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[Assistant] I don't think it's that type of party this year. Listen, first of all, Zeke's game is similar to Chubb's game. It's not as good at this point, right? But there's similar type of backs. I'd say Zeke is probably actually a better blitz picker-upper, which is a term I've coined. He's excellent at that. He's excellent. He catches the ball.


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[Assistant] I think of all these free agents, Ezekiel Elliot, even though I've been down on him in recent years, I think he can help a team.


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[Assistant] You know, more, probably more than any of the guys on this list, but I don't think the Browns are the right fit for him. And I do think, even though we don't know what your own Ford is,


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[Assistant] We all know that running back is a young man's game. And so they saw something in him. I want to see the kid play. I want to see what he's got.


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[Assistant] And so I, I, I don't think Elliott's a fit. I think he's a fit in a lot of other places. She's dead on the money though. If you, if they're handing him the ball six times a game, you think he's going to be happy?


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[Assistant] He wants to get, he's at this point, Zeke and Hunt.


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[Assistant] Are waiting for the draft because they're gonna see that they probably have a few teams that might be interested. They're probably interested in a few teams. They're gonna see which of those teams drafts are running back high and then they're gonna go to the others because those guys still want to play.


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[Assistant] They don't want, they, they, you know, timeshares are fine. Those guys don't want to be backups.


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[Assistant] He did an okay job, but he was protected. The Bengals had excellent safeties. They don't have them anymore.


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[Assistant] And he was protected by that to some degree because they had a, as good a safety combo as you could have.


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[Assistant] He is a, like, if, if you're bringing him in as like your fourth or fifth corner, I mean, it's fine, but I don't think the Browns got good depth at corner. I mean, even, even their fourth corner is, uh, what's his name, man? He got A.J. Greensdale. Like, they got good depth there. I don't think Eli Apple's any better than the guys you already have.


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[Assistant] He was. What's amazing is, and this just happens in football. Guys, and it often happens. Off the cliff. Off the cliff. He was like, 1400 yards, 1400 yards, 1800 yards, 1500 yards, 14, 16, 14. Dang.


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[Assistant] Seven seven two thirty nine. In twenty, in twenty eighteen and twenty nineteen he combined.


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[Assistant] For over 200 catches, over 3,000 yards and 14 touchdowns. In the three years since, he has 100 catches.


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[Assistant] He can't stay out. That's what happens when these guys get old. You know, wide, you very rarely see a wide receiver that's good past the age of 30, 31.


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[Assistant] I mean, Taylor Luan might be able to help some team, but he's not better than what the Browns have. So what am I going to do with him at this point?


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[Assistant] As my only four guys that I'd be interested in really. Akeem Hicks actually wasn't one of them, because I had four guys rated higher, but there are definitely some defense, like the Browns have brought, added four veteran defensive linemen this year.


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[Assistant] I'd bring in another. I'd make it five. You can never have enough good defensive linemen. And the Browns didn't have any last year except for, except for my


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[Assistant] Everybody, unless you're 25 or younger, you gotta know what that is.


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[Assistant] I'm not spending any money on corner right now. I'm spending, I got plenty of good corners. I don't need to mess around.


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[Assistant] He is still a player. And here's the thing with him, like, I get him, I'm not playing him that many plays, but you know what, I throw him out there in pass rushing situations, he'll make some plays for me. No doubt.


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[Assistant] Mike, I'm good with both of the defensive linemen. Frank Clark was still good last year. Ionitis, I think was a Pro Bowler only two, three years ago.


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[Assistant] Uh, I've been against the signing of Odell, I just...


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[Assistant] I'm torn on Odell because I don't think he's out of gas, but I do think he's low on gas. And I just don't know.


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[Assistant] I don't know that he's really even a headache. He's more a headache to us or to me, not me personally, but like the media that he is to his teammates, but he does kind of do his own thing a little too much on the field and I just don't think it works with him.


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[Assistant] And I've said it once, I've said it a million times. Not that this is the end of all be all, but I sat down with Odell once, off the record. We did an interview, but before the interview we sat down and we talked off the record for 10 minutes. And he told me some like really fascinating things that I would never share because he shared it with me in a private moment and I was, I was like,


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[Assistant] Well, first of all, that's not completely true because the Browns only have at the moment one starting caliber defensive tackle. That's for sure. Like there's other guys that might be, but there's only one short thing at defensive tackle and that's Tomlinson. Nobody else is definitely a starter. The guy whose name I keep forgetting from... Loco Oreo.


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[Assistant] No, no, no, the guy from the Niners who they signed. Mo Hurst. Hurst. Like, I like Hurst, but he hasn't played in two years, so I don't know what, I don't know if he can stay healthy. I think he can be a starter, but I'm not sure, but, so those defensive lines, and by the way, there's a thing,


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[Assistant] You know, you might not have heard of this, called a backup. You need some depth on your roster. That's been a problem for the Browns over the years.


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[Assistant] If nothing else, the Browns need some more depth on the defensive line. They could always use one more receiver. They have nothing proven at running back. I mean, I want to see the young guys, but Brad is right. They got nothing proven at running back outside of Nick Chubb. So I don't think they're going to go the veteran route of running back. If they wanted to, I mean, I get it.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, to say you don't want to sign any cornerbacks, okay, they have good depth there.


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[Assistant] That's 100% right. And that's why the Browns are short compared to the better team. Right. They're, they're comparable in stars. The Browns have enough stars. They don't have as many second and third tier guys as the better teams. That's why you got to close the gap.


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[Assistant] Alright, that's ridiculous. I mean, first of all, as far as I can tell,


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[Assistant] The coach, the GM, they don't talk in the off season unless there's a big free agent signing. Ravens haven't had any big free agent signings. They haven't done anything in free agency. So as far as I know, Harbaugh and DeCosta, is that their GM now, DeCosta?


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[Assistant] I don't think those guys have spoken to the media since the season ended. Why would I care about your draft? All I care about is Lamar Jackson. And to say you can't ask questions about that is absurd. And to kick a guy out for asking about Lamar Jack wasn't like he asked about the GM's wife or something. Give me a break.


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[Assistant] It's a crazy situation and the ravens are a mess.


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[Assistant] Gee is right, the Ravens and Steelers get a pass for everything they do. Everything. Now, they've earned it by being well-run organizations for a long time. But neither one at the moment is as well-run as it has been in the past.


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[Assistant] Both of them are on the decline in terms of how they're run. And they get no criticism. Every time the Lamar Jackson thing comes up, people get up in arms about the Brown signing Watson. They say, why isn't this other team signing?


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[Assistant] Blame the Ravens, they've had two years to figure this out here, they haven't been able to figure it out. It's a tough situation, I get it, because Lamar's high is really high, he's injury prone, so you're worried about it. It's tough to find a middle ground there, and because he doesn't have an agent...


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[Assistant] Yeah, I don't think there's any doubt there. I mean, they'll get a chance to prove it, but I can't imagine they're winning many games without Lamar Jackson.


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[Assistant] And that's, and that's the situation we're in right now.


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[Assistant] Right. And that's the tricky thing in sports because all of this is public.


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[Assistant] Final thing on this, I think it's going to be interesting once the draft is over.


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[Assistant] At that point, will some of these teams that don't have a good quarterback


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[Assistant] Now, cause think about it, if you're Indianapolis or Atlanta or one of these teams that has bad quarterback and you have a top 10 pick this year, you're like, well, as great as Lamar is, I don't want to give up a top 10 pick right now because if I wait and make him an offer a month from now, well now my first round pick that I have to give up is next year. And next year, if I got Lamar,


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[Assistant] I'm gonna be at least a borderline playoff team if not a playoff team. So instead of picking 6th, I'm picking 18th or 20th, and I got Lamar, I'm okay giving up the draft.


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[Assistant] If I'm the Colts, the second the draft's over, I'm, I'm signing, I'm either negotiating directly with the Ravens or signing Lamar to an offer sheet. I'm getting them if I'm the Colts. This goes hard and heavy after.


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[Assistant] Alright, let's leave it there, guys. It is opening day, the home opener for the Guardians, 4-10 first pitch, three hours, 20 minutes away, and we're going to be talking about it the rest of the show. We'll talk to Jay live from Progressive Field at noon, and then Justin Lata, who does the Locked On Guardians podcast, uh, will join us at 12-30, right?


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[Assistant] Okay, so today's pitching matchup, Aaron Savalli and Logan Gilbert. We saw Logan Gilbert in Seattle. Aaron Savalli pitched in Seattle and pitched great.


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[Assistant] These guys pitched against each other, right? First game? I do believe so. Not this first game. First game was Bieber against Castillo, and I believe it was... It was game three, I believe.


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[Assistant] They didn't match up. Right, right, right. But both pitched great their first time out in Seattle. Uhm, I, I was thinking about this before, because coming into the season, I said I had no faith in Savalli and I had no faith in Police Act. And, uhm,


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[Assistant] Neither one of them has given you a reason in the last year or so to have faith in them. Now, they, uh, Savalli, uh, two years ago, police act three years ago had a good year. Now, Savalli was great his first star police act was awful.


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[Assistant] I never make judgements based on one start, but for you guys, how long, you know, with a guy like Aaron Savalli who's, you know, got average stuff,


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[Assistant] How long does he have to pitch well till you have faith in him?


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[Assistant] It depends how well they pitch this year. Bybee's in AAA. Right. So if he gets off to a good start,


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[Assistant] I mean, the Orioles just called up this kid, Grayson Rodriguez.


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[Assistant] Right, he pitched well his first major league start. He's the best pitching prospect in baseball, or one of the top two or three.


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[Assistant] And, he didn't have a good spring training, so they decided to start him with a minor.


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[Assistant] He hasn't, doesn't have a lot of high level minor league experience. I think they want to give him a few starts, but you're not going to wait forever. Now, so far, so far, the starting pitching overall has been good, right? Right. Bieber's been great in his two starts. Savalli was great in his first start. Uh, Hunter Gaddis was bad in his first start. He did a good job the other day. He pitched well. Uh, police


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[Assistant] And, and, and, you know, you, you give Quantra a little bit of further doubt because he was good last year. You see, you're not going to write him off after one start.


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[Assistant] To me, police act, again, even him, who had no faith in coming in, I'm not gonna write him off after one bad start, but I do think it was interesting.


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[Assistant] I don't know if anybody noticed this because they only showed it for a brief second. If you weren't at the game, you might not have seen it unless you saw the quick flash during the broadcast.


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[Assistant] But when Klause was pitching in the 10th inning, and after walking that lead off guy, he settled in and did his job. But when he was pitching for a second, they put the camera on the bullpen.


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[Assistant] So I thought that was interesting because he's supposed to start this week. Yeah, he's a start. Why wouldn't he be? Well, it makes you think that, you know, I think in this case it was extra innings and maybe they thought, well, he only pitched one inning. So if Klase blows the save or something happens, maybe we'll bring him in so he could pitch potentially a couple extra innings. However,


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[Assistant] You know, the Guardians in the past, they've had a number of guys starting pitchers who have struggled.


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[Assistant] And then they moved him to the pen, right at the ship, and it's like, the number one example in most recent years is Carlos Carrathville.


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[Assistant] A lot of folks don't remember this, when the guardians first got Carlos, well the Indians at the time got Carlos Carrasco, early in his career, he was very up and down.


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[Assistant] And then he bottomed out, they moved him into the bullpen in the middle of the season, he had a terrible start to the year, pitched great out of the pen, great for like two months, next year they put him in the rotation, he was a good pitcher.


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[Assistant] From then on out and maybe that's what police act needs and keep in mind for those who don't know.


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[Assistant] Zach Plisak's uncle, Dan Plisak, was a great relief pitcher. So maybe that's a role for him, I don't know. Because I have, I have very little patience for Zach Plisak. If he can't turn it around for me, like I got a longer leash with Klaus A because I think he's had more success and he hasn't been a pain in the neck off the field at all.


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[Assistant] A police act, to me, has got a month. If he doesn't get his crap together by the end of April, I'm calling up Bybee to start May. Let's go.


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[Assistant] I do, I mean, Frank Cohn is a very patient guy, and the players appreciate that, and you know, he gives them an opportunity.


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[Assistant] I think with Savalli, he's not anywhere near that. I think with Plisak, again, I don't know this personally, it's just from studying Frank Kona for his decade here plus, I think he probably doesn't have that long a leash for Plisak.


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[Assistant] It is. Now, obviously we talked about it. Bybee and Williams could both be here. They could both be great and all of a sudden. But if Tristan McKenzie, you know, we got to see what his status is. If he's ready to go by June, we'll see. I've been saying all along they need a veteran starter. You know, you want one more veteran for the playoffs.


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[Assistant] You generally don't want to rely on young guys, especially rookies, if you're thinking about winning the World Series. I will go out to Jay at Progressive Field here shortly. We got you hanging or no?


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[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, as long as Shohei Otani's playing, it's going to be hard for anybody else to write an MVP.


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[Assistant] But, uh, man, he is a great athlete and has been one of the most consistent players for years.


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[Assistant] Well, he's on that track. So is he? I think he's on, I mean, he's got to do it for a number of more years, but I think he's on a hall of fame track. Yes. We got Jay.


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[Assistant] Yeah, at least it's sunny today. At least it's not supposed to rain or anything like that. It is unfortunate that it's so cold because it was warmer earlier in the week. It's supposed to be very warm next week.


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[Assistant] So it's, it's, it's a, it's kind of, although next week we got the Yankees coming up town, so that should be fun. But I love this, you know, this is really interesting, Jay, because we were just talking, I don't know if you heard about like how long Alicia Savalli have, how long, and obviously he was great in the first start, but certainly please sack, like how long will they put up with him? He doesn't pitch well.


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[Assistant] And I think Savalli, not just because he was better in his first start, I just think Savalli has a lot, a much longer leash than police act does. I'll get your take on that. But I think this start in particular is very interesting for him because he just pitched against the Mariners last week.


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[Assistant] And so if he pitches well against a good lineup two times in a row, I think that really shows you something. We'll see who, you know, cause they're going to adjust to him. Will he be able to make those readjustments? Be interesting.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, it'll be interesting to see, you know, we were, Gee was just asking me about Bibi.


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[Assistant] And, or Bybee, I keep wanting to call him Bibby. Bybee. Yea, I know. And when he's...


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[Assistant] Gonna make his debut. Like, obviously he's got great stuff. Gavin Williams has great stuff. They're both healthy right now. Williams pitching a double A. Bybee's gonna be pitching, he's pitching a triple A.


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[Assistant] You know, at least, at least at that position, there are potential options. If those guys get off to good starts, you know, I, I think by May we, you know, if police acts not getting it done or Gattis is not getting it done, although Duke did pitch well the second game, uh, we could definitely see Bybee by May, I think.


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[Assistant] It's a, I don't, I mean, to me it's a week. It's baseball. And Josh Bell is a streaky type of player as a lot of power hitters are.


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[Assistant] Like, he could easily over the next week, like in his next week he could go crazy and all of a sudden we're laughing that we were upset at his 0.71 batting average. I, I, honestly, unless it's a rookie who's just a total disaster at the plate, I don't really start looking at guy stats.


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[Assistant] Until at least a month in, I just feel like good or bad. I gotta give a guy...


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[Assistant] I just, for whatever reason, there was a thought in my head that he's always been a bad April player.


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[Assistant] And so I actually just looked it up. I actually just looked it up. It has consistently been tied for the worst month of his career.


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[Assistant] He's always been bad. It's his second worst batting average by month. It's his worst on base percentage by month. It's his tied for worst, uh, slugging percentage by month.


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[Assistant] He most, uh, second most strikeouts per month, all in April, for whatever reason, he's a guy who takes some time and May and June, he usually starts getting hot. Now we don't want to wait for him, you know, three more weeks for him to get hot, but I just think it's not uncommon for him to get off to a slow start. So maybe we'll, we'll see if we can feel a little better about that.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, and he obviously played most of his career in Pittsburgh where it's also like us called in the beginning of the season. So that definitely makes some sense there. Uhm, I think this is a, you made a good point about


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[Assistant] Where baseball is maybe even ahead of football, at the very least it's tied with football for popularity. And when I was a kid, baseball was way ahead of football. Now I'd say it's probably tied. But you, but it's equal. But here,


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[Assistant] Where we, yes, we have a percentage of our fan base to diehard Guardians fans. But a lot of the fans that go to opening day in Cleveland are casual baseball fans. And they're bigger football fans. And they react to baseball games.


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[Assistant] Like we react to football games, which you shouldn't do, but like I don't want to tell a casual fan not to get worked up about it because I want you to care about baseball. So it's hard to find that balance, right? But I do think you're right. It is important for that. They got off to a good start. That's great.


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[Assistant] And even though in the grand scheme of things lose, even if they lose today, it really means nothing in the, or probably means nothing. Let's say miss the playoffs by one game. It probably means nothing in the grand scheme of things, but to capture some of those casual fans that will be there today.


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[Assistant] It, it does mean a little something for the team to win. So I hope they can get it done today because there is that element out there of like, ah, they're not going to win anything because they lose. It's silly, but it happens with some of our fans.


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[Assistant] Yeaah. That's absolutely true. Did Jay freeze?


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[Assistant] We got a frozen Jay. It looks like Jay froze right before his headline. I know we got to get to his headline, but that is definitely true. It was something like every year and the guardians for whatever reason have not been good in their home opener.


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[Assistant] Most of the time the weather stinks for the home opener. Right. Uh, for whatever reason. Which is weird because obviously, unlike the Browns, who stink in their home opener.


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[Assistant] Three run bomb in the ninth leads guards to walk off wins. Now if I get that...


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[Assistant] And by the way, even if he is a solo homer or a two run homer, I get credit.


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[Assistant] And he erased it too, that's crazy. By the way, I've now lived in Cleveland for approaching 12 years. It's so, it's pop. And I still giggle every time somebody says pop. It's pop. It's not. It's soda. I still giggle. 12 years I'm living here. And even when I was in college, when I was in college at Brockport, which is halfway between Rochester and Buffalo, New York.


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[Assistant] And almost 12 years here, that's 18 of my, that's about 40% of my life.


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[Assistant] And yet I still giggle every time somebody says, Bob, I don't know what it is.


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[Assistant] Yes, he's a Clevelander through and through. He says some words like a Clevelander and some words like a New Yorker. He's a mixed bag. He's a mutt.


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[Assistant] Uh, by the way, you know what they call, do you guys know what they call a, you know, like a sub-sandwich? You know, we call it New York? No, that's Philly.


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[Assistant] We're gonna bring in Justin Lata now, uh, he's the chair of Albany Day from the Locked on Guardians podcast, but first, yes, Mikey, go ahead.


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[Assistant] By the way, I was looking, and this is gonna be a really fun event in, uh, not this weekend, but the following weekend, so come join us there. I was looking to see when Tanner Bybee was gonna make his first start, and then I saw your tweet.


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[Assistant] Okay, so we'll see about that. We were talking earlier about Savali and Plisak and let's start with Plisak in particular. He was awful in his first start. I'm sure you agree you don't write a guy off of the one star, but of all their pitchers, I got the least faith in him. Do you agree or disagree?


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[Assistant] I just, I'm not going to get carried away over one week. The guy is not a particularly good hitter. Now listen, I'm not saying, I'm fine with him. I'm just last year when you had three holes in the lineup, it was bad. If he's your seventh best hitter, it's a problem. I'm fine with him being their ninth best hitter, which is what he is.


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[Assistant] Uh, James Karenczak, off to a rough start, obviously he, that first appearance, he completely imploded after he had that automatic, uh, strike called, or automatic ball called against him, and the crowd went just, bananas.


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[Assistant] I think they're also, I think part of it too, don't you think, is they're, like, the Guardians don't like guys that are


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[Assistant] They don't love guys like, they don't like anybody saying anything controversial.


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[Assistant] Overall, uhm, I think when you look, I think the, the guardians, you know, you're always looking for an edge, right? When, when analytics started, it was the small, the lower payroll, I'd say small market because that's bogus, but the smaller payroll teams that were looking for an edge. And now I, I think the guardians have gotten out in front on,


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[Assistant] Putting the ball in play again, base running, moving, and now the rules are just favoring teams that do that.


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[Assistant] But also, I think when it comes to bullpen, like when the Mets sign Edwin Diaz this offseason, and I'm not saying this because he got hurt, I said it at the time, I think spending tons of money on the bullpen is stupid, because even the best relief pitchers, as we all know, with rare exceptions, Mariano Rivera, Trevor Oppen.


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[Assistant] They could be great. Emmanuel Classe could be...


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[Assistant] Bananas, the best reliever in baseball for three years. That fourth year we could have a 6 ERA. It's the most unpredictable thing. They're good at developing arms. Why would you ever spend a ton of money? And I think they've, I don't think we'll ever see the Guardians spend a ton of money in the bullpen again.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I mean they have done such a good job. They do this and the Rays are the two organizations that stand out.


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[Assistant] They get guys before they become expensive.


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[Assistant] They, they signed some extensions here and there. I mean the combination of Ramirez and Jimenez together is even out of the norm for them, as you say.


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[Assistant] But even with those two guys, they're not signing till 36, 37, 38. Most of these big contracts, you're signing guys till they're almost 40. They're never gonna do that. They like to...


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[Assistant] Uh, I think right field's a question mark. Like how much power are you going to get out of that? What's the combo going to be? What's that going to look like? Listen, in a perfect world, they go get a proven right fielder and they go get one more proven starter. It's not a perfect world. That's really the only two things I can see them needing. So many other teams need a lot more than that.


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[Assistant] Like I said, it's really the Rays and the Guardians that play this way.


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[Assistant] The Guardians and Rays are the only good teams that don't have power. And both those teams have consistently gone to the playoff. And so, I don't know, like, I'm not, I, I think the Guardians...


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[Assistant] I think it's wrong to say, well, they can't win unless they hit more home runs. I'm not convinced of that. I know it's harder to string together hits in the playoffs.


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[Assistant] Because in theory you're facing better pitching. But I do think the American League at the top, and usually we look at the Yankees and the Astros, it's not quite as good as it's been. What do you think about that? I don't think the Astros are as good as last year. I don't think the Yankees are. I know they, they've added some, but they're old. They only got ten guys on the DL. They're gonna have a lot of injuries.


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[Assistant] I mean, the Cardinals had teams like that back in the day, you know, but in recent years, yeaah. But there aren't a lot of teams playing that way these days, so that's why I'm like, I'm just, I'm, I think it has more to do with the guys are not playing that way more than it can't be done.


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[Assistant] But yes, I do think you want to be at least, the Guardians are never going to be near the top in power, at least not with their current roster. Because, you know, Kwan and Straw, those guys aren't hitting it for any power.


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[Assistant] You're not getting any power. Rosario isn't in for much power. But they're good, especially Rosario and Kwon are really good players. You want them to play every day offensively. Uh, so, but yeaah, if they can get to middle of the pack, I think they can absolutely win the World Series this year.


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[Assistant] It was fine. Yeaah. They're very similar players. I think it'll hit some home runs. Alright, what's your favorite opening day memory there, Justin?


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[Assistant] Yeah, yeah. Well, have a great time out there. Thanks for joining us. We appreciate it. We'll talk to you soon, man.


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[Assistant] Justin lot of checked on the lockdown, check out the lockdown guardians podcast. Uh, he loves, he loves baseball and condolences to your dad. Very, very sorry. I appreciate it.


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[Assistant] Um, you know, it's funny. I'm thinking about it now and I'm realizing.


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[Assistant] That I, I never went to an opening, I've been to opening days.


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[Assistant] Like as a media member covering the Guardians and sitting in the press box, but that's not the same as being a fan and going to the game. I've never gone to an opening day game for the Guardians as a fan.


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[Assistant] And I've never, and since I didn't grow up in Chicago as a Cubs fan growing up, I never went to opening day. And I've missed, I missed that experience. But the last couple of years I've taken Aaron out of school for, for like home openers to, to watch him on TV. But I don't know, so I don't have that memory like my dad and I going to opening day. Do you guys have that?


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[Assistant] You know, Justin mentioned the 2017 opener. Yeah, obviously, uhm, in 2016 they went to the World Series. There was the heartbreak for fans of losing the World Series, blowing a 3-1 lead.


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[Assistant] The guardians, the Indians went out and spent money that off season. You remember they quit and got, uh, uh, Edwin and Carnacion. When did they get, when did they get born the Swisher? That was before that. That was a few years before that. Those were the two of the worst moves they made and I liked them both at the time. I loved them. Loved them. They were both total flops, disasters.


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[Assistant] But uhm, on opening day, Justin mentioned it, coming off that, you know, a great season that ended with disappointment.


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[Assistant] And then the Guardian, I don't remember what the date was, but it was like a late home opener because the Guardians had started, I think they had played like seven, eight games on the road to start that season. It was against the White Sox.


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[Assistant] And Brantley doubles to score Lindor. And everybody went nuts because obviously on opening day there's a huge crowd. And it was a good feeling. And remember the 2017 Indians, they were


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[Assistant] They got smoked. Smoked in the playoffs. They lost to the Astros. It was bad. Yeaah, it was ugly and I was going nuts, but it was a hell of a fun season. It was. Uh, until that point. And, and I know the question was, cause they, that winning streak was late. It was like into September.


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[Assistant] Paxson is on the move. What are the odds of Mustard winning the belt this year?


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[Assistant] It was, it was crazy. It was, it was just rock. That was a very different team. We talk about not enough power. That team had more than enough power. They didn't have the pitching that these teams have had. But they had the sticks. They, listen, I wasn't around in those days. Obviously, it seemed like watching it on TV. There was a major home field advantage. What's interesting is, hold on a minute.


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[Assistant] Oh, as a massive baseball fan, I loved watching them play. I, what's funny is, I almost always rooted for the National League. As a National League fan, I almost always rooted for the National League in the World Series.


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[Assistant] But the Marlins, I was like, the Marlins, they shouldn't win a World Series. Like, as a Cubs fan, and I always thought this was like,


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[Assistant] But I rooted for the Indians in both those World Series. I loved watching those teams play.


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[Assistant] As a kid watching, you know, and I was in my twenties in those years, but.


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[Assistant] I thought those teams were super fun to watch. Right, right. And I watched them as often as I could. It wasn't easy to see them. Yeaah. You know, I didn't have cable in those days, but as much as I could, I would watch them. And I certainly rooted for both of those teams, because I didn't want to see some Marlins team that just came into baseball winning the World Series, and unfortunately they didn't. But the interesting thing, and I'm curious for you guys, is


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[Assistant] In 2016 for the World Series, the games in Cleveland, it was not a home field advantage. Because there were as many Cubs fans as Indians fans.


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[Assistant] Like in, in 95 and 97, the Braves and the Marlins, especially the Marlins, but even the Braves, those fan bases.


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[Assistant] It's not like the Cubs, which is just a couple hours away, a lot of money in Chicago. So it probably felt like a much bigger home advantage for those World Series without being here. And in general, I think Cleveland fans do a great job of making noise at our stadiums, slash arenas.


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[Assistant] It was. It was loud. Which is tough because obviously New York's got a lot of money. Maybe, I think Yankee fans for an ALDS are not going to travel as much as the Cubs fans for a World Series because the Yankees have been in the playoffs all the time.


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[Assistant] But I think that was just under an unfortunate, unique circumstance. But in general, I think there is all, like the Brown Stadium sucks. So the sound is bad, everything stinks.


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[Assistant] I can't remember, because I haven't looked at the list in a while. I want to say it's kind of middle of the road. I don't think it's a huge


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[Assistant] There you go. Good job with the NASCAR report. Alright.


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[Assistant] In my 12 years here going to, to games is being at the guardians game. I believe it was 2014 when they, they won their last 10 or 11 games to make the wild card against Tampa Bay and Jason Giambi hit a walk off home run.


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[Assistant] Yeah, well, they, no, they were still good after that because the Cubs played them in the, uh, wild card game in 2015. Cause I went to that game in Pittsburgh and I remember a guy sitting behind me was screaming that they should try to cut Jake Arianna's head off.


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[Assistant] What do you say? We're getting, taking it to therapy tomorrow. Uh, alright, uh, fan questions coming up in overtime next. Everybody enjoy the game. Go Guardians!


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[Assistant] Very well, thank you, Matthew. I think the, um, uh, appropriate greeting for Liam is Kiora.


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[Assistant] Uh, not a, uh, so Kiora Liam, thank you very much for joining us. Um, uh, not a, a nice orange drink that we used to drink as kids, Matthew, but, um, a, uh, yeah, a traditional welcome. And whereabouts are you? If I can get slightly more geographical, uh, Liam, whereabouts are you? Auckland or the green valleys of Wanaka or?


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[Assistant] Lovely. Fantastic. The North Island, Matthew, often overlooked by travellers to, uh, uh, to New Zealand. They always land at Auckland, I speak from personal experience, get on a, get on a plane, go straight down to Wellington or Christchurch and then just miss out the lights of the North, the North Island. I wish I'd stayed longer there.


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[Assistant] What have I learnt? I've learnt that the, uh, the Jeddah budget for fireworks has gone up since last year. I don't remember them being quite that many. Um, I've learnt that, um, the operators of those drone shows can get really specific now. Um, I was trying to actually figure out that while the, there was a mix of a sort of driver's helmet and what looked like a sort of Saudi Arabian


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[Assistant] You know, traveler through the desert sort of mix between the thing. Um, and I've learned that, um, if you're an F1 driver, you really got to get that appendix.


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[Assistant] Uh, sorted, uh, scanned before, you know, see if there's any inflammation. I think an ultrasound will normally do it because that's two we've had in as many years, isn't it? So, um, yeah. And I also have learned.


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[Assistant] That recovery times from appendectomies are really short.


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[Assistant] Uhm, I mean was it keyhole surgery and they just whipped the little appendix out of the keyhole surgery cause he was back really quick.


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[Assistant] The satisfying thing, maybe that's not the right word, I think it is the right word actually, is that, is that, you know, both with Liam and with Ollie, we've seen that promise does translate.


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[Assistant] Um, how good, uh, Oli is, you know, because they, all the teams have wanted, all the Ferrari link teams have wanted to test him. Ferrari had another option, a long time standby driver in Robert Schwartzman. They decided, um, that he wasn't the person that's going to be their reserve. It's convenient that Behrman was there for Formula Two, but they had no.


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[Assistant] You know, no other option and no hesitation in actually putting, uh, Behrman into, uh, the car. And so there was obviously,


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[Assistant] That satisfyingly translate into points and knowing that, you know, all the promise and potential that we knew Liam had before that day in Zandvoort and then was successfully translated into Formula One. It's just nice to see that there's not.


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[Assistant] A huge block to that actually being, you know, demonstrated on track, but I'm interested Liam, tell us about that, that free practice three session because, um, they,


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[Assistant] Pretty much, I'm trying to remember what they did with you. You were, you were sort of three or four minutes into the session. They got you out, put you on a durable tire and just let you run and run and run. And that's, that's almost what they did with Oli, but they were still doing some setup stuff. Did you sort of inherit a setup and you thought I'm fine with that? I just need to know the sort of switches and toggles or did you actually


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[Assistant] Let's just go out there for the, uh, for the running and the experience in FP3.


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[Assistant] I imagine, you know, it's, it's sort of a bit of a shock. You're, and Oli actually alluded to this. I'm sure Liam would, would agree. Come from a F2 paddock, which with the best will in the world, you're probably only going to have two or three TV crews. There's, you know, one doing a kind of drive to survive sort of behind the scenes of Formula Two. Uh, I forget its name. We show it, don't we, Matt?


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[Assistant] Uh, and a couple of other crews and, um, you know, suddenly you're going into this thing where you've got sort of, you know, 50 TV crews and a load of reporters just looking at you. I think it's probably helps. I don't know. We can hear from Liam.


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[Assistant] And did you notice, you know, we were going on air, I think, for qualifying and the guys from sports signage were still putting up the, uh, uh, the Oliver Baerman, uh, sticker that they'd had made very quickly, uh, overnight above the science thing. I would imagine he would have.


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[Assistant] Only noticed that maybe, you know, after going to the grid and walking back to the garage, it's like, Oh right. They put my name up. That's cool. But were there little things like that where you thought, you know.


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[Assistant] That's the right approach, isn't it? It's the, the, that you just took, which was, well, let's try and change that decision. You know, let's, let's, all I can do is, you know, I've been told this, all right, that may be true. It may not, that might be true for, you know, some amount of time and then it might change to be something else. But that is, you know, the essence of Formula One, these things.


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[Assistant] And that's what you did Liam, which I thought was particularly impressive in those.


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[Assistant] Following races was just to, you know, control the controllables, perform at your maximum, which you did impress everybody and know that, you know, like Olly Behrman.


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[Assistant] You know, the, the, you're the two next sort of names on the list really coming in. You've jumped maybe some others that might've thought they were sort of next on the list. Um, you know, and Lawson and Behrman, you know, we know a kind of.


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[Assistant] Proven packages now, there's no doubt. And that's an interesting thing that he was able, even at the age of 18, some people might think, well, that's a bit young for Oli.


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[Assistant] You know, maybe he wants to do another season in Formula 2, maybe, I don't know, go and do something else. But uhm, they know now that he can handle that pressure, that, you know, you've got Lawson and Baerman, next, next two drivers ready to step into, uh, into the seats.


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[Assistant] Was that drive to survive experience? I mean, take us, you know, slightly behind the scenes of that. Uhm, you know, you're wearing a mic, you're aware that there's at least one camera crew and probably, you know, a camera person and a sound person there. There might be a sort of fixer there as well. So it's not real, real life, is it? You're aware that they're there, but.


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[Assistant] Are you just thinking, well, uh, let's just give them something and then maybe they'll go away or do you just sort of talk completely normally? I mean, we're horrified, Liam, when they come and film us, we're like, no, no, no, go away. You know, we're in your.


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[Assistant] And did what Ollie say about afterwards, before I forget Matt, can I ask this, uhm, about how you feel that on Formula 2 it's, it's the drivers, you know, well on top of the car and you're just sort of.


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[Assistant] Uh, you're driving to whatever the car can do and, and no one will be able to out-drive the car. But then in Formula One, was it different because Oli was in a Ferrari and you were in a, with the best will in the world to last year's AlphaTauri?


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[Assistant] Um, but did you feel that the car was driving you a little bit and how quickly?


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[Assistant] Did that change that you were completely on top of the car, if I can ask?


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[Assistant] So the more I see it, and Saudi was quite good, in that, uh,


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[Assistant] In, in, in testing on the, on the TV monitors.


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[Assistant] Just to sort of study what they were doing, the whole package of the RB20 makes more sense to me now. And I know, you know, I have focused on the, the little, um, vertical, uh, inlets there and the,


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[Assistant] And the, uh, the sort of, you know, F18 style Concorde style, uh, air intakes underneath that crash structure. But the more you look at it, the more that all makes sense.


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[Assistant] And the more you think, okay, right, that's a bit of a red herring because yes, they're rather cool. And how they literally call the car is quite clever with a little inlets going in the either side of the halo.


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[Assistant] But that's all just to make, you know, the mother and father of all undercuts underneath that side pod and then on the top of the floor to make that floor. And I'd love to see, you know, the bottom of the floor, hopefully for.


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[Assistant] Max and checkers say they won't have a crash and we can get pictures of it, but that must have been an area of huge improvement and development as well. So the more you look at that, I'll be 20.


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[Assistant] The more it kind of makes sense and the more little details that I see actually watching it on TV. So that was actually quite, quite valuable. But what I think that it was clear.


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[Assistant] Was that, you know, five second penalties for borderline unsafe releases. Not a problem.


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[Assistant] Um, which is a nice position to have, uh, and, um, also the, the, the, the tie use at Bahrain and here was, was also interesting. The patients, I'm wondering whether that was a crucial thing that, you know, in the early stages.


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[Assistant] Leads to kind of more optimised tyre wear and that's something that Max was talking about after the race that actually are, it's really good on tyre wear. Will be different to see


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[Assistant] Uh, in Melbourne, what happens? And then Suzuka and Shanghai, but yeah, it's a, it's a car for all tracks, a car for.


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[Assistant] You know, all conditions at the moment, and uhm, you know, Rachel asked, didn't she, Matt?


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[Assistant] Max, what do you need to still work on? And he said, well, you know, the usual, um, set up sometimes isn't exactly in the window when we get to a circuit and then tires and stuff. But yeah, it just, it's such a good car. And I'm just waiting before we get our opportunity to sit down with Adrian Newey or Pierre Vache or Ben Walthouse or whoever, and just, you know,


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[Assistant] How did you do that? That's the question. Where did those ideas come from? Was it just to get this huge undercut and everything, you know, moving the cooling in the side pot entry was, was to allow for that. It was like, right. I want this massive undercut where I can basically put my suitcase in it. It's so big.


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[Assistant] And how are we going to do that? So well, you can't put the side pods there and you can't put the cooling there. You can't put, well, let's move that. It's like, uh, okay. Um, but yeah, the rest of it. So yeah, hugely impressive car.


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[Assistant] I think they will develop, the Red Bull will develop like everybody else. They have their development plans. It's only a launch car, a race one car at the moment.


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[Assistant] Um, because of course we've just had testing, then we've had Bahrain, then we've had Saudi all back to back. So I'm expecting them even to stretch their legs in Australia. Um, and, and Suzuka, I think Max can win by that, you know, that legendary 25 seconds or more. Um, but do you know what? I feel differently in a sense.


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[Assistant] About, you know, any Red Bull domination and hopes or.


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[Assistant] I think they often say it's the hope that kills you. And, and while last year I thought, you know, second year of a new rules generation, maybe it's going to be a bit different and Ferrari will get those. Like, no, it isn't. That's a dominant car. And actually I, I hold out very little hopes for, for anyone catching Red Bull this year. And that's fine.


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[Assistant] Um, because as long as you know that going in, then you reassess where you're going to see.


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[Assistant] The interesting fight and that fight, assuming that Max qualifies on pole and disappears off into the, into the distance, that fight between


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[Assistant] You know, checker who seems like he's gaining on a good weekend can get a comfortable gap.


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[Assistant] Absorb the penalties we said, you know, and Charles and Oscar. I thought that was interesting coming in. Fernando had a good race. Well, we see sort of Mercedes dropped down maybe, or certainly on the, the evidence of, uh, of Saudi, um, seeing those other guys coming in and if Carlos can hopefully recover quickly for his sake for Australia.


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[Assistant] For them to fight with Perez in that, that position, uh, for second is something I'm happy to watch. And, and, but no, I don't think.


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[Assistant] I hold up much, much, you know, hope for anyone challenging Max for another championship, but I think we kind of knew that already, didn't we? Going into the session. But again, you know, I think it's, it's, it's all credits and they deserve exactly what.


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[Assistant] What, uh, what they're going to achieve, but, um, can I ask one more question to Liam, Matt about that race, about that race day morning?


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[Assistant] How does that, how quickly does that go? How does that, did that, if you can cast your mind back to Zandvoort, the first driver's parade where you're thinking, oh, this is a bit different and, and then do you, you know, do you have a little rest? Do you know what to do? Do you, do you transfer your F2 routine?


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[Assistant] Pre-race into the F1 thing, and then you've just got an extended grid. How did that work?


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[Assistant] That's a good description. I wonder if, I wonder if, uh, Oli, Ben and Matt will, will reflect just like, you know, I did all that, but.


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[Assistant] It was in a Ferrari and that is quite cool, isn't it? You know, I know he's been part of the Ferrari driver development for, for quite a while. And there was this whole thing about, uh, the number 38, um, which I assume he chose because it looks a bit like his initials.


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[Assistant] Uh, uhm, OB. Uhm, but anyway, and then there were all these other Ferrari drivers who've driven the number 38 and it's kind of, you know, the magic of the red fire suit. But, uh, yeah, sorry to bring it back to Olly Behrman in for a minute, but, um, no, I think it's, I think it's, it's, it's just, you know, tall.


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[Assistant] To all Liam, your credit and, and, and Ollie's credit that, you know, at young ages, I know you're a couple of years younger, older than, than Ollie, they can do it so easily and, and with such, um,


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[Assistant] Calmness, I think, was the thing for an 18 year old guy and Lewis saying, I thought that was interesting, didn't you? Lewis saying, I couldn't have done that when I was 18. Um, but, uh, yeah, he looked so assured, didn't he?


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[Assistant] You can always tell Matt when Cheko's in for the, uh, when Cheko's in for the Red Bull Simulator because he puts a selfie of his, uh, him outside his swish Knightsbridge hotel.


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[Assistant] Did you notice yesterday, it's probably still on his Instagram, he takes a picture of London and you can see the flag of the hotel outside underneath it. I was like, hang on, I know that hotel, that's in Knightsbridge. What's wrong with the travel tab in Milton Keynes? Where are you?


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[Assistant] Well, he's got to get to Euston first from Knightsbridge. That's not particularly easy. Got to go to Green Park on the Piccadilly line, change onto the Victoria. That will get you to Euston quite quickly, I suppose.


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[Assistant] Well, good choice. No, I was going to say commentary, commentary, Crofty and Martin and Karun and everybody is a good choice because it's air conditioned commentary boxes. You can have a little sit down and a cup of tea if you want.


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[Assistant] Uhm, if you come into the pit lane, you're always on your feet. You're either being rained on, being sunburnt, or you're being shoved out of the way by mechanics. Uh, and, uh, it's, you're wearing headphones and yeah.


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[Assistant] Oh man, that's such a good question though. I like that. What would you do, Matt? I'd be a, I'd be a chef actually. I like cooking and I like those, I like those, those, those food preparation areas. We see where we get kitted up at the back of the motorhomes.


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[Assistant] The backstage of formula one, which we'll never do a feature on cause you're not allowed to. That's where all these things happen at the back of these things. The amount, you know, the, the, the catering is so interesting. I'd love to be, you know, preparing fresh pasta pasta with a fresh tomato sauce for, for, uh, you know, Liam Norton, whoever it be cool.


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[Assistant] Uh, stock up in Melbourne because I have a product called Instant Rockstar, um, which is ironic given that I'm a sad old, you know, man who's not anyway, like a rock star, but it's a very good, it's a, it's a, it's a paste clay and it's very good for my kind of hair.


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[Assistant] And proudly made in Australia, so I stock up when I'm there.


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[Assistant] Um, I'll bring back some radiant washing powder, uh, every year. So if you want some of that, I'll get you it. Um, but, uh, yeah, I mean, listen, Liam is going to be absolutely number one or number, you know, man in demand. I hate, dread to think your media schedule for next week, Liam. Um, it's going to be huge.


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[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, that's, it'll be the star of the Melbourne walk. Everybody wanting a selfie and.


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[Assistant] You know, let's not forget, Liam's probably going to be the only, I mean, tell us who else was on that plane from Dubai to Sydney and then to, uh, to, uh, to Auckland or Christchurch. And that you're probably going to be one of the only drivers who's truly time-zoned acclimatized. Um, and, uh, I don't know how many of other, if Cecho's in the sim today.


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[Assistant] Max will presumably be in the sim early before they go, but everyone else is going to be up at 3am and then not going to bed and you're going to be totally got on the time zone.


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[Assistant] Well hello. And the eagle-eyed amongst you will realise that I'm not Matt Baker. I am indeed Natalie Pinkham and I'm joined by Damon Hill. And Happy New Year, Damon! Can we still say that?


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[Assistant] Absolutely. Now, of course the only two countries at the moment that have two races are the USA and Italy. So as you say,


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[Assistant] Pretty unlikely that Spain will get a second, but uh, yes, Stefano hasn't ruled it out.


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[Assistant] So let's talk about the pros and cons. Let's talk a bit firstly about Madrid itself. It's obviously a vibrant city and the track promises to be part street.


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[Assistant] Uh, part constructed circuit. Um, does that excite you? I mean, we're looking at a 3.3 mile circuit, um, which sounds like it's got a bit of everything with 20 corners and a qualifying speed of one minute 32, I believe, very specific.


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[Assistant] Yes. And of course that is part of formula one's commitment to be a net carbon zero by 2030. So that is certainly a step in the right direction.


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[Assistant] Uhm, Barcelona certainly has come in for a bit of criticism of late. In 2022, we saw all sort of logistical issues.


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[Assistant] For the 300,000 plus fans that flooded in, if you remember Damon, it was boiling hot. Do you remember we went down to the fan zone together and it was baking and the fans were slightly disgruntled because


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[Assistant] I definitely would never complain about the heat, but certainly that didn't help Barcelona's cause and there was...


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[Assistant] You know, some concern that it may fall off the calendar, but what I want to note


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[Assistant] From you, from a driver's perspective is how important is Barcelona? It's obviously a track that all the drivers and teams know so very well.


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[Assistant] So in terms of setting a benchmark, in terms of getting data back from your car and understanding exactly where your car is, it's got a bit of everything, hasn't it?


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[Assistant] Is there anything in this familiarity breeds contempt? You know, actually, do they know the circuit too well? And often when we've seen drivers plunged into the unknown, we've had some of the best races.


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[Assistant] It felt though every year that Barcelona was when the European season started and it felt like Bormelon was almost coming home. You had the hospitality units back, you were back on the right time zone for most of the teams. Is it going to miss that if it falls off the calendar?


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[Assistant] Well, let's talk a bit more about those European fans because you say, I mean, it feels like...


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[Assistant] It does feel like it's coming home when it comes back to Europe because uhm, there's obviously a huge amount of support for this sport all over the world.


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[Assistant] But, but most of the, the drivers and the teams are based in Europe.


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[Assistant] Watching the Grand Prix, 10 million watched the Grand Prix in 2023. Do you think that's...


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[Assistant] Down to the Fernando effect and of course, Carlos being in a Ferrari.


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[Assistant] To have two Spanish racers on the grid certainly will draw the eyeballs to the screen.


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[Assistant] And we can't talk about Carlos Senior without mentioning the Dakar rally. I mean, the guy is phenomenal.


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[Assistant] And then just another word on Fernando, obviously a veteran driver, I mean 20 years younger, but still the most experienced driver on the grid at the moment.


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[Assistant] He's he's got another year on his contract with Aston Martin. I mean, you wouldn't put it past him to win.


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[Assistant] The Spanish Grand Prix. It would be good to see, wouldn't it? And it would further...


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[Assistant] Boost the support in the country, which is uhm, you know, just going from strength to strength.


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[Assistant] When it gets to Madrid in 2026, can you see Aston Martin signing him again beyond next year?


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[Assistant] When he, when he, when he looks at Carlos Sainz senior at 61, still winning races.


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[Assistant] You are the best advocate for racing as an older gentleman in Formula One.


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[Assistant] Well, which was certainly a pleasant surprise about Vegas did produce a great race. Again, perhaps going back to our earlier point about going into the unknown.


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[Assistant] Uh, there, but there's certainly been this trend towards street circuits. Is that something that you're in favor of generally or would you like to see a nice balance between the two?


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[Assistant] I mean, it feels like it's got a bit of both. I mean, time will tell and we will no doubt find out more soon, but it feels as if you can have these kind of hybrid circuits. Uhm, you might hopefully keep everyone happy.


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[Assistant] Damon, as ever, it's lovely to see you and I wasn't expecting to. So, you know, maybe Matt Baker can go on a bit more often.


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[Assistant] Is this going to be a little hideaway? Is this, are you going to escape to your shed?


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[Assistant] It's been great to have your company and plenty more podcasts coming. Uh, very soon.


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[Assistant] And then of course weekly through the season and every race of course in 2024 will be live on Sky Sports F1. But from Damon and I and his shed for now is bye bye.


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[Assistant] And then also with the Washington football team, which is supposed to be an expose into Washington Post here, whenever that ends up getting dropped, there's a lot of things happening with a lot of allegations. None of them can be confirmed, but I was scouring the internet to see what all other people have been told as well, because I didn't want to be the person that breaks the news.


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[Assistant] Is being echoed on the internet right now by accounts. A lot of accounts.


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[Assistant] And none of them can be confirmed, so I don't want to sit on. But obviously, the New York Times, uh, article that happened a couple years ago that talked about the Costa Rica cheerleader trip where the Redskins cheerleaders, at the time they were titled the Redskins cheerleaders, they were


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[Assistant] Forced to get nude in front of sponsors and then they were said to go out to the club and you know, it was all like a one story and then the courier.


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[Assistant] The choreographer, the head choreographer, the head choreography for the cheerleaders came out and was like, that is not the case at all. So who knows if it's going to be more of that conversation about potential terrible situations and sketchy business practices, but the on-field one is the one that


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[Assistant] I, in the text message, the allegation, the text message that I got, is the one I think is gonna be, uh, an earth shatterer. And now that other people are tweeting about it,


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[Assistant] It has not been confirmed. I would assume if it was confirmed, uh, that would already be big news, but the allegations of what this Washington Post article are going to be about are coming out and boy, it is going to be fucking big. I think if all these are true, AJ.


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[Assistant] It's amazing that this is all happening at the exact same time it feels like. Now it could be a terrible time to be a part of the Washington football team named TBD. Uh, that is definitely a true statement. This is a terrible


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[Assistant] Uh, time to be a part of that organization, but it feels like a lot of the decisions that were being made behind closed doors in that organization for, I don't know, the last decade or two are potentially all about to come to light. And also on top of that, you have to rename your entire franchise when there's 12 days before training camp's supposed to start. So, it is a wild time over there. But if there's anything between... and refs,


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[Assistant] First of all, doing it wrong probably, bad investment, bad money, bad, but if they are doing that, oh, that's going to be a big deal. And that's an allegation that's rolling out on the internet right now. This is nowhere near confirmed or true, but if that is happening, that's a massive ordeal, not just for the Washington football team named TBD, but the entire NFL.


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[Assistant] Hey, and Tim Donahee happened before sports gambling. Okay?


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[Assistant] So, that was just like, the only people that, he did it for sports gambling, but the people who were gambling were illegal gamblers, so everybody's like, ah, I don't feel bad for somebody that's breaking the law. But now it's like, sports gambling is involved, and if you ask any coach, by the way, not any coach, but most coaches,


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[Assistant] If they feel as if a ref is working against them or for somebody else, they will all tell you, yup, it has happened. I've seen it happen because coaches have to write up reports the day after games.


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[Assistant] And any rule that they think they got wrong, they would like to challenge it. And then they get an email back from the NFL that says, Oh, we got this one wrong. We apologize. Now, granted, you probably lost the game because of that. Maybe you lost out on a lot of future earnings and maybe you're not in the playoffs because of it, but they at least acknowledge that there's a lot of coaches that question a lot of the referees decisions.


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[Assistant] And when this comes out, it's not just, I mean, if this is true, which we are not sure if it is.


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[Assistant] This is a massive conversation by a lot of people to be had.


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[Assistant] Matt, forget it, but your triplet was tough. Triplet was tough as well. Anytime he gave an announcement.


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[Assistant] So you remember when, uh, they banned any racist remarks, like the N-word was no longer allowed to be said on the field by anybody, there was nothing else, like that could've been a penalty. I was hoping the triplet was gonna have to be the one that fucking called it. Like, alright, we got a, uh, personal foul on, uh, uh,


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[Assistant] Listen, he said a word that he can't, 15 yards. All right. And let's move the ball down the field. Okay. But triplets draw that slang that he had, I think automatically made people go, oh, this guy.


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[Assistant] That's not an easy job. Okay. I'm never going to say that that's an easy job. There's a reason that nobody wants to be a ref. Nobody's pulling for him, but there are some egregious shit that happens that you just go like, there's no way you, and then if this comes out, imagine the question marks. So when you go back into history of gay, I mean, if this is true, this is, this is maybe the biggest news in


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[Assistant] I don't want to say the league's history because I'm sure there's a lot of shit that has happened that I just don't know about my recency bias, but that's big news. That is it. And maybe that's why everybody that's been hyping up this news that knows anything about it is like, Hey,


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[Assistant] Big news coming out of the wash. Big news. But what if this all ends up to be just complete horseshit too? We have to take that into account. What if this ref thing is just complete bullshit lie by somebody who potentially just hates Stan Snyder, which I've heard is a lot of people.


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[Assistant] I've heard there's a lot of people, like what if that, we have to take that into account too, but boy, there's been a lot of hype for this thing. There's been a lot of hype for this story.


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[Assistant] Yeah, and I think the reason why is because they have, they have, the Washington Post has to confirm everything with multiple people. So that is what I was told. Like the Washington Post, professional journalism, big time journalism, everything has to get confirmed and sources have to get blah, blah, blah. That's why they're waiting for this story to come out. It's like, so then we don't know if any of it's true.


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[Assistant] Yep, dead red, sitting dead red or what? mhm.


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[Assistant] I did the school run. I got, I got, I got, I got back straight away and did the school run after, and actually I had to drive to, look, I couldn't get a flight to, from Vegas. I had to drive to and from Los Angeles, then fly economy overnight, uh, all the way back, and then did the school run. Probably not very safe, but hey.


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[Assistant] Yeah, well I could bring the perspective of pay-per-view boxing. That was my 19th visit to Las Vegas.


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[Assistant] 16 times previously I've been for big fights, which interestingly are scheduled much earlier in the day than they would be if they were on the east coast of America. So typically you'd see the main event fight getting in the ring at 7 or 8 o'clock, so it would be 9 or 10pm.


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[Assistant] On the east coast. Now, I've been in touch with organizers and, uh, some, yeah, leading figures of Formula One.


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[Assistant] Today in actual fact, to, to put that very question to them, and I, I can reveal that there will be talks about making it an earlier start time next time. Now, nothing confirmed yet, uhm, but, but there will be discussions to see if


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[Assistant] By common consent, the one thing which was particularly hard to deal with out there, uh, and actually


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[Assistant] If we go back to Thursday and all the shenanigans then impacted on the fan experience as well.


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[Assistant] I think they will be looking at is it worthwhile making it start a little bit earlier. So that is something, what I would say about it is on a scale and what it did to Las Vegas.


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[Assistant] For all, there were mumblings about the disruption and maybe local residents not being too happy with F1 being there. It was a bonanza night for the city of Las Vegas in economic terms. We won't get the full financial results until the end of the year or when the casino has published the final quarter results for the new year, but


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[Assistant] One casino boss described it as being like New Year's Eve, uh, for the race weekend itself. And that is not normally a brilliant weekend, uh, for Las Vegas. It's so


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[Assistant] If they can have that every year, with something approaching that, something approaching a hundred thousand people coming in.


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[Assistant] Many of the big casinos were sold out, with room rates by all accounts still pretty high, even though


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[Assistant] The Las Vegas market does tend to drop a little bit when you get absolutely on the event itself. There are some bargains to be had. Then...


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[Assistant] This is a success story for Las Vegas.


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[Assistant] No question, I think, uh, we will be there for the entirety of the contract and maybe beyond, which is 10 years.


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[Assistant] You're saying that maybe make it a standalone event next year to detach it from the, from the final triple header. Cause there is a little bit of a space, but I don't think it'd be easy to do to be honest, but let's see.


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[Assistant] So, I had a discussion, uh, with one of our bosses, actually, about...


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[Assistant] Early in the weekend before the race, and I think the race made up for a lot. We'll get on to talking about the race and how good or otherwise it was. Very good in my opinion.


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[Assistant] It was, who is this race for? And like you outlined, Simon, it's kind of, it was such a compromised time slot and I, I never feel comfortable with that. I mean, quite often in Britain we've had.


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[Assistant] Uh, to have it primarily for its, its market of its territory, uh, that it, that it exists in and, and then the rest of us.


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[Assistant] Can, can get up and, and watch it. You know, maybe it, like you say, maybe have an all nighter. And in a televisual sense, at least.


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[Assistant] It's sometimes not such a bad thing to have something on the middle of a night on a Saturday night, you know, it can cater to a particular audience, whether it's nightclubs or students or.


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[Assistant] You know, there is, I think people do get up and make an appointment to view for something like that, or if you can, if you're a family type of person, you watch the replay.


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[Assistant] I think maybe to have it live at the time it was didn't feel right in either. It didn't really suit America and it didn't really suit Europe either.


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[Assistant] No, I'm not, I'm not saying that. He was, he raised the question about, you know,


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[Assistant] He was slightly put in a corner, but as journalists, we knew what we were going to get if we asked Max that question because of what he's come out and said previously about, about not necessarily liking Netflix or the Razzmatazz, but want to focus on the racing. So I think


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[Assistant] It was his direct answer to a direct question. Perfectly entitled to that opinion. And I think it did spark a very useful debate. I 100% agree with you. I think he did change his tune. I think he's much less of a Las Vegas skeptic today than he was a week ago.


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[Assistant] It's, it's, it's a fascinating, I look at this, there's so many different ways to look at this. One or two people have seen this as new circuits versus old circuits. And I, I don't, I don't know what you recall, Simon, but I, I mean, a bit like you, I think I'd been to


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[Assistant] I remember in those early years thinking it's quite an old demographic looking around the various tracks we went to around the world and obviously you don't get much chance to do that with Britain.


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[Assistant] So it was an aging demographic, uhm, there wasn't that much on offer to fans at some of these old circuits.


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[Assistant] Does, did need the transfusion that Liberty Media have given it, which has raised the level of the fan experience across the board at some of these new venues like Miami, like Las Vegas.


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[Assistant] If I think back to going to places like Hockenheim and the Nurburgring, there was just no real


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[Assistant] Facilities for fans. Great circuits yes, but...


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[Assistant] Years of having to pay maybe excessive fees or fees they couldn't sustain, dropping off fan interest as well. They had sagged as, as, as, as, as places where, where you could come in and have a good time watching the racing. So I, I kind of,


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[Assistant] I understand that, I think the world has moved on a little bit, and I think there's a certain romanticism in some people's mind, thinking about this golden epoch when it was, you know, Monza, Nürburgring, Spa.


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[Assistant] Et cetera, et cetera. And, and, and there always is that tendency to romanticise the past. I think he's absolutely right though.


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[Assistant] We do need to, maybe the sport does need to find ways of, of reigniting the support base in some of those traditional centres, which have lost it a little bit, particularly Germany.


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[Assistant] And maybe more needs to be done. We talked about this after Qualified, didn't we? We're more invested in...


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[Assistant] Not just the razzmatazz, but explaining the level of performance that the drivers reach in a race. So it's, it's not so much that he doesn't want, well, it probably isn't, he doesn't necessarily want the razzmatazz, but he wants more emphasis on, on the racing. So it counterbalances the glitz.


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[Assistant] Putting it bluntly, putting it bluntly Matt, it's like they've spent 700 million dollars on this. Let's get Max to kind of take it down a peg. It's not a few brisk races, you know.


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[Assistant] And actually with very little else going on story wise, it was always going to be a, it was always going to be a bit of a, and I'm not trying to say I wouldn't, that wasn't what I...


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[Assistant] Would have covered myself, cause I, you know, it's perfectly legitimate, uh, grounds to, to, to look at. And it's, it's, I think it's very interesting, the whole issue.


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[Assistant] Devil's advocate, is, is, is he addressing his core fanbase and telling them what they want to hear? Maybe slightly.


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[Assistant] Maybe. So I always remember the Proclaimers. Remember, you know, the Proclaimers is the Scottish band. And they always used to come across. I remember there was one kid on Saturday Superstore who said, I like the Proclaimers because they don't have an image. You know, they're just pure musicians.


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[Assistant] And yet, of course they had an image, but their image was, we are pure resist. Listen, I love, you need.


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[Assistant] You can't have everyone the same in F1, uh, you can't have everyone a kind of, you know, like that.


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[Assistant] A cheerleader for everything Formula One is that you need to have these arguments and discussions and it's fantastic that


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[Assistant] I think Max speaks out. It's absolutely necessary to have that as well. But at the same time, we can't get away from the notion that we should all be written. Hockenheim couldn't get 60,000 people through the doors in 2018.


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[Assistant] That speech he made on after qualifying, you can find it online. That was very powerful and that's worth listening to and very thought through. And I think that's out of the whole debate that he started, I think that is real food for thought. So I think it's all, it's been a good debate, the whole thing.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, you know, you don't like rushing out to go and speak to people who you know are going to probably say something negative about the sport, which gives you a living at the end of the day, but I think


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[Assistant] You can't have credibility as a broadcaster or as a journalist unless... you, you go and...


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[Assistant] Have those voices heard if such circumstances arise? So, so.


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[Assistant] You know, I was quite surprised, I didn't hear any others go and speak to the fans, funnily enough, uhm, about that whole episode. What was very interesting was, actually, uhm,


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[Assistant] Although the ones I think we played out were probably more on the negative side. The whole sample, most people, although they were, yea, of course, a bit put out, were quite philosophical about it in actual fact.


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[Assistant] Most of them had three-day tickets. The ones who didn't have a three-day ticket were, yeaah, as you can imagine, thinking, well, what do I do now? Uhm, but,


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[Assistant] Getting back to what we were talking about initially about how well this, the event is run, you know,


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[Assistant] That was the sense I got. They'd been well catered for during the day.


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[Assistant] Good food on offer, there were, there were entertainments.


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[Assistant] Good effort was made to provide a show even when the cars weren't off that it did mitigate the the


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[Assistant] The fact that not much, much, well almost zero action happened, funny enough there was one, one person said to me, and I was, you kind of, when you're in that situation, you're, I'm not saying you're looking for a negative comment, but you're expecting angry fans, one of them said to me,


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[Assistant] Let's hope Netflix were behind the scenes in the Situation Room or whatever it's called at that point, because that would be unmissable drama.


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[Assistant] The event felt like in crisis at that point. What a job they did to fill in 60 of those water valves with cement in five hours. And now they're putting them back, aren't they now?


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[Assistant] The Miami one, I suppose, what is its USP now? It's interesting, people were questioning what is Monaco's USP now that Las Vegas is on the calendar, aren't they?


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[Assistant] Which is, is an interesting, that's sacrilegious for the, uh, the purists like, like Simon.


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[Assistant] But, uh, it's, it's, it's, yeah, I mean, the, the Lewis kind of... Do you agree with the ranking then? Do you agree with the ranking? Yeah, no, I think, I think you've got it spot on, yeah. And, and, yeah, Lewis had a bit of a...


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[Assistant] Question the Miami track, didn't he? Last week about, about how, how, but what it might create is a bit of an arms race hopefully between the three of them to, to, to, to work on their products. Maybe Vegas will try to be a bit more author, move a little bit to quieten the dissenting voices and, and maybe the others, you know, but not, I mean, Austin.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, it's just that, it'll always be special to those of us that went to that first race.


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[Assistant] I drove around that, yeaah, I drove around that, that New Jersey. There's a, there's a New Jersey, there, there was a pit building built, and there's a New Jersey kind of layout, uhm.


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[Assistant] Which the old New Jersey mayor was kinda keen on and then they kiboshed, but it has that...


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[Assistant] It's kind of based on a spa-esque, kind of elevated or rouge style section, but it's whether it ever gets them. We're at the limit now, aren't we, of uh, who loses out if, if, if Austin comes in, eh, New York rather comes in.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, I mean, I guess Charle might have won, had it not been for the second safety car, uhm, or maybe Ferrari's choices again, should they have changed tyres for his last stint, uhm, so,


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[Assistant] It's, there'll be those that, that say, well, it was all a bit, you know, when you see the, on the negative side, if you, you say, oh, you know, the cold tires thing, and then do you see, you want to see a driver of Lando Norris' skill have a, have an off like that, uhm, which is probably related more to the,


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[Assistant] The conditions than, than his, his abilities, of course, of course it was related to the conditions, uhm, so, was it, was there too much Las Vegas casino jeopardy, uhm, against that?


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[Assistant] You know, it's the same for everyone. And yeah, it's, yeah, as we said at the outset, it was, it's got to be a contender for a race of the year. Yeah, it does.


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[Assistant] I think yea, Lance does deserve, I think, and if you think what might he have done if he'd been fully fit at the start of the year with a better car, he might have had a completely different season. But, get back to your Ferrari vs Mercedes thing.


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[Assistant] Fred Varsura puts one over on Total Wolf.


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[Assistant] That's quite, I thought he came of age a little bit as, or has, I'm finding him becoming a little, I mean, I mean as a kind of believable Ferrari figurehead. Not believable.


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[Assistant] He felt like there's a man who is going to lead this team and is going to confront others, not just kind of, I don't know, be in their stew in their own corner or kind of be a shy retiring type.


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[Assistant] I suggest the odd previous incumbents of that job necessarily weren't going to like that, but...


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[Assistant] I thought he felt like a genuine leader. There was a bit of the Jean Tote there for a moment, which I think that's the sort of thing that galvanises everyone back at bass.


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[Assistant] That was something I was thinking about coming out of that race. He's felt a little bit low hasn't he? He's hit his first little career plateau this year and kind of, I'd like to see him have a decent high note. Uh, Kenny had that strange collision with Busstappen, didn't he?


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[Assistant] Which maybe robbed him of a pretty high finish. Uhm, but I wonder if he can square up the head-to-head qualifying. I think it's 11-10 to Lewis. Isn't it going into that last event?


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[Assistant] That would, that would be a thing to, there's a lot of little, yeaah, there's quite a few, alright, they're not, it's not the big showdown for the title or anything like that, but there's a lot of quite interesting little things to be concluded, I think in Abu Dhabi, which I won't see, I won't be there for.


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[Assistant] Plus he, he has played fullback before in his career and he's in great shape so goal line fullback is potentially an option.


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[Assistant] I found the situation for fans for all 32 teams. The Saints will not have, definitely not have any fans at their first game against the Bucs and probably not week, or their second home game in September as well.


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[Assistant] Yeah, and Jerry, I guess, went on the radio today and talking about that rap sheet tweet. He said he doesn't know what he's talking about. He has no idea what he's talking about. Jerry Jones on the report that the Cowboys and Earl Thomas story is over.


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[Assistant] They are, Memphis, like Memphis is supposed to have a game on September 5th, SMU, like those schools.


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[Assistant] It looks like the first full day, full schedule is Saturday, September 12th. Let's go!


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[Assistant] We've seen it at Malaysia, we've seen it at Baku, we've seen it at Vegas. So it's everywhere. But I mean, that's a bit boring. So I've actually learnt something else. I've also learnt, and it's not something that I don't think I already knew, any of us already knew, that Formula One never sits still.


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[Assistant] Neither do Red Bull. So even when you've got the fastest car, you still go out there and dare to be different and dream and take risks. And I love that about not just Red Bull and Adrian Nui's designs, but the sport as a whole.


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[Assistant] No, okay, yes, I was surprised at the changes, but I wasn't surprised at the fact that they are prepared to go for it. Because it is a gamble, to an extent. Uh, they obviously had the luxury of time to evolve last year's car into this probably a lot sooner than anyone else.


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[Assistant] And as I said before, it's just never sitting still, always putting the envelope, asking more questions, seeing how much more as a sport we can grow and flourish and that is exemplified by Red Bull, the current champions.


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[Assistant] Say I'm going for the world championship. And then obviously the middle section of the season fell away from him. He was able to get a bit more momentum towards the end, which obviously secured his seat going forward, which was great for him.


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[Assistant] I'm thinking a bit like Valtteri with Lewis. When you change your approach, it changes the dynamic in the team. It kind of changes everything. And in a way, there is a calmness to that acceptance. And perhaps that's where Soju has to be coming into 2024. Like it can't be easy being Max Verstappen's teammate, can it?


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[Assistant] But if you're able to approach it slightly differently and just go for the best version of yourself, control the controllables and try to maybe get a handful of wins and some very strong second finishes so that you do


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[Assistant] Bed in, the constructors for your team, but also that number two spot for you. I mean it can't be easy because you tell me as a racer you never want to accept coming second.


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[Assistant] And crucially, I think if he did go back into the top team, he would have had that shift in mindset that he is prepared to pay second fiddle to Max Verstappen, which he wasn't happy to do first time around.


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[Assistant] Sharl has to really bed in and really assert himself now within the team because he knows


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[Assistant] That this seven time world champion is going to be joining him. So it's almost like...


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[Assistant] You know, asserting himself to the extent that, you know, I am your number one. You can buy into me and believe in me. And then Carlos has got to really


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[Assistant] Sort of cautious optimism amongst the drivers and indeed Fred that this was going to be a better challenger for 24.


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[Assistant] He's the biggest name in the sport with the most titles.


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[Assistant] And he's going to the most iconic team in Ferrari. I think we're going to be talking about this forevermore. What I am fascinated by, going back to those driver dynamics, is what George does now because he's really got to blossom and grow into that number one role. And again, much like with Carlos at Ferrari, we're going to see


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[Assistant] To, to not be fully immersed in the team right the way until the last race in Abu Dhabi. But it's going to happen. We've seen it before.


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[Assistant] Absolutely. Because if he asserts himself as number one, then I can see Kimi Antonelli coming in. Because, you know, he's clearly a very naturally talented youngster.


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[Assistant] But if George doesn't and he falters, like we saw a couple of times,


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[Assistant] In twenty three, then will they turn to a much more experienced Fernando Alonso, for example, or you could go with more of a level playing field than an Alex Albon. I mean, for me, they're the three standout candidates or indeed signs. I mean, that would actually make a lot of sense just to do a swap for the twenty twenty five, but then


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[Assistant] It depends if Sines wants to move on to Audi for 26 or whether he, you know, could well stay at Mercedes.


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[Assistant] Now to this time last year, and it was all doom and gloom, wasn't it? I mean, they were telling us they've gone totally the wrong direction and they weren't just managing expectations. They were basically telling us to expect them to be disastrously bad. And they were in Bahrain this time last year, in the first race as well.


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[Assistant] 17th and 18th, were they or something? Yep. It was awful. And then all the way through and then suddenly Austria things start to turn around. So I think we're only basing our reflections on testing because we have such high hopes for them.


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[Assistant] Given what we know from the end of last year, I still think that they're going to be right up there. Uhm, I think that, uhm, Andrea Stella has done a fantastic job. I think they've got two exceptionally talented drivers. Zach Brown is just holding it all together. And they'll be putting themselves under a lot of pressure.


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[Assistant] To, to do very well this year, and I think they will. And I'm even gonna go as fast to say as Lando's gonna finally get.


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[Assistant] It might take quite a lot to go wrong for Max and Red Bull and you know all the variables that we've talked about already but I think it's going to happen. I think there's going to be a handful of podiums in there for both of them.