools to properly compete.


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[Assistant] Of course that's hugely frustrating and the problem is, you know,


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[Assistant] Whilst they're working towards a better car, so is everybody else.


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[Assistant] And unfortunately for them, and I think that was highlighted this weekend as well. Well, that's also what helped to make this weekend look even worse than what it was, was the fact that Aston were back in the picture and everybody is working on their cars and they're all working towards something better. And that includes Red Bull. And because they started with such a strong base so early on.


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[Assistant] They can just build that momentum forward quicker than others can. But then you've got to ask yourself the question, how has a team like McLaren, who essentially from at least the power unit perspective is a customer team of Mercedes, how have they, how have they so dramatically been able to turn it around?


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[Assistant] How were Aston at the beginning of the season so dramatically able to turn around and why is a team like Mercedes still struggling? And obviously they didn't, um,


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[Assistant] Make the best of a, of a situation. It's not going to be great, but at the end of the day, they're a team who's won multiple world championships. They know how to build a car.


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[Assistant] I was just about to say, if I were to say that I was impressed by that, would that be undermining the skill of Fernando Alonso? Cause I think that for him is so predictable. Like that's what we expect of him. That's what we know he's really good at. He's a thinking driver. He's always got his head on his shoulders and he's always thinking ahead.


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[Assistant] We saw the day before a lot of people becoming victim of the efficiency of these two DRS zones. So essentially going into turn one, you get a great DRS.


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[Assistant] You know, pull, make the move into one, but then just after you exit three, you're into another DRS zone into four. And a lot of people were just playing again, cat and mouse of, you know, get them into one, but I get done before turn four.


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[Assistant] So we did discuss it in our post show, uhm, after the sprint to say, well, could you not play this more strategically and just hang back in one, get as close as you can, just make sure you get a good, uhm, good run, good momentum through one, two and three to make sure you're in a position to get that DRS down to four.


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[Assistant] And uhm, that's essentially what Fernando did. And I wonder, the question I was asking myself was,


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[Assistant] Could Cecho have played it the other way around? Could he potentially have, cause you know, I remember talking about our racing days as well. I remember there was one track in karting that I would always go to in Cape Town and the back straight at the end of, at the end of the lap.


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[Assistant] It essentially works in the same way as DRS does. And I remember that you always wanted to be second going into that last lap, because if you were first, you were a sitting duck.


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[Assistant] And so my question was sort of, could Chako have taken the risk to put himself second or not second in this case, but put himself behind Fernando?


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[Assistant] In order to be able to dictate the way that that situation plays out because Fernando was in the stronger position by being behind going into four. And he did exactly what he needed to do and then he did.


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[Assistant] He held on for dear life until that line and that was super enthralling to watch. We were already walking towards the pit lane because we needed to do our post show there and we were trying desperately to spawn a monitor so we could see what was happening, but super exciting stuff and a great way to.


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[Assistant] To end a race that had been a little bit boring for a while, but yeah, they definitely put on a great show for us, those two.


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[Assistant] Uhm, I'm not entirely sure to be honest because uhm, you know, Aston started the year incredibly strong.


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[Assistant] And they were definitely the talking point of the first, you know, handful of races we were all.


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[Assistant] We're not expecting to perform terribly. So there, there are these moments where they're having this development. They're seeing one thing in the simulations. They're seeing one thing in the wind tunnel, but then putting it on the car, it's reacting completely differently. So, you know, that's why they ended up, you know, during Park for May conditions deciding to remove.


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[Assistant] This weekend apparently they've taken a combination of what they've had before and some of the parts they took off in, in Austin and made a combination and that potentially works for a different track. So it's, it again goes down to what Damon was saying earlier about how specific the setup is to each circuit is what it seems like for quite a lot of the teams.


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[Assistant] And I guess it is somewhat a bit of a gamble, whether you get that right or wrong. And I don't think that although Mercedes seem to suffer from this.


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[Assistant] Is, uh, something we've been talking about all year long. So obviously very exciting for the sport. It's, um, something that's been built up quite a lot. There's a lot going into it. I hear that if you're there as a spectator, it's going to be incredible. There are obviously no support series racing. So it's just the F1 sessions.


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[Assistant] And therefore they have plenty of entertainment planned for around the event. So I think it's going to be a fantastic one to attend. Obviously these types of races always have their growing pains when it's the first time around. There's always stuff to learn and especially with the challenge of shutting down the strip and all of that. But I do definitely think it's going to be one that's going to


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[Assistant] I saw a spanner in the works because statistically it's looking like it might be the coldest race in the history of F1.


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[Assistant] Uhm, I know everyone thinks, okay, in Las Vegas, Nevada, the desert must be hot. Well, it is during the day, but it's not at night and, uhm, qualifying will be at midnight local time.


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[Assistant] Uhm, the race I think is 10 PM local time, something to that extent. And, uh, from what I remember last year is that it was very cold. So I think they're looking at temperatures of around five to eight degrees. Uhm, which is going to be very cold, street track. Uhm, yeaah, I think there's definitely, yeaah, I'm just gonna be laughing.


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[Assistant] By the sounds of things, they've been allocated more soft tires. I think it's probably because of that reason. And, um, yeah, I think it's probably coming at the right time because we need something to spice things up. Max is obviously sealed.


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[Assistant] The driver's title, Red Bull have clinched the constructor's title races ago. So what's left? There's obviously the battle with.


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[Assistant] Mercedes and Ferrari for the constructors and others. Um, there's still a battle between Lewis and Fernando for third in the drivers. Um, obviously there's still the battle with, um, Lewis and Checo. I don't know if that's out of touch now. I think it's 36 points between the two of them now. So I don't know if that's just on the limit.


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[Assistant] But uhm, a lot of, yeah, exciting things still to come. And I think Vegas is definitely going to, I don't know if it's going to make exciting racing. Obviously we've never raced on this track before, but I think all the factors around it are going to make for, I think a bit of, um, things being thrown up in the air a little bit. So yes, it's a new track for everyone. Um, sort of an equal playing field.


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[Assistant] I think it works out to be 13 hours when you go from Vegas to Abu Dhabi, that's a 13 hour time adjustment. So that's going to be very interesting.


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[Assistant] Hello everyone and welcome to this episode of the Sky Sports F1 podcast with me, Matt Baker. The winter is over. It's not long until we go racing in Bahrain. So we thought we'd tell you who's hot and who's not for the 2024 season, joined by our wonderful guests, Natalie Pinkham, Karine Chandock and Tom McCluskey, Formula One content creator.


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[Assistant] Yeah, we're going to come on to talk about that in detail because the Red Bull looks very different, doesn't it, this year? Karun, what about you? What have you learned?


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[Assistant] We, we look forward to the most exciting qualifying of the year, in my opinion, which is Bahrain, where we actually get to see proper pace. Uhm, I'll tell you what I learned, and this was actually courtesy of Ted Kravitz, Williams have motivational screensavers.


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[Assistant] And these are all words that I think we should live by on the podcast. Innovation, teamwork, resilience, excellence, and accountability.


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[Assistant] It's been a busy winter here at Sky Sports F1 Towers. So yea, I thought it was quite interesting. I saw the screensavers flicking over on the pit wall, which was rather bizarre. But anyway, there you go. That's the secret. We'll live by those as well on the podcast. Right, let's talk about the season and let's start with Red Bull. We spoke about it earlier.


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[Assistant] Natalie, you mentioned it with regards to what Adrian Newey has done with the car and how he's evolved it. Were you surprised when you saw the car released that it had changed so much?


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[Assistant] Is it also the fact that they completed 391 laps in testing? That's the third most of any team. There doesn't seem to be a weakness. Not even reliability seems to be a weakness of that car.


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[Assistant] Nineteen drivers now believe they won't be world champion when talking about Max.


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[Assistant] Including Sergio Perez. So yeaah, that brings us to nicely talk about Sergio as well. If you're one of the other 19 drivers in the, in the, in the paddock, how are you approaching this year and how do you approach trying to race Max Verstappen?


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[Assistant] Right, let's talk about Ferrari because my understanding on the basis of testing for what I saw was that it actually looked a pretty good test for Ferrari and


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[Assistant] From looking at their weaknesses for the last couple of years, race pace, tyre degradation,


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[Assistant] Were there signs, Caroon, that in signs?


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[Assistant] Signs, very good. Were there signs in testing that technically on the car, they might just have turned a corner?


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[Assistant] Tom, what about your, what are your thoughts on what the drivers have to do this year?


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[Assistant] Big hopes for Ferrari, of course. Another team with big hopes. Mercedes. Big year for Mercedes. Obviously Lewis Hamilton's last year.


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[Assistant] Karina, I wanted to ask you a question about a quote that I saw from Lewis Hamilton. Right, he said the car was much more enjoyable to drive. Now, as a racing driver,


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[Assistant] So, my VW Polo for example, a lovely car to drive, right? But it's not quick. So, so what's the balance as a driver where you get a car and it's nice to drive, but...


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[Assistant] In 2022, for example, they had a porpoising car bouncing up and down, and yet it still won them a race. So it's still quick. So what's the balance between a quick car and a nice car to drive?


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[Assistant] It's a bit bizarre that's not considered more, almost, with driver pairings, but I guess it doesn't.


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[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, now let's talk about Lewis and George's season. And Lewis in particular, I, I thought at the beginning of the season when we got the Ferrari news, I was like, oh, this is really strange timing. Why has he done it now? But actually now the dust has settled, I almost think it's really smart because we're not going to talk about Lewis going to Ferrari every single race weekend.


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[Assistant] Lando's asked this week, or last week, sorry, at testing, if he had any regrets about signing that contract extension with McLaren. He said he doesn't.


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[Assistant] I mean, obviously he must have known where McLaren are and where they are stacking up, but maybe the Lewis News has kind of kicked open the driver market.


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[Assistant] He's definitely not going to admit it, is he? But yeah, what do you think Lando's feeling at the moment? He's always quite downbeat, isn't he, pre-season?


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[Assistant] Yeah, one of the most impressive rookie seasons, wasn't it, for many, many years. Right, let's have a quick word on Aston and then we're going to get into our mailbag section with questions from people at home. Um, Natalie, Aston Martin.


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[Assistant] Yeah, best of the rest. Right. I promised mailbags. We have to do the mailbag. Thank you for your questions at home. There were some brilliant ones. Uh, we've addressed a few of them already, but I think, I think there's value in still going back on some. So Patrick on Instagram, first question. Who wants to take this?


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[Assistant] Very good. Final question that we've got time for. Will there be any mid-season driver swaps?


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[Assistant] Yes, don't get us started. Right, uh, just time to tell you, uh, about when we're on air this week. So we're going to be live on Wednesday in Bahrain for our Drivers' Press Conference Show and a special


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[Assistant] Uh, F1 show previewing the season, then it's into the track action just before lunchtime on Thursday with practice and then building up to qualifying on Friday at 4pm with the race on Saturday at 3pm.


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[Assistant] Saturday. Let's just be super clear about that. Both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are happening on Saturday and then we're into normal Sunday races. Uh, thanks everyone.


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[Assistant] Thank you everyone. Much appreciated. We're going to be back on Monday, not Tuesday, Monday because it's a Saturday race. So we're going to be back with the podcast then. Hope you can join us. Bye for now.


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[Assistant] You, yeah, just, just got here, um, a few hours ago, and there's some really dodgy looking art. Yeah. But you know, we are in Vegas. My first time here, never been to Vegas before. So, um, yeah, looking forward to the weekend, you know.


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[Assistant] I think it's uhm, there's obviously a lot going on off the track. The hype is off the chart.


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[Assistant] But if I'm honest man, as a, as an F1 super geek and a Sky sort of resident super geek, I'm most looking for


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[Assistant] I think coming to a new track is always exciting. You know, we don't, there are always unknowns. We don't know, for example, you know, what the track surface is going to be like, what the curbs are going to be like. But around here, I think there's an extra real curve ball for everybody, which is the temperature. You know, in the daytime,


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[Assistant] It's, uh, like any desert, I suppose there's, you know, there's latitude.


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[Assistant] It's going to be 20 or degrees in the daytime, uhm, and it's going to be, so seven, eight degrees at night, uhm, and that will have a huge effect because they've got big long straights around this track as well. You know, there are parts where you're going to get top speeds.


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[Assistant] No, very, very high speed. There's a section which is about 1.9 kilometers, which is taken at full throttle. So it's going to be over 200 mile an hour, 350 kilometers an hour.


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[Assistant] And there's a lot of cold air going onto the brakes. The tire temperatures.


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[Assistant] So let's take Baku as a comparison, right? You know, they've got that long section from 2016 up the south finish line.


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[Assistant] On that straight, the temperatures drop about 30 degrees.


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[Assistant] Bearing in mind, it's going to be 30 degrees colder here. You know, that drop in temperature is going to be massive. And when the drivers get to the end of that stage, hit the brakes, you know, cold brakes, cold tires, that's going to be really challenging. So, I think, uhm,


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[Assistant] Try to get the lap right in qualifying and get the braking results. You know, as a driver, you're with a new circuit. That's the first challenge is to try and work out with the track evolution. You have to try and guesstimate and use your judgment. It is about judgment. Of course it's skill, but it's actually about judgment. Trying to pick where you need to brake.


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[Assistant] And when you've got the unpredictability of not knowing what's underneath your left foot in terms of the temperature and the feel from the brakes and tyres,


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[Assistant] That's going to be very tricky. So I can see a few red flags coming up in, uh, in quality and in the race, I think. So yeah, I, I, and I think, you know, when we've got a new track with so many variables in terms of the conditions and the.


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[Assistant] And if I had flags and things like that, we could get some real jeopardy.


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[Assistant] So the first thing is to get your eye into the actual track layer. You know, I just played the F1 2020 game. Really?


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[Assistant] Uhm, yeah, and I spoke to a couple of people in the teams and I was like, what's a track map like? And, uh, they actually said it's not far off what they're using on simulators. You know, they say it's actually pretty close. So for any fans out there, uh, and I'm not plugging the game. I have nothing to do with them. I'm just a fan who got the game.


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[Assistant] I enjoyed, I actually found a really tricky factor, right? I mean, I hit a lot of walls, especially that bit around the sphere where you sort of have to break and turn.


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[Assistant] Uh, I think it's, they're calling it turn seven, eight, nine, but you, you go break and turn into the really tight second year chicane, which is added on, you know, after the original layout came out, because the sphere was built there. And then the next one as well, there's a, you know, there's a.


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[Assistant] Again, a long left, which slightly opens up before you turn sharply left, uhm, onto the long straight for twelve.


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[Assistant] Uhm, really quite difficult braking zones, uh, to site the line. So, if you're a driver going to prepare for a new track, the first thing is to get your eye into the actual layout.


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[Assistant] You want to get into a rhythm, want to make sure that you're fully confident of the track layout itself, where the subtle kinks in the road are, and then you start playing around with positioning. You know, in those braking zones, do you take a tighter line and drive right straight? You take a wider, shallower line, open up the entry, but you're then trailing the brakes, uhm, so you're always braking with some lateral load.


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[Assistant] So you go into experimenting with the lines, uhm, you go into experimenting with the breaking zone, and then the good simulators will be the ones where


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[Assistant] They can really start to replicate track conditions, so the teams will all have, uhm, a way to adjust the grip on the simulator, so they can actually simulate FP1, dirty, dusty, you know, green track, and then they can simulate


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[Assistant] They can also simulate temperature. They should be able to, as I said, the good simulators be able to, to simulate the air temperature as well. And then therefore that effect on the brakes, you know, when you go for the brakes at the end.


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[Assistant] That is the hardest one to simulate, if I'm honest, as a driver. Uhm, because that...


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[Assistant] On the day you've just got to go for feel, you know, and, but the teams will be using all that information to try and work out.


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[Assistant] What their cooling levels can be, you know, they'll have, uhm, again, the big teams have a full car dyno basically. So they put the entire race car onto this dyno and they will run the Grand Prix distance to check.


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[Assistant] The loads going through the gearbox and, you know, when using the curbs on a street track, uhm, how the engine's gonna work and therefore work out the level of cooling they need.


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[Assistant] The other thing that's really important is the hybrid system. Because obviously F1 cars are all hybrids.


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[Assistant] Uh, and you've got to work out what's the optimum way to use the electrical energy so you don't run out of juice that are qualifying now. It's more important for qualifying, um, you know, to make sure you've got it.


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[Assistant] In the race, they never ever run down to zero. They all tend to stay in a band of about 30% to 70% plus or minus a few. But again, you've got to work out what's the best way to stay in that band. Where's the best, you know, and that's the next level of preparation coming back to your original question. So the first thing is about.


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[Assistant] Learning the track, getting your iron, getting dialed in. The next is about...


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[Assistant] Trying to understand the breaking zones and the track evolution, and then the third one is, is really about into the hybrid stuff, you know, what is, if you use a bit more juice coming out of turn two,


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[Assistant] You know, to get a bit of acceleration in that TRS zone, where would you lose out? On the way back? Or do you save it all up to use from turns 12?


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[Assistant] Um, when you get to the race or overtaking in defense, you have people playing it, you know, using the energy in different places, like in Brazil we saw. Um, so yeah, that's, that's kind of the level of prep that they go into.


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[Assistant] It's a massive challenge, you know, for a circuit designer to do a street track is a much bigger challenge than doing a permanent circuit where you've got a blank piece of paper that


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[Assistant] Yeaah, it was quite funny. The first, absolute first priority is safety. You know, they've got to make sure that if they're going to make these tracks...


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[Assistant] With these big straights, uhm, and slow quarters at the end of it, you've got to have a runoff area. Uhm, like Baku turn 1 for example, there's a massive runoff area there, because in case there's a...


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[Assistant] So uhm, that's the first thing that the circuit designers would have had to look at, is the safety of it. And then, going to the sporting side, you know, you want to make a track that's exciting for the drivers, you want to make a track


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[Assistant] The team would have been here for months and months on end. You know, cause you've also got things like that you wouldn't think about, you know, there'll be, there'll be pavements, there'll be lampposts that are at the apex of a corner that need to be moved. And then you'll have a council going, hang on a second. You can't just break that bit of pavement because there's a.


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[Assistant] Fire hydrant line that runs underneath. You know, there's stuff like that. There'll be manhole covers.


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[Assistant] There'll be drains, there'll be uhm, you know, there'll be things which are part of the infrastructure of the town. Bus stops, for example.


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[Assistant] Just stuff like that, which will have to be moved.


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[Assistant] Challenging, uh, from logistics and cost, to be honest, to, to do that amount of work. They would have had to bring in the, the blocks of concrete blocks for the side of the track and then the catch fencing, which is there to catch any debris to protect the spectators, because you love the marshals, most importantly and the spectators.


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[Assistant] And then there's the curbs, you know, at the end, you've got to place the curbs to, to create, and that's the, that's the sort of final job. Um, so yeah, actually building a temporary circuit because you've got to do all of this work.


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[Assistant] Why is the city still living? You know, why people who live here, there are locals who live here and tourists who come all the time. They got a cariole, they want to go to the Bellagio, they want to go to see Celine Dion or whatever it is. And you can't block the entrance to any of these, you know, these massive theatres, you know, you can't.


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[Assistant] You can't just block off Caesar's Palace because we want to build a grandstand there for this weekend.


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[Assistant] But you have to build a grandstand in all these places, you know, they had to cover up coulters and things like that. So uhm, yeah, it's a huge, huge logistical undertaking. Uhm, and it's a kind of thing which, you know, you do wonder if somebody made a documentary, you know, for geeks like me or people who are into


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[Assistant] Uh, construction stuff and you know, it would be actually quite interesting to see the evolution from day zero until running the race, just what goes into building a street race.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, it will. It will absolutely look spectacular. I think uhm, you know.


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[Assistant] As far as I can remember, they haven't ever really shut the strip down for the sporting event before, you know, this is unprecedented and you know, Vegas has got its own.


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[Assistant] Audience, right? His own clientele, his own people coming here, his own tourists coming. He didn't really need to do F1 and fair play to the promoters of the sport at Liberty who invested.


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[Assistant] Huge amount of money. They bought two acres of land to build this pit complex and make it


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[Assistant] So the big garages, for example, I'm seeing someone from Mercedes just downstairs in the hotel lobby.


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[Assistant] Nice thing, they pick up big carriages and they get 90% of the racetracks.


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[Assistant] You know, they've actually built facilities despite it being a temporary track. They've built facilities as good as any other permanent circuit. So yeah, I think it will look spectacular. I think, you know.


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[Assistant] I can't wait to see the helicopter shots of all the neon lights and all the rest of the cars running around. Uhm, you know, the drivers will obviously have to stay focused on the track itself. Uhm, but maybe, you know, again, one of the things is trying to pick references, as I said, for braking, you know, when you're coming down the straight.


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[Assistant] Doing 200 miles an hour, 350 kilometers an hour, uhm, sometimes, it's quite hard to pick. You're focusing on the 100 meter board.


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[Assistant] And then you'll know, depending on the speed of the corner, you're going to break at probably 80 meters, for example, before the corner. But sometimes with a street track, depending on where the marker boards are, they can't have it at eye level, you know, at a normal track like Monza.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For example, the marker boards are along the side of the track on the grass. On the street circuit, typically they have to mount it high up on the fence. So in the cockpit,


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[Assistant] If you're coming to a left-hander, it's quite hard because it's not on your line of sight. So you'll end up maybe using some of these lights and other landmarks that are around there as, as references to, you know, for the corners themselves.


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[Assistant] I did hear that there's a, I think a couple of our friends have been to see it from the team. Uhm, there's a show called the Earth Show, which is all about animals and stuff. Right. And it's just, you know, you could have, you could have lions, you know, jump out and roar as the driver turns around. That could be quite something, couldn't it?


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[Assistant] Listen, Formula 1's uhm, you know, it's everything, isn't it? It's obviously, as I said before, I'm biased as a hardcore fan, I'm biased to the sporting spectacle of it. There's lots of others who are here because of the show and the, you know, but it's all part of it, right? You know, I think...


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[Assistant] Uhm, I probably lean too much one way and the others are leaning too much the other way. But,


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[Assistant] The success is both, unquestionably, you know, you gotta have, you gotta have the celebs, you gotta have all of America talking about this, you gotta have the whole world talking about how F1 is the biggest show in town, and uhm,


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[Assistant] You know, I think having the spectators enjoying a good event, having the fans on TV around the world,


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[Assistant] Watching it going, oh, that looks cool. I'd like to go next year, which is, which is, I think really important. You know, we want Singapore is a great example of that, right? You know, you get to, uh, I remember the early days of Singapore Grand Prix. I had loads of friends in mind in the UK watched it on TV and thought, wow, that looks really cool. It looks amazing. Those helicopter shots you get of Marina Bay sands and all that. It looks amazing.


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[Assistant] And then people from Europe have started going to Singapore Grand Prix and that makes it a success because that's the point of these races is to draw the fans in and put on a good show for the fans.


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[Assistant] You know, when the fans do come here, there's no shortage of things and activities to do at all the different budgets.


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[Assistant] So, you know, I think, uh, I think that to me that would be a success is A, we have a good race on track and B, we get lots of people here in Vegas, here in America, but also all around the world, um, talking about what a good event it looked like on, on TV.


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[Assistant] Who's merch are you buying? I haven't got a- Well, I haven't got an invite, so I have no idea what you're talking about.


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[Assistant] I, as I said, I've never been to Vegas before, uhm, and I've not seen the track, I drove it on the game as I said, but uhm, so I'm gonna go into the circuit, uhm, have a walk around the track. The road is still not closed, it's still open to public, so there's taxis and cars and buses and all sorts driving around it.


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[Assistant] But that's like when we go to Monaco or, um, you know, other street tracks we go to. Um, so the track is technically open for the public to drive around. I'm not sure I can convince an Uber driver to do a lap of it on the racing line.


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[Assistant] So I might just brave it and, and, and go for a walk. It's, it's the second longest track on the calendar. It's only after Spa, you know, 6.2 K. So that'll be a nice little walk to, um, to get the blood flowing after the epic journey across the pond from, from the UK. Um, so yeah, that's what I'm going to go today. I'm going to go have a walk around the track.


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[Assistant] And just go chat with several teams and drivers and, uh, understand a bit of how their simulation and prep work has been going for this weekend.


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[Assistant] Well, feel lucky that we were able to witness it, be a part of it, enjoy it. And then, yeah, go full locations over anything else because we are going to some absolutely cracking racetracks. I love Singapore.


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[Assistant] And my husband's a big fan of Vegas, I can't imagine why. But he has been many, many times. And, uh, he said to me, just go, you'll have a great time, just enjoy it, go for it.


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[Assistant] And we all went to this bar on the first night.


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[Assistant] After my wedding, my children, we had a blast. It was brilliant.


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[Assistant] And I think that's the key. You just have to go into it with a very different mindset to anywhere else on planet Earth.


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[Assistant] The summer break may have been disruptive. You know, they're clutching at straws there, but some of the opposition may hope.


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[Assistant] That just that little break in momentum may be enough to put him off his stride ever so slightly. I can't see it though. I mean, you know, we're talking about him winning by margins of 30 seconds plus. This is a guy in the form of his life, in the car of his life, in the car of a generation. And, uh, yeaah.


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[Assistant] That was my question actually. Will it take its toll on Max? Will that ultimately be what calls into his career? Cause he just sort of has enough of the...


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[Assistant] It's controversial, but I'm going to say that Lewis Hamilton will finish Runner Up. And the reason I say that is because I fear that the Aston Martin, uhm,


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[Assistant] Decent runner form is over. I think whether it is to do with this flexy wing being outruled.


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[Assistant] Or whether they've just gone down a bit of a cul-de-sac in terms of development, and it's been exaggerated by the fact that others have gone well, like the likes of McLaren.


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[Assistant] Do you remember the last race of last year when it was between Charles and Checo for the second place?


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[Assistant] Uhm, by just, he finished on 3.08 and Perez on 3.05, so it was very close indeed, but, uhm, you're right, that was their first time going for a 1.2 and surely, surely it will happen this year.


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[Assistant] That'd be great, wouldn't it? He's got the appetite, the hunger's there, isn't it?


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[Assistant] To Red Bull is greater than the total amount of points that they have, which is 247. But I don't know, I just feel like things


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[Assistant] There's been a few false dawns, but I feel like things are starting to click at Mercedes and, you know, just to go along with my Lewis theory about being runner up, I've got to therefore go with Mercedes.


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[Assistant] Again, this will happen this time round with Daniel, obviously an established race winner, and


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[Assistant] And if any, if there was ever an example of giving a rookie a bit more time to really establish themselves, Yuki's it. Because they gave him.


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[Assistant] It feels as if coming into Williams in 2022, dominating, uh, Nick Latifi, and now obviously really


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[Assistant] James Vowles called his drive in Canada a champion's drive. It was brilliant. To put a Williams in seventh place, a place like Canada was exceptional. And I just think that he's a, he's now being talked about.


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[Assistant] The fact that everyone's saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, Alex is the name on people's lips. He's a lovely bloke, but he's a tenacious fighter. For me, a big turning point with his career as well. Well, certainly a big marker for the tenacity and...


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[Assistant] He hasn't blamed anyone but himself for that demotion. He's taken it on the chin. He's come back stronger. And that's a sign of a truly great sportsman.


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[Assistant] And the same can be said for Daniel Ricciardo. Lovely guys, out of the car, but in it, they're ruthless.


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[Assistant] Yeah, agreed, and I think actually the season has been very well managed outside the car for McLaren. They spoke from the off about how they hadn't hit their winter targets, so they were able to manage both the fans and the drivers' expectations as to what was going to be possible.


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[Assistant] I mean this is, this is an exceptional turnaround. It's not unprecedented, but I think it is unprecedented in the hybrid era. I mean you can look back at...


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[Assistant] You might get a boost. There may be teams that think that they're making real strides, but because others are doing more, it kind of negates at least what the fans see.


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[Assistant] I mean it must be frustrating and I think that's to your point, isn't it, how difficult it is to do it in season when races are coming in thick and fast week after week.


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[Assistant] So it wasn't specific to them thinking it was going to be wet.


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[Assistant] Oh, okay, because I have to be consistent with my theories, don't I? You are very consistent. I mean, he's gotta, he's gotta win something in order to fight his way up the championship in order for Mercedes to stay second. So if I, my theories don't make any sense if I split them.


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[Assistant] Crofty and I did the track run last year, or the year before. On a Thursday.


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[Assistant] Hello everybody, welcome to the Sky Sports F1 podcast with me, Matt Baker. I hope you are well. To help me look back on a Qatar Grand Prix brimming with, uh, with storylines and with, with moments, uh, that need, that need discussing, I'm joined by Ted Kravitz and Corinne Chandock. Hello to both of you. Uh, Ted, I'll start with you. How are you?


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[Assistant] Oh, very good. Uh, let's, let's kick off. I'm going to come on to all the storylines in a second, but let's kick off with a one word race review. Um, uh, go on Ted, you start.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I saw your notes, your, your, uh, your tyre.


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[Assistant] Tyre allocation notes, which you, I think we're updating throughout the race.


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[Assistant] The sky pad is great. It likes many things, but the heat is not one of them. Uh, I think we can, we can all agree. Uh, just very quickly, uh, I've gone for fast and that's kind of embarrassing as a, as a word, given we work in Formula One.


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[Assistant] I thought the fastest pit stop of 1.8 seconds that McLaren did this weekend deserves a shout out. And we'll, we'll come onto all of, all of McLaren as well. But I, but I just thought that was, that was an incredible achievement. And you know what?


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[Assistant] Let's go with fast. So I thought we're going to be joined by a very special guest shortly, but before we do that, I thought I'd just run you through some of the key storylines from this weekend and we'll try and address as many of these as possible. It's going to be a lot.


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[Assistant] Uh, and I'll level with you at home. Sometimes we do this podcast and we go, we come back, we come on a Monday, you go, what, what's the big story? What are we going to tackle, uh, on the podcast this week? Not the, not the issue this week, I can assure you, cause a lot, a lot of things happened in Qatar. We had Max winning the world championship. Yeah. The small matter of his third.


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[Assistant] Uh, third world championship. He also won the race. Uh, we got, uh, McLaren's Oscar Piastri. Uh, he won his first race. It was a sprint, but he still won a race and that, that's critical and important to say. McLaren had another 2-3 to follow on from Japan. We had Lewis Hamilton colliding with George Russell in the opening lap. We had another poor weekend for Sergio Perez.


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[Assistant] As Karuna alluded to earlier, we're about to potentially get an 11th team in Formula One with Andretti, and today, uh, it's been confirmed that Pirelli are going to remain as Formula One's tyre supplier. So we will try and get through as many, uh, many, uh, of those topics as possible.


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[Assistant] Goodness me, poor research Matt, I should have written the last, I should have been top of the, anyway, right, we'll, uh, we'll come onto that in a second. But before all of that, uh, we're joined by a special guest. Uh, please welcome Sam Village. Now, Sam is a trainer in Formula One who's worked with Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo and Ted.


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[Assistant] Anyway, welcome Sam. Yeah, welcome Sam. How are you?


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[Assistant] Exactly. Yeah. I mean that it was, I mean, Valtteri called it like a sauna, uh, when he, when he was finishing the race. Um, so obviously Sam, the reason we've got you on is to talk about the conditions in Qatar and, and, and a lot has been made, uh, certainly after the race on Sunday, but also a lot of comment has been made in, in the days after.


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[Assistant] Just, just in case people at home aren't familiar with exactly what happened in Qatar, we had the likes of Esteban Ocon throwing up in his helmet on lap 15. We had Logan Sargent pulling out mid-race.


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[Assistant] We had Lance Stroll, uh, gingerly getting out of his car in Parc Fermé and heading straight to an ambulance. We had Alex Albon also, I mean it took him about two minutes to get out of the car.


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[Assistant] And we've since learned a number of drivers were taken to the medical centre after the race. So, so Sam, you, you, you've obviously worked with elite Formula One drivers yourself and you're familiar with what, what Formula One drivers are put through when they're in the car.


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[Assistant] What do you make of what you heard and have seen about the conditions in Qatar and the drivers afterwards?


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[Assistant] Sam, I was going to ask you in terms of the danger of what we saw in Qatar, because when we see endurance athletes and you work yourself with triathletes and cyclists and people like that who push their bodies right to the very limit of what's possible.


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[Assistant] But I guess the danger for them is themselves, right? If they collapse at the side of a race, particularly, you know, if it's just a runner, the only person you're endangering is kind of yourself. Whereas we're talking about these guys driving at 200 miles an hour.


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[Assistant] It's not just them, is it? So if they black out or if they have any, any issues, like being sick, I imagine, when you're driving a Formula One car is quite distracting. Is that, is that perhaps the main issue?


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[Assistant] What would you do, Sam, to prepare drivers for this level of heat? What, what, what are the things you're doing before the race? If you had a driver on the grid yesterday, what would you have been doing in that, in that window?


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[Assistant] The FIA has begun an analysis into the situation in Qatar to provide recommendations for future situations of extreme weather conditions. It then goes on to say that measures will be discussed when it holds a medical commission in Paris, but they might include guidance for competitors


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[Assistant] Research into modifications for more efficient airflow into the cockpit and recommendations for changes to the calendar to align with acceptable climatic conditions.


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[Assistant] Thank you, Sam. Fascinating insight from, from what the drivers went through. You can check him out at Kings of the Wild.


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[Assistant] Okay, let's, let's move on. As I said, many other stories to get through. How many of them we can get through is a mystery, but let's try. Let's start with McLaren, shall we? Because it was a brilliant weekend for them. Another P2 and P3.


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[Assistant] Um, and I think probably what's most interesting, this, this stat here is in the last three races, McLaren have, have got 104 points, Red Bull have only got 75 points. And I think that points to having two.


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[Assistant] Good drivers or two, two drivers getting you points week in week out. And that's crucial. And they're, they're almost certainly going to catch Aston Martin. They're, they're 11 points behind Aston at the moment, but with five races left.


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[Assistant] This is a silly question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. How has this happened? Why? Why have McLaren all of a sudden just become this world, world beating time?


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[Assistant] Yeah, incredible. Uh, yeah. I was going to say Ted, cause you, I mean, there's sometimes a tiny delay, isn't there, between the pictures that we see and, and your microphone in, in the pit lane, just by the nature of, of broadcasting around the world. 1.8 seconds is almost, you know, that might be by the time the car's gone, you might be finished reporting on the pit stop by the time you see pictures.


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[Assistant] Let's, let's move on and talk about Sergio Perez and Karun, you mentioned it earlier about his form and the fact that, you know, at the moment Red Bull don't have two drivers week in week out getting points. Uh, yeah, Horner called it a shocker of a race and said that they need to sit down with Checo. Do you think?


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[Assistant] In terms of, in terms of, if we look, we've got five racers left and I know he's got a seat next year at Red Bull, but.


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[Assistant] If, if, if Christian Horner is looking ahead to 2024 and going, right, if we've got a really strong McLaren, we've got really strong Mercedes, both drivers are going to be getting points week in, week out.


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[Assistant] That then becomes an issue for Christian Horner, doesn't it? That they've only got one driver.


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[Assistant] Okay, we're getting through all of these stories from the weekend. Let's talk about Mercedes. And we had a collision between Lewis and George on the first lap. And Ted, I wonder if...


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[Assistant] This has been coming, and I say that because in Singapore, in the last few laps they were close. Japan, they were racing very close.


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[Assistant] And I know it was different. I know that was later in the race. So you can't necessarily maybe draw comparison with the opening lap, but.


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[Assistant] All very cordial afterwards at Mercedes, but I guess next year, if they are, if they're championship points and they're...


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[Assistant] The FIA had approved or given the green light to Andretti to enter Formula One. It had to then still be approved by Formula One's owners Liberty Media. Uh, Karun, my big question to you is, this obviously happened last week.


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[Assistant] It's, it's, it's now been a week on from that. When, what are the timescales that we're going to be dealing with with, with when we're actually going to know if we're going to get an 11th team Formula One?


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[Assistant] Fans agree. I mean, we did, we did the poll and we talked about this on Thursday last week, but 84.8% of people voted in our Twitter poll to say yes, they want another team.


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[Assistant] That was out of 16,000 votes. So I think fans overwhelmingly do want another team. And yeah, more, more racing, more competition on track, uh, can only be a good thing for the fans. Maybe not for the Piranha Club. No, but let's, you know, the, the, the Andretti's.


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[Assistant] Certainly. Okay, I think we'll leave it there. Ted Caroon, thank you so much for your time. Uh, much appreciated. And we're going to be back with a bonus episode, uh, on Thursday because we're joined by Callum Nicholas. Uh, he's one of the mechanics on Max Verstappen's car. He's, uh,


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[Assistant] It's just, should hopefully be a very interesting chat. He's going to come into Sky and we're going to do a chat with him and that'll be released on Thursday. We'll also be back next Tuesday as well to look ahead to the US Grand Prix in Austin. So until then, bye bye for now. Bye bye. See you later.


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[Assistant] Monza is always such a special event with the fans and just the atmosphere. You can't help not root for Ferrari when you get to Monza, but yeah, I think actually the last two races especially have been, I think incredible, you know, with Zandvoort kind of the mixed conditions in Monza. We did get a bit of a battle for the lead, which is always amazing. Loads of great battles as well.


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[Assistant] Uh, so yeaah, definitely lots to talk about, which is, uh, which is great. Nice to have a Formula One bag, definitely.


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[Assistant] I think I'm gonna have to go with, uh, history, just because...


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[Assistant] It's difficult to appreciate it in the moment in terms of what Red Bull-


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[Assistant] And Max have done, you know, 10 wins straight, beating that record, uh, that was set by Sebastian Vettel and, uh, quite poetic as well, obviously, you know, Seb being a red ball, obviously now surpassed by Max, but yeah, my word is history because, you know, always, regardless of what happens in the future, you know, this will be the weekend where, where Max broke the record and,


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[Assistant] It still feels surreal because to do something like that is just crazy, but the reliability and the speed and the consistency that he's had. Yeah. Just 10 wins straight. It just seems crazy. Uh, so yeah, history is my one.


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[Assistant] It was multi- see, it was a layered word. I had lots in it.


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[Assistant] I think so, because I think Baku was quite close, obviously Leclerc was on pole there, but Sainz was kind of nowhere that, that weekend relative to Leclerc. This, this was, this was a strong weekend by the entire team. I think Charles was a little bit on the back foot, he went a little bit wrong on setup, he said, but.


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[Assistant] I think they are gonna leave happy in the context of the season. I mean, again, Max passed him on lap 15. I was honestly, I was surprised it even took that long. I think Max was kind of biding his time and I think, uh, GP kind of had to hold him back a little bit to be honest at one point. But yeah, I think again, they have to be happy.


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[Assistant] Uhm, but it's frustrating as Light Nico said, when you get pole position, when you get, you know, especially when you have such a quick car on that track, you-


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[Assistant] You wanna believe that the win is there, and especially for Ferrari at Monza, so yeaah, I think there will be a small part of them that will be disappointed. They almost threw it away actually, with some really both amazing and also scary battling by both of the drivers at the end of the race. Uh, but I think again, context of the season and where they are moving into third in the championship as well, I think they're gonna leave the weekend quite happy, if not,


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[Assistant] A little bit disappointed because the win, you know, they always would have dreamt of that, especially after Saturday.


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[Assistant] So Ferrari at the moment on 228, and then Mercedes on 273, so, you know, 50-40 points in it, plenty to go, so it's, it's a close fight, and they just overtook Pastor Martin.


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[Assistant] I mean, to be honest, they almost did. Uh, for me, it wasn't necessarily into turn 1, it was with about 2 or 3 laps to go into turn, uh, turn 4. You know, Carlos Sainz


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[Assistant] I thought that was a very kind of close, you know, close call with, uh, with both of those two. Maybe even over the line by, by signs a little bit because he didn't even make the corner, but I think Charles was kind of, you know, ready for that. So it was so close to being a disaster. And again, we talk about the pressure on Ferrari. If that had happened at Monza.


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[Assistant] They'd be having a very different debrief right now, you know, in Maranello. So in, but again, that's the responsibility of the drivers. They have two very high class drivers. I think for Carlos Sainz, he was, he was working so hard at the beginning of the race to kind of stay ahead of Max that he wanted that podium. He was just going to hang onto it, uh, you know, for anything, but Leclerc did find that pace, but,


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[Assistant] I think that again, it's down to the drivers. That is your responsibility. And in the end, you know, they were kind of both, you know, really happy. Leclerc, I was actually surprised, you know, he was loving the battle after the race and, uh, you know, talking up about their great relationship, but.


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[Assistant] I guarantee if they crashed, you wouldn't be talking about their great relationship. And I mean, this is actually, I want to know from, from Niko's side, when you did have those battles with Lewis, what was it like, you know, after the race in the debriefing, was there any conversation about, you know, things going over the line with teammates?


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[Assistant] I think it's actually all about pressure really quickly in terms of Ferrari. They're trying to, especially after the last, I don't know, four or five years, even when they were battling for championships.


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[Assistant] I think everyone in that team is just trying to do their best to kind of lower the pressure on every single level, whether that's, you know, any tension in the drivers that's squashed straight away. Any kind of talk about Ferrari struggling when you kind of crisis, you know, Fred Vassar is very quickly to kind of, you know, support the team. So.


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[Assistant] I think it's just that, that kind of, that yeah, they're trying to kind of lower the pressure as much as they can because at Monza there's enough of it already on Ferrari.


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[Assistant] You know, that's actually a really difficult question because it's still very early. So much about what's happening this year is based off last year because of how late Bonotto left the team. Uh, I think he's done a good job so far, but again, Ferrari


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[Assistant] They're not looking for third as a, as a, as a result, they're looking to win. So I think he's done a good job so far. I definitely think, you know, even on the language front, you have to kind of assimilate to the culture Ferrari because so much, you know, a lot of teams are very multicultural, but Ferrari is a team where everyone's Italian, you know, especially there. So I think the language thing is definitely important. I'm actually surprised he doesn't speak a kind of more Italian yet, but.


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[Assistant] In terms of how, you know, if you, you know, I think you said out of 10, I'd give him, you know, a six out of 10 so far because he's done a good job, but nothing more. You know, this team is still struggling. Let's not forget. This result is great. And I think a lot of people are going to forget what happened last, uh, you know, the previous race in Zandvoort, which was a horrible weekend for them. You know, I think what Carlos Sainz did to get to sixth in Zandvoort was actually a really good result. So.


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[Assistant] It's an up and down, it's an up and down kind of season for them. They've been strong on the tracks where the car kind of suits the tracks, like again, Baku and Monza.


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[Assistant] But how they're gonna get in Singapore, you know, that's, that's a completely different type of track. So I think Fred Vassar has done a good job to kind of build a, hopefully a better environment after, after Bonotto and kind of restart things, but it's too early to say that he's a massive success or anything like that. He needs two, three years in the job, I think.


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[Assistant] I think next year's the big one though. Next year's the big one. He's had an entire season. Next year they're gonna, we'll see what the car is like, but that's when he'll really have the influence on the team. So I think next year's the really big one to judge him in my opinion.


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[Assistant] Oh, James Vowles, I mean, 9 out of 10. I've gotta leave a bit of room for perfection, but 9 out of 10 for the way he's kind of, just the environment around Williams. It's so great to see them. I think what he's done for, to build for the future. He's got a big, uh, he's got a big decision to make with Logan Sargent, which I think is also gonna affect, uh, his future as well. So I'm looking forward to seeing what he does with Logan.


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[Assistant] I think this weekend, I totally understand him missing FP1 and FP2, but he shouldn't have been qualifying last.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's a really experienced Formula One driver. How many years have been in Formula One? Maybe eight years or something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's driven, he's driven around Monza millions of times, he's scored a podium, uh, started on the front row, he knows this track very well, he knows the car very well, he should not, even with one practice session, just FP3, he should not have been qualifying last in that car, so, especially when, you know, your teammate is getting into Q3, so,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's been, I'm probably not as high on LANs as perhaps Niko is. I think that at the beginning of the season, the gap to Alonso was still quite big. I know he was, he was recovering from an injury of course, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's, there's just something strange about the dynamic of that team because for a long time, I mean, they've had seven podiums and now they've fallen behind. They've had more podiums than Ferrari and now they've fallen behind them in the constructors. This team...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They should be second with two good drivers, they still should be second in the constructors because of their amazing start with Fernando, what was it, like six podiums in five races or something, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, and it's a weird dynamic because, you know, Niko says that, oh, perhaps it will be Lance who will come in and say, you know, maybe it's time for me to do something else, but that shouldn't be the case. Your boss should tell you,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're not doing good enough and you need to improve otherwise you're gonna be out. That's formula one. Unless you're obviously, you know, a world champion and you can say, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm leaving the sport now like Nico did. He has that luxury. I don't think Lance should because he's not doing a good enough job, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But again, who's gonna make that decision? Who is gonna walk into the boss's office and say,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Lawrence, I know you own the team, I know that you've put so much into it and we do have a bright future, but your sign is now the limiting factor at this team because we should be second in the constructors with two.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think the problem with Lance is that he is a good driver, now don't get him wrong, I think he deserves to be in Formula 1, I think if he was in a Alfa Romeo or a house or something, I think that's where his level has been.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When he was given a car that was the second, the second best car or the third best car on the grid, he wasn't able to raise his game. And going into those kind of cars asks you a very different type of questions when there's, you know, podiums on the table, and he just hasn't been able to deliver at that level, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think that's the problem. He is the limiting factor at the moment at Aston Martin, and how long is this gonna continue until someone says, enough is enough. So, I don't know who that person is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And also just quickly, what Lawrence did to buy Aston Martin, Lagonda, like the car brand as well and kind of connect that, uh, with, you know, with the car side and the racing side. There's a lot of exciting things going on at Aston Martin, just the brand, uh, and also with the Formula One team as well, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Again, that should, there's bigger results on the track for them to have. And I know you said this is a father-son thing, but business has to, you know, this is Formula One. This is not a, you know, father and son plaything. So at what point does the business kind of side, you know, click into Lauretta's head that and say, I'm leaving so much money on the table because our drivers aren't good enough. So that's.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How long can this continue? That's all I, that's, you know, that's all I'm thinking at the moment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sao Paulo, last year, that's it, that's from, from Wendla.