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[Assistant] But just on the loyalty thing, I don't, I think there's a lot to be said for sticking with the team because I think teams go in ebbs and flows in terms of performance and actually Lando sticking with something that he knows. Uhm, you know, he's grown into this car over a period of time. He's not jumping into it like Daniel did and struggled because that's all he knew.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, it's a difficult car to drive. Carlos was like, this is, this is a tough car to drive. That's all Lando's known and therefore, you know, he's grown into it and, you know, that first win. Heard it here first?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He is a quick learner. I mean, it'd be so interesting to see what lessons he did take from 23 into 24. Has he been able to iron those out? Were they flaws in his driving style or, as Karun suggests, a rookie mistake that he's going to learn from very quickly?


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[Assistant] Look, obviously the beginning of last year was phenomenal, wasn't it? And it was brilliant for the sport that they just...


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[Assistant] I think again, they're a bit under the radar this time round, but actually they looked pretty good. And you talk to Fernando and he says that he feels better in the car than he did at the beginning of last year. Okay, the cars are all faster in Bahrain this time out than they were a year ago.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He feels better in the car, therefore it's more stable. Remember that weird little thing they had in the middle of the year when we were like, ooh, they've gone down the wrong direction and they can't reverse back out?


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[Assistant] For me, the fascinating battle is just behind them, tucked in the second through to fifth.


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[Assistant] So I'm just going to say this though, 10 months, 5 continents, 24 races, 3 triple headers, 5 double headers, this is a really long season and we've only had testing. And we've seen it before, we've seen it with, with McLaren, I mean we wrote them off this time last year and look how the end of the season.


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[Assistant] You don't think this season will win? Because obviously last season was their only winless season since what, 2011 I wanna say? So you think that's gonna continue?


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[Assistant] Again, it's much like a football manager leaving, you take your backroom staff with you. If that's, they know how you tick and vice versa, why wouldn't you?


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[Assistant] But I think that's your comfort zone as a driver. I think you have this little bubble. You travel around the world and it's hard work. You want to know and trust those around you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Back to your earlier point, you know, bring in the best brains and the best people and, and actually take some of the emotion out of it. Some of the, some of the, the best.


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[Assistant] Leaders are when they have that sense of detachment from the overwhelming emotion and passion of, of leading a team like Ferrari. Especially Ferrari. Yeah, absolutely.


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[Assistant] He was brilliant. He was brilliant. Uhm, but I just don't think it was an option for, for them at that time to take him. So aside from Lawson, I don't, I think there's lots of up and coming talent who may be in a couple of years time.


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[Assistant] It depends on the talent pool within F2. You know, if you've got five or six drivers who are really pushing hard and one...


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[Assistant] I'm delighted to be here, obviously, a bit of a late substitute or call out to the squad, uhm, very old fashioned tech I've got, which I hope is working alright, of cables and then all the rest of it, but yeaah, hoping to do well and get on that lucrative podcast circuit if I can.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, I, well, it's, uh, it's youth inexperience and it's nice to be sort of not the old hand at something for a change, that's good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is there the opportunity to have airtime on Sky Sports News? Might be a little bit around it. Time of day is a factor as well, uhm, I've been, as I suppose Tomo has as well, it's late nights isn't it when you're covering these events in the Americas, so.


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[Assistant] I tried to spread myself over the course of the year. There's obviously more opportunity to get on air when the football isn't on, so that's a consideration too.


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[Assistant] Obviously we've had the championship finish a little bit early as well, so, uh, yeaah, that's been something lacking a bit. But I have to say, I think the races have been good since that's concluded, uh, it was another decent,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I thought weekend in Mexico maybe we were robbed a little bit because of the red flag of what might have been a more interesting ending to the Grand Prix, but some signs I think that the field are coalescing somewhat and maybe beginning to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To get a bit closer to Max, if not to put him under significant pressure. Obviously he had more of that in Austin than he did in Mexico and maybe as we'll touch on later, hopefully he gets even more of the same in Brazil again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, as they're all heading away from the circuit when they're actually at the race to enjoy their cocktails and the Mexico City nightlife or whatever, or as it was in the case of Austin, you know, downtown music and all the rest of it going on there.


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[Assistant] There was a bit of hanging around, uh, I think we all knew.


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[Assistant] It was going to be a disqualification in Texas as soon as the floors were declared illegal. So, in a way, you could write for it and just wait and click the button when that outcome came.


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[Assistant] It's, it's, we've had a discussion about all of that. Uh, can the FIA expedite matters? Do they need to be more comprehensive with some of these checks given?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I suppose that's an ongoing discussion, but I guess they will have to, I think, think about that, because I haven't heard a significant voice within F1 suggest


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[Assistant] Certainly over the Mexico weekend that, no, it was fine just to check four cars, even if two of them were non-compliant. I think, I think that, that is going to have to be looked at, no question.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but uh, I think you're right. I mean, uh, the one thing I would say...


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[Assistant] It would have been worse had he done it earlier in the season, uh, and kind of got himself out of championship contention. Did he have a lot to lose?


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[Assistant] Well, there's the seat aspect and that's another aspect that does what happened there actually materially affect his prospects of continuing in that race car next year, but I suppose in title terms, that had already long gone, uhm, you know, he finishes second, he finishes on the podium,


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[Assistant] You know, thought he could have done that, as you've said Tom, given the pace he exhibited, particularly in qualifying, it was the closest he'd been to what's happened for quite a while, wasn't it? So,


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[Assistant] In a way, through a way that, that could result in. And the other aspect to it as well is it's all happened alongside Daniel Ricciardo, uhm, out driving the AlphaTauri.


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[Assistant] Getting ahead of him in qualifying and then doing so well in the race as well, so it was a lose-lose situation, but I think the fact that Lewis Hamilton kind of understood the mentality of it in the cooldown room, to me, that showed that maybe, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It wasn't so crazy as, as, as, as it first appeared. The consequences were, were pretty bad, but you can understand the mentality still. And he has got races left, uh, to make up for, including one in a few days time.


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[Assistant] I always admired him greatly and, and, and, you know, was a particular fan of his because of his ability to leave it late in a Grand Prix, you know, to husband his resources in terms of having tire life at the end of an event, especially one, you know, ehm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As, as occasionally chaotic as Mexico can be, it's so uncharacteristic of him to do exactly what he did that you, you do wonder about his headspace, uhm, has he lost the essential Perez DNA, uh, is he very much a,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not really thinking or playing to his strengths right now because of the external pressures on him and that was a glaring example of it.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I think you spot it. It's interesting, isn't it? I think it has become more of a thing this year, the 1-2, because they probably did not have the opportunity last year to slightly prefer


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[Assistant] Perez's strategy wasn't in the last race to maybe get him that second spot and didn't do it last year I'm talking about, but this year it has been something and if they wanted an excuse


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[Assistant] If they are indeed lining up, Ricardo, or if they're coming round to a way of thinking that Ricardo is their preferred option in the car,


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[Assistant] It gives them the ammunition, doesn't it, to put presented in a, in a, in a...


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[Assistant] ...of Jack Nicklaus in golf, who won the most majors with 18, but he also had the most second places as well and, and I, I, you know...


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[Assistant] For Lewis to get, what would it be, his 4th, 2nd place in F1 alongside 7 championships. I know it's not something he'd particularly care about, but I think it would speak volumes, again, a little bit about just how good he is. And also I think how he's improved this year too.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, well, that's right. A little bit more money. What are we talking about? And actually, I think Tomo, you've done more of an in-depth expose of this recently in terms of what the teams get, but you, I mean, I don't think it means much really to,


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[Assistant] An organization like Mercedes, bedecked with sponsors and all the rest of it, and who will, who will, you know, make the cost cap anyway and, and, and we'll be, we'll be struggling to get down to that kind of, of, uh, level of expenditure, you know, whatever they, they bring in as income. I think from Mercedes' perspective, it would be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're better finishing second than third. It gives the factory a little bit of a base point if you've only got the one team ahead of them as well. So I don't think it's necessarily ultra significant in that regard, but it's, it's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Every place down you fall, I mean you could probably compare it more to if you're a team like Aston Martin at the moment dropping places towards the end of the season, that's not somewhere you want to be. You kind of want to be ending on the front foot rather than the back foot if you're gonna have the team energised and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And morale at a level where everyone is mobilized to have a strong winter and head into the new season.


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[Assistant] Wasn't it fascinating, Lewis, at the end of the race, what he had to say? I mean, I wrote down the comments, kind of, you know, it wasn't...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, he said he was, he did believe absolutely that they could blow the winning car again. And then he said, there are a lot of engineers. Nobody wants to copy anybody. They want to find their own way. But I think we are progressing, but I've heard that Red Bull are progressing as well. So we have to be really, really strategic and really clinical.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Certainly in Lewis Hamilton's head, it seems to me, his mind is full of where next year's car is and to what extent some of the upgrades which will have relevance being brought towards the end of this season.


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[Assistant] You do get this idea of the teams beginning to marshal.


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[Assistant] Their, their ideas about next year and, and, and who necessarily might be where, which, which I think, uh, you know, yes, from a morale perspective, get some results in now, but you can see Lewis Hamilton very much turning his mind to 2024.


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[Assistant] Spent a lot of, of, of 2022 wrestling with the Mercedes taking on the burden of development.


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[Assistant] But had he been outscored for a second successive season by George Russell they would have been a different public narrative and you can say yes this has been another year of rebuilding for Mercedes so where they finish doesn't necessarily matter or


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know how many points Lewis scores vis a vis George, doesn't necessarily matter either, but the public narrative would have had an impact. Instead of that, he has


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[Assistant] He's a master, you know, a huge gulf in points between himself and George, and is now ahead.


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[Assistant] In terms of, of, of head-to-head qualifying as well, which we all know is one of George Russell's strong points, so I think some of these things do matter.


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[Assistant] It's quite a significant movement, that bringing Alison back, wasn't it? Especially when you've promoted someone to a, you know, a theoretically higher role, and then...


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[Assistant] But realising he's more effective than that one, you know, I don't know Mike Elliott's future, but that, that... We have to consider there's been...


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[Assistant] The rearrangement at Mercedes over the last two years, uhm,


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[Assistant] Not saying Lewis was negative in any way, uh, in 2022, but there was a kind of sobriety and restraint about the way he would speak, and I sense now


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[Assistant] He's much more on the front foot again. Uh, I think he feels, yes, the building blocks and the right people are in place in terms of where the car development's going.


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[Assistant] The quote I made there was almost, was that in reference to Mike Elliott or the engineers who wanted to go a different way from the kind of Red Bull path that Mercedes have now adopted.


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[Assistant] You just get the sense, yeaah, Lewis feels that the, at least that the right personnel are in the right spots, as you've kind of outlined with Alison in the lead.


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[Assistant] Just can they set the targets and parameters right now and, and, you know, are Red Bull just a little bit too far ahead? Is, is, is Newie beatable, uh, on aero over this winter? That's, that's a big question.


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[Assistant] He said a very interesting point he made, he said all of those guys could have been promoted into bigger jobs.


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[Assistant] And some of them were, I guess Ross Braun went around his own team. But...


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[Assistant] They were, they kept them in station because they were the best at what they did, uh, individually. Now I, I kind of looked at Mercedes in recent years.


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[Assistant] And you see Andy Cowell leave to go to something else. You see Alison take on a different role and get involved in, in, in building boats for, for Jim Ratcliffe or whatever.


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[Assistant] You see James Vowles leaving as head of strategy to go to Williams, and you think, are they promoting too many people out of?


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[Assistant] These, these vital roles, which, which any, any top team kinda needs to keep them in. And Stella was, I think Stella's got a good handle on that. You know, he does not want to hemorrhage his best staff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, at McLaren wants to add to it, uh, you can easily promote people into jobs, uh, for, for good work, but then have you got as good a replacement to come and take their place?


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[Assistant] I wonder if Mercedes have had to wrestle with that over the last couple of years.


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[Assistant] Yeah. I think you're spot on there. I think, I think the, I think Red Bull are most observers would be cognisant that that was a benign track for Daniel Ricciardo at the weekend. So you don't want to get too carried away. Um, and say it was a kind of knockout blow for him and in, in what was a kind of, I don't know.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it wasn't a runoff for the, for the, for the seat. I mean, it's an interesting one, isn't it?


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[Assistant] A lot has been made of the fact that Christian Horner used the word intention, wasn't it? It is our intention to keep, uh,


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[Assistant] That was a carefully chosen phrase. Listen, he brings money to the team, he is experienced, he...


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[Assistant] They seem to genuinely operate without too much friction though.


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[Assistant] You can list a lot of things why it's a partnership that makes sense.


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[Assistant] The Mexico Grand Prix, for all the, uh, for all the chief executive of that was talking about, no, we will carry on and be a success without Checo Perez.


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[Assistant] I think there's an appreciation that having him as a substantial Mexican driver adds to the overall show. Now whether that influences Red Bull's decision or not.


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[Assistant] Who knows, they sell a lot of cans of that drink in Mexico as well and I'm sure that doesn't do any harm either. Uhm.


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[Assistant] Why rock the boat when you don't necessarily have to? I think the other aspect to this is, I think there are, there was a plan.


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[Assistant] For Ricardo to play a significant role in Alpha Tauris.


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[Assistant] Slight morphing into something more akin to the Red Bull Works team next year, I think.


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[Assistant] In their minds eye, they like the idea of the more experienced driver like Ricardo leading that project, at least next year. So...


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[Assistant] Do they really want to upset that aspect of it to, to, to put him in the car alongside Max next year? I mean, it probably still, I think the door is ajar. I think that, that's, that's, that's without question.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On balance, does it need to get worse for Checo before the end of the season? I don't know, what you think is a kind of par, you know, over these remaining three races for him to do to keep the seat? If he can get within a couple of tenths of max, or two or three tenths of max as he did in Mexico, is that enough?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Can we get rid of the elephant in the room, which is Fernando Alonso potentially going to Red Bull next year to, uh, go on. My understanding is that that is a non-starter that is not going to happen as much as they admire Alonso at Red Bull and what he can do. He is.


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[Assistant] He is not above Ricardo, as far as I understand it, as an option, uh, to drive for that team next year. So, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this is not coming officially from the team or anything like that, but.


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[Assistant] That, that, that is, it's been out there on the internet, but that is, that is not going to happen. Uh, as I understand that, uh, from what I can gather, uh, some senior well-placed people have, have told me that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe Alonzo's management have been doing their due diligence again and have been assessing are there any other


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Potentially better options for him next year, uh, and, and perhaps that has been inflated into a, he's gonna take Perez's seat rather than Ricardo's, but, but I have it on pretty good authority, there's no chance of that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I believe the opportunity, I mean it, I don't think it is an opportunity. That, the other question though is...


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[Assistant] Is he going to retire Alonso? Is he so pessimistic about Aston next year that he might not carry on? And as far as I understand it, the appetite for Aston Martin to continue with Alonso is still pretty strong too. Nor do I understand that there's any prospect of Laurence Stroll.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's interesting though, I'm fascinated by, uhm, one or two well-placed insiders have told me that maybe some ownership within Formula One have looked at the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The value of their teams increased and I have to ask the question, has the sport peaked? Might this be a not bad time to kind of sell out? If you're talking about, uh, you know, Williams being sold for what, about 140 million and now being worth thereabouts towards maybe even a billion pounds, not, not, nevermind dollars nowadays, you know, it's interesting that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Andretti would try to get in, maybe would be put off by the price tag of buying a team.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are they good value to buy right now on F1 teams? Why are the big sovereign wealth funds, and I suppose people are talking about Aramco buying Aston Martin, aren't they, from Lawrence Stolpe and paying top dollar for that? Are they not looking at the F1 teams rather than, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The likes of Manchester United at the moment. Or do you sense there is still some way to go to increase team value?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I only say it because if you're Derilton or you're Toto Wolf or you're Lawrence Stroll who bought it via liquidation, yes he paid off a lot of the creditors but you've maybe paid a couple of hundred million or, you know, I think Toto paid, what did he pay, fifty million euros for his steak, it's now worth three billion or whatever. Does that have its own kind of, ah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Suppose incentive to sell when you, you, you've in a few years, you've made such a big gain, which is why I question, uh, you know, it must be quite tempting for some of these owners to maybe think about, you know, offloading it in the present climate, which is certainly benign compared to where it was a few years ago.


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[Assistant] Maybe we shouldn't expect the sprint to be this transformational entity. Is it better than a practice session in my view? Yeah, probably.


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[Assistant] That does, I accept it does, does it take away a little bit from the, from, from Sunday? Yeah, maybe, uhm.


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[Assistant] The fact of the matter is, it is going to be looked at. We will get six sprints again next year, I think it will.


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[Assistant] We'll find out in a couple of weeks time where they're going to be.


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[Assistant] But there will be some formal discussions about how to maybe look at potential changes to the format. But I think, I think the Formula One and the teams recognize exactly what you said.


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[Assistant] You've got to be careful with any change you do make to make it better, not worse.


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[Assistant] A lot has been talked about this, this potential separate championship for the sprint. Uhm, you know, even having a reverse grid sprint race.


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[Assistant] And it being as part of a separate championship without points being awarded to the main title fight.


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[Assistant] I don't see how you would buy into that. I find that quite difficult to kind of get on board with. Anything which is secondary, I think, is immediately downgraded. So, you know, why would you bother with that? So, I don't know. Personally, like you, I'd like to see, could you move it to a Friday? But the problem there is that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't think the technical working group didn't think you could come straight in and go into a sprint qualifying without having some rudimentary practice session to set up your car. But yeah, ideally you'd start with the sprint. Maybe you have a practice


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then, sprint qualifying on Saturday, a sprint race, then qualifying for the main event, and then, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Away you go on Sunday with the great... I totally agree with you. The second qualifying after the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The sprint qualifying, it is, is kind of, feels weird.


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[Assistant] There was this anxiety, first of all, to put them towards the end of a season in case the championship would be won on a Saturday. And obviously we had that, didn't we, this year, uhm, being won after a sprint. And actually having the extra points from the sprint delayed the championship being clinched by, by a weekend. So, so maybe that's not such a bad thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, I don't know if it's not so much, I don't think it's as subtle a problem as marrying the sprint with the circuit. I think it's just, does it get in the way of the other stuff? Or does it cloud the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The sort of, the focus from what you should be focusing on in a Grand Prix weekend. Uhm, but equally to my mind, I don't see it as a massive problem. I kind of...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wonder whether I will get used to it ultimately, you know, even if they do keep qualifying on a Friday and it's the same format. I think that's spot on. Yeah, change it to one lap for sprint qualifier or something like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, so, so it's different. Cause that, that, that, that, that, that does interfere with, with, with the thinking of Grand Prix weekend. But I kind of still come back to the idea that it's, it's, and I think the American owners of the sport probably looked at F1 when they came and said, well, you've got three of your five television products are non-competitive practice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, do we want to cut those products or do we want to make them into something which is, is, is consumable? I know that sounds awful and terribly commercial, but uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what they're paid to do, to make the sport a commercial success. And it needs to be a commercial success if it's to, to enjoy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The many great partners, uh, and profile, uh, which keeps it healthy. So you know, you, you've got to bear those commercial concerns in mind and it probably seemed ridiculous to them that such a lot of the action had no competitive element.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, you could cut the, you could cut the practice sessions out. I mean, you could cut the sprint out and just have the consequence of more events around the world. We have less track sessions, fewer track sessions, and maybe that is the better way to go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The one I, can I just, I mean, I'm just, I'm, well, I mean, to, to tell you, we know, we, to be, began and spent a lot of time talking about the second Red Bull seat. And, and, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That, that, and Norris drives so well again, and you know, Alex Arbon lets slip the other day that it's, there's an open invitation for him going there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How attractive is that seat, do you think, to anyone, really? I mean, you listed the number of people that failed in it or struggled in it. It doesn't seem a happy place to be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was reading Plutarch's Lives of Caesar the other day and there's the anecdote, uh, when Caesar is on a campaign in Spain.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of course he was. With, with several of his senior senators, you know, generals around him, they come to this small village and the local chief comes out wearing kind of cloth smock with a rudimentary kind of crown on or whatever, carrying a wooden staff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Caesar's acolytes sort of turn to Caesar and laugh at him and say, oh, this guy thinks he can, he can kinda come and negotiate with us. Caesar turns around to them and says, I'd rather be the chief here than the second man in Rome. And I kinda think, that's


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's a little bit like that Red Bull seat. You know, it's, it's, yes, it seems great, but you're always a little bit under someone else's thumb, which is...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let's just, I'm not the kind of guy that can afford that kind of event. That's gonna be a, that's gonna be a little bit of a spendy event. Honestly, if I could pick one, I'm gonna go to Austria or something. You know, have a nice schnitzel in a village somewhere, go ride my bike in the mountains and go watch the races.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll be honest, like, working with him was probably one of the easiest drivers I had to work with. The communication loop was super tight, a lot of it was non-verbal. I'd look through the data at night, have a chat with him, you know, before he left Friday night, what do you think about this? The tools, talk with GP about the setup, and that was it. Do I miss


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't miss the traveling. That's why I quit traveling at the end of 17. Uhm, the, you know, 19 races, looking at 24 races was a lot and it's a bit different story between Max and Max is sitting here winning world championships and I was at the time performance engineering a second, third place team.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I didn't have any aspirations to be like, oh, I have to be a world championship winning engineer. I was like, I do this because it's challenging and interesting. And when it became too rinse repeat, I was like, I'd like another challenge. And that's when I decided to go back to the factory to focus on development rather than operation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of people say, you know, you guys are in a position of privilege, and that's, that's fair, like there's not that many opportunities for presenters, broadcasters, engineers, and drivers, but at the same time, yes, it is a choice, but it's a very demanding schedule and there's no


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, we see teams swapping out engineers, having rotations, uh, mechanics as well, but there's a lot of people like, I think, race engineers, uh, team principals, a lot of your broadcast staff and hospitality staff, you, you can't really afford to have lots of people rotating out. So I, I understand what Max is saying and it does make sense.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What else is there to strive for other than absolute perfection? You know, 10 out of 10 every weekend, whereas let's say you're driving Mercedes right now, the car's not great, you know, it's, it's still a ways off the championship. Which one of those is, has more hooks to keep you invested?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are these things learned or innate? Because I'm not a, like, for example, I'm not a performance psychologist. We did work with people that came in and out of the teams to talk to the drivers, but you don't usually bring somebody like that in when the driver's doing well. You bring a guy like, or a person in like that when the driver's struggling with


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Self-improvement, I think, is a big piece of motivation for a lot of people, is if you don't have a... The only thing now that I can tell is that Max's goal is to pull fastest lap race win, lead as many laps as possible. But when that becomes relatively...


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[Assistant] But, but I guess also to the point, like, Nat, I, I didn't even remember that LeClaire split the Red Bulls last season. Like, that's one of the things that's like, I feel like in seasons like this, we need to be even more deliberate about focusing on the fights rather than the outright victories, because I didn't remember that was a thing at all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Make sure the brakes don't catch on fire, don't run the car out of fuel, and then try to optimize and find performance. And at that point, I was still super, super steep on the learning curve. So it was learning Paul and GP's conversation, learning the lingo, learning the language of the sport. And it was like,


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[Assistant] Have we had a driver win the constructors championship outright before? But if there's been a driver that has qualified to win the constructors before.


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[Assistant] We had a, we always had a joke, like whenever there was a driver signing or contract or something that happened within the teams I was working at, the first place you hear is on the TV or on Twitter or on Autosport. You never hear like an internal publication or anything. It's like, nope, Autosport said it must be true.


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[Assistant] So, looking at, we'll come back to most improved and stuff, but I think...


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[Assistant] Up to Spain, and then after Spain, Red Bull actually made some reasonable gains in low speed performance.


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[Assistant] You know, cause he was like, right, we're not driving, but you're gonna do simulator work. And it was never like, he was...


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[Assistant] You've got those mixed wet dry conditions where there's one lap and you get one opportunity. It's effectively a one lap shootout in these kind of conditions when the track is at that perfect condition for one lap and he usually puts it together and I was like, that dude is extremely impressive and honestly one of the nicest dudes I've met in the paddock, genuinely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lot of teams have struggled to keep up with the development rate of the frontrunners, um, AlphaTauri, AlphaRomeo, even Williams despite having some good results. Like, nobody's keeping up with the Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes are kind of like the teams that are setting the bar for development.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Aston Martin falling away in the second half, but McLaren's performance change is huge, especially with that driver pairing, which seems to be extremely strong. Yeah, that's, that's a really good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Improvement, I think, and I think that's the story of the season, or the mid-season at least.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't recall what that jump in performance looked like because McLaren's, yeah, like you said, I did this.


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[Assistant] It's like, that's something about cost cap plus 24 races. You don't have time to do that stuff.


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[Assistant] Early in the season as well, because they got, they got destroyed in the race because get overtaken on the straights by cars that are several tenths slower than you, and then you play sitting duck through sector two, and you can't really come back if you don't have any top speed to fight them with.


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[Assistant] You know, like, I think there could be probably four drivers that could do it in the cars, uh, in the pace and situations.


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[Assistant] Like we said before, Max is going to have to suffer a misfortune for anybody to win it outright, fine, but I think I'm going with Cheko as, uh, that. But honestly, looking at recent events, uh, before the break, you would have said Alonzo possibly, Luis certainly, one of the McLarens, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this season has been really wet. Like we've had those seasons where we don't get a single wet session or wet race. And it's like, what is this? And we've had so many, my favorite mixed wet qualifying as an engineer. I hated it. As a, as a spectator, I absolutely love it because you, it's, it's chaos. You have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Please give us some chaos, but at the same time, going back to your point earlier, I would like to see Red Bull destroy the record books so we can look back on this and be like, we were there for that season. That was wild.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll send it. I'll send it first. I think McLaren are going to overtake Ferrari and the constructors.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who, who, who takes the second seat if Lewis steps out at the end of the season? Who's racing alongside Stuart? Great question.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, I was going to go with busy. I was going to go with hot. Um, but I've gone with relentless because it was a sprint weekend. So anyway, there was action on every single day. Then we had the tire issue on Saturday morning. Then we had an extra practice session.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, and then we had the heat and the action of Sunday, so it was just relentless.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, the racing was relentless, the track action was relentless, the laps were relentless, the heat was relentless, uhm, and I'm kind of trying to think whether, with that extra warm-up session, whether that was the most kilometers done on any F1 weekend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and I think prob- ever, I think probably not Karim because without the three practice sessions, I think you probably have fewer-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kilometers done anyway on a sprint weekend because they don't do as many in the qualifying sessions.


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[Assistant] I rewatched it, actually, Karun, to see two things. First of all, what Nico Rosberg was talking about when he said you really need to make the colours more bold so we can see them on TV. He was absolutely right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, I didn't realize that I just traced it. I did a big, you know, what I thought was a big number in a yellow pen for the mediums and, uh, with a, with a sort of white.


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[Assistant] Correct me if I'm wrong on this, Sam. Uhm, and they train, uh, athletes, they train triathletes, endurance athletes, uhm, anybody in fact.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can go and train with Kings of the World Frontier. They're on the Great West Road and that's where we went to do our shoot with Zhou Guangyu. So uhm, they have a very nice gym there which also does excellent coffee.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and that's where I did my train like a Formula One driver. So he put me through it. I sweated more there than I did in, uh, in Doha, uh, on Sunday on, uh, on, uh, the Qatar Grand Prix. And that's where we did my neck training. Can you see this big neck that I've got? That's all muscle. Sam put me through it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really interesting. I mean, Sam Hammer, you know, obviously Qatar was, Sunday was unique because they were pushing, you know, every lap because of the tyres were, were


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Could only do 18 laps and then you had to move on, so it was absolutely a qualifying lap every single race. New surface that you talk about, high temperature. What about the G-forces, Sam? I'm interested in that. Uhm, how, how did that, because obviously with the new track surface and the way the corners are in Qatar, one of the things that made it unique was that you're, you're, you're trying to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Counter the g-forces by almost clenching up the body as well. Did that expend more energy?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean that's, that's fascinating. That's the first time I've heard it scientifically explained as to why the drivers were, were vomiting, why they were feeling faint, why they were getting close and what it underlines to me is actually


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Qatar was the limit. I think we can now say, all the drivers were saying this, even Fernando, who seemed to be 42, 41, 42 years old.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, in great shape, 41, isn't he? But you know, he's, he's still, he said, I think that's the limit. Max was saying, I think that's probably the limit. And now we know why. So great to have Sam Village on there who's been there and done that and has been with training these drivers and, and happy to see that the one of his drivers, Zhou Guangyu.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Down to the heat, down to the persistent, persistent high levels of heat and humidity. Uhm, and the fact that uhm, you know, it's, the, the, the driver's got dehydrated.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uhm, just got too hot and, and that's why we're seeing when we don't have, we can have harder tracks and more physical tracks, but when it's not quite so hot, then it doesn't have the effect on the drivers. Corinne, what did you think?


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[Assistant] I think it was made disproportionately. Don't you think it was made disproportionately worse that it was?


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[Assistant] Four sprints of 18 laps and had it been a two stopper, which on paper would have been the fastest strategy not to lose another 27 seconds, uh, making a pit stop, they would have been driving to protect the tires and that would have in turn protected themselves a bit as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, if you're looking at the drivers, the answer is Australia. Uhm, so the, uh, the two drivers who've, uh, who've won races for McLaren in the, uh, in their new guises, you know, not the, not the silver team, but the orange team, are Daniel Ricciardo and Oscar Piastri. So, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Australia, essentially. Um, no, I mean, you know, they had this, uh, they had this car, they had this car that they knew at the beginning of the season wasn't the car they wanted. They'd seen that if they went down the Red Bull route, they could do something, um, amazing. And this was before James Key left the team. So I think James Key, who's now departed the team, technical director, um, deserves a little bit of credit for this, even though he's not.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And as James Allison from Mercedes said, you look at the, the, the, where the Red Bull is strong, where the McLaren is strong, and it's in that kind of 220, he called it the 220, do you remember Karun, he called it the 220 to 250 KPH bracket.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which kind of meant that in those medium to high speed corners, it absolutely gains a huge amount of time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they can, on the balance of the tracks that we have nowadays, that's a significant number of corners that are at that speed range. That's where the McLaren has really made huge gains. Alright, it's not so great in the slow, low speed corners, but you know, they can sort of figure that out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But yeaah, it's clearly a good car now. They do, they have brought lots of upgrades to it. It's going to provide a great base for next year. It is where we want to see the great name of McLaren being in Formula 1.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they've got the hottest new talent out there. So the other point of the weekend for me was, was, you know, celebrating Max as one of the greats with three, three world champions and welcoming in a new race winner in Formula One, Oscar Piastri. And you know, Lando will be saying, okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I've been, Danny Ricciardo and Oscar Piestri, my last two Australian teammates, have won a race for McLaren when I haven't. But Lando will win a race very soon for McLaren. A Grand Prix or a sprint. I'll say that.


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[Assistant] Although for the sake of fair- complete fairness and com- and uh, transparency and completeness, I would like to see Daniel Ricciardo in this McLaren.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To be completely fair to Daniel Ricciardo, we don't know Karun. We're not 100% sure that he couldn't do the job of Oscar Piastri. So, I know it's never gonna happen, but anyway, I thought I'd say that. And, 1.8 seconds, Matt. 1.8 seconds.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The first, the first, the first, it is the first McLaren pit stop. I remember thinking, I think I said it on air, not the fastest pit stop I've ever seen. Uh, so, you know, McLaren, you can do better than that. And then they did and they did much better.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, but we knew, we knew down there, I was standing between McLaren and, uh, I was between McLaren and, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sauber, that's right, because it's Alpine, McLaren, Sauber, and that's where the gap in the pit lane is. Uhm, and we knew when that happened, uh, there are four, four, four people around there who we all knew that was quick. First of all, it comes in, you think, oh, it's another pit stop, you know, it went.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I was like, wow, that was quick. I looked at Jean-Michel Tibby from F1 TV, the cameraman, who went and looked at me and went,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like that, I wasn't expecting it to move that far. I looked at the photographer on the pit wall who was taking photos, the accredited photographer who kind of went, whoa, that was quick. And then I looked at the salvo mechanic, which I think you can see on the replays.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the salvo mechanic who's holding back the, the, the wheel, the air guns as a courtesy as the next, the next team in, in the pit lane always does it as a courtesy to the team making a pit stop. You hold back to the pit gun so that the driver can get a quicker out. And he went like that, I think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I seem to remember. I think you can see it on the replays. Go and have a look at it. It's on all the socials. And we all knew.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I, I was, I think you and Crofty were commentating at the time and it came up with 1.8 and I, I radioed in on my, on my, on my mic and said, wow, that was quick. And then our producer Jess said, yeah, I think it was a 1.8. I was like, was it?


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[Assistant] Uh, that's a record! Yeah, yeah, that's a record! And then it got to you, you mentioned it in commentary, Karun.


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[Assistant] Christian Horner said that we can't have, we don't, we will not have two alpha male, we will not have two alphas in the team. He said that, did he not, in prayers? Yes. So, you know, they can court Lando Norris all they like, Red Bull Racing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But Lando's going to think, well hang on, if Max is still there, if you're not going to say I'm an alpha male, alpha male driver, whatever, you know, number one driver, we can't have two number ones, let's not call it two alphas, I don't like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm a number one driver and I'd rather be, if you're Lando Norris, you might think, well, I'd rather be a number one driver or an equal number one in McLaren than somebody who's really considered a number two driver because they don't want two number ones at Red Bull. So all Red Bull need is for Sergio to get over his wobble, which I think he will, and then to get back to scoring consistently.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe, and you might be able to say that had they been on the same tyres at the start of the race, but they weren't, and that's what's really, as I said in the notebook, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then why wouldn't it have occurred at the first corner of the first lap?


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[Assistant] Surely, I know, we said, I said this in the notebook, uhm, they had discussed the fact that Lewis was on a different strategy, on the soft tyre in the first stint, and his race really depended.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because he had so few laps on his medium and his hard tires of getting in front of Max and making that soft tire work for him, maybe slowing down the pace.


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[Assistant] Negated all of that, and I'm not saying it's George's fault, Louis submitted.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Moving across on him. So I don't understand why it wouldn't have been the Mercedes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, strategy to say, okay guys, this is what we're going to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Lewis is on the soft, he is going to come round you, George, you are going, not going to fight him, and he is going to try and get Max, and that's what we're going to try and do. And so George would have understood that they weren't racing at the first, they weren't racing each other, and that Lewis was going to go round. Lewis would have known that, so that would have maybe, you know, taken, I don't know, a wider line anyway. That's why it just seemed to be so,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Frustrating, because we never saw what was going to happen and, and, and, and Lewis was on a completely different strategy. Karun, am I wrong here?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, I think of it more as, more as a circus, Formula One is a circus and the, uh, you know, the acrobats and the, um, the people who fire themselves out of cannons are the acts and they're, they're the teams. I mean, timeframe, um, we're talking about whether they join under the current Concorde agreement, which runs out sort of 2026 times 2026, uh, 25, 26.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or the next Concord agreement, which I think is 2027, is it Karun?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, but that's the rules that we have with the, with the new cars coming in. So already they wouldn't be able to start a new time for 2025. It's the time for a new team. Andretti, I think it's too late now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'll see. So I think timeframes we're looking at 26, 27 perhaps, uhm, 26 probably at the earliest. But that's a new formula, so that's very difficult to do. Uhm, you have teams laying down sort of various thoughts about how much they pay in, in,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In anti-dilution fees Williams was, you know, saying effectively they want to be properly recompensed for the money that they'll lose. Christian Horner was saying if they come in they need to do their own engine.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's almost asking the impossible, but it's underlying, uh, the commitment of General Motors and Cadillac.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which I think the teams want to know more from Andretti as to the level of involvement.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, not impossible, but very, very difficult. And then I think that the strategy, the landscape will, will change.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a tough shop, isn't it? It's the Piranha Club and it's, it's, it's a tough shop out there. And this, every team, Formula One team from Jack Brown's Jackie Stewart to, to, to, to, to Ron Dennis to Ken Tyrrell.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To uhm, Sir Frank Williams has had to fight for their eponymous teams or their teams.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To be involved in Formula One, and this is going to be Michael Andretti's biggest fight is to get into Formula One in the first place. He'll face many more fights as a Formula One team boss after he gets in, but he has to fight politically.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and, you know, uhm, in the media and every other way to get into F1. And that's his biggest fight, Ashink, I think, to try and get into the club.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, but let's, you know, the Andretti's and their company and General Motors, they're going to have to fight. They're going to have to fight to get in. They're going to have to play the political game. They're going to have to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To try and make it happen for themselves, because uhm, at the moment, all of the signs are that, you know, they're not going to get an agreement. So they need to fight to make it happen, because the fans want it, the drivers want it, uhm, but, uh, yeaah, they need to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Double down now, getting approval from the FIA is just the first, it's like the first of, you know, it's 10% of the job done really. They're going to have to really go some to make it happen and add value to F1.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The me being a stingy northerner has paid off not having an air conditioning unit in the gym now. With uh, Joe's, Joe's result on the weekend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've heard that it was one of the hardest conditions that anyone's ever seen. Like I'd speak to Joe's trainer who


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, Matteo, who's worked on the grid with Felipe Massa throughout his whole career as well, he said he's never seen it hotter than that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then I spoke to Rupert as well and Rupert, who's Carlos' coach, uhm, said that the dry heat during the day meant that the, in the evenings the humidity kind of was just created in this landscape and it just became unbearable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I think, I think there's a reason why the Football World Cup was probably in the winter. Uhm, I think we can all recognise that now. Uhm, yeah, the, the conditions were very hard and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If, if it was maybe one or two races like that a year, we could prepare for it a lot better. But with the schedule that a racing driver has, it's, it's really, really difficult, uhm, to prepare a racing driver for a one-off race in a different, uhm, environment really.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was a combination of the length of the stent that they were given, the new track surface and the heat as well. Like the new track surface that the year that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, we won with Daniel in 2016 in Sepang. That was a brand new race track surface as well. I remember Max and him coming through the middle sector next to each other.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and Max was still young, still growing, still growing into his whole kind of athletic career. Uhm, and Daniel had obviously been there, done it, got the t-shirt for a few years and you could see it coming into the last few laps that uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One was leaning their neck and one wasn't, you know, and the one that wasn't ended up winning the race, so uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's, it's, it is a challenge and I 100% believe that the guys that probably didn't do the whole race in Singapore three weeks earlier would have struggled even more in, um, Qatar as well. So I was, I was going to have a look at that to see which guys did, um, the full Singapore race versus which guys did and, and, and to see if there was any correlation there as well. Um, the other thing is like, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I kinda watch joe's race and he was behind um logan at the start for quite a bit of it i imagine.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Logan was under pressure. When you've got cars around you, your heart rate...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 15, 20 beats, you know, if you're defending, for example, um, whereas Joe was being able to pick his lines, like he could, he, if he wanted to drop back, he could, if he'd push up, he could, he let George through, he let Sergio through, maybe didn't let them through, but he, that, that wasn't his race, for example, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And whereas Logan was really kind of looking in his mirrors and fighting Joe and by in the car and then, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Joseph saved his matches for the, for later on. I don't know if that was purposeful on his part, but he, he, he had something left for those last 15 laps. And especially when he put the softs on in the last three, three or four laps as well. And he said the last 15 laps were his hardest, hardest he's ever driven a car before.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but again, I was really impressed with how he got out of the car and Matteo said he drenched him down and I think he lost about a kilo and a half. So not, not too bad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I mean, the fainting is, is the heat causes low pressure, because, uhm, all your blood vessels open up. Uhm, so, there could be a little bit of blood pooling just due down to gravity, basically. It could all be in their bum, because it's not like they're running along or cycling, so, uhm, and then, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, the vomiting and the nausea is caused by a lack of, uhm, blood in the digestive system. So whatever's left in the stomach, there's no blood in the stomach to, to help, uhm, like, digest the food that's left there. So it just starts cramping up and wants to get rid of the food, basically, because all the blood has gone into your skin, ultimately.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Katar, the character prism Katar track is, there's lots of high fast, fast corners, high downforce fast corners. When they go through these high, uhm, downforce fast corners, they tense, and they ultimately they hold their breath. A little bit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So their breathing rate is the same as when they're asleep, but their heart rate is between 150 and 180.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So there's an element of, um, hypoxia in the brain as well, potentially. Um, so that's the challenge and roughly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're experiencing between three to six G through each corner, pretty much through each breaking point. So those loads are being put onto them as well. Um, yeah, they had, they had to deal with a lot and it's, it's, it's pretty impressive to be fair without.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Loads and loads of conditioning that we would probably put through an endurance athlete if they were going to Hawaii to race an Ironman, for example. Uhm, and also,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're getting hot water basically to drink for an hour and a half, an hour 45. Whereas if a guy was racing in those same temperatures and endurance, they'd be covering themselves in water every 15, 20 minutes. They'd be able to have a cold drink as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so yeaah, it's really unique, this sport, it's really unique.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's also really unique in a sense that we don't really know enough about what's happening in that cockpit as well because, I mean, there's a number of little initiatives going on about getting some more human performance data, but we're still not, we've still not got it all, if that makes sense.


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[Assistant] Uhm, when it comes to temperatures, heart rates, breathing rates, uhm, and all the forces that are put on the body. We can, we can do it in unofficial tests, but we can't do it kind of, uhm, on the dance floor, for example.


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[Assistant] I think the moment any sort of lightheadedness is even discussed, it needs, something needs to happen. Um, because that's unbelievably dangerous. Um, and yeah, it's, it's quite common for someone to faint in the heat. There's no doubt about that. Um, yeah, a hundred percent.


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[Assistant] It needs, it needs to be looked at hundreds of times.


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[Assistant] We in an ideal scenario, I'm going to talk in an ideal scenario and then I'll probably tell you what the reality is to love after an ideal scenario 12 days before the race you want to be.


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[Assistant] Like spending time in the heat, spending time sweating, spending time in a similar environment, whether that's in a heat chamber. We tend to use a heat chamber over at Roehampton University, which can replicate any sort of environment we want.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and then we, we, we can jump in a hot bath. You can jump in a hot bath, basically, uhm, to replicate the same thing as well and get the sweat rate up. Our, our aim is to increase the amount of, uhm, blood plasma to help you sweat as much as possible, right? So the aim is to sweat as much as possible, because that's what's gonna cool you down.


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[Assistant] 12 days out will, will be either passively, uhm, getting used to the heat or actively getting used to the heat in a heat chamber, uhm, alternating days potentially, uhm, making sure we kind of stay on top of things with health as well because it's quite, it's quite, uhm, hard.


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[Assistant] Um, and, and intense getting ready for a hot race. And then when you arrive at the venue, you stay hydrated for the whole time. You make sure you spend time in the environment in a healthy way. Um, you're using the right amount of electrolytes and carbohydrates in your drink. Um, on race day you.


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[Assistant] Uhm, the guys, you've seen a lot of the guys using the ice baths, uhm, in and around the track.


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[Assistant] So from as close to the session as possible, you, we would put a driver in, in between 15 to 20 degrees of water in an ice bath for as long


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[Assistant] As long as we can, ultimately, could be between 10, 20 minutes. And then the, the, uhm, feeling from that will kind of extend for an hour into the, into however long since you got out of the bath, basically.


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[Assistant] Uhm, so that ultimately will bring the core body temperature of the driver lower. So the aggregate starts a lot lower than normal, basically. Uhm, the ice vests that they wear again, uhm, will help protect that. It's not going to do everything, but it'll help protect that. Uhm, you can give them, I mean,


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[Assistant] This, this sounds silly, but you could give them like a slush puppy. That would be amazing.


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[Assistant] Uhm, if you could give that, that on the grill, that's even better. Uhm, there's, there's companies that have worked in endurance that give menthol drinks. So it's like a mint drink, cause that, that kind of subjectively feels a lot nicer going down, like cooler. Uhm,


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[Assistant] And then yeah, once you strap them in, that's, there's nothing else we can do other than hopefully everything we've done has given them a psychological advantage and a belief that they've done everything they possibly can.


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[Assistant] Uhm, educate them as well. Educate them on the fact that once your core body temperature goes over a certain amount, you cannot get it back down again. Like, it's impossible unless you stop. Uhm, and then post-race,


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[Assistant] You have, they have to be aware as well that when they're sat and they come into park firma at the end of the race, they have a spike in heart rate. They, they, they, they have to get their breathing back to normal.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and try and just bringing a bit of tranquility to that little cockpit. Cause if they get out straight away, that's when you might have seen the lightheadedness and all that sort of thing. Karen would have experienced it in the car after Singapore. You sit there and all these fumes, it just engulfs you and you just go,


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[Assistant] You start panting or your heart rate shoots up basically. Uhm, so yeaah, that's a common occurrence.


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[Assistant] I had one word and I started talking with you all and I changed it. Fans. Only because I watched Formula E this weekend as well and the fans got stuck in the drizzle as well. They were inside, covered, but the rain, you know, the rain stopped the race for 90 minutes. And I just, I don't know, I have a deep empathy of fans of motorsports just being willing to sit outside


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[Assistant] 1991 at Spa-Francorchamps was my first race when it was Michael Schumacher's debut race in the, in what was it, the 7-up.


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[Assistant] It remind, I find as a spectator when you hear those iconic duos, it's a great reminder of how much more there is behind the driver, like the full, the breadth of the team. I also like, they've been together seven years, right? It was 26, yeaah. I love the evolution also when you go back and listen to the team radios between the two of them.


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[Assistant] But it's the evolution of those comms that I love. Just like you can see that relationship being built, like a true relationship being built over time.


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[Assistant] I am getting a slight feeling, sat in my comfy chair here, that Max is probably a little bored up there. I think he would probably want a teammate that can actually bring it to him. Uhm, I don't know if I agree that Max is breaking his teammates, uhm, but I, there's something interesting there.


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[Assistant] I don't know. I keep going back and forth. I keep, because I keep going back and forth on this. I keep going back and forth on, he's had four teammates. They're not at his level. He's at a comp, he's, he's racing on a completely different level right now.


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[Assistant] Uhm, I think he's bored so I think he definitely wants someone, you know, to be able to bring it to him and, and, and offer something maybe a bit more exciting for him.


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[Assistant] Uhm, but I also agree with the fact that I don't think Red Bull is pushing


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[Assistant] Is it a weird paradox, though, that to be a successful driver pairing to Max, you have to accept that you're number two, but to be a best driver, you never accept that you're number two and you're in it to win? Isn't that like a, like, it's an impossi- it feels like a weird tension.


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[Assistant] I think it very much depends on how you watch motorsports and what you enjoy the most. For example, it depends on the perception that you have. If the only thing you want to see is different winners on that podium every single weekend and, you know, a different person crossing the line, then yes, this is probably a boring season.


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[Assistant] But I, the reason, for example, I got into Formula One so long ago and I've stuck with it is just the complexities of the sport, the technology, everything that's changing, the regulations.


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[Assistant] But also, F1 has always been, in my opinion, about the midfield battles, and there's a lot in the midfield battles for me right now that are happening that's really interesting, and it's interesting to see, you know, how well, and I know we're gonna talk about this, but you know.


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[Assistant] How well McLaren did in the first half of this weekend and wasn't able to do so well in the second half and how far they've come from the start of the season and similarly to Aston Martin. There's just so much going on that I think it's wrong to focus on the top three and I personally don't think


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[Assistant] I think it's actually fascinating to see how fast...


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[Assistant] He is right now, him being Max Verstappen. And I think there's so much to look into that. So I don't know. I'm maybe a unique case in that, but I don't think that's true. I just think it really depends on how you approach the sport and how you look at it.


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[Assistant] My plea would maybe be to just don't look at the top three podium, look more at the midfield battles.


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[Assistant] And look more at the ev- even just the evolution of this season and the sport from the first se- the first race that we had and where we are now, 12 races in. So much has changed within the sports from the shakeups and the drivers.


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[Assistant] I just, I have a hard time with anyone who ever says that this sport is boring or even just the race is boring. There's always something there to look into. And I feel like people like...


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[Assistant] David Croft have more to say about the intricacies of the sport, but that's my perception.


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[Assistant] On the driver line-up, 100%, uhm, I think they've also got an exciting driver line-up. I think like most, I won't say like most people, I for one definitely want to see Lewis win an 8th championship. I actually love


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[Assistant] Again, I appreciated this weekend seeing Max Verstappen go through the cars and try and make up those points versus starting in first and finishing in first. And I think that was something I always really enjoyed with Lewis, seeing him make his way from the backfield.


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[Assistant] And similarly, I had that excitement this weekend with Max Verstappen, and I was like, I always find these two drivers actually very similar. Uhm, so no, I agree with that, everything.


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[Assistant] And it creates a backlog, doesn't it? Just like we're getting so far behind, we've got so much more to catch up that it just feels like there's no room for us to actually catch up and do the necessary work. And I know this is a Formula One podcast, but it was interesting that we've just had like the season close of Formula E.


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[Assistant] And so we've had all of the races through January, and I'm not saying this should be with F1 before everyone comes at me, but we've had January through now what we like, August, and then that's it. And so it feels like, it feels exciting for the team to then be able to like, okay, well, we're taking a few weeks off, but we're going straight into 2024 season, but we actually have the time to prep for that season, to prep on the cars, to do the changes.


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[Assistant] I was shocked when I asked the teams how they were planning, how they were mapping the budgets and the money. I was like, are you checking this on a monthly basis, bi-weekly? And they're like, oh no, we look at the end of the year.


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[Assistant] How does that work? And the tech isn't there for them to constantly see all the spending, like it is done retroactively, which makes no sense.


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[Assistant] There's no mechanism to be able to say, I think we're going up or we're, you know, spending too much here and there and you should slow down.


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[Assistant] Is the solution not, and this might be idiotic, but lesser races and more teams on the grid?


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[Assistant] No, but, but if, if the whole reason is, if, if we look all the way back about why it was bought in was to lower that level, level the playing field just ever so slightly. I feel if you bring in more teams, yes, they're going to take, it's going to take more time. But also if you allow the teams to develop the cars properly and spend the money where they need to, I, less,


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[Assistant] Less time on the road running from one continent to another. I don't know, I just, I'm not saying it's the perfect solution, but when I keep going back to why did we introduce the cost gap to start off with?


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[Assistant] Hard sport to do if you are not fully, your heart's not fully into it, not, you know, this is not exactly what you want to be doing.


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[Assistant] I actually can't wait for him to be unpatient. Like, that's what I've been wanting from Charles Leclerc, is like, speak up, stop, you know, we've gotta, gotta have, he's gotta have like those Max Verstappen moments as well.


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[Assistant] Might get a lot of hate for this, but Ferrari is one of those teams that doesn't bring out a lot for me. I found, I found Carlos Sainz way more exciting as a driver when he was at McLaren and where he is right now at Ferrari.


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[Assistant] I find them a lackluster pairing. I think they, we have moments where you see greatness, but I...


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[Assistant] For this whole season, I keep saying this, I keep going, oh, Ferrari. Didn't pay any attention to Ferrari. Oh, Ferrari. And that's, that's weird because they're up there, they did great this weekend. I mean, in the grand scheme of things they did pretty good.


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[Assistant] Uhm, so I don't know where I stand on Ferrari. Ferrari's always been a, hasn't always been a bizarre one, but for the last few seasons I've just been like, eh.


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[Assistant] Which, I want to see more from both of them, especially Charles Leclerc, but Carlos' signs as well is a phenomenal driver. I mean, they all are.


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[Assistant] Uhm, but I definitely found him more exciting when he was at McLaren, strangely.


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[Assistant] No, but even the on track battles, I just, I, I find myself, I find myself when I'm watching the race, not focusing on Ferrari. And I think it's part of what, what he was saying, of just like,


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[Assistant] They come in so confident. They come in so optimistic.


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[Assistant] Every single time it feels like there is just something.


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[Assistant] No, I love, I love that comparison back to 98. Uhm, I, I agree. Uhm, it's been fun also to see both of the drivers.


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[Assistant] It's always fun when you see a driver get that, oh, this is the car I needed. This is, I can now go and do what I know I can do on track. And so for both of the drivers, it was fun, but it was also just great to see Oscar Piastri. I think this was, you know, his first big moment. Um, shame that he obviously can, you know, not.


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[Assistant] Sorry for his fault. Uhm, but couldn't keep that for, for Sunday, but honestly.


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[Assistant] Just yeaah, the recovery. Again, that's what I mean by Formula One is exciting because we


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[Assistant] Four weeks ago, five weeks ago, we would not be saying this about McLaren and we really truly didn't know if they were going to be able to turn the ship around. And they truly did, based on the packages and the changes they brought to the car. And that I find exciting. And also just great to see the drivers actually excited by going racing.


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[Assistant] Look, I could be so wrong here, so I'll look to the experts, but it feels like in Formula One, there really isn't the perfect or great time to make any of these announcements. I also find that in today's world with social media, if you've made a decision, you might as well get it out the door, because else the rumor mills just start, and I think that's probably even worse.


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[Assistant] Uhm, so the timing, I always find timings of announcements in Formula One.


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[Assistant] 8 times out of 10, just like the wrong time, but that's just because there probably isn't a good time.


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[Assistant] My biggest fear in F1 has always been when there is an absolute lack of consistency from the leadership level. Cause I always wonder what that does for the drivers when they see the chaos up top and what that does to you from a mental performance. You know, like getting into a car and knowing you have one job to do, but you know that at the top it's like, it's all shuffling around. Um, and I do think I had this question.


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[Assistant] A couple of months ago, even last year, actually looking at all the changes that we saw with Williams of just like the amount of venture capital money that's coming into the sport, how fast they're expecting.


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[Assistant] Return on their investment. And I do think Formula One is one of those sports that just takes time. If you're in it and you're investing in something, you're in it for the next decade or two or three decades. You can't expect to return on your investment in two, three, four, five years. And so that's always my biggest fear of how fast the sport is moving these days of.


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[Assistant] Hey, this, this is gonna take time, and I think it's the same for the, the change management and leadership, but also, if something's not working, that again, it's like this weird paradox. If something's not working, you might as well change it. But I do worry for both Ocon and Pierre of just like what that means and the chaos up top.


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[Assistant] I'm curious to see where they go from this and what they're actually going to build as a team.


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[Assistant] But no, it was mad. I mean, you had, what was the change with Laurent Rossi a couple of weeks ago?


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[Assistant] Uhm, Williams, it's interesting, the transition that Williams has had in the last 12 to 18 months, you look at it and go, that's the place I would like to work.


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[Assistant] I don't, that means nothing in the grand scheme of things, but to what, after you were saying of like, all the ingredients, elements are there. Uhm, there's also an element of...


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[Assistant] Slow wins the race, like we're going to get all the elements right and then when we're ready, we're actually going to be able to hit the ground running. So I've been very excited by Williams and I think everyone, especially people in the UK, want to see Williams back.


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[Assistant] Do you think the change that they did of bringing in, replacing the two younger, more novel drivers and bringing in the two that they have now as a combo, do you think that was the best play for Hasya? Absolutely. So at least there's not that component to worry about.


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[Assistant] I also, they come across also as a team that's willing to move maybe a little slower also to figure out what they need to figure out. It's been fun to see both Yuki, I mean, Yuki didn't...


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[Assistant] We raced really well this weekend, Inspire. It was nice to see. I also wonder when we were talking right at the start of the conversation about...


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[Assistant] Sheko Perez being comfortable, just being like, you're going to be the number two, so as long as you're comfortable with that, then you might be more successful. I wonder if someone like Daniel Ricciardo is...


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[Assistant] Able to have that same mindset shift as well when we think about why he left Red Bull at the beginning. If he can have that same shift and go, you know what?


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[Assistant] I'm not gunning for world champion, I just want to be a phenomenal number two driver and then maybe.


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[Assistant] I wonder if he's, he will get to that or if he's still, you know, when you talk to him.


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[Assistant] Which you can't rewrite history, so it's not, you know, but that was the reason why he left.


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[Assistant] Cruises are weird because if you want to escape someone, if you meet people that you like, it's great. If you meet people on the first day that are a bit awkward, you're like, oh well, there's not a long way.


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[Assistant] So I can't complain about that. Although I'm a pale redhead, so being in the sunshine doesn't, you know, doesn't really save me.


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[Assistant] There's a lot of places, um, yeaah, you know, um, no, it isn't, they, the incredible thing about California is you've got the seaside, the mountains and the deserts all really close. So you could drive up and do a Palm Springs desert trip or you go into the mountains. There's a lot.


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[Assistant] Uhm, there's still some skiing happening because we've had a very weird, uhm, winter. I mean, I feel like the weather's all over the place right now. But no holidays planned. This was kind of my, I came down for two weeks. I'll be in Europe for another week. We're just going to the south of France for three days. So there you go.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I have, yeah, I've, uh, gorged myself on chocolate, which is, uh, you know, you're obviously going to do, but not as much as my kids have gorged themselves on chocolate. So they've been tearing around the house and, uh, I've been trying to, you know, put a leash on them, but that's Easter.


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[Assistant] Yes and no. I think, you know, from the purest perspective, uhm, I kind of like the way that practice sessions built you into a weekend. But as a, as a broadcaster, I think we, we always want a bit of jeopardy in there. And I'm not meaning that flippantly, I just think that, uhm,


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[Assistant] It's wasted time on a weekend when there could be something more dramatic going on, if you want to look at it like that. Uhm, but at the same time,


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[Assistant] At the same time, it's gotta be meaningful, it can't be gimmicky. Uh, and I think that the thing with sprints is, and I can understand why Christian Horn is...


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[Assistant] Their process at the moment, which is going about winning every qualifying and every race. That's just what they want to do. So why would they, why would they be pro it? You can see it from their perspective, from the other's point of view and from a fan's point of view and from Stefano Domenicali's point of view.


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[Assistant] Also you could get the, the championship could be decided, the championship could be decided outside of a main event.


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[Assistant] So, you know, there is that as well that you think it, if you're talking about devaluing.


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[Assistant] The actual Grand Prix, you could have a whole championship decided on a sprint race. So yeah, you are, I think, I think I'm with Jess, like you're either in or you're out on this, aren't you? I know they're trialling it this year, but if the trial goes well,


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[Assistant] Then just put it forever. Make it, make it a constant throughout 2024.


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[Assistant] What if they're changing the format up and they're wanting to get rid of, just want to have one practice session? I mean I, there's too much, there's too much practice.


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[Assistant] It's just, it's just him saying, it's his way of saying, we don't like sprint races.


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[Assistant] Because we are winning, and we are winning comfortably, and why would we...


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[Assistant] Bring in more risk if, you know, if we don't need to. I object, Your Honour. I think that's that Simon.


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[Assistant] Maybe I'm being cynical, but I mean, I get it. Look, he's a, he's an old school racer, isn't he? Max is one of these, one of these people that believes in the sanctity of the Grand Prix. And you know, that's, that's definitely a case you could argue, but I do think that there's an element of,


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[Assistant] Uhm, you know, we've got the best car. Why would you bring in any more Jeopardy? Do you not think that, Damon? I mean, I think so. If they were coming fourth or fifth, they'd be like, okay, well, you know, it adds an extra dimension whereby we can, we can challenge those that have the dominant car.


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[Assistant] Isn't it? That's what it is. It's whether you think that the test, you know...


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[Assistant] So, you know, 2025, maybe they all come together. Or maybe Red Bull will be so far away that, that they won't. But I think that that was the result of that, wasn't it? It was just the, uh, the last year of, of the regulations staying the same. And so, you know, law of diminishing returns and the pack closed up and,


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[Assistant] You know, and you got that, an epic season with the end that we got. But at the same time, that's what we've got to hope for, haven't we, with what's being put in in terms of the wind tunnel.


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[Assistant] Restrictions and perhaps that will kick in because let's face it, you know, that we're not seeing that on the car yet because the penalty hasn't kicked in for Red Bull, but.


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[Assistant] You know, maybe it will be towards the end of the season that others start to close the gap and maybe it will be as we get towards 2026 that we, that we get the epic season in 2025. Before we change it all again. Otherwise, otherwise we'll do our best to keep entertaining for you.


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[Assistant] Well, I mean, obviously it wasn't an ideal start, was it? Uh, in fact, it was their worst start for, for a number of years, for, for 27 years, I think it was. Uhm, uh, they,


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[Assistant] But they believe themselves that they're in the running for at least fourth. That's, that's what's coming out of their communications department is that they believe that, and with everything that they've got coming, they had a fundamental flaw. They've got their, uh, their new wind tunnel is coming online in June, isn't it? I think so. Um, uh, you know, I think that they, they could,


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[Assistant] The reshuffle, what's that done? Uhm, I don't know. You have to think about what, what they've got in terms of their, uh,


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[Assistant] Uhm, has gone and they've, they've brought in or they've, they've reshuffled it and Peter Pedromu who, who let's face it, he was Adrian Newey's number two and he's been there for a decade now.


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[Assistant] Uh, he was ahead of, of Dan Fallows. More responsibility for, for him. Uhm, will that, will that help them?


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[Assistant] I dunno, they've got work to do and I know they'll be under a huge amount of pressure from the Bahrainis in particular. Zach's under pressure, he knows that.


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[Assistant] But he's done his job in bringing the sponsors. Now it's about the race team, whether they can deliver. Uh, they've undergone a load of changes, but I think just their capacity to, to develop will stand them in good stead. I think that they're, I think that they could still be on for four


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[Assistant] We will see. I mean, I think, I think he's closer, isn't he? He's a lot closer piastry than, uhm, than Daniel Ricciardo was at any point. Already you can see it in the first few races that this kid's got.


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[Assistant] Talent, hasn't he? You can see why he was the F2 and F3 champion. He's, he's, he's the real deal. And I think they know that and they've got two sides of the garage functioning now, whereas they only were fighting one handed last year.


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[Assistant] You know, they're, even they're talking about it. Tom McCulloch was talking about it from, from Aston Martin saying that because of


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[Assistant] In the midfield and, and you know, you look at Ferrari and they're accelerating their upgrades. They're bringing them, you know, forward. I think it was Imola that it was planned for. They, they want to get them onto the car as quickly as possible. They've got a problem with their balance. They've got a problem with their time management. We know that and it's their worst start. I think points why since, since 2009.


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[Assistant] Ferrari can develop. They all will. They're all working very hard. In fact, they're all


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[Assistant] Yeah, in cricket you don't question the umpire's decision. It's a question of respecting the rules official and his decision is final. And I think it should be final.


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[Assistant] In the officials and the consistency of their officiating. I know we call that into question all the time with the stewards. It's about that. It's about consistency and getting it right more often than getting it wrong.


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[Assistant] Uhm, if you look at football, they've brought in VAR. You look at cricket, they have Hawkeye. So that those decisions that might have been 50-50,


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[Assistant] I'll help with, and I know that that's what's trying to happen in Formula One. Uhm, onsite and offsite, they have, uhm, historical cases, they have all the equipment they need to make the right decision.


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[Assistant] Therefore, let's trust that decision. We have to, otherwise it calls into question the integrity of the sport. On that note,


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[Assistant] Hello everyone, a very warm welcome to this week's episode of the Sky Sports F1 podcast. I hope you are well. Joining me for this one, someone I'm very excited about getting on our podcast. He's a Formula One podcaster, but he's also a cricket podcaster, host of a hugely successful radio show, uh, breakfast show here in the UK. He's also an author,


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[Assistant] It's a fantastic thing to be able to do. Uhm, I also, by the way, want to give you a, a shout out for an incredible audio setup. We've had on the podcast across the year, variable people join, drivers, our own presenters in fact. And this just goes to show you can do it at home. You know, a radio presenter is probably what was expected.


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[Assistant] Everyone needs a podcast stream. Everyone needs a podcast stream. Yeah, fair enough, fair enough. Uhm, anyway, Greg, look, really excited to get you on. There's so much we want to get into talking about. We're going to talk about the Fast and the Curious, which is your F1 podcast, and how that all came about. But I also want to get into talking about your cricket podcast, and I think there's some really interesting conversations to be had around where cricket is at the moment.


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[Assistant] Attracting new audiences, that sort of stuff. So, so plenty, plenty to get into. Um, but let's start by talking about the Fast and the Curious. And, uh, we did a little job swap, didn't we? So Crofty came on your podcast, you've come on ours. Tell me, how is Crofty, is he welcome back?


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[Assistant] Yeah, well, particularly radio commentary for, for sport. I always think that's one of the most remarkable skills to, to be able to let people into the story and help them visualize it. But also, you know, you've got to get in all the facts and the stats and get people into the game as well. So there's a whole host of things you have to do.


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[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, very, very difficult job, but when done well, absolutely brilliant. So let's talk about the Fast and the Curious, because that was a podcast that you launched at the start of this year. Chloe on Instagram, we've got a few questions in for people at home. So Chloe on Instagram would like to know what got you into F1 and why did you start your podcast, Fast and the Curious?


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[Assistant] Yeah, lovely explanation, and I think one of the things you do so well is you get beneath the surface.


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[Assistant] Really wonderfully, because obviously when we speak to drivers, particularly at a race weekend, you know, they are, they're head down. All they, all they are there, their purpose that weekend is to drive that car as fast as they can. And we get them, you know, if we're lucky we get them on a Thursday, but even then their head, you know, they're in meetings, they're in strategy meetings, engineering meetings, their head is still in the game.


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[Assistant] Maybe on a Monday or a Tuesday, you know, and that's, that's kind of the interesting thing. So it's, it's a really wonderful podcast. I'm intrigued to, to, to know what, what you've, what you've learned from the podcast this year. What, what have you, what's maybe taken you a bit by surprise and that you've gone, oh, wow, I didn't know that happened or that's become a lot clearer now, for example.


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[Assistant] Well, Martin Brundle put that point to Pep Guardiola at the British Grand Prix and he said, you know, imagine if you're coaching Manchester City.


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[Assistant] And, you know, five, well, whenever we speak to Lando often just after the anthem. So he's about to get in the car. That's, that's.


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[Assistant] I'm intrigued to get your thoughts then on Silverstone and races as an event, because obviously this year, I don't know if this was the first, I imagine you might have been on the grid before, but you're on the grid at Silverstone. Just take us into what it's like to be on the grid before a Formula One race. Try and put that into words, because I don't think I can.


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[Assistant] Made an effort to increase the music, you know, to increase all that kind of buzz around it. And I was, I was at Zandvoort this year and you honestly can't hear, poor, poor Natalie is trying to interview Steve Carell at the front of the grid. They can't, they just cannot hear each other. They are just conducting an interview based on, we think we might be saying this.