[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From when LeClaire won, can you, I mean, just like, just thinking about that, the last time, kind of,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From when Leclerc won in Austria last year, that seems almost years ago now. We've only had one non-Red Bull win.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think, yeah, in terms of tracks where they might get tripped up, Singapore is definitely the right answer because, uh, tricky track. Like you said, if, if weather comes into it, then it's a, you know, then it's a total, uh, total unknown. I think the only one maybe again is kind of maybe Sao Paulo, maybe Las Vegas, cause it's brand new. So they don't have as much kind of information around that track, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, we're, we're kind of clutching at straws here because Red Bull are so strong. They're so smart. Max is so consistent. And also just in terms of the way the team operates, forget about the driver for a second. They're just, they're just really good from top to finish in terms of strategy, in terms of pit stops, make sure they have all of the data that that's available. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, if anything, it's gonna be, I think, those tracks, you know, the likes of Singapore, São Paulo, maybe Vegas, but yeah, we're gonna have to wait and see, aren't we? We are.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I do actually, just to quickly ask Nico, if you were in that red ball though, how would you think you would do relative to Perez then? How would you, in terms of what he's, in terms of what he's been able to achieve?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, you went to a title decider with LewisN1, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I definitely expect them to lock out, uh, P2 and the constructors. I think their driver lineup is very strong. I think their car works on a decent kind of, uhm, kind of a nice amount of tracks. The Ferrari's kind of up and down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and that's kind of all they can because they're focusing on next year, uh, for sure. But that's, I think that's the only expectation, more podiums from Lewis, but they've got to secure that Peter and the constructors because their car I think is good enough. Uhm, but I'm interested to see what Nico thinks about Mercedes, uh, for the rest of the year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've been really impressed the way he's hit the ground running. I thought Xandvault was such a...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was a tricky one. That was, that was one of those where if he went off the road, if he crashed out in the race because of his inexperience and obviously him making his debut,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We could have been very easily saying, wow, you know, he's, he's obviously a rookie. He's not had that experience. And look, loads of the drivers went off, but he had a really professional first race just focused on getting it home, learning what he can. And then this was the weekend to really perform because again, he's been to Monza loads of times, like all drivers, you know, have throughout their single seater careers. He knows the car a little bit more.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I mean, he was with Yuki straight away. If that was, if that was a Daniel Ricciardo or a Nick DeVries in that car, we would have been like, you know, yeah, that's, that's what the drive, that's what that kind of driver should be doing, you know, but so he, he looked really professional, really like he had been there all season.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he is, that's a problem for Ricardo because obviously Ricardo potentially wants to be in that red ball for next year. If he can't, then he wants to be in the, potentially in the Alpha Towery. And Lawson is really staking a claim that not only should he be in Formula One, but potentially in that team. So I'm really excited. He's a really good driver, obviously fighting for the championship in Super Formula, currently second.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he's gonna have more races in that car whilst Daniel is still recovering, so there is no better place to prove that you should be in Formula 1 than when you're actually in the car whilst another driver is out and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think Red will have a really big choice to make out of who should be in their seats for next year, and someone's gonna get left out. Hopefully Lawson, even if he doesn't end up in the Alpha Tower, he is still somehow in Formula One. Maybe there's a deal with Williams where they perhaps will take him instead of Sargeant, I don't know, but I've been really impressed, I think, yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think they would take him because of how impressive he's been, but I think they would be cautious of, are we just developing a driver that you're then going to put in the alpha tari that's going to come back against us? That's the only thing, I'd want him to not be Red Bull Associated if I was, if I was James Vowles and would take him in the Williams. That's the only kind of like- That's not gonna happen. That's not gonna happen. Yeah, exactly. But that's, that's for the negotiating table, clearly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, absolutely, especially off the back of Monza, because maybe apart from Monaco, you could not have a more different track, uh, to, to Monza, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, to be a lot stronger on that kind of, you know, that kind of track, uh, less kind of high, you know, high downforce. So I'm looking forward to it. So it's always a big challenge. Last year we had the weather, which produced a crazy race. I mean, Maxoff, Lewisoff, you know, overtakes and even a few crashes and obviously, uh, Cheko kind of holding on for the win.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, it can, yeah, it's one of those tracks, massive, obviously challenged for the drivers. I couldn't even begin to imagine like how tough it is just physically, forget about the driving and the mental side. So yeah, it's, it's a big challenge and, uh, always a, always an amazing venue. So yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then winning it, when you win in that environment, Nico, like you did in 2016, it must be even more special to know that you've conquered that kind of challenge.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hello, it's not as shiny here, I've just found some stains from my children's yogurt. There you go, I'm here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know it's a noun rather than a word, but I thought he, he, he established himself as a star this weekend. I know Sunday didn't play out for him, but listen, it's same thing. I go back, Mighty Schumacher's spa debut, you know, only lasted as far as Piazzetti's did at the first few hundred meters. So, um, but certainly a star was established, I think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, no, no, no, he burnt the clutch out coming out of Les Sûres and stopped at the top of Eau Rouge, so he didn't win Get to Les Combes on the opening lap.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I recreated back to the relationship between Sebastian Vettel and Guillaume Roquelin, Rocky as he was known, uh, also at Red Bull. And it was similar, Crofty, wasn't it? Where he was almost like this sort of big brother, you know, sitting on the pit wall.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then the little brother, you know, getting all hot headed, and the adrenaline is pumping in the car, and just, you know, they, they bicker like siblings, but actually...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're in it together, um, you know, chasing that common goal of winning races and world championships. They're doing quite well at it as well. You know, Rocky and Seb won four and these guys are well on their way to the top.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, Matt, I will say that the only other thing they appear to have broken is their second driver in some ways. You know, at the start of the year, I go back to the drive, he put it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In, in, in Jeddah, uh, but more importantly in Baku, you know, Crofty and I were in the comedy box there saying,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He would have overtaken Max, you know, let alone the strategy, but he would have overtaken Max on track and won that race. And it was a proper convincing performance, admittedly as one of his strongest, you know, circuits on the calendar.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But ever since he got overtaken on whatever it was, lap 41 in Miami,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's just gone away from him. And you know, I look at what happened even yesterday, you know, on the weekend at Spa.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Max got ahead of him and he put 22 seconds on him in 27 laps. You know, that's a big chunk of performance to put.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's, that is the cause of concern. The only cause of concern at the moment in the Red Bull camp is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, Max is, is this the fourth teammate that he's potentially broken? I mean, who, who, who can they have alongside him? Or do they just say, you know what? We don't really need anyone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're happy for somebody to be half a second off the pace because our car is good enough for Max to be able to drive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It feels like a weird tension. It's the Ferrari situation, isn't it, that they had with Michael and Eddie Irvine and Rubens. You know, Rubens...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Arrived at Ferrari in, in 2000, expecting to be alongside Michael, um, and be an equal and compete against Michael and quickly realized that wasn't going to be the case and basically spent, you know, five years being really frustrated. Whereas Eddie Irvine went there and knew he wasn't going to do that and thought, you know what, if I get within three tenths of this bloke.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That would be great. And I'm going to be a Ferrari driver and life is good. And he was happy with anything, made a lot of money and it's, and he's, you know, lived a happier life in that period.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it's, it's about, at some point,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think, and I agree with Crofty, you know, you, in Chekhov's situation, he's got to accept, he's against one of the greatest nationally talented drivers ever to sit in a Formula One car.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, uh, you know, listen, I think, for me, the point of all of this is, at the moment, it's fine, right? Max is winning the constructors by himself, blah blah blah. But the reality is, if...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mercedes and McLaren and Aston and Ferrari do get it together.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, natural order of things is we'll start to see convergence with stability of rules. That's just the way iPhones always been. They will get closer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then Max might need a support act, and then you can't have a teammate who's not made Q3 for four or five weekends in a row. And I think that that's the point I'm trying to make is, from Red Bull's perspective,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not about this year. This year is done and dusted. They're going to clean it up. It's a question of when rather than if. But it's about what are they going to do for next year? And I think that's where the Ricardo factor starts to come into play here. Yeah, great. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I agree. And look, there's good stories up and down, um, up and down the field, isn't it? You know, I think there's been stuff going on. We started with all the stuff with Aston and their rejuvenation really at the start of the year from where they were.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's stuff going on. I think, I think you'd have to say there have been more boring races than others, but that's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the case of Formula One started in 1950. You can't have every football match, every cricket match going down to the last ball or the last minute. It's just, that is sport. Not every, every match or race is going to be exciting to the end. But on the whole, I think we've had a decent season.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, you know, I was just doing my, my numbers, uhm, for the first half of the season, and last year, Mercedes on average were 0.8% off the Red Bull, uh, and this year they were 0.596, so, so they've improved, uhm, by a quarter, but it's still not enough, and I think,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They've been those flashes of, of brilliance, you know, Lewis is qualifying, Budapest is probably the standard. There've been certain races where they've looked better than others, but actually, historically,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, they've been at tracks where they've been strong. Uhm, and I think...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the whole, they've come away from the first 12 races being disappointed. Toto's body language and his interviews with Ted were pretty clear on that front.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, they were hoping that they've understood their concepts at the end of last year. They were, they stuck with the concept, then they've had this mid-season change, the big upgrade.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it's not really moved them ahead of the midfield pack. Uhm, you know, they've kind of still stayed in that middle fight with


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Ferrari and, and Aston, uhm, Aston, if anything, have dropped back a bit, but now McLaren are in that fight, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think on the whole, Mercedes as a team will be pretty disappointed, despite the fact that I still believe they have the best collective driver line-up in Formula One.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What? No. I mean, the reality is they're a long way behind Red Bull, aren't they? Uhm, I'm, I'm with Tony in the sense that I'd like to see Lewis win that eighth championship. You know, Crofty and I were in the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm, I'm one like, like these guys, you know, I think we, I admire greatness and it'll be amazing to be involved in the sport when we see someone break that record. I remember being there when Michael won his seventh and it was incredible.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the reality is the gap between them, the chasm between Mercedes and Red Bull right now is so big.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That, unless they unlock a huge amount of untapped potential for next season, it's gonna be hard for them to close that gap.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But what I will say on the upside, Aston Martin and McLaren in more recent times have shown that big gains are possible in the modern era of the sport, which honestly I didn't think


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You would ever see those big, uhm, leaps that we've seen from those two teams in particular. Uhm, so yeaah, maybe, you know, I think if, if they understand


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where the fundamental false lie, and a lot of it is to do with just where you run the rear right out of the car, from what I understand, you know, Mr. 80s, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They've always, in the previous generation, let's say before 2022, always ran a completely different, um, rear ride height and the aero map completely differently, red pole. Then when the rules changed, you know, we had the whole bouncing thing and they've never found a sweet spot in terms of just where to run the rear ride height and that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For people who don't know, you know, that energizes the front wing and, and just, you know, opens up a whole load of, of setup options and aero options in terms of where you could run the car. And that means


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Red Bull, for example, who have found the sweet spot are competitive at every range of circuit, not just a Budapest here or, you know, the odd track here and there. And I think they need to understand how to get their entire concept into


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They've really got to knuckle down and see, you know, what comes out in testing for 2024.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm not sure that's entirely the case. You know, it is, it is audited on a, on a, if anything, on a weekly basis, I think. Really? Uhm, yeaah. You know, in the sense internally. Are you talking about internally? Internally, but not externally.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, yeaah, no, I think, I think that's because you have to decide, you know, here's your part, this is how you divvy it up, so you have to internally decide, but that, that's, that's the way that- Be grown ups.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Businesses, well, that's why any of our businesses, you know, you file annual accounts, isn't it? So, you know, you, you plan your, you plan your spend across the year. I think, I think that part's not too unusual. Look, on the whole, I, I think the cost gap is a positive though. I think in, in principle, I get the reasons why we have a cost gap.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I also understand the challenges of policing it accurately. Uhm, the one thing I, I think Crofty, I would, I would disagree with you is, uh, in terms of pay, because actually, you know, you, if you contrast what somebody in Formula One has paid,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Formula One people are paid a premium. Is somebody doing a similar, let's say, reliability engineering role?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In Formula One versus the road car industry, I paid a premium in F1.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They are struggling to recruit for, because they're trying to fit it in within the, the numbers they've got, because they don't want to get rid of people. They've been, you know, the big teams are being forced to come down to a cap.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they're struggling to get people to fit in this, this little bit of spare budget they've got, right? That's the thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, initially there was a theory about, you know, when the construction of the Pirelli tyre changed, that they struggled, but I think that's been sort of battered away a bit. Uhm, I just think at the start of the year, they, you know, they just started off with a very, very quick and competitive car, but as the year has gone on,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The likes of McLaren and Ferrari and Mercedes have added performance and Aston haven't quite been able to, to keep that, that performance trajectory, you know, in terms of updates and upgrades. I think Ferrari at the start of the year were terrible in terms of tyre wear. You know, they could still qualify if you look at,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The qualifying performances between Alonso and Leclerc or Sainz, they were about par. But in the races, they just go backwards. They had started to get on top of that. Look at Spa, for example, yesterday.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Got to testing, thought they'd understood their concept and we're going to build on last year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they weren't. And I think then they got lost. Uhm, and again, I flattered Aston a bit. So uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but look, I think on the whole Alonzo at Spa, uhm, you know, they, they made some setup tweaks, you know, having had a couple of tough weekends at Silverstone and Budapest where they were subpar.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Unlocked a bit of performance, finished fifth, and now they're back in that fight, and they sort of slipped back to being fifth best team, and now it seems they're at least in that little fight again. So uhm, on the whole, still a very, very strong start to the season.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, I think uhm, it's just a unique circuit, isn't it? And choosing the downforce package at Spa is more critical than at any other track.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the calendar, uh, Baku included, you know, I think because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is the only one where you have such a contradiction between the first and third sectors versus the middle sector, the lab. Uhm, and also that you've got this weather factor, you know, the forecasts are so unpredictable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can tell there's going to be rain at some stage, and they hedged their bets that it was going to be raining for more of the weekend. Unfortunately, Sunday ended up being dry for them. We had rain in the morning, but it wasn't the case later on in the day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They went with a higher downforce package, and you know, Lander got mugged, but...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because he had the higher downforce package, it enabled him to do that extra long stint on the soft tyres, manage the softs, and actually end up seventh, which somewhat surprised him considering the first, you know, two stints of the race.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, I think look at the highs they had in qualifying and, and, you know, piastry, uh, as I touched on earlier, I thought did a super job in the dry qualifying, um, because you've got DRS, which, which obviously helps you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So no, I don't think it's a crash down the road. I think on the whole, you know, they've, they've,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Done an amazing recovery. I think it is the best.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was starting to think about this before the podcast because I knew you'd ask me about McFarland at some stage. Uh, I think it's the best in-season turnaround we've seen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Since Jordan in 1998, uhm, you know, in contrast to where they were at the start of the year, they were genuinely one of the slowest, if not the slowest cars at certain Grand Prix's early in the year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I do a bit, uhm, but I think, you know, I don't really want to talk about Otmar by, by himself, because I think we have to consider...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The way that, that massive wave, uhm, of three heavy hitters has come at one shot. You know, you've lost Alan Permain, who has been on the team for 34 years. Pat Fry, who seems to have left on his own accord rather than being pushed, unlike Otmar and, and Alan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and he's gone to Williams, which is a great signing for Williams, by the way. Um, and that is, I think that that loss of all three of them is, is a big loss. And I think Tony's point about lack of, of direction and leadership from the top. Um, you know, a big change of leadership is, is, uh, is a bit of a worry. I mean, to me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, if you look at the people they've got rid of, it's people who are, you know, from an operational and track site perspective, which means that,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, what they're trying to say is that's where the problems were, um, and therefore the likes of, you know, Matt Harmon, the chief designer and Bruno Fammin, who's come in and taken over, who ran the engine department, you know, that side of it is all fine. The troubles were operationally.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I'm not sure that's necessarily the case. You know, the reality is they are form, you know, in Formula One at the moment, they are the sixth best team. They are the sixth fastest car.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where my concern comes in is, are they gonna be bringing in?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More management and more people from outside of motorsport, outside of Formula One. You know, already, if you look at the people who are in their planning departments, for example, at Enstone and things like that, you know, they brought them in from road car industry, you know, people from Rolls-Royce and places like that. And you do wonder now with


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With Renault corporate maybe taking a stronger hold in terms of running that team.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is it going a bit like Toyota from 20 years ago? You know, is it going down?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A sort of non-F1 way and sort of going down the corporate way, which I'm not convinced is gonna work.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the most, the most damning thing cropped to you that weekend, I thought, was Alan Pross.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sprint weekends are about to be shaken up, but not everyone is happy. Not least Max Verstappen, who has threatened to quit the sport over the changes. With the first sprint in Baku just weeks away, how will F1 change the format? This is the Sky Sports F1 Podcast.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hello everyone, I hope you're well and coping just about okay without F1. We've got 20 days to go until we go racing in Baku, but fear not, we're here to keep you company. Alongside me for this one is the 1996 Formula One World Champion, Damon Hill, Simon Lazenby and Jess McFadden. Hello all, I hope you're well. Damon, your first time on the podcast, welcome.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's Easter. And Jess, how are you? It's quite busy for us, isn't it, at the moment? People might think this is downtime, but unfortunately for us at Sky Sports F1 HQ, this is seemingly our busiest period.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Absolutely. So this is how it's going to work. We're going to talk about some changes to the sprint weekends, which I'm sure we've all got some quite interesting views on. And then we want to get into some of your fan questions as well, which we put out a little post on Twitter earlier.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is what has been proposed and as far as we understand it, this is what's going to happen. Here's what we have at the moment. FP1 on Friday. We've then got qualifying for the sprint on Friday afternoon. FP2 is on Saturday morning. The sprint is then Saturday afternoon, which sets the grid for the race on Sunday. Now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] These are the proposed changes. We would only have one hour of practice. That would be FP1 on Friday morning.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then qualifying for the race on Friday afternoon. So critical session there for the points on Sunday. And Saturday would see qualifying for the sprint in the morning. This would follow the usual Q1, Q2 and Q3 format, but descending time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So Q3 should just be one lap. And then Saturday afternoon would be the sprint itself, followed by the race on Sunday. With me, everyone. It's quite complicated. Uhm, Simon, let's start with you. What are your thoughts on the current sprint format? And do you think it needs a change? Do I like sprints?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Damon, when you were racing, what would the prospect of a sprint weekend have done for you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jess, go on. What did you make of sprint weekends last year? What was your overriding feeling?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You think we could be in a position where we get 20, however many races a year, every single race we can we'll get a sprint race next year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wanna get into some of the driver reaction to it, and this quote from Verstappen, which kind of I think was...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, we believe that all 10 teams have agreed, that's what Fred Visser said, that all 10 teams have agreed on this, but there's nothing official from F1 yet. I also wonder, and if this feeds into it as well, that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Less interesting race. The fact that we might have had a sprint on that same weekend with a really exciting race might, might.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know, make the whole weekend feel a bit better perhaps. Jess, I don't know if you agree if that's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If, you know, if maybe Richard's right that we should try and focus on Sunday and maybe make that a bigger deal and focus on getting the regulations right to ensure close racing then, I don't know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which I still find quite amazing that literally two weeks out from Baku we still don't know the format of the weekend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it kind of does, does go back to the point of like, you know, that there is a lack of transparency or it seems like there is, why is this all being decided?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So late in the day, should this not have been done at the start of the season? I mean, Damon, like if you were going into a season, I would imagine the rules of, the sporting rules that you would abide by would be laid out at the start of the season. Those are the rules which we all adhere to as drivers. To be changing the rules halfway through the season seems to me a bit strange.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Could we see a reverse grid any time soon? We know that Max and Lewis can get through the field without issues. I, I, I'm gonna open that to the floor. Would a reverse grid as part of a sprint weekend be a good thing? Shaking head from Simon, Damon's gimmick. Don't know what you're doing. Damon you look like you're nodding.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Six races this year, I think it's exciting, and I'm really intrigued to see what happens, starting in Baku, which we think is going to be this new format. Okay, let's move on just to a few questions from you guys at home, and uhm, yeaah, some interesting ones really, particularly on some of the teams this year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If this is, if this is the case, where does it leave the drivers? Simon, McLaren this year, how do you feel about, about what's happened in the, certainly in the first three races?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, uh, Damon, what about the drivers and piastries? Obviously got his first points in Australia in front of a home crowd. I imagine that would be a good monkey to get off your back through races in having not scored points.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, such a strong driver pairing. Uh, Jess, question from Akshita. Do you think Ferrari will be able to have a comeback this season or do we need to wait till next season?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Loads of Ferrari fans would probably like you to say yes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and Imola being the critical race for Ferrari at home. And again, battered in the Italian media.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Alonso's podium debacle in Saudi. Is there anything you can see that can?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Crinn's tweet has really set the cat amongst the pigeons there, which is great. It was a good debate. Damon, Simon and Jess, thanks very much for joining us. We'll be back next Tuesday. We hope you can join us then, but for now, bye.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] First thing, I did feel exhausted because, you know, at the same time, I'm not at the track, I'm doing a lot of analysis at home about every session, but you've got one practice, you've got qualifying.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Qualifying, you've got race, you've got race. And there's a lot of information to try to understand because that's the stuff that people want to dig into. It's like, it's not a practice session. It's not a test session. You literally.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everything on the line. And there's a lot going on. Other than that, I would say if I had to pick a word that's not exhausting, I would say a little bit confused. I don't know how I feel about this format yet. And I'm sure we'll get plenty of thoughts on that as well. But I think confused is a good, uh, I don't know where to sit yet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I can definitely speak from an engineering point of view, and I can speculate about a driver, but we'd rather ask a driver what they think about the single practice one, but from an engineering point of view,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean Fridays are crazy. FP1 is flat out. You're trying to get maybe one test item done. You're understanding both of the compounds at low fuel. Maybe having a sniff of what the high fuel balance and performance is like. Then you've got another test program for FP2 where you've narrowed down what you want to do. You've learned a lot. You've got different track conditions. And then you're going into your dress rehearsal basically to get ready for Saturday. But you don't have that anymore. You literally go in. You get Friday. You, you, you,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Long gone is, uh, staying up until midnight changing the diff maps or, you know, up or down a little bit on ride height. You've done it Friday. So you're kind of in passenger reaction mode for the rest of the weekend. And... I don't...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As a, as a, as a outsider now, observing, I don't know if that made much difference on the weekend itself, from, from a fan's point of view, at all, other than maybe slightly confused and not clear because it's a new format, but,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, one practice session is tough, but the best thing about one practice session is it breeds uncertainty. We don't know how the tire is going to behave. You have to lean very heavily on your preparation. You have to lean very heavily on your understanding of tire compounds from different tracks and extrapolate to the track that you're on now. And there's a lot more guesswork going on, which in my mind,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As an engineer I'd hate it. If I had one session to make all my changes, I would hate it. But as a fan, I don't think we've got a good taste of what that actually does yet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The whole lap just builds and builds and builds, and you've got the different characteristics and corners, but it's, it's exactly as Ant said, it's all about getting seat time and lap time, and the ability to go back in the garage, look at a printout or an overlay to say,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your teammates finding time here. What do their tools look like? What is their approach to this corner? What is their approach to this whole section of corners? You know you have lots of segments on this track where


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More laps is better. It gives the engineers more time to work with them and refine the tools to their driving style as well to help get more out of that. We saw signs struggling a lot in 3, 4, 5 and it's like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Those corners aren't that much different than 1-2, but there was certainly something else going on there with the characteristics of the track. That, that was where most of his lap time was left on the board to his teammate and it was a, it was a huge gap this weekend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think the biggest thing is, when we're looking at this, if sprint format is a thing, it's staying for a while. I would much rather watch a sprint shootout than a FP2 session with the cars in Park Ferme. I'd like to sprint the SQ.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sorry, the sprint shooter format. I don't, I don't hate it, but I can understand where a driver like Max is coming from. It's just like the same, same, same, same, same. And they like the build up and the data gathering and the refinement and building an even bigger gap.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, you could have seen a bit of chaos especially, I mean, a lot of people tended to run the lower, into the downforce packages, so it's like, I think,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Other tracks that would have worked here maybe not because you ended up having this weird situation where you had a high efficiency car like a Ferrari for example being trailed by a relatively low efficiency car like an Aston Martin or a Mercedes which are quite a bit more draggy this season. It's like they could get close and then you open up the exit of 15


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They can kinda close the gap a little bit and they're still, you know, 1.2 seconds back for many laps in a row.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, that's one of those things that could add variety to it. You, you hedge your bets on Friday, you set your qualifying lap, go as fast as you can, and then you get to re-optimize your car for Sunday. But, I think, probably Ant's comment on the, the Band-Aid.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is, is probably actually the answer to that whole thing. It's the cars being reliant on so much downforce. And I think here we have quite a big set of differences in performance gaps between the cars as a result of this part of the development cycle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, that would be super interesting to see what they could do if they could completely redo their setups for Sunday.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think we'd have to see and trial it, you know, it's like what does it make? And I think the teams probably have a pretty good idea what they can do in terms of the tools that they've got in the.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just to chip in on that, the only thing that I think was really really awkward for the sprint shootout format was the fact


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who was it? Uhm, Norris didn't have any tires.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that was like the whole point of the sprint shootout format is to get more cars on track. And you've got, you've got your McLaren of Lando Norris in Q3, the car looks a lot better. And he's like, right, I'm going to sit out on this soft tire run on this brutal punishing street circuit track. And he sat there. I think an easy fix for that part of the rules is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let teams run a soft, like we saw teams finding track evolution running used tires.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the ability to at least have a go. It's not ideal. The other thing, the other solution is lock like the way you do for Q3. Lock a set of soft tires away for SQ3. And if you don't make it to sprint qualifying three, you've got a new soft for the sprint or the race.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's just like, it's now or nothing. If the driver ahead of you makes a slight fumble, it's like, I need to get my nose in there, otherwise that could be the only chance I get for the rest of this race.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was a really tough one to understand because looking at the performance gaps in qualifying and where they're finding lap time, Cecho was just in one of those weekends where he was absolutely in the groove. He didn't set a wheel wrong, uhm, he was very, very comfortable with the car.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On a place like, like Ant said, it's, it's super high risk, high reward type of circuit. Like, you saw how many people are flirting with the barriers at 15. A lot of people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As he said, you know, finding the apex, finding too much of it. He didn't, he did none of it. And maybe a couple taps the wall here, but it was awesome.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Max really looked like he was not having a good time with the very low speed section, uhm, through the castle, like he was losing lots of time there, didn't have confidence, uhm, getting the entry done to 15, which is where Leclerc really shined on Friday.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, I think this is, we're, we're race four in. Can, can check, I mean check those six points behind in the championship. Is that including the sprint?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's there. If he can hang on to it and not have one of those dips like he had at the end of 2022, after the break in 22 something happened, and there was the whole narrative of, oh they've developed a car for Max, but having developed


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know all the way from 2015 to 21 cars and 22 cars in the simulator. I don't ever remember seeing one of those things where


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're pushing to help develop the car for the lead driver. Both of the drivers are giving feedback and more often you're actually spending time


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As good a shot as he does in a year. And uh, Max is a very difficult measuring stick to go up against.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What they never think is unachievable, and that's the whole point, that's why you're in that position in the first place, is because you know that that's your job, is to beat that guy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's, that's the goal. So there's no, it's not unachievable, you know, but you know, looking at stuff and say, here's the data. Can you carry five kilometers an hour extra speed on the entry of this corner? And they tell you no, and you're like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your teammate in the exact same machinery is able to do that. You're gonna have to find a way, or you're gonna have to accept it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That he's just gonna keep, you know, getting those couple hundreds away from you every time you go into a corner like this. And sometimes they accept it and sometimes they don't. But...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We've also got other, yeah, it is, but we've also got other variables, you know, it's not always your weekend, you know, sometimes you go off on a wrong foot on your starting setup and you never recover.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, you know, there's always, you have to make the most of those opportunities, but sometimes it is quite brutal, but Checo's been, especially this weekend, especially on it, and it's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hopefully, hopefully it continues like this because it'll be a little bit of excitement at the front because we do have gaps forming throughout the rest of the field, which uhm, yeaah, I think for everybody else's enjoyment makes it a little bit less.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a lot of instances where I saw that Cheko was trying to take two big of bytes out of entries to corners and losing out on the exits being high, medium speed and low speed corners.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Somehow that level of aggression that you need to get the most out of a street circuit, uhm, he tends to go very well there. And just looking at it from a numbers point of view, and yes, there's all sorts of context and everything else. Unlucky, red flags.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, uhm, Max notting- not setting his second lap in Monaco, uhm, running out of fuel in Singapore last year, but if you ignore all that and just say, let's just look at the numbers because over a whole season maybe luck comes to you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, so I mean, he had a clear gap to him at traditional circuits, half a percent upwards of one percent gap to Cheko.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the end of the season after the break, on street circuits, there was no gap in the qualifying laps that they set. Obviously the context from that removed, but...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The numbers don't lie, he does tend to go well there. He qualifies well there, he tends to race well there. So, I think it's a little bit of everything, the killer instinct, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The dangerous thing for all the other teams is, both Max and Checo are insanely good on their tires. They have the conundrum, they can do it. Go fast, save tires. How? They both do it. That's the thing most drivers, you ask them, uhm, we need you to increase your pace by two tenths. Can you look after the tires, they say? No.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whatever it is about the car, in combination with these two guys, uhm, I've seen Checo do it many times, and I've seen Max do it multiple times now. They're both...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, monsters, but what is it exactly that he's good at tires? Yes, uhm, the low speed 90 degree corners, great at it, taking ga- taking


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Risks when he needs to, leaving just enough margin, repeatedly over and over in the way that you need to do that to do well in a race and qualifying session around a street circuit, they both can do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But he's traditionally been much closer at these circuits numerically.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's one of the biggest things though, is the driver is, is, is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's very often a black box that the engineers do not understand and they can do all they can to model the driver, but why do we still have drivers in the simulator?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because you still need them. Because you don't understand what's going between the inputs and outputs of that system. And back to your point as well, Anne, about the, that flow state. When you have stuff like your brake balance, your differential settings, your engine braking, and you're not comfortable with where they're at.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can't get into that because you're always second guessing that it's like, well, okay, two meters later on the brakes here, but then I get this weird lock or I get a little bit of the rear axle dragging on the corner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's one of those things that happens if you don't have much practice, the performance engineer doesn't have any time to dial in the diff maps the way they need to. You can't get the right compromise on your brake shapes and your engine braking. So, you know, literally you heard Max's dialogue with GP throughout the race.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's literally going through a diagnostics list of these combinations of brake balance and differential and engine settings that he thinks he can get to make the corner better. We even saw that with some other drivers as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is I think one of the other questions you had later on is like, it was a big topic this weekend, but it did go under the radar a little bit and I think it's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Potentially slightly underappreciated by the fans how much those kind of tools and systems are important for the driver to get into that state where they're not thinking about


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, how do I, how do I brake? Do I need to roll off the throttle sooner? Do I need to go on the throttle sooner to get onto this corner to get stopped at car from over rotating? And it's like, you have to think about that as the tires are changing. You can't get in the flow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] About the settings and changes and what we're observing. And I've always got, you know, engineers probably have six voices in their ear at one time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was really cool that Fernando did that, but at the same time, teammates and engineers in the background are very often working closely together and you can't afford to have...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We were very open. You know, Friday night we'd talk about what we're doing. Uhm, you hear everything that's going on any time during qualifying, so if you miss something, you say, oh, they've noticed something. I would pass that on to the race engineer or driver when the driver's back in the garage at the same time, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know how I felt about Miami last year, and I'm really, I really like, I'm one of those people like, I don't mind the new street tracks. I know a lot of people don't like them and we don't want to lose a lot of the traditional circuits, but as long as they produce good racing, that's fine. And last year Miami, despite getting a fairly bad rap in terms of Sunday,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There were quite a few overtakes and I think we just missed quite a few of them, the narratives on the, on the, on the feed exact, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know what, a little, a little bit of chaos wouldn't hurt, wouldn't hurt at all, but, uh, I'm interested to go back to a normal race format for this weekend, uh, I missed it a little bit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah, immediately. Immediately. So, uh, Nick DeRese out, Daniel Ricciardo in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, the timing is interesting because today was the first day that Daniel Ricciardo was back in a Red Bull Racing Formula One car proper, not just doing demonstration runs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Since he left McLaren at the end of 2022. So this was the first opportunity that Red Bull and, you know, by extension AlphaTauri, because they're the same organization as when it comes to drivers, as it has been demonstrated, were able to gauge whether Daniel Ricciardo,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Was. Still on it. And whether he still had it. And whether he had been.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just burnt out at McLaren and whether he was actually the same driver that left Red Bull all those years ago and not the same driver who left McLaren and clearly according to Red Bull


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The latter is true in that Daniel Ricciardo was exactly the same driver who left Red Bull.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Way back when, and uhm, is not the same driver who suffered.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Peter Beyer and Franz Tost, who were the ones who would have made the decision, with the blessing of Oliver Mintzlaff, the man in charge at Red Bull.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To terminate Nick DeVries' contract or pay him off for the rest of the season. We don't know what's happened. And put Daniel Ricciardo in immediately. Not even Liam Lawson.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The next two races, which is what we understood he had up until the beginning of the summer break to prove that he was worthy of the seat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, it is the best car by a country mile in Formula One, and so maybe Daniel just couldn't deal with the McLaren.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Quick, because the last time we heard from Christian Horner...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now there are some plans to replace Nick DeVries and we're going to replace him in the space of a few hours. Now this is all well and good basing it, Matt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the Red Bull RB19, which is the class of the field. He's not driving that car.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's driving probably one of the slowest cars on the grid, if not the slowest, which is the Alpha Tauri. The Alpha Tauri, as we'll talk about later in the podcast, had some upgrades to Silverstone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they finished further down than they normally do with a non-upgraded car. So this is not a great Alfa Tauri, it's fair to say. And


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The surprise is why Daniel Ricciardo would want to go into that car.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's just saying, because he can't see, he doesn't want to say I'm delighted to drive the Alpha Tauri, maybe, because it's not a quick car. But he's back on track with the Red Bull family, so, yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe there's some longer term gain in it for Daniel Ricciardo, because there might well be some short term pain if he can't do anything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, yes it does, and I think it makes Sergio Perez


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Australian Grand Prix. Do you remember? I know my notebooks are mostly forgettable, Matt. But do you remember my Saturday notebook? Do you remember my Saturday notebook when I happened upon Daniel Ricciardo?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and I'm wearing and I'm wearing the clothes. There was something he said, which was like, I'll be back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I'll pro- and I wanna be back in these clothes, in this Red Bull gear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, the plan is to come back. And he's been saying it ever since Miami when he's been interviewed as well. So uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's a really tricky one because this whole plan of coming back could be scuppered by being no quicker than Yuki Sonoda.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and Checo does bring attract sponsorship. There are a few sponsors I can, uh, point to on the car, uh, that have come courtesy of, you know, Red Bull's, uh, desire to expand and exploit the South America and the Mexican market.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That, you know, he may well be worried if Red Bull decide to go the Ricardo way, if he turns out to be the man who turns AlphaTauri around.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, I'm sure, you know, his supporters and he will think that he's been unfairly treated. I don't think he got a fair crack at the whip. Uhm, I think he was...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not exactly motivating, but hey, that's what you get when you race for Christian Horner and Helmut and Helmut Marco, I suppose. Um, but in the end, he wasn't quick enough. I guess all the hard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I don't know. I like Nick. I respect him. I think he's a good driver.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Royal Sport is the wrong word. Maybe he was used to the bigger teams like Mercedes. He was a young Mercedes driver, wasn't he, before he went to AlphaTauri, and didn't find the level of support that he had at a smaller team like AlphaTauri.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As they would say, you know, those are the brakes and, uh, I think it's, he joins the long, long list of drivers, unfortunately having their careers interrupted, let's only hope, at the hands of Helmut Marko and Red Bull.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would hope knowing the quality of Daniel Ricciardo that he would outpace Yuki Sonoda quite quickly, just on experience and ability in terms of, you know, longevity in Formula One. Uh, and I would expect him to score the odd point here and there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a challenge for Cecho's seat, Cecho, Cecho Perez's seat in 2024.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It does. Every part of the body has a different sun cream. And I have it all on my desk, uh, in front of, uh, in front of my little, um, workplace.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're not mine because uhm, because I expense the cost of them basically, Bernie, to be absolutely honest about it. So they belong to the company and to the production.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm confused here. Is it team stuff we're selling or is it Skysports stuff? Are we selling Skysports F1 Ted's notebooks? And if not, why not?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll get one of these, I'll get a nice leather bound, I'll imprint, this one says book journal on the front of it, it's my wife's. I'll imprint Ted's notebook with a Sky Sports logo, an F1 logo, and we'll sell this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I was surprised, Matt, on Sunday morning when Andrea Stella was actually sort of down flat playing his expectations for McLaren in the race saying, look, we haven't got on top.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now what that means was that if it's thermal degradation or just any kind of degradation, combination of the new tyre construction, which worked,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And for McLaren, and the low track temperatures as Bernie says, and the upgrades.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that was it. Those hard tires were going to work for him and he could keep that position. So yeah, I mean, it would have been.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're right, Matt. It would have been a 2-3 with Oscar Piastri had he not lost out, got unlucky under the safety car. But as it was, we had...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Four, I want to say we have four Brits in the top five.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the sidelines and it was so great that on the same weekend where we have Max Verstappen no less saying that if Lando was in a car that could win races.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And championships, Lando can win races and championships that he showed that he was able to hold onto that P2.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And deliver it and hold off, you know, the likes of Lewis Hamilton and beat Max off the start and Bernie, I have a question for you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do you think Max raced Lando differently at the start? For two reasons. First of all, knowing that he'd get him eventually once they got their tyres going and with the super duper DRS. And secondly, that he wasn't Lewis Hamilton.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Silverstone definitely suited their car with the upgrades, uh, Lando took a bit of wing off as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so are we, the answer is I don't know, uh, uh, Bernie already kind of answered it when she said that Hungary will, will tell, but they will be in and amongst the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the non-Max Verstappen championship for the rest of the season. Um, and it will depend on track conditions, tires, track temperature, tire behavior, and you know, anything else, driver performance, um, whether they can sort of sustain that and move up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, that's really, they're so far off. I know you can score a lot of points of a weekend and only this weekend, McLaren scored 30 to Aston Martin's, uh, six.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, I think I've got that right. Yeah, that's right. So, you know, it can turn around quite quickly, but yeah, McLaren have got a bit of a way to go to get back up there in constructors.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, Bernie, do you not think that some people regretted that soft touch switch towards the end?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Two, two laps towards the end. Couldn't get Lando. Lando was safe from the attack from Lewis Hamilton towards the end because Lewis's softs were gone. And it was only because George treated them, you know, like, like butter in the first stint because he needed to and everybody was, we were in that sort of dull phase of time management in the first stint while everybody figured out what, what was going on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, that when they went at it hammer and tongs towards the end, the soft, do you think it was the faster at the end?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, tire jeopardy and a trip into the unknown. People didn't know how the construction was going to go. Uhm, because it was, uh, sort of under the radar. Quite a big, quite a big change, but it worked out, worked out well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do you remember at the start of the season, McLaren came to the launch and effectively immediately after in testing said,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, two things. First of all, uhm, with Lewis and Fernando, two drivers who have very differing experiences of their, of their McLaren experience, of their McLaren history, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They came at it from a different way. Lewis was genuinely happy to see McLaren back and doing well. Fernando was at the same time genuinely happy to see them back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He knows now that McLaren are gonna be trouble for Aston Martin and maybe Lewis felt against what I said earlier about


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Confidence in their race pace, uh, I guess, uhm, but that's for that one and, and when I was leaving, uh, the circuit after I'd done my notebook, I finished up at Aston Martin and then,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fernando came through and gave the McLaren boys a sort of bravo and a hand clap, which I thought was nice. I think, I think Fernando does still have a sort of soft spot, thinking back to the McLaren, the way it ended.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think he does have a sort of McLaren soft spot deep in his heart, even though it didn't really end up particularly well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, anyway, that's just one thing. And two things, the second thing, uhm, Lewis definitely has a soft spot for Clarence. And it's, you know, it's a, it's a well...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, uhm, felt, uh, that he's glad for everybody there. Lando of the weekend was just happy to be back in it. He was glad to see his bucket hats and his green, uh, hoodies in the, uh, in the, in the grandstands, his merch.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he was feeling the love of everybody in the paddock. Um, it was when it was asked for selfies would do some sort of funny faces.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, some one fan said to me, uh, Oh, you're not doing a Lando funny selfie face. I said, what was the kind of Lando funny selfie face? So he does a kind of blue steel when you ask him for a, for a selfie, which I thought.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Had his, uh, had his sisters there I think as well. Uhm, I didn't see Oli, his brother. He might have been there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, but, uh, yeah, it was just a sort of fun weekend, a positive weekend all around. And he was just happy to be at Silverstone and with a car.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That it's very, very easy for the aircraft to be...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Group Captain Billy Cooper and Flight Lieutenant Matt Brighty, who were the pilots, they were at the same level as their aircraft. They were completely at ease with their aircraft and able to think about everybody else.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But those pilots were not, and George is never overloaded. He gets the picture of actually what's going on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, nice, um, nice segway back into the Typhoon piece. Did you like it? Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I must say at the time, Matt, I wondered whether it was a team mistake.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I looked at it and I wondered whether, you know, they were so sort of...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We messed up, rather than, you know, it was just, well, I didn't get it, you know, the best, the best run on it. So it is to Czechos credit as a team player.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Performance in qualifying. You go into qualifying and say, don't mess it up, don't mess it up, don't mess it up. Oh, I messed it up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, and then the pressure just builds weekend by weekend, but uhm, I really hope for his sake he gets himself out of what I called, I think on the weekend, a pickle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, with all Max's points. Uhm, and Max is going to win the World Championship, Drivers Championship. So, where's the problem?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, for sixth, but that is possible, I guess. Uhm, if Alpine really have a terrible rest of the season. But yeaah, to be up from last to seventh in the Constructors.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That would, uh, would be, is good going at the moment and would probably see the season off very well, uh, for Williams.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Alex Alban is, as James Vowell said, the perfect driver for them. Yes, Logan Sargent does need to start scoring some points there, uh, but he has had this weekend, the first time I've really heard James Vowell's come out and say,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Logan is doing what we want him to do. You know, this is, he is developing as a nice little racing driver here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, they were at Silverstone. Uhm, there's no, there's no denying that. Fred Vasseur was, uh, I tried to sort of,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, we've gotta do better than this. We were too conservative on the tyre choices. We were too conservative on thinking that we needed to go and be the first to pit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think they were thinking, oh, you know, everyone's going to react and follow us into the pits. They didn't and were left there looking like, you know, the last


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like last years, which is just nice to drive, because they've got such good drivers, that you've just got to give them the equipment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, sorry. Can I just say that Fernando Alonso, you know, in his well-done McLaren, that was his equal worst result of the year, which is a lowly six points and seventh, same as Spain.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Aston just couldn't cope. It couldn't cope. It was like, uh, quick stuff, slow stuff. What do I do? And you know, maybe they could have taken some wing off maybe in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In post race, uh, analysis, Aston will think, do you know what? We tried to cover both the slow stuff and the fast stuff. Didn't really work. Tom McCulloch said we knew it wasn't going to be the best weekend for us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know what, my favorite piece that we put out on Sky F1 this weekend,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Was, and bearing in mind that the other one was the piece that I was in, I shot and I edited with Georgie.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To see Brad Pitt, you know, international movie superstar, from Seven to Oceans, the Oceans movies, to all the other good stuff he's done, uhm, just embrace.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] F is being so pleased that everybody's welcomed him in and his film crew. And for me, sort of three things. First of all, the professionalism.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of the film crew, watching them in action in the garage, I thought was really great.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, you know, we've had other movie crews, I remember, come in before and, you know, wanting to sort of take over, be disruptive. Not a bit of that. They were so professional.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I don't know, you know, it's impossible to tell who were movie extras, who was Carlin, who were running the team, who were actually professional mechanics.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, you know, uh, to, to, to anything else. Um, so I thought that was really good. Uh, Brad Pitt, Damson Idris looked fantastic on the grid. They did the.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the, the, the, the, the, the National Anthem, and they were in the driver's briefing, uhm, and didn't stand out, didn't disrupt anything, blended in. They did a walk back, I watched them walking back from the drive, from the National Anthem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there was a, there was a me character, Matt, on the grid. Oh was there? Was there? Yeah, there was a me character who was wearing a flat cap and was trying to interview them with a dictaphone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, uh, and then when they got the back to the back of the car, they were great on the pit wall. They were there, um, with Kim Bodnia from Killing Eve and Kerry Condon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, sorry to carry boring you on my banshee's finisher. And it was just a pleasure to see it happening and to hear that, you know, they're going about it the right way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Drivers get together, we're in a season, uh, Brad Pitt comes back to help, um, uh, Damson Idris' character, and then hijinks ensue.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you know, with like Bob, the, uh, the guy in the, uh, one of the other planes. Um, but was an action film and I like to think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From what Brad was saying, there'll be some light moments in there. Cause there are, you know, some light moments. It's not all sort of driving and rrrr. But looking at, uhm, Brad was talking about Javier Bardem's character, uh, as a kind of flamboyant team boss.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and F1 put some of the photos up of Javier Bardem at the back of the grid. He's going to be a hilarious character.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And just, I'm, you know, I'm stoked about the whole thing. They were, they were really good, great crew, great cast, great production. And I'm looking forward, everyone is going to, you know, welcome them back at many races to come.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I thought it was a good race. I don't know why people are moaning about it so much, you know. The winner came from 9th on the grid. We had an intriguing battle, almost race long between the Red Bull drivers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And down the field, incredible overtakes. George Russell on Charles LeClerc, Lewis coming through, Kevin Magnussen attacking, defending, counter-attacks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Outrage. Why restart a race with two laps to go? Like, like, you can just clip a couple of laps off when you fancy it and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And lots of, lots of people moaning, but I think the vast silent majority


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] absorb their formula one, enjoy it, and realize that sometimes it's a


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'd go with that because, you know, the best race is unquestionably the marginal two stoppers. Will they get to the end without needing a third stop?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People just fell by the wayside. They've kind of managed that a lot better these days, both at Pirelli and in the teams, but, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I, I don't think it's that. I think, as Karim said, it's lack of competition. You know, Mercedes, for whatever reason, decided to just stick with something that didn't work last year. Uhm, Ferrari have stepped on their own tails. Thank goodness for Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso, I would say. And...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Red Bull have just got it even more right. You know, that Red Bull is a genius car, particularly with the rear wing open. It's unbeatable. It is absolutely in a race where you will have DRS, which you don't always do on a very, very wet day for example, but generally of course you do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I think over a season long, I think we all know that Max will turn up all day, every day, and on Saturday he had...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you don't win, you must finish second. Because when you've got a dominant car, you know, your teammate, that's what's available to you is first and second. You can't afford to miss the second places because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, you'll struggle to play catch up at that point and that's what we're looking at here. I mean, Sergio's doing a great job in terms of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're restructuring now with Andrea Stella and some other people coming into the team. They've got a new wind tunnel coming. They're hanging an awful lot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that's not exactly flying along brilliantly there at the moment either, is it? So uhm, it's difficult. It's a difficult business. And uhm, and we'll see what the, what these changes do for them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it's a lot tougher for Lando though. I mean, he, he, you know, he could have won those three races on the bounce, couldn't he, a while back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, he's seeing George and Carlos and Contemporary's winning Grand Prix and challenging for podiums. So all Oscar's got to do is stay close to or beat Lando. Lando needs to try to beat everybody else on the grid. So it's a really challenging time for him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I don't think it made the cut, that particular piece, but you know, we all tried to see the crystal ball and who's going to have the downforce and power and grip and get their teams together, but uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, Landa will be looking around. He's got to be looking around, but he's nailed on with the contracts and the contract recognition board, so he's got a while there and I do, he's got time, he's a young man, but he's, he's uhm, he'll be keen to, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As I got, got to the front there and I just happened to say to Jackie, ah, he's like, do you want to talk to him then? I said, yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uhm, and it's sort of non-negotiable, as you know when you're anchoring the show, Pinky. And uhm, and now I'm watching security guards, Roger Federer,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so Jackie Stewart, I see this sort of negotiation going on over there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Between as we managed to get Patrick Mahomes and Paolo Banquero mixed up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We got a final list of 60 celebrities who were coming on the grid. This is last year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, in amongst doing a live show, we're feverishly trying to be sure who will, you know, we get teed up through the weekend, but you get a finalist who's actually


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I was supposed to be talking to Patrick Mahomes finally on the grid. He was in a sort of a very pink sort of short.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then they've got, you know, 50 million followers or something like that. It's complete captain chaos. I have no idea what I'm doing and how it happens, but it seems to happen in the end. But you know, then one of my nieces will go, oh, so cool. Uncle Martin, you spoke to whoever. And I'm like, did I?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We have to accept, we've got a new audience. The demographic age group of our audience has changed a lot in recent years, everyone's grown dramatically and we need something for everybody. Obviously as a man of a certain age, I perhaps am


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know, did it really add anything? Some sort of generic lines and the drivers come out, but I'm very open to change. I think you have to keep your mind open on this, but what I, what I do think is,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When the green light goes on and the cars leave the pits, that's a moment of very high energy for Formula One. We're getting close to the Grand Prix.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then what happens after that and this army of people and equipment and these beautiful racing cars and the finest drivers in the world all heading to the grid. And I think you need to keep that energy and, and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Go to the grid and go hard racing, uhm, because we used to go to the grid 30 minutes before and now it's 50 minutes before the weekend. Uhm, it's open for debate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When I hate to see those shots of the drivers loitering in their garage almost, you know, playing cards or something, they're off the grid. They don't want to be around. They're just going to lose 20 minutes somewhere. So that doesn't feel energetic enough to me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, it's a challenge for the teams, uh, obviously if you have accidents, Alpine have had a shocking run, haven't they, in terms of lots of broken parts, and Charlotte Clare is having a good go at, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dismantling his Ferrari as well from time to time, but I think it's the cost cap that's making a bigger difference. But part of that is going to so many races as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I think in terms of the development.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe you even heard him in the cool down room after the race saying, you won't pass me in Monaco if I get in front of you. And that's what's in his mind. I love that attitude. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, yeaah, he was showing off a bit, wasn't he? Because he obviously saw Lance overtake on a big screen somewhere and was like, yeaah, I'll just congratulate him on that. That was, just to let you know how easy this is for me this afternoon, which was...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which was brilliant. Uhm, so, uh, yeaah. As we say, thank goodness for Fernando and Aston Martin at the moment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hello everyone, I hope you're well. Welcome to this week's episode where we've got a fascinating Q&A.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With Bernie Collins. Now, Bernie has joined our team on Sky Sports F1 for this season. She was previously at Aston Martin as a head of race strategy and a performance engineer at McLaren. It was a really, really interesting chat, loads of great questions. So thank you very much for those. I hope you enjoy it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Different sections. So want to talk to you about your role as a strategist and you want to get into all of the nitty gritty of that. Then we'll ask you a little bit about starting out, how you got into the industry and then also about your new role with us. Okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On Sky Sports, on camera, which I imagine is quite different, but you know, I'm sure there's some similarities.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's very different, well there we go. Uhm, I guess first question is,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What is a strategist? And I think I asked that because I think as viewers and fans of F1, we think we know what a strategist does. Yeah. But I want to hear it from you. What does a strategist do on a race weekend?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's quite a full-on job by the sounds of it. It's, it's, I mean, if you, if you look at your week, does it, it starts somewhat like a Monday or Tuesday of a race week and goes all the way through to when, Wednesday of, of a post-race?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dan on Twitter would like to know, what software do teams use to calculate strategy? You know, does each team have their own or is this shared between, between all the teams?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And presumably if you develop that software as a team, that's a huge cost, right? Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Very interesting. I'm still fascinated that it's used by other sports as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guess there is a lot of crossover between Formula 1 and other sports. Uhm, there's an Instagram question here from Skinny04. What was it like working for a Formula 1 team? Just, yeah, I want to get into how did you enjoy the travel? How did you enjoy all the other aspects around being in the Formula 1 team?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. Do you think it's something spoken enough about in the sport that the impact on people's lives? Obviously, you know, 23 races away from, from families, from loved ones at home. That's a lot of pressure, isn't it? To put on people. And I guess, you know, perhaps as people get older, maybe when you're young, you know, just starting out in a Formula One team, it's the most exciting thing in the world. But as you get older, it must, it must change your perception of that part of the industry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, especially if we go up more and more races, you know, 25 being talked about. Um, okay. Tweet from Sarah, hi Bernie, which driver that you worked with was your favorite and why? Brackets, go on, say Jensen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Very interesting. Tweet from Carl, which driver was the hardest to get your point over strategy wise and the one during the race who needed convincing a different strategy was best?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. And I guess trust, right? You build it up and that's why you see...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or who enjoyed hearing about the strategy, was he someone who took an active role in really getting into it and being a part of that discussion?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You said, uh, when you first worked with Seb, you were maybe a little bit nervous, a little bit apprehensive about it. How long did that last very long or was he super warm and super friendly with you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nice, yeaah. Never too old to learn. Never too old to learn, yeaah. Even if it is a school day, yeaah. Even if you're Sebastian Vettel. Uh, okay, a tweet from Gullynat. Is it, is it common for teams to have code words to secretly relay strategy? For example, we often hear of some drivers falsely saying their tyres are good or bad when the inverse seems to be the case.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's a fine balance, isn't it? Does it often go wrong?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All on that very clever software. Formula Cracked on Twitter wants to know what was the most exciting race you've seen from a strategic opportunity viewpoint and what race do you reckon your strategic input had the most influence on the outcome?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. Joshua on Twitter, how often does a race pan out just like you thought it would strategy wise? I'm going to guess probably very few, very few times. And how much do you think less practice sessions and testing would have an effect on this number?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was, if we, because obviously in Baku we're talking about potentially reducing the amount of practice time, you know, we might only get one practice session, FP1. Do you think that would have an effect on how you guys work as strategists?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I think everyone would like to see that, uh, fans as well. Uh, con on Instagram, which is your favourite circuit to go to?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Great elevation as well, you can get to points on the track on you and see the entire circuit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think as well it's something that everyone's going to have to grapple with is because it's live sport, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe limiting technology. Maybe limiting that development. Okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think that's everything on being a strategist. Okay. Not everything, but a lot of being a strategist. So I want to ask you a little bit about your own career and how you started out in Formula One. Just, just try and if you can give us the abridged version of you, you know, from, from being a youngster to getting where you are now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, that's really interesting. What I find fascinating is you've done a lot of the different roles that I guess as a strategist you're calling on, right? You're calling on your performance engineer, you're calling on the design team at all the points throughout a weekend. And is it a case of you kind of have to do everything below you to be able to kind of go in above, would you say?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What were the main differences between, so you obviously left McLaren, went to Force India.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Quite different teams, what were the main differences between them?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I bet. Gemma wants to know what do you think from your experience as a very successful woman in F1 is needed to encourage more girls to take part and support them once they've got their foot in the door?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, want to move on to your new life and your new role as an analyst with us here at Sky Sports. What was the, what was the main reason why you left Aston Martin and why you sort of moving into this different, different role in your life?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's fine, we'll come back to you at the end of the season in Abu Dhabi. Uh, Rob would like to know, now you've seen F1 through the lens of Sky F1, what stands out as an observation that you didn't maybe think about when you, when you were on the pit walls or anything that you've seen perhaps in the way that we do things in TV that has kind of changed your perspective on the sport?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. Ideas and knowledge is your currency. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sean would like to know if you could have done any other role in F1 team, aside from the ones you've had, what would you choose and why?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guess I'm curious to know as a strategist, obviously you're asking an awful lot from the drivers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure there is. Uh, Jacob would like to know if you've got any bold predictions for the future FF1 and could, that could be either driver based or on the sport itself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] F1 has always been a leader hasn't it? In technology.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yvonne would like to know, are you proud of what happened at Aston Martin and do you regret not being part of this year's success? So I guess it is quite interesting because obviously, you know, last year wasn't as successful as I'm sure the team would have hoped, but this year we're seeing Alonso and Lance absolutely killing it, aren't we?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Could you feel that last year, you know, as you were leaving the team, could you feel that big things and good things were coming?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, yeah. We move on to Baki, next, where you're going to be with us, with SkyF1. Was that a race you looked forward to as an engineer?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, Bernie, thank you very much for your time. Really appreciate it. Uh, we've got Gunter Steiner joining us on next week's podcast. So if you haven't seen the post on Twitter, get your questions in for him. Uh, he'll be joining us, but until then, bye for now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guess we'll find out, but, uh, yeaah, Hot Wings, I don't know if, uh, I'm ready for this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We can never get a word out of him. No, he was, he was very good. We were one game away from winning the state championship, which then led to Regionals, and then the Little League World Series, but he was, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can't say I saw that coming out of him. Being one of the best, you know, two-guards, all-time, two-way player. Yeah, I can shoot the ball exceptionally and, you know, also has a championship ring, so two kids from Lake Oswego.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They went through the school, the school said, well, we're not paying for this. So they went to Lake Oswego High School and said, well, we're not paying for this. And then they actually asked my family to chip in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I do. Probably him and Channing Fry gave me the most shit about my diet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, more than anything, I mean, I came from high school where I was, you know, I cleaned the plate ass for seconds, I was eating home-cooked meals, my mom was making me whatever I wanted. I didn't, I knew nothing but garbage disposal. Just put it away.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Brilliant stars have that manic energy and that presence around them that make them who they are and, you know, he was no different.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was an interesting day. Yeah, Doug Allen had us out to the shoot. He said, you know, why don't you jump in? Eminem's going to be here today. So he's like a big guy, break up a fight.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that was, uh, it's hit now. I can feel it. There you go. Three hits.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we have a lot of guys that, yeaah, fight about that, but it's fun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, don't, don't take yourself too seriously. That's another, I wish I could explain it on here, but Richard Jefferson.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a certain song out there. Throwback to like early 2000s. He knows what I'm talking about. He'll see this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Shoot the three, next play, come down, same thing, shake, cross you over, go down the lane, dunk it. And, I mean, he was one of those guys that...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My, uh, photoshopping expertise isn't too great. I know, this was, uh, I remember this was in Minnesota our first year and it became such a thing that, ah, Kevin's not in the photos and, uh, you know, Bron and Tristan and Swish and, and, and Shump and Cod and I put them in the photo. So, you know, I took it upon myself to, yeah, throw myself in there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well I remember that it was supposed to be a 45 minute run through. I think it took 3 and a half hours because you could tell after 52 years that, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm trying to eat most of the wings, so I'm not like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Factoid. I think it was early on just kind of being obsessed with Clint Eastwood or even that time period without.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Exposing too much, my alias everywhere I go is from the good, the bad, and the ugly. That's how much I...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Shub is a huge Game of Thrones guy, and his take on...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not just the show, but everything is so not what I expected. He gets so left field. Yeah. Like he's like, no, I think it's going to go here. And he goes off on this, you know, five to 10 minute explanation of, of where, you know, Aria is, Aria is going to be now on the show or this is what's going to happen to Sansa or Jon Snow. And I'm just like, yeah. Okay. That's great.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I blacked out. Yeah, it was one of those moments where he could have pulled up from really anywhere. You know, as long as I contested the shot, stayed in front of him and, and, you know, forced him into something really tough from, you know, 23 feet, 24 feet and I'd be okay. And I remember he gave the ball up to Draymond after I had, uh, you know, moved my feet, gave the ball up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Passed it back. I actually let him get it back. Of course, you know, two time MVP, unanimous MVP that year. So I let him get it back and tried to force him into a tough shot. He throws it up. I think he was short on it. Bron got the rebound. That was it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, I, I look for, you know, whoever I, I didn't want to be one of those guys running around looking for somebody to hug or, you know, a fist pump or, or anything like that. So, you know, I went right for Braun. This, you know, that was it. Everybody was, uh, I think probably most, most proud of and most happy for, for Braun. And, uh, you know, I wasn't an exception.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I get to wear what I want. I get to, uh, work with a lot of great people. And...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, if you want to loosen up, it's okay to have an adult beverage.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, yeah, maybe, maybe somewhere in southern Utah would be really nice. Something in the, uh, the wild west.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We had thermostat battles, so while we're going through heat right here, yeaah, he would, he was doing, you know, 74, 75 degrees, wake up in the middle of the night, turn that thermostat up, and for me I'm, you know, 68, but that little, little bit of heat really makes a difference.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For me, I was very responsive to that. Sweating, wake up in the middle of the night, I couldn't get any sleep, and, you know, of course he comes out and is Russell Westbrook, but it was not. And I'm really trying to keep it together right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right now my dream collaboration, probably Chance. I met him over the summer. He was at the ESPYs and his performance at the ESPYs was unbelievable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel like you might be able to cut out like the last five minutes of this because I'm not getting any answers out of this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I grew up with it being Paul Pierce. So Paul was always a guy that could back it up and also barked a lot. And especially when he was on Boston.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, he's the truth. I mean, he has that nickname for a reason.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Russell Westbrook. I mean, when I came to college, nobody knew who he was. You know, went to the UCLA Men's Gym, and I remember he was just going there and kill everybody, leave like nothing happened, hit the weight room, and I'd say, man, this kid's gonna be special.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Plenty of awesome 316 growing up, Stone Cold Steve Austin, so I feel like I'm winning the cage match.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, you know, it's all going to come down to, to us, you know, being healthy and, and, and locking in. So I feel good to be here today wearing my Banana Republic. Like I said, wool wasn't a great choice, but I have my traveler jeans on. They're nice and.